More Dog Drama

This time with my dog back home.

She's had kidney failure and some other problems the past few months, but antibiotics have been helping. Still, some of her tests were a little worrisome, so Mom took her in for an ultrasound this morning.

Turns out it's a cancerous tumor, and it's inoperable.

They're going to put her on medication that has a 40% chance of helping. If it helps, she might make it for another six months.

I kind of don't feel like working today. Or, you know, doing anything.

Today's reason to be thankful

I have probably the best landlord in Los Angeles. He wasn't mad at all about Cujo's accident (for which I still blame Bruce Willis) and in fact wanted to make sure that I wasn't leaving town for vacation feeling worried or stressed out -- he said he'd take a look at it while I was gone and we could figure it out later.

It's a crazy world when you love your landlord and can't stand your downstairs neighbor.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving! I have my boarding pass (and seat assignment!!) in hand, so barring another Die Hard incident on the freeway tomorrow, by noonish I will be back home in good ol' Colorado.

Oh no he didn't

Well, apparently even here in good ol' progressive La-la Land, our national version of royalty is just full of backwards and offensive ideas. First Mel Gibson, now even B-list has-beens? I hope this doesn't become a trend. Racism is never cool, and I hate to think it's going to start becoming fashionable as more and more celebrities say things they pretend they didn't mean.

I'm only racist in the sense that everyone raised in the U.S. is racist. That is to say, I'm aware that I have certain perceptions and viewpoints that I only have by virtue of the fact that I'm white, and that these views sometimes end up oppressing minorities, and for this reason I do what I can to lessen the effects of my prejudices. I'm a work in progress, but I'm not an active racist. So I guess I'd say I'm a recovering racist, which is about the best any of us can say for ourselves. As someone who recognizes her own prejudices and biases, I also have certain mental "walls" built that block me from saying and doing certain things. For example, I have trained myself to the point where I'm virtually physically incapable of uttering the "n"-word. I have used the "f"-word in front of my 80-year-old grandmother, but I can't say the "n"-word under any circumstances. Just can't do it. No matter who I'm around, how much I've been drinking it simply does not happen.

I am not some amazing disciplinarian. I'm lucky to get my apartment cleaned once a month. I only make it to the gym because my membership and trainers cost an obscene amount of money. Most of my free time I spending plopping my lazy ass in front of the TV. Thus, if I can keep myself from spouting off racist bullshit, anyone can do it.

This includes you, Mel Gibson. This includes you, Michael Richards.

And while we're at it, I will just note that I am still pissed that no one seems to care that good ol' Mel, in the midst of his racist tirade, apparently made some pretty misogynist statements too (I mean, maybe this is just me, but I'd never call anyone I respected "sugar tits." Unless, I guess, his tits were really sugary).

But I guess we're not as horrified by misogyny.

Stupid America.

Bruce Willis owes me 120 bucks, a new carpet, and therapy for my dog

I hope you're paying attention, Bruce.

Why? Let me start at the beginning.

Two weeks ago I adopted the sweetest little puppy in California. He's some kind of mutt (likely a dachsund/corgi mix with probably something else in there too -- maybe chihuahua, since he's pretty small?) and has a beautiful short black coat. He has this precious little underbite and the sweetest personality. He follows me around everywhere I go and he loves to snuggle. I've named him Cujo.

Now, Cujo did not come to me straight from his mom and dad. Rather, a woman found him wandering the street and brought him to someone who tries to find homes for rescued dogs. I cannot fathom why someone would abandon little Cujo, but they did, and frankly, I'm the luckier for it.

As a result of this, though, Cujo has some separation anxiety. He's generally done well while I'm gone -- he'll whine at the door for a few minutes and then just sleep until I get home (at least, as far as I can tell). I've left him for up to four hours and he's been fine -- no chewing, no accidents in the apartment, etc.

Saturday night my friend had a party to celebrate passing the bar (congrats Andrew!!), and he lives down in Irvine. I headed to the party, thinking I'd hang out for a few hours, probably three at the most, and then head home -- so with driving time of roughly 45 minutes each way factored in, that would put me at about 4 and a half hours, and I knew Cujo could handle that.

And I imagine he would have, had Bruce Willis not SHUT DOWN THE FUCKING 405 TO FILM HIS STUPID MOVIE. The article linked to doesn't specifically say that he's shutting down the 405, but I can't imagine why else they were siphoning off every single car near the airport, even though all four lanes of traffic were completely clear of any accidents, construction, or other *real* reasons to close the busiest freeway in Southern California.

It literally took 45 minutes to move a single half mile. One fucking half mile.

By the time I got home, poor Cujo had had a panic attack. I'd been gone for nearly six hours. He was probably worried he'd never see me again. The POOR BABY. It's going to take forever now to train him out of his separation anxiety.

And as if that wasn't enough, Cujo tore up the carpet next to my door. Literally pulled the carpet away from the floor and chewed it up. I don't think it will cost much more than a hundred bucks or so to replace (once I work up the courage to call my landlord and tell him what happened), but still, it's gonna be a pain in the butt to deal with.

And for the time being, I've bought a kennel to crate him in while I'm gone so that he can't cause any more damage (I've also heard that smaller dogs sometimes prefer closed-in spaces, because they make them feel safe and protected). He hung out in there for a bit last night and seems to like it pretty well, so hopefully this will kill two birds with one stone -- his separation anxiety and my worry of having to replace everything in the apartment. But the damn kennel cost 120 bucks. Jeesh, I seem to remember those things being lots cheaper when my parents got one for my dog back home.

So anyway. None of this would have happened if it weren't for you, Bruce Willis. So pay up.

Shout out to my California peeps!

Just a quick note to wish well those of you spending your day feeling sick as you count down to 6:00 p.m., when California releases the results of the July 2006 bar exam (the last state to release results, cruel despots that the California bar examiners are).

I truly hope that all you deserving folks out there pass. Best of luck! And, either way, I also hope that the people with whom you'll spend Thanksgiving are as helpful as my mom when it comes to celebrating a victory, or drowning your sorrows in drink.

Toldja

As I said, the joke's on us:

"The joke is not on Kazakhstan," he said. "I think the joke is on people who can believe that the Kazakhstan that I describe can exist -- who believe that there's a country where homosexuals wear blue hats and the women live in cages and they drink fermented horse urine."

Trolls

I can never quite decide if it's smarter to just ignore them, or to argue with them. I mean, obviously logic and reasonable arguments won't change their minds, small and closed as they are, but on the other hand, I love arguing SO MUCH. I guess it does kind of make me a bully, though, if I pick on an inferior intellect. Dammit. Sometimes your brain is tired and you just want an easy target, ya know?

Me as a nerdy feminist

My brother is a real weirdo. He has the world's strangest sense of humor, which (since we grew up together) somehow always manages to get me laughing. He's probably the only person in the world who can consistently make me laugh, and probably with something that would only make anyone else scratch his/her head and say "whaaa-?"

Anyway. My brother and I also share a love of nerdy videogames. He's better at them but in fairness he has more free time than I do. I'm still on the first Final Fantasy X. I mentioned to him that the final battle was taking me forever to get through and said that when I was finally done I'd play FFX-2. He said he recommended that I skip it; it was an "ok" game but not very empowering for women.

Intrigued, I asked him why.

He explained that the game, which features no playable male characters, is overly concerned with things like singing and costumes.

I just love how my brother gets why that's offensive. I like to think I had something to do with the fact that he's a Very Smart Male :D

Interesting

Even more controversy about Borat (which I'm seeing tonight, and I can't wait!). A couple of fraternity members are suing and claiming that they were misled and intoxicated by the producers, and that they did not agree to allow footage of them to appear in the movie.

What's interesting to me is that I suspect these, er, young men, are members of precisely the demographic that purchases the lion's share of Girls Gone Wild videos (and thus, statistically speaking, likely purchasers of the videos themselves), which have been subject to similar allegations of dishonesty and unfair manipulation of the women who appear in them (not to mention rape). The difference here is that these men were simply invited to share their thoughts, whereas the women are cajoled into removing their clothing and more. Which do you find more demeaning?

An optimistic part of me hopes that maybe having the camera turned around to the other side might give these men pause the next time they think of purchasing products that harm women in much the same way (I'd argue worse) they believe they've been harmed. But, given the comments they apparently made on camera (their Mel Gibson defense notwithstanding), I kind of doubt it.

Anyway, I'm psyched about seeing the movie! And also proud of myself that I'm able to turn just about anything into a feminist issue ;)

I'm Feeling Metaphorical

I have an albatross hanging around my neck.

And it's really making me tired.

And giving me a crick.

Happy Election Day!

Okay, I tried to embed a video but blogger is Satan and it's not working for some reason.

Anyway, remember to vote. Vote for yourself, write-in, if you have to, but vote!

What's my motherfuckin' name?

Snoop Dogg has been arrested for allegedly carrying a collapsible baton onto an airplane, and faces up to three years in prison.

I think it's safe to say we all knew this was going to happen. Snoop Dogg is going to federal prison for carrying a baton.

Yep. I've always known that's why he'd go to prison.

I'm torn

At first, I thought, this just sounds wrong. I really, really hate the notion that you can be fired for saying "the wrong thing."

And don't get me wrong -- what he said was ugly, offensive, and juvenile. But isn't that exactly what made creeps like Howard Stern filthy rich (and here I mean filthy in the absolute worst possible sense of the word)? Make no mistake -- I despise Howard Stern with every ounce of my being that isn't busy despising other anti-woman cretins like Hugh Hefner, Larry Flynt, and the like. This DePetro guy doesn't sound like much of a heavyweight in the brains department either. But that doesn't mean he shouldn't get to speak his mind.

But then I thought, actually, when you're talking about a radio talk show host, maybe he shouldn't. When you get to broadcast your thoughts to the public, maybe you really just shouldn't be making juvenile remarks. This isn't the same as my boss firing me for saying something pro-woman or pro-Christian or pro-whatever. This is like my boss firing me for saying to a newspaper reporter, "I'm an attorney for ____ and I think bald CEOs are retarded!" This isn't a political statement, this is a juvenile insult broadcast to thousands. So maybe this isn't a free speech issue.

But then I thought further and I realized that it's all boiling down to money, as everything in corporate America does (yech). Howard "Assface" Stern is still on the air because he makes the station money. I guess this guy's station figured he would cost them money because of his statement. In way, I suppose that's a good thing -- the type of people who would be offended by the phrase "fat lesbian" to describe the woman in question have enough monetary power to "matter" to the station. But I'm still really disillusioned by the fact that in America, nothing matters until it moves money.

Nothing against capitalism in general, but I think capitalism without morals is doomed. At least, I certainly hope it is.

Oh, Ted, Ted, Ted...

It's always a little surreal when my hometown makes the national headlines.