A Long Weekend’s Worth of Stuff

This entry is part [part not set] of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

This past weekend, a whole lot of people I know were down in Atlanta for DragonCon. It’s an event I’ve been numerous times before and is always an amazing adventure.

I haven’t been there in four years now.

Finances and schedules have kept me from being able to make it back.

This year a bunch of people I know went for the first time.

I’m amazingly sad that I couldn’t be part of that.

Bringing new people along was always a huge joy. Watching them acclimate to the distinct atmosphere of a major gathering of nerds, geeks, freaks, and general fandom weirdness rekindles all sorts of memories and feelings of my own first time.

A lot of other people I know were off on other holiday-weekend-related adventures. End of summer trips, weddings, that one last excursion to the beach, the renaissance fair. I don’t really have a vacation. I have a day off I don’t get paid for. I haven’t had a real vacation… since DragonCon 2010.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to say differently some time before the next decade is over.

Hopefully.

Until then, I just keep pushing onward.

Since that’s the most sensible thing to do.

Lots of feed items spanning a wide variety of entertainment and interest. (Not quite as wide as, say DragonCon, but still a nice collection of stuff, if I do say so myself.)

Here’s the feed.

Political Progress, Severe SWAT, Riotous Raccoons, Diminutive Dwellings, and Interest Intelligence

This entry is part [part not set] of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

In the feed today is a totally adorable video of people feeding a whole passel of raccoons in a parking lot.

It’s one of the stupidest things I’ve seen people do on the Internet today. (That’s saying a lot.)

I grew up in the woods. I’ve had numerous “close encounters” with raccoons. They’ve all been amusing. But that doesn’t mean I go out of my way to interact with these critters. It’s typical to see three, maybe four raccoons trundling along in the dusk… especially if there’s a trash bin nearby. But, more often, you’ll see solitary ones or pairs doing their thing. If you’re in an area where you see this often, they probably won’t dash off when they see you–they’ll just continue on their way.

That, in and of itself, is kind of a problem. It means they’ve gotten used to humans being around them. It also gives the false impression that they’re really okay with humans being around them and can easily lead to people thinking, “Hey, let’s play with the cute animals!”

Which is a very bad idea.

In the video there are more than two dozen raccoons gathered around this nimrod who’s handing out Doritos. In a parking lot. During daylight.

That is not typical in any way, shape, or form.

This is a whole colony of raccoons who have been trained out of most of their natural habits–being nocturnal, not grouping up, showing at least some minor trepidation when humans are around, actually foraging for food. No doubt this has occurred after years of people feeding them in that parking lot (which I’m guessing is for a park of some sort).

Here’s what this sort of thing leads to…

  • A bunch of raccoons that can easily catch and spread disease–not just among themselves, but over to humans, too
  • A situation where someone is more apt to get bit or scratched or otherwise wounded by a raccoon (which never ends well for the raccoons in the area)
  • A hazard for pets and other animals (not to mention children)
  • A game of Russian roulette as to when that cute and passive gaggle of fuzzies is going to decide you most certain are not done feeding them as they swarm you

These are wild animals, people. They should be treated with some amount of respect and, whenever possible, left to their own devices.

Unless you like the idea of going though treatment for potential rabies infection. If that’s the case, then by all means go snuggle with those little banditos.