Saturday, February 28, 2009
Holy cow, it really works!

apache :: da ‘brook :: sometime in 2008
One of my friends is a dog whisperer type person, and I had him come up to the house to work with the four of us.
Apache is my violent problem child. Arsey’s the stubborn one. He definitely had his work cut out for him, or so I thought.
He got both dogs under control relatively quickly and squashed my belief that the “Dog Whisperer” tv show is heavily edited to make it look quick / fit it into an hour-long episode. It’s amazing what you can do with that sort of knowledge.
We’ve been working hard this past week and we’re seeing progress. Not huge amounts of progress, but progress nonetheless. More so with Apache than Arsey, but Apache is working stock and he NEEDS to be working. Even if working means a sit/stay while the doorbell rings. Anything to help curb his aggression. Arsey is more stubborn and much older, so I figured she might be the harder one to work with. At the same time, though, she’s much better with people so once we can get her even a little more under control, I’ll be pleased.
We’ve always had them “wait” before they can go in and out of the house. We’ve added a sit to that and in most cases, we can at least get them to wait before they come inside. I’m sure the sit won’t be too far behind. Last night, we added the doorbell. We never got Arsey under control (wicked disappointing), but Apache did several rings very well. Laying down and staying instead of jumping up and barking. There was whining and shaking, but I’ll take the whining and shaking down/stay over the barking and attacking of the door area.
My goal is to have them in some sort of decent shape by April so the dog whisperer can come back for a check-up before I (finally) hold my gradjitation party in May.
I think that’s highly possible and I’m loving watching Apache’s behavior begin to change!
Thank you so much!!!
Posted by Matty on 02/28 at 01:17 PM
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Thursday, February 26, 2009
w00t!
Feeling proud - GA is # 5 in The Google for “boston college sucks!” *happy dance*
It’s the little things…
Posted by Matty on 02/26 at 10:27 AM
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Monday, February 23, 2009
Just messin’ around

experiments in photoshop :: da ‘brook :: february 21, 2009
Still struggling with the redesign on this site. Don’t know why the same code I’ve written a bazillion times is refusing to work the way it’s supposed to. Feelin’ miiiiiighty stupid. This is probably why I never really got into doing this for a living… so much easier to do it on the side, for myself. No pressure. No headaches. No demanding clients - oh wait. I’m pretty demanding. Moving on.
Instead of fighting with the code, I’ve been fooling around with some of my Instrument photos. The idea is to create a CD cover for their new EP… for my copy. I’m not really one to share my crap graphic design skills with the world. (Unless, of course, it’s on/for one of my sites. *grin*) I’ve done several different versions and I’m not really happy with any of them. That said, this one is my favorite, but I’m not sure why.
I’m just really glad that no one’s expecting me to actually put those out in the world or anything.
I suppose I’ve done enough stalling for the night. It’s time for round seven of Tam vs the “float:right”. GRRRRR!
Posted by Matty on 02/23 at 10:54 PM
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Saturday, February 21, 2009
You dirty little smuggler…

boba fett :: london :: september 1, 2008
I actually had one of those work weeks that started out completely terrible and got better as the weekend approached. That NEVER happens. Normally, it goes downhill and it never stops. Part of joy of this particular job, I suppose. Eh. I didn’t spend all that money on a career counselor and all those hours tearing apart and rebuilding my resume to walk away from what WILL be my perfect job. I just need patience. Not one of my strong suits, but after a few weeks in, I knew this job was a three year plan, easy. Assuming I don’t go to jail for murder… or that they can still afford to keep me on board… I’ll stay as long as I can.
I suppose a huge help was knowing that tonight was BU vs. Northeastern. We were a point behind them in the Hockey East standings, ranked above them nationally (# 1 vs # 4), and the Beanpot championship game definitely brought out the best in both teams. I was twitchy once 3 PM rolled around. I couldn’t wait to get out of the office and into The Greek. It was kind of sad, really. Like a freaking kid on Christmas Eve.
And just like a lot of Christmas Eves in my house when I was growing up, it was all foreplay and no fireworks. The game definitely had it’s moments, don’t get me wrong, but we looked flat and our D really screwed us in the second period. So much promise and we ended up barely walking away with a tie. About the only good thing about the game was when Yip beat that kid to a pulp. Reminded me of watching the Storm for a minute. (Shame the NCAA frowns on fighting - it does make the game much more interesting sometimes.)
We play them tomorrow night at UMASS-Roxbury and I hope we win. I want to be in the top spot. We deserve the top spot.
(If you don’t get the Robot Chicken reference, click here.)
Posted by Matty on 02/21 at 02:42 AM
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Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Name Days

old school st. :: the warehouse, hartford, ct :: february 7, 2009
So, your friend and mine, Dizzy Vizzy, is all about her “name day” today.
Being of Eastern European descent, I was curious to see if the Ukrainians also celebrated name days. Apparently, they do! (Scroll down for the Ukie’s name days.)
Mine is the first of May. I was wondering how I’d remember that when the Hubby of Wonder reminded me of my new favorite song: “The First of May” by Jonathan Coulton. (LYRICS ARE NOT SFW!!!!!)
Normally, early May sucks for me - I’ve got the quadruple whammy of the anniversary of my father’s death (April 30), my mother’s birthday (May 3), Mother’s Day (varies) and my parent’s wedding anniversary (May 10) in the first two weeks or so of that month. It’s a hard few weeks to get through. Being an orphan, those days have a TON of baggage, and I’m normally miserable during that time period. REALLY miserable.
But now! NOW! I can look forward to both my name day and the, uh, activities to partake in on the First of May.
w00t! for the first of May!
Posted by Matty on 02/18 at 08:48 PM
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