Thank you for all your emails, Guestbook reactions as well as all the support! To take away all concerns: I AM VERY HEALTHY.
I did suffer an (nasty) pneumonia!
It was when I was (slowly) starting to recover (intense fever went down), when Lucy4.0 died...
" This is not quite the real thing !!! " - Mathijs
Fortunatly I fully recovered! While at work I was working on a very exciting project (taking up quite a lot of my spare time)... I had a strict deadline...
Which I've (fortunately as well as) succesfully met!!! I can't share much more information right now other than that is has got to do with (for me) new technologies and stuff.
I will share more details in the future (for the interested). Also I hope to apply these awesome technologies to HamsterTracker.com. Not making promisses on the short term, because something BIGGER is coming.
" I even got some 'encouragement' cards (Thank You, BTW! :-) " - Mathijs
Here's the good stuff:
I've made arrangements with the "Pets Place" store (where I got Lucy4.0) about two weeks ago:
" This picture was shot on the day I picked up Lucy4.0. "
They're going to call me, the day before... they expect a new batch of hamsters!!! This way I can pick up Lucy5.0 the same day!!!
Pretty cool isn't it? The hard thing is waiting... Now being holiday season in the Netherlands, I unfortunately can't predict when.
"Hope to announce 'her cute little fluffieness' soon! " - Mathijs
This has been my longest offline break ever! The time was/is used to tackle some interesting personal/business related issues and projects.
At work I've been working on a very interesting project which does take up quite some of my spare time. A good investment I suppose the technology (amoungst other things) learned can be applied to HamsterTracker™ in the future.
I've also experienced some health issues, which I am fortunate to assign as being in the past, fortunately!
I DO MISS A HAMSTER, though... I've been photographing a little (due to all described above).
Allow me to share:
" Everything is gettin' ready for Lucy5.0 !!! " - Mathijs
" Treats are there for Lucy5.0 !!! " - Mathijs
" Although I have been shooting some photographs,
which was fun,
although it's nothing like photographing your hamster " - Mathijs
" Although it's fun to photograph a Fruit-Fly,
It's still feels very (hamster-) empty... " - Mathijs
So I've been trying to take my mind off,
by doing little projects, like the following;
(more) Wild Life in and around
the HamsterTracker™-Head Quarters:
" Found inside the HamsterTracker™-Office;
after this photograph,
it bugged me quite a while... ;-) " - Mathijs
" This fly I found outside,
in the 'General Green Stuff Area'...
Pretty cool the detail it exposes.
Pretty hard to photograph too, with movement of the wind... " - Mathijs
" Your humble Bumble Bee!
This is the most in focus photograph of the ten I made;
they NEVER sit still for long ... " - Mathijs
I will adopt Lucy 5.0 soon!
Unfortunately I can't really tell when.
I am working on it; hoping to welcome Lucy5.0 within a couple of weeks, soon!
I know there are some regular visitors that do not really like it when I post Lucys latest statistical graphs.
Please keep in mind that this was the primary intention in starting HamsterTracker.com...
I was lagging a bit behind in entering Lucys Statistical data in a spreadsheet. This on average took me an hour to enter a months worth of data (with the additional checks etc.).
The last time I posted Lucys graphs was 8 months ago! 8 times 1 hour = 8 hours of entry work ahead. I then decided on writing some software to collect (and check) this data automatically.
After only two hours of coding, I got 8 months of data. One hour of checking and tweaking later; the graphs where set to go.
Saving me 8 - (2 + 1) = 8 - 3 = 5 hours of work!
It then took another three and a half hours of generating all graphs (of Lucy4.0, Lucy3.0 and Lucy2.0 the same size. I probably blew the software development budget to the max, by allowing you to switch the graph thereby making easy comparison by hamster.
We probably all have experienced weeks like these:
" Dude ... We NEED to talk about the state of the Explorer Ball ! " - Lucy
" It's TERRIBLE!!! " - Lucy
I agree, dear Lucy, there's way too much tape on there!
So I bought a new (shiny) one:
" It is a nice one, isn't it ? " - Mathijs
" That's AWESOME, Dude!
Let me in, let me in ... ! " - Lucy
Meanwhile, I was experiencing HamsterTracker™-Hardware troubles myself!
The SSD drive has failed on me (AGAIN) !
Athough this was a replacement since the first one totally died after a year (or so) of service.
The new one is failing on me as well.
After restoring a backup, the system failed again within 24 hours.
Resulting in a gazillion 'lost chains' errors upon boot; finally failing to boot at all.
Using the webcam page I could see that the system crashed at 02:14:00 (something).
So I installed a spare Harddisk and restored the last backup.
Although the system is much noisier as well as increased energy consumption,
it IS running stable now for 48 hours! It even survived a reboot without 'lost chains' errors !
" An overview of my kludge ... " - Mathijs
" This is the responsible drive that FAILED ! " - Mathijs
" Here's my temporary fix for the new boot drive ... " - Mathijs
Lucy was running in her Explorer Ball when I all did this.
" After Lucy returned she started pouchin' immediately... " - Mathijs
" Nicely done, Dude ! " - Lucy
" Do you want to share a peanut ? " - Lucy
Lucy spent a lot of time rearanging her stuff.
It's funny to notice that she never swiched her Pantry & Bedroom.
( Mental note: This might be a nice experiment, next time )
" I used to follow Hamster Tracker but when i got a new computer it wasn't in my favorites anymore
and I kinda forgot to....luckily my brother recently sent me "Happy Hamster"
so I decided to make my 2 dwarf hamsters (Woodchip and Lily, theyre siblings)
a 3 course Valentine's day dinner! " - Beth
"I didn't follow the recipes exactly but I mixed and matched and think they had a great dinner! " - Beth
"From left to right:
Appetizer: Cheesy Apple Bites (pretty much straight from the book)
Main Course: Pasta in a Carrot Bowl (Carrot Bowl, pasta, orange pepper, tofu, broccoli)
I've been enjoying my new camera a lot.
The Manual settings of a DLSR-camera are fun although they can be challenging.
(Tip; shoot a photograph in Automatic mode:
Copy the settings in Manual mode,
Then start Experimenting!)
"This photograph is Lucy's quarters,
as it's seen with the webcam light on as well as the rest of the room darkned,
it's fun playing around with (little) light this way: " - Mathijs
After Lucy spent some time running around in her ball,
(the time I used to configure my camera for a serious Lucy photo-shoot),
It took some persuasion for Lucy to agree with this shoot:
" Why aren't you facing the camera, dear Lucy ? " - Mathijs
" It's because I've got my 'Pouch Full', can't pose like phhat .... " - Lucy
The following entry by Toni and his Lucy was submitted quite some days ago,
therefore we FINALLY are proud to present:
Toni's and his Lucy's Xtreme HamsterTrackin' report:
"Great setup, Toni ! " - Mathijs
"Lucy 2.0 is so adorable,
you guys look like you have alot of fun I recently got a hamster and she reminded
me of Lucy so thats what I named her! " - Toni
"Toni's Lucy is a dwarf hamster;
therefore this meeting with Lucy4.0 is slightly intimidating! " - Mathijs
"Smells great, Toni-Dude ! " - Toni's Lucy
"Here is Lucy up close! " - Toni
Xtreme HamsterTracker™-Shouts back to you Toni and Lucy
"Please keep us posted! " - Mathijs
"Where are the Pine-Seeds ... " - (Toni's) Lucy
Exreme HamsterTracker™-Shouts to Toni ( & Lucy ) !!!
Another report Excellently excecuted!
Thank you for reporting in,
from yet uncovered territory;
I will be adding a 'South Africa' page any time soon!
Remember our free Happy Hamster (exclusively packaged) give a way ???
Here's our first winner:
Ashlee & two of her rats, Harley Quinn and Cassiopeia!
" I live Vancouver, Washington (United States) with my husband and our four rodent babies.
We have rats and I know they love to eat delicious food as much as a hamster does.
I would love to make little delicacies for my rats using Mathijs's book.
" - Ashlee
Lucy got all enthousiastic:
" That's awesome Ash! " - Lucy
" Your hamsters look different ... " - Lucy
That's because they're rats, Lucy!
" Ahh, now I see!
Great goin' Ashlee, Haley Quinn & Cassiopeia ! " - Lucy
Congratulations, the book is (as you already know,) on your way...
During the Holiday Season, Lucy and I have been Loungin' it to tha Max!
Doing pretty much to nothin', while enjoying eachothers company,
as well as eating well.
Therefore it's time to set Lucy to (physical-) work:
" As soon as Lucy attempted to grab this wallnut piece,
I slowely moved it up... while shooting photographs,
giving Lucy a true workout along the way... " - Mathijs
" I GOT IT, Dude ... !!! " - Lucy
" Stop it Dude !
I told you I got it... " - Lucy
" I am bracing myself Dude; you will let go ! (right?) " - Lucy
Of course Lucy, I thought you needed a nice strech ...
( I vaguely replied )
" Phhhhhh-ine-a-ly ! " - Lucy
" Getting back down safely is an underestimated art! " - Lucy
[ Technical detail: This photoshoot took only 40 seconds (from 8:57:21PM to 8:58:01PM) to shoot! ]
Blogging it, took a bit longer :)
This was the last post of 2010!
See you again in 2011!
While having fun with my camera, I was thinking about a snack, one for Lucy, that is.
I came up with this easy and healthy snack
for your hamster to enjoy,
while watching a movie together ...
" Decide on the best bowl... by choosing the 'furthest outstanding'-blob ... " - Mathijs
I hope this is clear ...
which I (seriously) doubt ...
therefore I made some more photographs for you to explore:
" Make a cut, keeping the desired bowl in mind... " - Mathijs
" Most crucial cut done ... Time to admire !!! " - Mathijs
" Cut out your best bowl available!
(I picked the middle one ... it was the deepest!) " - Mathijs
" From the bottom cut a slice; providing a solid- & flat-bottom! " - Mathijs
Observent viewers might have notice that I've used my
"Magical-See-Through-All-Metal"-knife...
This is actually a photography trick;
Using a few second exposurel I removed the knife after a second or two!
Note: All the carves and colors in the wood continue 'through' this (solid) knife!
" Cut bowl to size, then
Finally:
Fill with 'chuck loads of' Pine-Seeds... " - Mathijs
Waiting for Lucy, to serve this...
I'll report on Lucy's findings about this snack tomorrow!
Did you know it's actually 2nd Christmas day here in the Netherlands?
Lucy is all excited about it:
" You've said it all in this post-title, Dude! " - Lucy
We are experiencing a true white Christmas this year!!!
So I got my camera to do some (evening-) shooting:
" A 10 second photograph!
Note the red line in the left bottom corner; it's a car that drove by!
Also the sun is actaully a streetlight (there are two if you look close)... " - Mathijs
" I wanna see that too !!! " - Lucy
The next photograph (friday morning),
shows that it had snowed AGAIN:
" A 30 second exposure shot... " - Mathijs
" Another 30 second exposure shot, about half an hour later.
(I just finished sweeping... while it was still snowing...) " - Mathijs
" 9 hours later, I shot this (again) 30 second exposure shot, now in daylight... " - Mathijs
Isn't it amazing how color changes through out the day ?
" Hand Taxi, Dude!
I wanna see this myself... " - Lucy
I let Lucy climb on my hand after which I showed her outside (through the window of course).
We then had some Pine-Seeds and talked untill late ...
I don't know about you, but I personally notice that I sleep deeper and longer,
in this winter season.
Appearently Lucy does notice it as well:
" Dude, look outside;
the sky is experiencing serious dandruff !!! " - Lucy
Lucy was right; (I explained that) it was currently snowing;
this is when I got out my camera, setting the flash to MAX:
" Looks almost like a 'Hubble-Telescope'-photograph, doesn't it? " - Mathijs
Experimenting, while outside in the snow,
I continued photographing,
using different settings
( these are all full color photos against a pitch black sky):
" Looks a bit like a 'Microscope-cellular-thing', wouldn't you agree ? " - Mathijs
Here's the final shot (best selection of many photographs I made):
" Once,
far away,
in another galaxy,
...
.
..
... Lucy ! ...
... I AM your FATHER ! :-) " - Mathijs
Sorry for getting carried away a little bit.
I did show Lucy these photographs,
here's her response:
" So that's why I always feel sleepy ...
There are stars out there whether you have your eyes open OR closed ! " - Lucy
That acually does make sense, Lucy !
(or doesn't it ? ... )
As you can read below, Lucy has pulled some tricks on me ...
It's a sort of 'Pay Back'- time...
" When Lucy was on the couch with me,
I put the just replaced enterance-tube
on the couch for her to explore!
(Note this is the dirty one I just replaced ... " - Mathijs
Lucy went in there... possibly expecting her bedroom to be attached ...
" It smells FAMILIAR & OK,
but I DO NOT UNDERSTAND ... " - Lucy
" You are joking, right ? " - Lucy
" Where's my beautifull bedroom ? " - Lucy
I then explained that I've replaced it,
with all, nice and clean tubes and bedding...
" Please don't EVER SCARE me like that again, Dude ... " - Lucy
" I appoligized, of course ...
counting (left over) Pine-Seeds, as you read this ... " - Mathijs
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