Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

I’m working on trying to unravel this mess. Some jackass got into the server and screwed everything up.

The site is red listed everywhere now. I’m not sure how I’ll be able to fix that, but…

Well, I’m working on it.

UPDATE: most of the database has been recovered (the posts if not the categories, keywords, etc etc), and that’s the most important thing. Time for a big drink and bed. All the other stuff will have to wait for now.

Through Best in Flock,I learned that Irene Pepperberg’s Alex Foundation has been tapped for a matching gift offer- any donation of $50 or more will be generously matched by Andy Sterner.

Back when I was doing research into whether or not to become a parrotperson I’d learned about Dr. Pepperberg’s amazing work with Alex, and now Griffin and Wort. After Alex’s death in 2007, I was shocked to learn (through her book Alex & Me) that despite being a world renowned researcher, she still has to scrape and beg for money.

Partially, that’s because there’s never enough money to go around, but it’s also because many scientists don’t consider her work important enough to be taken seriously, which makes me a little insane, honestly. How many millions of hours have been spent trying to understand how animals’ brains work, and here we have one that can actually communicate and because it’s in a form they’re not accoustomed to (ie, not a primate) it doesn’t count? Talk about hubris.

Anyway, end editorial. If you don’t know about Alex, check it out. I think you’ll be surprised.

Exerpt from Pepperberg’s book here.

Donate to the Foundation here.

And another great, but unembedable video here.

So we got through last night.

The girls were all gorgeous, naturally, and looking like not a few of them had been crying before going out; over the years I’ve noticed that this is where graduation suddenly starts being real to them, which strange, given that their lockers are already cleared out, and exams taken.

The Sophomores put on a skit for the Seniors, using all kinds of inside jokes that you’d have to be a student to get and making fun of their teachers. This year’s was video-game themed, and the title aptly chosen (sigh):

In the end I managed to not bawl, or even get (overly) misty during the actual ceremony. It was all the lead up stuff that got to me, don’t ask me why. Watching, from outside the fence, as the girls turned after their portrait, heading back into the building, using the stairs that are off limit to all but seniors when they’re barely still seniors at all…

What can I say? I’m a sucker for symbolism…

The only point at which I got emotional was when the girls started filing in, and someone had chosen Coldplay’s Viva La Vida, which was, you know…odd.

In case Coldplay’s not your cup of tea, the song is one of mourning and regret, of a life of power and importance lost. It’s melancholy yet bombastic, and though quite beautiful, uh, what’s the message here?

(Link to the video here.)

I used to rule the world
Seas would rise when I gave the word
Now in the morning I sleep alone
Sweep the streets I used to own
…
One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt, and pillars of sand
…
For some reason I can’t explain
Once you know there was never, never an honest word
That was when I ruled the world

As if watching your child graduate wasn’t emotional enough, right? Now we have to consider the times we each thought we were masters of all we surveyed, only to watch it crash and burn…and now we get to re-realize that our kids are going to have to fall down those same damned holes and drag themselves out, all while wondering if their best days are behind them? Argh!

Thanks for the uplifting message, guys!

Anyway, as a dry-run for graduation, everybody did okay. No promises for the real thing.

As soon as you think your teen’s wings are really really extended and they just can’t wait to jump out of the nest you get a panicky call that you have to come home from your meeting NOW because she’s having a meltdown about homework.

Then you spend (another) several hours researching the Kyoto treaty and coloring posterboard charts so she can go in and anhilate the other debate team.

But her killer instincts weren’t really the issue, the coloring was. It’s been a long long time since I’ve taken out the crayons with her, and it was a really nice throwback. Okay, so I was working on graphs of pollution levels and not fuzzy teddy bears, but you take ‘em where you can get ‘em.

But as it approached 1am, I noticed that my throat really didn’t feel very good. Ali was down with a throat thing last weekend, and despite repeated doses of Airborne -lucky me- it’s boomeranged back (again). Then she announced that lice is going around the school (again) and she’s totally freaked out about it (again) and she’s spent time with some of the girls who’ve been sent home (again).

So some things just never change. She still drags home every bug- literally and figuratively- home from school. She still waits until the last minute to finish her homework.

And she still wants my help. Not such a bad tradeoff.

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PS- She begged me, after all that, to take her picture down, because, of all things, she hates her arms in it. lolPPS- She also screamed that I made it sound like she actually GOT the lice. She didn’t. There. Happy, kiddo?

Decided to watch some TV last night, and having decided that Ken Burns’ “War” was too much of a downer, we decided to watch this week’s K-ville instead.

So through the magic of digital recording (what did we ever do without Tivo & its ilk?) we watched last Monday’s episode, a ridiculous bunch of faux voodoo, battered part-time lesbians, and hot grieving widows.

Y’all know how it is. Just another day in the Big Easy. Can’t wait to see what stereotypes they drag out for Carnival.

(That said, it’s really not much worse than most of what you’ll find on the idiot box.)

But thanks to that lovely fast-forward button, we were done in about half the time, and decided a little more milk from the boob tube wouldn’t hurt. (cue ominous music)

Wrong. That damned Meerkat Manor got me again. We’re a couple of episodes back, and dammit if halfway through every freaking show I don’t say, “Tell me why we’re watching this again?”

It’s heart wrenching. These little 12 inch very endearing critters bound all over the harsh desert, and the scientists observing them only observe, no interference. So when the pack gets too far ahead and the week old pup gets lost and dies alone only 100 yards from his family, that’s the way it goes.

When the upstart female sneaks back to the burrow and EATS her sister’s newborns, that’s life- including the closeup of the one teeny tiny bloody gnawed paw she left behind.

And things NEVER go right for long. Just as soon you let your guard down, WHAM! Lookout, it’s a snake! By your feet! But wait, a hawk’s overhead! I don’t think we’ve gotten from one commercial to the next without somebody dying, about to die, getting a bite that’ll get infected and they’ll die…..AAARGGGH!

Yes, I’m totally anthropomorphizing here, I get it. But you just look into their little eyes and…and….:::::SOB!::::

Ah hem. Sorry. See for yourself.

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=X_eVEW_Y02o[/youtube]

At great risk of loss of limb we began training Zulu this week. In the same packet that held his beloved caterpillars (only 3 left!) was my secret weapon- a clicker and training book!

Very dutifully I read it cover-to-not-very-distant-cover and felt fairly confident at trying this.

It came with a handy-dandy lucite stick to start with, and it was clear from the outset that he was a pro. Somebody, somewhere, has started this program with him. The first step is to get him to gently nip the end of the rod, click the clicker and give him a treat.

Well, clearly, he belongs in this household. He’s a praise whore who already knew all about grabbing the stick. But the food can disappear for all he cares, just sweet talk him (“Who’s a good boy? A very very smart boy?? Well, YOU are, of course!”) and he’s all yours.

All of this comes, however, at a point where his clipped feather wings are growing in, sparking great debate within the household. There are resources that say birds are happier, calmer, being in their natural state and able to fly.

Then, naturally, there are those who say the first group are crazy, and it’s far far better to keep them calm and clip their wings.

So we’re at an impasse on that one, and at the same time ready to move on to our hands being much closer on an ongoing basis. I have bandages and peroxide at the ready.

I know I cannot show fear.

I am firm and resolute.

Perhaps a small glass of wine before we begin…

So our vet suggested this site to keep the lad occupied. I wasn’t sure at first, but put in an order that just had to include the toy they swore every Grey loved.

Sure enough, here he goes, one second after it was put in the cage:

Somebody better tell him to be careful extending his neck with Thanksgiving around the corner.

And THEN he found the caterpillars. Read the rest of this entry »