paleo

Snippets from National Geographic: Prehistoric Predators for your viewing pleasure.

The Department of Homeland Security has sued The Nature Conservancy to condemn land in a South Texas nature preserve for the border fence.


This preserve is the home to many endangered plants as well as ocelots and jaguarundi.

If I give in to peer pressure and read Twilight, how badly will I want a lobotomy afterwards?

Insomnia is kicking my butt more than usual. For weeks, I've been on a vampire schedule, falling asleep around dawn and waking up around dusk. No good! I want to be back to a diurnal schedule by the first of next month. I've tried staying up for nearly two whole days and falling asleep at a more proper time. No dice. I've drugged myself, gotten drunk off rum, forced myself to read for hours, glutted on turkey. Nope. My mind refuses to be shifted off this schedule. Working night shift for three years totally messed up how my body relates to time and sleep.
This bites.
Maybe I should just move to the Eastern Hemisphere and match the time to my schedule instead of the other way around.

“I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma.”--Eartha Kitt

You've earned your diploma, Ms. Kitt. Your boldness in the face of adversity was an inspiration to me.

I just logged into Neopets and blinked for a while because my background theme had changed to one with a birthday cake and and confetti. I'm so dense, it took me three minutes to figure out why, lol. How sweet of them.

Now for some pimpin'! If you are one of my Neofriends, please do check out three things I am proud of.

1. My lovely Tyrannian Lupe, Dire_Wolfen is quite the Ice Age queen complete with lovely falling snow.

2. During Halloween, I won an exclusive background which is *perfect* for my Halloween Lupe, Ever_Stray. I bought some autumn wings for him to complete the coolness.

3. I created a gallery called Tyrannian Life which has over a hundred prehistoric items. I have tons more furniture in my safety deposit box to fit in there, so check back if you're a Tryannian lover!

Oh, if you collect a particular type of item yourself, please let me know. I do enjoy Neoshopping for gifts for my friends from time to time! I'm poor so it is doubtful you'll get an uber-expensive thing but you never know!

Found on Ebay
( Their on 2 our sekrits!!! )

I'm sorry, but the "Day without a Gay" thing is a stupid, stupid idea that's only going to get the gay community laughed at. This economy has made many companies look for any excuse to ax their workers. And even in the best of times retail stores go all "RAWR" if you miss days during the holiday rush. Also, totally gay owned businesses...what are they supposed to do? Give up a day of precious income? And even though I totally support the idea if not the method, I know I'd get hacked if my gay coworkers had left everyone else up the creek during holiday rush. It just seems like a destructive plan.

What about forming a food and/or toy drive among the gay community instead? Encourage everyone to donate a can or package and wrap a rainbow colored bow around it. This would be a far more benign way to show that gay folks contribute to society and wouldn't risk peoples jobs or make them out themselves when they'd rather not.
Plus, us straight folk could join in and send rainbow wrapped items as well showing that we support and appreciate our gay neighbors and their quest for equal rights.

I feel that mountains of cans topped with rainbow bows would send a better message than "were upset and not going to work, so nyaa".

I felt like making a run to Borders this evening.

I notice a bunch of white stuff was falling from the sky. I think, "shit, what sort of industrial pollution is this?". I grew up where anything weird from the sky is pollution.

Then some plops on my window. I glare at it suspiciously. Hmmmmm...a fluff of crystalline structure that melts into water? *blinks* *blinks again* Snow? SNOW! After five years it decided to visit again. And that's a short time between visits around here.

I used to not believe in snow. Around the time I stopped believing in Santa Clause and unicorns (which I believe in now in my own pagan way), I decided that snow must also be one of those pretty things that was only real on TV.

I don't care what jaded Northerners say. Snow is very magical and mythical when it visits a place it's not really supposed to be in.

I hope it sticks and covers the ground a bit, but that would be asking for a miracle within a miracle.

This week, I've had about four folks on my list make region/state/country specific posts. I think diversity of speech is interesting and amusing. So tell me ten region/state/country specific words, phrases, or slang that you actually use and think "outsiders" would scratch their heads at and include what they mean. As for me:

Place: Texas

1. Howdy: Hello, how do you do?
2. Ya'll: You all, always plural
3. Fix'in to: About to, "I was fix'in to have a picnic, but it rained."
4. Shug: Sugar, a term of endearment, never used for the sweet white stuff
5. Minutes/Hours: Used to measure distance as much as time, "San Antonio is three hours from Houston."
6. Ice Box: Refrigerator
7. Coke: soft drink, soda, "What sort of coke do you want?" "I'd like a Mountain Dew."
8. You best not: You had better not
9. Mixins: Spices, herbs, condiments; pretty much anything you use to add flavor
10. Kicker: Multiple meanings; irony as in "I finally paid off my car, but here's the kicker...I wrecked it the very next day." Can also mean boots (shit kickers), cowboy, or a hick

I'm entering the worst part of the month for my depression, right before my body prepares for the usual female ordeal. When the depression literally feels like slimy worms crawly in my brain and my mood turns pitch black. And I can't focus on a single possitive thing about myself or my life.
Because I hold a degree in psychology, I've taken tons of personality tests, either because they were mandatory for a class or simply to engage in psych-geekery. Many are overrated, and the ones that are really good tend to show depressing results. You show signs of depression, neuroticism, and low self-esteem. Well duh!
lupabitch posted a personality test that is surprisingly different. It good (read: useful) and it focuses on strengths rather than disfunctions (without an obvious bid to enflate the ego). It is called the VIA Signature Strengths. You can find it in the middle of the page linked to, and you you do have to register and commit to answering about 240 questions. But it is worth it if you want a bit of perspective on you main motives in life, or if you like psych-geekery in general.

My results are below, along with comments I felt like making because this is a good exercise for someone like me who often finds it nearly impossible to focus on personality strengths.

( Read more... )

Your Power Bird is a Vulture

You are always changing your life and the lives of those around you. You aren't afraid to move on from what holds you back. Energetic and powerful, you have a nearly unlimited capacity for success. You know how to "go with the flow" and take advantage of what is given to you.

I've never had to deal with mice before. But it seems the winter cold has brought them into our garage. Granted, it's our own fault for storing a ton of boxes and old cushions which they are probably making nests out of. I feel stupid now for not having a clue as to why material would be scattered everywhere over night.

If we remove the boxes and cushions do you think they'll leave? Or will that just make them seek refuge in our house?

Also, we let our cat in the garage when the doors are down so she'll have more things to explore. I don't intend to use her as rodent control, though if it happens it happens. However, should I ban her from the garage completely? How dangerous could the mice be to her? She's only had experience hunting geckos and roaches.
If she isn't in danger, would it be worth it to let her roam to let the mice know a predator is around? Would that clear them out?

I really don't want to resort to poison or sticky traps. If I'm going to have to kill them (hope it doesn't come down to that) I want to find the quickest way.

Yeah, I'm totally mouse-ignorant. If you can help me form a plan, thanks.

An email from Amazon:

Dear Amazon.com Customer,

We've noticed that customers who have purchased or rated "Pagan Visions for a
Sustainable Future" by Ly de Angeles have also purchased "The Wind Demon Within Me:
The True Story of One Woman's Lifelong Battle with Demonic Possession After Becoming
a Jehovah's Witness" by Mercedes O'Ryan.

Pet kitty survives three months in Yellowstone and is returned home.

I prefer being more nocturnal than most. I don't like large crowds and noise, and normally prefer prowling my usual haunts in the cool of night.
I've been cutting back on that and really should stop all of it.

A woman was just shot and killed while gassing her car at a station a block from the bookstore I used to work nightshift for (and still patron).

Just another example of why that area is bad news after dark. In the three years that I worked there we had a murdered girl dumped in the corner of our parking lot, my co-worker (a large, scary-looking man) was robbed and beaten at gunpoint, another female coworker was chased to her appartment by a gang of men (she managed to close and lock her door in time), a crackhead robbed the store, and there were at least three rapes in the Wal-Mart parking lot across the street.

I may like to consider myself tough and not easily pushed around, but I think it is time to swallow my pride and err on the side of safety.

And this isn't even one of the worse areas in Houston...though it is getting there.

It never fails, though I'm always surprised. The first good cold snap of the year and Dire Wolf perks up and refuses to be a placid beast. The desire to run and smell the wind turns nearly maddening. I feel like something important is going on and I *need* to find out where it is. The "memories" of Ice Age fields, towering conifers, and herds of megafauna seem just a sniff away. And I take forever to give in to the need to wear clothes that cover my arms and neck because, dammit, my winter pelt should be thick and lush by now.

I really must make a plan to drive out to Big Thicket to hike next month. Dire Wolf doesn't feel totally at home in subtropical wetland forests like Modern Human does, but both creatures turn surrly, snappish, and apathetic if kept in urban sprawl for too long.

I love this quote from Obama on his family's search for a dog. The balance he is talking about is his daughter's allergies.

"Obviously, a lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me," Obama said with a smile. "So whether we're going to be able to balance those two things, I think, is a pressing issue on the Obama household."

I think it would be an amazing example to the public for Obama to adopt a shelter mutt, but I understand if the First Family decides to get a more allergy friendly purebreed. There are lots to chose from, poodles to whippets to Dobermans to Chihuahuas.

Bush and company are pushing for last minute pullbacks on wolf protection.

"Best" quote. "The idea is to have a sustainable wolf population we can hunt."

No asslick, the idea is to have an intact, thriving ecosystem.