Friday, March 09, 2007

333 is Attractive

I’ve had my snack of stick pretzels and water. My hair is dirty (I’ll wash it tomorrow.) I’m wearing an orange t-shirt and black shorts to bed (very Halloween colors.)

I placed a BN order, among other things, I ordered the hot new Rhonda Byrne book The Secret. I ordered it and didn’t even see her on Oprah. So there. Supposedly The Secret is based of the principle of attraction. People who put out good thoughts, receive back from the Universe. Something like that. I’ll let you know more after it arrives and I’ve read it.
I looked it up on the Internet and apparently some people are calling this thing “cultish.” It doesn’t sound like the definition of a cult. What’s wrong with putting out positive energy? Seeing the glass half full. Looking on the bright side of life. Being happy with the green grass on your own side of the fence. Letting a smile be your umbrella.
I guess I’d rather pay for a book like that, than pay money to a TV preacher who threatens that God will call him home if he doesn’t raise X number of dollars by such-and-such a date. Don’t the evangelicals preach that if you give them, say, one thousand dollars that the Lord will repay you sevenfold? Or is it seven times seventy? I get my sevens mixed up.

Isn’t seven a magical number? Asians think the number eight is lucky.

We discussed this awhile back:


Daniel Paul Tammet is a British autistic savant gifted with a facility for mathematics problems, sequence memory, and natural language learning. He was born with congenital childhood epilepsy.
Experiencing numbers as colors or sensations is a well-documented form of synesthesia, but Tammet is unique in how specific and detailed his mental imagery of numbers is. He claims that in his mind each number, up to 10,000, has its own unique shape and feel, and he can "sense" whether a number is prime or composite and "see" results of calculations as landscapes in his mind. He has described his visual image of 289 as particularly ugly, 333 as particularly attractive, and pi as beautiful.
Tammet holds the European record for memorizing and recounting pi to 22,514 digits in just over five hours. This sponsored charity challenge was held in aid of the National Society for Epilepsy (NSE) on “Pi Day,” 14 March 2004 at the Museum of the History of Science,Oxford, UK. The NSE was chosen to benefit from this event because of Daniel's experience with epilepsy as a young child. Professor Allan Snyder at the Australian National University said of Tammet: “Savants can't usually tell us how they do what they do. It just comes to them. Daniel can. He describes what he sees in his head. That's why he's exciting. He could be the ‘Rosetta Stone.’”

False Prophet and John Paul


Pope Benny calls Dylan a false prophet. I hate Pope Benny. He's an ultra conservative in-a world-of-Conservatives Catholic. At least Pope John Paul met with all kinds of people . . Jews, Muslims, Hindus. He didn't proselytze (sp?) He was kind of a Live and Let Live Pope (especially fetuses--rofl)--not like this boy Benny. Blech. Aint no one gonna diss Bob to me! He doesn't make himself out as anything other than a singer-poet-songwriter . . what others think of him doesn't concern him. A good example to follow.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

I tried to embed "The Cost of War" statistics in my blog again. I wanted it to show up under my profile to the right of the screen, but I could only get it to show up at the very bottom of my blog. Oh, well.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Doc/Vet

Yesterday was a busy one.

I worked until noon, then took LP to the doctor's office. He's been having sinus headaches and I wanted to make sure he didn't have an infection. He doesn't. The doctor said I could give him a Sinutab or a over-the-counter Claritin every day. I don't/won't do this. He doesn't have trouble every day, so why medicate him every day? I should have saved the 50 bucks.

Then I took Nesta (who I call Miss Kiki Marie more than I call her Nesta) to the vet's to get her annual rabies shot. She HATES that carrier and wails all the way to the doc's office. I talked and cooed to her. This cat never meows/wails unless she's in that carrier. Poor kitty. Doc says she's healthy and fully grown at seven pounds. He said "Some cats are fat; some are skinny." Hm. Words of wisdom. It was the fastest vet visit ever. We were in and out of there in under ten minutes--and that includes the time it took me to write a check! Miss Kiki Marie was glad when we returned home, and promptly ran into LP's room and up on his bed.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Monday, March 05, 2007

Rats/Hunger/ and Robins

Random thoughts:


1. I saw this headline on cnn.com: “Rats chew off baby’s nose”
Who wants to read that crap? Not me.

2. Is there a bigger turd on TV than Tucker Carlson?

3. I had an 11 am meeting with my boss. He talked and talked and talked some more. It was noon. I was hungry. I tend to get mean when I’m hungry (shocker, I know.) I wanted him to shut up so I could go & have lunch. He said something I’m sure he thought was quite insightful, and then looked at me for affirmation, or something, and I gave him that Jim from The Office Look—you know that head tilt and semi shoulder shrug. So he shut up and I went to lunch. I ate a hamburger with jalapenos and banana peppers, half order of fat crinkle fries, and a Dasani water. When I partake of bottled water I hear Verb whisper to me that “bottled water is the biggest con perpetrated on the American public,” but I enjoyed it anyway. I also had a Reese’s Peanut butter cup, and felt better.

4. After all this horrible weather—the snow, ice, salt and rain—I finally ran the car through the car wash and, boy, does it look spiffy.

5. For dinner we had homemade tacos, then I drove LP to the video store and he rented Flyboys and that Robin Williams’ Man of the Year. What was Robin Williams’ last good movie? I can’t think of any I’ve enjoyed since Dead Poet’s Society. Most of his stuff is true crap. Sorry, Robin.

6. I know a real life man named Robin. I always thought of Robin as a girl’s name. I wonder if boy-Robins feel emasculated. My Mom said that Meredith used to be a man’s name, but in this day and age Merediths are women. Wonder when that switch happened. I know a man Gale, and a woman Gail.
I know a man Gene and a woman Jean.
I know a man Lou and a woman Lulu (besides you, Lubbbbbbbbbbeeeeeeeeeee)



Sunday, March 04, 2007

Turbo Scratcher



This is a Turbo Scratcher cat toy. My cat LOVES it! Nesta's never been one for cat toys. She'd rather chase/fetch a tossed straw or a red dot from the laser pointer, but I bought this yesterday and she LOVES it. It has a golf ball embeded into the ring so it rolls around, and corrugated cardboard in the middle for scratching. It came with a packet of catnip to spread around the cardboard, but she's never been one for catnip so I didn't use it. She lays on it and bats at the ball, then she'll scratch the cardboard, then she'll jump on it, then she'll crouch down beside it and leap on the ball. Now she's just sitting atop it like she's the Queen of the World.

Admit it . . this picture is MUCH better than the Ball-less Basil on Meme's blog!

LP and I visited my Mom yesterday. All's well there. It snowed a little bit, but the drive home was gorgeous. The sun finally came out and the skies were actually blue. I can't remember when the last time I saw a blue sky was.