Theo Jansen’s Kinetic sculpture

This is enough to buoy my spirits through the dark moments. As a die hard mechanic, this appeals to me deeply. I could watch this walk down the beach for a long time.

Theo Jansen is one interesting dude.

frogs and Dad

I was given a large setup with two White's Tree frogs today. It's worth a bundle just in equipment. I love a good deal and it's tough to beat free. :) I'll post pics sometime soon. I'm baby sitting three red eyed tree frogs too and images of those cool little guys will follow as well.

Red-eyed tree frog - Agalychnis callidryas



White's Tree Frog, Dumpy Tree Frog, Smiling Frog - Litoria caerulea



Along with today's freebies came a female cubby frog and all the equipment. It's been a good week for herps!

Chubby Frog, Asian Bullfrog, Painted Frog, Rice Frog, Bubble Frog - Kaloula pulchra



It's not been such a good week for my Dad. He was in for angioplasty today and they bailed and scheduled him for a bypass pronto. :( I wish I was there to make him smile.

running, feet, cameras

My goals now are all choked back in regards to running. I'll begin building my endurance again when I can and pound up some speed work to make an assault on my 5km PB. That should keep my attention while avoiding most of the high mileage that the longer races require. Damn! Not happy! Let's get going already!

As I'm waiting to see how my foot heals I'm going to try and get back to doing some core strength work, build up my quads to help protect my knees and drop 25 pounds. Go me! Two pounds a week is the goal.

Someone on the running mania board posted this. I hope someday to be in this position. :P

I'm thinking about buying a new camera. I got used to being able to take very good quality shots with my old 35mm Nikon. The old 3.2 Canon Power shot A70 has served up many thousands of images, but I've come to the point where quality counts again. I'm impatient with the limited resolution of the 3.2. I might even break down and buy a good printer so I can frame some images and enjoy them away from the computer!

The point and shoot candidate:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujifilmf31fd/"

The, I'm made of money candidate:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos400d/"

Actually all in this series are under consideration.

Bruce the corn snake

Manon thought we should name this guy Bruce. I have a brother Bruce, her uncle, but I didn't ask why. I thought maybe the colouring. I'm sure her uncle would be wholly unimpressed.

Rats are more nutritious than mice with a better meat to bone ratio, but this guy had never seen a rat in his whole life. Some snakes apparently won't take rats at all and most herpetoculturists don't like mousers as they call them. Bruce apparently has no qualms about taking rats. His feeding response is wild! He hammered this rat pup like he hadn't seen food in months. I know he was fed the day before yesterday so what's his excuse? heh He's going to like it here. I'm not sure he's had all he wanted to eat, and we're all about the food... :P



Here's the roach pizza I made after cleaning up the roach colony. They are feeders for the invertebrates. I put two and two together and figured the colony had out grown it's enclosure so I froze these guys in hopes of feeding them more easily.

I have managed to learn a few things about handling the roaches. They are so darned fast that it's tough to stay 100% contained with none of the escaping, but so far so good. Changing the substrate and moving them around is my biggest challenge, but today I chilled them! It was only 12C here today so I set the container on the Yota and went for lunch. When I came back they were delightfully slow! If the freezing thing works I'm off to the races.

Even though they are a more soft bodied and tropical roach, they are after all a roach and I'm not too interested in cohabiting. They are the most relentless, persistent, and tenacious animal I've ever dealt with. My invert love them though and are growing so well!

New corn snake

I guess the jury is in. I'll never grow up. At 48 I still take more than my share of pleasure out of settling this four year old male corn snake (Elaphe guttata) into his new home. He's a little cramped in the ten gallon aquarium, but he's been there since birth so I'm sure he can last a bit longer. I do so prefer to play than work. It almost never wins me brownie points with the adults, but the kids love me. heh

He's 66% possible heterozygous for the "snow" morph, but what genetics are involved for snow is still a mystery. :P I bought a female last week that was the most expensive of my expenditures so far in hopes of making baaaaayyyyybies! :D As a bonus the breeder will kick in one of her progeny as a hatch ling. Heaven only knows what that will involve, but I'm guessing new born mice at the very least.

Mice... the bain of the herpetoculturist's existence. I cleaned up the roach enclosure today too and that's a nasty bit of business. I much prefer rats to mice and crickets to roaches, but there are upsides to the roaches, and none that I can think of for the mice. Do you think PU would mind if I had some mice breeding bins in the barn? ehhehh

Blood Tea and Red String

Maybe I was too tired to appreciate this film. I wrangled a corn snake home tonght so it wasn't a complete wash...

Blood Tea and Red String
By Christine Cegavske (2006) (69 mins.)

A handmade stop motion fairy tale for adults.

Thirteen years in the making, Christiane Cegavske's dialogue free film tells
the tale of the struggle between the aristocratic White Mice and the rustic
Creatures Who Dwell Under the Oak over the doll of their heart's desire.

The Mice commission the Oak Dwellers to create a beautiful doll for them.
When she is complete, the Creatures fall in love with her and refuse to give
her up. Resorting to thievery the Mice abscond with her in the middle of the
night.

Meet fantastical creatures and view dazzling scenery as the Creatures Who
Dwell Under the Oak journey through this mystical land to reclaim their
love. See the mice descend into debauchery as they become drunk on blood
tea! See what happens when the Oak Dwellers eat the yellow fruit!

A heart rending musical score that was composed and performed by Mark
Growden accompanies this disturbing and wondrous adventure.

"at once wondrously obsolete and perfectly au courant" - Nathan Lee, NEW
YORK TIMES

"a David Lynchean fever dream on Beatrix Potter terrain.as lovingly crafted
as it is unsettlingly sour-sweet" - Dennis Harvey, VARIETY

"its haunting images speak directly to some dark, preverbal corner of the
heart" - Maitland McDonagh, TV GUIDE

"an original head trip" - V.A. Musetto, NEW YORK POST

"a triumph of creative passion ..." - Mitch Davis, FANTASIA FILM FESTIVAL

"A stunning example of animated art" - Rain, SFIST.COM

Official Site http://christianecegavske.com/BloodTeaRedString.html