Going to the Breeder

Today, we (meaning Me, dad, mom and jerkatronic - I mean brother!) went to see a Golden Retriever Breeder somewhere in Detroit. The car ride took forever, Jerkatronic was being a Jerkatronic, and I was bored. The High Way was making me nervous. The passing was making me twitchy. Because of my gender, I was (and am) increasingly annoyed and irritated. We turned off the free way and in to a small, quiet suburb, far too small for the ranch I was thinking we where going to. We stopped in front of a very small blue house, walking in with another family that was looking for a dog. At the door, we where greeted by a friendly man who welcomed us and pushed a few happy goldens (golden retrievers) out of the way so we could all come in. The room was quite large, taken up mostly by 7 Goldens and about 8 tiny puppies. I was astounded that -none- of the dogs barked or jumped at us, simply wagging their tails and rubbing their heads in to our hands. Very friendly, laid back dogs.

The breeder talked at us for a while, going over how she bred her dogs, what she looked for in her dogs, etc. Slightly boring, but good information. While she spoke, I contented myself by petting the dogs, who discovered quickly that if they wanted pets they should croud around me. At one point I was sitting on the floor with two old goldens, a mother golden, and the only male of the dogs, all trying to get pets at the same time. It was heaven. After she told us about the litter of puppies, she told us that they actually had two litters, one in a different room. We went in there and saw another litter of at least 9 pups. Where we in heaven? I think we where.

Anyway. Getting to the point of this so-far pointless post. After going over Puppy information, we (meaning Dad and Mom) decided that we where not going to take a chance and go to see other breeders. These dogs where amazing, they had no diseases in their bloodlines, and the puppies where still for sale. So. In two weeks, we are going to see which of the pups is best for us. Dad already decided that we needed another Male dog, and there are two males. And, two weeks after that, we are going to take home a dog.

On the way home, we brainstormed pet names. The Jerkatronic suggested Kirk, Scotty, and Arthas, all WoW and Star-Trek related names. We already have a cat named Spock, and the Jerkatronic -tried- to name Summer (other cat) 709 or whatever that girl in Star-trek is. Yes, I did hit him. Hard. Mom suggested Sam, Binky and Mort, all of which we turned down. I suggested Sky, Skypaw and Willow. Dad thought about it for a moment, first suggesting Fetch and then, after much thought, Echo. All of us liked Echo, just for the sound of it. Mom said that Echo was good because it was pretty. Dad liked the meaning of the word. Jerkatronic said it was fine and shut up, he was listening to the radio.

My reason for liking the name Echo? Simple. An echo is a sound that bounces back at you. A sound that regenerates. We just lost Jamie, and getting a puppy shows that we bounced back from something hard. Just like an Echo, we bounced back form losing our dog and we are getting another. Starting again.

Too poetic for you? I thought so.

A book.

I just read/finished a book about ten minutes ago.
Buddha Boy, by Kathe Koja
It's not that long, only 117 pages. But it's not a fairy tale or anything. It's really good.
Not full of action or anything. But.. It's got a good moral to it.
So.
Read it, ya?

~We're all gods inside~

Part of random story.

Prolog



“Luna?”
“Yeah?”
“I think we, uh, died.”

That was my welcome to death. I don’t know what, or who, killed us, but now we where dead and we weren’t going back. I looked over to my best friend, Ayla or “Luna”, and gave her the “what now?” look. She around at the endless darkness, finally saying, “Well. We’re not in Heaven, thats for sure. But I thought Hell was all fiery and red, not just... black.” I was about to agree when a deep voice penetrated the darkness.
“You’re not in Heaven, or in Hell, New Ones. You are in the Realm of Judgement.” If it hadn’t been so freaking scary I would have laughed at the name. Realm of Judgement? Really?
“Make fun of the name and die. Again.” Ok. So the guy with the weird voice could read minds. That was just great. “You are here because you have been chosen. You will not be cast in to the pits of Hell like the other sinners. You two New Ones will take on jobs of great importance, treading in-between Heaven and Hell.” The voice continued.
“Great,” I muttered to Luna. “Back to Earth for us.”
“Actually, for once you are right, New One. Your new roles will take you back to your old world, Earth. But before I tell you your new roles, I will ask you both -- would you give up your relatively peaceful new lives to take these roles?” I looked at Luna, who looked up at me. I could tell she was just as torn up as I -- it sounded like a good deal, to get a little action in death. Of course, we could get the roles of Skeletal Horse Manure Collector or something crappy (Seriously, no pun intended) like that.
“You might want to take in to account that if you decline, you will have your souls torn to shards and cast in to a pit of flaming tar.” Ok! That decided things. “Good,” purred the voice. “Then I will send you both to training. At the end of your training, you will be sent in to the field.” And with that, the darkness began to change to red stone and fire.
“Wait! Tell us what our jobs are at least!” Shouted Luna in rage. I sighed.
“Forget it, Luna. He, she, it’s not going to listen to us.” Looking around, I examined our surroundings. The ground was dark, hard red stone and sand. It stretched in to the distance, without any hills or mountains. The horizon was made up of plumes of fire, with red smoke making up the sky. Very red. Still, looking at it all, I realized it didn’t really scare me. At all. It didn’t scare Luna, either. She snorted a half laugh, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Hey look, Lupis. The fire is 2-D.” She noted, pointing at a plume of very flat fire.
I was thinking worse and worse of whoever ruled this world, and I was going to voice my opinion, but was cut off. Again. This time it was a burst of raging fire in front of us, which died down to reveal two bat-winged Demons. They looked like humans, but with glowing red eyes, wings, and grey skin. Very typical. One of them approached me, and one approached Luna. As one they nodded to us, then spoke in unison.
“You are going to be taken to training. Come with us.”
My response?
“Hold on just a minute! Are our training in different areas? Will we train together or apart?” The demons didn’t seem to know how to answer that for a moment.
“If you insist, you will train side by side at first.”
“Last question. What are our jobs?” I asked. The demons exchanged a reluctant glance, then answered.
“You, little New One,” the demon in front of me said, “Will be the Receptionist. You will decide what soul will go to Heaven and what soul will go to Hell.” The other demon looked at Luna.
“You, little New one...” he paused for a moment. “You will be Death.”

Wow.

Well! That was interesting.

I was looking at my mom's Flickr pictures and stumbled across the pictures of the Leopard Moths we have found.
I love moths. Butterflies are boring and usually ugly, but moths... Perfection. So when I saw the Leopard Moth for the first time, I was astounded by its beauty.



Besides the Leopard Moth, I have seen one other kind of exotic moth, I cannot name or find a picture of it though. We raised them from caterpillars, I remember. If I recall correctly they where/are huge moths with rich brown coloration. Lovely! (Edit: The moths we raised where Cecropia Moths. Look them up, very pretty, and they have the strangest caterpillars! Like little circus animals!)

Well, today I add another rare, beautiful moth to the list. The Luna Moth.



I've never seen a living Luna Moth in my life. I didn't even know they lived here. How gorgeous is it? I love the green wings, the brown, the yellow.. And it was big, not huge, but it had a 3-inch wingspan I hazard to guess. I first saw it when going over to tell mom about her Flickr photos, and then looking at the window.. "LUNA MOTH! LUNA MOTH!" We all freaked and went outside to marvel at it and take a few pictures.

Life is full of hidden beauty.

PS. To counter that last part, as we watched the Luna Moth, I heard something rustling the leaves by my feet. I look down and see a huge Garder Snake chowing down on a equally huge toad. It was... interesting. Not exactly a hidden beauty. And adding on to that, I think I saw that toad yesterday, while working outside. Good thing I didn't get too attached to it.

Fate is a very strange thing.

WoW post. Ignore if you want.

Lots of things in this post. I'll start with one of the most exciting things -- Tamable Worgen. Really, really awesome. I got one on both Rassaa, my Dwarf Huntress, and Bluefur, my Tauren Hunter. That picture above shows Bluefur and his new pet. Rassaa also has it, named Rhogar. The -best- pet in the game, and totally not supposed to be tamable. I love it. Strutting around in one of the cities, I got about twelve whispers about my Worgen pet. Alright, I'm a show off. But at least I was nice, actually two of the people wanted to invite me in to their guilds because, and I quote, "You're so leet." Bow before me.

Another thing. I've been playing Rassaa a lot, got her from level 75 to 76, nearly 77. Moved in to Sholizar Basin, I love the place. Funny thing, I was always worrying that I would find Loque'nahak, the rare spawn I sort of want and sort of don't, and not be able to tame him because I had my epic Worgen pet out.. But he is a -really- rare spawn. Really, really rare.
Anyway. I was questing, incidentally right next to one of Loque's rez points, and I kept getting this weird feeling that he was there. But I knew he couldn't be, because I camped him for months and never found him. But what the heck. Just a peek, I could just peek around to make sure he wasn't there.



Fate is a very strange thing.

Really, it wasn't as easy as abandon pet, set trap, tame. See, I had my worgen out at the time, and I was NOT abandoning my worgen. So that meant I had to run back to town, take a 1-minute flight path that seemed to take -forever-, put away my worgen, run back while freaking out that someone had probably found and tamed him by now, and then finally tamed him. And I admit, he is pretty epic. ( epic is my new word for awesome. )

Huh. I wonder what horrible death I am going to die tomorrow, with all the good luck I am having today.

How long has it been?

*darkness, silence*

"Alright, Jo, turn on the power!"

*Beep, beep, BUZZZ CZZZK*
*Flickering lights*

"Jo! What's happening in there?"

"I don't know, Hue! It just went crazy!"

"Well, try again! Turn on the backup lights, Al!"

*Bzzzz.. BAM!*
*Sparks, lights go wild, more sparks*

"WHAT WAS THAT?!"

"It's exploding! Good gods, run!"

*SELF DESTRUCT IN 5...4...3...2...*

"JO! AL! RUN OUT! I'll try and turn it off!"

"Hue, get out!"

*1...*

"Don't worry, I can.."

*CZZZZZZT, CRASH, BOOM, scream*

"HUE!"

"RUN!"

*Explosions, screaming, fire*

"We made it! Poor Hue.."

"No, look! Oh my gods, its.. its..."



I'M ALIVE!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I guess my brain shut down or something. And now that it's summer vacation, it sort of died.
Oh well.
Anyway, took a really really long survey. Here are my "What Dungeons&Dragons character are you?" results!
I Am A: Neutral Good Human Druid/Ranger (1st/1st Level)


Ability Scores:

Strength-15

Dexterity-13

Constitution-12

Intelligence-13

Wisdom-16

Charisma-11


Alignment:
Neutral Good A neutral good character does the best that a good person can do. He is devoted to helping others. He works with kings and magistrates but does not feel beholden to them. Neutral good is the best alignment you can be because it means doing what is good without bias for or against order. However, neutral good can be a dangerous alignment because it advances mediocrity by limiting the actions of the truly capable.


Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.


Primary Class:
Druids gain power not by ruling nature but by being at one with it. They hate the unnatural, including aberrations or undead, and destroy them where possible. Druids receive divine spells from nature, not the gods, and can gain an array of powers as they gain experience, including the ability to take the shapes of animals. The weapons and armor of a druid are restricted by their traditional oaths, not simply training. A druid's Wisdom score should be high, as this determines the maximum spell level that they can cast.


Secondary Class:
Rangers are skilled stalkers and hunters who make their home in the woods. Their martial skill is nearly the equal of the fighter, but they lack the latter's dedication to the craft of fighting. Instead, the ranger focuses his skills and training on a specific enemy a type of creature he bears a vengeful grudge against and hunts above all others. Rangers often accept the role of protector, aiding those who live in or travel through the woods. His skills allow him to move quietly and stick to the shadows, especially in natural settings, and he also has special knowledge of certain types of creatures. Finally, an experienced ranger has such a tie to nature that he can actually draw on natural power to cast divine spells, much as a druid does, and like a druid he is often accompanied by animal companions. A ranger's Wisdom score should be high, as this determines the maximum spell level that he can cast.


Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)




And thats all I really have to say. We've been working on the veggie garden, a little. Not much. Almost not at all. Oh well.
Our dog, Jamie, was put down. :-(
We might get a new puppy! :-)
It will take a long time to find a breeder that has said puppy. :-(
That puppy will no doubt pee all over our rug. :-(
That puppy might not like our other dog. :-(
That puppy might not like our cats. :-(
We might NOT go on that vacation to the grand canyon that we where planning. :-( :-( :-(
Thats 8 :-( to 1 :-). Summer Vacation needs to step up a notch.

Oh well. It's not really as bad as I'm making it sound. hope everyone else's vacation is going well?
Bow before my somewhat awesome skillz.

Review - Left 4 Dead

First Thoughts: Oh great. Another modern-world game.
OH #^&*@ THATS A LOT OF ZOMBIES! *Random gunshots*
That weird crying lady zombie is scaring the death out of me..
OH #^&*@ THATS A NASTY ZOMBIE LADY! *-more- random gunshots*

Story line - Zombie invasion. Get away from the zombie invasion. Thats all. In other words, no story line, but it doesn't need one to be fun.

Gameplay - Amazing. The whole game is excellently made, so the gameplay doesn't get boring. I found myself scared to move forward sometimes, wondering where that crying lady zombie (the Witch) was. Tons of zombies seem to randomly swarm you, although you can often hear them coming as they roar like the furies. There are several "special" enemies that you can actually define by the sound they make, for instance a really annoying, creepy crying is the sound of a Witch, who will look harmless until she leaps to her feet and charges you, screaming her head off. Then she tears your chest to shreds. I dread the sound of a crying witch, the sound is strangely freaky. Another monster can be identified by it's hacking cough, made by the Smoker, who will hide on the roof of a building or behind a rock and shoot its mega-long, spiky tongue at you and drag you towards it, strangling you at the same time. There is also the Hunter, which makes a screaming noise. Hunters leap at you from where they hide and, akin to the witch, tear your chest to shreds. The hardest of all the zombies is the Tank, a giant muscle-man who charges you, punches you across the world, and takes forever to kill. And finally there is the Boomer, a uber-fat man who makes disgusting belchy, barfy noises and then, yeah, barfs all over you. The problem with that is, Boomer Barf not only attracts hordes of zombies, but also makes your screen all green and drippy so you cannot see what you are shooting.

Sound - Well done voiceovers, realistic gun noises, freaky zombie noises, subtly scary music. Everything is very well done.

Graphics - Great graphics, very realistic, although some affects such as the Smoker's Tongue and the Boomer's barf could have been done better. Still, hard to complain. I usually don't like games with really realistic graphics, but this is an exception.

Controls - Smooth and easy to use. It didn't take me long to figure out how to move around, jump, turn, switch weapons and everything else. The Controls aren't cumbersome and don't make things too complicated.

Entertainment - Very high, although I find myself unable to play for long periods of time. After a few levels, my nerves are shot. Also, it's best played with two players or more, solo is slightly less fun and it's not nearly as epic when you are simply saving a computer-controlled character.

Overall rating - 9. This game rocks.