Mollie's Graduation

Mollie completed her obedience course today.  Here she is in her mortar board.  Next stop, therapy dog assessment.  

This photo session proved to be quite hilarious.  Those of you who have met Mollie know that she sneezes a lot, particularly when she's excited and happy.  The thrill of graduation provoked a fair bit of sneezing, which would make the hat fly off her head.  Our slapstick routine got laughs from human passersby, which only made Mollie sneeze more.  

Now that I think about it, maybe this was Mollie's interpretation of throwing one's cap in the air at the end of the graduation ceremony.  Clever dog.

If I had a camera...

If I had a digital camera, I could have made a visual document of the giant sculpture of Eddie Murphy's head that was being driven around my neighbourhood last night. The minivan-sized head was mounted on the back of a moving billboard advertising his upcoming film Meet Dave. I gather that in the movie, Murphy is a humanoid spaceship inhabited by lilliputian aliens. The giant head is clearly meant to make its observer feel like a tiny alien, or something.

I should get a camera, because then I could let you decide.

Punk'd

This week I started teaching a class on rhetoric and space exploration. Today's class was devoted to JFK's use of pathos in his 1961 appeal to Congress to beat the Reds to the Moon. Part of our discussion was to focus on Kennedy's verbal delivery, so I had them listen to an archival recording of JFK speaking. When I got to class, I turned on the projector and speakers to give the audio file a test-run, as the technology in my classroom is famously unreliable. Everything seemed ok until I tried to make the speech turn off - every time I clicked on something, another speech would start playing, until the classroom sounded like some kind of installation art piece involving the overlapping voices of American presidents. I kept turning things on and off to make it stop, but to no avail. This went on for some minutes, until a student confessed that they were playing the speech from their laptops. Little monsters. I stormed out of the room in jest, and told them that they are all meanies.

I'm telling myself that this is their way of saying they like me.

Creatures Great and Small

I had a visit from my Dad this week, and we had many interesting animal experiences, from the sublime to the ridiculous.  

Six Legs

Shortly after moving to my new place, I discovered that Mollie and I have a great many six-legged roommates, none of whom have offered to pay rent.  So, I have thrown my tree-hugging principles to the wind and acquired quantities of toxic chemicals in all physical states - gas (foggers), liquid (sprays) and solid (bait).  After the initial massacre (the body count was impressive) I have noticed far fewer interlopers.  Either they are dead or have learned to be more discreet.

Four Legs

Mollie has made a full recovery from her tooth extraction, and is back to eating with great gusto.  She is doing well at her therapy dog training, and is now working on cute tricks like "catch the treat", "shake a paw" and if we're lucky, "speak".  Make em laugh!

Two Legs

Mockingbirds rule the neighbourhood. They love to tell me, Mollie, and all the local cats who's boss.  They flick their tails around and make whatever noises they think you'll find threatening. What a bunch of divas.  

Legs are for Landlubbers

Dad and I took in one of Atlanta's great attractions, the Georgia Aquarium.  While I take issue with some of their practices (like the scuba-diving with Whale Sharks, who keep dying in captivity) the aquarium is truly remarkable.  We were thrilled to see the Sea Dragons, who are among the world's most improbable creatures.  We noticed that one of them had eggs all over his tail, at which point a docent came up to say that it was indeed a pregnant male who is "due" in a couple of months.  You can watch their webcam here.

The other highlight was the antics of the Moray Eel.  Morays like to spend their time in holes in the rock, peeking out now and then to grab a snack.  We were therefore amazed to see one emerge and swim around the tank with great excitement.  As it turns out, he knew that it was feeding time, and lo, a long metal arm reached in and handed the Moray a nice fish.  Yum.  

 

Mollie's recuperation

Mollie is recovering quietly at home, and is doing her best to tolerate that woman's experimenting with the camera on her computer.

Animal Dentistry

Mollie has somehow managed to break a tooth, so she's going to the vet tomorrow to have it taken out.  When the vet examined it she said "Oh, Mollie.  You had to go ahead a break a complicated tooth with lots of roots."  Poor pooch.  Fortunately, the timing is such that this probably won't interfere with her therapy dog training schedule.  I feel like she's a celebrity athlete and I'm her manager/coach.  Wish her luck.

Norman's Niche

Last night I went to a screening of a Japanese movie called Death Note about a magical notebook that gives its owner the power to kill people. Spooky. After the film there was a "making of" documentary about the film, which included, as one might expect, interviews with the director, cinematographer, actors, etc. Included among the interviewees was a white guy named Norman who was identified as "Friend of the Director." It seems that Norman's role was basically to hang out on the set and not really do anything...apart from being the director's friend, I guess. He did mention that he has a brief appearance in the film as an FBI agent who dies of a heart attack. They showed the clip from the movie where he clutches his chest and falls to the ground, and then Norman said "Oh yeah, I have died in so many Japanese movies." This makes me wonder if he is friends with lots of Japanese directors - directors who want to watch him die. How strange that this is Norman's niche.

This makes me dream of one day appearing in a dvd extras documentary as "the director's white friend who is good at dying."