Anti-Cruelty Society hosts workshops on everything from pet CPR to adding a baby to a household of pets. I should have posted about this earlier, they just hosted a workshop on bunnies. Tons of stupid parents get their kids rabbits for Easter and don’t have a clue how to take care of them.

I wish Anti-Cruelty held workshops on the commitments related to more pets-cats, dogs, lizards. Too many times I would see animals when I worked at a vet clinic that looked neglected and emaciated.
“How long has your pet been sick?” “Uhh.. a few days?”
What the owner meant was “I have no idea, I/my kids/my wife stopped paying attention to my pet years ago. I just feed the thing now.”
Go to the Anti-Cruelty society and you will see a lot of 3-5 year old pets. Just out of that cute puppy/kitty range and into the “Oh, I’m bored with you now” range.

So what I’m saying is pets are not disposable and don’t make good Easter presents. Go buy your fat kid some candy.

I keep saying I’m going to learn to meditate and I think a good opportunity has come up. The boy found beginner meditation classes at a Buddhist temple near his apartment. I don’t know much about Buddhism but their website seems inviting to newbies. I looked up the temple on Yelp, they have 5 stars! I think it’s funny that religious institutions are on Yelp. I want a review that says something like “This church helped me through grandma’s death but needs to lighten up on the chastity thing. 3 stars.”

I’ve thought about sitting down next to the Bible reading, too many question asking coworker and reading the Tao Te Ching but the more I thought about it…she probably has no idea what the book is. I had to explain to a coworker how St. Patrick’s day is celebrated. “Well, there’s a parade..no I don’t march in the parade, I just watch. No, not everyone is Irish, some people just like to go.” How hard is the concept of a parade?

I don’t think I would make a good Buddhist.

McDonalds had no shamrock shakes tonight! I was very upset, probably due to liquor, that they did not have my first sign of spring.

As I was walking through my little hipster barrio tonight, I was thinking about my boyfriend’s neighborhood, Lakeview.  Lakeview falls prey to many stereotypes, all of them deserved. I often have lots of time to check out the neighborhood when I have to park 6 blocks away from my destination. I don’t have a zone parking permit but it wouldn’t really help since the only times I see zone parking spots available are at 7am. There’s lots of retail in the area but I think the main parking crunch comes from the design of the residential buildings. Lots of U shaped 4 or 5 story buildings take up little street space but pack in lots of people to studio and 1 bedroom apartments. It’s like the yuppie projects.

I never realized how frustrated I could get from parking but I guess I’ve never had to deal with parking in a neighborhood like this before.

I do not know what you mean, misplaced aggression.

Work demands that I learn the SPSS even though I just found out my agency is getting a new set of interns that do data entry so I might not have to do much data entry after all!

Here are a few links that I have explored:

SPSS Tools
Lots of links and info but mostly referring to SPSS 10.0 and earlier. I’m using 15.0 so some of the older links aren’t terribly useful.

SPSS Forum
Looks like a lot of questions are answered but make sure your questions are clear and concise. I see a lot of “I don’t understand your question.” It seems like obvious advice but it’s hard to clearly ask a question when you don’t know the program.

SPSS Wiki
Small amount of content. I can’t tell if it’s useful or not yet.

UCLA SPSS Resources
I’ve been using the tutorials on this site. I think they are from SPSS 11.0. So far all of the buttons and menus look similar. I like the professor’s voice in the tutorials.

So as incomplete or out of date some of these links may be, they are a hell of a lot better than paying $800 for an official SPSS training. It’s crazy how much this company banks on it’s trainings. The trainings cost more than the software!

I haven’t had luck finding a university sponsored training that I can participate in. UIC and Loyola have SPSS workshops but they are student/staff only. I even offered to pay them!

And on the learnin’ front, Edmodo got a shout out on Tech Crunch. Yay, Jeff!