Rumination

Lollzors

2009-11-18T08:46:00.000-08:00

I just pulled my duvet up over my head, turned my bike lights on to the flash setting and had some kind of mini rave in my bed. Life is good.

Busy Bunny

2009-11-13T05:07:00.000-08:00

I need a to-do list for this weekend. I shan't get half of it done, but at least I'm making an effort?

Write another 500 words for the Animals and People essay
Write up the animal survey
~~Go over my notes~~
~~Clean the boys out~~
~~Clean my room~~
Catch up on reading

Shouldn't be so difficult... Right?

I started reading A Briefer History of Time yesterday. Physics is a lot more interesting when you're not learning about it in a classroom, and Stephen Hawking is of course for the win. I like to listen to this song while I read it, because of my excessive amounts of coolness. Plus, it's pretty. I wish there was a David Attenborough version.

Speaking of which, I should probably try to watch another Episode of Life. It's very convenient, because the episodes cover more or less exactly what we learn in my Life's Systems and Processes lecture, but in a far more interesting, Attenborough-esque way.

I just put my finger in my venus fly trap, and now I have some lovely sticky digestive enzymes over it. The poor thing still doesn't have a name. Any suggestions?

Katie and Anita are thinking of going on one of the Operation Wallacea trips over the summer. Katie went with them to Indonesia earlier this year and she said that it was really good; lots of jungle trekking and that kind of thing. I doubt I'll go though. It's rather expensive (£975 for two weeks, not including flights), and I would miss my Jacob and my Jobie rather a lot. Uh, and the rest of you too, of course. ;o)

I guess I should stop procrastinating now....

Oh, hi. Have some cats.

2009-11-12T13:47:00.000-08:00

I guess I've officially jumped on the blogging bandwagon.
I'm going to assume that if you're reading this you probably already know me. In that case, I might have told you where I've been this week...

Stodmarsh Nature Reserve. Being a RAMSAR site didn't make it any less wet and boring, sadly- perhaps I wasn't trying hard enough to enjoy it, but standing around watching tiny specks in the distance (birds, apparently) isn't my idea of a good time. It seemed like a nice place to take a walk, but since we weren't allowed to move or even talk loudly... Yeah. Pretty miserable. When the highlight of a trip is listening to your iPod on the way back home you know something has gone amiss.

The trip yesterday, however, was at least a hundred time as amazing. sadly my camera died at the beginning, so I don't have many pictures.

Meet Ranschan the Snow Leopard. I was honestly surprised to see him at all, let alone laying quite happily and posing to have his pitcture taken. This is a pretty special place though- The Wildlife Heritage Foundation, a breeding center for big cats (and a couple of small ones too). We had a talk from them back when I was at Hadlow, and I also knew a couple of people who did work experience there and sang it's praises, but I didn't realise it would be as good as it was. It's closed to the general public, and most of it's funding comes from photographers who pay to take shots of the cats. Pretty ingenious if you ask me- certainly a better arrangement (from the cat's perspective) than your average zoo, where the animals spend most of their time hiding from the public. There are only about thirty cats on site, but there are some very important breeding individuals including Sumatran Tigers and Amur Leopards, the rarest of all the big cats, with only around thirty left in the wild.
We were given a tour by the CEO, Mark, who looked pretty much the opposite of what you'd imagine a CEO to be! It was really nice actually. He knew all of the cats by name, and they came when he called them. A couple had to be enticed with some chicken drumsticks, but few of them were particularly shy. In fact one of the young Sumatran Tigers leapt at one of the girls in my class and tried to bash her on the head through the fence whilst she was taking his picture- she was only about a foot away from him and didn't look that pleased!
Only having a single barrier between you and an adult male lion, staring you in the eye, is pretty amazing. I've only come that close to a wild animal twice before (except through glass, but that hardly counts), and I think that's what it takes to really appreciate what fascinating creatures they are. It also brings the tragedy of their plights home. Unless there are some drastic changes, most of those cats will probably become extinct within my lifetime. Good job I'm in a position to do something about it, eh?

Aside from that, I'm going home tomorrow! I ordered lots of Degu toys for the boys this week, so christmas can come a bit early for them. I suspect that I'll have more fun unwrapping it all than they will though. I'll take pictures, and maybe even a couple of my lovely new UKC hoodie if you're really lucky.