Books Lying Open
¤ The Year's Best Horror and Fantasy, 2001, Editors: Terri Datlow and Ellen Windling
¤ A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin
¤ A Clash of Kings, George R. R. Martin
¤ Shelters of Stone, Jean M. Auel
¤ The Complete Tales and Poems, Edgar Allen Poe
¤ Abarat, Clive Barker
¤ Hearts in Atlantis, Steven King
¤ Everything's Eventual, Steven King

Soul-Devouring Worry
¤ Inflicting the itchies with my chest stubble.

Curse of the Day:
¤ May the used book giveaway lead directly to a shortage of shelf space.

Phrase of the Moment:
¤ Phrase: "mostly".
¤ Usage: "They mostly come out at night.  Mostly."
¤ Synonyms: N/A
¤ Deviations: Most any qualifying word you can use in a sentence, and then repeat afterwards for extra emphasis.  Eg: "probably," "sometimes," and so on.
¤ Origin: Newt's famous line in Aliens.
¤ Notes: Cribbed from Cartman who cribbed it from Aliens, this word and it's deviations spice up most any conversation.  Malaya and I have developed it to a science, where one of us will speak a viable sentence, and then after a momentary pause we'll both repeat the repeatable word in almost perfect harmony.  Yes, we realize how sickeningly cutesy this is. 

The best usage yet? When I said, after we saw the results of this boxing match: "Who kicked Oscar de la Hoya's ass tonight?
*pause*
*M and F speak together*
"Mosley." -- September 18, 2003

My question for you guys is about this:  He said he'd send me any EA game I wanted, for free, in exchange for taking the time to answer his questions.  Since the only EA games I can think of are the various "E... A... Sports... It's in the game!" ones you see TV commercials for all the time, and I'm not interested in Madden 2004, what should I ask for? Does anyone know of any new or recent or classic EA games that are super great and worth me taking the time to answer his questions?

Or if it's nothing I want but something you're dying for, we could work out some sort of site donation deal in return for me giving your address to the EA guy.  You'd probably get on their PR mailing list and receive free annoying crap for the rest of your life!

Random news stuff up here, part two of Jinx down below.

There's not much to say about this picture other than what you see.  I enjoyed it, anyway.  Insert a "why don't they make the plane out of the same stuff as the black box" type joke about "why didn't they make the house out of the same stuff as the stairway" here, if you feel the need.

A stairway that formerly led to a beachfront home's deck is all that remains after Hurricane Isabel struck South Nags Head on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, September 19, 2003. Up to 13 people have perished and 4.5 million homes and business are without power from the Carolinas to New York in Isabel's wake. REUTERS/Jason Reed

In recent news I didn't bother to comment on, Senator Ted Kennedy made some comments and allegations about the Iraq Attack that were the harshest criticisms (from anyone of power in the US) of the whole Bush Administration effort to date.

I didn't have any special reason not to comment, it just didn't come up that day. I read a fair amount of (US) political news, but I figure most readers of this site want more humor or sarcastic stuff or real life events or book/movie reviews; things that really bear my personal writing style signature.  Plus lots of readers are from countries outside of the US, and don't really care about internal US politics, other than devoutly hoping that Bush will be removed from office as soon as possible (hatred of Dubya is pretty much world-uniting). Therefore I try to only comment on political or US or world news stuff if it's something that I really feel compelled to mention, or it's weird and wacky, or it's huge news, or it's a slow day and I'm lacking for other content.

This explanation/introduction is going nowhere, but my point is that I post just a small fraction of the political stuff I could post on, since I figure it's not really what most of you guys come here to read about. And I only mention this since a friend mentioned the recent denials by Bush and Rumsfeld that Saddam had anything to do with the 9/11 plane hijackings, as well as denials by them that they'd ever said Saddam had such a role.  It was interesting since those denials appeared several days after VP Cheney spent most of a nationally-televised weekend interview talking about how they were still sure Saddam had ties to Al Queda, and how they'd found more information about it since the Iraq Attack, and so on.

What makes this interesting is that Bush and others spent much of the pre-Iraq Attack talking up the alleged links between Iraq and Al Queda, and many news organizations (FOX especially) endlessly reported their comments while very seldom pointing out that there was no proof of such connections.  And that continued for many months, to the point that according to various recent surveys, most Americans now believe that Saddam/Iraq was intimately involved in the 9/11 attacks.  Despite the fact that this is patently and demonstrably untrue.

The blog discussion that I've seen has mostly focused on why Bush and Rummy are now fessing up to reality, after they pushed a lie for so long.  A lie that was very politically successful, at least in the US, in keeping support for the "War on Terror" strong enough to get the Bush/neo-cons long-desired Iraqi Invasion underway.

My take is that it's pretty simple.  Bush and others in his organization pushed the lie since it kept support for their underlying goals strong in the US. They knew that Iraq had almost nothing to do with Islamic Fundamentalism terrorism, and especially the 9/11 hijackings, and they never actually said they had proof that Saddam was involved, but they mentioned the two in the same sentence repeatedly enough that the connection was made in the minds of most Americans, to whom the whole Middle East and terrorists and Muslims are all just a more or less identical/interchangable blur.  Now that the war is over (sort of) and the Democrats are discovering a spine and the media is beginning to cover the issue a bit critically, Bushco was finding it inconvenient to have such obvious lies attributed to them.  So they refuted the biggest lies, giving themselves deniability, and hoping this would take the heat off.  After all, they already got their Iraqi Invasion and major US military presence in the Middle East and took care of Saddam (sort of).  There's no need to keep people believing that he was behind 9/11 as well.

Anyway, that was a total digression, and I shall now return to my initial point, which was that I don't post as much political stuff as I could.  A point I went on to prove by writing 6 long paragraphs about political stuff.

No no, actually my point was the Ted Kennedy comments on the Iraq Attack, some off which are predictable and nothing most left-wing bloggers haven't been saying for about 6 months, and some of which are very provocative and interesting.

The case for going to war against Iraq was a fraud "made up in Texas" to give Republicans a political boost, Sen. Edward Kennedy said Thursday.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Kennedy also said the Bush administration has failed to account for nearly half of the $4 billion the war is costing each month. He said he believes much of the unaccounted-for money is being used to bribe foreign leaders to send in troops. He called the Bush administration's current Iraq policy "adrift."

That's the stuff that got headlines and commentary.  The part I thought juiciest was more detailed:

Kennedy said a recent report by the Congressional Budget Office showed that only about $2.5 billion of the $4 billion being spent monthly on the war can be accounted for by the Bush administration.

"My belief is this money is being shuffled all around to these political leaders in all parts of the world, bribing them to send in troops," he said.

Now that I want to hear more about.  The exorbitant and wasteful Iraqi expenses are not supposed to be some sort of private slush fund for the already-bumbling administration to throw at other countries in a desperate effort to get some other troops there and get some US troops home before US popular support for the occupation dissolves entirely. I like the rest of the stuff Kennedy said a lot.

Of the $87 billion in new money requested by President Bush for the war, Kennedy said the administration should be required to report back to the Congress to account for the spending.

"We want to support our troops because they didn't make the decision to go there ... but I don't think it should be open-ended. We ought to have a benchmark where the administration has to come back and give us a report," he added.

Kennedy said the focus on Iraq has drawn the nation's attention away from more direct threats, including al-Qaida, instability in Afghanistan or the nuclear ambitions of North Korea.

Can anyone argue with any of this, other than by making insults or trying to change the subject?  Apparently not, to judge by the Republican efforts thus far. Tom Delay avoided the issues and made typical jingoistic comments.  Kennedy eviscerated him in short order:

Kennedy dismissed DeLay's comments, saying that once again GOP leaders are avoiding questions about Bush's policies "by attacking the patriotism of those who question them."

Which put the ball back into the Republicans' court.  Bush is going to give it a try in an interview that will air Monday night, but if this is any indication of the strength of his comments, he sounds pretty impotent as well.

"I don't mind people trying to pick apart my policies, and that's fine and that's fair game," Bush said in the interview that will air Monday night. "But, you know, I don't think we're serving our nation well by allowing the discourse to become so uncivil that people say — use words that they shouldn't be using."

So um, where is the whole "he's wrong, and here's why" part? Isn't Dubya going to even defend his policies?  Or deny the "bribery" allegations that Kennedy made?  Isn't resorting to a "that's not very nice" defense a tacit admission that everything Kennedy said is true?  Perhaps he gets too it later in the interview...

Sunday she was sleepy for most of the day, since it was pretty hot, and Dusty periodically slunk in and then slunk back out of the room.  He was getting gradually less worried, and instead of crouching 10 feet away and growling and hissing, he would get to within several feet, and only hiss if the little kitty came too near him. He's clearly fascinated with her, always watching and waiting, but he seems at a loss what to do next, other than feel uneasy if she gets too close.  He's good at feeling uneasy.

All Sunday afternoon it was too hot to chase things, so the as-of-then unnamed little girl spent most of the day sitting on my lap while I watched football or crap on VH1 about the top 50 record albums of all time (That old Stones album cover with the zipper fly crotch in jeans was #1 ever, and the photo is of some anonymous model the art director hired; it's not Mick Jagger or anything like that.  See, I learned something on the teevee!) and the top 50 funniest moments in music humor (Spinal Tap was #1, Weird Al #3), or read a magazine.  Lap cat training is well under way! 

Sunday evening, once it began to cool down, she got more active, as did Dusty.  He kept coming into the living room and watching her, and occasionally walking over to sniff noses. She would stand up and arch, but not hiss and not retreat. Dusty would slink over, walking in a weird low-backed way, and sniff, and then after about 3 seconds he'd hiss and back off, sending little girl into more back arching.

The most interaction was a time when she discovered that she could walk over the nanoball and get in behind some sections of the bookshelf.  Dusty was lying on the floor by the TV when she did this, and with her out of sight he came over to see where she'd gone.  His looming presence sent her back into the books in fear, though she hung in there with a bit of flattened ears and angry body language.  When he came closer she backed into the books, out of reach, and Dusty didn't pursue, having no real interest in touching her. When he turned and hissed, she cringed like you see here, here eyes aglow with terror!  Or possibly the reflection of the camera flash.

I figure she got plenty of paw/eye coordination hitting the bouncy toy in the pet store, but she didn't get to run any in the cage or play area.  She is at least 3 or 4x more coordinated now than she was in the store, and seems very sure on her feet and runs a lot. Up and down the hallway just for fun, leaping up and down from chair and the sofa, etc.  She was born to someone who donated her to the shelter, and she was there for a few weeks, so realistically this is the first she's ever gotten to run and play at full speed. She just wasn't old enough to have the coordination for it when she was pre-pound, I don't think.

She's all legs and ears at this point, with a very tiny head and neck (her collar hardly stays on), and somewhat mangy, wispy fur.  She's not very soft, but we're sure that's just growing pains, and her pelt will fill in and become glossy and soft, and she'll probably be slightly long-haired.  She should also be pretty large, at least average size for a female, if not bigger.  That's fine, since Dusty is a tank.

Incidentally, the collar you see in these pictures is a temp.  She had a white plastic one on from the pound, which you see in some of the first photos. I cut that off and we put on a dark green one that Dusty used to wear and she's got that on in a few other photos, but it doesn't really compliment her pelt.  I think we're going to go with a bright red one, since that color goes well with gray and black, and the red magic marker we held up to her on Sunday night looked like a nice compliment.

Later Sunday evening, once Dusty went to bed with Malaya, the little kitty, by now officially named "Jinx," continued to get more and more trusting and loving.  She sat on my lap or next to me most of the day when I was on the couch or the floor, but she wouldn't sit on my lap when I was at the computer, in my office chair.  However come Sunday late night, she was all over me.  If I put her down she comes and sniffs at my legs and looks up at me, and if I pick her up she nestles down on my legs, her ears twitching as my fingers bang away at the keys.

Initially I was surfing and reading articles and she loved that, since I had a spare hand to stroke her ears and hold her up. She purrs like a lawn mower any time she's held for more than about 10 seconds, and just keeps going with it indefinitely, so long as she's happy. If I'd had an upset stomach I could have used her for a vibrator to soothe it, the way she was sawing off logs.  I didn't, and she kept curling up more and more and stretching more and more and pretty soon I was holding her entirely in my right hand as she slept and purred and rested on my thigh.  I had to hold her or she'd have fallen right off the side of the chair.

Yes, it was just adorable, and I surfed (and put off starting on the blog) at least an hour longer just so I didn't have to move her or wake her.  The cutest part was when she was deep into a dream.  Her back legs kept twitching a bit, sort of like muscle spasms, and that escalated to her front paws flexing a lot and her whole body giving little twitches.  Eventually she even made some tiny noises in her throat, and her lips started smacking. It was just so cute, and my heart was melting at the tiny little kitty, so trusting in my hand.

Which will make it all the more painful if Dusty doesn't come to his fucking senses and accept her and become friends.  He's the alpha male, he's the established cat, and though I might already like Jinx more, if only because she's got the whole kitten-cute thing going, and because she likes and trusts me more in a day than he does after 3 months, Dusty was here first and he's been Malaya's pet for years.  We got Jinx to be a friend for him and another fun cat to have, and I don't think we'll settle for Dusty barely tolerating her, so if they don't start to get along very well within two weeks, I'm afraid we'll have to take back Jinx.  And if we still want another kitty, we would probably try an older one, and a male, and hope that Dusty would get along better with that one.

His acceptance seems to be coming along, but it's still far from guaranteed.

Eventually on Sunday night I needed to put Jinx away, since she kept wanting to get back into my lap and I needed to get going on writing this before it was ridiculously late.  Since she was going into the bathroom eventually, I figured I'd just put her in there now.  So I got her a bowl of kitten chow and some water and the cat bed that neither she nor Dusty have voluntarily set foot in yet, and carried her in there.  (Since Sunday afternoon the challenge of catching her has been gone, since she'll happily come to you if you make any noise, and will stand still while you pick her up.  It was just a matter of getting her used to humans and winning her trust.)

Dusty chose that moment to emerge from the ajar bedroom door, and after a quick foray into the dining room to hit his food bowl, he went back to the bathroom door and began whining and pawing at it.  He obviously knew Jinx was in there and wanted to play, or sniff her, or something.  Of course he doesn't really, since when I opened the door to get him to shut up before his whining woke Malaya, he stuck his head in and smelled Jinx's nose, and hissed and growled. I shooed him away, which was hard with him slinking and wanting to lie down and roll over every two feet, and petted Jinx a minute before pushing her back in and closing the door.

About five minutes later I hear more weird noises and yes, Dusty is back at the door, pawing at it and growling and whining.  He doesn't so much growl at Jinx as make very low noises in his throat, practically ultrasounds, like the fricking song of the sperm whale. He sounds like a synthesizer or something non-organic, and when I pushed him away he just sort of rolled over and made more bizarre growls and whines and little mewing hisses, so I opened up the door and carried Jinx out into the living room.  Dusty immediately entered the bathroom and began chowing on her kitten food, which he can't have since it's too high calorie and he's fat enough already, so I returned to pick up her food and she followed me and more hissing commenced.  Keep in mind that I'm trying to keep things quiet so Malaya can sleep, and she's about 10 feet away on the other side of a half-open door.

Finally, after about 15 minutes of a keyboard-lusting Jinx on my lap, Dusty eats some more of his own crunchies and heads back into the bedroom.  Hoping he'll stay there this time, I return the restless Jinx to the bathroom and close the door, hoping she'll get a snack and go to sleep in the nice, dark, quiet bathroom. And hoping even more that Dusty will go to sleep in the bed. If you're wondering why I didn't just lock his black ass in the bedroom, you've never heard Dusty when he meets a closed door.  I might as well just have gone and banged a metal pot over Malaya's head.

At last he did stay in bed, and Jinxy stayed quiet in the bathroom, and with silence at last, I was able to write out this blog entry. Thus does recollection catch up to the present.

I've got lots more amusing tales of the Jinxers ready to go, including the great mythological name search that ended in divine failure, plus I'm sure there will be more amusement with the cowardly Dusty on Monday.  Plus we need to run her over to the vet to get her some other shots, and you know that trip will be somewhat eventful.  It's already paid for as part of the kitten adoption fee; we just have to find the time to do it.  Same with her rabies shot in a month, which we have to go back to the pound to get.

My question is if she dies before then, and Malaya or I are bitten by a slavering raccoon, can we go get the shot at the pound for the $5 we already paid as part of the kitten adoption fee?

--

More on Jinx and how she's getting along with the Dusters in Thursday's update.  The news is good, so never fear.

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