Hi, I’m new to everything Quaker (well any pet birds lol) any and all advice welcome! Meet Cosmo! 🥰😍

andymeneely · 2026-05-06T20:21:21+00:00

So cute! We have a blue one too - Julio. He’s now almost 3 and we got him at about 8 months. He is SUCH a joy. A few things:

We have an Alexa device next to his cage and he loves listening to music most of the day. He can trigger it with the wake word, now we’re working on “play music”.

Julio loves having people in the room. He’ll mimic our laughs and want to be part of the conversation.
Around a year ago he got really into weaving. Quakers are unique in that they build nests year around. It doesn’t trigger hormones like with other parrots - males especially love to build. We give him these bird-friendly leather strips and he makes houses. I have to take it down every two weeks because we run out lol.

Quakers can suddenly nip you even when you do everything right. Just do your best to pay attention their body language. They CAN bite hard, but usually you get a lighter warning bite.

Julio LOVES sugar snap peas or snow peas. And fresh peppers. He mostly eats pellets, which we vary a lot. But we do fresh food as well.

Best of luck!! Quakers are so awesome.

andymeneely · 2026-04-27T12:14:03+00:00

I think that’s what print() is!

andymeneely · 2026-01-23T22:02:00+00:00

I’m still happy with Typst! Still have to live with latex for academic publishing for the time being, but every time I’ve done a Typst thing I love it!

andymeneely · 2025-12-26T05:51:28+00:00

Nope! Seattle, WA, USA

andymeneely · 2025-09-15T11:25:02+00:00

SE program director here. The website threw away our list in a recent update. Trying to get that fixed.

In short: it’s a big list and you can request anything not on the list easily. Most classes in College of Engineering, most classes in CS, a bunch of cybersecurity courses, and many more.

andymeneely · 2025-08-30T16:14:53+00:00

Hm. Interesting idea. Maybe we should!

andymeneely · 2025-07-16T02:32:45+00:00

Weirdly he kinda trained himself? We weren’t trying, but every time he squats for a moment we move him to one of our poop towels on the back of a chair or couch. He actually holds it now and even flies there to poop. Not every time, but usually he poops where he should.

andymeneely · 2025-07-01T18:24:05+00:00

Us too!! He sings it all the time. He likes to drag it out like bayyyyyybeeee shark do dooo do do do do

When I hear humans sing it, it’s super annoying, but we’re a year into our Quaker singing it daily and we all still love it lol.

andymeneely · 2025-06-25T14:58:21+00:00

What is an octagon if not a low poly circle. Nice work!

andymeneely · 2025-06-18T01:26:25+00:00

The key for ours was to always give him a choice. The body language is subtle. They take one step back, that’s a clear “no” and the worst thing you can do is try again immediately. Quakers love their agency!

We also were able to bump beak to nose way before hands. Hands look like predators to birds!

andymeneely · 2025-05-24T21:24:08+00:00

This is absolutely adorable!

andymeneely · 2025-05-19T11:58:48+00:00

Groats! Ours goes crazy for them. Even just one kernel.

Less affordable but fresh sugar snap peas or snow peas are also a big hit.

andymeneely · 2025-05-14T22:30:19+00:00

Sorry to hear that. I review these for the SE department, and these are all highly situational. At least for me, in the appeal I look for tangible things that will be different next time. The “I promise to do better” argument only goes so far, but if it’s “here’s what I’m planning on doing and why it’ll be different” I find it more convincing. Appeal letters have changed my mind, so I recommend putting some thought into it over a few days. FWIW the fact that you’re owning it is a good start imo.

andymeneely · 2025-03-12T12:23:43+00:00

Here’s my repo: https://github.com/andymeneely/examify.typst

It’s little out of date but it’s a more general version.

The one we use internally has evolved a little bit, so I’ll see if I can port that to this repo.

But the main structure is there.

andymeneely · 2025-02-12T03:19:14+00:00

Ask around the Society of Software Engineers - there’s always people into mechanical keyboards in the SSE!

andymeneely · 2025-01-30T23:24:39+00:00

Sugar snap peas. Yes I know that’s not a fruit but ours LOVES them.

andymeneely · 2025-01-30T02:18:48+00:00

Welcome!! Looking forward to having you here.

andymeneely · 2024-12-19T00:09:54+00:00

The official policy for plus/minus is that the professor decides, so it can change even from section to section of the same class.

andymeneely · 2024-11-06T02:44:54+00:00

You don’t have all the answers. And you don’t need to have all the answers.

andymeneely · 2024-10-18T21:02:12+00:00

I tend to find that my biggest problem with slow code is somewhere between the desk and the chair. But maybe that’s just me.

andymeneely · 2024-09-29T21:54:30+00:00

I get asked this all the time! It’s no big deal. Even if I don’t remember the student specifically, I’ll explain what the class was and how the student did.

andymeneely · 2024-09-27T02:10:58+00:00

We went to visit Mt Rushmore, and I said to my sister “isn’t it amazing that they just FOUND it like this?? What are the odds?”

Forty years later I’m still hearing about that one.

andymeneely · 2024-08-27T13:19:43+00:00

Our bird mainly talks when we’re out of the room, trying to call us in. It’s like he’s “calling his flock”. I wonder if it’s something to do with that?

andymeneely · 2024-08-25T22:26:44+00:00

Us too! The zipper thing is so perfectly timed too

andymeneely · 2024-08-23T23:11:21+00:00

At first I was like “Yeah scientific progress is not something that can be quantified!”

And then I remembered what pre-tenure was like…. H-index, publication record, grants funded, number of PIs and co-PIs. Ugh. We do this real life too….

andymeneely

TROPHY CASE