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Jul. 18th, 2008 12:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pacificpikachuIn yet another display of my mixture of poultry and Pokémon geekiness, the two guinea fowl have been named Diamond (the one whose color variation is called pearl, amusingly enough) and Pearl (who will be, I believe, a lavender guinea fowl). Ryan and I took them out of their tank today a few times for exercise in the kitchen and beginning to tame them, which was a lot of fun. I also took pictures!
This one is Diamond, and it's attempting to hunt something apparently.
(I say it only because I haven't the faintest idea what genders they are.)
And Pearl!
Pearl is a spotlight hog, while Diamond likes to hide behind them.
Aren't they adorable? They're going to be really strange-looking when they grow up (no, seriously, google guinea fowl), but after seeing the Roger the Guinea Fowl video on YouTube a few months ago I decided I think they're fantastic because of or in spite of their strange appearance. :)
LOL, me and my poultry. I can't help it, though--I absolutely adore poultry! They're just so interesting and fun to raise and be around. I feel like I could raise poultry in my sleep by now with all the experience I have.
Other than that... I'm finally figuring out Photoshop! Because I only have Elements and I'm too lazy to pirate anything above that at the moment, I downloaded GIMP for the pen tool and used that to do the lineart. It was a long struggle because the pen tool took some time to figure out, but I've gotten a lot better and faster at it now. I'm doing a picture of an Umbreon and an Eevee, and the drawing itself is rather boring, but will hopefully make for good practice. My next struggle is figuring out how to color it so I actually like it. I've finished Eevee's eyes so that I like them (see? http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v389/pacificpikachu/untitled-1.png And yes, this Eevee has blue eyes, and yes the outlines and everything are simplistic. I promise the whole drawing doesn't look that...plastic), but I've started coloring the fur about ten times now and ended up very dissatisfied every time. :/ Oh well--I have plenty of time to keep messing with it until I'm happy. Anyone have any tips? Good tutorials? Anything?
Other than that... I haven't done much of anything. Daniell, Makayla, and I were going to go to the street fair today, which I was looking forward to, but Daniell canceled and then I forgot about it.
I'm pretty sick of just sitting around the house on the computer all the time. I can't tell if it's because of how much time I've spent on the computer lately or because I've got a little bug (my stomach isn't doing all that great), but I've been feeling pretty bleh lately. :/ I need to get out of the house for a while and spend time with real people and do something else. I don't know when I'll get a chance to do that, but it'll be something to look forward to. At least I'm going on vacation for a week up at Tahoe with my mom's side of the family in ten days.
Come to think of it, I think the guinea fowl may have to come with me on vacation. Haha. XD That should be amusing. Thankfully it will just be a matter of setting up their tank and cleaning it daily/changing water/changing food, because that's all those little guys require.
In rehab news, the little, stunted scrub jay I had that seemed to be beating the odds went downhill the other day rather rapidly and then died during the night despite my best efforts. I think he may have had slow internal bleeding going on while I had him; there were some large black areas in his abdomen when I found him dead, and it would make sense coupled with malnourishment from before I got him. During the week or so I had him, I noticed that:
- His gums were extremely pale for a scrub jay (they normally have bright pink mouths) and turned more pale as the week went on
- He did not grow
- His feathers hardly grew in at all, and they were dull and brittle
- His eyes were dull and his whole head didn't appear to be shaped right...or something
- He perched but had little coordination. He did not hop.
- His appetite was pretty good until the day he died, when it dramatically decreased until he was no longer gaping
I'm convinced that no matter what I had done with him the outcome would have been the same, so I'm happy that he got to have a good last week with another scrub jay, a comfortable place, and plenty of food. I was a little disappointed that he died because he perked up slightly before I put him to bed that night when I gave him Rescue Remedy and some supplements, but from the looks of it he just had too many problems for him to overcome. Poor guy.
I'm working on getting the two stellar's jays and remaining scrub jay self-feeding now, by only feeding them every three hours or so and teaching them to eat out of the bowl. Getting birds to self-feed is always a guilty time for me, though, because--while I KNOW it's what has to be done--I always feel like I'm slacking off on their care when I go a long time without feeding them. Of course, that's not true at all, but I can't help but feel a little guilty anyway!
I do believe that's all there is to say. Meh. I hope I get to go somewhere or do something before I lose my mind.
I hope the new Macross Frontier episode comes out soon. Ridiculous as the series can be, it does make me smile and entertain me. :)
I think I may save the rest of Kaiba for marathoning once the series finishes its run. I enjoy it a lot and think it's a great series, but I feel like, with the week gaps, by the time the next episode airs I've forgotten all but the most general gist (if that) of what happened in the last episode. I think it'll be easier to follow and remember if I can watch it in quick succession without any distractions.
This one is Diamond, and it's attempting to hunt something apparently.
(I say it only because I haven't the faintest idea what genders they are.)
And Pearl!
Pearl is a spotlight hog, while Diamond likes to hide behind them.
Aren't they adorable? They're going to be really strange-looking when they grow up (no, seriously, google guinea fowl), but after seeing the Roger the Guinea Fowl video on YouTube a few months ago I decided I think they're fantastic because of or in spite of their strange appearance. :)
LOL, me and my poultry. I can't help it, though--I absolutely adore poultry! They're just so interesting and fun to raise and be around. I feel like I could raise poultry in my sleep by now with all the experience I have.
Other than that... I'm finally figuring out Photoshop! Because I only have Elements and I'm too lazy to pirate anything above that at the moment, I downloaded GIMP for the pen tool and used that to do the lineart. It was a long struggle because the pen tool took some time to figure out, but I've gotten a lot better and faster at it now. I'm doing a picture of an Umbreon and an Eevee, and the drawing itself is rather boring, but will hopefully make for good practice. My next struggle is figuring out how to color it so I actually like it. I've finished Eevee's eyes so that I like them (see? http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v389/pacificpikachu/untitled-1.png And yes, this Eevee has blue eyes, and yes the outlines and everything are simplistic. I promise the whole drawing doesn't look that...plastic), but I've started coloring the fur about ten times now and ended up very dissatisfied every time. :/ Oh well--I have plenty of time to keep messing with it until I'm happy. Anyone have any tips? Good tutorials? Anything?
Other than that... I haven't done much of anything. Daniell, Makayla, and I were going to go to the street fair today, which I was looking forward to, but Daniell canceled and then I forgot about it.
I'm pretty sick of just sitting around the house on the computer all the time. I can't tell if it's because of how much time I've spent on the computer lately or because I've got a little bug (my stomach isn't doing all that great), but I've been feeling pretty bleh lately. :/ I need to get out of the house for a while and spend time with real people and do something else. I don't know when I'll get a chance to do that, but it'll be something to look forward to. At least I'm going on vacation for a week up at Tahoe with my mom's side of the family in ten days.
Come to think of it, I think the guinea fowl may have to come with me on vacation. Haha. XD That should be amusing. Thankfully it will just be a matter of setting up their tank and cleaning it daily/changing water/changing food, because that's all those little guys require.
In rehab news, the little, stunted scrub jay I had that seemed to be beating the odds went downhill the other day rather rapidly and then died during the night despite my best efforts. I think he may have had slow internal bleeding going on while I had him; there were some large black areas in his abdomen when I found him dead, and it would make sense coupled with malnourishment from before I got him. During the week or so I had him, I noticed that:
- His gums were extremely pale for a scrub jay (they normally have bright pink mouths) and turned more pale as the week went on
- He did not grow
- His feathers hardly grew in at all, and they were dull and brittle
- His eyes were dull and his whole head didn't appear to be shaped right...or something
- He perched but had little coordination. He did not hop.
- His appetite was pretty good until the day he died, when it dramatically decreased until he was no longer gaping
I'm convinced that no matter what I had done with him the outcome would have been the same, so I'm happy that he got to have a good last week with another scrub jay, a comfortable place, and plenty of food. I was a little disappointed that he died because he perked up slightly before I put him to bed that night when I gave him Rescue Remedy and some supplements, but from the looks of it he just had too many problems for him to overcome. Poor guy.
I'm working on getting the two stellar's jays and remaining scrub jay self-feeding now, by only feeding them every three hours or so and teaching them to eat out of the bowl. Getting birds to self-feed is always a guilty time for me, though, because--while I KNOW it's what has to be done--I always feel like I'm slacking off on their care when I go a long time without feeding them. Of course, that's not true at all, but I can't help but feel a little guilty anyway!
I do believe that's all there is to say. Meh. I hope I get to go somewhere or do something before I lose my mind.
I hope the new Macross Frontier episode comes out soon. Ridiculous as the series can be, it does make me smile and entertain me. :)
I think I may save the rest of Kaiba for marathoning once the series finishes its run. I enjoy it a lot and think it's a great series, but I feel like, with the week gaps, by the time the next episode airs I've forgotten all but the most general gist (if that) of what happened in the last episode. I think it'll be easier to follow and remember if I can watch it in quick succession without any distractions.
