Found via a post on ellorgast's LJ, I felt it was necessary to spread this epic link.

I'M ON A SHIP

If you like the song "I'm On A Boat" and you liked the latest Star Trek movie you need to go to the above link.

I overhauled Birdangel.net. This time I decided to play around with Drupal, a content management system.

I visited Caleb's parents' house this weekend and we took Sakura to a lake, where I let her swim. She was so cute. This is only the second time she's had a chance to swim.



( More Sakura pictures )

Here's the Facebook photo album that these pictures are from.

This past week has been emotionally exhausting.

On Saturday, Sakura began vomiting. She probably vomited on Saturday for a total of approximately twenty times. We could tell that her stomach was upset (we could tell from her vomiting and her mood in general).

Sunday, she vomited about three times, but she still was not looking very well. She refused to eat anything, and she wasn't able to excrete.

On Monday, she was still vomiting and still not looking well. She ate some food but none of it stayed down. We took her to the vet. The vet x-rayed her and the x-rays showed a possible foreign body in her stomach, as well as a possible blockage in her intestine. Sakura was given something to reduce the nausea and we took her home overnight, with the goal to get her to pass the foreign body (excrete it out). If she wouldn't be able to pass it, she would need $1000 surgery.

Rob took her on several very long walks, but she was unable to excrete at all. On Tuesday morning we took her back to the vet. They x-rayed her and it looked like the foreign body was still there, so they did surgery on her. They had to do about ten incisions on her to get all of it out of her.

The foreign body ended up being a mix of plastic, hair, and tennis ball fuzz. The plastic was from the plastic water bottles we used to let her chew on, and the tennis ball fuzz was from a frisbee made from tennis ball material. We threw out the frisbee and we have vowed to never allow her any plastic water bottles ever again.

After we brought her home Tuesday night she was extremely drugged and in a lot of pain. Today she is still not feeling well but the sedation has worn off. I was able to get her to eat a tiny bit of food. She even attempted to play with her rope toy, bless her heart, but she wasn't able to do much. She went into the room where I had put it and stared at it. I brought it into the computer room where I was and she picked it up, but that was about all she could manage.

It was a very expensive and very emotional toll-inducing lesson to learn that the plastic water bottles were a bad idea. However, I'm so very grateful that the price we had to pay was $1000, and that the price was not a dead dog. I am so grateful that she is still alive. I love my baby girl. I would be beyond devastated if she passed before her time. I love her so much and I am so afraid that I will lose her.

All I want is my happy, loud, energetic, chews-on-way-too-many-things puppy back.


(this is by no means a recent picture, she hates getting her picture taken so I wouldn't dare do that while she is feeling this horrible)

I have a hard time of keeping track of movie release dates, so I'm detailing here the movies that I want to see in the near future.

Dragonball Evolution: April 10
Crank 2: High Voltage: April 17
X-Men Origins: Wolverine: May 1
Star Trek: May 8
Angels & Demons: May 15 (maybe, haven't decided if I want to see this for sure)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: July 17

Most of these are self explanatory. I know Dragonball has a high chance of being absolutely awful, but I have to see it anyway, cause otherwise I will wonder what I missed. Angels & Demons looks like it could be bad like the National Treasure series, but I liked the trailer for A & D.

Hagane no Renkinjutsushi Fullmetal Alchemist (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood), the second television adaptation of Hiromu Arakawa's Fullmetal Alchemist dark fantasy manga, will take over Gundam 00's 5:00 p.m. Sunday timeslot starting next week on April 5.

Source

That could not be better timing. Too bad Gundam 00's ending was really disappointing. The second season was so good up until episodes 24 and 25. There's supposed to be a movie next year, and hopefully it will redeem the series finale being so disappointing.

Meanwhile... OMG FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST YAY.

I am still unemployed, and it is still very frustrating to me. Does anyone have any advice? I know the economy isn't great at the moment, but it isn't the sole reason I am still unemployed.

Most of the jobs require you to have prior experience, but I can't get experience if I can't get a job. I have tried to be less picky about the jobs that I apply for, but I am still missing the experience and/or skills for most of them.

Growing up they sure made it sound like having a college degree made it super easy to get a job but that hasn't been the case for me at all. I was also told my college GPA wouldn't matter but most of the government jobs that I have applied for have asked for it.

I even looked for a job seeker's LiveJournal community but it seems that the ones that exist aren't updated very often.

I am depressed because I am still unemployed. But there is one thing that can always cheer me up...



( Click for more puppy goodness )

Congratulations, Connecticut.

So, the election is a week away. I thought I'd throw in my measly two cents in before it occurs.

Have you heard about the bailout? I can't imagine you haven't. The bailout was the U.S. government's plan to "bail out" the big banks so that they'd have money to loan to people, to try and help to bring our economy back on track. Both Obama and McCain voted for this bailout.

Want to know what the banks are doing with their bailout money?

AIG executives spent part of their bailout money on a $86,000 hunting trip.

Chase bank plans to use their bailout money to buy out other banks instead of making more loans.

I'm voting for the one presidential candidate who voted against the bailout. That presidential candidate is Bob Barr.

Some people may say I am throwing my vote away because he has no chance to win. However, if I were to vote for Obama or McCain, I would be voting for someone whose ideals I do not share. In my mind, that is throwing my vote away. I'm proud to be voting for Bob Barr.

I posted a bunch of pictures of Sakura on Facebook a couple of days ago. They are here. Here are some of my favorites:



( More pictures after the jump )

I put the finishing touches on the Fighting Gobblers Guild website today. This was the first time that I had ever used PHP Nuke. I ran into some bumps along the way but I have learned a lot about using it.

Anyone know where I could find out if the number of third party/independent members in the House and Senate has stayed the same over the years, increased, or decreased?

So I was reading the Fullmetal Alchemist manga available at One Manga, when I saw an announcement for a new Fullmetal Alchemist anime. I didn't think much of it at the time for some reason; I guess I thought it was an old announcement referring to the anime that is already out. However, I now realize that this announcement is really recent, and there is going to be a NEW Fullmetal Alchemist anime! That's awesome! I wonder what the plot will be about -- will it continue from where the movie left off, or will it try to go back to the original manga plot? (The anime and manga plots are a lot different.)

Hmm... to try out Google Chrome or not. I probably will, as much as I love Firefox. I haven't found a Google product that I didn't like.

Let's see, time to figure out how to imbed a YouTube video.



This is a cute video that I first saw on CNN. It's JibJab's parody of this year's election.

So I have discovered a site that is new to me at least: Flickpeek.com. It seems to have a lot of streamed videos available, including full anime episodes. Assuming this isn't a trap of some kind, I now have access to a lot of anime that I didn't before. Any recommendations as to what I should watch next?

I'm not sure how many people still reading this watch Naruto: Shippuden. I'm currently in love with the new opening song called "Blue Bird" (YES I AM SO PREDICTABLE). Let's rehash the lyrics real quickly.

habataitara modorenai to itte
mezashita no wa aoi aoi ano sora

kanashimi wa mada oboerarezu
setsunasa wa ima tsukami hajimeta
anata e to idaku kono kanjou mo
ima kotoba ni kawatteku

michi naru sekai no yume kara mezamete
kono hane wo hiroge tobitatsu

habataitara modorenai to itte
mezashita no wa aoi aoi ano sora

tsukinuketara mitsukaru to shitte
furikiru hodo
aoi aoi ano sora
aoi aoi ano sora
aoi aoi ano sora

English translation:

You said if you could fly, you'd never come back down.
You only have eyes for that blue, blue sky.

You've yet to learn what sadness is,
and are just now grasping what pain is like.
Even the feelings I have for you
must be expressed with words.

As you awake from a dream into an unknown world,
spread your wings, and take flight!

You said if you could fly, you'd never come back down.
You only have eyes for that blue, blue sky.

You know if you can just make it through, you'll find what you seek.
So keep trying to break free,
to that blue, blue sky.
To that blue, blue sky.
To that blue, blue sky!

So I was listening to this song "on repeat," and I started thinking about the lyrics. Who is it from the point of view of, and who are they singing to? Is Naruto singing to Sasuke, or is Sasuke singing to Naruto? Or is it some rando singing to Naruto?

I like the idea of Sasuke only having eyes for the sky, but that could be my fandom for him talking. It might be hard to reconcile only having a heart for revenge with only having eyes for the sky, though. If you stretch it, you could think of them both as one and the same... maybe. Alright, so maybe this one is a stretch.

Let's consider the song is about Naruto, then. Does Naruto only have eyes for the sky? He's always looking ahead into the future and towards his goals of rescuing Sasuke and becoming Hokage. I suppose if you think of the sky as "goals," you could say that Naruto has eyes for the sky. But then again, Sasuke's revenge is also a goal.

There's also another important line in this song. "You've yet to learn what sadness is, and are just now grasping what pain is like." This really sounds like Sasuke speaking to Naruto. Sasuke has always been the one who says that he knows sadness and pain the best because he lost everything, and Sasuke says that Naruto doesn't know anything, because Naruto was alone from the beginning.

Alright, so I guess my current theory is that the song is Sasuke speaking to Naruto, even though I wish it were the other way around. (I want Sasuke to be the blue bird.... *cough*) Any other thoughts on this?

I come bearing more puppy pictures! This time, I'm too lazy to host a thumbnail on my own website, however. The pictures are here.

So after the whole Basic Account debacle, LiveJournal has just announced that they are adding a new type of account: Sponsored. Sponsored will have the same features as a Paid account, but will have certain types of ads on it.

...so wait, they removed Basic Accounts because their three types of accounts were confusing, and now they are adding another type of account? Now we have accounts that are ad-free, have ads, or have sponsored ads? Okay...

I should probably re-make my own weblog soon. I'll keep cloning posts here because Friends pages are so convenient. I wonder if it's worth porting all of my posts that are here to the weblog.