wearables and dead rabbits
it's been an eventful year in terms of pet death and Today is the first day in eight years that hasn't included Lucky Edgar Wapass, a Unique Rabbit of great strength and courage.
This little blind bunny, who wasn't so small, was of a breed often used in meat farming, a blend of Continental meat rabbits and the more handleable Himalyan, to produce a white rabbit with pink eyes and a dusting of shading on his ears and nose. Lucky's story before we met him is conjecture but from what he was able to tell us, I'd say he was brought home to apologize for abuse and then used as a pawn in future abuse by a man with a woman. When tossed into the cold night that november, or perhaps he made a break for it, he found himself in a world for which he was ill suited. Even rabbits evolved for these winters have short brutal lives. After perhaps a fortnight he was thin, sick, and tired.
Dan first spotted him. we were cycling to the gym for the evening. It was bitterly cold, nearly thirty below. That kind of cold I call "cracking cold." By that point anything breaks and most tech is below it's operating limits. In this dark back alley in a bad part of town he spotted a rabbit that wasn't quite a snowshoe hare, although they're white. I confirmed, this was not a wild rabbit, but a domestic one in need of a home. We spent the time at the gym pondering the little guy's fate. I told Dan as much as I could about the commitment we'd face if we caught him, that he'd never find a home if not with us. Problem was, we had three rabbits and could little afford another. Still, Dan's heart is soft when cute things are involved and he decided he would face it. We agreed that if the rabbit was still around we'd try and catch it and give it a home.
Lucky wasn't exactly easy to pick up, nor that hard to catch. he evaded us naturally awhile then suddenly parked himself in a blind alley and gave up. We wrapped him in our towels and he didn't fight as we biked home with him in my bike basket, trying to get home quickly without still putting too much head-wind in this cold air. When we unwrapped him it was clear he was malnourished, had head-tilt, and was exhausted. We started him with some good hay and water and a quiet place to rest, then took him the next day to our rabbit vet. She gave him antibiotics and that put the illness in check and by spring that little guy had claimed our house as his domain. he would rush Dan and attack him without provocation, and really anyone but me was at risk. Getting him castrated helped, but he retained a fierce nature.
Over the years Lucky would periodically come down with his head-tilt if he got a bit too cold or sad, but mostly he was pretty healthy and learned to come and go outside via a pet door we'd installed for him. He learned quickly to come when called and to return to the house as his safe burrow so it was very convenient for us as well. Lucky loved the outdoors. I suspect his poor vision helped since he couldn't see the shapes of birds overhead to trigger hawk instincts. He used to fight with Timmy all the time and timmy had the same fierceness and the two never made friends, although they made peace. they learned to leave each other alone, sometimes that's all you get.
Lucky first bonded to Freddy, a lop eared rabbit. She made it to age eight, was much older than he. Then he bonded to Toby after Toby's mate, Flora also hopped off into the sunset, or rather the crematorium. Same difference, I expect. Toby has outlived four companion rabbits and is alone for the first time in his 11 years. Damn he's old! He's ornery, standoffish, dull and crusty, but now I have to try and comfort him and ease his loneliness. Well that'll be a good lesson for me. I'm going to see if I can get Timmy to befriend him too. They both could use a buddy.
So wearables. Yes. Oh that's what I've been up to, and minecraft in the evenings.
First project was billed as 'really simple" but it wasn't. The hardware and software had multiple snags. the hardware was fussy and tight and I couldn't find the right fasteners. the software was glitchy and troublesome and never worked without some error report. However, after much emotional display involving shouting and weeping, I did manage to create for myself a tail.
I have these Neko Mimi Robot cat ears for which I paid a considerable fee. They're worth it, I don't have to sew or program them or solder anything! When I saw the tail, although I still don't know where to wear it, I knew I had to make one. I wanted fabric to match my spotted ear covers but there was only white fun fur so I switched the boring white ear covers it came with. Dull! maybe I'll colour them with stains and a paint brush some time. I dunno. white is okay I guess.
so on to a more complex project that is still not too complicated. the project site has us sewing lights on a bunny-hug (hoody) with a sliding fabric bit that changes how it responds. I still don't know if the code will work as it is, but I'm still sewing. I've done some uploading of code and testing of the electronics but till it's all fastened down I can't really test.
The project involves five circuit boards and miles of conductive thread, a battery pack, and a witch hat. My wool hat that I made. when done, there'll be 3 lights above the brim in front and one in the crown of the hat. At the moment the lights are sewn and the lines mapped and sewn through the wool, with a felt insert to make a pocket for the battery pack, and a stash spot in the hat for a vape pen. No, not to be taken through borders, just for discrete personal use. I still have to sew the CPU to the felt plate in the cone and the problem that's slowing me down is the needle size and shape. I need fine enough needles to go through the cpu holes, coarse enough to allow the thick conductive thread in the eye, and short enough, or curved, to move it around in a 3" diameter space with my hands involved. Oh and no way to reach behind the felt plate except a hole about as big as three fingers.
Wow, eh?
Since I need to go out to the grocery store anyway I plan to stop by the fabric store and scout the needles. Perhaps something there will work. At the moment my hat has green tape all over with symbols holding the tag ends of thread wire in place so I can keep track of them. I really want to take the kayak out this morning too.
Minecraft, it's what I'm doing in the evenings. Utterly worthless activity, I realize, but it helps my brain calm down. I play in creative so there's no fear involved and I can always get what I need to do what I'm doing and always win every fight. I set up last night for going by survival mode next time so I can actually collect things but that'll mean the creeps can kill me. I hope I'm not too nervous after having so much success killing them in creative mode. I want so badly to play NOW, but I know the day would vanish rapidly if I did, and the game would lose a lot of novelty too quick if I played that much.
Well okay, enough yapping for today. I know I started with some profound thing to say and forgot after getting the mundane crap out of the way but, oh well. I'm only talking to myself and the mundanity is in fact more important to me. it's what I'll value if I ever come back to read this.
that's a big if, frankly, but more likely than all my old paper diaries disintegrating in a box somewhere.
This little blind bunny, who wasn't so small, was of a breed often used in meat farming, a blend of Continental meat rabbits and the more handleable Himalyan, to produce a white rabbit with pink eyes and a dusting of shading on his ears and nose. Lucky's story before we met him is conjecture but from what he was able to tell us, I'd say he was brought home to apologize for abuse and then used as a pawn in future abuse by a man with a woman. When tossed into the cold night that november, or perhaps he made a break for it, he found himself in a world for which he was ill suited. Even rabbits evolved for these winters have short brutal lives. After perhaps a fortnight he was thin, sick, and tired.
Dan first spotted him. we were cycling to the gym for the evening. It was bitterly cold, nearly thirty below. That kind of cold I call "cracking cold." By that point anything breaks and most tech is below it's operating limits. In this dark back alley in a bad part of town he spotted a rabbit that wasn't quite a snowshoe hare, although they're white. I confirmed, this was not a wild rabbit, but a domestic one in need of a home. We spent the time at the gym pondering the little guy's fate. I told Dan as much as I could about the commitment we'd face if we caught him, that he'd never find a home if not with us. Problem was, we had three rabbits and could little afford another. Still, Dan's heart is soft when cute things are involved and he decided he would face it. We agreed that if the rabbit was still around we'd try and catch it and give it a home.
Lucky wasn't exactly easy to pick up, nor that hard to catch. he evaded us naturally awhile then suddenly parked himself in a blind alley and gave up. We wrapped him in our towels and he didn't fight as we biked home with him in my bike basket, trying to get home quickly without still putting too much head-wind in this cold air. When we unwrapped him it was clear he was malnourished, had head-tilt, and was exhausted. We started him with some good hay and water and a quiet place to rest, then took him the next day to our rabbit vet. She gave him antibiotics and that put the illness in check and by spring that little guy had claimed our house as his domain. he would rush Dan and attack him without provocation, and really anyone but me was at risk. Getting him castrated helped, but he retained a fierce nature.
Over the years Lucky would periodically come down with his head-tilt if he got a bit too cold or sad, but mostly he was pretty healthy and learned to come and go outside via a pet door we'd installed for him. He learned quickly to come when called and to return to the house as his safe burrow so it was very convenient for us as well. Lucky loved the outdoors. I suspect his poor vision helped since he couldn't see the shapes of birds overhead to trigger hawk instincts. He used to fight with Timmy all the time and timmy had the same fierceness and the two never made friends, although they made peace. they learned to leave each other alone, sometimes that's all you get.
Lucky first bonded to Freddy, a lop eared rabbit. She made it to age eight, was much older than he. Then he bonded to Toby after Toby's mate, Flora also hopped off into the sunset, or rather the crematorium. Same difference, I expect. Toby has outlived four companion rabbits and is alone for the first time in his 11 years. Damn he's old! He's ornery, standoffish, dull and crusty, but now I have to try and comfort him and ease his loneliness. Well that'll be a good lesson for me. I'm going to see if I can get Timmy to befriend him too. They both could use a buddy.
So wearables. Yes. Oh that's what I've been up to, and minecraft in the evenings.
First project was billed as 'really simple" but it wasn't. The hardware and software had multiple snags. the hardware was fussy and tight and I couldn't find the right fasteners. the software was glitchy and troublesome and never worked without some error report. However, after much emotional display involving shouting and weeping, I did manage to create for myself a tail.
I have these Neko Mimi Robot cat ears for which I paid a considerable fee. They're worth it, I don't have to sew or program them or solder anything! When I saw the tail, although I still don't know where to wear it, I knew I had to make one. I wanted fabric to match my spotted ear covers but there was only white fun fur so I switched the boring white ear covers it came with. Dull! maybe I'll colour them with stains and a paint brush some time. I dunno. white is okay I guess.
so on to a more complex project that is still not too complicated. the project site has us sewing lights on a bunny-hug (hoody) with a sliding fabric bit that changes how it responds. I still don't know if the code will work as it is, but I'm still sewing. I've done some uploading of code and testing of the electronics but till it's all fastened down I can't really test.
The project involves five circuit boards and miles of conductive thread, a battery pack, and a witch hat. My wool hat that I made. when done, there'll be 3 lights above the brim in front and one in the crown of the hat. At the moment the lights are sewn and the lines mapped and sewn through the wool, with a felt insert to make a pocket for the battery pack, and a stash spot in the hat for a vape pen. No, not to be taken through borders, just for discrete personal use. I still have to sew the CPU to the felt plate in the cone and the problem that's slowing me down is the needle size and shape. I need fine enough needles to go through the cpu holes, coarse enough to allow the thick conductive thread in the eye, and short enough, or curved, to move it around in a 3" diameter space with my hands involved. Oh and no way to reach behind the felt plate except a hole about as big as three fingers.
Wow, eh?
Since I need to go out to the grocery store anyway I plan to stop by the fabric store and scout the needles. Perhaps something there will work. At the moment my hat has green tape all over with symbols holding the tag ends of thread wire in place so I can keep track of them. I really want to take the kayak out this morning too.
Minecraft, it's what I'm doing in the evenings. Utterly worthless activity, I realize, but it helps my brain calm down. I play in creative so there's no fear involved and I can always get what I need to do what I'm doing and always win every fight. I set up last night for going by survival mode next time so I can actually collect things but that'll mean the creeps can kill me. I hope I'm not too nervous after having so much success killing them in creative mode. I want so badly to play NOW, but I know the day would vanish rapidly if I did, and the game would lose a lot of novelty too quick if I played that much.
Well okay, enough yapping for today. I know I started with some profound thing to say and forgot after getting the mundane crap out of the way but, oh well. I'm only talking to myself and the mundanity is in fact more important to me. it's what I'll value if I ever come back to read this.
that's a big if, frankly, but more likely than all my old paper diaries disintegrating in a box somewhere.