Red
Daily Reports: Hi ho, the every-daycycle doings here in Alpha Complex!
A little change every four years does a body good.
Jan 20, 2010
The site has had an interesting history. It started as the Cynic’s Tea Party in 2001, then switched to Title Deleted in 2005. Now, after kicking the idea around in my head for a few months, I’ll be changing back to the Cynic’s Tea Party.
Maybe it’s because I’ve gotten more bitter as I’ve aged. Maybe it’s because I’ve gotten more exasperated at how these darn kids are doing things, but I still have essential hope that they won’t be total idiots. At any rate, it’s time for a name change. The domain’s been redirected to this site for years, and titledeleted will redirect, so people won’t totally lose their places. I don’t know yet that I’ll change the design, because the design’s gotten to be like an old friend. But the domain will be changing this coming weekend.
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I love these guys...
Dec 23, 2009
I lived in Canada for a while. I enjoyed it very much. But I also know some facts about Soviet Canuckistan, namely: something like 40% of its population lives within two miles of the US-Canada border; and much like the U.S. midwest, it has miles and miles of miles and miles - particularly in the center of the continent. So the song is appropriate! Some commenters, themselves Canadians, said that this should be the Canadian national anthem.
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from the Blade Runner soundtrack
Dec 22, 2009
Smashed two fingers, so my typing is slower than normal (I had my previous entry all typed up beforehand, for something else) so I’m resorting to music videos. Yes, it’s kind of a cheat; but then again hopefully I’ll share something that folks will appreciate.
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I take this as a good sign
Dec 18, 2009
About two weeks ago, Ursa had a fit. Not “he got upset at something”, but literally - had a fit. Managed to tear up a set of sheets (and add another rip to my comforter cover), was nonresponsive for a little bit, walked a bit wobbly afterward…but it didn’t happen again, and after about 5 seconds of seizing and maybe another five minutes of slowly recovering, he carefully got down from the bed and walked around the house.
The night after his fit he slept on the bed as usual, and in the morning he came down and ate his breakfast as usual. He climbed on the cat tower, he used the litterbox, he demanded that I turn on the tap for him in the bathroom, he curled up on the bed for his first mid-morning cat nap, all the normal things. I took him to the vet for full blood and urine tests (it was about time for his one-year checkup anyway) and the tests all came back negative for diabetes, cancer, FIV, any of the more common causes for one-off seizures in cats. He seemed to be doing well. I got wind of a pet-food recall by the company that makes and distributes the food I had all three cats on earlier, and while this was a different food than I was feeding him and was confined to the other side of the continent - and specific lots besides - one of the effects this food could have was neurological problems. I switched all three cats to a new kind of food, and also started feeding them all a little bit more of the wet food - partially because Ursa’s got to have another tooth removed in a month or so because you can see it’s out of position; and partially because Monkey’s getting thinner now that she’s coming hard up on 14 years of age.
Last night I heard scratching and rustling. I looked over the side of the bed, and there was Ursa. Playing. Gamboling. Frisking. Throwing his mouse up in the air, bounding after it, batting it around, throwing it up again. This is the first time in about a month, possibly longer, that I’ve seen him behave like this!! Maybe it’s the greater amounts of wet food. Maybe it’s the switch away from the old dry food. I don’t know. All I do know is that cat-napping is better than having fits, even little ones…but playing like this? He was acting like a kitten again. I can’t imagine cats doing that if they’re feeling unwell in the slightest.
So I’m vastly relieved. And Ursa is sleeping again, after an exhausting morning of pushing the feather-toy under the open bedroom door, running to the other side, and pushing it back again.
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The tree is still alive, and will hopefully live for many many holidays
Dec 13, 2009
This is a dwarf Albertan blue spruce. It grows slowly, and tops out at 6 feet with a width between 2 and 2.5 feet. It lives in partial or full sun.
I think that, after the holidays (and in spring, once the ground unfreezes) it will do quite nicely in my side yard. Then in successive holidays I’ll just decorate it outside rather than get new trees every year. (I don’t know that this can safely be done on the other side of my house because Stupid Fecking Verizon put their cables there - that might interfere with the growth of a solid root ball for a tree of this size. Though maybe not…I don’t know.)
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Reflection, meditation, one moment of perfect beauty
Dec 12, 2009
I first heard this song when I was in high school, and developing my geek tendencies. The fact that it's essentially a list of facts and figures set to electronic/ambient music appealed to me on multiple levels. I originally had a hard time finding the album, since it was not carried at the local Wherehouse; and when CDs started to make it big this album was initially deemed "not moneymaking enough" to be re-released on CD. Finally, though...its time came round again. Now you can just pop on to Amazon or DeepDiscount or whatever site you use to buy music and type in "Vangelis Albedo 0.39" - the name of the album as well as this track - and you're good to go.
Several folks have created videos to this song, using various cosmos shots. But really, this is about the Earth - so the video that I chose to feature here is more appropriate. The images are amazing.
As you go about the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, planning this and that gathering, getting upset when this or that falls through or doesn't come up to snuff...stop and think about what's important (your friends and family, the bonds you have with them and the memories you create) and what's not important (transitory disagreements, where you have dinner, *when* you have dinner, how you greet one another, the holiday crowds, travel delays).
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