I know this is what old people do, but here's the message I just sent to the Animal Planet Channel, regarding something I just saw on their 100 percent not funny "World's Funniest Animals" show while channel surfing:
I was just watching your "Funniest Animals" program, and the show was having a great big laugh at video of a little white dwarf hamster doing repeated flips. Ha! Hilarious!
Except of course that some dwarf hamsters do this not for fun or amusement, but because they suffer from a genetic disorder. Most of them don't live long, as they become exhausted by their involuntary flipping and eventually die from compromised immune systems.
I wouldn't expect more sensitivity from a generic network program, but you are Animal Planet. You might be the one channel where one might expect a little sympathy towards animals.
I'm disgusted and saddened.
Poor little guy. He was just flipping, about every three seconds. Imagine trying to walk around or eat or lick your little hamster balls or whatever. How can you live your life when every few seconds, you do a backflip?
Fucking Animal Planet.
Showing posts with label internet crap. Show all posts
Showing posts with label internet crap. Show all posts
March 30, 2006
March 25, 2006
Working weekend
Well, we're going to see just how much energy I have.
I shot a wedding yesterday here in Dallas.
I'm about to drive down to Austin this morning, shoot a LONG wedding there, and then come back in the wee hours.
I've been limping around like Verbal Kint but otherwise am feeling okay. I think I feel better when I'm working a wedding. Again, with the exercise. Also, today is the aniversary of the day my father died, which is always kind of a weird day for me, but never more than this year when it suddenly feels a little more immediate. Working will hopefully be a good distraction.
So there it is. Wish me luck, and have a great weekend.
I shot a wedding yesterday here in Dallas.
I'm about to drive down to Austin this morning, shoot a LONG wedding there, and then come back in the wee hours.
I've been limping around like Verbal Kint but otherwise am feeling okay. I think I feel better when I'm working a wedding. Again, with the exercise. Also, today is the aniversary of the day my father died, which is always kind of a weird day for me, but never more than this year when it suddenly feels a little more immediate. Working will hopefully be a good distraction.
So there it is. Wish me luck, and have a great weekend.
March 16, 2006
Why does mutism happen to exactly the wrong people?
I received an email from one of the screeching harpies that recently went to so much trouble to boldly (ie. anonymously at first) start shit with me for taking donations on my site. The subject line said simply "Dare ya".
The body of the message contained a link, to this donation page by a special needs caretaker looking for help in purchasing portable communication devices for poor kids who need them.
At first I had no idea if said harpy was trying to bury the hatchet by asking me to help someone who was in the same situation as Schuyler. When I went to her page, however, it became clear that once again, even in the guise of helping someone in need, she was taking another opportunity to be hateful.
Okay, so a few things I'd like to say about this.
1) I'd LOVE it if the readers of my blog were to be responsible for putting this particular donor request over the top and make this happen. Imagine if the friends of Schuyler out there donated (in her name if you feel like feeding my bloated ego) enough to cover the cost of these devices before the end of the night? (Or tomorrow night, since Blogger appears to be having Issues this evening.)
2) My only hesitation here is that the devices that they are trying to buy, while certainly affordable and perhaps appropriate for the kids in question, are made by a company whose product line left us pretty underwhelmed when we were testing augmentative alternative communication devices with Schuyler last year. Again, perhaps they are being purchased for kids who are so severely affected that they won't ever need to progress to a more advanced system. If not, however, this particular device won't (in my admittedly underinformed opinion) provide a very significant long-term solution, and that's an important part of investing in an AAC device, regardless of the cost.
If you'd like an alternative donation option, you might try contacting the Prentke Romich Company (makers of the Big Box of Words) and let them know that you are interested in helping either a school or an individual family that is trying to purchase a similar device. They have a whole division dedicated to funding and would almost certainly be able to point you in the right direction. PRC is the AAC device of choice of a lot of programs, including the amazing cyborg class that Schuyler is a part of here in North Dallas. If you help someone who's trying to get a PRC box, you'll be certain that you are putting your money into a powerful tool.
3) Why someone would be so hateful as to suggest that I wouldn't be willing to help another parent in the same situation as myself is beyond me, particularly if they were trying to get me to lend a hand? Is the idea that a person who donates to another kid's device might not send money to greedy me and my greedy kid? News flash, genius. Schuyler already has one. "Charitable blackmail"? What the fuck?
Yeah, she must be a real delight to come home to every night.
Anyway, if you feel so inclined, go make a donation, either to this donor request or to PRC. I think it would be cool if you did it in Schuyler's name, but again, that's just me being me.
The body of the message contained a link, to this donation page by a special needs caretaker looking for help in purchasing portable communication devices for poor kids who need them.
At first I had no idea if said harpy was trying to bury the hatchet by asking me to help someone who was in the same situation as Schuyler. When I went to her page, however, it became clear that once again, even in the guise of helping someone in need, she was taking another opportunity to be hateful.
The communication devices in question should sound familiar, no? So I cackled and forwarded the link to an Internet Titan who is adept at asking for money from his readers, and we'll see if he's interested in doing that when it doesn't directly benefit him and his. One would think someone who has been so blessed by the generous nature of his readers might want to give back. Ah, charitable blackmail. A win-win situation.
Okay, so a few things I'd like to say about this.
1) I'd LOVE it if the readers of my blog were to be responsible for putting this particular donor request over the top and make this happen. Imagine if the friends of Schuyler out there donated (in her name if you feel like feeding my bloated ego) enough to cover the cost of these devices before the end of the night? (Or tomorrow night, since Blogger appears to be having Issues this evening.)
2) My only hesitation here is that the devices that they are trying to buy, while certainly affordable and perhaps appropriate for the kids in question, are made by a company whose product line left us pretty underwhelmed when we were testing augmentative alternative communication devices with Schuyler last year. Again, perhaps they are being purchased for kids who are so severely affected that they won't ever need to progress to a more advanced system. If not, however, this particular device won't (in my admittedly underinformed opinion) provide a very significant long-term solution, and that's an important part of investing in an AAC device, regardless of the cost.
If you'd like an alternative donation option, you might try contacting the Prentke Romich Company (makers of the Big Box of Words) and let them know that you are interested in helping either a school or an individual family that is trying to purchase a similar device. They have a whole division dedicated to funding and would almost certainly be able to point you in the right direction. PRC is the AAC device of choice of a lot of programs, including the amazing cyborg class that Schuyler is a part of here in North Dallas. If you help someone who's trying to get a PRC box, you'll be certain that you are putting your money into a powerful tool.
3) Why someone would be so hateful as to suggest that I wouldn't be willing to help another parent in the same situation as myself is beyond me, particularly if they were trying to get me to lend a hand? Is the idea that a person who donates to another kid's device might not send money to greedy me and my greedy kid? News flash, genius. Schuyler already has one. "Charitable blackmail"? What the fuck?
Yeah, she must be a real delight to come home to every night.
Anyway, if you feel so inclined, go make a donation, either to this donor request or to PRC. I think it would be cool if you did it in Schuyler's name, but again, that's just me being me.
March 1, 2006
Mystery Monster Soap
First, a little business. If you live in California and recently sent Schuyler some cool Tyrannosaurus soap, please drop me a line so I can thank you properly. I have no idea who sent it.
It's been an interesting two days. After giving my two weeks notice at The Monolith, I came home and celebrated by feeding the ducks with Schuyler and Julie underneath a breathtaking sunset. We all then went out for dinner and celebrated my new job. (Once again, Schuyler ordered her own food.)
I can't tell you how excited I am about this new job. Part of it comes from being about set with The Monolith. It's not a bad job, and I've enjoyed it for the most part, particularly in Austin. But the schedule was becoming increasingly inflexible and was making it hard to do freelance photography work. It also required me to be on my feet for about eight hours a day, which was beginning to become difficult. Tonight was brutal, and as I sit here writing this, my dogs are still barking, as those yokels are fond of saying.
But I'm primarily excited about going to work at an actual career-path gig as a writer and communications guy. (That's what the job description says, "Communications Guy". No, it doesn't really. It would be cool if it did, though. I'd get cards made up.) The person I'll be working for seems like a nice guy who isn't at all interested in micromanaging me, which will be a welcome change. The hours are much better, about half the time I work now with a slight increase in pay, and good benefits. I'll even get to use a Mac.
And I get to sit down. At this precise moment in time, that might actually sound like the sweetest part to me.
It's been an interesting two days. After giving my two weeks notice at The Monolith, I came home and celebrated by feeding the ducks with Schuyler and Julie underneath a breathtaking sunset. We all then went out for dinner and celebrated my new job. (Once again, Schuyler ordered her own food.)
I can't tell you how excited I am about this new job. Part of it comes from being about set with The Monolith. It's not a bad job, and I've enjoyed it for the most part, particularly in Austin. But the schedule was becoming increasingly inflexible and was making it hard to do freelance photography work. It also required me to be on my feet for about eight hours a day, which was beginning to become difficult. Tonight was brutal, and as I sit here writing this, my dogs are still barking, as those yokels are fond of saying.
But I'm primarily excited about going to work at an actual career-path gig as a writer and communications guy. (That's what the job description says, "Communications Guy". No, it doesn't really. It would be cool if it did, though. I'd get cards made up.) The person I'll be working for seems like a nice guy who isn't at all interested in micromanaging me, which will be a welcome change. The hours are much better, about half the time I work now with a slight increase in pay, and good benefits. I'll even get to use a Mac.
And I get to sit down. At this precise moment in time, that might actually sound like the sweetest part to me.
February 23, 2006
Well, I suppose it was inevitable...
I know, I said I'd never do it. I'd never give in to the blog craze. All the cool kids were doing it, but I was, you now, Too Cool. Cooler than the cool kids.
The word itself sounded like something my pug might cough up. "Blog." Like cell phones and those funny spinning hubcaps, blogs were new-fangled and scary, not for an old man like myself. And all the good names were taken already, most frustratingly by people who posted one lame entry and then went merrily on their way, never to return.
It was getting harder, however, to post big long entries over at Darn Tootin when I wasn't having big long things happen in my life. (That sounded dirty, but let's move along.) I liked the idea of being able to post short entries without having to make them fit into some larger structure. I love my journal, and I like the idea of being able to write actual essay-type entries over there when the mood strikes me, without any more of those squashy, "here's a bunch of random crap" entries.
So I'm splitting things up a bit, which will hopefully result in better journal entries over there and more entertaining short bits here. As the title of the blog suggests, I anticipate a large percentage of my posts here to be about Schuyler. If that's not your thing, I totally understand, although honestly, I can't imagine you'd be reading this in the first place if you weren't.
(If you are new to my stuff, you really should go read up at Darn Tootin. All shall be revealed there.)
The coolest thing of all? I'm posting this from my flickr page, where it will automatically throw in the photo of my choice. Why didn't someone tell me how easy this is? I feel like everyone's been watching me hand-code my big ugly journal entries like a caveman and snickering behind my back.
I'll tweak all this some more tomorrow. Schuyler will be home all day, as she is sick. Julie called me at work to tell me that Schuyler had gotten extravagantly ill on the way home from school.
"Was it bad?" I asked.
"She had mixed fruit at school," Julie replied.
I could tell from her tone that she had acquired that information the hard way.
The word itself sounded like something my pug might cough up. "Blog." Like cell phones and those funny spinning hubcaps, blogs were new-fangled and scary, not for an old man like myself. And all the good names were taken already, most frustratingly by people who posted one lame entry and then went merrily on their way, never to return.
It was getting harder, however, to post big long entries over at Darn Tootin when I wasn't having big long things happen in my life. (That sounded dirty, but let's move along.) I liked the idea of being able to post short entries without having to make them fit into some larger structure. I love my journal, and I like the idea of being able to write actual essay-type entries over there when the mood strikes me, without any more of those squashy, "here's a bunch of random crap" entries.
So I'm splitting things up a bit, which will hopefully result in better journal entries over there and more entertaining short bits here. As the title of the blog suggests, I anticipate a large percentage of my posts here to be about Schuyler. If that's not your thing, I totally understand, although honestly, I can't imagine you'd be reading this in the first place if you weren't.
(If you are new to my stuff, you really should go read up at Darn Tootin. All shall be revealed there.)
The coolest thing of all? I'm posting this from my flickr page, where it will automatically throw in the photo of my choice. Why didn't someone tell me how easy this is? I feel like everyone's been watching me hand-code my big ugly journal entries like a caveman and snickering behind my back.
I'll tweak all this some more tomorrow. Schuyler will be home all day, as she is sick. Julie called me at work to tell me that Schuyler had gotten extravagantly ill on the way home from school.
"Was it bad?" I asked.
"She had mixed fruit at school," Julie replied.
I could tell from her tone that she had acquired that information the hard way.
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