In the collection of test videos there are two covers:

• Where Is My Mind by The Pixies
• Push by Moist

The other three videos are original songs I’ve written:

• Melancholy
• Twitch
• Salvation / Tight

Please check them out, and rate my videos. You can visit my YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/standinwater.
For other (audio only) recordings you can visit my streaming audio site on MySpace at www.myspace.com/standingwaterband.

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Salvation / Tight (Original Song)

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Twitch (Original Song)

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Melancholy (Original Song)

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Push (Moist Cover)

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Where Is My Mind (Pixies Cover)

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Sadly, I slipped up and started smoking again so it looks like I’m going to have to start that process all over again.

Also of note, I’ve started a new job working the help desk at a local software company this week. For those of you that are googling me from there – /wave

I have had some random hardware issues here and there with this PC that I suspect are related to over heating. I might post some pictures of my modifications at some point. I moved it to a more ventilated case and reconfigured the fan locations to pull more heat away from the components that get the hottest.

My hard drive crashed over the summer. Prior to getting the above mentioned configuration working well, my drive started to make the dreaded “click-click-whirr” sound and the BIOS couldn’t see it. I did manage to get it to boot a few times afterward, but it inevitably would lock up at some point so I stopped.

My girlfriend, the sweetie she is, gave me 250gb drive to replace it with and I successfully transferred all of my data. I still have the odd problem with the computer, but that’s mostly related to the wireless device and network.

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Naturally, the plows had left a nearly 3 foot tall snow ridge at the end of the driveway. I quickly assessed that there was no way a car was going to get in without a large amount of excavation and it occurred to me that my roommate would be coming home with her 4 year old after a day of work and would want to do just that – get into the driveway.

I bundled up with many layers, pulled on my boots and braved the two hours of shoveling it took to find the pavement underneath. Having spent most of the last decade living in high-rise apartments it’s been a while since I’ve done this. My everything is sore today, reminding me of how sedentary working in the IT field really is.

On a side note, I have not seen a single mouse dropping nor sign of the little rodent since my encounter the other day. Titus has maintained a fairly continual vigil of guarding the laundry room since the weekend, so perhaps the scent/sight of cat combined with the reduced amount of available mouse-goodies in the area has kept it at bay.

I’m partially disappointed since I had rigged up a live-capture system with the hopes of trapping the pest in order to relocate it’s residence. I can’t complain in the sense that at least it’s not hanging around my food stores, but I know it must be still around somewhere.

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Well, the little sneak must have been hiding nearby, as I turned away for a moment, it made a daring dash up the side of the shelf to the rafters and into the corner. I got a good look at it but was unable to do anything about it. By the time I got a chair and flashlight to follow, there was no trace of the rodent or where it had escaped to.

The upside to this encounter is that my cat, Titus, also saw the escaping creature and immediately got very excited. He is now dutifully keeping watch from the top of the shelf it has been running around on. I’m hoping that the fresh scent of cat will make the mouse thing twice about visiting, or that he might actually do his job and catch it! (I have my doubts)

Tomorrow I will have to go to the store and get some traps. Assuming Titus gets bored of his post and vacates the shelving unit, I intend to set up something as documented on this blog – a humane trap which uses gravity to capture the mouse. It might not work, but it’s certainly worth a try in the meantime.

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The first indication was during the summer when my landlord’s cat spent many hours staring at the bottom of the fridge, and more recently the stove. It was strange behavior, but on the other hand, cats are big fans of the made-you-look game, so it was not entirely of concern.
One night, as I was falling asleep last week I heard a scratching which had the distinct sound of a small animal, somewhere in the wall or ceiling (I live in a basement). I tried to ignore it and convince myself it was the aforementioned cat, on the floor above me.
Fast forward to Wednesday morning, I grabbed a loaf of bread which I had uncharacteristically left on the top shelf of my mini-kitchen – of note is that this is directly below the kitchen upstairs. I noticed that it was near expiry when I opened the tag, and thus proceeded to visually inspect the loaf – which is when I noticed the small hole (about the size of a nickel) in the bottom, and a tunnel entering the loaf.

A quick search of the surrounding area revealed no other signs of an intruder, leaving me to spend the day wondering if there was a connection, or had the loaf simply been like this when I bought it without my noticing?
Upon arriving home after work, I started a more thorough search. What was I looking for? The characteristic mouse trail – small oblong pellets that they drop frequently as they wander the world.

Lo and behold, I found one. Not willing to be satisfied with this discovery, I looked up to a board resting above between the rafters – a fitting perch for a mouse to survey the world below – and found another, thus confirming my suspicion. There is at least one mouse sharing our habitation.

Nothing else seems to have been touched or spoiled by this little critter, which leaves me to believe it is spending it’s time between the upstairs and the basement – hiding behind the large appliances upstairs and at a safe altitude among the rafters downstairs to avoid the lurking cat on each floor. It also seems to indicate that it’s likely working alone, or in only a small group since there would be more signs of mouse dirt and more damage with a larger population.

Aside from firing the two resident predators for dereliction of duty, what to do? Do I trap it? If so, live or dead? Do I install a mouse repellent device, or will that just evict it to another portion of the house, to return at a later date – possibly with family? If I live-trap it, where do I release? Nearby, it’s most certain to return, and it’s a snow covered sub-zero climate here right now, increasing it’s chances of freezing to death and negating the point of a live-trap.

Poison is not an option – with two cats and a dog in the house, the chance of them ingesting the poison directly or indirectly is too risky. Not to mention, I can’t say that I want a dead mouse hiding between the dry-wall panels creating a smell. The common, brutish mouse-trap seems inhumane but the cost-effective and timely solution.
I’m not in a rush to kill another creature, but mice spread disease and this one has demonstrated it’s ability to consume and spoil my food stores. It’s a moral dilemma for me, for sure – but I think I’m going to have to bait it into a snap-trap.

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