Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

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

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

Vote early and often (22 of 30/88 of 274)

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Even though I’m not a big fan of online contests in general, I am always happy to vote for the children, pets and creations of my actual friends and family members if you ask via email, even mass email. I’ll even post your request to one of my blogs and/or social networks if appropriate.

Same goes for friendly acquaintances and their voting requests. And I might even vote at your request if I don’t know you, but you post it to a forum, mailing list or social network where we share a common interest or mutual friends. Or if your Tweet is cute and clever enough.

That is, if you post a polite request or two or maybe even three. NOT if you post every freaking day with multiple thread bumps, or if you email me and I have no clue who you are. If you do that, I will go out of my way not only to NOT vote for your child/pet/artwork/photo, I will vote for one of your competitors. If multiple votes from the same IP address are permitted, every single computer in my house and in my unfortunately rather small office will vote against you (that is still a total of approximately 25 computers).

That is all.

Turtle race! (21 of 30/87 of 274)

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Despite my appreciation for sea turtles, I somehow managed to miss hearing about the start of this year’s Great Turtle Race on April 16. This is Day 6 of the race, following 11 leatherback turtles from their feeding grounds in Canada to their breeding grounds around the Caribbean.

Leatherbacks are one of the three sea turtle species considered native to Hawaii, thus my interest (the other two species are the green and hawksbill). If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you have seen my posts about Lanikea “Turtle” Beach. Check out my turtle vacation photos if you haven’t already.

Still more than half the race to go (although some turtles are closing in fast), so I’m glad I didn’t miss it entirely!

If I disappear off the face of the ‘net (20 of 30/86 of 274)

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It has been nasty and rainy in a most un-springlike way all day. The Rottweilers have endured a second straight day of being cooped up indoors due to that nasty weather, and they are literally bouncing off the furniture. The grace and form of my 110-lb. dog as he takes a flying leap off the couch would be impressive if he were destroying someone else’s living room.

I am working on moving some of the domains I am responsible for into shiny new homes, and also working on a slight repositioning and redesign of this blog. If I seem to disappear off the face of the ‘net at any time, don’t be too alarmed. I promise I’ll be back someday!

Blogs and dogs (19 of 30/85 of 274)

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As predicted, it’s been raining all day today. The Rottweiler wrecking crew has been extremely annoying due to a lack of exercise and entertainment due to the rain. They have finally fallen asleep due to boredom. I was very pleased to find a website from a local training facility showing sample Rally Obedience courses. Not only are they free to download, they are also set up for a small room, meaning that I will be able to use them almost as-is in the backyard for practice. Couldn’t use them today, of course, thanks to the ongoing rain!

On the other hand, a rainy day provided a perfect opportunity to catch up on “31 Days to Build a Better Blog.” I got kind of stuck on the Day 4 task of analyzing a top blog in my niche. I was not quite sure how best to search for “top personal blogs concentrating on pets and technology.” I did my best, though, and have come to the conclusion that if I want to be more popular within my niche, the following things must happen:

  • I have to have funnier or cuter dogs
  • I have to become an actual expert about either dogs or technology
  • When I go off-topic, I have to write about sex or relationships, or else use the F-word more

Our upcoming adventures in competition should provide some moments that are funny as all get-out to everyone but me, and like the time I tripped over my dog in the obedience ring, they will even be funny to me in a month (or two or three). I will probably never become an actual expert, but every day I add to the list of dog training techniques that have unexpected results, and things that can go wrong with technology. That’s gotta be worth something. But I’m never going to write about sex and relationships. Ever.

Day 5’s task was to email new blog readers. I haven’t had a new commenter in a few days, and I reply to almost every comment on the blog as a matter of course. But I will definitely put this into practice as soon as a new reader or first-time commenter shows up. I will also try to be a bit more active in commenting on other blogs. I know I’ve been somewhat lax in that regard, even with blogs I read daily.

I’ve also read through many of the Day 6 tips and tutorials from some well-known and successful bloggers. Whether or not you are not doing 31DBBB, that post and the links within are well worth reading. Even if you believe you’re at the top of your blogging game, I think you will come away with something to think about from at least a few of the articles referenced.

Sunshine and rally practice (18 of 30/84 of 274)

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Saturday is normally obedience class day for the lovely Freya, and on a nice sunny day like today, we would have been able to work outdoors as well. Unfortunately, we had to skip class because I had an appointment at the bank to review my IRA account. That account had a less than stellar performance year in 2008. I am sure that is a familiar story to many people. Now that I am on the far side of 50, I guess I should at least check in on my retirement accounts more frequently than I have been. Retirement is still far enough in the future that I’m not really stressing. Yet. My bank guy is nice and seems knowledgeable, but I would have preferred to be in dog class!

We did try to take advantage of the nice weather and do some homework. Armed with the AKC Rally Regulations and a separate list of Rally Obedience exercises, Freya and I spent time working on some of the Novice exercises. Since I had no idea how to lay out a practice course, we mostly worked on the fronts and finishes, and heeling with the different turns.

I know there are books and websites with samples of Rally courses, so I will have to look for some. We are supposed to get a few days of rain (rain has already started tonight) so we won’t be able to practice outside. We might go on Tuesday night to a make-up class for the class we missed today, and we’re definitely going to drop-in obedience on Wednesday night.