Fish Sticks and Green Jello

Perry the cute little pooch in my last entry could use some sponsors. I gave into tempation and called about him today but the foster mom wouldn't let me come see him unless I was willing to take him right there and then. I guess I don't blame her. The unfortunate part was that after hearing his story I probably now more than ever can't take him. The probability of him going blind is high and he'll need the eye medication for the rest of his life. The only way to get around the eye medication is to pay for a surgicial procedure that costs $3K. That's a whole lotta dough.

I wish I had that kind of money let me tell ya. I thought about putting a tip jar out at work to raise it. Considering I work at Microsoft there are a few loaded folks there. Maybe I could prey on some animal lovers sympathy til I raised 3 thousand dollars to pay for Perry's eye surgery. Hey I can live my little fantasy can't I?? Anyway, you can do your part and donate to help care for Perry or another South Bay Purebred Rescue Dog.

Just go to this link:
http://www.sbprdogs.org/dog_photo_gallery.htm
Then scroll down to sweet little Perry's section, click on the PAYPAL link and donate some money for his care. Be Perry's Sponsor Today!! OR you could paypal me some dough and I'll go adopt him and get him eye surgery. Just paypal me! :) It's worth a shot, right?

Every year I go through a period of wanting a dog. I generally see someone's dog and start longing for one of my own to follow me everywhere I go. I have a cat but she definitely does her own thing. I love her a lot though. She's pretty smart for a cat and I'm not just saying that. I mean I'm not a cat lover AT ALL. But for some reason Olivia really warms my cold dark heart. :)

What's really fueling this desire to get a dog is that for the past two plus years I've worked at a place where you can bring your pets to work. Year before last I was not in a stable place to have a dog. I lived in a small apartment in Oakland which was about an hour and a half commute from work. I was out and about WAY too much to devote any time to a dog. Bringing a cat to work is no fun. You can't take them outside to poop and there are way too many dogs around to make that a safe situation. Cats are much more comfy in their home environment. Mine tends to not like to be taken anywhere ever.

Anyway today after playing with a co-worker's dog (tug of war over a chew toy) and seeing another co-worker's dog during a meeting it really tipped me over the obsessive "must get a dog" edge again. Last time it went on for a few months. Driving my boyfriend insane with "I want a pug! I want a pug! I want a pug!". Lately it's been "I want a norwich terrier!". I tend to glom on to whatever cute small dog I see. The real truth of the matter is that I can't get a dog like a pug (sheds too much, too many health conditions) and I probably can't get a terrier (like to hunt cats... BAAADD).

So I went and looked at all the dog shelter websites I have bookmarked knowing that the best dog I'll probably ever find may be a mutt and will most deifnitely be an adult dog versus having to devote time to housebreaking and all kinds of other training you have to do for a puppy. I saw two excellent dogs today though. I wanted to run right out and get them! One's a West Highland White Terrier. Very pretty, very cute, nice and young, pure bred and sociable (has a broken leg but on the mend - Terrier does equal bad with cats as stated above). The other was a shih tzu/schnauzer/poodle mix. I love this dog! LOVED IT! Wanted to bring him home NOW! Only downside? DRY EYE! What the heck? May be permanent must be treated often with eye ointment. Great. That just sucks. Now I'm going to long for this dog I can probably never have.



Of course I'm not mentioning the other downsides which are a) I'm going to Europe in August and will be gone for two weeks and b) my landlord says no dogs even though I have a large garden private patio area, just perfect for a small dog. I suspect that my neighbors have a dog though or have one part time at least. And the neighbors over the fence have two loud yappy dogs that could mask any barking my own dog would do. Or I could at least blame them for any noise. PLUS the landlords don't live onsite so that's a bonus. Anyways I might just go see "Perry" to see if he's worth all the fuss. The eye thing might not be as bad as it could be and could potentially go away. If he's around when I get back from Europe then maybe it was meant to be? No no no, gotta stop right here! No way do I have the type of lifestyle where I can take on a special needs dog. Unfortunate, but true.

I'd like to thank Jenn for sending me this great link to the "Belief-O-Matic". She sent that in response to my last posting. She came out 100% Secular Humanism and surprise surprise so did I! Here's a link to the quiz so you can take it for yourselves:
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/76/story_7665_1.html.

Here's the definition of Secular Humanism:

What Secular Humanists Believe

Belief in Deity
Not considered important. Most Humanists are atheists or agnostics.

• Incarnations
Same as above.

• Origin of Universe and Life
The scientific method is most respected as the means for revealing the mysteries of the origins of the universe and life.

• After Death
An afterlife or spiritual existence after death is not recognized.

• Why Evil?
No concept of “evil.” Reasons for wrongdoing are explored through scientific methods, e.g. through study of sociology, psychology, criminology.

• Salvation
No concept of afterlife or spiritual liberation or salvation. Realizing ones personal potential and working for the betterment of humanity through ethical consciousness and social works are considered paramount, but from a naturalistic rather than supernatural standpoint.

• Undeserved Suffering
No spiritual reasons but rather a matter of human vulnerability to misfortune, illness, and victimization.

• Contemporary Issues
The American Humanist Association endorses elective abortion. Other contemporary views include working for equality for homosexuals, gender equality, a secular approach to divorce and remarriage, working to end poverty, promoting peace and nonviolence, and environmental protection.


I took the quiz again with what I used to believe in and I got "Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestant". That resulted from my former belief that there was a God and some sort of afterlife but that everything else was due to human effort and not via religious means. Whacky.

I'm still not sure that I feel better about dying being the END. But I know I sure do treasure life a whole lot more than I already did. And if this is the only life we get then I hope that I live it to its fullest and I don't grow old with regrets of what could have been....

I was brought up with a religious background. My dad's a Christian and so are my grandparents et al. I went to Christian missionary schools for 4 years of grade school and I attended two years of Christian high school. So I was brought up with the concept of heaven and hell and what you need to do to go to the better of the two.

Last night for some bizzare reason I had a lot of trouble sleeping and I started to think about what really happens when you die. I came to the conclusion that nothing happens when you die. You just die. I mean why does there have to be a lot of hocus pocus or faith or what have you in the concept of death? This is just to make us feel better about dying! Now this isn't a new concept to me. I've thought this before, but for some reason last night it really hit home. I got a mini panic attack over the whole thing and thought what a complete waste it is to just die and turn to dust and lose everything that makes you a unique person and all the things that you put into being you. But then I also thought what makes us humans so special that we get an afterlife? What happens when ants die? Do they go to ant heaven or just turn to dust? What's the deal there??

I put in the search term "What happens when you die" into Google tonight and came up with many religious websites and a few wills and trusts sites. I did come across this person's blog though:
http://extremesloth.com/blog/archives/000150.shtml.
What this guy wrote on his site sums up a lot of what folks I know think. Well except for the eternal dream part.. but in a nutshell... Anyway, the popular opinion is that religion is what helps people get through the day and not be afraid to die when their time comes. (Religion also helps keep people moral and good) Otherwise you've got people like me panicking about turning to dust. Or as I've also heard you could be of the mind set that once you're dead you don't know any differently so there's nothing to worry about or miss or be sad about so who cares about dying. No worries there.

What do you think?

Sorry I was back east all last week in Virginia visiting my dad and stepmom. This week has been pretty busy at work so I haven't had much time to write. I did want to drop an entry here to let folks know that I'm selling stuff on ebay again. Take a look! My ebay user id is Violet02. I'll be adding more items next week but this is just to get started. I do want to highlight the fact that I'm selling two cameras. An underwater camera and a canon s330 digital camera. Both primo items! So if you're interested come on by and bid!