In order to make comments you will have to register and be logged in. I’ve been getting a TON of spam comments lately and am sick of deleting them. Sorry for making it so inconvenient. To make up for it here is a cute little hamster
Ever since Peepi passed away I’ve been kind of wanting another hamster. Actually I didn’t want another one because Peepi was so god damn awesome, but I missed having another pocket-sized buddy to watch. Every trip to the pet shop for supplies has never been without a few minutes spent watching the little furballs run and play in their cages. And as cute as they were, they just weren’t what I wanted. Not cute enough, not playful enough, not enough like Peepi.
Last night I was heading home from the craft store when I passed the pet store. I had no reason to stop in other than to go look at the little hamsters. And I did. And I was smitten. There were two little Roborovski girls just bounding around and having a grand ole time. I couldn’t help but fall in love with them instantly. I must have watched them for a good 10 minutes before I made the decision to think about maybe buying them. I was just kidding myself though, I knew I was going to get them. I just had to!
My only complaint about these two is that they never stop moving. Getting clear photos of them is near impossible. I’m still not even sure I can tell them apart with absolute certainty. It doesn’t matter though, they are adorable and amusing to watch run in the wheel together.
My sister has requested an update because she gets sick of “working” whilst at work. Well, sisteh, I’ve been too busy trying to solve my new Zelda game, Phantom Hourglass, to be bothered with thinking up creative things to entertain you with. Best I can do for now is to change the look of the site with a new theme. One of these days I’ll make my own, but I’m fairly lazy so it may be 2009 before that happens.
Also, I went to the DMV Friday and some woman had “Barbie Girl” as her ring tone. Hello, it’s 2008, not 1999. That song wasn’t even good back then.
This site isn’t much yet, I admit. But then again, I’m lazy. Or is it overworked? Probably the former. I’ve been terribly ill lately, but managed to start uploading my glorious posts from the past, just recently finishing up 2006 and most of 2003. Hopefully the rest will follow and be completed by the end of the week. That should buy me enough time to come up with something interesting to say!
In other news, one of my shrimp has become heavily laden with eggs. This means I should be a proud owner of baby Ghost Shrimp in a few weeks, and can start up that ghost army I’ve always wanted. I’ll make little helmets and boots and have them march around the big tank and keep the fishes in line. Here’s the proud mom-to-be on her leaf of Java Fernlets
If any babies hatch and survive, I will try to take some photos. Actually, it’ll be a good excuse to rent a few of the macro lenses I’ve had my eye on.
My old pc has been on the disabled list for a while now. It was completely useless as a gaming machine and almost as useless as a multi-program multitasking machine. Basically, it was great for e-mail and internet browsing. So off I went to the Apple store for a laptop. I decided on a Macbook Pro for no good reason. It’s a nice machine, but I’m thinking I should have done a little more research before plunking down the few grand that was burning a hole in my pocket.
Battery life is shorter than expected. On a good night I get about three hours of browsing time while unplugged. But if I’m playing a game it’s far less, naturally. I am not used to being detached, since I’ve never had a laptop, so I had fanciful dreams of going to the park or even from room to room with my Macbook without having to drag around power cords and extensions. Speaking of power cords, I find it quite handy that the plug is magnetic. No worries about it falling loose from the Mac while charging.
For a seventeen inch laptop, the Macbook Pro is lighter than expected.While it is still tricky to pick up and handle with just one hand, it’s nowhere near as bulky and weighty as the Dell laptops I have encountered. I am concerned about finding a nice pack to carry both my laptop and camera gear around. The length of the Mac ppears to be limiting my choices thus far.
If there is one thing I really hate, it’s that I can’t use the Mac in bed because the screen will not stay open when propped up on the slightest angle. Now, I haven’t had a need to use it more than once so far, but it was enough to annoy me a great deal. So far I haven’t been able to find too many complaints about this on message boards, which leads me to think that it’s not a common issue, or no one else cares about this drawback.
I’m only into my second week of ownership, so time will tell whether I love it or hate it. Thus far I like it, as it enables me that little bit of freedom that my desktop does not.
To go along with the whole lazy theme, I’ve given in to using a blogging software. It’s just so much easier to deal with than re-writing lines of code every time I wish to post a complaint about my neighbors. Plus, this being the beginning of a long busy season, I will not have the time to dedicate to doing much more than logging in and writing a quick note or two about how awesome Dougie is. So why even bother with the blog you ask? Well, I’ve been keeping one going since about 2000, and it’d be a shame to just end it here. Updating old records is also far easier now that I have the amazing copy+paste technology!
It’s a losing battle. Just when I think I’ve won, another microscopic ant shows up out of nowhere. I was awake until 3am before nearly collapsing from the noxious fumes of various cleansers. Good news is that I think I’ve eliminated the majority of the infestation; anything to help me sleep better at night. I just don’t know why they won’t leave. I’m going to start hitting them up for rent money pretty soon.
I took this photo a few weeks back and there happened to be an ant crawling across the flower. It wasn’t until after I had gotten home that I noticed it. At least this ant had the decency to stay outside where it belongs. The flower is from a wild carrot, aka bishop’s lace. I didn’t know it had other names. I had always heard the story, and referred to it as Queen Anne’s Lace(QAL):
Once upon a time, Queen Anne was knitting a lace handkerchief, as she often did in her spare time as Queen. While making her most challenging piece to wrap her diamonds in, Anne accidentally pricked her finger with a needle, spilling a drop of blood onto the handkerchief and staining it. The end.
While being a pesky weed with thick stalks(even the mower has difficulty slicing through them), QAL can be charming in the early mornings. The little flowers open up, catching drops of dew that sparkle in the morning sunlight like diamonds - hence the story. It also has a poisonous doppleganger, Hemlock. I learned some other interesting facts in my new Audubon Society book on wildflowers of the midwest. The object is to find and photograph as many as I can this summer. So far I have about six. Better get busy!
It’s just past 2am and I was supposed to go to bed three hours ago. I’m still up because I happened to notice that I’m infested with tiny red ants. I don’t know where they came from. I don’t know how they got in. But I do know that I HATE ants and will never get to sleep now until I think I’ve killed off most of the invading colony.
The worst part is that I think they’ve been around for a bit. There were like, millions of them on part of an old desk. But they are so small and light colored that they blended right in with the carpeting and the wood desk. Creepy little things were all over a stack of old photos from my grandmother’s house and all up in the cat food dishes. It’s creeping me out. My skin is just crawling with the thought of all those evil bugs. Gah! I’m going back to cleaning, but I promised an update for Dougie.
I’ve had my camera for over a year now and never really knew how to do long-exposure photographs. Well, I knew how, just never attempted. But I’ve always meant to, so tonight I gave it a whirl out of sheer boredom and curiosity. I was pleased with my efforts, but as soon as the weather is nicer I’d like to try for something a little more dramatic and…interesting.
I just returned home after a mighty long vacation to the family cabin. I went fishing, shot off some fireworks and played host to several ticks. Bought some expensive wine, mowed a few acres of lawn and ate some buffalo steaks. Now I’m home and the animals are all driving me crazy. Hopefully it’s just a phase and they’ll return to a more normal level of annoyance soon. Now I think I’m going to go lock myself in my room and turn up the volume of the television while I pretend the pests pets do not exist for a few hours.
