In Coffee Spoons

Liberty, overworked and underslept and believing it to be the 12th, sent me my birthday internet goodness today:





~



and

A kitty video (of a kitty)


Thank you, sweetie! GO GET SOME SLEEP.

...had an unfortunate adventure. Consequently, so did Erin.

Erin has been having quite the streak of good luck with her disturbing cartoon collection recently, and one of her YouTube finds was Felidae.

It's a murder mystery involving animal experimentation, freaky science, and religious cults. I've found it invariably compared to Watership Down; because it's told from an animal POV, and because a book was turned into a horrific animated nightmare never intended for children and inevitably shown to them anyway. (Given the experimentation angle, I'd call Plague Dogs a better comparison.) It's not great, it's got flaws, but it's original enough and scary enough to be more than worth your time.

So this left us all looking for the book. Apparently Erin's streak of good luck passed on to me, because I found it quite by accident in the library. Gulped it down in one sitting last night.

The verdict: Not so good.

It does, of course, flesh out certain characters and scenes much better than a movie can. Especially the professor and his deterioration, which is told in a chapter of journal entries. It's wonderful and much more convincing.

The surreal dream scenes are just as horrifying as in the movie. There's even an additional one involving endlessly murdered kittens.

But for the most part, this was just painful to read. It's poorly written. Very, very poorly. Ham-fisted and overeager.

It's like he's very self-consciously adding "I AM A WRITER, LOOK AT ME WRITE" elements. Long, ridiculous analogies and purple-prosed similes. Equally purple, cliche descriptions of setting and character. Long emphatic tirades on human nature with no basis whatsoever in believable dialogue.

When he drops his self-conscious writing "act" and actually just *writes*, it's not bad. The dream sequences, as I've said, are great. There are quite a few scenes towards the end where he cuts the crap and goes into clear, captivating storytelling mode with very suspenseful results.

It's just a pity that he takes an entire book to hit that stride.

(P.S. nitpick: There are also too many moments in which one character finds himself expositioning to another. In CSI, it is ludicrous that a lab tech needs to explain to another lab tech how he used his lab technology. In Felidae, it is ludicrous that a cat needs to explain to another cat how he used his cat senses.)

(P.P.S. There's apparently a sequel.)

Live animals brought into the house in the past few weeks:

1 snake (Caught by Charlotte, released by yours truly)

1 bird (Caught by Malingo, released by Erin)

1 mouse (Caught by Sweeney, escaped into house, CURRENT WHEREABOUTS UNKNOWN)

0 bunny rabbits (Thank Christ)

The live bird was the biggest surprise. Malingo is a rabid manic ruthless bird-hunter, and we've gotten used to finding piles of feathers in the food dish on a daily basis. (He drops them in the damn food dish, like he's trying to be polite.)

So when he pranced in growling and holding a bird in his jaws, we went to toss him and his treat outside.

Mom: Hang on-- I've almost got it away from him-- there.

Me: Hey, it's flying!

Mom: What did you say? Help me get him outside before he picks it up again.

Me: I said he's not going to get it again, because it's flying.

I guess Malingo wanted some indoor playtime, because it was totally unhurt. Mom held Malingo while Erin caught and freed the bird, which she says very soft. I want to hold a very soft bird.

Maybe Malingo will bring me one.

Spent nearly a solid week in human company *and* survived/enjoyed it? Damn, my medication really is working.

I saw Annie in person for the first time since I was a kid, and it was great.

Erin made a good point- "No wonder we were friends. We've got all the same neuroses. We grew up together thinking we were all normal."

I rode back to Mt. P. with Annie and her husband Ryan (who also seems pretty cool), and met Momo The Famous Internet Cat. He would not give me an autograph, but did leave a lot of cat hair on my shirt. I'm plucking them off to sell on eBay.

The plan was to spend a night at their place, have a pizza and watch some DVDs, play Cooking Mama. We got partway through that plan when an evil death sickness swooped down on Annie like a vulture. A really sick vulture. So I ended up at Taylor's a night early.

YES, I finally got to go see Taylor, and it only took us a COUPLE MOTHERFUCKING YEARS to get around to it. We suck.

It was so great to see him, though. So much catching up about weird shit and reminiscing about weird shit at Alma to do. So much talking, so much smoking, my poor throat.

It came up at least three or four times how much he's calmed the fuck down, and how he pretty much needed to, to still be alive now. No more eating glass.

It was also good to meet Kristin, and I definitely approve of her. Which is good, because otherwise we would have had to fight with knives. Even if I hadn't approved of her, she brought me pie, and that'll pretty much win my loyalty to anyone.

Watched a bunch of movies, of course. Deathwatch, Marebito, Save the Green Planet, I Stand Alone. Gaspar Noe is fucking brilliant, but I'm not sure I could ever subject myself to one of his masterpieces a second time. FeiFei undoubtedly could. Watched Santa's Slay, but I'm not going to talk about that movie. It has eaten too much of my precious lifetime already.

Taylor taught me the basics of speed chess aka blitz chess aka crazy person ADD chess (the last title being mine), and I was surprised to find myself really enjoying it. Patience and foresight are pretty much nonexistent in my personality, so I've never liked regular chess, but this was really different. Well, except in one respect.

Me: Neigh! Neigh!

Taylor: Why does this always happen? Why is everyone who's not into chess feel drawn right to the knights, every time?

Me: In a sea of strange and unfamiliar pieces, the pony is comfortingly recognizable.

Taylor: ...probably.

Me: Neeeeigh!

Ummm, what else. Sat in one of those all-night diners while Taylor listed famous philosophers and what they smelled like. Rubbed dongs and cried. Bunch of other stuff. Yeah. But that's what comes to mind right now.

The cats have cabin fever.

Sweeney goes in and out every ten minutes, hoping the weather has changed. The right side of my body is cold from inching the door open and closed.

Charlotte tears around the house chasing Malingo. And she's taken to burrowing under the rug and hiding her toys there, so she can burrow under the rug later and catch them.

Malingo is destroying everything in sight. Everything is a cat toy except, of course, his cat toys. He's particularly fond of shredding paper, so he is banished from my room a lot.

He's also banished from my room because despite my wrapping my latest art project in newspaper and hiding it, there are charcoal and pastel marks all over my floor. And shredded newspaper.

Tipper is just sleeping a lot. You know, like she does every other season.

Vomiting Cat
Bargain Prices. Smart Deals. Save on Vomiting Cat!
Shopzilla.com