What's this I hear about penguins?

Robots are the future

2011-03-02T14:31:00.001Z

I've spent years lusting after a Roomba (and a Scooba) because who wouldn't? I mean come on, it's a robot that hoovers the floors for you! A robot doing housework - dudes, that that is the future right there. Unfortunately I also share my life with some 7 million cats, a clumsy dog that weighs in/around 14 stone and a hairy dirt shedding mop that comes back from the groomer three times a year resembling a cocker spaniel and I just couldn't justify spending that much money on something they might kill.. I know, hard life.

Happily, I got a secondhand Roomba recently (it needed a little bit of work but we're a technically able household) and couldn't pass up the opportunity to test it in the House of Cats. Not being stupid I have it confined to the study/kitchen when I'm not home to keep it safe from the Horde and Roomba has been living with us for a couple of weeks now.

Things I Have Learned About Life With A Roomba:

No matter where I am in relation to it in a room as soon as I step backwards it's there, ready to trip me up
It takes a while to housetrain but once it figures out the rules it's pretty good at not eating the rug
It has an unerring sense for stuff it's not supposed to have and is over within seconds if I drop something
It has no respect for Him Inside and attempts to charge out past him as soon as he opens a door
The cats are fascinated and want to sit on it

Honestly, it's kinda like living with a better behaved MooDog but without the mess, huge food bills and on call vet.

Speaking of which, I went into the kitchen earlier and found Roomba sitting forlornly in the middle of the floor with a flashing red light that looked suspiciously like the handbrake warning light on the car. Of course, I immediately panicked and went straight to Google but wasn't having much luck (though I was able to confirm that Roombas don't have handbrakes). In desperation I hit the clean button to see if it'd restart and discovered the single best thing about robot hoovers. They tell you what's wrong! (that should be a feature in cars, why isn't it?)

Turns out there's a dust filter thing too and I hadn't cleaned it. Oops. 4 minutes later and Roomba was back making inappropriate overtures to Him Inside's guitar and getting lost under the chairs.

I'm in love. Time to research the wireless models and the Scooba methinks :-)

Random YouTube moments

2009-04-21T13:04:00.000+01:00

Bohemian Rhapsody - by old computers. Deadly :-)

Daffodil Day

2009-03-20T16:12:00.001Z

Plant a Daff, support the Irish Cancer Society

Plant a ‘Daff’ to show your support for people touched by cancer, in the Garden of Hope. The goal is to plant 25,000 ‘Daffs’ online this year to represent the number of people who will be diagnosed with cancer in 2009.

Weekend plans

2008-06-10T15:02:00.003+01:00

Bad news for anyone going to see Prince on the 16th:

http://www.rte.ie/arts/2008/0610/prince.html

Dear OH is away in Germany beating people up that weekend (and being bet up in return) for fun so I'm planning some quality time with the hounds :-)

2008-05-20T16:06:00.003+01:00

Spayweek Ireland is on from the 25th to 31st May.

This year, as well as promoting spaying/neutering, they're producing a pack for schools to try to get the message out to the next generation. The statistics are fairly sobering - 16,546 dogs were put down in pounds across Ireland in 2005. Most of those dogs were healthy - their only crime was that they were no longer wanted :( A lot of these dogs were "pedigree" too, it's not just the crossbreeds that suffer. Spaying and neutering will help cut down on the number of unwanted animals as well as the obvious health benefits.

Separating Fact from Fiction

According to Spay Week Ireland organiser Pete Wedderburn, it’s important to separate fact from fiction when it comes to considering spaying or neutering your pet.

The Facts

* Ireland destroys dogs at a rate ten times higher than the UK. An average of 317 dogs were destroyed every week in Irish pounds in 2005, nearly all of them healthy.
* No official figures are available for the number of abandoned cats that die in Ireland but anecdotal evidence strongly suggests the figure is even higher.
* These numbers would be cut dramatically if more owners would spay or neuter their pets
* Spaying or neutering is good for your pet’s health. The risk of cancer plummets, they’re less likely to be aggressive and they live longer as a result.

The Fiction

* MYTH: Spayed or neutered pets get lazy and fat. FACT: Proper diet and exercise keeps them healthy and fit.
* MYTH: Female cats and dogs should have at least one litter. FACT: They are perfectly healthy and fulfilled without reproducing.
* MYTH: Neutering changes a pet’s personality FACT: Your pet will remain as loving as ever.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

Spay Week Ireland: Visit: www.spayweekireland.ie

DogsTrust and VICAS are also still doing subsidised neutering for those on means tested social welfare benefits at a greatly reduced fee of €14. More info can be found on the spayweekireand site.

It's important that cats are neutered too - there are far too many unwanted cats and kittens out there. Our household has one pedigree cat and five rescued cats and I can tell you that that one pedigree devil has caused more trouble, cost more money and generally been a bigger pain than all 5 of the rescues put together!

Modern technological wonders

2008-04-02T22:36:00.004+01:00

I have a Blackberry for work. A Pearl 8100 to be exact, a nice enough phone all told. It's small enough to carry around, allows me to access my email anywhere and has a lovely web browser for those evenings spent stuck in stationary traffic on the M50 north. The battery life is fairly ok and you can spend hours customising it until it practically runs your life. It does have one flaw though. Receiving calls...

When I pickup a call I have to count to 4 before the person on the other end can hear me. I can hear them perfectly for these 4 long seconds and, without checking caller ID, I can tell quickly if they've called me before. Someone who's been introduced to the idiosyncrasies of my Blackberry will be quietly counting to 4 before speaking while everyone else is saying "hello... hello? Is anyone there?..."

It is a fairly major flaw in a device that is primarily marketed as a phone though isn't it?

Meet the canine Horde

2008-03-31T16:24:00.006+01:00

This is a "meet my hounds" post. Myself and a friend loaded up the collective horde a couple of weeks ago and took the hounds for a walk in Dun a Ri - a little forest park about a 10 minute drive from the house. She has two terriers and I have the three terrors so we were well matched.

While we were out I took some pictures of the hounds while my friend held the leads (I did try putting them in a sit and stay but as soon as I tried to get their attention they'd get up, ruining the picture). That's Loki (4 year old border collie) on the left and Budda (8 year old cocker spaniel x) on the right. I love this picture of the two of them - they had an absolute ball that day and I think it shows :-)

I didn't manage to get as decent a picture of the Yama Moo (3 year old Great Dane) unfortunately but here's one of her tied to a bench while the others were getting their photo taken.

She enjoys fusses so she wasn't that bothered by being stopped every few minutes by people who wanted to comment on "just how big she is" (at the small end for breed standard!) and to wonder how much she eats (a fair bit).

They slept well that night :-)

What's in a name?

2008-03-31T16:18:00.002+01:00

If I use my maiden name (the one I actually use):

HowManyOfMe.com

There are
2,460
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

And if I were to get around to taking his surname:

HowManyOfMe.com

There is
1
person with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

It's not really a very accurate database but it's still fun :-) So, how unique are you?

Updates

2008-02-27T14:18:00.003Z

I had a plan. It was a good plan. Part of my plan was to update this, and my other blog, on a regular basis this year. So far I'm failing rather spectacularly on that one... Oops.

What have I done of interest recently? Hmm. Not very much, to be honest. I've taken the dog to the groomer and been very happy to find that she didn't trash the place (the dog, not the groomer). The dog not trashing the place is a Thing of Interest simply because she's a Great Dane so trashing things is in her genetic makeup. She can't help it :-) I've gone to work, come home from work and spent a lot of time in traffic in between. Very little of interest has happened in my personal life thankfully.

Work is mad busy due to important people leaving. Their official last day is Friday so next week shall be fun.

In news of those close to me - Middle Little Sister broke her leg on Sunday falling off a bouncy castle & is still in hospital. Mother Dearest is still fluttering about in a panic despite having been through broken bones several times with other siblings of mine and MLS herself (wrist last year, arm two years ago, collarbone & arm 6 years ago. She's not a bouncy child). I've suggested to MLS that perhaps next time she might just fake a stomach bug to get off school like everyone else. She laughed, Mother Dearest got offended. You just can't please some people.

Fish update

2008-02-25T13:04:00.002Z

Due to a catastrophic tank failure late one evening I had to move all of the fish into the bigger tank rather rapidly. They all survived :-)

If wishes were construction workers

2008-02-07T15:16:00.000Z

If you're randomly bored and idly updating your Blogger profile you may notice the option to update your "wishlist".

For me it was like a cartoon lightbulb moment! It was such a simple and yet brilliant idea. Keen to have my wish (for am I not greedy, I have only the one right now) granted, I enthusiastically entered my hearts desire into the search box.

Unfortunately...

Oh well.

Fundraiser for the Kitties

2008-02-06T21:40:00.000Z

Entourage 2008

2008-01-21T14:55:00.000Z

Macword claims that Entourage 2008 isn't that bad. In a typically Microsoft move the rest of the Office 2008 Suite for the Mac isn't so great though :)

It's not surprising really as Office 2008 for Windows is rather crap too. We tested it here last year and the general consensus was that it's not getting within 10 metres of our machines until it's at least 2 years old and we've figured out how to turn off all of the extra features. A fairly similar reaction to the test run of Vista actually except everyone's graphics cards worked :D

Guess I'll be sticking with Office 2004 and the standard OS X Mail app then. What a shocker.

The Fishes

2008-01-19T16:47:00.000Z

About this time last year I started "keeping" tropical fish in the tank on the left. Or rather I started buying fish, bringing them home and watching them die. There are lots of things that kill fish. They don't like it if the NO2 is too high, or the NO3 or the NH3 or NH4 and lets not forget the pH. If it's too cold or too hot they'll expire. Some of them don't like company and some of them don't like to be alone. Most of them will attempt to eat anything smaller than themselves and their attitude towards their young would raise an eyebrow in even the most laid back small town. Anyway, after many many weeks of interesting chemistry set type experiments I discovered that the pH of my water was too high and was directed towards Mopani wood which naturally lowered the pH. Hurrah! My fish lived!

I was doing so well with this whole fish keeping lark that about 3 months ago I decided to upgrade to a bigger tank for The Fishes (they now number 4 Zebra Danios, 6 Neon Tetras, 5 Glowlight Tetras, 2 Swordtails, 6 Guppies, 3 Mollies and a Plattie I think) so I ordered this rather nice hexagonal tank and waited with barely contained glee for it to arrive. 'Yay', thought I, 'A shiny new tank for mines beloved Fishes'. Then it arrived. So I brought it home and started to set it up. And then it hit me - what if I had problems with this tank too? What if my Fishes started to die again? I've gotten very fond of them now, we've come a long way together and I'd rather they didn't all die (I'm sure they'd be fully in support of this plan too if asked). What a dilemma, whatever shall I do?

So the new tank is set up beside the old one. It's cycling away happily and should be ready for the first fish to move by next week. Of course now I'm absolutely petrified of moving them in case they all expire from the shock or the pH levels or some other weird wonderful fish keeping secret that I haven't yet been exposed to.

Hmmm. This could be a problem.

Weekends

2008-01-18T16:23:00.000Z

It’s 4:30 on a Friday afternoon. The week is almost at an end and the glorious weekend is practically a reality. I can nearly taste it...

I’ve lots to look forward to too. Tomorrow morning I shall be playing shop and pretending to be Brenda of Brenda’s Pets. She’ll be in about lunchtime if you have actual questions more complicated than “Can I buy some dogfood?”. She’s waiting in for a dryer repairman or some other utterly mundane task while I ruin, sorry run her business :)

Tomorrow evening I shall hopefully be joining an old friend to help celebrate her Birthday/ Leaving The Country For A New Job And Man party. And on Sunday I plan to walk the hounds somewhere muddy and see how many random passers-by we can terrify.

It all sounds good, doesn’t it? A nice weekend with a relaxing mix of things to do and places to go, friends to see and large hounds to walk. It was good until I, in all innocence, checked the daily feed of the Critical Junk Blog and discovered the heinous news. It’s too terrible for me to relay here. You’ll need to visit it yourself.

I'm in love

2008-01-15T22:35:00.000Z

The all new skinny Macbook Air. Visit it and be somewhat awed.

Dear husband I want a divorce - I have found your replacement...

edited to add: I'm sticking with the original Macbook. In Black so that the pawprints don't show when JD (the rest of the cat who's nose you see in that there picture off to the left) sleeps on the mobile heat source I so thoughtfully bought for him.

Hello

2008-01-15T22:07:00.000Z

I have another journal elsewhere that I update occasionally with more personal stuff. I think I'll keep this one for more techy stuff and general thoughts and whimsy.

And, of course, penguins.