9/1/09 – Tuesday

Okay. More housekeeping notes: I moved the “Get me a random entry!” link down the sidebar so it’s under the “journal” heading. Can everyone see it there? If not, let me know and I’ll get Fred right on it. (Poor Fred.) I changed the pictures in the sidebar so that they shouldn’t be blocking the … Continue reading “9/1/09 – Tuesday”

Okay. More housekeeping notes: I moved the “Get me a random entry!” link down the sidebar so it’s under the “journal” heading. Can everyone see it there? If not, let me know and I’ll get Fred right on it.

(Poor Fred.)

I changed the pictures in the sidebar so that they shouldn’t be blocking the words underneath. Are they blocking the words for anyone still?

And since enough people have mentioned it lately, I’m taking a poll as to whether y’all want links to open in the same window or a new window. I’ll leave the poll open for a week, and majority’s going to rule on this.



Links open in a new window or the same window?

Do you want the links you click on, on this site, to open in a new window, or the same window?

Same window
New window
I don’t care, I just want to click on something

That is, assuming there’s a WordPress plugin that will encode the links so that they’ll open in a new window, because I am NOT hand-coding all the links I do on a daily basis. I don’t love anyone that much.

Alternately, if anyone knows of a WordPress plugin that will allow the reader to decide whether links open in a new window or the same one, let me know, would you? Thanks.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

Why are so many people searching on “Dooce” all of a sudden? Seventeen searches over the weekend? Really? Is this about the BOYCOTT MAYTAG thing?

For the uninformed:

Dooce had issues with her washer, got no love from the repairman, called upon her million-plus Twitter followers to boycott Maytag.

Sundry considered that an abuse of power.

Dooce’s followers were all “OH NO SHE DI’IN’T!”, Sundry’s followers were all “YEAH SHE DID! EAT THAT!”

Jon Armstrong was all “HEATHER INVENTED MAYTAG WHEN SHE WASN’T BUSY INVENTING BLOGGING AND BEING THE FIRST EVER TO EXPERIENCE NATURAL CHILDBIRTH.”

Snarkers were all “Ever heard of a laundromat instead of letting your nasties pile up in the corner and stank up the house or are you boycotting the obvious as well?”

Sundry was all “This is how I see it.”

Dooce was all “MY CAPSLOCK, LET ME SHOW YOU IT.”

Various people were all “Blah blah blah we have no excitement in our lives, let us discuss the holy motherfucking shit out of this, COME ON EVERYONE, LET’S ALL WEIGH IN ON THE TOPIC!”

People with a life are all “What’s a Dooce?”

Frankly, as an internet slap fight, I found it lacking. I give it a C minus. Where were the personal attacks, the insults about each others’ appearances and mothering skills, the snide comments about each others’ spouses? WHERE?

Were y’all searching to find out my super-important opinion on the topic, is that what those searches were about? Because come closer.

Lean in, now.

My opinion on the topic is that… I kinda don’t really give all that much of a shit.

Does Dooce have a point? Sure. No help from the Maytag repairman after repeated visits, who wouldn’t snap?

Does Sundry have a point? Sure. When you’ve got a million people dying to read the words from your Twitter, maybe you have a responsibility to watch what you’re saying.

(Please note: I do not follow Dooce on Twitter. I do follow Sundry, which is the only reason I had any idea any of this was going on.)

On the other hand, if even one person who follows Dooce on Twitter was juuuuust about to go out and buy a Maytag appliance, and they read Dooce’s post to Twitter, and they said “OMG! Dooce says do not buy Maytag! Must. Not. Buy. Maytag. LOL!”, then I would say Maytag dodged a bullet on that one.

Who wants, as a customer, someone who is such a blithering idiot that a Twitter post calling for a boycott of Maytag would cause them to NOT buy the Maytag appliance they were just about to buy? And what kind of blithering idiot would immediately NOT buy that Maytag appliance instead of maybe putting it off the purchase until they found out what exactly the issue was?
Not a blithering idiot you’d want calling the service desk all the time, is what I’m saying.

Okay. Now I’m going to stop talking about it before I bore myself, and y’all, straight to death.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

Someone asked in yesterday’s comments if Sam can close his eyes. He certainly can – in fact, we had a bit of a scare on Sunday when we walked in to give him his medicine, and his eyes were mostly glued shut by, I guess, post-surgery gunk (I noticed that his eyes were tearing a little on Saturday). We put some drops on the outside of his eyes, and soon enough he was able to open his eyes and he hasn’t had the problem since, thank goodness.

He’s not one of the kittens who couldn’t close his eyes completely before surgery. Terry and Bill are the ones with so much of an upper eyelid missing that when they close their eyes, you can still see their eyes. Sam’s eyelids weren’t nearly as bad as that, though with the pieces of eyelid missing, he had fur rubbing directly on his eyes every time he blinked. Now, his eyes are protected from that abrasion.

I’ll try to get some more pictures of him later today so you can see how well he’s doing. From a distance, I’ll say that he looks like he has completely normal eyes, it’s not until you get up close that you realize something’s different.

He had the last of his pain medication yesterday morning, and today he’s perfectly fine. When I went to let them out of their room, he came running right over with his tail sticking straight up in the air, let me squirt medicine down his throat, put ointment in his eyes, and then ran off to play.

Now, however, we’re going to talk about another of the True Blood 6, someone who doesn’t get his picture posted nearly often enough.

I speak, of course, of Lafayette.

Lafayette, being a black cat, is kind of difficult to photograph because he tends to show up as a dark mass in pictures. I can take his picture with the flash on, but his fur is so shiny that it reflects the light and looks terrible. Yesterday, as I was visiting the kittens (I visit them many times a day, as you can imagine), he flopped down in the sunlight, and I managed to get a few good shots of him.


“O crystal ball, when will I get my fancy new eyelips?” Soon enough, sweet boy, I promise.


Cheesecake pose.


Casually considering whether to chomp on Sookie’s foot.


Happy boy in the sun.

He is not only a good-looking boy, he’s super-sweet. He’ll come over and press up against my leg and wait for me to notice him, and then when I speak to him, he purrs and purrs. He likes to be held on his back like a baby, and when I give him a belly rub, he starts off cleaning his own paws, and finishes up by cleaning my fingers.

He’s all about the cleanliness, sweet boy.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 


Spanky plays shy.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

Previously
2008: I know. I’m an unreasonable monster.
2007: No entry.
2006: The truth is, Fred has been excitedly pricing tractors every minute of every day since our offer on the house was accepted.
2005: Ahhhhh, smell that fresh, crisp autumn air! Why, it’s down to 90 degrees today. I almost need a sweater.
2004: She turned 86 last Thursday. She’s the only grandparent I’ve ever really known.
2003: (and you KNOW he insisted on it, was all temper tantrumy, screaming and beating his fists on the floor, wailing “ACTOR AND NOVELIST! ACTOR AND NOVELIST!”)
2002: No entry.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.

47 thoughts on “9/1/09 – Tuesday”

  1. I only occasionally read Dooce, and had no idea who Sundry even was until just now. Internet drama amuses me. 🙂

  2. I think the current great minds of usability say that users can choose to open links in a new window with a key or click (or mouse action, for advanced users), so there’s no reason to dictate that action in the code. It really only gets done these days on bad commercial websites that don’t want users abandoning their pretty, pretty ads, and invariably mess it up so that every page of their site starts opening in new windows and gah, that sucks.

    CTRL- (or Command-) click is your friend.

  3. A lesson for everybody: buy an appliance from a dealer, not from a department store. I have a Maytag washer and dryer set and one day, I had a problem with a vent inside the dryer. I called the dealer and it was fixed the very next day. The dealer is a family-run appliance store that’s been in existence for over 50 years. I am sure there is such a place in your town. Yes, a little more costly, but everything is covered, warranties, quick service, replacement, etc. Peace of mind!

  4. Maytag has had lots of recalls on its refrigerators (the expensive french door ones!) and a friend warned me off the Maytag washer she had about 7 years ago. So I was not surprise when Dooce had problems. I thought her post was funny, over-the top camp. Maybe I don’t read her correctly…and I don’t know who Sundry is, but your recap was very funny.

    In the add comment box, is the URI supposed to be URL, or is there a new nomenclature I’m not familiar with? I’m slow to the new interwebs stuff.

    1. I’ve seen “URI” on other sites, but I’ll be damned if I have any idea what it stands for! I’m just assuming it’s the same ultimate meaning as “URL”.

      1. URI is uniform resource indicator and URL (uniform resource locator) is a subset of URI…TMI for me!

        Which of the cats are still outdoor kitties? You don’t talk about the older ones much any more. For instance, how is Sugarbutt’s foot doing? Hope he’s out of his collars!

  5. I LOVE the pic of Lafayette (the best character on True Blood IMHO) where he’s contemplating chomping on Sookie’s foot. You totally caught the light and the look on his sweet lil face. Gorgeous.

  6. Lafayette seems to be the perfect little boy kitty. He’s adorable and sweet tempered. I love the second photo where his front paw looks like a giant mit.

  7. On the link thing…can’t you set your browser to dictate what you want done to a link when you click on it?

  8. Not a clue who or what Dooce and Sundry are. Looks like maybe I don’t want to know.
    Love the pictures of Lafayette. His little crossed eyes just charm me to death. I love me some black kitties. Right now we don’t have one and it is the first time in a long time I have lived without a little piece of midnight. Their shiny, shiny coats are so beautiful.

  9. The fact that Lafayette likes to lay on his back, and his stunning good looks, lead me to believe that he is the incarnation of my dearly departed black cat Vinnie Vega (whom the vet’s office mis-named as “Vinnie Vague” on his record, I recently discovered). Plus my other cat is Beau Rivage, and wouldn’t Lafayette fit right in name-wise? Hmm!

  10. This line: ““O crystal ball, when will I get my fancy new eyelips?” Soon enough, sweet boy, I promise.” made me tear up. It’s obviously going to be a great day. 🙂

  11. I’ve known about Dooce for a while, but I rarely read her blog. Never had heard of Sundry. From what you’ve linked, it looks to me like Sundry just wanted a reason to bash Dooce. A handful of bloggers do this from time to time. Dooce is an easy target because she’s compensated for her blogging efforts.

    Whatever. I’m with you, Robyn – this kind of internet drama gets really old, really fast.

    Lafayette’s character just jumps off the screen at me. So funny.

    1. Some internet drama has legs and can keep entertaining for a while, but that requires that the main participants get nasty and do some name-calling, which neither Dooce nor Sundry did in this case. Hmph!

  12. OMG — I just now paid attention to the Jake and Elwood picture under permanent residents! Love the shades!

  13. With a PC, if you hold the Ctrl button while you click, it will open in a new tab and if you hold the Shift button it will open in a new window.

  14. Ok, I admit it, I’m with Dooce on this one. Yeah, she can be a pill, but it’s also true that if she hadn’t twittered what she twote, she’d still be without a working washer and Maytag would still be just fine with that.

    Also, I am so in love with that cross-eyed Lafayette that it makes my previous love for Tommy seem like a school girl’s crush.

    1. Once we hit close to the $3,000 mark and I found that that was going to cover surgery for all six kittens, I put up a note on all sites so people would know that surgery’s paid for. Donations dropped off almost immediately, as I expected, though there have been a few more since.

      Hmm. I wonder if a kitten could go to college to become a vet? 🙂

  15. Sundry has it this time. I think she is a much better writer than Dooce anyway. Didn’t like Dooce’s book, I had 2 kids with no drugs and I think she is full of bologna. Just my opinion.

    1. Niki, that brings up another topic – do you find that books put out by bloggers don’t translate that well to book form? There was a time when I’d buy books put out by bloggers just to support them, but except for the book by Dietgirl (and possibly one or two that aren’t coming to mind right now), I find that I just really don’t enjoy them and end up skimming through them a lot.

      1. I’m sure the other book you enjoyed that was written by a blogger was Fred’s book, right?

  16. II’m using IE 7 and all of the pictures need to be raised up a “line”. I can’t see any of the names for anything on the left-hand side (“permanent residents”, etc.).

  17. I have admitted that I come here eveyrday to see the pics of your kitties. I love cats but after repeated visits to the emergency room (due to my cat allergy) I have been sans a cat for almost a year now. But your kitties are just so cute, I feel pain in my heart that I can’t have one or more cats to love and fill up my apartment. I’m just here wishing I could adpot but can’t. 🙁

  18. “MY CAPSLOCK, LET ME SHOW YOU IT.” has been the best thing I’ve read on the internet all day. Your permission to make it a Live Journal icon?

  19. I come back to your site several times a day just to see the comments. It is great entertainment for a retired gal. Wondering, do you ever get comments from nasty people like Nance has?

    1. Every once in a while, maybe every few months. I honestly can’t remember the last one I got, which probably means I’m about due for one.

      The ones I get tend to come from out of left field, they usually have an issue with something completely unexpected, and are generally from people who are looking for attention.

  20. You know- I have only bought a few (one being by that guy you live with!!) And generally I am entertained. This one- not so much. She tries to hard to be hip and cool and is awfully whiney. MY OPINION!!

  21. Banner is coming! I had to come and count cats (I also had bi-lateral non-malignant breast mass removal surgery on Friday, and a PICC line put in yesterday for 14 days of at-home 12 hour vancamycin – so I’ve been a bit self-involved.) BUT THE BANNER IS COMING – ALMOST DONE!!

    And a question for Friday: When will the Crooked Acres Jams and Hot Sauces be available again (and yes, I’m on the auto mailing list, but I have friends – and friends of friends – that want to know.) :)))

  22. I never read Dooce or Sundry, but yours is the first thing I read each day. I think your blog is…as Miss Turner said…”Simply the best.”

    And I love the kitteh pictures every day! 😀

  23. Well, I feel special because when MY brand spankin’ new Maytag fridge was making a funny noise, the repairman was out the same week and fixed it on the spot! And, it was a tricksy thing many repairmen might have missed. I am speccciaalll.

    That said, I think all appliances, cars, and electronics are total crapshoots. I mean, you can make educated guesses and not buy the cheapest shit ever, but at some point even the most expensive items will have problems.

    I have dealt with really, really, REALLY horrible customer service before (HP, I’m lookin’ at you…) and I guess I don’t blame Dooce for pulling out all the stops. When you spend a lot of money on something and the company gives you a dud, then won’t take responsibility for it, it’s maddening. I still feel special that Maytag loves me more, you know.

  24. Um…*raises hand timidly*…I was one of the ones searching for Dooce. But only because I deciphered some of Nance’s comments (and wondered why she seems to hate Dooce so), and then remembered you mentioning her. I didn’t realize you’d linked her quite so often.

    I really haven’t read enough of Dooce’s archives to form an opinion of her, although I did stumble across the HUGE controversy after her keynote address at the end of Blogher ’08. Wow…what a bunch of uproar about a bunch of nothin’ THAT was. However, it does explain Nance’s comment about y’all having your own private Blogher, with nobody getting drunk and nobody getting their feelings hurt.

    Aaaaaand…I need to get a life.

    1. Ha – you were being a nebshit! 😀

      Ah yes, last year’s uproar. The best internet drama always appears over nothing at all, I find.

      (If you get a life, make sure you tell me where to find one, would you?)

    1. Why, thank you – I did the hard work of telling Fred how I wanted it to look, and he did the hard work of doing what I told him, mostly uncomplainingly. 🙂

  25. Your replay of the Bitch Fight was hilarious. I don’t follow either but heard the rumblings so I had to ask someone what was going on. Apparently it was a slow week in the universe if that’s all the girls had to fight about.

  26. Man, dooce and her FUCK YEAH CAPS LOCK. I don’t read her site because I have zero in common with her, I don’t think she’s funny or even a particularly engaging writer. She has an assistant and a $1300 washing machine and I read somewhere that they make in the hundreds of thousands of dollars running that silly website of hers, sooooo… yeah. I’d rather read about kittens and canning and gardens and chickens and… 🙂

    http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/funny-pictures-relevant-to-my-interests.jpg

    *THIS* IS RELEVANT TO MY INTERESTS.

Comments are closed.