Spooky was in bad shape when my sister came to the house yesterday, so she had her husband take Spooky to the vet right away. Spooky's brain problem had gotten to the point where nothing could be done to alleviate his pain and make him better, so my mother and sister agreed that he should be put to sleep.
Needless to say, the last thing this family needed when trying to deal with our first holiday season without Dad is yet another death.
This past summer, shortly before we took Skooter to a shelter, the calico cat who had been hanging out on our property (alternately called Cali, Hobbes, Mikeneko, and Momma by the rest of us) gave birth to five kittens, who eventually joined their mother getting food on our porch. Four of the kittens eventually stopped coming here, presumably going their own way, but the fifth cat, an all-black boy, kept hanging around with both his mother and his presumed father (Lion King). When the weather got bad and the mother got pregnant again, we took the mother into Dad's old office (after getting her fixed and aborted) with the intent to eventually take her to a shelter as well. (She hasn't been that cooperative, though.) The black cat we named Spookytooth (Spooky for short), and took as our own to fill the void left by Rowan's death in 2006, Spyder moving out of the house with my sister and brother-in-law late last year, and Skooter.
Over the past couple of weeks, though, Spooky's behaviour kept getting stranger and stranger; she was losing energy, losing her appetite, and appeared to have gone blind. This past weekend we took her to the vet, where she was diagnosed with some kind of disease that affects the brain; I forget the exact name, but Mom kept calling it "FTP." (I've tried looking it up online but I haven't had much luck.) Apparently the disease could potentially take Spooky at any time, although there was the possibility that he could still lead a normal, healthy life. The disease is also communicable by other cats, so anyone in contact with other cats (namely my sister and brother-in-law) has to wash his or her hands thoroughly before leaving here. It was impossible to know how the disease would affect Spooky, but we all agreed that we would give Spooky the best life we could, and that if we couldn't relieve his pain then we would put him to sleep so he didn't have to suffer any more than he already has.
When Spooky came home from the vet on Monday, everything seemed to be okay; his energy hadn't completely recovered, but he could see again and he was eating again. However, today he had been totally lethargic as soon as anyone in the house was up. He was still responding to physical stimuli and purring, but he just didn't want to move anywhere. About a half hour ago, though, as Mom was taking Spooky to the litterbox, he began to spasm and twitch. It was momentary, and he seemed tired-but-okay after that, but he's going to the vet right now. We think he might have had a seizure, and that they'll be able to give him steroids -- like they did over the weekend -- at the vet's office to restore his energy. Needless to say, though, it's hard to avoid assuming the worst, especially after the horrible, horrible year this family has had in terms of deaths. If you all could please keep Spooky in your thoughts and prayers -- whatever you do -- over the next little while, my family would be most appreciative.
I'm taking a short break from grading my students' portfolios here to do some begging. For those of you who are doing your holiday shopping on Amazon.com, please visit them through this link so I'll get a small percentage of whatever you buy back in gift certificates. Alternately, you could always get me something off of my Amazon.com wishlist if you'd like to go the direct route. Either way, your support is greatly appreciated. We now return you to your previously scheduled lack of blogging.
Labels: shopping
1950s pinup model Bettie Page dies in LA at 85 (AP via Yahoo! News)
I don't think the influence of Bettie Page and her work with Irving Klaw in the 1950s on BDSM and BDSM culture can be overstated; in many ways she was the first mainstream BDSM/fetish model. However, as seen by her Playboy centrefold, her beauty and charm transcended BDSM and fetish culture, making her one of the most enduring counterculture icons of the 20th century. If you haven't read up on Bettie's life, either of the two biopics that came out earlier this decade would be a good place to start.
Dad, George Carlin, and now Bettie Page ... this just isn't a good year. In memory of Bettie, now, the friday5.org Friday Five.
1. When did you last sleep in a bed outside your home?
This past September when I spent a couple of nights in hotels after getting a small case of wanderlust. I do not sleep well when I'm not in my room.
2. When did you last drive someone else’s car?
If rentals count as "someone else's car" then March of 2006 when my parents rented me a Kia to take to North Carolina for the In the Groove tournament I participated in on my thirtieth birthday; otherwise, I make a point of not driving other people's cars for fear of doing something stupid in them.
3. When did you last cook in someone else’s kitchen?
Surprisingly, I don't think I ever have. Given that I'm a pretty good baker and cook, I would have figured someone would have conned me into cooking for him or her at some point.
4. When did you last care for children who aren’t yours?
Never. I don't deal with children.
5. When did you last do someone else’s job?
Given how government bureaucrats have messed up our high schools so much, I feel like I'm do high school teachers' jobs for them every time I teach. (This is not to slam high school teachers; most of them are doing the best jobs they can under the ridiculous conditions right-wing politicians and their corporate bedfellows put them in.)
Labels: fridayfive
I've said often that while I'm okay reading horror novels -- it's been about eight years now since I was turned on to Poppy Z. Brite -- I don't care to watch horror films. I grew up in the age of the Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street franchises, and even at an age where I was only concerned about whether or not I liked a film and had barely any conceptions about what made a "good film" and a "bad film," there was still something I could grasp that let me knew that these films were not good films. Then again, I've never been much of a film person to start with -- that age was also the age of the first home video game consoles and personal computers, so I've always desired more interaction with my entertainment -- but I seemed to go out of my way to avoid horror films in my youth. To this day, even if I need to know something about a horror film (usually because one of my students references it), I usually check out the plot summaries on Wikipedia. On rare occasions, though, I've checked out YouTube clips, and I've regretted it every time I've done so. I'd heard that they'd upped the gore content in recent years, but lately it's just become, pun intended, overkill.
However, several weeks ago I found myself going onto YouTube to watch videos of all the fatalities in the Mortal Kombat games. I played Mortal Kombat a fair amount a dozen years ago; I really got into Street Fighter II, so that led me to try Mortal Kombat out, and Mortal Kombat II was the only recent arcade game they had in the Student Union building at Antioch while I was going there. I'd stopped playing before the series went 3-D, though, so I had several games' worth of fatalities to watch. Surprisingly I found myself cringing a lot at the fatalities from the more recent games, even though I think the fatalities from the old 2-D games were a lot more imaginative. I didn't have problems looking at those old fatalities, either. I'm trying to figure out why I would have such varying reactions to these displays of blood and gore; I don't think it's the three-dimensional aspect of the new fatalities that is getting to me, especially since the first 3-D Mortal Kombat games had fighters that looked less realistic than the ones in the later 2-D games. Whatever the case, I hardly had an inclination to pick up another Mortal Kombat game -- I don't even follow Street Fighter any longer -- and watching the new fatalities has soured me to the idea even more.
That being said, I've seen many television commercials for Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe lately, even on CBC. I was a Marvel Comics reader growing up, so having DC characters in there doesn't exactly want to make me pick up the game. Anyway, I saw the fatalities and "heroic brutalities" on YouTube, so I'm guessing that I've seen all there really is to see about the game. There are two questions I have that are bugging me, though. First of all, how can anyone kill Superman with the usual range of fatalities since, you know, he's invincible and stuff. Secondly, one of the commercials I saw featured the Joker playing the old joybuzzer prank on Raiden. Would someone care to explain to me how, exactly, the God of Thunder is supposed to get hurt by a shock like that? Yes, I know that in all the other games you can play two Raidens against one another and they can each be hurt by the other's electric blasts, but still, the Joker/Raiden thing is kind of counterintuitive, and it's definitely not the kind of thing I think Midway should put into a commercial just because of the strained logic involved in trying to explain it.
Labels: videogames
... a special video introduction to today's friday5.org Friday Five: Cho and others in "Proposition 8: the Musical".
1. When did you last have a mid-day nap?
I can't remember for sure. I tried to have one yesterday because I was still worn out from a super-caffeinated Wednesday, but it didn't work. I usually only nap if I have a sugar high to work off, and I don't anticipate that being a problem soon.
2. When did you last have milk and cookies?
I had cookies a few weeks ago back before I went back on my diet, and I had milk with breakfast today. I can't remember the last time I had them together.
3. When did you last have a bubble bath?
Probably when I was eight or so. I'm not really up for all those "childhood treasures" things, except for foods.
4. When did you last jump on the furniture?
Before I took my last bubble bath, that's for sure.
5. When did you last play in the mud?
Sometimes I walk in mud at Wildwood, but I don't think I ever played in the mud, even when I was a kid. I'm a neat freak, at least when it comes to my body. (My room, on the other hand ...)
Labels: fridayfive, glbt