bugdog

I might be backThe job is a bit slow right now and I have some time on my hands. I miss this site and the cool people here :)

1 month ago | Comments (1)

bugdog

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wait, what?Yeah, still not dead, just laid off a-fucking-gain. Oh, yeah, it happened at the end of July, but for some reason, I'm really fucking bitter about it today. Nice severance package and stock sale means I still don't have to find a job yet, which is a damn good thing because I don't want to go to work for $10 an hour just yet.

We got a new dog January a year ago. Her original name was Sheltsie, but we named her Keller because she's fairly deaf. Not as deaf as we thought (she was ignoring us the first three months we had her). She's going to be 16 this year. We couldn't resist - she looked so sad on Petfinder.com that we had to go rescue her. Who the hell takes their 14 year old dog to the pound right at Christmas? WTF, over?

Keller (in front), Tippy and Eric at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon - One good thing about getting laid off with money was the road trip we took. Made it to every state west of the Mississippi that we hadn't been to before!

The husband is working for a PD again, albeit a small one. He's gone from a tiny, tiny department, to a larger, but still small department in the last two years. I'm proud of him!

So yeah, I am a bitter, bitter person today. I'll probably be better tomorrow. I might even have some actual time to participate here again. Wow, imagine that!

(I am playing Mass Effect 2 mostly, some Star Trek Online (when Eric's playing ME2), and Dragon Age when I'm not playing Mass Effect 2.)

3 years ago | Comments (12) | + 7 Cool

bugdog

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We keep them in jarsToolPackinMa asked what we do with our dead dogs. Clearly, I didn't take offense. I'm impressed that she asked - no one ever has, actually.

Well, we have them individually cremated and get them back in jars. It's weird to some people, I'm sure, but Eric has been carrying around his childhood dog, Rocky, forever.

I specify "individually" because you have the option to do a group cremation (they don't do this with people, btw) and get back a portion of the ashes. I don't like that idea, but it is a lot cheaper. Cremation is way more expensive than burying your pet in your yard, but this way you can take them with you when you move and don't have to worry about them getting dug up, etc.

4 years ago | Comments (8) | + 10 Cool

bugdog

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Not deadWell, I haven't been around much at all, but that's because I actually have to do work at this job. It's so weird!

Bad news about Crash. We had to have him put to sleep (I hate that phrase). He had leukemia that was so aggressive that even if he were a young dog, chemo might have given him another month of being run down and sick. It's been a month and I still look for him. Tippy is adjusting to being an only dog.

Gee, I've been an RvB member long enough to lose three dogs. I wonder what that means?

The job is going pretty good. My customers generally drive me nuts, but I only have to put up with them for 30 days, so that's good.

Really, nothing else has changed. I've mostly been playing Rockband and (now) Rockband 2. I play bass (on Medium because I'm a pussy), usually, so Eric can be the guitar hero ;) He also plays on medium for the same reason.

I'll try to update more than once a year, but no promises.

Now, I've got to go call someone who is in an utter panic about something he's broken (again). Yay! (I may be back after this call...)

(if you see me logged in, I'm probably looking for porn to sav^^^ ... er delete from profiles)

4 years ago | Comments (16) | + 6 Cool

bugdog

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Ski Trip!Well, I'm going on a ski trip at the end of this month. We're leaving on Thursday and coming back on Saturday.

What's really cool about this? Google is paying for the plane tickets, food, the hotel and pretty much everything but the drinks. I'm staying an extra night with my buddy Brian (Eric's good with it - Brian's gay) and we're splitting the cost of the room, but other than that, this is a free ski trip with two paid days off included!

I work for the coolest company in the universe! I'll post pics when I get back!

5 years ago | Comments (8) | + 2 Cool

bugdog

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YAHLJYet Another Heath Ledger Journal.

Yeah, even those of us who don't follow celebrity gossip are talking about this at work and at home. My husband typically doesn't give a rat's ass about actors/actresses/singers/whatevers, but when I told him Heath Ledger had died, he was about as shocked as I was. He asked if it was an accident (like car, stunt, plane, etc) and was seriously stunned when I said no. We both liked the guy's movies, especially A Knight's Tale (shut up, it was an awesomely FUN movie and that's why I like movies) and are looking forward to him as the Joker.

I'm a frequent flier over at Fark (I'm a totalfarker - bugdog) and I shouldn't have been surprised by the number of people who jumped on the illegal drug OD theme. The thought crossed my mind, but it didn't stick due to some of what I read about when he was in Candy. He wasn't into the young Hollywood scene and AFIK didn't even drink. He certainly wasn't shooting up heroin.

Then I though suicide. But why? Because he broke up with his fiancee? I would hope he had people around to see the problem before it got that bad.

Then I read some more - he was having problems sleeping, partly due to the after effects of being the Joker (he said as much in an interview) and, no doubt, partly due to being sick as a dog (I've heard pnumonia and the flu - both of which are sucky as hell).

He did have a few legally prescribed drugs in his apartment. Generic valium was one of them. I believe I read that he also had Ambian. In another interview, he stated that one Ambian would put him to sleep for a couple of hours, but he'd wake up and have to take another.

What do I think happened? I think it was an accidental overdose. How does that happen? You can't sleep either because of coughing or because you can't shut your mind off.... or both. You take something - even something like Nyquil. It doesn't work. You move on to something else, say Ambian. A half an hour goes by and it's still not working. You're still miserable and awake. You know you shouldn't take another Ambian, so you take a Valium (or two, because they're small). You might fall asleep at this point and wake up just fine in the morning. In fact, for most of us, that's what would happen. OR you wake up and find out it's been an hour. Your head might be fuzzy, you might not remember what you've taken. You take another Drug X. Fifteen minutes later, you're convinced you still can't sleep and don't remember you just took X. All this stuff clearly isn't working, so you double (or triple) up on your next drug of choice.

Why do I know this can happen? Because my husband did it twice about 10 years ago. He was taking Ativan for anxiety (same class as Valium), he was taking Vicodin for pain, and he was taking a super nasty drug called Tincture of Opium to slow down his guts (works great for diarrhea. He was having a really bad time with his Crohn's disease and flat out could not sleep. He went through this cycle once when I wasn't home of forgetting what he'd already taken and then taking it again. The second time, it was just Ativan (we think). We got really lucky and Eric just slept it off - he already had a super high tolerance to all narcotics by then, but it was a long time before I could leave him alone with out panicking if I couldn't reach him.

So I'm saying accidental OD - or some underlying health condition that was triggered by a near accidental OD.

Not that it's a damn bit of my business. Funny, had it been any of the current crop of media darlings, I would have said, "Hm," and carried on. No real shock there if Brittney or Paris keels over. Sad waste of humanity, but meh. Heath Ledger had real talent and potential and wasn't wasting it. He wasn't on the front page every damn day. He wasn't famous for being rich, thin and rich. I guess that's why it bothers me that so many people jumped to the illegal drug OD.

Anyway, just wanted to put that out there someplace. Carry on with your regularly scheduled program... and expect a happier journal here in a few.

5 years ago | Comments (3) | + 2 Cool

bugdog

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Happy New Year!Oh yeah, I forgot about the fireworks. It's still an hour to the Central Time New Year, but my neighbors are already shooting off fireworks. Last time I was over here (remember, this was my sister's house before she moved) on NYE, they kept it up until 3am.

*sigh* Another fun NYE. Woohoo.

5 years ago | Comments (9) | + 2 Cool

bugdog

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Evil Christmas Bug is back!For those of you new, Bug was my previous beagle shepherd mix and my old avatar as well as where I got my nick. She was an awesome dog and was with us for about 14 years, even though she was born with an enlarged heart. She was a great dog and we still miss her.

Anyway, I was sitting at work several years ago and created this avatar for my profile. I figured if she ever saw an elf, she'd eat it :). It was a great project - I learned a lot about masking and layers and blending and such. The only thing I wasn't able to get right is the blood on her dog lips where the half-elf is. (by right, I mean to where I like it) i think the antlers came out best. They were green and on a totally different dog. Oh, and her nose looks really cool, too :)

Tippy, our current beagle shepherd mix (who looks somewhat like Bug when she was young), would probably play with the elf carefully, then pin it down and lick it until the thing was soaked.

I love my doggies and I love this avatar.

Google gives us off Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and the day after Christmas. I'm taking off Thursday and Friday. Google also gives us off New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, so by taking off two days, I'm getting 11 days straight off from work! What marvelous plans do I have? I'm staying in Austin for Xmas, then riding back up to Lubbock with my sister. I'm staying with her until Sunday, then flying home and spending NYE playing Mass Effect. I suspect I'll be over at my parents' house on NYD for chicken and dumplings, corn bread and black eyed peas.

I'd like to take one of our 360's with me to Lubbock, but I'm concerned about flying home with it. Anyone have any tips for flying with a game console? I know I need to pack it in my carry on luggage... but jesus, I'm going to be carting around the 360 w/ the power brick (very apt name) and controllers, my laptop w/ its power brick, my camera w/ its batteries and charger, whatever cool ass thing I get for Xmas that I can't live without and god knows what else (at least two paperback books). I'm hoping that airport security in Lubbock is laid back enough that me being smiley and happy at them will get me though with little trouble. I don't see a way around having to check a bag with my clothes...
I'm taking the 360 in the event that the weather is bad. I figure Viva PiÃ±ata and Beautiful Katamari will be perfect games for me and the 7 year old niece.

So, what are y'all's plans for the big holiday?

5 years ago | Comments (13) | + 2 Cool