I don’t believe it gets any simpler than this bit of timeless wisdom.
A Dog’s Purpose?
Published on April 11, 2012
I received this story in my email this morning, and it was too heartwarming not to share….
Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year-old Irish Wolfhound named Belker. The dog’s owners, Ron, his wife Lisa, and their little boy Shane, were all very attached to Belker, and they were hoping for a miracle.
I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer. I told the family we couldn’t do anything for Belker, and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home.
As we made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they thought it would be good for six-year-old Shane to observe the procedure. They felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience.
The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker ‘s family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away.
The little boy seemed to accept Belker’s transition without any difficulty or confusion. We sat together for a while after Belker’s death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives.
Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, “I know why.”
Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me. I’d never heard a more comforting explanation. It has changed the way I try to live.
He said, “People are born so that they can learn how to live a good life–like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?” The six-year-old continued, “Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don’t have to stay as long.”
- Live simply.
- Love generously.
- Care deeply.
- Speak kindly.
Remember, if a dog were the teacher you would learn things like:
- When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.
- Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride.
- Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure ecstasy.
- Take naps.
- Stretch before rising.
- Run, romp, and play daily.
- Thrive on attention and let people touch you.
- Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.
- On warm days, stop to lie on your back on the grass.
- On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree.
- When you’re happy, dance around and wag your entire body.
- Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.
- Be loyal.
- Never pretend to be something you’re not.
- If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.
- When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by, and nuzzle them gently.
Fallon Does Young (Again)
Published on March 3, 2012
Jimmy Fallon is famous for his absolutely perfect Neil Young impressions, and he does Young covering all kinds of other music for the comic value. In this piece he’s doing a Young-ified version of “Sexy and I Know It” by a campy group called LMFAO. The real Springsteen shows up halfway through in 80s Boss garb and joins in.
You’ll Grow
Published on February 17, 2012
A 3-year-old boy examined his testicles while taking a bath. “Mom,” he asked, “Are these my brains?”
“Not yet,” she replied.
If I Had One Wish
Published on February 10, 2012
I met a fairy the other day and she said she would grant me one wish.
“I want to live forever,” I said.
“Sorry,” said the fairy, “I’m not allowed to grant that particular wish.”
“Fine,” I said, “then I want to die the day after Congress gets their heads out of their asses!”
“You crafty bastard,” said the fairy.
This Pinterest Thing
Published on February 9, 2012
Okay, so Pinterest is a site that lets you post pictures of stuff. Isn’t that like every blog and/or social media site on the planet? I’m talking about you and animated cat gifs, Google Plus!
In a manner of speaking, yes, but they do have a kind of twist to it that seems to be catching on.
The simple stuff first: you have a picture you like, you upload it to one of any number of “boards” you’ve created–you “pin” it there. Get it? Yeah. The (to me) cooler feature is when you run across something on the InterTubez that you want to share: through a plugin for your browser you can “pin” those, too. I’ve tried it several times and, apart from the restriction where you can’t pin stuff directly from Facebook posts, it’s really convenient.
What happens then? People see your boards. I’m not entirely sure how so many total strangers suddenly began seeing mine in less than a day, but the initial email traffic I got from likes and “re-pins” was much heavier than I expected and impelled me to change my account settings to stem the tide. What is this “re-pin” of which I speak? That’s part of where the social aspect comes in: people can easily share and re-share your pins via their own boards. See how this could quickly go viral?
What else is cool about pins? They retain a link to the original source. Yeah. You post something wicked cool on your blog that has an image associated, and people find it good enough to pin. Now you have incoming links that, if your stuff catches on, can multiply like bunnies. I’m no marketing maven but even I can see how that can drive traffic to your site.
What can you pin? Besides images, you can upload video or (I prefer this method) pin stuff from YouTube. As a 3D graphic artist and animator I now have a venue for strutting both static pieces and animated ones. Pretty cool!
Oh, another social aspect to all this is you can anoint other members to be able to pin to your boards. Now you have a collaborative, shared space. I’m on a couple of shared boards already and it’s a lot of fun…well, sharing stuff on them.
I’m sure there’s more to all this that I’m not getting yet, but hopefully this gives you the elevator pitch. I’m enjoying it thus far and I think you would, too. If you’re still on a long waiting list for an invite send me a message with your e-mail address (my contact link is top right) and I can hook you up.
If you’re curious here is a link to my own Pinterest Boards.
Have fun!
My Recent Interview with Mitch Mitchell of “I’m Just Sharing”
Published on February 9, 2012
It’s no secret I spend a lot of time on Twitter, and through those activities I make a lot of great connections with interesting people. One such person, Mitch Mitchell of the I’m Just Sharing blog asked to interview me about my 3D modeling and animation activities. Of course I had to think about it I said, “sure!”
It was a lot of fun, Mitch asked several penetrating questions that really made me think. He’s posted the results at this link.
Enjoy!
Eat More Meat?
Published on December 13, 2011
Hey, just saying….
And fat makes meat taste better, too!
Why Siri Is Just Better
Published on October 29, 2011
Apple has made a big deal out of their roll-out of the Siri voice interface for the new iPhone 4S–and rightly so. I’ve heard a myriad of nay-sayers claim it’s “just voice activation” and “Android has had this for [insert exaggeration here]” or “Vlingo does the same thing.”
Not so, sorry.
See, you’re completely overlooking the entire back-end processing ability of Siri, with an advanced AI engine that interprets, and even anticipates. It’s not just some dumb parse-command-and-execute module.
An example? Someone I know is devoted to his Android phone, and uses the voice commands often (and has taken some opportunity in the past to tweak me for the lack of same on my old iPhone 3GS). Recently we were both out of town and wanted to find directions to a nearby attraction. The problem was, we knew how to pronounce the name but the actually spelling was, well, weird, and we didn’t know that spelling. Well, he tried and tried to get his phone to find this place, trying to guess enough of the spelling and/or attempting other tricks to tease out an actual hit. His phone slavishly tried to follow his attempts, but with no assistance offered. I was in another car so I don’t know the full details of his attempts (I’m sure his carload of giggling schoolgirls didn’t help the voice interface, but guess what? Siri excels at filtering that out, too), but I do know I sat for a long, long time waiting. Finally I decided to step in, pulled out my 4S, and asked Siri to find the place. I got back, “I don’t know how to find [phonetically perfect mis-spelling of what I said] but here are some similar matches.” There, on the short list, was the place. I told her to navigate there, and boom. Done, and it took fewer than 30 seconds.
And this is just the beta. It’s only going to get lots, lots better, and soon.
Never, ever, claim “voice control” is the equal of that sort of power. Just don’t do it.
That is all.
Pregnancy Class
Published on October 28, 2011
Blame my mother for sending me this…
The room was full of pregnant women with their partners. The class was in full swing.
The instructor was teaching the women how to breathe and was telling the men how to give the necessary help and assurance to their partners at this stage of the pregnancy.
She said, “Ladies, remember that exercise is good for you. Walking is especially beneficial. It strengthens the pelvic muscles and will make delivery that much easier. Just pace yourself, make plenty of stops and try to stay on a soft surface like grass or a path.”
She looked at the men in the room, “Gentlemen, remember – you’re in this together. It wouldn’t hurt you to go walking with her. In fact, that shared experience would be good for you both.”
The room suddenly got very quiet as the men absorbed this information.
After a few moments, a man at the back of the room slowly raised his hand.
“Yes,” said the instructor.
“I was just wondering, would it be all right if she carries a golf bag?”
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