Friday parakeet blogging

Posted on October 10, 2008 by Daniel J. McKeown

Striker, Ava, Sparty, Belle and me
10/10/2008

Indiana State House

Posted on October 9, 2008 by Daniel J. McKeown

Indianapolis, 9/23/2008

Dan and Jessica at Progressive Field

Posted on October 3, 2008 by Daniel J. McKeown

Indians vs. Detroit Tigers
Cleveland, Ohio, 9/20/2008

Dan at Bridge Bay

Posted on April 12, 2008 by Daniel J. McKeown

Yellowstone National Park, 5/27/2007 by Jessica Dryden-Cook

Sparty the wild bird

Posted on March 25, 2008 by Daniel J. McKeown

Jessica took this excellent picture of our budgerigar Sparty. The third bird to join our flock, he is a wild, flappy parakeet who has some powerful wings (even clipped as they are)–and he’s not shy about using them. I’m working on getting to know him, but for now our other birds Striker, and Belle to a lesser extent, are a lot calmer when I come to visit. I can’t help but wonder if he is even having an influence on the other two–it seems like the three of them are sort of developing a pack mentality. But we’re busy a lot of the time, so I’m glad that they have each other to play with all day!

photo: Cuyahoga River from Cleveland at night

Posted on March 15, 2008 by Daniel J. McKeown

Ohio, 2/29/2008 by Jessica

Fishasaurus the betta fish

Posted on January 26, 2008 by Daniel J. McKeown

Tribute to Fishasaurus, February 2007

Fishasaurus, aka Daniel J. McKeown, jr., aka my cool purple beta fish, died yesterday after a brief apparent illness. Jessica and I tried very hard to take care of him, and I was glad to be with him in his final moments. I wanted pay great tribute to his wonderful animal spirit, and with that in mind he was buried in the Presidio of San Francisco in a private service.
Fishasaurus was a great pet and I was always humbled and entertained by his big personality–when the minor earthquake of a few days ago hit, I was here and his calm determined look reassured me after the tremors. But usually he was bouncing around slowly like that or whipping his tail to propel him up top for food or around the tank in some sort of circular pursuit. Probably my favorite memory is of his small front fins, one on each side, that he used to motor around the water slowly. A frequent user of those small propellors, Fishasaurus was a wonderful spectacle and a great animal companion.

(A photo of Fishasaurus, who was a cool-looking fish with a big personality, from February 2007.)

For a little while a very amazing beta (betta) fish named Fishasaurus, a Valentine’s Day gift from Jessica, was a spirited and fun companion for me. I feel so grateful and only wonder if I did something wrong, as he didn’t live very long–but I feel like he understands that I did everything I thought was right to care for him. I was actually more fortunate to have such a great fish rather than unfortunate about how short it was for.He and I were always hanging out whenever I was home. I think this photo was taken when I had him down near the computer with me while I videoed a movie.

Passed out drunk guy on ground

Posted on August 20, 2007 by Daniel J. McKeown

Don’t worry though–one minute the guy was flat on the ground, but a few moments later he was getting into a cab that I helped him to hail and heading down 7th Avenue toward Clement, muttering something about Garcia Street. He was probably just a little drunk, I don’t really know.

I was riding along Geary Boulevard on my bike late Saturday night-Sunday morning and the Inner Richmond bar scene was just about spewing out its leavings for the night. The two guys looking at him in the picture didn’t seem as interested in helping the guy a few seconds later when they saw I was using my camera phone. Too bad for them, though. They were in a public place and this photo is my property–their whines of “erase it” went unanswered.