echodrift

Kitten bath time

It’s hard to believe that we’ve had these little guys for over five weeks now. When we first got the kittens we spotted a few fleas on them. Since then they’ve been wearing collars and got a few baths. Yesterday Michael decided that they should get another full flea bath.

Midna still does not like baths. At. All. True, she likes to hop in the shower when the door is open and play in the tub when no water is running but as soon as Michael put her in the water she ran to the back and started meowing like crazy. I had to leave the room because her meowing was so pitiful I couldn’t stop laughing. I also couldn’t help laughing when Michael handed her to me to be dried. When he saw this picture he said that she has a look that says “Just wait until you sleep. Then you die.”

Poe takes his baths a little more stoically. He’s more used to them though as we’ve had to give his feet quite a few washings. However, it seems that he’s learning to not step in his poo so he’s been getting fewer of those. Instead of clawing and running around like Midna does he just kinda sits there and meows occasionally. His fur is also different from Midna’s so he doesn’t look quite as pitiful as she does. This picture, though, is just too funny. I think he looks a little traumatized.

2+2=4

The other day I came across an article entitled “Why Generation Y is Broke.” The woman featured in the article was in debt with student loans and her normal bills. She had no idea where her money was going. Every time I read something like this I’m astounded. How can someone be so out of touch that they have no idea why they’re in debt? The principle is simple: if you spend more than you make you go in debt. Know how much you make. Know how much you can spend. It shouldn’t be difficult. I haven’t done the best about keeping to a strict budget but I’m not exactly swimming in debt either.

The article said something that is eerily similar to what I know about the Great Depression. It’s the idea of “buy now, pay later.” Yep I’m talking credit cards. Credit cards aren’t necessarily evil. They need to be used responsibly. I often use mine because of most gas stations requiring you to prepay or to pay with credit or debit. It’s faster and easier to swipe my card. However, I always remember how much I’ve put on my credit card. As soon as that card is swiped it may as well already be taken out of my checking account because it’s basically money I no longer have.

This reminds me of an from high school. While on an overnight trip we were allowed to go to a mall. Some of the girls were talking about how much money they had and how much they’d spent. I mentioned that I hadn’t really bought anything yet. See, I’m not much of an impulse buyer. I usually think long and hard before I buy anything. Someone said something along the lines of “I could never do that! I don’t have that much self control.” I think that’s a huge part of this problem: people don’t have self control. If they see something they want they buy it. They don’t consider if they really need it or if they can afford it.

That brings me to another subject that’s been bothering me lately. It’s this obsession with celebrities. It really bothers me when I see celebrity gossip articles as a majority of the most read articles on different news sites. I get the feeling that people are living in a fantasy world. That they really think that they can live like the celebrities do. They can spend outrageously as they do. They can live it up and party like they do. It’s simply not the truth. It doesn’t help that these ideas are marketed to kids as well, such as in the new Sears back to school ads. “Don’t just go back. Arrive.” Really, what does that teach kids? Of course it stars an actress that more than a few kids are familiar with. Impressionable kids.

I don’t have children yet so I may yet end up eating my words. However I think there are so many things on TV, in movies, on the radio and so on that are aimed towards younger children that really aren’t appropriate. I touched on this a little in my post about the latest Batman movie. Of course there are toys based on the movie that are being advertised to kids. Of course kids are going to ask to see the movie. And, of course, some parents are going to take their kids to see it. That doesn’t make it appropriate for grade school age kids. This all just doesn’t sit well with me.

Late Night Coding

Note to self: Don’t ever attempt to modify that one little thing that’s bugging you about a design at 11:00 PM. You’ll end up overwriting a file with something that you thought was the latest version but really isn’t and then spend the next hour trying to fix what wasn’t in the version you just uploaded. Then you’ll realize that you do, in fact, have the original file that you accidentally overwrote. Just save yourself the trouble and stop being such a perfectionist.

Ok buddy, let’s go!

I’m a very vocal driver. Anyone who’s ever been in a car with me will agree. Sometimes I speak up even when I’m not driving. I think I got it from my dad. He likes telling the story of how one day he had me out doing something when I was very young. Apparently the driver in front of us didn’t start moving quickly enough to suit me after the light turned green. My dad claims that I lifted myself out of my car seat a little and said “Ok buddy, let’s go!” So yes, this started at a very young age.

Driving to and from work lately has been a little stressful even though it’s only two miles one way. For one there is major construction going on at the bridge near our apartment. This bridge happens to cross a very busy interstate. There’s an almost constant stream of semis and other drivers exiting, entering, and crossing this bridge. During lunch time and ‘rush hour’ it backs up more than a bit. One major issue is the Pilot on one side of the bridge. It’s the only station large enough for the semis to stop and fill up so of course it’s the station they go to. The turn lane for this station is just past the light at the bridge. Some drivers just aren’t smart enough to realize that traffic will flow more smoothly if they don’t block the turn in for the drivers. To me that’d be common sense. Just the other day this area was clear, surprisingly enough. Drivers were letting other drivers through. However, one driver decided that they were going to take advantage of the semi that was pausing for traffic and pull out. into my lane and almost into me. I absolutely hate seeing drivers that close from the corner of my eye because I simply don’t trust other drivers. I always assume they’re going to do something stupid (and they usually do). Incidents like this usually elicit some very loud yelling in their direction.

Then there’s the matter of the road near the college. I usually take this route to avoid students. I don’t like stopping to let them cross but I’ve been in their shoes and I know how irritating it was for cars to not stop. Especially when it’s raining. Why don’t people take pity on the poor college student who’s been caught in the rain with no umbrella? The road I choose to take does not have a center line. It has no lines at all, actually. For some reason this makes people think that they don’t have to drive on their side of the road. I’d say that 9 days out of 10 I will meet someone who is not entirely on their side of the road. Or they may be completely on the wrong side of the road. This is particularly prevalent at a very sharp curve. No one slows down enough to stay on their side. I don’t understand this at all. It’s not like it’s a road with little traffic. Quite a few people use this road and still I continue to meet people driving on the wrong side.

For some reason I keep spelling traffic as ‘traffice.’ I have this weird habit of often adding an ‘e’ to the end of random words. Hah! I just did it with random, probably because I was thinking about it.

Three Sixty Five v. 2

Since I’m rather fickle when it comes to keeping site designs the same I redid 365. There were a few things that really bothered me about the last design. Guess it was because I was rather rusty when I made it. I had also planned to put up a new design for Once but the coding doesn’t want to cooperate like I want it too. I really want to be able to make it look like I want it so it might be a day or two. Or I may give in and make it a bit simpler. We’ll see.

I have a couple other projects in mind as well but they’re still in the planning stages. But that’s the fun part, you see: always having something to work on.