I’ve got yet another new project: Indy Animal Media. Check out the website and its first podcast at indyanimalmedia.org.
Tag Archive for 'animals'
Though AdoptAnAnimal.org is still in its infancy, my calendar is gradually filling up with related happenings, and I’m realizing that this non-job is a lot of work!
On Saturday, my wife and I attended the North Shore Animal League’s “Tour for Life” at the Indianapolis Animal Care and Control center. (Before I forget, check out Shakie to the right, one of the adoptable dogs at IACC. He looks very similar to my dogs Aja and Diva, and it’s so tempting to rescue him… but I can’t, so maybe you should! Click his pic to go to his Petfinder page, or visit IACC to see him and take him for a walk.)(Updated on 4/29/08: Shakie is no longer available: he was adopted!) NSAL purports to be the world’s largest no-kill shelter. I don’t know if this is true, but either way, I didn’t find out at Saturday’s event. It was great to see a lot of no-kill animal rescue organizations represented at the event, but besides a small hand-written poster board and an NSAL pamphlet at one of the booths, I didn’t see any presence of the League at all (and their blog currently doesn’t have an Indy entry, so perhaps something happened and they couldn’t show up.)
At any rate, I met some great people representing some worthwhile animal activism groups, adoption shelters and rescue organizations. I talked to Warren Patitz, president and founder of Move to Act, which has been one of the Humane Society of Indianapolis’s most vocal critics (though critics of HSI aren’t hard to find, especially after their decision to stop taking in stray animals - read this Nuvo article for the full story.) He told me some more about an upcoming No Kill seminar with author/activist Nathan Winograd, which should be quite interesting (I listened to Winograd’s podcast, based on this blog post today; it definitely makes me rethink the comment I left on Nuvo’s site in which I mentioned that even if HSI is making a mistake by not taking strays, at least their end goal of finding homes for pets is a noble one. I hope they’re doing all they can to adopt out every animal.)
So in addition to the Tour for Life and the No Kill seminar, I’ll also be attending the HSI Mutt Strut this Sunday with Aja, Diva, Pixie (my dogs), my wife and my parents (and their dog.) I’m sure my dogs don’t really care what HSI is doing as long as they get to be around hundreds of other excited, panting dogs.
Speaking of dogs, I found it interesting that, at the NSAL event this past Saturday, my wife wanted to take home the smallest dog, Honeybunch (a beautiful little boxer-type mix from Rescue Farm), and I wanted to take home the largest (Titan, a gorgeous malamute from Indy Homes for Huskies, who arguably had the liveliest bunch of dogs available for adoption.) If only we had acres and acres of farmland so we could take in more dogs…
When asked why he spent so much time and money talking about kindness to animals when there is so much cruelty to men, George Angell (founder of the Massachusetts SPCA in 1868) replied, “I am working at the roots. When human beings finally learn to honor the spirit of all beings most of the world’s problems will be solved.”
This post isn’t as focused as those previous, but read on, kind sirs and madams:
A big week for me at Angie’s List and for Adopt An Animal. At Angie’s List, I set up our magazine department’s blog and released List-en up!’s first true video podcast. I say “true” video because previous episodes were in what was technically a video format, but were basically a still-image slideshow with pictures to accompanying the audio. This time, though, I actually followed a home energy auditor and videotaped the house-inspection process. After watching the video, I hope you have an audit performed on your home to find out how much money you can save through some simple energy-efficient upgrades.
As for the blog, you’ll notice that its design is basically the same as the Angie’s List podcast site. For the “Blue House Blog,” as we’re calling it (thanks to Brandon Smith, Angie’s List magazine artist and Goldfish Don’t Bounce bandmember, for the awesome logo!), I used the same Wordpress content management system, and the same theme, K2, simply because it works well. It looks good on its own, but is easily customizable and functions quite well for the most part. And though I have little PHP-programming experience, going into the code and fiddling with certain things isn’t too difficult. And there’s a tremendous network of free plugins, forums, and bloggers that serve as terrific resources for any Wordpress-related problem.
On a Wordpress-related note, I’ve posted some more dogs for adoption in Indianapolis at my Wordpress-based Adopt An Animal site. Please check them out (an adult female German Shepherd and adult male Pit-bull mix) and let me know if you or someone you know is interested.
Finally, I hope to install Ableton Live this weekend and create my first digital mix of some songs I’ve been really into lately. If you have any experience with Live and have tips to offer, please let me know. Thanks!
For awhile now, I’ve been wanting to volunteer for something. There are so many causes that need help that it was almost overwhelming for me to decide what I could truly make a difference with, but I think I’ve found it. I’ve started a web site/organization called Adopt An Animal (at adoptananimal.org) in order to help homeless animals find loving, responsible homes. Continue reading ‘My new venture: AdoptAnAnimal.org’
I’ve written a few times about this season’s whale hunt by the Japanese, but have realized that the BBC’s Jonah Fisher is a much better source for it. He’s aboard Greenpeace ship Esperanza and is also keeping a journal of the events, so I’ll just link to his diary. Rather than me regurgitating what I’ve read elsewhere, you can go straight to the source.
That’s my problem with blogs: most of them are used simply for regurgitation of info that can almost always be found more easily and with better information elsewhere. This whole “news aggregator” phenomenon of Digg, Newsvine, Reddit, etc., etc., etc. often leads viewers/readers to blogs with summaries of other stories, so what’s the point? I guess blogs are good for diary-like entries; they’re good for friends and family to check out and stay updated; they’re good for illegally posting copyrighted content. But what else are they good for? My guess is absolutely nothing (UNHH - say it again!) Oh wait, they are good for one more thing: wasting time.
This is a little late (meant to post before the holidays), but good nonetheless.
Almost every time my wife and I take our three rather large dogs (Diva’s pictured, as puppy, to the left) to a friend or family member’s house, I grapple with whether or not I really want to deal with them (the dogs, not the people.) They can be a lot of hassle and work, but in the end, they usually win. So I try to be as considerate as possible to our hosts, though it’s not always the easiest thing to do. This New York Times article has some entertaining stories and tips about taking your pets on vacation with you, especially on holidays to friends’ or relatives’ houses. And though I do refer to my dogs as members of my family, I hope I’m not nearly as extreme as some of the owners in the story. An excerpt: Continue reading ‘Taking your dog on holiday/vacation? Some things to consider…’
A quick update on my post about Japanese whaling last year: According to the BBC, Australia has sent a large customs ship, as well as an Airbus plane, to monitor Japanese whaling activities and collect photos and video surveillance in preparation for a possible legal battle against Japan’s whaling practices. Go Aussies!
- Besides this morning’s sentencing of Michael Vick, there were other impressive victories for the Humane Society of the United States in 2007:
- The last two states — New Mexico and Louisiana — outlawed cockfighting, and Congress passed a seminal law strengthening penalties for animal fighting. HSUS supporters also pressured Nike to drop a multi-million-dollar endorsement deal with Vick after his role in illegal dogfighting was uncovered.
- Horse slaughter was finally eliminated on U.S. soil when Texas and Illinois shut down the last remaining slaughterhouses in the nation.
- Animals were rescued from natural disasters, and HSUS provided care for hundreds of pets and farm animals threatened by California’s recent wildfires.
- Some of the worst cruelties of factory farming were stopped when the largest veal and pig producers committed to abandon the use of tiny crates and cages, more companies and consumers switched to cage-free eggs, and Oregon’s legislature made history by passing legislation outlawing the use of gestation crates to confine breeding pigs.
What’s most important for next year? Leave a comment to discuss!
For anyone that doesn’t believe killing whales is cruel and that the Japanese have a cultural right to do so, Tony Long at Wired has a good editorial you should check out. The barbaric practice is far from being relevant today, and Long makes some good points. An exerpt:
“This isn’t about culture. Like almost everything else in the world that stains the human spirit, this is about greed.
Whaling, as practiced by the nation-states, has always been a purely commercial venture. In the Age of Sail the industry grew out of economic necessity. When a whale was killed all of it was used — as food, as lamp oil, as lubricant. Whalebone was used to make corset stays and scrimshaw. Blubber was used to make soap and cosmetics. A single whale — remember, we’re talking about the largest animal on earth — could produce a lot of stuff and that meant a lot of money. Continue reading ‘Japanese use “culture” as lame excuse for barbaric whale hunting’
This punk stole my bearclaw!, originally uploaded by Securis777.
Hi everyone! I finally have a presence on the web again, after my old site tigersharkproduction.com was taken offline after I left Webize. It’ll be up again soon, I promise (not that anyone cares)! But until then, this blog is my official home on the web.
Anyway, to make a long story short, I just got back from Stanford’s Publishing on the Web conference in beautiful, sunny, warm Monterey, California. Though the sessions lasted all day, we did manage to take some time on the last half-day to kayak the bay and bike to scenic Pacific Grove. If I had $1.5 million to buy a house, I’d be living there right now 
Visit my Flickr photo set to check out a few more pics (especially you, Mom: there are a few with otters!) I think I need a better digital camera, though. It’s hard to see the cute little otter faces 
One more note: Since I just started this blog, it’s going to undergo a variety of facelifts, so don’t be surprised if you revisit and things have changed.
