Current Complaints

[Sticky Icky Green Stuff]

Zach Braff/The Television Series Scrubs. 

Zach Braff is one of the most annoying actors on tv.  the dude is not funny and I want to punch him in the face.  comedy central should stop playing re-runs of this show, it's ruining my life.

[Sticky Icky Green Stuff]

Last night my Grandma Schmitz died.  a few hours later my friend Matt Ortega died in a motorcycle accident.  too much death for one day.  it's a weird feeling.  I can't deal with anymore death. 

[johnnYYac]

Last night my Grandma Schmitz died.  a few hours later my friend Matt Ortega died in a motorcycle accident.  too much death for one day.  it's a weird feeling.  I can't deal with anymore death.

Sorry, Mark.  My thoughts are with you. 

[Sticky Icky Green Stuff]

Last night my Grandma Schmitz died.  a few hours later my friend Matt Ortega died in a motorcycle accident.  too much death for one day.  it's a weird feeling.  I can't deal with anymore death.

Sorry, Mark.  My thoughts are with you.

It's cool mang.  It's hard to explain, none of it has really set in yet.  It feels like I'm still in denial or shock.  My grandma was an expected death, but Matt's, simply tragic.  He was two years young than me so when I was a senior in high school Matt was a sophomore.  a few really good friends and I had some electives with him and he quickly became like our little brother.  not a mean bone in the kids body, we'd pretend to be racist robots talking all stupid, goofing around in class.  after high school I would run into him from time to time and he'd call me a "f-aggo-t" in a robot voice and it always made me laugh.  I know that kind of humor is frowned upon here but to me Matt Ortega saying that word as a robot is one of the funniest things I've ever heard in my entire life.  It was groundbreaking comedy for such a young kid.  Motorcycle death.  maybe I'll put on One in the Same and vibe out for a minute..  I'm a pallbearer at my grandmas funeral and have never done that so it will be an emotional couple-o-days here for sure.  I'm glad there's a secure location of happiness to come to like this.   thanks john E yac.

[8bobbyb]

Last night my Grandma Schmitz died.  a few hours later my friend Matt Ortega died in a motorcycle accident.  too much death for one day.  it's a weird feeling.  I can't deal with anymore death.

sorry sticky  :( :(  (it's me tdb810 on my husb account)

[TheBigChicken]

Last night my Grandma Schmitz died.  a few hours later my friend Matt Ortega died in a motorcycle accident.  too much death for one day.  it's a weird feeling.  I can't deal with anymore death.

hang in there Sticky

[Sticky Icky Green Stuff]

appreciate the sympathy.  things are fine, it was nice being able to get that clot of thoughts out.  it was like a thoughtgasm of relief.  thankful to be alive really.  I was cutting myself earlier while listening to some old conor oberst demos and right before I hit the main vein I saw a rainbow and hesitated.  things are going to be okay I think.  bigchicken you still owe me two sqwakers.

[EasyRyder]

Last night my Grandma Schmitz died.  a few hours later my friend Matt Ortega died in a motorcycle accident.  too much death for one day.  it's a weird feeling.  I can't deal with anymore death.

I'll keep you in my thoughts, Sticky. I'm in that same painful and confusing place right now too. I just found out that my cousin died of a drug overdose. His wife left him, and he went off the grid somewhere in New Orleans until now...

dealing with death is definitely the weirdest feeling on this earth. His name was Triston, and he was a great guy, much like your friend sounds to have been.

"Nothing's for certain."

[Sticky Icky Green Stuff]

Last night my Grandma Schmitz died.  a few hours later my friend Matt Ortega died in a motorcycle accident.  too much death for one day.  it's a weird feeling.  I can't deal with anymore death.

I'll keep you in my thoughts, Sticky. I'm in that same painful and confusing place right now too. I just found out that my cousin died of a drug overdose. His wife left him, and he went off the grid somewhere in New Orleans until now...

dealing with death is definitely the weirdest feeling on this earth. His name was Tristen, and he was a great guy, much like your friend sounds to have been.

"Nothing's for certain."

same to you easyryder, sorry about your cousin.  OD's are horrible.  as a young lad I'm starting to realize the older you get the more often people die.  and apparently life likes to be random about it.  I always end up thinking about the f'd up embalming part and getting stuffed in the slide out cabinets in the morgue with my mouth tied shut and guts emptied out.  Still think decomposing is cooler than cremation.  at least if I get buried and decompose my particles, energy, and left over radition will soak into the organic material around me spreading my life force into the earth.  when I die watch out for volcano eruptions and earthquakes.  I'm going to haunt the fuck out of shit.  heaven sounds like it'd be boring but I'd give it a shot. 

[vespachick]

I need a better gif of Denise's Roll Call so I can make Baby MMJ a tshirt for the tour.

Oh, she'll be on the rail this summer dontcha know!

[lil sis]

My Dad was diagnosed wih prostate cancer yesterday. Ugh. Very treatable and great prognosis, but the C word always freaks me out....

Keeping my fingers crossed for you, lady!

[mjk73]

Getting dumped into 2 special projects which means I'm off my normal job until these are done. I'm trapped in a never ending Excel hell. All I see are f'n gridlines.  :-\

[johnnYYac]

I've used all my sick days (11 of 'em) with 2 months to go in the school year, only 2 of them for myself, and my kids just won't stop puking!  My wife's sick days are dwindling, too.  First it was the 3 yr. old, laying upon my chest when she 'gurged on me.  Tonight, my middle child lays a nice trail from her bed to the bathroom.  Calgon, take me away!

[capt. scotty]

Im late Sticky, but that is some hard shit to deal with and Im sorry to hear that. I couldnt imagine family & friend in that close a time frame. I still have yet to have a loved one go, but Ive seen dozens of people pass in the hospital, and at times even that is hard to deal with because of how good that person or their family is..Life is crazy, thats why I say live it up. I might be a week or so late but at least you get my prayers on 4.20 dude

[Paulie_Walnuts]

This currently complaint has affected me pretty badly, and this is the first time I've felt okay to put it down on paper or in a forum since it happened. It's also opened my eyes to something that I was completely oblivious to.

For about 9 months my wife and I exercised a dog who was owned by people who I would class as acquaintances rather than friends, but we thought they were decent people. The dog they had was supposedly a Staffordshire Bull Terrier and his name was Alonso (named after the Spanish racing driver Fernando Alonso). The first time we met Alonso at the stables where he lived he was tied to a long rope and was straining at it as we approached. My wife is very wary of dogs but I am comfortable around them, and although he looked quite scary I went up to him and all he wanted was a bit of attention. Anyway, needless to say we both formed a really close bond with the dog and my wife grew to feel totally comfortable with him. He was friendly, incredibly powerful, not very well trained, but brilliant around another dog and fantastic with children. The young boys would regularly chase him around trying to rugby tackle him and he would just skip out of their way. He never displayed one sign of aggression.

The more we walked him the less the owners seemed to bother with him and they were always joking that we should keep him. That wasn't an option because we work in London and would be out of the home from 7am until 6pm every night, and we never thought they were serious anyway. It was always a joke with them. Still we'd regularly take him out for 2 hour walks at the weekends, and he seemed like he had a pretty good life at the stables.

At which point one day, the owner's told us completely out of the blue that they had taken him to be "re-homed". They had given no indication that they were going to do it. I was a bit perturbed, but thought it was their right to re-home their dog if it didn't suit them. After a couple of days I couldn't really settle and I was curious to know where he had been re-homed and what was going to happen to him. So after asking them where they took him I found out that they took him to a vet and he would then enter the re-homing "process". I spoke to the vet who said that Alonso had been taken by the council dog warden and would be held for 7 days in case the owners claimed him. When I said that the owners had brought him in he said, "No - this dog was brought in as a stray." The fuckers had abandoned their own dog as a stray. He had no name or identity that might help him be re-homed.

I managed to contact the council dog warden who told me that during the 7 days the dog would be "assessed" for re-homing, but that on initial tests the dog was displaying aggression to other dogs in the council dog pound. If that were to be the final outcome the dog would be put to sleep.

I decided to go back to the owners and tell them I had found out what they did. And they looked at me and pretended they had no idea that was what was likely to happen. Even though they then knew they had the possibility of going to get the dog back and save it's life they did nothing.

This is where things got hard for me when I managed to find a guy from a rescue charity who told me he could get the dog out of "death row". He came back to me and told me that Alonso wasn't a pure bred Staffy but that he was a Staffy / Pit Bull cross and that the warden was very reluctant to release him. Pit Bulls are a banned breed in this country, but breeders are mixing them up with other breeds to bypass the law. It didn't matter to me that he was a Pit Bull cross but there is a huge stigma about them over here. What I'm getting to is that I was told they would let us take the dog but nobody else. And we had to make the hardest decision we've ever had to make in our lives. Alonso was a dog that was used to living outside, he wasn't house trained, he had no concept of living indoors, he was incredibly powerful, he had picked up some bad habits. We live in a relatively small house with a tiny garden, a cat, and he would have been left alone to destroy God knows what for 11 hours a day. I spent sleepless night after sleepless night thinking of a way to save him. And I had to come to the conclusion that it was unrealistic, as well as being unfair on my wife. She would have gone for it if I'd said we'd take him, but I thought I had to make the right decision.

I hope people can understand the dilemma I was in. Nobody officially told me that Alonso had been put to sleep - they thought it was better for us not to know. But I know that was his fate. Every day I feel guilt and wonder if I made the wrong decision. The guy from the charity told me I had made the right decision but I don't know if he was just being kind. Believe me - every day I feel tremendous guilt and feel like I failed Alonso. It's been about 2 months now and it still hasn't gone away.

Anyway, as a result of what happened to Alonso I have since felt the need to try and help dogs that end up in a similar position. I have found a local rescue place that specialises is saving dogs from "death row" and pays for them to stay in boarding kennels while the charity tries to re-home them. I'm now a volunteer dog walker who gets the dogs out and gives them some exercise. They often don't get any exercise for 3 or 4 days so are pretty wound up and full of energy. Getting highly stressed dogs out of the kennels while all the other dogs are barking through the doors is a pretty intense experience but once you get them outside they are completely different. We've also now put our names forward to foster a dog on a short-term basis, so that when we are on vacation we can take a dog and give it a break from kennel life.

Sorry for the long ramble but it was just something I needed to get off my chest, and I thought the good people of the MMJ forum was the place to do it. Plus the fact that it's the only forum I post on!

So my complaint is that these people are lowlife scum for doing what they did to Alonso. I hope they get their comeuppance for it. I wish I could have done more. Here's a picture of our buddy and this is a shameless link to a fantastic organisation. I'm sure the problem is worldwide, but if you are in the UK you might want to have a look and maybe even make a small donation:

http://www.rescueremedies.co.uk/page21.htm

RIP Alonso - hopefully you didn't go in vain and we can save some more in your memory.

[mahg33ta]

Paulie-

Thanks for sharing the story.   I was completely captivated.   Sounds like although it was an awful decision, it was the right one.    You've even managed to ge something positive out of the calamity by volunteering to walk dogs.   I'm now inspired to look for a similar opportunity local to me, so your impact is already spreading!

[MMJ_fanatic]

Hey Paulie--
I totally sympathize with your journey man.  I too am a dog nut and had my own emotional battle over letting go of my best friend of 14 years (from puppyhood) Teddy back in 09.  I am sure when the right one comes along you'll be a great dog dad.

[Ruckus]

Thanks for sharing your story Paulie.  As a dog lover who has a number of friends who are active in the animal rescue community, your personal story resonates with me greatly.  I had no idea that pit bulls are banned in England!  I love pit bulls but sadly the numbers of them that are put down on a daily basis in Baltimore are just horrifying.

I hope you find your volunteer work rewarding man!

[capt. scotty]

Great but saddening story Paulie. If you couldnt care for the dog, you made the right decision. Sounds like youre maximizing the experience though and helping other dogs in need as much as you can...Helping out humane societies by walking dogs actually sounds pretty cool, might look into that.

[BH]

Thanks for sharing Paulie.  That's just not fair.  You did over and above for sure man and it seems to have ended in a positive.   Celebrate your time with him instead of thinking of the ending!   El Nano!   Alonso!