Tag: pets

Teiknitöflur: Wacom Intuos: Creative Pen & Touch

Nöfnin á þessum Wacom töflum geta verið svolítið ruglingslegt ef maður hefur verið að pæla í Intuos töflunum þeirra vegna þess að þeir voru að breyta nöfnum á vörunum sínum. Gamla "Bamboo" taflan sem er gerð fyrir byrjendur og þá sem þurfa ekki neina rándýra lúxsus teiknitöflu, hún heitir núna "Intuos: Pen & Touch" (það er líka til útgáfa án snerti-skynjara), og gömlu "Intuos 1-5" eru orðnar að "Intuos Pro". Síðan eru þeir með "Cintiq" sem hefur innbygðan skjá í teiknitöflunni.
bobo3

  • Ef þú ert kanski að pæla í teiknitöflum, þá hef ég gott ráð fyrir þig byggt á reynslu: Aldrei kaupa neitt þar sem batteríið er í pennanum! Af hverju? Vegna  þess það veldur ójafnvægi þegar þú heldur á pennanum og þegar þú ert kanski ekki að halda fast utan um pennan þá getur hann dottið úr höndunum á þér vegna þyngdarinnar aftan á honum (þar sem strokleðrið væri) og þessi auka þyngt veldur því að þegar hann lendir svo loksins á gólfinu þá er höggið oftast nóg til að skemma pennan. Ég hef reynslu á þessu, átti tvær rosa ódýrar teiknitöflur ("Trust") fyrst sem penninn skemmdist strax út af þessari lélegri hönnun.
  • Ég hef líka keypt mér HP Slate 500 þegar hún kom fyrst út (var ekki seld hér á landi) sem var í raun frum-útgáfa. En ég var forvitin vegna þess að þetta var með innbygðum snertiskjá og þrýstiskynjandi penna til að teikna með. En batteríið var í pennanum sjálfum sem augljóslega gerði hann þungan, en hann var sterkbygðari en pennarnir sem fylgdu Trust teiknitöflunum svo hann skemmdist ekki við högg. En penninn hætti samt að virka mjög snemma og eftir að hafa fengið pennan skipt út fyrir nýjan þá komst maður að því að það át batteríið eins og skot, ekki var það betra að þetta var AAAA batterí (já, Fjórfalt A sem er eins í lögun og hin batteríin af A týpunni, en aðeins minni) sem var ekki algengt hér á landi svo ég viti. HP Slate sjálfur fór að hegða sér skrítið líka eftir að skjárinn rispaðist aðeins, stundum þá fór "músin" á ferð yfir skjáinn eins og maður væri að snerta allstaðar, sem gerð það að verkum að ekki var hægt að teikna á þessari HP Slate tölvu.

Mæli bara með Wacom eftir allt þetta. Það er ekkert batterí í pennanum sem gerir að verkum að hann er léttur og þæginlegur í höndunum: penninn notar rafmagnið frá töflunni sjálfri þegar það kemur nálægt eða það skilst mér. Wacom eru fremstir á sínu sviði og vörunar þeirra endast lengi (sérstaklega vegna þess þú ert ekki eftir að skemma pennan á sama hátt og þeir sem innihalda batteríið). Gamla Graphite taflan mín virkar ennþá þótt hún sé orðin afskaplega lúin að sjá eftir mörg ár.
En ef við tölum aðeins meira um þessa Intuos: Creative Pen&Touch teiknitöflu, þá verð ég að segja að snúran er mjög stutt (kanski metri á lengd í mesta lagi) en það er ágæt fyrir fartölvur. Það er alltaf hægt að redda framlengingar snúru fyrir USB eða láta tölvutek panta sérstakan "þráðlausan pakka" sem passar við þessa sérstöku teiknitöflu. Sýnist þetta þráðlausa sett nota endurhlaðanleg batterí sem maður setur í hólf aftan á töflunni (það hleðst örugglega með USB tenginu sem fylgir upprunalega). Ég held ég vilji fá þetta þráðlausa sett, það er mjög freistandi þar sem tölvan mín er vinstra megin við mig og ég vil hafa töfluna hægra megin svo snúran er fyrir mér eins og er.

bobo2Veit ekki hvort það tengist því að allt inn í tölvunni minni er í rauninni úrelt (eða alveg á mörkunum) að snerti skynjarinn virkar óstöðugt, en maður tekur bara eftir því ef þú ert að reyna nota það eintómt. Best að nota það með pennanum (snerti skynjarinn slekkur á sér á meðan penninn kemur við flötinn, annars væri allt út um allt). Ég nota pennan eins og mús og snerti flötinn til að færa hluti ("scrolling") sem er þegar maður snertir með tveimur fingrum og dregur niður/upp.

Eins og ég nefndi í fyrri póstinum mínum, þá er ekkert í leiðbeiningar bæklinginum um hvar þessir auka penna-oddar/nibs eru. Þeir eru geymdir innan á miðju lokinu sem þú getur opnað aftan á teiknitöflunni. Var farin að halda að þeir væru týndir eða ekki til staðar. Það var eitt sem mér fannst mjög lélegt, vegna þess að það er hægt að gera leiðbeiningar svo einfaldar að þær verða óskýrar.

  • Myndirnar hérna eru af kettinum Bóbó sem var sofandi á borðinu hjá mér í dag. Teiknað í MSpaint af því mér finnst gaman að nota blýants tólið þar (allavega á nýja MSpaint sem fylgir nýrri útgáfum af Windows)

Pet Cavies (Guinea Pigs)

For those who don't know, I recently got myself a pair of lady guinea pigs or cavies.

My fiance had been teasing me by taking me to pet-stores to look at some, and I only thought it was a tease since this had happened before (and I had gone to the library and looked at all the books on cavies that I could find). I was delighted to learn that he was honestly suggesting I'd get myself some guinea pigs as pets, and they sure are more entertaining than hamsters (who give the impression that they shouldn't be handled, as they are nocturnal creatures and will spend all their energy at night), and pet rats were out of the question because you don't get pet rats in Iceland (though pet snakes aren't allowed as far as I know, and I've once seen a guy with a baby snake on the bus... ).

The more you compare the information you gain from the online community to those of the books you find in the library, the more you find half the knowledge being out-dated. Cavies need daily vitamin C intake, because they can't produce it themselves (like ourselves), and the main and seemingly only option would be to add Vitamin-C into their water with drops that the pet-stores and the vet sell. Online they explain that giving them vitamins that way is unreliable, as the vitamin-C breaks down quickly, and even quicker in sunlight, and on top of that guinea pigs don't drink enough to actually make use of that vitamin before its gone bad. Fresh vegetables and dry food made specially for cavies are the way to go.

And on note with the dry food, seems like most of the food you find recommended for your guinea pig looks like food made for big hamsters, full of seeds (cavies are not seed eaters). Seems like guinea pigs are placed in between hamsters and rabbits (you rarely see food aimed at hamsters and rabbits in one blend), but guinea pigs are a group of their own. They don't eat seeds like hamsters, and they need more vitamin-C than rabbits. And most candy aimed at cavies in pet-stores are no good (chew sticks covered in seeds like bird sticks? treats made with dairy products?). So do a bit of study before just rushing to the pet-stores and buying everything with a guinea pig face on it.

Then I had to look into bedding for my pets, something to keep them dry and clean. When you live on a little island that does not offer alot of support for 'exotic' animals (guinea pigs are placed there, if you looking for a doctor, you'd look for someone who specializes in exotic pets... cats and dogs are not so exotic). So wood fibres seems the main option, but I've seen more options in the latest (and biggest) pet store we've got recently (they even have carefresh :O unheard of), so saw-pellets are also an option. But when I got my guinea pigs from a previous owner (so they were older than one year, just about) I also got a bag of saw, which I felt the need to shake free of all the dust, sitting on the balcony on a summer day doing it proper. I can tell you for sure, I won't bother with that unless its last resort, and if I sneeze while spreading it in the cage, Im quite sure its not good for my pets either until it settles very good.

So I read about fleece bedding, which is growing in popularity, and for people who don't mind cleaning the poops daily as well doing the laundry maybe twice a week or less, then its an awesome option. But its understandable that people are skeptic about having a fleece carpet as a bedding instead of plain old shavings, because people are familiar with the water repelling quality of fleece, it keeps you warm and dry. But the fact is that if you clean it on high heats (40-95°c) then you remove that repelling factor, and instead you got something that wicks away moisture to whatever is below (usually a towel) and instantly dries once it has drained the liquid away. It doesn't matter if you have fleece or wood-shavings, if your cage is on the small end, then you will have to clean it more often. People who don't wanna pick the poops every day should stick to wood-shavings, just make a thick enough layer to keep the piggies dry.

So fleece is a cheaper option, since you just have to do the laundry instead of buying other bedding (saw or pellets, or even carefresh) which will be a monthly cost, and for me it was saw everywhere, because it clings to them when I picked the guinea pigs up, and just when they jump around. So getting rid of the saw and dust was high on my wishlist. So I bought some fleece carpets for cheap, and washed them, and I washed them so often it was driving me nuts to be honest. Twice the wicking worked like magic, draining the water away in seconds, but the rest of the time it took minutes to wick away if you didn't "break the surface" with pressure. So when I read some comments about it taking 5 minutes, I gave up and just put it in the cave, if mine took less than 5 minutes, it couldn't be worse.

At first I thought they were only peeing in the box I provided (keeping saw in it, for familiarity) but soon I saw that the fleece was actually working like intended, when the piggies would pee, they would break the surface with the pressure of the stream, and instantly the pee would be gone, only leaving a tiny wet dot for a few minutes (nothing was pearling up on the surface).  So Im really pleased with the fleece even if it was teasing me so much!

Sometimes I thought it was the bedding I used, or how dry it can get in the bedroom at night (we even have a moisturiser that spews cool water mist into the air) and sometimes I thought it was the bath I gave them early on, because they tend to wheeze every now and then, specially in the morning if I forgot to turn on the moisturiser, but Im hoping removing most of the books would help too, sucking the moisture out of the air so bad. But its getting better now.

 

They've been with me for little over two weeks now and are finally feeling well at home, on the second day after I got them I spotted those "running lice". My fiancé got so paranoid (for good reason, lice and fleas are never good) and had fused together the idea of lice and fleas, so he thought the lice could jump and get into our hair too, and everything, and bite you. But apparently running lice that are on guinea pigs do not jump onto humans, they die if they don't have a guinea pig to feed on. Went to the wet the next day and she applied some flea meds on their skin, had to go twice, and the second time I went there was a doctor more specialized in exotic pets (apparently she owned some guinea pigs herself), I asked her to listen to their lungs because of the wheezing, but she said they were healthy, and didn't actually have to come for a third time because of the lice, they seemed to be gone. And now after spotting dandruff on them sometimes, I dreamt they had lice again!

Im not sure of how their diet was before I got them, but it must have been alot of dry-food since I heard guinea pigs eat out of boredom in small cages, and the first time the doctor weighted them, they were both 1060 grams, second trip a week later they were 1020 grams, and now after I've been watching their weight for the past three days (a week after the 2nd weighting at the doctor) they are currently floating around 995 - 1003 grams. What's a healthy weight for guinea pigs that are 1 and half year old (the other half a year younger)? because the doctor said the older one was obviously carrying some fat on the sides and because of that she was amused that both piggies were the same weight (on both trips).

Im still dreaming about building for them a nice cage, preferibly a double floor one to take less space (we don't have alot of space) and C&C cages are not easily available in Iceland, and I honestly find those clips they use to secure the grids together not quite as appealing as I'd hope for. I stumbled upon ideas of turning IKEA furniture into neat homes for your pet guinea pigs (if you google IKEA bokhyllebur marsvin, you'll get some neat pictures, its swedish though).