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This weekend was pretty good. Kung Fu’ed my arse off on friday and saturday, and the resulting muscle-aches are a nice reward and reminder of my efforts. I got to hang out with my family a bit on friday and saturday as well, which was nice considering how I haven’t seen them much over the last few weeks.

.: Father
I talked to my father about his health problems a bit. He found out that he suffered from something nasty to his liver and he had to take medicine for a year. Three months into the treatment he’s so anaemic that he couldn’t walk ten yards without having to sit down. When my father talked to the doctor he immediately ceased the treatment, and once my father has gotten his strength back, which should be in a couple of weeks from now, they’re going to take an alternate route to treat his liver-problem.

.: Animal or Pet
Meanwhile, my mother’s dog Ming, a cute and ultimately retarded Chow Chow, once again attacked one of the neighbourhood cats, but this time chewed on it until its insides were beyond repair. I’ve seen that dog do vicious things to cats before, even pulled her off of an unfortunate victim, but this time my mother, who is not in the best of health, wasn’t able to pull Ming off the cat before the damage was done.

It got me thinking about pets, and keeping them. There’s a choice you need to make once you get a pet, and the consequences of that choice change in intensity depending on what type of pet it concerns, but ultimately you have to decide whether you want a pet, or an animal. In the case of my mother’s dog, she had to make a choice whether she wants a dog, or a pet. A dog is ruled largely by instinct, and a pet is a dumbed down version, domesticated to the point where instinct is almost nullified. You can have one, or the other, but you can’t have both. If you want a pet, you’re going to have to accept the responsibility and discipline it requires to turn your animal into a pet. If you want an animal, you’re going to have to accept the consequences that it’s going to behave like one. You shouldn’t have an animal when you live in an urban environment. You shouldn’t have an animal when you live in a fifth floor walk-up on the lower east side. If you want an animal but don’t allow it to be one, you’re only going to confuse it, and set the rules in direct opposition of its instincts.

Anyway, my mother made the mistake not to discipline the dog enough, and it’s not part animal, part pet. And the result is that she kills or maims cats every once in a while. Luckily, while distraught, the owner of the cat understood that these things could happen, and my mother offered her to pay the veterinarians costs, as well as offered to buy her another cat (which she declined, of course). But one of these days, someone is going to report my mother’s dog to the police, and given enough of these incidents, the dog is going to be put down.

.: Gaming
Gaming went well on sunday. Once again, everyone manage to survive, they achieved a long-time goal, and are once again confronted with how far they are from their ultimate goal. I’m feeling the time approach where I want to stop leading a game, and start playing one. I’ve informed Dennis, who’ll be taking over once I’m done, which should be in a couple of weeks. My brother has been asked to join us, and he happily accepted. I hope he won’t prove to be too young for our little group, he certainly is quick enough of mind, and has a good sense of humour.

Frank continues to be an unreliable player, and I’m not entirely sure what to do with him. I like him, and I understand the situation he’s in, but in the end we want someone who can commit for more than one or two weeks at a time, and he simply can’t seem to do that. I wish Mark would be available, and I wish Edwin was still here. They’re both excellent players, with a great enthusiasm for gaming. Eva, too.