Feeding snakes

Well, I fed both snakes today. I think I'm going to feed them together just so that I can not forget to feed Badger. Unlike Anthony, he doesn't drastically change his behavior when he's hungry, so it's harder to tell how often he needs to eat.

Anthony, brilliant boy that he is, once again managed to eat his mouse backwards, after first trying to eat it from one front leg, and sideways. *shakes head*

Badger, on the other hand, is quite smart for a snake, and when he gets the mouse sideways, he works his jaws from side to side and moves it around in his grip until it's head first. Really neat to watch! But he has a totally screwy feeding response. He doesn't strike and doesn't constrict, he just kind of noses it, then opens his mouth and starts in. Anthony has nearly taken the tongs right out of my hand more often than not, but I could probably feed Badger from my hand if I cared to handle dead mice. He probably wouldn't last a month in the wild, but that's okay, I have no intention of letting him escape.

Oh and one more thing

I really, really, really, really wish that people would just say what they mean. If you say to me "I'd like to have this by December, but if it takes until January, that's fine." then I'm going to assume that what you mean is "I'd like to have this by December, but if it takes until January, that's fine."

If what you really mean is "I need this by December, December is when I really want to have it, and I'm going to be upset if I have to wait until January." then flipping say so!!!!!!!!

I arrange what order I do things in partly by when I took the original order, partly by when it's convenient and easiest for me to do something, and partly (and this IS the heaveist weighted) by how urgent the customer has said it was. If you tell me "oh whenever" expect to get bumped back by every "Must have this now!!!!!!!!!111elleventyone" person who comes along. Because I want my customers to be happy and so the guy who needs this NOW in order to be happy will get first dibs ahead of the guy who's happy waiting a bit. That's just how I work. I expect my customers to tell me what they need, and then I work with that. I cannot read your mind, you must tell me.

I don't care if you don't need it for a specific event. I care about when you need it. If you just want to have it and can't bear waiting, that's fine, but you're going to have to tell me this or I will assume you don't actually mind if you get pushed back some.

BE HONEST, for flip's sake!!!!!!! And if you change your mind, and suddenly you just can't wait any longer, then tell me so that I can put a rush on your stuff! If you're getting antsy, and you say nothing, how am I supposed to know that "January is okay" suddenly has become "Now, now, now, now!"

This isn't an invitation for everybody who's waiting on someting to harass me. But this is an invitation for you, if you're waiting and you're impatient, to just drop me one quick note stating your preferences, so I know them, so I can work with them.

'Kay?

*sigh*

Okay... somebody just mailed me $27. In cash. In an envelope with a name I've never heard of before on it. I have no idea who you are, what you're trying to order, or anything else. If you're the person who mailed me $27, please contact me so I can know what the heck you just bought? Thanks!

Movie review

I saw the Golden Compass today. A few thoughts.

1. Understandably they dumbed it down a bit. Also understandably they left out Adam and Eve
2. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww! Pantalmion was too cute for words!
3. Shiny! The special effects and the setting design were spiffy.
4. The latter half of the movie mixed up the events of the book quite a bit. I kept going "wait, that's not supposed to happen here!"
5. Holy crap! When I read that bit, I thought to myself "there's no way the movie will follow the book here!" But the movie did! Holy crap!!!!!
6. Uh... where's the rest of my story? The ended it before the actual end!

Overall I very much enjoyed it, and I think they made fairly good decisions on what to simplify and what to leave out. But I had a few "Say what?!" moments there.