A touch late, but took this late Monday. Too much ETID and MATSOD in preparation for Borderlines. Ah well.

Fucking raucous show. Photos are more of a “look how mental this was” than a “look how well I randomly captured these maniacs flying about a stage they could barely all fit on”. Still; enjoy.

If any band member reads this, thank you fucking much. Best show ever. I couldn’t get everyone, but there was no way I was walking through that pit. No way.

That should be everything. Sorry it’s image heavy, but this is my website.

Toilet training is getting SO much better this week. He’s getting good at finding a door and sitting by it to let us know he wants to go out. Problem is both our kitchen doors are identical and I think he might get confused a bit. Couldn’t say for sure, though.

We’ve had our last set of jabs, so this time next week, we’ll be going out for walkies, which I’m really excited about. He has so much energy, I think walking’s going to really help.

He’s generally becoming a much nicer dog to me, as well. All the persistent command-shouting is really paying off, and he’s now understanding commands (even if he chooses to ignore them if there’s something better going on). Generally a much more trustworthy member of the household now – I’m a lot more comfortable with him being unsupervised outside his cage for short periods of time, and he’s not doing anything to betray that trust, so it’s going well!

Considering the time of year, there’s been a lot of girly, scream-free music on the turntables this week.

I both love and hate this. It’s a great way to get closure after an event, the outcome of which has already gone or is beyond your control. Being the incredibly witty fellow I am, I often miss out on l’espirit d’escalier, but if you’re the sort of person who gets abuse shouted at you from cars, I imagine it’s quite a frequent occurrence!

Returning from a jaunt, a delightful chap in a Chrysler Voyager wound his window down, especially to shout “pull your trousers up, you scruff” at me as he drove past (he didn’t do it as I walked past whilst his car was stationary, by the way. I’m pretty dangerous-looking).

It wasn’t until I was nearly home, having replayed the moment a thousand times already, each with me emerging the intellectual victor (and one time, doing a huge jump onto the roof of his car, punching through, pulling him out and throwing him under a bus. I should write a screenplay), it occurred to me: this contextually appropriate, piquant comeback, better than a million flip-kicks; “wouldn’t that make it harder for you to kiss my ass?!”.

When I tell people about this, you and I will know the true sequence of events, but everyone else will think I’m a quick-witted genius.

Some people will meme anything. It’s quite staggering how much he changes, even on a daily basis. His ears have now far outgrown his head (I’m assuming this gives some indication that he’s going to be a decent size), closely followed by his paws (not having outgrown his head, pedants).

I will reiterate; having a puppy is super difficult. One day he’s as good as gold, the next he’s a total nightmare, but overall he’s incredibly fun. I’m really looking forward to him realising that a command is not a polite request, but an imperative. At the moment, the interchange is somewhat one-sided; “Sudo, come”, “yeah, in a minute, let me just finish peeing on the kitchen floor”. I’m pretty excited about that ending – then maybe we can have doormats again.

As an aside, I love this lens – you can see me and the sofa and chairs in the reflections in his eyes. Awesome.

Everyone loves puppies (apart from you, Jem) and, as such, people (ok, I) tend to forget just how much work it is owning one. It’s not as simple as “pick up the poo, take him out for walks, get sleepy cuddles”, as people (ok, I) think it should be. You have to learn about them so you can spot when they need these things. You have to have lightning quick reflexes for those nick-of-time moments. You have to shout at those cute little faces. It ain’t right!

The rewards, however, far outweigh the drawbacks. Puppies are amazing. Yeah, they eat your shoes, and they don’t understand the 50th consecutive “NO!”, and they have very little regard for doing their business over the cracks in your nice, clean, wooden floor then kicking it throughout your house, but it’s so rewarding when you get through a whole day and you’re totally in sync.

This is, however, a massive responsibility and investment of time and energy. You have to be totally willing to drop everything you’re doing at any given moment to tend to a puppy. You can’t be sat writing a blog post and just ignore a whining puppy who needs to go out – you have to be up and at it! This goes for ANY time of day. Sleep is deprioritised, as are loved-ones, friends, cameras, code, video games, movies, TV shows and books (it’s a testament to my literacy how low down books are on that list) and there’s nothing you can do about it. This does have its advantages; you’ll get ridiculously good at going from any position to standing, clothed, shoed and alert; you’ll have a feeling of fulfilled responsibility and accomplishment; but, most of all, you’ll be on the way to having a well-rounded, well-behaved, house-trained dog.

Anyway, enough of my indignant, week-old wisdom on raising a puppy. If you’re thinking about it, please seriously think about the implications and the impact it’ll have on your life. Puppies are cute, but they’re so much more than that.

As a reward for wading through the wall of text, so uncharacteristic of this blog, have some pictures of Sudo, in chronological order.

6 weeks, 2 days.

6 weeks, 3 days

7 weeks

7 weeks, 6 days

I have this awesome advent calendar, purchased by my excellent wife.

Behind door number one is a pirate. I feel like I should be less surprised.