As I Xi It

On Sunday I came across a pond with some Lemna minor (duckweed) and Riccia (crystalwort). Being the biologist (& fishkeeper) that I am, I scooped up a sample and took it home.

Once at home, I filled up my tiny tank and floated my newly collected specimen. When I dropped it in, there were all these teeny tiny worms (possibly flatworms of some sort) which dropped to the bottom. They were very thin and about 1 mm long. Then there were some tiny worms, perhaps nematodes or some of annelid thrashing about. Of course, there were the obligatory Daphnia and some isopods and coepepods.

I stirred it with one of my ice lolly sticks and a leech dropped out! Further disturbance made some more drop out. Anyway, here’s a vid of two of them in motion. Perhaps I’ll do some photomicroscopy later. No doubt there’ll be some algae in the sample.

Not content with mooching around on terra firma. Cici decides to pop onto window ledge for a stroll.

This is one of those, “why didn’t I think of that” ideas. It’s so simple and from the looks of it, pretty darn effective. Good for sunny places, not too sure about the UK though.

I like the jaunty music in the background, it’s so stereotypically Brazillian!

I had a look in the glass vial I have where I keep the stick insect eggs and noticed one died while in the process of emerging and another was still moving mostly, but its legs were trapped in in the egg still. So, I made a little time-lapse but it just never managed to get out.

I upgraded the RAM on my Dell laptop from 512 MB (2x 256MB) to 2 GB (2x 1GB). It was a fairly straightforward and easy job. I didn’t think it needed a full tutorial and since I’m in a movie making kinda mood these day, I time lapsed it.

One thing to remember is to ground yourself before starting. Also, it makes the job a lot easier if you have the correct sized Phillips head screwdriver and flathead to lift off the plastic plate by the keyboard.

Performance wise, my computer definately starts up and shuts down faster. It doesn’t seem to have any problems running the usual gamut of software. Photoshop is fine and everything’s just dandy.

After watching an episode of The Simpsons (A Star is Born-Again), I was inspried to make this little film. Benny Hill and tea, apart from draping the union jack in the background, what could be more british??

Leave a comment (click on the little post-it note) and let me know what you think!

It’s been a pretty miserable and wet, dull day weather wise. Confined to being indoors, I made this little stop-motion animation.

Disclaimer: All confectionery featured were most definitely harmed in the making of this film.

Leave a comment (click on the little post-it note) and let me know what you think!