A new study says that people who own cats enjoy health benefits over those whom do not own cats. Now we have scientific reasoning for having cats!
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/fea/pets/stories/022208dnlivcats.23b81fd.html
28 February 2008
16 February 2008
Friday Podcast Late... What A Week
This week has been one for the record books. Just about everything that could go bad has.
I: I am off my diet for a time. I got majorly sick. My main rule of dieting, diets are on hold when sick. It's not a good time to be depriving your body of the materials it needs to get better. I have lost 12 pounds so far before getting sick, but might have gained some of it back. Only a pound or two, but still a bummer.
2: I got a call on Monday informing me that my grandmother was ill and was not expected to last much longer. She did manage to hold on for longer than they thought, but passed away on Valentine's Day at 4am. Yet another reason for me to hate the holiday.
C: Due to my grandmother's passing, we had to truck down to Illinois for the funeral. Because of the short notice, we could not bring all the dogs. So 3 of them, our dogs and not the foster, were boarded. Before they could be boarded, they needed a vaccination first. Which meant that the Ulric, who is afraid of people, needed to go to the vet and get a vaccine pushed up his nose. Being afraid of people and especially afraid of females made the visit even more fun when both vet techs giving the vaccine were female. After muzzling Ulric just in case, they held him down for the vaccine... and he promptly peed all over one of the vet techs. Oddly, after this took place he is much more approachable around the wife and myself. Weird.
0100: Thursday, the day we were preparing to go down to Illinois, was also the day that our foster dog Nudge was to lose his manhood. Or doghood. Either way, we had to go pick him up after the fun at the vets for our dogs. After the vet visit, it was snowing. And snow in Madison means everyone forgets how the hell to drive in that new thing called "snow" and become idiots on the road. Because our vet is in McFarland and the foster vet is in Verona, we got to take the beltline in that wonderful weather. I was about to hurt multiple people by the time we got there. Then the drive home was even better since we had to drive through downtown, another bastion for oh-my-god-it's-snowing-so-i-will-bloody-freak-out drivers. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper when we got home.
e. On Friday, we get ready to drive down to Illinois. While the wife was in the shower, I go downstairs to locate some socks. When downstairs, I notice the infamous basement lake has appeared again. >.< style="font-style: italic;">$10,000 depending on the pipe damage.
2x+4=16: Also on Friday, we notice the brand new fridge, delivered on the 4th of this month, has failed. The cooling thing-a-magig does not work. All food in fridge and freezer is now spoiled. And it smells. bad... no.... BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD I am so not looking forward to cleaning that out. Anyone have a gas mask I can borrow? One saving grace, the smell is not able to get out of the fridge unless you open it. One bad point about the good point, in order to clean it out, one has to open it. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Damn it.
Swans A-swimming: Nudge might have worms. :-/
Acht: Tomorrow, in the 6-12" of snow coming, I have to go pickup the dogs in a van that handles in the snow like a fat man on a diet at an all-you-can eat dessert buffet.
Lastly: When I get home, the cats have used one of the dogs pads as a litter box. Adding to the lovely smell and the general disaster area feel of the house. Seriously, hurricane ravaged homes in New Orleans could be marginally cleaner than our house right now.
I give up.
I: I am off my diet for a time. I got majorly sick. My main rule of dieting, diets are on hold when sick. It's not a good time to be depriving your body of the materials it needs to get better. I have lost 12 pounds so far before getting sick, but might have gained some of it back. Only a pound or two, but still a bummer.
2: I got a call on Monday informing me that my grandmother was ill and was not expected to last much longer. She did manage to hold on for longer than they thought, but passed away on Valentine's Day at 4am. Yet another reason for me to hate the holiday.
C: Due to my grandmother's passing, we had to truck down to Illinois for the funeral. Because of the short notice, we could not bring all the dogs. So 3 of them, our dogs and not the foster, were boarded. Before they could be boarded, they needed a vaccination first. Which meant that the Ulric, who is afraid of people, needed to go to the vet and get a vaccine pushed up his nose. Being afraid of people and especially afraid of females made the visit even more fun when both vet techs giving the vaccine were female. After muzzling Ulric just in case, they held him down for the vaccine... and he promptly peed all over one of the vet techs. Oddly, after this took place he is much more approachable around the wife and myself. Weird.
0100: Thursday, the day we were preparing to go down to Illinois, was also the day that our foster dog Nudge was to lose his manhood. Or doghood. Either way, we had to go pick him up after the fun at the vets for our dogs. After the vet visit, it was snowing. And snow in Madison means everyone forgets how the hell to drive in that new thing called "snow" and become idiots on the road. Because our vet is in McFarland and the foster vet is in Verona, we got to take the beltline in that wonderful weather. I was about to hurt multiple people by the time we got there. Then the drive home was even better since we had to drive through downtown, another bastion for oh-my-god-it's-snowing-so-i-will-bloody-freak-out drivers. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper when we got home.
e. On Friday, we get ready to drive down to Illinois. While the wife was in the shower, I go downstairs to locate some socks. When downstairs, I notice the infamous basement lake has appeared again. >.< style="font-style: italic;">$10,000 depending on the pipe damage.
2x+4=16: Also on Friday, we notice the brand new fridge, delivered on the 4th of this month, has failed. The cooling thing-a-magig does not work. All food in fridge and freezer is now spoiled. And it smells. bad... no.... BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD I am so not looking forward to cleaning that out. Anyone have a gas mask I can borrow? One saving grace, the smell is not able to get out of the fridge unless you open it. One bad point about the good point, in order to clean it out, one has to open it. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Damn it.
Swans A-swimming: Nudge might have worms. :-/
Acht: Tomorrow, in the 6-12" of snow coming, I have to go pickup the dogs in a van that handles in the snow like a fat man on a diet at an all-you-can eat dessert buffet.
Lastly: When I get home, the cats have used one of the dogs pads as a litter box. Adding to the lovely smell and the general disaster area feel of the house. Seriously, hurricane ravaged homes in New Orleans could be marginally cleaner than our house right now.
I give up.
08 February 2008
Beware...
A desire to adopt a puppy might come with viewing these pictures:
http://madtown.cc/v/Pets/Nudge/
More info on Nudge here:
http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=9934223
http://madtown.cc/v/Pets/Nudge/
More info on Nudge here:
http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=9934223
Friday Podcast #3: The Household Helper
Today's pick comes from the land of iTunes. As I logged in I quested to find a random podcast to review. In my explorations, I discovered The Household Helper.
Why would the Household Helper catch my eye? My house is a mess. A huge mess. I have 4 dogs, 4 cats, and me. That would cause any domicile to look like a thermonuclear exchange between two warring pet factions took place.
I fired up the podcast hoping for some good tips to use to help keep m house in shape. Unfortunately the podcast did not live up to my hopes. It does have a nugget of good information, but I feel it is a bit too short. It could stand to be about 30 minutes in length. The Podcast could also stand a bit less repetition. It does lean toward beating a dead horse on some topics, but those are some topics worth repeating a time or two. For educational material, I would like to have a few more actionable suggestions in the podcast and a little less personal anecdotes.
In addition to the content concerns, the production concerns are also a hindrance to enjoyment. The audio is soft and static at times. I have to have my volume pumped up to max to hear it at an easily understood level.
Overall, I believe it is a good start of a podcast. The Household Helper is a young podcast, so the content and production issues can be chalked up to learning the podcast process. If this were a long standing podcast with the same content and production issues, I would pass this podcast right on by. Though it is a young podcast just getting it's legs all worked out, I think I will check back in a few months to see how it is progressing. It has the potential to become a regular, but it needs to offer more at a higher quality.
Name:
The Household Helper
Length:
15-20 Mins
Frequency:
Weekly
Site:
http://thehouseholdhelper.com/podcast/
Audience:
Anyone trying to live a cleaner, more organized life
Rating:
5/10
Why would the Household Helper catch my eye? My house is a mess. A huge mess. I have 4 dogs, 4 cats, and me. That would cause any domicile to look like a thermonuclear exchange between two warring pet factions took place.
I fired up the podcast hoping for some good tips to use to help keep m house in shape. Unfortunately the podcast did not live up to my hopes. It does have a nugget of good information, but I feel it is a bit too short. It could stand to be about 30 minutes in length. The Podcast could also stand a bit less repetition. It does lean toward beating a dead horse on some topics, but those are some topics worth repeating a time or two. For educational material, I would like to have a few more actionable suggestions in the podcast and a little less personal anecdotes.
In addition to the content concerns, the production concerns are also a hindrance to enjoyment. The audio is soft and static at times. I have to have my volume pumped up to max to hear it at an easily understood level.
Overall, I believe it is a good start of a podcast. The Household Helper is a young podcast, so the content and production issues can be chalked up to learning the podcast process. If this were a long standing podcast with the same content and production issues, I would pass this podcast right on by. Though it is a young podcast just getting it's legs all worked out, I think I will check back in a few months to see how it is progressing. It has the potential to become a regular, but it needs to offer more at a higher quality.
Name:
The Household Helper
Length:
15-20 Mins
Frequency:
Weekly
Site:
http://thehouseholdhelper.com/podcast/
Audience:
Anyone trying to live a cleaner, more organized life
Rating:
5/10
Are Homes Really a Good Investment?
While I was outside freeing my roof from the horrors of the heavy snow earlier this week, I got to thinking that buying a house is not a good money making investment. There are those who say that a house is a solid piece of investment for making money. I'm not so sure.
With a house comes a great deal of expenses to maintain the investment. We have to purchase equipment to maintain the house. For example, snow rakes, lawn mower, tools, lawn equipment, filters, etc. We have to put a lot of money into customizing the house for ourselves by painting rooms, getting different flooring, putting up drapes, etc. Pile on that unexpected charges like having to replace your roof (which we need to do soon, ours is not up to code), replacing failed appliances, fixing broken pipes, calling the plumber to fix the backup from said broken pipes, and the intangible investment of the time spent performing the upkeep on the house. For an investment, it is a hell of a lot of work and money required to maintain it. I believe that the money we spend in upkeep almost or completely cancels out the increase on the cost of the house.
No I am not saying I don't like having a house. I like that I get more control over where I live and I can customize it to my needs and wants. That flexibility comes with a high price though. I am sure I am making some money on the house somewhere, but there has to be better and easier investment opportunities to grow our money.
Overall, I think owning a house is mainly about having control over the place where you live. It is not normally a money making opportunity. I would compare it to a low-yield savings account. The costs of upkeep and maintenance eat into my gains for appreciation on the house thus reducing my rate of return. When we sell the house we will get some money out of the sale that we put into the house. I don't expect to see a huge profit on the sale, but I do expect some of our investment back.
With a house comes a great deal of expenses to maintain the investment. We have to purchase equipment to maintain the house. For example, snow rakes, lawn mower, tools, lawn equipment, filters, etc. We have to put a lot of money into customizing the house for ourselves by painting rooms, getting different flooring, putting up drapes, etc. Pile on that unexpected charges like having to replace your roof (which we need to do soon, ours is not up to code), replacing failed appliances, fixing broken pipes, calling the plumber to fix the backup from said broken pipes, and the intangible investment of the time spent performing the upkeep on the house. For an investment, it is a hell of a lot of work and money required to maintain it. I believe that the money we spend in upkeep almost or completely cancels out the increase on the cost of the house.
No I am not saying I don't like having a house. I like that I get more control over where I live and I can customize it to my needs and wants. That flexibility comes with a high price though. I am sure I am making some money on the house somewhere, but there has to be better and easier investment opportunities to grow our money.
Overall, I think owning a house is mainly about having control over the place where you live. It is not normally a money making opportunity. I would compare it to a low-yield savings account. The costs of upkeep and maintenance eat into my gains for appreciation on the house thus reducing my rate of return. When we sell the house we will get some money out of the sale that we put into the house. I don't expect to see a huge profit on the sale, but I do expect some of our investment back.
01 February 2008
Friday Podcast #2: Wait wait, it's the Friday Podcast!
After opening up with a nice barrage of geekieness with TWiT, this week I aim to do a podcast with a little more general appeal.
From National Public Radio, Wait Wait... don't tell me! Wait Wait is a radio news quiz show that airs on NPR. The podcast is the quiz show minus commercials in a spicy podcast sauce.
What do they quiz you on? The News! All of it. From pop news to politics to some of the weirdest news reports I have ever heard of, this show has em all. The questions are posed to the hopeful competitors in a variety of games they can play for the ultimate in news quiz prizes, the announcer's voice on your home answering machine! If you win one of the games, the announcer will create a custom outgoing voice mail greeting just for you. Impress your friends with your fancy prize with each call you dreamily screen to voice mail.
In order to win the prize, you first have to win one of the Wait Wait games. One caller could be faced with answering two out of three questions about the news for the price. Another might have to complete limericks on news topics give by the announcer. Yet another caller might have to guess which story out of three outlandish news events is the real one. Yet another prize hopeful would have to cheer on a celebrity guest as the famous person puts it all on the line to win the prize for them. The questions make you think, laugh, and in some cases wish to that it can't be true.
Above and beyond hearing people compete for the vocal talent of announcer Carl Kasell, a highlight of the show and podcast is the celebrities that come on the show.
Each and every show has a 3 person panel of celebrities that try to help the contestant, provide some hilarious commentary, and try to win points so they can be deemed panel champ for the week. They don't win any prize; they do it for the NPR news quiz glory of being deemed champion. I personally am a huge fan of panelists Tom Bodett, Paula Poundstone, and Mo Rocca.
While the panelists can be known to a few people here and there, every episode has a celebrity come on to play a news game called Not My Job. It's a two out of three question game that they play on behalf of a randomly drawn Wait Wait listener. If they win for the contestant, the celebrity gets nothing, but the listener gets Carl on their home answering machine. The folks who come on to play this game come from all over the place on the celebrity spectrum. They've had presidential candidates (including my top pick, Mike Gravel), Ted Koppel, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, Tom Hanks, James Lipton, and tons more on to play the game. It's a great chance to hear some more about big names in the news and to hear them sweat through the questions, which are tailor made to be on a topic they would know very little about to make it even better for those listening.
For my house, this is hands down our favorite podcast. I know my wife doesn't normally dig my techie podcasts much, but she loves this one. It has wide appeal and really should be a standard entry on your podcast list.
Name:
Wait Wait... don't tell me
Length:
50 mins
Frequency:
Weekly
Site:
http://www.npr.org/programs/waitwait/index.html
Audience:
All ages.
Rating:
10/10
With my two main favorites out of the gates, next week I am going to pick a random podcast from the Internet and review it for you, good or bad. I am pondering making this the format for the Friday Podcasts. One week will be a new podcast to me, the next week will be a pick of the week out of my normal podcast lineup. Also if you have any podcasts I should check out, leave me a note and I'll get em on a review!
From National Public Radio, Wait Wait... don't tell me! Wait Wait is a radio news quiz show that airs on NPR. The podcast is the quiz show minus commercials in a spicy podcast sauce.
What do they quiz you on? The News! All of it. From pop news to politics to some of the weirdest news reports I have ever heard of, this show has em all. The questions are posed to the hopeful competitors in a variety of games they can play for the ultimate in news quiz prizes, the announcer's voice on your home answering machine! If you win one of the games, the announcer will create a custom outgoing voice mail greeting just for you. Impress your friends with your fancy prize with each call you dreamily screen to voice mail.
In order to win the prize, you first have to win one of the Wait Wait games. One caller could be faced with answering two out of three questions about the news for the price. Another might have to complete limericks on news topics give by the announcer. Yet another caller might have to guess which story out of three outlandish news events is the real one. Yet another prize hopeful would have to cheer on a celebrity guest as the famous person puts it all on the line to win the prize for them. The questions make you think, laugh, and in some cases wish to
Above and beyond hearing people compete for the vocal talent of announcer Carl Kasell, a highlight of the show and podcast is the celebrities that come on the show.
Each and every show has a 3 person panel of celebrities that try to help the contestant, provide some hilarious commentary, and try to win points so they can be deemed panel champ for the week. They don't win any prize; they do it for the NPR news quiz glory of being deemed champion. I personally am a huge fan of panelists Tom Bodett, Paula Poundstone, and Mo Rocca.
While the panelists can be known to a few people here and there, every episode has a celebrity come on to play a news game called Not My Job. It's a two out of three question game that they play on behalf of a randomly drawn Wait Wait listener. If they win for the contestant, the celebrity gets nothing, but the listener gets Carl on their home answering machine. The folks who come on to play this game come from all over the place on the celebrity spectrum. They've had presidential candidates (including my top pick, Mike Gravel), Ted Koppel, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, Tom Hanks, James Lipton, and tons more on to play the game. It's a great chance to hear some more about big names in the news and to hear them sweat through the questions, which are tailor made to be on a topic they would know very little about to make it even better for those listening.
For my house, this is hands down our favorite podcast. I know my wife doesn't normally dig my techie podcasts much, but she loves this one. It has wide appeal and really should be a standard entry on your podcast list.
Name:
Wait Wait... don't tell me
Length:
50 mins
Frequency:
Weekly
Site:
http://www.npr.org/programs/waitwait/index.html
Audience:
All ages.
Rating:
10/10
With my two main favorites out of the gates, next week I am going to pick a random podcast from the Internet and review it for you, good or bad. I am pondering making this the format for the Friday Podcasts. One week will be a new podcast to me, the next week will be a pick of the week out of my normal podcast lineup. Also if you have any podcasts I should check out, leave me a note and I'll get em on a review!
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