Dwarf in my hand

Once again Pauline, my dzungarian dwarf hamster (Phodopus dsungorus).

Just in case you hadn´t noticed: this and the last photos are "Thumbnails". You have to click on the photo to see them in their full glory :) - not only larger in size but also in better quality.

1/250; F 5,6
EOS 300d, 18-55 mm Kit Lens & 330 Topca Flash
(Btw. all bought used via the internet and, according to many foto-forums, best to be thrown away.)

Gerbils & Budgies

The pets of a friend, two gerbils called Micki & Ricki and two budgies named Nicky and Sammy - I hope I finally got it right :).

All pics were taken with indirect flash, my cheap Topca 330 COS from e-bay which I´m becoming very fond of. Many of the photos were either over- or underexposed but I´ll keep learning :).

Zoo Nordhorn

Pan of mice

Enclosure and inhabitant of the Reed vole (Microtus fortis) enclosure. I very much like exhibits like this! There are loads of rodent species, 1500 out of 4000 mammals in total is an educated guess. Many zoos unfortunately neglect these "lbj´s" (Little brown jobs) as they´re often called in the zoo-world. Understandably, as one might say, considering that many visitors don´t care much for them and their show-value isn´t very high.

But if you provide interesting information about the concerned species in an accessible way and add some innovative enclosure design they can make great (and mostly cheap) displays.

Squirrel monkey

Australian aviary with budgerigars, zebrafinches, eastern Rosellas and doves.

Visitors may feed the budgies with foxtail millet they can buy at the entrance.

Even though many nestboxes are provided these hole-nesting birds seem to fancy little caves between the stone slabs as an alternative.

I made use of my annual ticket of the small but predominantly nice zoo of Nordhorn yesterday.
I also saw some of my beloved coypus swimming in the river Vechte :).

Joy, one of two nice but very shy, white shepherds at the shelter

Amy

Right now I´m looking for a new-used Telezoom as repairing the old one wouldn´t pay off.
So I´m doing research on forums etc. and once again find myself surprised at the importance many hobby photographers ascribe to their equipment.
And then, after you´ve realized they must have spent ages and a whole fortune on choosing and buying just one lens you look at their pics.
And this nice, gleeful, warm feeling spreads when you realize that in many cases they´re boring at the best.
Cause my pics aren´t works of art either & I wouldn´t mind getting a fast lens, say a 2.8, 300 mm for a couple of thousand bucks - but what I find disturbing is what that they reduce photography to, when they only care about IS, USM and what-the-heck.
You´d think that it was all about gear when you read the discussions of those guys. And yes, they´re mostly guys, which may hint at the underlying problem- not to be sexist, it´s just a statistically provable, unbiased observation :).
This is a quote I found on another photo-forum:
"My wife is an excellent cook. She spends a lot of time in the kitchen making meals that rival a good restaurant. She does not spend hours discussing the wattage, voltage, ergonomics etc of her kitchen appliances."
Strike, I´d say.

Good ol´times...

When I was a kid, the series "Robin of Sherwood" was shown on german television and my best friend Esther (greetings to her if she ever stumbles upon this log by chance, best friend I could have hoped for) and me loved watching it.
My favorite characters were Nasir & Will Scarlet - and the rat which appeared in the dungeon scenes :).
Just in case you share these memories, there are a few sequences on "youtube" I enjoyed:
Robin of Sherwood Series 2 out-takes feat. Robert Addie
Robin of Sherwood, The sheriffs best lines
You can also find the death scene (just enter "robin sherwood") of the first Robin Hood (Michael Praed), I was devastated for days when it was shown :).
Without all the sarcasm and cynicism which came with "adulthood" life must have been very different.
And no, I´m not a "proper" Fan, I don´t even own the DVDs - but I´m very fond of the memories it evokes and given the chance would probably watch the whole thing again :).

Man mistook snorkeler for nutria

From an Article in the Register-Guard (don´t ask me, I´ve got a google-news-alert running on the topic of "nutria" cause I wrote my thesis on them):
"Roderick told detectives he was taking care of a house on Lower Smith River Road when he saw what he believed to be a nutria swimming in the river, sheriff's spokesman Dwes Hutson said.
He grabbed a .22-caliber rifle and shot at what he thought was a large, water-dwelling rodent from a deck, he told detectives."
There´s a saying in German: "Life writes the strangest stories".

Oh, and since yesterday evening I know that "the ultimate truth" isn´t 42 (accoring to Douglas Adams) but "Maple Sirup sticks" (according to Dieter Nuhr).
The question of "What ist the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything?" still remained unanswered.

It´s 1.49 - 11.50 in Western Australia

...in the morning, and I´m still fighting with my CV.
In case you´re not a native speaker (probably if you are, too) and the spell-check of your word processor doesn´t work: there are a few online spell-checkers available, just search for "spellcheck" via google.
Here´s one for example: spellcheck.net
And yes, you´re right, that´s something I should do with my blog entries. But I´m a lazy git an this is just for fun so you´ll have to bear with me and my spelling.
For German-English translations I wholeheartedly recommend Leo.
Update: 3.18 and still awake and resume-ing. God, I wish I was better at self-marketing.
3.43 an I just discovered this tiny but essential sentence in the tangles mass of application forms: "Permanent Residency is a pre-requisite for appointment to a permanent position. Are you an *** Permanent resident ?"
No, I´m not - but I´d honestly like to be. Everything in vain :(.
4.25 ...
5.26 Don´t think I´ll sleep to"night"
7.04 I just sent the email with the job application even though I do not meet the essential criteria (see 3.43). Wrote a pretty informal/weird text, would normally never have dared to sent ist but I guess I´m too tired to care.
Good night/morning, Anne

Gerbil home

converted an old, broken terrarium into a home (70 x 50 cm) for the two young, male gerbils at the shelter