Remember my first contest, Putting Caplin Rous is My Life? It was about photoshopping me into a photo with you. I got a lot of really great entries but the problem was that not everyone has a good photo editor. All this time I’ve been feeling pretty sorry for those [...]]]>

Remember my first contest, Putting Caplin Rous is My Life? It was about photoshopping me into a photo with you. I got a lot of really great entries but the problem was that not everyone has a good photo editor. All this time I’ve been feeling pretty sorry for those people who can’t make an image of me with them. I know almost everyone wants to.

But looky-here! Sam Becker, an ardent rodent enthusiast, has created an application for iPhones that lets you put a wide variety of rodents into your life. And guess what! One of those rodents is me! See the above image made with Rodent Draw? That cute capybara on the bottom left is me! The other rodents are a flying squirrel, a prairie dog, a mouse, a guinea pig, a chinchilla, a hamster and a chipmunk. Inexplicably, there is also a ferret.

Rodent Draw creation by Kotaro Yokoyama

The photo above is by my friend Kotaro Yokoyama. He took the original photo (on the left) and used Rodent Draw to insert me. It came out pretty well! I am glad I’m not really there though because there is no place to swim in that photo and the grass looks very sparse.

I realize this doesn’t solve everyone’s problems because probably most people don’t have iPhones (my owner for instance), but it is a start.

As a disclaimer, I have never tried Rodent Draw, I don’t know Sam Becker outside of a couple of emails and I am not being compensated in any way for mentioning his application here. I just thought it was neat and it was also nice of Sam to ask permission to use my photo, which doesn’t always happen.

Those of you who played #RodentJeopardy with me on twitter probably remember that while the main purpose of the game was to have fun, it was also to benifit my new favorite charity, HeroRATS. HeroRATS is an amazing organization. They train rats to find landmines in Africa and [...]]]>

My Certificate from Hero Rats

Those of you who played #RodentJeopardy with me on twitter probably remember that while the main purpose of the game was to have fun, it was also to benifit my new favorite charity, HeroRATS. HeroRATS is an amazing organization. They train rats to find landmines in Africa and to search through samples faster than a human can blink an eye in order to detect tuberculosis. I’ll be honest with you, they make me proud to be a rodent.

Here’s a copy of the email they sent to my owner when she made the donation:

Dear Melanie,

I was so suprised to see your creative idea – Rodent Jeopardy – and your wonderful contribution to our team!  I’m writing to thank you for your donation and dedication to our HeroRAT’s work.  Please see the attached certificate we completed in Caplin’s name! We are deeply honored by your interest and support and want to ensure you it will go to good use.

Currently in Mozambique we are one year ahead of schedule on our task to clear the entire Gaza province by 2014.  We have already made major impacts on neighboring villages by opening up farmland, roads, and the land needed for electricity to reach a village of 10,000 Mozambicans.

Here in Tanzania we are working to address the deadliest of diseases. Tuberculosis takes more lives than any other and particularly those of women and people living with HIV.  What’s worse, it kills at a young age, at the height of people’s productivity and family responsibilities.  The work of our HeroRATs has increased detection rates at four hospitals in Tanzania by 31% and our rats can process 40 samples in four minutes – the same number a technician can do in an entire day!

We do hope you will stay in touch!  We always want to hear from you and are happy to answer any questions you might have.  If you’d like monthly updates on our progress and all the exciting advances happening at APOPO, please feel free to sign up for our e-newsletter at www.herorat.org.  If you have any questions, you can always reach me at herorats@herorat.org.

When we first began this project, people laughed at our ‘unique technology’.  Now that we have proven our HeroRATS’ incredible abilities and shown the world what they can do, we enjoy that people laugh along with us!

Thanks again for your support and please say hi to Caplin for us!

Best wishes,

Kara Schnoes on behalf of the HeroRATS team

www.herorat.org

A Hero Rat at work

They really sound like nice people and they do such great work. And not just for humans! They are also helping to give rats and rodents in general a better public image. So if you have any spare change this holiday season and you’re looking for a good cause, look no further! Be a hero and donate to HeroRATS!

Twitter mania! I am sponsoring a game of Rodent Jeopardy! on Twitter starting Black Friday (November 27th) at 7:00 am Central Time.

To join in the fun, use #RodentJeopardy on twitter. If you haven’t already started tweeting, now is the time! Get an account [...]]]>

Final Board

Twitter mania! I am sponsoring a game of Rodent Jeopardy! on Twitter starting Black Friday (November 27th) at 7:00 am Central Time.

To join in the fun, use #RodentJeopardy on twitter. If you haven’t already started tweeting, now is the time! Get an account and join the fun.

If you’re not already following me on Twitter, you should start! Find out when I’m eating, when I’m sleeping, I even tweet from the pool! @CaplinRous. Most importantly, in order for you to play, I must be following you. Send me a DM (direct message by putting “d ” as the first part of your tweet). If it bounces, send me a regular tweet message (@CaplinRous) and ask me to follow you so you can play.

This game of Rodent Jeopardy! will be sponsoring my new favorite charity, Hero Rats! Check them out. They are real land-mine-sniffing, tuberculosis-diagnosing rats! For every player (anyone who answers at least one question), I will donate $1 US. For each point earned by any player, I will donate an additional $0.01. In the last game that would have been $45 for the players PLUS $38 for the points!  So play hard and play often to help the Hero Rats clear land mines in Africa.

Rodent Jeopardy! rules:

1. Anyone can play.
2. Response must be in the form of a question DMed to @CaplinRous.
3. Whoever gives the first correct response chooses the next block to be uncovered.
4. I will tweet the time the next answer will be revealed after receiving at least one correct response.
5. This page will be updated with the revealed blocks as the game progresses so check back often!

Rodent Jeopardy! scoring:

1. Each of the first five correct responses earn the block value plus extra points. The first correct response earns the block value plus five. The second earns the block value plus four, etc. All correct responses after 5th are awarded 1/2 block value.
2. No points are deducted for an incorrect response.
3. After all the blocks have been revealed, there will be one round of Rodent Final Jeopardy! Only the top 10 players will be scored on this round. For Final Jeopardy, each player will DM me with the amount the intend to “wager” before the round starts.
   FINAL JEOPARDY: Category is Recent Blogs
   DM me with amount of wager. Can wager any number of points up to your total points.
   Get only one guess.
   Incorrect guess results in loss of 1/2 pts wagered.

Rodent Jeopardy! Prizes!!!

• 1st place: A signed copy of Celeste and the Giant Hamster and a Caplin Rous 2010 Calendar.
• 2nd place: A signed copy of Celeste and the Giant Hamster.
• 3rd place: Your choice of:

Bedtime ‘Bara Mug
2010 Caplin Rous Calendar
Capy Holidays! cards

• 4th place gets choice of 2 things not chosen by 3rd place winner.
• 5th place gets whatever is not chosen by 3rd and 4th place winners.

Download Chapter One of Celeste and the Giant Hamster for FREE. Make sure you read it before Rodent Jeopardy! starts!

@vernbern's Minicap & The Cap Playing #RodentJeopardy

Rodent Jeopardy earned $102.14 which owner will donate to Hero Rats!

Congratulations to everyone! Thanks for playing.

@LouPeb waiting for his owner to start reading to him

@GeorgetheDuck with Capy Holidays cards

]]> http://gianthamster.com/2009/11/rodent-jeopardy-game-2/feed/ 1 http://gianthamster.com/2009/05/168/ http://gianthamster.com/2009/05/168/#comments Thu, 28 May 2009 23:28:17 +0000 Caplin http://gianthamster.com/?p=168

Twitter mania! I am sponsoring a game of Rodent Jeopardy! on Twitter starting this Suday night. To join in the fun, use #RodentJeopardy.

If you’re not already following me on Twitter, you should start! Find out when I’m eating, when I’m sleeping, I even tweet from the pool! @CaplinRous