Another Test Post - Image Variety

 Due to my digital reset/email login swapping I seem to have lost all images previously posted to this blog. That bums me out but is not a project I have any interest in taking on. Pretty sure most photos were book covers anyway so those can be found if needed. However, I also seem to recall that uploading images at all became weird in the last blogger update I paid any attention to. Hmm, let's just test that... 

 

Ok, I'm recalling what I didn't like about the upload options but perhaps I've found a workaround. Let's see how this one comes out. 

I did not read a blog post by Jesus today.

Purely by accident, I came by my very first blog post via a google search for something else (but still including sgwordy - let's not kid ourselves that I'm some kind of presence offered up by google searches). I barely remember writing it, but all the sentiments remain: I still mourn that email is dead all these years later. And now blogs are dead. Well, mine at least. Though I like knowing it's here for the memories - and if I ever get a wild hair to write something (wild hair here) - it's pretty obvious it's in some kind of comatose state. I don't think it's just me either. Of the blog community of which I used to be a part, I'd say about 95% of those blogs are quiet now. It feels like the only ones that really continued are those that were turned into commercial ventures.

I wonder if other folks visit their quiet blog corners and smile at the memories. I know I do.

When you want to sleep under a table...

but it's only big enough for your head.

For Cat Lovers

Really, there is so much that entertained me in this article but the real question is: do you think your cat has what it takes?

It's good to be an adult

So True!

Comics can be funny and insightful. :)

Pets Plz

Sweetness

Must Stop Faffing About the Internet

Have real life to participate in... but how is one to sign off when completely overtaken by the giggles after seeing this Technical Support Transcript?

A Dogs' Life

Chang O
Point of origin: Roadside, Savannah, GA, 2002

Two days after I adopted Chang O from the couple who rescued her, I moved her to Tallahasse, FL

Chang O at 6mo, born Feb 2002

2002 Move to Tallahassee, FL    300m
2003 Move across town    7m

Cubone
Point of origin: City Shelter, Tallahasse, FL, 2004

Cubone was lucky. After Dr M and I adopted him in 2004, he got to live in one house for over a year.

Cubone at 4mo, born Nov 2003

2005
Move across town    3m
Move to Iowa City, IA via
   Drive to San Antonio, TX    905m
   Drive to Boulder, CO    960m
   Drive to Iowa City, IA    800m

2008
July - Drive to San Antonio, TX     1120m
Oct - Move to Utrecht, The Netherlands via
   Drive to Houston, Fly to Amsterdam, Train to Utrecht    5170m

2009
Move to Davis, CA via
   Train to Amsterdam, Fly to Houston, Drive to San Antonio, TX    5170m
   Drive to Las Vegas, NV    1275m
   Drive to Davis    600m

2013
Move to Dunedin, New Zealand via

   Drive to San Francisco, CA, Fly to Auckland, Fly to Christchurch, quarantine for 10 days
   Drive to Dunedin    7173m

Chang O total = 23,480 miles
Cubone total = 23,173 miles

Cubone (9yo) and Chang O (11yo)

Skip

Unforeseen circumstances have Michael and me skipping our usual end of month post this month. We'll be back next month though.

As for me, another injury has me laid up and convinced that 2013 hates me. Thanks to Magam for sending me this fun photo.

This Must Be Shared

PCN often has the most amazing posts about personal or family events but this must be the absolute most amazing of all!

It's well past begun

The signs were subtle at first. A little thing here, a little thing there... Nothing to really alarm a person, you see... But, now, here I am, watching a movie I have already seen - fully convinced I'd always wanted to see it and had not got around to it yet. And this is the second time this has happened to me this year!

This might seem a fairly innocuous event but it is just another of the characteristics I have undoubtedly inherited from my mother. So it appears that I am part of the "everyone eventually turns into her mother" crowd.

So here I find myself falling asleep if I sit on the couch right after work, falling asleep before a show is over, contemplating whether or not the leftovers in my fridge might make some sort of tasty patty (horrors!), and renting movies I've already seen. So, yeah, it's well past begun but I have many years before the final transformation. You see, my mother is the single most kind, compassionate, generous, forgiving, joyful human being I know. I should be so lucky as to turn into a human like that.

Heyer Vortex

I can't quite figure how it happened but I have been sucked into a Heyer* vortex. All I want to be doing at any given moment is reading Heyer novels. I suspect it has something to do with the final vestiges of winter that Mother Nature is desperately trying to throw off. My winter mood (never any good at all, just ask Dr M) is slow to note the harbingers of Spring and so instead I am gloming Heyer novels in a little ball on my couch hoping the world will forget me until winter is truly gone. (Or rather, hoping I can forget the world but still, somehow, all my responsibilities will be taken care of.)

But on a non-hibernating note: Baseball is almost here! Huzzah! I am reading a fantastic (non-Heyer) book that I can't wait to rave about but it's for review so I am going to hold off until the review is posted. It's my first "must read" of this year. And, while only my instructor and I ever get truly excited about this, my horse and I are doing so well. He's such a rock star!



*Don't you just love that picture of her? So glam! It makes me wish I had known her. :)

Birthday Bone

Chang O enjoying her bone.

Cubone helping her celebrate.

Happy Valentine's Day

sgwordy: I guess re-gifting sex toys is out, huh?

Dr M: Yeah, I think that'd be considered tacky. (Pause.) Especially if they're tacky.



(While having nothing to do with this most ridiculous of "holidays" this exchange did actually take place today. *snicker*)

Michael is The Bomb!

Fact.

.

Cu(tey)bone

Is the the folded up treadmill a good place to relax?

Guess so!

Ride Along

I submitted a request to do a Ride Along with my local PD. Please let me share my favorite bits from the waiver I had to sign (emphasis mine).

"...in any way related to or connected with my participation in this activity, including specifically, but not limited to, the negligent acts or omissions of the [City] Police Department, its agents or employees..."

So no matter how badly they fuck up I happily release them of any responsibility.

"If a dangerous situation arises, i.e., gunfire, fights, fire, etc., do not attempt to assist the officer. Instead, get away quickly, and call the Police Department and explain what happened."

Well, poo! There go my visions of grandeur!

If my request is accepted I'll be sure to report back on all the fun that is riding around in a patrol car.

Snubbery!

I've always thought of myself as a bit of a snob. Mr Musacha says that anyone who'll save 10 bucks by sleeping on a floor or bunking up with starving college students can't consider themselves a snob but so I always have. I do have some seriously snobby taste after all. But I've recently discovered that there are obviously several types of snobs. Here's an illustrative example and - hurrah - it includes books which is one of my favorite topics.

So my book club read Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood last month. I thought it was very well written with great characters but boring. The book itself is irrelevant to my example other than its genre: science fiction. I love science fiction* so this wasn't the first scifi book I've brought home from the library. However, it was the first scifi book for one of the other members. She made several joking but serious comments about how she didn't even know where the scifi section in the library was, etc and made it pretty clear she found the whole genre sub-par as far as books go. She would never have picked up this book if not for book club and couldn't believe she liked it so much, blah, blah... In fact, I believe her exact words were "I never read scifi because it's all about rocket ships and people living on mars and I prefer books with characters." Oh holy fuck! How much is wrong with that statement????

(*actually I love pretty much everything. a good book is a good book and I certainly don't let something like categorization come between me and good books.)


Wrong the first: "I NEVER read scifi." Then, pray tell, how the shit do you know what the books are about?

Wrong the second: "I prefer books with characters." Please explain to me how you got the impression that a book would not feature characters? How would that even work? Even if the protags were all bacteria, dogs, robots or picnic baskets would they not still be characters?

Wrong the third: The absolute disregard for an entire genre without trying it and basing that disregard on willful ignorance. What the fuck?


So me being me I immediately worked to correct such a stupid description of science fiction explaining that there are many kinds of science fiction and you can find almost every type of story you might want within the genre. This, I fear, fell on deaf ears. But then, as the discussion of the book progressed, it just got worse. This very same member kept going on and on about all these wonderful parts of the book. So fine, that's lovely, that's the point of the book club. But almost all the things she brought up were hallmarks of scifi stories. I actually think she was looking at me a little squinty because I wasn't just all kinds of impressed with such things. I was like, sure I am, they're very nice but they're not new to me. This is science fiction. It's the whole point. Course I tried to sound nice and reasonable and explain why I thought she might like other scifi books because of what she liked in Oryx and Crake but, again, deaf ears. Apparently since it was Atwood it had special dispensation from being considered genuine scifi. whatever.

Ok, so what is that? I mean, whoa! Total snob, right? But it's different from my snobbery - I abhor willful ignorance in all its manifestations - so what kind of snobbery is it?

If she had said she didn't read scifi because she is not such a fan of futuristic environments as part of her stories or that many of the classics marginalize women or any number of other legitimate characteristics of scifi then I wouldn't think a thing of it. But really??? Forming an opinion with no base and then, in the face of information clearly to the contrary (not just my helpful info -heh- but the very book we just read), not even entertaining the idea that scifi might not be what she thinks it is? Grrr! Grrr!!!!!

My inadequate answer to my own question is that it's the prejudiced kind of snob which I am going to call a SNUB. Not only because it's already a fun word but I figure taking the 'u' out of prejudice and throwing it into snob can count as coming up with a new word for this type of person.

So do you know any snubs? How do they press your buttons?