One Of Those Rare RL Updates!

So, yesterday I went to this privately owned wildlife preserve that deals mainly in large carnivores and African Serengeti herbivores with lennaofmidearth. The drive out there was a lot longer than we’d expected due to a small directions snafu, and we ended up driving up over a rather impressive mountain range and through a very creepy artists town perched precariously on the edge of said mountains. The whole place has a foreign and Stephen King feel to it, and it isn’t surprising that the place is supposedly haunted.

Upon arriving at the wildlife reserve, we were amazed at how many people weren’t there. The parking lot was practically empty, and there wasn’t much of a line at the ticket counter. I waited while lennaofmidearth got our passes, and then we waited for the next tram and got some info on the place from the guide who oversaw the loading station. And we found out that today it was the owner himself who was driving the tram.

We loaded up and set off, and the owner (who’s name I forget at the moment) was very talkative and gave an impressive amount of information on the animals. We stopped to get off the tram to visit with the black bears (who cohabitate comfortably with a pair of mountain lions) and watched as our guide for the tour tossed some meat to the bears and then the mountain lions, to demonstrate how well they live together. The idea that was in practice was the idea that animals, if they don’t have to fight for food and territory, won’t. This has been a long spoken and long dismissed belief, due to observations in the wild. I don’t think I need to point out what’s wrong with that.

We moved on to visit the lions - a small pride of Cape Lions - and then to the hyenas where we were in for another interesting demonstration of animal intellect. He had a young girl who was on the tour (probably about twelve or so) join him outside the fence where the hyenas were. She ran along the fence, and the hyena followed after her a bit, and was definitely focused on her. He then got down next to the mesh fencing, called the hyenas over, and scratched them behind their ears. I’ve never heard a hyena moan in happiness before.

Next stop was the nine week old baby Indian tiger. She was hands down one of the cutest things I have ever seen. And she was about three feet away from us, snuggling with her blanket and her English Mastiff baby-sitter. The wife of the owner was looking after her, and she picked her up and the baby tiger made a noise not unlike Théoden’s ‘moo-oom, let me down!’ noise.

We saw the rest of the large carnivores (lions, tigers, jaguars and panther) and made our way to the next leg of our adventure - the simulated African Safari tour through a replication of the African Serengeti. Our tour guide was awesome. We were armed with biscuits to feed the giraffes and a warning to keep shiny things away from the ostriches. And boy did we get a good look at the ostrich! The first one we encounter kept staring at lennaofmidearth. We saw a good number of animals - zebra, sable antelope, wildebeest, gesbah, and giraffe. The giraffe was the animal we got to feed.

The tour guide kept emphasizing how gentle these animals were, and encouraged tour members to place the biscuit lightly between their lips and offer it like that. No one was doing it, but when the giraffe (named Kibu) came to Lenna, she went right ahead and did. And was rewarded with a very non-slobbery giraffe kiss. I did the same and Kibu licked my whole damn face before taking the biscuit. It was definitely an experience!

After the park we headed out to scenic mountain town near by where we had dinner - a damn good dinner, too, followed by dessert) and finally made the long trip home. All in all, it was a damn good day.

Lecture Notes

I tried to clean them up, to make them a bit more coherent. These were my notes taken from Bob Keppel's lecture yesterday, all written down pretty much verbatim. They were all set up nicely with bulletted and numbered lists in Word, but I doubt that will carry over to here. Lots of talk of murder, and a one story that could disturb people, as it involves a young girl.

Mostly it's talk of investigative techniques and the actual process of solving homicide cases. In the 'Personal Stories' section, there's bits about Ted Bundy and Gary Ridgeway.

( Murder 101 )

One theme I noticed repeatedly: Bob Keppel isn't too keen on the police. It was, altogether, an absolutely amazing experience and I am thankful to have been able to have it.

Brain Dead

Blargh. Trying to write, and having major difficulties. *pokes Word page* I have drabbles to write and RP things to write up and my brain isn't cooporating. I'm full of caffiene and carbs (my usual brain food) but it isn't doing the trick.

I have a feeling all of my contributions are going to be less than what I can do. :/

Why Fey Shouldn't Voice Her Thoughts Aloud

theladyfeylene: *makes odd noise of frustration*
rivendellrose: What's up?
theladyfeylene: I'm trying to figure out what Remus' fantasies would be.
zinjadu: Schoolgirls?
theladyfeylene: No, actually, not.
rivendellrose: Now I have this image of Snape and Sirius dressed as schoolgirls....

That image is burned into my brain now. And needs the Shigure icon, because who loves schoolgirls more than Shigure?

Anime....

So I ended up in bed for a good chunk of today, and finally got caught up on some anime. I watched a bit of Bleach, and I have to say, that is one depressing show. I like the characters and the premise well enough, but the story itself is a bit on the morbid side for my tastes. To cleanse my entertainment palate after that, I stuck in School Rumble.

I don't know if I should count that as one of my guilty pleasure shows or not. It's light and it's fluffy, but it's good. I love the cast. I love the cast so very, very much. And I just like the whole premise of the show, silly and cute though it is. And yes, I can readily admit that the fan service aspects of it appeal to me greatly. I'll probably watch some more tonight. The theme song has been stuck in my head since this afternoon.

nekokoban! I still need the last episode of Tactics! I haven't touched the last CD, for fear of having a meltdown when I end episode 24 and have no episode 25! Next time I'm on AIM, I shall grab you.

DVD two and three of FMA are out, and I really need to grab them.

Alrighty, now to respond to comments!

Possible Insanity?

So, I had a moment where I thought I was truly insane. I'm on Neopets, and I'm waiting to get a Koi. I have been waiting for a while, and it's become a bit of a fixation. I have been refreshing the silly page all the while I'm online. When checking IB RPG on Greatestjounral, I saw something that made me call one of my housemates to prove to me that no, I wasn't hallucinating a neopet on Snape's usericon. I present to you some very fucked up screencaps:

( This Is What I Saw First )

So I call in zinjadu, who tells me 'no, that's a Neopet. WTF?'. So I check the usericons.

( And I Learn It's At Least A Consistent Glitch )

If I didn't have a name already all picked out, I would so name my Koi after Snape in some way.

ETA: ( THE DAMN THING CHANGED TO ANOTHER ONE! )

I am going to bed now. This is just insane.