I Don't Even Know What This Article is About

This article. I didn’t even read the article. All I know is that as soon as I saw the picture I was filled with terror.

(Note: Anyone who doesn’t know what I am talking about should watch more Doctor Who.)

Mufasa's War on Stagnant Water

I think that Mu has made an enemy of his new water dish. Either he is much smarter than I give him credit for, or much dumber. I haven’t figured out which. My parents gave us one of those water bowls with a little tank about it so that it refills itself through the magic of physics, and I don’t think Mufasa likes it. I haven’t figured out exactly what he does to the thing, but one minute he will be drinking peacefully from it, and the next minute half of its contents are somehow spewed out across the kitchen.

I have a few theories:

1. (This theory assumes that the cat is much smarter than I give him credit for.) Mu really does not like to drink standing water. When he had a normal dish, he would refuse to drink from it unless it was changed a couple of times every day. He would drink from the toilet, the sink, the shower, and ignore his water dish. My theory is that he has either figured out that when the bowl is sufficiently emptied, he gets new water or that when the bowl is emptied enough times, we will refill it with fresh water. As a result he somehow - I have yet to actually witness the actual emptying - forcibly ejects the contents of his bowl in order to get new water. 
2. (This theory assumes that the cat is even dumber than I think he is, which is a feat, as I think he is pretty dumb.) The water bowl makes a ‘glug-glug’ sound when it fills itself. I have seen him stare at the bowl wondering what is going on when it does this. I assume that he is startled every time it happens (despite it being a regular occurrence that happens every time he drinks), and tries to take off at a run, skidding on the hardwood floor and violently kicking the water bowl in his failed attempt to flee from it. 
3. Mu is out to make my life more difficult through any of the limited means he has available to him, and therefore sloshes water about for the sheer glory of watching me clean it up later. (Again, assuming he is smart enough to put together sloshing water with me having to clean it up.) 
4. He just really, really hates the water bowl and tries to end its life (such as it is) after every use. 

I figure it’s only a matter of time until he starts setting strategies against the washing machine and anything else that creates sounds that startle and confuse him. I am putting my bets on the washing machine though.

Thank You, Papa John!

I have just completed one of my shortest job hunts ever. I suspect that this is because I was willing to settle for whatever job someone offered me. Here’s the story:

Yesterday I did my first day of actual resume distributing in person. I went to about a dozen places, though only a couple of them were actually hiring. When I got home, Bryan called and told me that he read on a piece of paper stuck to a pizza box that the pizza place down the street is was hiring managers. Thinking that I really have no managerial experience, and didn’t really have a chance at all, I sent off a resume. An hour later, I got a call asking if I could come in for an interview. I went in for that interview today, announced that I wanted to be general manager, and the manager basically said “Okay. Can you start on Tuesday?” (There was a little bit of ridiculousness in the middle where I had the manager and my mom laughing at me simultaneously, but that’s a different story.) So… Now I am going to be a manager at a pizza place, despite having never made pizza nor been a manager before.

Sounds like an adventure to me!

Half-Way Review: The Valley of Horses

I am half way through reading the book The Valley of the Horses, by Jean M. Auel and I feel like my opinion of it is not going to change between now and the end of the book, so I am just going to talk about it now, while I have nothing better to do.

First of all, I really liked the first book in this series. (Clan of the Cave Bear.) The culture that Auel developed for the Clan people was interesting, and I found the characters to be generally likable and engaging. I read it straight through without getting bored, and the story certainly held my interest.

I am having a harder time with this one. It flips, every other chapter, between the story of Ayla (the main character from the first book) and a pair of brothers that seem to be completely unrelated to Ayla’s life. (I assume that she is going to meet these brothers at some point.) I find that, after the main plot point of each chapter has been revealed, I can usually figure out what is going to happen, and lose interest about half way through the chapter. By the time I get to the next chapter I am excited to start a new sub-plot, but the same thing tends to happen. I don’t find the story of Ayla befriending animals particularly engaging, and I have no emotional attachment to the two brothers, so at this point I am reading on waiting for the point when the two stories collide, hoping that it will get more interesting at that point.

I guess the short version is this: It hasn’t kept my attention. I’ll keep reading it because I hate not finishing books, and I’ll let you know if I change my mind.

On the Hunt

Today I am going to apply for jobs. In person. This is always a scary experience for me. I like to apply for jobs from the safety of my own computer where I don’t have to track down managers and try to articulate real words. I just have to proof read my resume and cover letter and click send, and then I am done! But it seems like employers realize that, and don’t like to hire cowards. It makes me wonder why so many companies put up online applications and then don’t actually look at them. Why not just be honest about it? “Look, we’re barely even going to look at your online application, because you were too lazy to come to our location and talk to a real person.”

At any rate, I am sinking to my most desperate of states where I walk over to the Tim Horton’s down the street and humbly submit an application there.Someone has got to want me, right? It’s a far cry from the executive assistant spot that I had a month ago. I am still kind of bitter about that, but you can’t win ‘em all.

The End of An Era

It has finally happened. I have been waiting for this for a long time, but here it is. Today, at approximately 14:35, I got bored of Farmville.

This is when it happened:

It hit me like a wall; an overwhelming sense of “why am I doing this?”. One second I was happily clicking away at my fully grown fields of peanuts, the next moment it seemed kind of dumb. Right now, my fields are sitting empty and fallow. That’s like a sin. I’m only one field-plowing away from level 40. Why quit now? I’m so close…

To be completely honest, I am not sure what draws people into this game. It doesn’t really need any skill; any person can be amazing at Farmville with enough spare time. It uses the same principle as games like WoW in that it rewards you frequently to begin with, and then spaces them out more and more as you progress, and for some reason that keeps people playing it. I will be the first to admit that I thought the game was the best thing since toast when I started it, and sunk an awful lot of time into it. I think it just registered in my mind that the whole game centers around just clicking across a screen around 1500 times a day, if not more.

I wonder if my level 50 friends will ever hit that same wall, or if I just only have so much attention span in me.

I bet you thought I was going to write about Mel’s burning down. Here’s a secret: I’ve never been there. I am kind of sad about Sugar Mountain though.

Sad Green Fairy

He is sad because he is green. (But he is perfectly comfortable with his body type, thankyouverymuch.)

Teal Deer

I made this. Sort of. It’s a present for the internet.

Edit: It seems that no one actually understands this on first looking at it, because every time I show it to someone it’s met with blank looks, so I should probably explain. First of all, the specific colour of this deer is teal. Secondly, the phrase ‘too long; didn’t read’ is often shortened to ‘tl;dr’. If you had to try and pronounce that, it would sound like…?

Unemployment

I need a job. Bad things happen when I spend my entire day sitting around by myself. I am still in a housecoat at two o’clock in the afternoon. I have determined that blogging is a good idea. (Again.) I have started talking to my cat as if I expect him to answer. In fact, I have reached the point where I start asking the cat questions. This actually just happened:

Me: (Noticing a gross smell) Cat, did you just barf everywhere, or is that just your natural perfume?
Cat: (Looking at me, most likely wondering why I am talking to an otherwise empty room)

That is the exact moment where I realized that sitting at home alone is bad for me.

On the other hand, the only reason that the place where I live is not a complete disgusting, squalorous hole is because I spend my entire day wondering what to do with myself. When faced with such a challenge, I will eventually resort to cleaning to keep myself amused. This leads inevitably to one question: Does my desire to live in a clean house outweigh my need to actually be able to afford food?

Up For Interpretation

So what do you think is going on here? I’m not telling the image I had in mind during its creation; how people interpret it on their own is too interesting. So, what’s behind her? (Or in front of her?)