[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] At the close of an enjoyable, lazy day...

First, the picture...

It should be noted that, inside the house, Acacia (DeafCat) and Harding (DogCat) are pretty tolerant of one another. Actually, Harding is the tolerant one, and Acacia is the one who likes to set boundaries and torment Harding. If he comes in the basement to join me in my man cave and sit on my lap to get his fat head scratched, she will take a position at the top of the stairs, and once the scratchfest is finished, Harding will not go up the stairs unless I am there to chaperone him.

Still, they're pretty good together, and they'll both hangout in the neutral zone of the kitchen floor together when one of them is hungry. Sometimes, inside the house, they even play. Of course, with Harding being the size that he is (very big), and Acacia being the size that she is (very small), those little playful brawls usually end with her being swatted and sent tumbling across the floor.

Now, that being said, when they get outside, Acacia goes into full-blown bitch mode, and she treats Harding as though she doesn't even know him. She will hiss and growl and make any number of feeble kitty protests at this black and white blob of fur wandering around HER GODDAMN YARD! And, of course, Harding is just flat-out confused.

So, what you see here is, by all definitions, a stand off. And, of course, it's funny as hell.

In the confrontation you see here, for me to settle it, I had to actually go and pick up the furry lummox, Harding, and carry him past Acacia to the back door. Once there, they both trotted into the house, had a little bite, and then started chasing one another up and down the stairs in a mad moment of kitty fun.

Yeah. It's weird, but I gave up trying to figure out the lives of cats a long, long time ago.

Aside from that, I've decided to stop with the DogCat/DeafCat stuff. I think I've gotten bored with it, but it may spring up from time to time. The thing is, I didn't name either of these cats (and I sure as hell would never name anything "Acacia"), but in some weird way, those names do actually fit. Acacia fits about as well as anything named Acacia could, I suppose. But, the name Harding?

That fits him perfectly. Seriously, when I hear that name, I just think of a sort of lumbering oaf who just seems to move about as slow as possible, and let's face it, if my cat Harding had a soundtrack, it would include a lot of slow and lilting tuba solos.


And now for the public service announcement part of today's entry:

In the comments on this entry I made last Thursday, Dawn asks:

Can you try plaquenil like I did? It really helped some...

Now, normally, I'd answer in an email, but considering the gravitas of the answer, and the fact that I know I'm not the only one in the world suffering with the disease I've got, I figure it's best to just slap this tidbit of information up here in the hopes that it may actually save someone a hell of a lot of trouble.

The quick answer, Dawn, is no. I can't try Plaquenil.

And now, the why:

Plaquenil does very, very, very bad things to people with psoriasis. There have been many cases where Plaquenil has caused a flare-up in psoriasis so violent and extensive that the patient had to be placed in a medically induced coma for a good, long while in order to get a handle on it and keep the patient's heart from giving out as a result of that insane level of inflammation.

Seriously. Anything with even the slightest hint of quinine can make things flare up. For example, if I drink a gin and tonic or two, the next day I can expect things to be kind of uncomfortable as I wind up with some burning, itching spots here and there. And, that's from just a smidge of tonic water since, let's face it, when it comes to gin, I am a big fan of the long pour. I can't imagine the shape I'd be in if I chugged a bottle of tonic water.

The scary thing is that some folks, like me, develop arthritis before they wind up with the miserable skin lesions. And, most of the time, that arthritis is misdiagnosed as rheumatoid arthritis. One of the favored treatments of RA is.... anyone?

Yep. Plaquenil.

So, for all you psoriasis sufferers out there, do yourselves a favor and keep a note just in case some out-of-touchdoctor tries to prescribe Plaquenil to you. I've had several try, but most are reasonably current. Still, you should be careful.

Anyway, other than that, I hope all your weekends rocked. Did anyone do anything fun?

-DP

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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 10/05/2008 10:11:00 PM

[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Ooo... Bathtubby.

Now, I've done tilt-shift photography, and it can be really cool and fun and trippy. The thing is, I've seen hundreds and hundreds of tilt-shifted photographs, but I've never seen a tilt-shifted video. At least, not until now:

Bathtub II from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Man... That's just some wild, brain-bending stuff, huh?

-DP

P.S. For those of you reading this on AOL, if the video isn't showing up on my Journal there, please stop by my Blogger blog (http://thewisdomofadistractedmind.blogspot.com) to check it out.

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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 10/05/2008 12:58:00 AM

[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] In the Hole!

I love Jon Stewart. I'd have his baby if that sort of thing were possible. However, since it's not, maybe I'd just wash his car or do the dishes or even clean the hair out of his shower drain. After all, when someone makes you laugh, you tend to overlook those things....

Anyway, here's the Daily Show's explanation of the Bailout Bill (I love the McCain bit).

He's right, you know? It's fucking embarrassing that this $700 billion bailout package that was supposedly vital to keep our entire civilization from collapsing couldn't be passed until they added another $150 billion for shit like this:

Senators attached a provision repealing a 39-cent excise tax on wooden arrows designed for children to an historic $700 billion financial-markets rescue that passed tonight by a vote of 74-25. The provision, originally proposed by Oregon senators Ron Wyden [D] and Gordon Smith [R], will save manufacturers such as Rose City Archery in Myrtle Point, Oregon, about $200,000 a year.

It's one of dozens of tax breaks benefiting Hollywood producers, stock-car racetrack owners and Virgin Islands rum-makers included in the broader legislation in an effort to win support from House Republicans, whose defection contributed to a rejection of an earlier version of the legislation two days ago on a 228-205 vote.

I'm sure this makes sense to someone. Not me. But, I'm sure there are people --let's say firemen-- who when told of people trapped in a burning building --let's say an elementary school-- tell those who are alarmed that, in order for them to rush out and extinguish the fire, they're going to need some nachos first.

Are you embarrassed yet, America?

-DP

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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 10/04/2008 03:39:00 PM

[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Motivation.

I found this picture on a discussion thread over at Fark, and I just had to make a motivational poster out of it.

-DP

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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 10/04/2008 01:51:00 PM

[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Eeeek!

Oh yeah...

It's October, and I'm going to scare you all freakin' month.

Are you scared?

Huh?

You should be. I mean, for all you know, there's a big, hairy spider, just like this one, crawling up the back of your chair. Or, maybe he's hanging out in your shoes?

One thing that I think it pretty awesome about this spider picture is that, if you look at the center of the spider's head, you can see what looks like The Joker from the old Batman series (or, maybe it's Mr. Heat Miser). You might need to click on the picture and head over to the large or original sizes to check it out. But, that might scare you too much... Yes. I vant to scare you! Ah-ha-ha-haaaa!

-DP

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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 10/04/2008 12:14:00 PM

[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Weird... No. Very Weird.

Now, I really don't understand Yoga. I've never really been able to get my mind and body behind it, and if I were to try Yoga, I'm pretty sure I'd invent a new position called "The Screaming Rusty Lawn Chair." There would be a great many creaks and groans and pops and snaps, and it would simply end in tears.

Anyway, I saw this article this morning about how some religious leaders in the United States have taken to squawking their mighty outcry over the notion that teaching Yoga in America's public schools violates the separation clause of the First Amendment.

Two high school teachers began using yoga last year to help students relieve stress before exams.

Special education teacher Martha Duchscherer and Spanish teacher Kerry Perretta also were developing a districtwide program.But those plans were halted after parents and others in the community complained students were being indoctrinated in Hindu rites.

Yes. I know. America's a Christian Nationâ„¢, and if the Christians could somehow exercise without the aid of the Very Large Feline, a large part of America's youth wouldn't be a doughy mob of bloated, obese, couch-surfing slugs.

"People have made it a religious war, and it's not a religious war. We are basically concerned parents, saying we don't want our children participating in something that could cause them more stress and confusion," [ Rev. Colin] Lucid said.

No, Mr. Lucid. You made it a religious war. You are basically a god-botherer who went out looking for something to get all up in arms over, and you found a little exercise class upon which to unleash your jealous apoplectic fear and panic over the notion that another spiritual dog and pony show was moving in on the same turf where you comfortably peddle your snake oil to the masses.

Of course, this all means one very great thing which I'm certain a whole heap of children are going to love: If they can get rid of the benign Yoga in schools, they can also eliminate the far more threatening Middle Eastern mathematical language of Algebra. Trust me. That's confusing our children far more than a little exercise class could ever do, and it could potentially turn them into bomb-toting terrorists.

-DP

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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 10/04/2008 11:19:00 AM

[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Another AOL Update...

Hey folks. Someone names Marie popped in to provide what could potentially be an easier way to download and save your journals. Here's what she says:

Marah Marie, at Anti-AOL said ... (October 3, 2008 6:26 PM) :

Just to let you know, I have an entire series of posts about this situation which I'll add to soon to include what you've written. That's here:

http://anti-aol.livejournal.com/tag/how+to+back+up+aol+journals

Your readers may want to know that my latest post shows AOL users how to use the free BackStreet Browser to download and backup their content from AOL before their sites are shut down.

BackStreet Browser is a free website downloader with a built-in browser for viewing downloaded files and stores your files however you want them stored, in whatever folder and directory structure you need, right there on your own computer. It's flexible, fast, easy to use, and once again, free, saving AOL users from having to download one page at a time with a tradional web browser, or using FTP to grab files, which can be time-consuming and perhaps more difficult. My post about that is here:

http://anti-aol.livejournal.com/98191.html

Joe Manna also has a downloading method for those AOL users who feel comfortable working from a free command line utility called WGet. His post about that is here:

http://www.joemanna.com/blog/aol-users-how-to-backup-aol-journals-to-your-computer/

Any word on how soon the Blogger "app" will be ready? How does AOL plan to let everyone know when it is...or will an announcement be made through Blogger?

If you are interested in backing up your journals, I certainly recommend spinning over to the link Marie provided to give this thing a whirl. From what I gather, the BackStreet browser is wicked fast; however, it may be a little tricky to operate. But, I think Marie provides some excellent instructions on how to use it.

Other than that, I haven't the foggiest idea as to when the application will be rolled out for AOL'ers to use to port their journals over to Blogger. Hopefully soon, though.

Anyway, I'll try to write more later. Right now, it's Friday night. And, it's not that I don't care, but... It's Friday night. Really. You shouldn't even be reading this. Put on your special dress and go dancing!

-DP

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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 10/03/2008 07:10:00 PM