i’ve spent 2017 marching, calling, writing letters, sending emails, signing petitions, donating, participating in GOTV for critical elections happening in states other than the one i currently live in and existing in a rollercoaster of emotions most of which require high level coping mechanisms and raging at the universe and trump voters. much like everyone else.
the balloon juice calendar, though, is a project near and dear to my heart that highlights the good a group of politically aware, animal-loving people can do at a very local level. each year the proceeds of your purchase of the calendar go to support a small, local animal rescue.
here’s how it works: you, dear balloon juice reader, send in a photo or five of your favorite pets and i put them into a calendar format that is then sold through CafePress (you can still buy calendars going back to 2011 — collect them all!). the calendar is slated to be ready in very early december.
nit picky details: your photo(s) should be the highest resolution possible. if you can, name your file with the name(s) of the pet(s) in it and if you can’t, you can tell me in the email. then email it to me at bjcalendar18 at yahoo dot com. cut off for submissions is about a half an hour before i upload the final files to CafePress but aim for the sunday of thanksgiving weekend.
questions? ask ’em here or at the email address.
raven
That’s Bohdi and Raven on the 2012 the day we found Bohdi 13 years ago.
Baud
@raven: That’s one of my favorite pet pictures on BJ.
debbie
@raven:
I love your pictures of them together. They’re like the original Odd Couple.
ruemara
PUrrrrrfect
bluefish
Dear dear sweet Walter — Always brings a tear to my eye, that amazing story — and that sweet sweet dog.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
That Bohdi was a little fluffbudget! I adore that picture.
And your Raven was a beauty. Such dignity. You honour him every time your nym shows up on a comment.
raven
@debbie: Cuff and Link!
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: Even when I’m a lone voice crying out in the wilderness.
lollipopguild
You could publish a picture of trump and say that he is Putin’s “pet’.
debbie
@lollipopguild:
You would want that on your wall for a month?
SiubhanDuinne
@bluefish:
I still want Walter’s Story to become a children’s book I think it could convey some powerful messages about love and loss and the strength of community. We have some terrific writers here. Any volunteers?
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
Oh right, like no one else ever said “Fuck LBJ.” Or cheered for the Illini (“We’re loyal to you… We’re orange and blue….”)
dexwood
@SiubhanDuinne:
Wasn’t someone working on that? I seem to remember a person stepping forward. Great idea.
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: Or, “I enjoy football”.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@lollipopguild:
Why do you want to deface the Pet Calendar?
Manyakitty
So excited! That calendar brings the day’s only smiles more often than I like to admit.
Patricia Kayden
@raven: Cute cute cute. And he’s still kicking the cuteness as evidenced by your recent photos of him in the doggy parade.
raven
@Patricia Kayden: Did you see his nasty staple job?
Patricia Kayden
@debbie: Exactly. NOT IN MY HOUSE.
Planetpundit
Blessings on Walter (and debit!)
Patricia Kayden
@raven: Yes and I commented on it. Poor darling. If I recall correctly it was on his forehead over an eye. Hope it’s healing quickly.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
Yup LOL
Apparently Falcons are doing well tonight. I have never learned how to follow football, so if I find myself temporarily deafened I assume something good has happened.
raven
@Patricia Kayden: Yea, he’s cool. I’m more worried about some rear leg issues . He’s doing well for 13 but we know how quickly they can fade sometimes.
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: They are, the Cowboys are without their premier running back so they are limited.
?BillinGlendaleCA
OT: Here’s a bunch of jackals in Pasadena today.
Patricia Kayden
@Planetpundit: That entire story was beautiful. From John rescuing Walter from starvation in an empty house to debit adopting Walter and treating him to love and kindness during his last few months of life. The Youtube videos are a joy to watch.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Cool beans.
CaseyL
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Nice turnout, and good-lookin’ crowd!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud:
@CaseyL: It was a good group, I think it’s the best attended meetup we’ve had here in the Southland.
Mary G
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Great picture of jackals in the wild! Wish I could have been there.
Fair Economist
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Neat trick with the pic! Had a great time with all you jackals, let’s do it again soon! Amazing how much BJers have to talk about.
At my end of the tables we were actually talking about the BJ calendar for a while. Does that count as synchronicity?
Mary G
@raven: A classic of both of them – Bohdi’s bouncy happiness and Raven’s weary “Really?” One of my faves on Balloon Juice.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mary G: It would have been nice to meet you, maybe another time.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Fair Economist:
Yes, it was nice to see you.
ETA: Re the 360 degree camera…I love photospheres, but they’re a real pain to take with a cellphone. This is one click and you’ve got a photosphere. Flickr is the best I’ve seen online at displaying them.
John Revolta
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Photograph violates the laws of physics. I call fake news.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Baud!’s Army continue to grow. Excellent.
Mnemosyne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I think that only my hands are visible behind Ruckus, which is exactly the way I planned it. ?
Quinerly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: neat picture!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@John Revolta: Here’s the camera I used.
Mnemosyne
@Fair Economist:
I think I missed you? I came a little late so my crutches and I were at the far end. But I also didn’t catch everyone by nym.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: Yes, but that is NOT the case with the pics I took with my regular camera with the fisheye lens.
rikyrah
Walter???
I hope that the pets that passed this year will be in the calendar ?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Quinerly: Thanks.
Mnemosyne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I tried to cover my face for those. We’ll see if it worked. Nothing personal, I just hate the way I look in pictures.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: Fair Economist was seated on the other side of Roger Moore.
Anne Laurie
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Doubt I can figure out how to embed that panorama shot, but if you want to send me a jpeg of the meet-up, I can front-page it for y’all…
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: Didn’t work.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Anne Laurie: You can’t really embed the 360 degree pics on the blog, that’s why I’ve linked to it separately. I took some pics with my regular camera that I’ll send you some jpg’s of.
Uncle Ebeneezer
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Ahhhhh, THAT’s what that contraption was. Nice!
Mnemosyne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Crap. Well, on your own head be it, then.
John Revolta
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Huh. Well, ever since these here “talkies” started in I can’t keep up.
Mike J
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I like the embedded photo credit.
Suffragette City
Sending one of the last of our Shadow taken by his buddy my son where he still looked so mighty before getting sick. He passed earlier this year.
We still have the submission from 2012 on our fridge…He was such the celebrity in our house !
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mike J: I started watermarking my pictures when I started posting them to the Glendale Photography Meetup, everyone else was doing it. I blame
Obamapeer pressure.?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: You tried to lean out of the way…but fisheye.
satby
@?BillinGlendaleCA: that’s cool! And what a great turnout you had.
satby
@Suffragette City: condolences on Shadow’s passing.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@satby: Counting heads, I think we had 15 jackals.
glaukopis
My sister’s golden, Mac, is with us now in Ohio and settling in well. I’ll be submitting a picture of him and his new buddy Gibby. She was in last year’s calendar and we’re all looking forward to the next one. Thanks for compiling these!
Dave C
I would love to submit a pic of my recently departed dog Heidi (Anne posted about her a couple weeks back). Not sure I have any pics that are high enough resolution though. What kind of resolution should I be aiming for?
Watership
This might be the year my pups (all 4 of them) end up participating in Balloon Juice more than their lurker dad. Ah, and worse than being a lurker with just a handful of comments in 9 years is that I’m an LA local and spaced on the meetup today. :( Hope everyone had fun. Love the photo sphere
geg6
@Dave C:
The ones I submit every year are taken directly from my phone. I don’t even worry about resolution and mine always look great in the calendar.
beth
@Dave C: dave, if you are sending photos you have digitally, they’re probably fine for this purpose (just don’t save them down to send if your phone asks to do so). cafepress has a minimum of 150 dpi for printing but between photoshop and how i size the photo in the calendar, i can make a lot of low res photos work. send them in and i’ll let you know if i need them larger.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Watership:
Sorry you missed it, it was fun. There’s always the next one… Glad you liked the photosphere.
I’ve tried to send AL the jpg’s, but no luck. I keep getting delivery failure with annelaurie (at) verizon (dot) net. Sigh.
Dave C
@geg6: Thank you!
SWMBO
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I think her email is a gmail addy now. Can’t do a search on my phone but maybe someone else can.
Fair Economist
@Mnemosyne: I was the guy who introduced myself to you at the end and chatted about Hamilton tickets. We were on opposite ends. You can’t see my face in the pano pic because I was chatting to a person away from the camera. It wasn’t intentional in my case; I didn’t even notice Bill was taking that pic. I am in some table shots.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Fair Economist: You’re in the fisheye shots.
Mnemosyne
@Fair Economist:
Why was I convinced beforehand you were a woman? Oh well, that’s one of the things that meetups are handy for getting straightened out! ?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: I was too.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@SWMBO: Thanks, I did a Google search; I’ll try again.
ETA: Seems to have worked this time, thanks again.
satby
@SWMBO: @?BillinGlendaleCA: it’s annelaurie.bj At gmail.com
Uncle Ebeneezer
@Fair Economist: Ah, that was you. I actually JUST FINALLY started listening to the Hamilton soundtrack (in prep for going to Pantages in December.). For an almost lifelong musician I’m ridiculously late to check out good, new music. That said, holy shit, it is well worth all the hype. Can’t wait to see the live show.
Fair Economist
@Mnemosyne:
Probably because from time to time I mention my husband, which would make me 95% or so likely female if that were the only factoid. I occasionally mention being gay but much less often. Also “Fair” is often read as “pretty” or “blond” which enhances that effect (even if subconciously). I didn’t intend that when I picked the nym and actually didn’t even think about until somebody on another blog said they’d thought I was claiming to be a pretty girl. I was floored, and a little embarrassed I didn’t realize about the other interpretations beside my intended one of “even-handed”.
Once I realized what was going on I actually intentionally let the misconception slide a little bit because the internet is a misogynistic place at time and I figure having a nym of ambiguous gender does a tiny tiny bit to scramble some sexist trolls.
Fair Economist
@Uncle Ebeneezer: I really want to see it and I just checked the Costa Mesa prices and – holy cow, almost $400 for nosebleed? Well, maybe I can try to use that to convince my moneyhungry wannabe rapper son to study history ;-)
mapaghimagsik
Deadline? I work best under pressure.
No One You Know
I have some favorites although they’re all on my cell phone. I will enjoy getting used to a full-sized camera again!
opiejeanne
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Am I in the fisheye shot? I can see my Seattle shirt on the back of the chair but I’m not there in the 360.
Davey C
@beth: Thank you!