Oxymoron of the day.

Today's oxymoron:

Unitarian fundamentalist.

Undecided Voters

It just clicked for me today. There really is no excuse for undecided voters at this point in the campaign! If you haven't figured out the issues yet, go to a couple of candidate matcher sites. They ask you to indicate your position on key issues and how important those issues are to you. Then you can find out which candidate is the best match for you. Granted, no one will be perfect.

If you're not interested in the issues, then maybe voting just isn't for you. Stay home!

No, the 19th century immigrants did not immediately learn English.

And here's an article about a study that proves it!

Ferret Update: Loki is a butt.

Chaos, is still with us, despite looking increasingly like Gollum from the Lord of the Rings. Loki is strong as ever. I also have a new 5 year old boy, named Enkidu. He's soft as a bunny, much softer fur than other ferrets I've had.

However, there's a problem. Loki is a butt. He's been incredibly aggressive lately towards both my feet and the other ferrets. I don't think that he's trying to hurt anyone; he never draws blood. However, I'm getting really sick of ferret teeth marks on the tops of my feet and heels - I'm allergic to them and they burn! I've tried spraying my feet with bitter apple, but he bites anyway. I've been scruffing him and carrying him around scruffed for a minute or so afterwards, which seems to help, but not until he's bitten and been scruffed a couple of times.

Loki is current on his melatonin implant, but he's still way too easily excitable. It's gotten to the point that he needs to stay in the cage when I have company over, which was never the case before. He also has been going after Chaos more than he used to, and Chaos is just too old for that! Loki and Enkidu fight all the time, but no one draws blood and they are both healthy, so I'm not as concerned about that combination.

Loki is about 4. Is it likely that his behavior would get better if I had his adrenal tumor surgically removed? The melatonin implants are working fine on his fur, but his behavior is really getting out of hand.

Alternately, are there any training sorts of things that you would recommend?

Thanks for any advice anyone might have!

Frosted Sugar Cookies!

These are my weakness. However, it was a box of these cookies that let me meet my former neighbor (and current friend) James. Basically, I bought a package of them, but knew that I shouldn't eat them all myself, so I knocked on his door and offered him the rest.

At the Pharmacy

I get Chaos' Prednisolone prescription filled at the local Walgreens, which is convenient, because I can get it filled when I am out of town as well.

Anyway, they have a rule that the pharmacist (as opposed to the lab tech or other cashier types) has to speak with the person picking up each prescription to make sure that they don't have any questions. I find this pretty hilarious, since I've yet to meet the Walgreens pharmacist who knows anything about ferrets and their medicational issues.

So, usually the conversation goes something like this:

Pharmacist: Do you have any questions?

Me: Do you know anything about ferrets?

Pharmacist: Nope.

Me: Then no, no questions.

It does sometimes get a bit annoying when I'm in a hurry and still need to wait for the pharmacist to become available to have that inspiring exchange.

*shrugs*

Enkidu is top ferret

I just observed Enkidu drive Loki out of his own little bed and into the litter box (the only other place to be on that level of the cage). Loki cautiously climbed up to the next level after having backed off a couple of times because of Enkidu's hissing. So, it would seem that the hierarchy is thus:

Enkidu
Loki
Chaos.

Chaos' Health

Well, today at the vet, we determined that Chaos' blood sugar level was fine, but he was still shaking. His lymph nodes are huge. The vet thinks that it's probably the lymphoma that's causing the shakes at this point. Poor little guy. He's also down 2 ounces in weight.

He might not live forever, but he's already outlived everyone's expectations.

Bladder Infections; not just for humans.

Enkidu has got himself a bladder infection. I get to crush up pills into powder, mix them with water and force feed him with a syringe for the next 10 days. Lucky me!

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Loki pounced on Enkidu in the vet's waiting room, so Enkidu peed all over the floor. The receptionist was about to clean it up, but I told her that the vet might need the sample. So, she picked it up in a syringe and brought it to the vet, who told her to give it to a vet tech. The vet tech looked at this tiny amount of urine in this tiny syringe, as if to say 'That's all? No more? What am I supposed to do with that?' It really couldn't have been more than a milliliter. Then the vet explained that it was from a ferret and off of the floor and the tech went and did whatever they do with ferret urine samples. It was rather funny to watch.

Name that Ferret!

I picked up a 5 year old ferret at a shelter in the Twin Cities. He spent most of yesterday evening hissing at the other ferrets. But, they haven't damaged each other, so I think they'll get used to each other over time. The ferret shelter lady in the area here generally says "no blood, no foul". *shrugs*

Anyway, the new guy needs a name! His new "brothers" are Chaos and Loki. Any suggestions? The new guy has common ferret markings, but instead of being dark brown, his guard hair is black.


Update: I like "Enkidu". Thanks, Teresa!

Ferrets in a Bag and the Nap at the End of the Tunnel

Yep...pretty much just random ferret photos.

Popcorn and Butterscotch

In a moment of weakness, I bought butterscotch chips at the grocery store. They are unbelievably sweet and really never should have come into my kitchen. However, I have come to the conclusion that butterscotch and salted butter popcorn should be rather tasty. If I weren't about to go to bed right now, I would test this theory, but since I am off to bed, it would be wise to avoid consuming anything else at this point in time.

Update: Confirmed.

Silly Loki!

Yeah...I guess the bed isn't really necessary...

Loki's determined...

Loki: I can fit, honest! I just have to push a little harder!

Magic Poo?

I saw Chaos peeing directly in front of the litterbox, so of course, I had to clean that up. I also had to clean him up, because his feet slid out from under him while he was urinating and he got messy too. When I came back from cleaning him to clean up the urine, I saw a perfectly formed poo on the edge of the table closest to the litter pan - fortunately, there was no urine on the table. And thank goodness for sanitizing wipes!

This is a bit of a mystery, since to date, neither ferret has managed to get up onto the table. I'm also pretty sure that I would have noticed if Chaos had pooed when I picked him up to wash him off and briefly passed him over the table on the way out of the corner. So, that leaves two possibilities: Either Loki has figured out how to get onto the table or the poo magically appeared.

Generally, I am disinclined to believe in magic poo. On the other hand, there are some plastic grocery bags on the table, a bowl of grapes, various bits of mail and my laptop. None of these seem to have been disturbed, which makes it difficult to believe that Loki climbed up onto the table, pooed and then dropped back onto the floor again. Also, he would have either had to have done it during the minute that I was out of the room cleaning up Chaos or while I was not more than 10 feet away, without me noticing.

Very strange.

Deja Vu

I was listening to Public Radio this morning and heard the plug for the upcoming Talk of the Nation (at least I think that's what it was...I was rushing to get out the door).

Paraphrasing, the snippet was something like this:

Obama says that he'll win the election.

McCain says that he'll become president.

Who will win? How will he do it?

I was struck by the possibility of both of them achieving those goals. Many say that Gore won the election and that Bush II became president.

Wal-Mart's new Marketside stores

Apparently, Walmart has decided to start a line of smaller neighborhood stores called "Marketside". If you care about whether you shop at Walmart or not, then this may be of interest to you.

The Evil Teachers' Union!

I was listening to part of the RNC on the radio and heard some guy shouting about the "liberal government" in Washington siding with the teachers' union and against the students. I'd like to take a moment to try to dispel some of the myths surrounding teachers and the union.

“School teachers only work part-time! Look, they have all summer off!”

On average, teachers work 186 days a year in the state of Oregon, of which 169 are spent teaching students. Some states require 180 school days.

A school teacher’s day looks something like this:

7:00-8:00 in school, available to students

8:00-12:00 teaching

12:00-12:30 lunch

12:30-3:00 teaching

3:00-4:00 in school, available to students

+2 hours of grading/lesson planning

That is an 11 hour day for a total of 1859 hours of work in the academic year, which divides out to 46.48 40 hour weeks of student contact per academic year. Additionally, there are the 17 days spent in teacher in-service and other duties, which add up to 136 hours if one assumes an 8 hour day; so another 3.4 40 hour work weeks. That sounds like full-time to me. Of course, that doesn’t include the time spent on required continuing education.

“School teachers are just babysitters!”

For comparison, let me also mention that my parents paid $9/day to my babysitter back in the early 90s. I have no idea what the going rate is, but we’ll go with that. If a teacher has a class of thirty and is ‘just a babysitter’, then that teacher should demand $270/day, which works out to $45,630 for 169 days. However, since a teacher also is to teach students, there is a certain value added.

“School teachers are just greedy and want too much money!”

A school teacher has gone to university for a minimum of 4 and often as many as 6 or 7 years. Generally, people who have gone to university for that long should be able to demand competitive salaries. Since teaching children is so important, it would seem logical that the people trained to do so would be very important to a society. If we want to have the best and the brightest instructing our children, then we need to provide a certain incentive for them to do so. If a person can’t make more as a teacher than as a secretary, where is the incentive? Teachers go into teaching because they enjoy teaching and want to help young people, not because they expect to become rich. However, they also need to have enough to feed their families and have health care so that they can devote their attention to doing their job, rather than to scraping to make ends meet. Also, as indicated above, teachers are professionals and should be paid professional salaries.

"Most money in the budget goes to paying teachers!"

Um, yes, the teachers need to eat. It is the teachers that make the entire enterprise possible. At minimum, a school needs students and teachers - a look at any third world country can tell us that much. We could do without the buildings and other accessories, but the teachers are absolutely necessary! This is not to say that we should stop maintaining the infrastructure, however, it is important to understand the vital role of teachers.

"The UNION!"

I would hope that teachers would be seen as allies in assuring a positive future for our children and, through them, our society. Teachers are workers just like just about everyone else. Teachers' unions are made up of teachers. A union is composed of individuals banding together to make sure that they are treated fairly and compensated for their labor. This doesn't make them evil! Also, many initiatives put forth by teachers' unions are aimed at helping further student education, so it is not only a benefit to the teachers, but also to the students.

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Of course, I'm just preaching to the choir. Just about everyone who reads my blog on a regular basis already understands the value of education and the importance of attracting and maintaining qualified teachers.

Is the Daily Show slipping?

Is it just me, or has the Daily Show been slipping lately? It seems like there has been less intellectual comedy and more assholery lately, particularly with the conduct of the "reporters" at the DNC.

Don't get me wrong; a lot of the Daily Show is priceless. I like comedy. I'm just not much for watching people be jerks just to be jerks.

*shrugs*

Another take on the cervical cancer vaccine

This is my translation of the Dutch snippet found below:

Doctors reject standard vaccination

The introduction of the standard vaccination against cervical cancer is unreasoned.  That's what the doctors and researches write in the Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde (Dutch Journal of Health).

Minister Klink from the health ministry wants to institute vaccination for girls twelve and older in one year.  The scientists and doctors call it premature and unreasoned because the vaccine has never been tested on 12-year-olds.  It could be that the vaccine has different effects than it does on 15- to 26-year-olds, on whom the formula has already been tested.  Overall, the reseachers find that the research on efficacy of the formula has yet to deliver trustworthy results.

Source:
Nieuwsservice van Radio Nederland Wereldomroep
Edition: Nederlands Nieuws, 27 August 2008
http://www.wereldomroep.nl/



Artsen wijzen standaardvaccinatie af

Het invoeren van een standaardvaccinatie tegen baarmoederhalskanker heeft geen zin. Dat schrijven artsen en onderzoekers in het Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde.

Minister Klink van Volksgezondheid wil over een jaar vaccinatie voor meisjes van 12 jaar en ouder invoeren. De wetenschappers en artsen noemen dat overhaast en niet zinvol omdat het vaccin nooit is getest op 12-jarigen. Het zou kunnen dat het vaccin bij hen anders werkt dan bij de 15- tot 26-jarigen op wie het middel wel is getest. Bovendien vinden de onderzoekers dat het onderzoek naar de effectiviteit van het middel nog geen betrouwbare resultaten heeft opgeleverd.

Bron:
Nieuwsservice van Radio Nederland Wereldomroep
Editie: Nederlands Nieuws, 27 augustus 2008
http://www.wereldomroep.nl/