The Blackrage Organization

Right now Brutus is asleep in our bed at my feet. We brought him home a little more than three years ago. The lady from the shelter told us he had “a touch of kennel cough,” so we didn’t worry about the hacking-to-wheezing he was doing, knowing we were going to take him to the vet soon enough. That visit to the vet is where one would normally begin calling this a Cautionary Tale.

Brutus, on Hoth

Dr. Wuensche had been Brutus’ vet when he was at the shelter, and that’s how we learned his real name. When we adopted him they told us he was eight years old and that his name was Cairo. This was suspicious from the get-go because all of the dogs up for grabs at Denton Dog Days of Summer 2007 shared names with places. The paperwork he came with showed us two things – that he’d been to Denton Vet Center before and that his name was actually Brutus.

As time went on, we learned more about Cairo/Brutus. He is a dog with a story. (more…)

I got a Facebook friend request from Kelvin Robert, someone I didn’t know. He had no friends. Obviously, I added him. (more…)

I should be either sleeping or finishing the final draft of my thesis, but instead I am sitting up in bed and watching [adult swim]. My plan had been to come home from the weekly dinner we have with Dave and Keri and then head to some coffee shop to write and replace all the fluids in my head with caffeine. Diana talked me into staying home, positing that I could work in bed like I did last night, coding and modeling terrorist attack data for several hours. (more…)

I saw a friend for the first time in a few years at lunch the other day. We hadn’t planned to eat together, but we ended up at the same place and caught up for a few minutes.

It turns out he was recently diagnosed with cancer. He looked the same as I’ve always known him to look and seems to be doing okay, but he’s got another phase of treatment coming up and he seemed a bit nervous about it. (more…)