The Revenge of Jake the Pup # 1

So this is Jakes 2nd week home alone, and I think I actually adopted underdog...not just a poor innocent little puppy that her pretends to be. Jake HATES me leaving the house. He loves to be around me, like most puppies...he follows me around the house and doesn't like to let me out of his site. So he is pissed when I leave!

When I got Jake I knew he was the perfect dog for me! He was amazing and we bonded right away. He is a little bit of a dork and so am I...perfect for each other.

Jake was having accidents in my apartment the first few days (2 to be exact) and so everyone said to me...oh he is not potty trained, you should get him a cage...dogs like cages and the cage becomes like "home" to the dog and blah blah blah. Well Jake hates the cage. It lasted about 4 days until he BROKE out! Not unlatching it by a fluck, but KNOCKED the front of the cage out! Yes.

I come home at lunch to find all of his toys around the apartment. I think to myself..."I picked those up before I left...how did they all get out again". Jake jumps off the couch and runs over to me..."HI, HI, HI". I say..."well hi Jake, how did you get out of your cage?" I walk into the bedroom and question answered. The front door is KNOCKED down!! Seriously, getting that cage together, I had to put my foot on it and pull with my both hands to get it to latch! That thing was secure and NOT easy to unlatch.

Anyway, I decide to leave him out of the cage, because well he hates it, and he is doing just fine staying out of the cage. No accidents around the house in about 1 week.

BUT Jake barks. AND again, people said...oh he will only bark for an hour or so...but NO, Jake barks from the time I walk out of the house until the time I get back home. that is like 9 1/2 hrs, if I do not have to go shopping or stop and pick something up on the way home.

Lets be honest...if he keeps that up both Jake and I are going to be on the street...homeless.

So I ask around and a trainer tells me that I need to get a a muzzle for him. Ok. I get one and the week is going great. No barking...haha...cuz he can't.

I come home yesterday to a quite house and for some reason I can't get in the door. I unlocked it, HOWEVER the flip latch had somehow flipped over. Jake had done it. My friend (Dave)tells me...don't worry about it, it was just a one time thing. Chances of that happening again are one in a million. I agree....how foolish of me.

Today I go to work...come home at lunch...take Jake out...go back to work...hit the gym...come home and I can't get into my house. Jake has flipped the LATCH again. And this time it was ALL the way over!!! WTF! I can open the door about 3 inches...you know so that it opens as far as the latch will let it. So I have to open and close the door again and again and again thinking OMG this super dog has jumped up 4 feet and flipped the latch to lock me out...I know he is thinking "HAHA leave me and see what is happening bitch". Every time the door open the 3 inches Jake sticks his butt up in the air and puts his head and paws all the way down and rushes forward..."HI...HI...why aren't you coming in...HI" I finally BREAK my way into my own house and Jake is standing there...."HI HI HI" he BARKS..yes Barks. He had managed to rip his muzzle off. Not undo the latch in the back, not pull it off his face, not even break it along a seam...but RIP it off! I had to sew it back together until I can actually go and get another one.

So why do I can my dog is underdog in disguise:
I have a 23 lb 7 mth year old puppy who has:
*Broken out of a cage that should be able to hold dogs up to 40lbs
*Locked me out of my own house twice
*Ripped a muzzle off of his face!

One thing makes me think that he may not be a super hero...My boyfriend came over last Friday night after work...he gets off at like 1:30 so he get to my place at like 2 am. Jake hears the door lock click and he rushes towards the door. Dirk walks in and Jake starts barking. Dirk playfully jumps towards Jake and Jake rushes into the bedroom (still barking) and stands behind me pocking his head around my legs barking at Dirk like crazy. He may not be an attack dog yet, but at least he will let me know when someone comes in!

But besides that minor incident I am convinced that I have adopted underdog and I love him, How could I not, he crawls under the covers in the morning while I am in the shower. I did pick the perfect dog for me.

The Beauty of Art

I love art; I have a goal to travel around the world and view art. I could spend years doing that, but unfortunately life just isn’t that long. I guess I am lucky in the fact that I have already seen so much (not as much as some and more than others, but I figure a good amount). I am a really big fan of Renaissance art, so when I got the opportunity to go to Italy not once but twice, I felt like the luckiest girl alive. My favorite painting in the whole world is “The Birth of Venus” which is on display in the Uffizi in Florence. I have been to a number of museums and art galleries because I believe so much in life being expressed through art. There are tons of places to not only view great art but to also buy it! My mom is a huge fan Monet and impressionist art, recently she has become a fan of of Ford Smith Art. She says they feel the same to her. And that is the beauty of art. You can take whatever you want away from it! Whether you like realism, impressionism or Abstract and Cubism you can find what you are looking for. Some artist have you guessing and some has you laughing but art is what you make of it. Everyone should have a good piece of art in their home!

Biker Days

It seems that everywhere I turn, my friends, family and just people on the street love bikes.

There is something about a guy on a motorcycle that just makes a girl wanna hope on the back and ride off into the distance. I love bikes just as much as the next girl; I admit that when I see a guy on a motorcycle, I look, I check him out…see what is going on under the helmet. One of my personal favorite shows is “Sons of Anarchy”, it’s about a biker gang. The show is awesome, and I tivo it every week, it show the gang side of motorcycles. But bikes are not all about gangs and getting girls and being a bad boy (although all of those are plus) and bikes are not just for guys.

My mom is a big biker, back in her younger days she use to drive a Vincent & a Norton. Even today she hopes on a bike every year and drives out to Sturgis. Looking at my mom you would never guess that she is a biker buff, but that is what makes her unique. I see the pictures of my mom when she was my age, it boots and short skirts riding a bike and I realize that we are more alike than I ever would have guessed (except I like fast cars because I am to scared to get on a bike) Bikes are a great way to express yourself.

There are so many different brands and accessories that you can get for your bike, and if you shop at the right places, online is usually the best place for the best prices. Like at some places on the web you can get kuryakyn parts and accessories for your bike at up to 60% off! Now that is a good deal. CruiserCustomizing.com is a great one-stop-shop that has over 30k different parts for all makes and models, from Cruisers to Sport Bikes to Harleys & Goldwings, you can find something unique to really make your bike show off your personality at cruisercustomizing.com.

Being the Bee's Knees

They say that your first impression when meeting someone will make or break you and those impressions are made in 10 seconds. Many times we don’t make the best impression

But it is not just a saying it is the truth. You dress to impress. When you go on an interview, you don’t come dressed down in jeans and a t-shirt, you come dressed in your Sunday best! When you go out to the club, you want to have an attractive appearance, you want to look like the bee’s knees as my mum use to say.

We all want to know who we appear to others when we go on that first interview, or on that first day of class, yah, you can look in the mirror, but let’s be honest, we don’t see what others do. Personally for me, I see every flaw and unattractive thing about myself and almost nothing that is actually what others see.

Now there is a new way to find out how you can make the best first impression possible, this cool new site, Attractive Appearance, lets you upload a picture and have it analyzed by regular visitors to the site. Different then a lot of sites that just rank you on a whole, on this site, people point out parts of you that they find the most attractive. So next time you go out you can really take this knowledge, enhance the features that people liked the best.

The Saga of Seven Suns Continues

First I just wanna say that it took me until JUST now to realize the title of the book. I guess I knew all along, but sometimes I am just slow…Seven Suns…I get it…WOW.

So I believe the last blog I wrote was book 2, Forest of Stars. Since then I have finished both book 3, Horizon Storms and book 4, Scattered Suns. I have just started reading book 5, Of Fire and Night.

This novel just keeps getting better and better. So much has happened in these last 2 books that.

The Hansa decide to deploy yet more of the Klikiss Torches and destroying yet more of the Hydrogues. But the Hydrogues fight back and during the battle of Osquivel, the earth forces are servierly beaten and many soldiers are left do die, Patrick Fitzpatrick III is among them. But unbeknownst to anyone, the Roamers had a shipyard on Osquivel. Thanks to Tasia Tamblyns quick thinking she managed to warn Del of the EDF’s plans to fight the Hydrogues there. Del has just enough time to camouflage his shipyard. After the battle between the humans and Hydrogues was over, they Roamers rescued 30+ EDF soldiers, Fitzpatrick was among them. Unable to return the Soldier back to earth for free of their settlement and secrets being reveled they put the EDF to work. The rescued “captives” resent the Roamers, but Fitzpatrick begins to fall in love with Zhett Kellum, daughter of Del and owner of the Osquivel Shipyard.

The Hanseatic League take secret action against the Roamers and destroy one of their ships and steal all of the star drive fuel. The Roamer clans react by cutting off all trade with the Hansa. This infuriates Basil and because of their continuing failures against the Hydrogues, they turn their eyes to the Roamers and start to travel the Spiral Arm hunting down and destroying Roamer facilities and taking the Roamers captive. Because of her Roamer background Tasia Tamblyn, a commander in the EDF, is removed from her EDF Jugernot and sent to train recruits on Mars and the rest of the EDF attack the Roamers. Tasia is upset by this new assignment, but does not know of the EDF’s initiative against the Roamers. After the EDF destroy Rendezvou (Roamer headquarters) and Hurricane Depot (Roamers main spot for transportation). Tasia is shocked when she hears of the attacks on Roamer stations, but there is not much she can do, she accepts the position of relocate the Roamer POW to Llaro where the Roamers are put to work, building new facilities for the EDF.

The Hansa start a massive settlement program using the ancient Klikiss transportation methods discovered by Margaret Colicos and her husband. During this resettlement program, you meet a new character named Orli, Her father jan Covitz takes Orli away from her home planet of Dremen and moves in the Hansa re-location program to Corribus. Orli is only 14 and only just a little while on Corribus, the planet and all of the settelers, including Orli’s father are wiped out with EDF battle ships controlled by Kilkiss robots attack Corribus.

The Klikiss Robots are secretly working against the humans and alongside the Hydrogues. The Klikiss robots volunteerto allow human engineers to dismantle one of the Klikiss robots and use it as a blueprint for creating new robots. Happy to have the Klikiss robots help, the Hansa quickly start producing massive amounts of Robot Copies that are to be assigned to mantas and other EDF vessels in place of humans. King Peter is warily of the Klikiss robots and tries to mention something to Basil but he is blown off, the only person he can trust is his copie Ox and his loving wife Estarra. However the Robot Copies are just at ticking time boom and the Klikiss robots are waiting to activate the Robot Copies and use them against the humans.

Jess Tamblen, who is in love with Cesca Peroni leaves Randevo so that Cesca can marry Raynald and crate an alliance between the Roamers and the Theroc, but Raynald is killed before the union can take place when they Hydrogues finally make a move on their long time enemys the Verdoni. The battle is amazing and it destroys hundrands of the World Trees. During this battle between the Verdoni and the Hydrogues, the Faeros, a fiers sun dwelling beings show up at Theroc and fight alongside the Verdoni against the Hydrogues. The Verdoni are surprised by this new alliance, but because of the Faeros, they manage to survive against the Hydrogues although many of the world trees and humans were destroyed.

While Jess is away he comes across the Wentals. They save him from death and he becomes something new…something human but not. The ancient water entities are enemies of the Hydrogues, long thought to be exstinxt. Jess Travels to Rendezvous and enlists the help of other Roamers to help him spead the Weantals so they can grow again. While at Rendezvous Jess learns that Cesca did not marry Raynald, but because of Jess’ new found power he is unable to touch Cesca or be with her.

After the Hydrogue attack on Theroc, the Roamers, at the suggestion of Cesca Peroni got the Theroc to help them re-build (unlike the Hansa, who sent little to no assistance). Basil, hearing of the death of Raynald and the Hydrogues attack on Tehorc, see this as an opportunity and sends his lover and the Theroc ambassador to earth Sarein back to Theroc so she can become the new “mother of theroc” and provide the earth defense with green priest for instant transportation.

Now that the Hydrogues know that the Faeros are no longer their alli and huge battle between the two ancient races begins and they destroy planets and extinguish suns along the way.

Nira, the green priest, is still being held captive on Dobro (the human experimental breeding camp of the Illdira). After so much pain and suffering finally get to meet her daughter but before more than a few minutes pass dragged away from Osira’h is dragged away, and Nira is beat unconscious. Jora’h’s father kills himself, leaving Jora’h the new Mage-Imperator. Udru’h, worrying that Jora’h would find out that he is still holding Nira, take Nira away from the breading plant and puts her on an isolated island.

Osira’h finally having the opportunity to meet her mother, realizes the truth about Udru’h and although she no longer cares for him, she must still do what she is born to do, and become a bridge of communications for the Ildira’s and the Hydrogues.

Jora’h’s brother experiences massive head trauma during a Hydrogue attack on his planet and is slump into a coma for some time, when he awakes he believes that he is the true Mage Imperator and should rule. He brainwashing Jora’h’s own son Thor and sets out across the spiral arm to force other Ildiran into his twisted thism web. Jora’h is sick of his insane brother and moves to take everything back.

I think that is a failry good overview, but I am sure I am missing a number of things. I cannot wait to finish reading the last two books. I am very pleased with this story and I recommend anyone who likes Sci-Fi should read these novels!!!

Do You Know What Your Employees Are Doing?

Let’s admit it, the internet makes it hard to keep your employees focused and on track all day long. People are always checking their email, Facebook account or reading up on the latest news. A little bit of web browsing is not a bad thing. Everyone needs a break every now and again and letting them check their personal email or take 2 minutes for a Facebook update won’t affect their work progress, but some employees are addicted and it can really affect their output.

Now there is a new program, ActivTrak, for employers so they can track what websites and applications a employee is using while at their desk. This easy install application will let you see what your employees have been doing and for how long by the use of screen shots and log histories. You can even send an IM to your employee just to check in on what they are doing or chat

To learn more about ActivTrak there is a very activtrak live demo available on line. In just 10 short minutes the demo walks you through how to install the program onto your computer and how to use it to monitor all of your employees. The demo is detailed and will answer any question you may have, such as how do I view screen shots of what my employees are doing, what application and sites are they using the most. The demo a little slower paced, but in a situation like this it is good so that you can either follow along or actually take the time to read and view all of your options. For an application this complex, they cover all of the information, in-depth, within the demo.

District 9

Since my family was in town this weekend, we went to go see a few movies. One chick flick and one action movie. Yesterday we went to go see District 9. My dad and I are both really into SciFi and we both like movies. I had been asking my boyfriend if we could go see this movie for about a month and I kept asking him when he was going to take me to the movies and I kept getting “I don’t know,” so I decided…I should go with my family. My dad really wants to see it and so do I, and if I end up waiting for my boyfriend to take me to go see it…I may never go! And I am SO glad that I went to see it! It was great! One of the best movies I have seen in a long time. I guess if you are not into SciFi or the Alien thing or anything like that….then you may not like this movie.

District 9 is actually done in a documentary style (which gives me hope for World War Z which is THE BEST ZOMBIE BOOK that they are turning into a movie because that is also a documentary!). The story opens in Johannesburg, South Africa. And alien ship comes to earth about 20 years ago in a “mother ship,” and it sits and hovers above Johannesburg for months without making contact. So eventually the governments get sick of this and they decided to initiate contact and they cut into the ship and discover a massive number of sick and malnourished aliens living in the ship. It seems that the leaders either died or left them, so humans take it upon themselves to bring the aliens to earth, and put them into refugee camps. The refugee camp becomes known as District 9 is is gated off and it turns into a ghetto because of the over population. The humans (because we are such a great and caring species) eventually turn to hating the aliens and we (the humans) start to refer to the aliens as “Prawns” in a derogatory way, because of they way the seem to be bottom feeders and live off the government.

A huge black market opens up inside District 9, because as like in every ghetto, there are guns, violence and Drugs. The Drug of choice for the Aliens is actually cat food. A group of Nigerians lead by a slightly crazy man named Mumbo run this black market making money by exchanging cat food for alien weapons. The only down side is that the weapons have been made to only integrate with the aliens. Mumbo and his gang use all types of rituals to attempt to find a way to use the alien weapons including eating the aliens.

Because of all the problems with District 9 the population of Johannesburg and the rest of the world turn against the “Prawns” they start to hate them, much like the KKK do towards African Americans, or the Germans to the Jews. (Sick Really). The government decided it is time to relocate the aliens.

A company, known as MNU (Mulit-National United) take it upon themselves to relocate the 1.5 (or so) million aliens to a new refugee camp known as District 10 which was located outside of Johannesburg. MNU also has another agenda at hand, they are actually in fact one of the largest weapons manufacturing company in the world and they would love to get their hands on the knowledge of who to USE the alien technology/weapons. They have to go into District 9 and tell all the alien residence that they are getting evicted.

MNU selects a man named Wikus van der Merwe (an unknown actor named Sharlto Copley). He sets out to inspect all the alien residence and tell them they are to be evicted. While he is in District 9 he comes across an alien container that shots some odd liquid into his face making him EXTREAMLY sick and starts a strange, rapid transformation which turns Wikus’s arm into a mutated alien claw. Because his DNA has found a way to bound with the aliens MNU finds this extremely interesting and kidnap him for experimental testing and they force him to operate the alien weapons. They decide that they need to actually dissect him so they can find out WHY he bonded with the aliens DNA. Wilkus of course doesn’t, obviously, wan to be cut into and he escapes MNU and flees to the only place he can hid…District 9. A huge man hunt starts in search of Wilkus while he searchers for a why to get rid of his alien DNA, become human again and return to his wife and happy home.

Of course this is only about the first 1/4th of the movie. The plot thickens and it really keeps you on the edge of your seat. I am not going to tell you anymore, because I think that this is a great movie and everyone should go to see it!!!

I think one of the things I really loved about this movie was that it was JUST as good if not better then hundreds of Hollywood movies that they make for 100million + dollars yet this was made with a budge of 30 million and they used unknown actors (who all did a fabulous job!!) and they shot it on location in Johannesburg, South Africa. I think they did a great job with this movie. I am curious what they are going to do, because although it ended….they also left it open in a way…so I would like to see what they do. And if they do make a sequel, I do not want them to go all big Hollywood bang…I would want the same thing…again!

This movie I would rate 8 ½ out of 10 stars. And it is one of the TOP movies of the summer….maybe the best I have seen all summer. I wish I could have seen it with my boyfriend, and if he would like to take me again to see it, I would for sure be down with that. BUT I am glad I didn’t wait around for him to decided he wanted to take me to a movie…because if that had been the case, I am fairly sure that I would not have gotten to go see this really amazing movie that is TOTALLY worth seeing.

Of the two movies I saw this weekend District 9 was the BEST!!!

The Time Traveler's Wife

This weekend my family was in town, which was tons of fun. Now I cannot wait to see my mum. That has been TO long as well.

But anyway, my sis, dad and step mom went to go see “The Time Traveler's Wife”. I read the book about 4 years ago on a train ride from Milan to Sicily. My mum had given me the book to keep me entertained on the plane etc, but I was not really looking forward to reading it so I left it till I had read everything else. Once I finally sat down and read the book, I read it from beginning to end (the train ride was 21 hrs long so it wasn’t like I had to stop). The book was amazing, I cried (on a train full of people…a little embarrassing). I even wrote a blog about it, but that was while I was still only blogging on MySpace...happy to get away from that. Anyway I was watching TV a few months ago playing on the computer and I heard ONE line from the trailer, I looked up and said “The Time Traveler's Wife” BOOM CALLED IT! And then I started to tear up from that one line. I found it amazing that I knew without hearing more then 3 words that it was The Time Traveler's Wife.

So I have been waiting to go see it and when we decided to go see a chick flick I recommended it, and it was worth it. Obviously my boyfriend would have never gone to see it with me and I don't have tons of friends that are into going to movies, or have the time or ability to get away from the responsibilities of life to go to a movie for 2 1/2 hrs.

For the most part the movie went along with the book (for once they did destroy a completely good book with a really BAD movie.

It is not hard to guess what this movie is about. A guy named Henry (played by Eric Bana) has been able to travel forwards and backwards through time since the time he was six because of some strange genetic disorder. When his is in his twenties he is working as a research librarian in Chicago and a girl (Clare – played by Rachel McAdams) walks up to him and tells him she has been in love with him for her entire life and that they are destined to be together and that she knows his secret. Ever since Clare was a little girl, Henry has been appearing to her and watched her grow up. Henry and Clare get married and try to live a normal life even though he keeps vanishing and reappearing and he has no control over his life. Of course this causes relationship problems, more then what normal couples deal with. I don’t know how I would have been able to handle my husband vanishing for unknown amounts of time never knowing when he would come back.

The question is; if Henry hadn’t told Clare they were destined to be together would they have ended up together? Did Clare ever have a choice, when girls are young, they are suggestible...so growing up thinking one man is your one true love, do you ever look for another one?

This movie is a chick flick, and I am usually not one to go see chick flicks, but it is worth going to see, heck even my dad liked it. Even thought my boyfriend would never go to see this movie, if you like chick flicks and you have a man that will go with you or some girlfriends...GO SEE this movie. it is worth it!

I would of course recommend reading the book first, because for some reason they removed the ending of the book…which was really THE BEST ENDING and replaced it with something that wasn’t such a tear jerker true love type thing.

I am Omega: The Movie

I love zombie movies, so every time I see on set to play on TV, I TiVo it (gadda love TiVo!!). So this past weekend I saw I am Omega on the SyFy channel. The preview sounded good. The last man alive must battle against a bunch of zombies to survive alone. Not bad, I read I am Legend, and although the movie sucked (except for that hot ass shot of Will Smith without his shirt on doing pull-ups in the beginning, I think every girl in the theater appreciated that part!) the book was awesome! The book was great and if you haven’t read it, I suggest doing so. Heck, the book is great...I just wish that after all the failed attempts of turning good books into moives, people would have learned. But I must admit that the beginning of I am Omega was more like the book I am Legend then the movie they did. Anyway, I fade from my original point.

I am Omega…well what can I say except that I think I wasted about 1 ½ hrs of my life. Thank GOD that I had TiVo and could fast forward through quite a bit of it. It starts off with a mother trying to save her child, she ends up getting attack by what I can only assume was a zombie. It was the WORST zombie I have ever seen; it looked more like a bad version of Nemesis from Resident Evil: Apocalypse. It had its spine on the outside of its body and I cannot even begin explain how bad it was. So the zombie kills the mother and child….

The movie jumps to I guess the middle of the apocalypse and the last man, Richard, alive is actually the father and husband to the wife and child. How was this represented you may ask….he looked at a picture. Horrible. And since he is, supposedly, the last man the first (what seemed like an hour) part of the movie was basically silent. Besides his random words…nothing was spoken.

So the movie adventures on and one evening Richard is contacted through his lap top by a girl, Brianna, who is located in the city and she wants Richard to come rescue her. Ummm…one man going into a zombie infested city to rescue one girl…I do not think so.

So here I have to point out the fact that this movie was a little wacked by the fact that they STILL had power YEARS after civilization had died. Whatever…
So Richard tells Brianna no…like any sane person would so then 2 guys show up at Richards house and say they are going to rescue Brianna because she is the cure to the zombie outbreak and Richard has to show them the way. ANYONE who has read or watched zombie movies knows you don’t trust people outside your safe zone and those guys were outside the safe zone, but Richard goes to save the girl…I guess it wouldn’t be a movie without that.

I guess I shouldn’t give anymore away in case you want to torture yourself to some pretty crappy acting and a really bad script and just have a night of getting drunk and laughing at a stupid ass movie, but I personally really wouldn’t waste the time. It was an extremely boring movie, and as I mentioned before thank god for TiVo so I could fast forward through a lot of this and get done with it ASAP (I had to finish it in case the movie…at some point…decided to get better.)