What I'm riding to Sturgis

I wish...

I'd ride this if I could go! *sob*

Oh well, I guess I'll just keep checking out the Sturgis Street Blog for my fix this year.

Oscar the cat

There's an essay about this cat in the latest New England Journal of Medicine. I can't forward that around (as much as I would like to), but here's the link to the CNN story. This cat lives in a nursing home and predicts when people are going to die - he simply goes to their room and curls up next to them. According to the article, "His mere presence at the bedside is viewed by physicians and nursing home staff as an almost absolute indicator of impending death, allowing staff members to adequately notify families. Oscar has also provided companionship to those who would otherwise have died alone."

If you have access to the NEJM, I'd recommend reading the original essay by Dr. Dosa. It's in the July 26, 2007 issue ( vol.357, p.328-9). If not, searching "Oscar the cat" on Google News brings up quite a few hits.

My Harry Potter encounter today - and it's not what you think

I got a request today for an article about Boomslang bite. I see odd words every day, but they're usually more along the lines of psychoneuroendocrinology. "Boomslang" struck me funny, like it belonged in something like a Harry Potter book more than a medical journal. Little did I know.

I had no idea what a boomslang was (a bug was my guess) so I took a minute and looked it up. It's a venomous snake native to Africa. In my quick search, I also came across a reference to Harry Potter. Since it was Wikipedia, I took it with a grain of salt and wanted to verify that for myself. When I got home, I pulled out my copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and found that "shredded skin of a boomslang" really is an ingredient in Polyjuice Potion (page 165 in my paperback edition).

Of all the days for that request to cross my desk and grab my curiosity. Serendipity?

In case you're wondering, I won't be in line for Harry tonight. I just finished Order of the Phoenix a few weeks ago and it will be awhile before I start Half Blood Prince. If I can just keep from hearing how the series ends before I read it for myself, I'll be a happy camper. But I doubt that will last long. If you see me, don't tell me. :)

Pew Internet & American Life Project: "Omnivores embrace all this connectivity, feeling confident in how they manage information and their many devices. This puts information technology at the center of how they express themselves, do their jobs, and connect to their friends."

That would be me. I groan when people tell me NOT to e-mail them because they don't check it very often ("WHAT? How will I communicate with you then?"). If the internet goes down, I can't do 95% of my day job. If I forget my cell-phone at home, I have a panic attack. The thing I call my brain is not the gray matter in my head, it's the gadget in my pocket. And I don't think I even know how to load film into a camera anymore, even though I take more pictures than ever.

The term my husband often uses for me is "Ubergeek."

See more about Ominovres and how they fall into the rest of the tech-using population here and you can take the quiz yourself here.

Arrrh, Matey!

My pirate name is:

Mad Mary Bonney

Every pirate is a little bit crazy. You, though, are more than just a little bit. You can be a little bit unpredictable, but a pirate's life is far from full of certainties, so that fits in pretty well. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

Just how stupid is my dog?

She's taking chew toys to a whole new level.

(Two posts in one day, can you believe it?)

At last!

After *only* a year-and-a-half (or so) I FINALLY finished reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on Monday night. Yay! Just in time, apparently, because I saw the first TV spot for the movie on Tuesday.

A sign of my complete and utter geekiness

The Bayeux Tapestry
Uploaded by dekku

I got the biggest kick out of this!

An interesting take

Tim at LibraryThing posted this on the Thingology blog a couple days ago. I really hadn't looked at the whole CDs-and-DVDs-in-libraries debate (as in, do they belong in the library) this way before. Basically, he sees it as a moot point, since "This stuff is on the way out," as he puts it. And when I stopped to think about it, he's right. I can't remember the last CD or DVD I got from the library (though I know I have done so occasionally, but so rarely and so long ago that I couldn't tell you what they were now). He says "let's all stop imagining a library without books, and imagine a library without CDs and DVDs. Let's imagine a library with books, and hope for one with more of them."

I use the public library often for books. I use it even more since I discovered that they'll hold items for me at the circulation desk for me so I can just come in, ask for them, have them checked out to me, and leave. This makes it very easy for me to pick them up on my evening commute when I'm in a time crunch to pick my daughter up from school. Since I live in a newer part of town, which leaves me without a convenient library on weekends (hint hint: We need a library further west than 132nd Street), it's great that there's a library directly on my route home which will perform this service. It's really a win-win - I get the use of the books (free, as always!) and the books get circulated, helping the library's usage statistics. I've been meaning to send them a note saying how much I appreciate this service...Guess I'd better go do it now.

WooHoo!!!! I can't wait!

Thunder

Mmmmm, thunder. Spring is here!

Of course, I won't be happy when lightning zaps my computer, but for the moment, it's bliss to hear that rumble and know that rain is coming, not snow!

Green food

I just realized my last two posts were about green food. Either I need to blog more or eat strange food less (maybe both). More non-food-related posts coming soon, I promise! They're all in my head, I just haven't taken time to polish them yet. As soon as I do, they'll be here.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!, originally uploaded by mdesive.

We started the day off right - with green food! (It seems to be becoming a trend in our house) Then we tried to go to lunch at the Brazen Head, a local Irish pub, but that turned out to be standing-room only and you couldn't hear the band anyway. We went a few doors down to Old Chicago, who were all decorated for St. Patrick's Day but not nearly as crowded. Still, I missed out on the music I'd been counting on all week. Guess I'll just have to put on a CD tonight and get my fix that way.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!, originally uploaded by mdesive.

Mmmmm! Green Eggs and Ham! I do like them, Sam I Am! (and they taste MUCH better than they look. The eggs were a little psychedelic-looking (the food coloring came out of the bottle much faster than I expected) and the green made the ham look rather, well, BLEH. But it all still tasted normal.

Not going anywhere today!

The worst is, it's still coming down! Can't find my car and haven't seen a snowplow yet. Our neighbor did our sidewalk with his snow blower about half an hour ago, but you can't tell now. Good day to stay in and write. Hmmm, where's the hot cocoa?

Finished: Circle of Stones

Circle of Stones: Woman's Journey to Herself is a short book, but I kept it lying around as the one to pick up when I had just a few moments to read, so it's taken me a couple months. It was very interesting. I'll probably pull the second one off the shelf soon to read in the same manner. First, though, I have only a week to read Now, Discover Your Strengths. It's assigned reading for a workshop I'll be attending, so I have to drop all my "fun" reading until that's done.

My dog can talk...but is he saying anything?

Apparently, I was fairly bored this week, between getting snowed in and then being home with a sick kid. So, I started filming the dogs...



Missy usually falls asleep on her side, curled up like a "normal" doggie. But as soon as she's really asleep, she rolls over on her back with all four legs in the air. Then she starts to twitch...

Starting over

D'oh! Apparently all the Valentine's chocolate went to my head.

One of the goals of my local RWA group, Heartland Writers Group, is for each of us to write (at least) 100 words a day for 100 days. If you miss a day, you have to start over at day one. And I was doing so well, but I completely forgot to write my 100 words yesterday. I was 43 days in! And now I have to start over at Day ONE. Gah! Maybe it's some subconscious thing about being at the 9000-word mark. I don't know. But here I go, starting over. You can watch my progress here.

At least there's humor in Scotland...

You are very, very naughty!, originally uploaded by juliebee.

...unless you misbehave near the hot water.

The theme for today

That's one way to deal, originally uploaded by waiting line.

I hate Thursdays.