I don’t normally make a huge fuss of my birthday. It’s just another day, really. That is, however, an unpopular standpoint so I invariably get a bit caught up in it and end up having quite a lovely time. Yesterday (and the awesome-fun night before), despite its hiccups, was no different.

Having eaten some dodgy mayonnaise (self-diagnosis) and dealt with the dog puncturing a five-stitch hole in his armpit, we got underway and my mum came down for a visit. I never get to see my mum, so this was brilliant. The mini movie marathon was wicked, too. I love getting DVDs, and yesterday saw some gaping holes in my collection filled. Maybe I need to make a new-years resolution to not be such a grumpy bastard about my birthday and allow myself to get excited like child about it next year.

With drinking and sick dogs and birthdays and hipstamatic in mind, have some photos of the last couple of days. Flickr Uploadr really fucked me on the ordering of these in my stream. First world problems, yo.

I’ve started having Sudo up with me whilst I work. It’s completely changed his behaviour – he’s a lot more chilled out most of the time now, and he’s really good company. I thought he’d be super annoying, but he sits quietly waiting for strokes and occasionally chases Amelie. So proud of this dog and all the praise he gets from strangers!

After much work on the garden and an order of furniture, we’re finally getting to a stage that we can just sit and relax out there. Sudo’s really enjoying it as well – he can wee whenever he feels like it!

Lightboxes are really irritating. No users I ever speak to like them, but all website owners love them – communication problems there, maybe?

Here’s why I don’t like lightboxes:

• They usually override keyboard functionality. I use my escape key to clear fields and I use my arrow keys to navigate pages – don’t overwrite that. I know best, not you.
• They’re unnecessarily schmancy and animated – if I opened a lightbox, chances are I want to look at a picture and nothing else. Leave me alone otherwise. I don’t want to see your great “close” icon or any of that crap so just drop it!
• Some are nearly impossible to close

There are probably a bunch more reasons, but you get the idea.

My lightbox stays out of your way. It doesn’t override any standard keyboard behaviour and it doesn’t use visual fluff to irritate you. What it does do is open a big version of the picture you clicked on so you can see it in more detail. When you’re done, it closes. Here’s how you use it:

• Click a flickr image to open the lightbox (this might be the last time you need your mouse/trackpad)
• j = next
• k = previous
• o = open the flickr page for this image
• q = close the lightbox
• You can also click anywhere to close the light when it’s open

If you’re wondering why j,k,q; use Vim for a day. I would’ve used e to open, but who’s going to remember that?

I’m probably going to implement a resizing thing for people with small monitors so that screens don’t get flooded – if this affects you, please tell me whether you’d like the process to automatically detect your browser size, or whether you’d prefer to handle it yourself. I’m aware that this will affect basically all portrait images – this will probably make me make it automatic. Pictures are pretty pointless if you have to scroll, but I’m tired now and can’t be bothered.

If you want the code for this, view source and find the javascript yourself. There’s a PHP file to make Flickr API calls, but that encapsulates my API credentials. If you can’t figure out what to do here, holla so we can all have a good laugh.

There’s no-one cooler than the guys playing a SNES emulator in the pub (and publicly failing at Mario!)

Even a lovely, white R8 doesn’t proclude you from getting ticketed for parking like a twat.

Jake?

I always seem to spot something different on the way to catch a train. The light we’ve been having in the morning recently has been so bright, it’s my favourite time to go out hunting for photos.

In lieu of my relinquishing social networks, I’m going to try blogging more frequently. If nothing else, I’ll write more sentences; maybe encourage some abstract thought that I don’t condense to 140 characters.

Considering today has been spent doing a godawful job of painting a bathroom, playing with a puppy in the snow and drinking nasty rum, I thought I’d post some photos of the 21st century’s answer to polaroid; my iPhone.

Dead-centre of this gorgeous, frosty sunrise, trying to stop a dog picking up and eating sticks.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t post some pictures of snow.

I love our house.

It seems that water supplies are intent on giving me crap at the moment. Luckily, the external pipe is low on my list. Downstairs toilet, however, is another matter entirely.

A few rare moments where he’s still enough to capture on the awesome iPhone camera.

Look at those legs. Since we got him, he hasn’t been a 100% proportionate dog. Funny how all his body parts grow at totally different speeds.

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!

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