Java Posts...

Well, my recent two posts about writing a game in java have been abject failures, not only have they not garnered any views (16 in total) but they've got me bored with them.... There is a part 3 scheduled for next Monday, but after that I'll not be pushing myself to generate more on that genre.

Instead I've been looking at SDL in my favourite guise C++.

I have used SDL 1.2 before, but this time I'm looking at the new SDL 2.0, as well as the SDL Image extension.

I think combining that with my image processing with CImg may result in a very powerful way of laying out graphics, 2D initially, but we'll see.

In personal news I'm so very busy, and Dude is not well, he has Lung Cancer, so he's not got long with us.

Story Time - Worst Meal Ever

I've told stories about women and dates, so now for something just simply funny... or Disgusting... I have a dog, well we have four now, but I used to just have the one a golden Lab named Dude... You can find a picture of him on these very blog pages...

Anyway, when I first met the wife Dude and I moved in with her, and my Mother got all uppity that the wife was not looking after Dude, and started to send him food parcels, like some refugee prisoner of war... Needless to say, Dude loves the wife more than he loves me, and so these care packages were not needed...

But, one day one of these packages turned up, and there were three pies... Cottage pies... The wife got these... But being my skatty brained wife she didn't read the note, she cooked two of them whilst I was at work, and she and Dude had a right royal meal, then I got home... And the wife put the third pie into cook.

Slathering, because I know how nice my mothers cottage pie was, I tucked in... To this slimey, greasy, strong smelling thing... It was disgusting... But I was so hungry I ate it... It was meaty, very meaty, and covered in gravey after all...

I kept saying to the wife, this does not taste like my mum's cottage pie, and she's saying "mine was lovely"...

Anyway, I get through and look at the pie dishes the wife took them out of... Mine was plastic... hers and Dudes were porcelain... that's strange sending the dog a pie in a porcelain bowl... Hang on... Mine was plastic... 

A telephone call later.... and I'm sat there... I've eaten the cottage pie made of dog food...

Yes, my mother sent best minced beef for the wife and I, and one made of Aldi - Earls - dog food for Dude... The wife, just cooked two and never thought... Hmm, maybe the plastic one is different.

I've never quite gotten over this trauma, but suffice to say, Dave Lister is correct, dogs lick their balls to take away the taste of the food.

Dog Poop Pinching

I just ran across this...

But, this was no prank, this happened to me last night... The wife and I were out with all four dogs, the three little (young ones) and the wife, whilst I walked quietly with our 12 year old Labrador... So Dude and I are just down a grass bank, and we're going to come back that way, so when Dude does his thing I bag it and leave it against the side of this slope, so I can head back up and out once with him...

We walk along a little way, not far, and as we stop to turn around and meet the wife with the other three dogs this old fellow passes by me and he's got my poop in his hand.

At first I thought, he's going to tell me I left it, and I'm going to have to show him the five other bags from the other dogs and point out how old Dude is and that he comes out once and back so as not to knacker his joints...

But...

But the guy just goes straight past me and the wife, without saying a word... Not a word, not a "I'm just taking it to the bin, no sweat"... not a "I think you left this"... Nothing, he just drilled right on by us... Like he's won a prize or something.

Bit weird.

Dangerous Dogs

I have to say this ladies experience is similar to the problems I dealt with last year, having to tackle staffies attacking a neighbours dog and also the persistent straying of a dog from a rented property on our street.

The police in our area were totally in effective in the second case, but in the first the woman bitten in the scuffle with the dogs refused to press charges, they let that dog get away with attacking theirs unprovoked, now you can see the struggle these people had with that large dog in that report.

I was riding the back of such a dog, and at the time I'd punched, pulled and tried to control that animal, and I have a black belt in karate, my punches get attention.

My only options were to stick a screw driver into the things brain, or throttle it... I was reduced to strangling the thing to death.

As the owner of four dogs, one an older lab, and three young, small, dogs... if any of them were now attacked I'd simply have to kill the attacking dog, because these pitbulls and staffies are trophy dogs they're not under control, many times - like that one reported - they have no lead, no collar, or collars which can be slipped, and never any muzzle.  Because people, mostly - but not exclusively - young men are using them as weapons.

Because if two dogs are fighting and you intervene, and the dogs bite you, the law says its your fault, its not a dog attack, it was animal on animal... But that is such a shaded area, for a large dog attacking my little dog, my little dog is 3 kilos... a large dog would kill him... I'd have to kill that dog.  And I'm afraid to say what else I'd do to its owner with the grief.

But, I should not have to have that worry, people should self control their dogs, they should not be a burden on me for their life choices.  And if their life choice is stupid, like having these huge uncontrollable dogs, then the law and society should protect me, not reinforce their right to stupidity... The laws current stance smacks of being too softly softly touchy feely, and it leaves me for one feeling very exposed.