I was goofing around with Photobooth on the Macbook this afternoon and found the movie recording function, then I posted it to Google videos and went to the pool. When I got back, my video was online! Man, this stuff is easy with a Mac.

Not THAT kind of video, you pervs!

Clicky!

We haven't done one of these in a while. I'll start:

He's lost his memory, but not his ability to KICK ASS.

***WARNING*** there may be spoilers in some of these plot summaries! Proceed at your own risk!

I'm a Hillary supporter. I'm going to vote for your candidate in the general election. I will willingly vote for him although I neither like him nor trust him, because I am a party loyalist and it's not the first and won't be the last time I have to vote for someone I personally find distasteful.

AT THE SAME TIME, (and I know this might be hard for some of you to grasp, but stay with me Jimbo, stay with me), I still find the sexism inherent IN THE MEDIA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcdnlNZg2iM

AND HERE ON DU disgusting and worth talking about in the context of what we will accept as a society. I'm not THREATENING YOU or your candidate by bringing it up. There are like 5 people on this whole damned website who say they won't vote for Obama in the general, and they're pissed off and you're KEEPING IT GOING, but I suspect they'll come around by November if you'll LEAVE THEM THE HELL ALONE for five freaking minutes. And if they don't, well, that's life, isn't it? You continually acting like a jerk is NOT going to convince them - nothing will. Surely it's no skin off your or your candidate's nose if Hillary supporters are NOT in love with Obama, do NOT relish the idea of voting for him, and DO want to discuss the misogyny in which the media and some Obama supporters here on DU have been so comfortable engaging.

So, to sum up:

1. The vast majority of us Hillary supporters are going to vote for your candidate.
2. Those who don't will not be convinced by either your appeasement nor your abuse. Leaving them alone to come to decisions on their own is by far the most effective strategy you could employ.
3. Discussing sexism is a PROGRESSIVE ISSUE that is not an indictment of your candidate. Stop taking shit personally.
4. Leave us alone, we're voting for him. DAMN.

Hello, all. Once again, I turn to the Du Lounge for its terrific taste in books. Below is a list of fantasy books that I really enjoyed. Lots of them are kid/young adult books. I am always looking for similar titles and am often disappointed. I will also include a list of titles I did NOT enjoy. Thank you in advance!

Books/series I really liked:

Guy Gavriel Kay's The Fionavar Tapestry

Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials

All the Harry Potter books.

The Chronicles of Narnia

Tolkien (all)

L'Engle (all)

The Mists of Avalon

Books/series I did NOT enjoy:

Jordan's Wheel of Time series (BLERGH)

Piers Anthony ANYTHING (double blergh)

I also don't like sci-fi, like Bradbury. I recognize it's good, it's just not my thing.

What do you suggest for me?

As some of you know, I recently rescued a stray dog I found on campus where I work. Molly is a total sweetheart, but it's just not working. She's part terrier, and we've tried everything to get her to stop chasing/attacking our cats, but she can't calm down, and they won't stand up to her. We've been living with a baby gate separating the upstairs and downstairs, and since we spend most of our time downstairs with the dog, we haven't spent quality time with the cats in a long time. They miss us and we miss them, and they have to be our first priority.

I want to thank everyone who responded to my thread asking for advice for this problem. We literally tried every single suggestion on the thread, and it's just not happening. Molly can't help herself, and even with a muzzle, the first time we "let them loose", she pinned one of the cats down in the corner of the kitchen and nearly hurt her before we could get them separated. Holding her on a leash doesn't work, because she simply lunges and barks (muffled, through the muzzle) and even when we establish dominance over her, she can't stop herself. The cats are terrified of her and won't just stand up to her. It's just not going to work.

I had posted a "found dog" ad on craigslist when I initially took her home, to try to find her owners. Well, I never did find them, but lots of people contacted me interested in adopting her, and one of them was a very nice woman. She's a PhD here at the university and lives in a beautiful home with a fenced yard. She came over to meet Molly, and everyone fell in love right away. It's been a week, and now that we've worked out all the details with her, she's coming over tonight to pick Molly up.

I must say I'm relieved. We miss the cats so much and are worried about them. Also, our lives have been chaotic with the puppy. She's so incredibly sweet, but you know how everything just revolves around the dog when you're trying to train an untrained 1-year old.

At the same time, I am so sad!! We've loved having her, and we're going to miss her so much. Just the constant sort of rustle a dog makes is very comforting. Not to mention she was a total lovebug and wanted attention and pets all the time. It's nice to have a dog who's so loving around the house. We are going to be lonely for her for a while.

We know this is the best choice for Molly, and we have complete confidence that the woman who is adopting her will give her the best possible life, but we are sad all the same. I am so glad I rescued her. She's the most deserving and wonderful dog.

Bye bye, Molly.

So, yesterday I was walking across campus of ___Insert Name of Ivy League University Here___ on my way into the hospital where I work, and out of nowhere, a medium-sized brown and white dog trots up to me and puts his snout into my hand for a petting. I look around for his mom/dad, there's no one around. No collar on the dog, he's filthy, and has the kind of wiry, schnouzer-like fur that holds on to burrs really well, so he's covered with burrs too. He's happy to stay right with me and be petted. I call loudly, "Anyone lost a dog? Dog here!" I wait for about 5 minutes, yelling at regular intervals. No one shows up. He cavorts happily at my side, always rushing back to me when I say, "C'mere, buddy."

I look more closely. He's not starving to death, you can't see his ribs, but he's thin across his back where it meets his haunches. He's been neutered, which surprises me.

I look down at his face smiling up at me, tongue lolling out. "Oh, HELL," I say. "Come on, then."

I walk him across the street to the building where I work. He's been taught to heel at some point, because he stays right at my side with very little coaxing. I get to my building and a security guard for the hospital takes that exact second to walk out, takes one look at me and the dirty dog and says, "You know you can't bring that dog in here." "It's not my dog!" I say, and then I'm stymied. What am I going to do?

Just then, the dog catches sight of some birds and gives chase. I'm running after the dog, yelling, "Here, buddy! Come here!" and people are looking at him and me, disapproving because the dog is filthy and I don't have him on a leash. "It's not my dog," I mutter as I rush past.

The dog runs directly into one of the university buildings and is standing in the lobby when I catch up, panting and calling, "Come here, boy!" The security guard behind the desk starts shouting, "That filthy dog has to go! Get your dirty dog out of the building!" "It's not my- oh forget it. I'm doing it!" I yell back. I dig my lunch, pasta with fresh tomato sauce, out of my bag. "Want some of this, buddy?" I call, opening the container and placing it on the floor. He comes right over and pasta is apparently VERY satisfactory for the little prince, as he begins wolfing it right away. I take it away and he follows me, inches from my side. Okay, we're getting somewhere.

I take him back outside and let him eat a little more of the pasta, wondering what the heck I'm going to do. Should I try to walk him all the way back up to my car (I happened to drive yesterday), or find somewhere to stash him until I can get my car and bring it back down? A young woman, bless her, stops to help. She says her roommate is a vet student at the veterinary hospital affiliated with my hospital and the university, and maybe if we get him up there, he can help, or else at least they can hold him somewhere until we can call someone.

We start walking him up the street and somewhere along the way the girl finds a piece of webbed cord tied to a fence. She unties it and we make a makeshift leash, which makes things MUCH easier.

We get to the vet school and the woman behind the desk looks at him, looks at me disapprovingly, and says, "We don't take owner surrenders." "He's NOT MY DOG," I say, perhaps a bit more sternly than necessary. "I just found him, on campus, and I work at the hospital and I can't take him in there, can you just put him in a cage until I or someone can find a no-kill shelter?"

"No, but we can put him in a cage and call PACCA," which is animal control. The young woman I was with took me aside. "My roommate and his vet school friends are running a sort of non-official fostering thing, they can probably find him a place. I'll call him as soon as I get back to my office."

I was late for work, and even though I felt weird leaving him, I said okay. The young woman and I exchanged emails and I went to work, almost an hour late.

Yesterday afternoon, she emailed me and told me her roommate had tried but couldn't find a foster place for the dog, but he was still at the vet hospital if I wanted to do something. I called them as soon as I received her email, but they had already sent him to PACCA! I started freaking out, because I know they only have 48 hours to be claimed by their owners and will often be euthanized immediately after.

I called PACCA and was transferred to the voicemail of the woman in charge of the fostering program, Megan. I left her a message, describing the dog as best I could, brown and white big splotches like a cow, wiry coat, has terrier or schnouzer in him, medium sized, a bit bigger than a beagle. About a half hour later, she called me back. She told me she had waited to call me back because she had gone in the back and tried to identify the dog I was talking about, but they had 400 (!) dogs right then and she couldn't be sure. She said I should call the vet hospital back and see if I could get the surrender slip ID# from them so she could find the dog. She also told me that PACCA was completely full, and after 48 hours, his time would be up.

I called the vet hospital, they were too busy to help me, and in the meantime, it's now 5:00 and Megan has gone home for the day, even though I called at 4:55 so I would catch her. (The vet hospital WAS able to tell me that the dog wasn't microchipped, though, which means he's never been through PACCA or the SPCA.)

DAMMIT.

Now I feel completely responsible for the dog, because chances are he could have stayed alive on the street if I hadn't interfered, but now that I've put him into the system, he's got 48 hours to live.

I finally call my husband and say, "...um, I did something." Heh. Luckily, he's as bad as I am with animals and dogs in particular, and he completely understands. He said, "Listen, if it had been me, that dog would be in our house right now, terrorizing the cats." So we agree to drive up to animal control and see if we can weasel our way into the back room so I can find the dog.

We drive up, and the building is in a seriously grim part of town, and when you walk in, it has that shelter smell, which is so fucking depressing. We walk through quiet hallways looking for a human to talk to, and finally we come upon Stoner Johnny.

Stoner Johnny has no people skills whatsoever, but he works at that place and that automatically makes him a complete fucking hero in my book, because my heart would break into a billion pieces every damned day if I had to go in there and do what he does.

Stoner Johnny lets us into the back room and I walk briskly past the rows and rows of caged dogs, because it occurs to me that it's bizarre that I've spent my entire day and evening trying to find and rescue this one dog, and there are hundreds and hundreds of other dogs right there, available. I console myself by reminding myself that HE chose ME.

The number of pit bull-type dogs is overwhelming. I would say it's no exaggeration that it was about 80% bully breeds. I couldn't look at them, then I forced myself to. If we as humans can be so fucking EVIL as to continue to breed these dogs only to throw them away, then the least I can do is look.

Finally, I saw the dog, toward the back, in a cage. He looked absolutely terrified, but wagged his tail as soon as he saw me and pressed his brown nose up against the cage as I reached in to give him a good pet and loving around the ears. My husband, who is probably MORE of a dog freak than I am, had tears in his eyes just walking through the shelter and when he saw the dog, our dog I guess, he just sat right down next to the cage in that deafening room and started talking to him. Johnny gathered up all the paperwork and he and I adjourned to the other room where I wrote all my information on every piece of paper attached to that dog, and took the tag number so I could call Megan this morning.

We're not really allowed to have a dog in the house we're renting, but our landlord is great and we already have two cats, so I'm thinking a $500 pet deposit will smooth everything over. We ARE going to advertise for the owners and also for a good home, for which we will charge an adoption fee and do serious vetting of candidates, including a home visit. But...somehow I think the dog is our dog already.

I think his name might be Rufus.

I'll keep you posted.

So...there are a lot of movies I know I should have seen, but I haven't. I'm talking previous to 1960. Feel free to post very well-known movies - there's a good chance I haven't seen them.

Please say a little about the movie, and what's good about it.

The only genres I don't like are horror and westerns. Anything else is on the table.

Which old movies are must-see's, as far as you're concerned?

Thanks in advance!

This was my best year in sobriety so far. I got married, moved into a beautiful home, and added a whole new wonderful family (his) to my life. I am keenly aware that none of this would be possible if it weren't for sobriety. I am so grateful! Celebrate with me!

I am embroidering some items, and crocheting some others. I like to give homemade gifts and have always gotten good reactions. The bonus is, it's a lot cheaper than buying everything! All my bought items are finished - now I just have to finish up the craft projects.

Anyone else like to make things for family and friends?

It's been the most interesting adventure of my life. I am incredibly grateful for my life today.

On an completely unrelated note, I saw The Departed last night and it was awesome.

That is all. You may now resume your regular posting activities.

Just got the biopsy result back. Totally negative.

Thank you god. And thank all of you for your prayers, good vibes, thoughts, and caring. Love you guys!

In honor of me actually having a new picture on the internets.

Here I am:



Post your own!

Which sucks. I definitely have to have surgery, and then they'll send the biopsy to pathology and we'll find out for sure if it's the Big C or something else.

Think good boob thoughts. Ultrasound today.

My apologies to Bob Weaver - it was such a brilliant idea for a thread (probably my all-time favorite DU thread!) that I decided to blatantly rip it off!

I'll start:

Boxer at the top of his game declines into potbelly and prison.

Okay, so I don't have him yet. Heh. But I am going to an adoption day for one of the local shelters on Saturday and I know what I'm going to get. An adult, male cat, kind of dopey and affectionate.

I know I should wait and see what he's like before I decide on the final name, but I want to have a short list of 5 or so to choose from, just to narrow things down.

To give you an idea of my taste, I am leaning right now toward "Lex Luthor".

Any suggestions welcome! I prefer people names to things like "Fluffy".