Unfortunately my standard mode is to start projects and then never finish them, so I hope I stick with this one. There are a lot of runs around Seattle and it would be really awesome if I could do one of them, even though I’ve never really been interested in running.

My next run will be Friday!

The first dog I fostered was named Pepe (Peh-pay), a Chihuahua/MinPin mix. I had him for 1.5 days over Christmas, and he was super adorable and friendly and a complete spaz! Here he is at my dad’s:

The second guy I fostered for 4 days over New Years. His name was Hunter and he was a four year old Rat Terrier mix. He was on watch because he had a history of seizures, so I got to keep him extra time. He loved to sleep and was shy. He also knew “sit” and “down,” and I worked with him on “stay.” He was super adorable and really great because he would just sleep on the couch and not mind what other people were doing, so I could go shower and it wouldn’t be a problem. Here he is, being adorable:

The third dog was a five month old Jack Russell Terrier named Willy. Willy was really adorable, and not housetrained. In fact, he preferred to go to the bathroom in the house. We had him for just under 2 days, and honestly the experience wasn’t great. We would take him outside for half an hour, and then the moment we took our eyes off him he would run around the corner and pee. I kept his leash on inside the house at all times, and felt trapped next to him. I returned him to the shelter early because I couldn’t deal with him for the next day. Here he is:

The fourth dog was a one/two year old Chihuahua/Terrier mix named Boomhauer. We nicknamed him Boomer. He was pretty awesome, and completely housetrained! He loved to be around people all the time – sleeping in laps, receiving attention, and so on. We had to take turns eating around him because one person would restrain him and the other would eat (as we sat on the couch watching an episode of Mythbusters). He was not strictly crate trained, but did not mind being in his crate with a stuffed kong and his blanket, and so I kept him in there while I was in class. He moved around a lot and I ended up only getting one good picture of him. Here it is:

I am probably going to be fostering another dog this Sunday. =D

I work in a toxic environment. Being a huge geek and avid Linux user, I initially had qualms about using Windows all day at work. How could I exist in an environment where the main component of the workplace was greed? However, since my job is troubleshooting Windows machines, I get my daily dose of how much the OS sucks, and I got over it. It’s hard hating the technology you work with every day so I have decided to see it as a necessary evil. But Windows is an old evil, one that everyone accepts – usually without thinking about it. Now there is a new evil spreading through the land. It doesn’t attract users itself, per say, but starts with the zealots who swear by their handsome technology. Initially resistant, users are slowly swayed by the sleek interface and the constant stream of cool applications and many capabilities. It was a critical stage, but with just the right amount of gentle persuasion the first person fell. The rest followed in his tracks like dominoes to the slaughter. And so it goes. Day after day I must endure the never ending talk about how cool the device is, how to do different ‘cool’ things; everyone sharing their knowledge like a round table discussion at the water cooler. Every day I am subject to this, and every day I hate the technology a little bit more. The Apple virus has invaded my land and it goes by the name of shiny.

Unfortunately it doesn’t end there. First came the iPhones, and now there is a new evil on the horizon. Irritating, yes, but tolerable was the talk of phones, texting, pictures, and data plans. With the dawn of the macbook obsession I now have to listen to the talk of entire home networks – the pros and cons of mac routers and the orgasmic wonderfullness of the Time Machine. By listening to my coworkers you would think that the way to achieving nirvana was to have a network made entirely of Apple-based products. They talk not of free apps or hackability, but of throwing applications to all corners of the screen by using multiple fingers on the touchpad. According to these… users… The way to fix a mac is to have someone else do it; the important parts of computing are how an application looks and feels, not what it does; if a device does not work right away with their Apple product the other device is broken because their product has always worked for them. In their eyes the secrecy of Apple makes the company that much cooler, and Linux is an amateur venture because there is no one company that backs the OS. Never mind looking up the answer yourself – when a Mac breaks they take it to the Apple store. Hardware not upgradeable? That’s a special feature. This club of the mac is so exclusive that you are only welcome in if you want exactly what’s on the market. If people were allowed to upgrade their macs, Apple might have to spend time doing pointless things like making the software work on different hardware instead of working on important things, like making the default desktop sexier.

I have recently had to endure listening to things such as a coworker who had a computer that wasn’t connected to the internet de-authorize all of his apps and music on his iPhone. Instead of being suspicious about the way Apple is locking in their customers, he bought himself a macbook. Naturally it wasn’t Apple’s fault for being suspicious of him and the apps and music he paid for – Apple was just doing their job.

Another coworker is a bit brighter than your average Apple zealot. Instead of standing outside an Apple store for hours he had his new 3g iPhone delivered to him. Congratulations man, you’re above average.

One man wants a new mac. He and his wife – not a terribly tech savvy person who does not like change – are going to get a macbook to replace their old Gateway. He does not have an iPhone, but has been wowed by his coworkers macbooks and must get one for himself, despite having never used one for any extended period of time. His wife was initially against it. Guess what won her over? Was it the tech? The shiny interface? It was his persistence. Mention something enough times, and people get used to it. Or they get sick and tired of hearing about it and go on a killing spree. Just kidding. =)

You can tell the fish is communist because its eye is red (joke).

When I was between the ages of 10 and 17, I took riding lessons at a riding school close to my home (within 35 driving minutes).  I learned quite a lot about horses and met people that I still hang out with today.  The barn had lots of horses in and out as horses became lame, turned out to really dislike cramped barn life, or the students fell in love with the animals and bought them.  One time around the turn of the century the barn went to a schooling dressage show.  They went to shows about, perhaps, three or four times a year, and also did cross country and later hosted their own shows.  I was taking a gray Arabian named Willie who looked like a typical Arab but was kind, sweet, and gentle.  He was not easily excitable and may not have had the best conformation, but was a packer and would willingly take all manner of children without fuss.  We took about eight horses and the families drove their children behind the trailer.  We arrived at the site of the show and unloaded the trailer only to find that the horse who had gone in first – a tall, dark bay thoroughbred whose name I have forgotten – had managed to injure one of his front legs.  It was a fairly bad injury.  There would be no show for him, and in fact the consensus was that the vet bill would be a good $2000.  The barn was always a bit strapped for cash and so the owner decided that the horse would have to be put down.  The girl who brought him loved the horse and was in tears.  Her parents were given the option that if they payed the vet bill the horse was theirs, and the parents accepted.  The girl was very happy – well, as happy as one can be with an injured horse – and the show went on.

This is a joke.  The other reasons, and the reason I went on a dating website, was that members of the opposite sex in their immediate circles weren’t interested, already taken (or exhausted), and they are shut-ins who don’t like the bar scene.  There are lots of really nice, perfectly dateable guys on dating websites.  Who don’t have cars.

We used a puching bag and practiced kicking and knee strikes, and he mentioned how he doesn’t like to start attacks with kicks because the opponent may have a small knife, and then instead of an arm knick you could get an artery cut.  He had me practice blocks while he threw punches and talked about the ‘small’ but extremely important stuff such as hand/arm placement and alignment in fighting stance and weight placement (forward!  Always forward!).  He taught that the front arm should be bent at about 90 degrees at the elbow and pointing toward the opponent.  Some people (me on accident because that seems to be where mine wants to gravitate to) point their hand to the sky, and some people point it straight.  He mentioned that he does this when he wants people to pay attention to his chudan rather than his groin, or when he wants to appear open and invite people to punch chudan.  He likened the hand to a gun – the most effective gun is the one pointed at the attacker.  I’m not a big fan of guns, but the analogy works.  Over the course of the hour we went over so much stuff my brain was overflowing and I had tons of new things to practice and keep my mind on this week.  Since I practice every day during lunch at work, this is a really good thing.

It was a great experience and I recommend it to any and everyone if it is at all possible in your dojo.  Except for the Karate students in my dojo who should understand that Mondays are completely boring and you would be better to find something to do around the house.  I don’t delude myself that this is probably one time in my life that I will be in this kind situation and I intend to make the most of it.

It was pretty awesome.  The dojo is called North West Martial Arts and is right in Bothell, WA.  The Sensei were very nice and I got some one-on-one time and had a lot of fun.  So much fun, in fact, that I actually practiced what I had learned and read about Karate online and stumbled across the Karate Thoughts blog and read a whole lot of that.  I came back the next Monday and practiced Aikido with the junior instructor, and that was awesome as well.  Then I began going to every Karate class they had as well as every Aikido class I was able to go to, as well as practicing one the days there is no class.  I also am reading a lot of material on Karate and Aikido including blogs and books borrowed from the library.  Practicing is almost as fun as the classes because in class we are taught a technique and (especially true at the beginner level) at home we cement it in our heads so that we can go back to class and receive corrections on the technique.  That way we can spend the valuable class time learning instead of practicing.

One thing I love and that I am extremely thankful for is the small class sizes!  On the busy days there are perhaps 12-15 students and two instructors.  On the slow days – my favorite – there are three or four students to two instructors.  My favorite part is receiving instant feedback – the times that I only practice a technique two or three times before one Sensei reminds me to punch to the center, bend my knees, and lower my shoulders.  (I mentioned the part where I am a rank beginner, right?)  That way I do not learn the technique messed up but can go home and practice it and get at least the basics correct.

So in the first month of Karate I have begun to begin to learn the basics, been introduced to two kata (Pinan Shodan and Nidan), attended class as regularly as possible, practiced regularly whenever we didn’t have class, and thoroughly enjoy myself.  Oh, and learned to count to 10 in Japanese.  I call that a win.  Let’s see if I can stick it out for three months!