Rain Gryphon

Woohoo! I'm going again Wednesday to see the My Little Pony movie with friends! It's been a while since I was this happy and excited about something :)

*****

For the past few days, for whatever reason, I've had "Horatius at the Bridge" stuck in my head, specifically:

Then up spake brave Horatius, the Captain of the Gate.
"For ev'ry man upon this earth, death cometh, soon or late.
Yet how can man die better, than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his gods?"

If, by some circumstance, I manage to get myself killed in even a quasi-heroic manner these next few days, you'll know what was in my head.

*****

So, I was just at the store, and they have... Bottled water... In Halloween packaging... It's plain that it's intended as something to give trick-or-treaters. It's not even a full bottle of water - it's one of those little ball-shaped bottles. That's just begging for a string of firecrackers through the mail slot.

*****

I keep obsessing over Tempest Shadow. Such an angry Little Pony, and so hurt and vulnerable beneath that case-hardened steel exterior. She absolutely needs hugging.

*****

I found all the parts for Flaster's old Cat Tree, and put it up for Alexandra. She absolutely loves the thing. She's put more wear and tear on it clawing it and climbing up and down and up and down and up and down in two days that Flaster did in several years. He was a sweetheart of a cat, but never a climber. I miss him so much.

I'm glad I took Alexandra. She plugs one of the holes in my life.

Good Lord. It's been 20 years since Smilin' Mike took down the Iron Curtain. I remember the trains coming out of Hungary, so full that people were clinging to the tops of the carriages. Everyone was on pins and needles waiting to see what the Soviets would do, expecting the borders to close again any day, until it became apparent that Gorbachev was on the side of the reformers.

That was a remarkable time to have lived through. The World Wars had finally ended, after lasting 3/4 of the century, and Europe was returning to normal. The Warsaw Pact had been a menacing alien presence my entire life, and for years before I was born, and now in just a few weeks it just melted away and was gone, and everyone could live normal lives once more.

*****

I bought a new Cat Taxi for Flaster. I left it sitting out with the door open, so he'd get used to it. He evidently approves, since he's taken to sleeping in it.

*****

ZOMG! 1930s style goggles and linen helmets!

*****

The Chinese restaurant nearest my home has become, for reasons unknown to me, possibly unknowable to me, a favoured haunt of Somali expatriates. There's even a free Somali newspaper in the rack as you exit (I got one that had an article about the Ohio State Fair - I have no idea what it says).

*****

I got an aftermarket LED head (Nite Ize, with the Qoon mascot) for my trusty AA Maglite that I've carried for ten years or so. It took the output from 'bright' to 'painful'. Lots of UV too, so stuff glows.

I've always loved flashlights, ever since I was a child. There's something very high tech and empowering about being able to conquer the darkness with a little metal tube.

I wonder about replacing the white LEDs with actual UV LEDs. It would be handy for hunting UV-reactive rocks.

My social security number, as well as other serial numbers, resides at least partly in my spatial memory, I've realized. I think of the digits as having the same spatial relationships that they do on a standard number pad. I don't really remember the sequence as a series of moves, but rather as a series of shapes (lines, ells, or triangles) that occur in order, with vertices that must be completed in order.

*****

News of the Beloved Leader. I'd never actually thought of him as the King of the Commies, but yeah...

*****

One of the neighbors seems to have managed to drop an entertainment centre from the third floor walkway. I'm guessing he must have balanced it on the railing trying to get a better grip. It's a tad on the destroyed side.

*****

I think Flaster's a bit under the weather. He's been sleeping a lot in warm places. Right now he's burrowed into in my comforter. He cleaned up his plate, though, and seems pretty normal apart from sleeping a lot, so I don't think he's too badly off.

*****

Wendy's (a local fast food place) is running this series of bizarre, desperate-looking commercials where they try to depict their food as some sort of artisan product. The milkshakes are "hand spun" (somebody holds the cup in his hand under the milkshake machine instead of setting it on the platform) and the barbecued chicken sandwich is "hand dipped" (a generic chicken patty is plunged with tongs into some sort of glutinous transparent red sauce which looks like nothing so much as candy apple coating). The food is actually pretty good (except that red sauce - it looks like corn syrup and food colouring), but the commercials offend me so badly that I don't want to eat there anymore.

*****

My first attempt at giving to the Damnation Navy met with defeat. They've redesigned the drop boxes, so that instead of having this huge pull-out donation bin on the front, you now have to insert your stuff through a narrow slot. My box o' clothes wasn't going in there.

So, today after work, I made another trip. This resulted in my going in to shop, of course. I now have a matched set of four brandy snifters (0.69 ea) which ring like crystal, plus what appears to be a small goldfish bowl blown from fairly thick cranberry glass. That set me back $3, I imagine because it's cranberry glass, and people will buy it. I wanted it for the oddity value. I wonder what it was originally for?

This has been on the news here. The guys at a paint shop noticed a kitten was stuck down their drain. They tried several ways of getting him out, but he wouldn't climb up the knotted cloth that they lowered, and he backed away when they tried to grab him. They tried to dig him out, but he kept going further away down the pipe. They finally called the septic tank people. They brought their giant vacuum, and sucked the kitty right out of the drain!

He's completely unhurt, and is going to be the shop cat now :) For the rest of his life, he'll prolly be one of those cats that hides in terror whenever the vacuum cleaner starts, and with better reason than most.

http://www.nbc4i.com/midwest/cmh/news.apx.-content-articles-CMH-2008-06-18-0014.html

*****

I'm fairly sure my vacuum cleaner is powerful enough to pick up Flaster, but I'm also fairly sure he'd be completely traumatized if I tried. He'll tolerate the thing as it is - he watches nervously if it comes near, but doesn't run away and hide anymore when I vacuum.

*****

There's ice on Mars! That's amazing to look at - a thick white water ice layer right below the surface.

I was determined to change the sheets. Flaster was determined to lay on the mattress. We're both about equally stubborn. Fitted sheets fit poorly when they have a cat under them.

So, Flaster drew my attention to the Cat Fountain. The impeller was making this cavitating noise that generally means it's low on water. I picked up the box of kibble and dumped a generous portion into the fountain, then continued on into the kitchen to make breakfast. I noticed Flaster sitting there giving me this "WTF?" look, played back the last 10 seconds or so in my head, and realized what I'd done.

The strange thing is that I was thinking about water while I poured in the kibble. It was just...weird.

It was just a few weeks ago that I remarked that people 50 years from now will wonder why the hell we had to put LEDs in everything we own. Presenting the Faucet Light! This would actually be mildly useful for getting a drink in the dark, I suppose, although most people can judge the fullness of the glass by the sound.

*****

When Flaster is lying down, I can place stacks of coins in front of him. He'll look at them for a second, then give them a little push with his paw, just enough to make them fall over. If I start stacking coins on top of him, though, he immediately gets up and moves.

*****

I got Viagra spam from "Randy N. Long" and "Roger R. Goode". Someone's amusing himself :)

*****

So, Charles and Camilla are going back home. If you Brits decide you don't want 'em, we'd be happy to take 'em :)

*****

The supermarket where I shop turns off the elevator music late at night, and they play whatever the nightcrew happens to fancy, and at a respectable volume. Usually it's top 40, but the other night I was shopping, and they were playing what sounded like some sort of horror movie soundtrack. Just as I'd selected a package of meat - Dunh-Dunh-DUHHHHHH!!! I went with the moment, put that one back, and picked out a different one :)

*****

The ESA venus probe is safely on its way. Oddly, the BBC keeps calling the launcher a "Soyuz". I always heard that rocket called either an R-7 or (with the long second stage) an SL-4. "Soyuz", I thought, was just the capsule. Websites prove unhelpful. Does anyone know very much about Russian space equipment and nomenclature?

Flaster never did like to be brushed. He's quite happy to have his fur plucked at, though, so I used to do that to him at night to help remove the loose fur, and keep him from having hairballs so often. Now I've discovered that even though he doesn't like to be brushed, he very much likes to be combed with a fine tooth comb, which sheds him better than a brush anyway. He lies there with his eyes closed, purring loudly and drooling while I comb him :) This usually takes place in bed, so I end up with a little drooly place beside my pillow.

*****

Flaster likes to prop himself up against me, then sit there and lick his butthole. I should probably be flattered that he's that comfortable with me.

*****

They've rescued the last of the eight Dolphins whose tank was destroyed in Katrina.

*****

I should be happier about the planned lunar missions, but I have a hard time believing that they really intend to carry through. If they really meant to do it, they'd be aiming for 2010 or so, instead of putting it off until 2018. On the bright side, they're going back to ballistic re-entry capsules with escape towers, which is good. I'm pleased with the simplicity of the design, and the orbital rendezvous, as opposed to single vehicle, design. It's good to see a return to sensible vehicle design. One could wish that they'd fallen back to the Titan (or some other hypergolic fueled design) for the manned launches, instead of the SRB/hydrogen combination. It'll be nice to have a huge old heavy lifter again. It's a shame it'll run on hydrogen instead of kerosene, though. The Saturns always looked like flying volcanoes, an effect that I found pleasing.

*****

NOAA sez: THE VERY FAVORABLE UPPER-LEVEL OUTFLOW PATTERN AND 30C-31C SSTS BENEATH RITA SUGGEST THAT RAPID INTENSIFICATION SHOULD CONTINUE FOR AT LEAST ANOTHER 24 HOURS. [...] STRENGTHENING INTO A CATEGORY 5 HURRICANE IS A DISTINCT POSSIBILITY. How jolly.

There's a girl on the MLP board who lives in Texas City, TX, famed for having been blown up more often than any other American city. Now they're about to be hurricaned. A significant percentage of the world's ethylene cracking capacity is in Texas City as well. When I used to work for Western, every time one of the Texas City refineries blew up, the price of ethylene derivatives would go through the roof. I can only imagine if they all go offline at once.

Something fun I can do with Flaster: If I pet him until his eyes are half-shut, then put the tip of my finger against his nosepad, his eyes slowly get wider and wider, until he suddenly jerks backward and shakes his head.

*****

Some years back I had a brief brush with infamy by meeting the cousin of the original "stupid with a flare gun" who burned down Frank Zappa's concert hall in Montreux. We're going to have to assume that 'Smoke on the Water' isn't a rock standard in Argentina.

*****

Tonight at the gas station I saw what I'm pretty sure was a Mayfly. Apart from the snowstorm and accompanying week of cold weather, it's been a very pleasant winter. Even so, this is remarkable.

*****

And now I've had a LiveJournal for a year :)

So, last night I was making hard sugar candy for Christmas, the sort that involves dumping oil of peppermint into a 150C sugar solution before pouring it out on a cookiesheet to cool. I make this stuff every year, but I've always been in a much larger house or apartment. The current place is small. I should have taken that into account in my planning. Under the circumstances, I also probably shouldn't have made a double batch.

The kitchen is always unbearably pepperminty after the candy is poured. This time, though, the whole apartment got that way. Flaster ran into my bedroom and hid. Literally every inch of my skin was cool and tingly with that 'peppermint' feeling, the one that you get in your mouth from eating peppermint. This was like whole body immersion, though. It's a weird sensation, and impossible to adequately describe. Today my clothes smell of peppermint :)

What's interesting too is that peppermint oil makes me cough, but cinnamon oil makes me sneeze.

If I ever become an evil overlord, I'll celebrate Xmas by putting my enemies into the Peppermint Chamber....

*****

On the bright side, if the place ever catches fire and fills with acrid smoke, I now know where Flaster will go to hide.

*****

Adapted from a reply to a friend's LJ. I think it stands on its own, though:

I think in general Brits and Commonwealthers undervalue the importance of the Monarchy to a stable and civil society. The Canadians I know seem consistently appalled at just how feral and vicious Americans can be, yet these very same people will sneer and turn their nose up at any mention of the Queen, professing (and apparently believing) that the rule of the common man is the sure cure for all evils.

If you look at the United States today, this is where you get with the rule of the common man. We're rich and powerful, but mainly because we never let any consideration of decency or the rights of the weak stand in our way. God help you if you can't defend what's yours. We talk a lot about how rights and dignity derive from natural law, but the concept of the inalienable rights of man didn't really help the indians much whenever they had anything that we wanted; nor does it seem to help the poor very much when they can be exploited for gain.

When you give up the Monarchy, you free everyone to do anything the majority dictates, and is capable of enforcing. Anything. Americans are taught from the cradle to worship that idea without thinking, and way too many Commonwealthers seem to think it's a recipe for Utopia. In reality it's the law of the jungle in fancy dress.

The existence of the Queen somehow protects the weak and exploitable. The indians are Her subjects, just as the poor are. I think that single concept - that your fellow citizens are also answerable to and in the care of the Queen, just as you are - is the single most important difference between the US and the Commonwealth. The Canadians never slaughtered their indians en masse like we did. They don't let their poor die for lack of medical care and housing like we do. They *could* do those things - they elect their government more or less as we do. They don't though, and I think the concept of everyone being the Queen's subjects is why.

*****

Last night I dreamed that I was riding along in a sort of open-topped jalopy with my mother and my stepfather. We had a flat tire, and stopped at this little service station to get it fixed. The owner was very old, and had some model racing cars on display. These turned out to be models of cars that he'd either driven or crewed. One of them represented a racing motorcycle welded to the side of a modified stock car kind of like a sidecar, except that the car and motorcycle both had an engine and driver. He explained that they raced like this in 1947, but then gave up on the idea because it didn't work too well. He had a kind of hobby store in there too mixed in with the service station, but I couldn't find a model of the car-motorcycle hybrid. I ended up buying some WWI British soldiers in 33mm scale. He also had a glass floor with electric trains beneath it.

I should probably draw the hybrid. I pictured it very vividly, and in colour. It was a late 30s sedan with amateurish sheet metal fairings added on, painted red and blue. Sitting here writing this, I just realized that the colour scheme was based on the Noc-Out Hose Clamp Special from the 1941 Five Hundred, but using darker glitter shades. I can just see this on the cover of some old Lindberg models box.

*****

I need to finish my model of Dan Gurney's Ford GT40. It was coming along nicely, then everything else intervened. Maybe I'll work some on that over Thanksgiving.

*****

It's puerile, yet entertaining, to listen to 50s love songs, and mentally replace occurrences of the word 'kiss' with 'kick', then imagine it acted out as a music video.

*****

Equally, I've never been able to listen to the line about 'raise her head [to give her] one last kiss' from "Teen Angel" without picturing the hero hunting around after the wreck and picking up his girlfriend's decapitated head. Apart from that one unfortunate image, it's a very moving song.