The Daily Parker

Politics, Weather, Photography, and the Dog

New ParkerCam

The ParkerCam is such a hit (Anne refreshes it more than I do, it turns out), I replaced the ailing, sunburned, five-year-old Intel camera with the same model that I use for the Inner Drive webcam. It's easy to see why; here's the "before:"

And the "after:"

(The new camera is so good, if you open the bottom image in its own window you can read half my programming library.)

<Geek Stuff>

Alas, the new camera and I had a disagreement initially. It's a Logitech QuickCam Orbit that I'm running through Sascha Keller's VisionGS Webcam software. I had to reduce the thread priority of VisionGS to get it to play nicely with my computer. And I have Microsoft Index Service turned off until I shut down the Webcam, because it was taking every available processor cycle. The Index service sometimes repopulates its database after an unexpected reboot, and There were also several reboots involved. I also disturbed poor Parker's sleep a few times commenting *ahem* on the installation process.

</Geek Stuff>

It's working now. And if Parker moves we'll see if the face- (puppy-) tracking feature works.

Today's Daily Parker

Parker had the Big Operation yesterday and, after the drugs wore off overnight, was back to his usual puppy self by 5:30 this morning. He didn't understand why we couldn't go to the dog park this morning. Tuesday, we assured him, he could go.

Today he is once again guarding my office from productivity:

In other news, his official weight from the vet yesterday was 16 kg (35.2 lbs), so he has officially doubled his mass since we got him in September:

Today's Daily Parker

Oh, poor puppy. Today is the Big Operation. But even as the vet was leading him away, he had no idea what she was about to do to him. There are just too many interesting smells at the animal hospital. And he was probably hoping someone would feed him, since we "forgot" this morning:

The worst part: No dog park for a week! Poor little guy.

Today's Daily Parker

Parker is at home today, so nothing new on the ParkerCam. Tomorrow is his Big Operation, which we've tried to explain to him to no avail. Poor guy. I'd like to say that this photo is him being worried about the Big Operation, but no, it's him watching a mourning dove take off:

Today's Daily Parker

This snapshot of Parker sniffing around the back yard was going to be today's Daily Parker:

But then he decided to help me with the laundry:

(I hope our downstairs neighbor doesn't read today's entry...)

Today's Daily Parker

I'm trying an experiment: the ParkerCam. It may not be around long, and it's only going to be on when Parker is in my office. Still, if it's running, it will update every 60 seconds. Sometimes you'll just see my office floor; other times, such as this writing, you'll see a sleeping puppy.

Today's Daily Parker

Pacifica is quite a ways from the dog park, so I didn't get to play with Parker and the gang this morning. Still, I've puzzled over two phenomena about Parker's play group: first, the preponderance of male dogs whose names end in "-er," and second, that almost all the dogs are either black or yellow. Here's Parker with his friends Boo and Tucker:

(The surprised expression on Boo's face resulted from his mom stomping on his leash.)

The black dogs are all different sizes and shapes. For example, no one would confuse Boo with Tucker:

But the yellow dogs present a problem. Three of them are Labradors of similar sizes, and until Monday all three of them wore blue collars. (Buck, opposite, now has a lighter-color collar with a zig-zag motif.) At any distance greater than one's eyeglasses prescription it's nearly impossible to tell them apart.

In not-quite-unrelated news, today is Sesame Street's 37th birthday.

Today's Daily Parker

Parker appeared to have a good time at yesterday's (Wednesday's) play group. He's found two friends, Boo and Guster, who not only put up with him but appear to like having him around. Of course, they're both slightly larger than Parker:

For some reason, except for Boo and Erin, almost every dog in the group has a name ending in "-er." And they're overwhelmingly male; Erin is the only regular female attendee. I wonder why this is. On that theme, tomorrow I'll look at the limited color palette of the play group.

Yesterday's Daily Parker

This is not how he's acting right now. (Excuse me while I extract teeth from my arm.)

Also, my previous post reflects a certain "duh!" factor, since I actually had off-loaded this photo already. So, duh. He's still adorable.

Today's Daily Parker

Here's the deal: I forgot to download the photos for today's DP from my camera. I won't get to do it before midnight UTC (6 pm Central Time). So this isn't really a TDP. It's just an explanation of why there's no DP today.

On the other hand, I didn't figure to have a TDP tomorrow. So tomorrow's DP will be today's. Follow?

In other shocking news, Britney Spears filed for divorce today. Speaking of silly puppies.