There was a big mouse bloom at the ranchette where I house sit. Nothing like the '93 Australian plague https://youtu.be/mBDz3TPfA9w?si=egfSeq1ZIc1mRAHH , but it was worrisome. The owner had already sent hundreds of them to their maker.
Over the last month he'd seen a noticeable decrease and was pondering the reason why.
Was it due to the owl that had taken up residence, a red racer occasionally seen slithering by or a mouse pandemic?
And then he spotted the most likely cause.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw something moving fast and more intelligently than your average rodent.
The carnivorous shrew, and where there's one there's bound to be more. They have to eat 3/4 of their body weight every day and reproduce like rabbits.
Nature to the rescue.

I did like Dune Part 2. I didn't find the movie brilliant though. Dune Part 2 was entertaining enough. The movie was a little too long and started to fall asleep.

"The company notes that its robots are not allowed to be weaponized."
They use the Judge Dredd robot in texas, it automatically acts as judge, jury and executioner in one small package - all in less time than it takes to surrender.
/.,.,.,.,,.,.,.,.
Dune 2 "is nearing $240 million at the domestic box office and has surpassed $570 million worldwide."
Close to what I was expecting.

If Dune was Southern lol

There was always a certain charm to his wrong-headed, clueless anti-videogames crusade, but overall he seemed like a decent guy.

WitcherOntheProwl wrote on Mar 28, 2024, 12:52:
I did like Dune Part 2. I didn't find the movie brilliant though. Dune Part 2 was entertaining enough. The movie was a little too long and started to fall asleep.

It really was a long movie to piss off 2 women simultaneously.

Tipsy McStagger wrote on Mar 28, 2024, 14:17:

WitcherOntheProwl wrote on Mar 28, 2024, 12:52:
I did like Dune Part 2. I didn't find the movie brilliant though. Dune Part 2 was entertaining enough. The movie was a little too long and started to fall asleep.

It really was a long movie to piss off 2 women simultaneously.

That's why you take your main and side piece to two different movies.

25 years for SBF. A, B, Cya!

The Mets don't play until 1:40 tomorrow, by which time they will already be mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. Good times.

Haha. I know the sound of long-suffering sports fans when I hear them. Being a Jets fan, I can relate as well. Just so I can update my notes, when exactly did you you move past "It's a new season. Anything can happen!"?

😁

Holy shit, what an emotional roller coaster of a couple days its been. My cat had her babies with the first arriving at 8pm Tuesday and the last arriving just after midnight - 5 in total. The next morning the father showed up and I let him in, she went at him hard and he fled. Okay, no to papa for a while. Then yesterday he shows up again, this time she lets him in. He's inspecting the kittens and then faster you can blink attacks - I am literally 3 steps away and have been watching him like a hawk. I scream at him, he bolts, she attacks me. Chaos for a minute I chase him out. The one kitten is dead and the other is hurt but I'm not sure if she's dying. Wrap them in towels and race down to the nearest vet but by the time I got there the other little one had expired. I'm so fucking angry at myself and sick with heartbreak over this. This is where it gets dangerous with guns around because if I had one on hand I probably would have shot him. And what kills me is I was just about to send him back out because it seemed he was getting a little too interested, then BAM! Motherfucker!

The other three are thankfully fine. The weirdest part about all of this is that the three that remain are black like him, but the 2 he killed were grey like there mother - she's a Russian Blue. I asked the vet about it and he said he doubted it meant anything, they were probably just closest to him. Males do that - sometimes not always - because they want the females to get back into heat ASAP so they can mate again. Well, if you're ever in a similar position my advice is do not let the father/a male anywhere close to them. I anthropomorphized him - a father would never attack their own babies - and that was a fatal mistake. Such a heartbreaker because the little grey ones were so pretty. I'm certain they would have been adopted first. And now I have to go bury them. Life over before it ever really began. Fucking nature, man. No good deed goes unpunished.


Edit: Oh yeah, and she's been mental as hell the last two days so my stress levels are through the fucking roof. Finally it seems she's calming down. She's taking good care of the babies. She's being super affectionate with me too.

Edit2: Oh yeah, and if you ever take in a stray, don't make my other mistake and wait. Get them to a vet ASAP and see if the need fixing and get it done. I'm just planning for this now. I have to get her vaccines done 2 weeks before the op. I wanted to get her laparoscopic spayed but they're asking 2 grand for it. Well, if I ever become a multi-millionaire I'll keep that in mind. They should be doing that shit cheap and making money on volume. If it were only a
$100 more than regular surgery everyone would pop for it.

You're story breaks my heart Cutter. I don't know how many times I would try to do the right thing but a situation I thought I had under control would go tits up before you would blink. I started thinking I was worse for the animals than if I had just left them out on their own. Don't fall into that trap like I did. The only consolation I can offer is that at the end of the day, love them as much as we do, they're still animals, and sometimes they do things we can't understand.

Prez wrote on Mar 28, 2024, 14:07:
There was always a certain charm to his wrong-headed, clueless anti-videogames crusade, but overall he seemed like a decent guy.

He also ruined healthcare in America.
Well, it was already ruined, but he ruined the best shot we had at improving it.

Are you trying to bait me into a political discussion you cheeky devil you?

Beamer wrote on Mar 28, 2024, 19:36:
He also ruined healthcare in America.
Well, it was already ruined, but he ruined the best shot we had at improving it.

Yep, he was Joe Manchin before it was popular.

Sorry Cutter. Don't beat yourself up with second guessing. From what you wrote I could see myself doing the exact same thing.

RedEye9 wrote on Mar 28, 2024, 12:58:
"The company notes that its robots are not allowed to be weaponized."
They use the Judge Dredd robot in texas, it automatically acts as judge, jury and executioner in one small package - all in less time than it takes to surrender.

Yeah, was not a fan. Not saying he didn't deserve to die, just not that way. He was trapped, they could have tased him, gassed him, shot him with tranqs, etc. and captured him alive for trial. The whole exploding robot thing smacked of vengeance.

WitcherOntheProwl wrote on Mar 28, 2024, 12:52:
I did like Dune Part 2. I didn't find the movie brilliant though. Dune Part 2 was entertaining enough. The movie was a little too long and started to fall asleep.

at this point i think i've seen enough villeneuve films to judge him as a film maker. visually he's brilliant, but he's not so great at getting the best out of his actors, or even the right actors. the overacting esp. from the young cast in dune 2 was painful. i saw it twice and it was even more cringy the second time. it was odd cuz i've seen most of them in other things and i loved them otherwise. momoa was completely miscast as duncan. honestly the whole cast from 1984 dune was better.

Researchers study new packaging that could change the future of seafood without affecting the shelf-life of fish.

Operative term: "fish-bowl".

Yeah, as far as the first Dune went, the casting was easily the worst thing about it. Isaac was at least decent, but the rest of the cast varied wildly from somewhat competent to "what were they thinking?!" I suppose that Chalamet has grown on me as Paul, but my general feeling is that they spent a huge amount of money hiring big name actors when they could have gotten better performances from some lesser-known actors and not wasted as much on actor salaries. Other than that, the world of Dune is just as fantastic as it was when I was first introduced to it in high school. No performance is so bad that it actively makes for a worse movie - I quite liked the first Dune movie (The 2021 one). Big miss on a lot of the casting though in my opinion.

"... that girl has been planning to 'play ball' with you since before she even had grass on her field..."

Bonus points for knowing where the quote is from.

This comment was edited on Apr 3, 2024, 18:36.