Snowflake

I don't know what the gender is. It's apparently too soon to tell. The women in the store initially referred to her as "she" and I can't seem to think of her any other way now.

She has no problem leaving her cage at all. She'll jump onto the floor and wander aimlessly. If I sit next to her, she'll climb up my clothing to get on my shoulder. She seems to be pretty happy when she's perched somewhere.

But if I try to touch her, she bites. Hard.

Snowflake is pretty friendly unless your hands get too close to her. Hands are frightening. She hates them. She doesn't want to stand on my finger or be caressed in any way. She doesn't display any fear toward Will or I. It's when our hands show up that she freaks out.

Truth is, I'm not in the best of moods right now. I went to the breeder because they've been in business for over six years and have a good reputation. I asked specifically for a hand-fed bird. They only had two left and I chose her. The way they removed her from the cage should've tipped me off. The woman stuck her hand in the cage to grab her and she went nuts. I thought nothing of it at the time.

I can only think of a few possible reasons for her actions:

- She doesn't recognize me. Therefore, she has no reason to trust me.
- The breeder didn't not hand-feed her.
- Breeder did hand-feed her but she wasn't "held." (i.e. probably fed by stuffing a tube down her throat... no physical contact)
- Mishandled
- This is the way she is

I do not stick my hands in her cage or force to come out. I don't touch her unless I need to put her back in her cage. And even then, all I do is take the biting until she stands on my finger (no grabbing). What I've done so far is that I'll hold a treat in between my fingers. She will bite at my fingers until she realizes that I'm holding a yummy treat. After she eats a few treats I stop giving them to her and then she will coming toward my hand looking for more. I think that might be the way to do it. Maybe I can get her to associate hands with treats and not whatever she thinks they are now.

She's still young so there may be some hope for her. This looks like it'll be more work than I bargained for but she's already part of the family. I'll have to make the most of it and hope she comes around. What I find hilarious is that she seems to like when I say "Grand Masta Flakes in da houuuuuse!" Maybe I can teach her to imitate record scratches. Don't laugh. In my mind, that would be awesome.

A call to heads!

Okay. I need help. I need to build a portfolio. I also need to remember how to spell portfolio.

What I require are subjects; guinea pigs if you will.

I am offering free portraits to any friends who ask. Send me a good photo of yourself, your children, your pet goldfish, your man-eating plant, your lvl 70 Blood Elf Mage etc. and I will work my limited magic.

Choose your portrait size! But no too big! I'm not willing to paint on a canvas half the size of my wall!

I'm only offering pencil or oil paintings (full color or monotone). You decide!

I only ask that you pay for shipping if you really want it (you don't have to want it!). :D

Send me an email if you're truly interested. First come, first serve! Spots are limited!

I know I am going to regret this. :D

Los Manos

Trying very hard to understand what my brain lacks in terms of memory. Or, to simplify the problem, why I cannot remember what a human being looks like. I decided to work on some sketches of my hand because I was bored.

I can assure you that my fingers are pretty long. Longer than average is something I'm certain of.

I didn't learn anything from doing this. It doesn't make any sense unless I understand why a hand is shaped the way it is. Luckily, I was given a link to a pdf file of an old anatomy book. The author is my hero.

I'm going to drop hands for now and work on the skull and upper body.

Flutterby, Butterfly.

Finally, a new post. Went to the Wild Animal Park last Sunday. I have pictures.

Unique

Okay, so this wasn't taken at the Wild Animal Park. This is a photo I shot at the Quail Botanical Garden. This one flower has to be the most perfect photo I have ever taken. ;)

Raindrops at Sunrise

They Call Me Sara

Mellow Yellow

Beauty Transcends Time

Now, I don't really know why I spent nine hours altering this photo. It is a great photo but I felt like it needed something more. After some experimentation, I decided to give this photo an aged look.

As always, my Deviant Art link is to the right. If you go there, you can see everything! :D

This... isn't... HAPPENING...

I was at the end of Mass Effect but held off on completing the game because I didn't want to spoil the ending for my husband. Tonight was going to be the night when I would finally beat it. But I couldn't get Mass Effect to stop freezing. I kept having to power down the console multiple times and every time Mass Effect was loading or in gameplay it would freeze immediately. Eventually, the dashboard would freeze up and I couldn't even load a game. This was completely odd. I was present at the weekly Halo 3 matches Sunday night and my system worked flawlessly then. Now, I can't even get a single game past the title screen.

There were a few times when the ring LEDs didn't flash at all and the only thought in my mind was the Red Ring of Death. My 360 is going to give me the RROD any second and when the green lights flashed, I felt relieved. And yet, this system still refused to function properly. After about a half hour of messing with it, it finally happened.

What else is there to say? If I turn it back on now, I don't get the RROD but the dashboard or games still freeze. I'm sure if I power it on and off some more, I can repeat the RROD.

I am aware of Microsoft's RROD replacement program. I'll have to give them a call tomorrow. Still, I'm very disappointed right now.

No one is safe. NO ONE.

PSP Slim & Lite!

I was finally able to pick up one of these things recently. Japan has three colors that aren't available in the US: Felicia Blue, Rose Pink and Lavender Purple. Of course, I imported the Lavender one because I haven't owned a purple-colored system since the Game Boy Color.

It is slimmer than it's predecessor but the biggest surprise is how light the system is. The new weight makes holding a PSP Phat feel like a cinder block. Load times seem better depending on the game you try. I feel that games with insane load times will still be unplayable but I don't own any like that. Buttons are greatly improved. The D-pad was a problem on the Phat because it didn't stick out as much making it harder to use. On the Slim, both the buttons and the d-pad stick out much farther which makes them easier to press. Overall, I'm impressed and I love the color. :D

Now, the biggest dilemma was deciding whether or not I should modify it. There's always the risk of bricking your system (making it completely useless) but I had done this in the past with my Phat. It would be nice to play the PSP games I own and some homebrew games as well. And the PlayStation emulation is very hard to pass up. But this time around, the process was more challenging.

After much thought, and realizing that I don't have much to play on this thing anyway, I went ahead and installed custom firmware.


Being able to play both official UMDs and run homebrew is awesome. Now, if I can just get my hands on the Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles and run it on my overclocked Slim, I'll be in heaven. :D

Halloween Canceled: Real Life More Frightening

This entire week has been unreal. I've never seen anything like this in my entire life. I'm from Jersey, so the worst I've ever experienced was a few blizzards. But this... this was truly frightening.

The pictures above were taken last Sunday and I haven't left my house since. The air quality has gotten better since then but I can still smell the smoke. It seems that the firefighters are starting to get the fires under control but they still have a long way to go.

For a large number of San Diegans, Halloween and the holidays to come isn't an option anymore. Entire neighborhoods have been destroyed and the ones left standing have to deal with the poor air quality due to the smoke and ash for a few more weeks.

I wonder what will happen once the fires are under control and eventually put out. Will people rebuild in the same areas? Will more efforts be made to make certain areas fire resistant? Will new plans be developed so pilots don't have to wait for days before they can use their choppers because of red tape? Will someone please invent a sprinkler system that can be installed on the roofs of houses?!

Love at First Bite

Wakwakwakwakwakwak...

Pacman pumpkin on the front porch! This project was a collaboration with my husband. I've never carved a pumpkin before so this was my first attempt.

Hubby hollowed out the pumpkin and I created the template. I traced different sized circles on paper plates, cut them out and taped them onto the pumpkin. Traced the circles on the pumpkin with a washable black marker. Hubby carved out the majority of the pumpkin. I worked on the cherry and Ms. Pacman's lipstick and bow.

Minutes after I put it there we were already getting compliments from the neighbors. Doesn't help that we live in a locked community. I'm sure those that have already seen it is everyone that lives here.

Overall, I'm very pleased with it. I honestly want to buy another pumpkin to carve out something else. But what?

By the way, I posted this everywhere. It's on DA and flickr too.

FPS + wiimote = DO WANT.

The Wii has been lying dormant for a few months. We bought it around Christmas but all we had to play was Wii Sports and Twilight Princess. Other games turned my attention away from the system earlier this year.

So my husband bought Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. This is when we discovered that the Wii's graphics chip is dying. There are dots and lines all over the screen during gameplay and in the Wii menu. It needs to be replaced but I haven't done this yet. I blame MP3: C for the delay.

Now, I've played the original Metroid Prime and never completed it. I enjoyed what I did play but I don't remember why I didn't finish it. I own MP2 but never played it in hoping I would restart and complete the first game. Again, I constantly get distracted by the newer, shiny games and have a tendency not to complete ones I've started. When I bought Corruption I decided not to give a damn about the previous games. It was my excuse to power up the Wii again.

The problem has always been first person shooters and analog sticks. Together. I find it very difficult to aim with analog sticks to the point where I can never enjoy the game. I always feel like I'm not really "pointing" with the analog stick; just "nudging" the reticule in the enemy's general direction. It's a control scheme specifically setup for me to fail. For me, a keyboard and mouse is the way to go. And then I played Metroid Prime 3.

The only thing I have to say, the only thing that needs to be said, is the controls in MP3 blows everything else away. The simple fact that all I have to do is physically point at an enemy and press a button to annihilate them is awesome. It's a beautiful feeling and I wish I could do this with all console FPSs.

Speaking of metroid, I've been working on some art for the series. I'm no where near finished because I don't spend enough time drawing. It's been a long time since I've uploaded anything. This will change. I'll try to get it all done for next week. Don't quote me on that. ;)

Outside the San Diego Zoo

I've seen more plants and flowers in the year I've lived here than in the 23 years I've lived in New Jersey. The variety is stunning. Most of the time I just stop whatever I'm doing to take a photo of plants I've never seen before. This set is no exception.

The first photo is a pink hibiscus flower. The second... I really don't know but it's lovely. :D