The Cat

So, last Friday on my birthday, my cat turned 11. Yes, his birthday falls on my birthday. Anyway, the part of how smart my cat is that I mentioned a couple of days ago. My cat came and got me because he wanted food, which is no different from any other time. I have an understanding with him that if there's significant food in his plate, he doesn't get any more (unless I'm leaving for the day or something — I'm not a total ogre); I tend to think this understanding is somewhat one-sided, though when I remind him of it, he'll usually start eating his food. There was a pretty good amount of food in his plate, so no more for him.

He would have none of that. He sprawled out in front of me and cried. He ran around crying. I was going back into the bedroom, and he again threw himself in front of me and cried. I got down to pet him and talk to him, and he cried again. I said, "Clark, your food is NOT tainted; now go finish it." It was plain to me he told me his food was tainted. Then I thought that he's not usually quite so insistent as he had been.

I went to his plate after turning the lamp up all the way, and the food was covered with... ants. He knew his food was tainted and kept trying to tell me, only I wouldn't listen. I think he's pretty smart (and not just because of this), but I shan't go on and on.

All in All

Not a bad day, all things considered. My boss did ask me at least three times within one minute if I was working on a particular project, said project having been completed yesterday. Remind me to share the story of my cat's smartness.

Invader Zim watching it all over again. "I must get some product" [at least, that's what I recall Gir saying to the door-to-door cosmetics sales-tron. I'm trying to expand my Gir-isms. Now if only I could get my voice to get that off, electronic twinge to it. Anyone have a voice transformer much like the one Sydney used in Alias’s season three finale in the jail cell next to Sark that will help me more accurately imitate Gir?]

After all, today is a new day

Wow, what a different day today has been. I'm not sure what happened. Perhaps it was praying this morning:

God, I absolutely cannot go through another day like I have been doing. I am absolutely powerless to do this, and I need Your help to make it through the day.

Well, I'm certainly not a righteous man (except as much as God declares it), but He apparently answered my prayer anyway. Thank You, God, immensely. Thank You that You would deign to consider me in Your plan and working in my life so that my day wouldn't be sucky.

I'm not looking forward to tomorrow, but I think I can get through it okay. I'll even let my neighbor take me out.

Have I mentioned how much I enjoy Invader Zim lately? “I love that show”.

Not Quite in Bed Yet

GIR // GIR is one of the most hilarious people on
the show. He's a robot and is SUPPOSED to be
helping Zim. His quote is "Can I be a
moongoose dog?"


Which Invader Zim character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Annoyances to Pleasantries

While driving home from work today, my radio station was set to what I listen to on the way in (104—love Sam, Maria, and to a lesser extent, Robbie). I forget that most of the music on 104 is not within my realm of appreciation. So I flipped to 106.9, the 80's (and beyond) station [this is also known as The Point, which I discovered one day is a whole family of stations across the country — or at least the south].

Anyway, they were on their slew of commercials since they play relatively few during the day. The most annoying commercial I've heard in a while: the Cingular commercial where the daughter is trying to convince her dad to add on a phone. As many times as I've heard this commercial, today it just hit me as screeching. I turned the radio off.

I would have listened to a CD, but I finished at least the 20^th go around of the soundtrack for The Prince and Me, and I couldn't safely get to another CD in my briefcase. I haven't seen the movie, but the soundtrack is pretty cool. Why do I have this soundtrack, you wonder? Well, I'll tell you: I won it in a contest. Quite a variety of music, some alternative, hip-hop [me, saying hip-hop as a good thing? go figure!], some not-quite techno, and some other stuff I can't quite identify but I like. There's one song that reminds me of Arcadia's "Meet El Presidente".

Once I got home, I got to see the last 30 minutes of Amercian Idol and the announcement of the grand winner, Fantasia [where's your charge of racism now, Sir Elton John? a bogus, irrelevant claim if I ever heard one]. I had no particular favorite this season (I picked Clay from the beginning of the twelve last year). I kind of liked Jon Stevens [no death threats, please] just because he was so different.

Then I watched news on the local Fox station for about fifteen minutes —  way too many horrible accidents the past couple of days.

Then I watched the rest of disc 2 of Invader Zim. Don't like it? [you lie! YOU LIE!] You just haven't seen it, then. I laughed and chuckled and chortled. Then I stopped. Until I started up again, which was usually within just a minute or so. Gir is my favorite. "I love this show." <switch channel> "I love this show." <repeat> I think Invader Zim has taken over Spongebob Squarepants as my current favorite cartoon.

Well, conference call at 9 in the morning. Must get to bed. There's so much to do.

Good night, and God bless.

-jack

P.S.: I didn't forget about writing my thoughts about the morality piece from Switchback, but I did forget what I wanted to say [must be my early-onset Alzheimer's]. I'll have to think about it some more.

A Foul Day

Well, after being sick yesterday, I went back to work today. I don't know why, but I wound up in a really foul mood by the end of the day. I get home, and my cat decides to "mark" a bag of my stuff. I was not happy. At all. I didn't eat dinner, and I'm hungry but don't feel like eating. Food is currently just something I have to consume, no enjoyment or satisfaction goes along with it.

I dread Friday. One of my neighbors wants to take me to dinner to celebrate, and I just want the day to be over with. At least the next two years, my natal day will be on the weekend. I think my birthday means more to her than to me.

On other fronts (can't dwell in the muck too long -- who wants to read that all the time!), I highly recommend Invader Zim. I hadn't seen it on TV but picked up the DVD when it was released a couple of weeks ago. I laugh out loud with this one. If you're not into sick and twisted at all, pass Invader Zim by. But if you like things off kilter, check this out.

The most recent movie I watched is Switchback, with Dennis Quaid, Danny Glover, and Jared Leto. It's a fair little movie with Quaid as an FBI agent tracking down a serial killer, only with a slight complication on top of that. There are a few suspenseful moments, and a few "Yeah, right" movements. The ending turned out to be pretty anticlimactic. There was enough mystery, though, to maintain my interest. I did come up with an interesting thought about the nature of morality and our adherence or lack of adherence to a moral code. But I'll talk about that another time. Consider yourself whetted.

This is the Title of My First True Blog

This is my first blog report. Thanks, Jason, for encouraging me to do this. It remains to be seen whether I have anything worth writing. Or worth reading, for that matter. If nothing else, it might do me some good to vent some stuff.

Speaking of venting, my birthday is coming up soon, which is no big deal in and of itself. It just happens to be a milestone birthday starting with a "for" and ending with a "tee". I've never held much stock in birthdays; to me, it's always been just another day. Friends have thought it was because I was afraid of getting old. Over that, I don't have much control. I'm not afraid to be any age. The main reason I don't celebrate my birthday or treat it just like any other day is that I really don't like a fuss being made over me.

I suppose my big problem with it this year, why this one is hitting me so hard, is not that I'm turning 40 but that I'm turning 40 and have nothing of any relevance to show for my life. :::sigh:::