Biomes Blog

Entry #15: The Last Page

HAPPY NEW YEARS! (eve). My big plans for New Years Eve. Apollo 13 with the boy.

Well, it happened. I have spent so much time on-line that I finally reached the last page of the internet.

Entry #14: Celeborn

We had 66 visitors for our walk-in hours today. Our next open to the public days will be Jan 19 and Feb 16. I gave the animals the rest of the day off since these walk-in days really wear them out. Especially the dogfish. Which Lord of the Rings character are you? I took the test and here are my Results:

Celeborn If I were a character in The Lord of the Rings, I would be Celeborn, Elf, King of Lothlorien, husband of Galadriel and grandfather of Arwen. In the movie, I am played by Marton Csokas. Who would you be? Zovakware Lord of the Rings Test  with Perseus Web Survey Software

Who the heck is he? I don’t remember no Celeborn.

Entry #13: Bam

Late Christmas gift idea:  The Amazing Catapult Watch!

This was destroyed by that quake in Iran the other day.  You know, I really don’t like when things like this happen, even to ironically named archeological sites.  But why do things like this happen there, while a similar magnitude quake does relatively little damage in California?  The answer is a little thing called "Government regulation of industry".  Lesson of the day concluded.

Here's something everyone needs to hear, or your life is just not complete.  Who's on First?

Update: It's 5:00 am, and the dog and I just finished up another epileptic seizure (well, she had the seizure, and I just tried to deal).  She's resting after a heavy dose of valium and I'm trying to get back to sleep.  The problem with her type of canine epilepsy is that she is semi-concious through the whole thing, which makes her anxious on top of the weird-brain-wiring-thing.  Heeerre's Ngazi (pronounced "nn-gazzee").

Entry #12: Reggie

Biomes FAQ: Why is your Boa constrictor named "Reggie"? Hint. We feed Reggie frozen rats rather than live ones. This is not only more humane for the rat, but is also safer for the snake. In captivity a terrified rat will sometimes attack and bite a snake if not eaten right away. This is what happened to Reggie when he was with his former owner and he was quite injured and sick when we got him. That was 6 years ago and he is back to full health now.

Here is a good source of information on caring for pet Boa constrictors. Normally I urge caution whenever chosing a non-domestic animal for a pet, but boas are easy to keep, clean and very docile. (Be sure to handle them a lot when they are young and they become very used to people.) Also, nearly all snakes sold are captive bred so wild populations are unaffected by keeping these snakes as pets. Please remember to think long term when buying animals like these. They get big and they live a long time. Nothing about my job makes me sadder than calls from people trying to find homes for pet reptiles that have gotten too big for them to handle.

Entry #11: Best in Show

Biomes News: We were honored with the editor’s pick for “Best Birthday Party in Rhode Island” by Rhode Island Monthly Magazine this year.

Saw this on Calpundit; take the 2003 Quote Quiz.  I consider myself a political junkie, but I only got 4 out of 10.  I may need to find a new obsession.

Ok. Now I am officially freaked out by Big Brother. This is, not kidding, from a CIA website:

Document 27  Memorandum:
Views on Trained Cats, March 1967 "In a project known as “Acoustic Kitty” the Directorate of Science and Technology sought to train a surgically altered cat, wired with transmitting and control devices, to become a mobile, eavesdropping platform. In its first test, the cat was run over by a taxi.

Entry #10: Rusty

Cool. I sort of have the day off today to play with all the toys Santa brought me. Although I still have to go in and feed the menagerie. (They had a day of "fasting" yesterday). Graham is in heaven because he got a new iMac, so now I don't have to listen to him say "Dad, when can I use the computer" all night, every night. (By the way, check out his site listed on the right. He's starting a blog soon as well).

For some reason Atrios posts about "sleep paralysis" this morning.

It's a condition associated with narcolepsy. Meet Rusty.

This site explains why your pants are missing.

Entry #9: Christmas Bear

Happy Holidays

Entry #8: Slingshot Santa

Graham spent the morning videotaping animals at the center. We've been turning them into little movies to post on the Biomes Center website.

We have about a dozen completed but the site ran out of space after we uploaded four (here's a teaser). I'll be increasing my site space as soon as I can so we can fit more. Maybe I'll call my hoster tomorrow.

Play Slingshot Santa! Left click to start running, left click and hold to prepare to fire and release to launch Saint Nick.

Entry #7: Santa Robs a Bank

Biomes News: The last of our skate eggs hatched over the weekend. We'll be getting more eggs (called "mermaid's purses) in January. Here is what a newly hatched baby looks like from its underside:

How christmas is celebrated around the world. Merry Christmas! Santa robs a bank. Ho, ho, ho.

Entry #6

Which Christmas Carol are you? Take the quiz Here is my poem result. Bah humbug, I guess (Hey, I just gave my honest answers. Sheesh):

You are 'Christmas Time is Here, by Golly!', by Tom
Lehrer. Hmm, you really don't like Christmas,
do you?

Here is the entire poem. Oh, well. In the spirit of christmas I just apparently set, here's a lovely snowglobe for you.

Entry #5

Our order of 15 pounds of frozen mysis shrimp, which we use to feed mainly seahorses and baby skates, arrived today from Canada via FedEx.  If you own seahorses as pets, they need a variety of shrimp-type foods to remain healthy. Mysis shrimp are one of the best and can be purchased from a company called PE Mysis.

Cool Site of the Week: Sodaconstructor!

Entry #4: Heartbeat of a Tortoise

As a followup to yesterday's notes on Darwin, here is something I found a while back.  It's the heartbeat of a tortoise. 

For all you budding artists out there:  Mr. Picassohead.

For all you budding artists out there, Part II: Create your own Jackson Pollock.

Entry #3: Sulcatas

Graham and I saw part three of Lord of the Rings last night.  My life is now complete. Go see it.  Now!

I had another discussion today about how to keep Sulcata Tortoises, like our four-year-old Darwin.  Here is a site that is a must for anyone who owns these animals, since the information you'll get from a pet store (especially if it's Petco or any of the other megastore cultural disasters) will most likely be wrong.

Entry #2: Blog Def

Biomes was closed today.

I'm still amazed, talking to people, how many don't know what a blog is, or in fact have never even heard of the word. Being a news junkie and internet addict (need a support group, baaaad), they are such a vital part of my daily routine. Sort of like showering. So, here is as good a definition as any.

By the way, the section on the right labeled "blogroll" are some sites I visit. Some every day, others just to check in once in a while. I'll include sites that aren't exactly blogs in this list until I figure out how to start a new list and label it. Bear with me. I'm really not good at this tech stuff.

Entry #1 all over again

Ok, so after writing 267 nearly consecutive posts, I'm starting all over again with a real live blog hosting program.  I have no idea how this works so I'm just winging it from here.

As I said before, my server can't handle the amount of information this blog took up so I'll try this route.  Hope it works, but what a waste of nearly a year's worth of posts.

So, let's try an image and see if it works.  If you see a meerkat tanning itself, I'm a genius:

Wow, it worked.