Rogue home…

On Thursday Rogue (our black lab) went off to be spayed.  For a regular dog, this can be a traumatic experience.  That seems predictable and normal. But for Rogue…

We got Rogue when she was 8 weeks old.  Since that time, she has been ingrained so much with the family that that animal can NOT be by herself for one minute without whining.  It used to drive me crazy but I have gotten used to it in the last year.  We used to be able to let out Bandit (our first black lab) and he’d go lay outside for awhile and enjoy the sun/shade and just being outside – without barking and causing a scene.  NOT ROGUE.

Rogue goes out and does her business and then immediately makes a beeline right back to the door.  And there she sits and begins her whining campaign to come in the house.  If we are outside she is fine.  But God forbid she is outside by herself for any period of time and the whining and crying begins.  I will say that because I had a hard time dealing with this quirk of hers initially (read that as a lot of yelling out the window to stop whining), she has been forced to develop a more patient “sit and wait a little bit” stance before the full onslaught of whines begin.  I think she can make it to 5 minutes before I hear a bark to be let in.  So I’ve just adjusted and she has adjusted.  In the morning, I will either wait for her to be done or walk away and start my coffee and come back and let her in right away.

Now, take this mindset into being away from us for a day and a half….  When I picked up Rogue at the vet yesterday, the lady at the front desk told me that Rogue was quite vocal on Thursday after her surgery.   Now I read “quite vocal” as the polite way of saying “she was annoying as all hell and would NOT shut up and drove us crazy all day long”… but for obvious reasons she wasn’t going to say exactly that to me.  They had told Rick when he dropped her off that she would sleep all day after the surgery. Riiiight.  He told them that he thought we might have to come and get her early because she has major separation anxiety.  Suffice it to say we were right and she whined and barked all day – no sleeping and no resting.

Last night the kids stayed with Grandma for a sleepover.  We thought this would give Rogue another 16 hours or so of not being pestered by the kids – maybe she’d even sleep.  HA!  While she was thrilled to see us, she really wanted to see the kids.  Throughout the night she woke us up several times with her whining.  At 2am, Rick thought she might just be in a lot of pain and we gave her another pain pill.  She settled for a bit but in another hour or so she was back at it.  So Rick got up and went in the back room and laid down with her.  Yes… laid down with the dog.  LOL!  She did settle down and I didn’t hear her again until 8am or so (we get to sleep in when sleepovers happen).  Rick said that she was fine as long as she had physical contact laying next to him.

This morning the kids have returned and Rogue has been estatic.  By the way she is acting you would never think she was spayed two days ago.  We are going to have such a hard time keeping her calm for the next two weeks.

She does seem very relieved though.  Enough to be calm for a brief period… this is what is happening as I type this


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She seems content – enough to maybe get a bit of rest today.  Maybe.  Hopefully.


It’s Friday! Garbage Day a National Holiday

Fridays are highly anticipated in this house but not because of the normal TGIF crap that everyone usually feels on the way towards the weekend.  In this house, Fridays are treated as a national holiday because Friday is GARBAGE DAY!

The progression of the week is marked by its relation to garbage day.

  • Is it garbage day today?
  • When is it going to be garbage day?
  • It’s going to be garbage day soon.
  • It’s only Monday.  It’s going to be garbage day on Friday.
  • It’s going to be garbage day tomorrow.
  • It’s garbage day TODAY!
  • It was garbage day yesterday…

Dan has been enthralled with garbage days since he was 2 1/2.   He can hear the garbage truck coming down the street from the back of the house. He will then fly into action and stop whatever he’s doing and proudly announce that a garbage truck is here. He then makes his way to the front window where he gawks and talks about the garbage truck at length.  He’ll even sing songs about the garbage truck (or the dog as she never leaves his side) while he watches them take our trash away.

And boy are we are in for a treat if there ever happens to be TWO garbage trucks on the street at the same time – which does happen especially if they are working both sides of the street or if both the recycling truck and refuse truck show up together or if its free garbage day (where you can throw out anything and everything without paying for $2.50 stickers).   I don’t know what the fascination with garbage trucks is.  With Dan it’s not really about the “truck” part.  He’s not into trucks as much.  It’s all about one special truck – the “garbage truck”.

In fact, the highlight of yesterday came on the way home from the grocery store.  There was a garbage truck in front of us. In front of us!  Dan of course got all excited.  At some point we passed the truck which ignited a hailstorms of “Look momma, we’ve passed the garbage truck.”, “Look momma, its now following us.”, “Drive faster momma so we’ll win!”.  Yes, it’s not every day in the life of a boy where you can race a garbage truck down the highway.  LOL!

Not shortly after, we came to a stop light.  We were on a highway with 3 lanes and by the way the traffic was lining up, I could tell that the garbage truck would end up right next to us if no one cut it off.  I announce this to Dan who has twisted around in his seat in order to keep his eye on the truck.  As it pulls up next to us, he can see  the driver inside the front cab and starts waving excitedly and announcing to the world “Momma!!!!  There is a GARBAGE TRUCK next to us!! and it’s a GREEN garbage truck!”  The driver looks over and has this confused look on his face like “What the hell?”

I’m sure firefighters and policemen are used to being adored as celebrities by little 4 year old boys… but garbage truck drivers?  hmmm… usually not.  I hope it made his day.

Friday Brain Dump…

Brain Dump… I came across that term sometime this week in regards to thinking your business plans out.  I think it was mentioned on one of the linkedin groups I subscribe to.  I don’t recall.  The idea is to just write everything down that you could think of regarding getting your business started, back on track, or whatever… a brain dump.  So I thought I’d do a little Friday Brain Dumping.


ENABLING – I saw a twitter this morning that directed you to a great site whose focus is on finding free commercial use fonts.  So I spent a good chunk of this morning downloading.  lol!  If you are in need of some fonts, check out Font Squirrel.  Great stuff!


After I grabbed a good amount of fonts, I didn’t want to unzip them all individually… I am lazy (just ask Jeanine)… So I came across BitZipper (free trial) that will unzip files in a batch.  I checked WinZip but didn’t see that option.  BitZipper worked like a charm.  I might just have to buy it now for all my batch unzipping. lol!


Last Friday, I spent three hours (yes 3!) weeding the front yard.  I ended up with an entire 33 gallon garbage can filled with just weeds… crazy… Today, the lawn looked pretty good and I only was out there for 30 minutes weeding.  I’m hoping to get a little time over the weekend to weed some in the back yard before they overrun my flowers.  My allergies have been crazy bad this year and I have been living on Zyrtec every day practically.  Hopefully that dependence will STOP soon!!!


What a great start to the day… lol!


I came across another twitter link to this No Spec blog post. Back in the day (and I’m talking years and years ago) when I kept up with the web design industry and was a real web designer, I was a firm believer in not doing work on spec.  And if the website was a small one, I often made the client pay 100% upfront (for a one-two page site).  I never showed a design to a client on spec. EVER.


Fast forward several years (showing my age…) in the licensing business, spec work runs rampant.  Do you or don’t you?  A year ago, when Kristy Valshan signed our first licensing contract, we asked for an advance.  That is getting much harder to do as time goes on.  Manufacturers no longer just make a product and go out and sell it.  More often than not, they pitch a digital rendition to the buyer and if there is interest, move on to the next stage and present a physical comp and if the buyer likes it then they move to the final production stage.


We have been caught both ways…. getting an advanced for specing a product that ended up with a warm fuzzy YES from the buyer only to be produced and the buyer not moving ahead with the order (thank goodness we got an advance or we would not have gotten paid for any of our work).  We have also been on the end of doing digital spec work, having it pitched and getting a warm fuzzy YES from the buyer, only to lose the order in the next physical comp stage because we wouldn’t do the physical comp without getting paid for our time. (In that case, the manufacturer did the physical comp which the buyer turned down)  It’s an incredibly fine line to walk in the licensing industry.  It seems more and more companies are looking for the designer to invest their time into a pitch (unpaid time) before they even find out if there is going to be a product at all.


I think for myself, I am starting to lean more towards providing a digital comp of a product (as we have found that it’s hard for the manufacturer to envision our designs on their own products so we have to do it for them) and then depending on the company (large vs small, art dept vs none, big deal vs small change), we might push for an advance to do the physical comp or let the company do the physical comp and hope for the best.  We have been burned both ways so I don’t have an answer for every situation.  It seems every situation is truly different and we are definitely still feeling ourselves out in this industry.


Speaking of licensing, I was fortunate to be able to participate in Jeanette Smith’s licensing workshop this week.  She offered a three day (2 hour per day) mini-camp on licensing (general, sales and contracts).  A lot of it is common sense and just doing it, but it’s still really great to listen and get re-energized and know that you really are on the right path.  I do that with Dave Ramsey too.  Even though I read his books and know the plan, it’s still nice to listen to his radio show once a week and stay on track with the plan.  Get energized!!


I am very excited to be flying out next Friday to stay with Jeanine and go to the stationery show.   Usually by now, we would have seen each other face to face – it’s been since September since I was out there.  We do “see” each other though via video – that has made things much easier for us.  When we need to show something to each other, we can just hold it up for the camera.  Lol!   We have been working like mad this week to prep for some meetings while I’m in town.  It’s been awhile since we were actively out there pushing our licensing and its been really great to get going again!


Well there you have it… my Friday Brain Dump… lol!  Hope you enjoyed it and thanks for playing. 😉


Happy Friday!



So “My Best Friend” Married a Sociopath….

So “My Best Friend” Married a Sociopath was not well-received at the box office. Released in the year 2000, it grossed a total of only $500 in 50 theaters on its opening weekend, well below the $20 million it thought it was entitled to.  The film had a very mixed reception – highly praised by other sociopaths yet a strong adverse reaction from the average movie goer.

Ed Gein gave high marks to the sociopath for being “an exceptional psycho viciously trapping his victim while leaving her to grasp wildly for individuality and empowerment”.  Others have given the sociopath poor marks for its misguided ways and high opinion of itself.

As the story unfolds it becomes quickly apparent that the victim needs to get away – far away – from the sociopath.  I must give So “My Best Friend” Married a Sociopath, a whopping 11 stars, for its incredibly accurate depiction of every day life being trapped with a psycho that everyone else views as “very strange but okay”.  Until you are fully submerged in the every day dealings of the victim, you can’t begin to comprehend what life is truly like with a sociopath.  This movie was extremely eye opening, gut wrenching and an every day emotional roller coaster.  It is not something for the faint hearted.

Glibness and Superficial Charm (8/10 stars)

Manipulative and Conning (10/10 stars) 
They never recognize the rights of others and see their self-serving behaviors as permissible. They appear to be charming, yet are covertly hostile and domineering, seeing their victim as merely an instrument to be used. They may dominate and humiliate their victims.

Grandiose Sense of Self (10/10 stars)
Feels entitled to certain things as “their right.”

Pathological Lying (10/10 stars) 
Has no problem lying coolly and easily and it is almost impossible for them to be truthful on a consistent basis. Can create, and get caught up in, a complex belief about their own powers and abilities. Extremely convincing and even able to pass lie detector tests
.

Lack of Remorse, Shame or Guilt (10 stars)
A deep seated rage, which is split off and repressed, is at their core. Does not see others around them as people, but only as targets and opportunities. Instead of friends, they have victims and accomplices who end up as victims. The end always justifies the means and they let nothing stand in their way.

Shallow Emotions (11/10 stars)
When they show what seems to be warmth, joy, love and compassion it is more feigned than experienced and serves an ulterior motive. Outraged by insignificant matters, yet remaining unmoved and cold by what would upset a normal person. Since they are not genuine, neither are their promises.

Incapacity for Love (10/10 stars)

Need for Stimulation (10/10 stars)
Living on the edge. Verbal outbursts and physical punishments are normal. Promiscuity and gambling are common.

Callousness/Lack of Empathy (11/10 stars)
Unable to empathize with the pain of their victims, having only contempt for others’ feelings of distress and readily taking advantage of them.

Poor Behavioral Controls/Impulsive Nature (10/10 stars) Rage and abuse, alternating with small expressions of love and approval produce an addictive cycle for abuser and abused, as well as creating hopelessness in the victim. Believe they are all-powerful, all-knowing, entitled to every wish, no sense of personal boundaries, no concern for their impact on others.

Irresponsibility/Unreliability (11/10 stars)
Not concerned about wrecking others’ lives and dreams. Oblivious or indifferent to the devastation they cause. Does not accept blame themselves, but blames others, even for acts they obviously committed.

Promiscuous Sexual Behavior/Infidelity (10/10 stars)

Lack of Realistic Life Plan/Parasitic Lifestyle (11/10 stars) 
Tends to move around a lot or makes all encompassing promises for the future, poor work ethic but exploits others effectively.

Does not perceive that anything is wrong with them (11/10 stars)

Authoritarian (11/10 stars)

Secretive (10/10 stars)

Paranoid (10/10 stars)

Exercises despotic control over every aspect of the victim’s life (10/10 stars)

Extreme narcissism and grandiose (11/10 stars)

THE SOCIOPATH DISCLAIMER:

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The views and opinions expressed on this page are strictly those of the author.  The content of this page has not been reviewed by the National Society of Sociopaths.  No human being has been maimed, electrocuted, shot or hung as a result of the opinions expressed here.  The views of a sociopath do not conform to my views, or to any accepted standard of logic for that matter.

Information provided here is for enlightenment only. It is not intended as a substitution for psychiatric advice. If you are a sociopath, please see your doctor for evaluation of your individual case. Under no circumstances will the author be liable to you for any direct or indirect damages arising in connection with reading this.

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Any resemblance to real sociopaths, living or dead is purely coincidental.

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