NotedStrangePerson
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Where have you been?
1 min read
Goodness, two updates in three days. Two utterly pointless updates but what the hell.
Every time I see a cenotaph I look for my surname. I've been doing so since I was a child - and for as long as I can remember I couldn't find a single one. I even looked among the hundreds and hundreds of names listed in Berlin. There was only one person with my surname, but it was spelt wrong.
Then last year I found three, one in the most northernly tip of England, and two in the south on the same plaque. Huzzah, I am not alone.
Furthermore a few months ago I discovered two other people with my name, both my names. One lived in the same town as me. The second lived in a neighbouring town and was even the same age. If that wasn't enough a popular television show mentioned my name - again both my names - as a new character.
Where the hell have they been hiding?
Every time I see a cenotaph I look for my surname. I've been doing so since I was a child - and for as long as I can remember I couldn't find a single one. I even looked among the hundreds and hundreds of names listed in Berlin. There was only one person with my surname, but it was spelt wrong.
Then last year I found three, one in the most northernly tip of England, and two in the south on the same plaque. Huzzah, I am not alone.
Furthermore a few months ago I discovered two other people with my name, both my names. One lived in the same town as me. The second lived in a neighbouring town and was even the same age. If that wasn't enough a popular television show mentioned my name - again both my names - as a new character.
Where the hell have they been hiding?
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HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
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Survival of the Thickest
3 min read
Yes. Another journal about my damn cats. 
Because there are so many cases of animals dying as a result of their owner's stupidity, for the two or three people who will read this journal I offer proof that stupidity (mostly mine) can be a good thing, even when it comes to pet care:
Strike One:
My cat Salem is adopted. My neighbours had moved away and he kept returning to his old house, so they eventually abandoned him. Because it was wet and dark and my house is close to a main road I would frequently go out looking for him in the evenings, wandering around rattling a bowl of hard food (which in the October rain would quickly turn into soft food) as though I was begging for alms. I later found out another one of my neighbours, Rita, had been keeping him in her home at night in case he was run over.
Strike Two:
It look Salem a long time to adjust to my house, partly because it was all new and partly because my other cat was jealous and frequently tried to attack him. Because he seemed so unhappy I thought about giving him back to Rita, who had a 6 year old grandson who loved cats. I remembered she had given me a number to call if I had any trouble:
Me: Hi, it's me.
Woman: Who?
Me: You remember me, I live down the road.
Woman: Uh . . .
Me: Anyway I was thinking of giving back Salem. He seemed happier with you. Shall I come over?
Woman: No - no!
Me: Do you not want him back?
Woman: Well what about the other lady who first brought him in, Rita or something?
This is the short version.
In reality it took me more than five minutes to click that Rita had given me the number to Cats Protection and not to her house.
Strike Three:
Sadly for poor little Salem he is as dim as his owner. It took him a year to firgure out how to use the catflap. More worryingly he seemed to have struck up a friendship with cars. I live in a block of flats and we all share the same driveway, so there are several cars going in and out all day. In an act of sheer genuis, Salem decides get up from the tree he was sitting safely under sit directly in front of the wheel of a moving far. Thank goodness the driver was going slowly, and thank goodness he stopped altogether when he heard me screeching.
Salem thinks this is a game. When I apprach him he will meow, roll over and play in the grass until I get within arms reach - then he will wriggle his fat arse and run away, stop a few feet ahead and start rolling and meowing again. It made those october nights so much more fun.
Luckily in his puny little brain he now does the same with cars.
Because there are so many cases of animals dying as a result of their owner's stupidity, for the two or three people who will read this journal I offer proof that stupidity (mostly mine) can be a good thing, even when it comes to pet care:
Strike One:
My cat Salem is adopted. My neighbours had moved away and he kept returning to his old house, so they eventually abandoned him. Because it was wet and dark and my house is close to a main road I would frequently go out looking for him in the evenings, wandering around rattling a bowl of hard food (which in the October rain would quickly turn into soft food) as though I was begging for alms. I later found out another one of my neighbours, Rita, had been keeping him in her home at night in case he was run over.
Strike Two:
It look Salem a long time to adjust to my house, partly because it was all new and partly because my other cat was jealous and frequently tried to attack him. Because he seemed so unhappy I thought about giving him back to Rita, who had a 6 year old grandson who loved cats. I remembered she had given me a number to call if I had any trouble:
Me: Hi, it's me.
Woman: Who?
Me: You remember me, I live down the road.
Woman: Uh . . .
Me: Anyway I was thinking of giving back Salem. He seemed happier with you. Shall I come over?
Woman: No - no!
Me: Do you not want him back?
Woman: Well what about the other lady who first brought him in, Rita or something?
This is the short version.
In reality it took me more than five minutes to click that Rita had given me the number to Cats Protection and not to her house.Strike Three:
Sadly for poor little Salem he is as dim as his owner. It took him a year to firgure out how to use the catflap. More worryingly he seemed to have struck up a friendship with cars. I live in a block of flats and we all share the same driveway, so there are several cars going in and out all day. In an act of sheer genuis, Salem decides get up from the tree he was sitting safely under sit directly in front of the wheel of a moving far. Thank goodness the driver was going slowly, and thank goodness he stopped altogether when he heard me screeching.
Salem thinks this is a game. When I apprach him he will meow, roll over and play in the grass until I get within arms reach - then he will wriggle his fat arse and run away, stop a few feet ahead and start rolling and meowing again. It made those october nights so much more fun.
Luckily in his puny little brain he now does the same with cars.
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Logic for Pussies
2 min read
I'm wondering where my cat gets his sense of logic from. I know you might be thinking cats have no sense of logic, but they're probably capable of much more than we realise. Besides, trying to figure out how my cat thinks is less depressing than trying to figure out how humans think.
My cat is getting kinda old (he's 13) and can't jump as well as he used to. Like most cats he likes to sit at the windowsill on a sunny day, but because he's ratty little bugger he can't jump straight onto it. Last time he tried he collapsed in a heap.
So he climbs instead. He can either clamber onto the speaker or onto the chair. The speaker is closer to the floor but that means he'll still have to try and leap onto the windowsill. 80% of the time he does not succeed. If he tried climbing onto the chair, he could then easily climb onto the windowsill.
I've showed him to use the chair several time but he always opts for the speaker, even though it means he risks falling down when he tried to leap onto the windowsill and fails yet again.
Personally I think he's starting to get some form of pussycat Alzheimers.
My cat is getting kinda old (he's 13) and can't jump as well as he used to. Like most cats he likes to sit at the windowsill on a sunny day, but because he's ratty little bugger he can't jump straight onto it. Last time he tried he collapsed in a heap.
So he climbs instead. He can either clamber onto the speaker or onto the chair. The speaker is closer to the floor but that means he'll still have to try and leap onto the windowsill. 80% of the time he does not succeed. If he tried climbing onto the chair, he could then easily climb onto the windowsill.
I've showed him to use the chair several time but he always opts for the speaker, even though it means he risks falling down when he tried to leap onto the windowsill and fails yet again.
Personally I think he's starting to get some form of pussycat Alzheimers.
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Can Trolls Be Useful?
2 min read
Some people think that society needs a few psychopaths because they do the necessary jobs the rest of us avoid. Many military and business leaders have a few psychopathic traits. Could the same be said for trolls?
The internet has no central controller – nobody “owns” the internet – and most people want to keep government involvement to a minimum. So it isn’t the easiest place to regulate. That’s where trolls come in handy; they aren’t too worried about confronting other users.
The problem with this idea though is confusing trolls with internet vigilantes (or digilantes). What’s the difference?
Digilantes usually track down people who are genuine criminals such as terrorists and paedophiles.
Most trolls don’t attack criminals, they attack people who they consider annoying – like those who fake their death or follow mindless trends or general hypocrites. People who they think deserve to be trolled. They have been affectionately “Moralfags”.
Not all trolls are like that however. A lot just annoy people because they can, not because they deserve it. But perhaps even these trolls can be useful – most of the time anyone who writes something another user disagrees with is called a “hater” when they are not. These anything goes trolls can teach people to be a hell of a lot more careful about what they write.
So what’s your opinion? Are trolls always stupid? Are some of them good? Are they useful but only by accident?
(P.S. I have an awful feeling by userpage is going to be flooded very soon . . .
)
The internet has no central controller – nobody “owns” the internet – and most people want to keep government involvement to a minimum. So it isn’t the easiest place to regulate. That’s where trolls come in handy; they aren’t too worried about confronting other users.
The problem with this idea though is confusing trolls with internet vigilantes (or digilantes). What’s the difference?
Digilantes usually track down people who are genuine criminals such as terrorists and paedophiles.
Most trolls don’t attack criminals, they attack people who they consider annoying – like those who fake their death or follow mindless trends or general hypocrites. People who they think deserve to be trolled. They have been affectionately “Moralfags”.
Not all trolls are like that however. A lot just annoy people because they can, not because they deserve it. But perhaps even these trolls can be useful – most of the time anyone who writes something another user disagrees with is called a “hater” when they are not. These anything goes trolls can teach people to be a hell of a lot more careful about what they write.
So what’s your opinion? Are trolls always stupid? Are some of them good? Are they useful but only by accident?
(P.S. I have an awful feeling by userpage is going to be flooded very soon . . .
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