blargity!

Okay, you all know by now that i get infatuated with stuff all the time.

So… right now?
Questionable Content.
I’ve been reading for two weeks from teh first one and I’m just caught up.
I am definitely a Faye kind of person- no touchy!
rawr. fckin awkward hilarousness.

also, yall are invited to my halloween party.
*nods*
I’m going to be Coraline.
And Cash will be Dogzilla.
Gotta modify his costume.
apparently he’s too beefy for an XL and I need to add elastic bands if I want his mostrous legs to fit in the sleeves.

another thought- that thingie in between our top lip?
I bet they get more pronounced as we evolve- it’s so very helpful for drinking out of bottles.
I bet angelina jolie has one hell of a time drinking out of plastic bottles with that huge upper lip.
Naw, I bet she’s all self conscious of it and lways asks for a straw.

Lots of folks around here are gettign all swine flu-ed. I am trying to keep my distance, but meh- it’s probably just a matter of time.

Matt finally posted my Die O Rama! But left out some good pix.
Post um tomorrow. gotta jam!

dear smoking motorists…

please stop flicking your smoldering cigarette butts out your window.

You’re setting fires.

It may not be so bad in say, a suburban area with paved gutters and maintained lawns.
But in cattle land, farms and wild lands- you’re gonna set something ablaze.
ESPECIALLY after the harsh summer we’ve had.

Besdies, you shouldn’t be throwing shit out your car in the first place.

Have you seen the carnage you cause?

You torch thousands of acres.

You put hardworking men into jeopardy.

You inadvertently kill animals, people and ruin the livelihood of ranchers, farmers and park rangers.

And I’m not saying you don’t HAVE TO SMOKE.
It’s a free country.

I’m just asking you to NOT THROW YOUR DAMN GARBAGE OUT YOUR WINDOW!
That’s what ashtrays are for.
And if you don’t have one- FUCKING GET ONE.

I’d say thank you- but hell, you should know better.

Matt’s not ded!

So.

After my blog post yesterday… I was all like…
well, let’s see what I can dredge over at X-E.
Last time I was there I got really bummed out.

And good lordy lord!
Teh Matt is alive- and he’s blogging like a fiend!

So I take it back. I wubs yoo and yer seasonal giddiness!

Like I have just begin saying recently ( not to anyone in particular, just in my head…)
I am a pessimist, but I like to be proven wrong.

it is never right.

There are very few fears in my life that I can’t rationally explain away.
Everyone’s afraid of bugs but there are antidotes for near everything… Drowning is a real risk but if I don’t go in the water I can’t drown… Planes are safer than cars- as our last trip to Washington state proved… So on and so forth.
But the human element is something I can’t rationally grasp. There are so many aspects to the human mind that I can’t even begin to fathom- the desire to kill and murder, mental illness and self-destructive behavior… even the desire and need to be intentionally cruel to other people and living creatures. I imagine it is because I can’t do those things so I can’t grasp people doing those things. Fundamentally- we are all supposed to be the same, right? So how can we be so broad on the spectrum of human personality and psyche?
So, perusing the news I found this 5-part article at Slate about Animal testing, and the dog that sparked the regulation of the animal testing industry.
It’s an amazing article that really pulls at my heart strings and made me rethink my stance on many things.
But the part that struck a chord with me is about the dog that started it all- a Dalmatian named Pepper that was stolen from her 86-acre ranch in 1965. In ten days her life was turned upside down- transferred between three “owners” and sold to a research facility- and ultimately died at the hands of a doctor who was experimenting on her.
Personally- that horrifies me.
Firstly- that someone could just up at STEAL someone else’s pet. The only time I can conceivably endorse such a behavior is removing a pet from a situation in which it is suffering. But even then, there could be huge repercussions to the animal in something like that. Animals can mentally shut down, or not handle the stress- depending on their living style before their rescue. Sometimes, putting an animal to sleep is the most humane thing you can do if their suffering is deep and never-ending.
Secondly- the idea that Pepper’s life went from joyous country living to abject horror and disrespect- torture even- at the hands of creatures she had come to rely on to keep her safe, fed and happy. Even if her family had found her in the ten days she was missing, Pepper may not have been the same dog when she returned home. That crushes me. Some people see their pets as a part of their family and home. Taking that from someone is akin to kidnapping in some circles. And even if it’s just a day or two- that could destroy everything that pet is. Even just a day at the Animal Shelter can create physiological damage that may take weeks-even months- to repair for some dogs.
Thirdly, that people- in this case doctors and scientists- can just purposefully destroy an animal for their own needs. I understand the need for scientific experimentation- but I don’t have to like it. The idea that an animal is made less of a living creature and more of a scientific tool horrifies me. Doing that to an animal negates its existence- even more so in lab animals bred for such purposes.
I mean- at first I was complacent that lab animals were bred for testing. They are genetically similar across the board, making their tests results as uniform as could be. And being bred for testing- that would be their purpose in life, they wouldn’t know any better. That would be their life. As long as bad things didn’t happen, and they got their basic needs fulfilled, they would be okay.
 Not like stolen dogs that had happy lives before thrown into a life of experimentation.
But because an animal is born into lab life, does that mean that we should sentence them to such a life? There could be an awesome pet born into that less-than-stellar existence and no one could ever know, and it would have things performed on it that could ruin-or kill- that animal. And just because their basic needs are met, is that REALLY a life? Is prison life really life, or just an existence?
What set me on the other side of the fence in this was sometimes; animals that are tested on are tested for the most mundane things. Master’s Degree Studies, Eye motion, electrical impulses in the brain, sometimes just to have a living thing to test in situations. Just to fuck around.
How is that any different than the neighbor kid tying a firecracker to a cat’s tail?
They’re doing it for the same results- just to see what will happen.
The only difference is that one of them has a degree and one doesn’t. There’s a certain kind of disjointedness, a lack of compassion when it comes to injuring animals on purpose. Sometimes we have to teach compassion. Sometimes we just have it in us from the get-go. And some people learn to suppress it.
I guess what I am getting at is pretty simple. Injuring animals in any form- from kicking strays to testing on monkeys- is inherently wrong in my book. And there will be a special time in purgatory for people who purposely injure animals. Even though the testing might benefit humans- as Pepper’s testing ultimately did- there’s still the idea that they are cruelly manipulating the lives of lesser creatures, and last I check that wasn’t a part of God’s master plan. We were meant to be Stewards of the lands and its creatures, not its masters.

out of the wild…

I don’t normally watch reality tv. I find it to be a waste of my brain energy- people at each other’s throats with scripted lines and obnoxious drama. I fucking HATE drama.

 The only reality shows I can seem to tolerate are the ones on the History channel and Discovery. I think it is because they don’t focus on drama, but rather situations that people are in, or a common goal.

There are some on these channels that DO focus on drama and it totally ruins the show for me. I don’t watch Ax Men, or Greatest Catch.

 Anyway, the one I am totally hooked on is Out of the Wild, on Discovery. It’s been on for the past 6 weeks or so and I find it to be really entertaining. I tune in every Tuesday at 10 pm to watch it, and I record it if I can’t.

 It’s pretty basic. 9 people are dropped off in the middle of bumfuck nowhere in Alaska at the end of Fall. All they do is follow the map given to them, and follow their schedule- Hike a pre-determined course to a shelter, stay for 3 days, and move on to the next shelter. They carry all their supplies on their back, hunt or scavenge all their food. There is no prize money, and they don’t know where the end of their trip is. It’s all about making ends meet and making it out in one piece- and knowing you can do it.

 Each person also carries a GPS emergency locator. When they’re done, ready to give up, want to go no further, they press that button- and a Helicopter comes and takes them away.

 So far, four have left.

One left the first episode- She was older and was afraid that the trip would kill her.

Two guys left on the third episode- One was a backcountry fisherman wanting to test his skills and limits and the team relying on him too much,and the other guy (a Salesman of some sort) realized he couldn’t hack it.

They went a few episodes without losing anyone, but just two episodes ago Dan- a cop from Jersey- just gave up. He was in great health, doing well and a major player… and I think he just sunk into a depression and didn’t let anyone know. By the time anyone realized he was in a funk, he had already Pressed the Button.

 I like that there’s a strong dynamic between the remaining team members- they all understand that each one of them is there to survive and help out, and no one’s being a douche. And best of all- there is like, NO drama. The only drama is what the environment presents to them. And in Alaska with the onset of winter at your heels- that’s a lot of fucking drama.

 Lately, everyone on the team is starting to fall apart. They’re not eating enough calories to sustain their rigorous activity. The meals they catch are meager- a duck a day if they’re lucky, maybe a ptarmigan- then they have to split it between the 5 of them. So it’s weird to see these people slowly starving, lacking proper nutrition, wrecking themselves… one girl- Carolyn- is actually losing the will to live and the others are fighting to keep her plugging along.

 I think, ultimately- I enjoy the show because it’s just normal, everyday people in a really shitty situation trying to make their way out of it -and their will being the only thing keeping them from kicking the bucket. I feel I’m a bit more prepared for survival situations, so if they’re just scraping by in Alaska, I’ll do a hell of a lot better in California.

Woogidee!

So… My Memorial day wasn’t eventful.

Okay, well, that’s not entirely true.
It had events that happened in it, but nothing I will remember twenty years from now and go “remember when…?”

Okay that’s not true either.
I did have an event this past weekend where I will remember twenty years from now.
But it will be more like… “Remember when we went to the Forebay for Memorial weekend with Phil and the boat? Yeah, That Sucked.”

Friday was fun. We started with having an assload of beer left over from the Memorial Barbecue last Sunday, so we decided to knock back a few and my BIL invited over some friends. A Game of Beer Pong and Beer Baseball later and they started nut-punching…  We bought songs for Rock Band and played Five Star for a good while too, but once one of the goobers couldn’t hold down his cheese balls (or the beer they were floating in), we called it a night and sent them all home.

Saturday I did some volunteer work for HDOG and had a good time- we were stuffing gift bags with food samples for the big event this Saturday. Then we did a spot of shopping for our Trip to the Forebay.

Bathing suits make me mad. And it’s not because of my fat bum. It’s just ridiculous to pay $70 for a swimsuit top that I will wear three months out of the year. Even if I wear it into the next swimming season, I’m still not buying a full-on swimsuit for the cost of a fucking bridesmaid dress.

But whatever.

I did find a nice Paul Frank swimsuit for like $20… kinda feel bad that the store’s going out of business, but they made my search both easy and fruitful. 
I also picked up a brand-new Danzig Classic Skull tee in a YOUTH LARGE! For like, $3. Mega-Score.

So we want to get a good spot at a no-reserve site on the Forebay. Okay. Cool. We’ll wake up at 4 am and cruise out. No problem… you know, unless you don’t go to bed until after midnight.

So waking up sucked ass.

We get there… and when they say PRIMITIVE sites, they mean “pick a spot wherever you want, and don’t start shit with your neighbors- and by the way, here’s a hole to poop in.”
 I stayed in the truck and slept, while Rudy the Trooper put up the tent.

And let us not forget the 35 MPH winds.
How CAN we?!

It did not let up. The winds killed any chance of us not only going out on the lake, but any chance of me going into the water or even putting on my suit to get my pasty white legs to stop glowing in the dark. It was beautiful and warm- it was the wind that ruined everything.

And since we had pitched a tent, we were pretty determined to stay the night.
Rudy originally wanted to do night fishing, but it really came down to…
Well, if we had to leave home to save our asses (say, a Zombie Apocalypse…?)  we wouldn’t have the choice of holding out for nice weather. Dig?
We were pretty lucky that we brought our small tent- it didn’t get beat around like the larger tents did. We used the truck as a windbreak and called it a night at 10 PM.

So the wind shoved our tent around all night. I swear it was going to tear a hole right through. I gotta hand it to that little Domie, he held on good and fast.

IN the morning, there was not cooking, no breakfast, just the breaking of camp and hauling of ass back home to recover. My ass is beat.
When neighbors asked us when we did this weekend, the simply shook their heads. “I went camping there Once…” they all say,  “and I’ll never do it again.”

Now, I don’t want to complain.
It was fun, and the camping wasn’t THAT bad.
It was JUST THE WIND.
I hated that wind…
I will never complain about wind again, unless it tries to knock me on my ass.

ol’ skool bloggin’.

look what i found.

in a file dated january fifth of this year- i wrote a blog entry… on motherfucking paper.

this should aptly show my desire to blog combined with my inability to do so.

also note the 2nd grade handwriting.

No seriously, what have you been doing?

I thought about it a bit since I made my return post. What REALLY have I been up to? Like… as much as I love blogging- and I do- what the heck have I been up to that made me just up and QUIT for almost 6 months?

And it’s really, honestly… just been work.

And not even like CRAZY work, just working hard at work, cracking the whip on myself and then just being too wiped out to do anything but walk the dog and watch Squidbillies when I came home.

See, becuase we launched a new platform. If you click on the Rocky Mountain Decor link to the right, you’ll be taken to our home page. Almost every graphic on that page has been made by me. Dive deeper into the site, and a lot of those images? Me too. I have spent months creating those images- since shortly after Christmas until about two weeks ago.

So I’m really proud of myself. But I feel poopy that I had to set aside one of the things that made me happy to make ends meet.

To be honest I’ve had to do that alot in the past six months. Allie Gator has been gathering dust in the garage.  Cash has regressed in leash manners a bit. I havent even been DRAWING consistently until about last week.

So, ultimately… I lost myself for a while. But now that what was dragging me away has released me… I am able to enjoy my life again. Thank god, becuase I was worried I was…

…

getting old.

Cash is 3!

My goofy bully boy is three years old!

Three years ago Cash was born to a former co-worker’s male and female. Cash’s dad was Diesel, and was a beast of a dog- Cash looks just like him. Cash’s mother was Little Girl, a white dog… perhaps some American Bulldog in her line. Cash had twelve other brothers and sisters. My coworker was overwhelmed by the amount of puppies and struggled to sell them. Her and I struck a deal- and for$150 she gave me the pup of her choice on Labor day.

I remember a few days after getting him, she asked “Has he sang yet?” and I said no. “He will…” and that is all she said.

I now know what she meant- he yodels like Chewbacca on helium.

I really lucked out when I got an untested dog from a Backyard Breeder. Cash could have been a disaster, but Rudy and I have worked hard to make him a great dog with solid rules, positive training and constant companionship.

In his three years he’s done a lot of things.

He passed his basic obedience class at the SPCA. He’s been temperment tested. I’m plan on him passing his CGC at the end of this month. He’s been an ambassador to the breed at the Christmas Parade. He’s also had his ass handed to him by a golden retriever, a dalmation and a border collie. He’s eaten an aluminum can, and chewed through a leash. He’s broken out of his kennel so many times we’ve  had to reinforce the base with wire mesh. He’s a stuffie murderer, Carved a pumpkin, and been my best pal.

He’s my behbey. Maybe someday I’ll squeeze out a kid, but for right now, Cash is my joy and I love him to pieces.

Sometimes I wonder if his brothers and sisters wound up as lucky as him- are they alive? Are they treated well? Are they living on the end of a chain, or the lap of luxury? Do they fight for their meals, or do they merely have to wait for them to be doled out?

Rudy said not to think that way- it will make Cash cry.

Happy Birthday, Oobie. Steak for dinner and a new toy… we might even go camping this weekend!

Star fuckin’ trek.

A long time ago… I gushed about Star Trek and how cool it was gonna be.

And then they delayed the release for fucking SIX MONTHS.It crushed me, but I didn’t think it worthy to bitch over.

But when I started seeing Ads again, I was amped… all over again. I saw it opening weekend.

Geek-o, right?

You fucking betcha. I fucking geeked out HARDCORE.

So… strangely enough… I craved to talked and gush and coo and rave about it. But I didn’t know anyone I could do it with. Rudy thought it was cool, but not THAT cool. So I can’t go all into how shit was and how it should be, and all the gimmicks and nuances… He doesn’t really care.

But I can do it here.

Let me notify you… THERE ARE SPOLERS, okay!? Not necessarily plot spoilers, but I do talk about certain scenes… so If you haven’t seen it- don’t read, or then go see it and then come back.

So… WHERE DO I FUCKING START!?

*squee!*

I love every single casting choice JJ picked for the new crew. Everything is spot-on. And WOW! The actors are on it too. They worked hard to bring back the old nuances while giving new life to these characters. I really enjoyed watching them act.

Sulu is serious as all get out and I had no issue looking past that Harold stigma. Hearing the line that he was a fencer brought a huge smirk to my face- as the previous Sulu (George Takei) is quite a “sword fighter”.

Chekov is so cyoot! They picked the right actor for him-Anton Yelchin…yes?  He’s an adorable little dude. I really liked when he was running through the ship shouing “I KIN DO DIS!” as he made his way to the transporter room.

My Only qualm is with Uhura. She just seemed too girly. And dammit woman, you’re ON POST, stay the fuck ON THE BRIDGE! they really used her alot- being the only chick. I mean-sure she’s cute… and she’s good at what she does… but flighty as all get-out.

Who’s next… Scotty!  I lub Simon Pegg. He’s a cheeky fellow.  I really wish they had worked him in earlier in the story, but the fact he was ther is just fine with me. Gave some much needed comic relief at the right time. NEXT TIME, there will be more of him. At least, there better be.

Eomer in Space! McCoy has always been my favorite. I liked his moral compass and his humourous complaining- just like me!  Now that KARL URBAN is McCoy… I can drool wholeheatredly over the Space Doc without being ragged on for liking a creepy-looking old man. I tell you, I was so bummed when DeForest Kelley died. Does the doc get to sake his shirt off at all? Just asking.

God fucking smiled down on Chris Pine, I tell you what. I don’t think anyone could have done a Kirk like this guy did. I mean, look at that screen cap… HE’S FUCKING KIRK. Mind you… I’m not a Kirk fan. He’s a jerk. But Chris Pine made the bastard eneraring. Turned him from a womanizing douche into a smart prick with too much time on his hands.

Where to start with Zachary Quinto’s Spock… I’m jsut enthralled. I think he did the best job. Mixed tried-and-true Spock mannerisms with an intensity Nimoy never displayed… it is just astounding. I’m always a huge fan of mentally conflicted characters and Quinto’s Spock is the cream of the crop. I’m actually a teenyweeny bit obsessed right now, but I’m sure it will wash over.

If I have any complaints… I’m completely boggled by the Spock/Uhura thing. Spock isn’t supposed to be able to fall in love! And even more so, with a human?! Talk about Confliction! It irked me. It still does. I want to know where that’s gonna go. Snarf.

And finally- what bugs me the most?  Everything that I loved about the original is null and void. The original actors have ceased to be their characters- Like it or not, they have passed the torch. I hope these guys fulfill their characters. they’ve already led me one… keep it up, please.

So that’s my tidy roll-down of Star Trek. Yeah, I’m a total geek, thanx. I know.