Pick #301

Augustana  - "Boston" from All the Stars and Boulevards

Sailor's Last Day

I was planning on coming home on Tuesday, but got a call from my mom on Friday night (12:30am) saying that Sailor wasn't doing so great and I should come home on Saturday.  I planned on getting up, going for a run, taking care of some stuff around the house, then leaving and maybe getting to VB by 7pm.  I was awakened by a phone call from my mom at 9:05am when she told me that hours mattered.  I got up, ate, packed, and left by 9:55am.  Unfortunately, I forgot to pack a few things; none of them were critical.

I drove 74-75mph all the way home because I definitely did not want to be stopped for speeding because that would take lots of time.  I made record time: ~5:15 including the stop for gas.  The weather was mostly fine with light showers along the way.  I called from about 2 miles away so my parents could get Abbey outside to greet me.  Sailor was not supposed to have any excitement.  He had a fluid buildup around his heart that made it hard to pump.  He would get winded with very little activity and Abbey's excitement is contagious for him.

Sailor was laying down when I came inside and he tried to get up to come see me so I rushed over to him so he could keep laying down.  He gave me lots of kisses then started panting from over exertion.  He was a little bit cold from poor circulation.  We called D and waited for him to come over.  Sailor had caught his breath by that time and was able to get up on his own and go outside to pee.  He came in and was very sweet to us all.  He then ate some food for the first time in about 24 hours.

We drove him down to the 24 hour vet in Ft. Pierce on Saturday probably around 5pm in his truck.  Sailor got to ride shotgun while the rest of us piled in the back seat...just like the good ol' days.  Shotgun was his seat and people had to ride in the back (that changed when we inherited him and his truck).  He had a good trip down to the vet and we talked about how it would be much worse if he was suffering during the ride down.  When we arrived I picked him up out of the front seat and put him down.  We leashed him and walked him around the building where he emptied his bowels for the first time in days.

We brought him inside and were taken back to a room where they explained everything that would happen.  He climbed into D's lap when they wanted him to get up and get prepped for the IV of death.  They brought paperwork for my mom to sign and moved us into a larger room where a blanket was spread on the floor for Sailor.  He came into the room with the extension line for the IV tightly wrapped to his right front leg.  We got to spend a little bit of time with him giving him the last love of his life.  It was a bit difficult knowing that we were putting him down when he was not showing any symptoms at the time.  All the vets told us that we were making the right decision.  They say that most people wait too long and this is definitely best for him.

When the vet arrived to administer the lethal fluid, we all got down on the ground with him.  She said that it's not painful but actually pleasant for him when it happens.  The fluid stops the heart.  She listened with a stethoscope after injecting the killer solution and let us know when the heart stopped.  It was really strange to watch the life go out of his eyes.  They told us that he would not close his eyes.  Not long after that he felt different.  Almost stiff.  I really didn't like being there after he expired.  I left the room before the rest of my family and walked outside.  We were all teary.  I think it's been about 20 years since my dad's been that upset.

Overall, it could have been much worse.  Sailor was a happy and loving dog right up to the end.  He never seemed scared, but I think he was a bit confused why all of us were crying when we were in the room with him before the vet came in.  If we hadn't put him down, the fluid would have kept accumulating around his heart and the cancer would have spread even further.  The fluid went 17 days between the first and second drainings but only 2.5 days in between the second and third drainings.  They say it will only happen at a faster rate over time.  He would have practically had to live at the vet's office.  And what kind of life is it when you can't get up to greet your humans when they come home, let alone chase squirrels?  10 years seems pretty young, but I guess it's not so bad in dog years.

Abbey's been a bit down the past few days.  She hasn't been eating much (which is significant because she's normally a glutton) and she keeps laying in Sailor's bed.  She went outside and laid in his customary spot.  I've tried to give her lots of attention and maybe take her mind off her missing companion.  We've gone for a few short runs.  I got her to eat today by feeding her out of my hand.  After that she started eating like normal.  Sometimes I wish I knew what was going on in that head of hers.  I wonder how long it will take her to forget the Sailor days and grow accustomed to a new status quo.  I wonder if she is really the family member hit hardest by Sailor's death.

Pick #300

The Hood Internet - "Two Weeks of Hip Hop" (Dead Prez vs. Grizzly Bear) on Singles

Your vs. You're Rap

Thanks, Mac Lethal.  He has a pretty good youtube channel.

This is good and educational, but don't think that makes it a bad rap.  He's rapping over the beat for Somebody That I Used to Know by Gotye.

Couch Surfing: Potwin, KS

I've noticed that Couch Surfing says that many people have had their last log in from Potwin, KS.  I had a surfer roll through here and asked him about it since Potwin is pretty close to Emporia.  He replied that he'd been nowhere near Potwin (not even in KS).  Ever since then, I've noticed lots of Potwin entries.  I wonder if it's something to do with placement of servers or some sort of technicality that makes it seem like people are logging in from Potwin.  Check it out for yourself and see if you can find people logging in from there.  The population of Potwin is less than 500 people, so I'm pretty sure nobody else is actually logging in from there.  There are a crapload of "hosts" from Potwin on CS but they all have 0 references, 0 friends, and no profile photo.

Is this some kind of inside joke?

I found this page on CS explaining the Potwin thing.  Apparently it's a weird thing that happens with ISPs.  You might have to click the bottom hyperlink to expand and read the explanation.

LifeSaver Bottle

The LifeSaver Bottle is an amazing invention that can help so many people worldwide.  There's a TED talk about it that could blow you away.  It's basically a high capacity portable water filter.  It can make people in the developing world way more productive or provide convenience for outdoorsmen in the first world.  It's scaable, reusable, and possibly the best solution to the clean water problem that is available today.

Damn Good Bikes 2nd Anniversary

Today Damn Good Bikes celebrated its 2 year anniversary.  I went in to the bike shop after my office hours and it was fairly busy.  It's amazing how much the business has grown in  2 short years.  The first DGB Groupon(s) were released today.  It's today's featured Groupon.  I've been saying for a while that we should do one, but now the hshop has the man power to process a lot of service all at once.

Pick #299

Yndi Halda - "We Flood Empty Lakes" on Enjoy Eternal Bliss

See Your iPhoto Files in Finder

In the process of trying to backup some pictures to an external hard drive on my girlfriend's macbook, I ran into a bit of difficulty getting to the photos in order to copy them to the hard drive.  I did a search for photos and found them in the directory /users/NAME/pictures/iphoto library/originals/YEAR, but when I clicked through Finder to get there, double clicking the iPhoto library opened the iPhoto application.  In order to open the /originals folder, I opened the terminal and typed:

open "/users/NAME/pictures/iphoto library/originals"

Then you can peruse by date (or backup everything from 2011 and 2012).  If you know what year's pictures you want to see, you can type

open "/users/NAME/pictures/iphoto library/originals/2012"  where 2012 is the year you want.

Chromebook

I just took a leap of faith in Google and bought a Chromebook sight unseen.  Since my previous Acer laptop bit the dust for apparently no reason, I decided to go with the Samsung Series 5 3G Titan Silver model because there was a used one (like new condition) for $136 off the retail of $450.

I think I might have to adapt to the new keyboard and OS and whatever else, but that should be doable.  It has a ~7-8 hour battery life and a bright/glare reduction screen.  I'll write a review on it when I have a chance to use it more.  I might not receive the thing until next Friday, so don't hold your breath.

Guess I forgot to mention that the thing that pushed me over the edge to buy this Chromebook is that my desktop stopped working again.  My roommate thinks I have a bad motherboard.  His reasoning makes sense.  If I can deduce that motherboard issues are causing all my problems, then I'll buy a new MB and rebuild my desktop.  However, in the mean time, I am going all Chromebook.  I got an update on my order just now and it says that it should arrive on Monday.

Noma Bar's Art

I was recently called to Noma Bar's work with negative space.  You can see a lot of his illustrations here.  I'm impressed.   Also be sure to check out his minimalist portraits.

Pick #298

Morcheeba - "Blindfold"

Computer Problems/Chromebook

Both of my computers broke (laptop & desktop).  I tried everything I could to fix.  Erin called in a favor from a friend and my desktop is working but my laptop is toast.  I'm thinking about getting a new laptop.  I don't really need one though.  I made due with only a desktop through all of college and the first part of grad school.  If I do get one, I'm thinking about a Google Chromebook.  They're weird and way different and I don't know what to think.  I like part of the concept, but not other parts.

I think that I might get one if it had remote desktop compatible with both Windows and Ubuntu, a good way to compile LaTeX, and a bit more than 16GB on the hard drive (SSD).  I would like to have a number pad to the right of the keyboard, but understand that this is not likely to happen.  I really like that it has such a long battery life, the ability to connect to your documents no matter where you are, is made by Google, its size/weight specs, and the purported start up speed.  I'm not sure how I feel about needing to be online all the time.  As long as it's really easy to get on to wireless networks, I guess that's fine.  The 3G option sounds cool for trips in the car and whatnot.  I wonder how much a service plan would cost.  I think I could make due almost all the time with just wireless.  I read a post about a guy who bought the cheaper Wi-Fi only model and used the extra $ to turn his cell into a wireless hotspot or something like that.

If anybody has experience with Chromebooks, let me know...especially if I can come play with it.

Miser May Recap

So, Miser May was not as successful as Frugal February.  Total expenditure:  $1,516.40.  Large expenditures were made on: 1. my house ($345), 2. tuition ($377), 3. food/groceries ($419).  Spending outside these categories totals 375.40.

I couldn't have done much to cut back on the expenditures on tuition or my house, but I could have definitely eaten cheaper.  Eating cheap was not one of the goals of the month.  I think it might be kind of neat to incorporate that into Stingy September.

My discretionary spending was $34.50...about 3 times as much as discretionary spending in February.  My partially discretionary spending was $133.67 which is pretty high, and my overall spending was 1,516.40.  It's months where I spend about $1,500 that are the motivation for projects like this.  I'd like to end up spending around $800 and bank the rest.

Overall, pretty boring and non-interesting results.  I broke the eating out rule near the end to use a Groupon with Walker.  We ended up going over the Groupon amount and I picked up the entire tab.  He'll get me back next time.

New Ab Exercise

Today I had the bright idea to combine a balance board with an ab roller to do an ab exercise.  You put your knees on the balance board then do the ab roller like normal with the goal of keeping the edges of the balance board off the ground.

THIS IS INTENSE.  I can't think of an ab exercise I've done that's more difficult.  I'm not yet able to do it very fast and it requires a lot of concentration.  I imagine I will get better at it.  I do not know anything about the physiological benefits of this exercise so I don't offer any official endorsement for you to do it, but if you have a chance to try this, I say to give it a shot.

Pick #297

Baby Huey & the Babysitters - "Hard Times" from The Baby Huey Story:  The Living Legend

Pick #296

Roy Orbison - "Pretty Woman"
This version is awesome, filled with an all-star line up.