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Helping animals

No matter where you live there are many stray or hurt animals that need help. The local shelters are inundated with animals and many of them work completely off of donations. With the Holiday season fast approaching, many find this time of year the one where they give them most. I would encourage you to also give to your local shelters, so that they can take care of the lost and lonely animals that are so in need of help. A quick search on the internet will tell you where they are all located in your area and you can find out which ones are in need of assistance.

Remember also before you give a pet as a Christmas gift that it is a lifetime commitment and you must be certain that you have the space available and the time, as well as money to care for it. Children love animals, but can easily get bored with it. Make sure you realize that it is something that you are taking on rather than your child taking it on. Have a happy holiday season and don’t forget our little friends whether they are furry or not.

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Are There Safe Dog Treats Anymore?

About a year ago, I was devastated to find out the my dog’s favorite treat in the whole world, chicken jerky, was killing dogs. We found out that the treats were being made in China and the Chinese were adding something to the treats and other pet food that was poison to dogs. Everyone looked to the FDA to find out what was going on and to stop it, but the FDA didn’t seemed to worry about it, as it was dogs being poisoned, not humans.

Everyone eventually stopped buying the chicken jerky treats and passing the word along to other pet owners about the thousands of dog deaths and the stores stopped selling it. Notably, WalMart was one of the very last retailers to stop carrying the poisoned dog treats. That kinda pisses me off in itself. WalMart should have been the first to raise hell with the Chinese and make them clean up their act. But, no.

I have now become suspicious of any dog food or dog treat that is not made in the USA. I was OK with the fact that dog treats are made from the less desirable parts of the animals and that it was not human grade food going into the pet food and treats. But poison? No.

Have you found any dog treats that are made in the USA and are similar to the chicken jerky treats that we used to buy? I have seen some knock offs, but they are lying on the label, saying they are made in the USA when they are actually just packaged here. The poisoned dog treats are just being put in different packaging and using deceptive wording on the label to make you believe that they are not made in China. I’m too smart to fall for that bull shit.

I have money I am willing to spend on an American made, safe dog treat. Why isn’t someone making them and selling them?

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Apple Harvest Season

Everywhere I look there are apples being sold, as October is the middle of apple harvest season. The roadside stands are full of them, the local orchards are advertising everywhere, and the grocery stores have many varieties in the produce section – all begging to be taken home to someone’s kitchen and cooked.

I like to eat an apple just out of hand rather than cooking them into something fattening. Let’s face it, most recipes that include apples also include butter, sugar and flour. Why add all that fat and cholesterol to something that tastes great right off the tree?

My favorite apple variety is still the Red Delicious Apple. This is the apple that I grew up with – my mom kept a bowl of apples on the kitchen table as a centerpiece and we were encouraged to eat an apple any time we ran in the house and complained of being hungry.

I heard that Johnny Depp lost about 100 pounds for a movie role by eating nothing but apples and drinking nothing but coffee every day for about 4 months. I find it interesting that the apple was considered healthy enough to replace all food for that long a period of time. He seems to have suffered no ill effects from starving his body like that for the movie role.

 

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Stuck Behind a School Bus – Ugh!

Now that school is back in session, my drive to work has gotten longer by at least 15 minutes in the mornings. So you would think that I should leave 15 minutes earlier and I will still get to work on time, right? Wrong! If I leave 15 minutes earlier, I end getting stuck behind a school bus. It is stop and go for a very very long time and that 15 minutes gets eaten up by the bus stopping at every corner to pick up kids. And you cannot pass the bus. There is no safe spot on my commute to pass a school bus. By the way, forget about the bus pulling over once in a while to let everyone pass – the bus driver does not give a hoot about the long line of cars behind him that can’t get by.

So now, for me to get to work on time, I have to leave my house 30 minutes earlier than I did over the summer when there were no school buses dragging down traffic. And then I end up arriving at work 15 minutes early. I sure could use that 15 minutes to sleep on some mornings. But no. I am at work early and there is no advantage to getting there early. It’s not like I can leave 15 minutes earlier or even take an extra 15 minutes longer at lunch. It is 15 minutes wasted or gifted to my boss. I’m screwed either way.

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Jamming to a Great Playlist on Spotify

All this work on web sites can get really tedious, but it helps to have some good music playing while I’m slaving over a hot keyboard! I’ve been jamming to a great playlist on Spotify. I’m not even sure how I found this playlist, but some chi calling herself Leathrn has put together an “Adult Contemporary” playlist of great songs.

They are all relatively current songs that are easy on the ears. It’s not easy listening – that’s a different style. I mean that there is not disco, no teenybopper and no rap on the list. It is all stuff that you an sing along to, chill on while you are driving, and in my case, you can listen while you work.

She has so many excellent songs on her playlist that you can listen to this all day long and not hear the same song twice. About 300 tracks, each at about 3 minutes means about 15 hours of music. And I really like her picks of the songs. She has a great ear for music and I wish she would put together some other playlists, like country songs or even jazz, for the nights at home.

Spotify is really great – much better than Pandora. On Spotify, you can pick the exact songs you want and in the order you choose – or you can do a random play, too. There is a free version, but I believe in supporting business that I really like, so I subscribe for just $5 a month, which lets me access my playlists from any device, not just my home PC.If you have not tried it yet – give it a go and tell me what you think.

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Flap Over Rolling Stone Magazone Cover Photo

The past two days have been full of all these self righteous do-gooders criticizing Rolling stone magazine for their cover photo of the guy who was involved with the tragedy in Boston. They say it is disrespecting the victims of his crime to put his photo on the cover. That say that being on the cover of Rolling Stone glorifies that person and makes him a rock star. I say: ridiculous.

The photo used by Rolling Stone is the exact same photo that was used by the New York Times on their front page, above the fold. There was no outcry against the New York Time and that was a blatant attempt by the NYT to sensationalize the story.

The photo shows what looks like a normal college kid. That is the magazine’s target demographic. The point of the story is that something wrong happened somewhere along the way in this kid’s life. It examines his childhood and what is known about his experiences as a teenager and college kid. It asks the question, what went wrong and what we can do about it?

This is an important dialogue that our country should be undertaking. Comeing to an understanding of what happened to turn this kid from normal to killer is how we can take steps to make sure it does not happen to other kids.

The story is not making this kid a rock star. It points out that our society has issues that need to be addressed and resolved, more than seeking vengeance on this guy through the convoluted court system. This guy is never going to get out of jail and walk our streets again. We all know that. But what about the other kids who are just like him who are?

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Looking Forward to the Release of the PS4

Now that my Playstation 3 is pretty much obsolete, I’m going to waste any more money buying games for the PS3 platform. I’m looking forward to the release of the PS4 around Christmas and the improvements to the technology and graphics of the new system. I plan on being one of the first in this town to own the new PS4 and whatever new games are coming out for that platform.

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Not Happy With Windows 8

Had to buy a new laptop to replace the one that got trashed when my dog trampled it. I had left the laptop on the bed and my dog lost his mind and stomped on the keyboard while trying to get across the bed to run to the door. My fault for leaving the laptop open and on the bed with the dog, but I’m blaming the dog.

Anyway, I found a decent Toshiba laptop on sale for under $300, so I grabbed it up at a local retailer rather than ordering it online and waiting a week for it to arrive UPS. But what I had not considered is that the new computers all come with Windows 8 installed on them. Ugh.

I figured out most of what I needed to know to set up the new laptop. I had to install updates and software, set up the router to get online, and transfer my documents and graphics files from the old laptop.

Once I started using the new laptop, I realized the most annoying problem with the new Windows 8 is that they count on swiping to trigger all the menus and apps. Well, if you are using a touchpad, swiping is part of your everyday use for everything from typing a Word document to playing a quick game. The swiping blanks out your current screen display and replaces it with an app or a menu. Its very annoying and time consuming to have to cancel the swipe and get back to what you were working on.

Right now, I’m frustrated and not impressed with the Windows 8 at all. As far as I’m concerned, Windows 7 was fine. It did the job, we know how to use it and all Microsoft did was fix something that was not broken just for the sake of change. It’s like Microsoft has adopted the Facebook mentality – keep changing things and pissing off your users.

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Home Time

I am going to get some home time and the great thing about my job is I don’t have to take my home time where I actually live so I am going to go home to see my parents I have a feeling I will be using a lot of my home time to visit family I haven’t seen in a while because I don’t have to pay for the trip there now. I can’t wait to see them and they are so excited. I should get there in a couple of days I have to drop off this load and my dispatch will get me there on my next run.

I also get to catch up with some old friends while I am there and maybe even see a old girlfriend or two who know I may be able to rekindle an old flame. I have a feeling I am going to love this part of my job I have missed being able to see my family and friends more that once a year.

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The Zoo

I love audio books I have never been much of a reader but I will tell you that audio books are a truck drivers best friend they are a great way to keep you entertained during the long hours of driving when you are sick of listening to the radio because you have heard the same songs over and over. I am currently listening to a book called The Zoo. It is great and it is keeping me on the edge of my seat. It is about animals going crazy and attacking people for no reason all over the world and the scientist who is trying to prove to the world that it is actually happening and he is not crazy if you haven’t read the book you should and if you don’t like to read do like me and listen to it.