[tsa]

Hey Jatsie, it's very good to hear from you again! I'm so glad you are better. Keep up the good stuff and have a relaxing vacation in Portugal! And listen to Jelena

[Lee in Limbo]

Welcome back, Jatsie. A number of us were wondering if you were okay. Glad to hear the worst didn't happen, though it's frightening to think how close you came. Please take good care of yourself. Enjoy your trip.

[Jazhara7]

Hey Jatsie, it's good to see you back! And even better to hear that you are better. I had been worried.


-

[tsa]

Someone once said that finishing a good book is like saying goodbye to good friends. Yesterday I finished I playing TLJ and Dreamfall in one go, and I feel the same way now. I can't yet start on another adventure; it feels like I'm dismissing April and Zoe somehow. I want to keep them in my mind a bit longer.

[Squinky]

I was pleasantly surprised to feel the same about TLJ and Dreamfall, myself. They were far from perfect games, but, they still managed to tell a story that resonated with me.

[Merricat]

Having new pets has dislodged a memory from my late teens, when I monkey-sat for a couple who were going to Aruba for two weeks. Up until that point, I thought that having a monkey would be fun.
I couldn't have been more wrong.
He was a bad-tempered grey wooley monkey who had been spoiled beyond help by his human parents. He would demand to be picked up, which required that you take one of his hands while he wrapped his very strong tail around your arm, then swing him up to your hip. He screamed at you during the entire process. It was always a bit unnerving.
He also had very large teeth.
Oh, and there was something wrong with one of his legs, so instead of running or walking, he would roll after you, shrieking for his dinner or whatever.
And for all of that, they paid me $100. For two freaking weeks with Jo-Jo.
I was the sort of child who thought Dr. Doolittle was a true story. If Jo-Jo had been able to speak, I'm sure his language would have been quite salty.
*shudders*

[Hammerite]

Perhaps it'll help you sleep a bit better, Merricat.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=aQr4Hbr4cGs

[Merricat]

Thanks, Hammy; I adore the Pixies.

I know that I keep odd hours, but somehow it works for me: four hours of sleep at night, then another two in the very early morning, then a two hour nap in the afternoon. I am peripatetic, but well-rested.

[tsa]

The kid of two friends of mine got himself a cute little rabbit on his 3th birthday last week. His mother adores the animal but his father has been walking around with a thundercloud above his head since then. 'Rabbits stink,' he keeps saying. I sent him two SMSs to tell him how cute the little rabbit is but he refuses to answer them

[Jelena]

Originally Posted by tsa

The kid of two friends of mine got himself a cute little rabbit on his 3th birthday last week. His mother adores the animal but his father has been walking around with a thundercloud above his head since then. 'Rabbits stink,' he keeps saying. I sent him two SMSs to tell him how cute the little rabbit is but he refuses to answer them

Awww rabbits are so cute. Hopefully your friend (the father) gives in and starts liking the little fur ball.

We have another, not so nice animal dilemma on our hands:

This summer it turns out we have a bit of a problem with a seagull down at the marina where we keep our boat.
In order to conveniently be able to throw in the anchor where we want to, Mr J has an anchor box at the very stern of the boat. This box has caught the attention of a seagull who built a nest and also laid three eggs in it.
Last weekend we discovered this as we were going out with the boat. At first we didn't know what to do. Should we go home and let this bird finish its business? Or should we move the nest and hope for the best. We chose the latter and carefully moved the nest to a better location on shore. The seagull was very upset and so were we I might add.
Yesterday as we were packing the boat for trip over night we again discovered a nest with eggs in our anchor box. We checked the place where we had put the nest and it was gone.

We didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Had the seagull moved the nest back twig by twig (it didn't look quite as neat as it did the weekend before) or had it built a new nest? Had it moved the eggs as well or were these eggs new?
Again we moved this nest to the same location on shore and the seagull was upset and we were unhappy to say the least. Angry seagulls can be very intimidating.

As we left the boat today we arranged lots of ropes and a plastic bag waving in the breeze to disturb the seagull in case it would like to continue its mission of turning our box into a home.

[tsa]

Originally Posted by Jelena

Awww rabbits are so cute. Hopefully your friend (the father) gives in and starts liking the little fur ball.

According to the mother he is afraid of bonding with the animal because he knows it will die eventually and he will be sad about that.

[tsa]

You seagull story is quite weird Jelena. How can the bird move its eggs from the shore to your boat? Maybe someone else moved the nest back?

[Jelena]

Originally Posted by tsa

Maybe someone else moved the nest back?

But how would they know where to put it? As far as I remember there weren't anyone else there when we moved it and the original position of the nest in the anchor box didn't show from the landing stage. We're confused to say the least.

[tsa]

I guess we have to blame Supergull for moving the nest

[Jelena]

Originally Posted by tsa

I guess we have to blame Supergull for moving the nest

[tsa]

Pictures of the cute little rabbit I was talking about:





It's really the same rabbit, despite the difference in colour between the two pics. The rabbit is so small it could sit on my hand. He's 9 weeks old!

[Hammerite]

Qute!

[Squinky]

Dearest Blag,

My cousin's in town this weekend for her friend's wedding. They're both 21. It always creeps me out when I see people around my age getting married. Not necessarily because it means I'm getting old; I have friends more than ten years older than me who aren't married, which is comforting. I just tend to wonder what marriage really means for people of my generation. It used to be about sex, but that's obviously not what makes a marriage special anymore. So, what is it now? Lifelong commitment? Yeah right, especially given the divorce statistics. Legal benefits, as those who pine for gay rights would claim? That seems too superficial; is having hospital visitation rights really all that important in the grand scheme of things? I'm more inclined to think that it's more about pageantry, tradition, and public validation. Which I hate, given that I'm a very private person about relationships by nature; it's always annoyed me when I've had to explain certain close friendships of mine to family members and the like, so I avoid it whenever I can.

I have some strong views of what a marriage should be, but given that they're based more on observations than on first-hand experiences, they're likely to change. But that's somewhat irrelevant; I'm more interested in what a marriage is, especially for young North American folks, and whether it's still a worthwhile institution. My parents are going to be celebrating their twenty-fifth anniversary later this month, but they seem like an unusual case, although I think it's more to do with the fact that they were raised in a culture that valued the family unit over the individual. I've inherited some of that sentiment; my expectations of marriage is that there's a lot of hard work involved and that it's less about personal fulfillment and more about creating a good environment in which to raise children, so I don't really want to get into it until I'm more emotionally mature and can handle that kind of thing. I'm even willing to accept that it won't ever happen for me. *shrugs*

Ah well. I don't even know if I should be worried. Those girls who get married young probably have way more of a maternal, domesticated instinct than I do at this point in time. Maybe everything will turn out fine for them. I don't know. Sometimes it seems as though even if you remove all barriers imposed by gender roles, people will just keep going back to them anyway. I guess I wonder more about what will happen to the boys who marry young...

[lumi]

I don't understand getting married that young either.

Originally Posted by Squinky

It used to be about sex, but that's obviously not what makes a marriage special anymore.

It can be if they're religious. It's not uncommon for religious people to get married so they can have sex, because they consider sex outside of marriage a sin.

[Squinky]

I deliberately didn't mention religion because most people around my age aren't really that religious. But yes, you're absolutely right. And I've got problems with that kind of thinking too, even though I myself follow certain religious traditions. (I'm presently celibate.) I don't think that marriage can be just about sex, because sexual attraction tends to wane over time whereas marriages are supposedly designed to last a lifetime.