Nests

It was birdy cleaning today. My least favourite birdy job in the world. Believe me, they get through a lot of seed and other..mucky things during the week. And when the water’s been spilt by them, the seed goes wet and smells funny. It’s something they don’t enjoy either, they dislike the shovel and fly around like idiots. Or, in Loony’s case, a loony. The finches aren’t too bad, they hide up near the roof, out of the way and shout at me until I’m done. But, asides from Pie, Sian, Baby and Herb, the ‘tiels go bonkers. They were fairly well behaved today though, although the zebs wouldn’t take food from me. Sulking I guess..I cleaned up their carpet! They have nothing to eat. I’m sure it must taste better if it’s eaten from the floor -.-

The four finch nestboxes have nests in, as well as the coconut. The cockatiels are building in the end ‘tiel box, and the Bourkes are building a nest in the other, which was a pleasant surprise. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting anything from those three. I think Goofy and Jakey are the owners of the ‘tiel nest. Goof was sitting in the doorway, chewing around it only a few days ago.

Sooky is still in love with his own echo. The cockatiel nestbox is next to the wall, and there’s a small gap between them. Sook stuck his head down the side one day, in a silly fit, shouting. Imagine his surprise when a ‘bird’ shouts back. He’s now convinced that there’s a bird down there, and sings to it..and of course, it ’sings back’. Silly bugger hasn’t realised that it sounds exactly like him. I only have to say “Sook! Where’s the baby?” and he sticks his head down the side, looking for it. Funny little silly birdy.

Gwynne is getting braver and braver. You can see his belly override his brain, minute by minute. Once he sees a cornflake, he comes towards me..moves back a little..thinks..then comes to take the cornflake. I think it helps that Sweetie is so unafraid. I can do just about anything with her. She’ll quite happily cwtsh up on my chest with a cornflake to munch on. She’s living up to her name, there’s no nastiness at all in her, although she will stand up to, and boss the boys around.

Herb and Babe were unusually quiet today. They must have eaten before I went out, and were sleeping it off. Although Herb did come as soon as she saw the treats, she lost interest quickly. Babe wasn’t as snappy as usual, I think he’s mellowing. Pie was her regular high and mighty self, and most put out that I caught her up to break a pinfeather on her cheek. How dare I lay hands on her majesty, eh? Never mind that it won’t itch half as much now, and she was secretly enjoying the fuss. She’s such a moo. But yes, birdies are happy and well, although I only had a few pictures today. They’re still nervous of the camera..except Sweetie, who thinks she can eat it, and Baby, who just doesn’t care.

Published in: on January 28, 2007 at 7:59 pm Leave a Comment

Eleora III

“I hope this works” Eleora said to the small rabbit beside her, as she nailed a poster to a pillar in the Orgrimmar Auction House. “Luudy’s getting worse, the poor thing, and Kelsar’s worrying..”

An interested troll peered over her head..
“Ere.. who be dat den?”

Published in: on January 26, 2007 at 10:49 pm Leave a Comment

Funnies..

Sent by one of our regulars. Some of these tickled me

All of these are legitimate companies that didn’t spend quite enough time considering how their online names might appear and be misread…….

1. Who Represents is where you can find the name of the agent that represents any celebrity. Their Web site is
http://www.whorepresents.com/

2. Experts Exchange is a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views at
http://www.expertsexchange.com/

3. Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at
http://www.penisland.net

4. Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at
http://www.therapistfinder.com/

5. There’s the Italian Power Generator company,
http://www.powergenitalia.com
Though you’ll need a password to access it

6. And don’t forget the Mole Station Native Nursery in New South Wales,
http://www.molestationnursery.com/

7. If you’re looking for IP computer software, there’s always
http://www.ipanywhere.com/

8. The First Cumming Methodist Church Web site is
http://www.cummingfirst.com/

9. And the designers at Speed of Art await you at their wacky Web site
http://www.speedofart.com/

Published in: on at 9:54 pm Leave a Comment

Festivals!

Whoopee. It’s nearly February, and we all know what that means. Parties and pretty things in Warcraft. I love the months between October and February. There are so many events on, first the Harvest Festival, then Hallow’s End, then the Feast of Winterveil, the New Year, then the Lunar Festival, and Love is in the Air. It gives so much chance for RP, and the little seasonal quests are always fun to do. The two February events have to be my favourite though, mainly for the quest rewards, which are very RP friendly. Last year I seem to recall celebrating the Lunar Festival, then Love is in the Air directly afterwards, although it seems that this year, the Lunar Festival has been moved. I think it’s meant to coincide with the Lunar New Year. The Lunar Festival was much fun last year, I didn’t get bored at all, although I never managed to get all of the tokens. I’m hoping to this year, and already racking my brains trying to remember what tokens I recieved from where. As far as I know, these are the NPC locations for the Coins of Ancestry. I wonder if they’ll have NPCs in the Outlands this year.

Thankies to WoWWiki and Thot for these locations.

Kalimdor

Elder Zone Description
Proudhorn Thunder Bluff Elder Rise
Bloodhoof Mulgore NW edge of Bloodhoof Village, next to the bridge
High Mountain The Barrens NE edge of Camp Taurajo, next to the forge
Skyseer Thousand Needles Middle of Freewind Post
Morningdew Thousand Needles Mirage Raceway – near the race starting line
Dreamseer Tanaris Gadgetzan
Ragetotem Tanaris Valley of the Watchers (Uldum) – West side
Thunderhorn Un’Goro Crater Just north of the Slithering Scar
Bladesing Silithus Standing in the moonwell in Cenarion Hold
Primestone Silithus Center of the Crystal Vale, NW Silithus
Grimtotem Feralas Lariss Pavilion, NE of Camp Mojache
Mistwalker Feralas Inside the Dire Maul PVP arena
Runetotem Durotar SE edge of Razor Hill
Moonwarden The Barrens Next to Crossroads Wind Rider
Windtotem The Barrens In Ratchet, outside the Engineering building, north of the bank
Darkhorn Orgrimmar Outside Thrall’s Chamber, Valley of Wisdom
Skygleam Azshara Ravencrest Monument, SE Azshara
Riversong Ashenvale NW edge of Astranaar
Starweave Darkshore South of the Auberdine Inn, east of the Hippogryph platform
Bladeswift Darnassas Center of the Cenarion Enclave
Bladeleaf Teldrassil South edge of Dolanaar
Nightwind Felwood NE Jaedenar, due east of icon for Bloodvenom Post
Brightspear Winterspring Eastern edge of Lake Kel’Theril
Stonespire Winterspring Center of Everlook
Splitrock Maraudon In the tunnel that leads from Rotgrip towards the Goblin
Wildmane Zul’Farrak SE corner of the room where the gong to summon Gahz’rilla is

Eastern Kingdoms

Elder Zone Description
Morndeep Blackrock Depths Inside the Ring of Law
Stonefort Lower Blackrock Spire At the first of the rope bridges
Bellowrage Blasted Lands Dark Portal
Rumblerock Burning Steppes Dreadmaul Rock
Dawnstrider Burning Steppes Flame Crest
Goldwell Dun Morogh Kharanos
Windrun Eastern Plaguelands Crown Guard Tower, north of Darrowshire
Snowcrown Eastern Plaguelands Light’s Hope Chapel
Stormbrow Elwynn Forest Pond at Goldshire
Highpeak Hinterlands Creeping Ruin
Bronzebeard Ironforge Mystic Ward
Silvervein Loch Modan Thelsamar
Ironband Searing Gorge Blackchar Cave
Obsidian Silverpine Forest The Sepulcher
Hammershout Stormwind City The Park
Starglade Stranglethorn Vale Zul’Gurub
Winterhoof Stranglethorn Vale Booty Bay
Farwhisper Stratholme Baron entrance, take first left through gates, go through the portcullis,
turn right, follow Festival Lane around. You’ll see his white shaft of light
Starsong Swamp of Sorrows Sunken Temple, follow leftmost hallway, when you hit the main room he’s
in the large room with dragonkin
Graveborn Tirisfal Glades Brill
Darkcore Tirisfal Glades Undercity, upstairs in the throne room
Moonstrike Western Plaguelands Scholomance, upstairs in the tower
Meadowrun Western Plaguelands North of the road, south of Weeping Cave
Skychaser Westfall Sentinel Hill

The quest rewards are certainly most funky indeed, although the dresses are horribly glary colours. But still..see the pretties! Shown on the silly blood elf model for clarity, more than anything.

Published in: on at 6:58 pm Leave a Comment

Look after your PC!

As some of you know, I’m one of the not so common, lesser-boobied technicians. And due to utter boredom, the boss throwing a sickie and work being incredibly quiet, I’m scribbling a quick PC Health..anti virus.. antispyware..what not to do..sort of guide.

The most common, and sometimes expensive problem we seem to get in the shop is virus infected PCs. Often, the viruses themselves have been downloaded accidently by an overly eager user, who, having heard about the latest virus/spyware on the news, has decided to take things into his own hands. The problem is, for virus/spyware creators, these people are easy targets. They create software that sneaks into the system, installs itself, throws up a notice claiming that the system is infected (which, of course it is, but not in the way you’d guess) with a nasty virus, and if you send them money, they’ll remove it. The most common, and hated of these is Winfixer. This program will throw up notice after notice, interrupting your browsing, slowing your PC to a crawl, until you a) Pay to remove it, b) Fix it yourself or c) Reinstall Windows. Another common program that works like this is Virus Burster, which not only tells you that you have a virus, but springs up porn popups for authenticity.
Virus removal currently starts at £35 in the shop that I work at, and goes from there. A format and reinstall is £45, and sometimes it’s not worth fixing. It’s an expensive lesson to learn, that some programs are bad, and do not do what they say on the tin, but the complete opposite. I generally suggest that customers research software on google or the like, before installing anything.

This is what I use to keep machines healthy, it’s all free, and I advise you do the same.

Step 1
Download CleanUp. This program is a nifty little utility which deletes temporary files, including things like cookies created during surfing. In deleting these files, it also removes ‘tracking cookies’, which are generally used to spy on you. It also saves a massive amount of diskspace, keeping your system running relatively smoothly.

Step 2
Download and install a free, legit. antivirus program. We like to use:

a) AVG, available at AVG, by Grisoft.
b) Avast, available at Avast, by Alwil software. Do not be put off by their mention of purchasing software. They DO provide a free version for home users, and this does require you to sign up and register.
c) AntiVir, available at Antivir, by Avira.

Download only one of these programs. Having more than one AntiVirus software installed can cause nasty conflicts and scary errors ;)

Step 3

Download and install AdAware. I’ll be honest, I don’t trust other seemingly legit programs, e.g. Spybot. I haven’t needed to use them, AdAware has always dealt with my spyware issues with no problems. It’s easy to set up, configure and use, and most importantly, free.
Download Adaware here. Run this every two or three weeks to keep your system clean.

Step 4

Every system gets a little untidy as files are constantly written to the hard drive. Defragging your drive can speed it up a lot. Windows has a built in defragger, which you can access by:

Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools.

Some people suggest using Diskeeper, available at Diskeeper.com, but I haven’t any personal experience with it, so I can’t tell you if it works as well as the Windows Defragmenter, or if it’s free. The Windows defragger has always been enough for me.

It’s also advisable to run a checkdisk every few months, to fix any gremlins that have got into your drive. This is easy enough to do, although can take a while for larger drives.
Open My Computer. Right click on your hard drive, and click Properties. Click the Tools tab, and under Error Checking, select Check Now. I suggest ticking both boxes, and waiting through the possible reboot. Like defragmenting, this may take a while.

It’s as easy as that really. Clean up, run antivirus, antispyware and defrag and checkdisk regularly. And it’s great because it’s all free.

Just be wary of what antivirus and antispyware programs you install, research everything thoroughly before installing it. Better to spend a little extra time reading up on it, than forty odd quid having it all fixed because you didn’t.

Published in: on at 6:06 pm Leave a Comment