Black Dog Blog

Archive for the ‘red pandas’ Category

• Have too much fun wrapping. @she_loves_tiki can guess for whom this is intended (no warning her, now!) :D http://twitpic.com/s8nsx #
• I have found something wonderful to scare the bejeezus out of my webby friends. #horror #FEAR http://twitpic.com/s8o0d #
• This is the crime known as "The Bundle of Paws". Four paws in one place. He does this DELIBERATELY to INFURIATE ME. http://twitpic.com/s8oot #
• This concludes our Twitpic/Tweetdeck experiment-cum-photodump. It didn't post the descriptions to Twitpic, though. :( #

• I am not listening to Hillary Duff singing Jingle Bell Rock. It, erm, it just fell into my playlist and I was, er, checking its teeth. #
• Uploading my video response to @isntit's Christmas video would be a lot easier if TalkTalk weren't completely useless. #
• And for everyone else, @isntit is referring to this. http://bit.ly/6KXNZP Please rate nicely. ;) #redpandas #elvis #deathmatch #

Listen up, my fuzzy cohorts.

This is the most epic thing of all time.

Please feel free to rate the video nicely and leave comments saying how fabtacular it is.

Two dreams…

One in which I was crossing Oxford Road, but the weather was temperate with scattered frictionlessness, so I ended up more or less skating across, still drifting sideways. Surreal and emotionless.

In the other, my home and garden were full of awesome, mostly endangered, wild animals. Um, yes. I watched a few, including a small black tapir-bearcub-wombat-looking thing, chase each other round the garden. Next, I discussed with another human occupant the possibility of the animals' breeding ("you can't be suggesting we separate the red pandas. They're on the brink of extinction!" "Oh, well, if they're on the brink, of course not" – they're actually classified vulnerable, as my naughty avatar well knew, but baby pandas is baby pandas and as such trump strict accuracy).

I wandered into the kitchen, where I decided that the tigers' cages were too small, to be honest, and in addition someone had thought the best way to introduce them was the time-honoured gerbil technique of partitioning one enclosure into two so the new roommates were able to smell each other and grow accustomed. However, I decided this probably would work, and the animals in question were pawing each other like playful kittens, so that was all right.

At one point midway through, I recall thinking "I hate that I can't tell if this is a dream or not." (As you can see, I'm not quite there with the lucid dreaming, but someday!) I also cuddled a pangolin's tummy, but it was not anatomically accurate – more like a tortoise-puppy hybrid with a few lame attempts at scales. I appreciated the effort, though.

My dreams are ridiculously easy to analyse.

Race for 'God particle' heats up. Please nobody shout Foe Yay or post LHC/Fermilab Rule 34 in the comments. This is a classy blog.

As fans of The Daily Mail know, everything in existence either causes cancer or cures cancer (example: Facebook). An extremely scientific study has begun to document these for the good of humankind. I give you The Daily Mail Oncological Ontology Project.

Also, grandmother playing Guitar Hero. I recognise the Easy difficulty of Pat Benatar's Hit Me With Your Best Shot, so you can tell I'm about on her level.

edit: some artwork and photography from dA's daily selection. Dog + snow = ♥

For Anke: Hello guys, kitties and something indescribable. And this, even though the corn is wrong and makes me very sick to look at *whimpers*.

Red pandas with an inescapable Now We Are Six vibe, cuddling, cartoony pandas (interesting take on the mask), a portly and catlike take that truly earns their nickname of 'catbear', a slightly more raccoonish-mousy-feline look, unhappy plushie toys, superdeformed legless versions (good face on the left one, though), some clearly drawn by an animator, a gorgeous painting if you excuse the love heart, NINJA PANDA and hilarity ensuing (I may have posted this one before).

Amazingly enough, there's also a new pangolin since last I looked. And have a cloud pard to round off the furfest.

A coworker has just drawn my attention to Cherub of the Mist, which would seem to be a 50-minute film about red pandas and therefore made of win.

Speaking of films, I'm going to see The Day the Earth Stood Still tonight with Slen and my father. I have something particular about which to talk to my father…

In addition, I don't have his birthday present ready yet. It's coming along nicely, though! I hope it'll at least be ready to email him for Saturday. Yes, it'd have been nicer to be able to print it off and give it to him, but eh. I can do that at a later date.

Weird, disturbing and still unaccountably domestic dreams last night. For example, someone had stuffed chip wrappers and hot water bottle covers down the toilet. (Well, it was upsetting in dream-context! Plus, I hate things being put in wrong places.)

Dude. I could sell these. I mean, I won't, because I'm too disorganised. Still. Dude.

I want to buy this. And I don't even like 'collectibles'.

Considering I'm not buying or eating food just now, that lunchtime was more expensive than I thought. I now have some Xmas presents for both parents.

I was going to work on some artwork. Instead, I did some other artwork. Procrastination FTW!

WARNING: contains gratuitous CUTE (400×600px, 86kb)

Anke's fault.

And I know the shading and so on is rushed, because I wanted something I could do at a sitting. To begin with I wasn't planning to shade it at all, so anything more is a bonus. :P I used SO many reference pictures here, including for the outfit and character reference sheets from Anke's gallery. (The other figure in the picture is her Sylvie.)

I must stop drawing girls holding cute animals before I get typecast. (Tabletcast?)

My work's website has a new photo gallery about the life of Father Alexander Men. The rest of this entry is not about that.

I have a cat-transporting carrier on my desk today. It surprised me somewhat that I was able to walk through security, into a building full of journalists, without anyone wanting to know what manner of creature I was importing. (It is, in fact, a cuddly toy red panda, but that's incidental, put in purely on the anticipation of someone asking to see inside.)

My colleague CoworkerQ is adopting some ex-battery chickens next week and needs something in which to transport them home, hence the loan. (The panda, on the other hand, is coming home with me.)

Getting out the cat carrier this morning was amusing. Retrieved from the loft, it was shown to the cat, who hasn't been to the vet in a long while. Piper knew what it was. He made himself scarce while I followed him gleefully calling his name. My mother then caught him, picked him up and carried him towards me. She announced that he was shivering violently. This caused almost all present to laugh a lot.

At this point I gave him his "finished" command and a treat to show he wasn't going to be molested or injected today. He remained in high dudgeon on the hall mat, torn between leaving in a huff and staying indoors because the bin men were outside in their lorry, making bleeping noises.

After installing the plushie inmate, I carried the carrier outside to set off for the tram stop. Piper gave me a wide berth upon following me outside, and disappeared into the verge where the bushes and compost bin are.

I wonder if we'll ever see him again. I suspect we will, worse luck.

Must remember to get the special cat food on the way home. It was Piper's birthday yesterday and I asked Slen to buy it on my behalf, which task he refused in indignation (it was raining, and anyway, why should he get anything for the cat?). (He may have had a point in the latter case, but birthdays are well known to be mainly of interest to humans, and he could have done it as a favour for me.) If the pet shop is closed, goldfish food from the minimarket will do nicely. Or I could just get him a curry. The cat has… eclectic tastes.

Dutch cat suckles abandoned red panda

That cat is suckling its DOOM. Pandas are so much cuter! We will prevail!

Ergonomics: not just for humans! Dog dinner time hits the big time

HugX ergonomic dog bowls (check out their expensive model. WTF?)

Dog choir forming to pay tribute to a dog. I HAVE to see this. And steal the idea, except I already had.

Worm-eating slug found in garden. This is so beautiful. Look, Thad, killer mollusc!

Flock shocked by 'tramp' minister – great story.

Brazil MPs reject abortion reform

Past science papers stump pupils

There is no doubt that the clever pupils are as sharp as they ever were, but most are being stifled by an educational system that does not encourage more detailed problem-solving and rigorous thinking.

RecycleBank – making waste pay. Do want.

Q&A: Anglican Church divisions

How to pronounce Anglican terminology. (If you want me to record these for you in my semi-posh English accent, vote here.)

Can one manufacture good character?

Put in purely for the photo.

How do you win a Booker prize? Be a worldbuilder, have a cracking story and tell it well!

And finally, the Iron Man actor is playing Sherlock Holmes. And apparently there are two films; Guy Ritchie is directing this, while the other is a mickeytake starring Sacha Baron Cohen.

If you want a good and unusual take on Holmes, try Hammer's 1959 Hound of the Baskervilles. Some dude called Peter Cushing stars as Holmes and plays up his irritating side wonderfully. You get a shrewd sense, as you don't when you read the stories in Watson's extremely partial narration, of how impossible the genius is to live with. And Watson, who is just as important (it's canon! Holmes said so!), is also well played by André Morell, who doesn't bumble at all. (I think this is a screengrab from the film. But I'm not sure, because it was definitely in colour.)

Also, there's a DOGGY and it's GORGEOUS and I want one. </frustrated dog-lover>

Somehow it's 21:55 now. I seem to have been all day editing and sorting photos, and I'd already started the job last week. Wow.

Slen and I booked last week off work to celebrate our unbrother Paul coming back from Ireland, go on loads of day trips and generally have ourselves a time. Well, the whole part where Paul was supposed to be with us didn't go according to plan, but Slen and I managed to do most of the activities I'd planned without his company—or his car.

Alton Towers, 2 June

Pirates are this year's thing at Alton Towers (site), the theme park in Stoke-on-Trent. They've opened a new themed area with battle galleons (which we considered, but it looked as though we'd get rather wet) and piratey shows and shops. These two swabs were found at the gift shop, where Slen also bought a swashbuckling t-shirt to wear at gigs. Yarr!

Also wonderful to hear was Slen bantering with one of the actors from the pirate show. I shall quote from memory.

Pirate (obviously noting Slen's long, unkempt hair and general dress sense): "Ye look like ye've just escaped someone's crew."
Slen: "Arr, I'm a mutineer and proud!"
Pirate: "Good, good. We need more like you around here."

Slen was wearing one of his T-shirts, which is black (of course it's black) and bears on the front, in pink Impact font, the message "Nobody knows I'm a lesbian". Slen is a man.

Pirate (seeing shirt): "Does nobody know that, then?"
Slen: "Aye, well, they do now."

We arrived early and got on Air, a newish rollercoaster, and also Nemesis, with minimal queueing. Queues and crowds were very slight all day, it being a school day.

On the Runaway Mine Train was what seemed to be a wedding party. Two of the girls, sitting ahead of us, were flirting with the operator… who proceeded to send us round four times. We found this awesome, but the young girl waiting at the head of the queue wasn't impressed. "We want to ride too, you meanies!" she shouted.

I got a picture of the pagoda from the Skyride cable cars. Here's Ripsaw, which we eschewed.

We went into the petting zoo for a while. They have a singing barn full of animatronic animals. Horsie and dog and horsie alone, taken with Altivo in mind. And the legendary singing hen—I'll let the captions on Flickr tell the story.

Since I last came, several years ago, they've turned the haunted house into a laser gun game. It's nowhere near as good. But check out the zombie and friend outside.

There were lots of ducks. (If you like mallards, here be more.)

Here are all the day's photos if you prefer to browse on your own or want to see what I've missed out.

Chester Zoo, 3 June

Best if you just look at the photos for this one. Our Chester Zoo trip

Our mother came with us on this trip and a good time was had by all. Tigers were fed in our view, as were lions, condors &c. A panda was distantly sighted. A plushie panda was bought, as was a black t-shirt with tigies on it (for gigs at which he doesn't play his pirate song, presumably). I got mad sunburn on my forearms, which is gently peeling even now.

In the evening we saw Sweeney Todd, the Sondheim musical. It was great. Loved the epic song at the end of Act 1, and also the opening of Act 2.

We didn't do anything on the 4th because of aforementioned difficulties acquiring transport and accomplice. (For the record, I'd planned Flamingo World in Yorkshire, with a production of The Sorcerer in the evening.)

Manchester, 5 June

In Manchester we saw the Lindow Man (wiki) at the Mancester Museum (site). Photography wouldn't have been welcomed, and besides, there wasn't much to see. You could spend some time listening to the audio interviews and reading the extra material. Honestly, though, it wasn't all that interesting (still, you can't beat the admission price).

Then we rushed off to Sportcity, which is a sporting arena and the Manchester City football club ground, to see the Chinese State Circus (site). They had a tent set up in the car park. It was a much smaller show, and less well attended, than I'd expected—but, again, it was a school day. We liked the Lion Dance, the diabolo handlers and the aerial silks.

The Monkey King ringmaster/announcer/clown was rather obviously miming along to pre-recorded dialogue, sometimes seeming to slip into miming the wrong language, which was cool because it made me wonder about all the other countries they must play in.

The wushu warriors were… good but brief. I recognised a lot of steps, but it was more of the showoff smashing of bricks and lying on spearpoints. I wanted to see more sparring and kicks! The beauty of the form was what made me fall in lub at first sight with this particular style of martial art. All in all it wasn't enough to make me want to take up classes again. (I quit because the instruction wasn't what I needed; not enough individual attention, and I just got nervous having to finish my kicks before the next guy could go. I wanted to learn, but in the end I don't find humiliation and stress fun in the slightest.)

We didn't have time to rush to the Lowry to see The 39 Steps stage adaptation, but that was ok because I had deliberately not booked tickets, not knowing when the circus would finish. Instead we went to the cinema and saw Doomsday (imdb), which is, well, completely freaking insane. Ha!

Birmingham, 6 June

On Friday we visited Cadbury World in Bournville. Cadbury World (site) is… chocolate themed. Very chocolate themed. It's part factory tour, part kiddy attraction.

Taking photos isn't allowed in the factory areas, but I got a few shots with bad flash in their 'history of chocolate' exhibition. Aztec calendar wheel, pirate ship (pirates are clearly the unofficial theme of this week) and fountain head thing.

These were in the shop. Just… what. :o (No, we didn't indulge.)

On the forecourt… was this thing. Rockin'.

In the evening we saw Return to the Forbidden Planet (wiki). It's a very, very awesome combination of Shakespeare, 1960s songs and campy sci-fi—honestly, I couldn't ask for anything more in a stage show.

A final note that all my photos on Flickr that are linked from this entry are licensed with a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial licence. (Or if they aren't, it's by mistake, so please let me know so I can change them.)

My new friend was… very high up in a tree. I saw pim fairly well once we finally managed to spot pim, but the zoom on my little digital camera wasn't really up to the task. I'll see in due course if any of my long shots came out.

So today mum came with us to the zoo and theatre. Which meant we took the car, which was lucky, because we'd worked out that train fares would have been exorbitant. Slen was less tired today—and not at all motion sick, obviously, that being more of a theme park thing—but mum was a bit zombielike. The cat had kept her awake all last night. (He's being shut OUT tonight.)

A tiger was bad, awful and dire and naughty in front of us. Pics to follow.

Sweet-talked some ducks and wols and stuff into posing. Couldn't quite charm the wild jackdaw to stay still. We saw tiny wild moorhens (no, really, tiny) in a stream, and also the smallest bluetit I've seen (and I've only seen two this year, both today at Chester).

Also, I have sunburn on my forearms. Even my mystery scar is bright pink. Whoa. They're also greasy with heavy-duty Aussie after-sun.

Sweeney Todd this evening was pretty awesome. It's at a small theatre in Runcorn called The Brindley. It's a version of the Sondheim musical, the one upon which (so I understand) the recent film is also based.

Mum saw my head and shoulders from behind in the auditorium and said for a second she'd thought it was my father sitting there. :D (I said "Dude" and the others went "What, is that a good thing?")

Escaped mother panda found alive and gorgeous

Grey squirrels culled for red (embedded vid)

Dinosaur skeleton auctioned (embedded vid)

I object to the reader's final comment.

Call to protect tiger numbers (embedded vid)

Euro MPs urged to save tigers

Pope addresses clergy abuse (embedded vid)

France debates 'too thin' law (embedded vid)

Animals put out the lights at zoo

And quite right too. Who likes light pollution while you're trying to sleep?

New transgender laws considered for Isle of Man. No big shakes (unless you live there); seems to be the same as the UK law.

Further eye candy of the day: this is probably a terrible, dreadful individual who is bad and as for these, don't even get me started (or there'll be the squalling and the dying and the liquification and it'll just get ugly).

In shocking news, no ladies have proposed marriage to me today.

(That's good, because I have ethical objections to providing kisses and silk gloves.)

Red trouble still on the lam.

To aid your essential research into this matter, Charlie the Songdog sends this.

Why didn't I get one of these?

No impact from Energy Saving Day

Children's mags 'damage writing' ('Mags'. I rest my case.)

Robbers in Sydney are clever enough to target a bar during a biker meeting.

Plan to teach baby robot to talk

Hands up who immediately thought of Susan Calvin in "Lenny".

Mattress boxing. (Coming soon: mattress happy-slapping.)

[video] New Amur leopard baby. Beware, explicit pictures right from the outset, which some viewers may find highly distressing. *coughcough*

Panda mother and cub on the loose!

Valentine's Day hope for pandas!

WIN for panda stories!

WIN.

Here's their MediaWiki installation: London Lulz (It seems they're 4channers. It's a little sad that I'm able to deduce this just from phrases like "over 9000". (Even sadder that I can correct [edit: the BBC's] usage of "Anonymous".))

Mafia threatens Sicilian bishop

Danish Muhammad cartoon reprinted

An expert's view on next-gen broadband

Astronomers given Gemini reprieve. (Note, astronomers, not astrologerfrauds.)

'Cause it's a heav-y met-al cri-mi-nal… oh wait.

Canine recruits for fire service

I reckon the mutawaeen just want to get into the headlines. How retarded.

Warning about animal 'therapies'. Pretty inexcusable to do this to dogs, in my opinion. By all means pay for someone to stroke it nicely, because that's all this stuff boils down to, but a dog can't make informed choices to pursue hippy therapy instead of real medicine. It's borderline abuse. Scotch that; if the animal's in pain it's clear and obvious abuse.

Beach dog ban angers pet owners

Dog fouling CCTV camera crackdown

Finally, best song ever Y/N. No idea what it's about, but squee.

Now there are three of us in the office I'm not always getting to do the news in the mornings. Here instead are some non-BBC tech stories.

OpenDocument Foundation drops support for ODF, backs W3C's CDF format

OpenOffice.org (a free alternative to M$ Office, in my experience slightly less flaky and annoying, requires Java runtime) uses ODF, which was based on an XML format developed with the program.

Black holes may harbour their own universes

Patent applications: metal muscles, circuit-board clothing, new type of laser vision correction

This year we have averaged 344,000 unique visitors per month. This seems impressive to us — it's certainly more than we used to get pre-redesign. Much of today has been spent tossing around ideas for Cool New Projects and lamenting the bizarre politics that seem to be packaged therewith.

edit: [video] OMG RED PANDAS KISSING!

Perfect. <3

Shell shock at tortoise's gender

[the usual "gender is not a polite word for sex it is a different term omg idiots" gripe goes here]

Tortoise-keeping is very appealing. Our local pet shop has baby Hermann's Tortoises, which I feel poses quite unfair levels of temptation.

Hyperion the sponge-moon. (Wasn't this image on APOD ages ago? I'm sure it's saved in my desktop wallpapers.)

Snow monkeys drift into reserve

ZOMG TIGERS AND RED PANDAS. With bonus leopards and polar bears.

You are hereby no longer possessed by a Hindu goddess! I wonder if they have to give notice. Seems unfair to the tenant.

(I would be worried if I met someone with a neck like this. Jussayin'sall.)

Football man is Big Hero! With longbow! Or something.

Guide to Wimbledon name pronunciation put in solely because I like the sounds. :D

One for Charly at atheism_x.

I'm guilty of prejudice with the 'Magazine' articles; I always assume they'll be fluff pieces and don't bother reading them. It's because they call the section Magazine, and to me magazine = cars, fashion, knitting, Z-listers with their baps out and 'true life stories', I suppose. But this 'Magazine' section does have some surprisingly detailed and informative pieces.