10 minutes of light

The Professor in a bowl lit by the sun

I've recently noticed my apartment gets only about 10 minutes of really bright light during the day. I think it's a seasonal thing as I don't remember that much light coming in before. It's also possible I just slept through it with the wonky hours I've had due to my sleep cycle or maybe I wasn't in the apartment at all (eg. At work, outside, or maybe even in another country).

Most of the light gets blocked by a large tree outside the house for most of the day. Today however there was so much light coming in from the window that I could have been outside. I thought it would be cool to build a miniature model with a stick and a magnifying glass as a nod to Raiders of the Lost Ark. Maybe this might be a bit unpractical. As my apartment is small perhaps instead of a model of a tiny city a rotating disco ball should be installed? That's fun. It's amazing the stuff you can come up with when you're half asleep.

In the end I put the hamsters in a small bowl and placed them on the window sill to take photos of them. Previously I had been taking photos of the hamsters using flashes and my studio strobes having them "pose" on a white seamless background. While the photos have been turning out okay I think the flashes terrify the hamsters, one of them at least. With Peppy there seems to be a direct correlation between the flash going off and poop being expelled. The Professor doesn't seem to be affected.

Lit by consistent light they seem fine and wander around more leisurely. I'll have to take them outside when the weather gets warmer.

Boat load of Hamsters

Sunday. I woke up again at 4:30am. Part of it being the fear of a flood occurring after last night's mini flood. Crap came up in the furnace room from the intake drain. It was kind of gross.

Seeing that the hamsters were awake I decided to do get their weight and do a creative.  An odd combination of tasks to be sure.  It was just something I had to do...  right at that moment.

The hamsters despite Peppy looking a bit smaller than the Professor weighed the same amount.  They both came in at 16 grams.  Next up, the photo shoot.



I was trying to think of something to put the hamsters next to or in. There's nothing much around the apartment. I found some foam from a camera project I was working on and I have my large pad of paper that I've been using to scribble code on (yes, in the day and age of electronics I still go to paper for some things).

Armed with some scissors and a few clothes pegs I jury rigged a fake water set. A paper origami boat was made using a sheet from the pad. A plastic tub to hold the boat up so it "floats" on the water. Viola! Hamsters on the sea!

The Roborovski Effect

When you lose a pet you realize that it wasn't you training the pet, it was the pet training you. I woke up at 4:30am yesterday and again today. There was no loud thumps from the upstairs neighbour, no outside construction, no alarm clock going off. Groggily I looked up at the hamster cage. I realize now that the hamster had been waking up around this time and it would make a bit of noise moving around. I had been waking up at this nutty hour for the last few weeks because of this and then when realizing it was Captain Hill I would immediately go back to sleep.

This was not the case today. There was no hamster. Only an empty cage with a bowl full of half eaten hamster chow. I had been conditioned to wake up and now that I was awake realized that the hamster cage would have to be cleaned.



On the way over to William's sushi meet up yesterday I had passed by a pet store. I went in and saw these tiny dwarf hamsters. I suppose that's what planted the seed for what I was about to do today.

I ended up making the trek back to Critters Castle. The terrarium with the hamsters looked like is housed only three hamsters in total.  Upon further inspection the number increased to around 16. A lot of them new born and mostly all the hamsters were buried under the bedding, probably to hide from the light and the noisy slobbery kids pointing at them through the glass.

I had picked two that looked a bit different from one another.  I wanted to be able to tell them apart.  The first one escaped the pet store employee's grasp.  It then zoomed around the aquarium like a cat was chasing it.  It had a lot of pep you might say.  This one then was called Peppy.  The second name came later.  Dufresne, after the character that Tim Robbins plays in The Shawshank Redemption. It seemed fitting to name a hamster who'd escaped after a movie character.  (eg.  The origins of Captain Hill).

The next hamster, was a darker grey.  Capturing this one seemed a lot easier.  Almost as if the hamster wanted to be caught (and maybe leave for a better live).  If a hamster could do that kind of reasoning I figured the Professor was as good a name as any.

Both hamsters are dwarf hamsters and are also known as Roborovski hamsters.  According to some preliminary internet research they are supposed to get along in groups.  The Syrian hamster that Captain Hill was is more of a loner and is territorial, attacking other hamsters if not given enough space.  I thought the hamsters could keep each other company.  I always thought Captain Hill got lonely.

There you have it.  Two hamsters.

The hamster adventure continues...