wigging out

part of the "fun" of chemo (ha!) is trying on wigs. I loved this one, but didn't buy it of course. I mean, I have very short, curly hair. Me looking this good would cause major rifts in the time space continuum.

What do cats DO?

Today I went to a CLE (continuing legal eddication) course. (In case you don't know, lawyers have to put in a certain amount of CLE hours per year, even after law skool. BUT they don't make us take any more exams, and they don't make us answer stupid law school questions like: If John builds a garage two inches over Mary's property line, and then sells his property to Joe, who builds an airplane in the garage which later crashes in the bermuda triangle, which crash becomes the subject of a top grossing hollywood film whose stars inexplicably all suffer bankruptcy within ten years, causing a lack of funding to certain charities which support the preservation of certain amazonian flowers which are used to create a medicine which regulates Mary's heart, and Mary then dies of a heart attack, who gets her Royal Cotton Tea Set?) Oh gads but i do digress.

At any rate, today was a very worthwhile CLE, because one of the sections was on Animal Law. The prof was David Wolfson, a corporate lawyer who also happens to be an animal lawyer and animal rights person. He was great.

My interest in animals far predates my interest in law, and my interest in animal law predates the whole law school song and dance, so I was gratified that stodgy old new york is suddenly taking notice of this very important and cutting edge area of law, and offering CLEs on it.

Wolfson was great. At one point he was explaining the valuation of animals in tort law. Since animals are considered property, if someone kills your animal, they owe you property damage. (animal lovers reading this, this is the state of the law as it stands. FLAWED??? Uh yeah...) In New York, this property damage is limited to market value or "intrinsic value". Market value is obviously an absurd way of valuing animals for people like me, whose animals have always been strays or ferals with ZERO mkt value. And, no one seems to know what "intrinsic" value is, but in the courts it seems to have something to do with the animal's function, for instance a seeing eye dog or guard dog would have a higher intrinsic value than a lap dog.

As Wolfson was explaining valuation, he started talking about his cats. he said that he loved his cats, and got a lot of pleasure from them, but, in terms of intrinsic value, he couldn't quite figure out what, exactly, cats *did*. He kept asking, "what do cats DO?" It was quite amusing. What indeed?

Well I have an answer. Read it HERE

Needless to say, I'm oversimplifying the legal aspects of Wolfson's talk on valuation. And, Wolfson didn't limit his talk to the plight of companion animals, he does a lot of work for farm animals too, who are arguably the most abused (think veal calfs, hen battery cages, gestation pens. One tidbit (no pun intended...) of information is that the US and Canada have virtually NO laws regulating the treatment of farm animals, and let the farmers themselves determine what "usual practices are", while many European countries have adopted laws prohibiting certain farming practices. I know, I know. More US bashing, more Euro promoting. What evah, they are ahead of us in a lot of ways, folks. I mean, Abba proved that long ago...(oops, that's scandinavia. oh well.)

At any rate, Wolfson doesn't think animals should be property.
Especially not cats...

There's a face off in the corner

I have proclaimed this week the "International Week of Denial" partially in honor of the edmonton oilers winning the third game in the Stanley Cup playoffs on Saturday night (DENIED the hurricanes), and partially because i am damned tired of thinking how my breasts betrayed me.

What cracks me up is that the announcers keep saying "the oilers play PHYSICAL hockey". Ok. um, yeah? I mean, is there metaphysical hockey? Astral hockey? ectoplasmic hockey? If so does anyone watch it? Or do you need a medium?

So I am in a good mood. I have been watching hockey and blasting the Ramones and the Pogues. These are things that make me feel good. Am I secretly a teen boy stuck in 1977? Hmmm. I don't have a shag or a mullet, or a mohawk (any more). I don't have acne. And I don't lust after teen girls (as a matter of fact, I avoid them like the plague). Ok, guess not. But I do wish that, vampire like, I could suck up some of their energy. Hockey, Ramones, and the Pogues seem to give me that kind of energy...

Well, I must leave you with my favorite hockey leper joke. You probably remember it from third grade, but, here goes.

How can you tell a leper hockey game?
There's a face off in the corner...

Now, WHO SAID cancer lowers IQs? And i haven't even STARTED chemo yet...

Philematology

The science of kissing. Because really, who'd have thought?


I mean, where does one study this science? And from whom? And...does it cause cancer? heh. The wiki article is full of splendid phrases, such as: kissing is "the touching of the lips to some other thing"..."In order to avoid clashing noses"...and "Kissing is a complex behaviour that requires significant coordination," and information. for example did you know that "the Romans distinguished three types of kiss: osculum, a friendship kiss on the cheek; basium, a kiss of affection on the lips; and suavium, a lovers' deep kiss?"

at any rate, this was brought to you by the fact that I went to the dentist today for the first time in TWENTY-FIVE years or so (ok ok don't get all grossed out on me, I assure you no one noticed my lapses). My teeth are FINE! Good even. No Problemas! Good news is rare these days, and most welcome.

Moveez

I just ordered Throne of Blood from Amazon. I'd been vacillating about ordering it, because it is pricey, but it is one of my favorite movies. It's Akira Kurosawa's version of Macbeth. It has a great creepy witch scene, and the lady mac character is even worse than the hand washing shakespearean character.



I don't have a big DVD library or anything, really the only other one I've ordered is the Ruling Class, which is like Monty Python meets Edgar Allen Poe, via the Producers. Oh hell I don't know what it's like but it's good. Peter O'Toole plays an aristocrat who thinks he's god. At first, he's the god of love, full of love (and lust) for all his creatures. This pisses off his aristocratic relatives royally (or nobly?), so they enlist all kinds of shrinks to cure him of his delusions.

He gets cured...not of the delusion that he is god, but of the delusion that god has anything to do with love. He becomes the destroyer, a god of death, a/k/a Jack the Ripper and starts killing people. But, his manners and sartorial sense are impeccable, so he is totally acceptable to the aristocratic relatives and neighbors. He runs for parliament and of course wins big. At anyrate you should see it, it's quite strange. And peter o'toole is a madman.

introducing the cancer grrrl

i started a new blog which will keep track of the cancer treatments, the technical stuff and my responses etc. Bloggrrilla will remain the venue for musings about star trek, polar bears, and ridiculous pictures of my cats. Occasionally, i'm sure the 2 will overlap, because I am one me, but for the most part the 2 blogs have different raisons d'etre.

New blog = Cancer Grrrl. I haven't tweaked the template to my liking yet, so bear with me.

See you either here or there.

crossroads

Photo courtesy of bluessource.com

"In the folk magic of many cultures, the crossroads is a location "between the worlds" and, as such, a site where supernatural spirits can be contacted and paranormal events can take place.
This is particularly pronounced in conjure, rootwork, and hoodoo, a form of African American magical spirituality. In conjure practice, it is said that in order to acquire facility at various manual and body skills, such as playing a musical instrument, throwing dice, or dancing, one may attend upon a crossroads a certain number of times, either at midnight or just before dawn,and one will meet a 'black man," whom some call the Devil, who will bestow upon one the desired skills." wikipedia

Well, i'm at a crossroads of sorts with this blog. I wonder if i will get supernatural skills if I blog at midnight...
At any rate, here's my dilemma: I can make this a straight up cancer blog, detailing the treatments and my mental and physical status vis a vis this disease (oooh i'm a poet). Or I can keep doing the irrelevant, frivolous, shallow posting that you know and love.
Actually there's another choice. I can keep bloggrilla as bloggrilla, and start another blog with the cancer blow by blow. I'm inclined to take that option.

The only reason I feel compelled to blog about the cancer at all is that I myself find people's cancer blogs really helpful and encouraging. To get deep on ya for a moment or two (don't worry, it won't hurt) facing a potentially fatal disease has a way of distancing one a bit from one's healthy friends. This isn't horrible, but it happens. So, one searches the web for people going thru what one is going thru. I've been really gratified to find both Marjory and Miriam, and I follow their blogs like i used to read runners magazines. (ok i still read runners mags. But now i find the envy almost too much to bear...). It helps! You realize you can still be geeky and stupid and lazy and don't have to walk around looking like Camille and coughing gently into a scented hanky. (not that miriam or marjory are geeky or stupid or lazy. but they didn't change because of the cancer into tragic heroines overnight.)

I don't really wanna be a tragic heroine either. So, i think i'll keep bloggrilla, and create a different blog for the cancer follies.

So it wasn't a crossroads after all. It was more of a three way, like this: