Various Updates

I don’t think I should have written so much yesterday. I didn’t leave much for today. But I’m American and we Americans are always up for some instant gratification and excess.

Everyone tells me that Zoey, the African Gray Parrot, talks up a storm when I’m not there. That she says, “Hello” and “Daddy” and lots of other things. When I see her, all I get are whistles, “clucks”, and a puppy barking. Oh, and the kissy noises. Sometimes she’ll do the barking sound if I say “puppy” and kissing noises if I say “kissy.” Otherwise, it’s beeps and clucks and stuff. Sort of like hanging around R2-D2.

She looks like she’s growing a little and gaining a bit of weight, so I guess her diet is OK. I’d like to get a few more different types of nuts. I wish she could eat onions. I probably shouldn’t get her so used to “human” food, though. She likes spicy food, so we get along all right, there.

I’d been trying to get to Half-Price Books and see if I can start re-building my James P. Blaylock collection. It doesn’t look like that’s going to happen anytime soon.

Hi-Tech Nostalgia — Part // is still in the works. It’s kind of stalled a little bit. But it’s still a work in progress.

Avoiding Bad Habits

So, the kids have been out of school this week for Spring Break.  That leaves Michelle and the kids and a highly impressionable young talking bird in the house.  All at once.  I see this as a coming disaster.

I’m waiting to come home and be greeted by Zoey with such phrases as, “Mom! What?!”  or “Where’s the phone?!”  or “Brennnonnnn!”  You know, the usual stuff that gets thrown around when there’s four bored kids making trouble.

I’m pretty sure parrots are a lot like children.  You can sit there for days and try and get them to say something like, “Hello!” and “Night-night!” and stuff, and they’ll never pick it up.  But call someone a bastard and you’ll never hear the end of it.  Ten years after the event they’ll still be saying it when you invite the local preacher over for dinner.  And parrots can live for about thirty years, if properly cared for.  Which can be very difficult when they’re trying to eat your glasses.

Slacking

Yep, I’ve been slacking again. The only thing happening of interest involves Zoey, the African Gray Parrot. And I know people get bored of reading about that so I try and keep it to a minimum.

She is starting to talk, kind of. Most of what I hear her say sounds more like a whistle than a word, but you can make it out. “Hello,” “Peak-a-boo,” and, I think, “Step-up.” I think she’s coming along pretty well, and she’s so sweet

you could use her in your coffee.

If only I could break her of her desire to eat my glasses. If she’s not going after my glasses, then it’s my ear. Not that she bites my ear, she just kind of nibbles at it. Although, the other day I tried to get my glasses away from her and she had one foot on my shoulder and one in my ear, fighting me for them. It was funny, but a bit uncomfortable.

On the weekends I make breakfast for both of us. I don’t usually eat breakfast, so it’s a change for me. Saturday I made a cheese-free veggie omelette. She wouldn’t touch it until I started eating. Once she saw that I would eat it, she tore into it with gusto. Of course she picked out the veggies (green bell pepper and broccoli) and tossed them onto the floor, but she sure liked the egg part.

The kids are not impressed with the amount of attention Zoey gets. In fact, on Saturday, I mentioned that she had eaten a pretty good portion of omelette. Savannah gave me a look and said, “You made the bird an omelette?” Sure. But we shared it.

I made oatmeal on Sunday. She didn’t feel like oatmeal and didn’t eat much. Then I tried to slice up a guava for her, but she didn’t care for that either. We cut down on the amount of seeds she gets, and I think she’s a bit peeved about it. She loves kidney beans, though. She had some red beans and snarfed it up. She didn’t take any rice, though.

So, as I said, there’s not much going on besides bird-related information. The only game I’ve been getting through is Oblivion. I finished the main quest and started working on Shivering Isles, which is awesome. I understand the need to keep up to date with the game engine and everything, but it would be cool to see more “modules” released. I wonder why they haven’t gone a bit more down the “pen and paper” route and created different modules for different player levels or types.

I think if I were in charge, I would have the main game engine made, a main story line, and a over-arcing background story and then release “modules” for it, adding new monsters and items as needed. And an expandable map, so everything could fit in as needed. I think that would be neat.

I’m eagerly awaiting Fallout 3, but that’s probably quite a ways off still.

I’m pretty far behind with my KDE4 install. I think I’m still at 4.0.1 while everyone else is moving along to 4.0.2. I had a problem with QT4 and Gentoo, so I never got a chance to update it. I’m still thinking of erasing the whole thing and starting over, just to see if it gets rid of the graphic artifacts that I see. But the weekend is over so I won’t have any time to do that.

Just for the hell of it, I installed Oblivion using Cedega. It runs fairly well. I’m a couple of versions behind, there, too. I haven’t gotten around to renewing my subscription. I think I’ll try the latest version of Wine and see how that works with it. It’s been a while since I’ve tried it.

I haven’t tried Cedega or Wine under KDE4, either. Perhaps it’s a project I’ll try and get to next weekend.

I am pleased to report that I looked at my Dr Pepper cap and saw the bottom four letters were “UWIN.” I won! I was hoping for a free year of Dr Pepper, but it looks like I only won one. So, in 2-3 weeks I should get a coupon for a free Dr Pepper! Gosh!

I only need to drink 23 more for my 1-in-6 chance of being a winner.

Well, that’s all from me on this Monday morning.

Technorati Tags: zoey,african,gray,parrot,kidney,beans,cag,diet,oblivion,bethesda

The New Baby

This may come as a surprise to a few folks but, historically, I’ve always been against keeping birds as pets. I always thought that if the critters have wings, they should never be caged. Unless they couldn’t survive on their own, maybe crippled or sick. I’ve also felt the same way about fish, but more for birds.

So I’ve always been ambivalent about having one. Then, a couple of years ago, we had the opportunity to take care of some baby birds. It was quite the experience. One of them broke my heart by dying, when everyone else made it through childhood and were able to fly away, back to their ungrateful parents.

Anyway, we now have a new addition to the family. A lovely little African Gray parrot named Zoey. She’s eight months old and quite precocious already. I guess. I wouldn’t really know, but I never turn down the chance to use the word ‘precocious.’ She is quite intelligent, though. And she’s very lovable and likes to perch up on people’s shoulders. For a parrot, that’s a very important trait I look for. The next step is to purchase an eye patch and teach her to say, “Aaaahhhhhrrrrrrrr, me matey!”

Speaking of speaking, she doesn’t yet. She’s made some good attempts at “hello” but she needs more practice yet. She can beep like a watch, bark like a dog, and meow like a cat, though. She can also laugh and do a wolf whistle.

Nobody really knows me until they understand about me and animals. I love them all, and would own all of them if I could. I absolutely hate going to animal shelters and pet stores because I see all these cats and dogs that need a home, and I can’t do anything about it. It kills me a little inside every time I see it. I get attached to strays.

The worst part is that they know it. I’m not claiming I have weird animal powers. No, I claim that I’m the biggest sucker for animals around and they sense it. I’m easily trainable by many species.

Which, ironically, is why I don’t like having pets. I feel horrible when, inevitably, they die. I’ve known people who don’t really think much of it. “Time for a new dog,” or whatever. I’m a wreck. If a cat goes missing for more than two days I’m freaking out. And every time, especially after Baby Huey, I swear I’ll never get attached to another animal. I swear it.

But I always do. Because I’m a complete sucker.

I can’t wait to see how Zoey grows up. What kind of words she’ll learn to say, what noises she’ll make. Will she be able to count and tell the differences in shapes and colors? It’ll be neat to see.

I’m also amused at the cats. They seem to take everything in stride. They’re curious for a while and then they seem like they don’t worry about it.

The day I see Zoey riding on Juniors back will be quite a site. I would never, ever try and get either one of them to do it, but if it did happen I hope I have a camera to capture the moment.