After many reminders from my friend I’ve started keeping track of our library on mediachest. Neat little service there. The books, cds, and games are going to take quite a while but the dvds were pretty eady to add since I had most of them listed at imdb already.

It’s very difficult to describe the nuances of my home state or to defend the endless hypocrisy or seeming lack of logic to people that read the random news that gets leaked out of state - usually newsbytes that seem almost designed to keep Alabama residents looking like bumpkins.

But the fact that there’s now an official state whiskey in a state where there are still dry counties and no sunday liquor sales is so damn funny to me. I’m just thanking the gods it’s not moonshine.

An interesting article in Slate today about the intensities of peoples’ affection for their dogs. How affection for a dog can separate a person from other people, teach them to trust other people again, or provide a safe substitute for people that have let them down or a surrogate for the child or partner they never had. The author seems to conclude that it’s all ok as long as you keep it in perspective.

I usually just tell myself that my overspending and silly pet mom behavior is acceptable as long as I don’t start cooking the barf diet. That’s when I’ve crossed the line.

Last year I listened to a 2000 show of This American Life with a similar theme. There was a couple where one partner was jealous because the other partner seemed to pour all the love and attention into their cat. And one of my favorite Dave Sedaris stories called “The Youth in Asia”. Does that one have Machen as well or is that a different story?

Neither the article nor the show mentioned a program that lots of prisons and detention centers have adopted which has the inmate training therapy, seeing eye, different service dogs. Most even seem to be following the New Skete Monks’ training method wherein the dogs live full-time with the prisoners in their cell. Most prisoners have become calmer, more trusting people because in many cases the dogs showed them unconditional love for the first time. Animal Planet has a fairly new series chronicling these programs in different prisons called Cell Dogs. Give me heartstring television over scary mean people anytime.

Even though I’ve been trying to avoid meme-type posts for the most part I thought the pattern of US states I’ve been to was interesting and it’s a fun link.
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No matter what kind of litter box you end up using it’s still pretty stinky. Even having your cat poop in what is essentially potpourri doesn’t do much to cover up the smell. So what can an inside cat owner do?
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Old school punk! You just say what you have to say
regardless of what everyone else thinks!
You’re one of my most favourite types of
music… You’re raw and uncut! You’re
surrounded by hype…just don’t let it make you
go insane…

What genre of rock are you?
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Someone asked me about a month ago what it is exactly that I like about hedgehogs.

My first answer was that they come off as grumpy and mean but are really cute and sweet — kind of like my husband. I was saying that to my sister’s fiancee so I was teasing him by saying that’s clearly what my sister and I are attracted to.
I’ve had some time to think about why I find these animals so intriguing.
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