soreIf you have an idea that you are gathering facts to support, it is a "hypothesis", not a "theory". The scientific community thanks you for your attention to this detail.
If you are on Twitter and you post nothing of actual interest, I will never recommend you for "follow friday". Double if you don't even do it regularly. Likewise, if you don't think I'm interesting in my own right and that other people who don't know me should be interested in my natterings, then don't recommend me for "follow friday" either.
5:57 PM 5/22/2010
OMG HOOOOOOME.
10:51 AM 5/23/2010
Last night was kind of dire. Right now there is a painful hole in my mouth due to unwanted tooth-flesh interface. It has taken a few days to heal, was hurting a lot the night before last, but that was not a patch on how much it was hurting last night. I eventually got up and discovered that rinsing my mouth with hot water felt better, which made me realize that it was probably trying to get infected, and therefore rinsing it with hot salt water would be even better. I also put together a hot-rice-sock, as I lacked a hot water bottle. That eventually made me feel better enough to get to sleep.
10:58 AM 5/23/2010
Things that make me happy: a suspicious-looking hen riding around on a goat. (Link not available.) And "suspicious-looking" of course prompts the question, "Azz, this is a *chicken*. How do you know when a chicken is *suspicious*?!" Of course, my reply is: "Because she has a suspicious expression on her face!" which is rather ridiculous as chickens cannot move most of their facial features (direction of eye and opening of beak; the rest is head-tilts and neck-movements), and it's hard to see motion in a still photo.
When a chicken is at rest in a neutral position, her neck is relaxed: neither extended nor excessively hunched in to her body. Her neck sticks up and forward; gentle examination would show the neck making a shallow S-shaped curve. An alert chicken moves her head in short, sharp movements; chickens do not have binocular vision, so they get perspective on whatever object they are regarding by moving their heads.
They also track objects by keeping their heads absolutely still. There are assorted YouTube videos showing people holding chickens and having the chicken's head stay still as they move the bird's body around. (This is, as far as I can tell, mildly irritating, but it is not harmful. These videos are sometimes interrupted by disgruntled explosions as the chickens pass their irritation threshold and decide it's time to be elsewhere.)
The length of time that a chicken holds her head in the same spatial position can be an indication of her relative comfort with the situation. Head frozen in position, even if the neck is at a ridiculous angle, is not a sign of comfort. Given some experience with chickens, you can see, even in a still photo, that a particular angle is outside the norm. If her head isn't over her shoulders, she's stretching her neck.
Then there's eye angle. It's generally comfortable to be looking straight at something, rather than have your eyes going off to the side.
If your neck angle and eye angle mean you're looking sideways at something because you're not comfortable enough to move your head to where it gets a better eye angle, and your neck angle is also uncomfortable, you're a very, very suspicious hen.
4:19 PM 5/23/2010
That was a lot of sleep. I suppose I probably needed it. Very glad to be back from dogsitting: fun, but it's not my own little cave.
2:50 AM 5/24/2010
Birthday cheer for
I really appreciate that I live and socialize in a world where I can say "Ten was my first Doctor" and have that immediately understood. We started in on the 9th Doctor and funtimes were had by all. Things we learned included: JD is shallow sometimes. Tom Baker is not often seen as a sex object. Rose, catlike, spends much of her time on the wrong side of locked doors. My phone functions as satnav, so perhaps I can see whether someone else local has need of a satnav with a missing power button.
My face is feeling lots better, due to hot saltwater and regular application of the hot rice-sock.
Crossposted.
