Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

Rottweilers. Computers. Cameras. World Domination. Not necessarily in that order.

Rottweilers.
Computers. Cameras.
World Domination.
Not necessarily in that order.

TV break (7 of 30/73 of 274)

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I’ll be playing catch-up with my 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge assignments after I get this post for NaBloPoMo in. Looks like I’ll be just under the wire with it, too.

Tonight’s big draw for me was the season premiere of Rescue Me. The 2008 season was missing in action due to the writer’s strike, so we have an extended 2009 Season 5 to look forward to: 22 episodes. So I am very happy to report that the season is off to a good start.

My favorite part about Rescue Me is the scenes in the kitchen, where they have the best conversations about some really dumb topics. Tonight’s question: would you rather lose one eye… or one ball? The firehouse banter is totally back and in great form. So is the seriously screwed up mess that is the Gavin family. And I have never seen Michael J. Fox play such an assholish character; I think he is going to be a great addition to the show.

Some things about this show still leave me at a loss. Tommy Gavin has really long hair for a firefighter. Also, with his very average looks, how would he have all those hot women chasing after him (I know, it is his show, and I guess if I ran a show, I would write myself as a major sex symbol, too, regardless of how far from reality that would be). My technical advisor assures me that being a firefighter, especially in uniform, does add to one’s sex appeal even if one is average-looking, so I will let that one slide for now. I also think Garrity and Silletti are played way too clueless. If they were that dumb, they would never have even passed the entrance exam, let alone survive as many fires as they’ve been on.

Some of you already know this: my “technical advisor” is my husband who is a firefighter/EMT-B with the Chicago Fire Department and from a firefighting family. The show is a big favorite of his, too. I often ask him if something on the show is something that would happen in real life. Usually the answer is yes. But he swears that to his knowledge, there has never been a… ermmmm…. male member measuring contest… at any of the houses he has been at. Improbable stuff does happen, including accidentally setting the firehouse on fire. It just probably wouldn’t happen all at the same house, to the same guys.

I’m glad Rescue Me is back – I missed it a lot. I have only a few must-watch shows, and this is definitely one of them.

Outgrowing my web host (6 of 30/72 of 274)

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Shopping around for a new web host has been on my list for a while now. I wish it were actually the case that I was outgrowing my current web host’s servers, but even the combined traffic of my personal websites, my company’s website, and my friends’ and clubs’ dog-related websites isn’t a very taxing amount of bandwidth.

Right now I have two different web hosting providers. One provider has very good customer service, and even still has 24/7 toll-free non-outsourced telephone support in addition to email support. Unfortunately, the last change of ownership also brought a move away from the VPS and dedicated servers provided by the previous owners. They still support the existing servers but are not planning any upgrades at all to the older hardware and software. This means that I will not be able to get more recent versions of PHP and MySQL, which is definitely going to be a problem for me very soon.

The other provider also had a recent change of ownership. I was lucky in that I did not experience the technical problems that some other customers were plagued with, some for weeks on end. Customer service went downhill, and then outsourced. I’m not very comfortable with what might lie ahead there.

I’ve put off shopping for the move long enough, so it’s back to the top of my to-do list to complete this month. I’m looking at these providers:

WiredTree
KnownHost
Media Temple

If you have any personal experiences with those hosts, particularly with VPS, please share!

31 Days to Build a Better Blog

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I learned of this project through a post at BlogHer. Darren Rowse at ProBlogger is hosting the “31 Days to Build a Better Blog” challenge. It starts today, April 6, but it is not too late to join. Even though my blog is mostly personal and free-form, and ProBlogger is geared more towards blogging as a business, after taking a quick look through the archives of the two previous “31 Days” in 2005 and 2007, I think I will still benefit from this challenge. Whether blogging for business or personal reasons, the goal of attracting and retaining an audience that you can interact with for mutual benefit is pretty universal.

If you think you might be interested, it doesn’t cost you anything but a month’s time. Here is the sign-up page if you would like to join me and a cast of several thousand other better bloggers!

31 Days to Build a Better Blog – Join 9100 other Bloggers Today!

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahaha

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Hanzi Smatter is one of my favorite websites. The subtitle to the blog—dedicated to the misuse of Chinese characters in Western culture—says it all. Or almost all, as the blog does address Japanese characters (Kanji) as well. Let’s just say that rampant misuse seems to be a problem regardless of which Asian characters are involved.

One of the most frequently-addressed topics within the blog is bad Kanji tattoos, and this has got to be one of the best entries ever:

Co-worker’s Tattoo
Q: [My co-worker] thinks it means “Bitch”
A: What this woman tattooed really means “cheap whore”

Even though I know it is wrong to laugh at other people’s misfortune, I am still laughing and I have shared the link with my co-workers so that they may laugh as well.

And yes, I am a teeny bit smug about having a team of “Kanji advisors” who would never let this happen to me! Although I speak and read only a very little Japanese, my parents, uncles and aunts are completely bilingual and if they don’t know a specific character, they have their own “Kanji advisors” to get more help from. Although I must say I wanted to die when my mom asked the reverend at her church about characters on a particular tattoo (thank God, and I mean that in every sense, that it didn’t say something filthy), at least I know I will never need a tattoo saying “cheap whore” removed from my body!

Growing a place on the ‘net (5 of 30/71 of 274)

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During the last few months, I’ve thought about refocusing this blog completely on pet-related matters. So the title of a recent post on the Dolittler veterinary blog, How to start and grow a top pet health site…with love, intrigued me. My original blog was devoted almost entirely to pet health. As I am not a veterinarian or a journalist, it was a personal blog discussing only the pets owned by me and my husband, and occasionally those of family members or friends. At the time, our pets numbered four dogs, three cats and two birds, so there was ample material for me to write about. After the two oldest dogs passed on, I didn’t have it in me to keep writing regularly. Effective tools for fighting comment spam were not quite ready for prime time then, and trying to keep up with it sapped any enthuasiasm still remaining.

Comment spam isn’t the problem it once was. I would probably need to expand the focus of a new version to include dog training, dog showing, dog sports competition and pet-related legislative issues, because most of my pets are thankfully young and healthy, and I won’t have many health issues to write about, hopefully for a while yet. I’ll need to give this a bit more thought before I make any changes. My pets are my favorite subject, but I do enjoy writing on other topics now and then, too.

Back to the Dolittler post, though. One of the pet health sites profiled was Tripawds, a site inspired by and supporting all three-legged dogs, primarily cancer patient amputees. My own three-legged dog Jake passed away in 2002, so I had no idea this site existed until this week. Back in 1998, there was not much information on the ‘net to help owners of amputee dogs. I think I found just one site, Cassie’s Three-Legged Dog Club, which still exists and has expanded quite a bit since then. Back then, I wrote to Cassie’s Club founder Cynthia Davis, got some good information, and had Jake join the club (he is the bottom Jake on this page). I updated my then-website to add a page about Jake’s accident and amputation, which I have never taken down.

I still get email from that page occasionally, and as I have done since the beginning, I always try to respond to those emails as quickly as possible. I never thought of the possibility of an entire site to support tripod dogs, but I am very glad that Jim and Rene were inspired by their Jerry’s illness and amputation to create the Tripawds site to provide an awesome resource for those facing the same issues.

Times are tough for all of us, but if by chance you have a bit to spare, please consider visiting the Tripawds site and donating towards their server upgrade. Back in 1998, I would have loved to have a site like that, with not only information available, but a forum and chat to actually talk to others in the same situation. I was glad to be able to make a small donation today in Jake’s memory.