Dunno how it got started, but I've gotten myself on the biggets Orca kick today. My mom was showing me an article on a death at Disneyland recently, so I showed her this page that reported on all the deaths there. After this, she wanted to know what sort of things happened to Sea World. The first one we saw scared the daylights outta me.

It was a case many people have heard of, I'm sure, of a killer whale named Ky attackng his trainer of ten years in Sea World San Antonio, Texas. There was a video clip of Ky repeatedly breaching out of the water and landing on top of his trainer. At one point, he and Ky got VERY close to the end of the pool where the other trainers were. Three of them grabbed his hand, but Ky actually pushed him away from them, to the OTHER SIDE OF THE POOl before attempting to submerge him again. After the camera pans over to the trainers just watching with not much they can do, the camera pans back to Ky. His trainer is very calmly rubbing Ky's back. Applause is heard and the clip ends.

He came out totally okay, and even continued to be a trainer afterwards. I dunno why the clip scared me so much, but it felt like I was in there with him. I dunno... the music coming from Shamu Stadium could be faintly heard on the tape, and it gave it sort of an eerie feel. You can't really explain, you just have to see it. It can be found easily on google.

The trainer claims it was Ky's hormones that set him off since it was near breeding season. That could be it, but I also wonder if he was playing. We were up at Sea World not too long ago, and Shamu submerged his toy rubber ball the same way Ky was submerging his trainer. ('Cept trainers don't quite pop back up the way the ball did. O_O)

I spent most of the day looking up stuff on Orcas, and DID find a page on attacks. Only two of the some 20 attacks resulted in death, which is very good news. I'm somewhat paranoid about my dream to work at Sea World, but since I'm thinking of working with sea lions and otters, not too much to worry about. (Never been attacked by an otter, but it seems as though it's like being attacked by a cat I suppose ^^;; )

The most amusing part of the Sea World trip though, had to be watching Shamu practice killing his diners.

Right outside of Shamu's tank in San Diego, there's a "Dine With Shamu" area in which tables are set up almost RIGHT NEXT to Shamu's tank. (I'm going to do that for my birthday next year, wee!) Shamu had a few rubber bricks, a toy ball, and barrel. Shamu apparently did not like this barrel very much, as he spit it back at the trainer who put it in the pool. He stuck it back in however, and Shamu seemed to ignore it for awhile.

While he was playing with his rubber ball though, he accidently pushed it onto one of the tables and knocked the salt and pepper over. Aww.

Then he comes up with the barrel. Shamu is NOT happy with this barrel. He pushes it to the end of the pool... dives under for a moment... and...

BAM!! He BURSTS out of the water, the barrel goes FLYING into the air, and lands LOUDLY on top of a table, knocking it over, along with two chairs, and leaving water everywhere. We could only die laughing imagining what it would be like is someone were sitting there. I'll try and post a picture of the dining area all messed up later. My mom got some good ones. Yes ladies and gentlemen, think twice before requesting that table right next to the tank. *shifty eyes*

I also watched Free Willy this morning. Forgot how great a movie that was. After I did that, of course, had to go look up Keiko's story. It was a pretty nice "sit-around-and-do-nothing" day.

On a totally unrelated story, more evil-ness is ensuing on Squishy's part in our RPG. But I have NO clue what her character's plan is. X_X GAH! *explodes*