Turkish Dogs - particularly Anatolian Shepherd Dogs

Thor needs a new home.

Thor lived in the country. His original owner in Arizona had a one-to-one relationship with his dog. The owner became seriously ill and has since passed on. During the time of this unfortunate terminal illness, Thor's world was devoted to his owner, and also to the limitations of his owner's closing world. After the owner passed on, Thor needed to be rehomed -- but had become accustomed to isolation from his first home.

A home for him was found in California (Oakland area) after his first owner died. It looked like it would work out, but a problem developed when Thor, used to quiet isolation, seemed to view his new owner's home as an area that should be kept isolated as well. This situation isn't working out now because the place where he lives has renters that need free access to the housing and yard. Since Thor prefers the renters to stay out - this has become a problem.

The ideal home for him now would probably be with a single adult with no children, who has time for a one-to-one relationship with a loyal dog. Thor is currently living in Oakland, California.
Please contact Kathy Gerlach at her email or phone for more information.

Ph: (707)252-8196
email: gerlranch@aol.com

Edit: 1 Oct 2007- Also, you can contact Michael, who is Thor's current owner. cell# - (510) 816-9693

The pictures below show him with some young friends, so you know he is kind and biddable. Due to his 'only dog' background and the social natures of children (who may bring friends to visit), it would be best to have a new home with a single adult - no kids. If you know someone that might fit the bill, tell them about Thor.

Labels: Rehome

As of tonight, converting MOV files from my Kodak cameras to a format that can be handled in Windows Movie Maker is no longer an issue.

I found a free program at SourceForge.net, called MP4Cam2AVI, and it does the conversion beautifully without increasing the file size and distorting the video output. There is a slight difference in full screen depth of color with the new output being a little darker in my clips, but the normal window size viewing is quite similar and crisp (given the camera and the user's shortcomings).

Compare file sizes of original MOV and the new AVIs.

I don't know quite what all the bells are whistles are on this program but if you have a digital camera that shoots still pictures and can take movies in MOV format only, then you might be intereted in this free and small download. Get it here and see the info and screenshots.

Yeah... I know about Quicktime. I had purchased QuickTime Pro Version 6 a few years ago and found it very helpful for the few files from my Kodak digital cams that I had to convert (files ended up fuzzy and way big tho). I had only used it for a couple conversions which quality I didn't like aside from the hugeness of the new files. These could have been issues peculiar to that one camera tho. However, QuickTime movie editing and splicing is something which it did well. Unfortunately I used it only a couple times, not $30 worth of work IMO!

Back when, I was still on dial-up so the entire idea of putting movies online seemed crazy. Broadband is more common now although not everyone has it. Sometimes I have to connect at dial-up speeds when my cable connection goes nuts. That bites! Speed definitely spoils us when we get used to it!

Hubby wanted me to install iTunes on my machine and when I did that, I had to make the decision to overwrite my old QTPro version then with the freebie version 7 because iTunes refused to install unless QT was also upgraded. ...thus losing my MOV editing capabilities on this machine. I still have everything I need to reinstall my version 6 QuickTime Pro files -- as old as they are now. I installed the files on my laptop just in case I wanted to edit Kodak digital camera movies again, but that didn't last long! James needed iTunes on that machine too. Oh well!

Anyway, thanks to SourceForge, I now have a conversion solution that is practical for my use. After conversion from MOV to AVI, the clips can be edited in Windows Movie Maker. Now, to find the time to do THAT! I took some (not very good) movie clips of the dogs playing in the small corral. I discovered at the time that unfortunately, the camera I have cannot ZOOM while in video mode. Not great, since the Anatolians were playing, chasing and running around our 1/4 acre corral enclosure. Nevertheless, I will get them online when I can, now that I can edit the clips if needed.

Labels: compu-internet, Freebies

April 5, 1998 - Sept 26, 2007

Unbelievably... Zor passed away in her sleep this morning. She was nine and a half years old.

Only yesterday she was playbowing with the others and challenging them all to a game of chase. Only yesterday, she did several of her routines of 'lean on me', pressing against me for a long moment for a hug, and ear scritch. She spent part of the day sleeping inside the house and poking me with her nose for attention intermittently. All business as usual.

Yesterday, when she was in the house, since she'd been a bit picky on her food recently, I offered her some chow and some meat trimmings. She didn't seem hungry for the chow but she took a few bites of it and took all the meat trimmings I offered. Then she went back to lay down in the other room.

At dusk, she was outside happily charging around with the other dogs, grinning and occasionally wuffing at imaginary unsavory characters that might be thinking of driving by. Everything seemed fine. When James was taking out trash and checking the gates late last night, she followed him around for snuggles and leans. Business as usual.

So, this morning, I was startled to find her laying on her side as if sleeping.
She was gone. :( :(

She was off her appetite for the previous weeks and was on the ribby side (an annual summer event with her), but no other sign of being unwell. She'd finish off all her chow - 3 days out of 5. And on the other two days, just eat about a cup full. So yesterday, she didn't seem different at all. As she is getting a little older than the others, she gets probiotic via kefir, N'zymes and a little grated Parmesan cheese for aroma daily these days -- and yesterday, a shelled boiled egg, on her chow. She nibbled disinterestedly at chow, ate about half -- just wasn't hungry.

I have two of her daughters here and one son. Coco (girl) and Helmut (son) who are about a year old and then there's the older daughter, Ruya, who is 4.5 years. Boone (4.5 years) is unrelated to Ruya and he is well also - so I don't suspect a food issue. None have problems in appetites, none are finicky in the least, none seem to have problems keeping on weight - which had become Zor's lot over the past three years. We are feeding Purina One since May this year - I changed to that one after all the other dog food craziness was going on. No one here as had a problem with Purina. When Zor was previously off her appetite, she seemed to love having Milk Bones and sometimes that was all she would eat for a few weeks! But the past several weeks after a routine (for her) summer, she was eating less, 3 days out of 5, and was becoming ribby.

L-R: Dylan and Zor as puppies. June 1998 photo - yes chickens cleaning the puppy bowl in the back!

Zor at 6 months. Big knuckles... she was 96 pounds at 7 months

Zor at 4 or 5 years.

Zor in 2003

Zor, the Luv Bunny - 2006
Who does Zor love best? Well, it always seemed that if I were outside doing stuff with the dogs, if James showed up, Zor would be the first one by his side! She loved leaning on him and taking head scritches from him. Above, you see her eyes closed and head tilted to him. Whenever I were out there, not quite so magnetic! She'd check to be sure she wasn't missing out on treats first, and then the other dogs would be able to 'own' me while she stood back waiting after the rush. Part of this may have to do with my habit of putting bug repellent on her when needed. She seemed to have decided that the routine was the same as "Zor Repellent" as far as she was concerned. James never did this nasty stuff to her so she has always gravitated to him quickly without the need to suspiciously check him out. Of course, the other dogs are fine on this with me, they don't like it, but they want to be there first! They're much less concerned of dabs of bug wipe being put on their ears and feet.

Yet having said that, if I called her and even if she knew she was going to get 'bug dabbed' she will still come... not on the first request, maybe she'd duck into a dog house first, but if I headed in her direction, she would stop and head toward me, looking resigned. Instead of anti-bug dabs, sometimes I just give her praise and a treat. :)

Zor in the background, headshot of her daughter, Ruya, in the foreground.

Zor with her litter of October 2006. Puppy Chaos!

As I write this, the loss still hasn't really sunk in. I keep falling apart momentarily, then feeling that she's NOT really gone.

She was so loyal and affectionate, yet fickle and suspicious about any change in routine. She was a wonderful mother to her two litters. We have two nice females from her, perhaps to carry on for the future. We have a pet son of hers who we are growing up right now, and he is absolutely a love. Zor has a page listing some of her details. She has been a part of our breed diversity program and attained her AKC registration only in the last two years. More photos on her in this blog are listed on the Zor label.

Zor, you are loved and missed. You will not be forgotten.

Labels: Zor

I always want to know just HOW do they do this stuff? But sometimes it's just enough to be able to watch and marvel at it all... (No -- no, no... it isn't enough!! That can't be an illusion! ...can it?)

Labels: frustration, humor, Video

Some interesting highlights on current internet security issues. I bolded the point at the end of the list but much of the report has elements that may be of particular interest to others. I looked at the PDF version which is rather dry reading but there is a flash, video style presentation that others may prefer to review.

I think many people are aware of some potential risks that there may be online, but seem to feel reasonably sure that the problems only happen to other people because they feel their ISP, their browsing habits, and software are sufficient protective buffers against security threats.

Healthy paranoia can't be a bad thing in light of the increasing sophistication developing every day with internet related threats.Symantec Internet Security Threat Report
Volume XII: September, 2007

Attack Trends Highlights
• The United States was the country targeted by the most denial of service (DoS) attacks, accounting for
61 percent of the worldwide total in the first half of 2007.
• The United States was the top country of attack origin in the first six months of 2007, accounting for
25 percent of the worldwide attack activity.
• During this period, the United States accounted for 30 percent of all malicious activity during the period,
more than any other country.
• Israel was the country with the most malicious activity per Internet user in the first six months of 2007,
followed by Canada and the United States.
• Four percent of all malicious activity detected during the first six months of 2007 originated from IP
space registered to Fortune 100 companies.
• The education sector accounted for 30 percent of data breaches that could lead to identity theft during
this period, more than any other sector.
• Theft or loss of computer or other data-storage medium made up 46 percent of all data breaches that
could lead to identity theft during this period.
• The United States was the top country for underground economy servers, accounting for 64 percent of
the total known to Symantec.
• Credit cards were the most common commodity advertised on underground economy servers known to
Symantec, accounting for 22 percent of all items.
• Eighty-five percent of credit cards advertised for sale on underground economy servers known to
Symantec were issued by banks in the United States.
• Symantec observed an average of 52,771 active bot-infected computers per day in the first half of 2007,
a 17 percent decrease from the previous period.
• China had 29 percent of the world’s bot-infected computers, more than any other country.
• The United States had the highest number of bot command-and-control servers, accounting for
43 percent of the worldwide total.
• Beijing was the city with the most bot-infected computers, accounting for seven percent of the
worldwide total.
• The average lifespan of a bot-infected computer during the first six months of 2007 was four days,
up from three days in the second half of 2006.
• Home users were the most highly targeted sector, accounting for 95 percent of all targeted attacks.

Labels: compu-internet, crimeware, security

I wish more video was captioned for the deaf, but there's plenty of text to be found on this subject if one looks for it. A link to a Tax Law blog is in the Related Links below and has interesting comments and links. (and I can't figure out if this stock image listed under 'taxes' is a man being shaken for change or bullied to tears, but probably the same effect anyway!)



From Shreveport Times

Local attorney acquitted on federal income tax charges
Cryer stopped filing income taxes more than 10 years ago
July 13, 2007
By Loresha Wilson

A Shreveport attorney who has challenged the government for years on the legality of filing federal income taxes has been acquitted on charges he failed to file returns.

A federal jury unanimously found Tommy Cryer not guilty this week on two misdemeanor counts of failure to file.

And according to Cryer, the prosecution dismissed two felony charges of tax evasion prior to trial.

Attempts by The Times on Thursday to reach U.S. Attorney Donald Washington or Bill Flanagan, first assistant U.S. attorney, were not successful. Calls made to the two were not immediately returned.

"The court could not find a law that makes me liable or makes my revenues taxable," Cryer said. "The Supreme Court has ruled that the government cannot impose an income tax on anything but the profits and gains. When you work for someone you give your service and labor in exchange for money, so everything you make is not profit or gain. You put something into it."

Cryer was indicted last year on two counts of tax evasion. The indictment alleged he evaded payment of $73,000 in income tax to the Internal Revenue Service during 2000 and 2001.

Cryer created a trust listing himself as the trustee, and received payments of dividends, interest and stock income to that trust, according to the indictment. He also was accused of concealing his receipt of the sources of income from the IRS by failing to file a tax return on behalf of that trust.

"I determined that my personal earnings were not 100 percent profits, some were income," Cryer said. "I refuse to file, I refuse to pay unless they can show me I have a lawful reason to pay."

"What I earned was my own personal labor. I am giving something in exchange. I'm giving my property and I don't belong to anyone else."

Cryer says he stopped filing returns more than 10 years ago after he investigated claims that income tax was a sham. He contends the law doesn't actually tax personal earning.

Related link:
TaxProf Blog - Member of the Law Professor Blogs Netwok


And a PS. My connection and FTP abilities have been very iffy for just over 24 hours. Hopefully this gets posted before another day passes.

Labels: money, Video

The silly, animated chicken above is not related to Savage Chickens, but comes from free animations available at LabPixies, made by SweetIM.

See the Savage Chickens Video Debut


I got a kick out of the fun facts about making the movie. One of which is "There are about 500 sticky notes in the video, including a butterfly and 4 or 5 stunt butterflies." I enjoyed the movie and hope Savage Chickens does well in the contest.

Labels: Chickens, humor, Video

The handsome young man above with the puppy above is about four years and that awesomely cute puppy is about 2 months old.

I sent a quick hello to Nahit out in Turkey last week. We'd corresponded before a few times and I know some of his dogs also came to the USA. I was having problems connecting to his website during the sporadic attempts I made, so I wrote and got good news. Kangalist.net is still there. He has been busy and his kids are growing up. Time flies! He writes that his two sons and his daughter love the dogs! And he sent me fresh pics of the cute duo above.

This is one of the Kangalist males, Dozer.

This female is young Hama.

The handsome duo again. I just love that sweet expression on the puppy's face. I'm so glad they had time to send me the shots!

Here's a nice female named Dombay. She's one of my favorites at the website. :D
I think I'll need a very very big shopping bag to bring her home!

Some of the pages may be down, but you can see some of the girls at Disiler drop down menu, and the boys on Erkekler.

Labels: kids, Turkishdog

Hey, September 19th is/was "Talk Like a Pirate Day". If you need a interpreter on some Pirate lingo, Savage Chickens might be helpful.

My piratey mood has to do with Sims 2 actually. Captain Jack Sparrow, as a Sim can be installed in The Sims 2 game. This picture capture is from my game and is my favorite pirate creation by assorted authors who created his skin, clothing and accessories. I'm not taking credit for him ...nor for any surprises in his uh... skin tone. He's been available in downloads in various styles and quality for years, but this one has been in my game for about three years. Alas, I haven't played the game enough to help him build a ship yet (he's actually more obsessed with looking through telescopes and ...hanging out with his women), so I think he'll have to go commandeer one eventually, lol.

If you have The Sims 2 game and would like to have him, here is the download file for Captain Jack Sparrow. It should be put wherever you like to put your downloads but after downloading, you need to double click the Sims2Pack file that you just downloaded and it will install into your game (likewise, the doggie files below). You do not need expansions to have Captain Jack Sparrow in your Sims 2 game. (Of course, unless you actually have the game, you can't use the download.) You DO need the Pets expansion for any of the dogs below, because the expansion pack gives the pets the programming they need to come to "Sim Life". Jack is fine with the base game.



Now Mateys -- about those flip-flops!

More excitement from China. :( I was going to post this the other day but didn't have time, so I'm also behind posting on pirates, so I've combined the two. And yep, I know, I'm weird.

This was from a while back that Kerry Stiles started a photo log of her flip-flop experiences back in June 2007. She's still trying to find others who have had the same problems as she did. Apparently some slippers were fine but some others were defective.

About.com link verifies the story and (generically) identifies the irritation pictured (it's a bit graphic) as a type of contact dermatitis. While some people may have contact dermatitis with metals, latex or other materials rather consistently based on the specific product -- it appears that according to some of the reports in the original lady's photo log, some folks bought different color variations at the same time of purchase and only certain certain pairs in their purchase caused reactions.

The author for example, had a reaction to a yellow pair, while another person reacted to the blue and not the other colors that were also purchased and worn. This suggests ersatz product components were partly to blame.


Okay... back to Simming!


Above is Captain Jack doing a bit of meditation and he is so good at it, he is levitating off the ground. For some reason, my game chose the red boxers as his exercise outfit. Suits me, matches the bandana. (No he didn't come with his beloved hat!)

Kicking back for things that don't require much serious thought fits the bill as I shed a migraine, I started to start up my Sims game and immediately realized to my dismay, that I could NOT remember my shortcut keys to start the game - and that's pretty bad! Of all the tricks one learns in the game, getting the game running should be a no brainer. I use keyboard shortcuts rather than a cluttered desktop, and its been sooooo long...

Now, here we go... a little more doggie related. Yay! I have the Pets expansion and have had so many cool ideas on what to do with it but due to some interesting times lately, haven't found much time to play. Here are two Anatolian Shepherd Dog Sims that I created on "Talk Like a Pirate Day".

Both are a little different in their Sim genetics. The drop eared one is a female and the one with cropped ears is a Turkish import. (Heehee - the madness of a dog nut!) The male is a little less friendly (more guardy) than the female but he is more playful than she is. I was interested if they would hit it off naturally or if there would be some work required. When they met, he did a play bow and wanted to be friends. Above pic is just before he did the playbow. She is cautiously checking him out and he's getting excited.

A lot of action in the game is autonomous. The pets are no exception. You can't really control them so the human sim that lives with them has to train them.

Even when you make plans for things to happen, flexibility helps! The first Sim 'human' I ever made in the game, within minutes of his creation, went out autonomously to the yard, sat down to gaze at the sky. I was fascinated! But suddenly a satellite shot from the heavens and killed him and the Grim Reaper came. Now I was upset, how did this happen?? I had no idea how to save his life (there are ways to do this) so I paused the game and went through the manual to try to figure it out -- and the thing about the game is that so much can happen, that its often not in the manual. It's like life. Your Sim might be watching TV and suddenly a pipe bursts and the bathroom starts to flood. These Sims creators at EA.com are really an imaginative lot! Anyway, back to pets... if you don't use cheats, the pets will do whatever comes natural to them, including fights and digging up the garden, shredding furniture, digging holes and all of that. Your human Sims can train their pets, but the outcome can be about as variable as it is in real life. :)

In this pic, the plus icons show that the two dogs have just decided that they probably like each other. They may become good friends.

In this pic, the female is responding to the invitation to play. She's leaping up and he's playfully growling at her. She's not a playful dog in her personality, so this is a positive event.

And another view of them playing. They ran across a street and few yards (I haven't built a fence for them yet) and were racing around a bit. :)

I probably will not be breeding these two. To get the 'cropped' ears look in the Sims 2 -- you have to select upright ears and make the ears as small or pointy long (depending on the breed) as possible. So you'd actually be breeding a strain with up ears and a strain with floppy ears. ;)

The game is really not about real doggie genetics but it is about cool programming code and neat graphics. So if they bred, I'd probably get some pups with upright ears. Then again, its just a game. I wonder if keeping only the flop eared pups and breeding them will result in a line with more flop ears only? LOL, I guess I won't know until I have more time for the game. At least with the humans, blonde and redheads are recessive to the brunette and black hair. So the human babies get some predictable traits from their parents.

So I have the crop eared dog above for download and a brindle dog with a curled tail available.

To use the dog files, you need have the base game and the Pets expansion.

Yep, even Sim doggies need to be trained to not be destructive. A playful one trying to demolish a teddy bear.

Labels: China, strange, The_Sims_2