I've been joking lately that since I can't get a girlfried, I'd get a puppy. See, that way I have something that gives me love and affection in exchange for huge amounts of my time and money. Well, so it was that I got my little pup, Kethra. Yes, I did name her after my WoW character. You can all just save your "nerd" and "World of War-crack" comments, I haven't even kicked the game open in a couple months.

I got Kethra on Friday, and we've been getting along. She wakes me up about every two hours through the night, for no real reason as far as I can tell; she rarely needs to go out at night. She's had a few accidents in the apartment. And by "a few" I mean, "every time she gets out of my sight for more than six seconds." She's virtually attached to my ankles, and I don't know how she's going to handle me going to work, as she throws a fit whenever she's left alone. She just cries and cries and howls. She's definitely got a lot of Husky blood in her. She's got a Husky nose, a Husky tail, and Husky color markings. She'll be golden and white when her fur darkens up. The Corgi mix must have been her sire -- she's got the short little legs of that breed. She doesn't bark that much, usually just at me or a toy, but she's got all kinds of other vocalizations when she gets riled up. Which she does several times a day. She just rips around the apartment. She's very cute, but the 6 AM mornings are starting to get to me.

Feast your eyes on perfect cuteness.


It's probably the one floppy ear and one semi-erect ear that really make her adorable.

Labels: dog

Been doing some blog reading lately again. It's not easy, Keth's always under foot now, and I have to keep an eye on her, since she's not housetrained just yet (the only two places I can trust her not to do her business has been her bed and the couch, which is effectively her other bed).

But to the point: I either need to read more of Bill Whittle's work or less of it. His most recent essay, is, as usual excellent; to the point where I'm nearly in tears reading it (the merest suggestion of true heroism and reminders of where it has been found tends to moisten my eyes). I'd also like to recommend Melanie Phillips's Liberalism vs. Islamism, as it's a clear headed analysis of the current threat to the free world and why this is a threat. Or at least the current threat as far as I and my ilk tend to see it; there's plenty who'd disagree, I'm sure.

Something happens to me when I read great essays. They inspire me. I get fired up. I write things myself. In fact, this blog itself owes its very existance as much to Whittle's "Tribes" essay as to Sapph getting me somewhat inebriated and cajoling me into signing up. Hopefully soon I'll have the chance to get back to some of my actual demagogery and perhaps even explain what my blog title means, and how it could possibly be inspired by "Tribes."

Labels: demagogery, wolf within

Went to another Skillet concert last night with the cousins. The venue was a bit smaller than we expected, and the close walls made the reverb mighty bad (I like to be able to feel my music at a concert, but this was just ridiculous). However, the crowd was awesome; much better than the last concert. And so the band just took off with it. They kept doing things that you'd see in Guitar Hero. The guitarist played with the guitar behind his head, the front man flipped his bass around his body (which worked really well the first time, then sort of failed the second time when he tried to spin it around three revolutions). It was a terrific concert. We missed out on the first opening band, which may or may not have been a good thing. The second opening band, Decyfer Down, was pretty good though. Nice hard rock, but the acoustics of the venue made the singer hard to understand, so I'm hoping the CD turns out much better. Fall Out Boy's playing in our area again soon, and I wish I could make it to their concert, but with my monetary situation the way it is...Let me put it this way: I'm very saddened that I won't be able to hit the local Anime Con (it's the same weekend as my brother's wedding), but I'm relieved that I'll be able to keep the money it would cost to attend.

Labels: concerts

Well, the grades all came in on Monday. I did indeed graduate. In point of fact, I did much better in my math classes than I expected, or even hoped for. B- in both of them -- not bad at all considering that I had about a month-and-a-half's worth of homework not turned in. Now it's just a matter of waiting for them to mail my diploma(s) to me.

I'm terribly excited about getting my dog, so preparing for that takes a lot of time and effort. That said, I finally got Sapph to let me borrow his Ironclaw book, so I'm going to be taking a look at it to decide if I want to use Ironclaw for the rule system for the role-playing game I'm wanting to start up this summer. Conspiracy continues along; I'm taking the characters to Prague, and I'm planning a lot of excitement. But I've got quite a bit of preparation to do before I'll be ready for the session this Monday.

I'm also glad to be back at work. I'm settling down into it, and I'm not missing school at all. We're working on some website and database server migration we want to get accomplished this week. The only thing I wish I wasn't dealing with for work was the horrible gas prices. I about can't afford to go to work. I don't have my salary yet -- I need to talk to the boss about it yet. Hopefully I'll get the chance to do that soon.

I'm spending a lot of time looking for housing. I'd kind of like a house, but so far that's slow going. I'm not looking forward to spending the small fortune that I'm going to have to pay to keep up my apartment until my lease runs out, but I don't really have a choice. Maybe they'll let me sublet though. I've got a cousin who might be interested (she's in the opposite position I am in).

Anyhow, I'd better get back to work. With luck, Sapph'll do well with his final projects this week (I've been staying up to help him with them), so that we can get started on the new comic project. I've got high hopes for it so I'd better get off my backside and get on it. And then there's my own projects I need to work with. Whew! This is going to be some busy times.

Labels: gaming, life, school, work

Well, I did indeed get to go look at the puppies my Mom heard about. And...I laid claim to one. I'll be coming back home to pick her up around Memorial Day, so I've got to get busy and get everything I'm going to need. I'll have to go in and talk to my landlord about my lease too, since life would be better if I'm in Lincoln. Or at least they need to know that I'm getting a puppy.

I'll put a picture up as soon as I get them. I had to use my phone, so they're not the best (I can't believe I forgot my camera, bugger all). She's a cute little thing, pretty fuzzy right now, and just plump and happy looking. The puppies are a mix, of what we don't really know. The dam was a "husky-looking dog" and the father is either another husky-like dog or a corgi (or both; dogs have that thing where a litter of puppies can have more than one father). The mother was only about knee high, but that could just be short for a husky. The girl I picked is one of the biggest of the bunch (certainly the largest female), and more dominant, but I'm happy with that. What I didn't realize is that they're very white dogs (at least right now), with sandy colors. They're only about four weeks old and just starting on dry(-er) food and water, so they don't have their more permanent coats in yet. Looks like she'll have a really cute sandy-colored mask though. The puppies should end up being medium-sized dogs that look like big dogs and like to run. I'm excited as all get out. I think I'm going to name her Kethra, after my Tauren Warrior in WoW (I may have already mentioned this). They were very sleepy when we went to see them, so they would just nap in your arms, dreaming away.

The woman who took them in isn't a breeder, or official Rescue, or anything like that, but she's sort of an unofficial Rescue; this isn't the first time she's rescued dogs. She's put an enormous amount of effort into these puppies to take care of them right. At two weeks, a puppy not only needs bottle fed, but they actually can't go to the bathroom by themselves either, the mother has to stimulate that. So the poor woman had to do that job too, and now they're half paper-trained already. The woman has another couple dogs, and she thinks she's going to keep the runt of the litter (which is really cute and tiny). That gives the puppies a little more experience with other dogs, something I'm really glad for. She's one of those good people who watch out for the runts, the runaways, and the unwanted. All she wants is for the dogs to go to good homes, and I really hope I can provide that.

-- Update 5:23 PM 5/8/07 --
As promised:

Isn't she just adorable? I can't wait to see what she looks like in a few weeks.

Labels: dog

I am now officially commenced, as of this last Friday afternoon. Won't get the diplomas until July, but I'm magna cum laude in both Computer Engineering and Computer Science (assuming I passed my math finals, of course). Senior Thesis darn near killed me, but in the end we had what I hope is a passable set of documentation, and a reasonably well working project. School's now over; at least for a few years. I haven't decided if I'll do a Master's or not, but I'm going to take at least a year off first. The Chair of the CEEN department is still working on me. We'll see.

Labels: school

Well, I've been through two of my three finals (the last is in two hours). The first one was even easier than I thought it would be. The second one, which was my first horrible math final, wasn't too terribly bad, especially for being a third of my grade. I did the calculations -- if I pass the test, I will pass the class. If I fail the test...well...the class doesn't look good either. I think it'll be the same for my other horrible math test. I've got some studying to do for it though; there are a few topics I've missed, and I have a feeling that they'll come up on the test. But I'm almost through, assuming I can get in gear and get the bloody documentation done for thesis. I will be so glad to be out of this hell. I'm looking forward to work as being relaxing, which says something.

The puppy's not set in stone, but the odds are much better than not. I talked to my parents (as I discuss every major purchase or event with them) and I knew they wouldn't have a problem when my dad's first comment (to my mother, who was the one who told him) was "At least he'd have to wake up in the mornings." Seriously, they're taking this better than when I got my earring, and they were pretty cool with that. I told my brother's fiancee that I was looking at husky puppies at the pet store, but I wasn't sure I needed to spend $900 on a purebred husky. Her reply: "Oh, but you do!" I will have no shortage of people willing to watch my dog for me, that's something I can guarantee.

I can always tell when I've convinced my parents of something. I'm a bit of a meddler, and I got it from them. So when they start meddling on my behalf, I know they're on my side. Sure, when it comes to looking for a girlfriend, they haven't been a whole lot of good; but part of that has to do with my absolute lack of time this last semester. Anyway, back to the puppy -- my mother somehow ended up in a conversation with a woman at the gym and found out that this woman has a litter of miniature huskies. Yes, miniature huskies. I've done some looking -- that could mean just about anything, honestly, since "husky" can refer to a breed (Siberian Husky) or a class (Alaskan Husky), and the Klee Kai is commonly mistaken for a miniature husky (it was originally bred as a sort of miniature Alaskan Husky). They're supposed to get about knee high, which is actually within tolerace (barely) for husky height, and if you were to mix a husky (of either sort) with a smaller dog (say a Shiba Inu, or something similar) you'd end up with "miniature huskies." These pups are going to be a handful -- their dam was killed in a fire when they were two weeks old and this woman saved them and has been bottlefeeding them. They're only about four weeks right now, and you don't generally adopt them out until eight weeks, which is okay, I'll need a few weeks to get ready anyway. Without their mother, I'm concerned that they're going to end up fairly dominant/aggressive; the mother is the first authority in a puppy's life and she generally keeps them in line. Fortunately, I'm the sort of person who could actually deal with a dominant dog. It's just not going to be necessarily easy to socialize them. Then again (since I don't know much about the situation) the woman could be with one of the Rescues, and then she could have a house full of dogs, so they'd actually be better socialized than a pet-store puppy, even without their dam. (I've been thinking about this too much.) Anyhow, my mother hadn't heard of miniature huskies either, so she figured they'd end up expensive, and asked about it. The woman's giving them away -- she just wants them to have good homes. She said she thought the males were all spoken for already, but I wanted a female anyway. Mom got the woman's phone number, and I think we're going to go look at the puppies on Monday. I'm so excited.

It's telling when I'm fairly convinced I can housebreak a puppy, and I'm not even too concerned about teething or barking. The howling...Well, I don't know how to deal with that, so I'll have to come up with something. No, my biggest concern is that I don't know anyone with small children to socialize the puppy with.

Well, it's back to the grind. I've got a test to prepare for.

Labels: dog, school