Compost

So far on this blog I haven't shared too much about my person life, because I didn't intend for this to be an 'online public diary'. However I feel like sharing some things. I don't know why.

Two weeks ago (on Monday, July 16th 2012) I started my job at Gloria Jeans as a barista. I love it. It's been really great. I get to make tons of coffee drinks all day and watch the mall crowd continually change. Today I went in after having a few days off. I realized today that I'm not really the 'new kid' or the 'train-ee'. I was pretty much just a regular old employee. I thought that I would like getting to that stage however, I don't. Even though I don't feel new, and other people don't think of me as new I still need help on more than a few of the drinks. So now when I ask questions like "What's the base liquid in a white chocolate caramel cookie chiller?" I feel like an annoying person who is constantly asking questions. The truth is, I've made dozens of white chocolate caramel cookie chillers, but I still forget the base liquid. That, and similar situations have really frustrated me.

Do you ever feel really thick sadness after feeling lots of happiness? Like looking back at your week you remember all the great times you had and suddenly there's a huge sadness that fills you? I don't know who or why I'm asking, I'm not expecting any answers.

I guess that's it.



Mooroo-Philip-Mario

To All Those Double Ear Pierced People!

I made this the other day, and I myself thought it was cool, and I've already received compliments on it. I thought I'd share.

Basically it's a short piece of chain with an earring hook at each end. Put one hook in each piercing and voila!


As Always,
        Moira Jane

Extroverted? Or Introverted? What?

    I've been thinking a lot about extroversion and introversion lately. Now, I hadn't even heard of these things not too long ago so I feel like most likely not everyone has heard of them, and so I'll first give a little description of what exactly I'm even talking about.

    Extroversion and introversion are two classifications of people. There is also Ambiversion, which is a little different, I'll get to that.

    Extroverted people, the people who fit into this classification, are people who gain their energy when surrounded with people. Also referred to as the 'social butter flies' at least, that's what my dad always called me when I was growing up. Extroverted people don't do well by themselves.They are very very easily bored when alone.

    Introverted people, the people who fit into the classification 'Introversion', are people who get all their energy by being alone. They are most 'alive' when they are by themselves thinking and being alone. Even if a person is introverted they can still enjoy being in groups of people, but they can get easily overwhelmed with many people around, and can lose interest with being with a whole crowd.

Ambiversion is the classification for people who fit exactly in between introversion and extroversion.



    Alright, now you will have at least a slight idea of what the heck I'm talking about, hopefully. One thing you should keep in mind while reading is that I am verrrry extroverted.

    I've been having a long discussion  with an extroverted friend of mine. The two of us are both extroverted, and interested in what it means exactly to be extroverted. Recently we've come to the question: What determines whether you'll be an intro or and extro? Here are some possibilities:

1. You're born one way or the other.
2. Your up bringing determines which you'll be
3. Depending on if you're right brained or left brain helps or fully determines which you'll be
4. Does having dyslexia make it more likely to be extroverted? Why?

Now I'll give reasons why none of these really make 100% sense.

      As for number 1: I'd say 90% of the children I've met haven't developed into either of the categories. They're just to young. Little kids get all their energy from things like sugar, and playing.

     And number 2: This one I think at least has an effect on determining which you'll be, but I don't think it is the whole deal. An introverted friend of mine grew up with one sibling, I grew up with five. You'd think that someone used to being with just one other kid for most of the time would be an intro right? Well then there's the fact that I am homeschooled and this particular friend isn't. So that would mean my friend should be an extro because he is used to being around tones of kids all the time, and that I would should be an intro because I'm only around five other kids, and they're the same five kids all the time.

    3's issues: I haven't really been able to think much about this one, because I don't really know whether any of my friends are right or left brained. Within the five kids at my house, those who are right brained are extroverts and those who are left, are introverts. This is excludes my youngest brother because I don't know if he is right or left brain, or if he's an intro or and extro, he's just too young.

   And now on to the issues belonging to grand ol' number 4: Okay, if you're dyslexic you don't enjoy reading or anything that matters mostly in order and arrangement. Introverts like to read, dyslexic people don't. See what I'm getting at? I really don't know if this has ANY thing to do with extroversion or introversion but I feel like it is kind of related in a way. The issue with me figuring out more about this is that I don't know if my friends are dyslexic or not, at least, not most of them. Again though, in my house I have two siblings with dyslexia and both of them are extroverts.  Coincidence? Or not?


   Well that's all, if you've made it this far I'll be your mind is spinning. You might not be like me, but if you are you're probably now very interested in what makes people introverted or extroverted. Happy research to those who care!

As always (maybe I should come up with a new signature?) [Naw]
      Moira Jane

PS If you come across anything particularly interesting when you research more about intro vs. extro let me know in a comment, or email me :)

Some Food for a Patient Mind

            I've been on summer vacation for two days. Even though I had been waiting for these days to begin I have been bored out of my mind. And so today I thought of this small art project. Before I start though I need to say something about the title: I am not patient in the slightest. Although I strive to be I really am not. Doing art like this is one of the very very few things that can keep me interested for a period of time. It is a slow moving project that can't really be rushed and that is why I named it such.

Okay! What are we making today?: You know that quote that flashes through you mind all the time? Or the one that keeps popping up on Facebook, the one that you don't want to forget? Well this project makes it so you can have that special quote somewhere in your house, in a creative way.

What you'll need:

• Large pieces of broken glass or mirror (I used mirror)
• Paint, what ever color(s) you like
• Toothpicks
• Wire
• Sticky Notes
• A dish or plate for the paint to be poured into
• Your (or your friend's) favorite quote

Step One: 

Begin by making sure you have enough room on your pieces of glass or mirror for your quote. Figure out how small the font has to be. Think it all through before starting to write at all. Using some paper and a pencil you can trace the glass and practice how your quote will be arranged. Your quote doesn't have to fit on just one piece of glass. By using wire we will attach multiple pieces at the end.

Step Two: 

Use a sticky note (or how ever many you need, to get all the way across the glass) as a bottom line. This will keep your writing straight and even. 

Step Three:

Hopefully by now you've already figured out how your quote will be arranged. Things to know before painting are: which words will go on what line, how much space between lines, how many pieces of glass will be used, and so on.

Once you have figured that all out, with your sticky note as a guild you can write your first word. I poured my paint onto a little dish. Make sure it doesn't spread too thinly on the dish. You'll need it to cover the tip of your toothpick. The toothpicks serve as  paintbrushes. I was able to write in neat handwriting (VERY SLOWLY) with the toothpick as my tool, and the paint as my ink. I have to re-dip my toothpick maybe two or three times for each letter and as you will see my letters are very small. Now you understand why this is a project for the patient. 

After you've done your first line (in my case it was only one word) you need to let it dry a little. Otherwise it may get goofed up when you remove the sticky note. One thing that I should mention is that for letters that go below the writing line such as 'y', 'q', and 'p' just paint the top of them, and after it has dried and the sticky note has been removed, finish with the stem. 

After your first line is done and dried, move the sticky note down for the next line of script. If you got too much paint on the sticky note from the first line I suggest using a new one otherwise it may smear all over the glass. Make sure when positioning the sticky note that you keep it straight, and parallel with the line of script above it.  I use a ruler for that. 

Two lines done!

Now you need to just repeat these steps until you've got all your quote down on the glass pieces.

Almost done!

Now that the entire quote is written down, arrange the pieces of glass in the right order. At this point you can be creative as to how you attach the pieces. I cut a piece of wire so that it could make a loop on the top and have  length enough to reach the middle of the bottom piece of glass. I attached mine with duck tape. If you have too many pieces, the weight might be too much for duck tape and you need to find a better way to attach them. I only had two pieces of glass to it worked just fine.

The picture didn't come out too well but the actual project did! I ended up adding a little white bow for fun.

My quote of choice:

"It's impossible," said pride.

"It's risky," said experience.

"It's pointless," said reason.

"Give it a try," whispered the heart.

I hope you've enjoyed! If you make this, don't forget to be creative! Add more elements with it. Make it YOU.

As always,

        Moira Jane

   

Another School Paper...

 Yesterday I had to write a 45 minute essay on Christ's presence in the Eucharist. I think it turned out to be a pretty good paper and I just kind of feel like sharing it. I think you should read it no matter what religion you are. Enjoy!

                                                               The Eucharist

            Catholic’s believe that the Eucharist is the true body and blood of Christ. However over 25,000 Protestant religions believe that the body and blood of Christ is symbolic and not literal. The Eucharist is one of the biggest differences between Catholics and Protestants. However, looking closely it can be seen that Christ truly is present in the Eucharist.

            In Mk 14:22-24, I Cor 10:14-17 Mt 26:26-28 and Lk 22:17-20 Jesus specifically says to eat His flesh and drink His blood. And in all of these passages He is speaking in a non-symbolic way.  However, in Jn 6:51 and Mt 16:5-12 Christ speaks about food in a symbolic way. He says in Jn 6:55 “my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink”[1]. Because of the choice of words used in this case, to translate it in a symbolic or figurative way would be very hard. Thus it can be understood that Christ meant exactly what He said. The contrast between the two ways Christ spoke of food in all of the above passages from the Bible show that there is much more to learn than what it seems.

            Protestants believe that Jesus meant that if we believe in Him that He will feed us spiritually. And that when He said eat and drink of My body and blood He meant, come and believe in Me and you will be nourished.  This comes from John 6:35. However if that passage is read further in, Christ once again says that His body is the bread of life and whoever eats of His flesh shall be nourished. And even further in that passage Christ explains exactly what He means when He calls Himself “bread”. He says that the bread is His own literal flesh. Once this argument is brought up, Protestants usually bring up John 6:63 which says, “It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”[2] They believe that this verse means that Christ was speaking figuratively when He said His flesh was bread and was to be eaten. However, Christ says ‘the flesh’ not ‘my flesh’ in this passage. What He means by ‘the flesh is of no avail’ is the unbelieving man who can believe in things that can only be found using sense and reason, and not in Christ. If that passage was translated that ‘the flesh’ meant Christ’s flesh Christ would be saying that His own flesh was of no importance, which even Protestants know is not the case. Without Christ’s body He could not have died on the cross and saved all men from sin.

 Christ spoke so literally of His body being the bread of life that some of His disciples left Him.  It would not make sense for Christ to let His disciples leave if He only meant that His body was a symbolic food, and His blood was only a symbolic drink. Also, in Aramaic to symbolically eat flesh or drink blood was another way of saying to persecute and assault someone. If Christ was in fact speaking symbolically the passage “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood will have eternal life”[3] would be translated “Whoever persecutes and assaults me will have eternal life.”[4] And to believe that Christ would say something like that is impossible.

Another common argument brought up by Protestants is that if the Eucharist really is the body and blood of Christ Catholics should be considered cannibals. However at the Last Supper Christ made the sharing of His body and blood into a sacrament. Which means the bloodiness of cannibalism was removed.

Before the Reformation it was a common belief to believe that the Eucharist was the body and blood of Christ. Early Church fathers wrote about the topic frequently. St. Cyril from Jerusalem gave catechetical lectures that once included a talk on the Eucharist. He said not to regard the bread and wine as simply food and drink because indeed they are the body and blood of Christ.

Christ is truly present in the Eucharist. It is not too difficult to believe that if all of the passages mentioned above are read and considered.  He states several times in the Bible that whoever eats His flesh and drinks His blood with live forever.

---

[1] John 6:55

[2] John 6:63

[3] John 6:54

[4] Beginning Apologetics 1, Father Frank Chacon and Jim Burnham,  page 8

Update... I guess?

When I started this blog I didn't have in mind that it would be one of those diary type blogs. You know the kind, where people tell you all about their problems, what makes them happy etc.  However, I know its time for a new post on here and all I can think about is my 'life' in general. So I guess here is an 'Update' on my life:

As you may know, I was cast as 'Ruth' in 'Pirates of Penzance' for my high school's spring musical. This past week there has been practice from 10-4:30 everyday. Except today, which went until 6. That will give you an idea of why it's very hard for me to think about anything else.

This is my fourth year in a row as belonging to this particular theater group, and I've learned a lot about the people around me and about people in general. At Greater Portland Christian School, which is the school at which I do theater, the kids are really... different. Four years ago when I joined, more than half the school kids didn't know who I was and didn't care. I hung out with the fellow home schoolers and had a great time. However throughout the years I've really started to belong with the school kids. Particularly this year. Also, when I first started going to theater here back in seventh grade, I looked up to the big kids as the most perfect people in the whole world. I thought that because they got the leads in the shows and that they actually knew where they were going to college that they were completely perfect, and I wanted to be just like them. This year however I am one of the 'big kids' or 'leads'. I have a few little girls following me around, wanting to talk to me or get a piggy back ride whenever possible. This got me thinking: Why is it that they think I am any better than they are? I surly don't feel any better. I do have a lead in the show, but that is because during auditions the director liked the way I sounded. Not because I was a perfect singer who was going to be a famous person some day. Although I don't mind the kids attention I just wish I could tell them somehow that I'm no different than they are.

As it is spring, school is a pressing issue. This week I haven't been able to do much school at all, in fact I really haven't done any. Tomorrow, my first day off since last Sunday, is going to be 90% filled with school. The other 10% is for Mass. I am hoping to finish school by the end of the first week of June. I've been thinking a lot about this and I've gotten myself worried. Then I realized that it doesn't matter when I end. I'm going to end at some point, and next fall I will be starting Junior year. Why not just take time and enjoy life AND enjoy being a sophomore while I can? So that's my plan. Work my butt off trying to finish, just so I can have a nice summer vacation, but not worry so much about is, as most people do.


I think that's quite enough for one post, don't you?

As my friends in the theater call me,

     Mooroo

Ralph the kazoo-ing bear.

There once was a man who lived in Kalamazoo. He provided for his family by playing kazoo. Only on Sunday's would he take a break; H'd sit down with his family and eat some nice steak. One day on a Sunday afternoon, he took his family too see the new zoo. They saw many animals that sunny day, but one special animal made them all stay. His name was Ralph and he was a great bear; for years he had stayed in his cage in a chair. But one thing was special about this bear in the zoo- he was known for playing a special kazoo. The man and his family were so very ecstatic; but the zookeepers cautioned, 'his behavior's erratic!' But the man and his family had such great faith. They knew this bear needed a happier place. They then left the zoo, leaving the bear; making a promise, a great thing declared: "we will return, and get our friend!" So when night fell, they hatched a great plan. "He'll come live with us!" shouted the man. The family donned ski masks as they let for the zoo, preparing to take the bear with kazoo. They arrived at the zoo and snuck into the grounds, making sure nobody was there or around. They went up to the cage and broke off his lock, the bear stepped out smiling saying "let's rock!" The whole family pulled out there fancy kazoos, and they all played a tune as the ran from the zoo. The family got in the car with the bear in the rear. And when they got back, the bear was in tears. He was happier than happy that he was now free, and he cordially thanked his great new family. They all played the kazoo like never before, and the old silence on Sunday tradition was no more. Here we end our tale today, they all lived well, happy and gay.


A lovely story by Than Peterson, written on my iPhone just for me. :)

How to Make an Amazing Moist Reptile House

This morning I woke up and looked at my leopard gecko's 50 gallon bow front tank, and saw that it looked really plain and bad. I then decided that I was going to rearrange his habitat, and while I was doing this I thought of the following project that will turn any boring reptile habitat into something spectacular. Well at least, that would be nice right? Well, here goes:

Before I tell you what you're going to need to make this, I'd better tell you exactly what we're making. Most reptiles require a 'moist house' in their habitat for when they are going to shed their skin. This house must have a substrate that holds moisture very well, and the house must be pretty closed off, you know, sealed other than a door. That way the humidity stays very high in there. In the following pictures you can see that I used a diaper wipe box for my 'moist house' and this is because it is for my leopard gecko. If you have a larger reptile, use a larger, similar container.

Okay here's what you'll need:
1 container that will fit your reptile, and some substrate
Some reptile safe moss (I bought mine at a pet store, I recommend doing so)
A sheet of 'reptile carpet' (I used to use it as the substrate in my tank,  until I switched to sand. There are many natural looking colors and I had green so that's what I used)
Non-toxic hot glue gun, and glue for it
Scissors

Step one:
Cut out a piece of reptile carpet out that is a little bigger than the top of your container. Make sure to leave a little extra around the edges, you'll see why later.

Step Two: Cut out a strip of the carpet as tall as your container. Cut the carpet so that it sticks off a few inches off each side of the front. (See next picture) This will give it a more natural look at the end. Also, cut out a space where the door is. Make sure your door is small, but at least as big as the largest area on your reptile. I also don't recommend having a door on the roof, as many people do. A door on the roof will reduce the humidity level. After you have it all cut out right, hot glue it to the front of your container, being careful not to glue it to the lip of the lid, otherwise in the future the lid wont open.

Step Three: Take the extra carpet that is sticking off the sides of your front, and hot glue them around the corner of your container, they will hopefully cover both of you sides. 

Step Four: If your front strip of carpet didn't cover all of the sides, cut out small pieces of carpet and glue them to where the sides are blank. We will not be covering the back of this container for a few different reasons. The main reason is that it will prevent us from being able to open the lid easily. It also wouldn't make much of a difference because in my habitat the back of this house is against a wall, and not visible. 

Step Five: Glue on the piece of carpet that you have measured for the top. Also you're going to want to trim the corners off this piece a little, other wise they will stick off your container a lot. 

Step Six: Nope! We're not done yet! Now we need to add some bling. (Reptile bling = moss :) So you need to take some dry (it must be really dry) moss and you can actually just stick it onto the carpet. It should stick pretty well. If for some reason it doesn't, just use some glue and decorate until you are satisfied.

Tony seems to like it! I hope you and your reptile do too!

Thanks for reading,

as always, 

    Moira

Rachel deserves a blog post.

My Alter Ego, Rachel, was so thoughtful and made a whole post for me on her blog (http://nutshellinmaine.blogspot.com/) and so I believe she deserves to have her own post on my blog!

Dear Rachel,
I had the best three-day weekend with you these past few days. I really miss not hanging out with you for long periods of time. I'm so freaking excited that I'll see you tomorrow at chorus. Even though we'll only see each other for a little while, I'm excited.
         I love love love your hair skillz and I'm going to need them with my new due (Is that how you spell like, hair due? I'm not sure...) Oh, you need to tell me what to say at girls chorus related to hair. However, I don't think I'm going to girls chorus this week, oh well.
             By the way, I love you. <3
                               As always,
                                      Moira

History, of course!

Although I don't find History my favorite subject this year, this particular paper caught my interest for some reason. I recently found out that I got an A on it. I've been thinking for a while that I should post something that proves there's more to my life than my pets. And so, here is a paper that I recently wrote on the the First Punic War. I hope you enjoy!

(Yes, it's very long. But who knows, if you read the whole thing you might learn something new)

                                               Summary of the First Punic War

            The first Punic war was fought primarily between Syracuse, Rome, and Carthage; although a group of Italian mercenaries were the cause of the war, they did not participate for very long. This war was fought on the island of Sicily which at that time was divided into three. One third of the island belonged to Carthage, one third to Italian mercenaries and one third belonged to Syracuse. Also, a large portion of this war was fought by the Naval units.

            In 288 BC a group of Italian mercenaries took over Messana, which was one of the three parts of Sicily, which at that time was being ruled by Syracuse. After they had bitterly conquered Messana, without showing mercy they continued to raid the rest of the island of Sicily. By 265 BC the raiding had gone so far that Heiro II, the leader of Syracuse, decided to fight against the mercenaries and reclaim his lost land. Heiro II led an army into Messana and quickly injured the army, making it necessary for the mercenaries to find help. And so the Mercenaries asked Carthage for an alliance, and their immediate help. Along with asking Carthage, the Mercenaries asked Rome for an alliance and help. When Rome first heard that the mercenaries from Messana needed their help, they refused. Rome knew of the harsh way that the mercenaries took over Messana, and did not think that it was honorable for them to help such people. And so, Rome replied that they would not help. Carthage on the other hand agreed to the request and sent their army to Messana right away. This, however, worried the Romans. They feared that Carthage would gain dominance over all of Sicily. And so, Rome took back their first answer, and sent troops to help Messana. This was the beginning of the first Punic war.

 By the time Romans got to the island the Carthaginians had already taken over Messana completely. Now, instead of doing what they said they would do, fight Syracuse, the Roman leader insisted on meeting with the Carthaginian leader. Hanno, the Carthaginian leader, agreed to the meeting because technically the Romans and Carthaginians were on the same side. At least, that’s what they thought. Needless to say, the meeting did not go according to plan and Hanno ended up being threatened with death unless he left the island. After losing their leader the Carthage army did not want to give up, instead they went and asked to join the Syracuse army. Because Heiro II still had such a desire to overtake and regain Messana, he agreed to the joining of Carthage and his own troops. Because of their new larger size, the Carthaginians and Syracuse sent one navy and one army into Messana in hopes of defeating the enemy. Unfortunately they were crushed by the Romans and did not regain Messana. This small defeat for Rome made the Roman leaders believe that they were indeed the strongest army in the battle, which led to disaster.

Because Rome believed they were the strongest they quickly sent two armies out into Sicily. They were now attempting to gain the entire island of Sicily. In the beginning they defeated many cities and towns in Carthage. Once they had conquered almost all the cities and towns of Carthage, they started to put all of their forces on Syracuse alone. This worried Heiro II, the leader of Syracuse, tremendously. He decided the best chance for survival of his cities was to ally himself to Rome. He did so, making Carthage a very weak force. At this point the Romans had conquered two-thirds of Sicily: The Syracuse third, and the Italian third.  Now their only goal was to gain Carthage, the last third. And so they attacked Carthage, and almost defeated them. They took residents and sold them as slaves, and they conquered several of the towns of Carthage. However, Carthage would not give up, and insisted that they move the battle to the open sea. Carthage was known for their incredible seamanship.

Once on the sea Carthage had the clear advantage of seamanship and superiorly built ships. During this short comeback of Carthage, they conquered many of the coastal cities, around the perimeter of Sicily. However, their good fortunes did not last long. Rome knew at once that in order for them to win this battle they would need better ships, as theirs were getting easily thrashed by the Carthaginians. As luck would have it the Romans stumbled upon an intact Carthaginian ship that had been abandoned. They found this ship on the Italian coast of Sicily. There is no real evidence in history saying why exactly that ship had been left there. Rome realized its wonderful luck and began building ships of her own, using the Carthaginian ship as a model. They built hundreds of these ships, and took them to sea. Once again at battle, the Romans still lost a majority of the fights in which they engaged. However, because of this they were able to realize their errors and fix them. The Romans realized they needed to train their seamen. They did this. Realizing that they could take advantage of their land fighting skills if they could board the enemy ships, they devised a type of plan to budge between the ships. A successful venture, this resulted in the capture of 130 Carthaginian ships in 260 BC.

Rome’s success at winning battles continued throughout the next several years, during which Rome was able to conquer many cities, including some in Africa.  The battles continued for so long that ultimately Rome and Carthage were losing a lot of money. At the end, Carthage was forced to step back and let the Romans win the long war. As victors Rome made Syracuse sign a document stating that they would remain firm allies.

As for the toll that this war took, it was not a light one on anyone. More than 400 ships were lost by each side. Carthage was believed to have lost more than 100,000 men, whereas Rome only about 50,000.

            The first Punic war was an arrangement of battles between many cities including Carthage, Rome, Syracuse and Italian mercenaries, and at the end even Africa was pulled into the fighting. This war was fought both on land, where Rome had the advantage, and on sea, where Carthage had the advantage. It was a long, drawn out war that ended finally with Rome as victorious. 

If you've made it this far, congratulations! I really hope you did like it, or at least didn't hate it. 

As always,

     ~Moira

Part two leopard gecko breeding!

Before you start reading this post you need to know that I'm writing it on my phone. Although I'll be as careful as I can be, auto correct can have a mind of its own, and punctuation can be lacking. Also I am insanely tired and cannot think straight even if I try, so this post may end up... Interesting.

As you know from my earlier post, this weekend was the planned get-get-together for the geckos, and so far everything has gone according to plan.

Although before everything started I read that geckos almost always mate when no one is around (it's like how a horse won't give birth when people are in the barn, kind of thing) but we, the owner of the female and I, actually got to witness them. I thought that was pretty amazing. Because we got to see them there's a lot more hope that everything will go well from here on out, and less doubt that nothing will happen.

Okay I'm going to do a brief (that is, 'Moira brief') paragraph on how to start the process of gecko breeding.

If your female is between two and eight or so you'll have better luck. Your male needs to between one and three although older might be okay, I've only ever heard of breeding young males. Mating season is from February to late July or early August. Once it's breeding season all you need to do is put your male gecko into your female gecko's tank. Don't put your female into your male's tank, males are very territorial. If you are lucky, like we were, they will mate right away. No matter what happens right away you should leave the male in there for several hours. Five would be very ideal. After that, no matter what you've seen or haven't seen, take the male out and put him in his own space. This is for two reasons; first to give the female some time to relax, and second, to keep them interested in each other the next time you put the male back in. I suggest leaving the male out over night, then putting him back in with the female in the morning. You can do it the other way around though, because they are nocturnal that would be fine too. This on-off pattern should go on for about four days. By the end of those for days you can be pretty confident that if anything was meant to happen, it would have happened already.


That's all for this post! Although, I think it's a must that I add: I'm so excited about the possibility of babies!


As always,
~Moira

Part One Leopard Gecko Breeding!

                                                                          Part 1

This post is a part one, of a hopefully many-part post. This weekend I am breeding my male leopard gecko with a female gecko who my friend owns. In this many-part post I am going to bring you through all the amazing parts of developing eggs, incubating the eggs, and finally hatching the little creatures.

Anthony (My leo, pictured above) is about two years old. He is a tangerine/carrot tail color morph. Yeah that's a mouth full. Basically he is one good looking reptile. In the picture you can see his bright yellow body color, his tail has some bright orange, some dark purple, and white. Also, for the first several days after a shed, his head has a bright green look. 

The female is also a very good looking gecko. Although I don't know exactly what kind of color morph she is I know she has a beautiful purple look on her tail, and a darker body color. We are hoping to get 4-6 beautiful baby geckos. 

On this blog I am hoping to keep you updated on how everything is going. Like I said above, they will hopefully breed this weekend and if they do in about three months the babies should hatch. The process between now and then however, is incredible. 

I wont explain everything right now, I have to save some things to say in my next posts. 

As always,

        ~Moira

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough of Course!

If you are like me, and prefer the dough of chocolate chip cookies to the baked cookie, but you get frowned upon when you eat raw cookie dough, I believe I have a solution for you sad state of life! 

When you have the strong desire for cookie dough that I know we all get at some point in our lives, just follow my instructions:

Step One: Find your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe.

Step Two: Follow the instructions on the recipe BUT! don't add the eggs. The consumption of raw eggs would be the reason for your getting-frowned-upon. Therefore adding them would be daft on our part wouldn't it? So instead of adding eggs, add 1/4 cup of water for each egg that should be present. 

Step Three: After you have finished with your egg-less dough, you can eat however much you want. You will probably not be able to eat all of it, to your own surprise I am sure. But never rear! It will not go to waste. You could try baking it, however I have a strong feeling this would end in a very messy oven, you getting in trouble, and a pile of cookie goo that does not taste good in the slightest. And so, instead of baking your new masterpiece, freeze it! I always press mine into a flat container and run a knife through it so it will be easy to break once it freezes. 

This way, the next time you feel like cookie dough you simply must get a spoon and head to the freezer. 

However! If you feel like the masterpiece you just made tastes too much like raw butter with chocolate chunks, as I do, I have a plan B! Never fear...

Plan B:

What then, is the remedy for too-buttery cookie dough? Well, remove the butter of course! If you now are scared of me, because you think I am mentally insane you can stop reading if you want. But if you do... you'll never know just what I mean when I say remove the butter. If you are confident enough in me, read on.

Okay so removing the butter AND the eggs from a normal chocolate chip cookie recipe is probably a bad idea. But what if we just used a recipe that didn't call for them? Dun dun dun dun!!! I'm going vegan on you.

After you get over the fact that you might be about to actually try to make something that is vegan, you can continue on with my ingenious plan. 

Step One: Find a vegan chocolate chip cookie dough recipe that you have most of the ingredients for. You can go to the library, or just google it. Once you have a recipe, follow it to a tea. Just don't preheat the oven, or grease any pans. This dough will taste very similarly to the dough of a non-vegan recipe, it just wont have that buttery taste. 

Note: The reason I said "find a recipe that you have most of the ingredients" is because there are many very common substitutes. Here I will name them: Instead of what ever kind of milk it says to use, you can use just normal cows milk (this is, unless you want your dough to be actually vegan) and for tapioca flour, you can use corn starch. 

These are my two solutions to the very common issue of not-enough-cookie-dough! 

I hope you've enjoyed!

As always,

      ~Moira Jane!

Theater!

Ready for a pretty horribly written, random post? Here it comes.

I am currently acting in the role of "Ruth" in "Pirates of Penzance", if you don't know what that is, go look it up.

Tomorrow is the first day of a week of all day play practices. Because of that, I can't stop thinking about it, therefore, a blog post is necessary. Before I started writing this post I had no idea what I was going to write about, so I'm just making this up as I go. So just bare with me.

I have been in a handful of theater shows. Here is some shows that I've done:
William Shakespeare's: The Tempest as: Miranda
William Shakespeare's: A midsummer night's dream as :Bottom
Guilbert and Sullivan's: Patience as a maiden, Mikado as a chorus member, Gondoliers as Tessa, and Pirates of Penzance as Ruth.
Broadway's 'Annie' as a maid, and an apple seller
Mitch Tomas's "Sardines and Biscuits as, Simon

Those are the shows that I can think of off the top of my mind, there are more no doubt.
So after that, what is your favorite theater production that you've seen or have been in?

As always,
    ~Moira

Guitar chips!

I have played the guitar for a few years now. The one problem with the guitar is that I am constantly losing my guitar chips, or picks. Then I saw in a 'thinkgeek' catalog a press that you can use to make old credit cards into guitar chips. Because I 1, didn't have the press and 2, didn't have any old credit cards, I forgot about it. But then today I realized I could make them! And so, it goes like this:

Step one:
Find any old 'credit cards', okay I used an old YMCA membership card, and hotel room keys. Any kind of card like this will work.
After you have found an old card of some sort, you'll need a real guitar chip, scissors, and a marker or pen.

Step two: Flip your card over (If you prefer one side to the other, otherwise it doesn't matter) once you have the 'ugly' side up, put your real guitar chip on top of the card, and trace the chip. Sharpie pens work the best.

Step Three: Remove the real guitar chip and cut out the outline you just drew.

This is probably the hardest part, and it isn't even that hard. Depending on the thickness of the card, the cutting may be hard. Just go slow and avoid cutting rough edges. 

You're done! Unless... :) So the card I happened to be using was mostly red, and its almost valentines day, so I couldn't help but make my guitar chip into a heart shaped guitar chip. This is the great part of making your own. You can make them whatever size or shape you want! 

Final product!

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! Happy valentines day!

As always,

           ~Moira Jane

Hey readers! (if there are any)

I just wanted to let you know why I hadn't posted in a while. Two of my good friends and I decided to start a blog together that was all about animals. I've been spending my time working on posts for that blog lately, and not this blog. I will, however, be writing on this blog soon again. Here I the link for the other blog, you should check it out!

bunniesbudgiesbigideas.blogspot.com