Black Dog Blog

Archive for the ‘reference’ Category

That was nice. I've just listened through a Radio 4 documentary about women in the army, which is exactly what I needed to be researching for my own writing, and because it was in a meeting, I get to call it work.

The producer's comments before and afterwards were useful too. Quite a bit to think about.

And it meant I got my face about up on 5th, which is always good. Since we moved down to be with the other geeks (ah, bliss) on the ground floor, we haven't been seen around the Religion department as much. I try to keep my paw in up there, and if that means attending functions and leaving parties at which there is free orange juice (really nice stuff this time… tasted like Tropicana, I think? Quite sweet) then, well, it's no great hardship.

I've been socialising so much at work recently. Going out to the weekly pub lunches with the geeks (I generally just have a drink), the odd meetings with the old department, meeting new people while helping out with the Ents newsletter (so good they've asked me to do it three times, despite the first one being "a one-off, honestly"… I nodded and, quietly clairvoyantly, kept the template files I'd made), training someone (!!) the other day to update a database, upload stuff and use Adobe Acrobat Writer (which I've never even used myself) and active and helpful on the internal mailing lists and Yammer. It's quite surprising. I'm looking askance at my definitely-autistic self. I wouldn't be surprised if my name's becoming known.

(And it is—at least, a lot of people have told me it's cool!)

Oh, and I played with my browser settings. The title bar now reads "Mutt's Weblague > Create New Post — Wordpress – Best-Fox 3.0.3 | All Hail Herms". This is done through the MR Tech Local Install extension; there's also a randomiser that comes up with "Mozilla SlimeParrot" etc.

Another useful link: monitor calibration tool.

This really had to happen eventually. If you know me, you knew it was inevitable.

Fire Fox One

Foxing with Fire!
I'm browsing to rock
Got my WebDev and Firebug,
Ads and elements block'd
With Fire!
Reloaded and cocked
You'll never miss the Flash when it's gone
Just add some shinies on

(After Sammet)

(Yes, I did write this purely so I'd have links to my favourite extensions. I don't wanna waste no time, 'cause I'm a bad bad dog.)

Putting them here because it's very probable I'll want to refer to these myself. Basaltine is my hellhound character. It's pronounced "bazzle tine" (or "baz uhl tine" if you're American, I guess).

To sum up, he has the build of a Rottie, the size of a mastiff and German Shepherd facial features.

Build (at 'this' point in time): Rottweiler
NB. Ignore tails. His is longer than a natural (undocked) Rottie.
Rottie 1
(He does not stand with his hocks that far back – that's a show-dog pose.)
Rottie 2
(This pose is a bit too bull(dog)ish)
Rottie 3
(intent)
Rottie 4
Rottie 5
Rottie 6
(Swimming – definitely!)
Rottie 7
(Honest, I wasn't going to hump your leg…)

Size (at 'this' point in time): Mastiff
Basaltine's size varies over periods of years, so we have some leeway here.
Mastiff 1
("I would put up with this all day")
Mastiff 2
(rrruff!)
Mastiff 3
(…)
Mastiff et al
(Mastiff pup w brindle Dane for comparison)

Shape of head and ears: German Shepherd
GSD 1
(Tail is the length shown in this picture, but held with more of a curl when happy)
GSD 2
(good head and neck, but ignore deformed stance! Stupid show rituals. Hinds as low as that should be a fault IMHO)

GSD head/ears/face reference
GSD 3
(VERY characteristic expression when wheedling)
GSD 4
(B's fur is shorter/skin is less loose around the neck – he's all muscle)
GSD 5
(*Mutt melts*)
GSD 6
GSD 7
GSD 8

For my own reference. Because there are surprisingly few qref pages out there that talk like I think. Feel free to ignore. :)