beststephi and I went to the zoo today. In some ways, its really nice to go there and take pictures of a bunch of animals that I don’t otherwise see on a regular basis. But in a lot of other ways, being at the zoo just makes me really really sad. The animals that get to hang out outside are fine(comparatively), I think. In fact, the gorillas seemed to very much be enjoying themselves. Most of the animals (lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes) seem pretty bored just laying around and doing not much but eating all day. And then there are the special needs animals. Animals that need a certain darkened or temperate environment that doesn’t actually occur in Pittsburgh. They keep them in little glass cages in a building. In particular, I feel bad for the Komodo Dragon, which is like one of the most fierce hunting animals on the planet, and it sits there and barely even moves. Then there is the African Black-footed Cat who’s entire world has been reduced to a 10×10 foot room. I watched him run around in a circle at full sprint for about 2 min. then I had to look away. Ok, granted, living in a glass box probably beats the hell out of extinction… but still.
In other news, my curse of electronics continues. Most recent victim is my VCR. I’ll simply be replacing this as VCRs hold no data, and paying money to fix a VCR, even an SVHS one (which are actually becoming harder and harder to find) is just stupid.
Still need to get around to doing a file restore on my G4.
Was thinking I should write something for sui66iy‘s
Made some rice pudding Thursday night. Mike, Steph and I finished it by Friday afternoon. Liked it so much I decided to make some more. Its cooling now… think I’ll go have some.
I have 2 SVHS VCRs. Neither is terribly old. They’re out there, still. They’re under $100.
I think this one of them:
http://216.167.27.201/shop.php?prod_id=JVCHRS2901U&adv=pricewatchJX
coolness, thanx… I was thinking of getting a slightly higher model JVC player, but that site has a good selection. Have you ever ordered from them? Are they reliable?
I think I ordered something from them before, but I couldn’t tell you what.
My most recent SVHS VCR is a Philips, and I think it and my current DVD player came from onecall.com
Use a good credit card and don’t worry about how reliable the vendor is.
good credit… me? HAHAHA!!!
seriously though, yeah, I know… and I have credit protection and all, but all the same I’d just prefer to not have to deal with it all. I mean, if I were to get screwed I’d have to like make a phone call and talk to people and stuff… avoiding having to ever talk to people is like the whole best part of the internet.
I didn’t say “the war”. I said “political satire”. HTH.
I know… I covered that under the “I could talk about other stuff, but that seems pointless with a war going on” category.
Don’t let the media control the discourse man! Fight the power!
You were at the zoo? Dude, Samantha and I were at the zoo! The elephants were chilling out, but they wouldn’t go in the water! Squirt each other with your trunks, you stupid elephants!
Ostriches are huge.
dude! seriously? like yesterday? wow… didn’t see you… when were you there?
We got there between three and three-thirty, and left at five.
Zoo bee do bee doo
Zoos make me sad, too. But I like the monkeys, and where else can I see them? What to do? Why can’t we put people in zoos instead? There are some people I would like to put in the zoo.
Re: Zoo bee do bee doo
I hope I’m not one of them… 🙂
also, I love the LJ icon. I feel like such an accomplished photographer, my work being showcased anytime you feel the need to show everyone your ass.
Re: Zoo bee do bee doo
It really is handy to have a picture of my ass available. I’m so glad you took it.
Re: my version
Really? I thought they relied on the startling array of horrific bacteria they carry and more or less bite an animal and wait for it to die of disease. Which makes them more or less communal hunters, whatever drops dead near you is lunch regardless of who bit it in the first place. And makes scientists curious about how the Komodos survive–cool antibiotic possibilities?
Hmm….http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000EFE16-865C-1CD6-B4A8809EC588EEDF&pageNumber=2&catID=2
has more info. “The difficulties in observing large predators in dense vegetation turn some quantitative records into best estimates, but it is informative that one Komodo followed by Auffenberg for 81 days had only two verified kills, with no evidence for the number of unsuccessful attempts.”
Sumner
Re: my version
my point was more that they move around and hunt a lot, as opposed to just sitting around in a box all day. At least that’s what the sign next to the cage implied. Anyway, in any case, it just didn’t look happy.
Re: my version
Amen to that.
The gorilla house here often has new babies, and when it does the silverbacks sit between them and the glass observation window staring at the visitors as if to say “I know I can’t get to you there, but step off my territory–and god help you if the plexiglass breaks, I’ll tear your arms off!”. It’s pretty astonishing how ferocious they are when they’re going down the line making eye contact with all the visitors. And the moms just cower in the back trying to care for the kids away from prying eyes.
At least they get to go outside in the summer.
Sumner