|
|
Post by dettoborgia on Mar 16, 2012 8:08:54 GMT 9.5
 Hi everyone, I'm so glad I found this forum! I have always been a Watership Down fan, I have no idea how many times I read the book or watched the movie, but it's been one of my favorite stories since I was little, along with LOTR. I discovered the forum through a link on Deviant Art too, and I saw the article on saving the real Watership Down. I hope it can be done. I once got to spend the night in a small village in Sussex where you could see the downs in the distance, and I think it would be a shame for a place like that to be developed. It's not like there's a lot of employment in a rural area like that, so I don't see any justification for building a lot of housing. Right now I'm a graduate student in public health. I live in Henderson, Nevada and go to school in Las Vegas. I don't have any rabbits, just three wonderful dogs and two troublemaking cats.
|
|
|
|
Post by Azerane on Mar 16, 2012 17:24:35 GMT 9.5
Hello and welcome, great to have you with us!
Seems those Deviant Art links are proving to be very valuable, which is good. I can imagine studying Public Health would take up a fair amount of your time, and I have to ask what your opinion on Las Vegas is, considering that for many people it's a big tourist drawcard.
I only have one cat, and at 16 she doesn't make as much trouble as she used to but she certainly has her moments, lol.
|
|
|
|
Post by dettoborgia on Mar 17, 2012 7:29:00 GMT 9.5
Hi Azerane! Thanks for the welcome.
School does keep me pretty busy, but it's interesting work. Applied health science tends to draw on several fields at once, like social science, biology and statistics, so if you like the challenge of interdisciplinary projects it can be fun. But at times it is also a little overwhelming.
Las Vegas is having a hard time because of the economy right now, with poor tourism business a lot of people are out of work. The tourism industry definitely affects the city as a whole, not just economically but also culturally, because when tourism is doing well, there are so many well-paying low-skill service jobs in the casinos that young people are less motivated about education than in other parts of the country. Even though local students are offered a free ride for undergraduate studies here, the graduate program I'm in probably enrolls more students from out of state and international students than locals, because of the stricter entrance requirements for graduate school. I grew up in Oklahoma myself, when my mother and I moved here the city was growing rapidly because the economy was doing well. Now homes like ours are worth less than a third of what they were valued at when we moved, so we're stuck with the investment and have to make do. I'd hate to go out on my own to rent an apartment in another city right now, because my dogs are happiest when they get to run around in the back yard on a moment's notice.
On the plus side, Las Vegas is near many spectacular national parks like the Grand Canyon, and it doesn't take long to drive to California for the beach either. That's why my mother wanted to retire here, she loves road trips to visit hiking areas and practice nature photography. And we've discovered locals can get good deals on tickets to some amazing shows and concerts, so that's another plus.
Do you live in a part of Australia on the coast?
|
|
|
|
Post by Azerane on Mar 17, 2012 18:17:16 GMT 9.5
Ahh, that would be a lot to learn and take in then, with a wide scope from those 3 different fields. I imagine it would help keep it interesting, but could certainly understand it being overwhelming.
Good point on the economy, with that down, the last thing that people do is take holidays or spend money on non-vital things so I can see why it would certainly hit a city like Las Vegas quite hard. It's a shame about the value of homes dropping so much, but that's often a risk with property investment. Just as long as you're able to hang on to it until the value goes up again, as it will, it just takes time.
It sounds like a pretty nice area though, I have always wanted to see the Grand Canyon, but haven't yet managed the U.S road trip I want to do, things keep getting in the way. I had one planned for last year when I was in Florida, but money limitations prevented my fiance and I from going! I live near enough to the coast, I live about an hour north of the city of Adelaide, so I'm about an hour from the beach, which really isn't that far in the scheme of things. A large percentage of the population in Aus lives near the coast as there's more rainfall etc. I am a keen bird watcher and photographer and love getting out walking/hiking too so we're quite lucky where we currently live as I'm near to a lot of conservation parks which satisfies that need quite nicely. =)
|
|
Blackavar
Junior Member
The council were merciful!
Posts: 62
|
Post by Blackavar on Mar 20, 2012 11:39:31 GMT 9.5
 Welcome to the forums! glad to see another memeber. I am also from Australia... Sydney to be precise. Although, more on the north shore of Sydney, and about 25 minutes from the beach. Used to live in an apartment right on the beach, but that was a while ago now. I too hope they can save Watership Down... I think it's a disgrace that such an integral part of a country's famous heritage can be palmed of without a single care in the world. I would love to see it one day in my life! Anyway, glad to see another member! I Own 2 rabbits, and they are gorgeous little trouble makers.
|
|
|
|
Post by dettoborgia on Mar 22, 2012 10:07:36 GMT 9.5
Hi Blackavar, thanks for the welcome! I was lucky enough to see the Downs on the horizon from a quaint little village in Sussex where I was visiting an eccentric charity director's office. It's out in the middle of nowhere, but his office is on an estate with a castle on it, so it makes for a pretty impressive location. I sometimes wonder if he lives as modestly as I've been told, or if his "mortgage" is on that castle. He invented a safety device I was interested in studying, and others told me he made a lot of money on it. Anyway I imagine you would have to be wealthy to buy a home in that part of the country, even the bed and breakfast in that village is incredibly expensive.
I've never been to Australia, but I'm starting to learn Aussie English from following Russell Crowe on twitter. I admire a lot of Australian actors but otherwise don't know too much about Australia. Rabbit Proof Fence comes to mind, but the difficulties of keeping tabs on introduced species, from rabbits to toads to brumbies, seem insurmountable to me. We have wild horses here in Nevada that are better protected by being difficult to catch than by the wild horse advocates, but I feel bad for them when the range lands are hard hit by drought.
|
|
|
|
Post by Azerane on Mar 22, 2012 10:44:19 GMT 9.5
You are very lucky to have seen the Downs, even from a distance. I think it would be magical going to a place like that that is so strongly represented in the book and movie.
Rabbit Proof Fence is certainly a powerful movie (though unfortunately has little to do with rabbits, lol). There are certainly a plethora of introduced species in Australia, which has put a huge toll on native species. My "Field Guide to the Mammals of Australia" is full of pages describing species which are then listed as extinct. Partly habitat loss, partly competition with introduced mice, rats and rabbits, and partly predation from cats and foxes. Try as we might it's still happening as we speak, though I know it happens all over the world, it horrifies me to think how much devastation people have caused. God help the poor Orange-bellied Parrots of which there are only thought to be about 21 adults left in the wild. It really quite disappointing to think that even now after how aware we are about human impacts, that we are still losing species.
|
|
|
|
Post by dettoborgia on Mar 25, 2012 8:44:25 GMT 9.5
If you ever get the chance you should go, it really was a special place to visit. I was there in winter, and there was even a nice snowfall, which is unusual in England.
Even scarier is how people never learn that you can't fix the problems from one introduced species by introducing another. I heard they tried that several times in Australia, bringing in one predator after another to eat the rabbits and mice and all. Only ended up devastating even more native species.
|
|
|
|
Post by Azerane on Mar 25, 2012 16:45:38 GMT 9.5
I've slowly learned over time to never be surprised by the stupidity of the human race, lol. The most classic example of the introduction of one pest to eliminate another is the Cane Toad. They're a huge pest in the north east, and they don't even eat the introduced Cane Beetles that they were supposed to suppress! Did they even think about the Toad's diet before introducing it? I think not.
|
|
