animal tibits

all quotations take from the book by stacey o'brien - wesley the owl: the remarkable love story of an owl and his girl

"Owls are very sensitive and easily stressed... Tragic behavior wasn't unusual for owls, who are emotionally delicate, even in the wild. For example, owls mate for life, and when an owl's mate dies, he doesn't necessarily go out and find another partner. Instead, he might turn his head to face the tree on which he's sitting and stare fixedly in a deep depression until he dies. Such profound grief is indicative of how passionately owls feel and how devoted they are to their mates." (p3)

"When describing both the act of defecating and the substance of fecal matter itself, biologists prefer to use the scientific term “poop.” It’s both a noun and a verb. A popular field of biology called scatology is the study of scat, which is not to be confused with mere poop. Although technically they’re the same, we call it “scat” if we are studying it to learn something about the health and diet of an animal. When the animal has pooped on us or has ruined something with his pooping, we tend to use the term “shit,” as in, “Oh, man, he just shit down the back of my neck.” So if it’s on the ground, it’s poop. If it’s under your microscope, it’s scat. If it’s running down your neck, it’s shit." (p22-23)

"The evidence that all species of animals with a brain have emotions is overwhelming. I've observed that all intelligent animals have emotions, including reptiles, brains are less complex than those of mammals. People who work with reptiles are well aware of the risk of depression in captive snakes and lizards of all kinds. Turtles and tortoises are especially prone to it. If a snake gets depressed, his life is immediately in danger, as he will stop eating. I once rescued a snake that had to be tube fed for a year before he began to eat on his own again, after having an owner that did not provide proper stimulation for him. Snakes will also stop eating if they have a traumatic event with a mouse. Reptiles are cold blooded, meaning that they cannot control their own body temperature and are dependent upon their environment to provide a heat source. If they can't raise their temperature, their metabolism becomes so sluggish that they cannot defend themselves against even a mouse. Careless snake owners have been known to toss a mouse in with the snake and not supervise. If the snake is cold, the mouse can eat the snake alive and the snake can't respond. If the snake survives such an episode, it will have such a fear of mice that it will no longer eat. It can take up to a year of tube feeding before the snake gains the courage to face another mouse. If an animal of such low intelligence is this emotional, how much more does a highly intelligent animal feel? Even a reptile needs an “enriched” environment — and it's vital for more intelligent creatures. Animal keepers try to enrich the captive animal's life — make it more interesting — to prevent disorders like obsession/compulsion (incessant pacing in a cage is a good example) and depression." (p47-48)

"Some people feed their cats a vegetarian diet, but then let the cat outdoors (which they shouldn't, since cats are a leading cause of the decline in songbirds, after habitat loss and the continual poisoning of the environment), so that the cat hunts... to compensate for its dietary deficiency. If the "vegetarian" cat is kept indoors, he first goes blind, then dies of complications due to malnutrition." (p85)

"Most people get their appendix out before going into remote areas... What would happen if you were six weeks away from help and you got appendicitis? You'd die. It's not worth the risk, so most people just have it out." (p125)

"The most impressive experience, to me, was one involving an African gray parrot who had a large vocabulary and chattered to himself constantly. The owner was set up in a completely separate building, far from the parrot, and given a series of cards that neither she nor the parrot had ever seen. There were two cameras -- one on the parrot and one on the owner, with a timer running. Then the owner picked up a card and looked at the picture on it. It was a blue flower. The parrot, at that same time, began to talk to himself about blue flowers, pretty flowers. Then the owner picked up a picture of a boy looking out a car window and the parrot's chatter changed to “Do you want to go for a ride in the car? Watch out. The window is down. Look out the window. I am paraphrasing, but the conclusion of the experiments was that animals and humans were using telepathy." (p202)

leadership styles

what kind of leader are you?

i was asked this in an interview once and didn't have a good answer. :( but anyway, there are a ton of classification systems, so here are a couple that i like:

kurt lewin - authoritarian (autocratic), participative (democratic), delegative (laissez-faire)
     i'm mostly democratic with a bit of laissez-faire thrown in. people also refer to the laissez-faire as free-reign, which is more obviously descriptive, i think. i tend to believe that you should tell people what to do, but not how to do it. everyone works differently, which is fine, so making them do it the way you would could be counter-productive. tell them what results you're looking for and they should be able to get it done. but, of course, this type of leadership does not work well with people who are un-confident, un-knowledgeable, or dislike making their own decisions. a lot of people like structure (which i tend to think of as hand-holding [which gives you a pretty good idea of why i tend towards this style, ha!], which i need to remember. i'm getting better at it tho, tho my first inclination is for you to figure it out on your own.

not sure who came up with this categorization but i think it's pretty good (broad, but not too much so): charismatic (like oprah), innovative (like richard branson), command and control (like tom coughlin), laissez-faire (like donna karan), pace setter (like jeff bezos and steve jobs), servant (like herb kelleher), situational (like pat summit), and transformational (like ben and jerry).
     i'm definitely not charismatic, innovative, or a pace setter.
     i'm less of a servant than i'd like to be. but some situations, i think, don't allow you to be a servant. i'd also like to be situational but i think i'm not flexible enough for that. i think i'd like to be transformational, but i'm not sure i understand it enough to say.

x-gen bio

i did my x-gen paddler bio thing, and here are some of the more interesting questions and answers but you can watch the video too. answers are the same, explanations are not since i didn't prepare explanations when writing out my answers so they're a little all over the place, hahah.

If you had to do one form of exercise, which would you choose… strength training or cardio? Why? - NONE! i hate exercise. i literally did not know how to spell the word correctly until just a couple years ago. even now i always have to sound that word out. idiotic. ...exercise, that is, not me :)

If you could be any animal, what would it be and why? - a predatory bird. because predators are way better than prey and cause who wouldn't want to be able to fly?!

What is one of the things you would put on your bucket list? - go to petra!

Describe yourself in three words. - volunteering, precise, curious

If you were famous, what would you be famous for? - would love to be known for philanthropy

What was your favorite cartoon growing up? - chip and dale rescue ranges, batman animated

What is the thing you are most afraid of? - falling down stairs. seriously. you will likely never catch me running up or down stairs. and skipping steps? mwaahahaha, no way! that's way too advanced for a klutz like me! (esp at sports stadiums with those aluminum benches? FUCK NO. i have visual flashes getting amputated mid-shin from falling up or down those damn things. legs going one way, me going the other. it's not pretty.)

If you were a super hero, what would your powers be? - time manipulation

Who do you admire and why? - jeannette rankin and melinda gates. jeannette rankin was the first female congressman, and she was voted in even before women had national right to vote!! melinda gates because she's an amazing woman and because her husband (bill gates) said she's the reason he's so philanthropic. she opened his mind and heart towards giving and given they have!

good advice!

Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you. Hebrews 13:17

[haha, i've never quoted the bible before. i don't actually know how to do it! pretty sure i'm not supposed to use quotation marks. and i think the verse numbers thing is supposed to be after, not before the quotation. but is it supposed to be in parenthesis or something? hard to look up when you don't even know what these things are called!]

i like this quotation. i think very often we don't have confidence in our leaders. we double guess them and think we know better when we generally don't know the whole story! and, unless they are corrupt, i think they generally try to do well by us.

speaking of which. this isn't just leaders like bosses or team captains. it's our president, cops, parents, doctors, anyone in charge, anyone who is responsible for someone else. it's good to keep in mind. we should respect our leaders more. (i'm not at all saying that we should trust them blindly.)

the second half of the verse is just as good as the first. it's important to be a JOY to work with, and to work for. i feel this way a lot. it may be my job to serve you or whatever, but it is not my job to take your shit. and the more annoying you are, the less likely i will do a good job for you. i'm not so petty that i will purposely do a bad job, but you best believe i will not go out of my way to do you any favors. and yeah, i will drag my feet, and not do as good of a job. because i'm a human and you're an asshole.