NaBloPoMo: Day 4

I'm not going to post a picture of my pets today after all. Also, this post is gonna be kinda short. I've been up all night and can't think straight.

I'm going over to a friends house for a few days this weekend/week so my posts may be short during that time.
I got to talk to a pro kendama player today. His name is Jeffrey van Rasta. He was really nice and told me some things about kendamas. We mainly just chatted though. I have him added as a friend on FB. I hope that I can get as good as the professionals at kendama someday!

That will be all for today. Like I said, I can't really think straight.
Until tomorrow,
~Eler Beth~

NaBloPoMo: Day 3

Well, I slept for half the day, So really I'm not going to make a post today. Because I didn't wake up until it was dark outside, I wont introduce one of my animals today since I wasn't able to take a picture of one.... I should have more to talk about tomorrow.

Until tomorrow,
~Eler Beth~

NaBloPoMo: Day 2

Day two of NaBloPoMo. I'm doing pretty well so far, haha. I think I will introduce one of my dogs and my birds each day(Excluding Schroeder since I showed a picture of him yesterday) until I've shown a picture of each one. I'll start doing this tomorrow.
I think I'll talk some about Kendamas.

Kendama is a Japanese toy. It is a variation of Cup and Ball, only more fun in my opinion. You play by catching and spearing the ball in various ways or performing various juggles, balances or position sequences. Most people usually play for their own amusement, but there are kendama competitions also. The stick is called the Ken, and the ball is called the Tama. T and D are very similar in Japanese, so it is called a Kendama. It is hammer-like shaped with a spike on the top.


It has three cups that you can catch the Tama on, one on either side of the Ken and one on the bottom of the Ken. The piece that the two cups are on is called the Sarado (Cup Body). Each cup is a different size. The Kozara (Little Cup) is the smaller cup on the Ken, the Ozara (Big Cup) is the bigger cup on the Ken, and the Chuzara (Center Cup) is the cup on the bottom of the Ken. You can also catch the Tama on the spike, which is called the Kensaki (Stick Point). The hole on the Tama is called the Ana(Hole). The string is called the Ito (Thread). The sticker on the bottom of the Ken is the JKA kendama seal which shows that the kendama is certified by them. Only JKA certified kendama may be used in tournaments.

There are four types of holds for the kendama. The Sara Grip, the Ken Grip, the Tama Grip, and the Rosoku Grip. Of course, it's best to hold it in the way that feels comfortable to you, but you use certain grips for certain tricks. The main way I hold the kendama is like a pencil. To see the different grips, you should go to this link. While playing kendama, it is very important to bend your knees!

I currently have 2 kendamas. My first kendama is a TK16 with a black Tama. I bought my second kendama a couple of months ago. It was a plain, unpainted kendama. It's made from the wood of Zelkova trees, which have a pretty hard wood. It is not certified by JKA, but it has the JKA recommended product seal. I don't mind this too much because I'm not going to be playing in tournaments. It's a very sturdy kendama and hasn't gotten any dents or anything from me dropping it. I painted the tama of the kendama an orange-ish brown color.

I've gotten pretty good with the kendama, but I would still call myself a beginner. I've gotten the basics of juggling down I think. I've started getting the hang of spiking the Tama, but I'm still not that great at it. I can do a few small tricks like Candle and Swinging Candle. I can also do airplanes pretty well. I also made up a trick of my own. I use the Rosoku Grip and do a candle or swinging candle, then I toss the kendama in the air, catch the Ken and switch into a pencil like grip, swing the Tama around and catch it on the Ozara. I might post a video of me doing this sometime.

If you want to learn more about Kendamas or the History of Kendamas, you should go to the following links.
http://kendama.jimdo.com/english/what-s-a-kendama/history/
http://www.kendamakyokai.com/index_english.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kendama
http://kendama.net/
http://kendamausa.com/about/

Also, here is the link to the Kendama USA Pro team page.
http://kendamausa.com/pro-team/

Until tomorrow,
~Eler Beth~

NaBloPoMo: Day 1

First day of NaBloPoMo. Hope I do well! I think I will post about how my pets are doing since I haven't posted about them in a while.



Copper, my flying squirrel, is doing great! He is very tame now and I can take him out of his cage now. I think he has arthritis or something in his hind legs because he hasn't been able to move them correctly for a while, but it doesn't seen to be hurting him at all. Because of this, he is not as fast and so he never runs away from me.
He loves getting his cheeks and head scratched! He will nip your finger lightly and then lay his head down for you to scratch him. It is very cute!
Copper discovered new favorite nuts not too long ago. He loves hickory nuts even more! He also really likes acorns. He still likes pecans every once in a while though.


My Rabbits are doing well. We found out Astrid is actually a male! We renamed him Astor. Once we found out, we took him and got him fixed by our favorite vet! After we got him fixed, he suddenly got aggressive, which is odd because it is actually supposed to make them tamer. He's gotten tamer, but he still bites and scratches sometimes. Nevertheless, he is still my baby boy!

Mythril is still pretty shy and very mean, but she is getting used to me petting her, she just hates being picked up. She has gotten very big! A few weeks ago, when she and Astor were playing in the front yard flower garden, which we have nicknamed the rabbit run, Mythril started digging a hole under a piece of drift wood we have in the garden. I think she is trying to build a burrow. It was really cool watching her dig.
Picture Caption: Mythril is not amused


My birds are doing pretty well, except Luey died about 2 weeks ago, I'm not sure why though. She hadn't been doing too well for a while.
Lucy is still as silly as ever, hanging upside down and turning her head upside down. I think she thinks she is an owl, lol.
Schroeder is still my little baby bird. He is still as sweet as ever, and he loves clicking at us and saying "pretty bird".
Boris is still mean, but he has been singing a lot lately. Nearly non stop. It's very pretty, but it is kinda hard to sleep, haha.
Bird in the picture is Schroeder


Samantha, my leopard gecko, has been doing great. She hasn't grown too much, but she has gained a good amount of weight and is very healthy. I've been feeding her crickets and the occasional super worm. She still hates being picked up, and I don't think I will ever tame her, but she is a good pet.


As for my dogs, they are all doing well. I took two of them, Little Bit and Scout, camping this year. They loved it! I had never taken any of them camping before, and it was really fun. They slept in the tent with me and my friend and kept us warm lol.

I think that's all of them, lol.
I guess that is it today. Until tomorrow,
~Eler Beth~

NaBloPoMo

It's been forever since I posted. I've decided to try and do NaBloPoMo again this year. Last year I missed one post near the end of the month. I won't post too much in this post, so I can save some things for NaBloPoMo, lol.

I had forgotten to post a picture of my rabbit Mythril, so here she is. The picture is pretty outdated, but she still looks like this, only bigger.








I guess that's it for now. Until Later,
~Eler Beth~

~I haven't posted in a while. It's going to be hard for me to keep up-to-date with my blog, mainly just because I keep forgetting to post.~

A few weeks after we got Astrid, we got another rabbit named Mythril. She is white with a black spot under each eye and a little bit on her left ear, and a black tail. She is a little bigger than Astrid, but they look about the same age. I will try to post a picture of her as soon as possible.

In one of my favorite games, a character in it uses a weapon called a kendama. I decided a while back to look it up and find out what it is. I found out that it is a Japanese toy that is played kind of like the game "Cup and Ball". In a lot of video games, manga, and anime, people use them as weapons.

It is hammer shaped with a spike on top and a ball attached with a string. You play by catching and spearing the ball in various ways or performing various juggles, balances or position sequences. Most people usually play for their own amusement, but there are kendama competitions. It takes a lot of practice to get good at playing.

I decided to buy one, since it looked like fun, and I have gotten the basics of playing down. The type that I bought is a TK16, a good type for beginners. You should watch this video if you want to see how it is played. They do a lot of cool tricks in this video also.


I guess that is all for now. I am probably forgetting something, but I am too tired to remember.
Until next time,
~Eler Beth~

Astrid

Well we now have another new addition. I just bought a young female Dutch Rabbit yesterday from a near by flea market/thrift store like place. Her name is Astrid. Her coat is a sort of two toned between gray and chocolate brown, sort of a mint chocolate color as I am calling it. She had a different color pattern then the other rabbits they had there, which were like the standard dutch rabbit color pattern. She is mostly all mint chocolate brown except a white blotch on her right shoulder that goes all the way to under her neck, her front left paw is brown while all the others are white, and a white blaze on her face. She is extremely docile and sweet. She doesn't mind me picking her up at all, and I can put her on the ground and she wont run away. Me and my mom noticed this about her right away when we saw her. All the other rabbits were in the back of the cage, while she came and rushed up to us. I'll have better pictures later, but here are a couple of pics I took yesterday on the ride home and when I got her home.



She is living in Tsune's old cage, and she seems to like it well. We had to modify the cage so I can get her out more easily, making two doors on the front.

Astrid means both Divine Beauty and Divine Strength. It comes from the root word star.








I guess that is all for now,
~Eler Beth~

I think posting is going to be a weekly/by weekly think for me.

A couple of days ago my rabbit, Tsune, escaped out of her cage. I might have a chance at catching her but it is very unlikely.

My leopard gecko is doing great. We named her Samantha. She has been eating crickets with calcium powder on them five days a week. She shed her skin a week ago, but right after that, her toes on her back leg seemed to stick together. Now they are kind of bound together by a black scab looking thing. I don't know what is going on, so if anyone who has one for a pet knows, please let me know. In the meantime, I am going to ask on Gecko's Unlimited Forms.

I've been playing my key board a lot lately and have learned the old Pokemon theme, Rose of May, and song of healing. I don't know the left hand part of rose of may and cant pay both parts at the same time on the Pokemon song. So far, song of healing is the only one I know and can play both parts of, but I don't know the final part of it yet.

I have caught over 200 fish this year! We have a pond nearby that is over populated with bass and they are biting like mad! I'll post some pictures of the ones we caught sometime. We will be eating the bass for months to come ^^

I'm changing my blogs music again. This time it is a fire emblem song. I was hoping to get the original version, but this was the best I could find. Though if you want to listen to the original version, here it is on Youtube






Well, that is all for now. I'll post again soon,
~Eler Beth~