jerryskids

Ninja, great guy, big, all black and part Maine Coon (we think, got him from a shelter). A lot like a dog, he would hear the garage door and sit by the door to greet us. Whenever my wife and I were in the same room, he made sure to join. He loved sleeping up against my leg and hip. He always came up to greet visitors. Loved going into our back yard, watch birds, and eat grass. When it was time to come in he was easily herded, then threw up said grass (OK, I didn't love that last part!). But... he was14 years old which is entering geriatric age for a cat. His eating had slowed, until finally on Thursday he didn't eat his Churu treat -- those things are like crack to cats. Since that was the 4th, I took him to the vet Friday. They did blood work... ehhh, his liver is shot. Bilirubin off the charts, among other things. My kids were luckily coming to our house that night for a birthday party, so I brought him home and they said their goodbyes. The kids grew up with them, he was one of the family. Wife and I took him in yesterday and they put him to sleep. Adding to the sadness, my wife left this morning for Michigan to help move her mom into assisted living. So all of a sudden I'm sitting in a totally empty house. It's really weird. I keep expecting to see him when I turn a corner. If I'm salty in some of my responses, it's probably because I'm a little depressed. Also your post probably sucked.

Biden seems to be putting in a big push in Philly. Not sure why, since he already has 107% of the vote there. Maybe he hopes it spills over to the rest of the state?

Thanks. When we got him from the shelter, his name was Clumsy. In hindsight, that was a pretty good name for him, because he wasn't the most agile of cats. But we were all doing taekwondo at the time, and somebody in the fam proposed Ninja as a name... it seemed perfect.

Thanks. Also I thought I threw a softball there for someone to say he was scared by my ugly face!

Use wrong pronouns for people, and if somebody says something, tell them you couldn't tell and didn't want to offend them.

It's 10 AM somewhere!

Thanks all for the kind words. They gave us a list of about 10 companies that will do that. Thing is, we had no time. We got the diagnosis Friday evening, and my wife was leaving town Sunday morning, and she wanted to be there as well. Yes, I was there. I held his head in my hands and looked him in the eyes as the vet put in the sedative. His eyes got wide, like he was scared of whatever was going on, and I'm glad he had a familiar face to look at before he closed them for a final time. I was pretty composed until that sedative shot, then I just broke down like a sobbing child.

I didn't think trans people could compete in olympic track and field. I guess it happens but it's rare. I couldn't imagine how disappointed/upset I'd be if my daughter came in "4th" place in the qualifier. https://www.cbssports.com/olympics/news/paris-olympics-2024-transgender-middle-distance-runner-nikki-hiltz-qualifies-with-record-breaking-1500m-time/

Good point. I was thinking more about the traditional reading writing rithmatic kinda studies.

I know right?! As I said I'm about to go to Scotland -- I'm sure the hotel will have some big thick comforter and no amount of external cooling will be enough.

I've heard it said, and I'm sure I've said it here before, that for a kid to be successful in school, 2 of the following 3 need to care: Parent(s), teacher(s), kid himself. I think this is more true early in the kid's life, when caring parents and teachers can instill a desire to learn on the kid. But if we're talking HS and the kid doesn't care, fuggettaboutit. It's too late. Perhaps I'm convincing myself that there is something to be done: a strong focus on parenting in the first, say, 5 years. If we can convince parents to do their job in that window: read to the kid, talk to him/her, basically create a pint-sized lifelong learner, I think the rest will largely take care of itself. There are probably a lot of people who simply don't realize the importance of such things from infancy. Perhaps there is some low-hanging fruit there?

I just finished watching the ABC interview, and watched the Morning Joe one. I though Snuffy and ABC did a pretty good job. It's hard to say how many edits there were -- there was one where Biden appeared to start going into "staring blankly into space" mode, and there was a clear edit. I agree with the first analyst after the interview -- it was a worst-case scenario for the dems: just OK, not great enough to reinforce him, and not terrible enough to insta-whack him. So they are in limbo. The Morning Joe, meh. Similar message from ABC: it was just an episode, I'm not going anywhere, I'm the best candidate to beat Trump. Unfortunately this last sentence is probably true, but it says nothing about being the best person to run the country for four more years. When pushed about the huge deficit he has in the polls, he says he doesn't believe them because he's going around talking to average people (because average people go to such rallies?). I linked the Morning Joe one below. I swear at about the 11:50 mark, Biden talks for about 10 seconds more before they switch back to the MSNBC folks, and the woman (don't know her name) looks like she is holding in a huge laugh. Then towards the end, maybe 16:30 or so, Biden starts stumbling through a list of Trump lies from the debate, then finally admits he's reading from a list (but struggling to do so). Then regarding the "losers" comment at the French cemetery, I'm pretty sure Biden said he was there when Trump said it.

Spinning off from the Chicago thread, we were discussing bands that started out rocking and turned into wedding balladeers. So far we had: Chicago, rocking with Terry Kath, turned into a Peter Cetera snooze fest. @Engorgeous Georgementioned Jefferson Airplane to Jefferson Starship to Starship. I added Styx Mr. Roboto, ugh. @patweisers44mentioned Fleetwood Mac getting soft. What you got?

What happened today?

Good point; this probably explains a lot of the increase in the more affluent areas. The hood, not so much.

The best part of his debate performance, and mostly since, has been his surprising ability to just stay quiet and give Biden all of the rope he needed. If he has finally figured this election hack out, beware. I heard a pundit say something like the following: Trump's silence is scary. It is like in Jurassic Park when the velociraptor starts to figure out how the door handle works.

I don't love or respect much of what Trump has done in his personal life. The problem is, Biden has no morals, good or bad. His brain is a vacuum at this point. I don't know who is running the country, so I can't evaluate their morals. Also, there is a difference between the personal morals of the president, and the impact of his policies on our society. If Trump puts in policies which encourage two-parent households for instance, that would help this morally broken society, and that would be more important to me than if he shtupped a pron star 8+ years ago.

I don't think "vast" means what you think it means, in this context. It does not take a lot of people with violent intentions to make a big difference. Also, it changes with volume. A single Muslim family living in a neighborhood isn't going to cause problems. The large numbers that have congregated in European countries, however, seem to be doing just that. And it's not just the religion, although that's a factor. It's that they are coming from shiothole theocracies, and that's all they've known their entire lives.

Regarding sleep: I wear an Oura ring at night to measure heart, temperature, oxygen, some other stuff. It is quite interesting, as a techie, to see the impact of alcohol on sleep. There is a clear correlation between higher alcohol consumption and: higher heart rate, lower heart rate variability (HRV is good, so this is bad), higher temperature, higher respiration rate. All of this is bad -- your body spends its time processing the jet fuel you've consumed, and not doing its true "sleep" work of healing your brain and body. It's also interesting that, if I have two or three drinks max, the processing seems to take 8 hours. If my last drink is at 8PM, at 4AM you can see all of the above parameters start to improve. There comes a point of consumption, however, where the process takes the entire evening. I don't usually hit those points any more. It has definitely helped to convince me to consume less. I probably should stop altogether, but my cat just died, my wife is out of town, and Friday I leave for Scotland with my son to watch The Open and drink scotch. So... maybe later. Oh, and seeing @MTSkiBum's post reminded me: the best way I've found to sleep better, other than drinking (or eating late btw), is to sleep cooler. I highly recommend something like the ChiliPad system: https://sleep.me/ I've got the basic cube which I like. How's it going for you, Ski?

I was wondering if you were still drinking. If you have quit, good for you. also @mmmmm...beer -- thanks for the heads up, I'll sell my Chardonnay stock.

Thanks, that's where I remember it from.

Ah yes, you in the center. Since you've been posting here, I've thought, "here is a center centrist guy!" Here is a recent example of your centrist posts: Obviously you are an objective, centrist poster, like all of the other centrists that post here.

Are you Christian? I thought you were raised Jewish. I could be completely off though; if so I apologize in advance.

https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/elections/2024/biden-at-81-often-sharp-and-focused-but-sometimes-confused-and-forgetful/ Example of it just being episode, from the bastion of impartiality, the AP.

No, it's completely different. I appreciate your pursuit of knowledge, though.