"How much is that doggy in the window?"

Yikes, what have we got here? You see a small, happy puppy in a pet store window. Thinking, "Oh, how cute!", you walk into the store to take a gander at the puppy and the rest of the litter.

The most unasked question in the consumer industry does not seem important at the time-

"Where did these puppies come from?" The answer may surprise you.

Not all puppies come from responsible breeders. Take a small peak into the worst of human nature, of greed.

An old barn house, maybe a make-shift kennel. Hundreds of cages lined with dogs in rows and rows, stacked and crowded. The smell rises up and hangs in the air, clings to the floor, the ceiling, the dogs. Maybe some of the dogs have skin conditions, untreated- there are too many of them to afford the treatment. They're not getting attention either, just sitting in those cages all day long, stepping in their own waste. Pups are separated all too early from their mothers. But those pups will become the most sought after purebred pets at your local pet store.

Puppy mills. This is what over breeding can come to. Lots of cages holding dogs who are kept in less-than-stellar living conditions, the brood moms (females) bred over and over, no time to heal and recuperate- barely mature themselves.

Next time you're looking for a new dog, don't go for the little fuzzball in the pet store window, or a backyard breeder. Do your research and know what kind of business you're supporting. Most importantly, raise awareness for the cruel reality of dog breeding gone wrong.

-iNTune

"To say nothing, to do nothing, stops nothing" ~ Roni McCall

Someone is trying to Tell me Something

Mood: uneasy

Keepin' it real here. About 30 minutes ago, I literally felt my heart stop. I couldn't breath for that second, and then I suddenly could. My heart was beating rapidly, catching up for lost time.

The seriousness of the situation called for me to venture into the kitchen to get a Reese's (if I was going to die, fat chance RICE would be the last thing I ate!). I figured I'd balance out the bad stuff with some good so I grabbed a nectarine as well. Bit into it and got a bad feeling, and looked down as my stomach lurched- the pit of the fruit had black rot next to it, with a tiny bit of mold. Inside the fruit, mold.

What's the message here? I joked to my brother that he'll find out that the cat sat on my face and smothered me to death while I was sleeping.

-iNTune

Review of "Tangled"

Disney movies are my kryptonite. After watching one, the dark poses no threat that cannot be overcome with fairytale kisses. A new Netflix account supplied my daily dose of it last night.

Rupunzel, repunzel, let down your long hair! You all know the gist of the old bedtime story. A baby is traded away to an old witch. The little girl is raised by the witch, who locks her in a tower until the prince comes along to sweep her away. Eventually, given challenges, he does. They live happily ever after.

Ever want to see that come to life? So did Disney. They finally swept this forgotten princess out of the tower and onto the movie screens!

The plot has changed a tiny bit from some original variations. Baby Repunzel was stolen from her parents, a King and Queen, by a witch. The witch raises her as her own, and will probably come off as a drama queen herself right off the bat. She's that villian that everybody will love to hate.

When the "prince" comes along (really a rogue runaway), he's just hiding in the tower, and when Repunzel finds him? Isn't exactly love at first sight. This was a delightful twist to the old story, and you grow to love a certain cooking utensil more and more.

Besides changing original characters, enter a Chameleon sidekick for the stolen princess and a hunting horse out for justice. The cuteness and comedy factors rise given their inhuman help.

Like every Disney movie, there needed to be music added in, for there to be a soundtrack to sell and a magical tale to be sung by little girls for years to come. There are a good amount of songs in this one, evenly spaced out as the pages turn. If that's not your thing, this might cut some points off of that perfect movie score in your brain. Musical interference? Foul.

Classic Disney songs. Fun, sometimes with some humor thrown in. Emotional- they always tell a story, so listen up closely.

One thing that I really loved about this movie is the animation, which has come so far from what it once was. The little details, like millions of little blades of grass blowing in the wind give a real "live" feel. There is a scene in which one of the characters falls against some furniture- it clangs around the moves in a very realistic way. May seem a minute detail, but all those little details add up.

When you pick this movie up, order it, TEVO it, the rating may pop out at you. PG- For what?

There is a little violence in this movie. A tiny bit of blood is shown (cartoon blood), and I guess this could disturb a sensitive three year old, though it's really not anything to frown upon. Get past that and the kiddies are good to go.

Fun for the whole family, this movie gets a 10/10 and a big thumbs up from me. If you like any of the recent Disney (or Pixar) movies, you'll probably want to add, "Tangled" to your DVD collection.

-iNTune

Oh Media, you and your influence!

I went for a walk with my two year old greyhound Taffy this afternoon. An old man called out and asked if she was a Wolfhound, and we started chatting.

He said that his son just adopted a pit bull. At first, he shared, he was apprehensive about bringing the bully dog into the family. He called his insurance company to make sure that they were not held liable in a court of law if the dog suddenly went psycho and killed everyone in town.

To his surprise, the dog was not only smart, but affectionate. He is well behaved. The only time the dog is a bit wary is when someone comes near him that clearly is not keen on seeing a pit bull. With this type of person, the dog smartly stays away from them instead of greeting them, gives them their space.



I was glad to hear of this man's positive experience. With the media coverage on pit bull attacks and even laws against owning this breed, it's hard to get a word in edgewise.

So why do these dogs have such a bad rap?

In the olden days, dogs were used to tenderize live meat. Enter 1800s, it becomes sport. As the larger animals used in dog fighting were harder to get a hold of (bovine, bears, etc), people put dog against dog in the ring. By the mid 1800s, this "sport" was unlawful in most states, although it continued with an underground following which is still illegally active to this day.

Breeders dish out liters of pups to train as fighting and "bait" dogs (just used to egg the dogs on, usually the dogs who refuse to fight another dog in the ring. The equivalent to a punching bag). These dogs are trained from a young age to go off on another dog, but to be compliant with their human trainers. The trainers use different  tools to build the dog's muscles up, keep them strong, along with a specialized diet. Dogs who show any sign of aggression towards humans during or before their career are usually euthanized (inhumanely is more cost efficient), as the spectators watching the dogs must be kept safe. The dogs are set against each other, and then they fight until one dog cannot continue to fight.

They draw crowds. Money all around, people will and have placed some coin on which dog will destroy the other.

Before they were used in dog fights, pit bulls were known as "the nanny dog". They have a strong sense of family, and are known to be naturally gentle with children. People used them as babysitters in America hundreds of years ago.



Imagine a dog with a normally sweet disposition, shoved into the ring with another dog, prodded until provoked over and over again. Aggitated, the dogs lash out at their "opponent", the first thing in site that they are allowed and encouraged to go after.


Not all "pit bulls" come from dog fighting arenas. Some are bred by private breeders to be pets or show dogs. A certain kind of person is attracted to the tough-guy image that is associated with owning a big, strong dog, usually the type that aren't looking for a family pet, but instead a status symbol or a guard dog. Maybe they don't socialize the dog as a puppy. The dog gets loose by accident, and you have the next eight o clock news story.

The media has eaten up stories on pit bull attacks like they were gossip on the latest and greatest in Hollywood, and left out just the right amount of information to make the breed seem dangerous, even evil. Headlines of dogs attacking women, children, other dogs, cats, your left shoe, all over the newspapers (online and printed).

This is all that some people cared to know about the breed- that some of them can be violent, and that much suffering is caused on account of pit bull attacks.

What everyone forgets to take into account is that the media feeds on misery, gossip, death and drugs. You don't hear a news story about dogs with sweet dispositions, or people of the same caliber for that matter. All ya need to do is record the right where and when, no one cares to know about the why or the how.

There are rescue groups and organizations, as well as some proud pit owners, who are now reshaping the public opinion on pit bulls. Filling most city shelters due to excessive and irresponsible breeding, they could really use a little positive publicity these days.

-iNTune

I'm not laughing yet...

Don't you just love those moments that you'll laugh at when you're older, but at the moment, make you want to hide in a hole?

Someone just told me they were my age, and I thought I misheard them. I responded, "Thank you".

Thanks brain. That was really helpful.

Luxury is a pain

Less is more. Here at our cottage, we have minimal living space, less privacy, have to take more time to walk the dogs since we have no fenced in yard. No AC, no nearby Chinese food places. Less work.

It's wonderful. It's simple, and just glorious.

A TV commercial for the "love calculator"? Come on now!

If you've been around the 'net, you've seen at least one website, page or app called the Love Calculator. On one of the websites using this name, you type in two names and you are told if, by the names of two people only, "Doctor Love" thinks they are compatible.

Countless others ask for a phone number, so that you can get texted the "results" of your compatibility test.

Now, there's a commercial showing a girl and a guy about to get married, and then ending with the girl crying because she didn't take her compatibility test seriously, and he left her.

Maybe Sister Psychic is working for them. How else could Doctor Love know, just by assessing their names, that they would or wouldn't be compatible?

It is up to continuous work (thank you Shay Carl for the lesson) and natural compatibility (or clashing) that needs to decide if two people are good together, not a computer app.
-iNTune

Finally, a second to sit down and READ! :)

If there's ever a time to fall asleep, it's when you start seeing things that shouldn't be there. Unless you're with Sam and Dean Winchester that is, then I suggest you stock up on Starbucks.

I'm re-reading So You Want To Be A Wizard, first book of my favorite series. It has been running since 1983, and there are 9 books out, with more on the way. The last book came out last year, and I really really REALLY want the next book to come out soon!

I guess you could say the series is about Wizardry, but it's not like Harry Potter. Wizards in the world of Diane Duane work to slow entropy (the universe running out). Two kids, Kit Rodriguez and Nita Callahan, become wizards, and then partners in wizardry after they face their Ordeal together. It's a really, really great series, I highly suggest it. Now because of the different time periods Duane wrote these in, each book is a tiny bit different, although she tries to keep them consistent. I love all of the books, but the newer ones I will admit, I liked them more. I started reading at the 4th or 5th book and went back to the others, but I guess you should probably start from the beginning...

-iNTune

Intuition>Logic

Headache. No medicine, tried to fight it. Felt in the mood for Skillet, turned up the music. Headache? Gone! Loud music should not help, let alone cure, a headache. Then again, I tend to skip around the rules of logic.

-iNTune

"My heart is filled with songs of forever. A city that endures, where all is made new.."

(^Thrice, "In Exile")

I have to wonder, when I reflect on my musical taste:

Am I who I am because of the music I've listened to, or do I listen to the music because of who I am? Maybe a little of both?
Chicken or the egg conundrum ._. .

-iNTune

"so it is sure", a poem written in the style of e.e. cummings

[so it is sure]

so it is sure.

an eerie glow

beset the moon    tonight.

i can hear the trumpetcall-

a smug              becoming cry

the minute properpast

relief seethes  into

tired smiles.

more more more in the

seams between the lines.

shadows wellset by time show face

creep out, waking limbs jolted on

as if rushing to greet longawaited

celebrant.

it is normal it is human

feel the energy it is normal

to grieve. to raise curled fist

high. to cry for        blood?

so war is sure as love.

stalking beast, hungry aching

for satisfaction to shake the rattling

from my bones.  it is i and i

cannot fall in step.

what i know-

what is death?

it holds no bias, no passion

no victory.

sacredandsure-

bad men        die.

i make no celebration of it.

so as hate is spread when hate is challenged

i and nervousfaces passing by keep peace

in-

My hate was undone, I drew first blood..

(^title= "Revenge" by Switchfoot)
NEWSFLASH
There's a rumor going around that Osama Bin Ladin is dead... at first I was intreged, but had to back out because I realize there's no proof of it yet. I want to see news articles, official declarations. Don't wanna jump the gun. My news feed just blew up the second someone "Tweeted" about it.

EDIT: Apparently confirmed by Obama. Head of a major terrorist organization, it's a big thing. Means we know where he is, that he is gone. But how, why? And what exactly does this mean for us, for them? Most people seem happy more for the revenge part of it, but what comes next- what now?

By the way, all of the "God Bless America" comments after some people just killed a guy? It's majorly disturbing, the idea of it. "God bless America, we shot him, dead." Yeah, that makes God proud... I don't care what he did, if he deserves it- I will not rejoice at death, at revenge, be happy about such things. Instead I am sad about what happened because of him and his group, mournful, of course angry for all that has gone on, and will continue to go on (in our society, war is as certain to be as love).

Everyone feels like this is recompense for what happened, for all of the lives lost, families destroyed. And that's why they're all so happy. But nothing can bring any of that back. We can't get it back no matter who we kill, no matter what we do, and to me it doesn't do good to the memory of those lost to think otherwise. But people feel like if they get their man, everything is fine. It's a twisted sort of satisfaction that I just can't buy into.

This doesn't mean the end of all of our problems. We're too quick to pat ourselves on the back, too full of American pride. I saw a post somewhere that said something along the lines of "Now gas prices will go down!". A misguided assumption, to say the least.

It's NOT over.

-iNTune

Even flow, thoughts arrive like butterflies

(^Pearl Jam, "Even Flow"^)

During a conversation about being home alone, I had a passing thought.

I wonder if I ever would have done that at my dad's apartment?

My dad passed away a year and a half ago. I can still remember his voice, his laugh. He had a loud laugh. And snore, he'd snore and it was as loud as a bear's growl. I can hear him affectionately teasing me, and then he would tickle me or kiss the top of my head. He was big on hugs, no matter how old I was. I guess that's part of the father-daughter relationship, you never get too old for that stuff.

He passed on his musical taste to me (rock/alt), and at the same time, encouraged my brother and I's individual explorations.

I remember one night when I was about 15 years old, I came over to his apartment with a Thrice cd. They scream a bit, mostly in their older albums. I put the cd in and as we talked and played board games. He smiled and although he didn't say that he liked it, when I asked him for feedback on the music, he... okay, I don't know how he did this, but he would comment on it, make me feel good about my musical taste and not diss the music. Even if he may have disliked the music. And he gave any music a chance, which I've learned to do now, however hesitant I am with some genres.

He was extremely encouraging of me when it came to band too. I would get nervous and try to play perfectly if he was in the audience. He tried to be at every concert, and he was, besides a few times when he was too sick. He'd stay until the end, and then search me out and, grinning from ear to ear, talk to me about it, praise me for my work. He was my biggest fan.

Wanna be friends?

I find it so funny that it's easy to make "friends" online.

Face to face, making friends can be a bit of a process. It could take a couple of meetings or a month, maybe more. One never knows what will start that bond- I once glared at someone for cutting ahead of me in line, and BAM! Friend!

In real life though, unless you're in kindergarten or younger than that, you don't walk up to someone and say, "Hey you're cool! Wanna be friends?". That changes online. We will "friend" someone whom we have never met in person. The more impersonal the source (Facebook v.s. Tumblr) the more intense these feelings of friendship seem to be.

"Can I break the spell of the typical?"

(^MuteMath, "Typical"^)

Like a lot of people my age, I want my own place or somewhere to call home, a nice job, a family one day. Pretty typical, though exciting and alluring for me. Does not really set me apart from anyone. My highest career goal is to help people. Not be known for it or even recognized, I just want to be able to help.

In a freaky way,  though I am my own person, there are so many people out there; someone is thinking what I'm thinking, someone else is just as "unique". They are wondering what I am, making similar plans. Not a pleasant way of looking at it when you want to be an individual, right?

But here's the thing... no one else can be you. You own who you are, and you are unqiue, able, important. Your thoughts, feelings, emotions, your soul... It's easy to lose sight of that when we pull back and look at the world as a whole sometimes, that even if we are similar to others, even if we don't seem to stand out in some perspectives, we are still important. We matter.


-iNTune

Milgram was surprised at the results: a shocking truth

This type of study came from people questioning what happened with the Nazi's. How did such a large mass of people just obey one man, Hitler? How did they just fall into their roles, regardless of their own morals?

The Milgram experiment: test subjects were told that they were participating in an experiment about Learning and Punishment. They were told to play the role of the "teacher", asking questions to the "learner" that was sitting in another room.

If the learner got a question wrong, the teacher was told to flip a switch that would administer a painful shock to them. The more questions were answered wrong, the higher the voltage of the shock to the learner would be.

Now the people in the experiment were all in on the fact that the real experiment was on Obedience, to see if the "teachers" would continue to administer powerful shocks when told to do so. From another room, the actors playing the learners would holler and even admit to having chest pains, and all the scientist overlooking the teacher's progress needed to do was prompt them, and they continued to deliver very high voltage shocks to the other person.

This was the sequence of the "prompts" given by the onlooking fake scientist:

"Please continue/go on"
"The experiment requires that you continue"
"It is absolutely essential that you continue"
"You have no other choice; you must continue"
Control was a big thing. They obeyed more when control seemed to be taken from them.

The scientist was the authority figure here. About 65% of the participants listened to the scientist throughout the experiment, even if they questioned if the other person was okay. What really led one participant to continue in the video we watched in my Social Psych class was that when the man told the scientist he didn't want another man's pain to be his fault, the scientist assured him,

"It would be my fault if anything happened, it would fall on me." Not you. So the guy continued, giving over 180 volts to the imaginary victim on the other end.

What was so controversial about this experiment was that the participants had to learn that they were capable of causing pain to another person, just because they were told to do so. To know you're capable of torturing another human being just because you're told to? That's some powerful stuff. We like to believe that we aren't capable of hurting others and that our morals will prevent that. Nope, doesn't work that way. Don't know until you're in a situation how you'll act.

In another class session, we saw a video in which people were asked how much money they would have to be offered to drown a puppy. Some people said a billion dollars, some said a couple of hundred. One very scary-looking girl said 50 cents. One lady they questioned said that she could never do it for any amount of money.

Then, the guys asking people how much it would take for them to do it came back with a live puppy, and asked the people again if they could still do it, and for how much. Most people were shocked, their answers changed to No, they could never do it, not even for a million dollars.

We are bad predictors of our own motivation...

No way I can believe this article is true!... ;)

PsyBlog wrote an article about how little trust we put in other people.

Here it is: http://www.spring.org.uk/2010/04/the-trust-gap-why-people-are-so-cynical.php

"When thinking about strangers, studies have shown that people think others are more selfishly motivated than they really are and that others are less helpful than they really are."

So we think others are more selfish than they are, and less helpful. How they measured how selfish and helpful people really are is a mystery to me.

I like having faith in other people. I've noticed that people often do not give others the benefit of a doubt. I like to give them that trust. Sometimes, yeah, people betray it. But I try not to let the anger of broken trust lead to completely severed ties. Life is too short to stay mad, and to let one experience or even multiple ones show you how to judge another person, and certainly not let that be your guide for everyone!

I do understand the need to not trust others. We're looking out for ourselves, so that we don't get hurt. The article points out that maybe this is why we trust others so little. By instinct, we avoid that which may bring us pain. Makes sense.

Doesn't this limit us though? If you never try, if you let the negative consume you, you can't win. You won't. Your expectations will come true.

"Trusting others is also a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy, just as we find in interpersonal attraction. If you try trusting others you'll find they frequently repay that trust, leading you to be more trusting. On the other hand if you never trust anyone, except those nearest and dearest, then you'll end up more cynical about strangers."

-iNTune

"I'm getting into you, because you got to me in a way words can't describe"

Every time I listen to this song, Getting into You by Relient K, a pleasant shiver runs down my spine. A complete surrender to God. Love it.

Although... isn't it weird when you like a song that talks to you as if you're the opposite sex?

"When you looked at me and said, I kind of view you as a son". I mean, sing out "daughter" instead there and it ruins the flow of the song. o_o

-iNTune

Where would you be?

If I could be anywhere right now (my "happy place"), I'd be somewhere warm, out in the middle of a grassy field where I could just lay back and gaze at all of the stars. Not thinking, unmoving. Just taking it in. Adore those clear nights when you can see every last echo of a star, burning bright from millions of miles away.

Human Taco!

Cold night, I woke up wrapped like a human taco in my bedspread, tangled in the computer cord.

Gonna let the sunshine stream in and wake me up. Can never get out of bed when I'm cold. Plus tacos are best served warm.

What are we thinking?

I saw all of the commotion about that new song by the young Rebecca Black. I decided to find the song on Youtube, listened, and it sucks. Wrote about it on Facebook, wondering how someone actually let her into the music scene. I almost thought "Friday" was a parody of all of those party songs, except then I found out that Rebecca Black was serious when she went for this. Her parents helped her make her dream a reality.

Okay, like with Justin Beiber, I cannot say that I could do any better. I sing sorta on key, but not really. The dogs still start to howl when I think I'm alone and I burst out into song. I'm sure the neighbors are amused.

So I don't like the song still, and I understand the want of making fun of it. Then I saw an interview with her, and thought back to how I was at that age. I felt some remorse for laughing at the more "innocent" parody videos out there. But especially to hear her say that the worst comment she saw on a video was someone telling her to "go cut your wrists" and to "become anorexic so that you would be pretty" left me feeling awful about the whole situation. She's 13.

These young stars, who are idolized by people their age and made fun of by the rest of the world, what exactly are we doing when we pick on them? What is it but a bunch of gossip, and in the case of Youtube, cyberbullying an impressionable young kid (not directly we think, and yet she reads them)? They shouldn't even be exposed to these things at this age, but I mean, this is the dream for them- to be put out there, to be famous. From a young age, we want to be idolized, loved by many. Some say That's what she gets for being out there, but there's something very wrong, very cold about that. An easy target doesn't make what you're doing right.

People, what are we doing here? One of the ways we connect is in our discontent, and that seems harmless. Having an opinion? Not bad. But when it verges on bullying, when it's something that you wouldn't say or think about anyone else? Why do we see these people as so immune, so different from the rest of us?

If my tv starts going fuzzy and he appears on it, I'm high-tailing it out of here!

Anyone seen The Ring movies? I was wondering how the cat got on top of the mattress we have laying up against the wall outside of my room, so I watched him look up at it. And then,  he climbed up the side of that mattress like he was the little girl in the well, at superhuman speed. First I laughed like I'd lost my mind. When I ran out of breath, I was a tiny bit creeped out.

Goodbye farmer's tan... :(

I was in marching band for all four years of high school. At band camp every year, I would wear t-shirts and come into the new school year with an attractive farmer's tan. Every year, it'd be a little thing that I'd take with me as a reminder of all my hard work, blood n sweat, all those memories. Until summer, when I could tan evenly again in a bathing suit.

Well, no band camp this past fall. So my tan has slowly faded, and I see this now as I have a tank top on, shoulders fairly bare.

It's not really warm enough to be wearing this, I was just so excited for spring and sun when I woke up that I wanted to wear as little clothing as possible o.O.

Ode to Din, my iPod.

In one ear to the other
bounding faster than a star;
impressionable in the
confines of a universe.

Sharing space and unmarked history
activating lost emotion.
Winter chills still summer breezes,
sighs morph into breathless wonder

captivated in the currents
every atom focused in.
World within a world
within a bigger picture yet.

An audience of many
sets aside a single soul.
Intimate as true love found,
to be a vessel of the sound.