Oh, look! Blogger loves me after all!

I haven't a clue what's been going on lately, but Blogger has not wanted me to blog apparently. Which hasn't been a real hardship, since real life hasn't wanted me to have time for blogging either.

To catch up...

The dog is doing much better, though only time will tell if this is a remission of something serious or a clearing up of something [mostly] innocuous.

Curmudgeon cat is the same, still too thin, but 100% himself personality-wise, and elbows all the others out of the way whenever food is involved.

Speaking of food, I think I've mentioned that several of the interloper cats like brushing even more than they like yummy food, and a few of them won't come out of hiding for either of those enticements. I have finally found a foolproof method for counting noses on nights like this, when the weather is cold and rainy and expected to turn to ice, sleet, and snow. Catnip. It turns out that all 27 cats are drug fiends. And no, I don't think I have 54 cats, it's just that it looks that way when I bring out the herb supply. Meanwhile, all 136 of them are safe inside tonight.

David Axelrod, The White

Just a random factlet to brighten your day [or not] -- that's what my email inbox preview pane shortens Axelrod's 'from the White House' emails to.

If you type "over the cliff, onto the rocks"

into Yahoo, the second hit in the list goes to this post and the third goes to this post.

So, my 15 seconds of fame rests on a rant to, about, and at the Democratic Party and the propagation of a mutating gene meme.

Life is good.

Plush skulls! Charcuterie! Excited Delirium!

New favorite blogs:

• The Oyster's Garter, source of the video and the skulls, and marine biology
• Gallimaufree, suburban survival, complete with service dog
• Excited Delirium, Canada, with tasers
  

I don't get out much...

visited 4 states (1.77%)
Create your own visited map of The World or try another Douwe Osinga project

via

fridge poetry!

[for reference]

EFF: Legal Guide for Bloggers

I'm STILL a genius!

Always have been, always will be.



In other news, today I'm 83% dude. Apparently I've undergone a sex change since last year.

Tag! I'm it!

YOUR INSTRUCTIONS
(should you choose to accept this mission)
* Link to the person cat [Hi, Henry!] who tagged you.
* Post the rules on your blog.
* Write six random things about yourself.
* Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
* Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
* Let the tagger know when your entry is up.



Six random things about me... me me me! It's all about me! My favorite subject.

Hmmm... my work has taken me to some interesting places... I think I'll make the 6 random things work-related.

1. I once lost a show-down with a possum. I was collecting sewage samples at the time.


2. I used to have a security clearance of some kind, not the top one, but that's all I can remember about it. Do you get to keep these things for a lifetime?


3. I know where all some parts of the bodies are buried. I used to be a hazmat emergency responder, and once when we thought we were going to be digging up methyl ethyl bad shit, we found, um, medical waste instead.


4. I like cheese. This isn't work-related [so I lied], it's an obscure TV show reference.


5. I once lost a show-down with an alligator, a big one [the alligator, not the confrontation]. I was supposed to be harvesting tomatoes [collecting samples] at an experimental farm, in a plot that had been fertilized with... sewage sludge! [some days life can be really crappy] Instead, I spent the afternoon on the roof of the nearest shed, until somebody finally came along in a really big pickup truck.


6. The dog and I once raised a litter of orphaned kittens. They were so tiny they couldn't go more than a couple of hours or so without sustenance at first, and they needed to be kept warm, so I snuck them into work in a plastic storage container everyday [they didn't stay a secret for very long]. And did you know that very young kittens need help with their peeing and pooping? I didn't, but I read it on the intertoobz, so I followed instructions [also, I let the dog take care of this part as much as possible].
   

before food --

even with food in the offing, the black one stays out of camera range --

after food --

I've been really bad about keeping up with my bloggingbuds lately, so if you saw the above kittens, consider yourself tagged.

Eggheads Unite!

Just discovered: Carnival of the Elitist Bastards.

Hmmm... I think I could qualify for that one....

My new favorite blog

cleek

Not just because I too want a pony [h/t] but also for The Web's Golden Bounty, a collection of links to surf for. The bounty includes [but is not limited to]:

No-Knead Bread from Jaden's Steamy Kitchen [I've had a link to this blog in my sidebar for some time now]

Milking the Lizard brought to you by Coturnix, whose other mission in life is the Online Community Manager at PLoS-ONE (Public Library of Science). My job is to try to motivate you to comment on the papers there. [I've got a link to PLoS in my sidebar too]

Also via Coturnix, if you're alert enough, you might win a trip to the the greatest science city in the world.

Crappy Graphs! which is really just way too much fun, not crappy at all. If I ever use that site to make a real graph maybe you'll get to see it. Meanwhile, you can do what I did, which was to draw a bunch of crappy graphs and then refrain from hitting Submit.

Pissant provocateur, me.

ellroon: tag, you're it.
hipparchia: [blushing, because secretly i like validation as much as the next blogger does] hmph. i don't do these things.

The originator of this one, it turns out, echoes one of my own sentiments: that government should be divided. Also, thanks to DWSUWF, I now know what I am politically: a Dividist.

The Rules of the Partisan Pissant Provocateur Award:

1. Copy and link to this post (meaning these rules and the Award icon).
2. Reflect on five bloggers who cause you to gnash your teeth when reading their posts, but who you nevertheless feel compelled to return to and read time and again. Write a short sincere (or not) paragraph about each one.
3. Make sure you link this post so others can read it and the rules.
4. Go leave your chosen bloggers a comment and let them know they’ve been given the award.
5. Put the award icon on your site.
6. Did I mention you should link this post?

This award should make you reflect on five bloggers who have motivated you to unleash fire breathing partisan posts of your own. Carefully crafted logical arguments and good writing are a bonus but don't overlook particularly sharp satire, biting snark, or a high octane flamer. Try to keep the quality high, but in a pinch, feel free to substitute your basic journeyman partisan hack.

Let's get the terminology straight. We are not using the Merriam Webster definition of a pissant. We are instead using the Urban Dictionary's second definition:

Pissant - Little person blog with big attitude.

The following bloggers all have larger readerships than I, which makes it awfully hubristic of me to call them pissants, but if I chose blogs whose readership is smaller than mine, they wouldn't be worth reading. I'm obsessive enough to read catfood labels and toothpaste tubes, but I won't force you to do so. I chose 6 blogs so as to be able to break one of the rules [and also because governement should be divided].

The women. Smart. Outspoken. Their blogs make me gnash my teeth, not because I disagree with anything they say, but because they tackle issues like this and this so that I don't have to. Feminists all. You have been warned.

Trailer park feminist
In her own words: Trailer park is a 26-year-old (formerly teenage) mommy, wife, and feminist, liberal voter, living in Austin, Texas. If there are more voices like hers out there, representing the new wave of feminism, then feminism is in good hands.

Kindly Póg Mo Thóin
In her own words: Zuzu is fabulous. And she is. Truly.

Reclusive Leftist
In her own words: Dr. Violet Socks is a shadowy figure who, according to some sources, may not actually exist. Her former life as a bonne vivante and circus performer has now given way to a reclusive existence focused on writing and research. What could anybody possibly add to that?


The men. Thay're smart too. I may read tiny bloggers sometimes, but never stupid bloggers.

The Daily Whim
In his own words: [1] I used to think tomatoes were made from ketchup, in molds.
[2] I believed pencil sharpeners removed the old point, and replaced it with a fresh one. I came for the Michael Vick stories and stayed for the dry wit and gorgeous photos.

Who is IOZ
In his own words: IOZ is just a buddy helping his buddies out. Almost-anarchist, writes better than you do, cooks better than you do.

Build It From Scratch
In his own words: There are dog people. And then there are cat people. Puppylander is a dog person. Scratch my belly. Check for lint. Another almost-anarchist. I've had many a lengthy e-mail and IM, um, discussion with him on his blog topics already. I really need a hot key labelled post this convo to puppy lander's blog comments.


ps. i'm not tagging anybody. if you're any of the above and want to participate, please do, but otherwise feel free to pretend you weren't here.

Me! Me! Me! Me! Me! Me! Me! Me! Me!

I've been working on several lengthy and depressing posts for y'all, but got distracted. First by idiots while researching those lengthy and depressing posts, then by the Meme of 8, Conscientious Objector Sub-Sector.

1. All right, here are the rules.
2. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
3. Players start with ocho random facts/habits about themselves.
4. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their acht things and post these rules.
5. At the end of your blog, you need to choose oito people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

1. I'm in ur blogz, stealin all ur m3m3z! I have another blog, run by one of my sockpuppets [I have more sockpuppets than Imelda had shoes]. I lurk at other peoples' blogs, then post their memes on my blog, without telling them or tagging anyone. If you're missing one of your memes, you might find it over there.


2. I can say shit in 8 different languages.


3. I have 1 pair of steel-toed boots, and an uncounted number of flipflops. Mostly I go barefoot.


4. I rescue elderly and abused dogs. So why is my place full of kittens?


5. I was raised by Republicans.


6. I like to blow stuff up. It's why I got the chemistry degree.


7. I don't see in 3-D the way most people do, but I'm better than you are at visualizing complex 3-dimensional objects from 2-dimensional drawings.


8. Mensa wants me. They can't have me.


9. There is a kitten attacking my bare foot as I type this.

I [heart] Digby.

Especially now that I know she's a grrrl.

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