Geeky Cat Miusings

Happy New Year everyone!

It has been cold in Toronto. It has been cold outside so I am bundling up in many layers whenever I go outside. It has been chilly on the TTC as well so my many layers keep me warm there too. And it is cold at work. I have a little heater at home so I thought I could bring it in to work to warm me up. I noticed other people in the office had their heaters going, so I didn’t think there would be a problem. I turned on my heater and set it at a low setting. A half an hour later everything went off. So I had to wait in my office for facilities management to switch the fuse back on. I had no computer to work on and no heater to keep me warm. I do dress warmly….I wear a tank top, a sweater, and a jacket…and yet I’m still chilled. The next day I wore a shawl over all my layers to keep me warm. It is not good being cold all day long and the only break I get from the chill is at night when I am under many layers of blankets and kitties.

I can’t wait until summer.

When I picked up some photo’s from Blacks this weekend the cashier asked me how many photographs I requested. I puzzled over the importance of the quantity to this fellow as I’m sure they don’t file the photos based on quantity. Most likely they would be stored by name but perhaps that piece of information is a security check to make sure I was the one who requested the printing of the photos and not just someone trying to grab photos that are not rightfully mine. So I inform the fellow that there were about 23 photographs in the bunch. He replied “What’s the matter? Life is not very exciting at the moment?”. I can appreciate he was trying to be funny and at the same time trying to encourage me to take more photos and print them for the business’s sake. But I did not really appreciate the comment because he was suggesting that maybe my life was not exciting enough. I really couldn’t be bothered to explain to the fellow with the foot-in-the-mouth syndrome that my life has actually been quite good of late, but I think he should know that suggesting to people that their life is just a snore-fest is not a very good customer relations policy.

Attention all customer service representatives: Please choose your comments carefully….always be positive, let the customers know how wonderful they are, and how your products will enhance their lives. A person with sufficient self-esteem will find your demeaning comments objectionable.

Scientists want to see how traveling in space affects germs. So they took them for a little ride in the space shuttle and then let them come back (because leaving them in space would be cruel). The poor little earth bound mice were fed the well traveled germs because no researcher was willing to risk his life for humanity. Guess what happened? The mice became green and developed large oval heads and then took over earth? Good guess but no. They were more likely to get sick than the mice that where fed the same germs that never left Earth. To sum it up: germs taken into space came back meaner, stronger and deadlier. Scientists caution that children not try this experiment at home.

Fetuses and babies spend up to 75 per cent of their sleeping time in REM, the neurologically active dream state. I would just love to know what fetuses dream about.

Talking about sleep, did you know the the less sleep you get the more you will dream the next time you sleep? If you miss a few dreams from lack of sleep you will see greater sleep intensity — dreaming is increased and is more vivid when you go to sleep. It seems that if you miss REM sleep (the dream phase) alone, but still get the other stages of sleep, you will still experience REM deprivation and have the subsequent rebound. REM can be suppressed by alcohol, nicotine, blood pressure meds, antidepressants, and mad researchers. Researchers have deprived rats of REM sleep for four weeks causing them to die. Very sad.

On a happier note: Giorgio Armani the fashion designer has opened up a shop in Second Life, the virtual world where you have avatars and using avatars, you can do pretty much anything that you can do in the real world, and more (like flying). Armani is going to be selling items to Second Life residents and his avatar will be there to greet the fashionistas. I can’t wait to be able to dress well, easily.

Commuting takes its toll on humans. I don’t see any evidence that they have tested commuting on rodents to see how they fare before subjecting humans to hours of traveling every day, but they have found that commuting does cause considerable stress to humans. Each extra minute traveled correlates to an increase in health problems. Studies show that long-distance commuters suffer from more psychosomatic disorders than people who have shorter trips to work. I am curious to see if traveling for work is as equally stressful as traveling for pleasure. If there is going to be a study for this I would like to be in the second group please…. I am long over due to travel…somehow I will … even if I have to be a guinea pig.

ps Tama, you should have a lot fewer psychosomatic disorders than me

Ok, stop pissing around people. Oh, I know the people that read my blog don’t do it, but they know someone who does. Milene said Mr. A was pissing on her house and Warren said a man was pissing on a van in full view of onlookers waiting for the bus at the Keele subway stop. I went downtown on Saturday and it positively stank on Queen West - people obviously have been peeing all over the place probably due to Friday night partying. We went for Ben and Jerry’s ice cream but could not find a decent place to sit because of the stench. Finally (because I am a meandering cat who knows her alleys) we found a charming little nook at the Church of St. George the Martyr where we could savour our ice cream without the malodorousness left behind by people now long gone.

Guys - please, please find a rest room when you have to go - you are really making things unpleasant for the rest of us.

City planners - it is imperative that we do something about the lack of public restrooms - to improve the quality of life for the residents here and make it a more desirable city to visit for tourists. Have a look at this site - there is a hilarious movie with an urinating-predator intro.

TTC folks - there really is a need to have more public restrooms on the subway line to make the TTC the better way.

There seems to be many misconceptions about thin people: that they don’t eat, that they are always starving themselves, that they don’t enjoy food, that it is okay to make fun of them (and yet it is not okay to make fun of fat people)….

I’m generally a size 0 (sometimes 2 depending on style and make) and well within the normal BMI - body mass index is a measure of body fat based on height and weight and it is important to be within the guidelines because it reduces your risk of serious health conditions such as high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke and diabetes. I most certainly eat and I eat well through out the day. I bring a purse full of food to work with me everyday making sure I eat a healthy and varied diet.

Here is what I ate yesterday, a fairly typical day:
Breakfast: a cheese whole wheat sandwich with mayo and lettuce and an orange
Midmorning: soya milk, nut mix (walnuts, cashews, pumpkin seeds, apricot), apple
Lunch: mushroom soup, chickpea salad, lettuce and tomato salad, snow peas, biscotti
Mid-afternoon: yogurt, grapes, crackers
Dinner: mushroom soup, pasta (with sun dried tomotaos, olives, pine nuts, parsley) - I was going to make a salad but got sidetracked
Evening: soy milk

Well, I often have to do other things while I am eating which detracts from the pleasure, but I enjoy good food, I am gratified knowing I feed my body fairly well giving it the nutrients it requires, and I never go for a long period without eating so I certainly never starve myself. So let’s try to banish this prejudice against thin people.

“I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.”

~Jane Austen

I have developed an unfortunate habit of waking up at 5 in the morning and not getting enough sleep. Could it because someone mentioned PRJ666 to me and it brought back very painful memories, like staying at school until midnight in a desperate attempt to complete the impossible project? Is it because I drink too much caffeinated beverages, which I need to drink regularly because of their energizing effects since I am tired because I don’t sleep enough (and round round we go)? Is it because I my mind is filled with the things I want to do and so I wake early to get started but find I have less time to work on projects - which being tired also plays a part in? Is it because one of these two angels wants to have her belly rubbed and Tammy is not willing to comply so she wakes up mommy (oops, did I give the guilty party away)?

We don’t look guilty, do we?

Yesterday Warren and I went to Yorkdale to shop for a spring jacket, and after a couple of hours we needed a break because shopping is hard work and we needed to rehydrate. So we stop at Timothy’s, get some coffee, and find a seat. The Timothy’s at Yorkdale is right in the middle of the hallway– all the shoppers of all ages are strolling around the seating area with full view of all the customers. Across from us is a group of five women busily chatting away. We sip our coffee and chat about our shopping strategy. Then comes the pull-down. One of the women lowers her pants and shows her butt to the other women. They look at her tattoo. She dresses herself and they resume their conversation. Warren and I are flabbergasted. What kind of person shows their butt in public? We have known celebrities to do it, but usually teenagers. She was not a teenager. Some minutes later another woman in the group flashed her butt to display her tattoo. Holy grappa!!! I am wondering if the whole point of having one’s butt tattooed is so that exhibitionists have a reason to show their butt in public.

Everyone is talking about it - Steven Davey at Now Magazine, Warren, and many other Star readers are complaining about the grid format in The Toronto Star TV listing. It just does not provide enough information about the show - critical pieces of show information like the show names are shortened to something cryptic in order to fit in the grid. The idea is save paper but, really, the Saturday star has so much paper, it does not make much difference. They could add a few pages to the TV listing and remove a few pages elsewhere because the reason most people buy The Saturday Star is for the TV listing - make the readers happy or they will not buy the paper.

I know I can easily get the TV listings online and it works great if I need to search for a particular program, but typically I will watch something for 10 minutes because of lack of time so it does not make sense to turn on my computer and login to the online listings for such a short period of viewing time. Nor can I remember what interesting shows are scheduled for a later time so I need to consult the handy paper version. I can’t read the TV listing on channel five because that channel is very fussy on my TV.

I am not sure where this TV listing situation is heading, maybe we are expected to print out the listing for ourselves so that we consume more - we will all need to buy printers, paper, and expensive ink all while not receiving any discount for the dwindling TV listings. Should we start a petition Cultural Learnings of TV for Make Benefit Glorious TV Listings of The Toronto Star?

3:30 Announcement that the College is closing. I pack up, wish my colleagues a safe passage home, and head for the bus stop.
3:35 Reach my bus stop. All the bus stops outside York Lanes have long lines of people waiting for their respective buses. Optimistic that the bus will come soon since the long line up means that a bus has not come in awhile.
3:45 Still waiting. Not one bus from any of the 7 TTC bus routes that service York University has arrived yet. Feet still warm.
4:00 Still no bus. Feet starting to cool. Regularly brush snow off of self - I know I will be covered again within a minute but it gives me something to do.
4:15 People send their friends for coffee to keep warm. I wish I had someone to get me a coffee - I would appreciate the tragedy averted in a couple of hours.
4:20 See the Jane bus leave - could I have taken that bus. Yes, though in a round about manner. I would have arrived home much, much sooner but I did not know that at the time: I kept thinking my bus must be just round the corner by this point. Feet and hands are quite cold.
4:30 Thinking about going back to work to warm up. But I just know, in my fatalistic mind, that the minute I leave I will see my bus arrive.
4:40 Feet very cold. I start marching on the spot to keep the circulation going. Never stop. Glad I had a large lunch to keep me going.
4:45 This is painful. Isn’t there a hotel on campus? Should I go? Will the hotel be filled already with like-minded people.
4:50 My bus! My bus! I am sure I will be able to get on my bus since I am near the front of the line.
4:51 People who were not waiting in the line but staying warm in York Lanes jumped in ahead of the frozen, rule-obeying folks.
4:54 Door closes in my face. Frustration seizes me and triples in strength as I see the bus pull away with plenty of standing room in the back of the bus. Rant with stranger about the inconsideration of people.
5:00 Want to call someone to share my distress. Check cell phone and batteries are dead. I imagine a fire warming me - worried I am hallucinating - yes, I am that cold. I did not wear warm boots as I was supposed to have a business lunch that day and wanted to look nice. The boots would be sufficiently warm for a 15 minute wait outside. Marvel that some groups of people are having a fun time together - talking and laughing even though their faces are red and their noses drip.
5:15 Continue to debate whether to go back to work. I could work to 9:00 pm and then maybe the buses will be running again. Try playing some mind games to keep my mind off my pain but could not. I wonder if my feet are reaching the danger point, they feel numb and swollen against my boot. I kick the bus post to see if I have any feeling. I can’t take it anymore. I will give it a few more minutes.
5:30 Someone is shouting something behind me, I turn around but can’t understand what she is saying. Seems to be an announcement. She moves closer and announces that the streets outside the campus are very bad, cars are bumper-to-bumper and buses can’t get into York. She says it has nothing to do with York - they have maintained their roads. “Please be patient”, she says. “Please let me borrow your boots and gloves”, I mumble. My gloves are quite wet.
5:40 I just can’t take it. I go into York Lanes. My numb feet become painful as they defrost and I can scarcely walk. My hips also hurt. Make a couple of phone calls from phone booth. Hard to put money in slot. Hard to talk. Wonder if their has been some massive accident on Keele Street - it is the only explanation that makes sense to me for the lack of buses.
5:50 Consider grabbing a coffee - not a good idea kitty! Don’t know when I will get home. Scout the Jane bus stop - not a popular route so I have a good chance of getting on the bus if one comes. Click my heels and say, “There is no place like home”.
6:00 I have never waited so long for a bus. Would anyone save me? Could I sleep at my desk at work?
6:15 I see a bus. It is a Keele bus! I hobble to the Keele stop as best as I can.
6:18 I have a seat on the bus as it pulls away. The heat is on. What bliss.
6:35 The bus inches its way across Steeles. I am very glad to have my iPod to entertain me. Listen to Soul Mining by The The. The bus drives right by bus stops with people waiting: There is no room on the bus. Somebody bangs on the bus with anger. I wonder where did all the buses go. I suspect they short turn because they are behind schedule - that is why York has such lousy service.
6:50 The bus has stopped at Finch Street for a few minutes. I wonder if the driver is having a dispute with someone but it is totally silent up at the driver’s seat. I look around me, people don’t look concerned. Many are sleeping.
6:57 Bus hasn’t moved. Woman beside me asks for the time. Bus driver said we should take the bus behind us. The bus we are on needs a bus driver. Someone asks the driver what does he do. He reiterates the same thing. Obviously it is too much effort to talk. I weigh my odds. Knowing full well that any decision I make will be the wrong decision, I get up and line up for the other bus. The driver squabbles with the passengers asking them what is wrong with the bus we were on and he wants people without transfers to pay again. I have a pass so I am ok. No I am not. The bus is full. He closes the door and drives away. I return to the bus without a driver. Someone else explains what happened on the other bus to our non-driver. He is not interested, he just wants to go home. Don’t we all.
7:05 A perky student writes “Help! We are trapped” backwards on the bus window so that others can read the message. Some people laugh. We need entertainment. How about a sing-along. People took our seats so we have to stand.
7:15 I spot a driver. Yes, he is our driver! The bus starts to move. The perky student yells “Yahoo”. We move 3 inches and stop - the traffic light is red.
7:17 We make it across Finch and a few people clap. The bus driver says he is glad to be appreciated. He then announces that the bus will be out of service the next stop. A joke. Nobody laughed.
7:30 Moving along slowly but surely. Glad I did not drink coffee - best decision I made all day. Feet still numb. Pull my hands into my coat. Think about a hot dinner, warm pajamas, a bed. I see a lot of Keele buses going north. Still don’t understand the delay since we are all moving along.
7:47 Notice that there are no cars in the car wash at Keele and Eglinton. I always notice this car wash - it is a marker for me to become alert as I am approaching my stop.
7:55 My stop! I feel bouncy with excitement as I get off the bus.
7:57 I am home. My kitties are waiting for me. They want to cuddle. I change into pajamas, cover myself in a blanket and warm my feet at the furnace vent. I imagine not ever having to go out in the cold again. Let me dream.
9:15 Warming up in bed. Feels good.
12:00 I hear the phone make a sound and my radio was flashing - the power has been out and came back on. The power goes off and on all night. I do not get a good night’s sleep.
6:00 It is morning. Want my coffee. Watch the news to see what has happened around the city. Trees have come down. Power outages throughout the city. They encourage people to stay home.
7:00 I start writing my blog to share my story with others.

Bad weather combined with TTC service interruption: 4½ hours of gut-wrenching furballs