Author: Shelly

Pets

Unintended Training

Shelly

I’m not a fan of recreational barkers, so it is a good thing that Miss Brown is a fairly quiet dog. Indoors, she only barks for good reason, and even then, it’s just one or two warning barks. When she barks outside, it’s always because she’s seen another dog or a critter. When that happens, I give her one bark. On the second, I tell her to hush. If there is a third, I immediately bring her inside. The intended lesson is that recreational barking is not in her best interests, if she wants to remain outdoors.

Well, yesterday afternoon, Harriet was hanging out on the patio, basking in the sun. I was sitting inside the door, on the couch, binding a book, when I heard her make her little let-me-in “Yip.” I was in the middle of a stitch, so I didn’t look up immediately, but I thought it was odd that she’d be wanting back inside so soon. She usually basks for an hour or so when the weather is good. When I let her in, I saw that one of my neighbors was out with his two Pugs.

Somehow, Harriet seems to have taken the “recreational barking is Not Allowed” rule and turned it into the “I’d better go inside if there are other dogs out” rule. I’m okay with that, I think, but it’s not exactly the lesson I was trying to teach her.

Uncategorized

Farewell to Lloyd Alexander

Shelly

Lloyd Alexander died last week. He was one of my favorite childhood writers, one of the very few who did fantasy well. I first read the Chronicles of Prydain at about the same time as I discovered the books of CS Lewis, Madeleine L’Engle, and Lucy Boston.

His final book should be coming out this summer. It won’t get the press that the new Harry Potter book will receive, but it will, I’m sure, be the better of the two. And I say that as a huge Harry Potter fan.

Crankypantsing

It’s Random Monday

Shelly

1. My new computer will be here on Thursday, assuming that FedEx can find my apartment in a timely manner.

2. Traffic on Hwy45, between B-ton and Unionville is kind of crazy. And by crazy, I mean that the drivers might actually be legit insane.

3. In a fit of collaging mania, I finished the Balancing Equations art journal over the weekend. It has about 20 two-page spreads, in all, so it’s not a huge journal. It’s a nice size, though, so I think I’ll probably make the next one in the same basic dimensions and with the same number of pages. If everything goes well (see #1), I should have scans by Friday or Saturday.

4. I hate my bank. I tried to make an ATM deposit this morning, but they were out of envelopes at one of the main branches. Hrmf. I could see if it were a stand-alone ATM, because those are more difficult for them to keep an eye on. An ATM that is actually attached to a bank ought to be monitored more closely than that, though.

5. Mr. Upstairs has taken to sleeping all day long, and watching television at night. I’m sure you can just imagine how, um, happy this makes me. And by happy, I mean possessed of an aneurysm-inducing level of irritation. Also, hemorrhaging ear drums. I hate having to complain to the management folks about him, and I really don’t want to get someone evicted for being an asswagon, but I prefer my brain and ears to be aneurysm and hemorrhage free, thankyouverymuch.

6. Speaking of Mr. Upstairs, he has now added a couple of random notes to his keyboard scales. Not the same random notes two scales in a row, mind you, and I’m not sure the extemporizing is a good idea, but it does make for a bit of variety. I think he should stop listening to the jazz music channel, though, because it appears to be giving him the strange notion that he is some sort of jazz musician.

7. Via Andy, Bush has a bald head fetish. Also, a turkey fetish. Kink one is okay, but kink 2, not so much.

8. Also via Andy, YMCA. I’ve seen this one before, but had forgotten about it.

9. I got polled by the CBS Evening News. It was a surprisingly thorough–taking about 30 minutes. Most of the questions were about immigration, with some about Chimpy McFlightsuit and his merry band of thugs. Polls are misleading, and if you take enough of them, you start to see how easily they can be manipulated. Still, I can’t help but appreciate that someone actually asked my random opinion on the world events. The results of the poll will be on the CBS Evening News Wednesday night, and on the CBS and New York Times websites Thursday morning.

Crankypantsing

It Is Done

Shelly

Mr. Computational Device has been ordered. Thankfully, I was able to find one without Vista pre-loaded on it. Ugh. Now, all I have to do is play the waiting game and cross my fingers that UPS/FedEx doesn’t screw up.

I stopped for coffee this morning, so I’m vibrating. For some reason, the coffee I make at home, even when it’s extra strong, doesn’t do this to me. Hmmm.

And that is the boring, boring, boring extent of my Friday morning news update.

Art

Teaser

Shelly

I’m up to ten new two-page spreads in the Equations art journal, which means I’m about 3/4 done with it. Last weekend, I stumbled across a most excellent book of Victorian poetry–nice and flowery and emotive–and I’m using fragments from it. Also, more paper boats, because some of the poems deal with adventures on the high seas. No pirates, alas.

When I started working in this journal, I thought it would visually be similar to the hemp bound journal. Not so much, it turns out. The first few pages started off in that vein, but it quickly changed direction. For one thing, there is more color (pink, even!), some window cut-outs, and generally less clutter. The pages are more spare and formal, which is as it should be, considering the overall theme.

Anyway, neener-neener! You can’t see any of it until next week, when Mr. Computational Device arrives. Actually, it may be more like next weekend, because it will take me awhile to get it set up.

Uncategorized

Instant Review: Survivorman

Shelly

I’m addicted to Survivorman. At first, I was “meh” about it, thinking that it wasn’t very impressive to be dumped in the middle of the desert with a camera crew. Then, I realized, there was no camera crew. Les Stroud, Survivorman himself, is dropped at various locations with a minimum of supplies and given seven days to find his way back to civilization. He packs all the camera equipment and does all the filming himself.

I’m fascinated by it. In the boreal forest episode, he had a handful of cashews and beef jerky, one match, and a multi-tool. That’s it. Sometimes, he has a wrecked vehicle he can scavenge for supplies (e.g. a bicycle or snow mobile), but it’s still pretty damned impressive and entertaining, especially when you remember that he’s filming and lugging camera equipment around the whole time, too!

Pets

Computer Update

Shelly

Still no computer, but slightly less cranky, onna counta I think I’ve figured out what to do, computer-wise. Instead of getting a bare bones kit, I’m just going to get a basic machine. It doesn’t have a DVD burner or a ton of RAM or a card reader, but I’ve already got those things, and I know how to install them (blindfolded and in my sleep, even). I’m also going to get an external drive case, so I can use (and hot-swap) my current hard drives without having to actually install them. It’ll end up being a money saver, because a box with room for a second hard drive will cost more than the price of the hard drive case.

Anyway, I’m planning on ordering it tomorrow, so it should be here sometime next week. Yay!

Also, I am cat sitting Saturday-Wednesday, which should be interesting. It’s a 2x/day drive-by job, not board or live-in, but it’s on my side of town, so it should be pretty easy to do, schedule-wise. I went over to meet the cats a couple of weekends ago, and the male is a total mush. It made me miss my big-headed orange boy. The female is a bit stand-offish, which is typical of cats. She’s a senior, and will require pilling, which should be fun. After months on end of pilling Rory, though, I think I’m well qualified in the cat pilling department!

Crankypantsing, Meta

Jeenyous

Shelly

Yahoo periodically tags mail from its own groups as “bulk.” This means that if you subscribe to any Yahoo groups, there is a non-negligible chance that some of your mail is getting snagged by your spam filter. This is not a new phenomenon, but I was reminded of it while doing a quick perusal of my trash bin prior to emptying it, and I thought I’d take a moment to complain to a bunch of folks who couldn’t care less and couldn’t fix the problem even if they wanted to. Why? Well, that’s the kind of day I’m having, so I thought I’d share the love.

Hugs n’ kisses,
Miss CrankyPants