Doggie Dance

Akira has really good balance. He dances! This is a good example of how to train your dog. Just before the video starts, I issued the "up, up!" command, and you can see him turn and come to perform the trick. He gets constant reassurance with what is essentially "good noise", and he gets a few repititions of the "up, up" command. If I continue to repeat "up, up" he will stand for as long as I want, within reason (this video is pretty long for him at this stage). If I do not say it, or stop giving "good boys" he will know that the trick is over, and it's time for his reward. He gets lots of petting and he got a treat after I turned off the camera.

This was a natural ability that I observed, and I simply trained him to do it on command. At first, I could hold a treat above his head, and he would do this, while I repeated the "up, up" command, and he got the treat if he stood up long enough. Over time, I increased the amount of time it took for him to get the treat. After a while, I stopped doing it with a treat in my hand, the treat would come out of my pocket after he was done with the trick. All during this, I constantly repeat the "up, up" command, and give him lots of reassurance. In this video, I am not raising my hand (I'm holding the camera), and he is doing the trick just because I said so. He knows he will get a treat, but after a while, he will only get the treat sometimes, but he will always get lovin if he performs correctly. This will allow him to perform without constant treats, and be able to do several things in a row without losing attention. Of course, he would get a treat when he's done.

He likes Newman's Own Peanut Butter dog treats. They are organic, and taste a little like peanut butter on toast. (BTW, you should always taste your dog's treats... they should taste good to you. If they taste like cheap dog food, they might not motivate the way you want them to. Anything that is safe for your dog to eat, will be safe for you to try as well)

An open letter to IT recruiters

Wherever you found me... I'm positive that my resume was available to you. If you were capable of doing your job you would have seen that I am not qualified on Acme Widgets (or whatever). I get 10-20 SPAMS a day from losers like you. Do your god damn job and quit SPAMMING people. I didn't post my resume online so you could harvest the email and ignore everything else. I am a geek, I expect people to be intelligent, and when people demonstrate an inability to read, I assume they are not intelligent people, and not the kind of people I want to work with. I realize that you do this so you can be lazy, but it would be much better for you to just do the work of actually finding people, instead of asking me to do your job for you.

Thank you,
Jasmine D. Adamson

Akira is such a good name for this dog

As I mentioned in my previous post, Akira is a name meaning intelligent in Japanese. That's one of the reasons I chose it for my 6-month-old Chinese Crested puppy. After the first few days with him, I'm happy to report he's the most well-behaved and intelligent dog I've ever had, and I've had quite a few dogs over the years. He's doing so well with housetraining I can't believe it. He's done "both things" on the carpet once, and been scolded for it and taken outside. He pretty much understood after that. I've never had a dog that didn't piddle on the carpet at least 5 or 6 times. He's also very happy and well-adjusted. If you are interested in this breed, contact me and I'll turn you on to a good breeder. I called her to thank her for such a great dog and she basically said "they're all like that." That's why she loves them so much, and why I do too!

Mmmmkay... that's a new one

This came in my inbox today:

Subject:  I've got a 8 inch.. cervix
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2007 10:02:59 -0500


You've Seen Them On TV...

Bigger pen1s, better s3x! 

CHeck it out 


http://www.geocities.com/xxxx

blight biggs jensen cervix tupelo quo birgit.blat ad.
ideal job acts.turing.

Now I don't know about you, but I for one, could really use a bigger cervix.