Saturd80's

David Bowie, Cat People (Putting Out Fire):

Stray Cats, Stray Cat Strut:

The Tokens, The Lion Sleeps Tonight:

Tangerine Dream, Tyger (Embedding disabled, link only)

Deer Cookies

Identifying information wiped, except for the guilty party.

Stressing and Feeling Shakey

I haven't slept since I woke up yesterday morning, despite trying a couple times last night, for a couple hours each time. Aside from simply feeling tired, the consequence of sleep deprivation in my experience is that intellectually I feel sluggish and impaired, but emotionally I feel flighty and volatile. It's extremely unpleasant. Which is a lead up to this: I'll be going home before too much longer, and I've been grappling for a while now with the fact that she won't be there when I walk in the door.

Ever again.

Waaaaaah...

"No One Could Have Anticipated..."

The go-to phrase for the new millennium.

• No one could have anticipated Bin Laden was determined to strike inside the US
• No one could have anticipated New Orleans was so vulnerable to a major hurricane- though my first-term geo prof spent 10-15 minutes discussing said vulnerability... lecturing in Oregon, not the southeast... in 1981.
• No one could have anticipated attempting to privatize social security would drive down the ratings of the president trying to do so.
• No one could have anticipated deregulating banks, investment firms and insurance companies would lead to fraudulent lending, use of the loans as investments, and overconfident insurance of those investments, leading to an economic crisis.
  
• No one could have predicted that reneging on numerous campaign promises and continuing policies created by a deeply unpopular predecessor would tarnish the glow of a promising new president.
  
• No one could have anticipated...
  

Yada, yada, yada, I could continue this list for the better part of the day and still have examples left. But the one I wanted to get to was this:

• No one could have anticipated that not enforcing safety regulations, administering agencies tasked with enforcement with members of the regulated industries, and allowing lobbying for exemptions by the same industries, in a potentially phenomenally dangerous and destructive activity could lead to, well, phenomenal destruction.

Via NYT's Green Blog:

“The containment story thus contains two parallel threads,” the commission staff wrote in a summary passage in their 39-page reconstruction of the four-month effort to kill the Macondo well. “First, on April 20, the oil and gas industry was unprepared to respond to a deepwater blowout, and the federal government was similarly unprepared to provide meaningful supervision.

“Second, in a compressed time frame, BP was able to design, build and use new containment technologies, while the federal government was able to develop effective oversight capacity. Those impressive efforts, however, were made necessary by the failure to anticipate a subsea blowout in the first place,” the report concluded.

Headline, 2040: "No one could have anticipated the drastic sea-level rise and increasing severity of extreme weather events."

Yeah, no one could have anticipated. Shame, that.

Why Bother?

Because I'm curious, I guess is the answer. This poll is up for the next couple of days at The Guardian, and while there was no doubt in my mind what the verdict would be, I wanted to see how lopsided it was. I'm sure at some point, Faux News has posted a poll question along the lines of "Is Obama a socialist?" The outcome there would be in no doubt to me either, but again, I'd be curious to see what the ratio was.
The point is, these sorts of things are quite meaningless. I saw and took this poll because my political leanings are more in line with The Guardian's than with Faux's, and their poll which I didn't see and take part in. It's OK if they pique your curiosity, but don't take them seriously. Oh, yeah: I voted "no" to see the results. But you knew that.

RIP Ozma, ~Early 2005 - November 21, 2010

We had a good run, she and I. I know her life turned out much better than it might have for having adopted me, and my life was much better as well.

Iris contacted a local vet, and found we could get an emergency exam for $90, and given the circumstances, if euthanasia looked to be the best option, the doctor would do it for free. Ozma was emaciated, her temperature was about 10 degrees F hypothermic, she was severely anemic and dehydrated. The vet's prognosis was that even if money was no issue, Ozma's chances were extremely poor. She said that euthanasia truly was the best option. I could tell Friday that she was going fast; I'm not inclined to discuss the reasons because I'm still kind of traumatized by it all. I really didn't expect her to make it until this morning.

In short, I had already come to a certain degree of acceptance that her time had come.

The end was very peaceful. I held her in my arms, and scratched her ears and neck; she looked up once as the fluid entered the catheter, but she didn't protest. She lifted her head one last time so I could scratch her chin and jaw. Then she relaxed and it was over.

She had spent nearly 30 continuous hours in my lap, arms, and bed. Unless I set her down- in which case, she would start crying piteously- she didn't express discomfort or pain. But she was scared and uncomfortable, and both of us were suffering. That's over now, at least for her. Knowing that helps me face my own sorrow.

Below are three pictures I took last night, expecting not to see her today. She looks very relaxed, and that posture of hugging my left arm has been her mode since she discovered what human laps were intended for.

Goodnight, Ozma. You were a blessing I never expected, and will never forget.

Unfunny Sunday

Sorry to all who wait for this feature, but my cat is dying. I really expected her to pass last night, but she's still hanging on, however miserable and afraid she may be. So I'm just holding her until she's gone; with the exception of bathroom breaks, she's been in my lap or curled up beside me for nearly a full day now. No funnies today.