I want to remember this url:
http://groups.google.com/group/talk.origins/msg/7037bc7fcaf682bd
Page 18 of 61
I sincerely hope they don’t get after me for reproducing today’s cartoon from one of my favorite strips:
Waaah.
Karma the Cat ran out the clock on his 9th life on Friday 17 February 2006.
Although we used to joke about how grumpy and irascible he was, in truth he was the gentlest of creatures and he left this world the way lived in it: quietly and without protest.
In the end, it wasn’t a coyote that got him: there was no grand stand-off; and he did not need to engage his tiger aspect.
We got the results of his nasal biopsy on Wednesday. The news was not good: They identified a high-grade tumour in his nose, a malignant lymphoma. The treatment options for this kind of ailment are pretty horrible and there was no way we were going to subject Karma to them. Besides, Karma hadn’t eaten anything for the last two weeks. Even though his breathing seemed easier and a little less congested since his hospital visit last week, he was still suffering the occasional spluttering and gulping spasms and he was showing no interest in any food.
We knew what we were going to have to do. We could not watch him starve to death. Yesterday was bright and sunny and Karma spent several hours out in the backyard before coming inside and curling up on our bed. This morning was cold and grey and I rang and made the appointment for 11:20.
Karma had lost another pound since we last weighed him: 6.7. They put us in a room with a couch and while L settled up I let Karma explore and he ran up to the window and looked out at the garden and snuffled and sneezed on the glass.
We had arranged to stay with him, so they took him away and a few minutes later brought him back wrapped in a blanket, with a catheter fitted to his forearm. It was still shaved from his IV last week.
They explained the process: two injections, first a sedative to relax him, then the other one. We sat on the couch together and watched the light go out of his beautiful golden eyes.
To my ex-flatmate, Sonia Dawson, wherever you are: if by some chance you read this, thank you for introducing me to Karma, and thank you for entrusting us with your cat. We tried to take good care of him over the last 14 years.
This afternoon the world is missing a creature of elegant grace, and I have a cat-shaped hole in my heart.
He’s back from his overnight stay at the Veterinary Referral Center, having had a chest x-ray, an IV of fluids, rhynoscopy, and a nasal biopsy. Poor guy. He hasn’t eaten or drunk anything but he is enjoying the sun.
Alas, we cannot please all of the people all of the time:
From: John Hines
signus1@netzero.net
To: Colin
RE: Rush?
--- BEGIN MAIL MESSAGE ---
For you to say that any of the new Rush songs 'suck' is absolutely crazy.
I just can't believe it.
I don't know how I ran into you site but definitely won't come back.
Unless I need a good laugh.
--- END MAIL MESSAGE ---
I guess he read my review of the Vapor Trails tour.
I was holding off listening to Kate Bush‘s latest album, for the longest time. This was for two reasons:
- People were saying it was really good, even though her last album was 12 years ago and not that good, in my opinion. I didn’t want to be disappointed.
- If it was as good as people were saying, then it would probably have the unfortunate side-effect of popping any creative bubble of my own (as in, “I’m not worthy to even blow raspberries where other people can hear them”) and I’ve been on a roll lately and didn’t want to upset it.
Today I heard the second disk of Aerial. It’s really, really good. A return to form. I’ll just have to live with the consequences, dammit.
So Robert Fripp is recording sounds for Windows Vista?
http://channel9.msdn.com/showpost.aspx?postid=151853
Is it just me, or is that ambient loop behind him totally based on the opening melody of Promenade from Mussorgsky‘s Pictures at an Exhibition?
Tim Bray describes a PBS HD Jazz concert. It sounds pretty cool:
Saving the best for the last: The Patricia Barber Quartet played Norwegian Wood. No, that’s not what they did… actually they fucking blew the stage to smithereens, caressing the song, then easing into the instrumental space, then offering apocalyptic piano and bass breaks, then dropping into a fast ensemble groove, pure rhythm for the sake of rhythm, why couldn’t it have gone on for an hour; a penultimate dip into that tart Lennon/McCartney sweetness and then it ended with a big loud bang. I’ve been listening to a lot of jazz for a lot of years; for my money, the Barber quartet is by a wide margin the world’s premier currently-active jazz ensemble. Maybe the premier currently-active ensemble in any genre of music.
Tim Bray describes a PBS HD Jazz Concert
It’s a grey cold-ish day here in Vegas and I kinda stopped posting political items because it was all so darned depressing. But here’s a great post by Digby summing up the character of the man who currently occupies the White House. This country is so screwed.
Wow. King Kong is a misfire of Lucasian proportions.
The CGI animation of Kong is wonderous to watch, and Andy Serkis should get an Oscar for his role as Lumpy the Cook because he won’t get one for being Kong. For sure, Kong the CGI character wouldn’t have been believable without Serkis and his 132 facial sensors.
But, PJ, just because you were remaking a film originally shot in 1933, and setting it in 1933, doesn’t mean you should infuse it with 1933 sensibilities!
And it is way too long. I think someone other than PJ should have edited the film. Assuming anyone actually edited it. Kong is at least 1 hour too long. It didn’t need so many dinos, or bugs, or action sequences, or vestigial characters. (What’s up with Jimmy, for example?) Was PJ showing off, and justifying it by calling it a “tribute”? That’s what it felt like, in places.
L said that she felt that the film made it clear that mentally Kong is not an adult, and as such, the entire movie is an ongoing documentary of abuse of a 2-year old child. I see what she means. (After all, where is Kong’s “wedding tackle”? Clearly he’s pre-pubescent.)
This film just wasn’t *enjoyable* to watch. And that’s why King Kong (2005) is a tragedy.
Recent Comments