Tempests

It's raining like crazy outside and I'm here typesetting a Penguin edition of The Tempest. It's like one of God's bad puns or something.

The Tempest is a very interesting play. It was Shakespeare's last work that he wrote on his own, and one of only two that he did not develop from a previously existing story (the other being A Midsummer Night's Dream). It might be as simple as the bard's fantastical last dance before his retirement, or it could be seen as a clever and rather disturbing satire on colonialism, racism, the editing of the past to suit the present, and the bizarre Euroamerican frontier mindset that both loves and loathes unspoiled nature and indigenous, "uncivilized" peoples.

I know a lot of people my age don't like Shakespeare (in fact, I think it's sort of fashionable these days to reject him), but he's much more interesting if you don't take his writing at face value.

Yay, kitty!

Roo seems to be getting the hang of the whole litterbox concept. I just got it yesterday and she's used it a few times already - although she did go on the floor next to the litterbox once. Close but no cigar, Roo.

She's also drinking out of a bowl now instead of a bottle. The problem with that is, she gets kitten formula on herself, and then it dries and gets crusty and it's impossible to get out of her fur. Working at it with a cat brush would do, but Roo doesn't like that and squirms a lot. I've tried wiping her with a wet paper towel and that doesn't seem to work either - she puts up with it, but it doesn't get the gunk out. Any suggestions for what to do?

Bwaaaaaa....

*sigh* Does anyone know of an effective herbal/organic flea treatment? Not for animals, but for carpets and fabrics and such? I'd like something that's not almost as dangerous as toxic waste.

I can't knit because the fleas Roo brought with her will get in my yarn. I've put it in the freezer (as per Suzanne's suggestion) to keep the fleas out and kill any that are already there.

Although for the most part I'm quite happy about having Roo, I feel bad for the inconveniencing Suzanne by introducing fleas to the apartment (and, by extension, her yarn collection). Not to mention the mess Roo made on the couch...she's been remarkably patient about the whole thing.

Maybe when the time comes I should get a professional cleaning service to go over the apartment and apply the flea treatment, because they'd almost certainly be more thorough about it than I would.

Crossing my fingers...

After reading armageddonkitty's latest post about the relief effort being put into operation by Michael Moore and the Veterans for Peace - and after watching way too much Babylon 5 during the past week[1] - I was struck with an inspiration. Or maybe a bolt of crazy.

I decided to try setting up an office donation drive to get together supplies for the relief effort. Before embarking on this effort, I decided, I should get my boss's permission, so I sent him an e-mail about the relief effort and about my idea: to get everyone in the office to donate some supplies that we could then send to the program. There are only a few people in our office, but if we all buy, say, $10 dollars worth of stuff at least to send down, that's still quite significant, and it will help a lot of people. Even more if employees bring in their friends.

So I e-mailed my boss and asked him if it would be okay to use the office e-mail to call for donations, and to set up the drive in the office. If he says no, I'll send some stuff myself and see if I can convince people to contribute as a private, after-hours sort of thing. But I'm really hoping that we can run a drive through the office, because the added organization and convenience (as well as the leeeeetle bit of extra peer pressure) will probably get more donations.

I've never done anything like this before. I hope it will work out.

If you're a fan of the show, you should understand why this is relevant. If you're not, watch the series, and then you'll understand.