Grimly Fiendish

I seem to have an odd knack for floods and friends' basements.

Yes, I'm still going on about the pet rescues. I know it's all old boring news by now, but they're still being found. Some were left with enough food and water that they survived in good health. Others have barely made it, bony and weak. Those which are found but can't be rescued right away (ie, transport vehicles already full) are being left with food and water so they can hold out a little longer. Of course many more are already just dead by now, but the fact that many are still being rescued means the issue is no less important now than it was back when this was all new and exciting, and there're many houses still left to check.

So here's my little update. As always please pass the info on wherever y'all deem it might be of use.

( Read more... )

I've been keeping up on updates from rescuers at the nola.com message board. Thanks to somewhat disconnected coordination and typical bureaucratic stupidity, rescuers are reporting myriad obstacles to getting their job done; meanwhile, stranded pets have been left for days without food or potable water, and many have already died.

It might sound silly and pointless, but it appears word from John Minnick, Public Liaison Officer of Homeland Security (john.minnick@dhs.gov) is that having enough people phone in to the White House could help bring better coordination efforts to the area. The goal is to have as many people as possible call today. I already have; for the cost of a short LD call it certainly can't hurt to try.

The number is 202-456-1111. Don't bother pressing any buttons, just wait and a live person will answer. They can only take down messages, not answer any questions. Briefly, these are the points rescuers have asked to have addressed:

1. Assist animal rescuers using all divisions of military in all affected areas

2. Send military vets in to assist

3. Build and secure shelters ASAP (there are some decommissioned military bases nearby which could be used)

4. Assist with out of state transports

( The long version )

Thanks.

Pontification and fingerpointing aren't helping anyone right now. If you actually give a shit, STFU and do something.

http://www.petfinder.com/disaster/
http://www.vetmed.lsu.edu/#DONATIONS
http://www.petsmart.com/charities/
http://www.usef.org/
http://neworleans.craigslist.org/vol/94842173.html
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/99999999/NEWS/50831026

USEF's actually doing pretty well for volunteers at the moment, but will be posting more info later at the above URL about needed funds and supplies. Anyone in the area or neighboring states with shelter space or time/vehicles/expertise can donate those as well.


_{[EDIT] Truncated URL fixed, Petsmart URL added.
[EDIT] Petfinder URL added.}

Yes, it's worksafe (I'll leave googling for photos to the truly curious). For her next trick, I hear she's going to make cutely pouty faces at bin Laden, hopscotch through the streets of Lagos, pose for photos with European Summit leaders, then head Stateside to give W a big hug.


_{There's an old Vulcan proverb: Only Saaya could go to China...}

As I'm about to make another roadtrek soon, it occurred to me that having a GPS might be a nifty thing. Pity I didn't think of it sooner so I'd have more time to research the topic, so instead I call upon y'all for assistance.

Mainly what I want is something good for road navigation (multi-state US and probably Canada, so autorouting features would be good), as well as for strolling the wilds. Connectivity to PDA or laptop would be spiffy; in fact, I was considering just getting a USB or bluetooth dongle, but it sounds like PDA/computer software is, surprisingly, less advanced than that embedded in dedicated handhelds. I'll gladly be proven wrong on that front. Plus, most handhelds seem to have USB connectivity, so I could always hook one up to something with a bigger screen later on if I wanted. Although I don't currently have a working PDA, I'd be connecting to either Symbian (preferred) or PalmOS; for the laptop I currently run OpenBSD, but may add MacOSX to my arsenal in the future.

Right now the most likely candidates seem to be a Magellan SporTrek Color and a Garmin 76CS. Color displays are just more readable IMO, and having a compass would be most handy. I think the Garmin has more memory, but I'm hearing that the SporTrek is more accurate and the compass less annoying to use (though its battery cover is a bit cheesy). For plain dongles, the Fortuna Clip-On seems to have the lead, but I have no clue about preferred software packages.

I'm also getting a notion that SiRF is somehow preferred over NMEA or other brand-proprietal data formats, though I'm not sure why. Anyway, if anyone has comments/corrections on the above or info to add or whatever, I'd appreciate it.

Das Pooch has been having a few problems lately. She's had a cough that, while not constant, is frequent enough to make me worry a bit. She might go perhaps a day without, but she gets fits of what the vet aptly described as reverse sneezes, or does a hacking that ends in her smacking her tongue like something came up in the process. She's also had two bladder infections in a year, which again isn't a whole lot but enough to make me go "Hmm." Then what I'd dismissed as a few isolated accidents at first has become noticable as somewhat frequent urine seepage--mostly when she sleeps.

So! Tests aplenty in the past few weeks with enough X-rays to make her glow in the dark (and a handy way of racking up bills to try competing with Feren's). Nothing hideous in her lungs, just a touch of fibrosis consistent with her age which may be contributing. Per the vet's suggestion I've picked up some Pepcid 10mg to see if the cough might be related to acid reflux. No absolute conclusions on that front yet though.

Yesterday I went in at 10am to check on the bladder issues. Doc was concerned that repeated infections and incontinence might mean bladder stones, so onward with the next slew of radiation; and since they were going to be in that region anyhow I asked if they could check her hips as well. I waited until about 4pm before they finally had results for me. No stones of any sort or size indicated, neither in her bladder or kidneys. Hips and joints look awesome, no degeneration at all. They ascribe the incontinence to lack of hormones, as a result of her being spayed when I adopted her, so I now have a prescription for DES (diethylstilbestrol, synthetic estrogen) to make up for what her body can no longer produce.

The bad news is, the x-rays showed she has lumbar spondylosis (osteoarthritis). Basically she shows some scarring and calcification on the ventral surface of her lower spine. It doesn't seem to be causing her a lot of pain, so maybe it's pretty mild so far or she's just lived with it long enough that she's learned to ignore it for the most part (like I have); she does sit and get up a little slowly when she doesn't have any particular motivation to move faster, but she also pandiculates frequently enough that she's obviously still able to arch her lower back. But doc says no more activity for her which might cause overt compression, torsion, or lateral flexion of her back and worsen her condition. Meanwhile, I'm looking into possible therapy methods to try on her.

Most of this came to mind last night as I was trying to fall asleep. It's probably another of my "it sounded good at the time, but pretty retarded in retrospect" ideas, but wot the hell.

( Yet Another Version of `If Computers Were...' )

I've a long standing bad habit of scavenging cutout bins for music and movies. Sure, I wind up with a fair amount of stuff which rightfully should've been tossed out, but you just can't find entertainment of this quality anywhere else. Stuff like low budget horror movies with a bonus commentary track by the likes of Shannon Wheeler (who had nothing to do with the movie), or an entire CD of '80s glam bands covering Cheap Trick songs which were then remixed by goth/industrial bands. Naturally that leaves me with a rather odd collection, amidst more standard fare.

Which brings me neatly into a segue. Sure, I usually mock memes since most are pretty pointless and vapid. But I do have to admit I'm a bit amused by the movie quotes meme. I didn't specifically try to pick out the most obscure, but even after trimming out the most obvious (after all, who wouldn't know "There is no spoon" or "If you refuse you die, she dies, everyone dies") it was still hard to keep it down to just fifteen movies--or for that matter, just picking one quote from some movies. I don't know that I can pin down favorites easily, but these are all ones I watch and enjoy, and only a couple haven't made it to my personal collection (to be remedied). And so...

( ...the quotes... )

If I have the right setting, comments should be screened to avoid early tip-offs. I'll unscreen tomorrow sometime. And when nobody replies I'll refuse to assume nobody reads my crap and instead righteously mock you all for your feeble movie knowledge.