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I'm going to a Halloween party tonight and I'm worried it's going to pour down raining the entire time. Usually at this party we spend at least some of the evening out by the bonfire pit, and I had intended to bring a cigar or two, but not if it's going to be raining.

I even bought a new guillotine to replace the one we lost in the move today, too. Then it started the torrential downpour. Bleh.

Considering there are a fucking bazillion labs in shelters, from gray-muzzled oldsters to brand new puppies, I can't fault you if all you want is a lab. They're good dogs. My mom doesn't like them because they have a tendency to jump up on her, and she's scared by that, but most excitable breeds will do that.

My only complaint about Labradors is that they have a tendency to beat the everloving shit out of your legs with their tails. It's ridiculous. I know you're happy, dog, but come on.

By the same token, though, one of the greyhounds who did my home visit was a wagger. Most greyhounds carry their tails fairly low, and wag relatively little. This guy had his straight out from his back and it was like being struck with a riding crop.

No offense taken, but suggesting that a pit bull can be made to be non-dog-aggressive simply by socializing it with other dogs from a young age is plain misinformation, which can very easily lead to someone's well-socialized pit bull ripping off another dog's face and then having to be put to sleep. It's just plain not a good idea to hold up your exception as an example of the breed - it encourages people to ignore the basic nature of the breed, which is dangerous.

I'm not sure you understand me. Pit bulls are bred to be dog aggressive. Some are more or less so, and early socialization is key for them, but a truly well-bred pit bull WILL be aggressive toward other dogs. The ideal old-style pit bull was aggressive toward other dogs and docile and obedient toward humans. Only after the introduction of molosser breeds (some "pitbulls" have been intentionally bred this way) or the influence of bad owners will a pit bull show aggression toward a human, but there is nothing technically wrong with a purebred pit who is aggressive toward other dogs.

At 10/23/09 07:45 PM, Proteas wrote: But then again, I'm more speaking from personal experience. When we hear of grey-hounds being up for adoption in my area, they're usually rescue dogs from abusive owners or home-based puppie mills. Nut case dogs, basically.

Yeah, a dog from a reputable track is nothing like that.

If you can find one, get a lab/pit mix. Great with kids, adn will scare the hell out of people who ought not be at your house.

Except that pit bulls are inherently likely to be dog aggressive, and even a mix is potentially going to have problems with other (especially same-sex) dogs, so he would never be able to take it to the dog park or anything like that without a huge risk. Pit bulls are amazing dogs, but because of their bad reputation, you have to be insanely careful with them.

At 10/23/09 07:04 PM, Proteas wrote: I find that odd, that he would be retired so young and yet not abused (especially given how harsh that life can be). Does he have any fear of humans? Skiddish, hand shy at all?

They're retired young if they don't win or if they injure themselves. Even a really good racer will be retired if he breaks a toe or a leg, because those injuries are so hard to recover from and still be able to race without pain. They might try to get a litter by him before he goes to a home, but he won't go back on the track.

A dog from a racing background is significantly less likely to be abused than your average stray at the shelter. They are high-performance athletes, and while a few bad apples in the racing industry abuse their dogs, for the most part they are treated very well. The lifestyle isn't as cushy as being a pet, but they are fed well, receive excellent veterinary care, get turned out for exercise and to relieve themselves four times a day, and almost always have someone around to tend to them.

I haven't met the dog yet, but I would be extremely surprised if he were hand-shy or skittish at all. They are handled extensively from birth onward to make training and medical care easier.

At 10/23/09 06:45 PM, Malachy wrote: So is this a shelter from rescued racing dogs, like they really dislike dog racing and think it is abusive, or is it just a post-racing place that supports dog racing?

There are both kinds of groups. I'm not sure how the anti-racing groups get by, honestly, since the racetracks aren't going to be as happy with them. The particular group I went through is "racing neutral," and a number of the individuals I worked with during the application phase had a positive outlook on racing. Even the ones who lament the fact that the dogs don't have wonderful lives at the track admit that without organized racing, the breed would probably die out.

These folks have a really close relationship with one particular track in West Virginia. They have their own kennel at the track that can house about 30 hounds, and when a dog is retired it goes to live in the rescue kennel. Life in the rescue kennel is about the same as life in the racing kennels, with the exception of the actual races. Then when this group gets an application from an eligible adopter, they call the rescue kennel and tell them the adopter's needs - in our case we requested a male, 3-5 years of age for various reasons, and a dog who is either cat-friendly or entirely non-cat-reactive. The folks who run the rescue kennel go through the dogs they have at the time and make a match.

At 10/23/09 06:26 PM, Malachy wrote: My aunt is a dog trainer who trains dogs for those professional dog shows and my grandparents used to always have an irish setter around their house (or a golden retriever) most of them were grand champion show dogs that were retired after 4 or 5 years. But that's dog shows, once they won grand championship or whatnot, they were done and sold their love goo for thousands of dollars a pop.

In racing, champion males are often kept around until they're 8 or 9 and then adopted out just like the younger retirees, and champion females are kept for breeding until they're 6 or 7 and then put up for adoption after they've had a litter or two. Occasionally a real favorite will go home with the kennel owner or someone affiliated with the sport, but with hundreds of dogs being started, raced, and retired every year, there aren't enough racing-affiliated homes for them all.

Racing puppies with good bloodlines have sold for $45,000. Show dog puppies, even from grand champion bloodlines, usually sell for less than three grand. Part of this is because it costs a fuckload to actually show a dog until his or her championship is completed, and a show dog's owner and handler don't make a huge amount of money off the dog, even when the time comes to breed them. Racing pups, on the other hand, can make their owners enormous amounts of money.

At 10/23/09 02:18 PM, morefngdbs wrote: Any way you can check & see how he did ?

I couldn't find him in the racing registry. His name may be spelled strangely or something, which might make it harder to find him, but once I have him I can pull up his info using his ear tattoo. He's probably not a terribly good racer, since he's being retired at three years of age - I believe they start racing at 18 months, and the very best racers are retired at 5 or 6 years of age. The gal from the rescue didn't mention any injuries, which would be the other reason he might be retired young.

Got a call today from the greyhound rescue. They have located a match for us, and he is the dog we will be taking home on November 7th. He's three years old, red, and ran under the name To Tell the Truth.

Oh, definitely. I would much rather get inked on than sit through something like Accounting.

My appointment is on January 31st. Not sure what time we're going to get started, but she promised me the entire day if we need it. It was her first free weekend (she gets booked up pretty far in advance), and I wanted to get as much done in one sitting as humanly possible - she had some Saturdays available, but only in hour-long slots, and I didn't want to stretch it out over a bunch of sessions.

She hasn't given me an estimate yet on how long she thinks it'll take, or how much it will be, but given the size and complexity of the piece, I'm willing to bet I'll use up a good chunk of that day. My longest session to date has been an hour and forty minutes, give or take, but it was no sweat, so I'm not too worried about a multi-hour session.

Well, and "Holy shit I had no idea what it was like to sit still for nine and a half hours while someone gouged me thousands of times with a needle."

I love it when people want the most complicated, time-consuming tattoos as their first piece ;)

Not true. My husband was in the Air Force, and some of his best friends were Seamen!

Wait.

No, I'm not going to make that sound right.

At 10/20/09 08:28 PM, Ravariel wrote: Who doesn't like Seamen?

Lesbians.

At 10/20/09 12:55 AM, fli wrote: I like this one a lot, a whole lot better than the original that I saw maybe... a few months to last year ago?

I think it was only a couple of months ago. We scrapped having him be seated, which I think made the big difference.

Your mother must be an exceptional artist.
And an accepting person... my mom beat the shit out of me when she found out my tattoo back in... 2004.

Oh, she was really upset about my first one. But now I'm up to three, and each of my sisters has at least one, and I think her opinion of them has changed. Plus, I mean, it's got to be a little bit of an ego boost to know that someone wants your work on their body forever.

At 10/19/09 08:44 PM, SevenSeize wrote: I was wondering if you ever went through with it.

I sent this same image to the artist who has done my previous work. We'll see what she says. Depending on finances, I'd like to try and get this done by early next year. This thing's going to be pretty big and pretty complicated, so it may take two sessions, and that costs bigtime - most artists charge by the hour, and while this gal still gives me the rate she had when I first started going to her, it's still not cheap.

Your mom is awesome.

Definitely. Steve and I were talking about him getting her to design something as well, maybe an Oaxacan-style cat playing a drum.

My mom sent me this today. It's her latest progress on my new tattoo.

I just watched the new episode of Venture Bros.

What the fuckity fuck fuck was that?!

Also: cocks?

Why walk when you can ride indeed.

My dad is getting back to his ex-girlfriend, who did not so much dump him as simply stop responding to any attempt at contact. He drove two hours from Richmond to see her.

I love him, but I think he's an idiot. This is the second time they've broken up.

I tried to convince him to just take a detour on his way up there, stop at our house, and not keep going. I don't think it worked.

:(

At 10/15/09 06:13 PM, Proteas wrote: I've got a suggestion, though; you could make your own pattern in paint, and then have kinkos print out a full sized poster sheet of it.

I did that one time to make custom wrapping paper for a copy of Watchmen I was giving someone - made a collage from scenes in the book and then had it printed on a large sheet. Thankfully the clerk didn't realize she was reproducing copyrighted material...

I want to find some bacon wrapping paper for a birthday present for a friend, and all I can find is this lame green paper with occasional bacon on it. I want gift wrap that looks like a wall of solid bacon!

If anyone can help me in this quest, please please do.

At 10/12/09 11:48 PM, BrianEtrius wrote: Also, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is hilarious. Now I see why they wanted RDJ as Tony Stark.

Wow! I was glad you had a gun in there. For a second, I actually thought you could do that, like it was some big gay thing.

Mah dog will not be arriving until November 7th due to a delay in scheduling his vet trip, but something else showed up today:

The reason legalizing Cuban cigars will not affect the American cigar industry is because there basically IS no American cigar industry. Most of the cigars sold in this country are produced overseas to begin with. There are a few brands of cigar that are produced in this country, but for the most part they are the cheap convenience store brands like Black & Milds. The people who buy those cigars are not going to start buying Cubans if they're made legal because they'll be just as expensive as any other imported cigar.

Now, Nicaraguan and Dominican sales may suffer somewhat, but the average American tobacco shop isn't going to suffer one bit. They'll probably even see a bit of a sales uptick because of the novelty of buying Cuban cigars legally. Eventually that will settle down and people will go back to buying cigars the way they currently do - casual smokers buy them for impulsive reasons and more serious smokers buy them based on quality. Since cigars made outside of Cuba can be just as good or better than the ones made inside Cuba, Cuban cigars will probably fall somewhere in the middle and will simply be quietly integrated into the spectrum of cigars you can buy at your local tobacconist.

In short, I stand by my original statement that you do not understand cigars.

At 10/7/09 06:18 PM, yurgenburgen wrote: If Cuban cigars were legal in the U.S., the U.S. cigar industry would crash and burn.

You obviously know absolutely nothing about cigars if you genuinely believe this.

Well, now that Obama has signed the flavored cigarette ban into law, flavored cigar sales will skyrocket, and maybe the Cigar Lobby will finally back off the Cuban embargo...

At 10/6/09 08:01 PM, Tancrisism wrote: The desire to smoke Cuban cigars is not the main reason that lifting the embargo would be desirable to both Cuba and the US. I'm sure you don't think that though.

Generally when you make a statement like this it is a good idea to make it clear who you're referring to.

Personally I think the embargo was stupid to begin with and is especially ridiculous now that we've given China favored nation trading status. Cuba isn't destroying an entire culture like China is in Tibet, and doesn't claim sovereignty where it has no right.

The people of Cuba would benefit greatly from even just lifting the travel ban, and tourist dollars going to Cuba would actually benefit American airlines, travel agencies, cruise ship lines, etc. Not to mention bettering the quality of life and medical care in Cuba, and allowing them to function more "green" by importing cars that aren't decades old. Things like that.

I just made my post about the cigars because I think it's specious to include them in an argument about lifting the embargo.

I will point out that Cuban cigars are not what they're cracked up to be. Most of the truly good Cuban cigar makers fled the country after Castro came to power and now manufacture their smokes in Nicaragua and other countries.

Not that it really matters to the debate, I just always wondered why people are so passionate about these cigars, since the only thing they really have going for them is that they're illegal.