Major life news & moving ahead

For anyone who is keeping score, or focused on (nonexistent) schedules, you may have noticed that there was no Nov 15 issue. We were just getting over the fires -- making up for lost hours and depression -- when my Mom died on Nov. 13.

I'm not going to focus on that here. I had many days (like Thanksgiving) when I didn't feel like doing anything, and wondered about the wisdom of compiling dark/horror works at a time like this, but I don't the kind of horror where people die, or come up with cool new ways to kill people. I deal with the "supernatural horror" as defined by H.P.Lovecraft, where non-human forces make us ponder our very reason for being. Real world sadness, or the passing of a single life, does not change this.

Regardless of how we paint the world, or how we let the world be painted for us, we know on some level that we're walking a fine line between what is right and wrong, between creating wonders and facing our own oblivion. What is real beneath all the artificial layers of society? Things are always stirring, just out of reach. Frankly, we could all be wiped out and the outer darkness would not change -- it's just that nobody would be here to appreciate it.

The other fine line that interests me is trying to entertain, help people escape their day-to-day reality, without pushing too far with lectures or too heavy with the darkness. I don't want to dwell on "bad things." It's all just a walk in the woods. We must explore. And exploring must always teach us things, even if they are never spoken aloud.

2024 note: this was the intro to my newsletter Dark Windows #7, but since that since has been gone for years, I have added it to the flow of this blog.

 

decoding Cinnamon the Cat

A recent article on ScienceNow says that the cat genome has been about 80% deciphered. Interesting result: cats are more closely related to humans than any of our other common pets are (dogs, hamsters, etc).

Of course, "cat people" would not be surprised by this. Cats are like weird little children, with or without a genetic reason. Of course, I have one looking over my shoulder (sleeping on the chair behind me with one eye open) and one ready to claw my leg (wants to walk back & forth in front of my face as I try to type), so I have to say nice things about them, or else.

Funny how we think we domesticated all our pets and livestock, when they more likely domesticated themselves around us. We act like we're in control -- we train them and give the orders, right? In fact, they quietly train us to put up with their quirks and schedules and needs along the way. And this is never more obvious than with cats.

Of our three cats, one stares right into my eyes when I talk to her, like she's looking for answers. Oddly, wearing sunglasses doesn't seem to bother her one bit. She still looks right into my eyes.

My favorite cat mystery is why they seem completely oblivious to reflections -- shouldn't seeing themselves in a mirror be completely bizarre? Combine this with their notorious curiosity, and I expect SOME kind of reaction. I recall that as kittens they paid were startled a bit by seeing motion in mirrors, but now they can somehow be obsessed with the slightest scrap of string and ignore their own image completely. I'm guessing that reflections have no scent component, but still ...

... random reflections on cats.

link to the article:
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/1031/2

jinxed the spider, try this comet instead

Well, 2 days after I said the spider was doing fine, it vanished completely. Probably starved. I sifted through the leaves beneath its lair, hoping for a closer look (I do have a cheap USB microscope), but it was gone.

On the fun side, there's a bright comet in Perseus now. About 2 weeks ago it was a faint 17th-magnitude thing, far off and easily forgotten. But then it got a million times brighter for no obvious reason, now it's easy to spot, even without binoculars. Just look for the fuzzy thing near Alpha Persei that doesn't belong there. Because it's fairly distant, it's not moving much from night to night. It's probably going to fade away soon, so check it out while you can.

Here's a finder chart & more info:
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/10862521.html