GF Animal Shelter Accused of Cruelty to Animals.

A short snippit on KFBB news this evening informed the public that the cities recently obtained animal shelter is being accused of animal cruelty by a current employee and also a former employee of the shelter.
The reports state that animal control officers were required to hold down animals and euthanize
them without any pain killers or anesthesia. Reports also state that the animals were killed before their legal
time limit of holding required by State and or federal laws.

Animal control officer Amy Lowe says, “I had to literally hold the dogs up with their face in my face, which is dangerous, They got no pain killers and they all screamed.”

Former officer Jason Dern also stepped up to the plate to report what he had witnessed at his time with the animal shelter. I don’t know if anybody here knows what it is like to hold down 13 perfectly good animals,” he says “It’s pretty hard to sleep at night.”

Mayor Dona Stebbins refused to comment on the ordeal with a report saying that she said she would not dignify the story with a response. Other community leaders have also refused comments on the animal shelter happenings.

Other problems are now being brought to light in todays events, an example being an Angel participant paid for an animal, they never received the animal learning later that the animal had been "put down" after payment had been made, their funds were never returned.

Todays accusations come shortly after the city of Great Falls acquired the Animal Shelter from the humane society. Lots of citizens have been stating their negative opinions to the transaction
on the Greatfallstribune.com.

You can view the news report at KFBB.COM for more on the story

Oh what they say

Note: I haven't posted here in awhile do to some life circumstances involving my crappy ex landlord that arose, I have since moved and this is what occured in my new home :P Enjoy)





Having children can be both a blessing and a curse, this last few weeks, I think more of a curse..not because they are horrible, but the worry of what was going to happen to them drove me out of my mind. WHat if I have to give up custody..was never far from the forefront.
With a very big push from a friend on Myspace. We secured a place to live and that fear was completely absolved when I walked into my home and thought..we can still be a family. Thank the stars. I don't know if any of you have ever been faced with losing your children, but I will tell you know it is one of the scariest things I have ever thought about.
Things are returning to normal now ..Better then normal in fact. I have a new found energy and I can now keep up with the house work and all the things a good parent and wife should be doing, as well as finding well deserved time for myself.
Last night I put the kiddos( ages 7 and 5) in the bath, they are old enough now where I don't have to sit with them in the bathroom, so I walked into my room to get some PJ's and undies for them.. They were giggling and laughing and then the bathroom became silent, I quickly went to the door but stopped short when I heard this.

"Matthew are you my best friend?" there was a bit of swishing from the water "Matthew?" "what?" Matthew said with a little bit of impatience "I said, are you my best friend" At this point I peaked into the bathroom and watched as Matthew leaned over and looked Jeron in the eye...He replied. "No Jeron I am not JUST your best friend....We are brothers..and that's much more better then JUST being best friends"

I covered my mouth to stifle a giggle as their conversation continued...
"well" Jeron asked "how do you know that?" "Because Daddy says so and everything Daddy says is right." Jeron splashed a bit of water looked hard and long at it and then said. "Matthew I think your right...Daddy doesn't lie...We are brothers"
"Matthew?" silence "Matthew?" "What Jeron?" "Matthew I love you."

Maybe I am over sensitive these days but those words really pulled at the heart strings. And really it made this entire ordeal that we have been going through worth every moment. And it made me realize just how precious those guys really are.

The oddest thing.

As many of you know, I am looking to move to Seattle in the spring. In preparation I have been house hunting, job hunting, posting various ads on craigslist.com and doing my homework to learn about utility prices, costs of commute etc, etc. I really don't feel like being caught to much off my gaurd.
I had posted an ad for a home, trying to find if there may be a landlord out there who is expecting a lease to expire about that time. In the ad I gave a description of what we are looking for. At about 9 this evening I receive an email. It was from a woman in Seattle who runs a small furniture shop. Her mother in Canada has taken ill and she has to move back to care for her mother. She responds to my add stating she had just purchased her home and does not want to sell her home nore sell off her American clients. She is looking for someone who would care and maintain her home while collecting monthly bill payments from her clients, in exchange it is free rent on the home. A 4 bdrm 2 bath. I replied to her email stating I am interested but need more info on the business and home to be clear of the situation. It didn't sound like a scam, but who knows email scams can be oddities anymore. So wish me luck that this may be the real deal! I googled the email and name and nothing came up in scam reports soooo, hopefully. This could be exactly what we need to get an early start!

I got PLAGIARIZED!

So I logged on to Deviantart this evening and checked my messages and notes.
I received a letter from another Deviant telling me her work was plagiarized and was being redistributed from a website called gulfson.com an Arabic art site centered in Kuwait. As she was browsing the brush files she saw several brushes that she knew I had created. I went to the site and dug through 6525 images to find mine near the front few pages, Easily accessible to many! As of yet AT LEAST 200 artists have been victimized by this group and who knows how many more.


This is my Photoshop brush set entitled for the love of music still bearing my artist pen name of Janna Lee.


and 2 more





I and other artists, put a report into Copynot.com and what are we told ? That because this group is based in kuwait they have been known not to follow copyright laws (or enforce them) even though treaties have been signed. This is BS and I have had it! Many artists have now stopped making their work available to others even stock artists who photomanipulation artists depend on to bring you wonderful works of art. What next are they going to start walking into our homes and taking stuff and the law looks at us like we are stupid. This stuff does not belong to these people and it's not right that they can just take it because they want to. My clients and readers have to pay me for the use of my stuff off of deviantart, if they choose to redistribute I take a cut. As do many many artists...this is how we get paid for our work. Other then that we ask that credit is given where it is due by placing a link.... Many of us keep our accounts active by donation from fans and more popular artists. Our culture is based off of art. You hear it in Music, you see it in advertisements, television shows, on the internet, in museums, in parks EVERYWHERE! Hell you can even taste it and smell it in the culinary areas.
Imagine life without it. It is people like this make artists stop doing what they love...


You should know I create my art for others to use in a creative commons fashion the stipulations being......1. link back. 2 let me know you used it. 3. DO NOT REDISTRIBUTE this work as a whole you are free to use parts or pieces in YOUR own work. Here these bastards took almost ALL of my brushes and just gave them away with only my pen name..no links nothing...I'm sure the total # of artists will be waaaaay over 200 hundred when all is said and done.

The end of Legends

So in the last 4 years I have made some of the coolest friends, met some of the coolest people and spent a majority of my Wednesdays (and at a time Thursdays too) at a local bar/grill/casino/sports bar called Legends. Jan and Skip Karaoke used to play there 2 nights a week and so as an avid follower I went habitually. This week I found out that
as of the 14th of February Jan and Skip will no longer be hosting Karaoke at Legends.
That was made better by the announcement that they will be moving to the Buffalo Saloon on Wednesdays. But will it be the same, Aptly not, simply because of the Singing Bartender Shawn and the host of other talented employees. So, wounds licked I decided I will probably go in once a week to say hi to Joe, Shawn, Nick and the girls. Then I was told.

Legends will be gone as of February. Apparently, The Sting (local pizzeria/ Sports bar
is taking over and it is still unsure who will remain. Though it coincides with my leaving Montana, I always had it in my head that I would come home occasionally and visit my friends at Legends.

It's kinda heartbreaking. I learned alot of good and bad things at that place. Like I regained the courage to sing in front of crowds again, I also learned how alcohol can be a take over. I met one of my best friends there. I met a few enemies as well.
Every Wednesday we would congregate have drinks, play pool, have drinks and have laughs and tears and conversations. We would express our emotions with the common denominator of music. I have had my last 4 birthdays there, amongst the throws of people I know and some I thought I did. We all learned about love there. Be it through an affair of our own or watching it unfold before us.
Jan and Skip are irreplaceable as a Karaoke team. There can't be anyone in the world who can keep the crowd enthralled as they do. But to lose the package, of a great "pub" style bar and my favorite Karoake there is a heart breaker. I hope that after Legends is gone I can still see some of the people out and about when I come home.... *sigh* An end of an age comes with A "Legend" leaving .

Serving the service industry.

One of the things about living in a community where most of the jobs are service

based, is the fact that everyone is watching everyone else. This makes it all the
easier for a customer to say "There is no way I would treat a customer that way!"
I personally have had my time in the service field, working as a Escrow specialist
right down to the customer warn waitress. I have been yelled at, screamed at,
belittled, argued with and yes I even had a customer spit at me because I followed
the law and refused to serve him any more alcohol.
Other local bloggers have recently touched on the situation or satisfaction with
local restaurants, My blog is going to focus on businesses.

The other night I meandered over to Jo-Ann Fabrics to pick out the materials needed
for my Halloween costume. The order was pretty simple as far as fabric goes. 5 yards
of tulle, 2 1/3 yards of of satin, some elastic ans ribbon. my best friend and I
stood in shock as the girl (who never even greeted us ) grabbed the elastic, cut
the length and threw it (yes tossed it like garbage) across the counter. She then cut
the ribbon and this time picked up the elastic and ribbon and again tossed it about
like it was an unneeded item. She proceeded with the fabrics not taking the time
to straighten the fabric to measure it properly. carelessly cut through them
and then rolled them into a ball. tossed them on the counter and rushed off.

To top it off the clerk up front was degrading patrons of another business
here in town, calling them everything from scary, to roughest looking women
in town. I personally frequent the business in question and took great offense
when the customer the clerk was talking to blabbed about how all "those"
women must be insane, bad parents, blah blah. This conversation was exchanged
so loud that myself and my friend who were standing in the quilting area heard
the whole thing.

Now, I frequent Jo-Ann Fabrics and I know that this is not the usual service,
I get at this location, but wow! Talk about disregarding and alienating your
customers!

It's not just Jo-Anns either, I would love to go to Spencer or the Wet seal and
have an employee around so I can pay. I won't even touch Wal-Mart, once known
for it's friendly staff, We all know that is not the truth.
The fact is, people are watching, listening and analyzing your business when they
come in. First thing they want is to know the staff is friendly, the next is ease
in finding things in your store, then cleanliness. If you can't handle these three things
then it's a wonder your still in business. Remember the people buying are
the "real" owners of your store..Without their money where would you be?

Parents beware!

I was surfing Myspace today when I looked to the left at my bulletins and saw a heading for "Attention Parents" . Clicking on the link I read a story about children playing the "Pass Out or black out Game"
This is really nothing new to teens or kids, I remember watching the neighborhood boys do it when I was a kid. A story aired on NBC this week, brought the "game" to a full front and put a number on how deadly the "game" can really be. According to the story more then 2 dozen children have died while playing the game. But that's not all, it is now believed that the number could be much higher due to children playing pass out alone at home. They use belts, rope, bike chains and locks to asphyxiate themselves. Many of these children's deaths have been written up as suicide.

Apparently, the high obtained from the pass out game is as addictive as any street drug or prescription and it's just as lethal. There are no average statistics of the children who are playing , because it's not a drug many kids don't see the harm in doing it. Even kids that are on the right track in life have been known to play.

SIGNS that you child may be participating

• Blood Shot eyes
• Unusual markings on the chest, neck and throat
• Belts, ropes and other such items with strange knots in your childs room.

Other names

• Black out
• suffocation roulette
• funky chicken
• space monkey
• flat liner
• tingling
• cloud nine
• the dreaming game
• choke out
  

How the game is played.

Within a group it is achieved by the child taking 4 deep breaths while leaning over, standing up against a wall and then a secondary person presses firmly on the chest until the child blacks out.
then everyone wakes the passed out person up.
Alone a child chokes them self with a slip knot.

I took this picture as a diagram, My husband IS NOT applying pressure here. this is how the children hold their hands to apply pressure.

Parents should be aware of this deadly game, And yes it happens here in the falls as well. Talk to your children about the dangers of this game, not only can it cause asphyxiation but heart attacks as well. The sooner you talk to them,
the better you will be. Children have died as young as the age of 9 with
this game.