Horatio Posted September 19, 2012 Report Share Posted September 19, 2012 Well, I am trying to study for my annual simulator events and the more I read, the more I think nothing is sinking in. HHEEELLLLLPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SleepoverFanatic52 Posted September 20, 2012 Report Share Posted September 20, 2012 I'm not the one to be asking help for on the subject of focusing... I'm jealous of your comic con experience! I was trying to get to the Austin comic con this year but I don't think it will be happening since I'm going to Mississippi for a wedding a few weeks before. I've never been to a con, and those are my people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted September 20, 2012 Report Share Posted September 20, 2012 My thinking would be to skip the wedding and attend the con. Of course, the people who invited you would probably never speak to you again, but weddings are... well, weddings. The bride looks beautiful, there is an enormous amount of money spent on the event, you eat, drink and be merry, the bride and groom disappear for their honeymoon, then you drive home. The good news is that you get to see relatives, if this is a family member, that you have not seen in ages. I think that if I was going to get married, I would ask my parents to put the money they were going to spend on my wedding, into a fund where I could use it as a down payment on a house, and instead have a small party. As for the comic con... you really need to attend one. The most fun I have had in a long time!!! One of the problems to avoid, wear shoes that you can run around in all day, and plan on not sitting until dinner. Here are a couple hints that I would like to give you before you attend a comic con. Go out to your local art supply store and purchase an artist sketchbook. Preferably a small to medium one which is sprial bound. Most of the writers and illustrators will autograph your book and if you ask, give you a small little doodle type sketch for free. If you take a book such as this, then for all your comic cons, you can keep adding to the book. If you do not like this idea, then you can try and buy a poster or book from that particular con and have them sign that. What I do not like about the the poster or particular comic con book is that then you either have to frame the poster or start a collection of these books. If I had thought about it, I would have started the spiral book idea on my first con. Of course, I did not think about this until much later, after a few cons. But, with that book, when you are old, it will probably be worth a fortune as you will have so many signatures and doodles that some collector would probably want to pay you lots and lots of money for all those signatures in one place. Lastly, bring a camera or make sure your phone is completely charged. You will want to take lots and lots of pictures of all the unbelieveably phenomenal costumes. Most cons have a costume contest, so if you plan ahead, you can go dressed and enter the contest. Of course, you will probably have your picture taken a zillion times because of people like me who do not get dressed, but love to see the costumes and want to take a picture of the person in theirs. Hopefully, you can do both. If you get to choose... go for the con. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SleepoverFanatic52 Posted September 23, 2012 Report Share Posted September 23, 2012 I'm really excited for this wedding. It's my best friend who just moved away a few months ago! It's just going to be her immediate family, and me, and I'm gonna be in the wedding and everything. I wouldn't miss it for anything, and there will always be more cons. I'm sure I'll be at one soonish, maybe Dallas? That's a great idea about the sketchbook! I saw a person with one watching coverage of this year's SDCC but I wouldn't have thought to do it myself. I think I'd like to dress up but it'd probably depend on if the people I went with were doing it too... I'm shy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted September 25, 2012 Report Share Posted September 25, 2012 Congratulations to your best friend!!! That makes attending the wedding totally different. I agree that this is a wedding that you should not miss. If there is a smaller con, that is a great one to visit first. Sort of get the feel of what happens and what works best for you. The big cons can be really overwhelming, even after you have attended some before. I do not dress up. If I had a costume where I was totally anonymous, then it might happen. For example, here is my halloween costume from two years ago. With a costume like this, I can wear a costume. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted October 10, 2012 Report Share Posted October 10, 2012 The New York Comic Con starts in a couple days!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted October 12, 2012 Report Share Posted October 12, 2012 On my way to Narita... be out of commission for a day. See you all later!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted October 13, 2012 Report Share Posted October 13, 2012 Here I sit having my morning coffee in Japan. Yesterday we headed out to my favourite place for dinner and were really disappointed, no seats!!!!! We needed a reservation. Leaving there, we found another place nearby. Not as good, but still excellent food. As we will be back in a couple days, we will definitely get to eat at my first choice. Today we are heading for Guangzhou, China. Hopefully we will get some good pictures as we are flying in the afternoon to early evening. More later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted October 14, 2012 Report Share Posted October 14, 2012 Today there was some very, very important news from Botswana... women have just won the right to inherit property. Previously only sons could inherit property. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arkcher Posted October 14, 2012 Report Share Posted October 14, 2012 well next time you swing by exotic Nebraska, I know of some airports that are fully compatible with most modern aircrafts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted October 22, 2012 Report Share Posted October 22, 2012 Perhaps when summer arrives... Nebraska is way, way too cold in the fall, winter and spring! Besides, I will need to fly a much, much smaller airplane. FedEx has the B-777 flying non-stop from the USA to Asia, USA to the Middle East, and there is some talk about us flying from Oakland, California to Sydney, Australia. These routes prove to be a good match for lots of freight and non-stop service to give our customers the fastest service possible. We pass Nebraska on our climb out. LOL. As I return from Osaka, Japan tomorrow night, I will wave as we fly by. Sooooooo... what is happening? I see you are getting much closer to Canada. You will love the winters in Nebraska. COLD!!!!! What city do you live in? If you are in Omaha, have you seen Mr. Warren Buffett? Hopefully you will stop back by and fill us in on you, your life and all that has happened in the time since you were last here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted October 22, 2012 Report Share Posted October 22, 2012 And for other news... this has been a long, long trip. Things were going along wonderfully until I arrived in China. For some unknown reason, my iPhone and iPad decided that they needed to activate as if I had just opened the box! WHAT?!?!?!?!?!? Well, I was internet-less. Finally we arrived in Osaka and I am in the greatest cafe called Shakers and I am back on line. When I return home I will return my devices to their normal state, but for now, at least I am back in operation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted October 23, 2012 Report Share Posted October 23, 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted October 23, 2012 Report Share Posted October 23, 2012 For some reason the text did not appear... the latte was created in honour of my hammie friend Helga. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
- Kat - Posted October 23, 2012 Report Share Posted October 23, 2012 That is so cute! I'm amazed with what people can create with milk and foam XD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted October 24, 2012 Report Share Posted October 24, 2012 Back home... it is so very, very nice to sleep in my own bed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
- Kat - Posted October 25, 2012 Report Share Posted October 25, 2012 I can imagine! Where did this trip bring you? I believe you were in Japan for a while, at least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted October 25, 2012 Report Share Posted October 25, 2012 ——————— —— ———— ———— ———— ———— ———— ———— ———— ———— ———— ———— —————— 12Oct12 - MEM-NRT - Memphis to Narita, Japan 14Oct12 - NRT-CAN - Narita to Guanzhou, China 15Oct12 - CAN-NRT - Guanzhou back to Narita 17Oct12 - NRT-KIX - Narita to Osaka, Japan 17Oct12 - KIX-PVG - Osaka to Shanghai, China 18Oct12 - PVG-NRT - Shanghai back to Narita 20Oct12 - NRT-ANC - Narita to Anchorage, Alaska 21Oct12 - ANC-KIX - Anchorage to Osaka 23Oct12 - KIX-MEM - Osaka to Memphis. Long trip and now I am trying to figure out what time zone I am on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
- Kat - Posted October 26, 2012 Report Share Posted October 26, 2012 That was quite a trip! XD I can only imagine how it wreaks havoc on your sleep schedule. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted October 27, 2012 Report Share Posted October 27, 2012 *thinks* What day is this, where am I, what time is it??? It takes me about a number of days before I can sleep at night and not during the day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
- Kat - Posted October 30, 2012 Report Share Posted October 30, 2012 Have you gotten used to US time yet? XD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted October 31, 2012 Report Share Posted October 31, 2012 NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Just about the time I get used to US time... I am back in Asia. Tonight I head for Oakland, California. At least it is only for one day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
- Kat - Posted October 31, 2012 Report Share Posted October 31, 2012 x_____x The universe is trying to sabotage your sleep schedule. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted November 1, 2012 Report Share Posted November 1, 2012 Exactly!!! *gathers troops to take revenge on the universe* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arkcher Posted November 4, 2012 Report Share Posted November 4, 2012 Perhaps when summer arrives... Nebraska is way, way too cold in the fall, winter and spring! Besides, I will need to fly a much, much smaller airplane. FedEx has the B-777 flying non-stop from the USA to Asia, USA to the Middle East, and there is some talk about us flying from Oakland, California to Sydney, Australia. These routes prove to be a good match for lots of freight and non-stop service to give our customers the fastest service possible. We pass Nebraska on our climb out. LOL. As I return from Osaka, Japan tomorrow night, I will wave as we fly by. Sooooooo... what is happening? I see you are getting much closer to Canada. You will love the winters in Nebraska. COLD!!!!! What city do you live in? If you are in Omaha, have you seen Mr. Warren Buffett? Hopefully you will stop back by and fill us in on you, your life and all that has happened in the time since you were last here. As super-exciting as the midwest is, it wasn't my first choice of living conditions. I wouldn't call it unpleasant, though. Just a lot of corn and college students. I maintain that there are only two cities in my state, and lots of populated truck stops. I'm in Lincoln, which tries really hard to be a capitol city. I've been to Omaha only a handful of times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted November 5, 2012 Report Share Posted November 5, 2012 Omaha is an interesting city. I think you have sized up Nebraska accurately... corn, lots and lots of corn, and college students. I never had Nebraska in one of my travel plans. Do not know why, but it just never popped into my head as a top-ten destination. Plus, the winters are really, really cold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arkcher Posted November 6, 2012 Report Share Posted November 6, 2012 Nebraska isn't known for its tourist attractions. I guess the most magnificent thing to see is the Huskers' stadium. Economical living, though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted November 9, 2012 Report Share Posted November 9, 2012 My post disappeared.... so strange. For me, Mr. Warren Buffett's house would be the tourist attraction, not the stadium. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted November 9, 2012 Report Share Posted November 9, 2012 So... while - Kat - is in Orlando, soaking up the sunshine, I will be heading to Chicago and then to Hong Kong. One day there and then back to Memphis. And I will have my iPhone and also my iPad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
- Kat - Posted November 25, 2012 Report Share Posted November 25, 2012 I hope everyone who celebrates it had a good Thanksgiving! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted November 28, 2012 Report Share Posted November 28, 2012 Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I was in Delhi and flew to Shanghai, so needless to say... no turkey there. But yesterday, I cooked a turkey, made dressing and had a most wonderful Thanksgiving dinner on a Tuesday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted November 30, 2012 Report Share Posted November 30, 2012 Well... a little good news, a little bad news. First, I arrived home and was getting rested, but only for a short two days. I am on reserve and had hoped that I would escape being used. Well, no such luck... here I sit in Osaka, Japan. One day here, then tomorrow to Guangzhou, China, rest for a day, back to Osaka, then nineteen hours rest and back to Memphis. Hopefully then, I will get a couple days off before flying a trip from Memphis, TN to Oakland, CA and back. Hopefully this will be a busy month for us. I am sitting in a coffee place called Shaker's and drinking this coffee... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
- Kat - Posted November 30, 2012 Report Share Posted November 30, 2012 I love hte designs that place makes! I'm sorry to hear that you won't be getting much down time, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted December 1, 2012 Report Share Posted December 1, 2012 Me too! I am now in China for the day. No Latte Art here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted December 3, 2012 Report Share Posted December 3, 2012 Back in Osaka today. Sadly it is for only a short visit as we leave tonight for Memphis. I will be very happy to get home as I have been away cumulatively for too many days this month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mega Wolf Posted December 4, 2012 Report Share Posted December 4, 2012 I see we're keeping busy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted December 5, 2012 Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 Oh my goodness... *falls over on back with all four paws in the air* You need to stop in more often and fill us in on what is happening with you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted December 20, 2012 Report Share Posted December 20, 2012 Last week was a fantastic meteor shower, peaking on the 12th, 13th and 14th. Did anyone get to see this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted December 23, 2012 Report Share Posted December 23, 2012 Only two days until Christmas!!! Tree is up, and decorated, presents are almost all wrapped and shopping for Christmas dinner is complete. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted December 25, 2012 Report Share Posted December 25, 2012 Our tree... I hope Santa has a back-up plan... MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, And to all a good night!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted December 31, 2012 Report Share Posted December 31, 2012 Just thinking how today is the last day of 2012. Hmmmmmmm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted January 1, 2013 Report Share Posted January 1, 2013 HAPPY HAMMY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!!!! Wishing you all a very happy, healthy, prosperous and wonderful 2013, filled with lots and lots of love!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted January 3, 2013 Report Share Posted January 3, 2013 Now that the new year has already gotten underway... everything is calm on the hammy front. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted January 4, 2013 Report Share Posted January 4, 2013 Okay... here we go again. There is an opportunity for me to move to Koln, Germany. The bid is scheduled to open in a couple weeks, and remain open for one month. What do you think????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mega Wolf Posted January 6, 2013 Report Share Posted January 6, 2013 I always say "go!" when a new adventure comes up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leguan Posted January 6, 2013 Report Share Posted January 6, 2013 Happy New Year everbody. I know, I'm a bit late. I was celebrating New Year in my hometown (close to Köln) and we had some nice fireworks. A friend of my sister's boyfriend is a pyrotechnician. So you think about moving to Köln? As you know, I know it quite well since I grew up in a nearby town and I was also living there during my studies. Even though it's a very old city (founded by the Romans more than 2.000 years ago), it doesn't look like many other old cities in Europe which have lots of historic buildings. More than 90% were destroyed during WWII, but at least the big cathedral (Germany's most popular tourist attraction) survived and was repaired, although you can still see some war damage. And all the post-war buildings with their different styles mixed with some surviving historic ones are also an intersting combination. And for a reasonably big city, there's quite a lot of trees and parks around. There's the "green belt" where the city wall and medieval fortifications used to be. Keep in mind, that the weather is not what you are used to in Florida. It's not very cold (snow and ice are comparably rare and restricted to short periods and actually the inner city with its microclimate is the place with the highest average temperature in Germany), but the weather can still be quite ugly with lots of rain, especially in autumn and winter. Well, if I was in your position and had to decide, I would not move there permanently (the weather...), but for one to a couple of years it's probably a nice experience. If you move there, you really have to catch a train and visit me at my new place in Göttingen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted January 10, 2013 Report Share Posted January 10, 2013 Leguan... welcome back!!!!! Actually, I am able to move anywhere within a one hundred mile radius without company permission, and over that with company permission. For example, one person lives in Berlin. So, I am thinking of coming over and then wandering around to find the place that seems most interesting. I have lived in Berlin and loved that city. As for the cold and rain, unfortunately, there are not many places where I can enjoy the wonderful weather, but if you have someplace to be, Europe seems like a wonderful option. The length of time would probably be about three and one-half years. This would give me lots of time to wander all around the different countries. I would like to visit the Baltic area. The bid has been delayed until February. :1( Of course, I would be thrilled to come for a visit, especially since I could make a day most convenient for you. And perhaps we could go for a bike ride when the riding season rolls around. What town outside of Koln did you grow-up? - Kat - is a big, big, BIG pyrotechnic fan! She would love to have a close friend or relative in the pyrotechnic field. As for me, I love fireworks, and appreciate all the work that goes into programming the computers to coordinate such a display, but if I am not available to see the fireworks, that is okay. The one thing I most enjoy is hopping into a small aircraft and watching the fireworks displays from the air. Now that is a sight to behold! You get to see numerous displays up and down the coast of Florida, all at once. Very nice!!! Not much else here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leguan Posted January 10, 2013 Report Share Posted January 10, 2013 What town outside of Koln did you grow-up? I grew up in Langenfeld. Approx. 20 km north of Köln, just adjacent to Düsseldorf (you probably know the airport, much bigger than Köln-Bonn airport although the city is smaller). Another neighbour is Solingen, which is renowned for manufacturing all kind of quality blades since medieval times. Langenfeld itself is a quite boring town with 60.000 inhabitants. The only thing worth to mention is the fact, that it is one of very few towns and cities in Germany which are totally free of debts. That's because there's lots of tax-paying business due to the location close to Köln and Düsseldorf with their airports and the excellent connection to the autobahn network. And perhaps we could go for a bike ride when the riding season rolls around. Would be great. Just 40 km from my place there's the Harz which is a low mountain range with quite nice roads for having a ride. If you check on Google Earth it's quite easy to find. The dark patch more or less in the middle of Germany. It's so dark because the mountain range has a quite different climate compared to the rather flat country sorrounding it. In the sorrounding there are light green deciduous forests and farmlands while the dark green in the Harz comes from the spruce forests growing there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted January 11, 2013 Report Share Posted January 11, 2013 Langenfeld is a great location. I do know Dusseldorf and Soligen. The blades are known all around the world. As for boring, I do not mind boring. Consider the fact that every work day I am in a big city, in a hotel with lots and lots of people. It is nice to be in a boring place on your time off. Of course, that is when bigger cities are only a short train ride or drive away. I love towns or cities where green spaces are a big part and the Koln green belt is nice. Too bad the Harz wasn't within my distance allotment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leguan Posted January 11, 2013 Report Share Posted January 11, 2013 Well, I actually like "boring" places, too. Just because they usually are close to natural areas with forests and stuff. I really like my new place with lots of nature in the immediate surrounding, although I sometimes miss a bigger city nearby (Hannover with 600.000 inhabitants is 100 km away from Göttingen). However, there's not much nature in Langenfeld. The whole area is quite populated with one town or city next to another one. Actually, the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region is the most-densely populated region in Germany with about 11 million inhabitants. And it is only 10 times the size of one of the cattle farms where I've been working in Australia (which had 4 inhabitants plus 50.000 cattle). If you are interested, check out the Wikipedia article "Rhine-Ruhr" (English version). So if you are looking for a nice place around Cologne, let's "draw" a map. North: Towns, cities, more towns and cities. West: Some towns, crop production, open cast coal mining, power plants. South: Towns, cities, crop production East: Some towns, villages, forests, small farms. So if I had to choose, I would go for the eastern area. Some of the small towns even have a very good railway connection to Köln. But attention, at some places too close to the airport (which is actually surrounded by a very nice nature reserve hosting some rare animal and plant species, did you know that?) it might be a bit noisy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted January 13, 2013 Report Share Posted January 13, 2013 East sounds the best to me too! You can actually plot the departure and arrival paths of the jets and go a little north or south of that path on the east side, reducing noise considerably. Thank you so much for that insight. It will prove very helpful. After I research the eastern side, I will let you know where I am thinking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted January 29, 2013 Report Share Posted January 29, 2013 Well, today I received a box filled with Christmas gifts from my friend. What a wonderful surprise!!!! Whoo hoo! Christmas at the end of January!!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted January 30, 2013 Report Share Posted January 30, 2013 Wild storms last night... not so much rain, but lots and lots of wind! Why does it seem that all these wild and scary storms come at night??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted February 3, 2013 Report Share Posted February 3, 2013 Thank you Punxsutawney Phil for not seeing your shadow!!! I am looking forward to an early spring! Groundhog Day... great day and terrific movie!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted February 6, 2013 Report Share Posted February 6, 2013 Big announcement... ...this Saturday, February 9th, Everyone, head out and have a bagel !!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted February 9, 2013 Report Share Posted February 9, 2013 My wishes to all those in the snow storm area... I hope you do not lose power and can stay warm and safe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted February 14, 2013 Report Share Posted February 14, 2013 HAPPY VALENTINES DAY EVERYBODY!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted March 1, 2013 Report Share Posted March 1, 2013 NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! It is snowing today! Horrors! If it is snowing in Tennessee, it must be a blizzard in the Midwest! They are already without electricity in many places, and now more snow!!! Oh my!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted March 5, 2013 Report Share Posted March 5, 2013 Okay... this is the craziest weather. Cold, then warm, then cold. GRRRRRRRRR. I want the heat of summer! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Biggest Fan Of Fuzzy Posted March 8, 2013 Report Share Posted March 8, 2013 So sad to log on and see how little activity is left on HD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted March 8, 2013 Report Share Posted March 8, 2013 Very true! At least there are some people who come and visit me. :-) So, what is up with you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Biggest Fan Of Fuzzy Posted March 8, 2013 Report Share Posted March 8, 2013 Not too much. I'm on Spring Break right now, but because I procrastinate too much, I didn't make any plans, so I've been in NYC all week. Not the warm, sunny weather I was hoping for. I will be in Miami in a few weeks however, for Ultra Music Festival. So so so excited for that! School's going well. I'm interviewing for my second co-op (6 month internship) in Hong Kong, Singapore, and NYC. Hopefully I get one of those jobs. *fingers crossed* Other than that, nothing much has changed in my life. I still talk to Toto on occasion - not sure if she's every around here anymore either. She seems to be doing well also. How are things with you, Horatio? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted March 9, 2013 Report Share Posted March 9, 2013 Sounds like your life is going great!!! I have my paws crossed for your to get your second co-op and preferably your first choice of locations! You will have an amazing time at the Ultra Music Festival!!! Please do stop back in and let us know how it was, and perhaps you will have some pictures to upload. Toto never stops by. :-( Tell her we miss her and hope she is well and life is treating her the best. As for me... same old stuff. Not much new. Flying to the same destinations, which gets a little old. The B.777 has a limited number of cities because it only makes the big bucks on the long haul flights. USA to _______ (fill in the blank, as long as it is twelve plus hours away). I liked flying the Airbus as we had a zillion cities to choose from. For example, if you got tired of Lubbock, you could pick Spokane. I rated my cities on which ones had the best jogging routes. As for China, the smog is so bad that I never want to run outdoors. Narita, Japan has a terrific jogging route through the rice paddies and you can make a route either three or five miles long. There is not much smog, so I enjoy that city. Paris is always great because you can run along the Seine and that is spectacular. I have about three cities that I can enjoy my jog in and that is really limiting We are supposed to have a bid to fly Europe and I plan on bidding to fly there. Hopefully it comes along soon. I really look forward to living in Germany! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted March 10, 2013 Report Share Posted March 10, 2013 Last night a play, Alabama Baggage, written by Buddy Farmer, with co-star Jody Fasanella, opened to a raving success!!!!! This is Buddy Farmer's third play and hopefully there will be many, many more to come. Jody blew the audience away with her performance! Let us wish them all a wonderful, long run at Theatre Asylum in Santa Monica, California!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted March 15, 2013 Report Share Posted March 15, 2013 Today we are hanging Easter Eggs from the tree in front of our window. Hopefully the cheery colours will urge spring to come faster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted March 20, 2013 Report Share Posted March 20, 2013 Okay... we are on our new daylight hours, but guess what... a cold snap is arriving tonight! GRRRRRRRR! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Biggest Fan Of Fuzzy Posted March 20, 2013 Report Share Posted March 20, 2013 Sounds like your life is going great!!! I have my paws crossed for your to get your second co-op and preferably your first choice of locations! You will have an amazing time at the Ultra Music Festival!!! Please do stop back in and let us know how it was, and perhaps you will have some pictures to upload. Toto never stops by. :-( Tell her we miss her and hope she is well and life is treating her the best. As for me... same old stuff. Not much new. Flying to the same destinations, which gets a little old. The B.777 has a limited number of cities because it only makes the big bucks on the long haul flights. USA to _______ (fill in the blank, as long as it is twelve plus hours away). I liked flying the Airbus as we had a zillion cities to choose from. For example, if you got tired of Lubbock, you could pick Spokane. I rated my cities on which ones had the best jogging routes. As for China, the smog is so bad that I never want to run outdoors. Narita, Japan has a terrific jogging route through the rice paddies and you can make a route either three or five miles long. There is not much smog, so I enjoy that city. Paris is always great because you can run along the Seine and that is spectacular. I have about three cities that I can enjoy my jog in and that is really limiting We are supposed to have a bid to fly Europe and I plan on bidding to fly there. Hopefully it comes along soon. I really look forward to living in Germany! You're moving to Germany!? When and where? That's so exciting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Biggest Fan Of Fuzzy Posted March 20, 2013 Report Share Posted March 20, 2013 Sounds like your life is going great!!! I have my paws crossed for your to get your second co-op and preferably your first choice of locations! You will have an amazing time at the Ultra Music Festival!!! Please do stop back in and let us know how it was, and perhaps you will have some pictures to upload. Toto never stops by. :-( Tell her we miss her and hope she is well and life is treating her the best. As for me... same old stuff. Not much new. Flying to the same destinations, which gets a little old. The B.777 has a limited number of cities because it only makes the big bucks on the long haul flights. USA to _______ (fill in the blank, as long as it is twelve plus hours away). I liked flying the Airbus as we had a zillion cities to choose from. For example, if you got tired of Lubbock, you could pick Spokane. I rated my cities on which ones had the best jogging routes. As for China, the smog is so bad that I never want to run outdoors. Narita, Japan has a terrific jogging route through the rice paddies and you can make a route either three or five miles long. There is not much smog, so I enjoy that city. Paris is always great because you can run along the Seine and that is spectacular. I have about three cities that I can enjoy my jog in and that is really limiting We are supposed to have a bid to fly Europe and I plan on bidding to fly there. Hopefully it comes along soon. I really look forward to living in Germany! You're moving to Germany!? When and where? That's so exciting. I didn't mean to just ignore everything else you said, but my excitement for your move outweighed the rest. I remember when you first told us that you would be switching planes. How long ago was that now? Must be a year or two, no? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted March 21, 2013 Report Share Posted March 21, 2013 I am just waiting for the bid. Uuuuggggghhhhhhhhhh. They said it was coming in January and this is... almost APRIL !!!!! As soon as the bid opens, you have a couple to four weeks for it to be open, then they place you in training, after you pass training, then you get a month to look for a place in Germany, then comes... the move!!!! So, in reality, maybe six months before I am actually there, if they were to get the bid out in the next couple weeks. And a year or two sounds right... they have been saying this for years and years. They opened the bid and I was locked into the B-777, now I am just waiting for the next bid to come along. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted March 24, 2013 Report Share Posted March 24, 2013 Okay... procrastination has gotten the better of me. Tomorrow is the first day of classes and I have not decided if I want to register. GRRRRRRR... why can I not make up my mind????? To go or not to go... that is the question. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted March 26, 2013 Report Share Posted March 26, 2013 Snowstorms.... ohhhhhh, I feel so sorry for all those people who were blanketed with the white stuff. I hope the warmer weather arrives for you soon!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted March 27, 2013 Report Share Posted March 27, 2013 Well, I did it. I signed up for another course. Nine weeks beginning yesterday. I must admit that I like taking an online course, but it seems like you need to do more work than if you attended class. Cross your paws! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted March 27, 2013 Report Share Posted March 27, 2013 Good news on the education front... I am a really fantastic professor who is a genius with computers. Here is a guy who can speak from experience. Yeah!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Biggest Fan Of Fuzzy Posted March 31, 2013 Report Share Posted March 31, 2013 Ughhhhhhhhhh Horatio, that was the most perfect mini vacation I've ever had in my life. I hadn't been to Miami in at least 10 years and obviously back then I wasn't aware of all it had to offer. Ultra was so incredible, but it was only a tiny part of my four days. Every single thing worked out perfectly, always. Nothing went wrong at all. I could go on and on and on about how great it was. Where we stayed, everything we ate, and everywhere we went out was just so so so beautiful and delicious and fun and ahhhhhhhh. Definitely have to make Ultra an annual trip now. The photo is from Swedish House Mafia's last performance, ever. *sheds a tear* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Biggest Fan Of Fuzzy Posted March 31, 2013 Report Share Posted March 31, 2013 Forgot to attach it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted March 31, 2013 Report Share Posted March 31, 2013 OUTSTANDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Such good news that you had a fantastic mini holiday!!! But... you did not upload a photo! I would love to hear where you stayed and where you ate. I lived in Coconut Grove and loved Miami. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted March 31, 2013 Report Share Posted March 31, 2013 LOL... you are good!!! As I was posting my post, you were uploading the photo. WOW!!!!, where was the concert held? That looks like a huge stage set-up. Great minds think alike!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Biggest Fan Of Fuzzy Posted March 31, 2013 Report Share Posted March 31, 2013 Well, I did it. I signed up for another course. Nine weeks beginning yesterday. I must admit that I like taking an online course, but it seems like you need to do more work than if you attended class. Cross your paws! What is the course on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Biggest Fan Of Fuzzy Posted March 31, 2013 Report Share Posted March 31, 2013 OUTSTANDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Such good news that you had a fantastic mini holiday!!! But... you did not upload a photo! I would love to hear where you stayed and where you ate. I lived in Coconut Grove and loved Miami. The festival was held in Bicentennial Park. This photo was from the main stage, but there were five others I believe, possibly six, can't remember. We stayed at a friend's apartment at the Icon Brickell, it's attached to the Viceroy Hotel. Perfect location - it was a short five minute walk from Ultra and right in the heart of downtown Miami. We also had friends staying on South Beach, so on Saturday and Sunday we hung out there and went to WMC pool parties at the Shore Club and the National Hotel. Monday and Tuesday we stayed at the Icon and recovered from the wild weekend by laying at the pool all day. And now I'm back to reality, in the library on a Saturday night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Biggest Fan Of Fuzzy Posted March 31, 2013 Report Share Posted March 31, 2013 Here's a few more pictures. The first is Armin van Buuren at Ultra. The second is the pool party at the National. The third is just from Monday at the Shore Club, so just a usual day, no party. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted March 31, 2013 Report Share Posted March 31, 2013 OUTSTANDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Such good news that you had a fantastic mini holiday!!! But... you did not upload a photo! I would love to hear where you stayed and where you ate. I lived in Coconut Grove and loved Miami. The festival was held in Bicentennial Park. This photo was from the main stage, but there were five others I believe, possibly six, can't remember. We stayed at a friend's apartment at the Icon Brickell, it's attached to the Viceroy Hotel. Perfect location - it was a short five minute walk from Ultra and right in the heart of downtown Miami. We also had friends staying on South Beach, so on Saturday and Sunday we hung out there and went to WMC pool parties at the Shore Club and the National Hotel. Monday and Tuesday we stayed at the Icon and recovered from the wild weekend by laying at the pool all day. And now I'm back to reality, in the library on a Saturday night. Fantastic!!! I know exactly where you were. The photograph makes Bicentennial Park look so much bigger. Thank you for the photographs, they are wonderful. In particular, I really liked the second photograph. You are a natural for making your photograph composition perfect. I hope that you never give up this talent as you post some of the most wonderful pictures!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted March 31, 2013 Report Share Posted March 31, 2013 The Armin van Buuren stage photographed amazingly well. What a stage!!! Again, thank you for posting the pictures and text, I really enjoyed you including me and everyone here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted April 16, 2013 Report Share Posted April 16, 2013 Exciting weather... we had some pretty exciting thunderstorms in Florida yesterday. The power went out five times, with the last time being the longest. From about 22H30 until 05H14. The good news was that the thunderstorms brought in some cooler weather, so the house did not manage to get too hot. Back in Tennessee today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leguan Posted April 16, 2013 Report Share Posted April 16, 2013 How is it going? We also had a long and cold winter here, even breaking some cold records in March. And I had to experience that Göttingen is considerably colder than Cologne and also gets way more snow. We even had snow at Easter. However, the worst thing actually wasn't the cold temperatures and tons of snow, but the darkness. We had only 40 hours of sunshine during the whole winter! The lowest ever recorded, less than half of the average (and even average is very little...). Anyway, now spring is here! The last snow is just gone, everything starts growing and flowering and the sun (we got more sunshine during the last week than what we got during the whole winter) pushes the temperatures to 15-20°C which totally feels like summer. I took my Honda for the first ride in this year on Sunday. Awesome. I really missed that feeling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted April 20, 2013 Report Share Posted April 20, 2013 How did the Honda feel??? It must have been a wonderful day to be out in the countryside! People in Alaska have the same problems with darkness. For the fishermen who work mainly in the summer, they usually head to Hawaii in the winter. Still waiting for that European bid... painful!!!!!! How is everything else going? Are there any new discoveries that you can put your name on? I expect to see that sometime. As for here... not much is new. Work, eat, sleep, workout, work, eat, sleep... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leguan Posted April 20, 2013 Report Share Posted April 20, 2013 I missed the feeling of acceleration. You know, most of the time, I'm riding my bicycle. I don't have a car and public transport is almost useless at my place. You can imagine the difference. After riding the motorbike, riding the bicycle feels like not moving at all. Anyway, I think this year I'm going to buy a car. Using the bike for really everything like shopping and going to work every day, can really be a pain. During spring and summer it's quite fine, but just imagine rain, freezing cold temperatures, snow... It will just be an old small car because I can't afford much as a Ph.D. student. Anyway, I should't complain. Compared to Ph.D. students in most other countries, I'm still in a quite comfortable position. At least there are no tuition fees and I'm employed as a scientific assistant on a part-time position (working more than full-time, though). I earn enough for covering general living costs and with the little increase in my salary which I'm getting soon when the first year is over, a cheap car is in the budget, too. And of course I will keep the Honda. I can't ride it very much just for fun, but occasionally its fine. The bike is very economical and tax and insurance are really low. How is everything else going? Are there any new discoveries that you can put your name on? I expect to see that sometime. Not much new. Still preparatory work. Science can be really tedious. Regeneration of the plants is quite slow and it takes a long time until you know whether your approach worked or not. So you have to keep doing it with all the other stuff in the meantime. Like this you didn't waste time if it turns out to be working in the end. However, if it didn't work, you can discard everything and start from the beginning. Anyway, looks like we're able to manage our problems finally, so I might be able to do some real analysis "soon". However, new (and confirmed) discoveries are still far away. Let's say at least a year, if everything goes well now. I just have to wait and see how it goes. However, I really hope to finish after three years when my contract expires. Getting an extension is a bit tricky (my boss would have to find new funding) and I also don't want to extend if it isn't totally neccessary. Still waiting for that European bid... painful!!!!!! I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted April 22, 2013 Report Share Posted April 22, 2013 Yesterday there was a show on the television that made me think of you. It was a show about plants and how they "see". It was really incredible to take a look at some of the experiments that were being conducted to understand how vine-type plants will search out a tomato plant for example. The time lapse photography was totally amazing. I am so excited to know you are in a field that will be beneficial to mankind. Your parents must be so proud! When I was in Germany, the one interesting fact was to see so many people riding their bikes for all sort of errands during every type of weather. It did not matter, snow, freezing rain, this was the "commuter" vehicle. I would have had to have snow tyres on my bike, or chains or something else, just to keep from sliding off into a snow drift. When I was in Mainz, I bought the greatest basket for the front of my bike. It has been indestructible. What a stellar invention! Thank you for the great news about your studies and work. I know you are going to be a success! Remember, good things take time! Working with plants is very difficult, so I applaud you for the time and effort. I will be excited to start calling you Dr. Leguan! When your contract expires, what happens then? Do you think and or plan for that far ahead? Riding the Honda through the countryside must be such a nice feeling. One aspect of being on the bike that I like and do not like are the smells. It is great to smell the orange blossoms and different great smelling flowers, but I really do not like the smell of dryer sheets. You are riding through a neighborhood and smell people using those dryer sheets. Yuck! I laugh when you speak of being on the Honda and then getting on your bicycle. I have done that same thing. I just cannot pedal fast enough. How is your family doing? I know you are probably not getting to see them as much. Hope all is okay there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leguan Posted April 22, 2013 Report Share Posted April 22, 2013 It was really incredible to take a look at some of the experiments that were being conducted to understand how vine-type plants will search out a tomato plant for example. Fascinating, isn't it? Plants look boring to many people, but if you have a closer look, it's getting interesting. You have to keep in mind that unlike an animal, thay can't just run away if there's something which they don't like. They have to cope with everything happening at their place, so they have developed amazing strategies to survive. When I was in Germany, the one interesting fact was to see so many people riding their bikes for all sort of errands during every type of weather. It did not matter, snow, freezing rain, this was the "commuter" vehicle. Yes, for short distances, it really is the commuter vehicle. Especially in city centres during the rush hour, you are faster than if you're going by car, and you don't have to find a parking spot. Another point is that it doesn't use petrol. Petrol is really expensive here and people also try to save it for environmental reasons. And of course, instead of petrol, you are burning calories, which is good for your fitness and shape. Actually, health insurance companies promote biking, because it reduces their costs if people are fitter. When I have a car I'll still keep biking if it's not raining or snowing. Especially snow is bad as you said. You get quite used to drift around in a controlled manner, but at a certain point, you really have to fight your way through the snow. And finally, if it's too high, you just get stuck with your tire spinning but you're not moving at all. Thank you for the great news about your studies and work. I know you are going to be a success! Remember, good things take time! Working with plants is very difficult, so I applaud you for the time and effort. I will be excited to start calling you Dr. Leguan! When your contract expires, what happens then? Do you think and or plan for that far ahead? I know that it takes some time and after the first year, having no results yet is pretty normal. I'm quite relaxed about this. I just have to keep working and then somehow, it should work out in the end. At least for most others it did, so it should also work out for me, too. "No worries", as the Australians would say. Well, I don't know what happens after finishing. It's impossible to precisely plan ahead, but I'm pretty sure about one thing: I don't want to stay at universities because the conditions are not very good. Your salary is comparably low, you're working lots of non-paid extra hours, and you only get temporary (like 1-3 years) contracts. In industry, the working conditions (for sure the salary) usually are better. So if I can find a nice job at a company, I'll go for it. I am (and actually have to be) quite open for different things. Unfortunately, people are not ready for green biotechnology yet in Europe, so it's a bit difficult in my field. There are some other interesting fields in which I could work, too, but I have to see which opportunities are availale when I finish. As I said, you have to be flexible. I actually would prefer to continue working in biotechnology, since I think that it is an important future technology, and finally people will learn that it's not evil or playing god, but just a new technology which opens opportunities for an improved nutrition for the growing world population and for producing renewable resources, for example. I'm pretty sure people will finally accept it, like they did some time ago for biotechnology in medical sciences. Did you know that for example insulin is produced in genetically engineered bacteria? It helps so many people and they inject it directly into their blood, but at the same time they are afraid of eating engineered plants. So there's lots of work to do to inform them about those things so that they can build up their own opinion. For now, here in Europe, people rather believe some anti-biotechnology ideologist groups. Even politicians do so. For those reasons, lots of scientists are leaving for places with better opportunities, which is a shame for Europe and a really bad signal. Anyway, that's the way it is. Actually, I'm also considering to migrate if there's a good opportunity. I really liked Australia. I've been there for almost one year, also working, so I definitely know that I would be quite happy living there if I'm on a well-paid job so that I could afford regular (like twice a year) flights back home. In plant biotechnology, actually the U.S. are the best place for research. Not so many legal restrictions, and most people accept the technology rather than fighting against it. Most of the top research in this field is happening in the U.S. now for those reasons and it's also the biggest market for the products. I've never been in the U.S., but most likely there are places in which I would be happy to live, too. Anyway, it's still at least two years to go, so it's too early to think about details. I'm open for lots of things and I just have to wait and see which opportunities are available when I finish. How is your family doing? I know you are probably not getting to see them as much. Hope all is okay there. They are doing quite fine. I'm not seeing them every weekend, but maybe every month or so. 300 km isn't close (well, Aussies would say it is ), but it also isn't very far. One of my sisters just had a car crash, but she's ok. Just the car is a total loss, so she's a bit sad at the moment. Of course that's not so nice, but she can be very happy that she went out of the wreck totally unharmed, except for some bruises. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted April 23, 2013 Report Share Posted April 23, 2013 Oh my, I am so happy to hear that your sister is okay. A few bruises... those will disappear in no time at all. The vehicle can be replaced. It is so aggravating and such an inconvenience to be without a vehicle, but your sister will soon have another car. Most important, I believe your parents are quite relieved your sister is okay. My plan is to search the internet and see if the televsion show had an internet version. You would really enjoy the show for lay persons. One of the Doctors on the show said exactly the same thing you did... plants are "rooted" and have to defend themselves where they are. They cannot just run away, they have to come up with strategies to survive. The show talked about how plants react to light and a variety of other things. Scents that are given off. There were two universities that were conducting studies and this show was mostly about their research. One reason I am concerned about genetically modified plants is due to the fact that the Monarch butterfly population is disappearing because the corn that was in their migration path, had a food source that they would stop and eat. The genetically modified corn, is resistant to this type of insect. There are millions of monarch butterlies starving to death because the food source in their migration path north from Mexico is gone. Leguan, how do you fix that problem? I know that it helps feed the world to have a better corn crop, but if the monarch butterflies are starved into extinction, then what happens to other plants that depend on this butterfly? Do plants hear? I talk to my plants and play music for them. For some reason, I think they like the vibrations. Plants probably hate the sound of a weed-eater and a chain saw. In the USA there are many studies, and I believe you could get a good job here. I do believe you could find some place that you liked as far as living over here. Plus, the ride from the USA to your home is a lot shorter than from Australia, giving you a couple extra days to visit. Two years will go by fast. If you end up in the USA, you always have a place to stay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leguan Posted April 23, 2013 Report Share Posted April 23, 2013 One reason I am concerned about genetically modified plants is due to the fact that the Monarch butterfly population is disappearing because the corn that was in their migration path, had a food source that they would stop and eat. The genetically modified corn, is resistant to this type of insect. There are millions of monarch butterlies starving to death because the food source in their migration path north from Mexico is gone. Leguan, how do you fix that problem? I know that it helps feed the world to have a better corn crop, but if the monarch butterflies are starved into extinction, then what happens to other plants that depend on this butterfly? Well, every technology has it's risks. The risks have to be assessed and proper measures have to be taken to avoid or at least minimize them. There are actually a lot of things related to biotechnology which I don't like, too. Like companies abusing the technology for making farmers dependent on them. But this is not the technology itself, but people abusing it. I know it's a bad comparison, but here's another example. You can use explosives in mining, in airbags and in many other useful things, but you can also use them to kill people... So let's talk about your example. I totally agree that this is a negative effect. However, this is a negative effect of modern agriculture in general. For the butterfly it doesn't matter whether the insectizide is sprayed by the farmer, or it is kind of a "built-in insecticide" which is the case in the corn which you mentioned. Those big monocultures, especially corn, are bad for animals in general, also with "normal" crops. Diseases can spread very quickly, so you need lots of pesticides to protect the plants. An alternative would be to have smaller fields with different crops on them, but that's not economical nowadays. Another problem with monocultures and excess use of pesticides (or resistant plants) is, that it renders the pesticides / resistant plants useless at some point. The pathogens are put under massive selective pressure which leads to the formation of resistant populations. A proper application would be mixing resistant plants with non-resistant ones. The latter are a refuge for the pathogens, so the are relieved from the selective pressure and develop less resistances. And it would help the butterflies, too. Exactly the same thing is happening with antibiotics. There's excess and improper use of them (not only in medicine, even more in farming again for all the meat production), so pathogens are on a massive pressure and resistant ones can easily spread. And then, if you really need functioning antibiotics because there's no other possibility, they are useless. Just because other people abused them for making more profit or being sloppy while using them. So as I said, it's not the technology, but it's the people using it. Another point is, that with this insect-resistant corn, we're talking about the first generation of engineered crops. Those have traits which increase the yield only. So they are good for the farmer, but the consumer has no advantage, except for maybe a slightly cheaper price. It really is only slightly cheaper for the consumer because actually the production accounts only for a small percentage of the consumer price, think about transport, processing and of course all the distributors making their profit. However, plant biotechnology is much more than insect-resistant corn. Let's talk about the next generation of engineered plants. Those will have an increased value for the customer. One example is "golden rice". In large parts of the world where rice is the primary food source, people suffer a lack of vitamin A. The engineered rice produces vitamin A and adds it to their nutrition. For butterflies or other animals, it's more or less the same as conventional rice. Another application of biotechnology would be to reduce the amount of endogenous toxins and allergens which exist in many plants. There are also industrial applications and new products. There's for example an engineered potato with an altered starch composition, which is very useful for making "bio"plastics, without using any oil for it. And let's even think further. There's research being done at the moment for producing vaccines in transgenic plants. Those would be incredibly cheap compared to production systems which are used nowadays, so vaccines could become affordable to poor people, too. There are tons of other possible applications of the technology. However, it is really important to carefully asses the risks, and this has to be done by independent, government-funded researchers. Also, the governments should invest much more in research (and good working conditions in research) in order to develop the technology rather than leaving it to a couple of big companies, which only sell it to people who can pay enough money for licences. The same thing is happening in pharmaceutics. Companies are interested in money, so they rather develop stuff to cure comparably rare diseases occuring in "first world" countries (they can pay for it) instead of focusing on widespread diseases in developing countries (they can't pay for it). If governments would invest more in research, this could be changed. So maybe now you are thinking that I'm contradicting myelf with saying that the field shouldn't be left to companies, since I want to work in a company. I actually would prefer to work for the government (as I'm doing now), but the conditions are really bad as I said. It's not just about the comparably low salary (consider that I'll be 30 years old when finishing and starting to work for a "real" salary, of which I also have to pay back debts which I had to accumulate during my studies). If it was just the money and everything else was fine, I would go for it. However, the working conditions are bad. You're working lots of extra-hours having less time for social life and so on, and you're always on temporary contracts, being forced to apply for new jobs all the time and moving every couple of years. Moving is fine for me at the moment and I'm happy to explore new things, but at some point in my life I probably want to settle down, maybe have an own family and so on. So a company is probably the better choice for me. Anyway, I wouldn't work for every company. There's one which is really bad, and unfortunately it is leading the market and contributing to the bad reputation of biotechnology. I would never work for them, for example. Do plants hear? I talk to my plants and play music for them. For somereason, I think they like the vibrations. Plants probably hate the sound of a weed-eater and a chain saw. Well, so far there's no evidence for that. However, it also would be totally unscientific to say that plant's definitely can't hear. There's for sure no hearing like in animals, but maybe there are mechanisms which we don't know yet. Although it isn't known whether plants can hear, it's known that they can "talk". They are not talking like us, but they are using chemical compounds. In some plants it was shown that if one is under heavy attack by herbivores, it releases chemicals to warn it's neighbours, which then will produce protective substances, for example making them bitter and unattractive to the herbivore. Two years will go by fast. If you end up in the USA, you always have a place to stay. If you're not living in Germany then. Thanks for the offer anyway, I appreciate that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted April 25, 2013 Report Share Posted April 25, 2013 You are brilliant! Very important point... humans usually abuse most things. Take antibiotics... I do not take any. When I broke my ankle, I did not take any pain killers what-so-ever. What I found, the recovery time for my ankle was cut in half. Many people do not pay attention and abuse antibiotics. Exactly as you said, the virus will morph and become resistant to every antibiotic you take. Then when you really need those antibiotics, they do not work.With some of the crops in the USA, the farmers are finding that the weeds are becoming resistant to the weed-killers and are growing taller and stronger. The weed killer, Round-up by Monsanto is creating what they call super-weeds. In 2007, this problem covered about 2.4 millions acres and in 2011 it had increased to about 11 million acres. Genetics can be wonderful. I am really pleased about the plastic alternative.It is late and I want to respond more, so it will have to be tomorrow.For now, I have a few pictures that I took and I really got excited. The pictures are of a mother and baby bug. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leguan Posted April 28, 2013 Report Share Posted April 28, 2013 the virus will morph and become resistant to every antibiotic you take. Actually, antibiotics don't kill viruses, only bacteria. The reason why it sometimes still makes sense to take antibiotics during a viral infection is to kill opportunistic bacteria. Those are too weak to spread and cause disease symptoms under normal conditions, but when the immune system is weakened by for example a virus, they take their opportunity, too. BTW, it is not so easy to destroy viruses in a living organism, without harming the organism. I'm saying to destroy, because you can't kill viruses. In fact, they are not living. They don't have any metabolism. They are more like a little machine which injects its own "construction plan" (DNA or RNA) into a host cell, and then manipulates the host cell to do nothing but produce copies of the virus. The results are thousands of new viruses, and a dead host cell. For now, I have a few pictures that I took and I really got excited. The pictures are of a mother and baby bug. Nice aphid photos. Did you know that those don't lay eggs? They are livebearing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted April 29, 2013 Report Share Posted April 29, 2013 the virus will morph and become resistant to every antibiotic you take. Actually, antibiotics don't kill viruses, only bacteria. The reason why it sometimes still makes sense to take antibiotics during a viral infection is to kill opportunistic bacteria. Those are too weak to spread and cause disease symptoms under normal conditions, but when the immune system is weakened by for example a virus, they take their opportunity, too. BTW, it is not so easy to destroy viruses in a living organism, without harming the organism. I'm saying to destroy, because you can't kill viruses. In fact, they are not living. They don't have any metabolism. They are more like a little machine which injects its own "construction plan" (DNA or RNA) into a host cell, and then manipulates the host cell to do nothing but produce copies of the virus. The results are thousands of new viruses, and a dead host cell. >For now, I have a few pictures that I took and I really got excited. The pictures are of a mother and baby bug. Nice aphid photos. Did you know that those don't lay eggs? They are livebearing. I had no idea!!!! How nice to have someone so knowledgeable posting!!!!! It was purely accidental that I caught the bugs and I was thrilled to see the mother and baby. Thank you for telling me that information! How interesting!!!!! It does not take too much to get me excited. I also was unaware that antibiotics did not kill viruses. Thank you, thank you, thank you for keeping us informed! I love learning! What great information!!! You have totally made my day! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted May 4, 2013 Report Share Posted May 4, 2013 Lots and lots of rain yesterday. But today... what a beautiful day!!! The plants probably got more rain than they wanted in one day, but everything is really green because of all the rain! Time for a bike ride!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leguan Posted May 10, 2013 Report Share Posted May 10, 2013 I should take a photo from my window. There are two small meadows which are yellow from dandelions and buttercups, and there are fields which are yellow from canola. I can spot wild deer and buzzards almost every day and a couple of days ago, I also saw a fox. Without leaving my apartment. I really like living a bit out of town. Good news about my project, I finally selected some good plants. Still lots of work to select more of them and even more work to characterize them, but at least something is working now. During the last weeks, I was quite busy with teaching. New experience to me. Switching the sides feels really weird, but it's quite fine. Have to get used to it, since Ph.D. students have to do teaching here as part of their contract with the university. I had to take over part of the practical course for the medical students. They are in their first semester and have to take a biology course. So I got groups of 16 students and had to do the experiments with them. I also got two student assistants (another new experience ) who helped with the experiments. I did a preliminary discussion, then guided the students through the experiments, and did a final discussion. Since I hated bad courses as a student, I tried to do better and spent quite a bit of time for the preparation. I tried to relate the topic as much as possible to medicine to make it interesting for them. It was a microbiology course, so it wasn't too hard to find good examples. I told them a lot about antibiotics, for example. It was just very tricky to find a good balance because their background knowledge was extremely different. Some were bored while others were a bit lost already. However, I think that most of them liked the course and I also liked the new experience, even though it was lots of work. Totally unrelated, but since we were talking about bicycles earlier: 28 % of people transport in Göttingen is done by bicylce. Read it in the newspaper. Average in Germany is 15 %, by the way, and it's increasing. It is argued that it could be even much higher, especially in cities 50% are possible with appropriate infrastructure. In Münster where they recognized earlier that bike infrastructure is comparably cheap and solves space, noise and pollution problems, they already have 38%. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted May 11, 2013 Report Share Posted May 11, 2013 The photo from your window would be excellent! Do you eat dandelion leaves in Germany? Your project sounds really fantastic! Switching sides from the student to the teacher sounds like quite a challenge, but at least you know that you are finally moving up the ladder towards success. Congratulations on the new plants and having assistants to help with the experiments. I am certain that we will be reading about your success sooner than you think! At work, we have pilots who become instructors. I wish they would be as serious as you are when it comes to preparing. There was one instructor who walked into our class, seventeen minutes late and the first words out of his mouth were "wow, I have not looked at this in over six months". Needless to say, the rest of the class was a disaster. The statistics on bicycling are fantastic. I wish there would be more bicycling infrastructure here in the U.S.. One of the problems is the urban sprawl. Things are just way too spread out. Hopefully I will be able to move to Germany and bring my bicycle. Visiting a friend at the hospital now, so I will have to run. Talk to you soon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leguan Posted May 19, 2013 Report Share Posted May 19, 2013 Finally, here's the picture which I promised. No deer around today. It was a nice sunny day, so I went for a quite long walk in the forest. Wild garlic is flowering everywhere now. I picked a bit, tastes really good. At some places, there's also lots of Lily of the Valley. Beautiful, but highly poisonous. View from my window. Carpets of wild garlic in the forest. Last week, I went to the Brocken mountain in the Harz national park. While walking up, I also crossed the former border, where West and East Germany used to be divided. Trees are already taking back their old habitat in the "death zone" on the Eastern side, where they were cut down to secure the border more efficiently- and deadly for those who tried to escape to the West. Luckily, this is all past and also the military zone is gone, which prevented people from accessing the summit. The last Soviet soldier left in 1994 and the military equipment was removed. Even though the Brocken is not very high (1150m above sea level), the climate at the summit is alpine. There were still some patches of snow around and no trees are growing there. I was quite lucky with the weather, just a bit of rain. In general, this is the wettest and windiest place in Germany. This is because the Harz is totally surrounded by quite flat land. When the weather is nice, you can have a spectacular view in all directions, nothing blocking your sight. When the conditions are perfect, the visual range is up to 250 km. This means that you could see half of Germany. When I was up there, it was around 50km, still quite good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted May 23, 2013 Report Share Posted May 23, 2013 Lily of the Valley... one of my favourites!!! When I look at Germany and France, I always wondered what the yellow fields were... canola. Fantastic! One of the guys always said the yellow was mustard plants. Now I know for sure! Thank you!!! I also did not know what wild garlic looked like. Very nice of you to post the pictures!!! Love the view from your window! Rained oceans yesterday... and some more today. The plants are happy, the worms are miserable. I have rescued a whole bunch of earthworms and relocated them to a dryer area where it would not flood. Will post some photgraphs of my lilies after the rain stops. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leguan Posted May 23, 2013 Report Share Posted May 23, 2013 The yellow fields which you see from your plane in Germany are mostly canola. It is grown for vegetable oil, but mostly for biodiesel fuel. However, in France you might actually see mustard which is closely related to canola and looks very similar. There, they also grow lots of sunflowers, for the same purpose as canola. It's also raining oceans here now after a quite nice weekend. And temperatures dropped dramatically. In fact, it was warmer at Christmas. No kidding. Night temperatures are only little above zero. Anyway, temperatures are predicted to slowly rise back to levels which are normal for this time of the year, but the rain will stay for at least another week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leguan Posted May 24, 2013 Report Share Posted May 24, 2013 Just read: the Brocken mountain got 13cm of fresh snow. The weather is really going insane. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted May 25, 2013 Report Share Posted May 25, 2013 I always love hearing from you. You educate me on so many things!!! Thank you Leguan! I remember riding on the train from Paris to Milan and seeing the fields of sunflowers. It was a magnificent sight! On that same note, I would love to be swallowed up in a field of Lavendar flowers. That would be intoxicating!!! Talk about crazy weather... the U.S. has some really crazy weather as well. Be back. Just woke up and need to make coffee. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted May 30, 2013 Report Share Posted May 30, 2013 It went from cold and rainy to hot, steamy hot. So... I need to pull weeds, but I am not too anxious to accomplish this task. Guess I just need to do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
- Kat - Posted June 2, 2013 Report Share Posted June 2, 2013 Weather here has been all over the place, too. The last few days have been steamy and hot, then it stormed on and off for a few days, and tonight was quite cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted June 2, 2013 Report Share Posted June 2, 2013 Good weather for plants, not great weather for humans. I wonder if plants are unhappy when it is humid, or just like the extra moisture in the air... hmmm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
- Kat - Posted June 2, 2013 Report Share Posted June 2, 2013 I know it's possible for plants to drown when there's too much water, so some of them probably don't like it too much XD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted June 3, 2013 Report Share Posted June 3, 2013 Today I have to go out and clean up the garden. I should go out early, but you know how those things go. My day will probably go like this... drink coffee, goof off, have breakfast, goof off, have lunch, goof off, drink more coffee, really goof off, have dinner, then take a shower, goof off for the last time today and then head to bed. Hmmmm... does not seem like there is too much time dedicated to accomplishing any of the tasks on my To Do List. Perhaps I need to get focused. *looks at my long, long To Do List, runs off to get another cup of coffee* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
- Kat - Posted June 3, 2013 Report Share Posted June 3, 2013 XD Your day plan looks a lot like mine! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted June 3, 2013 Report Share Posted June 3, 2013 Yes... I feel like Hiero and Hedvig... sleep, eat, sleep, run in the wheel, sleep, eat... my favourite kind of day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leguan Posted June 11, 2013 Report Share Posted June 11, 2013 Here the weather is very nice now, but after the extraordinary strong rain more than one week ago, floodings continue. The little creek next to my place which is usually completely dry at this time of the year flooded a bit. My place was fine (except for the leak in the roof ), but some basements nearby were full of water. Lots of work for the local firefighters. I've been in Cologne last weekend. The Rhine river is also flooding, but not very severe. No shipping traffic on Europe's most important navigable waterway at the moment. However, this is nothing compared to what's going on further east and south. At some places, they had or currently have the worst floodings ever recorded. 70.000 firefighters, 11.000 soldiers (also joined by some volunteer U.S. soldiers who are based in the regions) and 3.500 specialists from the federal agency for technical relief are trying to hold the dams, but at some places they didn't succeed. Damage is in the range of billions already. Some towns where rebuilding was just finished after the 2002 floodings are totally destroyed again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted June 11, 2013 Report Share Posted June 11, 2013 Oh no... we are so, so sorry to hear you we impacted with roof leaks during the rains. We have been watching the news on the flooding and it looks really bad. Was the roof leak so bad that your funiture was damaged or were you able to control the leaks with buckets? It must be so difficult for those people who just got finished rebuilding. They worked so hard to rebuild and now they have to do it all over again. My heart goes out to them. Please keep us informed on the status of things. If there is anything we can do to help you, please let us know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leguan Posted June 12, 2013 Report Share Posted June 12, 2013 My place is perfectly fine now. The sealing at the chimney became loose and some water came in, making its way through the ceiling. I was quite lucky because it was not very much and at it just dripped on the floor where I could easily wipe it away. No furniture affected. I was at home when it happened, so I immeadiately went up to the attic and collected most of the water with buckets. My landlord also reacted quite quick and sent a roofer the next day who fixed it provisionally and now it is also already fixed properly. There's only a water stain left at the ceiling which will disappear with some fresh paint. So everything is fine here. As I said, here it was really nothing compared to other regions. After losing everything for the second time in a rather short period, many people probably will leave the affected areas now. Actually, even though it is really bad for the affected people, that's a quite good idea in my opinion. The next floodings will come for sure. It's just a matter of time. We should give nature more space and stop building too close to rivers. Agricultural land close to a river is fine because losses are rather low if it is flooded, but there should be construction bans for high risk areas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted June 14, 2013 Report Share Posted June 14, 2013 Attention... here is my email address for everyone. darker52843@mypacks.net Horatio Hadley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted June 18, 2013 Report Share Posted June 18, 2013 Okay everyone... we had a small glitch. We are back up and running. Whoo Hoo!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
- Kat - Posted June 19, 2013 Report Share Posted June 19, 2013 Attention... here is my email address for everyone. darker52843@mypacks.net Horatio Hadley o.o did a spam bot get ahold of your account, Horatio? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
- Kat - Posted June 19, 2013 Report Share Posted June 19, 2013 Oh yeah, Horatio, I was going to ask you. How much of the stuff I still have from Sasha do you think I need to replace? I was thinking about getting another hamster, and I still have a lot of bedding and food left over. I wasn't sure how much of that spoils and needs to be tossed out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted June 19, 2013 Report Share Posted June 19, 2013 Usually the bedding and food do not go bad. Here is my question... where did you store it? Before you get another hamster you need to wash out your old cage with some warm water and a little bleach. Sasha was healthy, so you are not worried about diseases, but this is just in case she had any health problems that you did not know about. After you clean out the cage, then you need to air dry it for a couple days so that the bleach smell is completely gone. I am happy to hear that you are thinking about another hamster! You can always rescue a hamster. Some of these hamstersso are much harder to work with at first, but when you win them over, they are very happy to have a new lease on life. I had a couple one eyes... and they were the absolute sweetest hamsters, that were rejected by everyone. They both were adopted from the pet store. It took them a little bit longer to trust, not only did they have poor eyesight, they only had one eye to see out of. They were really terrific hamsters. Biters are also adoptable and very easy to train not to bite. Hamsters bite out of fear. Usually, no one wants to take the time to help a biting hamster, the pet stores usually turn them into snake dinner. Some of the pet stores, when showing hamsters to people, just reach into the cage, pull off the house, and grab a hamster. If the hamster is scared, it will bite. So, then the hamster is tossed into a cage in the back as one that needs to be adopted or served as dinner. These hamsters also turn into great pets. They just take a little bit of work to get them to trust you. It is not that long and usually it pays off. Hiero has bitten. So, I realized that she needed training of a different kind, so that she knew what was expected. For example, you cannot reach into her cage and grab her. You need to wake her up, and then get her moving on her own. Once this happens, she is okay to pick up. I believe her eyesight is probably the worst of any hamster I have had. She knows her name and if I call her, she will get up and come out of her house. Also, for many hamsters, whispering really gets their attention. Hamsters have excellent hearing and if you whisper to them, you can get their attention very quickly. Anyway, let me know where you stored your food and bedding and I will let you know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted June 19, 2013 Report Share Posted June 19, 2013 Attention... here is my email address for everyone. darker52843@mypacks.net Horatio Hadley o.o did a spam bot get ahold of your account, Horatio? No, I change my password regularly. I just thought if there was a problem with the boards, then people could reach me until the boards were fixed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leguan Posted June 22, 2013 Report Share Posted June 22, 2013 Oh, the board is back. Thought its really suspended now because on the hampsterdance site its also not linked anymore. Noted your email Horatio, just in case. Talking about rodents, I got my new Persian jirds (Meriones persicus) last Sunday. I'm not sure whether I posted it before, but after having rats for several years, I had a rodent break for a while. A bit more than one year ago, I wanted to have something again. I didn't want to have rats because even though I really loved them, I hated to see them getting sick, developing cancer and passing away way too early. So after some searching for a suited animal, I found Persian jirds. They live for up to 6 years which is almost three times as long as rats do live. They are also rather big (although still a lot smaller than rats), very friendly and they also become very tame, although not totally comparable to rats. The huge disadvantage is their availabilty. They were first imported to Germany only less than 20 years ago and are still somewhat difficult to get, since they also don't breed as much as most other rodents do and require lots of space, which prevents commercial breeders to have them. So I was quite lucky to find a group of 4 only 160km away. 3 males and 1 female. Unuasual group composition, but fine with Persian jirds since they are very social animals. Two of the males were brothers, approx. 1 year old. The other two unfortunately were already very old, exact age unknown since they were rescued from absolutely inappropriate keeping. I took the whole group but the two old ones passed away quite quickly after less than one year, which was kind of expected but still very sad. Both of them actually were the tamest ones. Then I only had the two young brothers left (which now are a bit more than 2 years old). In the beginning they were very shy, but after spending lots of time with them they also became very tame and now they come and climb on me when I open the terrarium. After the two old ones passed away, I started looking for some new friends for the remaining boys. Not so easy. If you search all the major classifieds online, you find maybe one or two offers per month in whole Germany and probably ten classifieds in which people search for them. Anyway, I was very lucky again. I found two very young females just 100km from my place and I was lucky to see the ad only hours after it was posted online and being the first one to reply. The owner said she got many more inquiries afterwards. Last year she also sold some to people from the Netherlands and even Switzerland. That's almost a full day drive one way. She reserved them for me, since they were only two weeks old when she posted the ad. Last week they were 7 weeks old, old enough to be separated from the mother. I picked them up last Sunday and after one day, I started the integration with my two boys. Going very well so far. First meeting was on neutral terrain in the bath tub with a bit of water in it. That's done because then they are so confused with the situation that they don't think about fighting, but already see and smell each other. Next meetings were in a very small cage which all of them didn't know yet, also going very well. Two times a few hours, then two full days. Almost no figths. Only some very quick and not severe ones to clarifiy the ranking. Now they are in the small segment of the terrarium, also doing well. Yesterday they got the first house. Today I will open the big segment of the terrarium and if its going well, give them their "furniture" step by step. With jirds it is very important to do the integration very slowly and just step by step, otherwise you risk that subgroups will form which claim the territory and defend it if you give them too much at once. So far its going very well. I hope that they will also reproduce in the next breeding season (May to September), so that I could see the young ones growing up and help spreading this wonderful species. Talking about breeding, my fish are also breeding a lot at the moment. All 3 species which I have. They are African cichlids from lake Tanganjika. One species (Julidochromis transcriptus) breeds under rocks, the other one in snail shells (Neolamprologus multifasciatus) and the third one is a mouthbreeder (Cyprichromis leptosoma). A good thing about them is the fact that it is also rather easy to sell them because they are not the most common species. Two of the species can be found in pet shops, but by far not every shop has them as it is the case for guppies for example. And their reproduction rate is also much lower and they only reproduce under good conditions. I have the Neolamprologus for several years already and it was really easy to sell them. Sold two groups already. The tricky part is just to catch them. And that one is actually the most common one. The Cyprichromis are rather rare, I have never seen them in a pet shop and when I was looking for them, the shops also couldn't order them. Got them from a private breeder last year. So should also be very easy to sell the young ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted June 22, 2013 Report Share Posted June 22, 2013 I do remember you talking about the jirds, but you never posted any pictures. Please, post pictures. If I ever move to Germany, I would like to be the first person on your list as a buyer for a pair. Jirds are gerbils in the USA. Mostly you find only the brown/tan coloured ones. The grey/black/white colouring is very rare. I know you told us, and I cannot remember, what was the colouring of yours? Fish are also wonderful. Isn't it amazing how relaxing it is to watch fish swim around in their tank? My problem is that I want the fish to have a much bigger space than i can afford. I would need to hire a company just to take care of the tank. As for my email, you have my other email and that is still good. I just did not want to have my personal email on Facebook, as some people allow Facebook access to their email accounts. Very, very bad idea. I will be back later. On my way to the gym. Need to get into shape before winter sets in again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leguan Posted June 22, 2013 Report Share Posted June 22, 2013 Jirds are gerbils in the USA. Mostly you find only the brown/tan coloured ones. The grey/black/white colouring is very rare. I know you told us, and I cannot remember, what was the colouring of yours? We're talking about something different. You mean the Mongolian jird (Meriones unguiculatus) which is also called gerbil. That one is very easy to get here, since it is a very common pet nowadays. Almost as common as rats, also with all the different colours. However, I have Persian jirds (Meriones persicus). Compared to the gerbils, they are bigger, live longer and are also a bit more clever. They all come in wild type color which is brown with a white abdomen. There are no colour varieties yet because they are only kept as pets for a rather short time. Also the behaviour is still very wild-type like. For example, they still stick to their breeding season. The fact that they are still very close to the wild type is good, even though they don't come in all the colours. However, like this they are a lot healthier. During breeding of the colour varieties, different fur patterns and so on, a lot of inbreeding is done because almost all of the alleles are recessive. So without inbreeding, you would only get the phenotype extremely rarely. However, inbreeding in general increases the level of homozygous alleles in the genome, so also many diseases which are mostly recessive become much more frequent in the phenotype. Just have a look at dogs for example. If you cross two full-blooded races, the half-caste very often doesn't develop typical diseases and is more long-lived. If you are interested in further details, google "heterosis" or "hybrid vigor". Ok, that's enough genetics. Fish are also wonderful. Isn't it amazing how relaxing it is to watch fish swim around in their tank? My problem is that I want the fish to have a much bigger space than i can afford. I would need to hire a company just to take care of the tank. I know, thats a common problem. I have a 420l tank (thats 110 gallons). Not that small, but I would love to have a bigger one. However, this one was already heavy (heavier than I am ) and bulky enough to carry when I was moving. And the electricity bill also grows with the size of the fishtank. Like petrol and natural gas, also electricity is insanely expensive here, more than twice as expensive compared to the USA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted June 23, 2013 Report Share Posted June 23, 2013 I was unaware of the difference in jirds. Thank you for explaining this to me. It is always great to learn from you!!! Now if and when I move to Germany I want a pair of your type jirds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leguan Posted June 23, 2013 Report Share Posted June 23, 2013 Here come the photos. Not so easy to take with my Coolpix S2500. Had to do many shots and keep the best ones only. The jirds are almost always moving somehow. One of my new young females. Together with one of my adult males. Note the difference in their sizes. One of the guys begging for food. And that's their home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted June 23, 2013 Report Share Posted June 23, 2013 Those are really fantastic images!!! Thank you so much! Their home is terrific! It would be great if I had one similar for my hammie's, just with a divider to keep them separated. Is this house the same house you used for your rats? Now, I definitely want a pair! I just have to move to Germany! I was trying to take some pictures of my hammies, and the coolpix is a terrific camera, but every time I put it in the cage, the both hamsters run up to the lens to examine what is in their cage. I searched around here to see if your jirds were available in the USA and I was unable to find anything but the gerbils. As you had mentioned, the gerbils are over bred. The same goes for dogs and cats. What is really distressing is that people are mixing breeds and then trying to get them certified as a new breed, when they used to be called mutts or mixed breeds. I can't wait until someone decides to mix a great dane with a basset hound. Perhaps they will try and certify it as a basset dane... a big, long dog with these short little squatty legs. Horrid thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted June 26, 2013 Report Share Posted June 26, 2013 I have almost all my travel plans in place for a journey to India on the 29th. It is one very long flight! It was a quick decision whether to go the first or second week of July, so late last night, I decided on the first week. Well, flights are very booked, so I moved my travel date forward instead of back. This should be an exciting and fun time. Thank goodness for digital cameras, I can take a zillion pictures! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leguan Posted June 26, 2013 Report Share Posted June 26, 2013 Have a nice trip then. And don't forget to post the pictures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted June 27, 2013 Report Share Posted June 27, 2013 Absolutely!!!! Thank you for the good wishes. It should be fun and I hope to see the sights. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted June 29, 2013 Report Share Posted June 29, 2013 At the moment, I am sitting in Newark airport waiting for the flight from Newark to Brussels. This should take over seven hours, then on to Mumbai. The second leg is about ten hours. I am already tired. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
- Kat - Posted June 30, 2013 Report Share Posted June 30, 2013 The Jet-Setting Life of Horatio: International Hamster of Mystery Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted July 1, 2013 Report Share Posted July 1, 2013 Sounds like a good title for a book... are you in the writing mood? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted July 1, 2013 Report Share Posted July 1, 2013 Last night, I finally got settled into my room. A long, hot wonderful shower, then off to bed. Except... I really could not sleep. So this morning, I was able to drag myself down to the restaurant and had five cups of coffee. Well, as I finally woke up, I realized that I had left my room in my running clothes, with dress shoes on. I felt really stupid. Good thing there were very few people in the restaurant and no one was really looking at my fashion statement. I need to focus and am totally unable. This really stinks. Worse than writer's block. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted July 2, 2013 Report Share Posted July 2, 2013 If I did not know better, I would think it was monsoon weather in India. All it has done since I arrived is rain and rain and rain. Day and night. Not just sprinkles, but good big raindrops that the plants love! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
- Kat - Posted July 3, 2013 Report Share Posted July 3, 2013 You were making an artistic statement and nobody can judge art. Say that if it ever happens again and someone points it out to you XD I want rain ;___; it's cooler here than it has been for a while but rain would be nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted July 4, 2013 Report Share Posted July 4, 2013 I love your thinking!!!! You just made my day! I have to remember your statement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted July 6, 2013 Report Share Posted July 6, 2013 Back home again. I must say that sleeping in my own bed feels really, really good!!! Mumbai was a disaster. Monsoon weather... rain, rain and lots more rain. The trip over was one I prefer not to repeat and the flight home was only slightly better. The hotel food was interesting. I had crackers that were made from lentils, and they were as thin as onion skin paper and absolutely delightful! A tasty treat. Lots of veggies in all different forms. Eating only traditional Indian food, I had great meals. No tourist attractions as the rain was too much. Maybe next time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
- Kat - Posted July 8, 2013 Report Share Posted July 8, 2013 I could have used some of that rain, it was so hot today x.x What really stinks is that the AC in our store doesn't work very well, so it's always super hot inside as well as outside. Same goes for my car. I've never tried Indian food. All I know about is curry, which I don't know if I'd like because I have a very low tolerance for spicy things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted July 8, 2013 Report Share Posted July 8, 2013 Curry is good. It does not have to be hot, but it has a wonderful flavour. It is the water and how they cook things that got me. Cleanliness is not one of the top ten priorities. Air conditioning is so over-rated... No, I need the air conditioning not so much for the heat, but to remove the moisture. I can work when it is warmer, but do not like the humidity at one hundred percent. Having to do your job with a poorly working air conditioning unit is really tough. At least in your car, you can open the windows and get some air flow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
- Kat - Posted July 9, 2013 Report Share Posted July 9, 2013 Yeah, it's especially annoying because our district manager won't let us have a fan in our area so we have to try to be friendly and welcoming to customers while we're sweaty and dying. how long will you be home? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted July 9, 2013 Report Share Posted July 9, 2013 Hopefully if I can work it right, all summer! So... I have been waiting to hear about your pyrotechnic adventures on the fourth of July. Anything interesting? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Biggest Fan Of Fuzzy Posted July 14, 2013 Report Share Posted July 14, 2013 Had a dream that I met MegaWolf in person last night, so I figured I'd stop by and say hello. Glad to see that the forum isn't 100% deserted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted July 14, 2013 Report Share Posted July 14, 2013 In your travels, perhaps if you are ever in San Diego, perhaps you will meet her. That would be incredible, wouldn't it? How is your photograpy going? Still taking incredible pictures? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Biggest Fan Of Fuzzy Posted July 15, 2013 Report Share Posted July 15, 2013 In your travels, perhaps if you are ever in San Diego, perhaps you will meet her. That would be incredible, wouldn't it? How is your photograpy going? Still taking incredible pictures? Oh, she's from San Diego? I don't know why but I was always under the impression that she was from Northern California. I'm actually trying to go to LA this week. I have a bunch of miles that are going to expire at the end of the month, so I figured I'd go visit a friend while I have the opportunity. I made a few adjustments to my travel goals for the next few years. I was supposed to spend the next year in China working and studying, but I decided to stick around the US this year and wait until next year, after I graduate. I'm in a five year program, but I'm going to finish it in four years, so I decided to move to Shanghai, for at least a year, while the rest of my friends are still in school. That way, I won't feel like I'm missing anything and after the year is up and they graduate, depending on how I like it, I can then decide if I want to stay or move back to New York City. The only "incredible" pictures I've taken have been selfies in my bed. I've done NOTHING this summer, besides lay in bed and watch hours and hours and hours and days and weeks worth of Mad Men, Dexter, Arrested Development and Homeland. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted July 16, 2013 Report Share Posted July 16, 2013 In your travels, perhaps if you are ever in San Diego, perhaps you will meet her. That would be incredible, wouldn't it? How is your photograpy going? Still taking incredible pictures? Oh, she's from San Diego? I don't know why but I was always under the impression that she was from Northern California. I'm actually trying to go to LA this week. I have a bunch of miles that are going to expire at the end of the month, so I figured I'd go visit a friend while I have the opportunity. I made a few adjustments to my travel goals for the next few years. I was supposed to spend the next year in China working and studying, but I decided to stick around the US this year and wait until next year, after I graduate. I'm in a five year program, but I'm going to finish it in four years, so I decided to move to Shanghai, for at least a year, while the rest of my friends are still in school. That way, I won't feel like I'm missing anything and after the year is up and they graduate, depending on how I like it, I can then decide if I want to stay or move back to New York City. The only "incredible" pictures I've taken have been selfies in my bed. I've done NOTHING this summer, besides lay in bed and watch hours and hours and hours and days and weeks worth of Mad Men, Dexter, Arrested Development and Homeland. Sometimes, the body needs those hours and hours of relaxing. Great to hear that you will be completing your studies a year early! Incredible!!! Yes, a year in Shanghai will be very, very good for you. You will have an excellent resume after the year spent in China. You can always post a picture of yourself. We love those too!!! Enjoy using your miles. Too bad you were not able to attend the San Diego Comic Con, this coming weekend. It should be an outstanding weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted July 21, 2013 Report Share Posted July 21, 2013 Today I tried something new... making frozen strawberry yogurt. I bought some frozen strawberries, fresh strawberries, stevia, vanilla and some plain Greek yogurt. After washing and cutting up the fresh strawberries, and slightly thawing the frozen strawberries, I placed some of each into the blender. To this I added some stevia and vanilla and pushed the chop button. After it was blended some, I added the yogurt to the strawberries. Accomplishing the process a few times, I poured the mixture into three containers, added more chunks of strawberries, mixed them in, and placed the containers into the freezer. We are waiting for the yogurt to freeze and try the dessert. I will let you know if this worked or not... tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted July 24, 2013 Report Share Posted July 24, 2013 My frozen yogurt was interesting. It turned out to be a little on the icy side, but not so much so. It was actually pretty tasty. Today I purchased some peaches from the farmer's market and have decided to try this with peaches. As these are fresh and not frozen, perhaps this will work out better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted July 25, 2013 Report Share Posted July 25, 2013 Here is a bug outside my side door. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted August 8, 2013 Report Share Posted August 8, 2013 What do you think about a HampsterDance Boards reunion? Thoughts anyone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted August 11, 2013 Report Share Posted August 11, 2013 *watches as a Tumbleweed crosses the screen* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leguan Posted August 11, 2013 Report Share Posted August 11, 2013 Hi there. A reunion would be nice, but I doubt it would work out unfortunately. I try to occasionally check the boards... i just came back from vacation. I went home visiting family and friends and for a short camping trip to the Eifel national park. Very nice location (I even spotted a European wildcat) and the weather was awesome. After the cold, dark and long winter and a cold and rainy spring we are having a fantastic hot summer. At some places, the temperatures were close to break the 2003 records. During the last days it cooled down a bit, but it still is quite nice and temperatures are predicted to rise again. I really love it, especially because it is quite dry and not so humid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horatio Posted August 12, 2013 Report Share Posted August 12, 2013 Welcome back! I would sent out emails to everyone on the list, who has an active email address. So, if your email is not updated, please do that. Now I just have to figure out what day is best. It sounds like you had a remarkable holiday!!! So, where is the picture of the European wildcat??? We have been walking in the park everyday. There are lots of deer and we often get to see some fawn As of August, most of the fawn are getting a pretty big, but yesterday I saw a really little fawn. The baby was so cute. The mother was really protective and they disappeared into the woods to keep their distance. I wanted to take a picture, but was not fast enough with my iPhone. So great to hear the weather cooperated. What a wonderful break from the long, cold winter. Hope the rest of your summer is good!!! How is work/doctorate studies coming? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Biggest Fan Of Fuzzy Posted August 12, 2013 Report Share Posted August 12, 2013 Welcome back! I would sent out emails to everyone on the list, who has an active email address. So, if your email is not updated, please do that. Now I just have to figure out what day is best. It sounds like you had a remarkable holiday!!! So, where is the picture of the European wildcat??? We have been walking in the park everyday. There are lots of deer and we often get to see some fawn As of August, most of the fawn are getting a pretty big, but yesterday I saw a really little fawn. The baby was so cute. The mother was really protective and they disappeared into the woods to keep their distance. I wanted to take a picture, but was not fast enough with my iPhone. So great to hear the weather cooperated. What a wonderful break from the long, cold winter. Hope the rest of your summer is good!!! How is work/doctorate studies coming? YES! I would love to have a reunion and see what every has been up to for these past few years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.