Obs and Gobs and Globs of Dogs

[balaa]

I promised a while back to tend to the homestead so my mum could escape for a little vacation. The task entails tending to 16 English mastiffs, aka very big dogs. On top of the oozy ladelfuls of drool, it's also been pouring all weekend and Ive spent all day, everyday, running back and forth tending to the pack. My helper, for lack of a better word, also managed to leave the back door (and inner gate) open when two of our alpha dogs were outside and one young male was inside and got out. The older alpha male is very territorial..and by only a stroke of luck (after having just sat down for a 5 minute break to have a cup of joe), I heard the telltale sounds of a fight outside...thank goodness I had my window open otherwise I wouldn't have even heard.

I tend to take for granted how big and powerful these dogs are because I grew up with big dogs (these three are right around 200lbs each).. But you quickly realize their massive strength when you are trying to pull apart a brutal dog fight. For the most part the damage was minimal, despite all the teeth snapping, thrashing and noise they made, but the young inexperienced male walked away with some pretty nasty gashes to his ears..which I managed to patch up (and spending the weekend now cleaning and disinfecting the wounds every few hours..and also put him on antibiotics just in case).

I don't envy my mom's choice of lifestyle. It is a brutal amount of work to balance taking care of all these dogs and giving them the individual attention they need (and it isn't even her day job, as it were!). I'm happy to help give her a break..but goodness, I'll be happy when she is back!

So in anycase, to take my mind off all the crazyness at the homestead, and because I can't get anything substantial done between my duty jaunts, I just figured I'd post some random stuff.

Ive been seeing some friends getting new computers fairly recently and some have posted pics of their new beasties. I also decided to build a new computer, finally, as a christmas gift to myself. My old machine was 4 years old and photoshop was just a giant ball of lag so it was as much a necessity as it was a desire for a new toy. Well I was fairly picky about choosing a case and if I had my way I would just design my own. But I finally found one I absolutely fell in love with for it's clean lines and elegant simplicity. So below I bombard you with pics of my new beastie. Thank you to bagheera for helping bring her to life..


Actually stole the name off a character of mine, but eh I like naming my machines..cars..etc and it fit the computer *nerd* :B
The case: (I was a bit disappointed that the images all showed a brushed aluminum look but the case is a lot more glossy. It grew on me but I wish companies wouldn't misrepresent their products.






I know...Im gushing and I oughtn't! And also Tsu-tey's banshee from Avatar warrants a glee of it's own!

And also art meme, cross-posted from FA:


That is all! Phew, that helped my sanity a bit I think!

Comments

[casidhe.livejournal.com]

Holy crap that case is huge... it looks even bigger than mine (http://www.coolermaster-usa.com/product.php?product_id=2710)

I do like the LCD temperature sensor panel on it and the overall design looks sleek.

So what are the specifications of this new beastie powering your photoshop?

[xxbalaaxx.livejournal.com]

Actually it's a mid tower, think it's actually smaller than the coolermaster..but then it's legs and the upper trim also make it look bigger than the actual 'guts' case is. On the plus side, because of the bottom legs (and there being a vent on the bottom of the case as well as the top), the ventilation is excellent!

The specs are:
8gb ddr3 sdram
LITE-ON 4X Blu-ray Reader
standard dvd writer/reader
4 WD 500gb HD's running on a RAID5, but planning to add another failsafe drive because Im UBER paranoid about losing data
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Quad Core Processor
GIGABYTE GA-790XTA-UD4 AM3 AMD motherboard
ATI Radeon HD5770 graphics card
Soundblaster X-FI soundcard

I love my baby x:. I may upgrade it to 16gb later, think thats the max my MB allows...but 8..8 FLIES and I work with huge huge files in photoshop so this makes me very pleased :B.

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Power Tower!! Nice character meme too.... *tailwags*! :D

[feralityillust.livejournal.com]

THE BEAST!! So glad it is working out so well for you! And glad you're surviving taking care of those megalithic dogs, too!

[felix-carni.livejournal.com]

I approve of your desktop image! And the nautilus shell on your desk! They are both <3

[amayana.livejournal.com]

I approve of this approval!

+ the wallE figurine. :3

[jayoen.livejournal.com]

Wow! Spiffy comp Balaa. :3 and your improvement is so immense! o-o I should try and recreate an old picture of mine and make it better!

and the dogs holy cow that is ALOT of dog, glad you caught those two. Does your mother breed them?

[xxbalaaxx.livejournal.com]

Sort of, she doesn't make for much of a kennel as she has very limited breedings every year (she is very conscious and careful about who the puppy buyers are and I think it's just harder to be picky when you have a larger volume of puppies to home)

Thank you for the lovely comment!

[jayoen.livejournal.com]

Well that's great of her! English Mastiffs are huge so it's probably nice to know the family did their research. It's the same way with my baby rabbits, (we have wool breeds that take time to groom) I don't want them going to someone who has no idea what they're getting into.

and you are very welcome!

[nipper.livejournal.com]

Wow, looks great! I had to google nzxt.com, some very nice cases there :)

[doodlesthegreat.livejournal.com]

a) sweet machine.

b)Holy crap, have you changed over the years.

[annush-k.livejournal.com]

OH_MY_GOD. That beast really scared me o__________o And a banshee really looks fitting in the design xDDD

[doc-halfmoon.livejournal.com]

Hey there!!! It's been a while! =D Are you still on yahoo?

Wow, that computer looks like a cybernetic armour!!! I love that nautilus shell and ... Wall-E!!! XD You're going to make me feel nostalgic about my tablet; I miss it so much. :P

I do keep the first sketches inside my best drawer: I can still remember them because they changed so much! They were two human characters from the Edwardian Era. I wish I could show them to you, but those pieces of paper are in Spain right now. ;)

[nimirpard.livejournal.com]

That looks and sounds like a pretty awesome computer! Hopefully it should be able to keep you a happy camper for a long time to come! I vastly approve of your desktop picture as well. :p

Hope you've managed to wash the dog drool off by now, and that your weekend wasn't TOO bad!