Room 305

Are you going? Yes!

Room 475

Yep, I'll be there Friday morning through Sunday.

Yes, goodbye!

No, not me. Everyone leaving over the drama BS. Will you be missed? Not nearly as much as you're hoping!

Yep. I jumped on the icon bandwagon thanks to WAY too much time coloring from  whitedingo.


EDIT: In my defense, I made his, which admittedly was MUCH easier :)
Still involved much cursing though. Why is photoshop so stupid?

Where to begin?

First off, I received the ashes of Lady yesterday. It took a healthy glass of wine and some privacy to take a look at what all was included, but I must take the time here to thank Wolf's parents for providing the pet memorial services. Her ashes came in a nice wooden box, they included a snippet of her fur, and there was also a memorial thing of some sort of cast resin that has her name and pawprint cast in. Of course I cried a couple times when going through that. There was also a death certificate of sorts, which I'm not sure how I feel about. It looks suitable for framing, but why would you ever want to put something on the wall that serves only to remind you of the death? The other parts at least have a connection to her life, but a piece of paper that just says her name and the day she died? I dunno. I just don't get it. I hope I can at least borrow the memorials for the other 2 dogs for a short time to do a sort of memorial/wake for myself, and maybe the other household members that feel as close to them as I did.

On a happier note. All 3 passengers are recovering nicely. I really wasn't feeling any physical progress until the last 24 hours. I can now take a few steps without a cane or another assistance. Dusk is now back home and is even able to drive and will be working from home. Yesterday he took me to the store so we both could do a bit of shopping and we both got around okay, but at the end, I was hurting pretty bad. My mobility definitely has limits. Emptyset was able to attend FC, and I think Dusk might go later today. I'm happy both of them are getting along well. I don't think I could attend the convention even if I felt physically able.

This brings me to what it feels like losing Wolf. We were best friends, roommates, and even more at times. We enjoyed most of the same hobbies and activities and most everything we did was together. I keep wondering what I will do now. I'm not the easiest person to get to know, nor put up with. Will I ever find someone to replace even a portion of what we had? If not, I just feel like my life will be damn lonely from now on. That's not to say I don't have other similarly compatible friends, but when also live with one, it created a fullness in my life that almost seems like it will never be replaced. How can I look at that as anything other than depressing?

Strangely enough, it feels like this has brought me closer to others, especially those involved in the crash. Is this common? I know it was a life-changing event for us all, but why would, essentially a near-death experience make you closer to the others involved? I'm not complaining, just thinking out loud.

I will post pics of some of Lady's memorial stuff soon, and may be looking for someone who can do some decorative wood-burning on the box containing her ashes. CNC engraving was also suggested, but I'll have to look into that. I just want to make it more special.

Lastly for now, I want to thank EVERYONE who offered condolences, prayers, kind words or anything. Each and every one helped more than you could know. In reversed situations, I have often been afraid to say anything because I was afraid I'd say the wrong thing and make the situation worse. Now, after living through it, I will try to change that. I never realized how much such a small token could mean in such a tragic time. Thank you all again and BIG life-lesson learned.

I almost forgot to add, all the dogs have made nearly a 100% recovery. Nika, my dog who did survive, and myself, owe a great thanks to someone here who took his time and skills to accomplish that. You know who you are, and I can never thank you enough. It was the best couch surgery I have ever witnessed, and not just because it was the only couch surgery I have ever witness.


I've rambled on enough for now. Maybe I'll come up with more thoughts soon, but for now, I just want to thank everyone who has been there to offer any sort of support. It was not wasted.

This journal may ramble a bit and have spelling and grammatical and spelling errors worse than usual. Sorry, but my head is in another place, and I simply can't care right now. Also stop reading now if you don't want to hear about the bad things that sometimes happen in life. If you plan on starting some sort of argument or doing any form of trolling, you won't be here long.

The day after x-mas 2 of my roommates,  Emptyset and myself, along with several dogs belonging to some of the occupants, left on a road-trip to visit  TOR and quite a few others (too many names and FA markup to type right now). It was Snowing and we were following a pretty strong witer storm through the mountains.

Sometime early in the morning, we lost control on the roads that turned bad quickly while traveling at 65 mph or so. In a very short time we were headed for 2 abreast semi trucks that were in the 2 oncoming lanes. The combined speed probably was about like us driving into a brick wall at 120 mph.

I have lost my 2 best friends, one with 2 legs(Wolf) and 1 with 4(my dog Lady). Also 2 other dogs with whom I had grown close to also were killed. Loosing 1 friend or family member is bad enough, but.....this....I can only come up with the word tragedy. Somehow that doesn't even seem like it begins to describe what happened. The things I feel I can't even describe right now. I keep getting these flashes of memory of carnage, dogs lying dead or dying on the pavement and the best friend I have ever had crushed and bloody in the mangled wreckage I was pulled from. What was supposed to be a fun time has turned into tje worst moment of my life.


The 3 people and dogs that did survive are all affected physically. The 3 surviving dogs, one of which is mine, mostly seen to have lacerations, abrasions, severe trauma and bruising, and my dogs had puncture wound that required minor surgery. The people all have some broken bones, internal and external bruising and mostly minor cuts and scrapes.

That's really about all the technical info I feel like typing out right now. Now for the stuff that really seems to matter to me right now.




Wolf: I love you more that I was ever able to convey. I can't even comprehend what the future holds without you in it. You are the best friend I have ever had and even though there may have been times I didn't show it like a better friend would, you meant the world to me. Your kindnes and generosity meant the world to me. Even your family has become closer to me than most of my real family ever has, or ever will. If there is any sort of afterlife, you deserve a reward.


Lady: When you came into my life, I felt like I had little to live for. We didn't even hit it off for a while, but before long we clicked and my appreciation for you as a companion grew exponentially. your eyes and doggy smile always made feel better, and often made me remember to stop and enjoy the important things in life. You also were one of the most perfect dogs I have ever met. Happy, peaceful, well-mannered, protective without being aggressive.....and the list could go on and on. You were a bright light in a time of my life filled with darkness. Needless to say, there is another hole in my heart that will never be filled.


Wolf's 2 dogs I'm not going to say much here other than, after several years of life with you dogs, and abundant cherished memories, you both became family to me and will be missed always.






If you have made it this far, you deserve at least a bit more news. I will be OK in time. I have a fractured pelvis, and pretty much everything from my thighs to neck is bruised, strained or messed up in some way. I can barely stand with help and walking is simply out of the question.

The physical wounds should be at least somewhat mended in a month or 2, but I fear the mental ones are going to last a bit longer than that.

I'd like to thank the friends that have already wished me well, and especially the ones who have kept me from falling to pieces in the last few days. You know who you are.



Lone

Today I received my liquid nitrogen tank and had to make a quick trip to the industrial gas supply store to have it filled. The usual fun ensued. I shattered a few fruits and vegetables, and made a chime out of an udon noodle. Oh yeah, and liquid nitrogen ice cream really is awesome.

Tomorrow there will be more fun at -321 degrees F.

Does anyone here play the smartphone game Draw Something? Just curious.

For those knot in-the-know, Draw Something is the smartphone equivalent of pictionary. You choose a word to draw, then draw it for the other person, who receives the drawing and has to guess the word. The tough part is doing this with a small screen that was never meant for drawing, but still it's fun.

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3439333/

Good luck to all who enter (especially me)

Does anyone here know of an easy way to automatically archive all your FA favorites? I have tried some program called Httrack, but all I seem to get are the thumbnails no matter what I do in the settings. Is there a better program, or do I really have to do this freakin manually 1 by 1?

My roommate showed me this, and I actually posted it, but the resulting shit-storm and abundance of crying made me look for alternate means to share. so here: http://myknot.net/fa/religion4.jpg

To those looking to bitch, I simply don't care.

anything more useless than an FA trouble ticket? Perhaps the staff members who are supposed to handle them?

Woohoo! 2000 disappoi....err, I mean page views!

So the latest word is we can expect some down-time while FA migrates data to their new 12 TB server. Really? 12 TB? Our main storage box here at the house is 16 TB after being partitioned and set as RAID 6. Total household storage is over 40 TB.
For christ's sake people. Start uploading your porn here!

And I mean that with utmost sincerity. :)

Here we are at the start of yet another new year. I keep thinking to myself that I have seen too many of these, but they keep coming. All you can really do is try and make the best of each one that you can.

Most of us take this day to try and make promises to our self that will supposedly make our life better. Often these are self-improvement related. Looking back, the resolution I made last year was probably the biggest one I have ever made and followed through on. That was to quit smoking. I dunno how many months I have gone now, but it has been the better part of the year. *pats himself on the back*

I'd make the resolution to stop procrastinating so much this year, but really, I can always do that next year. (partially joking) I really don't have anything that is something I can control, and I really want to commit to, that I can use for this year so I will just not bother. It's a silly tradition anyway!

That's about all the wisdom I have, so I'll wrap up the post by wishing you all a safe and happy year.

The response from the puppy pics was surprising to say the least. There is no way I can thank everyone for the faves and watches, so this is going to have to do.
Thank you :)
I don't submit much, but that just means I don't take up much space!

Yeah, I'm slow to get this done, just like most everything else.
The final tally for puppies has us beating the genetic probability quite well with 4 red pups (one of which is female), and 2 blacks (one of each gender).
I'll get a few pics up soon. I hope puppies don't qualify as a "collection" and thus violate the TOS here.

For those that don't know, the red husky female we recently brought into our family came with.....a bonus. As a matter of fact, 4 bonuses have popped out already. We aren't sure yet, but the people we got her from say that the only male they know of that might have got her, was also a purebred husky.

Judging from the coloration patterns, I would say there is a high chance that is correct. At last look, there were 2 reds and 2 blacks. I'll make another update when it's all done, and hopefully get some pictures as this goes on.

Be good