Ana Mardoll's Ramblings: February 2017

Open Thread: A cat named cat

Ok, technically she's named Pandora but we call her "cat". I think it's because my sister named her Lydia and then unnamed her that and so by the time she had a solid name our brains weren't ready for it. Whatever the case, this engine of entropy has been living with me since she was the size of my fist.

I think her being calico finally broke my family out of calling cats "cows" which started with a white cat with black spots that really did look like a cow's pattern and continued to the black and white cat after.

We weren't going to get a new cat. We were going to wait until the loss of previous cat had faded and then think about the possibility of maybe considering an exploratory . . . At the end we had to manually feed previous cat (human) baby food. When she died we had some left over. We asked my sister if she knew anyone with a (human) baby who the food could be given to. She did. When she knocked on the door current cat was thrust into her arms with the words "Have a kitten" (or was it "Have a cat"?)

And thus she came to us, a fist sized lump of fur, with a hernia at the time, who tried to pick fights with a mutt (German Shepherd/Great Dane/????? mix) into whose mouth she could fit.

Since my mother left the family home, the cat's been my only free-roaming housemate (the gecko stays in its tank as it dislikes human contact, can run up walls in a flash, and bites hard.)

Since I've been at my house, except for one doctor visit, all week the most readily available pictures were the cat and actual real live fish at a different waiting room (is it a rule that waiting rooms need fish, be they actual or sculptural?) and since the camera couldn't decide whether to focus on the fish in the tank or the reflection off the tank . . . kitty!

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Friday Recommendations! What have you been reading/writing/listening to/playing/watching lately? Shamelessly self-promote or boost the signal on something you think we should know about - the weekend’s ahead of us, so give us something new to explore!

And, like on all threads: please remember to use the "post new comment" feature rather than the "reply" feature, even when directly replying to someone else!

Narnia: Someone Ought To Take The Ring

[Narnia Content Note: Slavery, Racism]

Narnia Recap: Shasta ran into the forest to find King Lune and warn him of Rabadash's approach. He was then separated from King Lune's party in the fog, and briefly overheard Rabadash's army pass by before meeting with Aslan himself. Obligatory note about racism, intent, and Lewis is here.

The Horse and His Boy, Chapter 12: Shasta in Narnia

Wow, it's been over a month since the last update and I am sorry. I slipped into a depression hole over politics and then got the flu and was out for a bit with that. Fun times. But we're back today here and now to tackle Chapter 12!

One of the difficult things about this book is that Lewis hit a problem with pacing. I've talked about this before and I don't want to belabor the point, but this book is about a horse race: Shasta has important news to impart to the king, he and his friends race across the desert, and the information is given. In many books, that would be a climax in itself; if not the climax, then a peak before building even higher to the siege and battle. (The siege is optional--Rabadash is a fool for trying to continue his plan after he's been thwarted--but a good author could make entertaining hay of this straw.)

Open Thread: Mid-Week Fundraiser and Notes

Hey all, this is Ana checking in. I'm no longer sick from the flu (mostly!) and will be working on a Narnia post today, but I wanted to pop in with an open thread post first.

coins by Luis Llerena

For one, this is a new fresh clean open thread because the last one was 100+ comments (awesome!) and it looked like we maybe needed a new one. Go wild!

For two, we've had a lot of questions regarding the blog policy on whether it's okay to share creative works in the open threads for commenting, and I've gotten valuable feedback from readers by email. So here's our policy (for now, until things change again!):

If you have a piece of fiction you'd like to share, please feel free to post an excerpt here in the open threads (so people can view your writing style and whether it's something they're interested in) along with a link to where the full piece lives and/or where any subsequent updates to the piece and reader comments will go. The opening excerpt doesn't need to be particularly short, but we would like to cut back on multiple-updates-within-the-same-open-thread-for-ongoing-works because that can make conversations hard to follow if they're being broken up by dozens of WIP updates. The moderation team and I hope that this new policy will keep the open threads tidy and approachable while still offering a "sharing" capability for folks seeking comments and readers. ♥

For three, I try not to do too many fundraiser posts around here because I know everyone is stretched pretty tight already, but if you can contribute to Chris she does a lot to run the blog here and I'd be lost without her help, her support, and all the work she puts into our open threads, updates, and comment moderation. She's having a rough month with a broken ankle and a broken computer, and if you can send some extra help her way I can't thank you enough. Thank you so much. ♡

Open Thread: Waiting Room Fish

This is the law of the waiting room
as old and as true as the sky,
The fish that keeps it shall prosper,
but the fish that breaks it will cry,
For the strength of the school is the fish
and the strength of the fish is the school

I was waiting in that room for ages, but I didn't notice the hanging fish sculpture mobiles until they'd reached me, x-rayed me, stuck me back in the room, eventually taken me out and put me in a bed, interviewed me, splinted me, x-rayed me again, had me wait on god know what still in the bed, and finally released me by wheeling me back in there.

I thought of trying to find something more upbeat, but I don't have too many recent photos to look at, digging up external hard drive with older photos isn't high on my list of things to do, and right now my broken ankle is the center of my world.

Plus, it's a pretty fish.

Open Thread: Bird Obscured by Branches

For the second day in a row area schools were preemptively canceled due to predicted snow. Yesterday that proved a very good idea, whether it will again remains to be seen. the thing about canceling the night before is that it means kids don't need to get up on time (only to find out that school was last-minute canceled.) They can sleep in as these ones are wont to do.

That gives a rather peaceful start to the day during which one can leisurely do things like, say, find the best window from which to take a picture of that red bird in that not-red tree.

Open Thread: Orange Brick

Oak Grove is the end of the orange line, and the station makes sure you notice the "orange" bit by having the inside walls decked out in a facade of glazed orange brick

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