Weekly Post Of Stuff

[rax]

• I have my first paper of this PhD program due Monday. I took good notes, have a good concept, and am downright proud of my outline. I'm having trouble with the draft, though, because I've been reading so much abstruse crap [0] and haven't done any academic writing at all since my MA thesis. I keep having to take complicated sentences and pare them down to be less full of clauses. I suppose it is good that I take the time to do this rather than just hand in an essay with sentences whose diagrams are fractal. I'm glad I have this assignment to warm up on before I write final papers; it should help me do better with those. (I may also need to pull some prose I really like and re-read it right before I start.)
• I am weak but I am strong: I have a copy of Pokemon White, despite knowing basically no Japanese. (The script has been translated, and my new housemate reads Japanese decently, so this is only dumb, not stupid.) However! I will not allow myself to start the game until I am done with all of the work I need to hand in this week. And am actually sticking to that, after powering the game on to make sure it works and to get the Japanese event item. (I don't intend to talk about spoilers, but if I think I might, I will cut-tag them; I know a couple of people here care.) I guess this means I will preorder Black in English once it's reasonable to pre-order it. If you were wondering "Will Pokemon be one of those things Rachel gets into for a month or two and then completely forgets about, or is it going to stick around for NetHack levels of time?," I think you have your answer.
• I probably won't play White much until I finish my current pokedex, either. I'm 32 away from completion! If I can get to 15 or so away I bet I can trade some of my good stuff on pokewifi or something and get to zero. We will see!
• I don't know if it's the weather or the cats getting along better or what, but recently, Selene sleeps on my chest and Oolong sleeps on my feet. It's a little bittersweet because Oolong is leaving soon and of course they'd finally learn to share a bed two weeks before they're separated, but fundamentally it is amazing, because Selene is coming to bed with me again, and it's been what, at least two years? Aside from the very first time sleeping at this house, where they had just been in the car for 40 hours and Selene curled up on my chest and Oolong curled up under my tented knees and I had no blanket or mattress and my stuffed lion was my pillow. So that's sort of a special case.
• Furry porn is everywhere. (image link completely safe for work)
• Rik is coming Rik is coming Rik is coming Rik is coming Rik is coming! He gets here Wednesday!
• I've bought tickets for my trip to California --- I'll be there from Dec 15 to Jan 2. This means the return trip will earn qualifying miles/segments toward status in 2011. Yes, I am becoming one of those. I looked at my travel plans for next year and it was worth it.
• When I first started grading student work, I was really slow about it, and nervous. What if I gave someone the wrong grade? What was the rubric I could use to determine the "right" answer for what a grade was? While we do have rubrics for evaluating student work, realistically, the thing I've been discovering, especially working on their midterm exams, is that there is no right answer. Grading student writing --- unlike, say, a multiple choice test or a chemistry problem set [1] --- is fundamentally a subjective exercise. I need to look at it, make a judgement call based on the professor's statements of what she's looking for and what the student has written down, and move on. I will not be perfect, and that is fine; if I make a mistake, students can ask us to correct them, and a decent amount of the time the mistake will be in the student's favor anyway. (I tend to err on the side of too nice.)
• I now own a rake! And a push-broom! And a snow shovel! Soon I need to run the fireplace plot. This homeowner thing is still bizarre. At some point I expect it will normalize, but it is taking a while. In the meantime I periodically walk around and go "MUAHAHAH THIS IS MY HOUSE. IT IS MINE. IT IS FULL OF SPACE."
• Is there any reason other than the price tag I should not get a tame fox. They will curl up on your lap and use a litter box and tend to imprint on cats if cats are around. Seriously. Finally available in the US. Tame fox. TAME. FOX. ... I guess it implicitly supports their research which was originally for the fur trade, though. AAARRRRGH MORAL DILEMMA. Help?

[0] The content is not crap. The writing style, in my opinion, often is. Some of the blame falls on being translated from French and German, but even that doesn't excuse, say, Heidegger.

[1] Chemistry problem sets have some room for subjectivity when giving partial credit. But it's not the same as an essay.

Comments

[marcmagus]

There's a practical matter. They're still foxes, which make extremely challenging pets and require a lot of time, which can be difficult on a graduate school schedule. Nothing on the website suggests to me that the domestication has made them easier to train, easier to control, or less needy than their wild relatives. Just less prone to biting and more cuddly. I'm assuming you already know about those issues, so just thinking they probably still apply.

I know somebody who kept a (fennic) fox. Her housemates were not very pleased with the situation.

Regarding the moral issue, they said they were breeding for behavior w.r.t. humans at the expense of coat pattern; how closely/distantly related is this program to the fur trade?

[laura47.livejournal.com]

fuck yeah get a fox! it's for you like if ponies suddenly became apartment animals for other girls!

[postrodent.livejournal.com]

I figure if I get really lucky I'll get to sleep next to both you and Selene. <3

[kelkyag]

You may wish to check on the legality of keeping foxes in any states you might want to live in in the future, first.

[lhexa.livejournal.com]

Is there any reason other than the price tag I should not get a tame fox.

Well, take note of the changes listed under their Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesticated_silver_fox), and check out the links from that page too. You're not getting foxes so much as you're getting dogs bred from foxes. With no disrespect intended toward dogs, which are nifty: when you breed foxes to be tame you remove much of what makes them foxes. Also I would be cross with you.

[rax.livejournal.com]

I've been reading about these guys and wondering what it would be like to have one for years, although I hadn't thought about it in a while and should catch up on the most recent information. I think that it's more complicated than "getting dogs bred from foxes" unless you think of "cats" as "dogs bred from wildcats." :) But I agree that you're not getting wild foxes, and many of the things we prize about foxes are tied up in their wildness. I'm curious why you would be cross with me, beyond what you've already said --- that you'd be cross with me matters but it would be great to have more information.

I guess that, for all that I talk a good game about being animal, I'm fundamentally a domesticated creature, and I like to share my space with other domesticated creatures. My tongue is only three quarters in cheek when I say that the idea of meeting another domesticated fox with a very different background is intriguing to me.

[lhexa.livejournal.com]

I think that it's more complicated than "getting dogs bred from foxes"...

Well, yeah, but that and the sentence following it were more or less quips intended to stand in for a hypothetical longer objection. When I do object to something a friend says, I think a quick-and-simple couple of sentences is a better start than a paragraphs-long manifesto, particularly when I don't know how the conversation will go. And in that vein, your comment about being domesticated preempted such a response. I see a difference between identifying with wild foxes but being willing to domesticate them (or kill them for fur, stuff them, cage them...) in order to get closer to them, and identifying with domesticated foxes. Altering something in order to become closer to it brings a false closeness, and I (think I) would have been cross with you for seeking something thus false (I wouldn't be cross with you for domesticating foxes, since that's hardly your doing); however, what you said just now puts a different spin on the matter.

This is coming from somebody whose experience of greatest closeness with a wild fox was being offered one to eat. I know I have a singular perspective on the matter, and I don't pretend my (preempted) reaction would have constituted a judgment or condemnation. But some such reactions are important to state.

[rax.livejournal.com]

That's entirely reasonable, and I'm not upset with your quipping, I just wanted more information. I now have it. :) I'm very unsure that I would actually get one of these animals and take them into my living space, but there are ways in which the idea is exceedingly compelling, both in the surface-level squeeful "OH MY GOD IT'S A FOX PRETTY" sense and when I sit down to think further.

Thanks for the commentary.

[lhexa.livejournal.com]

Sure! Also, I hope your paper will be available to read once finished. :)

[rax.livejournal.com]

Given how much I am pulling teeth to just write the thing, I don't expect it to be very good, but you can read it if you want. ;) (You can tell I'm not doing a good job of getting it done because I am replying to comments on LJ...)

[read-alicia.livejournal.com]

"IT'S A FOX PRETTY"

And stinky!

FOX: [Wagging tail] It's just the way gods made me!

[twitch124.livejournal.com]

How to run the fireplace plot:
1. RIGHT NOW
a. put your head in it and look up the chimney. Can you see sky? Does it feel colder than the room? If so, your damper may not be closed.
b. Find your damper switch. It should be on the inside of the fireplace above the opening to your living room. If your damper is open or leaky, wiggle the switch until it closes and seals.
c. If the damper doesn't seal, go to home depot and get enough fiberglass insulation to plug the bottom of the chimney for the winter. Either the 1" boards that come in 4'x8' sheets, which you can cut to size, jam up right above your living room opening and secure with brick tape, or the flexible rolls of fiberglass batting. Toss the leftovers in your garage. They'll come in handy at some point.

2. Run the full chimney plot (easier in the spring)
a. Get an inspection and cleaning. Ask the chimney company what kind of inspection they'll do.
The best inspections involve 2 people running a camera up and down the whole length and looking for holes in the lining. This will cost about $400 and you'll get a list of recommended repairs with it. (anywhere from $50 to $20,000, probably. $50 is "we touched up a little hole while we were in there. wait 48 hours for the concrete to cure before lighting a fire." $20,000 is "your whole chimney is a fire hazard and needs to be rebuilt to modern fire code.")

Average inspections involve 2 people with mirrors on sticks.

b. Your heating system probably uses the same brick chimney as your fireplace, with a separate metal flue running up it. Modern fire code wants a metal flue for your fireplace too, or at least a concrete lining, instead of the old-fashioned unlined brick kind.

[badoingdoing.livejournal.com]

If pet domesticated foxes catch on, people will think of fox fur in the same category as kitten fur.

[sprrwhwk.livejournal.com]

Keeping the domesticated foxes as pets does provide an outlet for the research which isn't involved in the fur trade and doesn't involve the animals being slaughtered. And perhaps increases the likelihood that, should such research be attempted in the future, it will be focused on domestication for companionship and not for fur?

[lindseykuper]

Hahahahahahahah I have that bag of carrots in my fridge right now that is awesome.

[teenybuffalo.livejournal.com]

THE FRIENDLY FOXES they are available as pets in the U.S. I am linking to this.

I wouldn't presume to tell you what to do with your money and pet-devotion, but I can't think of a more appropriate person to own a pet fox.

[schrodi-kitten.livejournal.com]

Is it a problem that I can't think of enough reasons NOT to own a pet fox? Seriously, I can come up with maybe three if I strain myself, and one of those reasons is "cookies." I don't even know what I mean by that.

Hug Rik for me when he gets there. My theory is, Rik needs more hugs.

[scholars.livejournal.com]

First off, those foxes are ridiculously adorable.

I'm not really sure what to tell you. Most of the reasons I can come up with have to do with being against the domestication and purchase of animals, and buying an animal is going to contribute to those things. So assuming those things don't bother you, it's really up to you. There are worse things you could do. I know I would be kinda tempted if I had the opportunity to have a tame owl or something. I wouldn't actually do it, but I would be tempted.

[eredien]

I think you should get a fox as long as you are willing to train it and have the time for it, which is what I've always thought.

[krinndnz.livejournal.com]

Holy blap, you'd never seen those carrots before? They're all over the place out here.