moongirl's Blog

Friday night I confessed to the boyfriend my apparent obsession with bunnies. I expected him to see it as some kind of ulterior take on "the fertility thing", which I'm sure it's not (yes, I do want to have kids someday, but definitely not right now!). To my surprise he said, "You need a pet. You need something to love you unconditionally when I'm not around." This has to do with my lack of obvious self-esteem (lack of compared to his, which is sometimes overdone, although usually in an endearing way). I expressed doubt. I expressed concern - that I'm not sure of my ability to care for an animal in the right way (not to mention that I can't afford sudden vet trips and the like). I still have doubts but he mostly talked me into agreeing to get a pet, and it will be "our" pet although living with me, and he will cover the expenses I can't manage.

So on Saturday we went to a couple of pet shops. I know that what I really want is a dog, but given my physical condition that would be insane, selfish (unfair to the dog), reckless, etc etc (because some days I literally cannot walk, can only crawl around on the floor, which is humiliating enough by itself, without getting the guilts because I'm meant to be walking the dog). So maybe a cat? Yes and no. I like that a cat will be fairly independent, but I don't like that a cat may be so independent it only turns up to be fed. Also worrying about it getting run over as my building is less than a block from two very busy roads.

We both liked the mice, but ultimately he decided they weren't "hands on" enough, because it was too easy for them to escape from our hands (or run down his sleeve, and he's extremely ticklish), and they bit us as well (having kept mice in childhood I know they need to be socialised with humans, but this takes a while and some patience, and they may yet escape in the meantime). We looked at rats too, but could only find males or full-grown females jaded from being too long in the shop. He was a bit squeamish about the male rats, and my main reservation about male anything is that it will scent-mark and be generally stinky. Still, if I managed to find somewhere with young female rats I would be very interested in a pair, or maybe a trio.

Also looked at guinea pigs, and, yes, rabbits. And ferrets. Though ferrets are very bitey and would need a lot of socialisation (and I hate to think what damage they could do if they got under my bed). I like the guinea pigs at this stage. I held two, one in each of the shops we went to which had them. One was very dark brown and full-grown, and really just sat in my arms and looked around and sniffed. The other was a young male, white and tan, and kept wanting to burrow into my armpit. Very cute.

So... I don't know yet. We might get organised enough to find some breeders (guinea pig and/or rabbit) next weekend.

Humans will never be completely fluent in Rabbit. Rabbits talk to each other constantly, not so much with sounds as with movements. There are large movements such as dancing and grooming, and there are quite small communications of breath and slight shifts in position. You can sense some of this quiet conversation by lying on the floor beside two talkative rabbits.

I've had bunnies on the brain lately, I don't know why. I keep dreaming about them - that I've got lots that I'm meant to be looking after (for a friend??) but they keep getting away and causing me anxiety. I used to have similar dreams about mice, actually, but that was when I was living in a building that was near a schoolyard that had a well-known problem with wild mice. So, er, bunnies. Boing boing. Bunnies are cute. Yeah.

According to the Oxford English Corpus, a database of a billion words, dozens of traditional phrases are now more commonly misspelled than rendered correctly in written English.

This has been going on for years. I think I first noticed it in 1998 - "could care less" rather than "couldn't care less"; although, in that case, either makes some kind of sense.

Other examples of common mistakes include "slight of hand" instead of "sleight"; "phased by" when it should be "fazed by"; "butt naked" instead of the correct "buck naked" and "vocal chords" for "vocal cords."

Personally I really loathe and abhor "phased" when it should be "fazed". Especially when I see it in official print, like a magazine, or an online edition of a serious newspaper. It's all illiteracy, imo. I had hoped that the internet would force literacy on a careless, thoughtless generation, but I was wrong. (Yes, I sound like I'm 60something. I can't help it.)

Oh, article here.

Still not dead, just flaky. I really really should remember to write something every day, or at least every second day, or even just a few words in a notepad file, even if I don't post them live. Coz the more time that slips away, the harder it is to pick up the thread. I have too many sites. I know that. I have too many sites, projects, assorted whatevers, and I'm good at not finishing what I start, rather than the other way around.

It's a lovely day. I've got washing soaking in the machine, and I'm sitting here with the heater on, trying to keep an eye on the clock, coz I really gotta go out and do stuff today, and not just sit here fermenting.

I may get older but I'll never "mature". Vis a vis "ferment". Eh.

No, I'm not dead. I don't know where the time goes. It's not like I work a 60-hour week, or a 40-hour week. Not even a 38-hour week. "If you want something done, ask a busy person," quoth several people with whom I am acquainted... It's not that I've been busy, more like I have no time-management skills to speak of and I've resented every little demand made of me lately. Hey, it was only Easter. Um, last week.

Anyway, I started two entries but lost both when my puter decided to crash. Blue Screen of Death an' all that. On, um, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. So possibly three entries. I really don't remember. Hopefully my puter is not going to die in any horribly permanent way in the near future.

What do King Crimson, Frank Zappa, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, Jean-Michel Jarre, Trent Reznor, Herbie Hancock, Paul Simon, Mike Oldfield, and Tori Amos have in common? Adrian Belew.

Stunt guitarist. Heh. My (late) ex would find that amusing.