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the dogs must be crazy

2003-03-03 - 11:09 a.m.

I made a great big stir-fry yesterday. K&B were over to work on their wedding invitation design with my gf. We were going to just make some tofu with sugar snap peas for dinner, but owing to us having guests, I convinced my gf that we should add some other veggies (which she won't eat), in return for making some chicken for her on the side (which I won't eat). But we went a little overboard and added about five or six cups of veggies to the 14oz of tofu, so it ended up being a great big veggie stir-fry with tofu, as opposed to a tofu stir-fry with veggies. It was very yummy, but my gf ended up just eating her chicken. It can be a little tough combining my vegetarian and her carnivore diets.

We've been taking care of Molly the cocker spaniel this weekend. Her owner (my gf's roommate) is away, and she's been acting up. She managed to pee twice on the bed and once on the rug during the weekend. We made her sleep out in the living room by herself Saturday night as punishment. But this doesn't mean that we can sleep in; for a while at night, and then again in the morning she would repeatedly jump on the door, as a way to get us to let her in. And the other dog, Rosie, isn't much better. Last night, as if under Molly's bad influence, she kept knocking on her owner's door, until finally she walked her at something like 5am. And Saturday morning they were both sleeping with us, and decided that since it was light at 6:30, it was time to be up.

My gf's coworker said that dogs are higher maintenance than kids. I don't know if that's true; but I definitely don't feel ready to take care of either at this point. I mean, I love the dogs, they're wonderful, but I really do enjoy the quiet I get when I can spend the night peacefully at home, with the only animals in my bed being the stuffed kind.

I thought all the bloggers talked about was blogging -- Russell

I've spent a lot of time the past few days reading LJ. I have a renewed fascination with people, which is what got me into blogging in the first place. I noticed two trends in what people are writing about. The most visible one is politics. It's interesting how recent events have brought politics to the forefront of everyone's conscience. I don't think that four years ago it was such a hot topic of discussion. It could be that I'm just more politically active (or aware might be a better choice of words) now than I was then, and so I notice it more, but I think I'm not the only one in this boat. Makes you wonder whether we're going to have more political involvement in the election next year, instead of continued apathy.

The other trend is financial conncerns. People are writing about looking for jobs, budgeting their money so they can afford groceries, being excited about getting a paycheck... That's also something that's changed in the past four years. It makes me realize how lucky I am to have a steady, if low-paying, source of income and supportive parents. I mean, sure, there are times when I have to count my pennies to make sure I can buy groceries, but that's usually because I spent too much money on tech toys or flight tickets around the world.

Some final food for thought about blogs and privacy. If you haven't heard about it, this is a discussion about an email report sent to a bunch of friends that then became widely quoted around the Internet. The link above has a well-thought-out [how do you hyphenate that, anyway?] discussion on what happened and its ramifications. Privacy is a funny thing, especially in this day when it's so easy (and tempting) to publish any random thoughts to a large number of people. I mean, many of my friends know about my blog, some of them even read it, and I do filter what I write accordingly. But I don't know how I'd feel if my advisor read it. Or, worse, the people considering me for a research position in the future. Or how I'd feel if an email I sent to my friends mailing list (which weighs in at about 80 people) ended up posted on Slashdot. Social norms are definitely going to change.

Now reading: The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell.