City Kitties

This guessing app nailed me in one try on Conan, Ariel from Little Mermaid, Bruce Lee and Miyamoto Musashi. Took three tries for Ash from Army of Darkness, but it's still really really smart.

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So yesterday, I got this email entitled "The world needs more Evans" and it was one of those chain letters, you know the sort, you see it on snopes.com all the time -- some kid wants to collect ten thousand post cards before he dies, a soldier requests prayers for a fallen comrade, but this one -- i knew this one was true because I'd helped start it -- someone had forwarded me a letter from Evan's mother -- you remember Evan, the kid who gave his life savings, $47.65 to City Kitties, the stray cat rescue group (Copy of Evans original heartwarming letter here.) This person was asking if I might help spread Evans altruism this holiday season by forwarding this letter to some people. How awesome that Evan's boomerang would pass by me again.

You know that person in the office who's always sending you the emails about missing people, places you should boycott, similarities between Washington D.C. and Sodom -- why not send them a copy of this -- you might see yourself on snopes.com in a week:

Subject: The World Needs More Evans

I can barely explain this, and I can't help but brag about it. Evan saved up his allowance for months and donated $46.75 to City Kitties, the cat rescue from which we got our adorable (if mischievous) Macha. He wrote them a sweet note. They posted it on their Facebook page, and it went viral. Kyle Cassidy matched Evan?s donation to City Kitties and suggested that others do the same. At last count, it had been “retweeted” (I vaguely understand that) 147 times. Bloggers are linking back to other blogs. Within hours, City Kitties received more than $400 in donations, and they are still coming. Other people have donated to rescues in Arizona, Tennessee, California, Toronto, and locations unnamed, in Evan?s honor. A woman in Austin, Texas made a video requesting donations for her local animal shelter, and credited Evan with inspiring her to take the time to do so. Sample comment from the blogs: “the world needs more Evans.” We agree. J

You can see his note here (and elsewhere!):

http://kylecassidy.livejournal.com/570781.html

http://katemckinnon.wordpress.com/2009/12/18/the-world-needs-more-evans/

http://kemidra.livejournal.com/581514.html

Forgive our bragging! We are just astounded!

Happy holidays, everyone.

Lisa, Brett, and Evan

(in other news, we have heat -- perhaps it's a reward from above or perhaps it's just competent furnace repair people.)

go be awesome.




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Today's theme was "beauty in the darkness". purplemer3's entry:
 





My entries:
 

 

I know it's been a rough year. Thanks for standing by me! You know what else stands by things? Trees. And that's why, in honor of my livejournal friends this year, I've donated tree seedlings to fight erosion (and let's sequester a little bit of carbon while we're at it) through Heifer International.

Here's to getting out of the decade alive. Think we can do it again in 2020?

Apparently there's this thing called "retro-metal" now, which to my ear sounds just like heavy metal that I still listen to. I think what "retro-metal" really means is that "I am a hipster douchebag music critic who likes to pretend that heavy metal disappeared for thirty years because it stopped being cool, but now that some members of my skinny-jeans wearing, PBR-swilling hipster hivemind have started listening to it again, it once more exists so I'm going to dub it 'retro'", but what do I know?*

Anyhow, here's a selection from The Sword, which is an old-school, ever so slightly doom-tinged heavy metal band that cites "George R. R. Martin, Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft and Arthur C. Clarke" and norse/pagan mythology as their major inspirations (though personally, I would hesitate to dub them full-fledged fantasy metal or pagan metal, at least as compared to exemplars of those particular genres.)




* a lot.**

** about metal, anyway.

Finally home in Virginia. Greeted by two feet of snow. Nicole dropped me off and did all the grocery shopping, shoveled the walk and driveway. Now she's off collecting the dogs. My Hero. I will start Taco Soup, the fire, and turn on all the Christmas lights while keeping all the windows open to make sure I see all the snow I can. From in here.

More playing in the snow with trillian_stars.






Supposedly the furnace guys are coming today to drag the old heater out through nine feet of snow and bring in the new one. They hope to have everything connected by Wednesday. But until then it's ... coooold in Casa del Milla but what's having no heat if not the opportunity for adventure? We got trillian_stars' 1930 Electrola and some holiday 78 rpm records and ensconced ourselves downstairs in the Rock Star Hotel and pretended we were on vacation in a cabin in the woods. Looking out the windows all you can see is snow where it's drifted five feet up against the side of the house.

trillian_stars made gingerbread, I made chili, the cats acted like they've never been downstairs, we had hot chocolate, I worked on final edits for the kids book, which I now think should be called "A Bunny Named Swine" rather than "A Rabbit Named Swine". We piled a lot of blankets together, it was fabulous. The furnace guys are going to end our pioneer adventure, but I'm glad we had the experience.




Whether or not your home is filled with heat this year end season, I hope it's filled with love (and kittens).



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purplemer3 and I have challenged each other to a themed photo each day for every day from December 17-January 3rd. Like many things that we do, it shows the different ways in which we see the world.

Today's theme was "self".

Mer's entries (yes, she had two!):




Travel themed, as Mer headed to New Hampshire today.

Anna's entry:



I had intended to take a picture of Annapast and Annapresent together. In execution, I accidentally left the zoom on. While I could retake the photo, I kind of like it... we have the same look in our eye.

Firstly, thanks to everyone who offered advice on my previous post.

Once again my poor little lad woke me at 5am, crying and jumping in and out of the litter box. I discovered that he had peed on the couch at some stage and it was a very dark red. As he has now flatly refused to eat any of the Hills food (wet or dry) I opted to syringe his anti inflammatory directly into his mouth and give him a small quantity of his usual food. He was calm for a few hours as we both slept, but by around 9:30am he was upset again. I rang the clinic and was able to talk to the really nice vet I'd seen the first time. She spent a good 10 minutes talking to me, and then suggested that if he refused to eat the Hills, he could be given tablets instead (why oh why didn't I get that option before I'd spent $60 on food he hates?) Anyway, I took him in and the nice vet examined him thoroughly, nose to tail, checked his penis and using the stethoscope on his tummy to see if he was blocked (he wasn't) and made sure that he in wasn't any immediate danger. She was so gentle and kind in fact that Benji started purring while she was examining him. He's not one of those cats that hates the vet, but he's never purred before while on an examination table! He's now on 500mg of Ammonium Chloride twice a day with food. And the good bit is that he can go back onto his usual diet of predominantly raw meat, provided he keeps getting the pills. I knew there was a reason I trusted that vet implicitly the first time, and not just because she's let him go back on his usual diet, but because she actually cared, took her time, and listened to me. She's even told me that I can ring her any time I am away at my Mum's place, and she will talk to Mum's vet if he needs to go in while we are up there. She also gave him a shot of analgesic to chill him out on the plane.

Plus, as an added bonus, I've discovered a local cab driver (so local he lives behind my block of flats) who will courier me and the puss any time we need him. So now I've finished the packing (almost) and am about to do a final tidy up before the cat and I get picked up by the nice cab driver, and we head off to Brisbane.

My 18-year-old cat, Naomi (in icon) has been losing weight recently and also eating and drinking a lot more than usual. She was also throwing up a few times a week and peeing more. I took her to the vet on Thursday and blood work showed her kidneys aren't working right.

So my vet prescribed a food called Hills KD which is supposed to help although there's nothing they can do to repair any existing damage. But I'd like more advice. Are there certain foods I should avoid giving her? How can I tell if the problem is getting worse when she's already sick? She weighed 5.9 lbs at the vets which is pretty skinny. She's also vocalizing a lot which makes me wonder if she's in pain or just confused about why she doesn't feel good. Any advice would be appreciated.

A couple people wrote to ask about a new intrusive ad for Best Buy that has started running on Livejournal. I haven't seen it but apparently it takes up the whole screen and when it first started it auto-played audio (which is right up there with shooting someone's dog on my list of "thing's that it's uncool to do"). I asked LJ about it and heard back that it is indeed an official ad (some people were wondering if it was a virus or adware). They've removed the auto-play audio and added a button that is supposed to let you close it right away (rather than waiting for the animation to finish). There are no plans to stop running it as it's a big money maker. It should also not appear more than once every 24 hours.

I'm not sure if this is supposed to motivate people on the fence to upgrade to paid accounts, but I worry that people who are just starting out may be driven away because of it.

If you have questions or comments about this post them here and I'll forward them up the food chain. You may comment anonymously if you'd like.

Please repost as you see fit.

Thanks a bunch.

Your LJ user rep.

07:31 SNOW! (and Snow, hey oh!): ♫ blip.fm/~i10p9 #

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purplemer3  and I have challenged each other to a themed photo each day for every day from December 17-January 3rd. Like many things that we do, it shows the different ways in which we see the world.

Today's theme was "Orange".

Mer's entry:



A photo of Charlie, the lovely pet of quixoticallyvee . Adorable.

Anna's entry:



What? It's orange.

Here's the full range:



Who wins today? Pussy or pussy?

...Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

Tomorrow's theme, "self".

I think I have an unhealthy obsession with Trillian Stars.




Click to Embiggen



We're going into our second week with no heat at Casa Del Milla. It's not so bad, but we're a bit worried about the pipes freezing. The furnace fix-it people are supposed to be here tuesday to put in a new unit. Until then, we run around outside with no coats on and when we come back in, it feels a lot warmer than it did when we left.




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Hi all, I've read through the posts on UTI's but still have a few questions.

First up, I live in Australia and we don't have the variety of cat food here that can be found in the US, so while suggestions for food would be great,it needs to be a product I can get here. Secondly, I was put off from my job last Monday, and have only limited funds. I haven't had consistent employment since November last year when I was made redundant from a job I loved and things are tight what with the mortgage and the massive price of electricity in this country.

What happened - I arrived home Tuesday night to find Benji lethargic, scared and refusing to eat. He was so meek I thought that somehow someone had hurt him, although how anyone would get into the flat through the iron bars I couldn't imagine. So I took him to the usual clinic, where the vet discovered a scratch on his side (obtained during the 5 minutes he had been allowed outside on his leash the previous Sunday). She decided he might have some sort of infection as he also had a fever, and he'd been checked for blockages and cleared. The long acting antibiotic shot seemed to do the trick and he was perky on Wednesday.

Thursday morning everything was different. He was crying, peeing in random spots all over the flat and generally very distressed. He woke me around 5, and I sat up with him until the vets opened at 7am. I had to leave him there and dash to work (in hindsight, no idea why I bothered). Around lunchtime another vet called and explained that he had struvite crystals and needed to go on a special diet. Also, he had been given a dose of morphine and was, as the vet put it "very stoned". When I collected him on the way home from work I was given a large bag of Hills prescription s/d dried food, two cans of wet Hills prescription c/d wet food, and an anti inflammatory to be administered at meal times.

This all cost around $500 not including cab fares. Cut to the early hours of this morning, and the little man was again screaming in agony, and I realised after checking on him that he was also bleeding. I'd finished his week long dosage of anti inflammatory on Thursday night. The vet, sensibly enough, insisted I bring him in, however when she mentioned that it would likely cost hundreds of dollars (AGAIN) I burst into tears. Explaining that I had just lost my job got me a recommendation of either checking with the RSPCA to see if they offered cheaper treatment (too far away) or finding a vet who offered payment plans (pointless when I don't have an income any more). Essentially I was told (correctly) that he had to be seen in case he was blocked. So we saw this vet, bought another lot of anti-inflammatories and another expensive long acting antibiotic shot, all done in 15 minutes and then back home again. Last week while I was still employed I bought a case of the expensive prescription canned food, (which the post person saw fit not to actually deliver but to dump at the post office so I had to drag it home) however it has not met with his majesty's approval. He will eat the dry food, but this means he needs to drink even more water, and he's never been a big drinker, even with the water fountain (also bought when I was still employed). The vet I saw this morning insisted that he would be perfectly fine eating nothing but the dry food, but I've always fed my cats a mixture of wet and dry and don't see how we will get enough fluid if he only eats kibble. To be honest I wasn't very impressed with her as she pulled him out of his cage, gave him a perfunctory check and was generally rather off hand.

Now that I've done some research on struvite crystals and Hills prescription diet, I'm worried about the sheer volume of grain in the food. Before this happened I was feeding him a specialised raw meat cat food ("Fussy Cat" at night and dry food in the morning (Optimum). The vet has said not to feed him the raw meat, which confuses me because I had assumed that he was better off with the raw meat? I have to take him back in a month. I intend to keep him on the Hills instructed, but if as I believe, a grain heavy food isn't the best thing for him, I'd like some reputable links to papers or sites that explain this in detail to the vet.

Mer and I have challenged each other to a themed photo each day for every day from December 17-January 3rd. Yesterday's theme was 'in-transit', the results of which are trapped on my camera. Today's theme was 'bright'. Like many things that we do, it shows the different ways in which we see the world.

Mer's entry:



An elegant, artistic photo showing the light shining between tree branches. Beautiful, Mer.

Anna's entry:



My father's attempt at decorating the tree outside our house for Christmas. Notice that the lights aren't actually wrapped around the tree all the way-- at a certain point they're just thrown there. Well, it's bright. The only thing more garish than the tree may be my photographing of it.

Future themes:

Saturday, December 19
Orange

Sunday, December 20
Undetermined

Monday, December 21
Undetermined

Tuesday, December 22
Undetermined

Wednesday, December 23
Candid

Thursday, December 24
Joy

Friday, December 25
Together

Saturday, December 26
More

Sunday, December 27
Undetermined

Monday, December 28
Undetermined

Tuesday, December 29
Undetermined

Wednesday, December 30
Undetermined

Thursday, December 31
Reflect

Friday, January 1
Envision

Saturday, January 2
Undetermined

Sunday, January 3
Undetermined

Make a suggestion?

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13:10 Does Dockers have the right to say what gender is? R we as genderless as we r post-racist? bit.ly/4AYSAT (via @katebornstein) #

13:26 HOWTO make rim-perching adorable tiny gingerbread houses for your cocoa bit.ly/5qAuKJ (via @BoingBoing) #

13:31 Censored BBC radio's "Killer toxic waste" on #Trafigura, uncensored by WikiLeaks. tinyurl.com/ybxod4t (via @wikileaks) #

13:35 Checking Your Privacy at the Border: bit.ly/5TqXIf (via @ACLU) #

13:43 1st glint of sunlight to be seen by human eyes from a lake on Saturn's moon Titan bit.ly/5QCJU (via @newscientist) #

13:51 UK cops harassing, arresting & fining student for filming 'iconic' building[video]: is.gd/5smKO (via @privacyint) #

14:20 Angry About Bailout, Some Divest bit.ly/6UQ3VR (via @MotherJones) #

14:38 Lebanese Women Win Right to Open Bank Accounts... #feminism bit.ly/6DSVvD (via @feminismtoday) #

15:16 Give a Goat (or chicken or duck or alpaca!), get 2 free mp3s by Pomplamoose! is.gd/5sIEk #

15:56 Incredibly beautiful - eagle owl landing: is.gd/5sIEk WOW. #

16:02 Anti-groping cameras set for Tokyo train line #feminism bit.ly/6efQxA (via @feminismtoday) #

16:42 Fax your senators latest public option poll: only 33% support Senate compromise. bit.ly/77OzYu @credomobile Please RT #

22:24 When 3-letter airport codes became standard, airports that had used 2 letters added X to their code LAX for example. (via @mental_floss) #

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