Run, don't walk to your nearest Toys r us and lay your hands on the fantastic looking ten inch Metal Sonic, I would even venture to say that you could probably miss that car payment or forgo food for a few days if needed so that you can get it: [link]


Actually do not do any of those things, but I would suggest putting aside a little bit of money until you can get, or if you have the extra $17 laying around buy it now! I recently purchased the Super Shadow poser, and it makes the entertainment room look brighter with him standing on a shelf looking at you, all he needs is a disproportionately large and awesome Metal sonic standing next to him and the U.S.S. Enterprise replica I bought recently to complete the look.

And I bought a functional, but penless, wacom intuous2 tablet with mouse for $5 at flea market near the bird auction I was at this morning.

As I looked back upon my journal entries i realized that I used to at least be attempting to be interesting,so I will do my best to sum up what has been going on for the last year and a half.

2 quick highlight:

One of my smallest bantam hens had raised a white peacock, and then at about a year old the white peacock disappeared into the woods for a week, came back, and died.

I purchased an R-com incubator(the big one), it's all digital.

Now for the interesting( I hope) stuff.

After the attack on my Amherst pheasant things went relatively smoothly, the winter passed without anything terribly exciting happening, and then spring rolled around.
In April I constructed an A frame type pen that would have the same floor space as my larger pheasant pens, but save materials costs by having the roof be the walls. The construction went very well and I installed my pair of Mountain Quail into the pen. Unfortunately a little while later I awoke to find one of the Quail dead, its legs and chunks of its breast ripped through the floor( I am using 1/2 inch by 1inch aperture wire to avoid this) by what I determined was a coon. I then attempted to eliminate said coon, but was unable to, however the coon left and caused no further damage. Despite the departure of the coon I was concerned, All my other birds had been fine, but being pheasants they roost on perches I have installed in their pens thus keeping them far from the floor, the mountain quail in my experience did not perch and this left them vulnerable. not wanting to leave the quail in the a frame pen which was a little lower than the pheasant cages (though not by much) I decided to move the remaining mountain quail into the pen with my yellow golden pheasants. Quail have gotten along with pheasants very well as long as neither outnumber each other, and i was pleased to see the pheasants pay the quail no mind. Then shortly after-wards I noticed t hat the Mountain quail was roosting on the perch right next to the pheasants, and looked as happy as a bird capable of looking, so in the future I will install perches in my quail cages.
From there came the problem of what to do with my hybrid pheasants, I found that it is not immoral to sell them as long as you clearly mark the boxes,(I watched it happen at auction and the birds went for a good price) but it so happened that the ones I had were very pretty birds, and was loathe to part with them; so I decided to let them run outside like chickens. And it was great, the ruffed pheasants perch in trees so that they avoid predators, and they look great running about the yard to boot. After that the summer was uneventful as far as I remember, but then during the fall I was able to purchase a high quality Amherst male.
Winter passed, and this spring started to roll around, I am determined to make headway in this journey to start a farm, so I ordered 50 coturnix quail through the mail. When I received them it was very funny, fifty quail chicks come in a box the size of a shoe box, and they still have lots of room. From there coturnix mature in eight weeks so they soon were moved to their final homes. However, only a few days after I installed the birds into their homes, I found a coturnix with its legs pulled through the floor, dead; the coon was back. And as before I was unable to eliminate the coon, so instead I fortified the cage and was able to once again end the threat.

And that brings us up to now (though I know I have left things out); I am now designing inserts for my quail egg cartons, and am hoping to be able to sell some quail eggs this year.

Star Trek is jaw droppingly awesome, managing to be gift to trekkies, accessible to non trekkies and have a great story to boot; and then ther is UP. UP is amazing, Pixar has outdone themselves in a big way, the movie is great for kids, but the story is for adults, and for any children who can grasp adult stories. the themes it touches on are deep, and I am so pleased that in this day and age you can have a PG film that has such amazing quality of writing, Pixar should be studied and emulated by others in my opinion. I mean just think if the transformers movies were pg, I mean The wrath of Kahn was pg and it featured swearing and blood, what it did not have was urine jokes, scads of sex jokes, and nearly liberated megan fox breasts. If only transformers could be like this (it might still have to be pg-13 because of the amazing robot fights) I would be able to watch it and go "that was truly epic!" instead I watch them and get the feeling that our race is doomed, only wishing to revel in sex, poor humor and explosions, why can we not instead save sex for marriage, write good humor and then have explosions go along with it.

*sigh* (previously whiny remark here)

But I leave you with this snippet of script from the original japanese of Pokemon the first movie:


Head Scientist: We have succeeded! This is birth of Mewtwo.

Mewtwo: Mew...two...?

Head Scientist: Yes, that's what you are. In this world the supreme Pokemon is mew. [points to a stone plaque on the wall of the research complex.] You were produced from this creature.

Mewtwo: [Looks over at the picture of mew] Then, is mew my father, or my mother?
Head Scientist: No, you do not understand. You have no parents.

Mewtwo: !? But... I was made? For whom? If I have no father or mother, then...by God? Do I exist because of the will of God?

Head Scientist: It is one of mankind's greatest achievements to be able to create an entirely new lifeform.

Mewtwo: ...I am here because of the acts of humans...

Various Scientists: Doctor! It is a grand success! What a stunning scientific victory! We have created a new intelligent life form through cloning. Congratulations!
[the shot switches from the scientists, to Mewtwo looking down at his hands.]
Mewtwo: ...they have brought me here... A human created this body. I was born for no reason... [clenches his hands]

Today I had lunch at Maria's spirits and food. The cast of characters within was very entertaining, in the background, not too loud played an excellent collection of classic rock, such as Rush, U2 and Boston, and they make some of the best hamburgers I have ever eaten.

And Star Trek, it gets good reviews and I have dared to hope that it is good, but I was forged in the fire of the Genesis device, and am still somewhat cautious.

Is a unique experience, especially when you have ditches four feet deep on both sides of your "paved" road, and despite having been driving for about a year and a half it does not make it much easier, especially when you encounter a crazy ( or very tired) Amish person weaving aback and forth on the road. And the thing about Amish buggies is this: what they lack in mass and speed, they make up for with an animal tied to it that you can scare, and cause horrible things to happen to Shem.

And it was minus 12-ish last night.