Faithful readers may have noticed that I haven’t been writing as much as I usually do lately. The problem is, I’m burnt out. On computers.

It happens. Every so often I just go through a phase where I’m basically sick of computers. For a computer programmer, it’s not exactly conducive to work, which poses a bit of a problem. The only real solution is just to use computers as little as possible and basically do other things. You know. Life. For example during these times I love to cook and I love to read. I also like to get out and do stuff, like go for a walk, or a swim.

Only this time around I’ve been more house-bound than usual because it has also coincided with being generally sick. With my allergies combined with Pennsylvania’s rampant warm winter/spring so far, there’s been a lot of pollen, mold, mildew, and disease in the air. Viruses and bacteria didn’t get a good solid deep freeze over the winter, so they’re a little too vibrant this spring. As are the trees and plants. And with all that nice weather combined with humidity and rain, even the mildew is going strong. Most people are having a darn time of colds and flus. With my allergies on top of it (and I’m allergic to darn near everything: dust, dander, mold, mildew, pollen, etc.) I’m just happy to still be alive. But for weeks now I’ve had a rough voice from coughing a fair bit. And I don’t even smoke!

So I’ve been feeling like crap, on top of being sick of computers. Mostly that makes for a lot of reading and TV watching … when I’m not working of course. Lazy lazy. But what am I to do? It’s a good thing I just picked up The Great Book of Amber (which is basically just a reprint of all 10 of the Amber books in one big book) by Roger Zelazny. I highly recommend the read. Roger Zelazny is a genius in my opinion and the Amber books are just marvelously imaginative.

But anyway, so that’s been my sitch. I’ve just been plum burnt out on computers. I’m tired of pixels and electrons. I’m sick of staring at a screen. And I have to wonder, am I the only computer geek that gets that way? Or is it something that happens to even the best of us? Is it a geek thing? Or is it a human thing? Could it be that the human body simply doesn’t like sitting there looking at a glowing screen all day? Or even that the human brain doesn’t like something about the setup? It makes me wonder. What about you?

Isn’t he cute? That’s Goose, my beloved fluffy long-haired hamster. He used to be all grey. Now he’s turning a bit tan. Normally that’s something humans strive for. I’m not sure about hamsters. Actually, it worries me slightly because it might mean he’s a cross-breed. (In hamsters that can be dangerous because it brings out a higher probability of several genetic diseases. It’s especially bad to cross-breed dwarf hamster species.) So far he’s a healthy little hammie though. And now he has his own jungle!

Pet stores are dangerous. My hun and I went to the pet store to look at kittens. Well, they didn’t have any kittens. But they did have all sorts of neat hamster toys. And lizard toys. So now Goose has a more pet-friendly bedding of what looks like recycled paper instead of pine chips. (Yes, I know, urine on pine chips is bad for some pets. Which is why I made the switch.) He’s got raw cotton fluff to use as soft bedding. (Instead of bits of toilet paper or paper towel.) He has wooden fruits to chew on as well as his normal chewies. He’s even got mini corn cobs to gnaw on now. He’s got a dried sweet grass salad bowl filled with fruits and nuts. Oh, and a cool looking lizard terrarium tree to use as a house instead of his old translucent plastic multi-colored three-story fake house. He can also climb that tree.

So now Goose is a hamster in a jungle. His glass aquarium cage has a similarly-sized wire cage on top of it with tunnels to climb up to ledges in that cage. He has tons to climb. And in his upper cage is an edible hut with a straw roof. His setup is so cute. But then, Goose deserves the best. He’s a spoiled rotten little hammie. What more could a hamster want?

Well, okay, he could want a bath house filled will chinchilla sand. He had one. He not only slept in it all the time, but he peed in it too. So he started sleeping in wet pee mud. That can’t be good for him, so I took it away for a while. He’d only roll in it like a bath the first time I’d put it in his cage anyway. But other than that, he has everything a spoiled rotten hamster can desire.