Vinny shows off 4 years of personal growth

Vinny came out of his egg on January 1st, 2012. That makes him 4 years of age tomorrow! Congratulations to Vinny of course, but also a time to reflect on how he is now.

And we can be short about this, he's doing great. The past year Vinny has gone through a big molt that lasted almost half a year and he has learned new words and phrases. Like most parrots, their talking/whistling/mumbling is usually triggered by some kind of background sound. Could be a tv, could be music playing, or could be people talking.

In Vinny's case, we noticed that he often laughs along with the audience when we are watching a sitcom. Or he starts whistling when he's waiting for a shower and I'm in there whistling a song. By now he knows part of the Addams Family theme song. And apparently he has picked up on the snoring sounds I make, since he had a few sleep overs in our bedroom recently. Wonderful (ahum) ...

As you can imagine, he constantly brings us lots of joy, usually when he surprises us with his wit and smarts. For example, he often shows his cleverness when he's downstairs and says 'Wanna go upstairs?', yet when he's upstairs with us, he sometimes utters 'Wanna come downstairs'?

And of course he's gotten better at saying the things we've been talking about before. 'Go Poopie' is still one of his favorites, and when he wants/needs a shower, he usually lets us know by saying 'Shower?'. That in itself is not new, but he did progress from 'ower' to 'shower'.

I'm dreading the day he'll fully have outsmarted us!

Now, I know what you're thinking ... is this all we get? An update on this blog once a year? That's it? The simple answer is No. As you may or may not know, Vinny has a Facebook page and by now over 2,100 friends and strangers are following him. Amazing, isn't it? Vinny has done some posts during the year, and there will be more stuff on this blog in the year to come. That's a New Year's Resolution for 2016.

For everyone who's curious on how Vinny sounds and what he looks like, here's a 3 minute YouTube video compiled from pictures that have appeared on this blog and his Facebook page, accompanied by an edited soundtrack of Vinny talking and making sounds. We were able to make a 14 minute recording of Vinny and edited out the boring/silent parts, which left us with enough material for a video. So here goes ...

And after this there's only one more thing left to say ... 

Happy New Year, and lots of luck, happiness, success and love for 2016 !!!

Vinny is alive and kicking!

Alright alright, we haven't posted much since ... a long time ago!

We have been somewhat active on Facebook though. Vinny's page now has 1935 followers. It's been crazy! Maybe we should have a t-shirt printed with Vinny on it (one of a kind!) and send it out to follower number 2500 or so.

Anyway, since we've been posting some photos on Vinny's Facebook Page and not here, it's kind of unfair, don't you think? So without wasting any more time on words, please enjoy these lovely pictures of our little cute green fellah!

An old pic of Vinny enjoying a shower!

You want to play with this plastic thingie too? Here you go ...

Fluffing up can mean so many things .. in this case 100% happiness!

It's MY favorite toy, not yours! Try and take it from me, and you will regret it!

If you give me an almond, I can put this in a cup, take it out, put it back. I swear!

And I can also hold things sideways. Aren't I super intelligent? Now give me that almond!

I love fresh strawberries!

You can tell that I like something very much. I will hold it without dropping!

I'm sooooooo happy!

Vinny got Paged on Facebook!

Now that the dust has settled around Vinny and his Facebook account, let's put into words what actually happened and how we're dealing with this.

What happened last weekend, was that Vinny was logging in to Facebook, checking up on his bird-friends and family, ready to click some like buttons, and possibly even post a selfie. Upon logging in, Facebook popped up with the message that Vinny is not a real person and that his account was converted into a Facebook Page.

Alright, in hindsight I can understand the 'not real' statement. We knew this was going to happen. It's not Vinny's website, it's Mark Zuckerberg's, so he sets the rules. And if he says that parrots and other pets can be on Facebook, but not with a full account, then so be it. I guess it was inevitable that Mark stumbled upon Vinny's account and said "NO MORE, VINNY!". So now Vinny has a fan page instead of a full account.

In reality, this means that Vinny's friends got converted to profile-likes and followers of the page. Vinny won't be able to see other people's posts on his own timeline anymore, but we'll see how we can work around that later. Another effect is that Vinny's own timeline content (photo's, video's and other posts) got lost in the conversion. They were simply not there anymore. All the fun comments are gone, the likes, the links, you name it. I'm sure it was just a technical issue or someone at Facebook HQ being in dire need of a nap, but it added up to the anger we felt last week. Blurry images of wrecking balls came to mind.

Of course we can get mad at Facebook for doing this without warning, we can discuss how Facebook should be more pet-friendly, we can try to claim that parrots are very smart beings, that many parrots get as old as humans or sometimes even outlive them, that parrots are often treated as a full member of the family, and that Facebook sucks, but what's the point?

The thing is: Vinny's Facebook Page has been 'empty' for a week now. Nothing on the timeline other than the fact that he hatched on January 1st, 2012, plus of course the banner and profile picture. And still his page got 30 more likes just for being there.

Vinny's profile picture on Facebook

So we figured: what happened happened and let's just deal with it. If his page can get likes just for being there, maybe actually having content on there might have a positive effect.

This whole thing started with Vinny's parronts wanting to share their experiences as first-time parrot owners with the world. Put their mishaps and tips into words, and maybe even let them be of some benefit to others. And connect to other parrot owners.

If Vinny's 'new' fan page helps in any way, then kudos to Facebook for that. This blog will always be the basis of operations when it comes to Vinny's online presence, but who knows, maybe Mark will lend a hand.

So without further ado, I present to you:

Vinny's Facebook Page!

Ps. Don't forget that Vinny can also be found on Youtube, Twitter, DailyMotion, Vine, Google+ and some other sites.

Vinny completes the Ice Bucket Challenge

If you haven't heard of the Ice Bucket Challenge by now, for the past month you must have been living in a cave, have been cut off from the internet and all other media, have been floating around on a life raft, or have not been talking to anyone else.

I'm sure you have seen video's on Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and TV about this phenomenon. People emptying buckets of ice water on themselves has become THE hype of 2014 and will definitely be remembered as such.

Even more important: this hype is all for a good cause. ALS (or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) is a very serious disease that has no cure yet. I will not go into explaining what it is right here, but you might know one famous person who has it: Stephen Hawking.

Let me explain what's going on:
It all started with Pete Frates, a former baseball player who was diagnosed with ALS and his advocacy for awareness. On June 30th it was time for the first TV appearance of the challenge, in the form of a news caster performing it on live television. After that it went viral. Many celebrities did it and challenged other celebrities.

The rules are simple:
After getting challenged, within 24 hours, you shoot and post a video of yourself emptying a bucket of ice water over your head. In the video you state that you have accepted the challenge, and you can in turn challenge other people (usually 3).

Of course you don't have to do the thing with the bucket of ice water but in that case you are challenged to donate $100 to an ALS related charity. In the USA the ALS Association has been the receiving end of most donations. Many people donate even if they have accepted and completed the challenge.

Now, what all does this have to do with Vinny?

Well, on August 13th, Vinny received an Ice Bucket Challenge himself, through Facebook, from his Aunt Julie. Unfortunately Vinny doesn't really check his own Facebook wall. It also took a while for his parronts to notice it. But there it was, and of course Vinny had to accept and comply within 24 hours after learning about his challenge. And he did just that. After all, nobody calls Vinny chicken !!!

So, without any further ado, Vinny proudly presents the completion of his Ice Bucket Challenge!

Link to Youtube

Of course, no parrots or buckets were hurt in the making of this video. No stunt-parrots were used and Vinny received extensive training leading up to him completing the challenge.

Please note that if you would like to receive a challenge from Vinny, please leave a comment below. And if you would like to support the ALS awareness campaign and research, please go to www.alsa.org and hit the donate button.

This video can also be found on DailyMotion. 

Vinny roots for the Netherlands!

Even though Vinny is an Eclectus parrot and thus not indigenous to the Netherlands, Vinny was born and raised here. And thus Vinny has successfully been intoxicated with a subtle dose of 'Orange Fever'. This phenomenon comes up about every 2 years, mostly during global sports events.

This Winter the Netherlands did very well at the Winter Olympics with speed skating. Vinny often cheered along with the crowds on TV. And now the World Cup Soccer is upon us! Well, in the USA it's called soccer, anywhere else, in English, it's called Football. So that's what I'll call it from now on.

We, as Vinny's parronts, are normally not big on football (or most other sports, to be honest). However, when huge tournaments like the Olympics, European Cup Football (Netherlands won in 1988) and now the World Cup Football, are there, we get a bit fanatic. And by 'we', I mean Dutch people and parrots in general.

See, the biggest sport in the Netherlands is football. Every two years there's either a European Cup or a World Cup. We won the European Cup in 1988 and the Dutch people went crazy. The football team was honored in Amsterdam during a boat tour through the canals.

Four years ago, in 2010, we reached the finals, but lost from Spain, as predicted by Paul the psychic octopus, seer of all seers.

Before Paul, but even more after his success, many animals have given it a shot at predicting outcomes of games. From hamsters, elephants, kangaroos, turtles, penguins, armadillo's ... even parrots have given it a try. A few examples can be found here.

Some become famous, others don't. I would say this probably depends on their success in predicting the correct outcomes. Duh!

The point is that nobody knows what's really going to happen. Vinny has tried predicting a game once (see below), but that's it. Vinny just enjoys watching the games, above anything else. He jut sits there, cheers a lot, goes 'oooh' and 'aaah' when the crowds on TV make those sounds, and that's pretty much it.

But don't be mistaken, he's very fanatic! Recently he posted a few pictures on his own Facebook wall that lead me to believe that Vinny is secretly a fanboy that knows no limits! All in good sports of course. A bit of friendly banter here and there, but other than that always with a positive note.

I just found it so remarkable that Vinny posted these pictures, that I had to show them here on his blog as well. So here goes ...

Right before the game against Mexico, he posted this. This is his first prediction ever. He predicted the win correctly, but was off on the score. Either way, let's not encourage him to strive for world fame when it comes to being a psychic parrot.

Then after the game, he posted this:

With vinny in the picture is Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, the player who scored the winning goal by means of penalty. What many people don't know is that Mr. Huntelaar had failed to score from penalties the last 3 times (in other matches). So Vinny probably believed he not only needed some encouragement, but also directions. Either way, it worked, so that's what counts in the end.

And then today, in the hours counting down to the quarter final match between the Netherlands and Costa Rica, he posted the following picture:

His artwork seems to be getting a little bit better, but in all honesty, isn't he getting a little bit overconfident here? He even colored the world cup orange already. Don't worry, I'll have a heart to heart with him in a bit.

Anyway, I just wanted to share this with you and hopefully you won't think of Vinny being a cocky bird. Although, I have to say, I do hope he's going to be correct!

Vinny joins Facebook and Imgur

Vinny can now be found on Facebook. Please be patient, he just now figured out how to set up a group but hasn't really written anything on his 'wall' yet, but close observation of Vinny has taught us that he's a very smart bird with lots of random thoughts, so I'm sure it won't take long before you'll see more Facebook activity from Vinny.

For those who don't know what Facebook is ...
It's a website where pretty birds such as Vinny can create a profile and post all kinds stuff, like stories, random thoughts, images, videos, etcetera. Then other people can comment on that. Of course Vinny is only interested in making friends with other birds on Facebook, so if you are one, please befriend Vinny on Facebook.


Also, Vinny is now on Imgur. There's nothing to see there yet, but hopefully Vinny will soon discover what a 'selfie' is, so he will post on Imgur regularly.

For those who don't know what Imgur is ...
Imgur is a website where people and birds can post images and photos. They can make their uploads private or public, and then others (for private pictures they need the exact link) can view those uploads. It's a website with a social idea behind it: people and birds can comment on and rate other people's uploads. The 'random' button at the top sometimes reveals very funny images and unexpected artsy treasures.


If you feel that you want to connect with Vinny in other ways than Google+, Twitter, or through this blog, please don't hesitate to find us on Facebook and Imgur. But please be patient, Vinny is only 2 years of age and still figuring out how things work in the world.

Oh by the way, as you can imagine, since Vinny is still young and has the tech knowledge that fits his age, he has proclaimed that he won't be getting Google Glass anytime soon. But imagine how that would be, to be able to see how your parrot sees the world!

Anyway, more later!