Author Topic: Small Animal News  (Read 186953 times)

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Offline Sindobook

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Re: Small Animal News
« Reply #15 on: March 25, 2010, 06:19:35 pm »
Here is the new rule in regard to PMs.  Please - only send me PMs that make sense.  Too much lately I read a PM only to walk away and ask myself "Now what was this person trying to tell me?"  And then to top things off, people think I am ignoring their ambiguous PMs so they post the message online for all to see, thinking that is the only way to get me to read it.  And then they complain to me that suddenly all their friends think they are goofy too, b'cos they can't compose a simple, straightforward message, instead ending up with a bunch of incomprehensible gobbledygook that no one can make any sense of.  So if you are going to take the time to type up the PM and send it to me, whether it's about small animals or not, take that extra time to make it actually make sense so that I can understand it.

I did get one question about whether I knew of any company that made special glasses that small animals could use in order to watch the newly released "3D" TVs.  No, I'm not aware of any of the new 'active shutter' glasses made for small animals.  I don't know of the companies that make them but maybe you can start a petition to get them to make the 3D glasses for small animals. 
« Last Edit: March 25, 2010, 07:33:49 pm by Sindobook »

Offline Sindobook

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Re: Small Animal News
« Reply #16 on: April 12, 2010, 10:05:02 pm »
Yes but they are real, real people, I can assure that.  I saw them with my own eyes.  

I didn't see Mr. P though.  Only his minions.  Oh well.  It's scary b'cos I saw roughly 10 people there who I know or knew (not very well, evidently) irl, but didn't know were into that kind of stuff.  Oh well.

Oh and the guy in the maid outfit was for real too.  I'd seen pictures but never in person until then.
« Last Edit: April 12, 2010, 10:07:18 pm by Sindobook »

Offline Sindobook

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Re: Small Animal News
« Reply #17 on: April 13, 2010, 01:14:11 am »
BTW here is a translation of Mikey's response to the review (or basically the review of the review).

P4:  Lol.  This is like a fat man complaining he can't fit through a door.  Lose some weight buddy!

P5:  Yep, this could have been done better.  What a waste of a room.

P6:  I think the author missed the point.  He doesn't understand what mega64 is all about.  It would be like asking Rammstein to put on a concert and then telling them they can't use fire and pyrotechnics or make any loud noises. 

P7:  She's always late.  Get used to it.  If she was actually on time, people would be like 'what happened?' and 'something is wrong'. 

Overall the review gets a 58% on the accuracy scale.  Too much ranting and not enough reviewing.

Offline Sindobook

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Re: Small Animal News
« Reply #18 on: April 22, 2010, 02:51:39 am »
All right I have been getting a few about _S_ aka. _M_ as posted on Jan 11th.  Basically around a month ago, Mikey noticed 'she' had self-activated a GPS beacon.  He and friends were able to promptly track her down and recover her, sent her here for assistance.  Roughly three weeks ago one of the techs finished his inspections and reported that her brain had been damaged as a result of blunt trauma.  Now I don't think I need to tell you what happened there or who did that.  But generally with repeated blunt trauma, it's rather typical for the brain to get damaged, on the newer models the brain is the most delicate part.  Fortunately the newer brains are pretty modular, unlike the older ones like Tofu's where if one piece goes, pretty much the whole thing goes and you have to do a complete replacement.  Basically all the secondary storage units were inoperable, even the mirrors, that's probably why she activated the beacon b'cos they can't run on RAM and cache alone forever.  We upgraded and replaced them, restored from the last backup which was roughly 3-4 months old.  So two weeks ago, she was all fixed up and sent back to her home area, accompanied by Rocky, a Chinchilla, who was supposed to keep an eye on her.  Rocky has only given a few reports, the gist of which is that she was a bit disoriented at first but got better and seems to be out of any immediate danger.  You don't have to thank me, please thank Mikey and the others like the techs b'cos I didn't have much to do with this one in actuality.

Offline Sindobook

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Re: Small Animal News
« Reply #19 on: April 27, 2010, 02:02:38 am »
Yes last year one particular incident stands out, at one of the Otakon 'small animal meet and greet' panels, toward the end of the event an older man came up to the front of the line to pet the animals.  He put his hand on the back of one of our bunnies (which was actually a male bunny btw) and you could see his eyes light up, and then as he touched the bunny's back he made a creepy laugh and drool actually started to drip out of the corner of his mouth.  Then he tried to put a hand under the bunny, and our Miku had to grab his arm and pull it away.  Afterwards he was upset and went away, he claimed he was just trying to pick him up to cuddle him but we were pretty sure it was more than just that going on.  It was strange, even as he was escorted away by our Miku and Rin, his eyes stayed fixated on the bunny and he seemed totally oblivious to everyone and anyone else.
« Last Edit: April 27, 2010, 02:08:08 am by Sindobook »

Offline Sindobook

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Re: Small Animal News
« Reply #20 on: May 03, 2010, 10:33:23 pm »
All right I got a lot of PMs this morning, suddenly this is an issue again, I'm honestly not sure why.  Late last year Mikey and friends, who basically decide whether an animal can take residence in the local area, or whether they'll end up run out of town, last year they turned away the cow and told her to go back home.  Naturally the cow has roughly one to two thousand fans so they got all up in arms about it.  They were all demanding to know why the cow was turned away, assuming we hated the cow, and so on.  And seriously I will say that yeah, we're not too find of the cow really.  But when it comes down to it, the answer is simple, it's resources.  And it's not any different today than it was back then.  A single cow consumes as much in terms of grass and everything else as hundreds of bunnies.  Mikey did the math and the numbers came out that we just can't afford a cow in the local area.  There's just not enough resources, the bunnies and everyone else would be starving now if they had let her in.  It's that simple.  It's not that they hate the cow or don't like the cow. 

Offline Sindobook

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Re: Small Animal News
« Reply #21 on: May 13, 2010, 07:41:20 pm »
New Staff

Due to an increase in snake sightings that typically comes with the changing seasons, Mikey has increased the peripheral anti-snake patrols.  Samantha, a black striped Dutch rabbit, has taken over as the head of the Bunny Brigade.  Also please welcome Jessie, a small Indian mongoose (aka. small Asian Mongoose, "Herpestes javanicus") who is currently employed by Mikey and will be participating in the anti-snake patrols. 

_S_

Yes she is fine as always, please no more PMs about this.  If you have questions for her, you need to PM her, not me.  If you don't know how to get a hold of her, ask _R_, not me.

Offline Sindobook

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Re: Small Animal News
« Reply #22 on: May 18, 2010, 12:04:12 am »
All right I have been getting PMs about the anti-snake patrols.  There is no way the anti-snake patrols will affect nonpredatory snakes that aren't a danger to small animals.  A typical anti-snake patrol looks like this. 

B             
                XXX
B

Direction of travel is to the left.  There are one or two 'bait bunnies' (B) in forward picket positions who hop around in front of the group.  They move slowly and are given special training to 'look clueless'.  Most of the group (X) stays behind and out of sight, but keeps a close eye on different areas around the 'bait bunnies'.  If a snake is sighted, the main force will move forward to surround and engage the snake. 

The snake can attack a bunny but it is a losing proposition.  It may kill that bunny but the bunnies are trained (even in death) to bite down and not let go.  Even if this alone doesn't kill the snake, it will hold him in place and allow the rest of the group (which outnumbers him) to close in.  The only chance the snake really has is to try to escape and bypass the bunnies and other animals in the main force. 

A nonpredatory snake that leaves the bait bunnies (and the rest of the force) alone is simply ignored.  The only way a snake will be attacked is if it starts to go after the bait bunnies, or if it's stupid enough to try to go against the main group.  The latter case is extremely rare b'cos the force is always moving with the bait bunnies in front. 

I know some people are probably going to question the tactic of using live bunnies as bait but frankly it gets the job done, and the casualty rate of these specialized patrols is generally lower than other field combat units. 

Offline Sindobook

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Re: Small Animal News
« Reply #23 on: May 20, 2010, 11:05:53 pm »
In response the question about the lack of any 'small animal meet and greet' panel at either of the big cons (ie. AX, Otakon, Famine, etc.)

A 'small animal meet and greet' was held at some of the smaller, more local cons this year.  As for the larger cons:

There is no 'one reason' and anyone who says there is 'one reason' is overstating it.  Sometimes I get PMs from people who seem like they are trying to 'make a statement'.  Really the purpose of this board is not that, it's a Q&A board.  If you ask your question in a straightforward way, you will get a good and straightforward answer.

Otakon is fan-friendly but they are far away and the small animals are rather busy this year, there wasn't the will to travel that far.  Not being at Otakon has nothing to do with any problems with the Otakon staff, leadership, or Otakon in general.  They just didn't feel any compelling reason to be there.  I guess you could say the pig was the main driving force behind getting the rest of the small animals motivated to show up at Otakon in prior years.  Famine is the same way -- too far away.  I know people will say that it is much closer than Otakon, but as far as small animals are concerned, they're both 'very far away'.  

AX is more local and I know some people might have thought they were going to do a panel 'for sure' this year.  So that wasn't really a problem, but apparently AX is having their own budgetary problems this year.  At least that's the idea you'd get if you asked Mikey to elaborate.  Mikey was very insistent that the convention provided fresh fruits and vegetables from a local store and that there was no way that local food provided by convention stands or 'fast food' restaurants would suffice.  This should come as common knowledge to anyone who keeps small animals, that it's always important to have a good supply of fresh, edible food on hand.  But Bobby, the staff member assigned to coordinate the event with Mikey was apparently not listening and kept passing over the food issue.  He kept dismissing Mikey with "Yeah we'll figure something out" and other messages like that.  As if this wasn't enough, when Mikey finally did pin Bobby down and get him to agree on a small budget that could be used to buy carrots, romaine lettuce, and mini peppers from a nearby supermarket, and provide the small animals with a volunteer to actually make the purchase, transport them, and wash them on-site - Bobby did agree to this but the next day Bobby was gone and replaced another staff member, Chris.  Now this Chris guy was totally clueless, it was obvious he'd never done a small animal event before and he kept asking Mikey things like "Exactly what do you guys do...?"  Mikey would patiently answer each question and explain the event to him in detail but then the issue of food came up again.  When Mikey explained that Bobby had already agreed to budget for food and agreed to provide a volunteer, Chris balked and said unfortunately that wouldn't be possible (apparently there's also a shortage of volunteers).  Not too long after that, Chris informed Mikey the panel had been moved to a smaller room, that only one podium with a fixed mike would be provided and that he (Mikey) would have to bring his own tables for the small animals to stand on.  This was just too much for Mikey and Mikey said no, that the small animals were pulling out and no longer wanted to do the panel.  

Afterwards Mikey did hear of Chris trying to ask some of the individual small animals (that Mikey normally answers for) if they wanted to be part of the event and that individually they all answered no.  So that was pretty much the end of that.

As for when the next "small animal meet and greet" panel will be, I would personally guess ALA which is typically in the first half of January.  

Oh one more thing that is absolutely not true.  A number of people kept asking me if Mikey was the third 'mystery musical guest' who was going to be at the concert with Megumi Nakajima and May'n on Friday in the Nokia Theatre.  In fact I was asked this by four seperate people in multiple PMs.  I think it's safe to say that the answer is a big NO, and I wish people would get off this rumor.  No idea where that one came from, you know the old saying about rumors, the more 'patently ridiculous' they are, the farther they go.  That one needs to stop here. 
« Last Edit: May 20, 2010, 11:16:24 pm by Sindobook »

Offline Sindobook

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Re: Small Animal News
« Reply #24 on: May 29, 2010, 02:03:05 am »
I have been getting people calling up to ask about which small animals are attending AX this year.

Mikey runs his own photo business.  You can sign up for a photo session, the charge is 40 baby carrots for a one hour session with 1-2 people.  For 3 or more people, add 10 more baby carrots.  You can skype him if you want to reserve a time.  Satisfaction is guaranteed, if you are unhappy with the results, your carrots will be returned to you in lieu of the final deliverables.  Which is basically a CD with unprocessed and processed, printable versions of the photos he took, along with rights to use them as you choose.

Tuan Tuan (not exactly a small animal but news nonetheless) will be hosting his regular "Panda Comedy" panel.  Time TBA, check the AX site and event schedule for details when they are available.  If there is enough interest, he will make himself available at the Funimation booth for an autograph signing.

And you'll be able to find Mr. Sparkles in Artists Alley, just look for the solid gray Netherland Dwarf bunny.  Hard to miss him really.

Offline Sindobook

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Re: Small Animal News
« Reply #25 on: June 03, 2010, 12:27:02 am »
This isn't really small animal news but yes we were there.  It's just some people in our group have been having problems with stalkerz online so we didn't want to alert anyone that we would be there beforehand.

Those who were at the Tuan Tuan Panel before it started did anyone get any video of Tuan Tuan pouncing on the guy in the ****bear costume?  It was totally unplanned and all happened so quickly I missed it with the vidcam, if anyone got a vid of that can you please post it to youtube?  Thanks.

Offline Sindobook

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Re: Small Animal News
« Reply #26 on: June 08, 2010, 02:17:47 am »
Lately I've been getting messages from people who don't seem to that the small animals often use their chat channels to play games similar to Battleship or Clue.

When you see a message like "You killed my <HAMSTER>" or "You hit my <BUNNY>" they are playing a game.  It does not mean a real hamster died or that a real bunny is being abused.  It just refers to something happening in the game.  So there is no need to panic really.  Typically there will be some kind of punctuation around the small animal to signify it is a game piece, but there really isn't any standard established for this. 

Offline Sindobook

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Re: Small Animal News
« Reply #27 on: June 09, 2010, 06:46:29 pm »
A lot of people are asking me and yes I did get ours moved to earlier in the day for that reason.  I don't control the other two so naturally I can't do anything about that.  Get with it people, you'll just have to choose, that's part of what life is about, making choices.

As for Mr. [deleted], I don't know but it's all mind games anyway.  The real problem is not the one that he is working very hard trying to fix.  The real problem is that he is having to work so hard to fix something that should not have been a problem in the first place. 

Offline Sindobook

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Re: Small Animal News
« Reply #28 on: June 12, 2010, 01:18:32 am »
I've been informed that lately, three neighborhood cats have been causing lots of problems for small animals.  The small animals refer to them as B, K, and L. 

B is a tabby, broken white and brown color.  He is good with computers and online but not very good with people.  He has a very abrasive attitude and often has problems getting along with other cats.  There are several confirmed cases where he has eaten small animals over the years, and threatened to eat many more.  B works as a mercenary, essentially a 'free agent' or 'cat for hire'.  He is currently hired by L.

L is a mixed-breed but resembles an american shorthair.  He has mostly white fur but differing shades of black mixed in.  He is a middle aged cat who often purrs and likes to rub up against humans.  He gets along reasonably well with other cats, provided they submit to him.  He currently employs B and K, B does his dirty work while K is assigned several more mundane roles.

K is a bit of an anomaly.  The small animals aren't quite sure what breed she is, presumably mixed.  She is a younger-to-middle-aged cat who is basically an underling of L.  On the outside she is friendly to humans and also other cats.  She doesn't like being ignored and will get very peeved if ignored by a person or cat when she wants attention. 

Small animals that take residence within the local area are reminded to be on the lookout for these three cats.  To report any unusual activity, please contact Mikey, the local security chief.  If there's an emergency involving any of these cats, please contact Samantha, the current leader of the bunny brigade. 

Offline Sindobook

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Re: Small Animal News
« Reply #29 on: June 16, 2010, 12:04:36 am »
This is "in addition" to the published list.
BTW be sure to follow the link from the main list if you want to attend.  Often times there are specific instructions on where to meet, and some of the gatherings plan on moving after the initial meeting (this is discussed in the thread).

Day 1:
Kick-Ass (???) Might happen
NIS gathering (2:00) Foyer (West of the southernmost west hall entrance?)
Higurashi / Umineko (3:30) Same place as Higurashi / Umineko gathering on Saturday.

Day 2:
Jrock / Lolita (12:30pm) West Hall Lobby
Vocaloid (4:00pm) Unknown Location

Day 3:
Vocaloid (4:00pm) Outside West Lobby Tower / Outside West Hall

Card Captor Sakura / Sakura Army (Sakura only) held at the same time and place as the CLAMP gathering.
« Last Edit: June 29, 2010, 09:00:49 am by Sindobook »