Break out the Torches and Pitchforks!!!

Pet ferret eats seven fingers of baby boy - CNN.com

Well here we go again, another story in the news about a pet going bad and attacking someone.  I'm just waiting for the outcry to begin about how dangerous ferrets are.  You can almost here the gathering "anti-ferret" lobby forming! Soon will come the, "we must ban these dangerous animals before they strike again and kill us all!!"

Breath, breath.......Ok

I have had ferrets as pets for over 10 years, I have operated a ferret rescue shelter for the past 6 years.  I know ferrets.  I know how ferrets behave, and I know that ferrets like any other animal are not evil.  Ferrets can be some of the most loving pets, and have brought a great deal of joy into my life.  Still ferrets are animals and as such you have to take precautions when it comes to small children and babies.

I feel terrible for this child, I really do, but the blame for this horrible tragedy rests solely on the parents here.  A ferret or any animal for that matter needs to be cared for in such a way that you protect both the child as well as the ferret.  Their seems to be a great deal to this story that is missing, that really needs to be asked.

1. Was the ferret caged, or allowed to roam the house?
2. How well was the ferret cared for? Food? Water? Vet care?
3. Where were the parent's sleeping in relation to the baby?
4. Was the ferret well socialized or completely ignored?

Bottom like here, in my opinion, is these people shouldn't have had animals let alone children.  I can only hope that this little baby gets the care he needs, and that the ferret's reputation isn't too badly tarnished by what is clearly not an animal issue but an irresponsible parents issue.

Ferrets really are wonderful pets FOR THE RIGHT PEOPLE.

Browser Identity Crisis

I seem to be going through a bit of a web browser crisis as of late. For a long time I was an avid Fire Fox user, and never thought I would use anything else. Then along came Google Chrome looking all new and different so I switched. Now with Fire Fox 4 beta being released I find myself thinking of perhaps switching again.

The things I've read about Fire Fox 4 sound interesting and I think I may have to take it for an extended test drive. One thing I have always loved about Fire Fox are the incredible amount of plugins you can install. The extensions that I find available in Chrome don't seem to meet all of my needs like the Fire Fox plugins have in the past.

As for speed Chrome seems to be faster to me personally, though to be honest I haven't done a proper test of this and I'm only going on my own observations.

Fire Fox was my first browser after I stopped using the nightmare that is IE, so perhaps I should give Fire Fox another shot. I'll have to make sure that I remove Chrome though, otherwise I will just fall back into using Chrome without even thinking about it.

So here's the plan, I'll give Fire Fox say 2 weeks and then see which one I want to use going forward. I'll be sure to post something in a couple weeks with my observations about using Fire Fox again.

A New Beginning

I woke up this morning thinking about all things this blog I had started last year about this time to use as a place to share my photography. It started out pretty strong and fell to the wayside as many things in life do. Then of course my week in the hospital didn't help matters either I suppose.

I have come a long way since April. My depression has been managed well on the meds I'm taking, no thoughts of suicide or of harming myself. My wife Karen and I have been getting along better then we have in years. Work is going well too, have a great job with fantastic people to work with.

Here's the thing though, I have felt like something is missing in my life. Not really a physical thing really, maybe it's spiritual but I haven't been a terribly spiritual man in my 41 years on this planet.

One thing that has been missing for far to long in my life is writing. In the past I would write stories, poems, and sometimes just plain nonsense. Filling up notebooks with poetry or short sci-fi stories was common for me in my younger years. For some reason I stopped writing, maybe it was the depression, maybe it was someone reading what I wrote and having a negative reaction, or perhaps I just got lazy. Whatever the reason I stopped doing something that I truly enjoyed and that made me feel just a little bit better about myself.

Well starting today I want to try and recapture some of that joy I got from putting pen to paper or finger to keyboard. With todays technology it's easier then ever to put ideas and thoughts down on paper/screen. I have my trusty Ipod Touch which goes everywhere with me, and I think I have downloaded nearly every writing app under the sun.

So what is he getting at here you may be asking yourself. I am going to start writing again and use this blog as a place to throw it against the wall so to speak. Some of what I write I'm sure will just be crap. Some might not be all that well thought out, or the grammar may not be the greatest. The point however is that I need to write again, and maybe I will find that this is the "thing" I feel missing in my life.

What things will I write about?

Well might be anything. My latest geocaching adventure, something that happened at work, a poem, short story, thoughts on some topic of the day, or even a how-to article. The point is I will be writing again, and that's what I feel I need to do.

Road to Recovery

For those who don't know I suffer from clinical depression. In my brain I don't have enough serotonin for messages to be passed between the synapses of the brain correctly. In the past I have taken medication to help correct this problem, but one of the down falls of depression is that when you feel good you sometimes don't take your medication. This is what happened to me, I stopped taking my medication 3 to 4 months ago and over time as the medicine became less and less in my system I became more and more depressed.

On Easter Sunday my car broke down as well as my moped on the same day. This was the straw that broke the camels back so to speak. I began to feel hopeless and even more deeply depressed to the point that I began to think about suicide and planning to commit suicide. I wasn't sleeping, couldn't get to work because of the car, and was pretty much ready to give up on life.

On Thursday April 8th, I admitted myself to a hospital for treatment of my major depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. I am now back on my medication, as well as getting other treatment that will of course never "cure" me since clinical depression has no cure but will allow me to live life again. I came home from the hospital on Wednesday April 14th.

The doctor is allowing me to return to work on Monday April 19th, and I'm looking forward to getting back to the job I love so much.

Thank you to everyone who has sent good wishes, prayers, and thoughts they have helped more then you know.

Most of all thank you to my wife Karen for without her I never would have gotten the help I need. Also thank you to Michelle, Belanne, Jamie, and my father in law Jerry. You all mean the world to me and have helped lift my spirits through this difficult time.

I hope to start working on my photography again as part of my therapy, so look for new photos soon!!

Rob

Missing Days

I'm afraid the last few days have taken more of a toll on me that I really care to admit. Haven't had the desire to do much of anything after the recent death of my brother in law Todd. I'm starting to feel a little better though and will be getting back on track with my project.

January 22, 2010

After attending Todd's viewing at the funeral home today we stopped in to visit the in law's. After I did a little computer tech support with Dad and we sat down to visit I noticed my picture for today.

Still up in the living room was the Christmas tree, with it's antique bulbs and old fashioned lights. I grabbed my camera and started shooting some macros of the various decorations on the tree. This was the best of the bunch.

I made some very minor adjustments to the exposure, and removed a wire that was blocking the light in the lower left background of the image.

January 21, 2010

A quick shot of the moon from my backyard this evening. Have an Eagle Board of Review to participate in this evening so had to go for a quick picture today.