I seem to have a problem with my spine. Whenever I stand up for an extended period of time, usually when I am in the shower and most likely washing my hair, the pain in that area gets intense that I have to sit down to feel instant relief. Going to need a chiropractor or something to relieve that.

Since I moved my HDD from my laptop to my new desktop, Windows has been telling me that it isn't genuine; basically, the OS is an OEM installation, voided by the hardware change. Yesterday, it told me that said HDD was faulting, prompting me to back up C:/ (the only HDD in my computer). While I don't know if Microsoft would be so heinous as to brick C:/ because I moved an OEM OS to another case, my recent game development work may possibly become compromised if I don't back it up soon.

On another note, my sole remaining dog, Benji, is starting to scare me - he's quite old (minimally 17-18, if not older), not eating as much, and has taken to camping out in front of my room, to which the door is permanently locked (there's a hole in said door that provides room access). Naturally, this worries me; I genuinely expect Benji to curl up in front of my room and kick the bucket sometime in the next few months. My friend/neighbor keeps insisting that I "Old Yeller" him in the backyard with some sort of firearm, but I really don't want the last thing he experiences to be his human putting one between his eyes. On the other hand, clinical euthanasia, while being more humane, also carries an expense no one I know, least of all myself, can readily spare. The alternative to these two is simply letting him pass away naturally, but that forces him to deal with the considerable pain he is in all the way to his metaphorical deathbed. Benji has had heartworms since my sister adopted him when he was 12 (he was facing euthanasia), for which I didn't know treatment existed for until very, very recently (two to three months ago), so I know his time is coming before the year is over - honestly, that he's survived this long with them without treatment is nothing short of baffling.

^ I don't understand how you could even make a suggestion of shooting your own dog to put him out of his misery. My family and I had to put my first dog to sleep back in September due to a aggressive cancer, hardest thing I had to endure in my life as of yet(because I understand it gets worse) and I don't even comprehend how you would think of doing something like that... at least take him to the vet before you start deciding stuff like that.

On a different not relating to computers, I just upgraded to Windows 10 and the task-bar has ceased function. Like it's still there, but completely unresponsive to anything, I can't even bring up the start menu.

If anyone could help me with this, I'd appreciate it a lot.

Vegeta 20XX wrote:The alternative to these two is simply letting him pass away naturally, but that forces him to deal with the considerable pain he is in all the way to his metaphorical deathbed.

Given those options and with you not being able to afford euthanasia, I'd suggest letting Benji pass away naturally. It's not cruelty, it's the natural way of life. Shooting a pet is not really a humane method of execution and should only be done as a last resort. In Old Yeller's case there was no such thing as euthanasia in the time the story took place, and if they waited for him to die he would have just become extremely dangerous and most likely infected others (in the book he wasn't showing symptoms yet when he was shot), so shooting him made sense and was the responsible thing to do. It doesn't need to be done in your case, however. If you did shoot Benji you would be a complete wreck for weeks if not months, and it would be something you'd have to live with for the rest of your life. Just let him pass on his own, and medicate him to ease his suffering if you can.

Sicarius VI wrote:^ I don't understand how you could even make a suggestion of shooting your own dog to put him out of his misery. My family and I had to put my first dog to sleep back in September due to a aggressive cancer, hardest thing I had to endure in my life as of yet(because I understand it gets worse) and I don't even comprehend how you would think of doing something like that... at least take him to the vet before you start deciding stuff like that..

It's basically the last thing I'd be willing to do; I'd rather not have to do anything like that if I can help it. Bear in mind the suggestion came from someone whose opinions I don't always align with - just because it seems to be practical and humane to him doesn't mean I agree with that sentiment (he considers it part of the responsibility of owning a dog).

Sicarius VI wrote:On a different not relating to computers, I just upgraded to Windows 10 and the task-bar has ceased function. Like it's still there, but completely unresponsive to anything, I can't even bring up the start menu.

If anyone could help me with this, I'd appreciate it a lot.

A quick search will show you that this is a reasonably frequent issue and seems to result from corruption in the start menu tiles. There are various remedies posted in threads like http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... bd74a84bf7

When my wife's laptop suffered this, the one that worked for her was blowing away the TileDataLayer database for her profile.

Right-clicking the Start icon should still bring up the administration menu.

Vegeta 20XX wrote:It's basically the last thing I'd be willing to do; I'd rather not have to do anything like that if I can help it. Bear in mind the suggestion came from someone whose opinions I don't always align with - just because it seems to be practical and humane to him doesn't mean I agree with that sentiment (he considers it part of the responsibility of owning a dog).

Well thank you for clearing that up, and I'd have to agree with IronEvangelion on that one.

Mr. Tines wrote:A quick search will show you that this is a reasonably frequent issue and seems to result from corruption in the start menu tiles. There are various remedies posted in threads like http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... bd74a84bf7

When my wife's laptop suffered this, the one that worked for her was blowing away the TileDataLayer database for her profile.

Right-clicking the Start icon should still bring up the administration menu.

Thanks Tines.

Vegeta 20XX wrote:It's basically the last thing I'd be willing to do; I'd rather not have to do anything like that if I can help it. Bear in mind the suggestion came from someone whose opinions I don't always align with - just because it seems to be practical and humane to him doesn't mean I agree with that sentiment (he considers it part of the responsibility of owning a dog).

While I don't think shooting the guy is the way to go, letting him suffer is cruel. I realize that vets aren't cheap but that is part of the responsibility of owning a pet. If cost is an issue check with your local animal shelters/humane societies, or heck, even PETA. Don't just let the issue go while your pet suffers.

Pinched my finger in the slide of a Beretta today hard enough to draw blood. Perhaps a blood sacrifice will help when I go to the range tomorrow...?

My parrot Donald started plucking years ago when he was first separated from his first owner, my sister. He's never really let up since -- just become an ingrained habit, I suppose, and he's only gotten worse and worse. None of my attempts to help him have worked, so I finally had to resort to getting him a collar. It's colorful, plush, and gives him a lot of flaps he can work his frustration on, so, much nicer than I was expecting. But it's still not something I wanted to use any more than necessary. My initial plan was to just have it on at night or while I'm out of the house, since he'd do most of his plucking while he's covered and supposed to be sleeping. However, he quickly "adapted" and started picking out his blood feathers ("baby feathers" that still have a blood supply) right in front of me instead. So, so much for that idea. There's nothing to do but make him wear the Cone of Shame all the time, except for closely supervised preening breaks.

It really breaks my heart seeing him struggle to get around and repeatedly attempt to pull the thing off. He's been getting used to it, though, very gradually. The collar does impede his mobility, but he seems pretty adaptable so far. Maybe he'll get used to it.

The plucking problem is on a positive feedback loop, since the more he plucks, the drier and itchier his skin is, and the more irritation he receives from feathers coming in. So the goal here is to break him of his habit of yanking out feathers before their time. Maybe if the still-viable follicles are allowed to resprout in full, he'll be able to regain some coverage. Time will tell if Donald will immediately reverse any progress he's made. If it turns out to be futile... I'll just let him pluck, I guess?

Remember the fiasco I mentioned earlier in the Weird Stuff thread? It isn't over. Now the package itself has disappeared. The UPS website says it was delivered and left on the porch today, but it wasn't there when I got home. So either they delivered it to the wrong address or somebody stole it. If one of the local rednecks did steal it, I hope they enjoy perverted Japanese anime games, because that's what was in there.

@Reichu - Ooo that sounds like it's painful for your parrot. I hope everything goes will for it.


@IronEvangelion- Stealing from a porch has become a new trend in today's world of theft.

I had UPS launch a missing package investigation on the 17th, but I haven't heard anything back from them yet. They said it would take "1 to 8 days". It didn't even take that long for the package to ship in the first place. I will avoid buying from any company that uses UPS as a courier from now on. I've been getting packages via the postal service for years and they have never once sent one of my packages to the wrong address.

I was typing a new topic on one of the threads, and then firefox has to shut down on me right as I'm done and erase the post I spent the better part of an hour writing, now I have to rewrite the post but it wont be as good.

Ray wrote:I was typing a new topic on one of the threads, and then firefox has to shut down on me right as I'm done and erase the post I spent the better part of an hour writing, now I have to rewrite the post but it wont be as good.

And you did a pretty good job with that rewrite, but yea that sucks, and is common for me when I use my phone because the page will just reload and screw everything up.

If I'm writing a megapost, I usually do it in some sort of word processing software so that I don't have to deal with that particular problem. Some of my posts have been upwards of a thousand words-- I'd hate to lose one of those just because of an errant browser refresh.

Sicarius VI wrote:And you did a pretty good job with that rewrite, but yea that sucks, and is common for me when I use my phone because the page will just reload and screw everything up.

I'll probably go back and touch it up later with photos and more In depth talks about the characters. But for now what I posted will have to do.

So, Benji passed away last Friday, peacefully and in his sleep. I had a feeling it was coming the day before when he picked the spot to lay in, but it didn't make it much easier to handle. Still, he was old and pushing the chronological limits of most large-breed dogs (usually 12-14 years - Benji was at least 18), and he didn't suffer unusually or excessively in his final days, so it wasn't the heartbreaking tragedy that was Isis' death. My landlord, my sister, and I buried him in a cubic-meter-sized grave next to Isis', and respectively coped in our own ways (my sister is taking it worse than I or the landlord, but Benji was her dog before he was mine).

On another note, some creature dug into Isis' grave before this. Curiously enough, she herself was undisturbed, which leads me to believe that another dog dug into said grave, took a whiff, and balked away in either revulsion or morbid sadness (I hadn't actually seen her since before she died - I deliberately avoided looking at her when it happened, and she was covered up before and during the burial). The dog(?) in question may even have been Benji, as he used to love digging and was the only dog in the neighborhood with such a tendency, but stopped after we moved across the street.

Sorry to hear about that, Vegeta. I hope you feel better soon.

My condolences, Vegeta.