Simple Pet Health Tips

A lot of pet owners want to know more about pet health and things like that. They love their pets and want to give them the best possible life quality. Food is very important in the life of your dog, and you need to know more about it. 

Good Diet
Your dog should consume a good diet at all times, and you need to go above and beyond to meet the wants of your doggy. Your pet`s food should be both well-balanced and of a high quality including treats. 

High-quality food should be your pet`s most important source of nutrition. Take a look at the food label of a particular product paying close attention to the ingredients listed since these ingredients just make up most of the food. The food should have veggies and meat as the food`s first ingredients. 

You can also find grains and meat by-products at the bottom of the list.

There are many filler ingredients out there that might harm the health of your dog over time, and you have to avoid them as soon as possible. If your dog shows signs of food sensitivity, your vet will help you out right away.

If you plan on feeding your puppy human food, you need to be truly careful about this. 

You need to know that some human food will kill or hurt your dog, so you need to be truly careful about this. Your dog should be away from chocolates, grapes, raisins, nuts, garlic, sugar-free gum, and chives.

Proper Weight
Your dog should keep his ideal body weight. An obese dog will increase his risks for diabetes, heart disease, cancer and other health issues. Your vet will give you information about the ideal weight for your dog so you can feed your puppy accordingly. 

Your dog will become obese when he does not get enough exercise eating a lot of food down the road. Read the food package so you can know the right amount of food that you need to give your dog. This will allow you to keep Fido at his ideal weight.

Giving your dog healthy treats is always a good idea, and you should give him a homemade treat. Store-bought treats might not be too good for your per down the road too. 

Your dog should eat low-calorie treats such as canned green beans, baby carrots, and cooked sweet potatoes. Remember also that your dog should get tons of fresh water at all times, as this will allow your puppy to digest food properly over time too. 

Changing the water once a day will keep the liquid fresh and clean, so you have to clean your water bucket as soon as you can.

Grooming
Your dog should be groomed properly. To keep your puppy`s coat healthy and shiny, brush it on a regular basis as this will encourage the proper circulation of blood in your dog. 

Check any cyst, bump, or lump on the skin of your dog. If you found some, you need to let your vet know about this as soon as you can. This will allow you to avoid tons of headaches in the future too. Your vet should also address your dog`s itchy skin, redness, and scabs. 

Grooming is a wonderful time to check for any skin condition on your dog`s fur such as mites, ticks, and fleas.

Clipping your puppy`s nails is also a great idea. Though this might make your dog uncomfortable, make sure that your dog will get used to this over time. This will allow your dog to live a better life over time too. You should avoid cutting the dog`s “quick,” which is a sensitive part of the dog`s nail that contains nerves and blood vessels. If you don’t know how to clip your dog`s nail, your vet can show you how in no time too. And you need to brush your dog`s teeth each and every day.

Now that you know more ways of keeping your dog healthy, you have just to take bold action. This will allow you to have more fun with your dog over time. Your dog`s diet should be balanced, and your vet will allow you to know more about this topic over time too. 

Remember also that you need to check the weight of your dog over time if you want to keep your dog`s body health over time too.

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The importance of studying games, or why I travelled half of the world to attend a gaming conference

From July 12th until the17th, I was in one of the world’s most relevant gaming conferences: DIGRA 2017. It took place in Melbourne, Australia, in the fantastic Swinburne University. I attended this event in 2011 in Netherlands (by the way, it was the first time I was in an international conference) and it was a transforming moment in my professional/academic life. This year was not different: another great experience.

When I tell people about a gaming conference, they ask me how this works. First idea that comes to their minds is a place to play the newest games from big publishers, or an event full of gaming events. Well, the idea is very different from that. In a conference like DIGRA, we talk about the game industry, game design and tendencies, but the discussion goes beyond those subjects.

This year, we had excellent debates about sexuality in games, gender in games, gaming classification, historical contexts in ludic experiences, sound design, game design, interfaces, analogic vs. digital games, philosophy inside games, social contexts in games – these are just a few examples of the whole content. How is it possible? Because games – in the contemporary scenario - became a potent media and a very important platform to socialize, interact and cast messages.

DIGRA main panel (july 6th - 2017). Pic by @vincevader

In a conference like DIGRA, the specialists are discussing all these points inside a greater subject: games. One thing is a common sense among all the researchers: it is very difficult to study it, but all of us are trying to create a more serious space to debate this. As a Brazilian researcher, I understand the importance to be part of the gaming studies field, not only in my country, but also in other parts of the globe. Networking is another important keyword in this context.

So, answering the question on the title above: I travelled half of the world to “power up” my knowledge and reach a new level in my academic research. On the next months, I’ll try to write and produce more about all that I have experienced in this event.

Next year, the conference will be in Turin, Italy. Follow the DIGRA Twitter for more information. Keep your eyes open.

#GoGamers

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Unreal II: The Awakening (PC)

Developer:

Legend Entertainment

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Release Date:

2003

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Systems:

Windows, Xbox

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Today on Super Adventures I thought I'd do something wild and play a video game for once. Unreal II: The Awakening to be specific, a first person shooter from the Xbox era, when PC games often came on multiple CDs stacked up on the same spindle to maximise the chances of one of them getting scratched. That's what my copy's like anyway, so I hope it still works.

Actually I'm not sure it ever really worked properly for me, as all I can remember about the game is that I stopped playing it early on when it crashed to desktop a couple of times. But I get the feeling I probably could've gotten further in it if I'd wanted to, and now that I'm writing about it I'll endeavour to be more persistent (whether I like the game or not).

The original Unreal was co-developed by Epic and Digital Extremes, but they were busy with the Unreal Tournament side of the franchise, so Unreal II: Unnecessary Subtitle was developed by the folks who made the Return to Na Pali expansion pack instead, Legend Entertainment. This was Legend's last ever game before being shut down by their owners, but they'd been around a while and were mostly known for making adventure games. So there's a non-zero chance that the writing might be better than the first person shooting here. I'm not getting my hopes too high for either though to be honest.

(Clicking the pictures will make them bigger, but not much bigger.)
Read on »

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Reptile Care for Beginners

When it comes to owning reptiles, they sometimes require some special attention. Though they hardly differ from cats and dogs when it comes to loyalty, reptiles are a bit different in terms of care. 

Here are some ideas to get started when you finally have your first reptile:

1. Get adequate space and ventilation

Unlike dogs and cats, most reptiles need a certain ambiance and atmosphere in order for them to feel really at home. Not only this, some of them require a lot of space and air so that they will be able to breathe properly. It is suitable for your critter to be able to live in a glass box or something similar with holes at the top or at the bottom, but just big enough so they won’t escape.

2. Clean safe water

Reptiles have a special need for water, as they are not like dogs and cats that can sweat their bodily heat away.  Appropriate substrate water is a must for your reptile’s domain as it will help them cool off when the heat comes. Not only this, this will help them calm themselves and make them feel more at ease.

3. Quality lighting

For some reptiles, UV lighting is a must. Reptiles such as snakes don’t really need UV lighting, but for others it is needed. It is because they are dependent on skin-manufactured Vitamin D3 and such a vitamin cannot be obtained from the food that they eat, as the name implies. Thus, in order to keep your reptile happy and healthy, give them some UV lights to bask in.

4. Vitamins and mineral supplements

Many reptiles are not able to get the vitamins they need from their food alone. Thus, to keep them in tip-top shape, it is best if you provide them with vitamins and supplements that will help enrich their diet.

5. Secure latches and lids

Of course, your prized pet does not need to roam the house freely unless you want it to be stomped on and bite your family. This is why latches, locks and lids are important. Not only is this for your own safety, but also for the reptile’s.

6. Appropriate environment

Certain reptiles need a certain environment that mimics their natural environment so they can thrive. Simply having them live at room temperature when the temperature is way beyond their bodily capacities might just kill them, so controlled temperatures are ideal for such creatures.

7. Learn your reptile’s diet

Not all reptiles have the same diet. It may be a tedious task, but knowing what your reptile eats is crucial for its survival. If you were in the reptile’s shoes and you were forced to eat what you don’t eat, you wouldn’t like that as well, right? Not only that, giving the reptile the wrong food could spell disaster for its health.

8. Learning if your reptile is tamable

It would be nice if your reptile knows how to do tricks just like the ones you see on television or online, but you have to first learn if your reptile is even fit to be tamed or not. Even if it isn’t, however, you shouldn’t throw away your reptile just yet as the reason why you chose it as your pet in the first place is because you like it and want to make it a part of your family, and not to make it a circus act.

9. Knowing your reptile’s life span and other basic stuff

Okay, so this may be rather easy to do, but keep in mind that captive reptiles generally have a longer lifespan than wild reptiles as long as they are given enough love and care. Before purchasing a reptile, you should first know the basics of your chosen pet and what they do, what they eat and how to tell if they are healthy.

10. Avoiding the temptation to release your reptile

This is very hard if you don’t want your reptile anymore, and don’t know anyone who can keep your reptile for you. Releasing your reptile into the wild will not only disturb the local ecosystem, it might even potentially kill your reptile as it has grown in captivity and does not know the skills on how to survive in the wild. In instances like these, you should probably go to the nearest zoo or pet shop and sell or have them adopt your reptile for you.

Now that you know the basics of keeping a reptile, you should now be all set. 

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Time, entertainment and the state of flow

When we are experiencing certain activities, time passes differently. Time can go fast when we are playing an interesting game, or slowly if we are watching a boring movie. It varies from person to person, but all of us have different perceptions of the time passing. In this context it’s important to highlight that there’s one chronological time (seconds, minutes, hours etc.) and a subjective time (one that affects every single individual in an unique way).

This is a complex subject to discuss in a short post, so I want to talk about these perceptions related to the gaming field. To help me in this mission, I’ll summon the ideas of the Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. This researcher (1975) has developed the idea of flow to explain some time lapses we can experience when we are involved in some specific activity. Csikszentmihalyi (1975) explains that “flow” is a state in which a person is fully immersed in an action and highly focused to the extent that one can experience, for example, a loss in the feeling of self-consciousness and time experience. To help us visualize this concept, Csikszentmihalyi created a graph to visually explain the idea of flow:


Source: Tolstoy Therapy

In a synthetic way, we can observe that there are two axes in the graph above: one shows the degree of challenge and other shows skill and confidence levels. When we are experiencing a very stressful situation (like an emergency surgery, one very difficult test or a complex work to be done in a short period) we can enter a zone of panic and anxiety. On the other hand, if we are experiencing a very boring situation (a monotonic class, an annoying movie or a non-challenging game) we can enter a zone of complete boredom. Both extremes lead us to states of attention that - potentially - are harmful to our minds.

But there’s one zone of perfect balance between a stressful situation and a complete boredom state: the flow. When we experience a state of flow, we immerse ourselves in a state of mind that we can even feel the passing of time differently. Have you ever played videogames for three hours but inside of your head, only one hour has passed? This is one situation when a flow happens.

Games are excellent examples to illustrate this discussion. When we like the experience of playing certain games (analogic or digital), we can feel immersed in the state of flow. So, one important component of game design is how to engage players in the game experience so that they potentially access the flow state. There’s no recipe for this, but to test a lot of games with different beta testers that could show some interesting ways to do it.

I want to dedicate this post to all gamers that need to wake up early, but instead say “just ten more minutes” (and play for another hour). =)

#GoGamers

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References:

CSIKSZENTMIHALYI, Mihaly. Play and intrinsic rewards. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Vol 15(3), 1975, 41-63. Online >> click here.

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Tearaway Thomas (Amiga)

Developer:

Global Software

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Release Date:

1993

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Systems:

Amiga

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This week on Super Adventures I'm having a quick look at obscure platformer Tearaway Thomas.

It might seem a bit weird that I'm playing an Amiga game called Tearaway Thomas right after playing an Amiga game called Rolling Ronny last week, but that's because they're both filed away into the same folder in my brain. I'm finally making an effort here to learn which is which and more importantly what they even are.

As far as I can tell this is the first and last commercial video game these folks ever made, presumably because it's such an incredible work of art that they decided that trying to follow it up would be pointless and it was best to quit while they were ahead. Or maybe it's real bad and it shamed them into exile. I can't remember, that's why I'm replaying it now.

Read on »

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Pets and Pet Care

A pet is an animal kept primarily for a person’s company, protection or entertainment rather than a working animal or livestock animal. Most pests are often noted for their attractive appearance and their playful responsibilities. 

Pets can give companionship to elderly adults who do not have enough social interaction with people. Pets can also provide their owners with emotional and physical benefits such as walking a dog can simply supply the pet and the owner with exercise, fresh air, and social interaction. 

The most popular pets are cats and dogs. Some people also keep rabbits, rodents such as hamsters, some fancy rats, gerbils, chinchillas, and guinea pigs. There are also avian pets such as parrots, chickens, canaries and parakeets. Also, there are reptile pets which include snakes, turtles, and lizards.

In some instances, there are aquatic pets which normally include frogs, tropical fish, and goldfish.

In order for pets to survive and live happily, the pet owners/ pet sitters must always take care of the pets and always check their nutritional and health care at all times.

Pet Care

Pet care is all about taking care of your pet starting from food and safety, nourishment, exercise to medical attention. Apart from this, grooming, training and providing complete wellness to your pet is also a part of pet care. If you treat your pet like a friend then it means that you are doing your bit to ensure their overall well-being and that is what pet care is all about. Healthier pets are usually happy pets. When it comes to pet’s health it is recommendable that prevention is always better than cure. 

Many people have discovered the beneficial effects of pet care but the fact remains that quite a number of the population are allergic to pets. This may be caused by touching or inhaling allergens which lead to reactions in allergic persons. Symptoms may include; sneezing, sore throat, coughing, itchy eyes, itchy skin and breathing difficulties. The most common pet allergen are proteins found in their saliva, urine, and sebaceous cells. 

Ways of preventing allergies in Pets

1. Installing an air purifier – Through this fresh air is let in regularly allowing the already polluted air out of the room.

2. Create an allergen free room

3. Limit fabrics

4. Use anti-allergen room sprays

5. Dust the room regularly

6. Clean the litter box frequently

7. Invest in washable pet bedding

8. Bathe your pet at least once a week

9. Brush or comb your pet frequently.

10. Wash your hands

11. Find a physician

Pet care can in animals is quite important since the owner gets to know when to feed the pet and when to clean its place of sleep. We are going to look at how pet owners take care of their pets.

Caring for Your cat

To keep your cat happy and healthy, you need to know the best ways of pet care.

· Consider the medical concerns of the cat.

· Consider the amount of time you have for the cat.

· House trains the cat.

· Encourage the cat to use a litter box – Place the box in a quiet place where the cat won’t be bothered by people or dogs. Keep the litter box clean and provide enough litter boxes for more than one cat.

· Make the litter box a comfortable place

· Provide the cat with a scratching post

· Discourage the cat from exploring forbidden surfaces

· Define the type of food to feed the cat.

· Keep the pet healthy at all times.

· Pet care in cats also involves checking their skin regularly to check for parasites, lumps, bumps and other skin problems.

· Visit pet care institutions regularly for check-ups.

Caring for your Dog

Pet care in dogs is quite simple as the cat. Before bringing a dog into your home you should know how to provide for its needs both physical and emotional. Pet care also revolves around providing ample playing time, plenty of exercises and its mind stimulation. Other pet care ways in a dog include; feeding the dog, giving the dog water, Taking care of its health and on a regular basis, Get the dog undergo a vaccination to prevent some allergens to humans and other animals as well, groom the dog. Doing this will provide the best pest care in the dog among others.

Caring for fish

Fish are one of the best creatures to have as a pet. Fish pet care is easy to establish and achieve.

The steps are quite easy to get as they include; decide on what type of fish you want, decide on the amount of fish you want, get an appropriate tank, set up the tank and cycle it, put the fish in, perform partial water changes weekly, test the water regularly, feed the fish and monitor them. 

After achieving this you would be the best pet care of your generation.

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