CritterKeeper

As a vet, I've had to come to terms with the fact that a great many people will adopt or buy pets which they really don't know nearly as much about caring for as they should. They get a dog but don't teach them to do anything more than sit. They get a budgie and then proceed to feed them seed, or get a rabbit and feed them nothing but rabbit pellets. They get a cat and don't take them to the vet for ten years, because "they're not sick" and "they had all their shots when they were a kitten." And then it's my job to try to fix the inevitable problems, and to teach people what I can in one half-hour appointment a year about everything they need to know for the entire rest of the year. If I'm lucky, they bring in their puppy or kitten when they first get them, and I can spend an hour teaching them everything I can about how to get off on the right foot, simple things they can do from the beginning to avoid big problems later, little things they can do every day that can lead to healthy well-behaved pets. I can tell them that the best investment in time and money for a new puppy is training classes. But I can't make them follow my advice, and I certainly can't teach them everything they really need to know. Some people take the initiative to learn more on their own, but large numbers don't. I strongly suspect this is how computer people feel about all those users out there who don't do things the way they know it should be done. The truth is, there will always be a vast majority of people who don't know everything you all think everyone should know about their computers, be it through disinterest, lack of ability, or just not having the time to learn everything they should know about their car, their house, their kids, their finances, their pets, etc. For this vast majority, a computer is something that should be easy to use for what they want to use it for, and if it isn't working right, like their car they expect to take it in to someone else to fix. They will never get into the real meat of the system, and they don't need their computer to run like a Ferari, they just need a nice Corolla, fairly reliable without any tinkering under the hood and not too expensive. And since they'll never actually know what they're doing under the hood, it's just as well they not start poking and prodding the innards. I'll take care of the basics, like changing the router password off of default. And I'll hope that the guy who fixes my computer will call me when his dog is sick instead of trying a dozen home remedies he found on Google.

And Étienne of Navarre would, of course, be a black silhouette. Hmm, I have an iPad with a broken volume button and the corner of the screen cracked, and a Nook Color for which I can't find the power cord. Both work, per se....

When you're typing text, there are two rows of stuff just above where you type. The one on the far right of the top row is an A with a line under it. Click/tap that, and you get an array of colors to select from. Choose the black square in the upper left. You can either do this before you type anything, or if you realize you forgot to, you can select everything you've typed and then click/tap it.

If wizards learn new spells from seeing them cast, I wonder if a really strong wizard could learn a spell they saw an Immortal cast?

Could be worse.... Oooh, look, I got a gold star! mlooney really wants to encourage our puns! :-)

Watches both Talk and Shout missiles home in on certain Talk Radio programs*

I suspect at least some of DW's worry is about whether Grace's mind could survive being the site of an in-earnest battle between them. We don't know whether Pandora would have any compunctions about leaving Grace an emotional wreck and/or a vegetable. Dan is spelling out explicitly that Pandora can't throw the first punch, but she can throw the second, and it'll be a doozie. I'm picturing either Justin or Elliot stepping up to defend someone from Pandora (probably not knowing it's her, and likely having been deliberately goaded into action), and when that first punch is thrown, Pandora breaks into an awful grin....

Christopher Robin Hood -- Robs from the rich to give to the Pooh

Grace's counterpart is General Shade Tail. We saw him when Lord Tedd asked him whether he knew where Nioi was. Also, I believe it was stated (commentary or post or somesuch) that Nioi is part-skunk, and her name translates to "scent."

I tell clients all the time, there's no "correct" way to mourn, and different people need different space to do it in. Some people are in our office for a euthanasia one day, and a New Puppy Check-Up the next day. Others leave saying, "This is my last cat, it's just too hard losing them!" (and usually are back about a year later....) Even pet to pet for the same person, it's different every time.

*sigh* Give me some time. I finally said goodbye to Hobbes about a week ago, almost a year and a half after he was given 3-6 months to live (intestinal lymphoma). CCNU every six weeks or so got us a lot of good extra time together. I'm sure another fuzzy or two will show up at work needing a home before long! Hmm, actually, I might get to spoil kittens sooner than that, at least in short intervals -- my parents lost their last cat and dog in close succession (basically both to old age) earlier this year, and as soon as Mom gets done breaking in her new knee, they're going to be getting either a little dog or a pair of kittens. Or, I suppose, both.... Back on-topic, or at least one digression closer to it, I guess I use this iPad a lot more than I do my laptop, and my cell phone cutting out is higher risk, so I guess a new laptop is bottom of the three.

"Men In Black"

No, no, no! When I post do we honestly have no one ready to post so someone else can complain that we're confusing the polarity? *shakes head in disappointment*

Hmmm....I have a pretty old laptop, but it was quite good when I bought it. Now I'm wondering whether I should update it. I'll have to track down minimum recommended system requirements. Before the deadline? Ack. Of course, given that the power switch is sticking out by wires, what I *should* do is go buy a new laptop and retire this one. But, my iPad has a cracked screen and stuck volume button, and my average phone loses signal if it gets warmer than sitting-untouched-at-room-temperature, so I'm not quite sure what my priority should be here.

Right now, a packet of sliced turkey from Trader Joe's. Shortly before that, a couple of cinnamon crumpets, also from Trader Joe's. Before that, watermelon spears and pomegranate arils, both from Trader Joe's. Soon to be washed down with some Hanson's diet ginger ale, which is what I went into TJ's for in the first place, but needs some time in the fridge to chill properly.

When I was young, we did a science fair project on hatching chickens from eggs. Shortly before hatching, the chick will absorb the yolk into their stomach, giving them a nice meal to tide them over until they're ready to find food in the big wide world. Perhaps Uryuom eggs also have a yolk, and the belly button is the site through which the yolk was absorbed shortly before the half-squirrel form emerged from it. (See, this is why I wish my favorite TV shows would take me on as Unpaid Scientific Advisor...and if you get that reference, you know what one of them is!)

I don't think I've seen anyone saying that Vladia *must* be Greg's girlfriend, or that the beast who killed Blaike is *absolutely* the one in the Diamond origin story. What I've seen is speculation, usually done in a lighthearted manner, sometimes taken to extremes as part of the joke. We speculate, and we explore the implications of our ideas, because it's fun! (That said, there's a writing trope called "conservation of detail" which says that a writer cannot spend time on every detail of every situation, or even a small percentage of the details, therefore there is a better-than-logical chance that anything the writer takes the time to include will turn out to be important.)

Tedd/Grace/Sarah is practically already canon, so Greg/Vladia wouldn't be waiting in line for very long!

Dalek dresses have been quite popular for several years now. This dress first appeared at the first TeslaCon on the older sister, and it reappeared on younger sister last year at TeslaCon 5. They're challenged for Cutest Dalek by This one and this one (love the mixer part). Technically, I think I'm more impressed with this half dalek, half TARDIS example. Back in 2009 the hat and plunger arm at the least are very similar to your link. The Doctor Who costume I think impressed me the most was a TARDIS dress which had a clasp at the waist which the maker could unhook, and swing the front of the dress open to reveal a gorgeous TARDIS interior panel. Haven't been able to find a picture of it yet. There've been some awesome Weeping Angels, too, although those have to be performed right to really work! ETA: Found it!

*sees a hole open in the sky* *tosses in a fezz* *shouts something about the witch of the well* *reverses polarity*

"Insensate"

Pre-cooked or post-cooking weight? Hmm, I don't think that's how we spelled that one in my family, but now I'm thinking too hard about it and am not sure how we *do* spell it.... When I did a preceptorship at a small zoo, the vet's office was right next to the tiger paddock. There was even a door with a very heavy mesh door behind it, so we could open the solid door and have nothing between us and the tigers but that mesh. Sometimes we'd open the door and let Boris and Natasha watch what we were doing. Now, the zoo had a Children's Zoo section with a little farm, and a local farmer had agreed to lend the zoo a litter of piglets, and then take them back when they were getting too big, as long as we'd neuter the males while they were at the zoo. So, we anesthetized the boy piglets, with Natasha watching curiously, and removed the unwanted parts....which the vet then proceeded to offer to the tigers, tossing them through the gap under the mesh door. Natasha sniffed them, but turned up her nose and left them uneaten. At the time, we joked that maybe she was keeping kosher. So maybe it's just that cats don't like pig? ;-)

How about Myst and Riven? I don't recall having to kill anyone in either of those games!

Am I really the first person to comment on the cute bulge in the fire goo griffin's cheek just after s/he eats Greg's arm? Well, it's cute. Horrible if you think about it too much, but cute nonetheless. ;-)

Oh, look, this color morph appears to be some form of camoflage, immitating the coloration of the non-moderator posts surrounding it!