Snakes

So, long time no see. That is, I haven't really been updating here anything for ages. So, I'll start it off by writing about snakes. Why? Well, I own two myself so i feel it's something I can write about.

Have you considered getting a snake as a pet? Excellent choice! I would recommend Corn snake, Milk snake and Garter snake. They are the most common smaller pet snakes and are easy to care for and they're not too expensive to buy. They are also fairly small and won't get much bigger than 1.5 meters. Sounds like much, but it's not considered that they aren't very thick. A king python doesn't get much longer, but is much more than double the weight! The corn snake is very calm and becomes very tame if you handle it often. Here I will have to contradict what many people writes about snakes in general. I have read time and time again that snakes does not become tame and that handling them will only be stressful to the animal and this should be done as little as possible. Wrong, I say. Of course the snake will be stressed when you handle it if you do it as little as possible. It will not know you or be used to your handling. But a snake that is regularly handled (with care) will become very tame, it will feel safe and be relaxed when you touch it and hold it. My corn snake (13 years) is very tame indeed. I handle it often and have always done so. When I do as I should, I take him out of the terrarium every day. He trusts me, knows me and is not afraid. He also really enjoys the freedom of movement that he can get on the floor or during summer outdoors. Just think for a minute. If you have a dog, a cat, a horse, a bird... does it like to stand/lie still indoors all day and never exercise? No? Didn't think so. Animals, all animals, have a need to get out and move about. A snake that does not get let out and handled will get fat, slow and sleep all day and night. A snake that gets let out often though, they will move around in the terrarium and be interesting to watch, they will be healthy and strong as well as having a good appetite. So please, if you get yourself a snake. Take it out, handle it, don't let it lie, rotting away in the terrarium for 10-20 years in boredom!

Milk snakes now, they have quicker movements and when they get scared, they flee. The corn snake tries to hide and lies still. This makes the milk snake a little more tricky to handle before it's tame, so be very careful. However they become just as tame and sweet once they are tame. Always let a new snake be undisturbed the first 1-2 weeks in it's new home to give it time to get accustomed to the new surroundings.

Garter snakes are very easy to care for because they do, in the wild, eat dead animals. They are easier to get to eat and can eat fish and meat balls (not cooked meat balls!! Never cook the food to your snakes!) But I haven't myself ever had one so I don't know how they really are. However it's said they are real escape artists, so take great care to close the terrarium and don't let it out of your sight. They too can become very tame and nice I've heard, but I was warned in the pet shop that they are prone to bite. Milk snakes and corn snakes are very nice in that regard. My milk snake has never bitten me, and my corn snake has only done so when I was new to keeping snakes and failed a bit when feeding him. They are very nice and never bite when frightened and they never get angry. This of course could be a positive effect of handling them often, they are not afraid/angry because they know they are safe.

Make sure when you buy a snake that you also get a terrarium that is big enough for the snake to stretch and move around in. There are rules as to how small a container you may have for them. Also, it's very important that you have a heating plate (sorry if that's not a correct English word) that should be placed under the glass to avoid that the snake gets burned! It must not cover more than half of the terrarium bottom, the snake must be able to choose if it want to be on the warm or cold side. My snakes prefer to be on the cold side apart from after they have eaten.

Also, here I get to one of the points where I will contradict what many other sites write about snake care. They nee fresh new water available every day! In most sites I have read that snakes drink water irregularly and need only have new water every other day. 3-4 days a week. This is wrong, of course. Especially if the animal drinks water irregularly, it's important that when it does drink, it will get fresh water and not water that is two or three days old standing in 30'C warmth. Water become bad very quickly in terrariums. Why? Well, it's still standing water in a very warm enclosed space. Would you like to drink it? All animals need fresh and clean water to be healthy. So make sure you give your snake clean water every day. Just like with any other animal.

Most important of all when getting a snake (or any animal) is of course to read literature about it beforehand so you know something about it. A healthy baby snake should have whole shiny scales, bright eyes, it's tongue should be playing and it should be active. A snake with damaged scales or small black specks between scales (parasites etc), snakes that are very slow to move or react when handled should not be considered. Make sure you know how your specific snake should be and look like before you buy one.

Feeding you snake. Do you have a snake and it won't eat? Maybe I can give suggestions that'll help. My first snake, the corn, has never refused to eat except for when he got pneumonia once. My milk snake however, which is very easily scared for everything, sometimes refused to eat for up to two months in the beginning. And then it took me 3 years to get him to eat grown mice. Something that he should have done by one year of age already. Baby snakes eat pinkys (baby mice without fur), later they get fuzzies (baby mice with fur, slightly bigger than pinkys) and finally grown mice. My milk never ate anything but pinkys which is bad. A snake that doesn't start to eat grown mice will eventually get malnutrition and can get sick. But I figured out how to do eventually. I should have earlier since I did this with my other snake already, but I didn't think of it. Never knock on the glass... a taboo that I break every time I feed my snakes now. Since my corn was 4 months old I run with my fingers across the glass, tapping it gently (not knocking it hard!) whenever it's feeding time. This way my snake know when he'll get food and also when he won't get any. This will prepare your snake for the food, and make the risk of it biting after your hands at other times less. If you never knock on the glass when you're not feeding it of course.

When I got my milk snake, I thought that I shouldn't do this, because he was so easily scared of everything. Almost every time I gave him a little mouse he got totally surprised somehow and scared of it. He even hissed at the dead mouse and backed away from it. Time and again. I was so frustrated. I had tried many other things too. But then I finally though, why not try it? I started tapping on the glass lightly, running my fingers across it, like a little living mouse maybe. After perhaps three times my milk snake knew that the tapping meant food. He hasn't failed to eat since. Because now he doesn't get surprised by the food... he knows beforehand that it will come.

He didn't get malnutrition though because I put vitamins in his water. If you don't have a florescent lamp to your snake, you also need to give them vitamins. They need sunlight to be able to produce some vitamins, but if they can't make it themselves you'll have to provide it for them. You can buy it in pet shops. The best way is to get the right kind of lamp for them though. And make sure it doesn't burn the snake and that it doesn't shine through glass. The glass will remove the ultraviolet rays and these are the ones that the snake need to produce vitamins. It can shine through a net or be put inside the terrarium but if placed on the inside, make sure it's protected so the snake won't get burned if it tries climbing on it.

Warming the food. NEVER put a mouse in the micro wave oven. The mouse can explode and it'll be very messy. Furthermore the micro will cook the mouse and the nutrients will be destroyed. Let the mouse thaw in room temperature and then heat it up to 37-38 degrees Celsius by putting the mouse in a plastic bag in warm water. Then I'd recommend to pic the mouse up and give to the snake with some type of pliers or wooden sticks. Less risk the snake will bite you by mistake, and the mouse won't smell like you either that way. I use two thin wooden "sticks" and then "jumps about" with the mouse a little to imitate that it lives. My snakes then bites it and I let go of it and closes the terrarium. With my milk snake I stop moving the mouse once he's sneaking on it. He gets scared if I continue to move it too much. But you'll get to learn how your snakes prefers things once you've had it for a while.

Hope that was in any way helpful to anyone. If anyone reads it at all of course. *lol* At least I can say that I have started writing my blog now. :)

How's and why's

So, I'm gonna keep this blog and write mostly about movies, animals and art related stuff. That is, things that interest me. However, I was wondering how to remove older texts in the blog? I cannot do it but I'm sure it's possible. Help me please? I do want to remove the stuff that is mainly school related below.

Anyways, I hope that someone will read and like my stuff even though I'm not gonna die of sadness if not so many do. But it feels a bit pointless to write stuff in nobody read it, right?

The name Deep forest may be exchanged later if I come up with something better. Right now I just needed to change it to something nature related. :)

Here's a little pic that I made of a dragon. When about art, it will mostly be fantasy/sci-fi/horror related. ;)



Have a nice day!

New Blogging

So... I'm thinking of keeping this blog. Maybe for writing things concerning snakes and dogs etc, things that make me happy, upset whatever. Keeping it away from my DA profile. *lol* Nothing yet though. Can anyone help me to change the name of the blog? How do you do that?

Anyways... I'll go sleep now. Tired after some running. :)

Goodnight.

Assignment 5

Assignment three was about coming up with a writing proficiency assignment. t first I thought it was really hard because I couldn't think of anything. But after a little looking around and thinking I realized that a quite simple assignment would be good. The important thing was to get the student to write and the best way to do this is to make them write about something they like. So I thought that books or movies would be a good topic since everyone has seen at least one good movie, or read a good book. The reason I choose Film review instead of book review was that it was more likely that the student had seen a good movie. Everyone doesn't like to read after all. Once I had chosen a subject it wasn't very hard. Write about a movie you like, and to get some more thought and feeling behind the written text I asked the student to consider why s/he liked it and some other help questions. I believe it is good to learn to reflect over why we like or dislike things, it will help us understand ourselves and possibly others too. It was a good exercise for us to do too as it focuses on our future jobs.

My peer wrote a nice little essay on her favourite movie. She wrote about it in a good way and had taken into account my help questions. She wrote why she liked it, a sort summary on the movie and characters, reflected on the hows and whys of the movie etc. It was also quite short, but without being constricted which was my hope. So basically she wrote the assignment as I had planned it would be written.

My own assignment that I chose to do was a review on a book. I think mine became a little too long, but I also know this is mostly because the book is very long and has many head characters and a complex story. I am aware that I can get a bit too long-winded when I write about things since I keep getting new ideas about what to write about. It just gets longer. But over all I think I did a quite good job as I mainly reflected about why I liked it so much. It was a fun/interesting assignment and one that I feel is a good one. It's always good to reflect on things and make our own thought visible to us.

Book review - A Song of Ice and Fire

I'm going to write a review of the book series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin. The first book was published in 1996.

First I want to say that it is a fantasy book, but not fantasy in the sense that there's magic and elves and dragons all over the place. It's much more a medieval story in a fictional land. Though there are dragons and undead in it, they are only mentioned very rarely and, so far, has not had much of an impact in the books, though I believe they will before the end.

Main plot:

The Stark family's father becomes the Hand of the King to the Iron Throne. The whole family moves to the castle and there a lot of intriguing happens. The queen murders the king, best friend of of Stark. He himself is in deep trouble. A mad prince in another country to the south is on his way back home with his sister to take back the throne to the old royal family. He is brutally murdered but his sister is raising an army and slowly works her way back to a home she's never seen, gaining powerful allies on the way. These include three hatchling dragons, the only ones in the whole world. At the same time, the kingdom is under attack of an unknown enemy from the cold north and families are split up, armies gathered and sent to the frontiers. Other lands watch in fear and wonders what will happen. A lot of the characters are deeply involved in the happenings in the kingdom, but they don't see the whole picture. The only one who seems to know more than the rest is a small crippled boy that is lost in the cold north and his older sister that had to flee the land and is currently hiding under the wing of a death cult of assassins. Knights are fighting and changing sides, one king replace another in rapid succession and a lot is pure chaos. Who will win and who will take the throne in the end? Will it be the Starks or the Princess from the south? The Lannisters that has it now or someone else? No one knows yet. There are fully 10 houses in conflict and 5 kingdoms.

This book is mainly about the kingdom in war and on the brink of civil war and not about the characters so much, though the characters are of course the driving forces in the books and the ones we as readers will follow. It's a book about intrigue and nobility. One thing that is also different in this book compared to many others is that there is no good and bad side. There are just sides, actions and consequences. This makes the book feel very realistic and one reason I like it so much. The head characters themselves are many and divided into houses/households and families. As a reader you will get to know them all and get your own favourites in the different families. Even in opposing families. It's a source of constant conflicting feelings when you like characters on both sides of a conflict and you cannot choose a side because you want for both to win.

Another thing that makes these books very exciting is that you never know what will happen next. In most books you are quite secure in the knowledge that the head characters will survive, that the good side will win, that the villains will be caught or even killed. No so in this book. The first chock comes when you read the first chapters and the person that you believe is the main character suddenly dies. After that you will become vary and every time a character is in dire straights you fear for their lives. A more exciting book series is hard to find.

I love it for the life like characters, the twists and turns of the plot and the unpredictability of it all. A book can never be as exciting as when you don't know if the characters you like will survive or not. Or how! The most catching book I have ever read. Situations that happen in the book are very realistic and complicated and it's hard to foresee what will happen next. Unfortunately the series is not finished so I cannot say if I like the ending or not yet. But I have my hopes and fears. My favourite characters and my antagonists, my suspicions and guesses. I can only hope that the ones I like best will survive, that the "bad" ones that I also like will find the right way and be good, that they will develop in the right direction. For people in this book does not continue to be the same way all through the book. The things that happen to them will change them, like it would change a real person. So some characters I liked in the beginning I now dislike, and some that I hated I now hope for and like. Others have gone from bad to worse and some from good to better.

I strongly recommend that you read this book series. It is very good and exciting. I have also tried to avoid to reveal anything that will ruin the surprises if you should actually read it.

Written Proficiency

This is an English assignment in written proficiency.

You are going to write a reflective text about a movie of your choice. It can be either a fictional movie, based on a true story or be any kind of action, drama etc that you like. It can be a movie you have seen a hundred times or one that you saw for the first time today. You are going to write a short summary of it and reflect about what it is in this movie that makes you like it. The movie can be in any language as long as the reflection is in English.

Help questions: What moves the plot forward in the film? Who are the head characters? Why do you think they do what they do in it? Do you think it should or could have ended in another way than it did? Why? How has this movie affected you and has it made you think of something in a new way?

Written reflection should be between 200-300 words.

Good luck!

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The Internet Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com/
Anything you need to know about any movie, old or new.

This question: Animal police. Should be the most important election issue 2010!

It is well known by the population of Sweden that animal cruelty and mistreatment is not allowed, however it is not monitored in any efficient way. Mistreated animals can be kept by their owners for years or until they die and the only retribution is a fine. A more efficient way of handling the problem and controlling the animals health should be installed. A group of specialists called the Animal Police will solve this problem.

In Sweden the issue of animal cruelty is usually handled by giving the owners of mistreated animals a fine of a larger or smaller sum. The animals themselves however are not taken from the owner. Moreover the fine is often too small to cause the individual owners any real discomfort. The mistreating of animals is usually lack of food and good shelter. This saves the owner large sums of money each year, sums that the fines rarely surpass. Another handling of the problem is sometimes to forbid the owner to have any more animals, but it is rarely monitored and they can often acquire new animals within a short time. The message these methods and their executions give to the population is that it is quite ok to mistreat animals. That it is bad, but not really serious.

We believe that the installment of a special group or police force, called the Animal Police, will give a clear message that animal cruelty is not allowed and that it will be dealt with in an efficient way to ensure the safety and well-being of the animals. The Animal Police force will be educated personnel that works closely together with veterinarians and the local police. The installment of this group will also give many opportunities for work, that is much needed in these times, since it will encompass the whole country.

The Animal Police is a very good way of handling these animal cruelty issues. They will inspect how animals are being kept in both homes and on farms based on incoming calls from the public population. A call centre will receive complaints about animal mistreatment and an inspector will go and assess the situation. If the situation is found to be bad for the animals a warning and a smaller fine will be issued as well as advice to the owner on how to solve the problem. A revisit will be made, with an accompanying veterinarian, after giving the owner time to fix the problems. If the issues are still there, there will be a final warning to the owner that if the problem is not assessed within a certain time, all the animals will be taken from them immediately and the owner will be forbidden to hold animals (or in some cases to hold more than a certain amount of animals). The owner will pay a high fine and will be added to a list and regular checkups will be made to ensure that he or she will comply to the arrangement and not get new or too many animals again. If the owner did fix the issues with the animal keeping they will be monitored for a while to ensure that he or she doesn't fall back to the old behavior of mistreating the animals. If the owner continues to behave well they will be taken off the list.
This treatment of the animal cruelty issue will give clear messages as to how important it is to take care of our animals and it will ensure that people follow the restrictions. It will also make people think twice before acquiring animals, especially if they do not have an economical situation or the engagement for it.
Installing this group will create many new jobs for the population as well. It will take time to get the organization to run smoothly, but the sooner it is installed the sooner it will work properly.

Some will complain that installing this group will take too much time, cost too much and won't make a difference.

Of course it will take time, everything in this large scale takes time. But it will not go faster at any other time so it is better to begin now. The sooner this group is ready to begin their work, the sooner animal handling in this country will become better.
The cost will only be an initial problem as, when it runs smoothly, the taxes from the increased working population and the fines from the mistreats will in the long run be profitable. It will also lead to increased work in both the veterinaries and the police department. This is a goal worth paying for to get started. It will also make a difference. To claim that the Animal Police would not make a difference is like saying the local police force doesn't make a difference in the community. The populace will learn that their involvement and reports about animal cruelty will make an actual difference. Every action taken to prevent cruelty towards animals will make this a better country.