The collected excuses of an absent mind

LJ haittaohjelmoi

2009-10-23T12:50:04Z

Ärsyttää. Siis se, että kaiken maailman haittaohjelmat yrittävät ryömiä koneelle LJ:n tai sen mainosten kautta. Viimeksi reilu viikko sitten TrustSoldier, nyt sitten tänään SoftVeteran. Tarvii tulla mulle...

Aiheen sivusta ja vierestä: mikäköhän tuossa lapsessa on vikana, kun se on nukkunut jo yli kaksi tuntia tuossa parvekkeella? Normaali päiväunen pituus on siis max. tunti. En siis saa mitään töitä tehdyksi, kun koko ajan mietin, että kohta se varmaan herää.

Book meme

2009-08-10T12:58:53Z

Snagged from little sister saraste_impi .

The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?

Instructions: Look at the list and put an X after those you have read. Tag other book nerds.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen ( )
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (X)
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte ( )
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (X)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (X)
6 The Bible ( )
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte ( )
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell (X)
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman (X) Dunno if this counts properly, though, since I still haven't read the last part...
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens ( )

Total so far: 5/10

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott (X)
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy ( )
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller ( )
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare ( )
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier ( )
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (X)
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk ( )
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger (X)
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger ( )
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot ( )

Total so far: 8/20

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell ( )
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald ( )
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens ( )
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy ( )
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams ( X)
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky ( )
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck ( ) Not yet, but I got it from the library - light summer reading while nursing ;-)
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll ( )
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame ( )

Total so far: 9/30

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy ( ) I tried, I honestly did...
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens ( )
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis ( )
34 Emma - Jane Austen ( )
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen ( )
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis ( )
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini ( )
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres ( )
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden (X)
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne ( )

Total so far: 10/40

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell ( )
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown ( )
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez ( )
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving ( )
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins ( )
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery (X)
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy ( )
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood (X)
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding ( )
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan ( )

Total so far: 12/50

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel ( )
52 Dune - Frank Herbert (X)
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons ( )
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen ( )
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth ( )
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon ( )
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens ( )
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (X)
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez ( )

Total so far: 14/60

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck ( )
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov (X)
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt ( )
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold ( )
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas ( )
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac ( )
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy ( )
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding (X)
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie ()
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville ( )

Total so far: 16/70

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens ( )
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker (X)
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (X)
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson ( )
75 Ulysses - James Joyce ( )
76 The Inferno – Dante ( )
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome (X) It's been ages, but by Gods I loved that book at the time :), although I only read the one book translated in Finnish, not the whole series.
I
78 Germinal - Emile Zola ( )
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray ( )
80 Possession - AS Byatt ( )

Total so far: 19/80

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens ( )
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell ( )
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker ( )
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro ( )
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert (X)
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry ( )
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White ( )
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom ( )
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ( )
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton ( )

Total so far: 20/90

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad ( )
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery (X)
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks ( )
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams ( )
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole ( )
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute ( )
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas (X)
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare (X)
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ( )
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo ( ) Working on it...

Total 23/100

Hey, almost one quarter of the list! That's a whole lot better than I would have thought, but there's still a whole lot of stuff that seems to be forever stuck on the list "Books I would like to read when I have the time". And that list keeps getting longer and longer...

Maitobaarista päivää!

2009-06-09T13:59:41Z

Eli turha ihmetellä, miksei minusta kuulu mitään, kun päivät ovat useimmiten tällaisia: imetystukilista.net/sivut/index.php

Ja sivuhuomautuksena todettakoon, että kyseinen sivusto pelasti tänään sekä mielenterveyteni että parisuhteeni osoittamalla, että juoma-automaattina toimimiseen voi suhtautua myös huumorilla XD

P.S. Lisäksi meillä on ilmeisesti käynyt aikavarkaita, koska en vieläkään suostu uskomaan, että neiti täytti eilen kokonaisen kuukauden...

Kui kaik hajoo?

2009-02-12T14:23:20Z

Eli miksi uusi toimistotila voisi olla hyvä asia muutenkin kuin tilanahtauden vuoksi:

- Lämmitys ei ole ikinä toiminut kunnolla ja ilmastointi taas liiankin tehokkaasti, joten aina on kylmä, ja yleensä sitä kylmempi sisällä, mitä lämpimämpi ulkona, eli hellepäivinä villasukat ja -paita ovat pakollinen asuste.

- Tuossa jokin aika sitten luulimme lämmityksen korjautuneen, kun enää ei palellut, mutta syyksi paljastuikin se, ettei ilmastointi enää toiminut, koska kompressori oli hajonnut. No, se onneksi tuli takaisin huollosta ennen kuin koko henkilökunta kuoli hapenpuutteeseen.

- Kun ilmastointi saatiin kuntoon, hajosi tiskikone. Parhaillaan odottelemme huoltomiestä ottamaan mittoja uutta konetta varten. Vanha pesee vähän miten huvittaa ja milloin huvittaa.

- Ja reilu tunti sitten meni vesi. Ilman mitään ennakkoilmoitusta. Juomavettä ei tule, vessassa ei voi käydä. Loistavaa. Huoltoon on ilmoitettu, mutta saas nähdä, milloin mitään tapahtuu.

Tämä paikkahan hajoaa käsiin.

Yksinkertaistus

2009-02-09T12:12:31Z

Työnantaja päätti vaihteeksi tehdä elämästäni yksinkertaisempaa ^__^. Nykyinen työsopimukseni (joka siis solmittiin ennen kuin edes allekirjoittanut tiesi, että seuraavan kevään ohjelmassa on perheenlisäystä) olisi nimittäin päättynyt maaliskuun puolivälissä, mistä olisi ollut vielä kaksi ja puoli viikkoa varsinaisen äitiysloman alkuun. Ajattelin täyttää tuon väliajan joillain freelance-keikoilla, koska päivärahan ottaminen varhennettuna tuntui typerältä ajatukselta, mutta nyt ei sitten tarvitsekaan. Tänään mua nimittäin pyydettiin jatkamaan äitiysloman alkuun saakka.

Eli verotus- ja muu paperisota jäävät vähemmälle, eikä tarvitse turhan takia lähteä lomalle liian aikaisin. Eikä se puolen kuun palkkakaan ole ollenkaan pahasta...

Sitten kun saisi vielä selville, lähettikö meidän palkanlaskenta päivärahahakemukseen kuuluvan palkkalaskelman mulle postissa (niin kuin oli sovittu, mutta ei ole näkynyt) vai suoraan Kelaan. O_o

Concerns on digital privacy

2009-01-09T11:13:41Z

To tell you the truth, this piece of news gave me the jitters: UK e-mail law "attack on rights". In short, it's about a new piece of legislation about to be enacted in the UK that will force all major internet service providers to retain information on all e-mails received or sent in the country for one year, contents of the messages not included. The official excuse is "crime and terror inquiries". Many human rights groups have considered this to be an infringement on the citizens' fundamental right to privacy - not to mention a waste of good money.

But that's not the whole story: the British government is currently looking into an even more extensive data retention scheme. It could involve "one central database, gathering details on every text sent, e-mail sent, phone call made and website visited."

Every. Bloody. Single. One.

And there would go everyone's digital and radio-frequency privacy down the drain, just like that.

Now, as you know, I'm not an UK resident, but unfortunately this kind of plans have the irksome quality of getting aped by other governments, and as far as I'm concerned, my texts, e-mails, phone calls, and web browsing - or even the details thereof - are no business of my government unless they suspect me of some major crime, thank you very much. I doubt that the new plan will ever pass even in the UK, but the fact that someone can propose such a thing with a straight face and without becoming a laughing-stock, is honestly frightening.

I thought we passed year 1984 some 25 years back, but I might have been wrong.

Occupational hazards

2008-12-12T15:25:02Z

In mid-November there were some issues with one translation in a project I'm responsible for. I asked instructions from the other branch office that had outsourced the work to us and they promised to look into it. I forgot to press the matter and they never got back to us. I had two possible courses of action. I took account the fact that there had already been problems with the source files of that very same translation job, and made up my mind. We delivered the translations, and since there were no complaints, I thought I had made the right choice and forgot all about it.

Until yesterday, when the whole bloody affair came back with a vengeance and bit me in the arse.

We should have stuck to the source, but I thought the source was corrupt, so we stuck to the translation memory (previous translations for the same client) instead. Bad choice. The source was correct, and now I have to fix umpteen translated sentences that are all in one single file of gargantuan proportions. It's very dull, very mechanical and very time-consuming, since due to the quality of the problem, it can't be fixed automatically, but has to be done manually, checking every occurrence.

At least I know what I'll do all Monday morning: mop up my own mess.

Köh, köh

2008-11-29T21:30:56Z

Vaikuttaa enemmän kuin todennäköiseltä, että meidän herra Leunarduksella on astma :(. Poika köhii nyt kolmatta viikkoa putkeen, madotettu on (kerran itse ja toistamiseen vielä eläinlääkärillä) ja nyt on päällä vielä antibioottikuuri, josta ei odoteta kovin suuria tuloksia. Ainoa lohtu on oikeastaan se, että ruoka maistuu tavalliseen tapaan ja muutenkin kissa on oma itsensä, mitä nyt näyttää äärimmäisen kyrpiintyneeltä, kun yskittää.

Astman lääkehoidossa vaan ei sitten mietitytäkään esim. hinta, vaan se, miten tuon tablettejakin äärimmäisen huonosti vastaanottavan otuksen saa ottamaan inhaloitavaa lääkitystä... Olisi helvetin ikävää, että hoidettavissa olevan sairauden hoidosta ei tulisi mitään sen takia, että potilas ei suostu yhteistyöhön. Tablettimuotoista lääkitystä kuulemma on, mutta päivittäinen tablettitaistelu olisi mielestäni pidemmällä tähtäimellä kissalle niin stressaavaa, ettei siihen kannata ruveta. Ja piikitetty kortisoni taas altistaa diabetekselle. Eli suo siellä, vetelä täällä.

Että voi olla yhdellä kissalla paha karma. Samalla ex-kollilla on siis todettu tähän mennessä myös ruoka-aineallergia sekä virtsakiviä. Ja sitten sillä oli kesällä joku mystinen vatsatauti, jonka syy ei milloinkaan selvinnyt. Erityisen epäoikeudenmukaisen tuntuiseksi tilanteen tekee se, että meillä on myös Leukkiksen pentueveli Loki, joka ei ole eläessään ollut päivääkään sairaana. Tasan ei käy onnen lahjat ja niin päin pois.

Kunnallisdemokratia toteutui (kerrankin)

2008-11-25T14:25:52Z

Eli nykyinen valtuusto ei saakaan runnottua toriparkkia läpi vuoden viimeisessä kokouksessa, vaan asia siirtyy uuden valtuuston päätettäväksi. Kiitokset kiinteistölautakunnalle lisäselvitysten vaatimisesta:

http://www.ts.fi/?ts=1,3:1000:0:0,4:1:0:1:2008-11-25,104:1:578691,1:0:0:0:0:0:

Kerrankin tässä kaupungissa jää joku poliitikkojen ja yritysten lehmänkauppa toteutumatta. Tämäkin kysymys oli kuitenkin sen verran hyvin esillä kunnallisvaaleissa, että olisi ollut silkkaa demokratian pilkkaa ajaa asia väkisin läpi väistyvässä valtuustossa, jonka monet jäsenet eivät poistuvina valtuutettuina olisi olleet minkäänlaisessa poliittisessa vastuussa yhtään kenellekään (paitsi sille jollekin sukulaisen tai kaverin rakennusfirmalle, joka olisi käärinyt toriparkista hyvät rahat, mutta tällaistahan ei tietenkään kukaan sano ääneen).

Eikä mua oikeastaan haittaa yhtään myöskään se, että uudessa valtuustossa toriparkkihankkeen läpimeno on huomattavan paljon epätodennäköisempää kuin nykyisessä. ^_________________^

Jotain hyvää siis tässäkin päivässä (nimimerkki "niin kurja ja flunssainen olo, ettei tekisi mieli tulla töihin, mutta ei ole tarpeeksi sairas, että kehtaisi olla tulematta").

Asiasta toiseen

2008-11-02T18:00:43Z

Tiedotusasia niille, jotka eivät vielä tienneet: odotamme esikoistamme syntyväksi ensi äitienpäivän tienoilla. Onnitteluja, käytettyjä oheistarvikkeita ja hyviä neuvoja otetaan vastaan. Viime mainituista kiitetään, mutta ei luvata noudattaa :)

Ja mahaa ei saa taputella ilman lupaa tai tulee kulmahampaasta. Mur. (Taputtelu alkoi siis perjantaivisiitillä anoppilassa. Argh.)

Eli jos vaikutan jotenkin höperöltä ja hajamieliseltä, niin se johtuu sitten siitä, että aivot valuvat vauvaan :p

P.S. Satunnaisesti päivittyvä odotusblogi löytyy täältä: vartojaiset. Tänne en ajatellut juurikaan tämän enempää aiheesta postata.

VIewpoint

2008-11-02T17:50:24Z

I'm not married (nor will I be in the near future unless somebody else offers to foot the bill...), but I'm in a long-term, committed relationship. And even if I weren't, I would post this for the sake of principle alone:

Copy this sentence into your Livejournal if you're in a heterosexual marriage, and you don't want it "protected" by the bigots who think that gay marriage hurts it somehow.

Inhovatiivinen

2008-10-17T13:43:58Z

Tämänhetkinen inhokkisana on sitten "innovatiivinen". Eli olen kääntänyt liikaa IT-alan markkinointitekstejä, joissa kaikki on "innovatiivista". Voi helkutti tällaisia tyhjiä ja jonkun copywriterin mielestä hienolta kuulostavia adjektiiveja, jotka on sitten vielä pakko lainakopioida suoraan englannista suomeen...

Toinen vastaava on muuten "intuitiivinen". Miten helvatissa joku käyttöliittymä tms. voi olla intuitiivinen? Olen yrittänyt korvata tätä esim. sanoilla "helppokäyttöinen" tai "vaivaton", mutta kaikissa projekteissa se ei enää mene läpi, kun tuo yksi versio on jo vakiintunut.

En siis inhoa työtäni, mutta työtehtävien kanssa menee joskus hermo.

Ph34r t3h cute ones

2008-08-25T09:49:17Z

Ph34r t3h cute ones, LOLcat ed.

Pros and cons of a dayjob

2008-08-18T15:32:06Z

For the past few weeks I've been wondering whether or not I would go back to freelancing if I were to be offered a permanent or semi-permanent position. My contract was extended with another two weeks, so I will be on the company payroll at least until the end of August. There has been talk about a six-month contract, but nothing definitive. I've already stated I wouldn't decline a more long-term position, but it wasn't an easy decision to make.

Each choice has its pros and cons. As a freelancer, I had more flexible hours, which can be a good thing or a bad thing. Although I could choose rather freely when I worked and for how long, I was also forced by necessity to work late at night or on weekends. Another issue is the pay. My impression is that when I'm working on a salary, I'm actually doing more for less. I once calculated I could make earn an amount equal to my current monthly salary by working two full (~40-hour) weeks as a freelancer. Although a freelancer incurs extra costs (pension insurance and such) and only rarely has the chance to work full weeks, the end result would be the same even with these variables: I would make more money as a freelancer. But on the other hand, working in an office provides a steady source of income, whereas a freelancer, in my experience, only faces two kinds of situations: swamped or bored. Either there's enough work for three people or there's not enough for a half.

So I eventually decided to give it a go, chiefly because of the stability of both the paycheck and the working hours. But the fact remains that I'm underpaid even by the standards of an academic field dominated by female employees. If they offer six months with my current salary, I'm game, if less, I'll become my own boss again. After the six months I'll have pretty much equal experience on freelancing and payroll employment, and hopefully will be better informed to reach a decision in favour of one or the other.

I simply can't do 9 to 5

2008-06-30T21:20:58Z

Although I really should. Last Thursday I started working again at the translation office where I spent the last summer as a trainee. My contract lasts until the end of July, with an option for two more weeks in August, so you could call me seasonal help. Since it's the season that causes all the fuss and trouble.

July is the month when Finland closes shop. I'm serious. Everyone wants to have their summer holiday in July. Hence, one third of the in-house translators are on vacation in July. The problem is, the holiday season in most of Central and Western Europe doesn't start until later, in August. So, many other European branch offices (excluding Sweden, for instance) are just now busy trying to get as much work done as possible before everyone goes on holiday. And since we get quite a big proportion of our assignments from other European offices, we're swamped.

So, they called me early last week: "We're a bit short-staffed, could you lend a hand?" And here I am, a salarywoman once more. I get this feeling that I currently do more and get paid less than as a freelancer, but the fixed (or slightly flexible) hours have their perks: no more working 'till the wee hours of dawn or on weekends.

But I'm loath to wake up at 7 o'clock ayem. Besides, my brain doesn't function properly before 11 o'clock or noon. Luckily, I apparently can do quite a decent job on autopilot ^_^;;;

Freudian slips

2008-06-24T19:44:05Z

Question: How do you know you've worked too hard for too long?

Answer: When you start reading "MPEG file" as "MPREG file".

Sigh. Still almost 3k to go -__-;;;

Splurge

2008-06-13T20:59:19Z

I...um... I bought a pair of sneakers for 74 euros...

But they're Converses.

And I just found out I could have gotten them a lot cheaper (~30 euros + postage, which probably is at least 20 euros - it's around 15 for books not ordered from Amazon) from their online shop, but I don't know if I can really shop for shoes online. I mean, there's a return policy and everything, but it'd be such a hassle to order something and then return/replace it when it doesn't fit... I think I rather pay the 20-something euros for the privilege of being able to try them on and find a perfect fit.

Besides, they're nice and black and comfy, and - if the salesperson lady wasn't pulling my leg - they're built to last at least five summers. And when you compare that to the average 25 euros-a-pair sneakers which have an average life expectancy of three months, I'll start to gain savings from my purchase after three summers ^_^;

All right, I'm hopeless when it comes to shoes.

And books ^_^;;; I just made a 100-something dollar order from the Subterranean Press. A couple of rarities and one limited edition (200 pcs). Ahem. But it's only money, right? Right?

Rains

2008-06-10T14:36:07Z

It's raining! Wheee! After like, what, three weeks of solid drought, we have thunder and showers (rain, not hail *knocks wood*).

It was about time.

It's done.

2008-06-02T21:28:50Z

Just so I won't forget. Last Wednesday, I took my master's thesis to the bookbinder's. Last Friday, I handed it in. So I'm officially square with the whole sodding project.

Good riddance.

Bad, bad gardener

2008-05-12T21:18:40Z

I don't deserve my moonflower seedlings. I once again left them out in the cold wind today, and almost killed them again. And they resurrected once more. I really don't deserve them.

I'm apparently not used to plants as fussy as them. Even basil seems hardy when compared to my fainting beauties. If only I would get them to flower, then all these shocks would seem worthwhile. If only.

Blah.

2008-05-08T20:19:18Z

Instead of lurking around in the LJ, I'm now going to make myself useful and proofread some of my thesis. Over and out.

Merp.

2008-05-06T19:25:12Z

I should really be doing this blogging thingy much more often: it's a good outlet. And also an excellent method of procrastination...

At the moment, I'm supposed to be proofreading an essay I wrote in ancient times about the influence of Norman French on Early Middle English. I'm almost done - something like three more pages to go - and then I can email it to the person who'll grade it. And I'll get some study credits.

Then, I'm going to go through one chapter of my thesis before going to bed. I still haven't heard from the prof. concerning the first version, but otherwise the thesis is doing fine. It's me who's worse off >_<.

And I almost killed the Moonflower seedlings again today. I just got them inside an hour ago and they looked a tad floppy. During the first half an hour the floppiness got progressively worse. *scurries off to check the current status of the patients* And now some of them are already back in the land of the living. I just have to learn the hard way, don't I?

Hmm. I need more icons, too. Something emotive; I already have many serious ones, an inquisitive one and a humorous one. I need something cheery and something pissed off. And some more with plants in them. I'll probably have to ditch some old ones. Sigh. Finding any good icons is going to be a drag, though.

Edit: got the essay done and emailed. Now I'm off to pay the rent, then maybe some thesis-reading, then sleep.

Negligence of the green and innocent - a tale of terror :)

2008-05-05T19:22:51Z

I almost accidentally killed my Moonflower seedlings today. In the morning, I did what I always do in the mornings: lifted them out to the backyard to "harden" them - i.e. to get them used to the outside air instead of our centrally-heated flat. It was a bit windy, though, but the sun was shining heartily, so I thought nothing of it. At one p.m. I left for a test at the Uni and left the seedlings outside.

When I came back, several hours later, the wind was even worse. I still thought nothing of it, since the Moonflowers had sustained even colder afternoons without damage. I made dinner, went to the library, and finally decided to look in on the plants. The horror! They had flopped. I can't think of a better word: the leaves were hanging limp and lifeless, even the stems were drooping a little. I quickly scooped them back inside, but had small hope of them ever rejuvenating. But lo and behold: as I'm writing this, a few hours later, the seedlings are gradually getting back in shape. By the look of them, you wouldn't guess their earlier state of imminent demise.

I honestly thought I had killed them. Praised be the eternal resilience of green things! And the dumb luck of stupid gardeners...

It's alive! goooooaaaarrrr...

2008-04-08T17:55:19Z

They're alive and green, so obviously they're sprouts, right? Not something crawling out from the back of the fridge (although it could happen one of these days...)

The tiny green bits are freshly sprouted flowering tobacco. It's a Nicotiana x sanderae F1-hybrid 'Perfume Mix' for those of you who care for such labels. Basically, it's a red and white mix, quite compact and it's actually supposed to have the scent that's missing from most modern-day flowering tobacco strains. I've previously grown the original scented tobacco, Nicotiana alata, with pleasant results. I'm quite looking forward to seeing how these will turn out.

And I'm hating the inadequate zoom of my camera >_<.

Well, this is a group shot: the bigger ones at the back are chili shoots (a mix of red, orange and yellow chilis). I've never grown chili before and honestly I was slightly surprised by the fact that they actually sprouted. The one pot in the middle is eucalyptus. I tried it last year with mixed success: while it would sprout easily, the shoots only grew to about 10 cm height and then mysteriously died one by one. The last one lasted until January before giving up the ghost. O_o

And then there's some more microscopic tobacco...

Deworming of a tomcat

2008-03-28T14:19:11Z

If you think your life needs some action, then, by all means, get yourself a cat. Or two. Then, proceed to giving them their dewormer. Action ensues.

So, the story thus far: a while back we tried giving the boys their dewormer with the method that had worked previously, that is, as a crushed tablet mixed with boiled fish. Last year they eventually ate it, although gingerly and only after realizing nothing better was goung to be offered until they would empty the bowls. This time they didn't. Oh, well, Loki eventually ate some, so he probably got his assigned dose, but Leu resolved to fast until tastier repast would be offered. Later on, when investigating on methods of deworming a fussy cat, I found out that the particular brand of dewormer we had been using apparently is foul-tasting even as a whole tablet, but even more so when ground up. Well, you live and learn.

The next step was to purchase more dewormer in paste form and to squirt it directly in Leu's maw, since we figured he wouldn't probably eat it voluntarily anyway. The only problem was that it was a three-day regimen where the tablet had been a single dose, so we would have to make him swallow it for three times in a row. The first time was almost too easy. I simply grabbed him at the scruff of the neck, inched the tube between his teeth and squirted. Some of the stuff went on the floor, some on his fur, but most in his mouth. After I let go, he just went to the bathroom to mope for a while.

But the second time wasn't as easy. First of all he was a bit wary and led me a merry chase when he saw me coming with the paste. I finally got him pinned on top of the piano. Holding him still was the easy part, since he apparently was scared stiff. And there was me thinking it was a piece of cake as I squirted in the second dose. Then I got a whiff of something. The poor thing had evidently panicked and wet himself. On top of my piano. And I couldn't really be mad at him since he was so obviously scared out of his wits.

I can only blame myself, since I should have seen it coming. On previous occasions, Leu has sometimes shat himself out of spite or fear when cornered. Only this time he apparently was out of ammunition in that department. I actually would have preferred the feces to urine since it would have been a lot easier to clean up afterwards. I just thank whatever gods there is that none of it managed to enter the keyboard. So I spent the rest of the evening cleaning the piano with strong vinegar. For the moment it appears I got rid of the smell, which is relief. I would have hated to have to get rid of the instrument.

So, next time - implying today - when I have to give this particular tomcat his medicine, I'll be sure to do it on the floor or other washable surface.