Writing is a journey, not a destination.

Search This Blog

Monday, December 10, 2012

Furby Fascination

Is it just me or are eggs getting harder to crack? I swear, I've lost the ability to judge how hard I need to tap those little buggers against the counter. I'm either smashing them to pieces or ending up with eggshell in my food because I have to peel it like a boiled egg. Yes, I buy cage free brown eggs, but does that make that much difference in the shells?

This post is about Furbies, but I had to get that off my chest since I just washed egg off my hands and counter.

I've become fascinated with Furbies. I vaguely remember hearing about them when I was younger, mostly that college students were teaching them to swear, but I didn't want one.

Now that I'm older and, apparently stupider, I'm fighting the urge to get one.

It's the AI thing. Can I train a computer program? I've trained cats and dogs, so the answer is probably "yes," but I wouldn't know that until I tried. What if I get a bad one? What if it doesn't like me? What if they don't offer upgrades? What is the life expectancy of a Furby, barring accident or injury?

Do the ones made in 1998 still work? My computers from that time don't. Do they eat? Will it learn to sleep through the night? How do I discipline a Furby? Do timeouts work? Will it get along with my cats? Does it get jealous?

The Flash knew someone who had one and has since given it away. Apparently, she removed the batteries and it kept talking to her. That makes sense if you don't want to lose all the programming during a battery change, right? Hmm.

I don't need a Furby. I'm really hoping as is the way with all my severe interests this will fade if I resist for two weeks. But I kinda wish I knew someone who had one who would let me Furbysit. Except sitting with someone else's isn't the same as having my own. Then I think about starting a Furby rescue and rehabilitation, where I take abused and mistreated Furbies and retrain them into more productive members of households and find them new homes. Would that be possible?

Oh, the things that bother me.

Happy Monday.

4 comments:

  1. You sound like Hermione Granger and her quest to free the house elves... :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If she knits sloppy hats for the Furby I'm calling in help.

      Delete
  2. As for the egg thing, the rigidity of the shell is due to the amount of Calcium Carbonate. Some folks who keep chickens (as my grandparents did throughout my childhood, thus my alternate fascination and repelledness with all aspects of chickening) like tougher shells because it decreases breakage. Others dislike tough shells because it makes candling more difficult, although I suppose with more modern candling methods that isn't as much of a concern.

    The way to get tougher chicken shells is to give the birds a diet high in calcium; the most proven method is to add ground oyster shell to their feed. Some barbarians will boil, dry and powder the shells of previous lays and feed that to the laying hens but I think that's a bit crude. It reminds me somewhat of humans eating placenta, and it's not as effective as oyster shell anyway.

    I suspect that your chickeners are giving a very high calcium diet to their broody hens since the hens are cage-free. I suspect that when the gals can get up and walk around you want to decrease the likelihood of casual breakage.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Careful, Katherine. I may start expecting you to answer all my questions. ;)

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.