Pitbull Rescue

Got an email today from someone seeking help in saving a year old friendly female pitbull. Here's the info I received:

On Friday July 8, a female pitbull showed up at our house. She is very friendly and is about a year old. I have tried every way possible to find her family and or home with no luck. She is not micro chipped. The way she acts I think her family abandoned her. I have called and emailed many pet shelters with no luck. I would keep her myself but my chow does not like her. Please let me know if anyone wants her. I am trying to avoid having to take her to the pound.

Second email

Ok, we have ran out of options now. After making many calls to shelters with none of them even returning a call back we must take the dog we found to the pound on Thursday. Just want to remind you that she is a Pitbull that acts nothing like a pit. She is super friendly and is house trained. By the way she acts I think she would be a great family dog. Like I said before I would keep her but my chow does not like her and went after her.

If you are in the Southern California area and able to help rescue this dog, please contact Dennis immediately!
Dennis - denniss@kuci.org


UPDATE - 7/15/11 Dennis has informed me that the dog has found a new home with a loving family! Thank you everyone! :D

Charlie Sheen - Is he still winning?

So I guess Charlie Sheen finally got fired from "Two and a Half Men". Is it really a surprise? I am confused a bit though. I thought they already canceled the show, so Sheen getting fired seems almost silly at that point.

I think he was being selfish. I seriously wish the media would quit glorifying drug and alcohol addicted celebrities. There's nothing great about someone throwing their life away.

It's a real tough time for a lot of Americans and right now no one can afford to loose their job, so for Sheen to go off on a self absorbed rant about poor him not making millions of dollars without a single care for the rest of the cast or crew... just sucks. I don't think he was the entire show, but he was definitely a major part of it. Without him on the cast it wouldn't be the same. He forced the producers to take action. He gambled and everyone lost. Many on the crew might be able to find work again soon, but some likely won't. Because of his selfish act, more families are going to struggle this year. I just don't see what's so great about that.

Nijugo (25) Random Facts

Ichi. I love salmon, but I will rarely eat cooked fish any more. I no longer like the taste or texture of cooked fish. So most often I'll have sushi over cooked fish.

Ni. I sing to my cats almost every day.

San. I'm allergic to cats and anything with fur.

Yon. I used to have a great fascination of ghost stories, especially if they had been passed down through historical accounts, so much so that I did my 7th grade history report on poltergeist and turned my doll house into a "haunted house" for the correlating model. During the exhibition, the doll house caught on fire. O_O

Go. The more Naruto I watch, the more I crave ramen. :3

Roku. I really love being behind the mic and doing voice over work! It's where I'm happiest.

Nana. I'm usually clueless if a guy likes me... unless he's one of my creepy stalker "fans". They tend to make themselves known right away. 9_9

Hachi. I broke my tail bone when I was 15. Fell from the rafters in the garage onto the concrete, landed on my back. Fun times. >_<

Kyu. I like baked goods with fruit, like cinnamon raisin bread.

Ju. I began programming in Basic in 1977.

Juichi. I have never asked if an article of clothing ever made my ass look big.

Juni. I started taking dance lessons at the ridiculously young age of 3. Tap and ballet.

Jusan. My mom said if I wanted to join band in jr.high my only option was to play flute. I wanted to play drums. Mom's logic was that girls play the flute and boys play drums. The one person I knew who played flute was a boy. I felt my mom's logic was flawed. I played the flute and hated it. Now I play drums. ^_^

Juyon. Because I was born with jaundice, crossed eyed, and ate slowly, social services assumed I was retarded and almost prevented me from being adopted. I no longer have jaundice, I'm not cross eyed,and am clearly not retarded (except when it comes to guys), but I'm still a slow eater.

Jugo. I was adopted and raised as an only child, but I'm actually the second oldest of 5 siblings from my birth family.

Juroku. Growing up in Huntington Beach, most people (if it ever mattered) assumed I was Mexican. I'm not Mexican, I'm predominantly of Hawaiian heritage.

Junana. Because I'm from HB, people outside of the state often asked if (or assumed) I knew how to surf. I do not know how to surf.

Juhachi. I had a paper route for the OC Register when I was 12 years old for a year. Paper delivery 7 days a week. I was up at 3am on weekends because I was the station manager and I had to sign for the newspapers for both my route and another person's route. My route increased by almost half on Sunday's because of Sunday only delivery. Sometimes it took me 3 hours to fold papers and make all of my deliveries by bike on Sundays, unless it was raining, then it was longer. Made $80 a month on average. Blew it all on video games and candy. Ah, the rockstar life of a 12 year old!

Jukyu. I found my birth mom when I was 25. My baby sister was 5 at the time. She turned 20 last summer. @_@

Niju. When I was 9 my mom cut my hair so short I was often mistaken for a boy. ;_;

Nijuichi. I'm a much happier person when my hair is colored purple. ^_^

Nijuni. I will sometimes play "devil's advocate" even if I agree with your position because I feel it's necessary to take all sides into consideration.

Nijusan. I'm told my first steps were taken at a park across the street from Knott's Berry Farm (which is no longer there), chasing the chickens.

Nijuyon. My first article was published when I was 19. It was an interview with drummer, Gene Hoglan, of the LA speed metal band, Dark Angel.

Nijugo. I've just taught you how to count from 1 - 25 in Japanese. Unless, of course, you already knew how. -_o

Thanksgiving Feast and Memories

It's that time of year when everyone heads off to a great big family dinner, or is stuck in the kitchen cooking that great big family dinner. I am a huge fan of feasting with family and friends.

I remember every year my mom went all out. She started early in the morning cooking the turkey, making stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, veggies, appetizers, cookies, all sorts of delicious and amazing foods. I really miss her rumaki and stuffed mushrooms. She was a fantastic cook. We'd set the table, which technically only seats 6, for 8-10 people. It would also have all the trimmings, lace table cloth, fine china, good silverware, crystal stemware. We were a regular Norman Rockwell painting.

I know that I was asked to help from time to time, but I think more often than not I needed to find something else to do to keep me out of the kitchen and out of mom's way. One year, as a kid, I took a bike ride across the way around McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing). Riding back up Bolsa avenue I remember watching all the squirrels playing in the grass and pine trees. I wanted to stop and play with the squirrels (remember, I was just a kid), but knew I needed to get back home for dinner. Besides, I'm allergic to light sabers.

Each year we would alternate our Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners with my parent's best friends, Uncle Roy and Aunt Fely. It was the same amazing gathering and feast regardless of which household it was in  although, my Uncle Roy's place had a pool table and a pool, both of which I loved, so there was that.

I remember that if we were at Uncle Roy's place they would always play pinochle, or (if I was lucky) we'd play mahjong! I loved playing mahjong! I love the feel of the tiles and hearing them clack as we mixed them up on the table getting ready to "build the walls" for the next game.

If we hosted I know mom would always insist on Martini and Rossi Asti Spumante sparkling wine. I'm not sure why she thought it was so great. As a kid I would get a tiny taste, but now as an adult I don't care for it. There are other sparkling wines or champagnes I'd rather have. However on Christmas we'd also have Japanese plum wine, which I totally love. I'm sure they played pinochle at our place too. I never played and still have no idea how to play. I would sit with my mom and watch because she was really good at the game, but they played so fast it was difficult to simply figure it out and I don't think I ever asked to learn.

My mom, unfortunately, passed after her second fight with breast cancer in June of 1991. Uncle Roy also passed a few years later. Though my aunt still hosted dinners, it was not quite the same without both of them. So at some point, though I was still invited to attend, I stopped going. I have to admit, the main reason I quit attending was the heavy Christian influence of her son and his wife. Though never overt, I felt judged like an outsider, even though I grew up with them and for all intents and purposes they were my family, but I felt terribly out of place. I know that as I came out of the broom closet, her son and his side of the family were less interested in maintaining a connection to me. I never really talk to him, or his now ex-wife. I do still talk on very rare occasions to one of his daughters.

Unfortunately my father also stopped attending at some point, mostly because he has a girlfriend and thus spends every holiday with her, her children and grandchild.

It's kind of sad if you think about it. This was a family tradition between the two families that lasted about 30 years and it is no longer.

For a time I would spend holidays with my birth-mother who lived a mere 20 minutes from my home. However, she moved out of state a few years ago, so it's just me now.

On and off over the years I would host a "Orphan's Thanksgiving". It was a gathering of friends and acquaintances from various social circles who either had no family to spend the holiday with OR had family but really didn't want to be with them and still wished to celebrate. I'd get anywhere from a small selection of friends to a huge gathering. Everyone would bring delicious food to share for a potluck dinner. Last year a friend brought over Beatles Rock Band. It was great to hear everyone from the young 20something anime otakus to the older 50something pirate enthusiasts singing along. Honestly, that was pretty awesome and made me very grateful to have so many wonderful friends in my life. :-)

This year I had no desire to host anything or even attend anything today. I know, seems strange given that I'm hosting one event or another every week and I did receive several invitations for dinner with friends, but I was genuinely ok with being home alone, relaxing, and enjoying my time. I planned on cooking whatever I felt like eating. FYI, I'm really not a huge fan of the big roasted turkey. I dunno why. I'll eat the dark meat, or skin, but the big roasted turkey is just not something I crave. I'm a bigger fan of the yams, fresh bread,

and pumpkin pie. Honestly, I'd rather have chicken or pork. Last year I made Hawaiian Kalua pork (called my birth-mom for the recipe), and today I made Greek Avgolemono lemon chicken soup. I made it as a hearty soup with chunks of chicken, potato, celery, carrot, onion, fresh lemon juice, eggs, and rice. I'd never made it before, but I literally had a flash of insight on how to make it and knew last week that I was cooking it today. It turned out great! I later topped off my dinner with a vanilla ice cream Drumstick. Granted it's not pumpkin pie, but I'm still good with that. As far as I'm concerned it was the perfect meal for me today. ;-)

I'm not real fond of the heavy amount of pressure we put on ourselves to make these holidays "perfect". I find the pressure unnecessary, and prefer not to buy into it. The holidays, events, gatherings, whatever it is will likely turn out to be perfect just as they were meant to be. It just might not be Martha Stewart perfect or Hollywood perfect, but it will most likely be just perfect for you and your family. The main point is to share the time together. To be honest I'm really not sure how my mom managed it. From my perspective she did it all with an amazing amount of ease. Don't get me wrong, I do know she worked hard at it, but I never felt like she was frazzled or ridiculously stressed about it even though she really did most of the work.

So today, as I am every day, I am thankful for my mom, Nole (pronounced NO - lee), for having been the one who choose me (and paid for me! Lol!), raised me, and taught me so many things in life despite the short time I got to have with her. I love you mom! The holidays are never quite as perfect without you.





My fave pic of my mother and me
visiting her favorite animal at the zoo.
1970



New Beginnings

I think I opened this account about two and a half years ago. I actually have several online blogs for a variety of reasons, but tend to post on my MySpace profile where I have a fair following of readers. However, aside from the fact that MySpace holds very little relevance to keep my interest as a website, they've also changed their website format, making things painfully annoying for me when I make a blog post there.

So here I am today, posting on Blogger instead. This will be my new main blog. :)

There's a lot going on right now. I'm gearing up to begin teaching a new class. I'll be teaching what I've labeled an "Eclectic Pagan Studies" class. I've had a list of people waiting for me to teach a class on Wicca. However, I've been in the midst of my own studies for the last 4 years with a new coven in a secret tradition of Wicca. I will graduate come this Candlemas (Feb 2nd - Yes, that's Groundhog's Day to the non-pagan types) as an Elder High Priestess of this tradition. I'm an ordained priestess in 2 other traditions of Wicca and as my current coven's tradition takes 4 years I was not ready to teach anyone this year in that particular tradition. I also wasn't particularly enthusiastic to teach the other two traditions. Not that I don't like them, I just didn't feel a strong pull to teach only one tradition. I did, however, have a great desire to teach a variety of pagan traditions that I've incorporated into my own personal spiritual practice over the last 28 years.

Upon deeper reflection I decided to teach a pagan class that incorporated learning about a variety of pagan religions, traditions, histories, mythologies, rituals, various divination practices, energy work, healing modalities, etc. We'll be going on field trips to experience different group's rituals, lectures, exhibitions, and festivals. I have people coming in to speak on various topics of which they are more experienced in than myself. To be sure, the class will be extensive. The entire point is to expand knowledge.

I was planning to start with a small group as this class in it's topic and structure are new and different, but I now have 13 students. I have another handful of potential students waiting for the next round of classes to begin and we haven't even started this round yet.

I'm positively excited about starting these classes in January! It seems that just before I finish one journey, I'll begin a new one.

On the flip side of new beginnings, I have a less than happy new beginning. Last week I took Big Boy kitty to the vet. He'd been loosing weight. He was a ginormous, but sturdy, 30 lbs. He dropped down to 21 lbs in a rather short period of time. Turns out he'd been having a mild respiratory ailment and just recently developed diabetes. I had to give him a liquid antibiotic, eye ointment, and insulin shots every 12 hours. He didn't seem too bothered by the shot, did not care for the liquid, but absolutely did not like the eye ointment. His antibiotic and eye ointment treatment is complete and he's noticably better, but of course I need to continue on his insulin shots.

Understand, BBk doesn't camp out at the food dish, and I'm very particular about what they, he and his siblings, eat. He and his brother are both very large structured cats. His brother, Edmund, is 20 lbs. BBk's front paws are as wide as 3 of my fingers across.

The vet said that we caught his condition pretty early on and that if we get his weight down that it is possible he can naturally reverse his condition. She seemed very optimistic about it. :)

She also prescribed a food change. Low fat, high fiber Science Hills prescription diet. Stuff's not cheap! A 10 lb. bag is $28. Currently the kids all eat a turkey and oatmeal diet because I took them off of corn. It seemed to help greatly with some skin issues they were having and my allergies to them. However, the new SH food, the first ingredient is chicken-by-product, then corn. I'm not too happy about that, but I'm going to give it a try to see how they do. I've been slowly mixing the food ratio between the two from the turkey/oatmeal to the SH over the last week. In a few more days it will shift to all SH. I noticed all of the cats are now eating less. Much like humans, cats don't like diet food either. *bleah*

Tomorrow I'm going to take BBk into the vet to get his blood work done and see if the insulin has been helping or if they need to adjust the dosage. *fingers crossed*

There's also been a slew of recent drama going on all around me. To be honest, I don't feel like blasting it across the intarwebs even though it might be entertaining to those not directly involved. Hehe. In the end, it's just not worth the hassle. If people want to be silly, cause conflict, stir shit up, and create ridiculous and unnecessary drama, they can go do it elsewhere. I'm totally bored with it.

Otherwise, all is moving along, just as it should be, and the world keeps on spinning...

A Review - Avatar: The Last Airbender Movie

I saw the series a while back and was really looking forward to this film. However, after it came out I didn't hear anything good. I ended up seeing it anyway. Here's my opinion about the film.

Admittedly, I love the series, but like all films, whether from books, comics, or tv they don't quite make it as you would expect or hope.

My issues with the film are many:
1. Terrible acting. I'm not sure if it was the choice of actors or the inability of the director to give them good direction. There's a point when Aang, Sokka, and Katara end up in a prison camp with earthbenders. Aang tries to get the people motivated to rebel. The guards are just standing there while the people begin to fight, like they were waiting for an invitation. Everyone is slow to react. It's just pitiful. And that's only one example of many bad acting/direction issues I had.

2. Forced relationship dynamics. Though this was a rehash of all of season 1, they push you immediately into trying believe that there is a much stronger bond between characters than they actually develop in the film. If you've seen the series then you already know who means what to each other, but here they try to get you to believe a deep bond exists between characters that have just met. I wish they'd allowed things to develop/unfold more naturally.

3. Poor martial arts. For gosh sakes couldn't they have found kids that actually had a grasp of martial arts? It hurt me to watch them do all these stiff, choppy movements on screen. It totally wasn't a secret that there'd be martial arts in this film! You'd think they'd have spent some time with a good choreographer to teach these kids. Maybe it just wasn't in the budget?

4. Not so special effects. So where exactly did the budget get spent? The special effects were atrocious! There was one scene where Aang was in the village of the Northern Water Tribe, he's doing jumps and kicks across the screen. He's not in "Avatar state", he's still himself. It looks as though he's been imprinted upon the movie in the background, but no one bothered to change the lighting to help blend him back into the scene. It stuck out like a sore thumb and it didn't make any sense to me at all. There were a few other times where I though, "WTF?!?" but fortunately I wasn't as annoyed by this through the whole movie as I was the first three issues.

5. Color. Why were all the bad people brown? I know there was already a big issue made about this. Everyone in the Fire Nation was either Indian or Middle Eastern. While I'm totally glad they're in the film (Hollywood needs to add more color to it's films!), but why were all the "heros" white? The entire Northern tribe was white too! However the Earth tribe that was at the prison was Asian. What the heck was that about?

6. Characters. I felt that Sokka was too serious and a little too old. He wasn't funny at all. Aang was impulsive, but not really playful. I think some of the details that make these characters so endearing were missed.

7. Can you say "franchise"? I guess M. Night Shyamalan assumed that no matter how crappy his version there'd be a second film. There's no ending. I heard after the fact that people knew about it. It's supposed to be a "cliffhanger" type ending, so it's not really an ending, but I didn't think it was much of a cliffhanger anyway. It ends right where season 1 ends.

8. The end, finally! I'm the kind that stays through all the credits. I like to read to see who did what. I have friends that work in various aspects of the industry and I love finding their names in the credits or just reading the unusual names you find. I did not stay for the credits. I just wanted it to end. I felt like it went on and on and I was expecting it to end on more than one occasion, so when it finally did I was ready to get the hell out of the theatre.

Overall the film feels rushed and messy. I feel M. Night Shyamalan doesn't pay enough attention to the whole film and how it comes together, nor to some of the details that could make a film like this shine.

So to sum it all up:

DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY!

RSVP

I deal with RSVPs on a regular basis. Between my multiple Meetup groups (I'm in 21 groups total including the 7 I organize), party and ritual inviations, I have to respond to an average of 7 events a week. No, I'm really not kidding about that.

Over the years I have found that most people assume RSVP means to respond only if you are attending. I'd like to take a moment to inform folks, that is not exactly true.

"Répondez s'il vous plaît", a French phrase that translates to "please respond" or "respond if you'd please". In Western and European culture, it is often considered rude to not reply to an RSVP request whether confirming attendance or declining.

I have seen, on rare occasion, invitations that ask invitees to RSVP only if they plan to attend. However, in 99% of the invitations I send or receive that is not the case.

On occasion I have discovered that people will wait to respond at all because they are uncertain if they are able to attend the event. I can understand this, especially if there is only a Yes or No response. However, if there is a Maybe option, perhaps its best to respond with that and then change your response accordingly when you have a more firm idea regarding your attendance.

In some cases, such as Meetup events, it is also an option to change your RSVP, as much as you like, prior to the event. If you were a Yes, but discover you are unable to attend, you can change to a No. However, this may be different with an event such as a wedding where the head count is very necessary as the bride and groom have to pay for each person. So to change your response at the last minute can be costly for them.

This can also be a problem if the event, such as on Meetup.com, has a limit to the total amount of attendees. Often this is due to the venue accommodations. When a person RSVPs with a Yes, but they aren't able to attend and doesn't change their response or notify the organizer of the change, this takes away that available seat for someone who would have been able to attend the event. I have heard many Meetup organizers who create these type of events (often at restaurants with limited seating) complain about this type of rude behavior. I don't blame the organizer for being upset.

Currently I have an event listed through Evite.com. An unfortunate issue with this web invitation service is that sometimes the sent invitation gets lost in the receivers spam filter. I'm not sure why this happens, but it does. So when individuals receive the invitation, but do not click on the invitation link I am never certain if they ever received the invitation. When they do click on the link I am able to see that they did receive the invite and looked at it. When this happens, but they still don't respond with a Yes or No I am less inclined to be concerned about it. I figure they know about the event, but just didn't care enough to respond. I feel less inclined to send further emails or make phone calls.

If they have not clicked on the link and looked at the Evite, my concern is that they never received the information at all and might have liked to have attended the event if they had known, so I go that extra mile to make sure they're aware.

So if you receive an invitation to an event with an RSVP request on it, please take the time to respond with something. :)