Sunday, November 30, 2003

Turns out the my grandmother on my mother's side had a heart attack Thanksgiving evening, and possibly a mild stroke. My Uncle, (Her eldest son) is up there now and tending to her. I seems to be fairly serious, but stable now. She's in good hands... I hope that Ted hangs in there. She's of hardy stock, but really getting up there in age. Hopefully, she'll be in good enough health to move back to Florida soon, where things are a little easier on seniors.

Brother came by today and picked up a bunch of his stuff (though not all of it). Maybe the fact that we got into the start of an argument last night got through to him? Hard to say, but he was fairly cowed and quiet... He brought the Mother over with him, to help cart his stuff. He was good enough to call first before coming over and was polite enough about this and that. I worry about his cognitive skills... even though its the first time in an age that he's shown up at my house without a beer in his hand, or smelling of the stuff, his body language and actual speech patterns were still mildly erratic. I wonder if he's on something, or if he's a little damaged from past abuses, or was just nervous about dealing with me? Hard to say, but hopefully it's repairable, whatever it is. We did talk civilly about him selling his guitar on eBay.. I suggested that he try to sell it locally, first, just to make things go more swiftly, and to spare him the trouble of figuring out how to ship a guitar. If he does decide to go the eBay route, I'll certainly help him with his wording and posting it under his own account.

As for some good news, I'm down to my last notch on my belt... I'll have to buy a new one, soon.. probably along with a couple pairs of better-fit pants.

The Disinfopedia - a collaborative project to produce a directory of public relations firms, think tanks, industry-funded organizations and industry-friendly experts that work to influence public opinion and public policy on behalf of corporations, governments and special interests.

Woman trampled and knocked unconscious while shopping for a doorbuster-priced DVD player at Wal-Mart.

The store offered to put the DVD player on lay-away for her.

Stickels with Orange City police said there would not be criminal charges for the trampling. "It gets like that around the holidays," he said. "People get fierce."

Ah, the holiday spirit. it misses some folks entirely.

Santa's helper throttles teen

An outing to a shopping center ended with a shock for 13-year-old Joakim Osland. A fjoesnisse, a kind of elf that traditionally occupies barns and wears a red cap associated with Christmas and Santa Claus, became frighteningly furious when Joakim tried to pet his hen, newspaper Firda reports.

Osland and two friends were at the shopping center over the weekend and went to see the fjoesnisse hired in to entertain customers. The nisse in question was standing with a wagon containing a little pig and a hen.

"I was a little curious. The hen didn't look like a normal hen," Joakim said. "She looked incredibly soft. I tried to pet her but she was so quick that she hopped away."

This seemed to drive the 'elf' berserk.

"He came up behind me and shouted at me. I didn't think elves did that kind of thing," Osland told the newspaper. "He grabbed me, first with one hand, then the other, so that he was strangling me. He said I should respect animals. The elf scared me a bit."

Joakim and his friends, Soelvi Hestvik, 15, and Rune Kristiansen, 15, thought the elf overreacted. After the throttling Joakim was red-faced, and had marks on his throat, they said.

"I was unlucky and grabbed (the hen) too hard, but I wasn't trying to hurt it. I love animals. I am used to having a cat, dog and parrot," Joakim said.

"Even so, a grown man shouldn't attack a 13-year-old," Soelvi said.
Site MeterI hate getting my buttons pushed...I guess that goes without saying for anyone. I'm good as long as I realize it's being done, and I can stay on top of it. It's difficult, sometimes. Some folks have their head so far up their asses that they can't see the colon for the polyps. If someone wants to be an idiot, warn 'em kindly, and let them go on being an idiot.

The first half of last night's JL was weak, but the part two more than made up for it. "I've got issues, what with destroying the Earth and all." Lobo never did anything for me... there was a lot of fighting, but not much plot development in the first part.. just fighting.

Holidays are starting to come, now.. so it's time to mention Toys for Tots Unwrapped toys for kids that'd otherwise have nothing. It's a good org, and I have to consider what I want to do this year for them, or a like charity.

I've changed my "recently updated" image on the blogroll form turkeys http://scottobear.com/lj/archives/mood/turkey.gif to smurfs http://scottobear.com/lj/archives/mood/blog-smurf.gif ... at least until I can figure some other little one to put there. candy canes, perhaps?

Three articles about the same thing - Kitties and Mind-Altering Parasites.

Dangerrrr: cats could alter your personality

Decreased level of psychobiological factor novelty seeking and lower intelligence in men latently infected with the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii Dopamine, a missing link between schizophrenia and toxoplasmosis?

Parasites make scaredy-rats foolhardy

Apparently, the parasites get in and mess with neurotransmitters in ways we don't quite understand yet -- to make their targets *more vulnerable to cats*, with some vaguely disturbing personality changes.

Based on preliminary studies, 30-90% of people (varying from country to country) are infected already.

There's no known cure. The CDC factsheetSite Meter