Things Cats Think

Get your fat human head out of my line of vision, fool.

I’m going to stick my face into this glass, and mouse whiskers if it gets stuck, because there’s milk in here.

Why is this peasant staring at me? What does it want?

If I point this foot this way, and that foot out here…there: maximum cuteness achieved. Sho nuff, here the human comes to deliver tummy rubs.

I have you all at my mercy. You are all witless servants, in this, my kingdom- *gestures with scrunching claws at views from armchair*
You have attempted to dress me in hats and clothes. Thankfully, I look swell in all things.
Why haven't these humans installed a cat-sized revolving door yet? 

Normal Teenaged Human Thoughts

I almost know what I am, as a human being. But I don’t know how I’m going to fit into the world yet. Where is my place? Do I have to carve out a niche? Do I want to be an impact on a small scale or a large one? What’s the impression I want left behind when I’m gone? And do I have the guts and self-assurance to make that impression? To what extent can work be separated from art, from living, and should it be separate at all? What is a higher priority, changing a town or going away to make changes elsewhere? How do you not make enemies? And if they are inadvertently made, how do you keep them at arm’s length?

How can the world hold so many choices? And how do I make the right ones? 

January Musings/2 mini podabbles

I see an old house

Out the window of this moving car

And I feel love for it.

For all the old houses

And the memories they hold

Some good

Some tragic

All ancient

Speaking through the timbers

Whispering in the walls

And gesturing with rotted window drapes.

These houses, gutted or stuffed to the gills

How many are there

Scattered across the country, across the world

And how to see them all?

 We come home in below zero weather

Ice lacing the truck windows

Breath clouding the cab

We come home

To a warm, stuffy house

And crouch in front of a roaring fire

Leaning in to be embraced by tendrils of glorious heat

One of the loveliest feelings

January's Farewell Approacheth!

I just wanted to point out a few inspiring/amusing youtube channels that have been a part of my life lately!
A friend pointed out LaciGreen to me, and she is SO brilliant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=GlXxoG98urc
The quirky NigaHiga: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtHPGP5tKWo
And CommunityChannel, hailing from Australia: http://www.youtube.com/user/communitychannel
These are three of literally HUNDREDS of channels out there.
  I have an immense love for the internet when it is put to uses such as these: educating people, making friends, sharing beauty and love and kindness, and inspiring others to do the same. It really warms the heart!
  Speaking of warming the heart, it's been hovering around zero in my hometown lately (we're on the water as well, so the frigid winds don't make it any more bearable!) Cold weather, however, is good for people. It shapes you, makes you realise how lucky you are, exposes bleak landscapes and then fills them up with all the more anticipated and appreciated green come summer. It makes sitting by a hot fire with soup and tea and blankets that much more enjoyable. And it makes writing questing stories and reading books about the poles very, very realistic.
Next Up: Journey to the state capitol, haunted houses, herds of meese, baby meese. Two small deer.

pretty feathers frosting the window this morning 

Small pygmy footprints on my window. Could it be an Andaman Island Pygmy?!  

Lots of this lately 

capybaras are cute

My latest obsession is one with the world's largest rodent, called a capybara. There was one in my dream last night, and I couldn't remember what they were called, so in my googling for R.O.U.S.'s, I found their name.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cc09hSILjzQ
bonus cat video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFwGMO7gi4A&feature=fvwp&NR=1

podabblin' day

I really don't know if these are any good. I sometimes fancy 'em, in certain humours. The author's always the most prejudiced, either positively or negatively. Not quite happy with this, it may not be done. Partly inspired by Wind in the Willows, which I've been reading like a bible each day. 

Let us dream not of diamonds and silks

But sit by the fire

Feet wrapped high in blankets

Eating bread with honey, butter, and milk

Drinking tea and appreciating the finer things of life:

A hearth, a home

A small plot to roam about

Paper to write upon

Nature to hear

Open skies

Crashing waves

There is the world

On your doorstep

Pull back the door, lean in the frame 

and gaze out 

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPPPYYYYYY NEEEEEEEWWW YYYEEEAAAAARR FELLOW HUMANS!!!!

So, reading back, I realised that on the 2nd of this lovely new year...January...2013....21st century....Common Era....Third Millennium....Gregorian Calendar...
We've come a long way! Good job, back pats all round!
I realised that I posted a really...well, disappointing New Years Post. Here to rectify that, I now present to you-new Years from around the world! Enjoy. And may you find fortune (eheh, 13) in the coming year!
The Thames looks very lively and happy. I have to say, Taipei kind of steals my heart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12sdEyB0_UU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS6Y7k7eo3w

Who said that?

Notice how I've started mildly cursing in posts? Good? Bad? Probably bad. I'll need to work on toning that down. Sorry, all you proper mild-mannered readers! Sorry, sorry. it's just....hey, sometimes...mild cursing is needed. Just sometimes.

You Want Features? I'll Give You Features

Figured I'd name some features on this blog, just in case anyone wants to know. If you find one of these features, simply click the tag and it will take you to a mini library containing all its little fellow posts.
Interesting Places/Fascinating Places
You Know That
Scary Everyday Objects
Quoth S/he
Origin of Expressions/Old Expressions
How It's Made
For some reason I chose not to include podabbles, writing, reviews, movies, etc as features.....Okay, go have fun with those now. Bye!

Scary Everyday Objects

Now I'm just on this "big companies cover shite up" kick, and ain't nobody can stop me! Ho-boy.
http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Cell-Phones-and-Brain-Cancer-American-Academy-of-4122146.php
http://www.harapad.com/index.html
http://product-warnings-recalls.knoji.com/is-the-electromagnetic-radiation-from-a-laptop-computer-dangerous/
I recommend reading all of the last (short!) article-it's pretty darn important, since nearly everyone uses a laptop daily in today's world. Although iPads and iPhones and such may be a different matter, not being held directly in your lap, it doesn't seem that much research is done into this before the products are shipped, en masse, out into the world. You'd like to think that'd be the companies' first concern, wouldn't you; whether or not the product will harm their customers.

makeup and all that face-smeary fun

So I found this antique tube of lipstick and it's a gorgeous color. It got me thinking about modern makeup, and how some of it just looks like the person tried to tie dye themselves, and some of it is nice and laid-back. I've never really seen the benefits of wearing makeup, other than for the stage, to hide tiredness, or to modestly highlight certain features. I wear chapstick and cream, but that's only in winter because that time of year here makes your skin look something like this.
I've been thinking of trying to wear some of this stuff though, like 50s cat eyes, red lipstick, etc. makeup is such an iconic thing, and I want to experience it for that sake. I've really been terrified of lipstick ever since I found out that it used to contain dangerous chochineal beetle extracts. http://www.ecouterre.com/crushed-red-bugs-are-in-your-lipstick-too/
http://www.treehugger.com/htgg/how-to-go-green-natural-skin-care.html
http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/#
Fascinating reading about historic cosmetics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipstick
Some of the things in this article that I found interesting:
"Carmine dye was expensive and the look of carmine colored lipstick was considered unnatural and theatrical, so lipstick was frowned upon for everyday wear. Only actors and actresses could get away with wearing lipstick. In 1880, few stage actresses wore lipstick in public. The famous actress, Sarah Bernhardt, began wearing lipstick and rouge in public. Before the late 19th century, women only applied makeup at home." 
"During the Second World War, metal lipstick tubes were replaced by plastic and paper tubes. Lipstick was scarce during that time because some of the essential ingredients of lipstick, petroleum and castor oil, were unavailable."
"A study by US consumer group Campaign For Safe Cosmetics, in October 2007 found 60 percent of lipsticks tested contained trace amounts of lead, especially in red lipsticks.^[30] The levels of lead varied from 0.03 to 0.65 parts per million. One third of the lipsticks containing lead exceeded the 0.1ppm limit set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for lead in candy." 
Aaaaand no more candy for me.
I have an amusing image in my head of young women, when they want to become makeup-artists and cosmetologists, having to sit in a test taking room and fill in things about the histories of all the different makeups and brushes and things. The following links look useful and also quite scandalous re makeup companies...
http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/myths-on-cosmetics-safety/
http://www.treehugger.com/htgg/how-to-go-green-natural-skin-care.html
http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/#
"Cosmetic ingredients do not remain on the surface of the skin. They are designed to penetrate, and they do. Scientists have found many common cosmetic ingredients in human tissues, including phthalates in urine, preservatives called parabens in breast tumor tissue and persistent fragrance components in human fat. Do the concentrations at which they are typically found pose risks? For the most part, those studies have not been done. But a small but growing number of studies serve as scientific red flags (Swan 2005, Sathyanarayana 2008, Swan 2010)."

You Know That

You're in trouble when you start a path through the snow on the wrong foot, and you do this insane wobbling dance trying to cross one foot over into the proper hole. I had a funny comic in mind for this....should I start putting comics up on here? I don't know....maybe a separate blog for that? HAVE ALL THE BLOGS AND NO READERS!!! YAAAAAAAAYY!!!

Today's Lesson: How to Enlighten People Without Being a Dick

So, I just shouldn't read youtube comments. I really shouldn't. Whenever i scroll down expecting to find some fascinating discussion of the content from the featured video, all I find is a huge muckhole of idiocy and insults. Maybe a tad harsh here, but this is just...how I feel. I'm going to stop reading youtube comments.
  Anyway, one thing I noticed in the youtube community, especially with these UK-based vloggers, is that when a person discovers the community and the people involved a couple years late (hasn't seen ALL of these peoples' videos/doesn't know exactly who knows who) all the other old-timer followers, who should welcome them in and answer their perfectly sensible questions in a kind way, start tossing around put downs and phrases like "WOW, you really are new here" or "No, he's from WorldoftheOrange, duh." What happened to correcting people politely? It's so frustrating, because all these youtubers are just putting feelings of goodwill out there and all they get back are their followers arguing.  Really, really maddening, this. Sometimes the internet is a really clique-y place, which is why we all just have to learn how to ignore trolls and jerks and not care so much about other people's misguided opinions. All for now folks, peace out.

Music Rhythms and Whatnot

Every music in the world has its intricacies, flavours, and merits, but there is something about African music that is heartbreakingly, poignantly beautiful. Something about the raw and traditional sounds of a drum, smooth voices, and various beaded instruments. It’s all so…simple, and it allows the singers to really work the melodies, not necessarily with bar lines, just the feel of the sounds all melding together. It is similar to Slavic music in this way, though inherently very different.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_dances
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Additive_rhythm
A dear piano teacher of mine once introduced me to the concept of irregular metre with the following Bulgarian song, and it's stuck with me since. The metre is divided into groups of 2 and 3, respectively.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcHhz1XLWeA
I tried to find the lyrics to this online in English, but alas, there's very little about it, considering how popular it's become. 
I've tried to put the counts where they fall in the singing during the first "verse".  
12 12     123 
Erghen diado
12  12    123
Erghen diado
1212123  1212123
Hei-ta-ka   pa ta ka
12 12 123   1212 123
Nakrivile    kalpatcheco
12  12 123   12 12 123
Hei-ta-ka   pa-ta-ka
etc. 
I think this is fascinating! I don't know much about it and it's difficult to absorb all the info from wiki in one sitting, but listening to more Bulgarian music will be helpful.