iamshack

QUOTE (G&T @ Mar 15, 2012 -> 06:13 AM) Looks like a good list. Remember to redirect their chewing from bad things to acceptable things consistently, so have plenty of chew toys. As for food, do your research. I feed Wellness because it is high quality but easily available if we are traveling. Some foods are very expensive and hard to get if you aren't at home. So consider what you can afford versus quality. I was in a high-quality food store yesterday and looked at quite a few different foods. The obvious new niche product is the grain-free dry food. Most lower to moderate priced foods are going to be made up of a lot of grain as a "filler," because it's cheaper than any other acceptable product they can get away with using. Unfortunately, almost all studies show dogs simply cannot digest grain well, which means it is serving very little purpose to them, other than making them s*** more. However, because replacing grain with a meat or plant-based product is more expensive for dog food manufacturers, grain-free foods are going to be significantly more expensive for consumers. Another niche product is food that includes only "human-grade" ingredients. This protects one from having a food that includes ingredients from the rendering industry, which may include animal carcasses and other disgusting things. Finally, some foods that are primarily meat-based are advertising that those meats are free-range or grass-fed, etc. this protects you from having meat from the larger "factory farms" in the formulation. Overall, it depends what your budget is, how active your dog(s) is, availability, as GT mentioned, and how highly you value/believe in a better diet for your dog(s). From what I saw yesterday, foods from Champion Pet Foods (Orjen, Acana), Fromm, Canidae, Now, Wellness, etc, are all solid dry foods.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Mar 14, 2012 -> 04:16 PM) Shack, pretty soon you will be the one eating the crappy food just to keep your dogs fed 3 Danes!! Hah, I already am! I only have two though...the other is my "smart" dog...he's a Golden/wolf-something I picked up in a shelter last Thanksgiving...he's going to keep the Danes in line and from doing their best Marmaduke impressions

Picked up another Great Dane pup on Friday. He's the offspring of the same parents of my other Dane. So far he's been wonderful. Completely potty-trained and very laid back, but not afraid to assert himself when needed either. This completes my 3-dog pack for the foreseeable future. Picked up some new dry food for him that is grain-free and meat-based called Acana out of Canada. Anyone have any experience with this food yet?

In Wash DC for a Federal Energy Reliability Conference...ugh, the egos...can't WAIT for the cocktail reception!

QUOTE (FlaSoxxJim @ Mar 8, 2012 -> 11:55 PM) If they ever do a live action Simpson's movie, Mario Batali had better land the role of Comic Book Guy or I will be very disappointed. It was like 40 degrees in the City yesterday night, and he strolls in in shorts with orange crocs and red socks...and what looked to be some kind of fisherman's vest or something

Had lunch at Frontera Grill today...the mole sauce alone made it the best mexican meal I have ever had. Dinner was at The Publican...meal was very good...interesting place...about halfway through our meal Mario Batali strolled in with some friends for cocktails. That was pretty neat.

QUOTE (SnB @ Mar 8, 2012 -> 07:52 AM) Get ready for lots of meetings that contain 1000 buzzwords. I'm have to go through Yellow Belt training this year and Green Belt training next year. Yeah, that is one of the things I hate about this...the damn buzzwords. And the guy who does the training is a jagoff.

Well, considering I had this damn gift card wearing a hole in my pocket, I pulled the trigger on the 64 gig wifi in black.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Mar 7, 2012 -> 01:10 PM) The new iPAD looks awesome. 2048x1536 resolution, 264ppi, quad core graphics/processor and somehow they maintained the same battery life as the iPAD2. For those who want mobile connectivity rather than just WiFi, it's also 4G LTE. Same pricing as the iPAD2. I'm going to take a look at it now, but I'm still not sure it really offers anything I need that my original iPad does not. When I am mobile, I don't ever really encounter much that I can't accomplish with my phone, and the rest of the time, I'll just use my desktop. I use my iPad mainly for dicking around on the couch instead of using a laptop, or while traveling. Can't imagine the resolution is such an important feature that it would be worth paying the $ for the few times I travel. Before I get too far, however, I need to go check it out.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Mar 7, 2012 -> 11:36 AM) The company I work with has begun pushing Lean Manufacturing, or Continuous Improvement as it's sometimes referred to so as not to scare people. Sometimes Lean is associated with RIFs and production curtailing, but we're more focused on waste reduction and improving processes. I don't have a lot of experience with it aside from a conference last year and some internal training. However, I've been designated as the coordinator for our efforts. Anyone out there have any experience with Lean or even Six Sigma? Any success stories? Our company has been pushing Continuous Process Improvement and the Deming model for a few years now. It has not exactly taken hold, but that is one of the advertised difficulties of it. I just have been signed up by my boss to take an 8 week crash course to become a "facilitator." Just bought a book the other day, actually, on the subject. I will keep you posted with what I take away from the training.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Mar 7, 2012 -> 12:06 AM) I have. It was pretty darn good. Probably not surprising, the time I went, Vince Vaughn was there. Did you like it? Yes, it was very good...Unfortunately, we were still a bit full from eating earlier at the Pump Room, so we didn't get to enjoy it as much as we would have liked, but still very excellent. And fairly priced I thought. Hot Doug's for lunch today.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 6, 2012 -> 12:05 PM) Isn't there data showing that the obesity rate has actually finally leveled off over the past few years? Edit: Yes. Could be a functionof the recession or could be a legitimate pattern, given the moves towards improving food quality and diet (espeically in schools). I think there is a legitimate increase in exercise habits in many urban areas as well. It seems to me that a lot more people are working out at least somewhat regularly now than was the case in 2000 or even 2005, but you'll probably dig up some data to refute that observation

I ran my original iPhone through the wash and it worked the next day just by drying it out

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Mar 6, 2012 -> 10:40 AM) You can subsist entirely on potatoes and milk. The level of meat consumption is abnormal. One can subsist on a lot of things. The question is what is the optimal diet for the average modern person? Some nutritionists are claiming that animal fat is actually the optimal fuel for active humans, rather than carbohydrates. The problem is most people in developed countries tend to eat highly processed foods and get little or no exercise, which is a recipe for all kinds of cancers and heart problems. This doesn't even begin to get into the question of what is the optimal food for our population, considering our total resource portfolio.

QUOTE (G&T @ Mar 6, 2012 -> 10:28 AM) This article does nothing to further the discourse nor does it add anything new. It does nothing to say "all meat will kill you" when that is objectively not true. Tell me what it is about meat that causes cancer. I don't doubt that high fat, high calorie, high sodium diets will kill people, but why is chicken equal to beef or to pork or to turkey when they are all very different? The reality isn't that meat kills, it's that salt covered meat deep fried in fat, served with fried potatoes and covered in sugar/salt laden sauces kill. That cannot be compared to roast chicken in herbs served with vegetables (a balanced meal). Agreed. There are studies which claim to show that eating grilled meats on a very regular basis can coincide with cancer increases, but I'm not sure of the validity of those claims.

Happy Birthday, fellas! Enjoy your day!

Dinner at Girl and the Goat tonight....anyone been?

The degree to which our diets consist of highly processed food is the larger concern, IMHO.

QUOTE (Tex @ Mar 4, 2012 -> 05:35 PM) For Texas BBQ, single location places with pits that are 50+ years old are the way to go, but in a pinch, Rudy's is good for a chain. I thought 5 Guys was pretty good but we have a little neighborhood place Gonzalez Grocers that crushes them. The place only sells burgers, onion rings, and fries. Coke from cans. Wait 30 minutes when they are slow. Is Smashburger anywhere y'all? We have Smashburger in Vegas...I hear the shakes are incredible. What's this new New Jersey-based sub place you guys have now (at least in the south burbs)? I'm anxious to try Five Guys while I'm home, although we do have one in my area now.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Feb 28, 2012 -> 06:02 PM) Haha, that was great...I have taken the Great Dane and my friend's Weimaraner from Vegas to the Oregon Coast and back, and he did quite well, so I am hoping the substitution of my mixed breed for the Weimaraner won't change things too drastically. Needless to say, I am expecting a stressful journey. As of right now, I am debating between buying a cargo basket such as the Yakima Load Warrior and losing a few mpg's or smashing everything in the car. Tough decision. Made the trip from Las Vegas to Chicago in 26 hours on Thursday/Friday. Drove straight through, as the dogs were behaving very well and I was wired from coffee and the desire to get home for the first time in more than a year. Went 1750 miles, stopping 5 or 6 times for gas, and at a few rest stops for the dogs. Hit snow in Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, and Iowa, but thankfully avoided all the tornado weather. Drove with a Yakima Load Warrior cargo basket on the roof that was surprisingly quiet but probably impacted my gas mileage quite a bit. Not looking forward to the trek back, but happy to be in the Chi for a couple weeks!

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Feb 29, 2012 -> 08:55 AM) I'm not faulting Franklin, but how about taking recent developments into concern when making policy? Compounding the problem is that much of the country is already an hour ahead of its natural time zone, so it's doubling the problem. On March 12 in South Bend, sunrise will be at 8:01 am with sunset at 7:49 pm. How messed up is that? Yeah, I can see how that would be a problem. Out here in Vegas it's about an hour better than that, and I don't have kids, so I really don't notice the school bus issue.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Feb 29, 2012 -> 07:33 AM) What a fantastic idea--move the daylight to the evening where the adults can enjoy it and let kids wait for morning school buses in the dark where they can be attacked and hit by cars! I don't think Franklin had school buses in mind when he thought this up...

For whatever reason, I've always had a soft spot for Alex. But 126 is brutal! I don't think I've ever scored that poorly in my life, let alone for 60 straight days! Poor Alex...

QUOTE (G&T @ Feb 28, 2012 -> 06:31 PM) Jesus, don't do what Shack is saying. The reason she wants you around is because she sees you as a pushover that she can get attention from then push away. That's what she means when she says "too nice." She wants to have sex with someone who ignores her because that's how she gets their attention. If you give her attention, then her mission is accomplished without sex. Barney Stinson would prey on her. She's an insecure f***tard. At some point in all of our lives we get stuck in weird situations with girls. I would guess that almost, if not all, happily married guys will tell you to cut off all communication. She has no impact on your life. Whack-jobs can go pull that crap with someone else. If you communicate with her, she gets the attention she wants. /rant I think you're misinterpreting what I am telling him to do. This chick is nuts. If he starts blocking her and refusing to answer her texts, she's going to slash his tires and f*** all his best friends. She wants drama, she wants conflict, she wants to rile his ass up. If he just always deflects her insults she'll get tired of playing with him or get frustrated that he won't play along and give up. It's worked with all the crazies I've ever dated, as long as you never actually let them back in the door. Edit: And by the way, the fact that someone is married in no way makes them better at dealing with this sort of thing...if anything, it makes you out of practice, since you haven't been dealing with it like us single guys have...

Ahh....I take the complete opposite approach and it drives them ever-living bonkers. Show absolutely no ill-will towards her no matter what she does. If she texts you with some nonsense about how you suck or your truck sucks or whatever, say yeah, I realized I have things to work on from my experience dating you and I feel like I am making major progress. How is your mother doing? Just keep saying that s*** and eventually they get bored with it or wonder how the hell is it that you never take the bait and fire back? If you block them they just find ways to screw with you more...anything to get your attention.