soapbox

With so many fewer functional genes, how can we help it? But this video does it’s job, plus I’ve always been a fan of the cello.

So, Mira has this “cute” little habit of vanishing on me, especially if I’ve gone into the bathroom, and leaving little “presents” for me to find upon my, or her, return. Sure, she looks all sweet and innocent, lying here on the couch napping. But I can’t turn my back on her for a minute without her messing in the house. Nevermind that I play along when she takes me outside and wanders around the house sniffing for ten minutes before going. In the rain. House-breaking sucks. Thing is, she’s supposedly already house-broken. *Sigh* Not sure how long I can keep blaming nerves for this. Oh, and to top it all off, I’m pretty sure she has a tapeworm. So, instead of working desperately on my presentation for tomorrow, I’m waiting anxiously to hear from the shelter as to whether they can deal with it, or if I should just take her to the vet. And I still need to get to the pet store to buy a couple crates (one for office, one for home, cuz they’re bloody heavy), food/water dishes, and some other stuff which I wrote down cuz I knew I’d forget later. And I’ve had about 3 hours of sleep, cuz I woke up at 7 to find Mira awake and wanting to play. Thank god my bedroom is safe from the assault that she’s carrying out on the house, since dogs won’t go where they sleep. Yeesh.

and actually, not terribly well done. Kinda clever though, or at least weird enough to elicit a chuckle?

The mayor of San Diego is resigning in the face of a federal investigation into the handling of the city’s pension fund. Ok, so far, so good, this isn’t much of a surprise these days.

from the NYT

The city council can appoint a mayor to serve out the rest of Mr. Murphy’s term or set a special election for next November. In the meantime, the interim mayor is expected to be Michael Zucchet, a member of the city council who is under indictment for receiving payments from a Las Vegas strip club owner in exchange for a vote to relax the no-touching rule at San Diego’s topless clubs.

So, the interim mayor is going to trial next week, even though he says he “expects to be cleared of all charges” and take over as acting mayor by July.

good times.

This is really kind of a neat site that all you fellow nerds might like.

Google Sightseeing

Oh, and you might find the format of it pretty similar to the format here on soapbox.

so i never unpacked my shit when i moved in. which means boxes and bags and *stuff* all over the floor in my room. not conducive to a roaming doggy. i wish i’d started cleaning a bit earlier today, but alas, only started at 10:30pm. it’s amazing how much stuff i have. i’ve decided that i own entirely too many shoes, pants, jackets, fleeces, flannels, sweaters, and t-shirts. trouble is, i *like* them. that’s why i bought them. maybe i’ll start wearing everything more often now that i can find them.

on the bright side, i bought some stuff for mira tonight. got a red leash and matching collar (walmart had a very poor selection for large dogs), a bone, two tennis balls, a stuffed duck toy, brush, comb, and shampoo. i’ll get the dog bed for the office, food/water dishes, and food/treats tomorrow, after i find out what i should feed her.

(1) I read about the scheduling of the next shuttle launch and think “wow, I’m glad I’m not married to an astronaut”. Obviously I don’t know the full story, but I have to agree with this guy’s assessment:

A NASA employee who provided the documents said optimism based on past success is unwarranted, and compared it to saying, “We’ve run the red light again and again, and we’ve gotten away with it”

“They haven’t gotten away with it,” he continued. “They’ve destroyed two orbiters – 14 people are dead.” … “You know what’s going to happen? They’ll have no problem on this flight or the next flight,” he said, and the issue “won’t be on the front burner any more. We’ll forget about it.”

Plus, NASA is pushing a hard sell which makes me wonder. It just seems pretty dangerous to play fast and loose with safety in the middle of huge science/funding/NSF cuts, which will seem justified if there’s another incident.