Monday, March 24, 2008

Petfinder.com

With the insane number of dogs out there for adoption in every shape, size, color, and breed you could possibly imagine, I am a staunch advocate against buying one from a breeder. It blows my mind that people will actually choose to pay, for instance, $1000 or more for a yipping 3-lb rat dog.

I've been considering getting a[nother] dog for quite a while now, and whilst searching for something to keep me from studying last night, I stumbled upon this little guy. The wheels are in motion...

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Dedication or constipation?

Sheriff: Woman sat on boyfriend's toilet for 2 years; didn't want to leave bathroom

NESS CITY, Kan. — Authorities are considering charges in the bizarre case of a woman who sat on her boyfriend's toilet for two years--so long that her body was stuck to the seat by the time the boyfriend finally called police.

Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple said it appeared the 35-year-old Ness City woman's skin had grown around the seat. She initially refused emergency medical services but was finally convinced by responders and her boyfriend that she needed to be checked out at a hospital.

"We pried the toilet seat off with a pry bar and the seat went with her to the hospital," Whipple said. "The hospital removed it."

Whipple said investigators planned to present their report Wednesday to the county attorney, who will determine whether any charges should be filed against the woman's 36-year-old boyfriend.

"She was not glued. She was not tied. She was just physically stuck by her body," Whipple said. "It is hard to imagine. ... I still have a hard time imagining it myself."

He told investigators he brought his girlfriend food and water, and asked her every day to come out of the bathroom.

"And her reply would be, 'Maybe tomorrow,'" Whipple said. "According to him, she did not want to leave the bathroom."

The boyfriend called police on Feb. 27 to report that "there was something wrong with his girlfriend," Whipple said, adding that he never explained why it took him two years to call.

Police found the clothed woman sitting on the toilet, her sweat pants down to her mid-thigh. She was "somewhat disoriented," and her legs looked like they had atrophied, Whipple said.

"She said that she didn't need any help, that she was OK and did not want to leave," he said.

She was reported in fair condition at a hospital in Wichita, about 150 miles southeast of Ness City. Whipple said she has refused to cooperate with medical providers or law enforcement investigators.

Authorities said they did not know if she was mentally or physically disabled.

Police have declined to release the couple's names, but the house where authorities say the incident happened is listed in public records as the residence of Kory McFarren. No one answered his home phone number.

The case has been the buzz Ness City, said James Ellis, a neighbor.

"I don't think anybody can make any sense out of it," he said.

Ellis said he had known the woman since she was a child but that he had not seen her for at least six years.

He said she had a tough childhood after her mother died at a young age and apparently was usually kept inside the house as she grew up. At one time the woman worked for a long-term care facility, he said, but he did not know what kind of work she did there.

"It really doesn't surprise me," Ellis said of the bathroom incident. "What surprises me is somebody wasn't called in a bit earlier."

Podcasts



I've had an iPod for the better part of this century. It's an amazing little device and I love the hell out of it. Which is why I am flabbergasted that I just now discovered the vast universe of podcasts.

I always knew they existed, but I didn't really expect that there was anything I'd be interested in. I remember checking them out about four years ago, when they were still a budding young technological phenomenon, and all that I found were a few esoteric lectures on the state of Latin American politics and other issues about which I could not possibly care less.

But last night, while entrenched in one of my greatest procrastinatory episodes ever, I sat in front of the computer desperately scrambling for another online game or website to keep me from actually doing real work, and I ventured into the podcasts section of the iTunes store.

It was wondrous. There's something on every damn topic imaginable! You can get every daily ESPN show, NPR shows and interviews, famous speeches, deejay mixtapes, and history lectures. There are also weekly trivia podcasts. Of course, 75% of the categories I encountered consisted of such titles as "Master Slovenian in just one podcast!" but there are plenty of gems in there for anyone's downloading pleasure. A few of the... ehem, 19 that I downloaded:

- Plato: The Republic
- History of Rome
- Stones Throw Records: J-Rocc remixes
- Byzantine Rulers
- Some conversation w/ Justice Ginsburg (this should be good for my recent bouts of insomnia)
- NPR Science Friday: How Old Is the Grand Canyon?
- The "What-ifs" of 1066 (yes, the year 1066)


Looking back over this list, it actually doesn't seem as exciting as I celebrated at the beginning of this post. But fuck it, they're all free, so...

Thursday, March 6, 2008

This... is... SPECTACULAR

Play the best video game ever created, here, online, for free, nothing to download, no strings attached...

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Alcohol sometimes makes me mean

Eh, sorry about the last post... I considered deleting it altogether, but then I decided I should have to be punished by seeing it every time I visited the page, and also that it would encourage me to post more in order to knock it further and further down.

And a couple of you made some good points there. It also wouldn't make much sense to bitch and rant about not getting comments then delete a comment-inducing post.

It is good to know there are some of you out there checking in every now and then, so now I feel motivated to write more useless nonsense. Yeehaw!