ID please

Saw and heard this circling overhead today. I can't really get a lock on its wingspan because I've never been good at estimating that sort of thing. I would guess somewhere around 4 feet, but who knows. Anyway, my best guesses (with help from Sibley) are a couple of different hawks and some sort of kite. None of the pictures are in focus because the thing wouldn't hold still! These shots are with the 300mm telephoto on, and VR turned on.

It wasn't just circling like riding thermals, it was wheeling and diving all over the place. It was pretty cool, only because I know my kitty is too fat to be scooped away by a raptor.

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Ye gads

I heard a Tiffany song on the radio. Do you know she is horrible
singer? I guess I liked her well anough In the 80s, but I couldn't
hear the horribleness until now. Click for full post and comments

Missed Opportunity

Always one for a good "that's what she said" joke, I totally blew it (twss!) this morning. I needed an actual tool to get a bottle open today, and the random pliers and whatnot around the lab weren't cutting it. Luckily a facilities guy with his tools was just down the hall. Grabbed a scrapey type thing that had a bottle opener on the side, and got the thing open on a snap. Handed it back to him saying "yay the perfect tool!" and he said "I love it when a women tells me that." I was disappointed in myself that my mind wasn't even on that track when I said it, and then even more disappointed when it dawned on me this opportunity I just didn't even see. Yeah, we pay a lot of attention to that sexual harassment stuff at work. Click for full post and comments

I don't like bugs

A giant cockroach was scritching around my office just now. I stayed
here only to get a chance to squish it. Missed the first time with my
foot, second try was with frapp bottle. Roaches are a fact of life in
my building, and actually there aren't very many of them. Now there's
one less. Click for full post and comments

WB demands I be all logical and whatnot

With respect to the flowering cactus post below, writer's block noted
I did not supply a photo. This is the best I can do from work.

Sent from my iPhone

[Update:] well jeez. I guess when the choice that says "email link of this picture" comes up, I should just ignore it, because that sure didn't work.





There. That's better.

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The circle of life

On the discus front, I think I have two (out of eight) dead discus. One I saw had worms because he had white stringy poop. I didn't actaully see worms, but the white poop thing is a symptom. So I got medicine: PraziPro by Aquarium Solutions. It's supposed to be very safe for the plants and fish, and very effective at killing the nasties. The active ingredient is praziquantel, and their directions will give a concetration of 2.5mg/L (2.5ppm). I have four very healthy looking discus, and then two small and shy and sickly looking ones too, so my eye is on the two smaller ones.

Further along the circle of life is the superworm I put in the gecko cage a long time ago. That guy doesn't eat very many superworms (I think he likes crickies better) so the worm just crawled about in the cage. Well now there's a freaking beetle in there! It's like a two week process to go from larva (the superworm the lizards eat) to pupa (I didn't see that stage) to now a dark colored beetle. Maybe the gecko will be interested in that!

sorry for being boring but I have a surprise on the way! Click for full post and comments

Flowers some more

I've had a small cactus for a couple years; it's been an indoor plant for most of that time. I set it outside at the beginning of the warm weather many months ago. I just noticed it's got a flower! And not the paper one it comes with from the store either! Apparently Maryland's monsoon weather is good for cacti. Click for full post and comments

Termites!

I has them. Click for full post and comments

ATT is possibly evil

Got an iPhone this weekend (verdict: awesome) and the guy offered to sync my contacts from my old phone onto the new one. I'm guessing he would do this by taking the old SIM card and putting it either into his computer or just put it into the iPhone. If it's the first way, what's stopping ATT from stealing those phone numbers?

Sent from my iPhone

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The Ice(cream) Man cometh

I've lived in this house for close to two years, and today was the first time some one actually stopped the ice cream man for some frozen treaty goodness. He drives down the street at a high rate of speed, usually too fast for you to dig out money and run out the door. But today people were on the street and were able to flag him down. First time of everything, I guess. Click for full post and comments

Discus goodness

A couple of weeks ago I go 4 more discus to add to the 4 I had gotten a few weeks before that. So here are a few pictures of the new comers. Two are of this style:

and one more of the type of the other one here:

and then one more turquoise to make friends with the other turquoise.

I has a friend

so that brings the count up to:

1  blue/red snakeskin

2 white/yellow snakeskin

3 marlboro reds (some are more red than others)

2 turquoise

The beaut of the tank is the blue snakeskin, by far. He's bigger than the rest, and his color is really clean (not like the light colored snakeskins with their brown spots). Also, I think he might be pairing off with one of the other snakeskins, even though I thought they had to be of the same color morph. Anyway, the two light colored snakeskins are not happy with each other if Big Blue is around. I thought Discus were supposed to be all timid and quiet and stuff.

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I don't like children

because they ruin your stuff. You can't have anything nice when you have kids. Apparently you can't even have something cheap and made out of plastic without them breaking it. I had a BBQ on Independence Day, and some of our friends have kids. I set up a golf tee-up thingy in the yard. So aside from the fact it rained all that day, the kids still made an opportunity to play on the golf tee-up thingy. It has a ramp that the balls roll down, until they come to an arm on a counterweight to deliver the ball onto the tee. Apparently the kids just pounded on the arm until the weight snapped off, because I set it up today to find the arm in two pieces. poop. Click for full post and comments

ZOMFG!!11!!one!

You will never believe what happened today. I decided to take the little guy (lizard) out on the lawn to get some sun and eat some clover. He decided he likes grass and clover just fine, thank you. Anyway, I'm crouching over him and look up. guess what I saw. Fatboy 5 feet away from me eyeing the little morsel I was playing with!!!! So I brought in the little guy (I shall call him Big Red) and scooped up Fatboy, put the two in the tank (warily, I wasn't sure what would happen). Fatboy was down in the sand and didn't seem to see Big Red up on the log, fed Fatboy a couple worms. He ate no more voraciously than usual, but I think he looks a little dehydrated. 

So I've got Big Red in a little tiny tank thing and Fatboy gets his old bachelor pad. I didn't take him long to settle in:

Oh yeah, I've decided that a lizard 16.5 inches long will most definitely eat a lizard 6 inches long. Before I separated the two, Fatboy saw the little one and went after him, but I was right there, expecting it to happen. The two lizards cannot be within eyesight of each other, because they will spend all their time and energy crawling on the glass wall trying to get to the other one.

For size comparison, the picture of Big Red in his previous post was of him lounging on the left arm of this log. Up on the top flat part of it, with is tail drooped down.

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Summertime VII

The last entry of this series. Some flutterby's I was chasing at the National Arboretum August 2006. I guess they try to have something blooming or being pretty year-round, and in August it was pretty much just the herb garden, where these pictures were taken, and the Oriental House or whatever it's called (it's got lots of bonsai's, a nice big pond with koi, and some inside displays I didn't see.

These were all taken on my point and shoot S6. I was on my tippy toes most of the time, and almost fell into the flowers.

Oh yeah: as with most of the points of interest in DC, the National Arboretum is in a not-the-best part of town. Actually, it's not bad, but you'd think they would try and clean up the place a bit.

Update: added upon request:

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Fatboy's replacement

As I stated in the comments of the disappearance of Fatboy post, he ran away just over a week ago, and the neighbors saw the two hawks that live around here down on the ground chasing after something. I'm guessing it was Fatboy, and it pisses my off that he'd be so close (next yard over) and in an area I looked in multiple times. 

Anyway, had an empty (and freshly cleaned and setup) cage, so I went back to the pet store. I got a different color variant. This one is more of a red color, and he's just so cute! And tiny! He's only 6 inches long (Fatboy was 16.5) which sounds kinda big, 

but 3 of those inches is tail.

I'm starting this guys off on the right (?) track: I fed him a whole worm today (still have a bunch left over) and I had to cut it in half while the little guy was chomping. He managed to get both halves down. Good for him! On his way to being Fatboy2!

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Wherein I become a shill for Zappos

I ordered a pair of shoes from Zappos. I already knew they were awesome, that's why I was giving them business a second time. But I didn't know they were this awesome:

Submitted order Wednesday evening. Checked my email Thursday afternoon, and got three emails in a row from them: 1) confirming order; 2) shipping notification (good news!) 3) tracking number. 2) was a notice saying they could ship a faster way than I had planned (I did standard for $7). Well, turns out faster meant freaking 12 hour delivery; when I plugged in the tracking number it showed as already delivered! It came from Kentucky Thursday morning (4am) and ended up on my doorstep Thursday afternoon! for $7! Thanks Zappos! Click for full post and comments

You probably shouldn't trust me to babysit your kids

Fatboy the bearded dragon ran away. He was in a homemade cage on the lawn, and he pushed himself under and escaped. I had taken some pictures while he was out there. So here's one.

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Animal update (so I can use up some pictures)

Fat Boy, the bearded dragon, is a giant freak of nature. I measured him a couple days ago, and he's about 16.5 inches long. His rate of growth has definitely slowed, thank god, but he is a lot bigger than even the pictures from just a few weeks ago.

His tail has grown very muscular, so that when I pick him up he swing it wildly, maybe for balance, I don't know. But he can wrap it around things as I pull him out of the cage, making it awkward when he chooses to latch onto the heat lamp. Idiot. 

Also, I got 4 additional discus today, so now it's up to 8 in the 125 gallon tank. The original 4 have grown some, but one started out bigger than the others and has become quite stunning. Another has sort of hidden the whole time, and I'm not sure how much he actually eats, thus is a little smaller than the rest. So of the 4 new ones, two are about the size of the bigger original one, and the other two are about the size of the rest. So hopefully everyone will get along. One important thing I've noticed: I have a bunch of flying foxes in there (for algae) and they have totally left the discus alone. I pulled some of them out today and put them in another tank because they fight amongst themselves constantly. 

I am currently feeding the discus not enough, probably, but I'm not home during the day. So they get two meals a day, which consist of a brick of frozen bloodworms (by Hikari) and then some frozen 50/50 blend of bloodworms and brine and mysis shrimp (by H2O Life). They have not yet learned to grab floating food off the surface, although they notice it's there at least. 

I've been thinking of another type of plant to add to this aquarium, because all the plants now are green. And boring. I want a plant with color in there. Problem is, the tanks at 84F, so a lot of plants will not survive. I'll do some research.

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Random PSA just so I can use up some pictures

This is not following safe laboratory practices. Seriously. I mean, you could get some Coke in your sample. And I think we all know your day's pretty much ruined if that happens. Click for full post and comments

How I got a burn on my arm and had to set the oven to clean

The other day I was putting a frozen pizza in the oven, my arm hit the inside of the 450F door. I yelled and flinched, dropping the pizza. The pizza ends up sticking straight up in the crack between door and oven. Toppings everywhere. Remember, the oven's hot, so those toppings start sizzling right away. I gave up on pizza for dinner and started something else to eat, as the oven now is out of commission. Hubby ended up nuking the pizza Stromboli style and ate that. Apparently the oven hadn't been cleaned in a while, because those fumes were noxious! All the windows were open and my eyes were still watering! House stank for two days afterward. All because I couldn't handle a little burning sensation. Click for full post and comments

Summertime VI: Lightning bug roundup

Here's a compendium of my attempts at photographing the lightning bugs in my back yard.

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A Lesson in Depth of Field

This a purely amateur post on the subject.

Depth of field means how much of the picture (foreground through background) is on focus. (what does "in focus mean"? It when the rays of light from an object converge on one point, the "focal point".) This is determined by the aperture setting on the lens. It doesn't make sense (at first), but looking though a big hole (large aperture, small f number on the lens) means a short depth of field. Only things within an inch or so (in the case of my lens) of the focal point will be in focus. Looking through a small hole (small aperture, big f number on the lens) means a long depth of field. Things many feet away from the focal point will be in focus. This is because there is an inverse relationship between the size of the aperture (D for diameter) and focal length (f). The f number is written as f/D.

The following two pictures are taken with the same settings except f stop. The first picture was at f/5.6. Only a few raindrops are really in focus, everything else is slightly out of focus. More importantly, look at the background between the two pictures.

This one was at f/18. Notice how the whole flower is in focus, and the change in the background.

The cartoon below is showing the pathway of light (pink) from an object outside somewhere to the film (or sensor in a digital camera). The aperture is allowing certain amounts of light through, but in this simplistic explaination also bending the light by certain amounts. The larger aperture (small f number) bends the light a lot to get the object in focus on the film (a known focal length and doesn't change). Because it bends the light so much (the sharp X shape it makes at the point where the film is) just a small change in your position when taking the picture will bring the object in and out of focus.
But when the aperture is small (large f number) the light is only bent a little (shallow X shape at the point where the film is). Now the range of focal lengths is big, so you can move around a lot and your object is still in focus. Also meaning things in front of and behind your main object will be in focus.

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Your day could have been worse

This happened while we were at our regular Thursday function at the local bar. Thing is, I had been saying all week how I wanted to sit outside this time. Good thing (for me, anyway) all the tables were filled up. Thankfully, no one was hurt. The area isn't really that big, only maybe 5 or 6 tables fit there, and the car would have hit maybe one table. I heard the bang of stuff getting knocked over, but people must have been able to react in time to get out of the way. The guy driving was taken away in handcuffs.

If it had been a woman driving, I would have labeled this under blonde moments.

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Summertime V

Had a rain storm earlier today, so I hunted raindrops while I was cleaning up the aftermath of a strong gust of wind.  Click for full post and comments

Discus are here!

Finally!

I swear he's smiling. I got them a few days ago, they are 2.5-3 inches big. They are just starting to not be totally afraid of me, and they love frozen blood worms. I have not yet tried to get them to notice floating food, so I make the frozen cubes sink with lead weights (I know, I'm bad). I want to eventually get some flake food into their diet, but so far it's just some fast sinking pellets, slow-sinking Tetra color bits, and frozen blood worms of two varieties (one plain and the other with brine shrimp and other creatures). I have a boat load of flying foxes in the tank, and so far they don't seem to bother the discus too much. They are a little wild, and I will move some or most or all out if I have to.

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My Holiday Weekend

Friday we threw a pretty good BBQ. Here's the spread, before the meats and sides and everything everyone else brought. We ended up coming out ahead in the beer department. I obviously didn't carry my weight!

And it was my birthday, along with our country's, so I made a flag shortcake. (SaraLee did the actualy cake part)

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Summertime IV

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A visit to Philly (or, hippie hunting season is ON, baby!)

I spent a few hours in Philadelphia today, the day after Independence Day. I was expecting huge crowds but it was pretty low key. Perhaps the fact it was approximately 1E6% humidity. There was a long line for Liberty Bell, so I didn't go see that, and I didn't do any tours. Just strolled, took a couple pictures, took it easy. Until I noticed a rally. Then I was obsessed with hunting hippies. Good thing I brought the telephoto. 

That's the whole rally. Count them. Use your toes, if you must.

You could hear the instigator a long way off, his speaker was really loud. My first picture of Independence Hall (above) had a conspicuous layer pink, American flags, peace symbols, and signs. I went to investigate more closely. 

Alas, the American flags were not Patriot Guard Riders, or some such anti-antiwar protester. They were the ones with the peace symbol in the blue field. I didn't catch a picture because they started lining up for their "parade" just as I came up. The front of this guy's shirt says "arrest Bush."

Through this series you'll see the same people over again, because there was only like 20 people there. Seriously. 30 tops.

Here they are starting their lineup. The yellow signs are preprinted by AnswerCoalition.org. Isn't that funded by Soros and the Communist party? Note the bell (the greenish object on the very right edge). This will come into play in a minute.

The orange shirt is not a World Can't Wait shirt, just a local sports club.

The old men are all wearing (or maybe I'm remembering the same man over and over again) Vets for Peace shirts. The Arrest Bush guy haz bukkit. This comes into play in a minute also.

The lady in the center's sign says "Abolish Nuclear Weapons" so we're dealing with basic peace-loving hippies here, not the crazed, militant sort you find in CA or Seattle.

Code Pink made an appearance. With two (2) people. Srsly. Two. Awesome.
So then they marched off, chanting (just the instigator on the mic) and banging bukkits. 

Here they are coming around Independence Hall from behind. So they have come from the front, up one side, around the back, and now down the other side toward their starting point.

Be vewy, vewy quiet. I'm huntin' hippies!

Note the horse and the two people calming it. Remember what I said about bukkits (and the banging thereof)? and the bell? Oh yeah, and the guy on the loud mic? Get a load of the that punk ass bitch in the left center looking STRAIGHT at horsie while he's banging bukkit. 

Yeah, the older carriage driver up ahead was yelling at them to stop the nonsense around the horsies. They finally did, sadly no hippies got trampled. So that meant there was a moment of blessed silence. Desperate to be chanting something, anything, up goes a cry of "animal liberation!" (srsly, not making it up. I laughed out loud. Those horsies are treated better than most people treat themselves). They passed by, I got bored, and look some flower pictures.

Met up with them a THIRD time at their final formation place just further down from Independence Hall, so now they are right across from Liberty Bell, closer to the visitor center.

This guys shirt says "peace please" in english and, presumably, arabic.
This is just towards the end of the "rally". The main instigator has been talking at this point (in this spot alone) for upwards of 30minutes. Notice everyone sitting and looking bored. That's the sign of successful protesting! yee haw!

So all-in-all, not impressed with their turnout, but I was impressed by the fact that every peace symbol I saw was correct, not a Mercedes advertisement. Did I mention my camera strap is rainbow? They prolly thought I was fer 'em! Yay war! Yay Haliburton!

Now a palette-cleanser. Two nice flower pictures. Yay hippie-dippie flowery fluff.

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