rabid1st

Very soon, I'm going to have something pithy to say about the House MD series finale. But for now, I decided to post this vid to explain why, if you have never watched House...or gave up on watching...maybe this would be a good time to cozy up to a DVD box set or eight and enjoy one of the most memorable characters ever portrayed on TV.

It is by my absolute favorite House MD vidder...http://www.youtube.com/user/NCISmelanie

You've seen her work embedded here many times.



And if you are still feeling the fallout from the finale...you might appreciate this House/Wilson schmoop fest from the early years, too. It certainly almost inspired fic for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CLYK2_HgdU

This isn't a bad video, for those who worry about animal cruelty. Well, it is a little cruel of these guys to not just cut the rope. But then, again, I'm not sure that is the right thing to do.

Here we have some territorial behavior from an ordinary house cat. Kes, not only are they a menace to your birds, they are tormenting your totem, too.

http://screen.yahoo.com/territorial-kitty-faces-deer-29342475.html

I suppose it is just possible that this was some sort of game. Certainly the deer found itself returning for another round a few times there.

Today, during the Preakness Post Parade, the announcers talked a little bit about Lava Man, a former race horse who was acting as I'll Have Another's pony. The pony's job is to keep the nervous young horses quiet and calm. Lava Man is a gelding, so he can't be put out to stud, but it is interesting that he has a second career as a pony for a great horse, because Lava Man is, himself, a great horse.

I had checked out of racing for a bit around 2004-2007, so I didn't realize how great until I did a little research.

Lava Man started out somewhere below the bottom of the barrel. He was well-bred but not well purchased and at 2 years old he was racing in a $12,500 dollar maiden claiming race at a Fairgrounds track. Claiming races are when every horse in the race is for sale at that price...in this case...$12,500. This is where your cart horses come from...and where the "make them into dog food" fears arise, too. It's a hard grind for a horse at this level, because nobody cares about you, you make little, if any, money and you are raced until you drop or someone takes you off your owner's hands. But Lava Man lucked out when he fell into the hands of O'Neill, and got a shot at stakes races in California.

And not just any Stakes races...but GRADE 1 races in great company. O'Neill is, apparently, a crazy man or a good judge of cheap horse flesh. I'll Have Another cost him $11,000. At four years old, Lava Man was fitted with blinkers and he got his mind on his job and started winning Handicap races, while carrying the heaviest weights in the field.

Here he is putting away the best in the land in the Hollywood Gold Cup in 2005 in a record shattering win...



He won again the next year. In 2006, he won The Santa Anita Handicap, The Hollywood Gold Cup and the Pacific Coast Classic all Grade 1 races. He was the first horse to ever do that in the same calendar year. He is the all time leading Stakes race winner in California history. He is the only horse to ever win a major race at every California race track. He is the third highest money earner in the history of California racing. He has won on dirt, grass and artificial surfaces. He was California Horse of the year in 2006 as well as Older Horse of the Year and Turf Horse of the Year. He has been compared to Seabiscuit and is arguably the greatest claiming horse of all time. You can read all about his amazing career on wikipedia here...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lava_Man

Oh, and he walks I'll Have Another to the post, to keep him calm. And I bet he gives him a few tips, too, just like an old coach with a promising new recruit, "Get your nose in front, son! That's what they expect of you. Win big and you don't have to find a new home."

To Learn More About the 100 Things Challenge...go here...http://jdbracknell.livejournal.com/165714.html

Truly, I loved Barbaro. Losing him broke my heart, because I thought he could win it all and would have. But I've not been THIS excited about a horse in a very long time. I love I'll Have Another, because he has more than natural talent. He has grit and intellect and heart. He reminds me a lot of another great Santa Anita Derby winner, Affirmed. Back when everyone was high on Alydar, who was a magnificent animal, I never stepped off of Affirmed, because he wanted it more. Look at how both horses dig in there for the win. I'll Have Another just eats up the ground in the stretch. He and Bode are pulling away from a horse that had to be going 35 miles an hour.

As I said in my last post, give him a chance and he will run anyone down. This race was so great. My throat hurts from all that screaming. GRIN

Watch it under this cut ( Read more... )
Now, about The Belmont...

First, he has to come of this race sound and fit. Then, he will need Mario to have a cool head in that long turn in New York. I can't tell you how many jockeys lose the Belmont because they move their horse too soon. On any other track that's what you do, but at the Belmont you have America's longest stretch run ahead of you, and you need to sit chilly on the horse, relaxing him just when he wants to switch leads. Keep your horse relaxed until you enter the stretch. At that point, with the long stretch ahead of him, Dullahan and a few other fresher horses will be making stretch runs and they might barrel past us. I'll Have Another will be required to hold off challengers, which he hasn't had much experience doing. Usually, he is making a run at a leader. This time he may well be the leader. Then the question is, can he keep his head, hold on to the lead and make history?

I'll Have Another! Just one more...please!

Bode...Bode...Bodemeister! Well, I agree with how this race looks on paper. I think that it is a race that is almost a walk for Bodemeister. And Creative Cause has his best chance here. I'm not sure that come from behind horses are going to get a good set up for them. And, so the only question for any of us is about my horse, "I'll Have Another."

I think he's HORSE enough for this. He looks great today. I think he's a true little man, with enough heart to win. And if he gets a shot at Bodemeister, I think he will beat him. But I can't deny that Bode looks like a wire-to-wire cinch. A lot depends on how Bode rates in this one. Can he be rated, slowed down? And was the 100 yards in the Derby a factor? I don't know. I just hope that I'll Have Another doesn't need it to be a nail-biter and can, in fact, run that rabbit down. Here we go!

I knew I was pretty far gone with exhaustion as I did the laundry this morning. I didn't sleep one jot last night and I'd just about wound down to the point of tipping over when I got a call from the Mother-In-Law. She's having kidney issues again and needs help ASAP. She lives about 30 minutes away. As I scramble for keys and shoes, she calls again to tell me she can't wait on me and is driving herself to the doctor's office. He wants his nurse to run a few tests and then it might be on to the ER. I go out into the summer storm sans umbrella and sleep and cell phone.

Hand holding goes pretty well, but it turns out that MIL's doctor is out of town and has no intention of talking to her. More amazing, he has assigned a nurse to run a test that bears no resemblance to a test MIL might require. I question this and the nurse and I have a little round robin...with the nurse telling me the test shows MIL is fine and me telling the nurse that the problem isn't in MIL's bladder. The nurse then repeats that YES her bladder is fine. Finally, I manage through sign language and signal flags to indicate that the issue is another organ entirely, whereupon said nurse tells me that the doctor that has been treating MIL for the last four years...doesn't treat kidney issues. WHAT? How can you work in urology and not treat the kidneys? They are part of the urinary tract! This tidbit is made even more surreal, because this doctor has performed several surgeries on the MIL's kidneys. Nurse says, "Oh, yes, we do surgery on them...but we don't know anything about them."

LE SIGH! Anyway, upshot of my really, really long day in the ER is that the MIL is fine. But the crisis began at 3:42 pm and I just now crawled home at 2:30 am. The key issues in the end was that MIL can't drive her car after dark. So, we were forced to leave it at the hospital.

To illustrate how tired I am, I've spent the last three hours working out with my SO how to get the MIL's car back to her house. We looked at bus schedules. We looked at how far he might have to walk if he took our car to the hospital and then drove her car home. We finally figured there was nothing to do but both of us go back to the hospital in the morning. One of us to drive each car. This would mean I would get almost no sleep again.

And then...after 3 hours haggling on the phone...it hits me...

"Honey," I say, walking in the front door, "It just dawned on me, it won't be dark tomorrow morning. Just pick up your mom from her house, take her to her car and she can drive it home herself." BRILLIANT! :headdesk:

If you have seen The Doctor, The Widow & The Wardrobe and still count yourself a Doctor Who fan, you can skip this post. ( Read more... )

For those of you who haven't heard, and that might be only one or two of you, there is a cute little robot who is making strides in engaging with autistic children. He was designed to alleviate the fear that children had of other mechanical interactive equipment. But a happy side effect was that everyone finds him endearing, so there is talk of making a more affordable commercial cousin for the masses. The original costs $30,000, but if you watch this vid until 1:15 or so, you will see that he is certainly earning his keep, even without his interactive noises.



Edit To Note Apparently, this isn't news at all and I am way behind the curve. This video is from 2007. Hey! I don't get out much. There is already a toy version of Keepon in stores like Toys R Us in America. The toy version is inexpensive but not really as engaging and not for autistic children. Though I do understand some proceeds go to Autism research. Check out this link for the interactive testing of the toy version...http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZOaT2A_VJ5A#!

Today, I have a little bit of LBGT history for you. While studying the Ojibwe people of Wisconsin, I came across a story about a famous warrior known as Yellow Head, or Ozaawindib. Ozaawindib was a transgender person, a biological male who identified as a female. John Tanner, an interpreter who lived among the Ojibwe for many years, wrote of Ozzawindib in 1880, "This man was one of those who make themselves into women and are called women by the Indians." However, among the Ojibwe this wasn't considered much of a wonder as they did not recognize gender differences as other cultures did. Men could chose to stay home and raise kids while the women went out to fight or hunt. They felt that it was all a matter of what your spirit called you to do. And people were free to marry transgender people or those of the same sex.

American geologist, Henry Schoolcraft, knew Ozaawindib personally and wrote of him...At the mouth of River Broula[4] I encountered Ozawondib,[5] or Yellow Head, and Mainotagooz,[6] or the Handsome Enunciator, two Chippewas from the Cassinian source of the Mississippi, being on their way to visit me at the seat of the agency. They reported that the Indians of Leech Lake had raised a war-party, and gone out against the Sioux of the Plains. Both these Indians returned with me to Cass Lake. The former afterward guided me from that remote point to the source of this river.[7]

There is a picture of Ozaawindib behind this cut...( Read more... )

To Learn More About the 100 Things Challenge...go here...http://jdbracknell.livejournal.com/165714.html