I found this guy attached to one of my Christmas presents this last year. He’s made our of something called “perler beads“. The kids have a MASSIVE amount of these beads and they go through spurts of building cool stuff – including this walrus!
Month: April 2013
Walrus Cupcakes!
For my birthday this last year, two of the older kids who are very talented cupcake cooks made me a batch of walrus cupcakes! Clearly, I am something less than a professional cupcake photographer, so the total amount of cuteness is not properly communicated in this shot. Also – there’s a high degree of “chocolate sprinkles all over the place” involved here. Still, though – walrus cupcakes!
The book the kids got the recipe they made me was What’s New, Cupcake?: Ingeniously Simple Designs for Every Occasion
. If you want a bunch of fun cupcake recipes – I highly recommend this book.
There’s an alternate recipe from the book Hello, Cupcake!: Irresistibly Playful Creations Anyone Can Make – and there’s even a YouTube video showing how to decorate the cupcakes.
Welcome to Walrus Island! Amazing pictures…
You have to check out the amazing article that is accompanied by the above picture, and several more, over on http://www.dailymail.co.uk. Taken from a plane about 20 miles out over the Chukchi Sea- which is pretty much walrus central. It must have been an unbelievable experience to see this in real life. I mean, look at all those freakin’ walruses!!
Here’s the link to the full article:
Top 6 Walrus Tweets it’s Time to Retire
As some of you may know – I keep a running search for “walrus” going on Twitter (via a column in Tweetdeck). As a result, I see many many tweets about walruses, or featuring the word walrus. After some time of doing this, I have determined that there are certain walrus-related tweets that it’s time to hang up for good. Seriously, you have no idea how many times some of these are tweeted.
Here then, are the top six walrus-related tweets that need to be retired from Twitter:
- “That awkward moment when it’s silent in class and your stomach decides to make a dying walrus sound.”
- TIE: “I am the walrus” and tweets related the the “bashful walrus and the fishcake” picture, above.
- “My voice sounds great when I’m singing with my earphones on, Then I take them off and I realize I sound like a dying walrus”
- “The time has come,” the Walrus said, “to speak of many things- of shoes, and ships, and sealing wax- of cabbages, and kings.”
- Anything related to the YouTube video “Obey the Walrus”
- “When a guy looks at me and I can’t tell if he’s thinking “She’s cute!” or if he’s thinking “How did that walrus escape the zoo?”
To prove my assertion that these are overused – I didn’t have to type any of those, I just opened a tab with Tweetdeck and there they were, all re-posted within the last 24 hours or so! In other news, when did “dying walrus” become the go-to metaphor for really bad singing?
It was good fun while it lasted but it’s time to move on. The above tweets have long since jumped the shark, er… the walrus. Do you have suggestions to add?
If you’re not already – please follow us on Twitter @walrusweb
Top Five Walrus Kisses of All Time
Check out this delightful post from Kimmy Helling on Oneworldoneocean.com’s blog.
http://www.oneworldoneocean.com/blog/entry/best_walrus_kisses_of_all_time
Charming pictures and video. Who says walruses aren’t cute?
Smooshi and Phil: The Saga Continues, with a LOT less cuteness
I can’t in good conscience re-start blogging to the Walrus Web without making the first post about the drama that has sprung up around “celebrity” walrus trainer and friend-of-this-blog Phil Demers and his beloved walrus Smooshi.
We’ve written about Smooshi and Phil before, in this post: Wipeout Canada – The Walrus Connection
However, since then, things have taken a darker turn. Phil and Smooshi are now separated, lawyers are involved, Smooshi and her fellow Marineland animals are allegedly living in poor, or even neglected conditions and there are real concerns that Phil may never be able to see Smooshi again. One can only image what Smooshi must think! The poor walrus must be so confused, wondering why her favorite friend is not around anymore.
This video, of Smooshi calling for Phil, is profoundly sad:Â https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQIuVCp_nSQ
If you don’t know the story of Smooshi and Phil – you should watch one of the many videos on Youtube, here:Â https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79um9mr-7TU
The US barely pays attention to the existence of Canada, much less Canadian animal mistreatment complaints, but the Canadian media has been picking up this story, starting with this piece in the Star http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2012/08/15/m
But then one day the Huffington Post picked up the story: “Why I Left Marineland and My Beloved Walrus Smooshi”
Since this story ran, the noise level has amped up, helped out by Phil’s constant presence on Twitter and the assistance of many many re-tweeters, Facebook friends and social media contacts all over the world.
Of course, Marineland is not taking this lying down, and has sued both Phil and another trainer, Christine Santos – the former trainer of Kiska the killer whale, a story with just as much urgency as Smooshi’s.
An indiegogo campaign was started to raise money for a legal defense fund. Thanks to the media attention – it’s been successful. Here is a link to the online petition that has already garnered over 80,000 signatures.
https://www.change.org/en-CA/petitions/save-marineland-s-animals
In the interest of being somewhat objective, Marineland’s side of this story is outlined on their press release page:Â http://www.marineland.ca/general/media_releases/
Like many of you, I enjoy the experience of getting close to animals in zoos and theme parks – and especially in the wild! I know that many people object to animals such as whales, walrus, dolphins and elephants being used as performers. I have conflicted feelings on this myself. But whatever your feelings, I hope we can all agree that if an animal is to be kept in captivity, especially if the animal is a performer or display animal, then it should be afforded the best possible quality of life and compassionate care within surroundings as close as possible to the natural habitat of the animal. I would feel horrible to find that the animals and experience that I and my family had enjoyed were experiencing the type of conditions and mistreatment that the former Marineland trainers allege.
I like Phil, he and I have exchanged several emails since I started this blog and I’ve followed him on Twitter for some time. I have no reason to believe he would lie about the conditions Smooshi is experiencing, so I can only hope he is successful in his campaign to bring more oversight and compassionate treatment to the animals at Marineland.
Please follow Phil on Twitter @walruswhisperer and hope that he will prevail in his efforts to make sure Smooshi and all animals at Marineland get the caring treatment we all assume that the animals we enjoy at these parks receive.
And with that – the Walrus Web is back in action. We’ll keep you posted!