McKitzey's not feeling well + answering questions from my f-list
McKitzey, my family's grey cat, has been acting strange tonight. It looked like she was having a hard time breathing, so we took her to the emergency vet. After running some tests, the vet says that it's probably either cancer or congestive heart failure. She's staying at the emergency vet clinic overnight, and we'll be taking her to our standard vet in the morning... though I'm not sure what, if anything, they could do. Things aren't looking good for McKitzey.
My parents are both beside themselves with worry, but I don't really feel anything. I should feel guilty for not noticing sooner, or worried about her, shouldn't I?
I mean, I've been expecting something like this to happen for quite a while. She's 14 now, and she's had medical problems for almost as long as I can remember. She has a dislocated hip (which affects the way she walks, but doesn't seem to cause her any additional pain), kidney problems, arthritis... when I was at uni last semester, she caught kitty pneumonia and almost died.
McKitzey's never been very fond of me, and the feeling is somewhat mutual. She purposefully avoided me for years. These days she no longer avoids me, but she doesn't really seek me out either. She'll follow my father around the house, but the only time she comes to me is when she wants me to refill her food bowl. Since I never really bonded with her, maybe it's okay to not feel depressed about this? I don't know.
Of course, I also didn't cry when my grandparents and great aunt died, or when one of my university friends died. At first I wrote it off as a side effect of my belief in an afterlife ("at least they're not suffering anymore" and "they're in a better place")... but that explanation doesn't work for my lack of feelings for McKitzey, since I don't believe in an afterlife for animals.
I would like to be there for her final moments if we have to put her to sleep, but that's about the extent of my empathy in this situation. Maybe there's something wrong with me, or maybe I'm just a horrible person for being so calm about this.
Anyway, questions from subluxate
1. Do you have any concrete plans for sending your demo reel out?
I thought I did, but it didn't quite go as planned. I have a list of companies that I plan to apply to (Disney, Dreamworks, and a lot of smaller animation/advertising companies), but I haven't gotten around to sending my demo reels/resume to most of them yet. My resume is up-to-date, but my demo reel still needs to be updated with one of my recent animations. I'm working on the post-production for that animation now: editing footage, adding sound, etc.
Plus my internship is taking up a fair amount of time. After working on my internship every day, I've been too burned out on animation to work on my demo reel in my free time.
2. You have "snakes" listed as an interest. Does that mean you'd want to keep one as a pet? (And if so, can I ship you one of the ones that keeps getting in my house? =P)
Hmm... that's a very good question. This has never been an option before because my mother is terrified of snakes, and my university dorm didn't allow any pets besides fish.
I would never want to keep a venomous snake as a pet. I'm just unlucky enough to get bitten. I have briefly considered keeping non-venomous snakes as pets, but I don't think I'd go through with it. Snakes have beautiful colors, but I would prefer more active, warm-blooded animals when it comes to pets (cats, rabbits, ferrets, guinea pigs... basically, anything that you can cuddle or play with).
3. Would you consider Mythbusters a fandom of yours, even casually? (I know my icon isn't from that show, but Mike Rowe is the only Discovery host I have icons of, lol.)
I suppose this is a no, since my first reaction was "Mythbusters has a fandom?" (How would that work for a show like Mythbusters? I'm curious.) I don't know much about the cast, though I've heard that Adam and Jamie aren't good friends outside of the show. It was a sad day when I learned that. They work so well together. :(
4. Are you interested in anything academically nerdy, like the sciences, classic or "high" literature, etc.?
Um, does physics count as academically nerdy? I haven't taken any physics classes in a few years (my degree only allowed for two free electives outside of my major; I chose Japanese), but I still think it's one of the most interesting fields of study. Had I not gone into computer science or art, I probably would have gone into physics or mechanical engineering.
However, I don't actively search for research papers, since I generally find that writing style to be too academic for my tastes. If I have to block out all outside distractions to understand the paper, and pull out a thesaurus every page, I'd prefer not to read it.
I used to be a huge math nerd, but I lost some of my interest in it after taking linear algebra in college. *shudder*
I'm not sure where you draw the line on high/classic literature. I'm not a big fan of Shakespeare or Homer or anything like that. (Mark Twain is good, though it wouldn't be my first choice of reading material outside of a classroom setting.) The only books I thoroughly enjoyed that could possibly be considered "classics" are Catch-22 and The Poisonwood Bible, and both of those are fairly modern.
5. What's the field for your internship?
My internship is a combination of computer science and art. It was supposed to be half animation (in Maya) and half scripting in Python, but it's leaning more towards the animation side at the moment. The animation itself is very frustrating because I'm animating on a rig that I didn't create. There are so many problems with the rig/mesh, it would probably take weeks to fix them, and that's time that I don't have at the moment. Anyway, this is part of an on-going research project at my university. We're in the first year of a five year grant, so what I do may or may not be included in the final product.
Comment with a favorite fandom, and I will ask you five questions. Also, feel free to ask me more questions if you're curious about anything. I'll probably answer unless you ask for my social security number.
My parents are both beside themselves with worry, but I don't really feel anything. I should feel guilty for not noticing sooner, or worried about her, shouldn't I?
I mean, I've been expecting something like this to happen for quite a while. She's 14 now, and she's had medical problems for almost as long as I can remember. She has a dislocated hip (which affects the way she walks, but doesn't seem to cause her any additional pain), kidney problems, arthritis... when I was at uni last semester, she caught kitty pneumonia and almost died.
McKitzey's never been very fond of me, and the feeling is somewhat mutual. She purposefully avoided me for years. These days she no longer avoids me, but she doesn't really seek me out either. She'll follow my father around the house, but the only time she comes to me is when she wants me to refill her food bowl. Since I never really bonded with her, maybe it's okay to not feel depressed about this? I don't know.
Of course, I also didn't cry when my grandparents and great aunt died, or when one of my university friends died. At first I wrote it off as a side effect of my belief in an afterlife ("at least they're not suffering anymore" and "they're in a better place")... but that explanation doesn't work for my lack of feelings for McKitzey, since I don't believe in an afterlife for animals.
I would like to be there for her final moments if we have to put her to sleep, but that's about the extent of my empathy in this situation. Maybe there's something wrong with me, or maybe I'm just a horrible person for being so calm about this.
Anyway, questions from subluxate
1. Do you have any concrete plans for sending your demo reel out?
I thought I did, but it didn't quite go as planned. I have a list of companies that I plan to apply to (Disney, Dreamworks, and a lot of smaller animation/advertising companies), but I haven't gotten around to sending my demo reels/resume to most of them yet. My resume is up-to-date, but my demo reel still needs to be updated with one of my recent animations. I'm working on the post-production for that animation now: editing footage, adding sound, etc.
Plus my internship is taking up a fair amount of time. After working on my internship every day, I've been too burned out on animation to work on my demo reel in my free time.
2. You have "snakes" listed as an interest. Does that mean you'd want to keep one as a pet? (And if so, can I ship you one of the ones that keeps getting in my house? =P)
Hmm... that's a very good question. This has never been an option before because my mother is terrified of snakes, and my university dorm didn't allow any pets besides fish.
I would never want to keep a venomous snake as a pet. I'm just unlucky enough to get bitten. I have briefly considered keeping non-venomous snakes as pets, but I don't think I'd go through with it. Snakes have beautiful colors, but I would prefer more active, warm-blooded animals when it comes to pets (cats, rabbits, ferrets, guinea pigs... basically, anything that you can cuddle or play with).
3. Would you consider Mythbusters a fandom of yours, even casually? (I know my icon isn't from that show, but Mike Rowe is the only Discovery host I have icons of, lol.)
I suppose this is a no, since my first reaction was "Mythbusters has a fandom?" (How would that work for a show like Mythbusters? I'm curious.) I don't know much about the cast, though I've heard that Adam and Jamie aren't good friends outside of the show. It was a sad day when I learned that. They work so well together. :(
4. Are you interested in anything academically nerdy, like the sciences, classic or "high" literature, etc.?
Um, does physics count as academically nerdy? I haven't taken any physics classes in a few years (my degree only allowed for two free electives outside of my major; I chose Japanese), but I still think it's one of the most interesting fields of study. Had I not gone into computer science or art, I probably would have gone into physics or mechanical engineering.
However, I don't actively search for research papers, since I generally find that writing style to be too academic for my tastes. If I have to block out all outside distractions to understand the paper, and pull out a thesaurus every page, I'd prefer not to read it.
I used to be a huge math nerd, but I lost some of my interest in it after taking linear algebra in college. *shudder*
I'm not sure where you draw the line on high/classic literature. I'm not a big fan of Shakespeare or Homer or anything like that. (Mark Twain is good, though it wouldn't be my first choice of reading material outside of a classroom setting.) The only books I thoroughly enjoyed that could possibly be considered "classics" are Catch-22 and The Poisonwood Bible, and both of those are fairly modern.
5. What's the field for your internship?
My internship is a combination of computer science and art. It was supposed to be half animation (in Maya) and half scripting in Python, but it's leaning more towards the animation side at the moment. The animation itself is very frustrating because I'm animating on a rig that I didn't create. There are so many problems with the rig/mesh, it would probably take weeks to fix them, and that's time that I don't have at the moment. Anyway, this is part of an on-going research project at my university. We're in the first year of a five year grant, so what I do may or may not be included in the final product.
Comment with a favorite fandom, and I will ask you five questions. Also, feel free to ask me more questions if you're curious about anything. I'll probably answer unless you ask for my social security number.