AFG Sallies

[FogSage]

I've been giving thought to what my life in the future is going to be like, and I've come up with two conclusions:

I can either be happy in mind or happy in body, but not both.
I can either do what I like and fail at life, or I can do what I don't want to in order to continue living in a comfortable fashion.

I can't live the way I want, because if I did, I would be penniless in a week and dead in a year, so I'm forced to settle for living and working, doing things that won't be of any interest to me.

I don't know what to make of my life. I have no direction, no ambition to do, to be anything. But my time is growing very short. I have to make a decision; do I want to live life as I am now and utterly fail, or give up what I want in order to keep living?

Nobody wins in situations like this.  

[Selene Aries]

FogSage

I've been giving thought to what my life in the future is going to be like, and I've come up with two conclusions:

I can either be happy in mind or happy in body, but not both.
I can either do what I like and fail at life, or I can do what I don't want to in order to continue living in a comfortable fashion.

I can't live the way I want, because if I did, I would be penniless in a week and dead in a year, so I'm forced to settle for living and working, doing things that won't be of any interest to me.

I don't know what to make of my life. I have no direction, no ambition to do, to be anything. But my time is growing very short. I have to make a decision; do I want to live life as I am now and utterly fail, or give up what I want in order to keep living?

Nobody wins in situations like this.

Welcome to the world. There are very few out there in this world that do not face this problem.  

[Krissim Klaw]

shoki_de_nai

Well, he has to be tied up when he's outside unsupervised. He can wriggle under the fence and into our neighbor's yard, and they call the police. stare I usually play with him for a while when I get home from class or have some time to. Hmm...haven't this weekend though 'cause we've gotten a lot of rain and it's just way too muddy. He is rewarded with treats, but that seems to not be motivation enough anymore. I think we'd have to make the crate ourselves unless there's some cheap way to get one...money is pretty tight all around.

Usually play with him some? Is that the extent of his exercise?  

[shoki_de_nai]

Krissim Klaw

shoki_de_nai

Well, he has to be tied up when he's outside unsupervised. He can wriggle under the fence and into our neighbor's yard, and they call the police. stare I usually play with him for a while when I get home from class or have some time to. Hmm...haven't this weekend though 'cause we've gotten a lot of rain and it's just way too muddy. He is rewarded with treats, but that seems to not be motivation enough anymore. I think we'd have to make the crate ourselves unless there's some cheap way to get one...money is pretty tight all around.

Usually play with him some? Is that the extent of his exercise?

I play with him til he's tired. He also is taken for walks. We're just new at the dog thing, we've been cat people up until the terrier pup that died. My step-dad has owned dogs before though, but his methods seem to make the dog submissive out of fear, and I don't like that.  

[shoki_de_nai]

Off the dog subject...My sleep has been really ******** lately. I'm debating with myself on whether I should just deal with it until my therapy appointment on the 22nd or try to get it rescheduled for sooner. A week might not make much difference..but then again it might make a lot of difference, I dunno. As it is right now, I can't fall asleep easily, when I do fall asleep I do so for far too long regardless of how I set up my alarms, and I don't feel rested no matter how much sleep I get.  

[Hunter Morda]

My friend took his robot on a bus this morning and it fell off the seat and broke because the bus driver took off before he could sit down and hold his robot. It broke into several pieces which I basically laughed at because I told him yesterday it would break easily.
He then got pissed off and started yelling at me when I tried to take a picture and said how would I like it if he broke my robot and how crap it is. I have yet to see his robot work at all, also I have not seen it fire at all. But the thing that proberly annoys him the most is the fact I've told him that it was of poor design. Originally my team's robot didn't say together very well, we fixed most of those problems and only 1 part breaks apart during storage, and it only takes 2-5 minutes to fix.

EDIT: He's taken my advice and is redesigning his chassis, he says it's similar to what I'm using, except for the fact a few robots look like the chassis we're using (except for the 'stilts' at the front)
He seriously has issues with dealing with stressful situations. I do too, however I do (sometimes) try to calm myself down and just get to work. He always seems to stress out a lot at the end of the semester (he was like this last semester as well) although he's not doing too well in his classes.  

[Shaviv]

Fog, I do not know what your skills and record are like, but it might help just to type up a resume that you feel highlights the skills employers are looking for, and search around your area for corporations or institutions that might be hiring.

I am planning to graduate either in December or next May, and if I have my act together and get lucky I might be able to graduate into a 25k/year job doing research - which isn't much pay, I know, but it's doing research, first; and second, it would be enough to help me pay shared rent with two or three roommates, plus keep me in peanut butter and jam sandwiches.

I think you have to support yourself, to some degree. There's nothing you enjoy doing or have enjoyed doing that someone will pay you for (legally)? Then you may have to sacrifice a little and find something that doesn't kill your soul, but which pays you enough that you can pursue what does make you happy, at least a little bit.  

[Hunter Morda]

I just finished the alpha code for my robot. Technically it should search for a puck and find one, however I can't try it out until the lab is free again.... so that means tomorrow. But now it should just be tweaking to the code to finish it all.  

[Krissim Klaw]

shoki_de_nai

I play with him til he's tired. He also is taken for walks. We're just new at the dog thing, we've been cat people up until the terrier pup that died. My step-dad has owned dogs before though, but his methods seem to make the dog submissive out of fear, and I don't like that.

I can understand your position there as far as being cat people. I just got my first dog, Kirby, a little over two months ago. I've wanted a dog since I was a little kid but as a child ended up with a cat instead. XD

I could have gotten one sooner when I was just starting highschool, but I decided to wait and I'm really glad I did. There was no way I would have had the time for a dog with all my school work and to top it off I would have had to pretty much leave it for the three years I was off at college.

Dogs, especially young dogs take a lot of time and supervision in the begining to train them their place in the family. I would highly suggest looking into clicker training. It sounds a bit like your family might not have picked the best time to get a dog, like Rainey mentioned in her post dogs aren't something you should get impulsivly. There are so many different breeds out their and they don't just vary in looks but in their behaviours and what they need in an owner.

(Gah, wait did she delete her post? I swore Rainey posted some suggestions.... man maybe I'm loosing it...)

A good crate isn't that expensive, and honestly I think every owner should have one if not for daily use but for traveling, emergency vet trips, and other issues where a dog might need to be safely placed for a while.

Anyways, I wish you all the luck with your pup and feel free to talk to me if you to continue to have problems with him. I'm by no means a dog expert but I have been doing tons of research and reading on them lately and would be more than willing to share some of what I've learned.




In other news, The Mantis Queen is LAME! Man did I ever mange to mess something up in my lower back/hip area. I could hardly walk today it ached so bad and I wasn't even able to take Kirby for his usual walk. I sure hope it clears up soon. XP  

[shoki_de_nai]

Thanks Kriss, and yeah...Rainey did post...I guess she deleted it. Huh. At least now you know you're not loosing it. Or that we're loosing it together. xd

Anywho, I'll continue to work on it and get my family organized. I did play with him a long time today, even though the yard was extremely muddy due to even MORE rain. He was going a little nuts having to stay inside. It was kinda fun though, we were both slipping on mud and wet leaves and I had to give him a bath after. sweatdrop  

[Hunter Morda]

I've just had a couple of hours of fun.

I thought my laptop HDD had failed, taking with it my only copy of my robot's program (I had only completed it minutes before). However after leaving the laptop for an hour, it's working again... sort of. Vista is BSODing every time it gets to a point in the load, but because of the fact I'm at uni, I can't fix it or even use Knoppix to get my file.

It's quite annoying..... this laptop has so many issues with vista, it's not funny.... and the sadest thing is, I can't install Windows XP again stressed  

[Rainey_angel81]

shoki_de_nai

Thanks Kriss, and yeah...Rainey did post...I guess she deleted it. Huh. At least now you know you're not loosing it. Or that we're loosing it together. xd

Anywho, I'll continue to work on it and get my family organized. I did play with him a long time today, even though the yard was extremely muddy due to even MORE rain. He was going a little nuts having to stay inside. It was kinda fun though, we were both slipping on mud and wet leaves and I had to give him a bath after. sweatdrop

I did delete it.

I'll type up a dominance reduction program and send it to you. The basic idea is that you're inputing a lot of structure and giving the dog absolutely no freedom. once he learns his place, you can slowly start introducing things back into his life but with direction.
Krissim is right, crates aren't expensive. You can look up used crates on a site such as Craigslist or Ebay. I know we got several expensive crates ($80+) for only $20. The best brands are Vari Kennel and Furarri.
His regular equipment should include

Flat Collar - one that fits snugly to his neck. Some boxers have larger necks than heads and so their collars can easily slip over their heads. Measure his neck, so if it comes out to be 18", don't get a collar larger than that and also buy a buckle collar, not a snap. The snap collars loosen on their own

4-6' nylon lead - for the beginning stages of training, he needs to wear a dragline around the house so if he gets into something, instead of chasing him and creating a game, all you have to do is pick up the line and distract him from what he is doing

6' leather lead - for walking. It's easier on your hands and walking is a great exercise and activity that should be done with your dog. If he's interested in treats at all, buy really good treats, such as Freeze dried liver. Pick a quiet place outside your home and where you know no other people or dogs will walk by during this session. Holding the treat in your hand, kiss to him. as soon as you have his attention, drop the treat down to his mouth. As he is taking the treat, say his name. This will teach him to watch you and it will teach him his name at the same time. Within a week of doing this for 4-6 times at about 15 treats each, when you say his name, he will turn his attention to you.


I don't know if you have yet, but research the breeds of dogs he's mixed with. Most breed sites will only say the good things about them, but if you can contact a breed specific organization and someone who works closely with them, you may find out some things about him that you're seeing in his every day life and they may even have some suggestions in how to better control him.

Krissim - I disagree with using the clicker for 1 reason. Timing. If you're off by even a smidge, you end up marking for the wrong behavior. Unless your reflexes are really good or if taught by someone else, it's the wrong training tool to use. In a class of 5, usually only 1 person is skilled enough to use it. When I teach a SAR class, I have to individually take clickers and do it for them. I've had dogs who learn half-sits or to pop up immediately because their owner is too early or too late.  

[Crenn]

I got my code off the HDD, and Vista has now been fixed..... sort of. It's restored it to just after I got the laptop and was fiddling with it. So the software I need is no longer installed, also it's SLOW again. I'm not going to enjoy fixing this. Can't wait til the HDD is replaced... then I can start from scratch.  

[shoki_de_nai]

Thanks for all the advice. Only thing I'm not really sure about is researching the breeds, 'cause he was a stray so there's no real way I'm aware of to know how many things are mixed in there. Boxer obviously, he's physically very much a boxer, especially in his face. The shelter said boxer/coonhound but they didn't seem entirely sure. >>

Anyway...So, this morning at about 3am some people were prowling around. Pulled into our driveway, and were dumb enough not to kill the headlights, which woke up my brother who's room faces the driveway. He looks out, sees a couple guys looking around our cars, and then go to the neighbors to do the same thing. My dented, scratched up, busted van probably turned them away. xd Anywho...my brother told the neighbors, who must have called the cops 'cause officers came over to talk to him about what he saw.

Exciting s**t right there.