Holmes Animal Clinic

Hey, thnx 4 even clicking on the question. My little bro got a 2 month old kitten on sunday, and it’s great, but the problem is that whenever it goes in the room with birds, it stares @ them in that position cats go in when they want 2 pounce. now I’m afraid 2 leave them in the house together cuz I think the kitten will try 2 eat them and/or scare the 3 birds. the birds R in cages, but I still don’t want the cat thinking they’re food and going after them. I can’t move the cages cuz that room was designed 4 them. there’s no door and I can’t build 1 cuz of issues with the city. Plus the fact that I’m only 13 and don’t have enough cash or know how 2 do that and my parents wouldn’t like a door there anyway. we aren’t gonna let the cat stay outside cuz she’ll get a taste 4 birds if she catches any, and our house is rly big. plz help cuz I like both the birds and the cat, but they can’t live 2gether if the cat wants 2 eat them.sry about it being so long, ppl. It’s mostly details, so u can just skim over it. the parrots R about the size of robins or other animals. My little bro says we can’t make it an outside cat 4 sum reason, and he’s basically the boss of us when it comes 2 her (he’s rly spoiled.) the cages R up on stands about 3 ft. off the ground, so she can’t rly jump that high yet, but there’s a windowsill close 2 them. I’ll try the squirt method, though.

waterdub answers:

To much reading …sorry

I am looking for …a yoai that i read about a year ago on this site. its about a guy and he “thinks” he killed his best friend when they were young and playing on the roof of his house. But he grows up and is an architect and his building designs are in the shape of some bird that his friend had drawn, and then he is building this on skyrise and we find out that it was his friend from childhood who he thought was dead but is alive and they start an active relationship…*breaths*

I think that covers the story and its plot, i cant remeber if it was a onesot or not, but if you could tell me the name and author that would be great!!!

Thx for the help.He thought he pushed his friend off the roof, (because the friend fell off) while they where up on the roof hangingout, as About elementary school kids.

I dont remenber the name, but it has a really big simbolizism of a bird that is suppose to be flying and so the buildings “look” like the bird pictire that had been drawn.and they meet as adults in a resturant/sushi bar.and his childhood friends last name gets changed because his mother got remained

I HOPE THIS HELPS I AM TRYING REALLY HARD TO REMEBER THE STORY WHICH IS NOT HARD BUT REMBERING THE NAME IS WHAT I NEED

oh and the reson he though he had killed his friend also is because there was a funaral for his friends dad, that he thought weas for his childhood friend!

waterdub answers:

Grrrar, still can’t find it, but I did find a site that has a list of yaoi manga

a-special.livejournal.com/89164.html

maybe you might spot it in there, sorry I couldn’t be of more help

I know there are a lot of smart people out there who will think I’m a total n00b for asking this, but here goes.

I’m 19 a sophomore engineering student studying chemical engineering, but I want to get into robotics and control systems as a hobby (I want to do stuff in alternative energy when I grow up). I kind of want to design a smart house (lights, A/C, TV, security, everything controlled by a central computer) when I grow up. I’ve kind of always been interested in this stuff, but I was always too scared to really get into it. Being in a university surrounds me with a lot of people who are smarter than me, so I figured I should stop being scared now and start learning/doing some cool things. Browsing websites like instructables.com make me feel pretty dumb because there are a lot of people younger than me making some really neat things I could never do at my current state.

I’ve been looking around for some robotics/electronics kits (designed for people younger than me. Sad, I know) such as:

-Lego Mindstorm NXT (mindstorms.lego.com/Overview/)-VEX Robotics Design Systems (vexrobotics.com/vex-robot-kits.shtml)-Arrick’s ARobot (arrickrobotics.com/arobot/index.html)-Nerdkits (nerdkits.com/)

Have any of you tried these? How do you feel about them? for the professors/teachers out there, how do you teach your students? Can you recommend any kits or books? for those experienced roboticists and tinkerers out there, how did you get started learning about electronics?

Here is an outline of my education (what I know, what I don’t know). this is stuff that I think relates to robotics. I’ve obviously taken many more classes than what I’ve described, but they’re probably irrelevant.

-Math: I like math but I’m not good at it (why oh why did I choose engineering..?). I’m pretty comfortable with single variable calculus and differential equations. I’ve taken multivariable, got a B, and basically never looked back on it. I’m going to get my ass kicked in heat transfer, aren’t I?

-Mechanics: Very comfortable with mechanical physics. I’ve taken both general mechanical physics course as well as an engineering mechanics course, which goes into more depth with more complicated systems. I’m pretty comfortable with forces, moments, accelerations, tensions, trusses, rigid members, relative motion, etc.

-Programming: took AP Comp Sci in high school (Java), and am pretty good in MATLAB and FORTRAN. I took programming and numerical/computational methods courses for chemical engineering and did very well in those classes. I’m not terribly afraid of learning another language for programming robots. As my professor says, “The most language to understand is logic. Understand logic, and other programming languages are just syntax”.

Things I’m afraid of/suck at:

-Electromagnetism: I got an A in this course, but electricity and magnetism still seem like very enigmatic forces of nature to me. I do not think of them intuitively as I do mechanical physics. I’m a very visual person, and it annoys me that I can’t see magnetic or electric fields. I wish I was a bird so I could.

-Electronic components: I know what resistors and capacitors are. That’s about it. I remember having to do stuff like LRC circuits in general physics (electromagnetism). again, this stuff is still not intuitive to me. I know how to wire things in series and parallel (LEDs, for example) and which resistors to use so they don’t burn out. That’s about it. I don’t know what diodes and transistors and whatnot are. I don’t know any radio theory. I don’t know how a computer ACTUALLY works (the jump from code to actual physical phenomena). I don’t know how microcontrollers work. I don’t know how to control things with analog or digital signals. I don’t even know the difference between them.

-Soldering: I can do it, but I suck at it. No ones really taught me how to solder properly. I try reading stuff and watching YouTube tutorials, but my solders never come out right, and I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. Other people seem to do it so effortlessly..

I’ve tried to read about these things, but I am usually overwhelmed. there is also a difference in reading something on Wikipedia and learning about it in real life. I guess I’m a little afraid of failure. I’m also afraid of spending lots of money/time on something and having it not work.

So now that you know my lack of experience and skill, what robot/electronics kit would you recommend for me? Any other advice for me for getting involved with robotics?

PS: I feel like money spent on legitimate education will pay off somehow later. However, I’d still like to keep my first project(s) under $500. Preferably much less.

Thank you, smart people, for helping me not suck as much in engineering.One more thing I’m (kinda) good at:

I can use AutoDesk Inventor for CAD and drafting, which should be a real time saver if/when I start making really cool robots. for now, though, I think the robot kits try to avoid the need for power tools..

waterdub answers:

First thing to do is read up:at least skim through the following:

asic-world.com/digital/tutorial.html

circuit-magic.com/laws.htm

you probably won’t get most of it, but that won’t matter it’s just to ease your passage into the first book:

solarbotics.com/products/jbb/

and buy this kit as well:

solarbotics.com/products/mf08_bundle/

the book will talk you through the basics and the kit has all the stuff you will need for the projects in the book

once you are pretty comfortable with this book i would recommend Robot Building for Beginners by David Cook. this will get you started on how to design and build basic robots without kits. Also read Dave’s website, robot room: robotroom.com/he has alot of info on how to simplify things and save money on projects. his book and his website will tell you where to go from there.

Dave’s book will say all this but i’ll say it here anyway. Definitely get a breadboard for experimenting with. Once you have the basics down don’t be afraid to copy public work, open circuits and sparkfun are full of tutorials and schematics that anyone can use.Www.opencircuits.comsparkfun.com

keep practicing soldering, sparkfun has some great soldering kits that make this easy. Also try buying a bunch of random cheep components and some scrap boards

sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=8477

just solder stuff into them at random, they don’t actually work so just go nuts. if thisis still a problem look into wire warping, it is a bit slower , but is really easy. Sparkfun has all the supplies you need for that.

Eventually you will want to check out Parallax.com they make kits and simple microcontrollers that are really easy to use but have enormous potential. they also have some good educational kits that are a good way to learn. Only problem is parallax is a bit pricey, and after ten min on their site you will want to buy the entire store.

PS don’t wory about anything you can’t figure out. for any aplication you don’t understand, somewhere out there there is a plug in module that will do it for you.

so basically i’ve heard you can get tattoos with the ashes of a loved one in but how about a pet?I recently lost my baby blackbird, who i had so many amazing memories with, i shared a relationship and bond with it that i’d had with no other human or animal, he was always popping up in my day from the day he was a vulnerable tiny ball of fluff in the garden untill he was a fully feathered beatifully natured bird. I really loved this bird, even more than my other pets and a lot of my friends and family , current and past. Probably as i was pretty much his mom and as he lived in my room so i saw him many times a day , i loved it when he tapped his little feet on my laminate floor while he scurried to the door when i entered. as i walk through my house i always have these memories, it makes me cry so much

I decided i want him cremated(do you agree with cremation? would you ever have your pet cremateed? as i can always keep him with me although i would have loved to have him freeze dried to preserve him and be able to stroke his beautiful, silky feathers again but the prices are outrageous (aroun 400 pounds which is too much for a 15 year old!) and are very far away.It’s happening tomorrow, im crying as i type this as i guess im dreading it, seeing his tiny body for the last time before it’s reduced to a powdered state, im not sure how i’ll cope.As i walk around the house everything reminds me of him as he explored the house with me. How do i cope, i do the awful thing of thinking ‘what if?’ i feel so depressed, like i can’t go on.Anyway how did you cope with the cremation? and as the bacteria and germs are killed in the cremation process would it be okay to include the ashes in a tattoo?I want him with me forever.I was thinking a simple black bird silouhette…

with his name ‘Derry’ underneathother designs are welcome. Also does anyone know of any necklaces you can put ashes in?

waterdub answers:

Im very sorry that you lost your beloved blackbird.

Getting his body cremated might help you to cope better with his absence. I wouldnt suggest getting a tattoo with his ashes(could implicate some health risks), but perhaps going out and buying a container(like a vase or detailed box) could be considered to put his ashes in. You could find a larger container and put all his favorite things in it, and objects that remind you of all the wonderful times you had together, along with his ashes in a separate jar.Then you could keep that box somewhere special(like maybe where his cage used to be) so you can still be with him.

Remember, he still lives on in you. Beloved ones(no matter what form) leave a mark on our hearts. they change us and shape us into what we are today, and what we will be tomorrow.

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