Tell us what's happened to you recently (that's interesting)

Lorini · 2010-01-17T13:26:01.000Z

Geezus, it wasn’t about ranking. I lost two dogs last year, one to death and one was stolen. They were the near center of my life. Neither was anywhere close to 17. I wish my dogs would have been with me that long, I would be happy that they lived to such a long great life.

That was my point. Not that it wasn’t a loss but that there can be some appreciation for a long life.

As for Matt, as I said, this place is expensive, or at least I find it so. When I was living out in Chino Hills, my expenses were a lot less. I do feel sorry for anyone who is living here without a job because it’s ridiculous right now. And not everyone has Coca Cola Zero’s illustrious resume (and I’m not being sarcastic here, I mean that).

Raife · 2010-01-17T13:26:21.000Z

Lorini:

Would your sympathies change if Matt uploaded a picture of him panhandling? Pics are nice but they really don’t change anything. We need to keep perspective :)

A picture of his homeless cat panhandling, yes!

Tortilla · 2010-01-17T13:33:46.000Z

Raife:

A picture of his homeless cat panhandling, yes!

Such a picture must, by law, have a caption reading “I CAN HAZ SPARE CHANGE?”

The laws of the internet can be harsh and unforgiving.

Lorini · 2010-01-17T13:35:54.000Z

Kraaze:

Such a picture must, by law, have a caption reading “I CAN HAZ SPARE CHANGE?”

The laws of the internet can be harsh and unforgiving.

Where’s Adree when we need him :)

So since you guys stressed me out over this (all your fault!!:) I will state that I have sympathy for Ned and a lot of concern for Matt. There.

Jeremy_Johnsen · 2010-01-17T14:21:33.000Z

If we feel the need to rank these two tragedies, do we have to rank every bad thing that’s happened in this thread? Because that’s going to be a hell of a long list.

Demon_G_Sides · 2010-01-17T14:29:09.000Z

Investing in an emotional tragedy.

Still worth it.

WarrenM · 2010-01-17T15:21:15.000Z

And not so much interesting BUT … when we went to see Eli, the theatre was full of university students. I shuddered at the sight and almost wanted to walk out and see another showing but my wife wasn’t having it. The douche in front of us pulled out his phone and sent at least 10 messages during the movie. And did he at least hold the phone in his lap where he wouldn’t bother other people? No. He held it up at face level so everyone behind him could see the nice bright light and know how cool he was that he was texting.

I fucking hate young people in any venue where I have to rely on them to not behave like idiots.

Demon_G_Sides · 2010-01-17T15:39:09.000Z

WarrenM:

And not so much interesting BUT … when we went to see Eli, the theatre was full of university students. I shuddered at the sight and almost wanted to walk out and see another showing but my wife wasn’t having it. The douche in front of us pulled out his phone and sent at least 10 messages during the movie. And did he at least hold the phone in his lap where he wouldn’t bother other people? No. He held it up at face level so everyone behind him could see the nice bright light and know how cool he was that he was texting.

I fucking hate young people in any venue where I have to rely on them to not behave like idiots.

Thanks. You know what’s awesome though? You didn’t once stand up for yourself nor anyone else in the theater and tell him to fucking cut it out. you’re not helping the problem by not speaking up.

Aleck · 2010-01-17T15:40:06.000Z

AndrewMyers:

Both situations suck. Why the burning need to rank the losses?

Not to drag this out, but from today’s Washington Post Magazine, a decent article on the Telescope Effect.

Best wishes to Matthew and Ned, of course.

krayzkrok · 2010-01-17T19:24:55.000Z

CLWheeljack:

I recall reading or hearing that crocodiles’ mouths, lacking salivary glands, dry out if outside of the water for too long. In this state, because they’ve unable to swallow anything, they supposedly won’t even bite down on anything that enters their mouth.

No, that’s wrong for two reasons. First, they do have salivary glands, and secondly they’re quite capable of swallowing with a dry mouth (although they’ll often take the food into the water first). It certainly doesn’t stop them from biting.

Coca Cola Zero:

Any kind of exhibition of trained non-domesticated animals is inherently somewhat stupid in a Darwinian context, but in the video I linked that guy was doing something he had done hundreds of times previously without incident because the croc was trained to allow him to do it.

They train them by beating them with sticks until they stop clamping down on objects put into their mouth. I’m not sure what “wrestling” techniques they use in Florida on gators, but I reckon that guy would be fired for doing something so blatantly stupid. There’s no context though, he may be a tour guide showing off to some friends - although that’s just as dumb.

Pogo:

The notion of “training” a wild animal, especially one with such a small brain, is somewhat ridiculous.

Crocs are easy to train - all of ours respond to a several signals we’ve taught them. However, when you tell your trained dog to “sit” and he doesn’t cooperate immediately because he’s in a pissy mood or not concentrating, the consequences aren’t as bad as a trained crocodile thinking about food instead of the correct response to your signal.

Coca_Cola_Zero · 2010-01-17T19:27:06.000Z

Best wishes to Matthew and Ned from me as well. I don’t mean to suggest that Matthew’s situation is not serious for him and worthy of empathy, clearly it is.

I just think it is silly to get uppity about which of these tragedies is more worthy of public sympathy, both because each is a personal tragedy for the person involved with a personal impact that none of us can know for sure, and because if you really want to try to map how much we should care to the direness of the human tragedy, neither of these events amounts to a hill of beans compared to, say, current events in Haiti… so should we be showing no sympathy for anything that isn’t occurring in Haiti right now? Obviously people’s emotional responses to tragic events (big and small) vary greatly in all sorts of ways and this is perfectly normal human behavior.

krayzkrok · 2010-01-17T19:30:50.000Z

I knew I should have updated this thread before posting that - now it seems somewhat out of place!

RyanMichael · 2010-01-17T20:22:56.000Z

krayzkrok:

I knew I should have updated this thread before posting that - now it seems somewhat out of place!

Not at all, I was actually waiting for your response about that clip. heh

Juste · 2010-01-18T04:34:22.000Z

Well, in 24 hours i will know if i still have a job or not. We are laying off 10 more persons at 13.30 tomorrow, and my gut feeling is not good. Stay tuned…

JM1 · 2010-01-18T04:41:10.000Z

WarrenM:

It’s a small, furry, cute animal that thinks you’re the greatest being to ever walk the earth.

Wait, what? It’s a cat! It thinks you’re a useful tool.

Demon_G_Sides · 2010-01-18T07:26:57.000Z

Dogs think you are its master. Cats think they are your master.

WarrenM · 2010-01-18T07:29:22.000Z

Dogs are sluts and worship your every action. Cats make you work for it. :)

Anders_Hallin · 2010-01-18T07:54:28.000Z

krayzkrok:

Crocs are easy to train - all of ours respond to a several signals we’ve taught them. However, when you tell your trained dog to “sit” and he doesn’t cooperate immediately because he’s in a pissy mood or not concentrating, the consequences aren’t as bad as a trained crocodile thinking about food instead of the correct response to your signal.

Since we don’t see what happens after he gets bitten, can we assume that the croc will do the roll? Or doesn’t it try when out of water?

WarrenM · 2010-01-18T08:33:08.000Z

Since we don’t see what happens after he gets bitten, can we assume that the croc will do the roll? Or doesn’t it try when out of water?

Click on CCZ’s link. He will roll like a motherfucker.

JM1 · 2010-01-18T08:45:41.000Z

Demon G Sides:

Dog’s think you are it’s master. Cat’s think they are your master.

And both of them abuse apostrophes like motherfuckers.