First – Kermit has a new bell. You would think she would get tired of ringing it. She hasn’t yet. And its been DAYS. She might lose her new bell.

Now, Harley macaw, like most macaws, is an astute observer of humans. He doesn’t really grasp what he observes, for the most part, but he can, on occasion, be quite cunning.

Yesterday I was doing a lot of cleaning. And, I had left him in his cage, and was more or less ignoring him. I often have him out when cleaning, but not always. Sometimes I just want to clean, as opposed to sweeping with a broom that has a macaw attached, with his wings flapping. Which kind of makes the broom useless for sweeping, you know?

Harley was “sneezing”. It wasn’t really a sneeze, but was a loud snort like noise, where he was clearing his nostrils. But it was unusual, and it was concerning to me. So each time he would sneeze, I would look at him intently. It took me a while, but I eventually noticed that each time I would look at him after the sneeze, that he would be studying me, as intently as I was studying him. So, I conducted an experiment.

I opened the porch door, and moved outside. I settled down to do some reading, in a chair not visible from his cage. But it wasn’t more than 6 feet or so away from his cage. And…… no sneezes. After a while, I went back in to finish the cleaning. And the sneezes started back. (And no, they were not related to the cleaning).

So, the featherball was sneezing to get some attention from me!

Macaws, you gotta watch em!

Now why is the Red Cross have to defend its practice of treating the Taliban, and of training them in first aid?

They are a neutral organization.

And, don’t people realize that armed forces medics treat enemy forces all the time? Its part of the job of being a medic, or a doctor in war. You treat EVERYONE.

Alright, I was at Harry’s Farmers market yesterday, looking for okra. But, their okra just looked nasty, so I passed on it. I picked up some dried “Black Mission” figs for a treat for the birds.  So, when I got in home, I gave all the birds a fig (well the finches get to share a fig). Then I decided to try the nasty looking things for myself. And promptly told the birds “Enjoy those, because these just became Richard food”.

These things are exceptionally good. Not so good for diabetics, since they are over half sugar (Its natural sugar, but its still sugar) (so they are candy) but they are high in fiber, so they are a bit better than actual candy. Plus you actually get some nutrients. Still, they are best in quite small doses, to satisfy a sweet craving.

Man, they are nasty looking though.

This past Saturday, I went to the Atlanta Bird Fair. I went to get new toys for my big guys (Kermit, Kiwi, and Harley), and also to look at finches. I’ve been thinking about getting finches for some time. BUT, I wasn’t going to get them for some time.

Well, seeing = temptation. I ended up getting two rosey rumped waxbills. A small, very cute african finch. They are very, very active.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/littlebirder/2656483908/in/set-72157606552116195/

The above picture is of a wild one – so far, my pictures of mine aren’t very good. That will change.

Mine need their nails trimmed. Badly. I tried last night. I got one foot of one bird trimmed, and had two finches loose in the bedroom. Luckily they like eating and drinking, so it was pretty easy to get them back in the cage.

A couple of days ago, I saw a bit of interesting activity from a couple of mockingbirds. One was chasing a large skink (type of lizard) down the middle of a residential road. He didn’t appear capable of harming the lizard, but he sure had the lizard on the move. Within seconds of having vanquished the lizard, he was hopping down the mowed median with his wings partly outstretched. I later read (on the Internet) that this is theorized to scare up more insects.

A second mockingbird nearby, then caught a large beetle.  It repeatedly struck the beetle on the ground, breaking it apart. It then at the pieces.

It was an interesting observation.

What in the world is wrong with our president’s name? Sure he is only a slightly above average (high mediocre) president, but he is far (FAR) from the worst we’ve had in recent decades.

Barack Hussein Obama, Jr

Its a fine name. Why do some people think his middle name is demeaning, or negative in any way?

Is it because it sounds muslim, and we are in the middle of a culture clash with the muslim religion? America is flat out weird sometimes.

From here….

Worth reading.

Tim O’Reilly, the founder and C.E.O. of O’Reilly Media, which publishes about two hundred e-books per year, thinks that the old publishers’ model is fundamentally flawed. “They think their customer is the bookstore,” he says. “Publishers never built the infrastructure to respond to customers.” Without bookstores, it would take years for publishers to learn how to sell books directly to consumers. They do no market research, have little data on their customers, and have no experience in direct retailing. With the possible exception of Harlequin Romance and Penguin paperbacks, readers have no particular association with any given publisher; in books, the author is the brand name.

That the publishers view bookstores — rather than readers — as their customers explains much of what ails the industry. And that Tim O’Reilly has always seen the reader as his customer explains why O’Reilly Media, which was once as print-centric as any other book publisher, is doing better than most publishers.

Another choice observation, from Amazon’s Russ Grandinetti:

In Grandinetti’s view, book publishers — like executives in other media — are making the same mistake the railroad companies made more than a century ago: thinking they were in the train business rather than the transportation business.

 

I wonder which finch species are both cheap, and have a pleasing song?

Though, I find Macaw screams pleasing, so that widens the range somewhat.

Personally, I find it deeply suspicious when all three of my birds are hanging out, entertaining themselves, and not getting into some sort of trouble.

Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” video is a spark of sheer genius. The music isn’t too my taste, but her visual style in this video knocks me off my feet. About halfway through, I became convinced that she is channeling Revelation Space – a deep id link into the mind of Alastair Reynolds.

The video screams new noir sci-fi, and its not what I would have pictured for the rather pedestrian song.

I still don’t like her as a musician, but I can see why she has become so popular. There is some real talent here.

Edit add:

I suppose Alastair Reynolds might wander by one day, having googled his name and on the look for ego strokes. He might watch the video and think “WTF? Thats not at all like Revelation Space!”. But, thats part of the joy of being an author. Once you share your creation, its no longer yours. The reader puts a bit of his imagination and life into the author’s story, and creates an alternate view. And for my view of Revelation space, the Bad Romance video fits.

I’ve never been a coffee drinker. BUT, I am trying to switch to coffee from coke (soda to you damn yankees). And you know what? Coffee is actually pretty darn good. I guess millions of people are occasionally right. I’m looking forward to trying the various styles of coffee. Plus, it has health benefits – which coke most certainly does NOT.

And, it shows an amusing habit of mine, that I do a lot. I bought this one cup coffee maker in January of 2009. I just took it out of the box in May of 2010.

When Carmen was my roommate, that would drive her up the wall. I would order something from Amazon and then not even open the Amazon box for a couple of months. She would occasionally say something about how I “obviously didn’t need x” because it was still in the box. I would point out that A) It was for a specific project that I wasn’t yet doing. And, B), that I knew exactly where it was. Mind, a project can be on my “to do” list for YEARS before it gets done. Like the coffee pot that is opened 1.5 years after being bought. (And it works great too. I should have opened it earlier).

Harley macaw discovered a jar of marbles in a corner of my stair landing. So, he knocked the jar over, then carried the marbles one at a time to the stairs. He then dropped them down the stairs. I counted 17 times that a single marble rolled down – plink, plink…. rollll.

There were still a few up there when he went back to destroying his box.