thagirion | Entries tagged with neat stuff

I have been posting this poem here for decades. Time to refresh and bring it out of storage again. Original post was Dec 24, 2005

The Night Before Christmas . . . .Budgie Version

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the flight,
not a feather was stirring, not even a mite.
The hens were all nestled on top of their eggs,
While visions of clutches danced in their heads.
And budgies on perches, and keets with full crops,
Had just settled down, and puffed up their tops.
When out in the hall there arose such a clatter,
that I sprang from one leg to see what was the chatter.
Away to the bars I flew like a flash,
Opened both eyes and landed with a crash.
The light on the ceiling went on with a glow,
And we were all bug-eyed, adjusting too slow.
When what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a hand with five fingers, a little too near.
With a motion that threatened, so lively and faster,
I knew in a moment it must be my master.
More rapid than eagles his curses they came.
And he whistled, and shouted, and called us by name.
Now, DUSTY! now, DEWEY! now, BROWNY now, JAKE! On, STORMY! on,
SUNNY! on, BALDY! and SNOWFLAKE!
To the top of the cage!
To the top of the wall!
Now fly away! fly away! fly away all!
As feathers that before the beating wings fly,
When they meet with the skirting, spread far and wide,
So up to the ceiling the budgies they flew,
Followed by the master with intent to pursue.
And then in a moment, I heard in the salon,
The prancing and scratching of each little talon.
As he put out his hand and was ready to bound,
Down from the bookcase we came with great sound.
He was flustered and stressed, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all covered with dustballs and poop.
A butterfly net he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a hunter about to attack.
His eyes -- how they wrinkled!
His forehead how wary!
His cheeks were all flushed, his nose was all sweaty!
His lips were all pursed, drawn up like a bow,
And obvious he was, not enjoying our show.
The stump of a broom on the walls he did tap,
Then behind the furnishings he waved an old sack.
He poked and he prodded with every odd tool,
But we were as quiet, as kids in God's school.
Closer and closer he came to our shelf,
And I chirped when I saw him, in spite of myself.
A blink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know we had plenty to dread.
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled up his net, in spite of our jerks.
And laying the net, beside our cage door,
We knew that we would be free, never more.
He sprang close the door, gave a sigh of relief,
Inside we then flew, expressing our grief.
But I heard him exclaim, as he turned out the light,
I hope you had fun, now please go Night Night!
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Today is a day off for Chris and I. Early voting opened earlier than planned in Florida. It was supposed to start the 24 but Chris noticed lines at libraries. So we are going today and will be voting fro President Trump. Both Chris and our families have been conservative Christian Republic since we were born. I encourage my fellow Americans that you vote from Trump as supporting the other side is the wrong choice in every way.

Things have been going well for us. My camera had stopped working for a bit but I figured out that it had just over heated. I remembered this problem with another sony camcorder I used to have. You just had to turn it off, take of the batter or charger and let it cool down. I got through a lot more tape transfers yesterday. I'm impressed with how tough and durable these little video 8's where. The housing was solid and because they had shielding on both sides, not just the front of the tape, they seem to last longer than VHS. I've never had a video 8 break but had my share of broken VHS tapes. I'll be glad when this is all over. I think I might have around six tapes left to go. There were around 20 total. I hope no more pop up unexpectedly. That just seems to keep happening when you think you've made progress and you're done.

I got a budgie mug and a budgie wrist pad the other day and I love them both. I haven't taken pics of the mug yet but I will. Here's the new bean shaped budgie wrist pad.

So far only comes in green. Wish there were other colors. I love he's sideways and you can see his cute X feet and one little wing.

I have been wanting a large windchime for ages now. This isn't my dream one. One day if I'm rich I'll have my giant Corinthian bells. But for now this is not bad. The longest tube is 21 inches. I loved that it was blue. Even the hanger is a blue metal. And it's an acceptable shade of blue. It's not that ugly dark blue you see so much. It's not turquoise but I like this anyway. Luckily someone had posted a video so I knew what it sounded like. I love low notes and deep tones. I don't like high pitched clangy chimes. So this one sounds incredible. I'm keeping it in my room because it's too pretty to let it rot out in the elements. They also make this in red, copper and silver. I'm thinking of getting the red. I was so happy to see this discounted on prime day so I had to get it. I'm so glad I did. The budgies weren't afraid either which was great. They got excited actually. Chris is going to help me find what the notes are for each tube. Then we can figure out what key it's in.

The company is called Upblend Outdoors. And they sent me a free little rock that says "Be A Little Boulder". There were four you could get and this is the one I really wanted. I'm so lucky I got it out of a 25% chance. YAY. Second choice was "You Rock!"
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So I've been buying grow lights for my plants. There is one thing in lighting that is very important that unfortunately companies don't focus enough on. The color temperature of lights measured in kelvins. When you look at the box of a bulb you get the watts which is important but you mostly get info on lux and lumens and probably spectrum range in nm. That really tells me nothing if the light is more yellow red or blue white. And saying things like day white or warm white is not good because everyone has a different definition of "white". I personally find light pleasing from 4800 k to 6500 k. Don't like it lower than that. For plants when I used to buy flourecent lights you need red and blue or white. So for red or warm side I went with no lower than 3500k and a cold bulb of 5000 - 6500 k. I like that for room lighting too. But some idiot, probably some S type that like to set dumb rules like "the fork on the right" says that warm colors are for rooms and indoor housing while cold colors are for work areas and hospitals. WTF? I hate damp yellow red light in houses that's depressing and casts no light. I want all my rooms to be cold 5000-6500k. Unfortunately this info is rarely written on bulbs and if it is it's tiny and hidden. Here is a break down of the colors work according to one site.

The Kelvin definition is “the SI base unit of thermodynamic temperature, equal in magnitude to the degree Celsius.” Scientific jargon aside, Kelvin is used in lighting to measure the color temperature of a particular light bulb. And in short, the higher the Kelvin rating (expressed in K), the whiter the light will be.

Light bulb color temperature is represented in the unit of absolute temperature, Kelvin, noted by the symbol K. Household fixtures are commonly found in color temperatures on the Kelvin scale of 2700K (warm incandescent), 3000K (warm white halogen) and 3500K (household fluorescent).

Color temperatures higher than 3500K are typically used for commercial and hospital applications, as the light is bright and has a bluish daylight cast that can be harsh for home interiors; but task lighting may be useful at 4000K and above. When selecting new lighting for your home, be sure to take its color temperature into account to ensure you're making the right choice.

Aside from the type of the light bulb itself, using Kelvin temperature can also help guide you in determining which fixture is right for each room.

Whether you need an ambient source of light or one for highly-focused task lighting, keep in mind the following Kelvin ranges:

Less than 2000K: gives off a dim glow of light, similar to what you might find from candlelight; best for low-light areas where ambient illumination is welcomed

2000K-3000K: gives off a soft white glow, often yellow in appearance; best for living rooms, dining rooms, bedrooms and outdoor spaces

3100K-4500K: gives off a bright amount of white light; best for kitchens, offices, work spaces and vanities where task lighting is needed

4600K-6500K: gives off a bright amount of blue-white light, similar to that of daylight; best for display areas and work environments where very bright illumination is needed

6500K and up: gives off a bright bluish hue of light, often found in commercial locations; best for bright task lighting

I found two amazing photos that explain this all easily. One is of light bulbs and the other is of the sun taking on these colors through the day.

Look how beautiful it is between 5000 to 6000. Which do you guys like?
Here is the sun.

For photography I once again disagree with the S types saying to not photograph in the morning because the sun is too harsh. I love bright sun between 8 am to 10 am. And this would make you think the same time for sun set light is good but I have noticed that sun set at the equivalent time is actually weaker and not as good as morning light. I prefer sunrises over sunsets too. So thought this was interesting and had to share.
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Ha, well in a good way. I'm taking it easy today after having worked a lot yesterday. So Have taken down the wall paper on the two walls of the bathroom that most need it. Bathroom looks ugly again. I have to patch and fix the wall again. Unfortunately I found out spackling can go bad. When I got the box out to add the putty or cement or whatever it is it was full of black funguses or mold. DARN IT! I hate it when a project gets delayed. In the trash went half a box. So I'll have to go with Chris to Lowes to get more. I actually have to go in the store this time because I also need paint and being the artist I guess no one else can pick out the colors I need or the sizes of buckets. I need black for the foundation. That's going to look terrible while it's temporarily up. It's going to be so dark. I hope I can paint in the black. And I will need three shades or tan or brown to make the bamboo. I wish I had an airbrush. I've been wanting an airbrush since I was a teen. Perhaps one day one will just appear in front of me with pump and all. That would be nice.

Anyway so while that is once more on hold I am tackling the tons of family photos my mom had again. I have thrown out so many. If they were people I don't know or that I couldn't stand they went in the garbage. I think I have finally found all the photos. I hope so anyway. Here's what I have it down too.

I've been through all the garage so I don't think there will be anymore surprises. This is not counting all the digital media I found on CD's. That's going to be an archiving event on its own. So from the blue and white boxes up. I've found some photos and have decided that I will separate them into Mom's pics and my pics only because my mom's photos stink and I don't want to contaminate mine. She had perfume everywhere and all her stuff absorbed the smells. Some perfume and scented stuff is ok when it's new but over time, over decades, the chemical composition begins to change and it no longer smells like it did when it was new. In fact it becomes gross to the point you can't tell what the original smell was supposed to be. So moral of the story is DONT USE ANY Scents. Luckily I never did.

So the next step is to put these into clear boxes by decades starting with the 1950's. Yeah, I have nearly 60 years of time to sort out. Count every decade. 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 00, 10. Some stuff is dated. Most of it is not so I will never get it all in order chronologically perfectly. I also don't know a lot of the people nor do I care. My mom took photos of people. I HATED that. To me people are in the way of the landscapes, or interior architectural shots, or blocking statues and monuments. I don't like looking at people. Never have never well especially if I don't know them they mean nothing to me. That's what most of the photos on disk will be. Those will be super annoying for me when I get to them as those start in the 00's.

So once all that is done in the future I then get to go through all the photos again and throw them away. I plan to do a lot of tossing and burning. I'll only keep the best of the best that I love. So I hope to buy more hard drives to keep things back up on and back ups of the back ups. As for the negatives I Have no idea what to do with them. There are tons of those. My poor scanner. I forsee it breaking. I should buy a back up scanner.

This is a set of photo boxes I just got yesterday. The color boxes can supposedly hold 100 4x6 prints. I LOVE this in the cool colors. That's what it's called. There isn't one in warm colors. But there is a rainbow set and a clear set. I may buy the rainbow set. I don't think I'll use those labels but they look pretty. I might use them somewhere else.

And here they are opened. This will be for the second sorting when I keep only the best of the best in here.

But I'm currently waiting on the plastic boxes to dry as they were gross and had to be washed. Even the new ones Chris bought me came with tar for some reason. AND that is why I'm on the computer wasting time ha ha. As the only child and only one left of the family it is my job to be the archivist because no one else will do this. I've always been good at archiving stuff as you guys know that have been following the flamewars that I've kept since the 90s. I actually started keeping a journal in 1984.
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Hope all my American friends here had a good 4th. Despite finding out my dad died that day I had a good one. It was our 24 year 6 month anniversary as well. The house was nicely decorated so we enjoyed that. We listed to some patriotic songs then after the bad news we pretty much stayed home all day. That night we watched the local fireworks. I got a few on video.

https://youtu.be/qVWcRyLr9p4

The next day I was down about my dad. Chris stayed home to be with me. He's so wonderful that way. Chris did a lot of stuff around the house for me in the yard. My fave thing was he took out the stone border of the front garden and made it at an angel so we can expand the garden. I'm thinking of taking it all down and starting completely over. I want that to be a very nice desert garden. I'm growing lots of cactuses from seeds and want to put some of my own plants out there. So I was very impressed by that.

Yesterday the 6th I stayed home. I found this new online store that I really like called The Succulent Source. I have added them to my birthday wish list that's pinned on my journal here. That's definitely a priority if anyone wants to get me a gift card from there. Anyway I ordered a special cactus Trichocereus grandifolours with orange flowers. I love orange, peach or salmon colored flowers. I think they are my faves and then yellows with pink. Since there technically are no blue flowers that's what I like. Blue is a rare color in nature actually. They use FedEx and that's not the best thing. Last time my order was slow. Over a week to get here. This time I've been watching the tracking. It was supposed to arrive yesterday in the evening. Well it didn't even get loaded on the truck. After I refreshed it gave me a big red X. It was in Tampa but then it said something like delayed rescheduled. I wish I had taken a screen cap because I could tell by the wording what happened was they forgot to load my box onto the truck so it just sat at their office all day yesterday. They should prioritize and send that to me first on the route because of that screw up. So I'm again impatiently waiting on it today. This is not a knock at the company. This is FedEx that sucks. It is out for delivery on the truck it says.

I was happy with my last order. They've done well. They also called me to tell me this cactus has a scar and if that's ok with me. That's good customer service. I said yes. So long as it grows and is healthy. I wanted that specific one for the flower color. I don't even know how big this is as the photo was just a close up of the flower. In fact here it is.

I'll also be getting a tiny pup of an aloe castilloniae which is a rare and cool looking aloe. It has an olive green body with clear red thorns. I also love that they have plants at great prices when others sell plants at stupid expensive prices. This is a "rare expensive" aloe that on other stores goes for $75 bucks. That's stupid. I got mine for $7 and their bigger ones aren't that much more expensive. Under 20 I think so it's very reasonable. So I hope this is a big cactus like last time too.

Lastly just want to mention one of the cute things Chris does for me every night. It's little things like this why he's so wonderful. I have acid reflux so before I go to bed I have to take an antacid every night. I also get dyhydrated and need water by the bed in case I wake up dry.

Chris usually goes and gets the bedroom ready before I go in and I love walking to my side of the bed and finding a fresh water bottle and a cute pink pill on top so I can't miss it. He's so sweet and this makes me very happy. Cute pink pill haha.
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Happy August everyone. I have some neat photos to share. Yesterday we got the new entertainment set for the bedroom. I have been wanting this for over a year and after all the birthday money and cards I got I finally ordered this. So here are some progress pics.

Here's the old set up. My PS4, Xbox, bluray player and accessories on two fold out tables. This has worked, but it was messy and small. It was time for a change. Especially after Chris got such a nice Entertainment set in his room.

( More pics )

https://youtu.be/S9aCcdRi350

Here is a video of my trip to Treasure Island. First time officially shelling. I'd love to go shelling once a week but driving that much in Pinellas county would make me a nervous wreck. Florida drivers are bad but Pinellas is one of the worst areas. Probably third after Miami/Dade and Orlando. It does not help my driving phobia at all and any peace I find on the beach is quickly gone after I get home. Anyway, so I'm thinking maybe do a coastal trip twice a month. Seems more reasonable that way. I got a cool app for tides that is very helpful. Here's the app
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=easton.tides
I don't don't use many apps but the one I do get I like to pay for so I won't have any ads. Well let's just talk about apps. One of my all time faves I use a lot now is My Radar Pro.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.acmeaom.android.myradarpro

I bought all the add ons for it except the aviation pack. It's my most "expensive" app at $7. Totally worth it. I love this radar and the maps and it is high definition. I have mine set to globe and love to spin the earth. I can also turn on hurricane tracking, earthquakes, fires and even see photos people have uploaded of weather.
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Hey guys. Things have been going very well. July was a great month. Yesterday I went out to Treasure Island and went shelling on the beach. I found some neat stuff but not too many shells. It was mostly a bivalve (claims, oysters, scallops) beach. I don't find those very interesting. I am most interested in gastropod or marine snails. I found only two. I will make a video because I had a very good time and I went back to the shell store and bought some gastropods that are native here to make up for the lack of ones I could find. I'm hoping Chris and I can take a few days off to got to Sanibel Island which is supposed to be the best place in Florida for shells.

Minion my budgie is doing great. He's not a coward anymore and has become very friendly and bonded towards me. He's a talking budgie now too. I'm thrilled. So funny because I bought him to be a breeder but ended up keeping him in my room. He became a pet and I never expected to have him become a talking budgie either. Two bonuses. I don't know if I'll breed him. His second beard dot has come in and I hope he gets a pretty dot necklace once all four dots are in. Here's what he's learned to say so far

Budgie
I love you
Come 'ere
I can talk can you fly?
Gimme a kiss
baby
MUWA! (kiss sound)
Ahoy there
Beware

Beware is part of a phrase. I was trying to teach him "Beware of the black hole". Phage used to say that, but Minion doesn't get the rest of it. We're also working on "Welcome to Jurassic Park." So far he's learned to say Jurassic but pronounces it badly so still working on that. I'm also teaching him "Fear is here!" I think I've heard him say Fear once but also poorly pronounce. So we shall keep at it.
Unfortunately there's been a role reversal. Nautica has become scared and runs from me. I have no idea why as I have treated both the same, give them treats and attention and out time. I don't know if this first molt is affecting her but she's not so nice right now. I don't get it, but I knew parrotlets are a difficult species.

Today I am waiting on a new entertainment set to come for my room. We've been using folding tables for my game systems and other electronics and there's not much room. This will help things look much nicer, be better organized and I'll have more room to display things like shells or planets.

And here are two videos of my John Hammond things I got this week. I love these.

https://youtu.be/PYNbrTs2qT4

https://youtu.be/9DOdRoGwhR0

I'm so happy with how my Jurassic collection is coming along. Just wish the cane wasn't so stinky. Stinky things have been a problem lately. I will post more on that later. Time to get the day starts.

Oh lastly the subject of this post. Today is a black moon. That's like a blue moon but with new moons. Two new moons in the same month. Can only work if there are 31 days in the month. Too bad I can't get to a beach as new moons and full moons have the highest high tides and lowest low tides. But that's why I went yesterday. Close enough to a new moon.
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I got the budgies in the mail yesterday. They came in a day early. That's always a good thing. Here's the video review.

"Plush Budgies Unboxing and Review" (Watch on YouTube)

https://youtu.be/0eOQhrWBRHY

Only two things bother me a little bit. Bullet is made of a cottony fabric that gets dirty real easily. She's not as soft a Gaus that's made of a soft furry material. Oh I guess I mentioned both things at once. The other is that Bullet will get dirty. But that's the nature of white anything. If she'd been made of the stuff Gaus is she'd be perfect. I'm happy with these and will definitely order more in the future.

I keep forgetting to post this dream I had at the start of the month. It's one of those dreams that made me wake up laughing because I was laughing in my sleep. I lost most of the details but here's the punch line. I was visiting SamanthaFalco at her house and I'd gone to pick up some supplies. Mainly a big bag of flour. I don't know why. I guess we were going to bake something. There was transporter technology in this dream. I was driving to her house and the transporter started and transported the bag of flour. "NO Stop!" I yelled but it was too late. I was driving around 50 mph so when the flour materialized in her house it was still in motion and smashed into a wall and exploded into a huge white cloud. It happened so fast and so loud. Someone could have been killed but I just busted out laughing because it WAS so fast and violent. And that was the whole dream. I was laughing so hard in my sleep I was laughing in real life and it woke me up. I'm sure Chris was confused why I was laughing in the middle of the night in the dark.

My budgie figures should come in the mail later today. I can't wait!
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Today has been a decent and slow day for me. I keep forgetting to mention that I have been drinking caffeine and doing very well. I had a few coffees in the past month and a few colas. I'm afraid to say I'm cured. I don't know if I am. I'm still very cautious when I have it but I'm so thankful and happy that I have not had any pain. I have enjoyed two yummy lattes. Oh how I missed cola and coffee. But I'm going to try to take it easy and drink only in moderation.

Today I set up a cage for my light yellow lacewing female budgie Pistol. I clipped her and have started to try to tame her. She was a hand fed baby but has lived in an aviary and has reverted to wild status. She also has a bad let that set improperly from having had splayed legs. She functions fine. I just hope she can breed one day. Well she's way worse than Melville in the scared department. And without the confidence Bullet had (half sister to Bullet) she bites really hard. But it's nice having budgie chirps in the background again. So I have two scared birds I'm working with. Not so good.

My commission on the budgie plushes is coming along great. Here they are. Gaus yellow. Bullet White.

I love these. Bullet looks spot on! These were filled and mailed today. I can't wait for them to arrive. Oh shipping says a label was made but not yet shipped. Well I hope they come soon. The Bullet one will probably be my new travel buddy until I can get the issue with Fear sorted out.
Unfortunately I have another order that has gone missing sort of. I order a rare record that is like a little radio show of a budgie and a canary talking about bird care. Side A is on youtube but no side B which drove me nuts not knowing the ending. I found the record on Ebay. It's very rare from 1970. The tracking said it should have been here Wednesday. It never came then it said it was delayed and in Jacksonville FL. Finally today the tracking updates and it's in Washington DC. WTF? Why did it leave the state and go back up north? Is it going back to the seller? I never got anything saying I had to sign so I haven't missed it. I was home most of the day Wednesday because I was sick and I was here the last two days too. I wrote the seller about this but haven't heard anything back yet. Such a rare thing I don't want to miss out on this.

But I found another neat find on Ebay. The guy that sold me my Titan seeds is back and I ordered six seeds from him. I hope these will arrive safe and healthy. Last time one died. And those plants are still doing great. The best titans I have ever had. One is making a third spike. I found out that it's normal for them to make several. I'm not used to that since A. paeonifolius only makes two then goes dormant. I've been told they can make up to 7. That's insane!

I really want to try sculpting again. I did a little a few years ago and liked it. I think with the right tools, space and ideas I could be good at it. I tend to have a knack for most forms of art.
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The weather was nice today though a bit cold in the morning with lows in the upper 50s. I think I can say Spring is here now. I've been seeing phlox along the road. The Tabebuia trees are in bloom, even my fallen one. So I think it's save to start putting all the plants back outside. I can't wait to plant my American Beauty and Frankie's red dragon fruit cuttings. And finally all the plants can go back outside. Today I started treating my nepenthes for scale might as I have an infestation of those blasted things. This is what the sprayer that Joker got me is for. I hope I can kill off those little jerks and they'll never come back. Here's the article on how to treat scale on nepnethes.
https://carnivorousplantresource.com/treat-scale-damage-nepenthes/

I got a new hybrid today. I got N. merrilliana x campanulata. Both lowlanders so I hope it will get the size and pink color of merrilliana with the wide mouth of campanulata. It's a baby plant so it doesn't look like much at the moment.

The new parrot is doing ok. I haven't been too happy with how afraid he is. He seems cage bound which is not good. When I put my hand in I have to grab him because he won't step up. He just runs away. And when I have him out of the cage he tries to fly back in. He's done better when I take him into other room. Tonight in Chris's room he showed some progress but I want him to play with his toys more and not run from my hand in the cage. From what I've seen of the videos the breeder hugs and kisses them too much. I don't think anything is wrong with kissing pets but when it's all the time that the bird is in your face and covered they become afraid to be far away and is counter productive. This bird has not learned how to be independent. I want a companion and a friend. Not a clingy needy bird. Hate clingy people and I guess I don't like it in animals either. Nor cowards. I chose a parrotlet because they are supposed to be so brave. I know I haven't given him enough time but I just have a feeling. I don't know, but I'm worried. Also been trying to teach him how to use the water bottle. I ordered a bag of food. Can't wait for it to arrive this Wed.

ACTipton called me today and we talked a lot about birds. I mentioned these old classic budgie toys that used to be around in the 80s. It was a plastic budgie on a spring with clawed feet. I had several as a kid. Here's a pick.

The problem with them was the plastic peg in the spring was too short so they'd fall off once the budgie punched it and could never be fixed. Later on a design came out where it had a ball underneath as a counter weight. But I loved these original ones because they looked the most realistic and I loved how they bobbed when they did work right. I had one as a toy for myself. Don't like the new versions that are out.

While I was looking for this pic I came across something I didn't know existed and now I want it. I'm impressed with how the Japanese love budgies and small pet birds. There are these little capsule figures that are budgie mushrooms.

Who would have thought these two things would combine so well. So budgies and cockatiels that are mushrooms and wearing hats. This is so cute and I'm going to try to track these down. The one thing annoying about Japanese figures is they only have a one year run. I don't know what year these are from but they might not make these anymore. I'm so glad I got my budgie charms and budgie pillows from Japan when I did years ago because there are none left and they're super rare now. Hum, I see these are from 2014. Yes these will be very hard to track down.
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I made a cute video of my Macatoo. I really miss seeing these guys in stores.

"" (Watch on YouTube)

https://youtu.be/w8K-bv3ybnk

I did order the other blue one and hope I can learn to make my own.

I am working on the drawing No Hard Feelings and it's almost done. I have finally finished coloring Thag so the worst is over. It's possible I could finish that tonight.
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New drawing. Just a quick and simple drawing of Fear in time for the end of last month.

I did a very basic shading job, easy background and just didn't go all out on him. Just wanted to get something that looked nice and woudln't take me two days or more to complete.

Now it is June 1st. It's been two straight weeks of rain. At least now it's summer and the official start of Hurricane season, but the weather got a head start on the rain. Well with this project out of the way perhaps I'll get back to working on the driver side door again. That's so close to being finished. Darn it, I see I forgot to make his right wing messy. I draw his wings pristine so I have to remember to mess both up. It's something I have a hard time with haha.

Chris got a new bluray player the other day. We picked one up and didn't notice it was a used one. It had no remote, so we went back and exchanged it and finally got a new one. It looks very nice. It's an LJ and I like that it's basic. The reason it looks so good and was cheap is because it's just a player. It doesn't have netflix, youtube or any of that unnecessary stuff. It's annoying all electronics seem to come with these things whether you want them or not. TV's already do this so no need for more stuff when that and your tablets and other things do it too. A player should play disks only, so yeah we like this. Maybe I'll get one for myself since I've never liked the Sony one I have. I also ordered a bunch of colored HDMI cables. Can't wait to get those in. They'll come in different colors so we'll know what goes to what system.
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Well I had a very successful day. I managed to film the International Space Station. The day got cloudy in the afternoon but I went out anyway. I was very worried but when I pulled out my camera the clouds vanished and the day was beautiful Here is the video I managed to get.

And that's about it really. I've just been preparing all day for this and haven't done much of anything else. I did get quite the rush knowing I had captured this. I had that church parking lot all to myself. Too bad no one else knew about it though.
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I woke up happy again today for my second Fear dream. This one was not as good as the last one but still good. I dreamt I was back at work at the science museum. There was a band there and we were trying to get people to sign a petition to reinstate Pluto as a Planet with this fund raiser concert. I came on the stage while they were singing the song Wild Child and I was Fear. I grabbed one of the mics and started singing. The band was surprised but since I did it so well they soon liked it. The lead singer and I were trading lines back and forth. I remember thinking to myself that I couldn't believe I hadn't been kicked off the stage. Also that I knew the lyrics. I was figuring them out based on what rhymed. I just remember the thrill of being in front of a crowd and being part of a whole making awesome music. It was great. Here's the song for those of you that want to hear it. It's a metal band with an 80s fee. Wild Lixx.

https://youtu.be/nvVzulZNRLU

Speaking of songs I had something hilarious and mind blowing happen to me today. Chris and I went to eat at First Watch. We were talking about Australia for some reason and I told him about a video I watched that they have this jelly spread that goes on bread called Vegemite. They say if you're not an Australian you'll hate it. Not for foreigners. I had found a video of this couple that tried it and the husband nearly lost it. It was so funny. Chris didn't know it was a real thing. He said he thought it was something made up in the song Land Down Under where they mention "A vegemite sandwich." Ok it was at this point I had my mind blown. WHAT? I have known that song forever. It came out in 1981. I thought he was saying, "I betcha' my sandwich" Here are the real lyrics

"I said do you speaka my language
And he just smiled
And gave me a vegemite sandwich"

My version

"I said do you speaka my language
And he just smiled
And said I betcha' my sandwich"

Which makes total sense. For 36 years that's what I was sure it was. So at breakfast I could not stop laughing about this. It's almost as shocking to me as pluto getting demoted. I must have laughed for 10 minutes straight over this. Chris was so amused. I was so tired though after that laughing fit. Rarely do I laugh that much but I bet there are a bunch of lyrics in this song that I don't know as half of it I never did understand but never questioned it. It's a great song. Here's that song.

https://youtu.be/8jHXu86O01w

I finally got my Pluto globe today but man did I have a scare. The tracking said it was on my door step but there was nothing there. I was worried it had been stolen. I called UPS and told them about it and they told me they'd get back to me. A while later there's a knock at our door and the UPS guy had our package. He said he accidentally had left it at the wrong house. I was so thankful. I'm just glad it wasn't lost forever because these things are expensive. I opened it up and it is a lovely little thing. It had to charge up in the room but now is spinning nicely on my dresser. It came with a scratch but I'm not going to send it back as it's not too bad. It took long enough to get here. I will try to do a nice video review on it soon.

I haven't done any art today. Just been doing other stuff. Don't know if I will tomorrow either. I'm getting ready to go out and try to film the International Space Station. Please pray that there are no clouds and it's perfect weather. I hope this works out. This is going to be way harder than filming the eclipse. It will be over in about a second literally. It's a solar transit so that makes it hard having to have solar paper as a filter again.

I keep forgetting to mention that I'm very proud of our president. And because of his actions things are getting better for us. Our bank gave us a refund check. We also got our mortgage lowered. We make more money now because we pay fewer taxes from the tax cut. We also got a refund from another bank out of nowhere. Thank you bank. I don't care why but that's always a welcome gift. And with all this space stuff I think patriotism is very high right now. At the monster truck show it was great to hear the national anthem at the start though I missed seeing it as I got there late because of traffic. The lady had an awesome operatic voice.

So I don't know when I'll get a chance to work on art. If not tomorrow then perhaps Friday.
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Well I know you guys thought the Pluto globe was neat. I really can't wait for mine to arrive. I figured I'd share a video that shows all the planets in this series. They're so beautiful.

So today I want to talk about Alligators. Not the animals themselves but the word and it's fascinating origin. It is a Spanish word or more accurately derived from a Spanish word. When the Spaniards conquered Florida in the 1500's they came across our giant reptiles. They were everywhere in our water ways. They called them "Lagartos". "El Lagarto" is the Alligator. Well English settlers that talked to them mis-heard the word as Ellatago. And being the way we Americans are we made the word our own and improved upon it. It quickly evolved into Alligator. The American Alligator is a monotypic genus. Alligator mississippiensis is the scientific name and there are no others in the genus Alligator. Crocodiles have several species in their genus and have very differently constructed skulls than the very wide American Alligator skull. They tend to be more aggressive too than the more relatively docile Alligator. Seen from the sides Alligators have teeth that point all down while crocs have teeth that point both up and down giving them a more fierce aggressive look.

So there's a little history on where the word Alligator came from.
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Hey guys. So things have been going fairly well. A few days ago I did a trip to Orlando to check out a kayak store. I had a very nice time and love all the kayak and camping gear they have at this place. I went specifically to look for a backpack. I've been wanting a small travel day pack. I love my big Farpoint 40 by Osprey. They do make awesome stuff and I got the Daylite Plus in Eggplant purple there. This will work for our trips and curises to stuff it in the big back then use it when we go on shore excursions to carry small stuff like cameras, snacks or anything else we might need. So even though I had a great time the drive there was very rough on me. I needed the following day to recover from driving stress. Orlando is one of the worst cities if not the worst city in Florida to drive in. I also drove on I4 for the first time which I had been warned about avoiding at all costs if possible. Well this time it was unavoidable. Unlike when I met Peregrine this place was much further north and no way to get there but to go on the interstate. My right arm and shoulder still has not recovered from the time I hurt it back in Dec watering plants and all this has caused my fibro to go off very badly. So the last few days I've either been in a lot of pain or not had any strength or energy to move. It's sucked because my mind wants to go out still and do more fun things but my body just can't. The arm thing has gone on too long and probably I'll have to have it looked at which I'm not happy about. But I have not slept well over a month now because of it.

Other than that things are going well. I game once in a while. I got the first badge on my main account for Weekend hero on Sky Force Reloaded. We've got another cold front coming through again. This won't be good for my physical conditions either. I can't wait for Spring. I hope I can put the plants back out soon. Oh speaking of plants. I got my plants from CZ plants. Two of them and they came in terrible shape. One I think is dead because the growth tip is black. I don't think there's hope for it. It also had no roots. So despite the leaves still having some green it looks bad. The other plant is sick looking but once it makes a new leaf I may be able to save that one at least. Here's hoping. Shame about the other one as it was a rare N. campanulata. But it was an over seas order and I knew there was a risk of this.

So yeah I am gearing up for a trip but I have no set plans for this year. I don't know if I'll even travel this year. I'd like to but I need to save money so I don't know. Perhaps a short cheap trip. But we do have the monster truck show coming up soon for our anniversary. I am very much looking forward to that.
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Ok so I have been having a very nice time. I've been wanting to talk about last Sunday but I have either been busy or cold. When I'm cold I don't want to do anything. Sunday was a great day and when I think about what I will write for the end of this year as far as first time doing something I've already done two things I have never ever done before. First was pulled a small trailer. Not a big deal lots of people pull stuff behind their cars but it's my first time and I made mistakes but also feel I did very well for my first time as far as backing up goes. Chris and I got rid of a good amount of yard debris, leaves and branches doing this and I look forward to more. Our friend Mike like us borrow his and then he invited us over to his house later that day. He has a lot of land and one of the cool things was that he owns a cow and a bull. I got to feed and pet the bull. It was something I never thought I'd do as I know to keep my distance from bulls but he told me it was nice and they'd raised him from a baby. So I fed him some dried berries in a bucket and touched him. That was pretty cool I must say. After that we shot targets with his son and a neighbor friend that came over. We had some nice conversations and they all liked my jeep. They encouraged me to keep going with the Fear theme or something I had not even considered. Do both JP and Fear. Why didn't I think of that. Though I'm unsure how I would do that as Fear is a blue theme and Jurassic Park is a red theme and adding red to the Jeep would not look right. But I now have a third option.

Chris and I have been playing Sky Force Reloaded on PS4 and having a blast with that. It's a air plane shooter game and I like that it's like an old style game where I can join in on controller two in the same room on the same tv. None of this multiplayer BS where you need your own console and TV. Because of that we've been having a lot of fun with it. I may likely buy this game for my own ps4 eventually.

Then on Wednesday we went out to this orchid nursery. It was really nice and something different to do. I enjoyed talking to the owner. I'd love to have a huge greenhouse like that. But it was the day before the frost so he was getting his plants inside too and covering the ones that can't come in. After that we checked out a new hydroponics store. It was ok. It didn't have the right supplies I needed but neat to see. We ate at Longhorn which we haven't done in a while. I had the Big Sky Burger and oh my gosh that was divine. I have not had a burger that delicious in forever. It was amazing and I rarely ever get that excited about food. I'll have to get another one sometime. The parmesan fries were awesome too.

Chris filled the birdbath last night because we were going to drop to 26 for our low. This morning it was frozen but the neat thing is because there is an island in it when it melts a bit you can pull out this huge ice donut. I took some pics. It was so funny. I will have to post those eventually.
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So I have been very busy mostly with gaming. I'm thrilled that last night I technically beat the game finally. Dragon's Dogma is weird because when you beat the main boss the dragon Grigori the game is not over. You go into post game which your world turned into a hellish place with new much more difficult enemies. You beat that then the game is over and you can start over in new game plus. So now I'm in post game and I won't be spending too much time in it. I may speed the game along so I can start new game plus and get the cinemas I missed the first time around. The reason I missed them was because I didn't have the right gear and outfits for the look in some of them. I want Fear to be in his proper outfit with his right weapon and same for George. Though George comes out pretty much wearing his final outfit anyway. Though I saved the ones from the old playstation my new pro records in much higher quality so I want to do the early stuff over and do it right. I also can't take nice screen caps now because I like doing those on perfectly sunny days with lovely blue skies. Not happening in the constantly ash raining weather of post game where you can't even tell if it's day or night. It's like a volcano erupted. Another thing is you can't gift the weapons and armor from the everfall you find in post game so I have no reason to farm chests since I can't give them away like you used to. One of the few things I really hate about this game. There are very few weapons I want for myself so I won't be doing this much longer and am looking forward to restarting and finally editing a video so you guys can see what this has been about.

The TV we had been looking into went down in price finally. Chris and I went to Best Buy after work last night and picked it up. It was very exciting and I enjoyed looking at all the awesome tech in the store while they went to get the TV and the stand for us out of the back. But we ran into a problem we hadn't foreseen. We thought we could just lay the box down in the bed of the truck. But the guy told us no. That would damage the screen and that TV's are stored upright. We had no way to tie it down and it would not fit in the cab. So the only option was for me to ride in the back with it and hold it up. I told Chris this would be fine. I could do it and it would be easier than the time I did it when we took all the birds to the sitter. So Chris took the slowest roads home. I actually enjoyed riding in the back. The winds were rough on some parts of the ride but I got to see a beautiful sunset, see birds flying home to roost and hear some very lovely bird sounds on the way home. I was very happy and glad I lead a very interesting life. What fun. But when we got home it was too late to do anything and I still wanted to play and use my old TV. If we had worked to install it last night we'd be up all night and dead today. So I told Chris we could hold off til today. So later today we will take down the furniture and the old TV and see about putting the new one up. I hope there won't be any trouble with the mount and all will fit well. We got a Vizio M55-E0. It looked amazing in the store. I also ordered a Google Home Mini to go with this. It should arrive tomorrow. I can't wait for that. I got the exclusive coral color. I didn't care for the grey or the charcoal. Those were boring to me. I wish they had turquoise but this was better than the alternatives. It kind of makes me think of pumpkins. Who knows, perhaps they'll provide skins for it later like they did with the larger google home.

Tonight will be cold and I need to bring in some of my plants. Luckily not all of them but some will have to come in. I got an email that some of my preorder plants have shipped so that will be great to get new nepenthes as well. It's a shame so many new plants are being stocked by vendors now but it's in winter basically so for me they can't do much growing for the next few months and there's way less light now.
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I just finished. This took me two days which is normal for an "easy" drawing in full color. I'm quite happy with this and like the wingless version much better.

So Scary Fear is now very close to Mt. Roraima in South America Venezuela. He's looking forward to exploring the summit and the strange plants and animals that live up there. This is the mountain that the original Lost World is based on where they go up and find the dinosaurs and bring back the sauropod to London. Now as I have mentioned Fear can dismiss his wings but it's something he would rarely ever do but this pose is so nice for him. I would love to go to this mountain one day so his happiness here is my desire to be there.

And here is the winged version. The wings look ok but yeah it just covers him. And they turned out more like budgie wings which I'm not too happy about but making them even bulkier as raven wings would cover him even more. So yeah I just don't think this one is as good.

I got some new plants shipped to me recently. All nepenthes. N. raffelesiana squat, N. eustachya, N. raffelesiana x sibuyanensis. I was going to put in a large order for a few more since all the stores just got some amazing shipments in. And I have discovered some new stores with great quality and prices. BUT it was time to renew the website so I ended up paying for 3 years of hosting and on top 1 year for the domains. It was expensive. More than I had planned for my budget. So I can't buy anything and of course this is when I want stuff that's kind of high end. I hate renewing the website each year. The first time I got it I paid for three years which was nice to not have to worry about payments for such a long time. I need to rebuild the whole thing anyway and I'm moving from my .org to the .com. I'm not even sure how I want to lay out the site or what it will be about other than my art and stories.

I had been looking into buying some nice new headphones too. That's definitely on hold now since that's expensive too. But here's what I have it narrowed down to.

Sony SB950BT in blue
https://youtu.be/927pyLrHmc8

Now I tried these out in Best Buy and like how they feel. They are comfortable and they sound pretty good. See I liked the cheap white ones I took on my trip but felt they could have done better. The sound wasn't as loud as it should have been on a plane and these have noise canceling which will help if I ever do more plane travel. Though the sound problem was more with my tablet I think since I watched movies on the plant's monitor and it was better. Still those are $15 headphones but still good. My next choice is

Sony h.ear on MDR100ABN in Viridian Blue.
https://youtu.be/lNtjt5H1HB0

I LOVE the color of these. These have great reviews. BUT the only thing these weren't in the stores. Headphones are something you have to try yourself. Chris showed me the high end ones he likes and they were heavy and too big for me. These are more expensive and I'd love to get them but am afraid that if I order them sight unseen that when I try them on they will be heavy or will not be comfortable for my little ears. I wish I could try these in person somewhere first. Otherwise I may go with the 950BT's.

Well after the website fiasco I can't do anything so there we are.
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I got my stuff in the mail yesterday for the eclipse. I'm very excited and Chris is excited too. This is great. Check out the haul video I made.

I slept well last night. First night since I got home where my back didn't hurt. I even dreamt about death. Hehe that would be a bad dream for most people but this was about my character Death the Ancient. But he was in black instead of his typical red. My mind made him skinnier than normal and his face was solid black. No stars. But this dream became more of a comedy because he was explaining why he had become so serious and reserved. The dream showed him in the past going to a live theater to watch an orchestra. He was off duty and went to listen to the music. It was power classical and he really got into to the point he was cheering and swinging his arms around. He got careless and he hit the person next to him with his left hand and then with his right the person on the other side. Of course as soon as he touched them they died and collapsed to the ground. Everyone started freaking out and he was angry with himself because both of these guys were taken before their time and Death prides himself on keeping a schedule. Of course he's death so he can't reverse this. It's rather permanent. That's where the dream ended and I don't know if making a story based on this would be interesting or what. I wondered if Life had shown up if he could have brought them back or what. Death would have stepped back at that point so none of his powers would get in the way. Good thing he didn't bring his scythe to the concert. Anyway that's pretty funny to me so I woke up happy and refreshed. Well almost. I still want to have an awesome dream where I am scary Fear with my lovely wings. Why has this not happened yet?

Erik is supposed to come today and help with the yard. That will be good and I hope we can get this place straighened out. It needs a lot of work. The yard ladies came yesterday and hauled away a bunch of debris so that was good. And yesterday I sort of started on the new drawing. I scanned it and added the first layer but that's all. when I saw all the bones on Thag I have to ink I stopped. So we'll seen when I actually start. I'm doing him in layers so first will be his wings then him, then Fear then Thag's hand over Fear. It's going to be a ton of work. I know it. Thag never is easy.
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The Realm

Musings of a demon

Night Before Christmas .... Budgie Version

Nice Stuff

Light Kelvin Color

So here I Am Wasting Time Again

Post 4th of July

New Entertainment set

Black Moon

Budgie Plushes

Budgie commissions in the works

New bird and budgie toys

My Macatoo

Scary Boy Art

Space Station Captured

Another Dream of Fear

More globes

New bag

Great few days

Good Stuff

Terror in the Lost World

Getting Ready

About the Demon

Links

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