Not long now to the big Four Seven !

Some of you may know I have this particular affinity with the number 47. This began many years ago when I was 19/20ish years old in the very early Eighties when I was living / working in Grafton. I was in a Rover Crew at the time and we were heading out one Friday evening on a weekend camping trip. I had taken on the responsibility of transporting one of the other crew members who was to say the least "a bit of a character". Being new to the area I commented to "Robo", didn't we cross that same creek a little while ago?....the reply that came back was "yeah, we cross that creek 47 times on this road!"  "Forty Seven times eh!" I replied...This induced some humour for the rest of the trip as Robo had this number stuck in his head for some reason and it cropped up again at camp...It didn't take long for the whole crew to join in. We subsequently never let go of this number....quoting everything to the nearest 47  ie I'll be there in 47 mins or I worked 4.7 days this week..etc.....
Over time I started to notice how this number cropped up out of the blue in everyday life, in the news "47 killed in plane crash" ... " etc. even the 'average contents' listed on a matchbox mysteriously changed from 50 to 47 at one point!
Little things like  glancing at the clock to check the time and noticing you have just happened to look at 9:47 etc...
Now, many years later, I still have this thing about 47...My favourite NRL team, I discovered, entered the competition in 1947!  and I have joined the '47 society' on the internet, a group of similarly '47' obsessed humans whom also have noticed that it's not just any old number!...see this link too.
....and now I am on the brink of turning 47 years of age. I mean, this will be the big one! forget 50...this is the year of all years for me! So excuse me if I have a huge grin on my face on Tuesday...it means a lot to me to get to 47!  and excuse me if I get even more obsessed with 47 this coming year as I'm sure I am going to notice it even more!

cecil

Different

I changed the template for this blog....thought it needed a change.

I'm not restricted now by the fixed column size of the old template so my posts can now utilise more screen width :-{)

ceceel

Update on Holly

...continuing on regarding our sick dog.
Since my last post about her condition I found some info regarding feeding hints for dogs with the same condition. We have been hand feeding her with some supplements , one being Nutrigel, a vitamin supplement in the form of a paste you squeeze out of a tube onto your finger and smear on her tongue.... she likes that one! and the other product is Biolac, which appears to be like baby formula for puppies (same look / smell) which we feed via syringe into the side of her mouth. She's not real keen on it but when it's squirted into your mouth when your owner has your nose pointed up at 45 degrees you have no option but to swallow it!
Then last night (Thursday) whilst I was at TAFE, Michelle offered her a couple of McDonalds burger patties (which she herself (Michelle) does not eat) and she (the dog) ate them!....after which Mikey gave her some tinned dog food which she also ate.
Looks like she has some appetite back, but she is still on the pills and still obviously has balance issues.
We're a lot happier here now! and hoping she keeps eating without us having to force feed her.
Cecil :-)

Vote Earth

Earth Hour are running a campaign at the moment , counting down to the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.
Vote Earth and show you want action on climate change!



ceceel

Sick as a Dog

..not me! the dog!

Holly to be precise.
Friday morning noticed one of the dogs had vomited up their dinner from the night before...I assumed it was Holly as there was a thunder storm that night and she is terrified of them!...probably unsettled her a lot.
Friday afternoon we noted she was unsteady on her feet, seemingly not able to use her legs properly.
hmmm I thought, summer, vomit, loss of mobility....must be a tick!....of course I couldn't find one could I !
So off to the Vet....
They were initially thinking along the same lines as we were, but with a closer examination after they failed to find a tick, revealed she is suffering from "Geriatric Vestibular Disease"
Geriatric eh!, yeah well, at 14 human years she probably is geriatric in Dog years!
The vestibular disease affects the dog's sense of balance basically, ...according to the vet she feels like the world is spinning constantly, a bit like seasickness, hence the upset stomach and wobbly walk. (looks drunk!)...Her eyes flicked from side to side and her head was tilted most of the time.
Come Monday we had her back at the Vet as she hadn't eaten any food at all over the weekend but the other symptoms hadn't worsened , if anything seemed a little better.
She's had a cortisone injection which can sometimes increase their appetite (wouldn't hurt her as she's been a little arthritic anyway) and having "Vivitonin" pills twice a day to improve the blood circulation to the brain which may improve the function of the vestibular (balance) system and reduce the sick feeling hence making her feel like she can eat!
...so I'm looking on the web now for ideas to get some food into her stomach...I'm thinking liquid diet at this stage as she still drinks water (thankfully)
The reality is if she doesn't improve the best we can do is "make her comfortable" and make the "hard decision" when it's obviously too uncomfortable for her to go on!
....Of course we are all hoping she improves!

cecil :-(

Font

I reloaded my Linux box yesterday with the latest ubuntu release. (from scratch so as to format the drive using the new ext4 filesystem)....so far so good.
But I just wanted to highlight my favourite extra fonts that I generally download after a fresh install.

First there is the obligatory "ttf-mscorefonts" for (my) 2 reasons:
-1. better look to websites...they often look better than with the standard ubuntu fonts as they were probably designed with these microsoft fonts in the first place.
-2. conformity to font requirements for my TAFE assignments. As some teachers are very specific!...(even though I use Open Office instead of M$ Office)

Secondly I like to grab a font package called ttf-aenigma which has 465 free fonts included...which are quite handy for when you are looking for something a bit different.

Both are available via the synaptic package manager.

ceceel

Multi Cultural (Pet) Society

The Pets in our house currently outnumber the Humans and on top of that the majority are minorities!

The only true Aussie is Jack the Budgie. A bit off the wall is our Jack! with some quirky attention seeking ploys, like hanging upside down staring at you if he thinks his seed tray is a little low on tucker or giving you the chat if you don't cover his cage at night!

Bingo is a DSH Cat, lineage unknown but probably British or American....We like to think of her as our English Rose as she has poise, grace and beauty (and a beauty spot on her face) Has an annoying obsession with me....I can't sit anywhere without her wanting to claim my lap!

Garfield is a Persian Cat, our "mad arab" Iranian. He leaves "Bombs" around the house...particularly in Mike's room!!! (don't know exactly why he picks Mike!). Attitude cat with a Capital A.... Frowns a lot!..."Don't touch me!"...getting a cuddle is a rarity from this one!

Claude-Aspen is our Russian Blue Cat, ..obviously originally from Russia, acts like a KGB agent often slashing anyone who he doesn't like at the time (Human or Feline)...but all the same loves to snuggle up to Michelle (Mummy's Boy)

Holly, the Border Collie, originally from England / Scotland border area (Northumberland). The noisiest of the bunch, as she's going deaf in her old age and doesn't realise how loud she is actually barking ....(particlarly at 2am in the @#*!+$ morning ... and she can't hear you yelling at her to shut the @#!% up!)..maybe shes more Scottish...they're brash and loud aren't they?

Douglas, (who doesn't dig as much as Holly) is a (technically miniature) Poodle, popularly thought to be from France (but before the French "standardised" them, apparently from Germany.... no wonder he's so confused!). I don't doubt that Paris is covered in Dog Doo if Doug's toilet habits/placements are a guide.

so there you have it, a brief insight into our multicultural menagerie, ...it's a nuthouse!

ceceel

Movember

I have joined my brother John in team Danger Mice to grow back my moustache to raise funds for Movember, the mens health fundraiser supporting Prostate Cancer and Mens Depression.

I shaved off my old mo around May this year, so I'm ready to grow it back (albeit for a month) for a damn good cause!

That old mo was with me for a long long time, and even though its been off for fiveish months, I'm still not used to the smooth top lip!


If you wish to support these worthy causes please follow the link:

http://au.movember.com/donate/your-details/member_id/266844/





Thanks and Cheers !

Geoffrey

Million Mark Reached

For those following the Danger Mice Folding @ Home progress:
I was reliably informed by email (thanks Pete) that we have surpassed the Million Points milestone.
This is a fantastic achievement and a worthy contribution to the research being performed by Vijay Pande and the team at Stanford University through the Folding @ Home distributed computing program.



The Danger Mice Team welcome any friends and family to join our folding team.