Today feeding time was short. Coral has still not shed so I knew she wouldn't eat. I attempted to feed Maat for the millionth time and she again refused. I ended up giving her Pedialyte. I think she's becoming used to it because she grimaces less. Yes, she actually grimaces.
Talulah ate. I can always depend on her gluttony. Damascus also ate although he was shedding. I love ball pythons, I don't know why everyone says they are picky eaters. I've never had too much trouble.
Tybalt ate on Wednesday night, since he is still eating live pinkies, he has to eat when my sister brings the baby mouse from the wildlife center.
I have Topkapi to feed tonight and that's it for this week.
Tomorrow I have to get up bright and early to go to my French class. It's every Saturday from 8:30 to 11:00 am. It is looooooooong. But at least the teacher is good.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Steamy, Dreamy Clouds
I'm a bit disappointed in the humidifier I bought a few weeks ago. I guess I had a little fantasy going on in my head of me walking into a beautifully steaming room and each snake happy and with a big grin on his or her face.
Not surprising I'm disappointed because I would have to create an alternate universe where snakes can grin to make this dream work.
Anyway, I filled the humidifier with a good amount of water, a pinch of salt, and I plugged it in.
A few hours later and there is only a wimpy stream of steam (ha) making it's way into the room. And which is of course being completely massacred by the air-conditioning.
I placed the humidifier really close to the snakes that are shedding, so hopefully they are reaping some benefits from it.
It also has a night light, which I thought was kind of cool, although I'm sure the manufacturers were thinking more in the way of keeping a child happy, not 7 fearsome snakes who happen to be mostly nocturnal.
Fearsome. Right.
Not surprising I'm disappointed because I would have to create an alternate universe where snakes can grin to make this dream work.
Anyway, I filled the humidifier with a good amount of water, a pinch of salt, and I plugged it in.
A few hours later and there is only a wimpy stream of steam (ha) making it's way into the room. And which is of course being completely massacred by the air-conditioning.
I placed the humidifier really close to the snakes that are shedding, so hopefully they are reaping some benefits from it.
It also has a night light, which I thought was kind of cool, although I'm sure the manufacturers were thinking more in the way of keeping a child happy, not 7 fearsome snakes who happen to be mostly nocturnal.
Fearsome. Right.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Pillow Talk
That's Topkapi having a nap inside my pillow. I took her out in the morning and placed her on my bed while I put some stuff away. When I finished,I turned around and she was making a bee line for my pillows. I guess it was too early for her.
Poor Coral is shedding and she is looking really dull. More than usual. Her eyes are powder blue and she is also more skittish than she is normally, which is saying a lot. I haven't used the humidifier yet because Coral is smart and she goes and soaks in her water bowl. If on top of that I use the machine she'd get a respiratory infection easily. Hopefully she'll shed soon so she can eat on Friday.
I am baking some Banana Peach Bread, here's the recipe.
1/2 cup butter
2 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 bananas
2 peaches
zest of one orange
2 tbsp. fresh orange juice
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Mix the dry ingredients. Put peaches in blender and pulse. Place in a bowl and add mashed bananas. Add zest.
Cream the butter, add eggs one at a time. Add fruit mixture and orange juice.
Add to dry ingredients. Stir until just moistened.
Bake 50-60 minutes.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Bad Characters
A few days ago, Coral decided she needed to make my life a little more interesting. I walk into the snake room in the morning to turn the lamps on and I see Barbossa acting strangely. He's in a weird angle and he looks nervous (don't ask me how I knew he was nervous, I've just had him long enough to KNOW). I look around his cage for feces but I didn't see any. Finally, I lift my eyes and I see Coral with her whole body squeezed between the wall and the back of Barbossa's cage. Somehow, she managed to slide her cage door open and walk over to my poor shy baby's cage to terrify him and me. I guess it amuses her. I put her back and made sure the door was fully closed. She'll probably do it again one of these days, so I'm going to have to come up with some type of lock for the door.
Crazy, crazy snake.
I just finished "The Magicians" by Lev Grossman. I did not like this book. People describe it as an adult version of Harry Potter but I actually considered it much more childish than any of the J.K. Rowling books. Adding sex scenes and curse words really does not add maturity to a book. We know, they're teenagers, they have sex and they curse, big deal. I don't feel more grown up reading about it.
The main character, Quentin, is completely unlikable. He is supposed to be an anti-hero, the skinny, tall misfit who makes it into a magical school where he thinks he will finally find what's been missing from his life. Sounds good, right? Predictable and completely done, but good. Well, it's not. I usually root for the anti-heroes but none of the ones in this book had anything remotely interesting about them. The story line, as I said, is nothing new so the least the author could do is make the characters cool. Think of the worst, whiniest, apathetic teenagers you've ever met and then give them magical powers and you'll have the torture Mr. Grossman put us through. It's actually a shame that he chose such poor characters and storyline because his writing style is actually quite beautiful. All he needs is to come up with his own ideas and leave the magic to the professionals.
Crazy, crazy snake.
I just finished "The Magicians" by Lev Grossman. I did not like this book. People describe it as an adult version of Harry Potter but I actually considered it much more childish than any of the J.K. Rowling books. Adding sex scenes and curse words really does not add maturity to a book. We know, they're teenagers, they have sex and they curse, big deal. I don't feel more grown up reading about it.
The main character, Quentin, is completely unlikable. He is supposed to be an anti-hero, the skinny, tall misfit who makes it into a magical school where he thinks he will finally find what's been missing from his life. Sounds good, right? Predictable and completely done, but good. Well, it's not. I usually root for the anti-heroes but none of the ones in this book had anything remotely interesting about them. The story line, as I said, is nothing new so the least the author could do is make the characters cool. Think of the worst, whiniest, apathetic teenagers you've ever met and then give them magical powers and you'll have the torture Mr. Grossman put us through. It's actually a shame that he chose such poor characters and storyline because his writing style is actually quite beautiful. All he needs is to come up with his own ideas and leave the magic to the professionals.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Ducky
I just came back from a voice lesson. Jesus I am tired.
Tomorrow I have another one and then I'm heading over to see the concert of one of my teacher's students.
Which means I won't be able to feed my snake babies tomorrow. And THAT means that there will be a lot of reptilian attitude to deal with. Topkapi already thinks my feeding schedule is crap so she is not going to be ecstatic about a further delay. They are going to be sooo pissed.
So, my sister brought home a baby duck yesterday from the wildlife center. We are going to find him a momma duck who'll adopt him. He is just the cutest, noisiest, most huggable thing in the world. I'm a bit concerned that he'll get seriously imprinted on humans, but we're doing what we can. I can hear him peeping for attention as I write this. Must..resist...the...cuteness.
Tomorrow I have another one and then I'm heading over to see the concert of one of my teacher's students.
Which means I won't be able to feed my snake babies tomorrow. And THAT means that there will be a lot of reptilian attitude to deal with. Topkapi already thinks my feeding schedule is crap so she is not going to be ecstatic about a further delay. They are going to be sooo pissed.
So, my sister brought home a baby duck yesterday from the wildlife center. We are going to find him a momma duck who'll adopt him. He is just the cutest, noisiest, most huggable thing in the world. I'm a bit concerned that he'll get seriously imprinted on humans, but we're doing what we can. I can hear him peeping for attention as I write this. Must..resist...the...cuteness.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
The Chosen One
I can't believe I caught these pictures. Seeing Barbossa yawn is seeing something unique, sacred, something that the ancients have whispered about around campsite bonfires, something only the very brave and very lucky ever see.
Ok, that's a tad bit exaggerated, but who knows, maybe someone somewhere is rejoicing and exclaiming "Finally the prophecy is fulfilled!".
It could happen is all I'm saying.
He is hilarious. My other snakes just open their mouths and yawn, simple and to the point, but Barbossa takes it to a whole other level. First, his whole face starts to twitch (the first time I saw this I thought he was having a stroke), then he lifts one corner of his mouth followed by the other and finally opens his mouth as far as it will go. I wasn't able to get a picture of the full extended jaw, because my camera was being an idiot, but you get the gist.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Religious Freedom
I went to see "The Last Exorcism" yesterday. I am a sucker for scary movies, if you haven't realized it by now. My sister wasn't working so I asked her if she wanted to go with me to the movies, but she sheepishly said no. She, on the other hand, is really terrified of scary movies. Fair enough. I went by myself.
Overall, I liked the movie. It is not nearly scary enough, but it is an interesting premise.
The main character, Reverend Cotton, was a child preacher who grew up so used to the whole idea of God that he found himself an adult lacking faith in his own preachings. He had performed tons of exorcisms, but believed in none of them. The whole movie is filmed documentary style, with an actual cameraman following the Reverend along while he tries to show the world that exorcisms are scams and that the people who perform them are frauds.
We follow him to a house in Louisiana, where a young woman has been supposedly possessed by a demon. I don't want to give anything away, beacuse it is a movie worth seeing, but there are several twists and turns that I, as the audience, didn't see coming and which were quite refreshing.
I was, however, a little disappointed at the ending. That's becoming kind of the norm these days, and I am left wondering why. In a lot of the books I've recently read and in a lot of the movies I've recently seen, the endings seemed to be thrown together at the last minute and held in place with clothepins. I can imagine the writers and directors praying to their respective gods that no one would blow too hard on their creations and unravel them.
The ending was crap, which sucked because I really liked the movie.
Something else that bothered me was the use of magical symbols in the ending scenes.
As a pagan, more specifically a ceremonial magician, I was a bit on edge when I saw pentacles and triquetras drawn on walls as symbols representing the devil and Satan worship. An upside-down pentacle is not a problem because that truly is the sign of Satanists, but when you put a right-side up one next to it, you're bashing my religion. I am not a Satan worshiper because I don't believe in Satan or Jesus. I respect everyone who does, however, and I would never go around misusing THEIR religious symbols.
Maybe I am being too picky, but my religion has been persecuted by every other religion for a very, very long time, and I don't think we need to give the Christian and Jewish fanatics out there more ammunition. They already call us Satan worshippers, blasphemers, evil, damned, etc. I have people making the sign of the cross at me when I go walking around my neighborhood with my pentacle on. Why should I be accosted like that when they get to wear their crosses and Stars of David whenever and wherever they want?
Please do your research before you use one of our symbols.
Thus ends MY preaching.
Overall, I liked the movie. It is not nearly scary enough, but it is an interesting premise.
The main character, Reverend Cotton, was a child preacher who grew up so used to the whole idea of God that he found himself an adult lacking faith in his own preachings. He had performed tons of exorcisms, but believed in none of them. The whole movie is filmed documentary style, with an actual cameraman following the Reverend along while he tries to show the world that exorcisms are scams and that the people who perform them are frauds.
We follow him to a house in Louisiana, where a young woman has been supposedly possessed by a demon. I don't want to give anything away, beacuse it is a movie worth seeing, but there are several twists and turns that I, as the audience, didn't see coming and which were quite refreshing.
I was, however, a little disappointed at the ending. That's becoming kind of the norm these days, and I am left wondering why. In a lot of the books I've recently read and in a lot of the movies I've recently seen, the endings seemed to be thrown together at the last minute and held in place with clothepins. I can imagine the writers and directors praying to their respective gods that no one would blow too hard on their creations and unravel them.
The ending was crap, which sucked because I really liked the movie.
Something else that bothered me was the use of magical symbols in the ending scenes.
As a pagan, more specifically a ceremonial magician, I was a bit on edge when I saw pentacles and triquetras drawn on walls as symbols representing the devil and Satan worship. An upside-down pentacle is not a problem because that truly is the sign of Satanists, but when you put a right-side up one next to it, you're bashing my religion. I am not a Satan worshiper because I don't believe in Satan or Jesus. I respect everyone who does, however, and I would never go around misusing THEIR religious symbols.
Maybe I am being too picky, but my religion has been persecuted by every other religion for a very, very long time, and I don't think we need to give the Christian and Jewish fanatics out there more ammunition. They already call us Satan worshippers, blasphemers, evil, damned, etc. I have people making the sign of the cross at me when I go walking around my neighborhood with my pentacle on. Why should I be accosted like that when they get to wear their crosses and Stars of David whenever and wherever they want?
Please do your research before you use one of our symbols.
Thus ends MY preaching.
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