I am upset by the names of her brothers.
It is not clear where they belong,
where she belongs.
Close to the family,
to their heritage,
or off on the mean streets of cities
or nestled among the trees
barely out of Nature's reach?
Does history begin in a stranger's room
with dyed red hair
and a black dress
and words that no one wants to hear?
It doesn't seem finished
It doesn't seem to have begun
The eyes are all around
And I am tired.
Personal
Sick days, the mighty hunter and "this hole in the ground"
I've been a little under the weather the last couple of days. Actually, more than a little. Mostly just resting and recuperation, with Luna?s help, of course. That is, when she?s not too busy looking out the window or hunting bugs, which she spent a lot of time doing yesterday and today. There was one large fly in the window that she became quite obsessed with, tracking it and swatting. Took a while for the mighty hunter to finally catch her quarry.
I did read some more from Hofstadter's Metamagical Themas (which I briefly discussed in an earlier post). I would like to share some interesting thoughts from that as soon as I feel up to the task.
Of course, one can?t spend the entire time on intellectual pursuits, however recreational; so Luna and I also caught up on some DVDs:
I pretty much use the TV as a DVD viewer, I don?t have any television service. So I?m not really up on either current popular programs, nor what?s going on in TV and cable news. Aside from the occasional good drama that I can rent on DVD anyway, it doesn?t seem like I?m missing much, especially when it comes to television news. However, TV news does intrude into other domains however, for example, I found several references online to this commentary by Keith Olbermann. As a follow up to my [post from a few days ago], I provide the following quote which mirrors not only what I have been thinking with frustration not only about the big empty space in New York, but about what happened (or failed to happen) politically in the past few years:
Five years later this space is still empty.
Five years later there is no memorial to the dead.
Five years later there is no building rising to show with proud defiance that we would not have our America wrung from us, by cowards and criminals.
Five years later this country's wound is still open.
Five years later this country's mass grave is still unmarked.
Five years later this is still just a background for a photo-op.
It is beyond shameful.
I strongly recommend reading or viewing the whole article in its entirety.
Like I said, I'm pretty out of it when I comes to TV and cable news personalities, so I'm reading a lot of this for the first time. Seems like he?s a bit of an anti-O?Reilly but a bit more civilized. His recent commentaries have earned him a fair amount of praise at several internet outlets that I read; but not surprisingly a lot of flak from the right. He even has his own anti-fan site, though who doesn't these days?.
I'm also curious about this whole “worst person in the world” thing…does he take suggestions?
Worthless Kitty Semi-Redux: Selfish Cat Video
A friend emailed this to me months ago, and it's been one of my favorite net videos since (though that muppet-anime mashup is pretty classic, too):
There's nothing like watching a cute kitten get the better of a canine rival to brighten one's spirits…
Worthless Kitty Backfill: Mana-Mana!
This mashup of gritty anime with the Muppet Show is just too classic to pass up:
Apparently it has been making the rounds online, and was even picked up by a PBS Online article. I wonder if that somehow gives the clip a left-wing bias…
For those who are not familiar with the original sketch for the Muppet Show, here it is:
I actuallly remember this scene and probably too many others from this classic show. It really had an edge that keeps it fun well into adulthood. How many contemporary children's shows can say that?
Worthless Kitty Redux: April 6, 2006
Excerpted from an article originally posted elsewhere on April 6, 2006:
I was anticipating being a wreck tonight, but actually I'm somewhere between at peace and numb. Having a glass of wine, listening to one of my favorite nighttime CDs (Xenakis Electronic Music from the 50s and 60s). Luna must be somewhere nearby, but she's earned a little time to herself after cuddling and purring w/ me for well over an hour straight. She's really good that way.
I was looking out my bedroom window earlier – mostly dark, except for the nighttime glow off the sides of the houses and buildings and bright spot of neon and fluorescent lighting from the convenience store nestled in the middle of them. For a moment, it seemed like I was living somewhere on the edge of a large city (as opposed to simply “on the edge”).
In contrast, on this night I'm pretty relaxed and content, and instead of Xenakis I'm listening to the soothing sounds of the dishwasher.