On the topic of Squid...

Still sick. At least I can evaluate myself now based on the recognition of three distinct problems. Special thanks to all those Johnstonites who got a bunch of diseases just so I could figure out how to differentiate them. Now I have the mono (dwindling, so long as I'm careful), the bronchial...stuff and the eye problems. Excellent. I had to get up at 7 AM yesterday and be up through 2 AM this morning (very bad) so I've been sleeping and I plan to continue such until I feel much better.

Sanura has been unusually affectionate. I mean, given her nature, really disturbingly affectionate. At first we thought maybe she was in heat but I'm no longer convinced of that. She's all over everyone, all the time, except Dakken. She chases us around and makes endless chirping noises and rolls around until we pay her mind. She has even been reduced to retracting her claws. She keeps trying to climb people without using her claws or she waits for the right moment and then flings herself up against a persons torso before falling back to the ground, scaring herself and running away. When she couldn't get Pip's attention yesterday no matter how much she chirped and rolled she took to suddenly biting his ear and running away.

I have these two bettas I rescued from Petco although in retrospect I more likely contributed to the continued abuse of their race. In any case I didn't realize they could jump so one afternoon I removed their top, since the water level was below it a couple levels, just until I had a chance to clean it. I came back to find that Red had jumped over into Blue's side and they were both pretty torn up. I feel terrible but they both lived and are thriving in their beshredded way. I'll put a picture of them up later.

Someone shaved their poor dog in honor of the new Mozilla Firefox release:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23558147@N00/110129102/
And here are some real ones:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/redpanda/pool/

When I am awake I am persistently badgered by my friend here, cats aside.

"Look up 'tired blood' on WedMD" (he's not feeling well and that is the only 'symptom' he claims he can describe)

"I signed you up for dancing lessons."
"No..."
"Really, I found this place just off Redlands Boulevard, it'll be fun"
"Well I hope you enjoy them because I'm not going."
"No - you'll like it, it's..Larry Flint's School of Dancing for Adults.."
< Cat tries to remember who that is. >
"They teach all kinds of dancing. The money is paid and you're going. Besides, they pay you while you learn and we need the money."

Also, according to BoingBoing the largest squidsicle in history is on display for a few more days only in Australia. Best get there.

Action Squid

So I have mono (again) as well as a number of other ineffable maladies. This is not particularly pleasant given that my mono is actually worse than it was last year. I imagine myself as a sort of sad migrant water balloon in a sandpaper world. I'll spare you the details.

So, surprise calamari in my biology lab Friday. That is to say, we ate what we dissected. Pleasantly not the very same animals themselves. We arrived, all six of us, to the hebdomadal Invertebrate Zoology lab in full regalia and effervescent at the prospect of a three-hour mollusk dessication. After a short period of riveting barnacle observation we were ushered (equipment in tow) into the conference room at which time we set about haphazardly decontrusting hapless loligos. At this time our professor (the gregarious Ed Pearson) began frying up with intermittent instruction the remainder of the box of squid along with minced garlic, oil, white wine and a spicy Chinese black bean sauce served with roma tomatoes and French bread. As some of you know I avoid calamari as well as most seafood particularly when inland and consequently this was my first time trying it. I must admit there is a perversity to eating something whose anatomy you are intimately acquainted with. I am, as most, accustomed to disassociating the cold slabs of unidentifiable food product with their living peers. However the day was grey and cold as we and we were hungry.



Yes, that is my dissection guide underneath.

So. Yesterday we had a get together here at the apartment, the fallout from which I still haven't seen fit to clean up. It was a good time. Photos (mostly of the cats) can be found in Larry's facebook album. Around midnight my throat started to hurt indicating that I had "pushed it" as my friends and fam have warned. This morning I woke up with new and different symptoms as well as a profound need to sleep most of the day, as I have done.

Basically this is just me bitching about being sick. Sick, sick, sick. As a child I was both lucky and immune to illness so I'm entertaining the idea that I'm merely catching up for all missed opportunities to fortify my immune system.

Maybe I should have been one of those kids who goes out in public and licks the floor.

Herstory Month Indeed

Yesterday South Dakota passed an act (against its majority) to ban abortion. The Act will probably not be vetoed by the governor. When finally challenged it will appear in the Supreme Court as a revision on Roe v. Wade.
The document may be found here:
http://legis.state.sd.us/sessions/2006/bills/HB1215enr.htm

In response, a rather interesting phenomenon has erupted at this website:
http://mollysavestheday.blogspot.com/2006/02/for-women-of-south-dakota-abortion.html
I found the commentary to be fascinating. As such I'll reserve my own thoughts on the matter for a later date.

Also, this:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5241170

Oh, and apparently the Christian majority of Missouri need their rights protected.
http://www.house.mo.gov/bills061/biltxt/intro/HCR0013I.htm

Charming.

Never did I know that the freedoms I felt haltered by in my youth would be restricted, not challenged on the broader basis of their limited scope and revised to act as a more...What is the word, just? guideline. These days keep getting darker.

No Time Now

Vegas is dirty and haunting like a CRT in the dark. I always hold my breath when I enter this city. I spend every moment, waking and asleep, as though I'm waiting to begin breathing again. This place is a zombie movie waiting to happen. I take some small solace, malicious as it may seem to those who don't know me, in the knowledge that if apocalypse comes none of these people will make it out. They seem to exult in that fact, flagrantly hurling light and water into the far-reaching desert as though they weren't the most precious commodities here. This city is so popular, I think, because it glints of some true human filament. Something inside everyone resonates in this place, whether they want it to or not.

Pip hates this city even more than I do, which is the only reason I am here. It seemed cruel to leave him lonely here for even longer than need be. It may be good for me to be running higher on anxiety than usual. Who knows.

I do know that if this recent crisis reaches its apogee I assure you I shalnt ever need be taught this lesson again.

V-Day Cards

This is the Valentines Day card I gave out. Those celebrating Singles Awareness Day seemed particularly appreciative.