I haven't posted in so long because I admit to a fear of blogging. Bloggophobia. I'm afraid to blog. Even though nobody ever reads it here I am, I feel I am indelibly inking in some medium that exists in all of space and time that never ever goes away once it has happened. Maybe there's some kind of unifying prinicipal that everyone else has missed that I can think up now late at night with too much beer. What was I doing? oh yeah explaing my cats. Again.
I have five cats. One was abandoned when the people down the street moved, but knowing Golden Boy he had dumped them ages ago. He is the spitting image of a classic norwegian forest cat.
One has almost semalessly entered the position that Martha the old cat vacated shortly before Mona came to us. Mona is 20 years old, and her kidneys are crap but she is doing great once we put her on "junk" cat food. She was starving to death because she wouldn't eat kidney diet food. They hate that stuff big time.
So that's two.
Now them. Hvem? Hva? Them. I'll do this later. Such a long story.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Three Cats From Norway
"
It always gives me a shiver when I see a cat seeing what I can't see." - Eleanor Farjeon
Monday, April 13, 2009
I just don't get Twitter
"One cat just leads to another."
- Ernest Hemingway
Somehow something came along I can't do. Some kind of personality conflict with the medium, but I just don't get Twitter. Sure it is astoundingly fast at making new information public, and has surged like an overwhelming fountain over the olden days media, (Olden days start 10 years ago now). Newspapers are dropping like flies.. who needs treeware hardcopy of the news? People with pets? But still news is a valuable service no matter what the medium, and very talented, highly trained and courageous journalists make a living that way. How will they be paid if any paid news medium goes under? These people have to get paid.. we need them. We need responsible news sources that are held to the highest standard.
I don't think Twitter altogether can totally replace a single responsible news source for the latest newsflash. These are the people that are reading twitter, that are really into it, twidicted, I guess. They think it's fun. I just always find it painful, but maybe I just need to learn more about it until I get totally twidicted too. But why is it taking so long? Why don't I see the fun?
Well, I probably wouldn't if journalists hadn't picked right up on twitters to get a scoop. If twitter finds out the newsmedia will too because they're all over it. So the newsmedia has embraced Twitter. I still don't get it, it can only be precious few words and a link. It's like so in your face "SHUT UP!". No I shant. I shall have a Blog, thank you. So kind to point this out to me, Sir.
But the news media are welcome to read it for me, and just tell me what the latest thing from Twitter is. And wouldn't it be cool if I could take a break from the screen and read a newspaper, especially a local one that has all the big stories since print. And I can use it again ( I have five cats). If it gets to the point where a profit making enterprise that provides a public service becomes unsupportable, is when it should follow the strategy of open source but publicly supported news, like NPR news. I think the local newspaper has to be something delivered mostly online, but there is a market for newspapers that support local news in print, hopefully supplemented with the latest possible national news, that will not go away. Maybe following the model of NPR, nationwide networks reporting the news, only publicly and locally supported. Hm, probably a stupid idea.
Now that I can say all I want I suddenly have nothing else to say.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Friday, March 6, 2009
Friday off but at the DMV
There are no ordinary cats. - Colette
Friday is my favorite day of the week. Friday after work is heaven, two full days off.. Ahhhh! Sleep! TV! Stay up all night reading! Beer! Partay! But this week I worked my 40 hours, which as a software contractor I can't exceed. So by the end of Thursday at 1 PM, I had Friday off, (not that I can normally do this, we had two production installs that went late.)
So anyway, the big thing was to not sleep until 1 am and miss public ice skating at the rink (On weekdays nobody is there and it's glorious) and I did that. Yay! Had a great skate. Then I was wondering what to do with myself and then thinking about the driver's license renewal form I got in the mail, and it's a "during the day" thing you have to do, so I said, oh whatever, I'll just go do it. Of course that involved putting on makeup, almost calling it off because my hair was too dauntingly bad, but then I decreed that it was good 'nuff from the front, and went.
AT the DMV there are two lines of maybe 15 people, and I know how long each one takes from past experience, which I was hoping to avoid, but there it was. I should have turned right around and driven home. But no, I couldn't bear to waste the trip ( Um, 10 minute drive tops? ) , and thought "Maybe they somehow speeded it up since then." Once I got in line it was more time invested, and I kept trying to convince myself I had made the right decision. After an insufferingly long hour or more I was finally up. Why oh why didn't I didch.
I was acutely aware of the even longer line and the people still suffering there, who were all watching me, ( just like I had previously been) to make sure I wasn't being the slightest pain in the ass and didn't make it take any longer than necessary. If you did we would instantly deem you some selfish lowlife with no thought for others, and you would be scorned in your community for life, as long as we all didn't instantly erase the entire DMV experience from our brains the second we were out the door, which of course everyone did. So, I tried to make sure everything went fast. The form submittal and payment went lightening fast, then the picture.
After the camera faintly whirrs you get a picture preview on the monitor, which is way more close up than you expected. They then ask you if you want it, and if you hate it ( which I did, I looked scary insane) they give you two more tries. Acutely aware of waiting people. "Remember Us! It's up to you!"" As soon as it's your turn it's of course finally all about you and the waiting is forgotten (And the Dante's hell of waiters no longer exist) so you have to be careful and not get carried away and take forever.
So then they took a second one, I tried to position my face and expression to be the most flattering and it was a grimace.. good lord. He said I had one more try, and there were two more horrible pictures where I was looking down and illegal (waiting for the picture to come up on the monitor) and strike three and I was out. It's horrible of course. And I have to live with it for four years unless I move to a different state.
I think I just need to relax. The best pictures of me are always when I'm drunk or relaxed and it's unexpected. As soon as I know there might be a dreaded picture my face starts trying to make itself not have an awful picture which probably makes the most awful pictures of all.
Or maybe I'm really THAT ugly.. Nooooooo.
Friday is my favorite day of the week. Friday after work is heaven, two full days off.. Ahhhh! Sleep! TV! Stay up all night reading! Beer! Partay! But this week I worked my 40 hours, which as a software contractor I can't exceed. So by the end of Thursday at 1 PM, I had Friday off, (not that I can normally do this, we had two production installs that went late.)
So anyway, the big thing was to not sleep until 1 am and miss public ice skating at the rink (On weekdays nobody is there and it's glorious) and I did that. Yay! Had a great skate. Then I was wondering what to do with myself and then thinking about the driver's license renewal form I got in the mail, and it's a "during the day" thing you have to do, so I said, oh whatever, I'll just go do it. Of course that involved putting on makeup, almost calling it off because my hair was too dauntingly bad, but then I decreed that it was good 'nuff from the front, and went.
AT the DMV there are two lines of maybe 15 people, and I know how long each one takes from past experience, which I was hoping to avoid, but there it was. I should have turned right around and driven home. But no, I couldn't bear to waste the trip ( Um, 10 minute drive tops? ) , and thought "Maybe they somehow speeded it up since then." Once I got in line it was more time invested, and I kept trying to convince myself I had made the right decision. After an insufferingly long hour or more I was finally up. Why oh why didn't I didch.
I was acutely aware of the even longer line and the people still suffering there, who were all watching me, ( just like I had previously been) to make sure I wasn't being the slightest pain in the ass and didn't make it take any longer than necessary. If you did we would instantly deem you some selfish lowlife with no thought for others, and you would be scorned in your community for life, as long as we all didn't instantly erase the entire DMV experience from our brains the second we were out the door, which of course everyone did. So, I tried to make sure everything went fast. The form submittal and payment went lightening fast, then the picture.
After the camera faintly whirrs you get a picture preview on the monitor, which is way more close up than you expected. They then ask you if you want it, and if you hate it ( which I did, I looked scary insane) they give you two more tries. Acutely aware of waiting people. "Remember Us! It's up to you!"" As soon as it's your turn it's of course finally all about you and the waiting is forgotten (And the Dante's hell of waiters no longer exist) so you have to be careful and not get carried away and take forever.
So then they took a second one, I tried to position my face and expression to be the most flattering and it was a grimace.. good lord. He said I had one more try, and there were two more horrible pictures where I was looking down and illegal (waiting for the picture to come up on the monitor) and strike three and I was out. It's horrible of course. And I have to live with it for four years unless I move to a different state.
I think I just need to relax. The best pictures of me are always when I'm drunk or relaxed and it's unexpected. As soon as I know there might be a dreaded picture my face starts trying to make itself not have an awful picture which probably makes the most awful pictures of all.
Or maybe I'm really THAT ugly.. Nooooooo.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Dream High School
The smallest feline is a masterpiece. - Leonardo da Vinci
Welcome readers, I am starting a blog. It has no theme, just my own natterings and blatherings. I do happen to have three cats from Norway, but that's a story I'll tell some other day. I also want to have a cat quote starting every entry. Seems like a good idea.
I have been attending Dream High School for years, with it's twisty turny passages that are all the same, unable to find the class I'm supposed to be in, where there is a test I didn't study for. In one dream I got a call from the high school I graduated from telling me that because of some technicality I did not have a valid high school diploma, which then invalidated every degree earned since, and I was required to attend another year of high school. In some dreams I would discuss the situation with the principal, saying "But I graduated from college! I have a master's degree even" to no avail. I would have to sit in class with the high school kids feeling very out of place and conspicuous as the kids stared at me thinking "What's SHE doing here?".
I didn't care about that so much, just managing to go to class and keep up, which is impossible to do in Dream High School. Class schedules are lost, then forgotten. One forgets they are in Dream High school until right before the term is ending, having never even attended the first class. The classes themselves are impossible to find, one is forever going into the wrong classroom, and leaving in embarrassment after a while once the mistake is realized. School buses are constantly missed when you can't find your bus, one is often stranded far far from home. Panic abounds, clothes go missing and one is in class topless, or bottomless. Failure and humiliation are required courses in Dream High School. But then, one night recently, while attending Dream High School I had a brilliant idea - I could just go take the GED!!! It was such a great idea it woke me up, and I have apparently now graduated from Dream High School as I haven't had the dream since.
Unfortunately I must have then immediately matriculated at Dream University (A term coined by novelist Tom Robbins, by the way.) Dream University is much like Dream High School, except even more frustrating. Of course it's even harder to get transportation as there are no school buses and one is stranded in abandoned buildings looking for late students to bum a ride from. You can never get through to the registrar, or a professor, or department head. Of course, you can never remember what day of the week what time and what place you have classes. And it's always right before finals. In the last dream I was shouting over the crowd in panic at a Dream University outdoor town party saying "Does anyone go to the university? Anyone?? Please!! I need help!" before waking myself up. Since I 'm still relatively new to Dream University I'm not sure why I'm there, but in this last dream the Dream School authorities said I had to take a year of two classes per semester in order to complete my Master's degree because I never really finished it.
I'm pretty sure that after I retire I'll have hellish job dreams. I'll be in a panic over not actually going to work for ages, being unable to find my workplace, being horribly horribly late. Looking forward to it.. Not.
Welcome readers, I am starting a blog. It has no theme, just my own natterings and blatherings. I do happen to have three cats from Norway, but that's a story I'll tell some other day. I also want to have a cat quote starting every entry. Seems like a good idea.
I have been attending Dream High School for years, with it's twisty turny passages that are all the same, unable to find the class I'm supposed to be in, where there is a test I didn't study for. In one dream I got a call from the high school I graduated from telling me that because of some technicality I did not have a valid high school diploma, which then invalidated every degree earned since, and I was required to attend another year of high school. In some dreams I would discuss the situation with the principal, saying "But I graduated from college! I have a master's degree even" to no avail. I would have to sit in class with the high school kids feeling very out of place and conspicuous as the kids stared at me thinking "What's SHE doing here?".
I didn't care about that so much, just managing to go to class and keep up, which is impossible to do in Dream High School. Class schedules are lost, then forgotten. One forgets they are in Dream High school until right before the term is ending, having never even attended the first class. The classes themselves are impossible to find, one is forever going into the wrong classroom, and leaving in embarrassment after a while once the mistake is realized. School buses are constantly missed when you can't find your bus, one is often stranded far far from home. Panic abounds, clothes go missing and one is in class topless, or bottomless. Failure and humiliation are required courses in Dream High School. But then, one night recently, while attending Dream High School I had a brilliant idea - I could just go take the GED!!! It was such a great idea it woke me up, and I have apparently now graduated from Dream High School as I haven't had the dream since.
Unfortunately I must have then immediately matriculated at Dream University (A term coined by novelist Tom Robbins, by the way.) Dream University is much like Dream High School, except even more frustrating. Of course it's even harder to get transportation as there are no school buses and one is stranded in abandoned buildings looking for late students to bum a ride from. You can never get through to the registrar, or a professor, or department head. Of course, you can never remember what day of the week what time and what place you have classes. And it's always right before finals. In the last dream I was shouting over the crowd in panic at a Dream University outdoor town party saying "Does anyone go to the university? Anyone?? Please!! I need help!" before waking myself up. Since I 'm still relatively new to Dream University I'm not sure why I'm there, but in this last dream the Dream School authorities said I had to take a year of two classes per semester in order to complete my Master's degree because I never really finished it.
I'm pretty sure that after I retire I'll have hellish job dreams. I'll be in a panic over not actually going to work for ages, being unable to find my workplace, being horribly horribly late. Looking forward to it.. Not.
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