After an 11.5-hour hibernation period last night (following an overwork-caused near-passout), I woke up this morning feeling refreshed.

At work, I was able to complete good projects and attend meetings where I formed and relayed good thoughts full of clarity. At 1 p.m., I deserved a break.

I walked outside and strolled around the block, enjoying the light breeze and the clearly fall day (note that it’s December — thanks, GW! … global warming, not George Washington). Around the corner from the office, I grabbed a hummus and roasted eggplant sandwich from my favorite sandwich shop, then sat outside the local bookstore to people-watch and eat in peace.

Except a homeless man sat next to me.

Crap, I thought. I can’t possibly eat this now; I’ll feel really bad. I held my brown bag tight without opening, pretending I was just enjoying the weather. But his eyes were fixed on me. “Don’t be scared of me,” he offered. I turned and looked at him, with a half smile. “I’m not scared of you,” I said. He was dressed in black, good clothes without holes, and had a few gold teeth. His face was acne-free and clearer than mine, but he looked a bit downtrodden. I wondered if he really was homeless after all, then wondered what cleanser he uses on his face so that I might start too.

“Don’t be scared because I’m black,” he spoke again. “I’m just like the rest of you.”

I turned my head and watched the traffic coming from the opposite direction. Oh, no, you’re pulling the race card.

“You know, I was with my wife for 13 years … 13 years!!” he cried. “13 years and then she left me!”

Please don’t moan. I just want to eat. If I wanted noise, I’d sit at my desk and listen to my co-workers. “I’m just like the rest of you, and she left me.”

I sighed and closed my eyes, lifting my hands up to my neck and massaging it in place as if I had a big cramp. A passer-by said suddenly, “See, her neck hurts! Her neck hurts, and mine does too!” I opened my eyes in time to catch him turning and leaving. Dumbfounded, I wondered if I had stumbled in a block of nuts. In the meantime, the nut next to me was at it again, asking me not to feel fear again. Sharply, like the pain in my neck, I turned to him. “I said I’m not scared of you.”

But he wouldn’t let it go, and on again he was going about his wife, his life, his problems. I can’t be your psychiatrist, old man, and neither your friend, I thought. So, I got up, feeling my sammy cooling down. “I’m gonna go; have a nice day,” I said and smiled quickly.

“I told you not to be scared of me!” he yelled after me. “Why are you all so scared???”

Psychopath. I felt slightly annoyed walking down the street. Slightly irritated rather that I’d missed the opportunity to sit outside and soak up the chilly sun and brisk activity of the street, and now I had to go back to my windowless desk and sit and eat until my half hour was up.

What a waste, I thought. Both my lost half hour and that guy’s attitude. Just because he has problems in life doesn’t mean that I don’t. Just because his wife left him doesn’t make my life better because I don’t have to deal with that. Because I have a whole other set of issues that were given to me to deal with in this life. Sure it’s tough to be alone and possibly homeless, but it’s also tough to have to work 10, 11 hours a day at times in a room without a view (no book title copying intended) and have to deal with the stress of the job and deadlines and answering to things and people.

Now, I’m not complaining. I’m glad I have this job. But it was given to me because I got the chance to have opportunities in this life that led me to this job. Maybe he didn’t (if he is homeless). And maybe he wasn’t made aware that it’s nice to have a home, and that’s why he keeps going on like this. So that’s stressful, but he’s used to it. My set is stressful too, and I’m cognizant of the things that I’m lucky to have in my life, but just because I don’t want to listen to him doesn’t mean I’m heartless.

Because just as this guy cherishes his wife, well, I cherish what is close to me, and that’s myself, and the only time I get to spend with myself and wholly so too is my lunch hour. (At night, I’m too busy cooking or chatting with roomie or going for drinks or movies or doing chores or work.) So respect that. Even if you don’t know that about me. Assume it. Ask me then if I have an ear to spare, and if I say no, say fine. Let it go, let it be.

Of course, if you’re homeless or newly divorced and downtrodden, it’s easy to lose sight and assume others that have it better than you (have a job, home, coat and lunch) don’t have an open heart or mind if they don’t want to listen to you.

But I guess what I’m trying to say is that oftentimes, people assume that you HAVE to give to those worse off otherwise you’re heartless and selfish. As if you didn’t work for what you have. No, you worked hard, so why then should you not ask for things for yourself? I work hard and stress and have brething problems and overwork near-passouts, and all that I do for the money I make and for the free time I have. So if I don’t want to give you either, well excuse me, but I busted my butt for it. While you sat there complaining.

I guess I’m going to try again to sum up what I was trying to say: We all have issues, and we all feel the same stress more or less except the details of our life are different. We react to different things, but more or less we react the same. I really believe that. And I believe that because I’ve been worse off. I’ve been so much worse off than I am right now, but my mind has protected me. Like a little blankie shielding me a little from the world so I could still feel comfort to go on the next day. And it never let me know how much exactly worse off I was, and now I feel that I felt the same. I have a different set of worries now than I did back then, and trust me I’d much rather have these worries than those (just like I’d much rather have these worries than a divorce or no home on my mind). But I still worry about my own issues of these days, and I worry about them in the same degree as I worried about other things in the past. So, as I had breathing problems then, I have them now.

So: Just because my life seems better than yours, don’t assume it is. Because it’s not. It’s all about attitude. And just because I can’t hear you right now doesn’t mean I wouldn’t want to later. So, don’t cast it off as fear or use the stupid race card. That’s all. Except it takes someone to teach you that, and I don’t expect anyone to know this all on their own.

And unfortunately, the kinds of people that need to hear this like the man on the bench today probably don’t have an Internet connection.

‘Where observation is concerned, chance favors only the prepared mind”
Louis Pasteur 1854

Crop circle codes of light

As a catalyst for change, their imprint on harvest field and human consciousness is gaining ground and their messages of joy, beauty, grace (as well as mathematics, geometry, astronomy, enough science to boggle the most ardent geek) have been hitting us squarely between the eyes: 10,000 messages in 29 countries in the last decade. Along with spiritual feelings generated in visitors within the circles themselves, those messages are having an impact on us, the human race: feelings appropriate to this particular season: like peace and goodwill to our fellow man. How clever of them to be able to combine both physical and spiritual. And to do it in such a miraculously short time.

Helicopter and microlite pilots have attested to crop circles appearing in the Wiltshire countryside in a 15-minute timespan between one flyover and the next. Overnight campers trying their best to stay awake to ‘catch them at it’ have either dozed off at the crucial moment or seen the tail end of a luminous glow disappear over the horizon, leaving a trail of beauty blazed in the corn.

Crop scientists agree, stalks of barley and wheat show effects of intense heat similar to microwave or laser energy which can make a stem node pop or a stalk bend and lie flat without breaking, all the while being manipulated into a stunning swirling pattern akin to weaving or cosmic basketry. Monitored examples so far have registered minute alterations in cellular structure, fluctuating background radiation and depletion of the local water table, but crops continue to grow to maturity and harvest with no negative impact. In fact recent research is beginning to believe a quick dose of light radiation and an altered energy field actually improve crop yield.

Known side-effects, seen by the scientific establishment as an increase in electromagnetic energy and altered soil chemisry, produce on-the-ground human biological emotions such as brotherly love, increased camaraderie, and an inclination to share with others; add to that the agricultural bonus of stronger wheat, more robust barley, increased yield, and the fact that these crops are increasingly being consumed by us in our bread, malt, beer and pastries, would it not follow that we too are being affected? To take the concept even farther; might we find through the gifts left in these complex manifested forms a way to feed the world’s starving masses?

In recent years the beauty of crop circle art, alone, has succeeded in affecting us as a collective. That in itself is remarkable. Through the immediacy of the internet and with huge advances in video technology, visitor numbers have escalated beyond local belief, air traffic and ’sky tours’ have doubled and website ‘hits’ on the phenomenon number over one million.

There are few left unaware or untouched by them. People in all countries – even the most inured city-dweller – and followers on all continents, whether or not they have experienced them first hand, are writing and blogging about them. I for one have visited only one, but that’s the beauty of their effect: the photographic record has nearly as much impact on us as the creations themselves.

While some communications media continue to postulate their formation by humans, most of us who’ve been following their process of revelation are aware now that something else is going on.
They are making us look to the stars. Our place of origin, according to all major world religions, astrophysicists, philosophers, a multitude of alternate faiths, and a huge body of ancient knowledge.

‘He made his Progeny of an extract of Water held in Light estimation’
Q’uran The Koran

Why, if not to guide our fumbling consciousness in a new direction, would we be given a steadily increasing stream of tantalizing coded information, created in seconds, coming from what appears to be the Realm of Light?

Sextant Crop Circle at Alton Barnes Phase I June 21, 2009

Take the Sextant Crop Circle for instance: After its preliminary formation on midsummer night 2009 in a field at Alton Barnes, Wiltshire, it took two successive nights to complete. And it brought reaction from three different schools of thought:

Coronal mass ejection predicted in 'jellyfish' crop circle

The Mathematics community, including our dear-departed gurus Sagan and Hawkins (my last blog) are insistent that much crop circle symmetry and form resembles the perfection of number and the exquisite harmony of music:

‘As the expression of number in space, geometry is inextricably linked to music since the laws of the former govern the mathematical intervals that make up the notes in the western music scale – the diatonic ratios – hence the reason ancient Egyptians referred to geometry as frozen music.’

There is a physical connection, too, between matter and sound, as sound waves will create geometric patterns in sand, iron filings, any flexible medium. Navajo and Hopi traditions relate how shamans in ancient times would utter words on to sand to create sacred patterns. Music soothes the fevered mind; it coaxes plants into growth (Secret Life of Plants, Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird).

Sextant crop circle phase 2 appeared June 23 2009

‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God St. John

Phase 3 Sextant crop circle Alton Barnes June 30, 2009 with coded tail

She fervently believes Mankind has reached a point where we are now listening:
- to our own ‘Spirit within’,
- to messages sent from our Universal Matrix to remind us of our sacred potential, and
- to our own forgotten memories of who we were before we incarnated on this planet. She is convinced that water carries the matrix of our future.

Her information is carefully and lovingly documented and her website is a work of art in itself. She also – like the crop scientists measuring growth rates and changing cell structure – thinks we are being directed towards new simpler technologies which we have only to use our God-given intelligence to figure out and implement. In her view, the 2008 Crop Circle season was about ‘energy’; the 2009 season about ‘water’. Man’s way forward is to develop our next source of energy from the water molecule: what she calls Omega Cell or GEM energy.

Judy Beebe's concept of phase 3 Alton Barnes 'sextant' crop circle with tail

Her work has matured over several years and her evidence is clear and beguiling. It is a masterpiece, with directions to reach the Master Key, and well worth taking time to study.

Gradually, as we work our chilly way moment by moment towards winter solstice, the time of earthly endings and solar standstill, we are being shown miracles in nature along with human ideas which have sparked from them. In contemplating designs devised by laser consciousness, we are also being given a razor-sharp view of an alternate reality. I believe we are being drawn closer to our destiny, and. like the return of the light after solstice, our new beginnings are around the corner.

Let’s face it: winter sucks. Freezing weather, holiday shopping, visits from the in-laws – with all the stresses of this loathsome season, one wonders why the almighty Zeus invented winter in the first place.

Wouldn’t it be great if there were some way to just skip the whole devilish season altogether? You know, jump right from the vibrant forest fireworks of autumn into the dewy grass and flowers of spring?

As it turns out, you only need look to nature for the answer: hibernation. That’s right, hibernation. Now, more than ever, humans are taking a cue from the stupider, more worthless creatures of the animal kingdom and choosing to sleep through nature’s most boring and irrelevant seasons.

If you want to get in on this growing trend, then here are the steps you need to follow to ensure you spend your winter in a nice, long state of comatose suspended animation:

Get Fat

If you’re going to be asleep for three months, then you’re going to need plenty of body fat stored up to ensure you make it through your nap without dying of malnutrition. Given that it is already December, you have probably already packed on a good 20 to 30 pounds in preparation by now (thank you Thanksgiving).

To pack on those final 50 pounds, you’ll want to eat plenty of high-fat foods. For best results, nature tells us that the best tactic is to stand in an open stream and catch the fatty sock-eye salmon in your mouth as they swim upstream.

Find a Good Place to Sleep

You’re going to be in your winter bed for a long time. As such, you better get out there and start staking your claim for a killer place to lay your weary head. Good options include a secluded cave, a hole in the ground or the back guest bedroom of your home. Whatever the location, be sure to hide your spot from other hibernators by covering the entrance with a bunch of dead leaves and wooden branches.

Tip: when the time comes to lay down and go to sleep, transform those leaves into a soft, cushy mattress for maximum maxin’ and relaxin.’

Program Your DVR

The one downside of skipping winter is the fact that you’ll miss out on all the new episodes of your favorite shows. To ensure you don’t wake up a grumpy Gus in March, plan ahead and program your DVR in advance. To make sure there’s enough room for three months of quality TV programming, go ahead and delete all those old episodes of Celebrity Fit Club and Psych.

Buy Some of Ben Stein’s Books on Tape

Are you wondering how you’re possibly going to stay asleep for a whole three months? If so, the answer is Ben Stein’s voice. With his drab, monotone articulation playing on a continuous loop via your iPod nano, you won’t have a problem sleeping like a log for 2,160 hours straight.

Tip: If possible, find a cave or hole that has an electrical outlet (this will help keep your iPod charged)

Store Food for the Spring

No matter how fat you are to begin with, you’re going to wake up awfully hungry once spring rolls around. To make sure you’ve got a good meal set aside come consciousness, plan ahead and store up some food for easy consumption. To accomplish this, go ahead and prepare your favorite meal now – lasagna, sandwiches, a whole turkey, etc. Then, to make sure no one stumbles upon it during your slumber, bury it in your backyard.

——

If you liked this, then other humor blog posts you may enjoy include:

• You Are An Evil Genius – Page 1
• Frown Town To Throw Pity Party
• How To Live At The Bottom Of The Sea

It’s cold
i’m hungry
I crave hibernation
I’m a mamml after all
so should I stuff my face?
gain some weight?
and fall into a slumber until spring comes?

Regular readers may have noticed a slight lowering in mood of this blog recently.  Words such as Death, Gloom and Mental Disintegration have been prevalent.  Where, you may be asking yourselves, is the gay bantering Backwatersman of the Summer months?  Whither the sunny disposition?

The clue, I’m afraid, is in the last sentence.

Although I don’t suppose this is evident to the casual observer, one thing we long-distance commuters have in common with the farming community and, indeed, the people of the middle ages, and indeed the bird community is an exacerbated awareness of the changing of the seasons. 

 I habitually set the alarm clock for 5.30.  In mid-summer this means waking up some time after dawn.  The birds have been up and about and trilling their merry airs for some time already and, although I won’t pretend it is always an undiluted joy (particularly with a thick head) it does at least feel like a natural thing to be doing.  In the evening, on the other hand (I usually arrive home about 7.00) there is usually natural light enough to eat dinner out of doors and watch the evening sun gently subside over the horizon in a gentle wash of coral pink.  I’m getting excited just thinking about it.

As soon as the longest day is past, however, the worm begins to enter the bud.  While those who lead a more sensibly regulated way of life think they are basking in the height of Summer (August) we early risers are already aware that the days are growing shorter, the early mornings are Autumnal and that Winter cannot be long in coming.  By early October it is almost dark when I wake up, by mid-October dark when I reach the station.  A cruel trick is then played on us – the clocks are put back.  Having become gradually acclimatised to the thickening darkness, our bodies are then tricked into thinking that Spring has already come and that the long Winter is over.  Not a bit of it.  The darkness then descends in earnest.

Between early November and late February, I could quite easily spend my entire life from Monday to Friday in total darkness if I didn’t make sure that I went out at lunchtime (I may have forgotten to mention that I work underground).  At the weekend, to compensate, I spend as much time as possible outdoors.  The only upside, I suppose, is that my Spring begins at the end of February, when there are faint intimations of daylight by the time I leave the house.

And what effect does all this have?  I’ve recently discovered a useful zoological term that I think describes my case entirely – torpor.  Apparently most of the animals that we think of as hibernating - saying g’night all and retiring to bed at the first approach of winter – are more accurately torpid.  As long as they have to keep going – to find food, for instance, or, in my case, to go work-  they can manage it, but as soon as they get back to their burrows – or homes – they become apathetic, unresponsive and sluggish.  All higher mental functions shut down and the sufferer moves through life as if on autopilot.

Here (introduced by “Emily de Bolt, Interpretative Naturalist” – sounds like a good job), is an animal that strikes me as having the right idea.

And I did.

OK, I am sure you guys are wondering what the heck I’m talking about. It is no other than the problems that I have been having when Windows resumes from hibernation (that’s S4 mode) when there is a pagefile. It’s funny how these two are important features, but they don’t like each other…at least in my PC. I can’t speak for anyone else, but this has been the case with Vista as well.

Anyways, the issue is that it takes a long time to resume from hibernation when there is a pagefile. It takes as long as 3 minutes the last time I checked with my 100days+ long Windows 7 x64 Ultimate Edition installation. 3 minutes for resuming from hibernation? WTF! Is it not supposed to be faster than booting??? Without a pagefile, it resumes in 30 seconds to a responsive desktop.

The thing is, I don’t know what the real cause is. If the PC was NOT busy (i.e. the HDD LED wasn’t lit) and waited like that for a long time, then it could be some device not properly waking up or being reluctant to do so. That is indeed a hardware related issue. But in my case, the HDD is busy for the entire time. Poor HDD! Reading reading reading – nobody knows what!

So why not disable the pagefile. Of course that is what I’ve been doing this entire time. But once in a while, the error message pops up saying that Windows is running out of RAM…especially when I’m playing a game. That drives me crazy, because every time that happens, the game gets minimized. I’m waiting to snipe someone and it is just bizarre when that happens! This error message comes up when the RAM reaches 80% used. That popup can be disabled with a hack, but it is kinda dangerous thing to do.

So the best thing to do, is to install more RAM. I already have 4GB and I used to have 6GB when in Vista days, but I had to go back to 4GB because for some reason, after a BIOS flash, the system would no longer let me use 6GB RAM. I moved that RAM to dad’s PC back then, and today I wanted to move them back to mine and see if I can get them to work somehow. And guess what? I did exactly that! Now I’m a happy 6GB RAM customer. But getting them to work is another big story, which I will post next. For the moment, just know that I finally have 6GB RAM and I intend not to see that wretched running out of RAM popup again!

As the weather turns cold and winter approaches, we add layers of clothes and turn up the heat. What do animals do to prepare for the cold?

Adapt:
Some animals prepare for cold weather by gathering food and storing it for the upcoming winter when it will be harder to find. Can you think of any animals that do this?
Other animals are able to find food through the winter and grow thicker layers of fur. Can you think of any animals that do this?

Hibernate:
Some animals go into a deep sleep over the winter. They usually will eat lots of food in the fall then go to sleep in a den or a deep burrow. A true hibernating animal’s breathing slows way down and its body temperature drops.
Some animals sleep heavily for long periods but will wake up every occasionally to eat.

Migrate:
Seeing birds flying south in the fall is common. They are not only flying to warmer climates for warmth but to be able to find food that is more readily available. They usually follow the same routes every year. Some animals learn the routes by following other animals (mother?) but other animals seem to know where to go by instinct. Scientists aren’t sure how the animals know how, when, or where to go.
Birds are not the only animals that migrate to warmer weather during their winters. Can you think of any other animals that go south for the winter? Do you know any people who go south for the winter? Where do they go?
Not all migrations have to do with warmer weather. Some animals migrate as part of their life cycle. Life cycle migrations may take place every year and similar animals may gather in special spots to find mates or to have babies.
Other animals might migrate only when giving birth or to lay eggs in a specific location (where they were hatched).

Websites of interest:
ParkWise (Alaska National Parks’ e-classroom): Migration: http://www.nps.gov/akso/parkwise/Students/ReferenceLibrary/general/MigrationBasics.htm
Tracking animals. Sometimes scientists put satellite collars on animals so they can track their movements. This helps us to understand how, where, and when animals move around the earth. Here are some sites where you can follow various animals:
WhaleNet: (tracks seals & whales) http://whale.wheelock.edu/whalenet-stuff/stop_cover.html
SeaTurtle.org: (tracks sea turtles) http://www.seaturtle.org/tagging/
Journey North: (tracks whooping cranes, hummingbirds, monarchs and other animals) http://www.learner.org/jnorth/
Alaska Seal Life Center: (tracks seals) http://www.alaskasealife.org/New/rehabilitation/index.php?page=rehab-tracking.php
Wild Tracks: (manatees) http://www.wildtracks.org/Florida/home.html

Ideas for experiential learning:
Keep a wildlife journal for one week. Identify what animals you see and what they are doing. Do you think they are getting ready for winter? Do you see any signs of animals even though you might not see the animals themselves?
• Bird feathers
• Chewed pinecones
• Chewed acorns or nuts
• Scat (droppings)
• Animal tracks
• Bones
What are some ways that humans prepare for cold weather? How do the clothes we wear change with the seasons? Why?
Do we eat any foods now that we might not eat during the hot summer? What foods and why?
In the book, Whistling Wings, the young tundra swan flies about 1,000 miles without stopping to rest or eat.
• Look at a map and figure out how far 1,000 miles is from where you live. Could you walk there without stopping to sleep or eat?
• If the swan flew for ten days, about how many miles a day did he fly?
• If you and your family travelled 1,000 by car, and averaged 60 miles an hour, how many hours would it take you to drive the 1,000 miles? Have you ever driven that far? Did you stop to rest, eat, or go to the bathroom?

Here is a one-week code to access Sylvan Dell’s related titles as auto-flip, auto-read, 3D-page-curling, and selectable English and Spanish text and audio eBooks:
Temporary eBook Viewing Code: FE0Q4Y
Code expiration date: 12/06/2009
Please click on the following link: http://www.sylvandellpublishing.com/ebooktrials.php?e=FE0Q4Y
Read the following books and see if you can find the answers to the questions in either the story or the For Creative Minds’ section. Can you figure out if the animals use adaptation, hibernation, migration, or more than one? If they migrate, do they migrate every year seasonally or as part of their life cycle?
Loon Chase Where do loons spend their summers and why? Where do they spend their winters?
Moose and Magpie Where do moose go in the fall and why?
Ocean Seasons What do humpback whales do during the winter and why? What do salmon do during the fall and why?
One Wolf Howls What do wolves do during the cold weather?
Turtle Summer: A Journal for my Daughter when & why do female sea turtles come ashore?
Turtles in my Sandbox What do diamondback terrapins in the wild do in the winter?
Whistling Wings How does each of the animals survive the winter?

You can access the For Creative Minds section for all the books here (in English and Spanish): http://sylvandellpublishing.com/ForCreativeMinds.htm and the free, 20-40 pages of teaching activities here: http://sylvandellpublishing.com/TeachingActivitiesPage.htm

diamondback terrapin
eagles
humpback whales
loons
moose
muskrats
raccoons
salmon
sea turtles (loggerheads)
tundra swan
wolves

Hibernation is a natural response to colder winter weather and a shortage of food, a way for tortoises to survive when it gets too cold and when food is scarce or non existent. In the wild, in areas where a winter period causes these threats to the tortoises survival they will find a safe place to burrow away from frosts and sleep out the winter period, awaking once the weather becomes warmer and food is more readily available. The usually accepted wisdom is that pet tortoises should also be hibernated, I can certainly see that when pet tortoises are kept outdoors in temperate countries like ours that our winter certainly makes hibernation a sensible and suitable strategy for winter tortoise care. There is also, apparently, plenty of evidence that hibernation helps with the breeding of tortoises, the hibernation process apparently has an effect on the breeding response of tortoises in captivity. Meanwhile the fact that baby, ill or underweight tortoises can be kept awake indoors during winter without any ill effects shows that missing hibernation will not necessarily harm your tortoise.

My own tortoises, Timmy and Tammy, have been fairly small babies for all of my ownership of them so far and I have because of this overwintered them, this will be Timmy’s third and Tammy’s second winter awake with me, without any harm or ill effects, so far, they are still healthy little tortoises. I have been thinking, because they are getting both older and bigger, that after this winter I would have to look into hibernating them next winter. I have not been looking forward to this though, partly through fear for their safety, although our understanding of hibernation is far better today than it used to be, and partly because I didn’t want to lose my beloved pets for a number of months of the year, every year.

Also in my case, I only have a small concrete back yard rather than a garden so its not the easiest thing to do to give them a suitable habitat outside, plus I do have a problem with a lot of local cats entering my yard which could be a safety threat to my tortoises (as well as a big seagull presence which could also be a threat while they are still small). Because of these threats, the possibility of theft and the fact that they have been very small so far and the weather isn’t the best around here in Cumbria, even in mid summer some times, my two tortoises have so far lived indoors in a tortoise table with the conditions they require, a heat lamp and a UV tube to give the warmth and quality of light they require and a soil / sand mix to bury themselves in. As my tortoises do not live outside generally then in the winter they do in fact have, more or less, the same conditions that they do for the rest of the year, the temperature and light doesn’t change significantly, saying this they do become a little less active during the winter but more of this later in this post.

So can a pet tortoise always be kept awake during the winter in the UK, with no hibernation at all, I have done a little investigating on the subject recently.  My reading on this subject leads me to believe that yes they can be overwintered in this country as long as they are given the correct conditions regarding light and temperature. Tortoises have been kept awake, overwintered, in the UK without any ill effects what so ever, they have remained perfectly healthy and live normal lives without hibernating, in fact as long as you are not planning on a breeding program for your tortoise this seems to be an alternative to hibernation. Just this weekend I read an article “The Deep Sleep” about hibernation in the December 2009 issue of the monthly magazine “Practical Reptile Keeping”, where amongst all the hibernation information a paragraph read “Is it necessary ? Does it therefore matter if your tortoise does not hibernate ? In the past there were real difficulties in keeping tortoises in good health over the winter if they did not do so, but now, thanks to technology such as UVA and UVB lighting, their care during this period is straightforward. It is obviously more expensive though, as in addition to suitable housing, your pet will also have to be fed through the winter”. Personally of course I have no problem with the housing issue as my tort’s live indoors in a tortoise table anyway and I don’t begrudge the price of a few greens each week to be able to have my pets available all year.

So what do you need to do to overwinter your tortoise, well you need to supply suitable indoor housing for your pet, a tortoise table is the perfect housing for this, UVA / UVB light is required which can be supplied via one of the UV tubes designed for reptile use, a basking lamp should be supplied for warmth, the UV and heat can be supplied through a combined lamp of the Mercury Vapour variety if you choose. The tortoise should be supplied with suitable food at all times as it will be awake and will want to eat, of course water should always be available and a suitable sub-strata for your pet to bury itself in. If your tortoise lives the summer months outdoors then you must move it into its winter quarters before the weather gets too cold, if your tortoise lives indoors like mine, then of course its already there.

I have noticed that for a while during the winter months my own tortoises become a little more sluggish than during the middle of summer, I believe this is due to lower ambient light and heat other than that supplied within the table and because during the night when the timer turns the basking light off it is cooler than in the summer months at night, although of course completely frost free and far from freezing. This means that although they still wake up regularly to eat and drink and get exercise, they sleep a little more and eat a little less than during the summer, apart from this they live just the same life as they do during the summer months, so far without any harmful signs.

I would just like to point out that I am not telling anyone that they shouldn’t hibernate their tortoise, it is after all the accepted wisdom and what many experts advise, but I also believe that we are all still learning as we go along and that it isn’t the only way, I reckon a tortoise can be safely overwintered when supplied the correct conditions and I intend to carry on overwintering mine unless I see any sign of harm due to this strategy of keeping them during the winter.

Dausmann KH, “Physiology: hibernation in a tropical primate.“, Nature. 2004.

僕が研究の世界に足を踏み入れるきっかけとなった論文。病院時代にぱらぱらと見ていたNatureのサイトでタイトルを読んだ瞬間、興奮で胸の動悸がおさまらなかったのをよく覚えている。

ポイントは二点とおもわれる：

1. 冬眠する霊長類が存在する
2. 冬眠中途覚醒は環境温の影響を受ける

この論文が発表されるまでは霊長類に冬眠種は確認されていなかった。もちろんマダガスカル島という熱帯地方で冬眠種が見つかったことも驚きではあったが、この論文の一番大きな功績は冬眠中途覚醒(IBA; interbout arosal)が環境温に左右されることをドキュメントしたことにある。

冬眠中途覚醒とは数ヶ月間冬眠する哺乳類が2週間に1回程度、きわめて短期間、活動期と同レベルの体温にもどる現象である。体温上昇が何かしらの生理現象の結果なのか、体温上昇そのものが生命維持に必要なのか議論がなされてきた。

この論文は後者を強くサポートする報告となっている。主役であるFat-Tailed Dwarf Lemur （フトオコビトキツネザル）は、冬眠中は環境温とほぼ同じ体温になるわけだが、外気温が比較的低い環境で冬眠しているサルはIBAがみられるのに対して、外気温が一定レベルを超える環境で冬眠をしているサルはIBAがみられなかったのである。すなわち、IBAは体温上昇そのものが何かしらの意味を持っていることを示唆している。

ちなみに、Katharin Dausmann本人から聞いた話だが、フトオコビトキツネザルは冬眠前後で必ず同じ番（つがい）で生活をするそうだ。冬眠中も記憶が保たれているのか、単純に好みが保たれいるだけなのか、興味があるところである。

Hello, hello! Bruno reporting once again! It’s been a while, fellow bloggies! I’ve been so very busy with various bear-like activities… not had a moment to pause and tap-tap-tap the old keyboard of computerage. The Autumnal Picnic season has finally come to an end. All the sandwiches have been devoured. The last iced fairy cake has disappeared down the cake-hole of time. Nothing left, but an empty basket, a buldging midriff, a slight twinge in the gums, crumbs in my fur and a stack of happy picnicking memories.
We shall soon, all of us, be settling down to the Christmas season. I myself will have much to do. I’ll have to eat the mince pies, unwrap the presents and tend the blazing yule log. There will be crackers and corks to pull, and nuts to crack. You know, a bear’s work is never really done. But first, before all that xmas madness begins, I shall hibernate for a few days. Iain! Petra! Wake me up on the 24th please! Night, night, dear bloggies… until Christmas!

How many times have you heard a horror story that started with “it was a dark and stormy night…”?  Some fast facts: bet you didn’t know that they were talking about London.  And bet you didn’t know it wasn’t necessarily night time either.

London is getting dark, and stormy.  That Indian summer is O-V-E-R and daylight is definitely a hot commodity.  And it seems to have snuck up on me a bit.  I didn’t notice until Sunday afternoon when it started getting dark at like, 4pm.  Huh?  I had to have an early dinner.

Some sort of natural instinct is telling me to make like a bear and hibernate.  I just wanna curl up into a little ball and go to sleep for 6 months.  So of course, that’s exactly what I did (after an early dinner) on Sunday afternoon.  Fine for the first weekend I guess, but I think I need a better plan for the next 6 months lest my life just become eating, drinking and sleeping.

The mind just boggles to think that Europe could have been the starting point of western civilisation with weather like this.  Of all the blasted places to hang out, why, why on earth didn’t they go somewhere a little more… tropical?  You would think that you would get the happiest, most advanced people from a sunny outdoorsy-type place.  Of maybe they were too happy to need advancement.  Maybe the bad weather was what drove all that European sea exploration?  They’re all hanging out a few hundred years ago thinking, “there’s gotta be a better way”… and they got so desperate they actually thought sailing away into nothing was a better idea than staying put.  I guess the weather does explain why they were white.

I’ve seen ladybirds hibernating before – usually singly, and occasionally in pairs – but never in clusters.

Here’s 16 of them, all huddled together on the side of the capstone on top of the churchyard gate pillar outside my house:

the bag-carried charms of lonely school-girls

blue crushed dreams drowned at noon-day

vented fortunes melted and re-created

morphed laughters reflected in a magenta pool

shadowy remains of the over-large green lantern

vultured skulls swinging by their guitar strings

music honeyed lions pondering the dancing stars

there a stare – here a smile – everywhere death

paper-thin mannequins feasting on shrimp salads

oceanic largesses buttoned and stored sideways

sun-dried tomatoes drank with overmuch salt

zion led saints proportioning those fairly decked nuns

swing crushed remains – the bread cracks of yore

the vegan induced convulsions of some carnivore

emperor dreamed lords dressed in nakedness

street whispered symphonies overtaken with sun-dried laughters

slithering oysters wrestling with some stranded toe

darling buds gnashing their teeth as they gently kiss those receding winds

suffocated wedding bands recalling past conquests

suffused pleasures desiring a proper vessel

the sweaty palms of boys chained in boarding schools

green sullied roof tops laced in brown jacaranda leaves

death masked violins overran with a craving for strings

there be but a remainder of mats – herded feet whistling their displeasure

overmuch excitement – the sure emblem of lovers at war

gloried bosoms rounder than the fairest august apple

middle apportioned fortunes starved of the seasons fallings

i pose a conundrum – suppose i cared

those circular yearning s teasing the pathetic fortunes of our failings

trombone led bands cowering beneath flute dresses

museum honeyed murals of masters unknown

leather clobbered loins remained upon the chiefest lizard cliffs

shop stewed beans rustling in their metal prisons

willows distantly dancing a fresh of the flowing muds

the punished sounds of choirs hanged at dawn

boot driven passions remained on a plastic plate

a loose lip here – a shoe there – everywhere death

numidian mushrooms sheltered beneath kilimanjaros shoulders

kissed birds overcome with grief

the booked imaginings of shy pupils giggling in rain

pampered lobsters sunbathing in their coffins

oiled thighs standing erect besides michelangelo’s david

yellow scented lusts of husbands given over to theatre

comedy driven longings – the perpendicular stares of wronged lover

the karoo streams – kalahari basins – toureg chants – gorgon encampments

they all be but simple venison servings

table laid charms bottled in salt

how fair are those dancing bears – even the same fur-less devils

suspended aloft that soon disappearing iceberg

night stars rushing purposefully to their deaths

sychellian crustaceans wallowing in grief

the bushveld  tropics leaning gently upon fair mozambique’s cheeks

soon-approaching monsoons announcing their arrival in himalayan chants

train hurried suns murmuring for a lack of attention

the haired touching of lovers stranded at and in the sea

easterly badlands housed in some papal estate

toe-tugged yearnings elegantly decked in straw skirts

of epher’s children – salute them with a gentle tug in either direction

craven red shoes seated upright in some rainy mud hut

of mau mau and his abandoned harlots – whistle only and touch not

burning forests housed wholly in her mouth

olympian straits considered and rejected

righteousness forced upon unwilling saints – they chose sin instead

snow-covered churches overcome with laughter

coat pocketed jealousies of rivals resorting to righteousness – dueling

scorched lands immigrating downward and into hell

cherry scented mustangs awash in fresh aloe

dew carried feet refusing the flung serving of fresh boots

the remaining african horn fed to the nomadics of eritrea

diseased waters bottled and sent to epher’s descendants

soap deprived ankles painted in valley yellow

dark suns prejudiced at the sight of blue oranges

suited bullfrogs desiring an audience with the priest

mournful dirges of some tragic anthem lorded over the plains

serengeti woodlands teaming with overmuch grasshoppers

lateral – dental – palatial

the rice grown hatreds of aphrite’s rude cousins

millet rinsed touchings of loves and lovers clothed in burnings

sight condemned ancients rehearsing their final movements

hurried motionings of sharks harpooned at the high deserts

drunk instructors condemned to the wine cellars

drought moustaches grown arrogant with the occasional brush

ankle dipped hands dancing on freshly painted ceilings

roman centurions sheepishly waiting upon the priests

the back covered lashes of whips crying at dawn

zebra teethed lions lying sideways – the feed was much

meditating monks nightly preaching patience as they doubt its efficacy

rib jointed searchings of parents transfixed upon some tragic statute

guitar stringed understandings of lovers soon to be loosened

hurricane gales refusing freely gifted medications – they instead desire destruction

church chimed machinations – the loud shadows of sarcadortal hems

leather-covered sweaters speaking of soon returning father abraham

marsh covered bibles resurrected to their mournful parents

papered lips pretending to care yet found out

fortuned souls buried in moses’ bosoom

piano starved school children emaciated and in need of fresh cassava

drunk pilgrims desecrating their holy places

curses courtiers given over to overindulgence

pleasured hips forgetting how to dress

earth abused servants despising their hoes

equator neglected bears doubly aggrieved

polluted musics distilled in yellow barley

tomato crushed dreams of lovers separated by war

tributaries of untamed passions spewing from eva’s bosom

tribal instincts of mothers caressing their pops – confused loves

crucified sailors condemned for purity of passions

the yellow ribbons circling about in their blue trousers

bus driven fears of known futures

boiled mannequins cascading in sheltered rage

the oiled ankles of lovers destined to fail

teaming marshes pregnant with the anticipation of your impending hanging

what would shylock do

such purity contained in those unassuming holy loins

not a penny more or less

the weighty pendulums of earthly expectations placed shoulderwise

upon such lowly flesh – pray for his rich poverty

freely consider the run – jonah did

circular chains layered outwardly upon her cheeks

wandering stares of the decomposing tortoise

craged backs of prisoners rejoicing at the sight of a whip

unseemly lovings of the nile priests

snow married rains competing for the mastery

roaming preachers begging for fresh underwear

any recall the simple pleasures of death

hyacinth troubled waters refusing to suffocate

consider the daffodils and their fair cousins – the black mamba

following – continue your runnings

street dancing muses overtaken with giggling willows

haggard poets taking up whistling

layered burnings of victims returned from their nightly flames

the bleached denials of lovers untrained in the art – of lying

caressed lips of saints hanged and burned by the eclipse

green creeks snaking around eva’s proud towers

ever populated with the bagged trifles of smiles sealed and delivered

expected rains falling only the honest sinners

touch not but freely reach

the flasked remains of wars forced upon the innocent

dirt condemned shoulders praying for rain

honeyed nights scribing the moanful chants of reunited lovers

built ruins of some ancient king – god

boot-straped cowboys jeaned and straightwith saddled

onion ringed stairs of pilgrims unfurling their carpets in prayer

stoned devils loosened on an unassuming friday afternoon

the shamelessly chanted charms of choirs rehearsing compassion

free range grains frustrated at the sight of a sickle

garden manufactured sandals covered in cassava peelings

the red vases of fortunes’ train soon approaches

temple plundered riches housed in some temple

boat driven suspenders tugging the wily doe

arabian summers spend it hibernation

square run destinies married to music slithered hands

love-worn seagulls taking up residence on greenland’s beaches

the pilgrim stares of submerged penguins

superfluous gains of tormentors destined to burn

collected unicorns aimlessly peddling their air cycles

terrace covered nakedness of summers spent at the arctic

zerubabel conducted symphonies arrested by the passing eclipse

the retrograde joys of past loves recalled in regret

of pains  known and grown out of – try harder

vase-shaped frustrations – even the same man nurtured

sandals of ambitions dead at birth

any care pass along the rope – how make you a proper noose

how sweet the contradiction daily raping humanity

baleful mourns of innocence hushed in the still of the night

bewildered stares fixed upon the priestly robes of the temple vultures

scavengers given over to overmuch prayer – before consuming their flesh

teeth mapped meats shaking with fear

with love and for love yet always serving self

hades scented saints marching triumphantly towards their sabbath pews

those proper passions gently housed in some harlots bosom

care consider her kind

rude awakenings of skirts hugged one upon another

round fingers – the meandering coins emblazoned with sea fortunes

sword kissed deaths transfixed upon some tragic mount

that they too desire to commune with father moses – any care find him

knee-nursed yearnings of some crawling pop

kettle-whispered lovings of mothers overcome with joy

loves journeyed in darkness only to be condemned by the searching light

some waffled longings of imprisoned cousins – twice removed

fortunes plundered and straightaway surrendered to mightier foes

watched yearnings of those round face anthills

care imitate the socialized hatreds of the sheppard

joyous singings at the news of the stranded winters upon the seas

today be the burial of some tragic figure – some son of three parents

scared remains of lovers burned in love – rather it be love that burned then -

or love caused these burnings – love burned them – in a word: they be dead

the dragon costumes singularly common yet without a mother

companies of soldiers bewailing their blood-muddied swords

pure-bred expectations of fathers married to daily runnings

parisian harlots – even those decadent damsels of notre dame

lamp lighted walkings of some painted corridor

symphonic laughters given over to overmuch prayers

recall the butterfly laced travels of righteous odysseus

the drought peopled apartments quietly screaming for chardonnay

touched purities of priests aggrieved in spirit yet glad in the flesh

palm lined libraries of cairo giddily seated adjacent jerusalem’s famous lamps

summer covered carpets laced with gerbera ferns

nightly runnings of forbidden lovers conspiring their next escapes

apostolic sureties of saint eva – blessed be her musical loins

poems collected in empty wooden wine skins

coerced laughters masked in the lying giggles of the anaconda

prayerful knees of the arabian monk wrestling with an empty sea shell

rehearsed returns of the blue women of the green lagoon

liberian tiles refusing their ordained marriages to cuban cements

any care hear of the loud shrills of the debauched crickets

plimsol expectations of princes ignored in plain sight

the returned piercings of lapped waters dancing in a great danes mouth

restrained sheep recalling their wild histories as dakota mustangs

of sacrifices a dove yet wholly unrepentant

rosy mornings carried in an empty jar

that the sistine chapel was erected by a harlot – aye even eva

that most righteous and upwardly decked saint of the weeping sheets

known of most for her convulsing inducing hands

virgin pilgrims remained upon their store-bought piety

some raisin cured yawns of the whited sepulchers housing her blessed remains

glass layered centuries of accusations returned and loosened

sweet-honeyed chirpings of the wooly mammoth

crane-spoted hyenas jumping rope in the serengeti plains

crowned turtles desiring the company of boiling lobsters

any recall the tearful repentances of proud nabucco

slaves become masters and enslaving their fellow slaves

how that in running – they instead lost themselves

have a care

I’m in hibernation at the moment and I’m using the time that I’m not sleeping to try and flex my creative muscles again. I’ve started to begin experimenting with papercutting (loving the work of Rob Ryan). My first is no way near as accomplished beautiful or profound but it’s a start…..

my first papercut

Hello space fans!

Today was quite a sad day, as many of you know I have a wonderful pet tortoise called Herman, he’s the bestest pet ever!

And as it’s now winter(where does the time go?) he has dozed off into hibernation and wont be getting up till spring time.
Here he is in his little box.

I find it quite fascinating that some animals can sleep for months at a time with no food or water, by the time Herman wakes up he wont have eaten for 6 months!

He’ll be missed dearly

nx

Everywhere you look, nature rears its head. No matter how many man-made phenomena there are or will ever be in the world, I guarentee there will always be some sort of natural world for flora and fauna to reign in.

I once did a blog post on my nature-bound journaling excursions a while back (yes, being able to reference old posts is an accomplishment for me!), and I explained how I journal about the natural world. Now, however, winter has set in, and the “natural world” around me has become a lot less sparse with animals hiding and hibernating from the cold, and always unbearable for me save in the middle of the day due to the temperature.

This caterpillar resides on a remote island in the South Pacific, and disguises itself as a tree twig so as to chow down on exotic fruit flies.

So, I’ve found a way to cope. I may not have a fast enough hand to be sketching out or writing about the things I see in them, but I’ve started watching nature documentaries about some of the world’s most amazing natural phenomena. It’s much more than I can see around the neighborhood, in my yard or on a local hiking trail. I’ve seen birds with amazing lifecycles, bees with happy face patterns on their back, trees that essentially pass (toxic) gas when they’re eaten too far… there’s a lot to see in the natural world.

One way I can get myself away from the computer long enough to watch a full documentary is by sitting down with my family at supper. We almost always have some TV show to watch, and recently we’ve been watching several different nature documentaries. We get them via Netflix, and they seem to be enjoyed by all… especially me. One we’ve been watching recently is Wild Pacific aka South Pacific, a documentary about the over 20,000 isolated islands in the South Pacific ocean. The vast array of wildlife on these desolate islands is remarkable, and it sucks you in, making you steadily await the next island they’ll cover.

Anyone can watch a documentary on wildlife. But how many of us focus on learning from it? The amount I learned from this excursion proves once more a general point about education: The more you’re into something, the more you tend to learn from it. I find this to be true of most anything in my life, and in education in general. It’s one of the reasons a free-form education goes well, because being hand-fed the same stuff every other person in the country had to soak up in the same grade you’re in now keeps you from flourishing in your learning, and finding what subjects and content really speak to you.

‘Til next time,
The Free-form Scholar

I’m voting for the “hibernational party” this Winter.

It’s time for people not to wake up

… and smell the roses until Spring

… or whenever roses start smelling.

note: some birds fly south for the Winter … where do penguins fly to?

double note: bears don’t truly hibernate: they do something called “denning“. I think I could get into this “denning” business.

.

notes to myself #61

You never learn to skate adequately to play ice hockey, but you do dabble with curling and enjoy it. I know … it’s unbelievable!

I want to hibernate. I want to fall asleep and wake up in six months, just so I don’t have to deal with now. I go through stages like this, where I spend days at home doing nothing, sleeping for hours on end, and wishing I didn’t have to wake up. Ah well. It will all eventually work out, I just hate having to deal with things.

So, anyway, I found these.

They’re very pretty handmade lingerie, by Bambilion. You really should look them up. Their underwear is the perfect balance of adorable and a little bit sexy. I think I’m in love.