Useless Conversation

[Samwise]

I don't know what people with indoor cats do, but I'd be afeared of leaving any number of cats alone in my domicile for more than two days.

I'm really curious what you do to your cats (or where you get them from) that causes them to be such much more destructive than any cat I've ever encountered.  I've even gotten a few cats from the "unadoptable due to being too goddamn feral" section of the pound and they wind up being good cats once they're a little socialized.

[Signe]

Since I'm much too poor anymore to have a holiday, I get to take care of everyone's pets when they go away.  My two cats are no problem except if they're sick and then it's the sort of icky sicky stuff that they can't help.  They don't much like it when all the humans leave but they're not destructive at all.  They just sulk.  Especially Lister if we're late with his dinner.  Right now I live with the cats, my sister's little pit bull (whom I love like a sister!), a parrot, a Komodo Lobster and a great big giant pit bull who's visiting for three weeks.  For all but the last three years of my marriage, I didn't have any pets at all and I really missed that.  I feel much better emotionally when I'm surrounded by critters.  Except the parrot.  I hate that screetchy grumpy sumbitch.

[ghost]

I don't like birds.  They're freaky.

[Samwise]

From everything I've heard, larger birds like parrots and ravens are about as smart as human toddlers, but also about as emotionally mature.  So, picture a child going through the Terrible Twos, but it lasts for a couple of decades, and he can fly and has a sharp beak.

I babysat a friend's budgie once and kinda liked it.  It was sociable, you could let it out of its cage and it'd sit next to you and watch TV in between flying around the room to stretch out its wings.  I'd think about getting one if not for the tiny bird turds they drop uncontrollably.

[ghost]

Our neighbors from dental school had about ten birds.  They would put them out in their back yard for hours on end and the fucking things almost drove me crazy. 

[Soln]

I like the idea of dogs until I come to work (dogs at work can fuck the fuck off).

Not everyone needs a dog.  Love a plant.  You won't have to pick up its shit.

[Brofellos]

I'm no bleeding heart but Signe is right about greyhounds and how many of them need homes.  They make awesome apartment dogs because they are, in fact, supremely lazy.  Almost got a whippet, might still after law school.

[Paelos]

The main drawback of greyhounds is they are really ugly.

[Ingmar]

Eh, I don't find them ugly, but they're not at the top of my list either. I can't get a dog until I live somewhere with a yard, sometimes you need to just be able to let the dog out to go on its own without having to turn it into a full on walk.

[Nebu]

How about a cow?  You can pet it and get free milk!

[Paelos]

Greyhounds just have too many angles for me. It looks odd.

Fluffy cows?

[ghost]

Greyhounds are a bit aloof, though.  They aren't quite the loving animals, generally, that you'd expect from a dog.  I've always found them to be a bit like cats. 

[Signe]

OMGYES!!!FLUFFYCOWS!!!!   

[WayAbvPar]

OMGYES!!!FLUFFYCOWS!!!!   

mmmmveal.

[Merusk]

I babysat a friend's budgie once and kinda liked it.  It was sociable, you could let it out of its cage and it'd sit next to you and watch TV in between flying around the room to stretch out its wings.  I'd think about getting one if not for the tiny bird turds they drop uncontrollably.

The *worst* house repossession story I ever came across (outside of meth-heads) was from a co-worker who lived next to a couple who kept 5 birds indoors with their 3 dogs.   The couple had lived in the house for nearly 5 years before losing it, and apparently had let the birds fly-free the entire time they lived there. 

When he went to investigate prior to the remodel (because people like me do that) he said you could smell the house from halfway across the yard.  The bannister was coated, "In an inch or two of solid bird shit." as well as the carpets and the reek of dog urine and feces in every corner.  There was no salvaging, they stripped the entire place down to the studs and joists and rebuilt from there. 

Fucking awful and it's the thing I think of every time I hear people talk about letting birds fly around in their house.

[Samwise]

Fucking awful and it's the thing I think of every time I hear people talk about letting birds fly around in their house.

The right way to deal with it is to keep an eye on the bird (i.e. don't let it fly around the house unsupervised) and clean up after it right away.  But if I wanted to follow something around and pick up its shit, I'd get a dog.  

[calapine]

We need a 'Happy News thread'!

Happend a month ago already, but only read about it now:



And now a guessing game! The news report as told by Google Translate:

Calmly middle of a swan has laid an egg on a street in Munich - and hinders the traffic for half an hour. Despite cajoling the animal did not move from the spot, the police said on Monday. On the contrary: When the police arrived, the swan has spread its wings, made bigger and defended his brood.
To steer the car to the bird over, questioned the official red and white traffic cone on the residential street. Only after about 30 minutes, the Swan conceded the field.
"It attracts the leather jacket, makes a bit more careful and shoos him from the street," a police spokesman described the action on Sunday. The egg took the animal rescuers, to make it hatch. The Swan disappeared - probably to his fellows in the nearby river Würm, speculated the spokesman.

[Nevermore]

I think the bigger news story is that a male swan laid an egg! 

[Lantyssa]

My German is rusty, but I think the original would have been easier to read.

[Cyrrex]

I laughed quietly to myself for some reason when I read "the swan conceded the field".  Nobody has ever said that before in the history of mankind.

[schild]

I have found out a number of my friends like Felicia Day. This saddens me because she's basically a shitty advertising/engineering project that is the result of trying to capture "nerds" as a tv audience. Someone to sell ads to. It makes me want to write an essay about how Felicia Day is nothing more than Rev 3 of an experiment going back roughly a decade.

Bleh.

[Samwise]

It makes me want to write an essay about how Felicia Day is nothing more than Rev 3 of an experiment going back roughly a decade.

 

[Soln]

Felecia Day is a centerfold for Penny Arcade.  She's the Annette Funicello of her generation.

[schild]

Naw, she isn't, but that's a cute comparison. As for the first part, sure, why not.

[Margalis]

But think about all the great acting Felicia has done in such amazing roles such as ha ha ha who am I kidding.

[Hawkbit]

Looks like students at UW were about to have a really bad fucking day tomorrow.  For once SPD in combination with UW campus cops did something right.

[Engels]

In case anyone's wondering what Hawkbit is talking about.

[Ironwood]

I would have loved it to go ahead if he didn't really have any ammo.  Its always amusing to hear about students getting smacked in the head.

Though the explosives might have left a mark, I guess.

[Engels]

Eh, I think the US has had enough crazed lone gunman scenarios that even an ineffectual one is traumatic.

[Sky]

When he went to investigate prior to the remodel (because people like me do that) he said you could smell the house from halfway across the yard. 

I can tell when my neighbors have their windows open. The heavy scent of (hopefully cat) urine. And they have no windows open on the side of the house facing my property (air conditioners in those, so I guess there is a bit of a passage there).

[Soln]

My wife and Goumingdong (I think) go to UW.  I'm glad they caught him. 

[Lianka]

Looks like students at UW were about to have a really bad fucking day tomorrow.  For once SPD in combination with UW campus cops did something right.

Totally justified in not going in to see my thesis advisor! 

[Sky]

I'm ready for it to stop raining now, kthx.

[Lianka]

I'm ready for it to stop raining now, kthx.

I'm ready for it to _start_!

[Engels]

Amen sister. I work at the UW btw :)