Every year my friends and I have a small gathering / present exchange / feast we lovingly call Fake Xmas. Every year once Fake Xmas is over, Xmas seems over.
Still, I suppose it’s good and proper to celebrate real Xmas, too. And as I’m nothing if not good and proper (ha!) and I’m currently back home in NJ celebrating real Xmas, I figured I’d wish you all a merry happy solsticemas as well.
So, do or do not celebrate whatever you choose, but here’s hoping your day is a good one.
We had to put Basil down today. By “we” I mean, literally, me.
He hadn’t been doing too well for a few days now (falling down and not being able to get back up, that sort of thing), but this morning he was pretty bad- laying down and twitching without any interest in food or anything. Since he was two and a half years old and rats don’t live forever I wasn’t too surprised, and expected him to pass away during the day.
When I got back from work I saw that his condition had worsened; now he was also flipping (Crumb also did this before he died, and the vets at that time told us it was likely a sign of brain damage) and periodically chewing at his stomach, where he seemed to have recently opened a large gash in himself. Clearly, he was in discomfort and something needed to be done.
Rob called his mother in law, who happens to be one of the premier vets in the world, and asked her for her recommendation. Our options were: (1) call in to the emergency vet at Cornell and have him put down; (2) wait until the morning, when she would do it; (3) do it ourselves.
We chose three as the most reasonable option, and followed the suggested method of a large tupperware container with Basil on one side and some dry ice on the other, allowing CO2 buildup to do the trick.
It was one of the most surreal and disturbing things I have ever had to do.
For some weird reason, almost nobody came to work today. It snowed last night, but only a few inches and this is Ithaca, so people should be well used to that by now.
It probably says a lot about me that on days like this I wonder if the zombie apocalypse has started and I’m missing it. Of course, I’d surely find out later (with my luck, I’d leave work only to be munched on my way out the door).
In quasi-related news, studded snow tires: 4/~$850. Yep. Life is a money-sucking misery.
As you probably already know if you pay any attention to this sort of thing at all, Facebook has started tracking your online habits (shopping, etc.) and reporting them to your friends (among other things), unless you opt-out of each site specifically (and even then not really).
Some people are understandably annoyed by this. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, they are still using Facebook- why? After a brief flirtation with facebook I eventually realized it was good for nothing more than silly vampire games and annoying quizes. In fact, the only redeeming quality of the whole thing is that it is significantly less terrible than MySpace, which is certainly not saying much (and as I’m stuck using MySpace anyway, the point is moot).
So, I’ve deactivated my Facebook account, with the following message:
I am protesting Facebook’s use of spyware.
http://consumerist.com/consumer/online-privacy/facebooks-beacon-even-sneakier-than-originally-thought-329041.php
If this sort of thing bothers you, why don’t you do the same?
