Is there no way we can get a holiday without some health nanny do-gooder trying to stick his nose into it to push his pet agenda?

I couldn’t escape ads for Heart One Texas (warning: SLOW POS Flash site with unbidden sound and no way to turn it off) yesterday on either the radio or TV.  They’re pushing people to give heart check-up “gift” cards for Father’s Day this year.  The radio commercial is particularly obnoxious, as it has some guy going on about how Dads don’t always think things through.  Lovely.  More of the men as bumbling boobs theme.

I won’t deny that heart disease is a serious problem.  But these people don’t understand that not every holiday or special occasion is intended as an opportunity to push their agenda.  They get so caught up in the “seriousness of the problem” (You fool!  Don’t you understand!  It’s an epidemic!  We’ve got to do something!) that they don’t understand when to STFU and leave people the hell alone.

What ever happened to the tradition of ugly ties and Old Spice?  Won’t someone think of all the poor employees of the tie-makers?  And without Father’s Day, who would keep Old Spice in business?

One of the upsides to Netflix is that you can take a flyer on a movie without worrying that you’ve wasted anything besides a little time.  Last year, for reasons only known to it, the Netflix recommendation engine popped up a Korean movie called Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter … and Spring.  I decided to give it a try and was pleasantly surprised (but beware, though, that it isn’t for kids). 

Somehow, one thing led to another, and I ended up watching a number of Asian movies; some from Taiwan, but mostly South Korean.  If nothing else it’s a great diversion from the standard Hollywood mess.  Eventually, I ended up with Oldboy (which I can’t describe easily), and I suppose that it (along with a few horror titles) landed me a recommendation for Spider Forest. 

This movie is decidely non-linear and I couldn’t help but think of Mullholland Drive after I’d finished it.  I’m still not sure whether it was good or not, as the whole thing was rather confusing.  I think one of the IMDB commenters summed it up best: “I’m sure that i’ll praise this movie AFTER i understand it..”

Anyhow, should you be looking for something different, consider looking into some of the Asian movies on Netflix.  Provided, of course, that you don’t mind reading subtitles*.

* Please don’t tell me if you’re one of those heathens who likes dubbed movies.    There’s nothing that ruins the emotion of the original more than dubbing.  Just for comparison one day I tried watching the same scene from Brotherhood of the Wolf (Le Pacte des loups) with dubbing and then again with subtitles.  The entire tenor of the scene changed (for the worse) with the dub. 

A recent case of evil animal cruelty got me to thinking a little about a somewhat related topic: unwanted animals.

Growing up in a rural area of East Texas, we frequently would have dogs or cats show up at our house after their owners had dumped them nearby.  Some people have the mistaken idea that releasing an animal in the country is somehow better for them than taking them to a shelter or otherwise taking responsibility for them.  In case anyone is still operating under this delusion, I’d like to give a few details of the reality of life for an abandoned animal in the country.  They don’t end up living a life of luxury with Farmer Brown or Rancher Joe.  On rare occasions, an animal may make its way into someone’s home (like the old lady that used to live across the road who named her dog “Donor,” hence the title of this post, or my own dog, Boots.).  But this is the exception, since none of us have room for all the animals that show up.  Generally, it’s a nasty, brutish, and all too often, short, life.

The first hazard to Fluffy, after being dropped, terrified, on the road, is the road itself, especially the nearby highway.  We would often see dead cats and dogs along the road that were unfamiliar to us.  When you consider an animal that has lived inside or in someone’s yard all its life, it’s easy to see why it wouldn’t understand the dangers of roads.

Provided that Fluffy manages to avoid being pancaked on the highway, he will likely show up at someone’s nearby house.  However, people need to know that there is no organized animal control that people in the country can call to remove stray animals.  To get an idea of the problem, take a look at this post from Petville.com (in fact, this is only a couple of miles up the road from where I grew up).  Generally, there will be a county humane society, but the animal has to be caught and taken to them.  People out in the country often have to take care of things themselves, and given the lack of availability of animal control, this is no exception.  We were the nice ones in the area, in that we’d generally just try to run stray animals off the property.  My mother’s dog was good at this, as she was genially territorial (i.e. she could be persuaded, on occasion, to put up with another dog).  Any animals that tried to stick around despite my mother’s dog were subject to being shot at with a BB-gun (only one or two pumps, though, as the intent was to scare them away, rather than to cause injuries). 

However, our neighbors were not so kind.  Any stray dogs found on their property were subject to being shot.  This was mostly defensive, since dogs (especially hungry, desperate ones) will often kill chickens and ducks.  In the country, any time livestock is subject to predation, you can expect the landowner to take decisive action against the predator.  They don’t have time to fuss around with traps or drive 30 miles to take the animal to the humane society (or for that matter to take the risk that the animal they’re trying to catch is rabid).

So, if Fluffy survived the highway, and learned to stay away from livestock, and avoided getting shot (and buried behind a barn somewhere), he’s home free, right?

Not exactly.  Out there in East Texas we have wolves, coyotes, bobcats, rattle snakes, copperheads, and water moccasins (cottonmouth).  I’ve personally seen rattlers (nearly stepped on one) and have had to shoot water moccasins.  I’ve heard the wolves at night.  Sometimes they would come right up to our front porch.  Other times we’d hear them and discover they’d been into the watermelons the next morning.  There is also rumored to be an occasional cougar (or some other similar big cat).  I haven’t seen it, but I’ve heard something screaming at night that’s hard to describe, but that I’ve been told is their call.  Oh, yeah, don’t forget the occasional rabid skunk or raccoon.  If Fluffy is lucky enough to avoid being attacked and/or eaten, there’s always rabies…  And if I see a rabid animal, it’s getting shot.  Period.  End of discussion. 

It seems to me that someone who truly cared about little Fluffy wouldn’t have abandoned him in the country.  It’s a fairly simple matter to just go ahead and take him to the shelter or find someone else to take him.  There’s no shame in admitting that you can’t care for him, or that you can’t stand him chewing on the furniture anymore.  In fact, that’s the adult way:  you admit your responsibility and take action to see that the animal is properly cared for.  Dumping an animal in the country is for pathetic cowards.

I was listening to my scanner last night as I was cleaning one of my pistols.  The KPD tactical channel had a lot of chatter which is a bit unusual.  After a bit I was able to figure out that they were watching somebody who kept going past the Johnson Road Park.  When he finally went into the park I heard them give the order to take him down, and then there was a message of “one in custody.” 

I was a bit curious as to what was going on, but I figured that there would be an article in the paper or a press release in a day or two.  My initial suspicion was some kind of drug bust or they were tailing a wanted fugitive.  It actually turned out to be the takedown of a prospective pedophile (PDF). 

On 04-20-2006 Keller Police arrested a 21 year-old male for on-line solicitation of a minor for sex. The case was opened on 04-10-2006 based on information received by a school resource officer. The officer met with a counselor about a possible Internet predator who had contacted two 13 year-old female students. Both students reported contact through their My Space accounts with a 21 year-old male who called himself Joe (not the offender’s true name). Joe had taken the on-line chats to a level where he wanted to set up a meeting with the girls. The victims had informed Joe that they were 13 years old and he still wanted to meet them. They became fearful for their safety at this point. After speaking with the students, the officer reviewed the My Space account of one of the victims and of the male. The male’s My Space account had other young female contacts listed on it. After gathering as much information as possible, the officer turned the investigation over to the Youth Services section of the Keller Police Department.

Detective Tom Barnett conducted interviews with the victims and their parents. After reviewing the account conversations he discovered several conversations that were sexual in nature. Detective Barnett was able to assume both of the victim’s identities on the computer. The male arranged to meet both girls on different dates for the purposes of sexual contact. The first meeting was set for 04-20-2006 at 10:30 pm at Johnson Road Park in Keller. The second was to occur on 04-21-2006. The male was given a cell phone number to call when he was on the way to the meeting.

On 04-20-2006 a female officer was given the cell phone and was to assume the 13 year old’s identity when he called. The male arrived at the park at 10:47 pm but did not enter the parking lot. He contacted the cell phone several times in an attempt lure the victim out of the park and into the street. After several minutes he finally entered the park area and made contact with the female officer. Officers immediately approached and made an arrest. The male, a 21year old Lewisville resident, was transported to the Keller Municipal Jail and booked in. He remains in custody and is awaiting arraignment on two charges of solicitation of a minor for sex (under 14).

Officers obtained a warrant and conducted a search of the male’s residence. Officers seized four computers and other information that indicates a possibility of several other underage victims.  The information obtained includes names, ages, addresses, and phone numbers of possible victims. Those leads are being followed up on at this time.

‘Unfortunately, people with illegal intentions can utilize the Internet for the wrong reasons.  We are prepared to aggressively investigate and arrest people who attempt to prey on victims in Keller”, said Chief Mark Hafner.

The Keller Police Department would like to warn parents and guardians that they should always monitor their children’s activities on the computer.  This can be easily accomplished with keystroke software.  Any parent/guardian who would like more information about how to monitor Internet activity may contact Detective Tom Barnett at tbarnett-at-kellerpd.com or 817-743-4532.

On-line Solicitation of a minor for sex (under 14) is a second-degree felony punishable by 2 to 20 years in prison and/or a fine not to exceed $10,000. The victims identities are being withheld due to the age and the arrested person will not be identified until arraignment later this date.

We’ve been hearing more and more in the media about MySpace being a playground for child predators, but I usually tend to dismiss the news reports as fear-mongering.  I suppose the truth is somewhere in between.  And it doesn’t really matter what site it is, children shouldn’t be unsupervised online.  It’s good that the girls reported it to someone, but it’s a bit disheartening that the parents weren’t aware (or at least that they weren’t the ones to bring it to the police, should they have been aware).

On the other side of the coin, by giving unsupervised children a place to speak honestly, perhaps MySpace can also provide an “early warning” for kids who are on the edge of exploding (hat tip to Dr. Helen).

On a semi-related note, I’d love to see MySpace do a better job of explaining to users that hotlinking is bad.  Not that a wanna-be thug would likely care.

I always hate the transition from standard time to daylight time.  We talk about it as if it was as simple as just losing an hour of sleep, but it’s probably more complicated than that.  Or maybe it’s just me…  I have a pretty good internal clock.  Even without a watch, I usually know the time to within 10 or 15 minutes.  But I spent most of the day yesterday feeling like I was late because my internal clock was still set for standard time (I kept saying “It’s later than you think” to myself…).

I couldn’t help but notice that this morning’s traffic reports were a litany of accidents and backups.  Perhaps it was just coincidence, but my suspicion is that there were a lot of sleepy drivers out there (or maybe drivers who were just a bit “out of sorts”). 

The other thing that’s fun is working with people who don’t observe DST.  I’ve got a regular Monday afternoon meeting called by someone in Tucson.  This week she had to manually reschedule the meeting.  It seems that our calendering tool doesn’t understand how to handle these things.  But she kept it at 2:00pm for her, which meant that it moved to an hour later for the rest of us (i.e. it moved from 3:00pm-4:00pm to 4:00pm-5:00pm for me).

I just wish we’d pick a time and stick with it (even if it means dealing with early dark in winter), rather than dragging the whole country back and forth twice a year.

I think I’m coming down with the monkey-bird flu or something.  It’s like someone sandblasted the back of my throat.  What’s weird is that it just came on suddenly over the past hour or so.  Oh well, that’s what I get for going out among the unwashed over the weekend.

I think I’ll avoid this in future by becoming a recluse.  There’s not much you can’t have delivered via online order these days.  I can just have everything left at my doorstep and hit it with disinfectant before bringing it in…

So why is it now that banks have eliminated “float” with electronic check clearing that they still get to hold a check that you deposit for “five to seven days?”

Seems a bit one-sided to me.

Why do cellphone batteries choose 4:00am to die?

The scene played out something like this:

Phone:  <feep>

Me: Wha?  Begins attempting to determine if there was a noise and what it was.  Not hearing anything, rolls over and attempts to return to sleep.

Phone:  <feep>

Me: WTF?  What is that?  Sits up and scans the area.  Sees nothing and falls back to pillow.

Phone:  <feep>

Me:  Damn phone.  Gets up and turns phone off.  Momentarily surprised by annoying loud shutdown “tune”.  Return to bed.  Toss, turn, repeat.  Get up at 5:15 after not getting any more sleep.

Lesson learned:  turn off damn phone at night.

I guess I’m spoiling their attempt at humor, but sometimes there are valuable lessons in the “Weird News” section of the paper.

Paul Kuschel would have been better off naked – like many of the folks at Sunnier Palms Nudist Park. Instead, he was wearing a pair of nylon shorts Sunday when a generator he was working on backfired and sprayed him with starter fluid, setting him ablaze.

“I would have been better off wearing nothing on at all,” Kuschel told Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers. The fire seared his shorts to his backside.

“It’s a good thing I wasn’t wearing a shirt,” he said.

Kuschel, 43, suffered second-degree and third-degree burns.

There’s a reason firefighters’ duty uniforms are cotton or a treated cotton-blend, rather than 100% nylon or polyester.  Those synthetic fibers melt when they burn, which causes them to fuse to your skin, making for a worse burn.

It looks like Mother Nature’s calendar got flipped to July instead of March today:

Oh well… still have to go walk the dog.  Neither snow, nor ice, nor cold, nor heat stays this canine from her appointed rounds (or from bugging me to take her on them).