The Deer Yard

Something for you to remember, when the zombie apocalypse comes :)

2009-12-11T14:58:35Z

Created by Oatmeal

Harlan Ellison on the creation of Scientology

2009-12-11T14:55:20Z

Harlan Ellison on religion

2009-12-11T14:38:49Z

I love his idea for the clergy at the end :) I think Harlan & Dara O'Briain should cooperate on that one: get in the fucking sack! :P

American political positions

2009-12-11T14:36:30Z

If I hear (or read) ONE MORE dipshit in the media call ANYONE in the US Congress 'left-wing' I'm going to scream. Let's get this straight, folks. There are no left-wing politicians in Congress (with the sole exception of Dennis Kucinich). What we have here are moderates and reactionary right-wing fucktards. There are no left-wing federal politicians in the US. Period.

How about some honesty from you media fucks? Call American politicians by their true political positions. Democrats are moderate-right. Republicans are reactionary right. And there is no one -- not one single political party with any elected member -- on the left.

Not one.

Quotidian Quote 12-12-2009

2009-12-11T11:32:52Z

"Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing." Redd Foxx

Um ... oh my :P~~~ (VERY!!!!!!! NSFW!!!!!)

2009-12-10T23:11:50Z

One of my 'complaints' about StumbleUpon as a service (aside from wasting far, far, far too much of my time, by being that little button in the toolbar of Firefox, calling to me, saying, "It's ok, you can stay up just a few more minutes. You can click me just one more time and THEN go to bed.") is that, if you list 'pornography' as an interest, it will invariably stumble you to many, many, many online photos, videos, and sites of naked women (not exactly desired, in my case) before the odd one site of a naked man comes up.

Stumble is redeemed with just one find: GayPorn Tumblr. I think this is fairly indicative:

http://pornotumble.com/post/277191310/great-cum-shot

Uh .. OMD, mrrrrrr :P~~

*drools*

*wanders off to finally get his ass in gear & walk dogs, feed dogs, feed horses, donks, & goats, & maybe then get some food for himself*

Dear Tango

2009-12-10T11:19:36Z

The bedspread is NOT a chew-toy. Just because you CAN chew a hole in the middle of the during the night does not mean you SHOULD.

*sighs*, & wonders if Kohls or Sears Warehouse has a cheap bedspread on sale ...

Quotidian Quote 10-12-2009

2009-12-10T11:00:34Z

"The way to deal with superstition is not to be polite to it, but to tackle it with all arms, and so rout it, cripple it, and make it forever infamous and ridiculous. Is it, perchance, cherished by persons who should know better? Then their folly should be brought out into the light of day, and exhibited there in all its hideousness until they flee from it, hiding their heads in shame.

True enough, even a superstitious man has certain inalienable rights. He has a right to harbor and indulge his imbecilities as long as he pleases, provided only he does not try to inflict them upon other men by force. He has a right to argue for them as eloquently as he can, in season and out of season. He has a right to teach them to his children. But certainly he has no right to be protected against the free criticism of those who do not hold them. He has no right to demand that they be treated as sacred. He has no right to preach them without challenge. Did Darrow, in the course of his dreadful bombardment of Bryan, drop a few shells, incidentally, into measurably cleaner camps? Then let the garrisons of those camps look to their defenses. They are free to shoot back. But they can't disarm their enemy." H L Mencken

He'll get scoped

2009-12-10T09:40:28Z

He's miserable the way things are right now. Poor old bastard. So, call the vet this morning. Maybe I can get him scheduled to go in at the same time Tango goes in for his second set of shots next Tuesday.

So, had a conversation with the vet today ...

2009-12-10T01:57:25Z

about Tristan & his sinuses. For some time now he's had this low-grade sinus issue, like a mild infection. Some small amount of drainage when he was lying down, and the odd gasping sneeze after physical exertion (not that he does much of that anymore anyway -- however ...). And we tried him on a couple of antibiotics to see if that's the problem.

But it hasn't gone away. And has gotten worse. Pretty much 90% of the time he has a runny nose on the one side now. At night he has to sleep only on his one side -- because it soaks the bedclothes under his head. And the sneezes are more frequent, more powerful, and (infrequently) have traces of blood in them.

Which bears out her original diagnoses. 1) infection, give him the pills & see if it goes away. If it doesn't 2) most likely sinus tumour, and then we need to look at scoping it & seeing what, if anything, we can do about it.

And so to my problem. Tristan is 13 years old. He has had three strokes (possibly more); one of them so serious it almost killed him. If they examine him with the scope, they will, with almost complete certainty, find a tumour -- the only question being benign or malignant. However, to examine him, they'll have to give him a general. And I've very afraid that, given his prior vascular issues, if he goes under a general he will in all likelihood not wake up.

And so I'm sitting here, about to watch one last DTUC episode before bed, and can hear him snorting in the background on the bed ... and just don't know what to do.

I've no idea why I suddenly thought of this series.

2009-12-10T01:38:49Z

But it popped into my head, so away I went to YouTube and found .. the whole of the wonderful series The Day the Universe Changed, by James Burke -- a series which was best described by Spider Robinson as "a systems analysis of history".

Loved the series when I was much younger (and it's offspring, Connections and Connections2, and, though parts of it have aged somewhat, it is still a remarkably well-constructed 'hingsight-guided' forward tour through various historical developments.

The idea of 'unintended consequences' pervades Burke's analyses -- as indeed (IMNSHO) it pervades history in general. And not just history. Christopher Hallpike's wonderful anthropological texts, The Principles of Social Evolution, The Foundations of Primitive Thought, and The Evolution of Moral Understanding show simply and succinctly how so many of the social structures and cultural mores taken for granted as axiomatic in more developed societies are mere accidents of the history of those societies -- and may way have been something entirely different, given only slightly differing primitive societal forebears.*

So I've been watching some of them on YouTube, anyway. And they're still worth watching. Give them a go.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=day+the+universe+changed&search_type=&aq=0&oq=day+the+universe

* [editorial disclosure: of course I think Hallpike's work is brilliant, as I've said before. This is because I was lucky enough to be one of his 'sounding boards' during the writing, re-writing, and proofs for The Evolution of Moral Understanding. And that, without a doubt, has to be my fondest memory of being at university: sitting in Dr. Hallpike's study, at his old fieldstone farmhouse, enjoying some of Mrs. Hallpike's unbelievably delicious coffee, Elke snoozing at my feet, and Dr. Hallpike and me arguing over the development of one of his theses in the book, with our pipes or cigars burning out neglected in the ashtrays when we'd get too involved.]

Best commentary on abstinence-only sex-ed in awhile :)

2009-12-08T12:00:07Z

:You're a Christian perv, yo" LOL

Humph :/

2009-12-07T17:44:18Z

So that makes 3 different quiz things that say I'm depressed. Fuck 'em :P

Disorder	Your Score
Major Depression:	Slight-Moderate
Dysthymia:	High-Moderate
Bipolar Disorder:	Slight-Moderate
Cyclothymia:	High-Moderate
Seasonal Affective Disorder:	Very Slight
Postpartum Depression:	N/A
Take the Depression Test

Jokes Lieberman :P

2009-12-06T19:22:10Z

From over at True/Slant, a few of the "Ten Jokes about Joe Lieberman":

1. Joe Lieberman walks into a bar with a parrot on his shoulder. The bartender turns to him and says, “Sorry, we don’t serve bitter old egomaniacs here. And fuck your stupid parrot.”

2. Joe Lieberman walks into a second bar. The second bartender says, “Get out.” Joe Lieberman says, “Why? Can’t I buy a drink?” The second bartender says, “Don’t you get it? Everybody hates you.”

3. Knock, knock!
Who’s there?
Joe.
Joe who?
Joe Lieberman.
Get off my doorstep, you asshole.

4. Joe Lieberman is on a lifeboat with a young woman who was denied insurance coverage because she was raped, a middle-class guy who can’t afford his premiums, and a sickly child. He stabs them all in the back.

5. Joe Lieberman is fellating the health insurance industry when a little boy opens the door and screams, “What are you doing, Senator Lieberman?!?” Lieberman wipes his mouth and says, “Isn’t it obvious, Timmy?”

6. What do you get when you cross Joe Lieberman with a frog? A fascinating, frog-voiced lump of wrinkles whose blood runs cold with reptilian contempt for those in need. And a frog.

An online quiz that matches reality? Fuck off!

2009-12-06T19:19:21Z

For the "What kind of tattoo should you get?" quiz:

You are a mysterious person. You keep many things inside. That's why Celtic tattoo design is what you need. Look carefully, follow the loops around till their end, and discover why Celtic knots are so popular as a tattoo design. You'll soon see that the strands are never-ending, and continually loop back again from their beginning to symbolize eternal faith, love and loyalty. These tattoos mean more than an eye can see and are always unique.

Take the test!

Puppy Notes

2009-12-06T19:17:26Z

1. Housetraining doesn't apply all the time, so far as Tango is concerned. Trustable, say, 90% of the time. The 10% is NOT good.

2. The first time any puppy meets snow is something not to be missed.

3. OK, when I first got him, he had this cute snuffle sound when he was asleep. As of last night, it's not a cute sound. Tango, dude, you fucking SNORE LOUDLY.

Quotidian Quote 04-12-2009

2009-12-04T12:54:30Z

"An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today." Laurence J. Peter

Liar, Liar Meme :)

2009-12-03T12:15:39Z

I WILL BE COMPLETELY DISHONEST FOR 24 HOURS! You can ask one question; any question, no matter how crazy, sinister, lewd or wrong it is. I WILL answer with a lie no matter what and you will have FULL duplicity; so don't ask if you can't handle the deceit.

If you ask, then you must put this in your LJ, lie your pants off, and see what questions YOU get! :)

Quotidian Quote 03-12-2009

2009-12-03T12:10:32Z

"Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority." Thomas H. Huxley

So the real question is ...

2009-12-03T05:06:33Z

"How many holes can Tiger Woods play?"

(and I SO wish I could take credit for it).

Quotidian Quote 02-12-2009

2009-12-02T13:30:06Z

"It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend." William Blake

A Not-Too-Bad Article on Furries, except ...

2009-12-02T00:33:19Z

http://www.uiargonaut.com/content/view/9171/49:testset/

Saw this posted online today. Not a bad quick overview of the fandom, really. More of a 'dispell the rumours' piece than anything in-depth, but not bad.

Until the last paragraph.

Tell me, WHEN, EVER, was someone at any furcon ever "walking around in crotch-less fur suits at conventions populated by 13-year-old anime fans"? Same answer as I got, right? To whit, never. So, especially given the relatively sober overview which precedes it, just where the fuck does this come from??

Tentative Hogmanay Menu

2009-12-01T21:35:13Z

A full Scots Hogmanay menu:

Sherry/Befores
- the rather nice Amontillado I got recently
- asparagus rolls
- oysters
- cheese tray

Soup (thick or clear, not sure yet which) with Orvietto

Sorbet

First Course
- Roast Venison
- Wild Rice
- sweet carrots with marmalade
- Hock (2005 Hattenheimer Hassel Beerenauslese Riesling)

Second Course
- Roast Beef
- Yorkshire Pudding
- peas? green beans almondine?
- Claret (2004 Chateau Gloria St. Julien)

Third Course
- The Haggis
- Champit nips & tatties
- Burgundy (2007 Domaine d'Aubaret Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon)

Sweets
- Plum pudding with brandy
- Sauternes (2005 Sigalas Rabaud, Sauternes)

Coffee/tea/liqueurs

The Port (the '85 -- sorry, none of the '77 left, and no one is touching my '94 or the '00)

Cigars & Whisky/Aperitifs

(Of course, for something like this I would have to dig out my kilt & mess kit :) ).

Hogmanay!!

2009-11-30T18:12:53Z

Hogmanay this year @ Zootopia, for friends what would like to attend :) I'll be doing more formal invites later, but it'll be some good food, good drink, dogs everywhere, special visit from the New Year's Goat, fireworks, bonfire, and assorted other craziness. Also thinking, for the next day, doing something like a fursuit visit to the children's ward at the local hospital, if they're cool with it.

Set the date aside (you can most likely guess when it is) & hope to see you here :)

Local business (and rich, awesome, incredibly delicious chocolate-lovers!) plug enclosed :)

2009-11-30T14:02:57Z

If you love chocolate -- really, really *good* chocolate -- or you want a quick gift for someone who loves horses, or someone who really loves great chocolate, look this place up:

http://www.unbridledchocolates.com/

Unbridled Chocolates. Horse-themed chocolates, in an amazing variety of fillings, all amazingly delicious & addictive (yes, I buy their stuff. Yes, I buy it too often. Yes, I buy their small tins as gifts for my vet & farrier & some horse-type acquaintances). You will NOT regret getting anything from them. They ship out stuff very fast, the chocolateer there is a wizard with flavours, and they just make some fantastic stuff.

Seriously, look them up. You will NOT be disappointed.