This and that

[rebness]

Transgender

There's a great series in The Guardian about a transgender woman's journey that I've been following. Unfortunately, this week's column devolved into a series of the most rage-worthy, prejudiced comments I've seen in a while. The good part, however, is how succinctly other users demolished their ill-informed diatribe. I think the UK has such a backward mentality when it comes to this issue, so I'm thankful that the paper continues backing this writer in the face of such alarmingly stupid opposition. I don't understand why there has to be opposition to what somebody else does with their body in the first place, but...

That Darned Cat

This was the situation with my cat last night. She's driving me up the wall lately. For some reason, despite her being 11, she's taken to sleeping outside of a night. I allowed this, but grew (sometimes physically) sick of the resulting carnage almost every morning: half a rabbit here, an eviscerated mouse there, an endangered vole on my doorstep. So I catch her and make her stay in as much as possible, locking her in my room with me of a night.

Except I feel she's punishing me for that, trying to suffocate me or running around the room - I dunno - in the early hours of each morning. Am so tired. :(

Babycakes

Carry on Dancing never did have a decent send-off as the players drifted aimlessly through space and time. Happily, the team has gathered for one final blowout to send it off properly, with a sparkle-free (apart from Lestat's pants) denouement at the end of the countdown at Moon. The plot was decided over tequilas one infamous night, so promises to be completely absurd. It's somehow appropriate.
 

Cooking Skillz

I made lentil soup last night and it was awesome. I'm really getting into soup lately, given how wonderfully cold summer in Liverpool has been for the last few weeks. I'm sad that I didn't try making nettle soup in spring, when it's supposedly the best time to harvest nettles. Ah, well. Some other year.

Comments

[keep-warm.livejournal.com]

Those columns really remind me of one of my friends in sixth form who was transgender and in fairness the system was excellent for her, she was fast tracked so she could start uni with her new name and everything and nobody would ever find out the difference. I thought that was awesome of them. Then when we all went to uni I found a couple of our friends at the same uni were charging admission to the "freak"'s bedroom. These are educated people. Fucking WHAT.

[rebness.livejournal.com]

WHAT.

Please tell me somebody reported them!

[keep-warm.livejournal.com]

They did, but she ended up dropping out anyway because it created quite a stir on campus. I've never forgiven those bastards. Told them to fuck off when they added me on Facebook. YAY for long distance retrsopective cyber-abuse.

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Internet justice! >:D

[saffronlie.livejournal.com]

You're so chatty lately. I love it!

[rebness.livejournal.com]

It's in your honour!

[saffronlie.livejournal.com]

How so??

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Because I realised I was (generally) up-to-date with you but I was all Mystery!Becky and you were like, 'Mystery!Becky, what are you even doing with your life?'

And so I decided to tone down the mystery. (y)

[saffronlie.livejournal.com]

Rad! I like knowing what's going on with your life. I think you could go the complete opposite of Mystery!Becky, though. Why not have full-on Exhibitionist!Becky, huh?

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Because that sounds awfully Lestat-esque! Let's take it one step at a time, bb!

[absinthe90.livejournal.com]

OMG YES MOAR CARRYONDANCING

Will it be on the CoD comm, or on the Moon one (that I never even knew existed but then again I was late for CoD too)?

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Heehee!

It'll be on Moon for the next ten days and then the story will play out at the CoD comm at the end of that period.

[mumsisdaughter]

Hip hip hurray! (At the risk of sounding a little like David's hunting cry of 'Yoiks! Tally-ho!') CoD and Moon were required reading for me *£"& years ago.

Yes, try nettle soup, next year. Also layers of sliced potato, leek and nettle. The nettle makes the inside of your mouth go 'sparkly'. (Warn lebrat not to roll in nettles to see if he can go sparkly like Eddy-baby. Petit Lestat could suffer. :D )

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's pretty wizard! >:D

Thanks for the tip - that sounds like a lovely recipe! Again, I curse myself for being lax and not trying them out this spring!

[absinthe90.livejournal.com]

Cool!8D Aw, I wish I'd been born like 10 years earlier. I missed out on the Ricean funtiemz.

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Aww, bb! Well, you're around for this, at least. You can Embrace It with us!

[absinthe90.livejournal.com]

Then I shall. Or at the very least I'll lurk.:D *timid*

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Ah, good stuff. And don't be too shy, they're all friendly.

Well, except Armand.

[absinthe90.livejournal.com]

And to think Armand is like my favvie.D:

[pandorasblog]

Older cats can get very restless at night. When my first cat was 13 she used to wail very late at night because she'd wake up downstairs and lose bearings/be lonely for us, and someone would have to go downstairs and feed&settle her/bring her up/whatever. Now, that was a very sickly cat, and 11 is not always old for a cat these days, but if she's showing other signs of Getting On A Bit this might be one of those behaviour changes. I can see how difficult it is, though, with all the unwanted rodenty gifts!!

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Ooh, interesting to know. It's definitely a personality change in her case. She's gone all weird on me. I have no idea how she manages to catch or kill rabbits which are much bigger than her, but it's pretty distressing. Doubly so for the rabbits, I presume. ;_;

[pandorasblog]

If she seems to be in distress generally it could be worth a visit to the vet. The fact she's able to hunt down rabbits indeed makes it sound like there's not much wrong physically, but you never know - sometimes small health problems have odd complications or behavioural consequences with animals. (Odd because they come out as behavioural issues, since they can't tell us how they feel physically...)

Btw, just back from reading almost the whole of that transgender thread. Dear god. I thought I was inured to the exclusionary behaviour of so many feminists, but it's really galling to see people making womenhood into the No Homers Club. :( I don't see how Juliet Jacques being a woman diminishes my or anyone else's womanhood....

[rebness.livejournal.com]

She doesn't seem to be in pain, more just... curious? She wants to sit on me. And then check out the window. Then the computer. Then the chair. Then to sit on me. It's really distracting. Silly cat! It's like she's constantly fascinated by everything, even though she's seen all those objects before!

Isn't it just depressing? I don't see why people get so defensive over it. It's bizarre that they think it's a reasonable response.

[pandorasblog]

Google does pop up hyperthyroidism - it can often cause night-time yowling and pacing, and the cat will eat more without gaining weight (does she eat her kills?), and be more active. The vet here also suggests their own opinion, that the lighter/shorter sleep of elderly humans might also occur in cats:

http://www.vetinfo.com/catold.html

[rebness.livejournal.com]

I wish she did eat her kills, so that we didn't have to go on Graveyard Patrol each day! ;_;

The link is interesting, though. It explains a fair bit!

[mumsisdaughter]

I've already left this at vc_media but then I remembered I'd read it here first so here is my COD Finale review:

Comedy, tragedy, intrigue and an ending worthy of a long-running TV series finale: it had everything! A cast of thousands...well, it seemed like it. Some of the poppings were well-deserved and had been a long time coming but others were tear-jerking in their angst-laden final moments. This is a fitting way for a much-loved series to end (much better than the drawn-out way Mater ended it) and I wish that all the poppees could hear the applause. I'd yell 'Encore' but that would be difficult now they've all shuffled off the immortal coil. I wipe away a tear of sadness: an era has ended. But it was sooooo good. I loved it!