Bad catitudes
Today, my cats are being mercifully sweet. Maybe it’s because they had their regular six-month baths last night and it calmed them down—or made them wary of my wrath, muhahaha! Or maybe their evil plots to take over the universe have stalled temporarily. Either way, I am oh so grateful, because on an average day, I am pretty sure at least two of them are assassins sent for my head.
Maybe it’s from those old days with PETA—which would be ironic, right?—or maybe simply too many emails to the president asking for change, but for some reason someone has a price on my head and these two cats are determined to do the job. Whether it’s puking in a strategic area to make me trip and bust open my cranium, pissing on my good walking shoes so my feet are regularly tortured in my back-up pair, or simply tripping me every time I move, they are definitely professionals at what they do.
Take Sky, my lovely diluted calico. She hogs the bed, pressing herself as close to me as she can, drawing her claws into my feet until I shriek in my sleep. When I kick, she doesn’t even flinch. I have a feeling this is part of a master plan to smother me.
Cute Mononoke, my fluffy black kitty, may fool you with his sweetness, but he doesn’t fool me! He is on a steadfast mission to smash me face-down into the linoleum with each figure eight woven between my wobbling feet, each meticulous mew meant to send me running to check on him and then bam, over the stairs.
As they buy their time, I consider ways out of this situation, but it’s no use. I have tried bribing my assailants with treats and even with the coveted drug of choice catnip, but alas, they remain true to their work. I can only hope they will have mercy on me and when they finally decide to end my life, it will be quickly.
If you have a hit cat in your home and you are looking for a way out, please consider conspiring with me in the comments below. I may have a plan involving some saltwater taffy, a USB cord, and two spoons. Until then, if you have any experiences or suggestions on how to survive with such criminal masterminds in peace, I am all ears.
Reading Pile: 12/7/12
The Legend of Luther Strode #1- I really enjoyed the first series and this issue continues to deliver on the extreme hyper-violence. There’s an interesting back story to this title as well so it doesn’t rely too much on the blood and guts. But seriously, there are some nice blood and guts. A-
The Great Pacific #2- I can honestly say that this book is starting to throw some curve balls and making the entire premise all the more interesting. The declaration of the largest floating garbage heap in the Pacific Ocean as a nation is a neat idea to begin with, but then you throw in strange tribes that may have already landed there and a giant octopus, well then you’re just talking fun. B+
Detective Comics #15- It’s not like I didn’t think Layman was going to tell a good story, but I’m fairly impressed with how he’s shaping up the sub-plots and developing his characters with every issue. I’m also impressed with the fact that the obligatory Death of the Family crossover doesn’t seem to be interrupting his story in a negative way and that’s he’s working all these pieces together brilliantly. A-
Red She-Hulk #60- The more I read this the more I’m convinced Parker couldn’t get the OK from Marvel to launch a Machine Man title and he decided to pretty much just make this the Betty & Aaron show. Which is amazing, plus we get a little of Hickman’s version of Tesla and SHIELD in this issue. Looking forward to seeing how this develops. B+
Human Bomb #1- I get it, I really do. The Freedom Fighters are an exceptionally difficult property to make relevant, so all of these new 52 relaunches are supposed to modernize them and get us on track probably for a new team book. Gray and Palmiotti are fun writers and Jerry Ordway delivers his usual solid artwork. I’m just wondering who really cares at this point and if we need a modernization of this team. At least they didn’t charge above $2.99 for twenty-pages on this mini, giving it a slightly better chance to be sell. B
Storm Dogs #2- Maintained the momentum from the first issue and I’m still very happy with the combination of Hine’s script and Braithwaite’s art. I am curious about the long-term potential, but until we get further down the road I’m just going to enjoy the fun sci-fi murder mystery this is turning into. B+
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Black Swan, White Swan
The Nutcracker ballet distinguishes the holiday season in many cities around the world and Seattle is no exception. The Pacific Northwest Ballet is featuring Nutcracker on their main stage December 7-29 at McCaw Hall. Tickets start at $25 with affordable options for groups, families and students. This is one holiday performance you don't want to miss. Why not make it a fashionable affair with a few ballet-inspired styles? Seattle in Style gives you black swan, white swan outfit ideas.
Black Swan
Aftershock | $200
Shoebox | $195
Black | $32
White Swan
River Island | $310
ZARA | $90
Banana Republic | $35
The Mystery Spot
The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is home to some strange things. Spending my summers there as a child, I marveled at the billboards that seemed to be especially designed for children – “Mom, Dad, can we stop?”
It seems to be a law of of tourism that whenever there is a beautiful natural area, like Yellowstone National Park, The Smoky Mountains or Niagara Falls, tacky tourist trap nonsense springs up all around it. This is the same for the whole of the Upper Peninsula, or, as it is more commonly known, the U.P. Signs for water parks, mini-golf and specialty museums line the highway, giving every child passing in a station wagon reason to pester their parents.
The most intriguing of these signs was (is?) The Mystery Spot. What could it be? A place where the laws of gravity don’t apply? Prepare to have your mind blown.
I finally got my parents to stop one summer. Forgive my murky memory. This was a long time ago. If you have ever made or will make the trip, please let me know. But I remember that even as a child it seemed fishy. Sure, the ball seemed to roll uphill, but then everything was at an angle – the floor, the walls, and the table upon which the ball rolled.
Was this a scam? Sure seemed like it. But then, like I said, there is no shortage of strange phenomena in the U.P. There are even glowing lights that float in the sky somewhere out in the woods – another legend, perhaps, but worth a future investigation.
Although I wasn’t convinced at the time, I’ve met many, many people since that claim the Mystery Spot is real. They say it is over a special underground geological formation that causes gravity to go sideways.
I hope there is someone out there who can clear this up for me.
It’s Not All About the Benjamins
With the recent legalization of marijuana in two states, and 17 states following with similar legislation in regards to medical consumption, the topic of cannabis use has certainly hit the mainstream. This is not to say, however, that marijuana use is condoned my most Americans, especially mothers like me. Mothers in general pose a very real concern about legalization for many reasons. One concern is the fear that it will encourage children to use the substance which can impair cognitive functioning if consumed before the age of fifteen. While this is a valid point, the act of legalizing marijuana is very unlikely to have this effect on minors. More likely is the overall reduction of young people consuming marijuana, due to more strict regulations surrounding its distribution.
Currently, people who sell pot (with the exception of licensed dealers) have little concern for the people to whom they are selling. It doesn’t matter whether they are fifteen or fifty, as long as they have the money. Because distributors will be required to check identification, the chances of marijuana ending up in a minor’s hands will naturally diminish. As it stands now, it is easier for minors to get pot than either alcohol or cigarettes (NORML).
Another concern many mothers face in regards to marijuana legislation, namely the support of such legislation, is the fear of social repercussions. We are constantly bombarded with propaganda about how to be a “good mother”. Sites like 24/7 Moms or CafeMom are filled with parenting tips, recipe ideas, and fashion trends for busy mothers. But nowhere in the “me time” sections does it dare mention relaxing with a joint (though wine-time is a common subject). As long as there is a taboo surrounding the use of marijuana, mothers everywhere will be concerned with showing support for responsible use for fear of being labeled a poor parent.
What we should concern ourselves with is the condition of our schools. With our federal budget stretched extremely thin, many aspects of the educational system will suffer, beginning with areas focused on creative development (music and art classes, for example), despite evidence showing the overall success of children who are taught creative expression during important developmental stages (Kohl, MaryAnn F). By legalizing marijuana here in Colorado, we are “dog earing” the first $40 million generated by tax revenue to go straight toward the construction of better Colorado schools (Stiffler, Christoper). I believe that any mother would support investing in their child’s education, and marijuana legalization will encourage just that.
Recent legislation to regulate marijuana has definitely caused concern for many Americans, but for many more we see it as progress. It can help the nation financially and serve as an important mechanism toward removing the substance from minors’ hands. While there are many benefits to the legalization and taxation of marijuana, the concerns many Americans have about it can create barriers which will keep us from fully understanding the many advantages. It is my hope to be able to defuse some of the uncertainties surrounding marijuana use, so that more people can make a stance based on information rather than fear.
Right click rantings
I love my Mac, I truly do. However, I did not grow up with one. I grew up with PCs, and still remember the days of the DOS prompt with the same type of fondness that my grandparents remembered the days of walking barefoot five miles each way to school in blizzards.
At times, I realize my Mac education is a little limited. When I learned DOS and even Windows, I felt like I really needed to learn the inner workings of the operating system to use PCs effectively. Joyously, I’d get to a command line prompt, and type in cryptic commands such as MKDIR C:whatever and FORMAT C:.
When I switched to a Mac, I no longer felt that I needed to understand the technical workings of my computer. I’m often surprised by how well I can shuffle along in a state of ignorance. So today, I was wondering, and not for the first time, why Mac mouses don’t have right clicks.
I was thinking of things I used to do quite easily back in the days when I was a Windows user, such as right click and save.... right click and e-mail... Today I decided to go beyond wondering, and I Googled the situation.
This is what I discovered: I can get a two button mouse for my Mac, and apparently, I can go through software applications and enable preferences to use right click. For some strange reason, I feel both empowered and humbled. Empowered, because I can now set up my Mac to use right clicking, and humbled that it took me so long to dig into this.
Red Mountain by Dennis E. Yates
I love a good mystery, and although I usually prefer my fiction realistic, an occasional flight to fantasy can be fun. I was intrigued by the book Red Mountain by Dennis E. Yates, because it mixed both aspects in a cocktail of gritty suspense.
The story begins with the lead character, Robert, just regaining consciousness, as he realizes his home has been invaded, he’s been attacked and that his wife and son have been kidnapped. He tries to bargain with the invaders for his family’s safety, as he slips into a drug-induced oblivion.
Robert awakens, and the story follows his adventures as he struggles to find where his family is being held, and struggles to recover them. In an interesting twist, the author alternates Robert’s modern day, realistic adventures, with the rather surrealistic adventures of characters from the past.
Both stories are gripping, and I found myself racing from chapter to chapter, anxious to find out what happened in each. In fact, I began to find the surrealistic tale from past gripped my attention even more than the realistic story, which came as quite a surprise.
One thing that I noticed about this book is the author’s effective use of dialogue to drive the story forward, particularly in Robert’s story.
I also had to wonder about an encounter Robert had with a seemingly innocent stranger in the last chapter. Did the author leave an opening for a sequel? I hope so! If any of you have read this story, do you think there will be a sequel, or am I reading too much into that slight encounter?
Characters (and an author!) that make a lasting impression
Every once in a while, you come across a book that makes a lasting impression. Gone Girl was, for me, just that sort of book. The amazingly well written characters' voices, combined with the masterful plot -- in which information and clues were slowly fed to the reader, keeping you guessing until you found out the truth, and even then the suspense was skillfully maintained -- had me hooked until the very last line of the book. And that last line, incidentally, may be my favorite last line ever, as it was so perfectly in keeping with the character's voice.
Gone Girl is about a woman who goes missing, and her husband is the prime suspect. His narration switches off with excerpts from her diary. The story starts on the morning where she goes missing, and then backtracks to tell how they met and how, in their five-year marriage, things have gone downhill.
As a writer myself, pacing is one of those things I struggle with, so I have immense respect for any author who manages to pull off such perfection as found in Gone Girl. As I mention, Flynn feeds little clues and bits of information so subtly and so slowly that you go back and forth on what you think happened. In fact, the husband's narration is so skillfully done that he never actually says anything that tells you, unequivocally, whether he did it or not -- his side of the story is vague enough that you are never really sure.
In one of my favorite examples of how well done the pacing is, at one point the husband mentions in his narration his "disposable" cell phone. It was the first time it had been mentioned, but it was done so casually that I actually thought I'd missed something important -- skimmed it and forgot it -- earlier on. I even spent a few minutes backtracking, looking for an explanation of the cell phone earlier in the chapter! It was mentioned quite a few more times before the narration gets to a point where it's explained -- and it turned out I hadn't missed anything, after all, because it was part of a major bombshell that the author dropped about halfway in.
I highly recommend Gone Girl, and I also recommend taking your time with it -- there are so many subtleties that it really deserves a close reading in order to fully appreciate the author's skill in crafting the characters and the plot!
9/11 and 12/7: A fair comparison?
I remember the comparisons made to Pearl Harbor in the aftermath of September 11th, 2001 well, especially one newspaper headline that placed above a photo of the burning World Trade towers the word “Infamy.” A nod to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s famous words: “Yesterday, December 7th, 1941, a date which will live in infamy …”
At first glance, both events seem one and the same: an unprovoked attack on U.S. soil which caught us badly by surprise. However, I believe both events cannot be more dissimilar upon close examination. What took place on Oahu, Hawaii, on December 7th, 1941, was an act of war committed by one nation against another. What took place on the Eastern Seaboard of the continental United States on September 11th, 2001, was committed by a small band of international thugs bent on mass murder, not war.
While the U.S. Army, Navy and Marine Corps units on Oahu were caught on the jump on December 7th, many if not all possessed the means to fight back, as for example the stirring feat of valor done by John Finn at Kaneohe Naval Air Station in which he manned a machine gun out on the base’s seaplane ramp and fired and fired at the attacking Japanese Zeroes, despite being so badly exposed he suffered numerous flesh wounds.
Not only did Finn survive both the attack and the war, he won the Medal of Honor and lived to the ripe old age of 100. By contrast, only the passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 93 fought back against the terrorists on September 11th. The other passengers and crew aboard the three other hijacked planes made no attempt to resist, perhaps out of a belief that they were being hijacked for ransom or other demands like in so many other airline hijackings in the past.
Finally, December 7th saw warrior pitted against warrior; September 11th saw murderous thugs against innocents. A more appropriate WWII event that 9/11 could be compared to is, perhaps, the infamous Rape of Nanking. There too, innocents were the target, in this case Chinese civilians and POWs who were murdered by the hundreds by the invading Japanese Army in a destructive orgy that raged for six weeks after the city was captured on December 13th, 1937.
Such a comparison admittedly would rub sensibilities in Japan raw due to decades of denial about Nanking by the Japanese government, but I believe comparing it to 9/11 is a far more apt comparison than Pearl Harbor due to the reasons I have expressed above.