First day at my new position!

I think it's technically called a promotion, but since it's with an entirely different branch, I'm not sure.

It's great news, really. A new four day work week plus a new set of hours (don't have to wake up so early anymore). Higher pay per hour. More responsibility. Working from a position of the company that gives me greater oversight of operations. Website management (although it's indirect, as I will not be the one programming). And maybe best of all, I'll have a hand in the education sector.

On another front. I also recently put the 98th% of finishing touches onto docksearch411.com. Now, there is an issue of debugging, and maybe one or two more points of visuals that need to be corrected, but on the whole it's looking much prettier, and working much better than it was before. Finishing (mostly) this takes a huge weight off my shoulders, and probably makes me more psychologically productive in the long run.

Anyway, that's my very long term update for now. Will be back some more if I can get reason to.

Many days DTC,

Dansid.

Survival of the Fittest? Internet news vs. Newspapers

Having recently been made an employee of the Los Angeles Times, I've been confronted with the relevance of its survival to my own life. Brace yourself for a short article.

Newspapers have been slowly fading from the importance of daily U.S. life since the end of WWII. So is it doomed, and should it be doomed are two questions that I think are begged by such a notion. Of course, in attempting to answer these questions I strive to remove myself interests from the equation.

Is it doomed? No. I think the page has its place solidly secured in the heart of human civilization. But let's be fair: a defense of print isn't the same thing as a defense of the newspaper. This doesn't exclude it from being a factor though.

The stay of newspapers is assured for several reasons, really: 1. Assuming both are organized, without a specific spot of a text in mind, referenced by a specific word or grouping of words, 1 gigabyte of text is much faster to browse in paper print than it is on a screen; 2. Print reaches those areas where no computers are found, i.e. less technologically enabled regions can get their information as well; 3. because generally speaking, the newspaper still has the ability to do, in terms of quality assurances, what most of the internet is incapable of doing--this last one brings me to my next point.

The internet, as many already know, is filled with clutter, for lack of want for a more foul word. What this fact presents is a by-nature structuring of pros and cons for both the newspaper, and the internet.
By its nature, the internet is filled with information that's fast, easy, and cheap to come across/put out, yet this leads to a bottomless pit of networks, both good and bad to weave through.
Now although, newspapers are a bit slower, a bit less convenient to access (for those with computers: who are arguably leading the movement that degrades the newspapers), and waaaay more expensive to put out there/receive, the very sum of these facts suggests that we can rely more heavily on the production result of the newspaper more so than we can on the internet.

Okay, now the obvious truth is there are sooo many nuances to the scenario of Newspaper vs. Internet news that I can't, with the sanity of this article intact, cover accurately the reasons I am led to my conclusion. Also, this has been merely a reflection on the survival of the newspaper, but does not cover the quality of said format.

In a nutshell, I think the paper is here to stay because it's always going to be isolated in a medium where little "clutter" impedes on its quality.

Many Days DTC,

Dansid.

Canine Heart Murmur (parts 1, 2, and 3)

Part 1

Canine heart murmur is a rare and difficult disease to handle. Information on it is very hard to find, and so I write this to share what little I know of this largely untreatable condition.

I have this amazing dog, and his name is Jack. He is a mutt, mixed with at least half German Shepherd, and I think a Whippet. For almost his entire life, he was known for his energy, health, and handsomeness. He's been kept at the right weight his whole life, and walked 3 times a week for the last 2.5 years.

Well, about 5 months ago he was diagnosed with a little problem called a heart murmur.

As it has been classified, there are 6 stages to a heart murmur: 1 being the mildest, and 6 being the worst case scenario. A heart murmur is basically an irregular sound in the heart beat, as far as I am aware of, it's a symptom of a bad chamber, or valve: that is, as the heart pumps blood, one of the valves is not sealing off properly. This allows for semi bi-directional blood flow to occur in the affected chamber which is bad. Each chamber is designed for either an in-flow of blood, or an out flow, and if a chamber designed for one direction is allowing another, than the heart begins to lose efficiency.

When he was diagnosed, Jack had a level 3 heart murmur, which isn't so bad: it's the last stage before you have to start worrying. 4, 5, and 6 are the advanced stages. We were basically told to go home and monitor his living. For the first month all was fairly normal. He showed nothing beyond normal aging signs: Jack is a 13 year-old, midsized dog: 45 pounds healthy (and still very fit and youthful for his age).

I will end part 1 of Canine Heart Murmur at about 6 weeks from Jack's diagnosis; this period is chosen because it seems to mark his journey into the later phase of his life, what looks to be the last stage. We noticed a very uncomfortable, hollow sounding cough begin to show itself occasionally. At 6 weeks, when this cough persisted, we took him to the vet. They X-rayed his chest and got "specialists" involved, and they concluded that basically the cough may have been allergy related, as there was no seen fluid buildup in his lungs (one of the common symptoms of heart murmurs). However he was bumped up to a stage 4 murmur. This minor consolation did not last long.

Part 2

Parts 1 and two of this entry were started on October 7th, 2009.

I'm going to take this moment to digress a bit. To this day, I think back and figure I can pinpoint the time when Jack began to notice, or at least feel the effects of his heart murmur. Since he was young, every fourth of July, Jack would come into whatever room I was in and basically hide for protection. For whatever reason he thought I was going to protect him from the booming sky. Between my mom and me, I was the safety zone whenever something really scared him. He didn't scare that often though. However, not long after he was diagnosed with it, Jack began to come into my room uncharacteristically, and crawl into my bed space where he would hide for some time. My guess is that whatever discomfort he was feeling by the changes in his body, brought him to me, looking for help, or protection.

Well they either screwed up, or his condition rapidly, and I mean rapidly worsened. Within a week that cough became regular, very pronounced, and even attained the telltale sound that indicated fluid was now an issue. By this point his daily energy had already been slowly declining, but a supplement (called The Missing Link by Designing Health, Inc.) had temporarily reversed that pattern; when the fluid hit his lungs, he would get the zombie nod (where his head would bob, eyes half closed), his energy level shot into the floor.

Additionally, since his murmur's onset, his rib cage has gotten wider and he quickly lost muscle mass, causing his bones to protrude more. You see, when the heart loses efficiency, it has to work harder to meet its quota of keeping the body alive; as a result of the constant overworking the heart does to compensate, it swells to an abnormal size and from this a whole bunch of problems arise. I'm not a doctor, but I assume as your heart falls behind in its task of providing oxygenated blood to the entire body, an expected long-term result could be general muscular atrophy. He grew skinnier with his ribs protruding more.

Well, one night our fears were realized when Jack couldn't go to sleep due to a cough that forced itself onto him every time he tried to lie down. That night we stood vigil propping him up on both left and right sides of his body because it seemed his cough was at its worst when he was on either side. He got rest that night and actually woke with renewed energy, but we knew it was no way to live for any of us. So we took him in to the vet the next morning to see if we could fix him. Jack came home with a prescription for Lasix and Enalapril.

Conclusion

I write to finish this article today because yesterday Jack, one of the coolest friends I ever had, is no longer with us in the same way he has been over the last 12 years. He and I had a rocky relationship at first: I downright hated him, and he couldn't care less about me. But I am so happy, and thankful to say that eventually we became as close as brothers.

Lasix and Enalapril were not cures, but they gave us what we needed for Jack: quality extra time. Not much though. We secured his medication on October 7th, give or take a day (my memory on that detail is a little fuzzy), and on November 29th, he left us missing him. At the time, the doctor said the medication would only give him 6 months at most, and they were certainly right on that call.

Lasix was prescribed to rid his lungs of the excess water. The toll they would take was going to be on his kidneys and his liver. Enalapril was going to reduce the size of his heart, and its toll was going to be taken from his liver. Each drug alone would require from him a heavy price; both together meant that this was far from a cure.

The time that passed from the day we got him those meds til today is mostly history, and doesn't really pertain to the point of this article, but I am so thankful for the extra time it bought us. The day after he started his treatment, he perked up and was running around wide-eyed like he was 1 year younger and full of health (trust me, one year younger he was a totally different dog). The cough was gone and Jack was back.

As you can tell this period was short lived, but I have no complaints because the remainder of his life was sweet, and perhaps for another written piece of work. However, I do have advice for anyone looking for these medications. Aside for maybe the first order (if it's an emergency) I would not get your medications directly from the vet. You can get the same medicine for much less money at online pharmacies or at like, a Costco pharmacy. The vets make plenty of money in their other provided services in addition to an already small profit margin from drug prescriptions, so don't worry about any issues with patronage or legitimacy. Attain your drugs from where it's cost effective: that is not the vet.

Events turned south when one day we realized Jack's stomach was abnormally swollen. It was pretty large. One minute was a trim dog, and the next he had a belly. As it was mentioned before, the drugs were going to take a toll on his body, and eventually they did. We took him in to see the doctor for one final checkup. Jack's liver, or his kidneys were failing him, and so all the fluids that would normally be processed through them were backed up in his body. He dealt happily with a big belly for 2 weeks before he finally couldn't lie down and well, that was basically what did him in. The final details of his life will remain private for those of us closest to him, but he was loved by many and passed on more gracefully, and peacefully than I could have dreamed possible.

As a last thread of advice/information, I offer a point of consideration for euthanasia. We knew it was time for final goodbyes when jack was unable to get a good night's sleep, and when his days no longer saw the energy that was the foundation of his personality. Remember that, as their guardian, your pet's comfort is your responsibility. So do your best to keep their well being in mind when deciding on how long to keep them with you, or when to let them go.

I hope these words will be put into a position to help those of us unfortunate enough to be met with a canine heart murmur.

You will be missed buddy, especially by Nico and Mom, but I love you too.
In his passing a part of me dies, but through my life, a part of him will live on.

San Diego State University Online Classes: PHP w/MySQL; Ruby on Rails.

I'm coming to the end of the line of my 2 online classes with San Diego State University and I have a few things I would like to say about my experience learning PHP, MySQL, and Ruby on Rails.

My first and biggest gripe is the inability to have access to the Instructor's email. Having just graduated from a 4 year university, I can say this kind of thing never happened in any of my classes. The teacher's were supposed to at least try to make themselves available to those who might have extra questions. This shouldn't be any different just because the teaching has moved from the classroom to the chat room.

The way they expect you to interact/deal with this is to ask all lesson-related questions in the discussion forums; they don't want you talking about things that don't directly pertain to the lesson. But this is too limiting, and almost inhuman. I understand the reasoning behind this, but it makes me feel like I'm just a number. I think they could at least benefit from a "General discussion" forum that allows for topics not necessarily related directly to the lesson at hand. This'll offer a little more flexibility making the experience feel a little more organic, and therefore enjoyable. And there shouldn't be any excuse for denying the student access to the instructor's email. Some people don't feel comfortable having their questions advertised in front of everyone, and so some option for these kinds of people should be available.

Anyway, onto my view of the lessons. For whatever reason, I find the PHP/MySQL to be taught pretty effectively. He explains it in a fashion that allows even complete newcomers to pick things up pretty quickly. However, not so much is the case for Ruby. I don't know why, but it seems like presumptions are made about the general familiarity with programming we are supposed to bring to the class. This shouldn't be happening because both classes are in the most basic "beginners" format. Especially considering the uniqueness of object oriented programming, extra precautions should be made when explaining Ruby. Now maybe it's just the English major in me, but about 40% of the time I could see myself explaining what was being said in a much more efficient way.

All of this being said, I'm typically a pretty independent learner, so I feel all of what's needed to be one is generally provided with these online formats. Rich, the instructor, is pretty reliable whenever you have an issue you'd like to bring up with him so that was good as well.

If all works out, I'm going to add a second part to this "review" detailing more of the positive aspects, or even just the general format of the presentation. For now, I'm going to enjoy the rest of my Thanksgiving.

Many days DTC,

Dansid.

We're All a Little Lower on Cash

Well, we're pretty far into a recession, so I know this article comes a little late and that there are probably tons that will overshadow mine in a search engine, but judging by the behavior I see (including some of my own mistakes), I needed to put this out there anyway, if only for myself.

This is basically my take on a few ways to save some extra cash going about our everyday lives. http://aclnk.com/ar2244857.

The irony here is this blog gets less views in its lifetime than the article will in a month. Hehe, these are humorously sad numbers to play with. Anyway, I'm off.

Many Days DTC,

Dansid.

To Wield a Demon Blade.

It's bee quite a while since I've written on this blog and I'm pleased to say I am returning to the scene.

Since the onset of my absence I have taken up the learning of XHTML, CSS, and PHP. The first two languages are, more or less, at my disposal; php on the other hand is going to take a while to grow comfortable with.

Enough of that. Now that the intense learning period is roughly over, I have gotten my self back onto the old AC wagon.

On September 8th, I bought myself the newly released Wii title Muramasa: The Demon Blade, and what a title it was. I can say this game gives me so much to be giddy about. I don't know if Vanillaware plans on doing sequels, but knowing how so many titles (movies, books, or games) get ruined by sequels I'm somewhat happy they won't be returning to this chapter Wii history.

Is it the perfect game? No, but it's strengths are so well utilized, that I can't complain about what few flaws it has. Let's not even go into the curvacious women, which are eye candy for young males like myself.

Here's my written review of it: http://aclnk.com/ar2250707. I hope it's liked.

Many Days DTC,

Dansid.

From the New Front

Returning from my leave of absence, I report of news from a new front: my efforts have been slightly redirected from Associated Content to a contract in Web Design. I have 30 days, 25 at this point, to create a web page. This means I have 25 more days to fluently learn XHTML, get an overview of CSS and Javascript, and a run down of PHP (as recommended by a friend). Almost a week into the project, I'm becoming more comfortable with xhtml, and look forward to learning the rest, as I think the opportunity is undeniably valuable.

No words back from any of the numerous jobs I've sent out applications to. As soon as I begin the actual work on the site, I'm gonna resume my sending out applications, and perhaps even my work with AC.

Many days, DTC

Dansid.

Nothing is Easy

My printer isn't communicating with my computer, Twitter isn't updating anything I want to say, and I've been plagiarized. Apparently the short story Analysis at http://tinyurl.com/ngva3g was good enough to steal from me. Unfortunately I don't have enough time to fight it, as I have a group of other things I need to take care of in the real world.

On a more interesting note, I turned in an audio update at Associated Content, and await it's publication, which I look forward to, for no real reason other than the debut of my voice on the web.

Anyway, that's it.

Many days DTC,

Dansid

Turn at the end.

Well it turns out AC actually deemed my article on how to keep a guy committed ( http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2056825/how_to_keep_the_right_guy_boyfriend.html?cat=7 ) as "not unique" enough to receive an upfront payment.

Stupidly enough, I accepted publication anyway. I requested a reconsideration of payment, but I doubt the reach of AC's kindness right now. They've been pretty nice, but having been rejected as many times as I have so far, I'm reminded that they are running a business.

Tomorrow I must begin my research into web page building, and I would like to write a review of the movie District 9. Hopefully a good day awaits me.

Many Days DTC,

Dansid.

Ongoing Trend

Once again I find myself submitting the kind of article I never intended to write when I signed up for Associated Content bright-eyed with high hopes. But it's as they say, beggars can't be choosers. Nevertheless, if I don't get the 5 dollars I anticipated on writing the article, I'm not going to accept publication. I'm currently pretty happy with the page I've set up so far, and don't want to taint it with things that I didn't want going up to begin with.

On a brighter note, AC made me an offer today for 1.12$ for my Tooth and Claw analysis. It's a pretty skimpy amount, but it actually feels really good to get paid something for my work. A good friend said I was "building an empire" brick by brick. Well, hopes are still up, but I'm remaining wary of overreaching my grasp. Here's to hoping the sun will eventually never set on my empire.

Many Days DTC,
Dansid

The Well Travelled Path

Currently awaiting publication on Associated Content is a piece I anticipate will have a larger reception than the current ones I've put forward so far. What sets me in this impression? Well it's in the category of dating and relationships, sooo maybe that's all it takes. It's mini-guide on how to keep men committed for women. My take on the matter boils down to Romantic philosophy, so I'm hoping if one person takes to heart what it is I'm trying to share, the world will have been made a better place.

On the less noble side, I hope I can get at least one upfront payment from one of the 2 remaining articles I've submitted that are currently pending publication. And now it's back to the traditional job search.

800 words...

Well, Associated content just published the flash fiction I wrote a few days ago for their contest. I didn't like the 800 word limit at first, but as I finished the piece, I found it really to my liking. The result is an entire history written behind 800 words that often manifests its self in different ways depending on the reader.

Anyway, I'm still just beginning to learn about Triond and Associated Content (AC). It was a little discouraging to find out there was a group of article types that AC doesn't pay for, but I'm just moving on. So much to do, so little time to do it.

Here's the story btw: Blocking out the Noise. It's a short sci-fi bit about a man's last day of being free from an institution I dubbed the I.R.C. short for Infections Research Control. In the writing stage it was infections research systems, but I quickly realized that would make the write a little too political.

Many days DTC,

Dansid.

The Compromise.

Well, this is just a testament to the old saying, "if you can't beat them, join them." Instead of claiming this URL solely to my gmail account I can at least have at it as a secondary contributor.

I will have to figure a way to differentiate this one from my other, blcldgry.blah blah.

Long days.