Cleo struck and bit me this afternoon when I went to pick her up out of the tub she was feeding in (she was done). I think this is because her breeder taught her to only feed by having prey dangled in front of her. She literally won't eat prey that is on the ground in front of her; it's got to be in the air above her. Recipe for disaster if you ask me. Fine for a breeder, but not so good for a pet.
And she was really finicky about eating. Between killing the rat ("killing"–it was defrosted and very dead already) and eating it, she took a good six hours to think about it. She's gotten more social and more friendly since we first got her (she was a complete hostile spaz when she first arrived), but clearly she has a lot more polishing to go.
Been a long time since I've been bitten by a snake. Probably fifteen years. I don't think I did anything wrong in this case, but I'm going to be much more aware of how I approach her in the future.
Maybe she's just living up to her name. I'd hate to have a nippy snake, but we kind of set ourselves up for it by naming her Cleopatra.
16 September, 2010
13 September, 2010
The solution to gun violence
I have a pothos
that sits on the window in a hydroponics garden
on the windowsill. It's of course thriving because a pothos could thrive in straight water, and this one is not just getting straight water, it's getting straight water, lots of room for its roots, and nutrient film. So it's kind of taken over the south-western quadrant of the house. But now it's starting to encroach on the couch, and the first thought that came to my mind was, "boy, I'll teach that sucker with the 12 gauge, it'll never come back to the couch". Because of course the couch is where I hack, and while I love the pothos, pretty much the only things allowed on the couch are humans and snakes.
And then it struck me. I'm pretty sure the shotgun is loaded with three slugs and then five 00 buck rounds. The slugs would make absolutely no difference to the pothos. Within a week, it would send out a new runner, and I'd have my couch invaded again. With the buckshot, I'd blow holes in leaves, but how much worse is that then simple caterpillars, which a hydroponic pothos can simply shrug off? Then, I decided to get nasty. I thought, well, 00 is simply too big for killing plants. Maybe I need #8 shot. Lots and lots of little pellets. Maybe gratuitous use of a .410 or something. But even the tiny shot in a .410 would only serve to put tiny holes in the plant from which it would recover very quickly.
So what's the lesson here for gun violence? People should be more like plants. If you're trying to protect yourself, grow a really big pothos and wrap yourself in it fully, and then go into your gunfight. I'm not going to guarantee that a .500 S&W isn't going to penetrate, but you'd be silly to go into a gunfight without ballistic armor anyways. Let the pothos soak up all the small stuff. When you're done, take your pothos armor off (you could even call it a ghillie suit if you swing that way) and put it back in the hydroponics. I bet if you were a crafty sonofabitch you could breed a much stronger pothos, with leaves that resist penetration. I bet Monsanto could do it in a snap.
Which leads me to my next thought, which is not a solution to violence at all.
I'll bet a nickel that you could take a plant like a pothos, which is damn near unkillable, do some careful gene splicing for the environment you wish to "soften up" before sending in the Marines, and simply seed the environment first. Is a gene-doped plant considered a biological weapon? If it's immune to pesticides (Monsanto has already proved they can do this, in spades) and maybe it has something like noxious spoor or very strong stems that tangle tank treads and make infantry movement difficult (again, is this so far fetched?), could this simple houseplant be turned into a weapon of war?
I think it would be far easier than anyone thinks. I would bet in some lab, somewhere, people are plotting similar ideas. Especially at Monsanto.
that sits on the window in a hydroponics garden on the windowsill. It's of course thriving because a pothos could thrive in straight water, and this one is not just getting straight water, it's getting straight water, lots of room for its roots, and nutrient film. So it's kind of taken over the south-western quadrant of the house. But now it's starting to encroach on the couch, and the first thought that came to my mind was, "boy, I'll teach that sucker with the 12 gauge, it'll never come back to the couch". Because of course the couch is where I hack, and while I love the pothos, pretty much the only things allowed on the couch are humans and snakes.And then it struck me. I'm pretty sure the shotgun is loaded with three slugs and then five 00 buck rounds. The slugs would make absolutely no difference to the pothos. Within a week, it would send out a new runner, and I'd have my couch invaded again. With the buckshot, I'd blow holes in leaves, but how much worse is that then simple caterpillars, which a hydroponic pothos can simply shrug off? Then, I decided to get nasty. I thought, well, 00 is simply too big for killing plants. Maybe I need #8 shot. Lots and lots of little pellets. Maybe gratuitous use of a .410 or something. But even the tiny shot in a .410 would only serve to put tiny holes in the plant from which it would recover very quickly.
So what's the lesson here for gun violence? People should be more like plants. If you're trying to protect yourself, grow a really big pothos and wrap yourself in it fully, and then go into your gunfight. I'm not going to guarantee that a .500 S&W isn't going to penetrate, but you'd be silly to go into a gunfight without ballistic armor anyways. Let the pothos soak up all the small stuff. When you're done, take your pothos armor off (you could even call it a ghillie suit if you swing that way) and put it back in the hydroponics. I bet if you were a crafty sonofabitch you could breed a much stronger pothos, with leaves that resist penetration. I bet Monsanto could do it in a snap.
Which leads me to my next thought, which is not a solution to violence at all.
I'll bet a nickel that you could take a plant like a pothos, which is damn near unkillable, do some careful gene splicing for the environment you wish to "soften up" before sending in the Marines, and simply seed the environment first. Is a gene-doped plant considered a biological weapon? If it's immune to pesticides (Monsanto has already proved they can do this, in spades) and maybe it has something like noxious spoor or very strong stems that tangle tank treads and make infantry movement difficult (again, is this so far fetched?), could this simple houseplant be turned into a weapon of war?
I think it would be far easier than anyone thinks. I would bet in some lab, somewhere, people are plotting similar ideas. Especially at Monsanto.
09 September, 2010
The new snake is doing just fine
Her name is Cleo, which is short for Cleopatra, although ball pythons have no venom at all. She's a big girl, at 370 gr, whereas Indy is probably only pushing 200 gr. Cleo is eating large mice, and I have every faith that Indy can eat a large mouse, so I'm going to bump him up to large mice, and he should start to grow quicker, but she's always going to have an edge on him, and females just get bigger. I'm not sure why that is.
Anyways, she's in quarantine right now. The first day was really rough. She was very scared and it was hard to get her in the quarantine tub, but she's settled down now and she even let me hold her for a couple minutes as I changed her water bowl to something she won't knock over. She's assumed the normal ball python "ball" which seems to me she's relaxed. Seven days of quarantine are recommended, and I'm going to obey that, but I am going to try to peek in on her every day to gauge how comfortable she is with human presence. Even at her most scared, she wasn't nippy. So I'm not worried about being bitten.
Here's a picture of her in her tub, taken with the iPhone (don't expect much) but the flash brings out her colors in an otherwise dark corner.
So, say hello to Cleo. More pictures when she's out of quarantine. :)
Anyways, she's in quarantine right now. The first day was really rough. She was very scared and it was hard to get her in the quarantine tub, but she's settled down now and she even let me hold her for a couple minutes as I changed her water bowl to something she won't knock over. She's assumed the normal ball python "ball" which seems to me she's relaxed. Seven days of quarantine are recommended, and I'm going to obey that, but I am going to try to peek in on her every day to gauge how comfortable she is with human presence. Even at her most scared, she wasn't nippy. So I'm not worried about being bitten.
Here's a picture of her in her tub, taken with the iPhone (don't expect much) but the flash brings out her colors in an otherwise dark corner.
So, say hello to Cleo. More pictures when she's out of quarantine. :)
06 September, 2010
I generally like cops
They generally want to just do their jobs and catch bad guys. My registration is expired for reasons that are very complicated. An Arlington, Virginia cop pulled my wife over and let her go provided I keep my court date to get the registration sorted out. I am so relieved. No tow, no impound fees, nothing like that. I am so relieved.
Cops. Doing their job, being honest and helpful. Mr. Unknown Arlington Cop, thank you so, so much. You're a credit to your profession.
Cops. Doing their job, being honest and helpful. Mr. Unknown Arlington Cop, thank you so, so much. You're a credit to your profession.
Woot woot woot!
Ball python #2 is arriving Wednesday morning. Here she is:
She's a Mojave morph (and yes, it's a she). It's hard to tell with the white background and the flash washing her out, but Mojaves are darker and have brighter yellow patterns that just get darker and more yellow as they get older. She's 110 gr, so she's a little tinier than Indy and she's eating live and frozen mice. I think I'm going to try to keep her on frozen. We haven't decided on a name for her yet. She'll be cohabitating with Indy as his tank is kind of spacious, but we've been warned that might stress them a little. So if one of them gets finicky about food it might be time for emergency additional tank. But, I've been pretty lucky with BP's being good eaters.
We got her from RC Reptiles, which I very much recommend. The rest aren't as professional and communicative. To quote Ron, his snakes are the Mercedes of ball pythons. He made a believer out of me.
She's a Mojave morph (and yes, it's a she). It's hard to tell with the white background and the flash washing her out, but Mojaves are darker and have brighter yellow patterns that just get darker and more yellow as they get older. She's 110 gr, so she's a little tinier than Indy and she's eating live and frozen mice. I think I'm going to try to keep her on frozen. We haven't decided on a name for her yet. She'll be cohabitating with Indy as his tank is kind of spacious, but we've been warned that might stress them a little. So if one of them gets finicky about food it might be time for emergency additional tank. But, I've been pretty lucky with BP's being good eaters.
We got her from RC Reptiles, which I very much recommend. The rest aren't as professional and communicative. To quote Ron, his snakes are the Mercedes of ball pythons. He made a believer out of me.
04 September, 2010
Weeds
I just finished watching the five series of Weeds on Netflix, and now I'm dying to see the sixth, which is still on television. Since I don't get cable TV, I'm hozed until it's released on DVD.
Weeds, for the unindoctrinated, is a great show. Made me a fan after the first episode, and I've literally spent an entire day watching it (series 4). But when netflix recommended something similar, they recommended Nip/Tuck, which is really more like a soap opera than a "Dramedy" (their term, not mine). So now I'm really bummed because the weed content on television is so low, and most of the Dramedies netflix suggests are far more "drama" than "edy".
Weeds, for the unindoctrinated, is a great show. Made me a fan after the first episode, and I've literally spent an entire day watching it (series 4). But when netflix recommended something similar, they recommended Nip/Tuck, which is really more like a soap opera than a "Dramedy" (their term, not mine). So now I'm really bummed because the weed content on television is so low, and most of the Dramedies netflix suggests are far more "drama" than "edy".
29 August, 2010
a milestone
This morning I officially managed to accomplish everything I ordinarily would have with my laptop, on my iPhone 4. Downside: thumbs hurt from holding the cursed thing. It's nursing AC at the moment, but I don't think it got down to even twenty per cent. So anyways, I guess I've become rather proficient with the device, which is good. And for those of you who insist on telling me which apps I must have and which games I need and things like that, I really don't. I don't have games on the phone; I have fewer than ten apps. Of the apps that I have, at least three of them are text-on-demand (one of them is essentially a Gutenberg client, one is Kindle, one is Shakespeare, and I'm not sure whether I have another or not). Oh, and the Case app. I ordered one of the rubbery cases if you must know. It reminded me of my Blackberry cover.
I'm waiting for the Retina display in the iPad and I may well abandon laptops altogether. Have Bluetooth keyboard (and something to carry it in from etsy), will travel. I rather doubt that anyone is going to port MS Office to the A4 chip, so we're not going to have a Word "app," and I doubt Apple is going to port iWork over either (although they could if they wanted to). This leaves me without a serious editor, but I imagine I can find one and pay for it in the App Store and just use the keyboard when I want to write and the rest of the time use my grubby fingers. After all, I can still push it up to the desktop, which has all the heavy apps on it, the Adobe apps, Microsoft apps, Apple apps, and of course is our media server as well.
Is it possible I could be moving from my Air at, what, 3lbs to something more like 1lb? Do I need to start speaking in grams? I was thinking the next move would be to a 13" MacBook Pro. But actually, I don't think that's the case. Not after this morning. Come on Apple, let's see that display bumped.
I'm waiting for the Retina display in the iPad and I may well abandon laptops altogether. Have Bluetooth keyboard (and something to carry it in from etsy), will travel. I rather doubt that anyone is going to port MS Office to the A4 chip, so we're not going to have a Word "app," and I doubt Apple is going to port iWork over either (although they could if they wanted to). This leaves me without a serious editor, but I imagine I can find one and pay for it in the App Store and just use the keyboard when I want to write and the rest of the time use my grubby fingers. After all, I can still push it up to the desktop, which has all the heavy apps on it, the Adobe apps, Microsoft apps, Apple apps, and of course is our media server as well.
Is it possible I could be moving from my Air at, what, 3lbs to something more like 1lb? Do I need to start speaking in grams? I was thinking the next move would be to a 13" MacBook Pro. But actually, I don't think that's the case. Not after this morning. Come on Apple, let's see that display bumped.
23 August, 2010
Ball pythons in trees
Have a look at Indy perform an upside-down prey catch. Ball pythons are not supposed to be arboreal at all, so I am real impressed that he hangs out in trees and that he catches prey happily from the plant. People say ball pythons are boring and just hang out on the ground, useless lumps, just starter snakes. Well, I've had two adults and I now have a third, a juvenile, and all of them had personalities and were interesting. This most recent, Indy, captive bred (I knew nothing about the other two), is even beginning to show interest in myself and my wife, wanting attention.
So, misconceptions about ball pythons being boring animals aside, can we move on? I think the problem is a snake is only as engaging as it is engaged. I've seen emerald tree boas–supposedly "ornamental only" animals–that freely wrapped themselves around their owners, exploring and allowing themselves to be handled freely. There are a lot of herp enthusiasts with forty animals. Of course you can't give your ball python handling every day. It's probably going to be a lump and may even snap at you when you feed it. But if you handle it every day, and let it swim in the bath tub, and let it climb a tree, maybe you'll find that the snake is a lot more interested in you and the world at large.
So, misconceptions about ball pythons being boring animals aside, can we move on? I think the problem is a snake is only as engaging as it is engaged. I've seen emerald tree boas–supposedly "ornamental only" animals–that freely wrapped themselves around their owners, exploring and allowing themselves to be handled freely. There are a lot of herp enthusiasts with forty animals. Of course you can't give your ball python handling every day. It's probably going to be a lump and may even snap at you when you feed it. But if you handle it every day, and let it swim in the bath tub, and let it climb a tree, maybe you'll find that the snake is a lot more interested in you and the world at large.