December 2003

First Positive Thing Bush Has Said?
Aside from being a good leader as we mourned 911, I think very little of President Bush. But the contemplation of a return to the moon is something I can unreservedly get behind.

Though I’m really beginning to think Dean has a shot to be the next President. The re-election of the President is not a fait accompli.

New Stew Review: Coming Home To You
East Bay Express—Down in Front Brother, Who Art Thou?—A black man with an acoustic guitar is rare. But a guy like Stew is rarest.

Paintings for Sale
Janece of janece.com has paintings for sale. You know, Leah has some older works around, which she would be willing to sell. I may not have a shopping cart for her, but I’d be willing to agent some of her work.

Old Holiday Photos
For the New Header for the blog. This should last me till the end of the year.

Basilone
Also, there are now pictures of Leah’s and my cat on the Leah Peah Photos area: Bas.

He’s a great cat. More, and better photos to come in the next few weeks.

Search Refit
So back in 2002 I upgraded to htdig, well, now I have something that so far looks simpler to maintain. Check Search for the latest search engine ‘round here.

And thanks to Tom Bickle for spotting that my htdig installation was hosed. How embarassing.

The underpinnings are the open source Perlfect.

Forgot this: R Spot
Several weeks ago Leah, I, and some friends went to Ray at Night in North Park. One of the more interesting art galleries is actually part gallery, part bookstore, and part barber shop: R. Spot Barber and Books. They had some really great art. It had kind of a city vibe to it – very New York – very black. Really awesome. Worth a visit, for sure.

Cat Update
So Basilone is coming around. He’s still reticent to come out and play, but he sat on the bed with Leah and I for about an hour tonight, watching The West Wing. He seems playful and pretty loving, several times augering inbetween Leah and Me for extra cuddling.

He’s still exploring this old house. He’s using the litter box as he should, and is not so perturbed at us he might do any retaliatory marking or peeing. His former owner couldn’t keep him at his new apartment, so he had to let him go. So, he is here. I do feel a little bad for him though, his front paws are declawed, and playing with a shoelace with him is just not the same when he can’t really grip.

We have a cat!

Still a bit hard to believe.

I find domestic animals fascinating. If humans ceased to exist, they would be very different creatures. When these animals ancestors did not live with humans, they were very different creatures.

Cool! Wikipedia has some things to say about domestication. And more about domestic cats. The ontology for a cat would be: Animalia: Chordata: Mammallia: Carnivora: Felidae: Felis: silvestris: catus. I love that.

Like many other domesticated animals, cats lived in a mutualistic arrangement with humans. The benefit of removing rats and mice from humans’ food stores outweighed the cost of allowing a formerly-wild animal to enjoy the relative safety of a human settlement; hence, the relationship between cat and human has continued. However, unlike other domesticated species, housecats’ ancestors did not hunt socially or enjoy the safety of a herd, as other domesticated animals did. This evolutionary history may be the reason cats do not ‘understand’ the desires of humans in the same way that dogs do; before humans, cats had fewer social relationships to benefit from. This may also contribute to a sense common among pet owners that cats are both more aloof and more self-sufficient than other pets. However, cats can be very affectionate towards their humans, especially if they imprint on them at a very young age and are treated with consistent affection.

I also note that: The cat was first domesticated by the Ancient Egyptians in 4000 BC, to keep mice and rats away from their grain stores. They regarded cats as embodiments of the goddess Bast

“Bast” sounds like what Leah calls him, “Bas”—short for—again—Basilone. She plans to take some pictures this week to share with family around the country and yes, with the whole darn internet.

One of my regular readers also points out that “Basilon is Cuban slang for someone or something that is a lot of fun”—which is a nice nifty thing as well.

Some google searches find a “John Basilone” who was a WWII Medal of Honor winner.

There was also a Naval Destroyer: USS Basilone.

Nifty random stuff.

Respiratory Work Coming Out of My Ears
So because of my RT Resume I get calls occasionally from people googling for Respiratory Therapist Resumes. It turns out RT work is hot and heavy right now. In the past month I’ve gotten at least 2 calls or emails a week for per diem, part-time, full time, pulmonary function testing, floor care, ICU, etc. The thing is, the work pays much less than my web development skills. I’d be tempted, but apparently the society values health care less than it values websites.

I must say, I’m conflicted about not taking RT work more seriously. I do maintain my California license though.

I may yet return to the work in some form.

Perhaps I’ll start a web based RT employment agency. I certainly have the Google PageRank for it.

Voltes V Videos Question – Now in the FAQ
I get a lot of questions about this, it’s been added to the FAQ.