Jaws is our Yellow Headed Jawfish - Opistognathus aurifrons - and is one of the most entertaining and active residents in the tank. Jawfish as the name suggests have large and powerful jaws which they use to move stones and gravel around to build protective burrows.
Previously our tank had an aragonite sand base, so to get things ready for Jaws' arrival we cleared some of the sand from one end of the tank and added about 10kg of crushed coral along with various bits of shell and small rocks to give him some construction materials. Pretty soon he had built his first home, and he's been busy ever since rebuilding and adjusting his burrow.
During the day he bobs his head in and out of the burrow, emerging whenever there's food about. In the evening he pulls a few stones over the entrance and disappears for the night.
Catherine has been learning about Greek myths in Latin lately. I know, that doesn't make any sense to me either. Anyway, they were learning about Paris and the golden apple, and were given an assignment to make something based on the story. Catherine decided to liven the assignment up by adding her favourite ingredient - CAKE! Rather than making a papier-mâché Aphrodite she elected to bake a golden apple cake.
Cake version 1 actually contained apples, but sadly did not have the structural integrity required to support itself. Version 2 tasted less of apples, but had the necesary strength to stand up for itself. Laura helped out with Cake, the Sequel along with the challenging feat of wrapping a sphere in a flat sheet of icing and painting it gold. It looked lovely, and tased good too apparently. Sadly I can't verify this myself, as after Catherine had shared it with the class, teacher took the left-overs to the staff-room to ask for a second opinion on marking. Definitely worth an A+ I think.
So well done Catherine and thanks for helping out Laura. Looking forward to the wooden horse made of entirely of chocolate fingers.
Sadly there is only one child left in the house now who looks forward to making lanterns at Hallowe'en and that's me. I guess such simple pleasures cannot compete with the wonders of zombie killing and Rock Band. At least Catherine still knows how to join in the simple pleasures, had made herself a Pirate costume (with a little help from Malin ). Hence the eyepatch.
The search for new and more exotic fruit & veg from which to make a lantern continues unabated (for previous efforts check out 05, 06, 07). This year's lantern was made from a watermelon - much nicer to work with than a pumpkin and sweet-smelling when burning.
Fishy sign for Moby
Monday, 01 September 2008 00:00
Michael
Moby is certainly not the most beautiful of fish in our tank , and with his large downturned mouth some think he looks a bit sad. The fishtank god took pity on him recently and sent him a sign - in the style of the toastie that looked like the Virgin Mary. The green smiley just to the right of his head in this picture was a spot of algae that grew on the tank glass, just like that. Weird eh!
iPad Mega: the next Big Thing
Tuesday, 22 July 2008 13:02
Michael
Big is the new Small
Apple have had a very successful run with their iPod? family of music players. The iPod classic has been followed by mini and nano devices where thousands of tunes can be packed into ever smaller devices. For those of us now entering the prime of life, these tiny devices pose a real problem: never mind how to read the microscopic displays: actually finding the next generation iPod pico in the first place may be too much of a challenge. Now where did I put my glasses? And what was it I came upstairs to get?!
So here at famousfive we have been working on a solution to what is clearly a gap in the market. Enter the iPad Mega. Music on the go for the visually challenged.
The inspiration was one of the lovely leaving presents given by my ex-Team (thanks chaps!). They rescued from the skip of redundancy an ancient relic from the period now known as "the good old days" when only the French and the Americans wanted to buy our company. It was an IBM ThinkPad 560X of 1999 vintage. In some post-ironic pre-lunchtime hypoglycemic state Graham decided to decorate it in the style of an iPod.
Graham had done the tough part - coming up with a striking new look for this piece of WEEE - so all that was left for me to do was the simple task of making the device play MP3s. Naturally without the help of software from Uncle Bill, which would in any case have had to have been erased during the ISO17799 asset scrapping process. It was as simple as 1-2-3, as you will see from the following easy-to-follow guide.
Oh yes, and to cross another summer of inactivity task off the list, I have made a short promotional video for the iPad and posted it on something called YouTube. It'll never catch on. Anyway - here it is:
73 years young and back on tour to recoup the retirement savings allegedly embezzled by his ex-manager, Leonard Cohen was on outstanding form at the O2 Arena. The tickets for this unexpected come-back tour sold out within minutes when they were released but thanks to some crafty work with the redial button Kathleen came up with the goods.
The acoustics in the ex-dome suited the pace and tone of the music even in the top tier of seating where we clung on for dear life. The set-list featured a magnificent sweep through the years from Songs of Leonard Cohen to Ten New Songs, punctuated with poetry and other wry observations on life. It's hard to imagine a performer more comfortable and content on the stage, soaking up the adulation of 23,000 fans.
). Hence the eyepatch. 
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