I made someone mad, again. I really rattled them. She went head to head with me in Small World. I was entirely willing to let her do her thing, but... well, you know how it goes: she had a special ability and enough guys to wipe me off of the map. I couldn't afford to be wiped off the map (although, looking back on it, I doubt she knew her advantage), so I attacked preemptively. We battled over this one stupid mountain for two turns and eventually, I took her out. It hurt me pretty bad, but I guess the other two players saw the wounded bird and started to pile on. Well... she was pretty upset.

The thing is, this kind of stuff happens to me waaay more than it should.

Don't get me wrong! I don't hunt people down. I don't talk trash. I just quietly build my resources and them steamroll anyone who gets in my way. (Okay... I know...)

The thing is, when you play as many games as I do, you stop expecting anyone to cut you any slack. You hope for it, you ask for it, you give it out when it really doesn't matter, but you don't except it. I played a game of Magi-Nation* once against a tournament Magic** player. I didn't even get to draw, he decked me in his first turn. You see that, you think "Wow, that's not fair", but you can't take it personally. If you are going to get good at CCGs*** and boardgames or any kind of strategy games, you have to think "Good game, he beat me like a drum. What strategy is he using? How can I use it in the future?" Otherwise, you have to play the part of that dumb girl who pretends she likes Magic and then you will NEVER get them to stop giving you crap or hitting on you.

I keep it pretty honest, too. I don't let you miss your extra points and I don't miss mine, either. If there's an argument, I look it up in the rules. But if I'm going to play, I'm going to play. You can take back your moves, we will give you the points that you should have gotten automatically. I will work with you, but if you were just relying on my mercy to give you that long-shot comeback... well, I won't (unless I'm tired and I don't want to play anymore. That does happen).

However, even as a I justify my methods, I can't help but remember all the times people have gotten super ticked and me for knowing how to play a little better than they did, all the times I've made grown men and women cry, scream and yell at me for plowing them into the dirt. It reminds me that tournament Magic players can only play Magic with other tournament players and that maybe, I need to... well...

*Collector's Card Game. Think Pokemon or Yugioh
**Another Collector's Card Game (CCG)
***Collector's Card Game

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So, three new litters are coming from my favorite breeder out in California. I mentioned her in a previous entry along with my goal to one day own such a dog and eventually train it to be awesome. I made that goal at the end of November and now it is mid June, which means its been about six months since I originally set this goal. I still want to achieve that goal, but things are... slow going.

Things I Have Done to Achieve My Goal:

� Signed up to volunteer at dog-related volunteer organizations
- DMK rehoming doesn't need any more volunteers.
- Pets for Vets: As I have little to no training experience, I am probably going to be secretary or media manager.
- Denver Animal Shelter: Hasn't contacted me... yet.

� I've been working on school and work (which is actually a bigger deal than it looks like on this list).
- Which will get me a job > get me more money >
- Pay for the dog
- Pay for a backyard for my dog
- Pay for food
- Pay for dog training lessons
- Pay for vet bills.

� Reading and watching dog training books/videos

� Training my sister's dog whenever she comes over (sorry, R?)

� Volunteering to petsit (again, just R's dog)


As you can see, I'm a little low on ideas, or at least low on stamina. I used to have a pair of gerbils that would stand at the bottom of the tank and jump straight off the ground, smashing their little noggins against the top of the tank in the vain hope of finally jostling off the lid and getting out of there. I feel like those gerbils.

PS: Oh! I almost forgot. The whole goal thing wasn't a complete loss (well, it was and it wasn't). I lost 20 lbs since November! I'm just a bit shy of my 138 lbs goal weight, I walk and jog almost every day, I've started a sort of regular frisbee throwing get together and my throw has mightily improved!

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So, I was looking at apartments, today. It's a hobby or mine to draw up elaborate floor plans of imaginary houses that I think would be nice to live in. This is an apartment. The idea behind it is simple: attract the kind of tenants that you can charge low rent to, but still maintain the building. Low rent is attractive to everyone. Studio apartments are attractive to a smaller group, but still a fairly large number of people. Decrease the number of apartments, and the demand goes up even higher. With the number of applicants in your favor, you can select for whatever criteria you want. So what would that be? People who will maintain the property for you.

So, why would anyone do such a thing? First, to save money, but additionally to have greater freedom concerning their housing (which is exactly what I want to offer): no breed restrictions, just dog behavior restrictions, the opportunity to change anything in the apartment as long as it does not cause lasting damage or disrupt the structural integrity of the unit or the building (very attractive to the do-it-yourselfers I'm trying to attract). The unit begins as a structural sound unit with fixtures that make sense and are intuitive to fix (which, again, attracts people who care about such details).

Why? Well it's not the money. Rent would net between 1200 and 2000 a month for the entire building. At even minimally livable size, the build would take an eternity to pay back (which is something to think about, because who knows if a bank would lend me the money).

No, If I ran this hobby rental establishment, I would kind of want to have something that provided a real good to my community. Helping people save on rent not only helps those people, but it frees up both their time and their money to dedicate to their communities. Additionally, I support freer living. In an effort to protect themselves (and, in some cases, make more money), many rental locations charge a lot and offer very little flexibility.

Well, here's the drawing:

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I'm going to tell you a couple of things you already know. Good references are people who:

- Know you professionally or scholastically
- Are not related to you
- Will say something nice about you
- Will do so repeatedly for the next few years of your job search

That last bit is the problem. A lot of people might be happy to say something nice about you once or twice, but it becomes a drag after a while. I'm just getting tired thinking about it. But the thing is, everyone NEEDS a reference!

- Jobs
- Volunteer opportunities
- RENTAL contracts
- Adopting a DOG!

The list goes on! So, who are you going to pick to have people call incessantly about how nice you are and what a good employee/community member/renter/dog owner you are! I know it's just about having friends, but... Really? What this amounts to is that I need to give out a thank you gift to every who has been my recommendation these past few years... seriously.

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The General Practitioner. Your local family doctor. Some of you may love him, I personally go as little as possible, but what if the GP were to disappear? Why, you may ask? Self-diagnosis. It's already happening. Whether its WebMD or consulting your local alternative medicine expert, people are frustrated by the pill pushing industry that surrounds medicine and it could be that technology is finding a way to give you the skills and abilities to do your own tests on your own time and make your own analyses.

Check this out:



Now, admittedly, his frequency of self-stool samples is alarming, but he does present an interesting point: patients can take control of their own health and their own diagnoses. The article resource he is referring to, pub-med, is available through most public libraries, absolutely free. If you connect with your local librarian, they can not only help you sift through all the research like a pro, but also pull in copies of text-bound resources from all over the world. The only trick is READING it all.

But medical information resources are not the end of this. There is also an availability of self-diagnosis that goes beyond to "do it yourself" stool sample tests described in this video.

Take this kickstarter project:

If you wanted to keep track of a creepy amount of data on your heart rate and you breathing without carrying around a box and looking like a cyborg, you could get in the ground floor of this technological operation and get your very own computerized armband to wear wherever you go.

This shift in health thinking seems to be backed up by new obamacare legislation as well, as many of your health records (and all your tests and numbers) may soon be available to you electronically to do with what you will. The article also points back to the startups that I have been mentioning.

The question is: is that really what we want? It is true that the last time I went to the doctor was when I was in Korea. I am not sure if I really want to go back to a doctor in the United States who gives me the run-around and, for a fee, doesn't tell me what's wrong with me. Maybe changing the incentive structure is good for medicine.

After all, I actually liked going to the doctor in Korea. I remember when I first got there, I had a stomach infection. It was lucky we were in the medicine district, because I just stumbled down the street right into a stomach doctor. He agreed to see me, talked to me for a minute and then declared that I should "Get some rice soup and then you should be fine". I went out to the desk and I asked them what I was supposed to pay. They looked at each other in a panic and finally got the doctor because none of them spoke good enough English. The doctor was equally confused, though, "I didn't do anything!" he said, "Why would I charge you?"

Technology certainly won't destroy the GP anymore than I believe that the internet will destroy the librarian. But it will compete, and that might just be the kick that will change healthcare in this country.

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�About 2.7 million healthy, adoptable cats and dogs�about one every 11 seconds�are put down in U.S. shelters each year.� Says the Human Society of the United States. I keep a record on Pinterest of all the dogs that show up in municipal shelters every day that I would adopt, if I could. Those dogs disappear and I pray, deeply pray, that these dogs aren�t just disappearing because someone decided that their time was up. I imagine them being adopted and going off to some nice family with a big yard like we have and a good trainer like I want to be and I think, �well isn�t it wonderful that dog found a home.�

Everyone knows dogs are good to have around. Dogs are good for your health. The average dog owner is less likely to develop heart disease, diabetes and many other health problems. Experts suggest this may be due to the fact that dog owners must walk their dogs, be active with their dogs and the like. Dog owners also demonstrate many psychological benefits from pet ownership, as well. They are less susceptible to stress and hypertension.

Of course, there are drawbacks. Dogs take up time and energy. Dogs need you to feed them and let them out in the morning to go to the bathroom. They need to be walked; they need to be taken to the vet. All of these things cost two of our most valuable assets: time and money and I am guessing that, were someone to be pinged on their cellphone to ask how happy they were the moment they bent down the pick up their dog�s s*!t at the dog park, they would rate that experience the lowest of their experiences throughout the day.

The fact is that I want a dog in my life and there are so many dogs that need homes. They�re not perfect, but they are alive. And no matter what I do, I can�t help but think, what if it were me who saved them? What if I knew that they didn�t run out of time? What if, this 11 seconds, nobody died. But they do and I can't.

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