Work and the Puppy

I'd buy these cards if they existed, btw.

So the puppy fun continues. She's pretty awesome. Sure, there's some messes but not as many as I've had to deal with. Sure, I take her out at 3am and 6am in my pajamas to go pee. But she's the cutest fucking thing you've ever seen, man. We have random people who are driving by that slow down and back up to take a look at her.

I mean, look at her.

She has no separation anxiety, which is amazing. Like, I go downstairs to edit and she just watches me go, and then walks away to the corner she likes to hang out in, chewing on her toys. When I come up, she's excited to see me, but not overly so.

Also, when you rub her belly, her legs spasm involuntarily. Funny.

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Anyway, the video editing card came in and I changed it out. It worked. I'm back in business.

I set to work finishing that trailer for the indie guy. He liked it. I think it's pretty good too. Couldn't really tell a cohesive story because the movie is pretty all-over-the-place, the I think it certainly makes the film look intriguing. You can see it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYhqYZjF1LI

I got to use some new audio FX that I bought a couple of months ago. I got paid. It's not a ton of money, as I cut him a break and also am gonna give the music composer $50 for letting me use the music. I guess I forgot that the web site--the fiver with the extra r--takes like 20%.

Now back to this documentary I shot for the auction company. This is gonna suck big time.

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Went out for drinks with the Malfi. We always have some real interesting discussions about the stuff we're working on, and we pitch shit back and forth. Suggestions. He had an interesting idea about the Ttory short I'm working on. He got more excited than I did.

Fact is, it doesn't quite jibe with what I'd be doing with the main story if I do it, and it would also add some serious complications shooting. (more actors, mainly)

I shot him a couple of things I'd done--I always laugh at his book Snow, which I think is one of his weakest books(so does he), but I told him I'd written my own snow monster screenplay years ago. Sent it to him. It's not great, but I think it's fun.

Also sent him a short story I finished. Remember I said I wanted to get published this year? I'm gonna submit it after I hear what Malfi says about it.

New Puppy

So Friday came. My mom drove me so I could hold the puppy on the way back and not crash if I was driving myself. We took a bunch of weird back roads that Maps steered us on just over the line into Pennsylvania. A town called Airville.

I had joked about this guy being Amish. We pull up and here comes a clearly Amish guy. No beard, but the clothing and the Amish hat. I say "You Gideon?" He nods, and doesn't extend his hand to shake. I don't know if it's a custom, but I like it. I wish more people wouldn't try to shake my hand.

He takes us into a little room attached to a barn. There are three of the cutest dogs I have ever seen. I didn't realize she was only 8 weeks old. She's the smallest puppy we've ever had.

One was a male, and turns out that there were two females. My mom and I were both like, "How do we pick?" It was sad we had to leave any of them, the way they were so excited and happy to jump all over you.

They were so enthusiastic, that I didn't realize they could hurt me. Their claws were SO sharp that they cut scratches into me all over my neck.

Anyway, one of the females started getting a little mean and started attacking the other. Gideon separated them, but the other attacked again. Part of me was like, "I want a dog that fierce..." but the other part was thinking THAT dog just seems mean.

I asked my mom again, which one do you think? She pointed to the nice dog, so we went with that.

On the way home I held it the whole time. It puked on me quite a bit. The guy must have just fed her, and it's never been in a car.

The moment of truth. We get home. I think about asking my mom to roll video as we go through the door to see how the wife reacts. Good call, I didn't ask.

I go through the door and my wife was napping on the couch. She sits up, startled, then sees me and the dog...and the look on her face could kill. Mostly anger mixed with mortified. My mom looks like she was reconsidering her entire part.

I tell her, "I know what you said, but we're a dog house now. We need a dog, and everything worked out perfect for this one. And she needs a home."

The wife cried a little and I handed her the puppy. That was it, man. This puppy is fucking CUTE. A half hour later and you couldn't separate them. My wife slept on the couch, the dog scrunched in next to her. For some reason it really likes burying its face in crevices.

The wife is like, What do we name her? She looked up some online and we waffled between Kona, Nina and Luna. I thought Kona had too much of NO in it, and you don't want any word to sound like that. They need to know that NO is stop.

We settled on Luna. The wife took the dog all around today, to get supplies and a collar engraved with the dog's name, and show her family.

Mission: Cheer Up Wife turned out to be a complete success.

The dog's really cool too. Very chill, hasn't had too many accidents indoors, and almost always chews on the toys we gave her. It's bizarre.

Let's Pretend 2020 Started on Feb 1st

I ordered a used video card since it was the cheapest possible fix. Should be in Friday.

Also Friday--I actually found an Eskie female pup only about 90 minutes from me. Just became available--they go fast, and most aren't closer than Ohio. It's also not as expensive as my first Eskie, and it's cheaper than the one that just died because I don't have to fly it in.

So I'm going to get it on Friday. We'll see how the wife takes it, but who can say no to a puppy?

Can't be any worse than her crying because she saw some of our dog's hair when she was cleaning out the vacuum cleaner.

Not looking forward to puppy training, but you gotta do what you gotta do, right?

Here's some other posters that I saw that I really liked. Let's just look at those, huh?

Dog-less For The First Time In 20 Years

I'll resume the sexy pics soon, I promise. Just doesn't feel appropriate right now.

This is your warning that this isn't a fun entry. Gets pretty detailed.

The dog went downhill at a crazy rate, yet she wouldn't die. I had to carry her outside and stand her up. Sometimes she'd pee without crouching. Other times she'd collapse to the ground and just pee sitting.

Then I'd give her some water, but most of the time she'd then throw up white bile that was so viscous that you couldn't get it out of the carpet. It was like pushing marshmallow cream.

Her ears wouldn't go down, which was strange. They usually only perked up when she heard something or was alarmed. Her eyes would follow you, but if you came from a different direction, she wouldn't turn her head to look.

It was all very pitiful.

Anyway, this morning my kid woke me up. Said "Something happened to Dakota(my dog). Mom wants you."

So I get up and find my wife in tears on the couch with Dakota in her arms. She says she just died in her arms. I moved the lifeless but warm Dakota to her bed. Apparently my wife knew the moment she died because her bladder released.

On the one hand, I was happy the dog wasn't suffering any more. Like I said, I was never her biggest fan, but when something is around for 12 years of your life, you get used to it. To suddenly lose it makes you feel that loss.

It's weird coming home to no dog. My wife feels it. We got home from the big football game and she said, "I don't even like coming home now."

I get it. I was always a cat person. Putting my cat down way back when, like 18 years ago, was about the first time tears had come out of my eyes in a decade. I wasn't prepared for it, because as attached as I was to her, I didn't think crying was a thing I did any more.

I never really expected to become a dog person, and still sort of haven't. The previous Eskie we had was the only dog I ever really loved, and helped quite a bit to make me one. I like having them in the house because I know that nobody is going to break in to my house.

Anyway, my wife pre-emptively told me--don't go buying a puppy right away. She knows me--when our other Eskie got sick, I bought a puppy before she died. It did help my wife through it, but I didn't want to repeat that because I think it made this dog insecure. I think it's probably better to bring the dog into a dogless house.

(and she didn't know, but I was already looking around for Eskie puppies, to no avail...just to be ready)

Regardless...that's over...

Here's the Xmas I got her, way back in 2008.

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Been busy working on the redo of FOC1. Have also been hired to cut a trailer. Another person contacted me about editing their whole movie, but I'm not interested in that much work when there isn't that much money involved.

I also have this documentary to make from the footage I shot in California.

BUT

Nothing's easy. I was editing and my monitor's flickered, and weird symbols came up...and then an Nvidia error came up, and Premiere crashed.

I restarted everything and tried again. Same problem. Even if I'm not running Premiere, some weird symbols come up. I'm pretty sure my video card is going bad. Hell, it's lasted 10 years, so I don't blame it.

Problem is, I'm not exactly sure what card I can replace it with. You can't find the same card new any more, and newer cards don't have DVI or vga connectors. One of my monitors only has those inputs, so if I get one of the newer cards then I'll have to get a new monitor too.

Also, most modern cards are pci express 3.0, and this motherboard only has 2.0

From what I've read, you can still use them, but performance will suffer.

So I'm trying to figure out whether I should just risk getting a used version of the card I already have--it's cheaper and I don't have to get a new monitor, and I know there won't be any complications other than "Will it break soon?"

Or do I go spending money I don't have to upgrade, and hope there are no issues installing it?

Either way, I think my video editing is done for a little while.

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Went to the woods to do a Ttory test for that short I might do. The test was sort of successful. I think I can do what I'm writing. It's still a bit iffy, but I can also shoot the angles where I can MAKE it work. It won't look as cool as if I can do it the other way, but at least I know I won't be wasting my time.

I'm almost done the first draft. It's a little longer than I wanted--probably be about 25 pages when I'm done. It has more locations and actors than I want.

But maybe I'll try.