Monthly Archive
Browsing entries posted on February 2008
How to make an IKEA table
I went to IKEA to buy a cheap side table to put the mouse tanks on, so that they wouldn’t take up so much space on my floor and Tim wouldn’t go over for sleep-overs at Darcy’s place any longer.
I purchased a LACK coffee table, it cost $19.90 and was light and easy to carry. So far so good. Assembly promised to be easy - except that I’m impaired at understanding visual images. Pictorial sequence of my travails follows.
The screws refused to obey my commands to go in straight. Plus their pointy ends and rather sharp threads were not finger-friendly, and I couldn’t get a grip.
Nope, no good. It won’t straighten out.
This is what I eventually figured out (and which is pictured on the assembly sticker, had I taken a more careful look at it):
Put the screw in the hole on the underside of the table part!
Once the screw can stay upright for a bit, plonk the leg part on top and turn. See, no touching of pointy ends or sharp threads involved.
Ta-daaa! Repeat on the rest of the legs. Upturn table. Put in location of choice. Done!
Inside Cardiac Arrest
It is a common misconception that cardiac arrest and heart attacks are different terms for the same medical condition. However, the cause behind each is different. Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) is characterised by an Irregular Heartbeat while “heart attack” is the common term for a myocardial infarction, or death of the cardiac muscle resulting from blockages of the blood vessels.
The website InsideCardiacArrest.com provides more information on SCA, the early symptoms of an attack, as well as a risk assessment to determine if you are at risk. You can also obtain more information on emergency treatment in case of SCA as well as therapeutic treatments to prevent further occurrences of SCA.
Given the suddenness of cardiac arrests, it is always prudent to stay well-informed on this condition, and the website is a good resource.
Vote!
Malaysians go to the polls on March 8 2008. I am going to travel 400km for the privilege of exercising my democratic right. So frankly, I don’t see why others would be too lazy to go to the neighbourhood school to cast a vote.
I’ve already checked my details online, but in case you’re unable to do so, here’s something that can help.
Link to the SMS guide on checking the electoral roll. As long as you have access to a Malaysian mobile line, you can check. And other people can check it for you too!
Pet Shop Precautions
I went to MidValley Megamall in KL today, to buy some stuff before I leave on the cruise. I made a detour to Pets Wonderland, the pet shop upstairs, to see if I could buy some Habitrail tubes for Tim’s cage. Of course I could buy other brands, but I like the Habitrail Mini tubes because they come apart for washing.
Of course I couldn’t resist taking a look at the animals. Dog area looked fine, no comments there. The cat enclosures seemed spacious and well-appointed, but it’s not all hunky-dory in there. A little girl was pointing out a white cat to her parents, then the cat looked up and revealed a swollen left eye. The child, in her innocence, asked her parents “what’s wrong with the cat’s eye?” I hope that left an impression on anyone who saw. There is no reason for an animal to be in less than perfect condition in a pet shop. If there’s something amiss, the quality of the pet care and living conditions should immediately be questioned. It wasn’t just one cat with an eye infection, a grey kitten in the corner cage had it as well.
They also had a couple of hedgehogs and a sugar glider, as well as the usual reptiles and some tarantulas. I’m very blasé about such things because I’ve been seeing them for sale for a very long time, plus Malaysia isn’t as strict on exotic pets as Singapore is.
The area of interest for me was the small animal section. They’ve revamped it since I was last there, there were more enclosures and the mice were on display. The mice were erroneously labeled as “white mice” when they were actually different colours. The proper term is “fancy mice”, to differentiate them from wild mice, but I suppose the general public only understands “white mice” as the usual “clean” pet mouse. Above them was the “satin mice” enclosure. I don’t see much difference between the 2 kinds, although the satin ones are supposed to have silkier coats (see here). The price difference for the 2 kinds is clear as day, though. “White” mice cost RM6 while “satin” mice cost RM20. Wow.
My biggest issue with the mice was the fact that they did not separate the sexes. The adult males were running around in the same tank as adult females, as well as some smaller mice whose sex I couldn’t determine (cos they were running around and I couldn’t see their rear ends). Even if no fighting occurs, usual policy is to separate the sexes, not just to prevent breeding but also to maintain the health of the animals. Females shouldn’t have more than 3 litters in their lifetimes, and 1 litter per lifetime is optimum. Raising babies is terribly stressful, and it’s not any easier when male mice want to hump the females right after they’ve given birth. Plus, how healthy can babies be if they’re born to an overworked mother?
It’s also a consumer issue. You won’t want to buy mice, especially female mice, from a place that doesn’t separate the sexes. Some people may think it’s good value to get a whole litter for the price of one mouse, but those who intend to keep them as pets won’t see it that way. The babies will just end up abandoned, and that’s assuming they survive, since stressed-out mothers will eat or maim their babies. Considering that most buyers will be first-time mouse owners, how many of them will know how to handle a mouse and her newborns?
I think Pets Wonderland doesn’t bother taking good care of the small animals, since the hamsters also seem to be all lumped together. Small animals are harder to sex than cats and dogs, but that just means they should get someone with experience to separate them instead of making excuses. Heck, I wanted to offer to sex and separate their mice, but their staff have that “I just work here” look, so talking to them probably wouldn’t have done much good anyway.
It wouldn’t be hard to sex mice, and it would make life easier when someone wants to buy mice, because then you’d know which tank had which sex. So if someone wanted 2 female mice, you’d just take them to the females’ tank and let them choose 2. See, simple. But I guess Pets Wonderland is more interested in making money out of foolish humans than it is in safeguarding the value of their products. It really pisses me off, but what can I do except complain?
Spider-Mouse!
15th February 2008
Tim, my 5-week-old boy mouse, is apparently quite the acrobat.
I got both mice new “outside boxes” - open boxes where they can run about and watch me watch them - as well as a new cage setup for Tim. The boxes are practically escape-proof because they’re plastic, smooth, and the toys in the cage aren’t high enough to serve as platforms to the edge of the box.
Or so I thought.
A visitor put one of Tim’s toys in an upright position, allowing the little mousie a higher platform from which to survey the world. It appears that this increased height allowed Tim to somehow escape from his box and get into Darcy’s cage, because I heard squeaking from them last night and was utterly astounded to see both mice in the same cage. I removed Tim and went back to work.
30 minutes later, he was back in. Again I removed him, and retired for the night.
Guess who went for a sleep-over at Darcy’s place during the night.
I turned the toy back into a horizontal position. I left it as it is in the hopes of catching Tim in the act, but since I can’t be watching them all the time, I decided to play it safe and end his escapades. Looking at the toy and the height of the box, you’d think he couldn’t have jumped that high. And I doubt that he climbed up the outside of the tubes, because they’re way too smooth and slippery and he’s no gecko.
But as I learned last night, underestimate Tim at your own peril.
Update: 22nd February 2008
I awoke this morning to pick up on some motion in the corner of my eye. I turned to my right, where my guitar bag is, and saw a mouse running down the black fabric.
To say I was shocked may be a bit of an underestimation. So the first thing I did this morning was chase a tiny 6-week-old mousie around the room. Eventually he went into his little box, and I returned him to his cage. He immediately went to his water bottle and drank for a good long while.
I don’t know how long he was outside, but I hope he learned a lesson. There’s nothing out there for him to eat or drink, so he’s much better off inside the cage. Certainly he didn’t try escaping again for the rest of the day, but maybe he was just way too tired.
Just to make sure, though, I covered his open box so he can’t jump out any more. What shall he do next? I have no idea.
Lynn goes cruising!
It’s now week 6 of term. That means next week is the midterm break. Everyone loves the midterm break, except maybe engineering students because the poor dears have exams then. I usually enjoy my term break, but I’ll enjoy this final one even more.
I’m going on a cruise to go hunt rich old men with my family! Yay. I haven’t been on a cruise since I was 11. (As if it was my birthright to go on one every couple of years.)
This time, I’m taking SuperStar Virgo ex-Port Klang, and we’ll hit Phuket and Langkawi before going back to Port Klang. I could stay on the ship an extra 2 nights and depart from Singapore instead, but since it’s a company trip, my tour package is the same as everyone else’s.
It’s going to be a bit odd since I suspect there will be no one else under 25 in our group. My sister can’t come along because her term break doesn’t coincide, so it’ll just be me, my parents and a whole bunch of adults. I don’t like gambling so I’ll probably avoid the casino. I have no money for the spa. I definitely don’t qualify for the Kids’ Club. There are 6 meals a day provided in our package, so it seems I’ll be spending most of my time hitting up the various restaurants. Then I’ll get so fat that they’ll roll me down the gangplank instead. Haha!
I shall put my time onboard to good use and present a tour review of Star Cruises’ flagship liner, complete with food, room and entertainment coverage! I’ll be back on land on the 28th of February. Expect me then!
New Year Hangover Part 1
Not the type you’d expect, too. Not a single drop of alcohol passed my lips. Not even wine (I don’t like it), beer (ditto) or shandy. Instead I drank Kickapoo, Sarsi and loads of Chinese tea.
So what’s the hangover from? Try having literally dozens of relatives descending on your house simultaneously. My mother is very fond of playing hostess, and we don’t adhere to the hierarchy of the younger ones visiting the elder ones, so people just congregate on our house. After all there are 15 days of Chinese New Year, with 2 big meals daily, so imagine how many houses you could visit.
It wasn’t only my dad’s side who came visiting - my mum’s vastly larger side of the family came as well. My mum has 6 sisters and 1 brother, my dad only has 3 siblings. However, this year the Chan side got the reserve team to boost the score - my dad’s cousins came visiting. My grandpa’s younger brother, I’m told, has 8 or 9 children. These 8 or 9 kids, along with spouses and kids, all arrived in a giant convoy. *faints* I think my mother is now an expert in cooking for crowds.
Chinese New Year is actually a very good time to dig around in the family closet. While some people hate the enforced socialization with relatives they see only annually, I like having them around. I can’t remember who’s who, and I don’t know which kids are whose, but it’s a psychological comfort to know that here are others, with the same provenance as you. And because everyone is busy comparing how well everyone else has got on, a little bit of prodding can get you very far.
More to come!
Itsy-bitsy mousie Part 2
LBM turned out to be male. Its name is now Tim. Props to anyone who can spot the Monty Python reference.
Anyway, I now need to get a 2nd cage and accessories because not only don’t I want more mice, Darcy is too old to give birth and she doesn’t seem to enjoy Tim’s amorous attentions. It seems a bit wrong anyway, it’s like a 13-year-old boy going after a 40-year-old woman. Yeah, gross.
Tim grew bigger in the 5 days that I wasn’t in the country, and his testicles practically ballooned. They’re so huge they’re probably twice the size of his brain. Hehehe. Looks like I shall have to stop calling him itsy-bitsy soon.
Itsy-bitsy mousie Part 1
Since Kip died, her cagemate Darcy has been alone. Female mice kept alone tend to get depressed, so acquiring a new companion for Darcy was of utmost importance. After a fruitless search in Serangoon North, I found baby mice in Tampines. They were about 3 weeks old and I couldn’t determine their sex. Male mousies don’t drop their testicles until about 5 weeks.
In the end I took a gamble and picked out one that had the highest chance of being female (details here). It was a tiny white-and-grey creature with red eyes. I tend not to like red eyes, but all of them had that trait so I didn’t have much choice.
Since I can’t tell its sex, I’m holding off on naming it. For now, I shall call it Little Baby Mouse (LBM). When I took it home, Darcy seemed not to even notice it. She sniffed its butt for a bit until the tiny thing squeaked, then she just went about her usual business as though nothing was new. She was eating and running and climbing up and down, so depression didn’t seem to be affecting her.
On Friday, Darcy discovered that LBM had a shoebox to itself, full of exciting possibilities. She started spending more time down there, but she always ran off when she saw me, probably because I told her off for scaring LBM. Apart from eating the baby’s food, she continued with her carefree life. I couldn’t fathom if she just wasn’t interested, if she was the one rare female mouse who enjoyed the solitary life, or if she didn’t realize that there was a new mouse around. The last possibility was highly unlikely since the squeaking should have clued her in.
On Friday night, I finally saw her grooming LBM. Grooming is a social habit among mice, so I was greatly reassured by this development. Furthermore, LBM gathered up the courage and the strength to venture up the tube leading to the main cage. Since the diameter of the tube is very wide in relation to its body, LBM had a hard time climbing up, but the exercise will be good for it. It’s a little amusing to see it struggling up the pipe that Darcy zips up and down easily. When Darcy first came, she had trouble with the pipes too. Don’t worry little baby, you’ll soon grow!
LBM is so insanely tiny that the people who see it have a jaw-drop moment at the sight of such a small, perfectly independent creature. To put its size in perspective, I took some pictures of it with ordinary household objects.
It’s as big as my key-tag!
It’s as big as my key! Which, by the way, is the key to a small padlock - I use it to lock my wardrobe drawer.
And the most jaw-dropping picture:
That, my friends, is a baby mouse inside a Brand’s Chicken Essence bottle. Yes, not only can it fit, it’s sitting in there eating seeds and grooming itself! (i.e. being perfectly happy, I didn’t abuse it or anything)
And now for an “awww” moment: Darcy and LBM.
Reminds me of when Darcy first arrived, and Kipley was twice her size. *sniff*
Sunday, 3rd February 2008:
LBM was in the main cage when I woke up. This means that the little creature climbed out of its shoebox, up the tubes, and then down the tubes again into what may have seemed like paradise. The weather was very cold last night, perhaps it wanted to go somewhere warmer?
Anyway it seems to have discovered the food bowl and the drinking bottle, so I no longer have to put out separate food bowls and give it water by hand. It’s no longer picky about its food, I gave them cornflakes and they both took to it very well. For a little while all you could hear was the crunching of cornflakes and the occasional squeak as Darcy continued her food-snatching habits. LBM even nibbled on the soybean I put in the bowl, so there’s hope yet for converting both of them to a homemade diet instead of premixed food from the pet store.
I’m beginning to suspect that LBM is a male. It climbs readily onto my hand, since it’s so tiny that it can’t explore it otherwise. This gives me a chance to gently check its rear end, and I think I see a bulge that may be the scrotum. For all I know, the breeder already pre-selected the mice and sent nothing but male mice to the pet shop. Just my luck! I may have to seriously consider neutering if I don’t want to see more LBM soon.
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