all our lonely kicks are getting harder to find

So today my family -- on a complete whim, and without informing me ahead of time -- got a dog.

Obviously I'm really happy for them (and me, of course!) because we'd all been talking about doing this for I don't know how long now, and the dog -- a female 8-month-old black lab mix named Harper -- is abso-friggin'-lutely adorable.

But I'm also a.) slightly more than a bit peeved that I was out of town when they adopted her and my family didn't include me in the decision-making, and b.) freaking the fuck out because I want to be absolutely sure we're all as responsible as we can be as owners and not massively screw this up.

So for all of you out there who still use LJ and DW who own dogs -- could I have some advice please? Important things that might not cross the mind of a first-time dog owner, things you wish you didn't have to learn the hard way, what to look for in a good trainer (or training program) -- things like that. (We already have food, treats, a crate, at least one toy, and a few other necessities I can't think of right now. She peed on the floor a little while ago, so I don't think she's housebroken. She's whimpering right now, but she hardly barks, she's not terribly stressed, and otherwise has an excellent temperament.)

Thanks in advance for all your help!

(And yes, I know I haven't updated this journal since September. I'll do a proper RL update......eventually. A lot has happened over the past few months, and the more I end up putting it off, the more stuff happens to talk about. It's been on my mind a lot, though, so hopefully I'll get around to it soon.)

The demise of a social media platform: Tracking LiveJournal's decline

Once universally praised for founder Brad Fitzpatrick’s open-source platform and commitment to a free userbase—he once vowed that LiveJournal would always have basic (non-paying or ad-supported) accounts—LiveJournal is known these days mostly for being popular in Russia (the Russian name for blogging is “LJ.”) and Singapore, and for housing gossip blog Oh No They Didn’t.

What happened?

I know I already posted this on Twitter and Plurk, but I'm sharing it here too in case you haven't seen it yet -- thanks to mmouse15 for pointing it out. It's a good summary of everything that's gone wrong with LJ over the past five years, and if nothing else, it makes me realize that the people who've abandoned the site are never coming back. Which is sad, because I've always used LJ as a way to keep in touch with people, and I'm too shy/anxious to contact them through other means, especially if we weren't that close. The thought of "reconnecting" with people I've never actually gotten close to to begin with is extremely awkward, and I never know how to go about it. :<

I guess it's just as well that so many people have abandoned LJ, because today embedded videos don't seem to be loading right. Typical, really. =_=