Tonight Charles and I are going to the coast for our annual anniversary trip - a little earlier than usual this year, and also possibly a little bit longer, due to a fortuitously timed field work assignment which, if it comes through, will allow me to sponge off of Charles' employers for that much-coveted "one more day." I'll be back sometime in the middle of next week.

I've been in one of Those Moods lately, the sort of brain-fried state of mind in which stringing together words becomes unreasonably difficult, and reading anything more complex than Goodnight Moon a total trial. So instead, I've been playing Civilization and browsing fanvids on YouTube, which for some reason my computer can handle, even though it usually chokes on video.

I've also been watching loads of ancient Doctor Who. I miss quarries. Why does the new series never shoot scenes in quarries? The quarries were one of the best things about the show! I understand that the production values have improved and all that, but really, that's no reason to abandon everything about the old aesthetic.

At least someone on Youtube understands the repetitive yet soothing beauty of the overused shooting location.

The most perfect killing machine ever devised...

Must go pack now.

OMG! I've just noticed the addition of a TRACKING BUTTON on the comments threads of people's livejournals! Could this be? Is it true? Have they finally implemented a way to subscribe to comments threads?

If this really is a new feature and not just a cruel hoax, I will love Six Apart for ever and ever and ever.

Well. Until they do something else that I don't like, that is. I mean, let's not get carried away here.

*
There's always something rather humbling about seeing outpourings of internet grief - and the accompanying wankery - over the death of some celebrity you've never even heard of before.

It does seem that many people on livejournal were indeed sad yesterday. They are now, however, beginning to become a bit less sad.

No. No, really. I have PROOF!

You can track the livejounal zeitgeist yourself at the Moodgrapher. I found the Global Events page particularly interesting.

*
In other news, I just had my first experience with, er, authorized nitrous oxide use at the dentist today.

I highly recommend it. It's far more enjoyable than those little restaurant canisters that we used to empty into balloons and then inhale back in college. Best of all, the silly-looking equipment all belongs to the dentist, so you don't have to go desperately looking for a place to hide it away whenever a potentially disapproving person comes into your room.

I do not recommend root scaling, however. Really. Not even for the nitrous. Floss, children! Floss! And don't take up smoking - it's hell on your gums.

Thank you all for the birthday wishes. I had a low-key day, which is precisely the way I like it, and then was taken out for dinner, which I also like. Kim and Sydney baked me a cake with pretty blue frosting. Mmmmmm. Frosting. Then, just to ensure that I not forget that my body is aging, the fates decreed that I should come down with a cold. Mmmmm. Sinus headache.

I hadn't realized until last week's Pluto discussions how many of the people I know here on livejournal were astrology buffs. So, as a way of thanking you all for the lovely birthday greetings, I offer up ( this key to all of the darkest secrets of my innermost psyche )

Yes, that's right. Interpret this puppy properly, and you'll know precisely how to manipulate me.

happy_potterer asked about Steve, the starved black kitty we took in earlier this summer.

He's still with us. Our vet told us about a cat refuge place that said they were willing to take him, even though they also said that they're up to their ears in FIV-positive males, but I really don't want to send him there. He's so affectionate, such a very people-oriented cat, that I just can't bring myself to send him to live someplace where he wouldn't get a lot of personal attention. I'd much rather try to find him a real home, with people who will give him the affection that he so clearly craves.

We've been putting off looking, though, mainly because things keep coming up that make us think it would be best to hold off for a while longer. First, we wanted to get him checked over, to make sure that he was completely parasite-free, and to get him up to date on all of his shots. Then we wanted to get him neutered, and of course, it only seemed fair to give him some time to recover after that! Then we were waiting to hear back on the more complicated blood test results, to make sure that he was really FIV-positive (which alas, he is). And then we were holding off until all of his scrapes and scratches and sores from his time outdoors healed up more completely. Although he doesn't have any obvious injuries anymore, he was still sort of scabby and lumpy for a while. It wasn't very nice to touch, and I felt that he'd have a much better chance of seeming like an attractive option to prospective adopters if we waited until all of those nasty patches had cleared up, and also until he'd fattened up a bit more.

I think, though, that we've now pretty much run out of excuses for looking for a new home for Steve. I suspect that maybe at this point, we're just procrastinating because we've grown rather attached to him. I know that some part of my mind is still vacillating over the question of whether we really could integrate him into our household, or whether Radclyffe the bully cat would pick a fight with him and thereby get herself infected. We really should make a decision one way or the other, though: it's just not fair to Steve to make him live in the TV room just because we're all too wimpy and lethargic and indecisive and prone to procrastination ever to make firm decisions about things. It is a pretty big room, but still: I wouldn't want to live my entire life in there, if I were a cat. Steve seemed quite content with it when he was still recovering from starving half to death, but now that he's getting healthier and moving around a lot more, he needs considerably more space.

In other cat news, because I am a sad, sad fannish stereotype, I've now uploaded some pictures of my cats, just so that I can share them with you! Aren't you just thrilled?

( Kitty Pics )

There are a couple more catpics in my LJ Scrapbook, which I have only this weekend figured out how to use. Because I am always very up-to-date that way.

planetpluto has now been deleted and purged.

Boy, those astronomers really are hard core, aren't they? Stalwart men of science! Unflinching in the face of sentimental public opinion! Just like Galileo when he—

Huh? What?

Oh.

It is decided.

The eight planets are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

I should like to offer my sincere condolences to those born under the sign of Scorpio, whose ruling planet is now a planet no more.

Cheer up, little Scorpios! At least you still have a ruler of your own. We Virgos have always had to share ours with those damned Geminis.

Anyway, perhaps it is best simply to think of it as an evolutionary process.

Pluto is the outermost planet of the solar system, and the end of the process of breaking down the reality structure of normal consciousness begun by Uranus. Pluto supplies the energy for the evolutionary process whereby outmoded or dysfunctional entities are transformed through death and rebirth into new ones higher on the evolutionary path. This outmoded entity is often a part of our ego with which we are identified, and without which we feel we cannot live.

So you see?

All for the best, really.

ETA:
Reading further down on that astrological website, I have now also discovered that "Pluto rules the black race." Oh, dear.

I wonder which planet rules the racists?

Okay, so now I have a Vox account. I admit that I got it primarily because I wanted to reserve 'Elkins,' a name that tends to go fast. (I didn't manage to snag it on Livejournal, nor on Gmail, so I thought that I'd better hustle if I wanted to reserve it on Vox.) 'Skelkins' isn't the worst username in the world, I suppose, but it always reminds me of Skeletor, and honestly, if I'm going to be associated with some 1980s cartoon villain, I'd much rather it be Cobra Commander.

( But what are your thoughts on Vox? )