Pinky's Prognosis

Pinky visited Dr. Sievers today because she apparently has inherited Scooter's black lab ears. Pinky is in a love/hate relationship with the vet as he is very kind and is liberal with the treats, but she doesn't like shots and having her ears cleaned out with giant Qtips. But I digress...

Pinky has also developed some disturbing lesions on her lips. Her mother, having just lost Scooter the Wonder Dog is behaving like Paris Hilton with a purse accesory when it comes to the care and love of Pinky. So after we went through the "Oh, God, another million dollars on antibiotics and ear cleansing (read soapy water that is priced at $20.00/bottle)" phase, we asked Dr. Sievers to look at our lip.....And he pronounced quite immediately and quite comically that Pinky has

Wait for it

Acne. Okay, the brother and sister-in-law have produced two beautiful granddaughters who continually amaze the family with their feats of intelligence, creativity, and beauty. I, much proclaimed the black sheep, have given the parental units several four-legged grandchildren who are prone to ear infections and now I have to buy Stridex for Pinky's acne.

Are you kidding me? Next thing I'll be bra shopping and looking at battery operated cars. Yes, she could probably learn to drive. Yes, I am crazy about her.

My life: is a stand-up comics DREAM!!!

Pinky on Jones' Envy

Did you ever notice how even in pictures, other people's lives look more interesting? I've been browsing the photo albums and profiles of my friends on Facebook and can't help but notice that they are always surrounded by friends, travelling abroad, skiiing, yucking it up, or WORSE for my sense of a fully-rounded life, participating in good deeds. I can't help but think there is a conspiracy afoot to put my fairly prosaic, stripped-down, reading-on-couch-and-not-necessarily-great-works-get-up-to-walk-dog-when-she-is-crossing-paws-at-front-door life to shame. I mean really, who has a karaoke party with 150 friends for their birthday and then plays football with the entire Boys and Girls club of Seattle and then wake-boards in Spain the next day? Do you think that I really believe this isn't a large-scale effort by Photoshop to expose my pitiful rurual existence to shame?

Okay, I have great friends and they do great things and lead great lives.......I guess my diamond encrusted invitation just got lost in the mail :) I love you ALL! (the person whose photo albums I abused to make a somewhat humorous, but truly loving and impressed point....I'll buy lunch next time :)

Pinky on Conversation

Whether it is the long weekend or the spirit of Thanksgiving, I have been blessed by a lot of communication from friends and relatives, including some very nice surprises from old acquaintances and one freshman year in college roommate. The communication has largely been supported by internet applications, mostly Facebook and I have thus been noodling on the art and mechanism of communication. I actually emailed another friend from college who is a professor in communications and queried her as well. The prevalent question for me is: Are we truly engaging in meaningful dialogue with our many many threads of input and output, largely electronic, primarily unaccompanied by other than static photos, if that, or are we participating in an exercise that further separates us from emotional bonding? My husband ranted about front page news on Thanksgiving day being about the violence in Mumbai rather than for once being a local interest and warm-hearted story, but despite my initial disagreement with him, I do wonder whether our race to be the first to KNOW and our seemingly never quenched desire for blood is also somewhat echoed in our pale and superifical connections ....... I am delighted that I am able to be back in touch with so many friends from the years, but I wonder if I am destined to just give MORE people LESS of my ear and heart? I still am a believer in the urban legend that we only use 10% of our brains and I am committed to exercising more of mine, if possible, but.......

Pinky on Social Networking

I am definitely suffering from sensory overload...Colleagues and friends of mine and I have been rabidly discussing the impact of social networking on our respective industries, familiy connections, and impact on the planet (these topics in no particular order of significance). Emerging from the threads and discussions of today are three thoughts of the evening:

1) Is social networking in the virtual world REALLY how we want to interact as humans? Although the transcendence of geograhpic and cultural barriers afforded by the virtual communities available to us is awesome, I wonder if, as I posted earlier on this blog, the anonymity that accompanies many of our presences really allows us to be less humane.

2) If we truly only use 10% of our brains, I assume that we could learn, through generations, to accomodate the phenomenal amount of information now available to us through the various on-line communities and discussions we join. However, at the moment, I feel as if I am becoming superficially conversant in a variety of topics rather than deeply passionate and expert in some. Is this a good or bad thing?

3) I, aging English/Poli Sci major that I am, find it amusing and a little disturbing how loosely we throw around terms to accomodate our grasp of technological change. I have heard the word metaphor applied to database design; social networking to on-line communities; and agnostic to applications that can integrate with various others.......Does anybody use dictionaries anymore or are we just grabbing the buzz words of the day and running with them? I, as precise as I try to be with my language am guilty of all of same as I try to express myself, but I am curious about how our misuse of the language may drive our misuse of the potential of the tools at hand....

Just a thought...