Sometimes something truly inspired comes along. This isn’t it. But, its worth two minutes of your life. (Have the sound on)

The Russo family. And, they got a Hahn’s Macaw, the smallest of the macaws. Which are known for being a touch nippy, and as having the full macaw bratty personality in a small package. I like Hahn’s – even though I’ve only gotten to play with very young members of the breed.

Well, this blog has been fluff for some time – and probably will be for the foreseeable future. However, I’m still reading lots of “serious” blogs, and pondering various things…. which is mostly resulting in noticing how many people take things way, way too seriously.

Over at Groundhog day, Dave Rogers has an interesting post, that I haven’t yet had time to digest in full. One little part did jump out at me though….

I would also be interested to hear Porter’s thoughts on how often people behave “rationally.” If people “always” acted “rationally” in their own “self-interest,” think I think it’s reasonable to say that something like state lotteries wouldn’t even exist. Alcoholism wouldn’t be a problem. Our murder rate would be miniscule. Obesity would be non-existent, and there wouldn’t be a need for psychotherapy or a market for self-help books. We’d all have “maximized” our “happiness” already!

Almost everything he cites as an example of “rational” “self interest” is purely a matter of opinion. Like obesity – I’m fat. I know I’m fat. I CHOOSE to be fat. Its the rational choice. By being fat, I am indeed shortening my life – however, I’ll have a higher quality of life for what I live. I’m choosing more quality, and accepting less quantity.

You see, I did lose weight down to the ideal range for my height, and I maintained that weight for a bit over a year. I was miserable. I’m a child of the south. I like meat, and lots of it. I like it fried. What few vegetables I like, I like fried. When I was the ideal weight, I couldn’t eat anything that was worth eating. All I could eat was poor tasting garbage, and small amounts of it. I could rarely have a nice cold glass of sweet tea. It was sheer misery.

So I sat down, and I thought carefully about it. In the end, my decision became easy. Life is to be lived. Its not something to miserly hoard and dole out in carefully considered nuggets. Grab it by the horns, and hang on for the ride! So. I enjoy life now. I go on long walks. I play with my pets. I eat what I want to, when I want to, in the quantities I want to. I also ask myself, if I were to die today, would I be content with what I’ve done in my life? That is a YES. (Though I’m concerned about my birds…. they will live a long time, and life for birds as a pet is frequently not good).

And THAT, my friends, is the rational choice.

My bosses boss hates Apple. I’m not sure why, since he’s never even used an Apple. He has also been impressed by some of the things I can do “stock” with my little 12 inch powerbook. (I’m starting to jones bad for a new laptop too).

I like giving him little factoids like “Apple is up to a 17.6% market share for notebooks”. Or, (and this one I really enjoy) “Our dedicated Dell sales rep uses a Macintosh at home”.

Roasted Okra – gotta try this.

Looking at you!

Kermit, my blue crown conure, turns 1 today. She was hatched on this day last year! Woohoo! Go Kermit! She is off to an excellent start to her day, having rode around on my shoulder this morning, and leaving me a “present” on the back of my shirt. That didn’t get noticed until I got to work, and Charlene told me – who just happens to be the most attractive woman at Piolax by FAR.

So, thats how Kermit started her hatch day – saying thank you to me for her first year of care by taking a big old shit on my back first thing in the morning. Aren’t pets wonderful? /wink

Sport, Looking waaaay too comfortable

Well, Sport passed away today. Or, more accurately, I had her put to sleep. Even at the time of this picture, taken 3 months ago to the day, she was showing signs of her extreme age. She was around 18 years of age, and had been deaf + senile for the past few months. This morning she couldn’t lift her back legs well enough to scratch herself. A dog that can’t scratch has lost much of its quality of life, in my opinion. Especially combined with her deafness, and senility.

So, I had her put to sleep. I thought about doing it myself. A bullet to the back of her head, coming totally unexpectedly, would have been quicker, and to her, more peaceful than having a stranger hunt around for a vein, and then sticking a needle in her leg.

I’m not sure why I didn’t do it that way. It would have been harder for me, but more respectful to her. Oh, I’ve got excuses. My Glock hasn’t been cleaned in forever, and last time I shot it, actually jammed several times. Thats almost unheard of for a Glock. I need to clean it. An unreliable tool is a bad tool. I WILL clean it now. But, thats an excuse.

A better excuse for not using the shotgun is that I didn’t even think about it. That means I need to get it out and shoot it some. A tool unthought of is a tool that you don’t have.

But, in the end, I t ook the easy choice, and abdicated my responsibility simply because it was easier. So I carried her to the vet, and helped restrain her while they killed her. Then I brought her home, and buried her down on my parents property. Dad helped me finish out her grave. It bothered him more than I expected, I think because Sport was one of his last clear links to his late mama.

I’m not sure what I think of myself though, for not handling the problem myself. It was a sign of weakness.

Well, I’ve mentioned Dirty Microbe T-shirts before, but it looks like the place isn’t in business, per se. The web site is open, and still taking orders, but no orders are shipping. This is being talked about on several forums, and multiple blogs. The phone numbers associated with the site have been disconnected.

Its a shame too, because I really wanted those shirts.

Long story short…. DON’T ORDER FROM DIRTY MICROBE!

I am a total unrepentant macintosh software whore. I’ve just got to buy most programs that I see. If I stumble across a program that say, translates gibberish that you type in Navajo into Sanskrit, and its on sale for 24.98, down from 24.99, I’ll think, “hmm, I’ve wanted to learn both of those”. And then I’ll buy it.

That said, here are my “big four”. Programs that are almost always open on my desktop.

Iclip
Tinderbox
Marsedit
Netnewswire

I’ll probably blog about them sometime. Tinderbox in particular, since its such a powerful, odd, waaaaaay too expensive program.

Oh my. I thought I had read this as a child, but no such luck. I’m very happy that I’ve read it as an adult. I just love many things about the book (and strongly relate to the everpresent wordsnatcher, from the land of context).

Its full of delicious sentences like

For, while it was not quite square, it was definitely not round, and for its size it was larger than almost any other big package of smaller dimension that he’d ever seen.

Or, there is a which (most certainly not a witch) named Faintly Macabre. That’s a awesome name, which rolls around on the tongue with a nice rich taste.

Anyway, the book is by Norton Juster, and if you have never read it – well do so, no matter your age.

Well, I recently picked up a copy of the Zorcerer of Zo game, which is a very fascinating game indeed. Its about Fairy Tales. Specifically, role playing in Fairy Tales, as a Fairy Tale character. And, its very, very good.

One thing I discovered on a web forum devoted to the game, was a link to a very entertaining web comic – No Rest for the Wicked. I highly recommend that you go read it, and stick with it into Chapter 2. Chapter one is rather dry, unfortunately. Its got its high points, but its overall somewhat dry. I do like the image of Puss in Boots (Perrault) stating “and these boots are made for walking..”

Its part of the homework I’m doing, for running a Zorcerer game. Another part is rereading old fairy tales. I’ve got the Narnia chronicles sitting on my nightstand, for example. One book that I just read, which I’ll post specifically about, is The Phantom Tollbooth. I had thought I had read it as a child, but nope, I hadn’t. I’m tempted to buy it and send to some of the parents I know with young kids. Its a damn good book.

“greasy second-rate gutbombs” I ran across this on the inet today. I’m going to have to remember that, and if I ever see a eating place called a greasy second-rat gutbomb -well, that means I *have* to eat there. I can’t think of many compliments that would be higher.