Things That Piss Me Off: A Compendium

1) Each and every single moron in California who voted for Arnold, who is now poised to screw us all up the ass. Special kudos to Jay Leno who just (yes, "just"... I've been writing this post for over an hour) told everyone that Arnold is an environmentalist, even though he wants to abolish the California EPA, relinquishing all authority to the Bush administration whose "Healthy Forests" initiative will more than double logging in the Sierra Nevadas, presumably to prevent forest fires. If you want to prevent fires what sense does it make to cut down several thousand year old trees? Republicans are evil. They just don't care, and they must be stopped. And since when is Dee Snider a Republican?! I feel betrayed. My whole childhood was a lie.

2) Sigfried & Roy, Jack Hanna, and every other "naturalist" who encourages the breeding of white tigers and tells the public about how endangered these cats are in the wild as though they were a subspecies of their own. They're not. They're FREAKS. Beautiful freaks, but freaks nonetheless. Their whiteness is caused by a rare recessive gene that's rare and recessive FOR A FUCKING REASON, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. These cats are "endangered" in the wild because their camouflage sucks, and if we want to help the tigers survive we probably shouldn't be wasting so many resources breeding animals which have no chance of survival in the wild.

Speaking of which, consider that there is already a surplus of tigers in this country, so much so that rescue groups have a very difficult job finding homes for the ones we already have and many have to be destroyed. Even zoos destroy many tigers when they've outlived their usefulness to their breeding program. Now consider the pure white tiger that Sigfried & Roy managed to breed several years ago, the one even without any stripes. How many generations did they have to go through to achieve this, and what happened to all the kittens produced who weren't perfectly white? They've also made a pure white male tiger. Breeders make me sick.

SPEAKING OF WHICH. Grey wolves, as you may know, are endangered in the US. (On that thought, I'd just like to share the fact that my dog's front paw print is four inches long and three inches across, only slightly smaller than that of a grey wolf. I'm so proud!) Naturalists and misc. other "wildlife managers" have taken it upon themselves to ensure the genetic purity of the wolves, right down to genetic testing of full grown wolves and their puppies to find out which ones are pure wolf and which are part coyote. As it turns out, many wolves like to mate with coyotes. Adult mixes are neutered, and mixed puppies are destroyed. Now, these are wild, independent animals making their own reproductive decisions. They're not show wolves who need a pedigree to compete in conformation. Shouldn't we let them get it on with whomever they choose? It's not like humans have historically made the best reproductive decisions for the wolf; witness the freak of nature known as the Chihuahua.

3) My current desktop. (View here, about 200Kb.) I've been changing it every day and I can't get it right, the way I want. Nothing particularly outrageous, but it just pisses me off.

4) Stupid bands who do stupid covers of classic tunes. Just last night I was flipping the channels when I stumbled upon MTV. To my surprise they were showing a video, but the surprise did not end there. I thought I recognized the guitar but was absolutely certain that I didn't recognize the band (which turned out to be something called "Limp Bizkit"). It was a cover of "Behind Blue Eyes". You know, the song by The Who. THE FUCKING 'OO, dipshit. It was awful. The guitarist was trying to keep as close to Pete Townshend as possible, and the singer was clearly trying to imitate Roger Daltrey right down to the way he said his N's. Failing miserably the whole time. Luckily there was no bass or drums to speak of so John and Keith could be spared the inconvenience of spinning in their grave. Now here's the worst part (besides the idiotic video itself, which may or may not have taken place in a mental institution): they changed some of the lyrics, and even added some lines in places. You don't change Townshend lyrics. YOU DO NOT CHANGE TOWNSHEND LYRICS. This band must have had about an eighth of a brain between them when they decided to do this.

5) Arianna Huffington. :x That woman exists merely to promote her fabulous self, and she doesn't care who she has to step on to do it. She's like the Joan Rivers of political commentary. My father, who is a driver, had the misfortune of taking her to NBC's Today Show when she announced her candidancy for governor. She asked him to stop by Starbucks so she and her assistant could get some coffee, but then told him that she had no money. Would he please buy them some coffee, and she'd pay him back when he took her back to her house? So he did. Later when he dropped her off at home she got out of the car, said, "Thanks for the Starbucks!", and walked away. THE BITCH!!! :x As my father told the NBC newsladies, now you know why her husband left her.

Dammit. I'm sure there are other things which piss me off but I've just about run out of outrage, and that itself pisses me off. I don't even have the energy to rant about all the lovely work Sleek & Co. are doing to raise the level of discourse around here. Well, maybe tomorrow.

 

Canis, I myself disagree with most ppl politically, but with you (on this matter) I agree throughly, who won I know not (I"m assuming Arnold) but Arnold is an idiot, and so is Bush, as well as most local and national politicians...

P.S I feel no need to back those with any proof... if Canis's statement didn't give you enough proof then your an idiot.

 

I'm glad I moved from California 8 years ago.
Canis I think you're right. I think white tigers are like albinos but you don't see people forcing albinos to breed with albinos and killing the ones that don't. Also for the grey wolves you're right killing the young ones is wrong. I don't get it these "naturalists" interfere with the natural habits of animals, It's natural until they interfere with the habits and forced mating.

So I can interfere with the breeding habits and be called a "naturalist". I'll breed monkeys with birds :lol: . It's legal it's no different then what they are doing. Who wants to see a hybrid of King Kong will come to life with apes and elephant breeding. I can make centaurs. How do I make a unicorn? Horse + what. I can make a tikbalang( head of a horse lower body human) also minotaurs. :lol: :lol: I will dominate the world. :lol: :lol: . How do I make cerberus. Hmmm Anaconda + Komodo Dragon = Dragons attach a fire making apparatus inside. :lol: :lol: .

 

Looks very good, icons are great it's just the Arcanum screenshot which has too many objects in it and makes it all look messy plus it's resolution is a bit too low.

Speaking of which Canis you're a woman who plays Fallout, Arcanum and Planescape: Torment so I'm thinking,... may I propose?


On the wolves&coyotes mixes it seems to me like messing with evolution - perhaps there is a reason for these two species to interbreed so often.

 

Unfortunately I can't up the resolution on my monitor any higher. Well, I could, but then I couldn't read anything. So now it's at 1024x768 with a wallpaper that's 800x600 and stretched.... Maybe that's the problem? I think I'll try setting my monitor to 1280x1024 again, maybe it's not as bad as I remember.

Actually I've been in a total wallpaper slump lately. I've got beautiful icons, a weird but appropriate WindowBlinds skin, and this is really the best wallpaper I could come up with. I really don't like all those Bryce-rendered wallpapers that seem so popular these days. I've been looking for a good "steampunk" wallpaper, like with gears and whatnot, but I haven't found anything even halfway decent. Why didn't Troika release more Arcanum wallpapers like all the other game makers do?!

To make matters worse, my mother wants me to send her a copy of that Arcanum endgame slide I've got set as wallpaper because "the Tiffany lamp is soooooo beautiful!" That does it, I'm definitely changing the wallpaper!

That's exactly what I've been thinking. Maybe there's something in the genes of the two species that each one needs for it's health or survival or whatever, something that we haven't discovered yet.

 

That's what I meant, you have to use it as is and let some colour, say black, fill the rest of the screen or just find a 1024x748 wallpaper. How about that dwarf wielding a flamethrower wallpaper - don't you like it?

 

Canis...

Sleek and Co.? what the fuck am i doing to raise the level of discourse? After reading your post at the begining of this thread it seems to me that we agree completely about the situation in california, and on most things that that entails.

as for sigfreid and roy, roy was just maimed onstage by one of his tamed cats" and no one did anything to stop it because they all thought it was part of the act... the cat actually dragged him offstage in front of everyone watching. Hes currently in the hospital recuperating

 

No, I think no one did anything because it's a fucking tiger Sleek. If you saw someone being mauled by a lion, what would you do? Hit it with your shoe?

I completely agree with Canis, it obvioulsy is natural for wolves to breed with coyotes, so what's the problem? And even if you wanted to promote pure bred wolves, dont fucking kill the hybrids just because they don't measure up to your standards. That's what the Nazis did, when someone wasn't "perfect" they were out. There are some striking similarities, except of course, that the Nazis measured people not animals. But in a way that might be even worse. It sounds far fetched now, but if we've come to accept killing of inferior animals, how long until we accept killing people?

Sleek, if you don't know what the fuck you do, you're an idiot. We both post way too fucking much. I've actually cut back alot recently, not out of want to, but out of lack of time. I just don't have the opprotunity to be with my adoring Canis anymore :lol: .

 

I like everything about it but the dwarf. Dwarves just irritate the hell out of me, I keep wanting to step on them and end it all. Don't even get me started on gnomes!

Well I took your suggestion and got a new wallpaper that matches my screen resolution: Linkie, about 105Kb. It used to be a Final Fantasy wallpaper with some animated Japanese chick in the center, but I think the doggie looks much better. (The jpeg is a bit blurry, but it looks fine on my desktop.) The Winamp skin is a bit too large, but I really like the gear/buzzsaw thing it has going. Some skins have a way for you to adjust the size but I don't think this one does. Bummer. Oh, and I still need to find a better skin for the Rainy (the calendar thingie), something with metal rather than wood, but otherwise it's okay. I guess.

Exactly. :thumbup:

Oh I know, that's what set me off. They've been all over the news since, what, Friday night? You're not the only one who follows the news.

 

Canis, about the wolves breeding with ki-yotes....

When the wolves were nearly wiped out, coyotes took the fuck over. There are now coyotes in every state except Hawaii, as you probably know, and they even live in extremely urban areas. They are able to survive on little more than garbage scraps, and they are extremely prolific. Without the wolves to compete for food and territory, they have exploded.

Anyway, I think that the idea of trying to reintroduce the wolves is a noble idea, being that it was us humans that fucked that up for them (the wolves) in the first place. However, now we have another problem, this of the wolves breeding with coyotes, which, again, is kind of our fault.

The problem is not that we are interfering with natural breeding, Canis, it's that an already fucked up situation could become a lot worse, and we could lose both species, wolves, and coyotes, and have another breed take over. (Which, could be a bad situation or a good situation, granted.) But do you see my point? The wolves wouldn't be breeding with the coyotes if there weren't so many of them around, which again, ties back directly to the old "poison and shoot every wolf you see" fear that ran rampant in the past, what, hundred years?

Anyway, my take on it..

Plus, fucking coyotes keep me up at night. I'm telling you, these motherfuckers will howl right at your back door, and steal the dog food off your porch. Nooo fear.

 

if they've got nowhere to go then of course they're going to move into urban areas... may be they'd feed on deer if we didnt mass slaughter them so they wouldnt run rampant on our superhighways... :wink:

 

Ever seen a coyote? No, thought not. A 30-50 lb carnivore is not going to have 100-250 lb deer on the top of his food chain. Coyotes feed mostly on carrion, rodents, rabbits (rabbits aren't rodents), snakes, birds, eggs, scraps of food, garbage, and the occasional fawn, or sick deer.

Sleek, I know your post was to be taken tounge-in-cheek, so I'm not trying to get on your nuts. I'm just trying to point out that your post shows how little you know about the species you say you are protecting.

 

You kick ass. I run into people all the time who say, "Ooooo, you like rodents?!" when they find out I've got bunnies. Ugh.

Now, just so you know, I have actually seen coyotes. Until about 10-15 years ago they'd run through the streets around here (here being Burbank, CA) at night, and they're still in the hills that border my city. We hear them at night, my male dog answers them (he sounds exactly like an alpha male coyote, wouldn't be surprised if he's a coydog), and we see them from time to time while hiking in the hills. They're also known to run rampant on the grounds of the film and television studios around here. I've only seen wolves in zoos and in Yellowstone though, so I admit my personal experience with them is limited. Yes, clearly a healthy adult deer is legitimate prey for wolves and mountain lions, but not a single coyote. They've been known to take larger prey when hunting in packs as they sometimes do, but yes they're usually solitary predators.

Well, anyway, I pretty much agree with what you've said, and I admit I don't know the rate of wolf-coyote mating prior to the great slaughter. It did occur though, and coywolves and wolfdogs have been noted for some time. My concern is that once again humans are interfering in things about which they know little, and in which they have a very poor track record (the extermination of the wolves, the mere existence of the Chinese Hairless....). If we want the wolves to live and be viable in the lower 48, I think we should let them live wild and make their own decisions about things like mating. We could always introduce more wolves of course, and really piss off the ranchers, but otherwise it doesn't seem wise or humane to manage their reproduction as though they were in a very large zoo.

New screenshot, same doggie. Yes, I'm obsessed with screenshots of desktops, my own and those of others. No, I don't care that nobody else here cares.

 

<retard>
i've seen a few coyotes in my time. they might be small on size, but they're big on heart! i bet if those little firecrackers put their minds to it they could form a pack or two and take out some deer...

and you forgot roadrunners... coyotes feed on roadrunners!

alright then, thats enough idiocy for one post...

<canis>
dude, that is one kick ass desk top...

i especially appreciate your fine selection of games... 'm especially pleased to see you playing Undying, and civ3, which are a couple of my favorite games...unfortunately i've had a little trouble running them but whatever.

did you ever play alpha centauri? probably my favorite science fiction themed game of all time right next to deus ex, and fallout 2 coming in close at 2nd and 3rd...

 

Alpha Centauri is a great game.

When / if it runs. It doesn't like my system...

Or at least, didn't... maybe I should try it again.

 

Nice canis Canis. I also have a german shepherd. Though when he's sitting and you look at him from the back he looks a lot like a mouse.

 

hmmmm, i have a half sheperd half golden retriever that is pretty adorable (hes got a ridgeback too so i guess hes got something else in him as well) i'd post some pics of him but i dont ave a web site or the knowledge required to upload the pitures. so now i'll treat you all to a wonderful descriptive essay detailing the wonders of my favorite k-9 pal...

wait no i wont. i'm just going to tell you all to fuck off because my dog could kick you dog's ass!

<edit> sorry about the gog thing... my keyboard sux, f you ever see a missing letter in the middle of a word (especially d,t,and e) its because my keyboard likes to ignore my keystrokes sometimes...

 

I assure you my gog is too much man for anyone. Sheesh, don't people even bother to check their messages for fuckups anymore?

I really should try to get a decent shell program and maybe bother doing my own desktops again, but that's a little bit too much work for how much I actually look at the thing.

 

A woman who plays chess! Damn, I think I'm in love! Nice dog too.

Sleek, my gog would beat your dog like a red-headed step child. It's a proven fact; a dog cannot whoop a gog. Gog's are just too strong. It's like Richard Simons trying to beat up Arnold Schwarzenegger. It cannot be done.

I don't have a dog. :cry: I want one SO damn bad too! I saw this white-haired German Sheperd the other day. It was SO beautiful! This thing, was huge too, the guy who owned him, the dog was a male, said he weighed 110! My sister only weighs 90! I want this thing so badly, but the problem is that, in NYC, dogs are insanely expensive. I see dogs, not even nice dogs, go for almost 2 grand. And a nice purebreed... forget about it, the most I've seen a dog for was 7 grand +.

But I really want this dog. I want alot of dogs. I'm thinking a white-haired sheperd, now that I'm in love with the breed, and 2 St. Bernards. Of course, I'll need a fucking farm first, but I can dream can't I?

 

Ooooo.... Dog talk!

Do yourself a favor and avoid those "super sized" Shepherds. They have a ridiculously high rate of health problems and they don't live nearly as long as a real, normal, German, German Shepherd Dog. Some breeders make their Shepherds up to 150 pounds, it's just obscene. It's only American and Canadian breeders too that are doing it. I mean, white and super sized Shepherds are bred only by Americans and Canadians, who generally have a very poor reputation worldwide due to their penchant for breeding for the show ring and looks rather than health, stability, and ability to work. White Shepherds in particular are known for their poor temperament, and excessive timidity and fear biting are big problems. If you can find a normal sized white Shepherd go for it but the huge ones are going to give you a lot of grief. But if you want a real GSD, look for a breeder in Germany (my dog's from Munich), Austria, or the Czech Republic. The East German dogs are particularly sharp, all nice and black.... :drool:

Dude, tell us about your dog. C'mon, I love reading about things like that!