The Smell of Ratties

Now Kimi, like most other adult boy ratties, smells rather wonderful - like warm corn chips, and the smell of cuddling and cosiness and yummy furry mammal warmth!

*takes deep breath of Kimi*

Mmm!

*has asthma attack*

Linus, on the other hand, also has that warm corn chippiness, but a little something extra as well... which we couldn't identify until tonight... Previous suppositions proposed sandalwood? some sort of talcum powder? expensive perfume?

But on our little post-dinner walk around Epping (too much french camembert and our very first smoked trout!), as the night air wafted all these blossomy smells past us, we came to the stunning observation that Linus smells like cherry blossoms!

Hurrah! Mystery solved, and so satisfyingly so.



Cherry blossoms are so pretty. Like Linus.

Rattie webcam

This is a very cool webcam, of a new rattie mum, Belle, with her litter of (not all that new really) babies! In the Netherlands!

http://www.xs4all.nl/~yolgers/webcam/index.html

(May have to wait a little time for the video to start, but it's So worth it!)

Bear's media phrenzy!

As a result of Bear's nomination for some wacky award thing, I hereby present:

Bear's very first press release

ABC news article

Sydney Morning Herald article

New Scientist article!

UNSW news article

and more to come! watch this space.

(so much for anonymity mwahahaha... *secretly proud of Bear*)

In memory of Birdy

Sadly, the little grey cockatiel who came under our care on Friday passed away today. He spent yesterday looking unhappy but not too unhealthy, and then this morning, went rapidly downhill and definitely developed a case of SBL (sick bird look - according to the vet).

Being Sunday, it was impossible to contact an avian specialist anywhere in Sydney, and we called and called but in the end Randwick Vet Hospital kindly agreed to take him in and do their best despite not having adequate resources for dealing with seriously ill birdies.

Apparently, birds, once they start looking sick, have not that much of a chance. We left him with hope that some general bird antibiotics would help him out but the vet called at about 4pm and said that Birdy had passed away.

It's hit us unexpectedly badly. After all, he came to us not more than 48 hours ago, and spent most of that time hissing at us, or ignoring us.. but then when we'd leave the room to give him some privacy, he'd give a little questioning squawk and look at us. I really liked this bird. He had spirit, and was obviously very intelligent, and we should have brought him to a vet first thing when we got him, but we knew nothing about birds and now the helplessness is the most painful thing of all.

Goodbye Birdy. I'm so sorry we weren't better able to care for you.

Found: Grey Cockatiel

This sweet little cockatiel was found on Friday 5 August, in the evening, sitting on a low branch in Coogee Public School. If you know whose bird this may be, please please contact me! He is staying in our guest room at the moment, with the heater on low, in one of our ex-rattie cages (which really is a bird cage but don't let the boys know) and has a sortof wooden toy and some cockatiel seed mix and a honey treat stick thing but he's not happy.

At least he's not as freaked out as he was last night, when two parents bravely 'rescued' him from the tree, held him squawking madly in a closed fist and then put him in a small box, in which he was tossed about abit on the ride home and he really didn't sound happy, poor thing. I'm not sure how I came to bring him home, but I felt so sorry for the little guy. Hopefully his humans will be found soon and he can go home.

Euphemism of the day

Syn: erp.

Bear: erp?

Syn: Er. I did a bad thing.

Bear: What? What did you do?

Syn: Um. Nothing.

Bear: *sniffs*

Bear: Did you make a bubble?

Syn: ...?

Syn: er. Yes?

Bear: That's okay sweetie.

Syn: ...

Syn: teehee. I made a bubble.

Readings

I haven't been reading as much as i'm used to... something about having to get up early which means grasping at every available sleeping minute possible. I'm not one of those people who get up early.

But I don't have to get up early anymore! well at least not before sunrise, and so have looked again into my pile of books and found some interesting things. No, haven't yet gotten Half-blood Prince - partly because i cannot remember what happened in the previous book so really shouldn't i re-read that first? - but am slowly working my way through the oeuvre of Diana Wynne Jones, picking up random paperback copies of her books at discount book stores, and recently, thanks to Minzhi's recommendations, have placed orders for Dark Lord of Derkholm, Howl's Moving Castle (finally!) and Castle in the Air from the UNSW bookshop. I like this whole ordering online thing, especially since they charge no delivery fee within the university and offer discounted prices anyway. I ordered the Witches of Eastwick (after reading Yen's review) from them last month and that was easy enough, and yes, so far, plenty of unattractive suburban sex... and some somewhat inexplicable behaviour from these witchy folk. Is the movie any good, does anyone know?

The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot is another book on my table... I'm not sure why i picked it up (did someone mention it recently?) but it's very good indeed! So intense, and written so simply and effectively. Wasn't it some cleverish bookmark/placemat/bookofsayings that stated 'Classics are those books that everyone wishes they've read but no one actually wants to read'? I thought that was clever when I was 14, when clever things were cool and it was important to be clever, but since then I've changed my mind and think it's far more difficult to be truthful and meaningful, which is why i hate sayings. I really really hate sayings(aphorisms?) that are supposed to be wise, and state something (usually simple) as if it were revelatory and (yes) clever, but really isn't, because it's far too simplistic and not true!

*vent*

...

which somehow brings me to the epiphany of today, which, i think, is my best answer yet to the question of what makes a good pun.. or, why are all of Bear's puns so terrible?

The answer, I think, at least for me, is that a good pun is one that a pedant does not find fault with. To wit, it is accurate, and not just arrived at by some tenuous link of association, which makes the pun... rarer? Clever and true. Best.

:P