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?

I thought it might be nice to put a positive note into my blog lately, so I’m going to mention a product that so far has been absolutely loverly for me, my allergies, and my hamster. That product would be Kaytee’s Total Comfort Bedding.

What is it? As far as I can tell, it’s simply soft fluffy puffs of recycled paper products.

Why is it so good for my hamster, Goose? Because it’s softer than wood chips it makes for better nesting material. As was evinced by Goose carrying every little scrap of it into one big pile for his nest, something he has never done with wood chips. Goose loves it!

Also it’s said (though I have seen no definitive proof) that various wood beddings, especially pine, may be harmful to small animals by:

• Splintering, causing slivers in the feet.
• Being poisonous to consume.
• Releasing a poisonous gas when urinated upon.

Where as recycled paper products seem safer by comparison. Puffs of paper have no splinters at the very least, and they probably have been processed and reprocessed so many times that any poisons in the wood pulp have been removed.

But then, I have also used various wood chips (pine, aspen, cedar) for hamster bedding over the years and seen no ill effects. So your mileage and/or paranoia may vary.

But most importantly (in my opinion) why is it good for me? I have allergies. Mold, mildew, dander, and dust. Now a lot of people say they’re allergic to dust, because dust pretty much causes a reaction in anyone and everyone. But take that baseline reaction, multiply it several fold, and that’s how I react to dust. Whenever I’d clean a cage, I thought my constant sneezing, watering eyes, irritated skin, et cetera were all from the concentration of small animal dander contained by the aquarium. (Because most of my hamsters have lived in aquariums.) However, after having used Kaytee Total Comfort Bedding, I’ve found my allergic reaction during cage cleanings to be much less severe. Why? I’d have to say because this new bedding has no dust. Where as wood chips are chock full of sawdust. And dust is chock full of dust mites and other equally allergy-inducing irritants. So get rid of the dust, get rid of an awful lot of irritation. It’s great!

And why is it good for the environment? There is one other good reason to use Kaytee Total Comfort Bedding over wood chips. It’s recycled paper! It’s like totally green, dude! You’re using a recycled product. And it biodegrades easily. Compost already laced with hamster fertilizer? How can that really go wrong? So not only is it better for your pet and better for you, it’s also better for the world.

Frankly, I can’t think of a good reason not to switch to Kaytee Total Comfort Bedding as bedding for your small animal this very instant. It’s just that good. Finally, technology is making a real difference in the life of your pet!

Since so many of us geeks are optically challenged, and some of us still wear glasses, I thought it might be useful to give you a handy tip for cleaning them.

So often today cleaning our glasses involves high-tech microfiber clothes, special cleaning solution, yada yada. But I have a way that does just as good of a job, doesn’t scratch the lenses, and doesn’t use any high-tech cleaning products. I use water. And dish-soap.

Step 1 ) Turn on water so that it’s warm, but not hot.

Step 2 ) Rinse off lenses thoroughly through the running water. Do not touch the lenses. Dust movement can scratch the lenses.

Step 3 ) Squirt a tiny drop of soap onto each lens.

Step 4 ) Add a small amount of water to the soap on one lens and then rub gently to wash. (Yes, with your fingers. The dust should have been safely removed already and the soap and water act as a lubricant.)

Step 5 ) Flip fingers over to the other side of the lens.

Step 6 ) Repeat steps 4 and 5 for the second lens.

Step 7 ) Rinse the soap off of your hands.

Step 8 ) Turn the water to full blast as hot as it will go.

Step 9 ) Thoroughly rinse the soap off of the glasses. There will be dots of water on the lenses. Don’t worry. We’ll get rid of them next.

Step 10 ) Turn down the flow of water to a low gentle stream, keeping it hot. Align your glasses so that the lenses are vertical, as if you were wearing them. Then slowly move each lens through the water stream sideways (like left side to right) so that the water falls on both the front and the back of the lens at the same time. This will gently pull away those water spots, leaving your glasses spot free.

Step 11 ) With you finger or a towel (depending on how wet you can stand your glasses frame being) dry off your glasses, being careful not to touch the lenses.

Tada! You have just low-tech cleaned your glasses to a spotless shine without any risk of scratching and without any special implements.