I was having a discussion with an older, American, lady the other day. We were talking about cattle dogs. They are quite fashionable here in the States. People think they will be good family dogs. (But they are not - they are bred to run all day, they will herd anything - ducks, chooks, children - and tend to look to one pack leader.)
She considered it cruel to have such a dog on a "running line" - a leash that allowed them to run around the back yard but did not allow them to jump the fence or otherwise escape a yard. Under no circumstances was it acceptable to put the dog on a running line.
She thought it much better that the dog be confined in a cage whilst its owners were out.
Quite obviously I think it is cruel to have a very active dog confined for 8-10 hours a day. As long as the dog has access to water, shelter and entertainment (and there are no mountain lions/etc) I can't see the problem with the running line. Free roaming of the yard is better but if the dog is an escape artiste.... (Some of these dogs love jumping fences and will go in search of something to herd if they are not entertained enough at home.)
You may be able to tell that I don't think that active dogs in apartments are a good idea either. AFAIK most apartment dogs are kept in cages when their pack leaders are out.
What do you think?
The other think I abominate is the docking of dogs' tails. Some dogs in Oz have docked tails (eg corgis, Jack Russells and some other short haired terriers are allowed stumps as are dobermans and other pointer dogs) though the practice is on the way out. Here - all sorts of dogs have docked tails. The other day I saw a cattle dog with a tail docked as short as a corgi's - there was no tail left! It wasn't the first one that I had seen docked so short. How do dogs tell tales if they have no tail? Taking off a dog's tail is like making us mute - the dog cannot talk properly. You can tell a lot about a dog's mood by how it is holding its tail. People carry on about how horrid it is to neuter a male dog - how can he take his greatest pleasure? (or what men think is his greatest pleasure cos they sorta envy the dog's flexibility) - but think nothing of docking the tail to "improve the dog's aesthetics" and to make sure it can't sweep the cups and dustables off the coffee table. It seems to be a very odd double standard.
OK, off my hobbyhorse now. You might get some local pics again soon! I have plenty to share.
PS If you hadn't already worked it out, I am a cat person.
Showing posts with label rants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rants. Show all posts
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Things I have learned
Today's thing I have learned is that dishwashers suck. Even manual dishwashers (ie me) can suck, but I'm really talking about the ones where you stick your dishes in a machine and hope they come out clean.
One of my great delights upon moving to the US was discovering that most (but not all) rental apartment kitchens come with a dishwasher. I'd never had one before, having lived in older pre-dishwasher houses. How wonderful - dishes go in dirty and come out clean! None of this scrubbing stuff in the sink. Plus you use less water because they are more efficient!
Weeeeelllll, maybe there are such dishwashers out there but I've not yet met one.
We eat rice and potato a lot. And vegetables. Dishwashers do not remove the rice and potato and vegetable grunge off the pots. Some would say "That's clean, it's been through the dishwasher" but I see gunge, old food that harbours evil nasties that are just waiting to inflict some gastrointestinal horror upon me (or DH). For all I know that gunge has gotten together with a gluten/casein morsel from DH's cheese and cracker plate and is now just biding its time, waiting to leap at me when I next use that pot.
I've learned that sticking said gungy pots and lids back in the dishwasher just bakes the gunge on harder.
Solution? Scrub pots and pans, give up on putting them in the dishwasher. Run the water slowly without plugging the sink cos the sink is HUGE and takes forever to fill even 7cm deep (enough to mostly cover a glass).
Dang.
Mashed potato also doesn't come off bowls well, nor does cake mix. Handwash time!
Dang.
Then there's the times when I forget to run the garbage monster that lives in the sink drain before starting a load of dishes and the drain backs up and our "clean" dishes come out covered with lord knows what. They also can't just be rewashed - they have to go into the sink for a soak and a hand wash.
Dang.
But I will admit when the planet are in the right alignment, the dishes have been rinsed and the great drain god has been appeased, the dishes come out pretty clean. Just make sure the cups are turned towards the centre of the machine, not the edge.
One of my great delights upon moving to the US was discovering that most (but not all) rental apartment kitchens come with a dishwasher. I'd never had one before, having lived in older pre-dishwasher houses. How wonderful - dishes go in dirty and come out clean! None of this scrubbing stuff in the sink. Plus you use less water because they are more efficient!
Weeeeelllll, maybe there are such dishwashers out there but I've not yet met one.
We eat rice and potato a lot. And vegetables. Dishwashers do not remove the rice and potato and vegetable grunge off the pots. Some would say "That's clean, it's been through the dishwasher" but I see gunge, old food that harbours evil nasties that are just waiting to inflict some gastrointestinal horror upon me (or DH). For all I know that gunge has gotten together with a gluten/casein morsel from DH's cheese and cracker plate and is now just biding its time, waiting to leap at me when I next use that pot.
I've learned that sticking said gungy pots and lids back in the dishwasher just bakes the gunge on harder.
Solution? Scrub pots and pans, give up on putting them in the dishwasher. Run the water slowly without plugging the sink cos the sink is HUGE and takes forever to fill even 7cm deep (enough to mostly cover a glass).
Dang.
Mashed potato also doesn't come off bowls well, nor does cake mix. Handwash time!
Dang.
Then there's the times when I forget to run the garbage monster that lives in the sink drain before starting a load of dishes and the drain backs up and our "clean" dishes come out covered with lord knows what. They also can't just be rewashed - they have to go into the sink for a soak and a hand wash.
Dang.
But I will admit when the planet are in the right alignment, the dishes have been rinsed and the great drain god has been appeased, the dishes come out pretty clean. Just make sure the cups are turned towards the centre of the machine, not the edge.
Wednesday, 7 January 2009
An Act of Bastardy
Man I am getting really really REALLY annoyed with the "lady" who thinks our car park is hers.
So when we got our car, there was always a silver Audi parked in the spot I later found should be ours. So I parked in the next space along thinking I had muddled the numbers up.
No.
No I hadn't.
Someone moved in and wanted their spot. Fair enough too. So I got booted out of the spot that wasn't mine. But the witchqueen in the next spot won't give up "her" place. She knows it is not her spot but it is convenient for her to park there. We've stuck notes on her windscreen, I've complained to the office practically every day for the last two weeks. But it is convenient for her to steal someone else's spot. She got away with it for two months and now she wants to keep it.
It isn't hers.
Is this typical behaviour for someone who drives a silver Audi and/or comes from Illinois? Have they "made it" and can trample on anyone as they choose? Or is it a reflection of an egotist?
Of course since very space is allocated to a unit, I have to park in the free parking about 400m from our unit. You have to be early to get one of those spots. Normally not that big an issue but at present, walking 100m tires me out. Normally I would ride my bike but with an ear infection, I can't.
The other thing is we are *paying* for a carport space. We are being denied our right to our car park. I obviously have been in the USA for too long cos I am wondering whether we can threaten legal action against her and this place.
I wish they would just danged tow her car as the note threatens. I guess they are not allowed.
Grrr
So when we got our car, there was always a silver Audi parked in the spot I later found should be ours. So I parked in the next space along thinking I had muddled the numbers up.
No.
No I hadn't.
Someone moved in and wanted their spot. Fair enough too. So I got booted out of the spot that wasn't mine. But the witchqueen in the next spot won't give up "her" place. She knows it is not her spot but it is convenient for her to park there. We've stuck notes on her windscreen, I've complained to the office practically every day for the last two weeks. But it is convenient for her to steal someone else's spot. She got away with it for two months and now she wants to keep it.
It isn't hers.
Is this typical behaviour for someone who drives a silver Audi and/or comes from Illinois? Have they "made it" and can trample on anyone as they choose? Or is it a reflection of an egotist?
Of course since very space is allocated to a unit, I have to park in the free parking about 400m from our unit. You have to be early to get one of those spots. Normally not that big an issue but at present, walking 100m tires me out. Normally I would ride my bike but with an ear infection, I can't.
The other thing is we are *paying* for a carport space. We are being denied our right to our car park. I obviously have been in the USA for too long cos I am wondering whether we can threaten legal action against her and this place.
I wish they would just danged tow her car as the note threatens. I guess they are not allowed.
Grrr
Monday, 2 June 2008
On cars in the USA
Where I come from in Australia, about one in four cars is a Ricer.
What's a ricer?
A little Japanese four cylinder car (eg Honda Civic, Mitsubishi Lancer) or occasionally a 4 cylinder Korean car that has been hotted up - y'know noisy exhaust, lowered, spoiler, body skirts and wing on the boot (trunk), sometimes even engine mods. It doesn't make them fast necessarily - I dragged quite a lot of ricers off at the lights in my little bog stock standard 1.3L Starlet, even with 110kg deadweight (DH) in it - but they *look* fast, and that is their aim - style over substance. I don't include Subaru WRXs in this as they come out of the factory looking OTT - to me a ricer is an aftermarket job and individual labour of love (Aussies can now howl me down).
In the USA, after my nephew pointed it out, I realised that I have seen very few ricers. I've been counting how many I've seen in the last what two or three weeks?
Three.
That is if you include small cars with noisy exhausts. Two if you require the full on body work.
Americans like to show off in honking great big trucks. They don't show off in little cars - no, you show your status in a Ford 150 or a Chev Tahoe/whatever with double wheels on the back ("dualies") and a roaring engine that would wake the dead. Big is beautiful in the US. Small means you are po.
Wonder how long it will take for that to change? Last I looked, petrol was costing $4.17 a gallon. Diesel costs more. Small might start meaning you can still drive whilst those big expensive-to-feed things get to sit in the driveways of America (not in the garage - the enormous triple garage is full of crud).
On another matter, what is with all these American cars with flip-flop fuel filler flaps? They have a little finger flip open thing. It is not locked. Anyone could come along and help themselves to that precious petrol. The number of times I've looked for the little lifter button in a hire car and then found I have to GET OUT OF THE CAR! to open the fuel filler door on whatever side of the car it is (yes yes, of course I have to get out to fill the car up but I want service!).... plus it means I inevitably pull up on the wrong side of the bowser...
What's a ricer?
A little Japanese four cylinder car (eg Honda Civic, Mitsubishi Lancer) or occasionally a 4 cylinder Korean car that has been hotted up - y'know noisy exhaust, lowered, spoiler, body skirts and wing on the boot (trunk), sometimes even engine mods. It doesn't make them fast necessarily - I dragged quite a lot of ricers off at the lights in my little bog stock standard 1.3L Starlet, even with 110kg deadweight (DH) in it - but they *look* fast, and that is their aim - style over substance. I don't include Subaru WRXs in this as they come out of the factory looking OTT - to me a ricer is an aftermarket job and individual labour of love (Aussies can now howl me down).
In the USA, after my nephew pointed it out, I realised that I have seen very few ricers. I've been counting how many I've seen in the last what two or three weeks?
Three.
That is if you include small cars with noisy exhausts. Two if you require the full on body work.
Americans like to show off in honking great big trucks. They don't show off in little cars - no, you show your status in a Ford 150 or a Chev Tahoe/whatever with double wheels on the back ("dualies") and a roaring engine that would wake the dead. Big is beautiful in the US. Small means you are po.
Wonder how long it will take for that to change? Last I looked, petrol was costing $4.17 a gallon. Diesel costs more. Small might start meaning you can still drive whilst those big expensive-to-feed things get to sit in the driveways of America (not in the garage - the enormous triple garage is full of crud).
On another matter, what is with all these American cars with flip-flop fuel filler flaps? They have a little finger flip open thing. It is not locked. Anyone could come along and help themselves to that precious petrol. The number of times I've looked for the little lifter button in a hire car and then found I have to GET OUT OF THE CAR! to open the fuel filler door on whatever side of the car it is (yes yes, of course I have to get out to fill the car up but I want service!).... plus it means I inevitably pull up on the wrong side of the bowser...
Thursday, 19 July 2007
On Social Security Numbers
Everything in the USA is based on your social security number.
Everything.
No credit rating without an SSN.
No loans without an SSN.
No health insurance without an SSN.
No online access to various institutions (eg the credit union) without an SSN.
I can't get an SSN. I am not allowed to work. SSNs are only for those who work. I can get an ITIN which is an Internal Revenue Service number that is for tax purposes (even though I am not allowed to work, go figure!). I am holding off on that until I find out whether I can get a work permit - you can't have an ITIN and an SSN at the same time.
DH can get an SSN but you can't apply for an SSN until you've been here for 10 working days or more, and then it is not issued for at least another four weeks after that. He has applied for his SSN.
This is causing some problems, as you may imagine.
Currently, DH has to nominate which health insurance fund we are to be covered under within 30 days of our arrival (ie real soon now). To do this, he has to provide his, guess what?
You got it! His SSN!
But he doesn't have one.
You would think that the health insurance providers for big company like HP would be used to people not having SSNs. After all HP recruits lots of people from overseas. But no they want the SSN first. Someone there has to be able to sort this out, but there is no HR contact number, only a help page and an email contact....
Heaven help Australia if we go down the Australia card path. It would mean all our records would be tied to one number, just like the American SSN. If you lose that number or someone steals it from you (identity theft) or you are new in the country and everything relies on you having that number, what on earth do you do? What if you do not qualify for that number? Do you remain a non-entity, a legal but barely tolerated alien?
Am I to be a non-entity here, simply a subsidiary alien? I quite object to that! Should I start jumping up and down and doing my best Elephant Man impersonation? I am not an animal (nor an alien), I am a human being!
Eh, it won't do any good. I'll just wait and see if I can get a work permit. Only three or so months of waiting to go!
Everything.
No credit rating without an SSN.
No loans without an SSN.
No health insurance without an SSN.
No online access to various institutions (eg the credit union) without an SSN.
I can't get an SSN. I am not allowed to work. SSNs are only for those who work. I can get an ITIN which is an Internal Revenue Service number that is for tax purposes (even though I am not allowed to work, go figure!). I am holding off on that until I find out whether I can get a work permit - you can't have an ITIN and an SSN at the same time.
DH can get an SSN but you can't apply for an SSN until you've been here for 10 working days or more, and then it is not issued for at least another four weeks after that. He has applied for his SSN.
This is causing some problems, as you may imagine.
Currently, DH has to nominate which health insurance fund we are to be covered under within 30 days of our arrival (ie real soon now). To do this, he has to provide his, guess what?
You got it! His SSN!
But he doesn't have one.
You would think that the health insurance providers for big company like HP would be used to people not having SSNs. After all HP recruits lots of people from overseas. But no they want the SSN first. Someone there has to be able to sort this out, but there is no HR contact number, only a help page and an email contact....
Heaven help Australia if we go down the Australia card path. It would mean all our records would be tied to one number, just like the American SSN. If you lose that number or someone steals it from you (identity theft) or you are new in the country and everything relies on you having that number, what on earth do you do? What if you do not qualify for that number? Do you remain a non-entity, a legal but barely tolerated alien?
Am I to be a non-entity here, simply a subsidiary alien? I quite object to that! Should I start jumping up and down and doing my best Elephant Man impersonation? I am not an animal (nor an alien), I am a human being!
Eh, it won't do any good. I'll just wait and see if I can get a work permit. Only three or so months of waiting to go!
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