'Stiff' Dogs

I'm currently engaged in Mary Roach's wonderful expose on human cadavers, Stiff, and I just found out how dogs are trained to track down dead bodies. No, not through rolling around in it and bringing it home. That seems to just be my beagle, Brodie.

See, when bodies decompose, they emit different types of gases and other horrific scents. One of these is putrescine, the same smell that dead fish give off. Putrescine is a very distinct smell, apparently, and dogs are able to pick it up, even when bodies are submerged in water.

How do they end up training the dogs, you ask.

Well, there are companies that produce bottles of artifical putrescine! Wouldn't you love to work in that office? The dogs are then taught to look for that scent when they play, with simple games like fetch and such.

Also, I learned that car companies use a 'smell meter' to tell if a car has the right amount of new-car-smell or not. If it doesn't, the car doesn't pass snuff, no pun intended.

Save Friday Night Lights - Watch It!

Friday Night Lights has become an obsession for me. It would for you, too, if you watched it. That's right. Don't look away, pretend that it's somebody else who's not watching the show.

America, it's time to buck up. You let me down with Arrested Development and Futurama and, for a few years, Family Guy.

Don't do it with Friday Night Lights, as well. FNL (for those in the know) is NOT about football, so don't pretend that it's beneath you. I tried that for a season, and it didn't work. The show drew me in regardless of how much I fought.

This may be coming at a bad time, with the strike and all, but luckily for you the first season is out on DVD. I promise that if you go out and buy it (in the sad ocurrance that you don't have Netflix) you will not be disappointed.

Friday Night Lights. Fridays at 9 on NBC.

Sick Of It All, Or Just Sick

So I've been on Death's doorstep for the last few days, but he (or she) won't let me in. Bummer. I'd almost rather be dead than feel as sick as I do right now. Blech.

Anyway, I've been up to nothing but work and reading and writing and video games for the last few days. It's like that episode of Doug where he gets the really cool video game system and has a lost weekend. You know?



Except the game that I've been playing is Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock. And it is HARD! Well, I should say EXPERT!!! I've made it to the last batch of songs, and let me tell you, it is nothing to smirk at.

I've given you a video for some other schmoe trying to beat the song that is kicking my ass. Slayer's Raining Blood. Not a joke. Not even funny. There's not even words to describe how hard that song is.

I would say that I'm proud to have made it this far on expert, but I'm not. I only want to beat the game, and that's going to take at least another week, maybe two. I refuse to give up.

Oh, I also bought Super Mario Galaxy for Wii but I haven't played it enough to have an opinion. LP has, and she loves it. In fact, she's screaming at it for being so hard right now. Peace.

Living on the Edge

The only reason that I've named this post as it is is because it's the song playing on the radio right now, and I don't have any way to tie it to anything happening in my life at the moment.

So there it is. I won't even include the lyrics, because they're pretty self-explanatory, and do you want me thinking that mid-90s Aerosmith can be insightful in any facet? It's the same decade in which they released the Armageddon theme song. I dare not even speak its name.

It's a gameday in Athens - the Auburn game - and I'm stuck at work, though it's oddly liberating. Lots of attractive people are flowing in and out of my place of business, many of them hilariously drunk (and some of them not), though half of them are merely using the bathroom, which is not so attractive.

Neither is monotonous talk about Gamma Phie Beta, and I'd almost rather imagine them micterating or defacating than hear them actually talking. Sorry.

Either way, I'm sort of coming to the realization that my twenties will be remembered as the time when I wrote a bunch of bad crime novels and worked and drank a lot, and that seems just fine. I don't know that I've reconciled myself with it, but I'm getting there.

Patting myself on the back is a pastime I am allowed from time to time, since I've done nothing extremely important or productive with my life. Technically, even though I'm a college graduate, I'm still a blue collar guy and I may never get out of that, either, unless manage to get back to school and make something of myself.

Have a good Saturday. Go Dawgs.

Pimping the Other Blogs - Don't Hate Me

Adjectives on the typewriter
He moves his words like a prize fighter
The frenzied pace of the mind inside the cell
~Cake
Shadow Stabbing

I write a lot during the week, so I don't get to blog as often as I would like. I'm currently working on the fourth novel and editing the third novel, both of which I'll probably release on the web for free under the Creative Commons Copyright.

But just because I don't post to JP every day doesn't mean that I DON'T blog. I've got several at this point, and if you like, you can just click on My Profile or whatever and that will let you know what other blogs I've got going.

I especially like 'Videos Too Heavy to Hold'. It's a collection of heavy metal videos I've found on YouTube that take me back to my headbanging teenage years.

Also, there's Macabre on the Web, which is just an amalgamation of evil things that interest me. Docs on Serial Killers, Satanism, the Occult, ghosts, that sort of thing.

But if you get a chance, check them out and drop a comment to let me know you stopped by. Thanks!

To find out more about Creative Commons, click here. Basically, it's copyright protection for people putting out 'free' media.