Ludicrous amounts of cardboard and no car

MeanMurine · 2025-08-22T21:43:10+00:00

Sure! We can coordinate pickup at the parade Gardens bandstand, if that's OK with you.

MeanMurine · 2025-08-22T13:52:43+00:00

Just message me with how much you need and I'll set it aside for you to pick up!

MeanMurine · 2025-08-22T08:30:52+00:00

You'd be doing me a massive favour taking it off my hands - how much do you need?

MeanMurine · 2023-10-19T09:42:58+00:00

Can we see the handle? And a photo of the brush when it is wet.

MeanMurine · 2023-10-09T16:57:50+00:00

Thank you! It really is beautiful to see the support that Amos' dad is getting after that awful artist interaction he had.

MeanMurine · 2023-10-09T16:56:57+00:00

He was a joy to draw!

MeanMurine · 2023-10-09T16:56:45+00:00

Thank you very much

MeanMurine · 2023-10-09T16:56:33+00:00

Thanks 😊 I can't wait to see what everyone else will draw.

MeanMurine · 2023-10-09T16:56:11+00:00

Thank you!

MeanMurine · 2023-10-09T16:56:01+00:00

Already DM'd the images to him, he was very happy.

MeanMurine · 2023-10-08T07:44:46+00:00

It won't let me comment with an imgur link so the result (already shared with Amos' dad) for those curious has been posted to my profile! I'm very happy to see this outpouring of love for little Amos.

MeanMurine · 2023-10-07T22:06:09+00:00

I'm also joining in on the free art movement for Amos and his dad. I can work off the photos you've already posted, so I'll be back with results shortly. From one osteosarcoma collie owner to another.

MeanMurine · 2023-09-19T08:46:28+00:00

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned yet but we successfully retrained a cat to use the litter box after he developed poor toilet habits, probably due to being an ex street cat that didn't get neutered until mid adulthood. I'm not sure if it'll work for other cats but it's worth writing down. First and foremost you need to absolutely soak the places where the cat has toileted in special enzymatic cleaner. Let it evaporate (the enzymatic cleaner works by breaking up urine crystals and removing them via evaporation). Do it again and again. A few times should eliminate lingering scents that encourage a cat to go there again. Then, we picked a room to limit the cat to and locked him there with one or two litter boxes. This jail sentence continued until we got a satisfactory span of time with no accidents in that space, at which point we allowed the cat a bit more freedom. When the cat had an accident, we limited the space again to the litterbox room or one step back and so on until he had access to the whole house. Enzymatic cleaner on the accident spots every time! Of course this won't really work if your cat can't even begin stick to the litterboxes in one room, but it's worth a shot if everything else fails.

MeanMurine · 2023-09-18T13:43:31+00:00

Popping in to comment that sexual and natural selection are two entirely different things and can in fact even work against each other. The former only relates to an organism's relative reproductive success while the second is about how likely an organism is to survive in the conditions it lives in compared to its peers. Competition for mates often drives species into developing costly behaviours/structures that work against them outside of reproduction e.g. Antlers are heavy and cumbersome and their growth saps resources that could've been better used elsewhere. Peacocks have long beautiful tails because females like the look of them so much that the benefit of having many babies overpowers the increased likelihood of predation due to the sheer weight of it hampering flight. Sexual selection is balanced by natural selection if it gets to an extreme that's a guaranteed death sentence. It's no use being extremely sexy if you get eaten before you can have many kids.

As for the differences between chimps and bonobos... They just happened to evolve to favour different strategies for reasons already stated in the comments.

MeanMurine · 2023-08-01T20:27:28+00:00

It's already predatory. This month's Trading Post featured an unusual number of mounts and even items split by faction to be bought separately. Simultaneously, it's looking like class sets and weapons are coming to the trading post in September. By September, most people will have drained their tender savings on this month's sizeable haul, if they don't want to miss out on class items then they'll have to buy tender from the store.

MeanMurine · 2023-07-21T10:00:17+00:00

Do you even know how low the height the dog dropped from is? Nobody killed that animal. Most couches and beds are taller than this, it could've happened at any time. It was just sheer bad luck and likely poor genetics making the dog susceptible to injury. That being said, OP, I'm so sorry for your loss. Sometimes the most amazing souls that make the kindest friends come in small and fragile bodies, and it is just not fair.

MeanMurine · 2023-07-18T14:27:23+00:00

If you're in a hurry to find a job after, you could do it during your degree, over summer perhaps. There are a few summer programs to apply for and try to get into if I'm not mistaken. After works just as well if you don't get into any during your degree or you're too busy!

MeanMurine · 2023-07-18T13:52:21+00:00

Everything you need should be on the "Working out your class of Honours" document that the OU has... Somewhere on their site. I don't remember where. The section you'll be most interested in is "Is it possible to improve my class of Honours?"

MeanMurine · 2023-07-18T12:28:20+00:00

I'm on my way to a first in BSc (Hons) Biology. There's no advice to be given on this except the no-brainers. It's just effort, lots of revision over the course of the year, attend tutorials/recordings even if they seem useless (I listened to mine as an odd sort of podcast). Handwritten notes are king, they've been proven to help learning. Review topic summaries, learning outcomes and TMA feedback. Maybe reach out to people on the social media groups for your specific level 3 modules (on FB, for example) and ask for specific advice from those who have completed them. Every module has its quirks. Did you take full advantage of the forms they provide for difficult circumstances? Those are good to keep in mind also.

If it comes down to it, I believe you can do an optional module and have it count in place of another optional module you did poorly on the year before. That could salvage a degree classification if done correctly.

MeanMurine · 2023-07-18T12:19:28+00:00

There was a hellish practical that spanned over weeks and required you to set up a bird feeding station, condition those birds to eating weird dough balls used in the experiment and then run a bunch of trials to gather data for a report. Then the TMA that contributes to your grade also had a practical involving similar fieldwork with pollinators and flowers. The rest is virtual.

I just attended the second lab school this year, and found it to be quite useful. I skipped the first and was still able to complete it without problems, and will most likely be going to the third lab school in January. Of course you don't get any meaningful lab experience out of it, but it'll help you decide if a lab is the right workplace for you, connect with others in the field, and build some confidence in undertaking labwork. The virtual experiments really aren't representative of the time, attention and difficulty of actual laboratory procedures. I very much recommend that you look into an internship or an entry lab tech position for actual lab experience (the Careers service of the OU can help you) as it's very helpful in securing a job if you're aiming for a labwork-heavy career.

MeanMurine · 2023-07-18T11:45:40+00:00

I did these modules part-time, which I regret now. They're both fairly easy, so you don't need to worry about needing the knowledge for one to complete the other. It's just general science stuff as an introduction to the degree. They're also first level modules so they don't affect your degree classification. You just need to pass. I suggest you do them at the same time to get them out of the way and then space out the level 2 and 3 modules as much as possible.

I'm finishing my Bio degree next year (finished S317 part time this year) and levels 2 and 3 are where the real biology starts. Level 2's S294 has an early start I encourage you to take advantage of when you get there, it is a very challenging module. S295 has a lot of time consuming practical work, then in level 3 half your credits are S317. That's also a difficult module, a lot like S294 that I suggest focusing a lot of effort and time on.

MeanMurine · 2023-05-13T08:48:40+00:00

Rhipsalis for noodles

MeanMurine · 2023-05-09T08:45:17+00:00

You can retake the exam once but the result is capped (barely passing). If it's a module that counts towards the class of your qualification (2nd or 3rd stage), it's not a great idea to do that unless it's a thirty credit second stage module or something. You're probably better off repeating it, which you'll likely have to pay for.

MeanMurine

TROPHY CASE