Things That Happened

7:42am: I've spent 5 months raising baby chickens into hens so that they would be nice and tame and see me as mummy hen. It seemed to work.

As they near egg laying age it turns out that actually, they see me as their boyfriend.


(It does actually make it easiest to manage them, since when I approach they freeze and let me pick them up because they think I'm going to... ummm... hrmmm...)

8:58am: goddamn doucheburger cyclists

8:22am: Last night I went to bed thinking I was in the mood for a good old dreamathon (even though it makes me very sleepy and I should wish for dreamless sleep) but instead had a full night of very bad dreams :(

12:23am: My Hobby:
During an internet argument, after having made a post that peaked the offensiveness in the argument, and upon realising that in the explosion of posts against it not one makes an absolute direct reference to or quotation from the offensive post... deleting it.
The beauty is that to anybody that comes a bit late to the game (often "authorities" called in by the offended parties) the argument reads as a bunch of people getting all in an uproar over not very much, making them look like whinging idiots.

7:45pm: Dear Geckos of Nedlands,

When dropping your tail fails, it is probably not the smartest move to hide yourself ON the cat that is attacking you.

Though it did work for you, this time.

Love Me

1:17pm: dogs
I've decided to (attempt to) map dog exercise areas on google maps. Since I'm lazy, it's open to anybody for editing so that hopefully "the community" adds lots of information to it to make a great resource, without me needing to do all the legwork.

I've started by labeling Subiaco's dog exercise areas (since the Subi council website kindly lists them, unlike Nedlands) and will slowly move out from there when I feel unprocrastinatey (or am procrastinating from something else). Feel free to add to it, or pass it onto anybody you know who has dogs which they walk!

http://maps.google.com.au/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=106669438466673863863.000477d41279fe6aa84d9&ll=-31.966581,115.821476&spn=0.082718,0.130806&t=p&z=13

Also, I haven't used google map my-map sharing thingemy thing much, so I have no idea how well it works and if I'm doing it right.

10:08am: I hate to admit it, but the googlephone/HTC dream is Really Shit. I think both hardware and software shitness are contributing to me having a phone that is just asking to be thrown on the ground and stomped on. Since the 1.5 "Cupcake" OS upgrade, the phone managed to get about 150% worse. I have observed no improvements resulting from the update.


Can I have a Sidekick please.

7:20pm: Options
Option 1: Apply for vet at murdoch for 2010.
- The course is a 5 year bachelor of vet med, and as far as I can tell my B.Sc would mean nothing to them and I would have to do the full 5 years. Possibly even more, since it has recently changed to a SIX year course with the first year being general science with compulsory units of cell biology, chemistry and statistics. I failed (just) UWA chem, did non-specifically-cell biology, and have done plenty of psych-stats but no maths-stats units, so may have to do some of those first, though possibly just chem which I could possibly just do as an overload in first semester.

Option 2: Apply for vet at murdoch for 2011, do (currently applied for) Cert III in companion animal services and perhaps a PG cert in zoology in the mean time.
- Gives me time to think about things and look at further options. Also may get me out of a few units of the vet course, thus not actually taking a full year longer than Option 1. It would also mean I am better qualified to work during the vet course and thus make a bit more money and not be quite as poor.

Option 3: Apply for a Doctor of vet med course at Melbourne uni in 2011.
- This is a 4 year course offered to biological science graduates. I am not a biological science graduate, but if I had a B.Sc (Psych) + Cert III in animals + perhaps PG Cert in zoology I reckon it could be enough. This would mean having a Dr of vet (+ Cert III + PG Cert) in the same time as I could have a B. of vet from Murdoch. It would also mean moving to Melbourne for 4 years... something I am not superkeen on.

Option 4: ??? ... Profit

10:46am: I'm thinking of doing vet

11:31pm: What's wrong with this? Why, only everything.
Today I visited Toys r Us for some pool accessories, and while there browsed most other things. In a toy store one must always expect to run into a disturbingly high number of phallic objects, and today was no exception. However, I just couldn't walk passed the "Life-like Punch Ball Critter Mouse"

Here's the cute little guy:



If you can't quite see the expression on the poor vaginabacked fellow's face, as he is brutally violated, see this pic:



The purpose of Punch Ball Critter Mouse is to be blown up like a balloon and punched. So one might think hey, maybe it looks less disturbing when blown up, and the flaccid form is just coincidental. Nope, not really:

4:52pm: Reasons why I am awesome:
There are currently a large number of 6th year medical students in my back yard. Today was their last day.

I am sitting here, covered in tomato sauce, composing myself before running out yelling

"Is anybody here a doctor? I need a doctor?!?!"

and falling over passed out, clutching at tomato sauce dripping from my stomach.

3:21pm: Since I'm not a graphic designer, I approached my Critters colour scheme with RGB and was of course frustrated when I wanted to do some printing and found the my chosen colours were unpossible.

So in the process Critters has had a change in colour scheme, if anybody is interested. There's no such thing as a pretty CMYK green, so it's now blue and yellow. Yellow is a happy colour.

http://www.critterspetcare.com.au

12:00pm: I finally got around to washing some more jars of olives and putting them in fresher water to stop them being as salty. It took me so long because the last jar of olives I did is still in the fridge. I like making things more than I like eating things.


So please come and take my olives from me! All reports say they are fantastic :)

4:56pm: Why Hot Weather Is Better Than Cold Weather #1
When you're too hot, and you get a little bit of coolness, it feels wonderful.

When you're too cold, and you get a little bit of warmth, it's rarely enough and just makes you wish for more.

1:04pm: So... I'm having a little bit of a think about Cars.

I love my car. It is attractive, and cool. But... not entirely a good car. I've so far spent plenty of money fixing her up, and that's not likely to change anytime soon. I'm lucky to get 10L per 100km. And she isn't the best car to turn up to client consults with if I want to look like a reliable person, which is rather important. Also she doesn't have a working heater... this is probably the worst thing about my car.

So I started to think about a new car. Of the expensive sort, that I would get a loan for. Somewhere in the ballpark of 7k to 12k total, a couple of which I could pay for up front and a couple of which I would hope to get for my car (I probably would need to spend a bit first, so she doesn't look like she's been crashed, so it's hard to tell how it would come out. If she was in tip-top shape I'd like to think I could get $3k for it, which is what I bought it for. At the moment I'd be lucky to get $1k).

The problem with expensive cars is insurance, which at a glance looks like it would cost more than the car itself across a typical 5yr loan (Is that pretty much telling me I should write it off before paying it off?). The biggest problem is I don't really know what affects insurance costs and what car I should be looking for at what budget. The RAC has it's little instant quote doohicky but it's pretty time consuming to really compare everything using it.

SO, lazywebs, what features (that I can control) affect car insurance rates by how much? EG, the model of car, age, value, voluntary excess etc?

Why must vehicles be so expensive :(


I'm probably going to have to drive a Fat Girl Car. :(

9:47pm: Things I like about my job:
When I go through my wallet, pockets, car, bag etc and come up with roughly $350 cash. Especially when that's after having paid for several significant things recently with cash (tanks of petrol etc) and having thought that I only would have about $100 or so.


You know that feeling you get when you put on a pair of old pants and find $20? I swear I get that every day :)

12:13pm: Print advertising
Anybody feel like giving some feedback on either design or content of some printing stuff I've whipped up?

Business card front/back:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~keating/BusinessCardA.jpg
http://members.iinet.net.au/~keating/BusinessCardB.jpg
(I don't know what job title to give myself, but didn't want to put nothing. Any better ideas?)

Letter-sized flyer:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~keating/DLflyer.jpg

And A4 poster:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~keating/A4poster.jpg

I'm not yet particularly happy with any of them, but need a break from fiddling around and getting nowhere. Also obviously I've shrunk the quality/res down for those pics.

Edit: Actually I'm going to get a PROFESSIONAL graphic designer (AKA my housemate) to have a play with them. woo.

8:39pm: Printing
So it's about bloody time I did some printing for my business. Flyers and business cards, primarily. Maybe some stickers. Magnets would be cool but probably too expensive.


Thing is, I have no idea where to go to get a good deal for this sort of thing. Most printing company websites are complete bollocks. I also have no idea how many to get... once numbers start getting bigger than about 100 I tend to lose track of them. And it's a tough decision to make since the more you order, the much better the deal.

Any tips or ideas?

11:27am: I've just ordered some name tags for our kitties. Molly is getting a pink heart tag with a picture of a bow and her name in a squirly font. Marlin is getting a black heart tag with a picture of a butterfly and a kids-handwriting-ish font. Moscow is getting a red star tag with a picture of a hammer and sickle and his name, Москва, in arial black. :)

12:48pm: Google: Offers so much so you just have to use it; lacks really obvious features so you get really pissed off with it.


This might just be something I'm too retarded [google isn't user-friendly enough for me...] to work out (Since I had to just now be shown that it's possible to "add destination" to get directions for a route with more than two points).

I have a "my map" with all my pet minding destinations in it; I want to be able to get a route between Client X, Client Y and then Client Z without having to type in each address; just by using the labels on the saved placemarks. As far as I can tell, this isn't possible (unless I made all the places public listings, which would be a breech of confidentiality). Any ideas?

9:48am: that'll teach me for being racist
In the past when an Asian woman has called saying they have 3 or more dogs, it has sucked. They are always small, yappy, spoiled dogs that the owner hasn't bothered to train because hey, they're small.

So when I had an Asian woman make a booking to care for her 4 dogs, twice a day for 3 weeks, I was not looking forward to it.


I walked up to her front door this morning where I was greeted by:

A staffy
A blue healer
A lab
A boxer
AND A Great dane!!
(The staffy won't be staying)

And the best bit? They're so polite they won't even eat their food before being given permission.

I like doggies :)

P.S the dane can give me kisses with his front paws still on the ground. :D

8:30pm: If they don't call this an R.O.U.S, I'll be so piss'd

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8210000/8210394.stm

2:36pm: Cat minding?
I've had an inquiry from somebody moving to Perth from Queensland (I'm not sure when, I will have to ask her) who has a young, desexed, male cat that will need somewhere to stay for a week or two until she finds a house. Her problem is that she is against having him vaccinated, so he cannot be boarded in a cattery.

I'm not keen to keep him at my house, primarily in case he doesn't get on with our cats more so than the disease risk (since mine are vaccinated so pretty safe). Instead I've offered to try and find somebody who would be willing to board him for a miscellaneous period of time (She says 1 or 2 weeks, but things can go wrong and you should be prepared to hold onto him a fair bit longer if need be).

She said initially "I am willing to pay well", and I haven't discussed that any further; anybody willing to board the cat is welcome to offer a quote. (If you need a reference, catteries tend to range from about $12-$30/night). Also, if you're willing to have the cat stay in your house but aren't confident about caring for it (or don't want to clean litter trays...) we could easily arrange for either me or the owner to come around regularly to do whatever needs to be done.

So anybody willing to give this cat a comfortably, loving, temporary home (and make some easy cash), or recommend anybody who might be keen?

EDIT:

A few more details that I've found out:
- They are planning on coming to Perth on the 30th of September
- The cat is short hair and molts about as minimally as a cat can.
- The cat is wormed regularly
- He likes to go outside but is also well house/litter trained and the owner doesn't expect it to be a problem for him to stay inside for the short time (it would be a bad idea to let him out of an unfamiliar home)
- He is quite cuddly
- The owner is fairly confident that she will find a house within two weeks; she is already dealing with estate agents and has some prospects in mind.

10:31am:

5:16pm: Apparently if girls are to wear wide leg jeans, they must wear their boyfriend's jeans. Or, lacking a boyfriend, jeans designed specifically to look like boyfriend's jeans. Skinny, short boyfriend's jeans.

At least, according to Target.