Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in The Grey Badger's LiveJournal:

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Sunday, April 27th, 2008
5:21 pm	More questions Which is the more ecologically sound book purchase? The huge hardbacked survey of everything that's wrong with the world, in it's own slipcase and with a foreword by Al Gore? Or the used mass-market paperback edition of "The Virtue of Selfishness?" Who is conserving fuel? The student with a vast collection of "student ghetto tupperware" in her kitchen cabinets? Or the one who got a piece of real hand-crafted Native pottery on her latest trip to the Rez? Who has the smaller carbon footprint? The guy who lives off the grid in the middle of the desert and feeds his wife and kids from their vegetable garden and free-range goats? Or the guy who lives alone in a one-bedroom apartment in a Central Avenue high-rise? (1 Comment |Comment on this)
4:44 pm	Quick questions: Which jacket shows you have the sounder grasp of ecological principles? The one made from recycled organic cotton in the rain forest? Or the wool business blazer you got at the local thrift store? Which coat: the clever one made from recycled soda bottles? Or your great-grandmother's fur? Over to you .... (1 Comment |Comment on this)
3:58 pm	Be green. Buy something. I've been reading some of the How To Be Green suggestions and a few of them are mind-boggling. My favorites are the ones suggesting that we get rid of our old ecologically incorrect things and replace them with new! Green-Created! Ultra-ecologically fashionable! products which certainly will give you green cred in certain circles. But --- ( Read more... ) (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, April 19th, 2008
1:23 pm	OFFER: (not for Freecycle, but....) OFFER: One 2007 release Companion Animal Toy, model B, black and white, extremely attractive. Also acts as an alarm clock. Currently programmed to wake you up at 6am; have been unable to reprogram. The soothing noises module has not yet been activated and the promised hours and hours of fun activating and developing the Socialization module has proven to be hours and hours of fumbling with the instructions manual. This CAT model 2007B has not been registered yet since I have been unable to meet the requirements to get it registered. Whenever I try, the hide-under-furniture subroutine is activated instead. Warning: retractable claws deploying regularly when the alarm system is activated, and unpredictably at other times, make this toy unsuitable for children. Other information: this Companion Animal Toy comes in two basic models, B and G, and in five basic colors: black, orange, white, brown, and gray. A number of multicolored models are available in various combinations. Please note that combinations including orange and black or orange and gray are only available for the Model G. Personality characteristics are the result of random programming within the limitations of the basic parameters. To obtain one of these delightful additions to your household, visit the website at www.ahanm.org or outside of the Albuquerque area, www.aspca.org. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
1:13 pm	From the wrong decision, a good result I have belonged to Weight Watchers for some time, but occasionally get a huge urge to backslide, usually in a very specific way. Today it was around lunch time and I wanted to visit a local fast food restaurant that specializes in seafood and was offering a $3 lunch in a basket. A smaller basket than most, which is good for my size appetite. Most of it tasted like the sort of food which is merely fuel for the body, and it required as much sauce as I could use, but the sauces available were ketchup, cocktail sauce, and tartar sauce. Aka mayo with some relish mixed in. The fish, now, that didn't taste like the flavorless stuff above. It tasted strongly like fish. In a coating of salt and grease. I think unless I am in the middle of nowhere and this is the only place to eat between, say, Las Vegas and Reno, I will not try this again. And that's the good result. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 17th, 2008
7:51 am	Updates I haven't been posting much. Things have felt very busy even though objectively, I'm living at a very slow pace indeed. Kitty update: Buster will let me pet him when we're in bed together. Lately, even when the light is on. Shadow has come onto the bed. I held out my hand for her to sniff and she let me pet her then, until Dufus hissed at her. Then she left, almost as if with a shrug. Becca tells me she'll get to the point where she doesn't want to let me go. School update: I seem to have rounded some sort of corner in Spanish. We had a homework assignment in which we were given a map and some directions in Spanish and asked to say which destination we ended up at. My notepad was covered, not with translations, but with crude sketches full of directional arrows. We were also asked to summarize articles from Spanish-language newspapers. No problem except I could not resist the temptation to editorialize a bit about Hugo Chavez' call for an all-Latin-American energy union. That is, I wrote "He did not say who would lead this union." My private reading of el Presidente is that he'd expect it to be him. He also wrapped himself in the mantle of Simon Bolivar and Emiliano Zapata, the latter for a Mexican audience. Como se dice "typical politician?" Weather update - off again, on again. Typical spring in the high desert. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008
11:24 am	More on the same subject WHY SHOULD I EVEN CARE? This place is not clean. I will not endure it. I am going outside. Why? Why do you even ask? Why do I wash myself so much? Because it feels good. Why do you ask? What has it to do with you? I will not eat this food. It is not the flavor I am used to. It is not the texture I am used to. Why does that bother you? I walk by myself. How else? Why do you want me to come when I'm called? What do you want of me, and - Why should I care? (Comment on this)
11:08 am	I speak: two stories CANTO ONE Hand that brings the food. It is time to eat. Where is the food? You are breaking my routine. This is not right. I will let you know It is time for food. Presence in the house. Sitting in my chair. That’s my chair. This is where I sit. That is not right. I will sit here even if it means I get on top of you. Warm thing in the night. I can lie next to you and have no fear. You do not move. You do not bother me. And you are warm. Familiar. I can sleep in peace. What are you doing? You know I hate the car. How dare you? Where are you taking me? Nasty place. Strangers, sticking me with needles. You won’t see me soon. People everywhere. What are all these strangers doing here? Making noise and sitting in my chair. Touching me. I’m hiding in the closet. Till they leave. CANTO 2 This is not my house. This is nobody I know. This is not right. This is not my chair or bed. And there are others like me here. I hate you all. I cannot learn a new place. I cannot eat at the wrong time. I cannot learn to get along with others. I do not know this person in charge And do not trust her. I have found a place to hide. I will live where nobody can find me. I will eat when I don’t have to deal with others. I will sleep throughout the day. Oh, you have done me wrong. I think I know where things are now. I think I recognize you, somewhat. I think I know these others. Even if you make me share with them. If I’m here, I’m here. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008
8:52 pm	Well, DUH! A while back, thinking that Shadow was living in the utility room (utilikitty room?) I moved the free feeder back there. Lately I've been worrying about never seeing her. Uh, what did I expect? Free feeder is back in the dining area where I can see her if she comes to feed there. I was musing last night on the virtues of my two senior cats as Faithful Feline Companions, probably because it will take a long time for the junior ones to even come close (if they ever do.) But Buster/Babs has given a kitty cold to Dufus. At least I hope it's only a kitty cold. Oh, if only I could catch him and get him in the carrier to take him to the vet! (Comment on this)
Friday, March 21st, 2008
6:22 pm	I don't care if she'll even make a pet I watch Animal Planet. I know that if any rescued animal is as terribly, terribly afraid of people as Shadow is, they reluctantly conclude that she's not adoptable and "humanely euthanize" her. [Which is at least better terminology than 'put her to sleep'.] Because if she can't relate to people, she will never be a good pet. Pets have to relate to people. I am content to know that she is safe under my roof and has access to food, water, and the cat box. I don't think the other cats have really ganged up on her, at least not while I'm here to hear them, or there'd be a lot more yowling than there is now. I'd *like* her to at long last come up on my lap and cuddle and purr, but it probably won't happen for a long time, if ever. Heavens - I'm still waiting for Babs to do that! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, March 20th, 2008
7:22 pm	Shadow sighting While I was out of town, my cat sitter spotted Shadow behind the washing machine. Meanwhile, Babs slept with me at nap time and put out a paw to hook me with. He still won't let me reach out a paw to pet him or (no, never) put a collar on him. Meanwhile I fed the three non-Shadow cats some of the leftover canned tuna. I can't do that for Shadow unless I know she's in the back room and lock the dor with the food inside. (Comment on this)
Thursday, March 13th, 2008
3:08 pm	A tale of 4 kitties Dufus Claudius was living in the mountains and kept trying to get out and roam. Not a good idea because of owls, coyotes, and feral dogs. His owners wanted to know if anyone on the city would give him a good home. I had just lost Marmalade to kidney failure. That was 10 years ago. Five years ago the old girls died in the same month, one of cancer and one of kidney failure, and a science fiction club member said one of her neighbors had abandoned their cat when they moved and he was wandering around the complex helpless. Did anyone want to adopt him? Well, all right - Dufus could use some younger company. That was Spot. My friend Ruth had a massive stroke two and a half years ago and had to go into a nursing home. Her Care Committee/housesitters/arrangers of estate sales mentioned her pair of yap dogs and her pair of established house cats. And then the traumatized rescue kitten who (insert tale of mishandling that would give any kitten PTSD) she called "Poophead". In outrage I rose up and said "Her name is Shadow! Poor kitty! I'll adopt her." All the while thinking, Omigawd, THREE cats again? This past winter, while they were still trying to lure Shadow out of hiding enough to catch her and bring her to me, well, you know the story of Babs-now-Buster. Last Saturday it was time to take Shadow home. I think she's still in the house, but only by indirect evidence. Her house & cat sitter, Becca. says this is normal for her. Poor kitty. One can only hope I really do own a little brown scaredy cat. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
2:43 pm	Just a little bit greener One of my ongoing to-dos is to try and cluster a lot of my errands to places within my immediate neighborhood. Just finished a good one: transferring my only prescription meds from the HMO in-house pharmacy (requires driving) to the corner Walgreens, now that I'm allowed to by HMO rules. Easy walking distance. (Comment on this)
Monday, March 3rd, 2008
6:27 pm	"And Now the News...."..."No interest till 2012!" Turning away from the NBC Nightly News again, I wonder what happened to what used to be news. I used to be a political junkie and to watch the evening news regularly, like my father before me. Perhaps I've grown old and jaded. Perhaps I'm looking at a faded medium. Perhaps it's the world. News seems to fall into a few fixed categories. Here's the ones I see... 1) "So, what else is new?" There's rioting in Africa, prostitution on East Central, and corruption in various agencies in offices. OK - that last may be ongoing, but it's important because putting it on the news is part of what keeps it down to a lower level than if it weren't aired. But getting all hysterical over things that have been going on since Ugh the Caveman wandered onto the savannah with Oola his best friend's mate is rather boring. 2) The outcome is obvious, barring a massive upset or a deus ex conspiratus. I know how the 2008 Presidential election will come out; all I need to know is who the candidate will pick as a running mate and what offices will be offered to whom. Nor do I need to witness the slanging and mud-slinging that marks either the campaign or the primary. Especially the primary. Who does getting nasty with your rival in the primary benefit? Why, the other party! Dumb, really dumb. 3) And on the other hand, the "ain't gonna happen" news. Or not in my lifetime. Or why I wish the Mars Society very well indeed, but will keep an eye partially turned towards a handful of barnstormers in Southern New Mexico and even more of an eye on various foreign militaries. SO what does that leave? Sports and the weather. Ho-hum. Time for another "HOUSE" rerun. Current Mood: bored Current Music: "The Merry Melody" (Comment on this)
Friday, February 29th, 2008
8:11 am	Rethinking the draft I came out of the 60s with the firm conviction that the draft was slavery and that service in our armed forces should be voluntary. I fully believed that this would be a check on stupid foreign adventures, since the voluntary enlistment rate would rise and fall with the perceived peril to our nation. As time wore on, I noticed that an all-volunteer army was also a professional army, and thought I detected traces of the Us-vs-Them mentality well known to exist among law enforcement personnel, and described in great detail with approval by Robert Heinlein in Starship Troopers. And that every republic known to history had relied on citizen armies - the rise of professional armies went hand in hand with the rise of empire. How to resolve this paradox? Lately, someone posted a little-known bit of early American history to a historical analysis forum. It was that in the early days of the United States there were three levels of military service, two of them voluntary. There were the armed forces, which you joined, and they were professionals, complete with training academies for officers. There was the "organized militia" which was voluntary and non-professional, made up of citizens who volunteered to train and to drill regularly and to be, essentially, first responders in case of trouble in their area. This is what became the National Guard. Then there was the "unorganized militia" which consisted of all able-bodied citizens between the ages of - was it 18? - and 45. In the old days they followed the model still in use among the Swiss, and were expected to own and know how to use the basic infantry weapon, some sort of long gun. That model is long gone, though among rural people it certainly has its points. However, the cogent fact is that - They could be called up whenever they were needed. Because they were citizens and this was part of the price of citizenship: to defend your country when you were needed. This way of doing things slowly vanished as the decades wore on, but the basic structure can faintly be discerned beneath the mutations and misuses (the National Guard was NOT supposed to be sent overseas! They were supposed to respond to disasters here at home!), accretions of time and custom, and changes of terminology. Therefore: I have changed my mind somewhat. Now, I still don't believe in the peacetime draft, though compulsory military training might be a very useful thing to institute. And we need some way to keep ambitious leaders from being able to call up the nation's youth for wars of conquest. Hmmm.... how about taking the callup out of the hands of the nation's Chief Executive and putting it back in the hands of the People In Congress Assembled? But - here's my latest thought on the matter, for what it's worth. Full disclosure: I'm way overage. My children and their partners/spouses are around 40, though they're all in the medical profession and therefore among the first to be called up if and when. And there MUST be exemptions for the single parents of minor children! Another thought, taken from Imperial Rome, and a very good idea it was - military service plus meeting the requirements of speaking English and knowing Civics, should be an instant path to citizenship for the person serving and for the soldier's dependents. Current Mood: satisfied Current Music: "Over There". (5 Comments |Comment on this)
6:23 am	I may be wrong about "Babs" Babs was half in and half out of the cat window and hovering there (a sentry post for my newest cat?) and impulsively I lifted the tail. What I saw, or thought I saw, was ambiguous enough because of thick black fur and Babs being still in many ways a kitten, so I copped a feel. Felt like two small soft lumps to me. So - that explains no heat, no pregnancy, and the more-than-usual competitiveness with the boys, Spot and Dufus. The other boys? (Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
7:22 am	Update to the wish list - seeing the doctor I finally got fed up enough with the laundry list of low level symptoms - and worried enough - to call the doctor. Since my teacher is in the ICU with pneumonia. I got a clerk right away, and she got me a doctor's appointment for the next morning which was yesterday. I got an exam and an EKG. What I have is a viral inflamation of the where the chest cartilage mets the ribs. Annoying, and it's slowed me down enormously, but not dangerous. Treatment: take life easy, apply heat, tylenol, etc - the usual palliative measures. And yes, a cat resting on my chest while I nap is an excellent palliative measure. Felitherapy. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, February 25th, 2008
10:29 am	Time, talking heads, and furniture ads Why is my attitude towards the news these days like an ad for a local furniture store? "Absolutely NO interest till Two Thousand Twelve!" (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, February 23rd, 2008
12:53 pm	I want part 2 I want my house to have central heating and refrigerated air conditioning. I want it to have completely modern up-to-code wiring adequate for a computerized lifestyle. I want a small yard and deck that back onto a lovely wilderness that someone else maintains. I want my kitties to be able to run free in that wilderness and come back in through a cat door that does not cut through my bedroom. I want all the advantages of a town house and all the rights of a home owner. (Condos generally combine the disadvantages.) I want someone to take a good look at my computer and clean out all the bugs and viruses and settings that are fouling up my smooth operation thereof, while keeping the programs I need, want, and use. Plus a UBS hub and a flash drive and the second-to-latest handheld especially with book download features that make for easy and comfortable reading and total compatibility. And - I want to be able to sit down with a medical professional and detail all the little things wrong with me and have that person be able to take me seriously, know what's wrong, and know how to fix it. And do so, either once and for all, or with instructions on how to keep it at bay. And withOUT ragging on me about my weight (still high but not abominably so - Weight Watchers says so!) and cholesterol, ditto. Hey - I've made progress, lots of progress. Recognize it instead of ragging on me "Come ON, come ON, you can do MORE, you can do BETTER, you have to do BETTER, it has to be IDEAL!" Grrr... (6 Comments |Comment on this)
11:53 am	Help wanted - I give up I've gotten to the point, shameful as it is, that there are things I simply do not want to deal with. That if someone came along and took them out of my hands, I'd be grateful - as long as they did it right. High on the list: a person of business to do my bookkeeping, give me a budget, and suggest investments. The problem with the latter is that nobody on the scene today as any idea what sort of economy we're heading into except certain bloggers, and the pros in the field don't dare admit even to themselves that we're not just undergoing a blip in the Forever Boom. They can't. Second on the list is my food and meals. I would dearly love to have - or compile - a selection of child-simple basic recipes that are heart healthy, thrifty, and cover just about any sort of food one would care to eat. That are for the most part made out of real food ingredients rather than "...and add one can of Our Firm's Cream of Crap soup!" That suggest where you might come by some of those ingredients, such as "Half a cup of cut-up cooked chicken breast? You mean I should only make this after having roasted a chicken?" And Babs the cat. She's a dear kitty and very pretty, but if someone came to my door today and said "Thanks for taking care of her, I'll take her now," I'd hand her over with great relief. Then I would be delighted to have someone make me up a list of a minimal wardrobe that flatters my figure and coloring, is easy and comfortable to wear, easily washable, suits my life style - is good in all New Mexico's temperature variations - and covers those occasions when I need something fancier, which come at unpredictable intervals. And will ruthlessly tell me "Get rid of this" and will sell it for me, and will not only tell me what to get, but who has it, so I can just pop down to Dillard's or Penney's or hit the internet. Finally - I am just about ready to give up reading and/or watching anything political. These days I can usually tell what the story is about from the headlines and a lot of it is not only predictable, but nonsense. I want the far left to stop howling about "The Horrors of Normal American Life!" and comparing everything to a mythical Socialist Paradise. I want the far right to stop snarling about how we on the left are Selling Out America by wanting something other than the blind "Everything our leaders do is right and if you disagree you are a traitor." I want some principled criticism of some of the more flagrant misdeeds without the entire ideological package that comes with them. Can't one be against torture without dragging along the entire pacifist package? But by the same token, I want an end to outraged and self-righteous howling over things that have been going on since we were all dragging our knuckles, unless they are flagrantly stupid or destructive. That is - so a politician was caught in bed with a lobbyist. So? If everything a politician and a lobbyist were in bed together a child resulted, the Capitol would be up to it's eyebrows in little Children of the Cat Goddess.... uh, you mean it isn't? Last but not least, I want some instant and automatic friends who want to go to the movies with me or share a dinner entree or even live theatre in Popejoy Hall. And I want someone to pick up my house and take care of the clutter and minor errands. Current Music: The world's smallest violin (3 Comments |Comment on this)