one thing i miss about not flicking through a print newspaper is finding nice photographs to cut out and frame as art around the house.

i love watching bernie & mimi when they're having a grooming session but both want to be the one getting groomed, so they just freeze and wait with their eyes closed and their heads snuggled against each other ;)

rachael yamagata songs
- it'll do
- what if i leave
- saturday morning
- full on

post-xmas sales shopping ;)

- rabbit shadow (T-bar)

- unteal tomorrow sticks & bones jean (ziggy denim)

- calendar, notebooks (typo)

i wonder if i'll change my views on monetary values of things when i start work and get paid. at the moment if i see something that i consider expensive then i'll just make it at home if i know how to, even though the time spent making it is probably more than if i was getting paid to do it.

merde. i think i'm gonna change my mind again and not give another craft project away as a present. this is the problem with picking things i like as presents & them taking a while to make!

guess i'll have to go present shopping tomorrow...

merry xmas everyone!

pic source: ungt blod

bun update

it's been a really long time since i've posted any bunny pictures on this blog. mostly cos i never take my phone/camera when i go outside to their area (and that they're always moving around and hard to take pics of..) 

news since the last time:
- Bernie is actually a girl. i've never bothered to look at her genitals ever since the previous owner told me (4 years ago) that she was a boy and that he's been desexed.. i assume this desexing history is accurate, since she's not moody/aggressive like girl bunnies and she doesn't have a dewlap, which my friend told me is a secondary sex characteristic (ie. needs oestrogen to maintain).
- Mimi got desexed cos i got paranoid ever since our exotics lecturer told us how common uterine cancers were in rabbits as they get older. but then this was followed by TWO bouts of gut stasis and inappetence (ie. super stressful time for her and me). had to force feed her five times a day with special food and give her a gut motility thing (which made me feel like a drug dealer cos i had to empty the capsule and divide the powder into one-fifth portions using a name card). obviously i thought often whether i would have gotten her desexed if i had the chance to go back in time, and if i was advising a pet owner i would really warn them about having to make an effort to feed them every few hours and staying calm when you wait for the medicine to work. she even gained weight after this (cos she only lost 0.01g when i took her back to the vet, and i'm sure the uterus they took out was much heavier - apparently it was big and took longer than usual to take out). i was so grateful she was still willing to swallow the food that i squirted to the back of her mouth... but yeah. it's been nearly a month since the operation and she is a different bunny! less anxious / trying to assert her dominance on Bernie/her area - which means that she's not humping Bernie, more willing to come to me and be patted on the head (though having her wrapped in a towel and on my lap while getting force fed several times a day probably got her used to me -_-"), and generally seems calmer and enjoying life more (obviously i'm just guessing..).

ok. finally pics-time!

short bun feet XD

same colour!

bernie looks like a grandpa haha big eyebrow area

mimi's been licking my toes since yesterday. i don't know why.

grand piano nanoblock

nanoblock website

lol at a sentence from a salmon hatchery website: "the main causes of death are old age and disease"

...as opposed to other causes of fish death?

Mimi just licked my toes. thanks?

New Scientist links

articles:
- Did learning to fly give bats super-immunity?
- Blame bacteria if you start putting on weight

if you like Biscotti, you are a good person in my mind. and if Biscotti doesn't run away from you, then you get a star!

just got an email from the uni internal mail about guinea pig pups somebody is giving away. and thinking about it, i just realised that there isn't really anywhere indoors in this new house to place a guinea pig enclosure. i could let them run outside where the bunnies are now, but then i can't hv bunnies too.. unless they get along.. aaaargh..

man, listening to old Michelle Branch albums makes me so happy ; ) they were one of the first casettes i ever bought.

cat pouch necklace

a.k.a. the 'cat guardian secret keeper' - taken from the craft tutorial by Cat Rabbit in the latest issue of Frankie magazine (which has a special craft section! on similar paper to their cake recipes section in the previous issue).

(this was supposed to be a birthday present for a friend, but i can't get over how cute it is.. so now it's not a present..)

i get why a crafter should like cats more than dogs. when you get bored during your project, you can turn most things on your desk into cat toys to play with: pens, string, strip of paper, anything strand-y.

i wonder when my phone will dysfunction, so that i have good reason to get a Galaxy Note..

(but please, universe / phone god, make sure i've transferred everything from the phone beforehand.)

i can't help but lose trust in someone when they stop answering things directly and start talking about how things are, but not why they are like that (ie. when they become like stereotypical politicians).

hmm, seeing as there's a family history of diabetes, maybe i shouldn't hv hot chocolate at night, cereal for breakfast, and chocolate croissant for lunch..

other diseases i just realised are in the family: liver dz, sickle cell anaemia.

the things u learn when family is around..

it's fine to be unhappy about something, but you still have to do it if it's important.

taylor swift - mean; begin again
kina grannis - safe & sound cover (taylor swift feat. the civil wars)



 

Some people need to realise that "Stress" is not an imaginary thing. It's caused by hormones (corticosteroids) that affects how the body functions. People can die from stress - e.g. before/during/after surgery, if not enough pain relief (analgesia) or enough anaesthetic depth is provided, excessive release of these hormones can cause blood vessels to constrict meaning essential organs don't get enough blood supply - ie. it doesn't receive enough oxygen and the tissue dies. For example, during surgery you can get kidney failure (and its accompanying complications, including death) just from receiving insufficiently managed stress. Stress is real. Like being stabbed. Only you can't see the little knives, a.k.a. the hormones, initiating their effects.

(important to note: stress hormones obviously have an essential function that i have excluded in this rant post).

I can't believe one of the possible written assignments for Veterinary Public Practice is reviewing the NATION'S Emergency Disease Response Plan. I know it's a tedious job which is "perfect" for an intern, but should you really leave it to a 5th year uni student who doesn't have any on-the-job experience for it?

Also, the Unit of Study handbook needs some SERIOUS EDITING. So far I have summarised 114 pages into 36. I still have another 172 pages to go. It was prepared by a person who made a movie of an audio recording of herself reading word for word, university policies with powerpoint slides displayed on the screen. We had to listen to this audio with the script on the screen for 30+ minutes; but at least we could listen to her struggling to say various veterinary words.

oh, charlie ♥

need sleep... apparently, 5 hours after 2 all-nighters isn't enough.

i have finished fourth year of vet school & will never have to attend classes again!! (well, besides lectures i actually want to attend as part of compulsory continuing education after graduation)

bring on internship year X) so terrifying but exciting at the same time!

threadless wishlist!

 

pixel street (by ray_ben)

 

we're gonna need a bigger cookie (by phil ryan)

 

a fox with socks (by Zach Terrell)

matchbox twenty - real world; push
rob thomas - little wonders

harry potter-themed sleepover, with beds in the lounge room to watch from. intro with Potter Puppet Pals, then movie marathon. food including both warm and cold butter beer, hagrid's chocolate cake for harry. decorations: candle stickers on the wall with glow in the dark flames.

mann, i can't wait til next week is over. (not that i'm actually planning a harry potter party, but just that i could if i wanted to).

just found sheet music to a song that i listened to on repeat nearly 10 years ago x)

the uploader won't let me embed the video of the song, so here's: the link to the youtube page

you know you're a vet student when you read the following story and only gasp at the end of the story when the police killed one of the dogs.

http://news.com.au/world/african-painted-dogs-kill-boy-3-at-pittsburgh-zoo/story-fndir2ev-1226510348304

iron chef returns

Chiaki?!

(source)

That is all.

this is the first time i've been sceptical about what i'm typing notes on. will hv to deal with it until after the exam period when i can email the guest lecturer for more info on the topic.

HOW COULD I HAVE NOT HEARD OF THIS NEWS!?

there is.... A NEW LEMONY SNICKET BOOK!!! it's the 1st in a series of 4 about Lemony Snicket's life (an autobiography) set before the time of Series of Unfortunate Events books...

the new series is called: All the Wrong Questions, and the 1st book is, "Who Could That Be at This Hour?"

here is the book trailer that's as mysterious as ever

another clip (wished i was at this train station!)

clicky click people and get a copy!
- book website (excerpt of first few chapters there)
- book depository 1
- book depository 2

so frustrating hearing about (dog) breed-specific legislation - THEY DON'T WORK! (feel free to ask for links to resources if ur interested in the topic). i broke my pen lid whilst writing notes on it.

science is amazing. just read about this last night: when exposed to high but not lethal concentrations of hydrogen sulphide (rotten egg gas), mice can go into a 'hibernation-like' stage, where the body temperature drops and metabolic processes slow down to minimise oxygen use. a paleontologist, Peter Ward, said that it's a mammalian adaptation to exposures to hydrogen sulphide in the past earth's history. it's not yet demonstrated to be succesful in people or larger mammals, but if it is, that would mean significantly reducing the risk for ischaemic damage to body tissues during trauma or procedures done under general anaesthesia! if only..

anyhoo, article talking about it here: what a year! website

*also, i added an Etsy widget on the sidebar on the right showing my favourite items from etsy sellers, but for some reason it doesn't want to show up in Chrome (it works in Firefox).

- kodaline - all i want
- cover by kina grannis & kate mcgill

hah, take THAT, stupid doctor who won't listen to me and insisted that my eczema was ringworm just because i said i owned rabbits (who did NOT have ringworm, thank you very much). NOW I HAVE PRESCRIPTION ANTIFUNGAL CREAM THAT I CAN USE ON BISCOTTI MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. ok.

spent the day giving free vet checks at the Paws in the Park event :) i miss companion animal medicine so much!

i can't believe it took me this long to finally YouTube a Potter Puppet Pal clip... but XD!

opinion: declining tv viewership

recently there's been a lot of mention about online piracy / downloads of tv episodes affecting tv viewership, and that this is part of the reason for tv networks 'fast-tracking' shows from overseas - so viewers get to see their shows at the same time as the rest of the world and aren't left behind.

personally, i just think that we're filling up our days with so many tasks so that u can't justify replacing doing more important tasks with meeting a tv network's schedule.. if i had the time, i would rather sit on the comfy couch and watch free tv on a large good quality screen rather than on a chair wasting bandwidth downloading a clip with sometimes questionable quality from a random internet page that risks giving the cp viruses.

if i miss a tv show's episode & there weren't any online versions then i would just rent it wen i had time to. it's not speed/currency that's the issue, it's timing & personal convenience.

Craig David reminds me of my Video Hits-watching days... also a Jennifer Hudson song that i've only recently heard..

cat behaviour question - sudden biting, seemingly no trigger

so far i haven't been able to explain this well to other people / heard of cat owners encountering the same thing, but i'll try and describe it again in this post...

as an introduction, Biscotti (my cat) is not an agressive cat, she's very much a "flight" response type of cat in the "fight/flight" dichotomy when animals are stressed/scared. 

anyhoo. sometimes when i'm with her (eg. sitting next to her, her on my lap, patting her, or not patting her - basically not any one particular scenario) i can feel like her personality or mood "flips", and she suddenly looks at me with non-blinking eyes, pauses and seem to be concentrating on biting me. now, i have to explain that when she's doing this, her ears and tail are in normal position (not like when cats are in a fight), and her bites are not quick and penetrating, it's more of a gnaw...freeze/pause... gnaw... freeze/pause. So basically when it happens i just feel really weird and uncomfortable, cos it's not like i can feel her being angry and scared, it's just a zombie-like/action that doesn't seem to have a clear motivation. (it's hard to explain an 'intuition' / a feeling...)

and usually when i say no and point my finger sternly towards her nose she backs away/flattens her ears/looks away, but when she's in this "mode" she doesn't show any fear and just remains put in her spot with the same stance and still maintaining eye contact with me. and another thing that scared me when i first noticed this behaviour was that she'll even start to raise her body up and move in sudden movements towards me - like trying to dominate the situation (but her ears are normal! i can't tell what she's thinking!). as her owner, this is very uncharacteristic - she is NEVER bite-y. and though she's a really flighty cat, it's never when it's just me around her. 

and similar to how it started, she also snaps out of this unusual behaviour without any obvious environmental triggers either... and just resumes to being her normal, relaxed self.

so yeah, i'm just wondering if anybody knows any other information regarding this weird behaviour? it just suddenly happens seemingly without any trigger. and it happens quite infrequently - probably 3-4 times in the last 1-2 years. 

cool! i would so get this, if only it had more space around the dates to write on.

Stitch the Stars calendar by Heather Lins (via Amelia Presents)

fyi vets in Australia do not earn as much money as most people think due to the 'expensive' fees clients encounter. yes, i have to agree the fees are high, but compared to other health services they are way lower. most services are undercharged and practices have to pay to buy the equipment, drugs and pay to maintain the property and pay employees etc etc etc. they are basically a small business with no subsidies from the govt.

here is a picture of a newspaper article comparing the costs of human v's veterinary vet care. 
(click for a larger picture)

most people don't realise how much things cost cos their health insurance takes care of it, but it's ridiculously expensive! i was also surprised the first time i heard about the consultation fee for my cousin's paediatrician - it was $300! most vet practices i know charge $60-90, and though they may not have the specialist title, they also do their own procedures like dermatologists, surgeons, radiographers, radiologists, etc etc etc do..

Providing food and filling a water bottle does not constitute "caring" for an animal. I hate it that nobody else in my family seems to understand that you can't simply just not pay attention to the actual animal - nobody notices or can notice if anything is out of the ordinary. Currently, it is literally as if the bunnies are not even there. I don't understand - how can you not care.

seemingly obvious facts raised in the past few weeks:
- if u hv more than one child (or two between a partnership), you are increasing the world's population.
- the human population is no longer limited to the environment's carrying capacity. now resources are made available to suit the number of individuals present, instead of the other way around.

from silent spring to silent night

**this video should be watched by everybody. because everybody who's drinking water is affected and you should know why.

would you treat a disease but not get rid of the cause?

analogy derived from the video: would you treat people for broken bones and internal organ damage, and then leave them to walk across highways amongst speeding motor vehicles?
watch this video and you will change the way you think about chemicals in our environment and what they are doing to us.

This is taken from a presentation given by Dr. Tyrone Hayes on the effects of Atrazine (a herbicide) on frogs.  But don't forget (also pointed out in the video), these effects have been demonstrated in other animals too: birds, rodents, fish, reptiles and ALSO MAMMALS (humans are mammals). 

Why are there so many different types of cancers affecting people, at such greater numbers today than before? Why are people getting fatter? Why is there a mass depletion of amphibians occurring in the world (Clue: it's not Chytrid fungus. It's another primary cause, leading to the secondary Chytrid infection)? I don't want to spoil too much, cos the video is seriously enlightening - i didn't plan on watching the entire 58 minutes (i'm supposed to be studying T__T), but it went by so quickly.



what the video enlightens: the general public not involved in the science industry cannot easily access scientific information. you can't go into a bookstore and read leading journals like "Nature", or "Science". there is no easy way to assess whether pharmaceutical companies and government agencies are telling the truth or not, because where you find the information - the scientific articles - are not easily accessible. 

for Corn and Money, generations of human health are being compromised. why don't they care? Europe, the manufacturer of this chemical has banned it. If you are in a position of power to change things, why risk your own life too and ignore what facts are telling you?

Gladstone Harbour Dredging

[Source: The Economist]

A short and generalised summary of what's happening at the Gladstone Harbour (Queensland, Australia).

Interview with Dr. Matt Landos - an independent researcher (a veterinary scientist) who will soon release a report on data collected from the Harbour - if you don't have time to watch it all, probably start from 13-14 minutes to get the more generalised explanation.

[Source: The Gladstone Observer]

To prepare the harbour for coal seam gas (methane) export (money) -  e.g. boats/equipment entering/leaving, the sediments are being dredged (dug up) and the material acquired dumped in the Great Barrier Reef. Yes, that Great Barrier Reef (link 1, 2). Excavation waste is being dumped into a UNESCO World Heritage site, a biodiverse and complex ecosystem (UNESCO wasn't notified when the project started). In addition, you'd think the government would consult experts before potentially disrupting an ecosystem - e.g. a vet in regards to animals, a coral expert, a water quality expert. Let's release the cane toad.

But the more immediate concern, is that as a result of all the digging, the water is being contaminated and to no surprise, the animals living in the water are now diseased and dying. Water to sea creatures (or anything living underwater, for that matter) is everything - how it gets its oxygen, how it gets its food, minerals, nutrients, essential ions, its toilet... it's everything. It's surrounded by its environment all the time and it cannot get away from it. The dredging is releasing materials into the water that is not usually there e.g. metals (such as aluminium) and nutrients from stirred up soil. Now, nutrients are good, but anything in excess can be toxic (seriously) - organisms like algae which produce toxins flourish in excess nutrients. This is kinda why you don't pour garden fertiliser into your backyard pool, or you don't wanna administer insecticides/fly-spray into your home aquarium. 

The government has collected some data to say that levels of some toxins (eg. some metals) are not above the levels considered to be 'toxic'/harmful. But what wasn't mentioned was the data was collected from a large body of water - ie. samples collected from where the toxins were coming from, and also further (and further and further) away from that site - where the water is only slightly contaminated. Then they combined all the numbers together and produced an average. So instead of revealing that: yes, the water is contaminated (eg. 20 times toxic levels) - the results were figuratively diluted out. Also, we/people don't entirely understand how chemicals (e.g. toxins / other substances in the water) interact with each other - even though the measurement of a certain substance may be "under" the harmful level, it may interact with something else and cause harm.

You've heard of lead poisoning and how it affects the brain, nerves and basically how the body functions. If the body cannot function well, well.. the animal cannot survive. The coral, fish, turtles, dugongs, crabs, dolphins and everything else living in or using the water - even people working in the area (such as fishermen) - are all being affected by the contaminated water (by affected, I mean getting ill and/or dying). 

When you get sick, you are more susceptible to getting more disease - the body's immune system becomes compromised (immunocompromised). Some of the authorities (govt, dredging company) are attributing some of the disease and mortalities to secondary diseases that the animals are getting, which are highly likely due to the contaminated water in the first place. (In short: contaminated water > unwell/sick fish > get secondary diseases eg. because they are less able to fight off 'the usual' load of diseases such as parasites). And the Queensland Government (their Environment department) are saying fish caught from these are still fit for human consumption. I don't think many people would want to eat emaciated fish with heart disease, fluid leaking into their body cavities, inflamed guts, brain disease; crabs with holes in their shells.  

A report that will soon be released collected data to see what the situation is actually like. Mortalities have increased, coinciding with the start of dredging. (nothing else besides that have changed - "what about the recent Queensland floods?" you ask? Well, as was mentioned in the video above by Dr. Landos, ever since that Harbour ecosystem existed (e.g. hundreds/thousands of years), there has probably been flood events - and monitoring has not seen deaths like current levels. 

(Personally, when I first heard of the situation, which was only yesterday. I naively was surprised and thought back to when I first saw the Asia Pulp and Paper (the destroyers of rainforest in Indonesia and Malaysia and probably leading to its inhabitants' (eg. orangutans) extinction) TV advertisement being played in Australia  - how bluntly the public was being misled.)

Some web links (plenty more out there to research, as well - Google Scholar effects of contaminated water / heavy metal poisoning on fauna/flora, coral health etc etc etc - everything in the environment is interconnected, there is no way affecting one thing will not affect something else). Ok, enough of my rant. Spread this topic and raise awareness if you'd like.
- Courier Mail
- Weekly Times Now
- The Economist
for less objective links (not news articles):
- GreatBarrierReef.org - related blog posts
- GetUp! campaign page

*update: here's a link to the abc 7:30 queensland report news segment (the site won't let me embed the video elsewhere) - there's also a transcript of the video as well
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-04/commercial-fishermen-in-gladstone-harbour-call-for/3636740

some points to clear up (mentioned in the above news report and/or by Leo Zussino, from Gladstone Ports Corporation (working for the Port / the dredging project))
1. Overflow of barramundi, that came with the overflowing dam water (due to the floods) are increasing competition for food, and this is why the other fish are getting sick and dying - due to starvation.
No. Independent scientists (soon to be released report), not ones working for the government who approved this situation, found that there were plenty of fish for the barramundi (and other fish-eating fish) to eat, right next to where the barramundi were swimming. 

Also, it's not just fish competing with barramundi who are getting sick; dugongs, crabs, people, sharks - they're all affected and they're not competing with the barramundi for fish to eat. So this argument is moot.

2. Leo Zussino said: "We are causing an impact upon commercial fishermen's harvest in Gladstone harbour while we are dredging. But we're not causing in our view and all the scientific evidence we've seen any impact upon fish that's causing disease in fish."
Key words to take note here: "...all the scientific evidence we've seen...". I don't think "all the scientific evidence" that him and his Corporation has seen, can be compared to "all the scientific evidence" that scientists producing a peer-reviewed scientific report have seen (and to that add: and probably read and understood). 
It's like saying, 'there is no evidence' - when you didn't look in the right place!

3. the Gladstone Ports Corporation also said that diseased fish were there before the dredging started, so dredging could not be responsible for disease and deaths seen now.
Who do you believe: Fishermen who are working in the water and experiencing the problem first hand, or a Corporate Businessman who probably has not stepped foot in the actual waters or seen and touched the animals affected?

One of the fishermen interviewed said, "I caught 15 tonne of barra before the dredging started and not one of them had any sign of disease and about a month after the dredging started they started getting diseased."


You've probably now gotten a sense that the Gladstone Ports Corporation, and some  representatives of the government backing this project are willing to say things that's not backed by a lot of scientific evidence (i.e. untrue things, a.k.a lies). I really hope that someone high up gets their head screwed on right and realise what precious things they are destroying.

Rest in Peace, Sir.

nooooo, 2013 AVSC is on the first wk of my rotations for next year. which means that i can't go, even though it's finally somewhere local (sydney) T__T

unhelpful.

don't wanna get out of comfy bed to study + can't sleep yet cos really hv to study = lying in bed both comfortably and uncomfortably :/

how to tell if u like someone or not: see if u laugh or get irritated when they do/say something stupid.

at what point does a personality trait become a 'disorder' that can be diagnosed? (just wondering after seeing ODD (oppositional defiant disorder) in the media recently..)
is any personality trait that doesn't let u go through daily life 'comfortably' a 'disorder'? but isn't it 'normal' for people to cope with situations differently?
is it a criteria that the person being diagnosed prefers, or realises after receiving therapy/treatment that they are more comfortable with, the alternative?

when an artist replies to your personal message on facebook X))

it's only been 3 days since Biscotti started using PlaqueOff, and her smelly breath is already gone! now i just have to wait to see if her teeth become whiter. i heard that it softens gunk off the teeth so that u can scrape it off... hopefully it does; then it can be called CalculusOff! 

pleasant breath = happy cat + owner :D!

there's gonna be a stop-motion animation Pinnochio movie directed by Guillermo Del Toro and voiced by actors including Daniel Radcliffe & Ron Perlman (Hellboy!)!! too bad it's planned for a 2014 release...

click here for the imdb page.

: ))

(images from friends' fb's)

rachael yamagata - you won't let me

john mayer songs

current fav's from john mayer's older albums: Heavier Things, Room for Squares

cute zoo babies!

videos from Uzoo's youtube channel

biscotti photos - part 2