Geeky Cat Miusings

Currently I’m reading Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. It is a hilarious exploration of the strange lives of bodies postmortem. Here is one compelling quote from the book:

“The way i see it, being dead is not terribly far off from being on a cruise ship. Most of your time is spent lying on your back. The brain has shut down. The flesh begins to soften. Nothing much new happens, and nothing is expected of you. ”

It is a funny coincidence that I am concurrently reading Thank You For Smoking! Smoking is one way to make the final vacation arrive at your doorstep, sooner rather than later.

And one more stiff joke pops up as I read the Urban Decoder:

“Honest Ed’s a corpse, but his prices will never stiff you.”

The ghost walk in Hamilton was really cool! A man who speaks and looks as though he suddenly stepped out of 19th century England guides ghost seekers through downtown Hamilton and describes the unfortunate suicides, murders, and accidents that occured at various locations and the subsequent ghostly visitations and other types of hauntings that persist in these locations. The tour starts at 8:30 pm when there is still some dusk light, but it quickly gets dark and the guide leads us with only a lantern to light the way through the streets and dark alley of the city. If you think that Hamilton is a quiet little place with no significant history, you’ll be surprised to hear about the famous mobster that lived and and worked there and that was a Jack the Ripper suspect living there.

I’m looking forward to going to the Niagara-on-the-Lake ghost walk sometime soon.

My passport arrived today! It was quite an effort getting it. The process started over six months ago and the events relating to getting the passport were surprising to me if not astonishing. I went to get a new picture after I received a call informing me that I was grinning in the photo, which isn’t allowed. When I brought in the non-grinning photo the passport officer told me I needed to show my ears in the photograph. What!…I was totally flipping here… I’ve never heard of this requirement and I wondered what other unwritten rules they might have under the table. No turtlenecks? No makeup? Hair pulled back with a headband? When the officer saw that I was going to go insane, he went to speak to someone and then said it was okay and that I could go.

Now that I have a passport, I’m free to go wherever I want. Where should I go? Who wants to come?

The week started off in a nasty way: When I took the escalator on the TTC, I placed my hand on a wet gooey, spot on the handrail. My hand had ketchup on it. Somehow someone got ketchup on the handrail. Yuck! You would think that if someone were to be eating on the run, they would also have a napkin for wiping their mouth, fingers, and handrail… should the need arise.

Perhaps a few people could use the $7 reimbursement from the TTC (to compensate for the strike days) to buy some tissues and wipes.

It is the end of the weekend and the TTC strike is over. The strike lasted two days, potentially crashing people’s weekend plans but it did not put much of a dent in my weekend. I enjoyed the local neighborhoods and tried a nearby restaurant that I never before had a chance to dine at. The walk there much improved my appetite and during the stroll I noticed the street lights shaped like trains for the first time, thanks to my newly awakened observation skills. Even though the strike did not interfere with my weekend, I’m glad the TTC strike is over.

A friend sent me a link to a quiz that asks various questions about every day objects with the objective of testing how observant one is in daily life. I know very well I am not highly observant since I often don’t notice what people are wearing, their hair colour, or any weight changes. If they are wearing something beautiful or they have changed their hair colour, I probably will notice, but not as a general rule and I don’t think I would be the greatest witness in a courtroom…though I would probably notice what book the bank robber was reading.

Here is an example: One day last week at work I had an envelope that I needed to mail. I was thinking about my surroundings and trying to recall if I had noticed any mailboxes close to the office. I thought there might very likely be one on the main street but my memory scan of the street failed to produce a mailbox. So then I called a co-worker and asked him if there was a mailbox in the area and he said there wasn’t one right around our work area but there was one at the nearest major intersection. So when I left work that day I planned to walk to the intersection. When I passed the bus stop that I have used every day over the past four months, I saw a mailbox. It has been there all along but I never noticed it!

I think it is time for me to be more observant.

Here is the quiz if you are interested though I can’t vouch for its value:
http://www.blogthings.com/howobservantareyouquiz/

What a spectacular snow storm we had:

I hope everyone will consider making some New Year’s resolutions that helpful and beneficial to the environment. The climate change trend is going to change our life in a very profound way and we all need to make changes in our daily lives to help the situation. I know most of us want to do the right thing for Earth and desire to treat our planet with respect to make sure that it stays vibrant and bountiful. And while good wishes are genuine and heartfelt, we need to be active in order to have an impact on the world. As a friend said to me, all other issues don’t mean a thing if the planet is destroyed: Without a healthy planet to live on other problems such as a poor economy, diseases, poverty, or war are all non-issues.

As per an article in The Toronto Star, here are a few things that will change if climate change continues:

• Guacamole won’t be quite as abundant as it is now. With the hotter temperatures California’s avocado production will be reduced by 40 percent over the next 40 years.
• Two-thirds of the polar bears along the Western Hudson Bay area will disappear by 2050.
• The cold winters have kept the black-legged ticks that carry Lyme disease (which causes serious symptoms like paralysis) from infiltrating Ontario. With the milder weather they will thrive and expand their territory to the point where we would be foolish to go on the grass wearing shorts and sandals.
• The blue-green algae will bloom in Lake Ontario. The water tastes musty and taking a shower is a smelly experience. Not pretty!
• The decline of the Emperor Penguin — with warm winter temperatures breaking up the sea ice early, their eggs and chicks are being swept out to sea.

We don’t want to see these changes, so let’s act now!

PS Happy Birthday, Rowan Atkinson. I love you!!!

Today, we’ve experienced the first snow storm of this winter. It started off as icy rain this morning but it turned to snow as the day progressed. There wasn’t a lot of accumulation within the city of Toronto but some how geeky cat got stuck in traffic, which was especially bad in the north end of the city, and so it took 2.5 hours to get home from work by bus. The experience was almost reminiscent of the truly
nasty storm in February. Tama said I may be interviewed once again for my misadventures, as I was the last time by The Excalibur. But it was not as bad this time…and I really didn’t freeze over because 1) I did not wait so long for the bus and 2) I wore my naughty monkey boots which keep my feet warm. This kitty is learning how to brave the winter.

When Elvis died there were 100 Elvis impersonators.
10 years after he died there were 10,000 impersonators.
Now there are 50,000 - 85,000 (depends on who is counting and how).
If this continues at such an alarming rate, by the year 2020 one in ten people on planet earth will be an Elvis Impersonator (one third according to The Naked Scientists).

Elvis impersonators come in all sizes and variations:

• an Elvis on stilts
• a ten member elite Elvis parachute team
• a lesbian Elvis who calls herself Elvis Herselvis
• a Mexican Elvis aka El Vez, who shares the stage with his three “Elvettes” Priscillita, Gladysita, and Lisa Marie
• and we suspect that when we finally land on Mars we will find some ….Alien Elvis Impersonators

Some people use the plural term Elvii for multiple Elvis impersonators, but this is not grammatically correct. According to the Wikipedia, the plural form is Elves.

“If life was fair, Elvis would still be alive and all the impersonators dead” –Johnny Carson