Modafoca Feet … Show do The Killers

ModaFocaCrew no show do The Killers

31 Aralık 2009'da...

“Yalnızlaştırmak” yazısında şöyle demiştim:

“Görüntüye aldanmayın, elimde tuttuğum her şey ‘ilk yalnızlığın’ bir rüşvetiydi aslında. Yedi yaşımda daha, bir kara şimşek düşürdüm elimden yere; bir daha hiç mi hiç gitmediğim, gitmek istemediğim, tesadüfen geçersem başımı çevirdiğim o lain Sarayburnu sahilinde. Henüz rol yapamayacak kadar küçük, ama ‘yalnızlığı’ öğrenmek zorunda kalacak kadar büyüktüm. Yine de, öyle bir ‘yalnızlığa’ dair söyleyebileceğim bir söz yoktu haznemde. Yıkılan o bedenin korkunçluğu ilk gördüğümde büyütmüştü gözlerimi. Çok sonra, ama çok uzun zaman sonra, o bedende hiçbir ürkütücü yanın olmadığını anladım. Bedenin çaresizliğini gördüm, cesetten yıllar sonra. O bedende korkulacak, acınacak, üzülecek, şaşıracak bir şey yoktu. Bir çaresizlik vardı ki, düşman başına! Ama bırakın o çaresizliğe üzülmeyi ya da acımayı; dokunamıyor, tanımlayamıyordunuz bile.

‘Güzel bir hikaye’ olmadı!

Gidip, bir toprağı avuçladım sonra. Daha yeni, taptaze yağmuru yemiş toprak, parmaklarımın arasından usulca süzülürken, o anda kendimde bulabildiğim tüm güçle sıktım avuçlarımı. Ölümünden 8 yıl sonra, tüm günahlarını ve yanlışlarını bağışlayarak uğurladım babamı.

‘Ama sen de beni bağışla’ dedim ayrılırken, sessizce: ‘Şimdi sıra bana geldi artık, şimdi benim ‘günah çağım’ başlıyor. Senin yaran benimdir, buna bir diyeceğim yok, ama günü geldiğinde sen de gel, benden devral benim yaralarımı. Onları senden başka emanet edeceğim kimse olmayacak. Benim çocuğum, o yaraları devralmayacak. Bu yükü toprağa yatırmayışım, sana eyvallahımdır ama, kendimden sonrasına da bir zerresini taşımayacağımı bilesin. Benden sonrası yazamadığın, yazamayacağım hikayenin en güzel yanı. Benden sonrası yarasız, rengarenk bir umut atlası. Benden hikaye umma! Benim ki yeni bir yol değil baba; senin çıktığın, ama eskitmeye fırsat bulamadığın o bulanık yolun, bana kalanı!’”

* * *

17 yıl önce, 31 Aralık 1992 günü; bütün ömrümce sızlayacak koca bir yaranın içine gömülmüş halde ve henüz 32 yaşındayken uğurlandığım babamın, ölümüyle doğumunun birbirine karıştığı bir tek günün hikâyesini, 1 Ocak 2010 günü 50 yaşına girecek genç bir adama; yani yine ona, genç bir adama, ölü bir kahramana, babama adayacağım.

Her şeye rağmen, “iyi ki doğdun” demek için: “İyi ki hâlâ burdasın.”

EMRE DURSUN, Kasım ‘09

One of the first things that Patty mentioned to me during our first conversation was that because of her constant habit of observing everything going on they had dubbed her their “little supervisor.” I’d already come to realize this about her during that first week of training. She just loves to people watch, especially when that involves watching me or those fascinating short humans. After all this time I’ve become fairly used to it as a part of life.

But what I’ve noticed lately since I’ve been taking so much time off work because of all these damn migraines is that when she’s missed a day of our routine she is that much more passionate about this need to see all that’s going on. The bus ride into work this morning was a prime example, she absolutely refused to lie down under the seat and instead sat up completely at attention, making sure anyone on the bus was properly observed and taking note of anybody getting on or off or just walking by while we were stopped. Sometimes in these moments she’s so transfixed that she practically zones out and I find myself actually having to work to get her attention — something I almost never have to do any other time, in fact most of the time she’s supervising everything I’m doing to the point of being practically on top of me.

When she’s actively guiding me, this doesn’t seem as much of an issue — and thank goodness for that — but I did notice today she was so intently watching everyone else around her that while we were stopped at an intersection, she took a shifting of my feet as a cue to start crossing and the traffic was definitely not in our favor. She did recover quickly and was very focused on watching the traffic afterwards. In fact, it’s one of the few times in the last two years she didn’t practically drag me off the curb when I said “forward” which both shocked and amused me. Sometimes she’s like a bullet firing from a gun when I give her the “forward” command and believe me when I say it was very noticeable when she started gaining back her weight last year!

Vandaag was het dan zover. Bijna 1 miljoen kindjes moesten gevaccineerd worden tegen de griep die helemaal is komen overwaaien vanuit Mexico. Jammer dat ik daar nog nooit geweest ben, want nou heb ik wel de last en niet de lust ervan.

Maar goed, om 11 uur ben ik dus met papa naar de sporthal in Oss gegaan om de veelbesproken prik te halen. Volgens sommigen is deze prik gevaarlijk, worden er nanobots mijn lichaam geïnjecteerd of worden we morgen wakker als halve zombies, immer gehoorzamend aan de geweldloos overgenomen nieuwe regering die uiteindelijk blijkt een pact aangegaan te zijn met aliens die ons al miljoenen jaren in de gaten houden. Het kan ook best zijn dat er wat bijwerkingen zijn, dus opletten moeten we wel.

Het bleek dat ik niet het enige kindje was waarvan de papa en mama het nodig achtten om een 2 mm dikke naald in mijn bovenarm te laten prikken, getuige de lange rijen papa’s, mama’s en kindjes in de sporthal. Na de registratie werd mij een mevrouw toegewezen die voordat ik er erg in had die naald al pontificaal in mijn arm had gejensd. Dat was minder…

Mijn huilen beperkte zich tot 20 seconden, waarna papa mij verblijde met een speen. Gedurende de terugreis was ik zoet en heb thuis bijna drie uur geslapen. Nu, 4 uur ’s middags, voel ik me prima, ben ik uitermate druk en vrolijk en heb zo te zien geen last van de gewraakte bijwerkingen. Gelukkig is het Sinterklaas, dus ik word afgeleid door een scheepslading pepernoten. Ik heb ook nog geen last van mijn bovenarm, maar dat kan morgen nog komen.

En dan te bedenken dat ik over drie weken weer mag…

Words Written: 5,658 (1,036 written on Wednesday)
Total Word Count: 40,016 words

Before you go cheering me on, I have to admit that my writing updates here have been a bit lax and that total is actually from yesterday (and Wednesday). Interestingly enough 1,993 of those words were written during a 30-minute word sprint on Twitter yesterday!

As for the story, it’s starting to unravel a bit due to my lack of organization in its composition. I wasn’t thoroughly prepared with the story when I started and it’s becoming increasingly haphazard and repetitive due to this. I’ve also had several rather stupendous ideas on how to better tell the story as a whole but since I’ve written so much, I can’t very well change it all right now without basically starting over. I’m just hoping what I have written will be of good enough quality to be a foundation for the novel and not just 50,000 words that I basically throw out as I start the entire book again. Either way, I’ve less than 10,000 words to write before I will have completed NaNoWriMo and for that I’m both excited and exhausted.

On a completely unrelated topic, today me and Yara went on a tour of the State Capitol with Sarah and Fay. A long while back I’d made the suggestion of going on the tour when Sarah had queried me about some “area-type stuff” we might do together that would be a good experience for her foster puppy but our schedules just never managed to mesh with the tour times and eventually we both just forgot all about it. But earlier this week Sarah had texted me about getting together this weekend since she was in town and I was literally transferring a wrong number to OGS¹

Turns out that Saturday is actually a pretty good day to go on the tour because no one is around and nothing is going on, which allows the tour guide to bring people into rooms that are otherwise off limits such as the governor’s reception area and the State Assembly.² Fay and Yara were very well behaved throughout the entire tour, but both dogs had vastly different reactions to the tons of walking and stair climbing involved. Fay was ready to take a nice long nap in the Senate, while Yara was under the distinct impression we could definitely get more accomplished if we abandoned the tour group, went the opposite way and walked faster.

I had called OGS earlier in the week just to alert them to the fact we’d be taking the tour and have the dogs with us, but I was still very pleased that there wasn’t any fuss made over their presence. We did have the rudest bus driver pick us up at the stop by my house, though. First, were it not for a changing light, he’d clearly have skipped the stop completely. But then when we got on he was very unpleasant about the dogs getting on the bus, even after I confirmed they were service animals and thus allowed to ride the bus. He then said to Sarah, “Neither of you is blind,” which neither of us knew how to respond to. I mean, if it is true I’ve been spending a ton of money on prescription glasses that I don’t need.

All that aside, the tour was a lot of fun and quite informative. (Did you know NYS payed $10 million to remove blackout paint on the skylights? Yup. During WWII there was a fear that the Capitol would be a target because of the lights shining through the skylights, but the Assembly voted down the plan to just turn the lights off and instead the skylights were painted over. When Pataki was in office, he had a lot of the Capitol restored and renovated and the blackout paint removal was one of those things he had done. Go figure.) Afterward we headed back to my crummy apartment for some yummy delivery from Pepper Jack’s. The girls got a bit more playtime while we ate and now Yara is zonked out on her bed and I’m nursing sore feet and an overstuffed belly.

Good times.

1. The Office of General Services run the tours through the State Capitol.
2. It’s kind of ironic the tour can’t go in the Assembly when its in session since it is open to the public.

Er schijnt een oude wijze man in het land te zijn aangekomen. Eén met een witte baard en een verzameling zwarte huppelmensen die heel blij ronde koekjes zo hard mogelijk naar kindjes gooien. Wat daar de lol van is snap ik niet, maar die dingen zijn wel lekker. Die oude wijze man verplaatst zich op een wit paard en het schijnt dat alle kindjes hun schoen voor de verwarming mag zetten. Maar ik nog niet, want papa en mama zeggen dat ik er nog niets van snap.

En nu heb ik het gerucht gehoord dat de broer van die oude wijze man met z’n witte baard volgende maand langskomt. Maar die komt met een slee met rendieren. En die heeft geen zwarte huppelmensen maar kabouters.

Nee, ik snap er inderdaad niets van…

The other night I was reading a book before bed, a common practice of mine, and had Yara join me for a bit of snuggly warmth. At some point amidst the pages, I happened to glance down and see her positioned such that the entire length of her body was snuggled up against me, including her tail which was wrapped around my back, and she was using my legs as a pillow. In fact, she had her left leg wrapped snugly across my legs, so as to pin me into this position lest she loose out on her human body pillow.

Then it dawned on me, though it wasn’t entirely a new or foreign concept, but shepherds I have learned almost never do anything without several reasons. Whether it is something as simple as a bit of snuggling with their human or even playtime, Yara always seems to have a list going on in her head of how and why she’s doing whatever. And believe me, sometimes her reasons don’t always mesh with mine! A lab on the other hand I would say by comparison has an absolute one track mind. Food, water, sniffing . . . yeah, that about covers it and if any of those tracks happens to cross their path while on a different track it’s a good bet they’ll go after those three main tracks.

It’s an interesting quirk about the shepherds, I think, that they really do need to have things to think about. And if not given those opportunities they can be quite imaginative – or destructive in other cases. I’m thankful that Yara is of the first variety, but I’ve never left her to her own devices for any great length of time, so this is probably why I’ve never witnessed the destructive end her thought process could take her to. But I’ve stated it to others that she would never make it as a pet, she absolutely needs the stimulation that guide work provides. Case in point, she was really annoying while I was out sick with my cold/migraine combo to the point of randomly waking me up at all hours of the day and night while I tried to recuperate. And when we did go out she was practically unmanageable, even in harness.

I think this is why so many people have trouble with shepherds because of not understanding this exact thing. Because on top of all this thinking, they also are just as much in need of physical things as any medium-to-large sized dog. They need exercise and all that. And many can be some powerhouse chewers. It still boggles my mind that there were two other people in the building when I moved in with shepherds. One couple had two and they both worked. I just can’t imagine what they must have done to keep those dogs from destroying — or eating — their entire apartment, sofa included.

But translated to harness work, it’s really a very intriguing thing to behold. I am often shocked at how intricately Yara will work around something or decided a course to take. It was actually one of the main things during training that I had to be reminded of – to let her think through a problem and find a way. And if after giving her the chance, she still balked, then and only then should I attempt to lead her myself. To say it sounds simple, but don’t let us forget that I had a decade of Guiding Eyes’s training ingrained in me and that had made it quite habitual to grab the leash in my right hand and lead my dog when we were stopped for no particular reason. It hadn’t been taught to me as a form of correction – though, Yara absolutely reacted to it as such – and I can’t say if it’s still the method they teach.

Surprisingly, I managed to forget to notate this rather obvious difference when I posted the excerpt from my Nano comparing breeds. An oversight which I plan to rectify during the editing process, I promise.

Quer ver a foca
Ficar feliz?
É por uma bola
No seu nariz.

Quer ver a foca
Bater palminha?
É dar a ela
Uma sardinha.

Quer ver a foca
Fazer uma briga?
É espetar ela
Bem na barriga!

Vinicius de Moraes em homenagem a Moda Foca Crew

Estilo Moda Foca…. Oinc Oinc Oinc ..

Agora sim…. tô na área, mermão….

Tô na área…. Moda Foca Crew….

Words Written: 9,248
Total Word Count: 34,358 words

All right, I admit it, since hitting the 25,000 mark I have been seriously slacking. And by that I mean “completely ignoring the existence of my Nano.” I’m not ashamed, I do this every year, though generally not for almost an entire week. But as you can see I am back on course and still way above quota!

All of that miraculous word count was accomplished at the NaNoWriMo Write In/SWAG Halfway Party and no one was more astounded than I at the total amount that I cranked out there. Other than the midnight kickoff, I haven’t really found that I can write very much at these Write Ins. I get easily distracted by, well, everything going on and if I leave with 250 words I feel that I’ve at least made it worthwhile to lug the netbook with me. So, to be honest, I am really very impressed with the end total. Not only was I able to tune out all the distractions and write, but I actually managed to make up for the six days I’ve been slacking. In a big way!

I did manage to socialize and all that, too, which makes me happy. I think this is my biggest issue with the Write Ins, I have a lot of trouble just talking with so many people. And then to balance that with actually trying to work on my Nano and not come off as a totally rude snob is equally difficult. But, of course, my biggest weapon in the arsenal against anything of the sort is Yara who manages to schmooze everyone in her path and take up the entire floor space of the table. She’s quite talented.

So, I am hopeful that this will kick start me back into my Nano because I almost never get anything accomplished during the week of Thanksgiving and I am relatively close to finishing. We shall see.

This post is due to a couple factors: (1.) I’ve been getting a not small number of requests to read what I’ve been writing for my Nano; and, (2.) It (sort of) answers a rather often received question of mine: “Which breed is the best suited guide dog?”

It should be noted that this has not been edited, so it may well make little sense and contain some atrocious grammatical errors. Even still, I hope you enjoy.

Having worked with a Labrador retriever previously and currently working with a German shepherd, I often am queried about whether one breed is superior to the other as a guide dog. I don’t subscribe to the belief that there is a “perfect breed” of guide dog anymore than there is such a thing as perfection within anything else. Dogs are very different from one another, just as one individual person is different from other people. This is no different for guide dogs and their potential handlers. I do think that due to the nature of certain breeds some people will find a preference among them; for my own sake, I readily admit that I find the GSD to be a particularly good match in terms of breed for what I expect in a guide dog. Not that I have any abhorrence to a Labrador. Dolly would most certainly take great offense at such a statement and I can’t deny that she was an excellent guide dog to work with.

A discovery I made rather early into my research about guide dogs was there was somewhat of a rumor that German shepherds were the “best” working breed. A lot of the opinions that supported this belief aren’t entirely false, but in my very humble and admittedly incredibly biased opinion, GSDs are absolutely not the dog for everyone. I think this is why labs are so often placed as guide dogs because as a breed they are rather adaptable and can thus easily satisfy the needs of a greater number of blind persons. That isn’t to say, though, that they are any more or less “perfect” of a guide dog.

There are many differences I’ve discovered about the two breeds I’ve worked with. Some of these are especially relevant to guide work, while others are just quirky personality traits, and yet others may be solely inherent to my specific guide dogs. Any of these, however, may not translate to another person as anything worthy of notation, so I can’t speak for all owners of either breed, including guide dog handlers.

One of the first differences between the two breeds that I noticed is how they deal with boredom and/or stress: Labradors are constantly sniffing things, while shepherds whine. Frankly, I find both traits equally annoying. The whining shepherd however is probably more irritating when out in public since passersby are probably going to be more aware of that and subsequently jump to some inconvenient conclusion. I’ve found that both of these things also tend to occur when the dog was “avoiding” something, i.e., pain or the possibility of a harsh correction, kind of like nervous fidgeting habit. In Yara’s case, she’s also known to whine when she’s waiting for something; for instance, in the mornings while I prepare for work, knowing that eventually we’re leaving she will sit by the front door and whine continuously.

However, I’ve found that as frustrating as the whining can be, the sniffing can prove to be the more difficult to deal with while working in harness. By its very nature, sniffing is a distraction when working. The dog is paying more attention to whatever it is that she has found to smell rather than actively guide. Dolly had a very pronounced issue with this during our initial training because of her sore wart-covered feet, it became such an issue that it was to the point that we could hardly walk a few steps before her nose was glued to the ground. It was a great relief that this was the most extreme showcase of this behavior in all of the years that I worked with her, but it was certainly not the sole instance of it occurring. Of the two it appears the whining is the easier t cease in terms of getting the dog back on the job; in fact, I can’t recall a time that my shepherd, or another I’ve witnessed, has ever whined when actively working.

As much of a chore dealing with the sniffing was, I would say the most difficult aspect of working with a Labrador was dealing with the solicitous behavior they posses. Labs just love, well, everyone and they make no secret of this. Even though we had a very strong bond and Dolly did not enjoy being separated from me, she would take any opportunity to schmooze someone for attention. I used to say, tongue firmly in cheek, that it was because she was very much aware that she was an attractive girl and enjoyed the associated attention that came with it. For the most part I never found this to be an obstacle that was especially difficult to overcome and get her back on task. And it wasn’t until I started working with Yara that I really began to realize that this really was a somewhat breed specific issue. In her own way, Yara is also quite solicitous, but as a general rule shepherds are known to bond very strongly with only one person. Because of this, even when she is working her canine magic on others, I have found that I never have any real trouble pulling her attention back to me.

Correcting this negative behavior, however, has been the one thing I’ve received the most public objection to. I think this is because in many cases when the dogs have been soliciting others for attention, the person in turn has either encouraged it or initiated it in the first place. Of course, in terms of the guide dogs behavior the point is that they were displaying unwanted behavior and not so much what the cause of this was due to. But nearly every time I’ve corrected a dog in these situations, the person responds with an apologetic, “It’s my fault.” When I have the time, I usually take it to explain the nature of why the dog was in the wrong and educate the person on the faux paus of distracting a working animal.

One of the reasons I believe that a working shepherd prone to solicitous behavior is less of a hardship for a handler is because of the “work ethic” of the breed. As a whole GSDs approach basically everything in life with an intense focus that allows little to dissuade them from the task at hand. Obviously that isn’t to say they are incapable of being distracted or that they never will be, but rather that when they have had their attention pulled away from what they should be doing it does not take as much effort to get them back onto the proper task. In contrast, other breeds in general can sometimes prove quite a chore to get control of when their attention has waivered.

This focused attitude that German shepherds possess is what I believe has perpetuated the rumor among handlers that the breed is the “best” working breed. When Yara is intent on a task, there is not much that she will allow to pull her away from her work. This has been best showcased by my time spent with puppy raiser friends of mine whose guide dog puppies will do their utmost to initiate playtime with Yara while she’s actively guiding me or even lying quietly under a table in harness. I am particularly fond of a photograph that one friend managed of her puppy and Yara under a table at a local restaurant, in the photo the puppy is on her back swatting Yara in the face with her front paws and Yara is doing her best to move as far from the puppy as possible with a look of utter aggravation plastered on her fact. Of course one would expect all guide dogs to be as professional, but I do find that in my own observations as a whole that GSDs are the more apt to ignore any stimuli in favor of performing their job duties.

I had a long history with Dolly of fighting her about snatching food off the ground. My father nicknamed her The Hover because she was constantly patrolling the kitchen floor for crumbs. It was the big distraction for her when she was working and there were few days in my life I wasn’t showing my hand down her throat trying to get her to give up some prize she’d discovered on the ground. On the other hand, Yara is about the most finicky animal I’ve ever met. Not only will she not eat one mouthful more passed being full, she won’t touch anything dropped on the floor. An amusing facet of this is that she will eat things she drops, but even if that same thing is dropped by someone else she will ignore it.

I actually have a bunch more to say on the subject, but that was where I stopped whatever day I wrote that and then I just started writing another whole portion of the novel. When I have the inclination and time, I’ll finish it up and add it here. (And maybe I’ll actually edit it, too!)

Today was just about the laziest day ever for me. I did just about nothing. It was great. Except I still feel just as tired as I did when I first woke up. What gives?

Anyway, yesterday was another busy day, I already mentioned that Code Enforcement visited my apartment and Yara and I had our holiday photos done for cards. I’m very pleased with how they came out and I got the digital copies emailed to me before my head hit the pillow last night. Will share them later when I have the energy so as not to spoil the card receiving.

Yara was actually the worst she’s ever been at this session and it wasn’t even her fault. When I got there, a man was standing in the hall watching both sstudio rooms as people were getting photos taken and he was holding his baby daughter. I politely mentioned to him that it would be much easier for my own shoot if he would move off because Yara was going to be staring at the baby the entire time. He totally ignored me and his kid screamed “Doggie!” during my entire session. Which meant that a good 75% of my shots were ruined because Yara would randomly whip her head around to the doorway. She actually clocked me in the face at one point and I spent the rest of the shoot fearing I was going to develop a bloody nose. Still hurts right now.

My saving grace was my friend Kerry who tagged along to the shoot, she took Yara’s harness and jingled it around and called her name. But if Yara’s got one trait that irritates me, it’s her ability to ignore anything and anyone. And while I’m pretty much the exception to this, I couldn’t exactly call her across the room while I was sitting next to her. And through this all, the man just stood there with his kid screaming her head off at my dog while we all frustratingly tried to position her and get a shot.

We did get some nice shots, so I’m glad of that. And I had a 50% coupon so I am quite a thrilled me about all that. But, seriously, this was absolutely the worst portrait session ever.

Even though there wasn’t much content in yesterday’s post, I was hardly devoid of subject material. I was, in fact, really that tired and hungry. But anyway, there was a bunch of, eh, not exactly wonderful things that happened yesterday.

So, I’ll start by saying that Audrey outdid herself yet again on my hair and it looks both amazing and just so darn cute! Which was about the only squee worthy thing that transpired yesterday.

The first of the many things that made me want to say “ugh” came about quite early in the day when the rental office once again informed me that my rent is passed due. I informed them politely that I’d had the payment sent out on October 27th and they gave me a ludicrously hard time about getting them a new payment. Basically if I don’t cough up another $750 by Friday they are fully intending to take me to court. I just don’t even know, I had a chat with my bank — whom the rental office blames since they mailing truncated the address and thus they used the wrong address¹. The manager told me they would also cease action on bringing me to court if I had the bank manager write a letter stating that the bank was at fault and when to expect a new check to be sent. I haven’t yet bothered to contact the bank about this. All of it just completely drained and thoroughly stressed me.

If that wasn’t enough, I got a call from Fidelco about Yara’s enzyme treatment that just totally perturbed me. I don’t even want to get into it here, but suffice it to say the whole EPI battle continues I guess. As if to emphasize this, Yara chose yesterday to have super issues, including some very “ploppy poop” and a lovely episode of vomit while I was at CVS. Twice, even. I managed to rush her outside the first time, the second she kindly tossed her cookies² on my feet.

Speaking of CVS, I nearly fainted when the woman told me the total for my three prescriptions was $60! Good grief, I’m 30 and I already am thinking I need one of those prescription plans. I don’t even LIKE taking medicine. Ugh, just ugh.

Thankfully, we managed to get home without much incident, but I spent most of the evening freaking out that Yara would continue being sick. Her stomach was making some very odd noises, but she ate her regular food without incident. Sometimes this EPI stuff is very hard to gauge with her since she will routinely skip a meal and that makes it difficult to remember if she’s had enough enzyme in a given day. She’s a bit lethargic today, but otherwise we’ve had no further issues.

I, however, am a bit unsettled that one of the top search terms of the last few days is apparently “Cyndy Otty unfair” — that’s just not cool, people. Not cool at all.

1. This would be the address they initially gave all the tenants months ago. And while, yes the bank did make a mistake, I’m tired of making my bank jump through hoops because of the rental office’s initial mistake. Not to mention paying all the damn fees for stopping payments and writing new checks, etc.
2. And by cookies, I mean bile.

Ok, so Flickr decided to eat this original post, which is annoying in many respects especially considering I was basically posting to meet my writing and posting requirements for the day as I am exhausted beyond reason and practically famished. Also, I have no desire to write anything more in my Nano after my huge word sprint yesterday and after all the typing I did at work today my hands are happy about this. Even though I do have a few tidbits upon which to blog, like the fact that Yara threw up at CVS and the astounding price of prescription drugs and the AMAZING job Audrey did on my hair.

Alas, all you get for now is this photo I’m particularly fond of in which Yara is looking mighty happy about the by proxy neck rub she’s receiving from Sarah as she’s being lathered up in the bath.

And now, the dog and I are getting some dinner.

A pocas semanas de abrir puertas a las más recientes producciones cinematográficas del continente, crece la expectativa en torno a la edición 31 del Festival del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano, uno de los eventos culturales más esperados del año, cita que sigue tendiendo puentes. Se celebrará en la capital con subsedes en varias provincias, del tres al 13 de diciembre, y esta fiesta del cine mantiene los concursos de ficción, documental y animación, óperas primas, guiones inéditos y carteles. Alfredo Guevara, presidente del Festival, declaró en reciente entrevista que se trata de que no sea igual que el Festival anterior, sino mejor, y aseguró que el más ambicioso de sus sueños es  tender puentes y más puentes .Por segundo año consecutivo, el sector industria ofrece un programa de actividades destinado a los profesionales de la realización, producción y distribución cinematográfica, que comprende talleres de guión, seminarios, mercados de proyectos y el concurso de posproducción Latinoamérica Primera Copia.

El público cubano podrá disfrutar de la primera gran muestra retrospectiva de cine chicano organizada fuera de Estados Unidos, y de una exhibición de lo más trascendente de la cinematografía puertorriqueña. Otro acontecimiento que reserva este XXXI Festival es la retrospectiva del Noticiero ICAIC Latinoamericano, acreedor de la condición de Memoria Mundial de la UNESCO por sus elevados valores estéticos. Las muestras fuera de competencia y los seminarios teóricos, reafirman que este encuentro se mantiene como uno de los espacios de confrontación cultural más importantes de América.

Es un festival de la cultura cinematográfica que no puede vivir sin las otras manifestaciones del arte , subrayó Guevara.

Unido a los premios Coral que tradicionalmente se entregan, las cintas en concurso optarán por los lauros colaterales que confieren la Asociación Católica Mundial para la Comunicación, la Federación Internacional de Críticos de Cine, la UNICEF, Telesur y Amazonia Films.

Ya está a la venta el pasaporte que por un valor de 20 pesos contiene 15 entradas con acceso a todas las salas que integran el circuito de exhibición, y podrá adquirirse en la sede del Festival y en las taquillas de los cines Payret, Yara y Chaplin, en la capital.

Fuente: AIN

I shall blame this on the fog I was in from my aching left wrist, which thankfully is again feeling better; hopefully I won’t wrench it positioning the dog again and I may well go another year before it plagues me. Stupid arthritis. Anyway, I realized I forgot a bunch of stuff I wanted to mention yesterday, so now I shall mention it:

• Wednesday I went to the library for a change of scenery within which to write and my bag got stolen. Thankfully, my new netbook wasn’t in the bag, but most of the contents of my purse were. I don’t generally carry cash — and when I do I usually have it in my pocket — so I didn’t really lose any money unless you count the two boks of stamps I’d just purchased that morning. Instead, I’m without credit/debit/insurance/ID cards until they are replaced. Yesterday the first of my replacement cards arrived, my credit card . . . which says that it can’t be activated until after next Sunday. I don’t know how that is remotely helpful.
• I got a Google Wave invite. So, Wave me if you’re on there. (Not that I really have any idea what I’m doing.)
• I finally bit the bullet and joined Goodreads. Yeah, I don’t know why I dug my heals in about that one, been having a jolly good time there. (Though, most of Facebook and Twitter probably hate me for the inadvertent — and now cleaned up — spammage I did when adding books to my “shelf”.) Feel free to add me if you’re on there and if you’re not and you read stuff I fully recommend joining.

As for today, Sarah and Fay took us to Crossings, which is a fantastically beautiful park in Colonie. We let the dogs take a swim in one of the ponds and they had quite a fine time. I’ve been wondering how Yara would approach swimming, she’s always incredibly interested in water, but for the most part she just wanted to pounce on Fay. As such, she got nice and muddy — since she didn’t get her whole body wet. So after we walked around the park and the dogs had dried sufficiently we took a trip to Sarah’s apartment and Yara had her first bath since being placed with me.¹ I’m very pleased to say she was very good about the bath; minimal whining and she didn’t shower us with dirty bath water and soap suds. She wasn’t particularly pleased with the entire event and she did try and take a few opportunities to jump out of the tub, but given her issues with having her nails done, I was expecting a lot worse. This actually works out remarkably well since we’re having our annual holiday card photos taken Friday and her grooming appointment was inconveniently not until the Monday after.

Anyway, I best get to writing some more on my Nano. Due to an upsetting personal matter I had a brief setback earlier today, but am still fully intending to break 20,000 words today.

1. Since she’s brushed every morning, she hasn’t needed to be bathed before now.

Mijn papa doet heus wel z’n best hoor. Op een regenachtige zaterdagmiddag speciaal pannekoeken gemaakt. Dat vindt elke peuter toch wel lekker? Inderdaad, de eerste 5 hapjes. Maar dan moet snel het brood weer komen. Ach, het zal de achtergrond van de bakkersfamilie wel zijn…

Eén van de eerste woordjes die ik kan zeggen is ‘eendjes’. Tenminste, papa en mama denken dat ik dat zeg. Ik weet niet of er een verband te leggen is tussen mijn premature vocabulaire en het veelvuldig bezoek aan de eendenvijver. Leuk vind ik die eendjes in ieder geval wel. Jammer dat het een beetje glad is daar…