every once in awhile. I have a thought. And well... being the declared fruit rather than a girl, that I am... I find it only appropriate to blog a few of those thoughts under the alias of a semi-obscure piece of fruit that of course, has become one of my ever-growing collection of nicknames.

23.8.06

Blogging for Lawsuits.

In Britain, a college lecturer contributed to a 'blog in which she referred to a politician (who had also expressed his views in the same 'blog) using various uncomplimentary names, including referring to him as a "Nazi". The politician found out the real name of the lecturer (she wrote under a pseudonym) via the ISP and successfully sued her for £10,000 in damages and £7,200 costs. - from an entry in Wikipedia

I wish I knew the specifics of this incident. On what grounds did he sue her? Slander? Because if so, he's missing probably TONS of publically slanderous offenders. I hate slander laws. I mean the places they should be used, they're not, so what's the point of having them. If it wasn't a slander suit I'm even more curious as to what exactly his claims were. In the end it doesn't affect me, I'm just supremely glad that I don't have a political blog. But there's always people that apparently loose their job for blogging about interactions with co-workers. Which I know, I know, publishing it on the internet is different, but I can TELL anyone I want about events that happened at work verbally in any phrasing I want. I just don't get it. Why is that such a vastly different premise. I can understand endangerment of others if you're using their full names and what-not but beyond that, I don't get it. Ack. Don't feel like thinking about it. I'm probably post something about my birthday at my full fledged site later tonight or early tomorrow. So if you have any interest in the events or the celebration of my birth (20 years ago, as of today), you should look into that. (there's also a small bulk of other blogging going on there.

22.8.06

What's to Miss About The Diner Nights

I haven't been to the Summit Diner, or the less purposeful but functional Eat N' Park & Dennys in so long I'm not sure when I last found myself there. But I realized today, that at the root of it all, I suppose I miss the people, but what I miss is the environment provided by places like that. When many people think of kids that hang out in diners, they think of loser, outcasts, kids dressed from head to toe in black that drone on about the possibilities of death. Granted, it's a funny image, and I'm sure in some cases still an accurate portrayal, but my experience has never been that way. I've never had some deeply meaningful conversation about death whilst sitting in any restraunt booth (correction: my mother and her breakfast pals engaged me in a horridly depressing conversation about death one morning when I was in 7th grade). With my peers, the only death related conversation I've EVER had was held whilst sitting on a couch drinking wine. It was one of the more uncomfortable conversations of my lifetime. Of course, if you count Trace's frequent insistance about impending doom as conversations related to death, I suppose I've had several more, but Trace is one of a kind, more or less.

But my point really is this. Sitting down in places like that with nothing but a drink and maybe a notebook at your side only provides you with so much to do. You almost HAVE to talk. But when you're amongst friends, there's not much small talk to be had, so why meet up. To discuss things that you give a shit about. If I call up someone to see how their doing, it's really unlikely that I'm going to end up engaged in a conversation about what thier favorite driving songs are and why. But if I meet up with them at a restraunt (but by no means for dinner), and we sit down to coffee, well that's a topic that has the potential to come up. I don't so much like pop culture in general. I mean I like music, books, movies, as much as the average person. But I'm not obesessed. But I do have an enjoyment of anaylization. I can't tell you how many albums I listened to non-stop for a month or two, and then in hindsight thought about why they stuck out to me at that point, and what might be mechanically great about a particular band or song. And I like talking about these things, I like talking about a book I've read with someone else who's read it. I like hearing how other people experience things in a different way than my own. Which is what all these conversations are really about, what a song, or a book, or a movie MEANT to each different person and why. I like thinking about those sorts of things. And I haven't really created much of an outlet for that liking as of lately, and there's a chance, fairly slim chance, but a chance that I might start to slip more of these things into my life at least once or twice a month.

Over the past several months, I really do think I've grown up really fast, and I'm still growing even faster. I'm suddenly worried about building some semblance of a career. And truly, sincerely I do like it. I know I'm going to be 20 tomorrow, and that's still young in the grand scheme of things, but I've never been one to really do things at a normal pace for my age. I've always been a little ahead or a little behind. Six months ago, I was far more worried about whether I'd brought enough cigarettes to work with me or if I should've bought another pack on my way. Or maybe I was more concerned with what the Special of the Day was at the ski lodge cafeteria and whether the pizza would be any good. But I certainly wasn't worrying about college/job training, careers or anything of the sort. Nor was I thinking of mowing lawns, and triming bushes, or vaccooming and dusting. Things that I'm sure will soon find themselves on my lists of weekly and bi-weekly things that Rob and I need to accomplish. And I think that's where we start to loose a lot of interest in the pop culture world. I mean some people never have much interest in it, some have more. I'll throw myself somewhere in the middle. But we grow up, we have substance in our lives, things that NEED to be done, tasks that are required of our living situation.

For example, five years from now, I'd like to be owning 3 to 4 dogs, do you have any idea how much time and effort goes into caring for that many animals in a fashion that I deem suitable? I'm not the kind of person that puts a kennel together and slides food and water under the gate, I believe in loving and enjoying pets, otherwise what's the point. So walks, games of fetch, obedience competitions, these things take time.

For the average person, it even adds up fast. The normal things, yardwork, housework, kids/dogs (trust me, they can take an equal amount of time and support), and a job. Well then you add in things that aren't responsibilities but that you NEED in your life. Like I'll always need time to just relax with Rob and appreciate how great it is that I have him, and how lucky I am to spend my days with him (some people call this "us time"). Then factor in family. My own family drives me crazy but as long as I live in a reasonably close area I will still need to see them and spend time with them. I never really looked at us as a close family, but it's now become very clear that we are. My sister how ever demanding and blind-sided she can be, is still my sister, and there's still those moments where I know just how great it is to have her as my sister, same goes for both my brothers. So factor in monthly time for families. Now if you're left with ANY time at all, what are the chances you're going to be able to swing pop culture discussions over coffee into your life. That's where these interests get lost. And that is kind of a little sad. Kind of like outgrowing hopscotch is sad. But you really can cling to these, I mean they can't be the center of your life like they once might have been (sure, the highlight of my day used to be going to the diner after work to BS about music and literature that don't matter in the long run), but you can still squeeze one or two of these sessions in per month, provided you still have the friends in proximity to have these rambles with.

Despite those last two sentences, my vote is still kind of hanging on whether I want to leave that part of my brain behind, or still let it slip out every so often. We'll see how I feel at a later date when I'm bothered to think about it all again.

18.8.06

what I've been up to the long and the short of it

here's the basics. I'll be moving shortly. As the few people that may still read this are already aware I've been living with Rob since March. We're in the process of buying a house. That's all I feel the need to elaborate here.

Continueing on... besides my usual reclusiveness for awhile there I was also unavailable to communicate (I'd say it was a two week period). Anyone following Tyler's health by reading this blog know enough for me to say that he's got issues. Well he took quite a dip there for a week or so and scared the living crap out of me. I was back and forth to Somerset daily or every other day. I was one step short of hand feeding him and bottle serving him water (thank god it didn't come to that). Things have gone back to as normal as they will be until he gets to live with me full time again. But here's the update (WARNING: if you're disgusted by normal dog functions, skip the rest of this paragraph WARNING)... he's eating food normally again, he drinking water as he should be, he now has a fan in the garage to keep him cool during the day, recently we returned Puck to his company and he seemed delighted to have his buddy back (however I can't really say the same for Puck, I think she rather enjoyed being the top pet in the house for awhile), he's pooping solid poop most of the time, he still has his ear infection but I've got a renewed sense of purpose in calling or visiting a vet and consulting them about realistic options and what the chances are that it'll help or if once again we'll just be tossing money down the drain. The bottomline diagnosis about what exactly his problem was is a combination of things, my father retired in May, since then my parents have been home only for days at a time and then off and running to somewhere else, and Tyler other than someone stopping by in the morning and evening to let him out and give him food, water, and perhaps a pat on the head, had completely distroyed his puppy-like eagerness for life. For the most part, he was collecting dust. My parents are now home for awhile, and with them and Puck around he's being kept on his toes a bit more. It was also rediculously hot which we eventually realized that at his age, the heat may get to him worse than it did when he was younger. So in the end, turns out my daring mutt was just over-heated and bored, which probably makes him better off than 60% of America in the summer time. :-p But the whole situation did have me overly worked up and I had little urge to do much besides worry about him, and run to somerset to check on him. And had even less interest in communicating with anyone that wasn't my family (and that definition includes Rob).

Now planning for the future... as far as my reclusive-ness goes. I may be emerging sometime over the next few weeks to see some of the people I do miss seeing sometimes. Although I'll be really honest, most of the time I'm content to stay holed up in the house with Rob with the occasionaly conversation with Christian, or with a visiting Becca, or with a friend online. Other than that goes, my focuses will hopefully be dispursed among these things.
  • moving - with any luck we'll be able to start this sometime in the next few weeks.
  • job hunting - and of course when I find a job, working at that job will take up time as well
  • Tyler - and furthering my findings on what can be done about his health that is within my parents budget, and the budget they might allow me from a bond that has recently matured.
  • dog website project thingy - this project doesn't even have a name yet. But I would really like to get something started for dog owners in this area to communicate on. I'm not sure of too many details yet, this is a VERY recent idea. But what I do know is that the idea is to have something available for dog owning residents of Somerset, Cambria, and maybe Westmoreland counties to converge online. And trust me I am VERY VERY aware of how much I lack the skills to impliment some of my beginning ideas, so I'm going to decide what exactly I want to do... and make realistic goals about learning the skills it will take to implement these ideas. I have high hopes.
  • breeder invesigation - sometime in the semi-near future, there are plans in place for me to able to adopt a puppy (I'm shooting for next spring), but that's actually a relatively close deadline and looking into breeders, deciding what I want, and making sure I have everything I need for said puppy ready is a lot to do. Not to mention I'm very interested in getting some AKC obedience titles on whatever dog I end up getting, it's part of a plan to build some credentials for the dog training career I hope to have. Not to mention I think AKC obedience trials sound like fun. And of course, if I can find the means, there's always agility. All of this requires some travelling to nearby trials and finding out where there are kennel clubs and training groups in my area because whilst I know PLENTY about dog training, I know absolutely nothing about handler faults and such. So at best I need to find myself a mentor in the sport.
I think that pretty much covers it, but that I'm sure is going to end up being even busier than it sounds. Not to mention enjoying the hell out of life living with Rob and my dog at our new house. So spare time when it comes, will most likely be spent with the loves of my life soaking up all there is to enjoy about having a dream made into a reality.

With all that explaination at hand... I bid you all Ado, because at the moment I only took a short break from my research about the website project I mentioned. Side note: if anyone runs across an idea in their head for a good name idea for this site-to-be, let me know by way of e-mail or comments.

--- Keely