Missing Godzilla And Ricky
by: Jonathon Hardcastle
None expected me to return home holding a tiny living fur-ball in my palms and announcing that whether they liked it or not I would definitely keep my new friend indoors. As simple as that my female cat entered my life. She was actually saved by my father, who being an animal-lover all his life he decided to run to its rescue when he spotted the stray kitten walking the dangerous city streets. Two days later, I was introduced with my soon to become indoor cat and I was glad that me and my father were in fact on some kind of "secret agreement" to convince my mother that the kitty had to be adopted by us.
Although my parents have taught me to love and respect animals since I was a small kid, it was amazing for me to be able to touch and play with my cat in the comfort of my own bedroom. One of my friends, who is afraid of animals in general due to a misfortunate event with a dog when she was a child, came one day at my house to watch a movie with me. Since she was not informed that a cat was present-it totally slipped my mind to tell her-and as we were relaxing on the couch, she suddenly jumped surprised and screamed "For God's sake! Who is this Godzilla?" I laughed so hard that tears came out of my eyes, as I was seeing my adult friend being afraid of a kitten not bigger than a palm. As you can probably guess, this is why my cat took that name.
Next summer, as I was vacating at my favorite island, I woke up one morning from a noise a cat made outside my door. This for me was a unique experience, as my ability to sleep through any kind of noisy disturbance is legendary. When I opened the door, there was on my doorstep another tiny soul looking straight into my eyes, begging for some food. This male cat instantly became the mascot of that year's summer vacations and I was not willing to leave the cat behind upon my return. My parents had to experience, for the second time in their lives, how determination can lead a stray kitten into our home.
A year later, Godzilla and Ricky-my father thought of the second name-became a couple and gave birth to five kittens, which I had to give away to other families as I could not keep seven cats in my apartment. Four months after the birth both of my cats were spayed or neutered-my veterinarian suggested that this procedure was necessary since the cats were always together and in less than a year I would have to find more families to adopt the new kittens that would be born. Although I was extremely reluctant to the idea, I finally agreed to perform the operations and the truth is that afterwards my cats were calmer and much more affectionate; not only to each other, but also with family and friends. They never gained weight-one of those myths that you can hear-and they immediately began behaving as usual. Of course, I have always remembered to perform all the appropriate vaccinations and I bought colorful collars for their ID tags. At some point, I considered microchipping them too, but did not go ahead with the idea as I should and until today I regret not going ahead with it.
Godzilla and Ricky were two of the best friends I had during the last eight years and they were always there for me. Only those who have experienced the pleasure of having a pet can probably understand how I felt when I had to give Godzilla and Ricky away as I was about to leave my country and my parents, who had a third cat in their house which did not like intruders, could not handle this triple challenge. I was fortunate enough to find two kind friends, who offered Godzilla and Ricky a new home and the love they so much deserved. But, although I know Godzilla is totally happy in her new premises, I must confess that Ricky has gone missing two moths after I left; that is almost two years ago. Even though my friend did everything in her power to locate the missing cat, he has never returned to her house or to mine. I terribly miss both and there are moments when I still imagine entering the house and finding them waiting to go back to sleep at my side. I never forgave myself for not microchipping my cats, since that unique pet ID might have been Ricky's ticket home. I am one of those animal-lovers that want their pets to feel free and happy and not for one second have I even thought the possibility of one of them getting lost during my absence. Although some are reluctant to the idea of keeping their cats indoors at all times, life has taught me that you should do everything in your power to keep your beloved cat safe. I never blamed my friend for having a garden and Ricky for deciding to explore the world outside her fence. I regret for not being proactive and concentrating on my own fears instead of their future safety. Do not do the same mistake. Take good care of your cats so you will sleep better during the night.
</a>
post a comment
3 Important Dog Training Tips
by: Felix Senhouse
Dog training can be a grueling process but if done correctly, it can be very rewarding in the end. Whether you have a dog in the city, the suburbs, or the country, a trained dog is always easier to handle, especially when it comes to social situations.
1. Be fair with corrections.
Be sure that your dog comprehends what you want before you correct him for not doing it. Also, let the punishment fit the crime. A correction should not be a release of anger on your dog. Instead, a correction is a way to communicate with your dog, a way to foster in him a clear understanding of his place in your human pack. At its mildest level, a correction can be the absence of praise. Before jerking the leash, remember to ask yourself if you're being fair.
2. Be positive.
As a dog's trainer, you must have the right attitude. Praise that is well timed and appropriate is essential to your dog's learning process. If all that you ever do is say "no!" to your dog, your relationship isn't going to be a very good one. How would you like to work with a boss like that?
Praise is cheap and free - so use alot of it! Use praise when your dog attempts to get it right. Use it more when your dog is successful in his task. Use it when your dog pays attention to you, because that's the first step in the training. It's not necessary to be some gushing goof, but you should let your dog know when you're proud of him.
3. You and your dog are on the same team.
Don't think of training your dog as a you versus your dog endeavor. Instead, think about the two of you being on the same team, albeit in different positions. Just as if you were the quarterback, you call the plays. Winning is a team effort. It's just a matter of your dog learning the plays first, and you're the one to teach him.
As a team, you will need to spend time together. Bring him into your life. Let him sleep in a crate in your bedroom, practice his "sits" in the kitchen. The more opportunities for interaction and practice you have, the faster and more reliably your dog will perform.
</a>
post a comment
The MUCK has settled into a new home and a new server. Lots of niceness and upgrade. With a new server comes a new IP, so be sure to update your settings if you use IPs instead of the hereliemonsters.org hostname:
69.61.98.139 9999
69.61.98.139 7777 (SSL)
McGroarty shouts "274,000 LINES OF C, 82,500 LINES OF C++, OR 2 LINES OF OBJECT C... BUT YOU HAVE TO KNOW TO HOLD THE OPTION KEY WHEN YOU DO IT" (Public-shout)
Nattymeox shakes fist.
McGroarty says, "Except objective. But whatever. Ayn Rand had nothing to do with it. Thieving fucks."
Nattymeox grin Objectivist-C.
McGroarty says, "Objectivist C, but can only design square and rigid structures with no place for slackers to sit."
Blake says, "Can't define variables in Objectivist-C."
Blake says, "A is ALWAYS A."
post a comment
| Poster: | ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) natmeox |
| Date: | 2004-06-20 14:18 |
| Subject: | Ansari X Prize |
| Security: | Public |
| Music: | Science Park - [Futurama #02] Lay You Out In Lavender [4:38] |
You say, "John Carmack's company building an Xprize contender had a successful test air flight this week. Meanwhile SpaceShipOne (the cute star-nosed critter) has its first attempted space launch on Monday."
( More on the Ansari X Prize )
2 comments | post a comment
| Poster: | mattlazycat |
| Date: | 2004-05-26 10:22 |
| Subject: | |
| Security: | Public |
Happy birthday ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) hereliemonsters journal!
3 comments | post a comment
| Poster: | silverbrand |
| Date: | 2004-03-17 00:37 |
| Subject: | Webcomics AHOY! |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  accomplished | | Music: | They Might Be Giants - Hey Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had A Deal |
This update is crossposted to several journals
So, ok, by request from aerowolf I am posting my current list of webcomics I read. There are currently 39, but, I add new ones daily. Don't go like 'OMGWTFBBQ! You don't read 'xxxxx'??' Because chances are, I do, or at least, I HAVE. When you read as many as I do, you have to remember that there is only so much free time in the day and it takes a long time to catch up on archives. So while some comics like GPF and Megatokyo are not in the list, it's not because I don't like them, it's because I stopped reading them a couple years ago for one reason or another and haven't gotten back to reading them. Also, I secretly enjoy User Friendly, but haven't read it in like....three years, so, that's not on the list right now either.
Little Gamers This one is beloved by the gaming community, but, eh, only occaisonally has shining moments, in my opinion.
Mac Hall The artwork is amazing on this one, and is very funny. Dialogue particularly shines.
Kevin & Kell Beloved by the furry community, the storylines are amusing and the artist is an already established cartoonist, so he lends that sense of officialness. If that's a word.
Commander Kitty One of my personal favorites, though it has fallen in to a distinct lack of updates in the last few months.
Gene Catlow Uhm. Another one of those furry staples. I always felt the artwork got kind of old after a while....but the storylines are decent.
Ozy and Millie EASILY one my my favorites. A veritable plethora of inspirational yet still silly strips.
PvP This is like the non-offensive version of Penny Arcade. Gamer comic, silly.
Sabrina Online Yet another staple of the furry community. And another one of my favorites. Updates monthly
VG Cats One of the funniest comics I have EVER seen. Gaming themed.
Mall Monkeys Now defunct, a comic about wierd people that hang out in a mall. Offensive!
Bob the Angry Flower An obscure little thing, originated from small circulation paper-mags, now has risen to the glory that is about half of my LJ icons!
White Ninja Comics Just. Plain. Fucked. Up.
CrossGen Comics On The Web This is only really webcomics by a stretch of the term. It's the comics by CrossGen, available for dirt cheap online.
Penny Arcade I flip flop between finding the creators to be arrogant pricks, and loving the comic to death. It's a love hate relationship, usually on the love side, though.
Sam and Fuzzy Clever little 2x2 comic about an inept taxi driver and a psychotic teddy bear. Artwork reminds me of Jhonen V. a bit.
Achewood The comic SO good, it inspired an underground technopop group to write a song about it. WOW!
A Modest Destiny This guy has some serious mental issues. Got that 'MINE! MINE! MINE!' problem. Very arrogant. But, the comic is funny. Ignore his rants and you'll be fine.
Jack It's about Heaven and Hell and all the things in between. Occaisonally funny, but mostly emotional. In case you are wondering, yes, that is the same guy that did Rework the Dead.
Chibi Cheerleaders From Outer Space Currently working through the archives. It's funny, so far. Can't give my seal of approval yet, but, again...so far it's good.
Spare parts Uhm. It's.......ok, I guess. Sometimes funny, usually not all that great. It's by the guy that does Namir Dieter, but I never really dug that one, so...if you DO like that one, might like this.
Altermeta God, I LOVE this guy's art. I mean, so very much....unfortunately, the storyline so far has been very weak. Promises of better storyline in the near future though, so keep an eye out.
Instant Classic Comic about filmakers. I have a deep down love for film noir, indie film, etc. And a passion for video editing! So this ranks high in my list.
Catharsis It's got a gentle dragon, a soemtimes hairless skwerl, and several ambulatory & sentient dustbunnies. What more could you ask for?
Neko the Kitty Sort of reminds me of Purple Pussy, but, like, with a plot. Sort of. More of a plot than purple pussy, anyway.
Applegeeks Done by the same people that do Mac Hall. I think. Sort of. Roomates maybe? I dunno. Ranks just as high as Mac Hall, in any case.
The Fray Relatively new, not much of an archive.....the whole site is a UFO theme.
Combustible Orange Super Demolition Jesus. Seriously. That's all that needs to be said.
What I Learned Today Entirely possible your childhood was like this. Ask your parents!
The Asylumaniacs It's about people in an insane asylum. I think. Not much done yet, pretty new. Looks promising.
Grand Blue Door Great concept, Great art, and I love the shoutbox on the right.
Something Positive I disliked this comic the first time I read it. Second time, liked it a little more. Now, after reading the whole archive, easily one of my top three. Offensive at times.
College Roomies From Hell Uh. I don't remember much about this, just that i liked it. Only recently added it to the list again, plan on catching up.
Kid Radd Ok. Yeah. It's an animated sprite comic. Seems overdone, but in a world of a million and one sprite comics, this is #1.
Alpha Shade It's sort of like Indiana Jones meets Metal Slug. Sort of. Mildly irksome interface, but clever none the less.
Count Your Sheep If you don't find this to be one of the cutest comics ever, you may indeed be a nazi. Shame on you.
No Room For Magic Done by the same person that does Count Your Sheep. Clever and humorous, but not quite as cute as the other one.
Chugworth Academy Just added this one last night! Very funny!
IQ Prerequisite Done by a college student for a college paper. Parents, you are warned: This is what you kids *ACTUALLY* do at college with the money you are shelling out for their education.
Girly It's a love story! between a sort of nameless girl and a sort of homeless girl! Imagine that! Manga style.
1 comment | post a comment
As Ink posted to themonsters:
The MUCK is going to be down a while real soon now while the building wiring is worked on.
Update: we're back up! Yay!
post a comment
| Poster: | natmeox |
| Date: | 2004-03-04 20:08 |
| Subject: | SMS |
| Security: | Public |
Welcome to the first SMS-enabled MUCK! You can now send messages from your phone to HLM players and receive messages from other HLM players on your phone.
If you have a mobile phone with Short Message Service text messaging and phone service that provides an email gateway, type sms #set your address to enable the service. Players whom you ignore, page #ignore, or sms #ignore are not able to message you, nor you them if they you.
To message someone who has set an address, type sms eir name=your message. To message someone from your phone, send an email message to player's name@hereliemonsters.org. (The email from the service must appear to come from the same address you used in sms #set.)
As always, you can type sms #help to see the help. Thanks!
4 comments | post a comment
If anyone would care to approve some issues, that'd be keen. That would make the list shorter than it's been in quite a whiiile. (Quick, while White's gone!)
All you have to do is go to the issue tracker, click the name of the issue you want to look at, see what problem it describes, then test if it is, indeed, fixed. (Feel free to ask if you aren't sure how to test something.) If it is fixed, change the Status to resolved, enter "Fixed!" for a Change Note; if not, describe what you did and how it doesn't seem fixed. Either way, click Submit Changes and you're done!
If you like, get a Roundup account to tie your change to your name. Put your HLM player name in for "Login Name" and you can gripe right from the MUCK with it, and get email to the address you enter when anyone adds a note to your issue. Neill pointed out sign-ups are broken. Sorry; just something else I need to fix. Yay, McGroarty and I got it fixed again. ♥
Thanks much for keeping HLM such a great place!
post a comment
The MUCK is down again. Looks like a network issue, will know more soon.
Update (2:15PM): I swung by in a taxi, and it looks like somebody vandalized the network junction box outside. I won't be able to repair this until evening if SBC or Covad don't do something about it first.
Update 2 (4:00PM): SBC installed a new network junction box and we're back online.
1 comment | post a comment
Hello helloooo, mucky muck! Where have you gone this time?
2 comments | post a comment
The MUCK's down owing to a Speakeasy network outage -- I've filed a trouble ticket online, and I'm following up on the phone.
We'll be back ASAP.
Update: Resolved. We were down about half an hour because MS believed my Linux Kernel bittorrent was the MS source bittorrent.
post a comment
If anyone would care to check and approve some of the green "needs-approval" issues in the issue tracker, that'd be peachy. Thanks!
post a comment
| Poster: | aerowolf |
| Date: | 2004-01-29 17:41 |
| Subject: | |
| Security: | Public |
( Secret Service Agents attack Anna! )
Anna hides Ninja style.
Westivin says, "Okay, we're gonna need the Ninja Masters."
Kylu zippity zaps in from elsewhere.
Kesh pants from running all the way from Lava Cave.
Kesh has arrived.
Kesh mwrs.
Westivin says, "Hi, Kesh."
Aerowolf snickers. "Kesh and Kylu are the Ninja Masters?"
3 comments | post a comment
Kayman's been trying to do his Story Hour thing for a while, but is looking for neat audio software to use to do it. McGroarty's 100% right that Kayman should go ahead and use Windows' Sound Recorder if that gets him going—but does anyone have any suggestions anyway? As far as I know he's not looking for a multitrack mixer or anything (though laying a soundtrack behind might be nice for the future, hmm...), just something to record voice into and clean it up nice.
8 comments | post a comment
We seem to be having a bit of connection trouble this evening. (No, it's not just you.) Hopefully we'll hear what's up soon enough. Thanks for your patience. —Natty
1 comment | post a comment
HLM is currently unreachable. There seems to be a network outage with our service provider. Some of us are on Sociopolitical Ramifications at spr.ctrl-c.liu.se:23. Thanks much for bearing with and hope to see you soon! —Natty
Update: It's back. Not sure where it went still, but it's back.
post a comment
Similar to the Xbox MUCK, we're currently having a field trip to windwhip.net port 9999. Unlike the Xbox MUCK, this is due to downtime at our usual location, and our inability to go even a few extra hours without our precious MUCK.
The only database I had is a copy from 15 April 2003, so if you're not an extreme oldbie like some of us, you may have to recreate your character. This is also a good reminder that nothing you change or build will be saved in the official copy of the HLM database. Note also SSL is not available. --Natasha
post a comment
I posted a list of recent new features to the news journal themonsters. --Natty
post a comment
|
|
|
|
|
