Saturday 1 March 2014

Armoured dragons...

Someone said to me "There's this picture of a rabbit in chainmail. Do you think you could do the same for dragons?"

I have NO idea, but I'm more than willing to give it a try!

I had some zinc plated wire lying around after buying some metal mesh fencing for the new dragon slope - I had a dowel I could use as a mandrel, and I have a few different pliers handy - as well as my famous obsessive patience, just right for a job like this.

Winding the wire was the easy bit - zinc plated steel wraps beautifully, and pulling it off carefully went well. Snipping the rings (the technical name is "jump rings"!) went reasonably well, but stitching them together... hoo. That's a steeper learning curve than your average Olympic ski jump!

Some four hundred rings and rather more hours than I'd care to admit later thanks to several teardowns when it all went to pot, I finally have a swatch of maille about 4 or 5" square - just enough for a dragon armour prototype, for one of the smaller beardies.

And I think I know just the beardie...

Hyphen really likes his ears being rubbed in the evening, which made him the ideal candidate. I used cardboard, rivets, aluminium tape and a paper template - and the result is AWESOME!

Sunday 16 February 2014

Benny and Spyyk, together again.


Benny passed away a couple of days ago - we worked hard to stabilise him, but it just wasn't happening. I've no idea how old he was, being a rescue, but he'd been with us YEARS. I had Spyyk in the freezer, not knowing what to do with him - but once Benny died, I knew. 

I bought a pair of oregano plants, one lemon oregano, one classic, and put them over their resting places. 

Saturday 15 February 2014

Oops.

I apologise. I have entirely neglected my blog/online diary. Damn you, Google Plus, for pretending to be as efficient as a blogdiary!

In fairness, nothing much really has happened. Well, actually, come to think of it, I suppose there has been a fair bit of stuff since November. I seem to have lost some posts somewhere along the line!

Recently though, I started a fight with the DVLA about the rights to my Pastafarian Driver's License and I will be writing another letter requesting which specification my photo doesn't meet (and sending them the same picture again!) - they're not going to shake me off that easily. If they think I'm having a laugh, they're in for a nasty surprise!

An ATM swallowed my card and £30 of my money when the locking catch failed - I pressed the button, and the machine rolled back into its unit. Inconvenient.

Mum wanted a fresh banoffee pie for her birthday.
I could not find one ANYWHERE, so ended up making one from scratch - though I confess to cheating where possible. I used a cheesecake-style biscuit base because my previous efforts at pastry have always sucked, and I used a can of Carnation's ready made caramel; well, for the sake of the messing around making it myself, it's more efficient - and more cost efficient.

I finished it off with some awesome Oetker's gold cake spray - that's shimmer spray for desserts (a truly great idea!), fresh slices of banana and one of Mum's indoor sparklers.

Which she promptly burnt her finger on, and then used said pie to cool finger.

Eh. Even her supposedly banoffee-disliking husband liked it. I'm quite pleased with myself.

Though it has backfired a touch.
She wants one every year now.

Myself, Himself, Tsam and a bunch of friends attended a very-gay play, written by one gay friend and acted by another. I'm still waiting for them to return our silk dressing gowns...

Jac managed to puke on the back of his own head, but otherwise the dragons are healthy and happy, and just coming out of brumation.

I'm doing more work on the dragon apartments, decking out Sandy's tank with a banana leaf swing, grasses and more plants to hopefully make our jungle-dragon a bit more sociable. Oh, and I made some hats for dragons. Here's Jam wearing one - and a moustache, because she's a jolly good sport.

We discovered Terry likes to eat his dinner from a spoon. He won't eat from the little cups - but spoons? Heck yes!

Talking of cups, I've bought an obscene amount of cup-a-soup, because it was three for the price of one. You really can't knock a deal like that, especially when the ones with those little croutons in is on the same offer - and I do like cup-a-soup. Creamy vegetable, or perhaps the mushroom - His Lordship really likes minestrone.

Also linked, come to think of it, the dragoncam is causing me great frustration, but I'm hoping to get some info back from the manufacturers about embedding techniques - my old Y-cam you just splat a link in, but this one's proving to be a bit more tricky. (Though MUCH better quality!) Watch this space for updates - I hope to overcome the authentication problem soon!

And the weather sucked. I'll write more later. I'm going to bed now!

Wednesday 8 January 2014

Trollollol!

Apparently, I drew the interest of a troll at some point in the last few days - and, as a result, I have been made into an ironic meme. How wonderful!

He doesn't "get" Pastafarianism, clearly, and the result is thoroughly amusing.

I quote these choice excerpts from Cap'n Mosey's I Really Rather You Didn't's:

"3. I'd really rather you didn't judge people for the way they look, or how they dress, or the way they talk, or, well, just play nice, okay? Oh, and get this into your thick heads: woman = person. man = person. Samey = Samey"

and:

"8. I'd really rather you didn't do unto others as you would have them do unto you if you are into, um, stuff that uses a lot of leather/lubricant/vaseline. If the other person is into it, however (pursuant to #4), then have at it, take pictures, and for the love of Mike, wear a CONDOM! Honestly, it's a piece of rubber. If I didn't want it to feel good when you did it I would have added spikes, or something.

Saturday 4 January 2014

Licensed Pastafarian?


My driver's license renewal notice arrived.

As promised, I am going to attempt to join the Pastafarians in Europe, to get the colander on an official identification document - to be the first in the UK to do it.

I have read through the UK driver's license and passport regulations regarding photographs, and I believe it can be done, as there's a notice regarding medical or religious headwear. The fact that it has already been done in two other countries should make it easier, and I am sure I have plenty of character witnesses willing to agree that I am indeed a genuine Pastafarian - if I really have to, I will get a letter of recommendation from Bobby himself, though I'd rather not have to trouble him. (Though I will let him know if I am successful!)

The ID agent has gone to ring the helpline to see how do deal with this... She hasn't heard of Pastafarianism before. Luckily, I was prepared and had the BBC articles to hand.

There may be a risk of the DVLA rejecting it, but it took Niko three years, after all. I'm not in a hurry - and I'm sending a letter to support it.

 3/1/14 - finally got my hands on a working printer!