Month: October 2007

I saw this on Cute Overload. It was made by Simon Tofield. My cat Buddy does the patting the face thing. When he does it his nails are ever so slightly extended, not enough to pierce the skin but enough to give his pat some bite.

All praise Simon Tofield. Who absolutely must have a cat, this is so true to life (except for the bat, of course).

Four more days of giving him medicine four times a day. I wish I could tell him. Sigh.

I’m actually feeling bad for Watson, who lost his post at Cold Spring Harbor and now will be remembered for his remarks about race as much as his DNA discovery. He’s trying to apologize for them, but there doesn’t seem to be any getting around his implication that blacks are genetically inferior. I did note that he didn’t say better or worse, he just said different, and different is neutral. But then he made that comment about black employees (“people who have to deal with black employees find this is not true,” that we are equal). And saying we are not equal feels less neutral, except that was the reporter paraphrasing so to be fair we should hear the whole thing in context. But he also made that comment about being gloomy about Africa, although I have no idea what he was trying to say, except again it was about not being equal.

It’s upsetting when thinking people think ugly things.

Should I go to the library today? Maybe I should. It looks like a nice day for a walk. It’s probably a three mile walk there and back so I always feel like I got my exercise in for the day when I go to the library. Part of the reason I’m such a walker is because my step-father had terrible terrible problems with his legs, and his doctors always told him walking would help and he just never really took that advice, and suffered greatly as a result.

Just try. I mean come on. Look at this face!! And that is after giving him medicine four times a day. He luuurrrvvves you. You must luuurrrvvve him back.

I was just talking about this on Echo, but someone posted a line-up of Halloween movies and I had this wonderful flashback to a Halloween from my past. I was in high school, and a bunch of us went to a midnight movie double feature. I just flashed on us all sitting up in the balcony screaming, throwing food, laughing. It was just fun in that high-school-act-like-an-idiot and do it very loudly way. One of the movies was The Night of the Living Dead, which I was seeing for the first time. ACK.

This year I will drum in the Village Halloween Parade, as I’ve been doing since I was 40.

But now I’m thinking I’d like to do something afterwards. Rocky Horror on 8th Street would have been perfect, but that theatre closed, what? Ten or more years ago?? Actually, because of the parade that theatre would have been impossible to get to. I have to find something on the west side. The problem is, even if I do find something, all my friends are like me and they are going to want to stay in and hole up on Halloween. I’m not sure anyone is going to be swayed by the “Come on! Let’s go to scary movies and act like assholes! It will be fun! pitch.

And by “save me” I mean read all the books I need to read and give me the highlights. I can’t believe how many books I’ve read, skimmed, glanced at, while writing this book about the Duke Lab. And everyday I find more.

Today I decided I must read this book written by Chris Carter (creator of The X Files). It’s called Parapsychology and the Skeptics, and I read an excerpt and it just looks like one that should not be missed. Then there’s another one called Extraordinary Knowing: Science, Skepticism, and the Inexplicable Powers of the Human Mind, by Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer, who died right before it came out.

I’ve started and need to finish: Entangled Minds by Dean Radin, a physicist, because I need to understand the quantum issues, Parapsychology: The Controversial Science by Richard Broughton, the title explains why I need to read it, and Memoirs of a Psychic Spy by Joe McMoneagle, because he’s been answering some questions via email, and they’ve been some pretty interesting answers.

So yeah. Feeling overwhelmed. And this is all for the epilogue that may only amount to a few pages. I just want to cry. I can’t take it anymore!! All of you out there writing books (except for me): STOP.

I found the picture of my band on Flickr. God, I’m vain. But I love finding pictures of myself.

I was browsing Flickr for pictures of my band, Manhattan Samba, and I came across this one by Marcos Vasconcelos. This is my favorite samba picture ever.

I just love how lightly his fingers hold the drumstick, but the muscles in his forearm show how much strength is really there. And the implication of talent that is in this gesture, and all the hard work and dedication that he must have put in to get there, to be able to grip the drumstick with such subtlety. Actually, I’m assuming this is a guy, but I guess it could be a girl. It looks like a guy though, right?

In other news: I have to give Finney medicine four times a day. Mother of God. I mean Holy Mary Mother of GOD. There’s a pharmacy nearby which will flavor medicine for kids and I found out they will do the same for cats. So I took the medicine there and it is now tuna-flavored. If nothing else, it’s kinda cool that there’s a place that will do that for you.