Another school shooting, huh? Can’t wait to see all the comments about how We need to spank our kids, or not be so easy on them, or Teach them Respect and all that. How we need to crack down.

Having been through school, and not having been one of the “normal” kids, and having a kid who has been through school as not a “normal” kid as well, maybe what we should be doing is teaching the REST of the kids out there that the kids who aren’t just like them, are actually OK.

Think about it, for real. Don’t you remember how badly those “other” kids were treated in school? Be honest. You might have been one, and know it. You might have been the asshole who make their lives hell – you certainly know it. You might have been just an innocent bystander who just didn’t know what, if anything, should be done about it. But the point is – we all know how shitty it was for kids who didn’t fit in.

And like all the anti-bullying ads are saying, in too many words, Stop your kids from being assholes! It’s pretty simple.

I’m not saying that this is going to prevent all of the school shootings, all of the mall shootings, all of the problems in the world…but it sure as hell couldn’t hurt. Something about an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure?

Oh yeah…and parents of those slightly “off” kids? Love it. Those are the kids that will change the world, if you let them.

We had excitement last night. Have I mentioned that the new neighbors’ cat has been coming inside a lot? Started out chasing chickens, but now it realizes that the chickens are bigger than he is. Now he just comes in to try to eat. I guess my cat food is better than his. My cats are so mellow that they don’t care, aside from Twinks who will occasionally chase them off (“them” being this cat and two others who started following his lead).

Don't you love how he manages to look indignant as he's being ushered out of our house?

Anyway. Last night, Mark went out to the back for a smoke. It was about midnight, maybe a little earlier. He suddenly comes back in saying “I need help” and walks back out. In the garage, he puts on his coat and gloves. I ask what’s up, he says, “there’s a cat in the fence”. So I grab the flashlight and follow him out. The cat is indeed in the fence. The neighbor cat. He’s gotten his collar hooked on one of the hinges of the dog exersize yard I use to keep the chickens out of the tomatoes. Looks like he’s been there a while – he’s kinda feeble, you know? I’m not like Mark – when I see something like that, I don’t automatically think, “protect myself”, I think, “Help the cat”. So I hand him the flashlight and hold the cat steady with one hand and unhook him with the other. Yes, I got a few scratches, and yes, I got some blood on my arm from the cat. But it would have taken him forever to get the cat undone with garden gloves on, and the coat probably wouldn’t have helped.

Poor Charlie (turns out that’s the cats name) went limp when I unhooked him, just relaxed into my arms. I took him back to his house, late as it was. I figured that since we knew where he was from it was the best thing to do. The blood was from his mouth, probably his throat was raw from trying to breath hung up like that.

Oh, and he’s fine now. He’s already been in twice this morning looking for food. Maybe I should recommend switching brands to my neighbor?

It was a hard one.

In the unemployment world, this is called the “waiting week”.  It’s the week they won’t pay you for after you lose a job.  It’s the week I suppose they are hoping you will use to get a new job, and so won’t need to cash in your unemployment insurance.

No such luck.

Here’s what I did do:

I bought sheets.  I played with chickens & bunny.  I watched Twinkles grow and grow.  I played Big Fish games.  I refreshed craigslist.  About every half-hour.  I drank coffee.  I updated my resume.  I went to lunch with a Jen to catch up on old-job gossip.  I applied for a couple jobs (no response yet).  I’m sure I did more, but dammit, it’s been hot and mostly I just wanted to nap.

Now is the time when I wish I knew what I wanted to be.  Actually, I wish I knew what I would be really good at.  I still have no idea.  Lots of ideas float through, but nothing sticks very long.

Maybe I’ll start a chicken blog.  A daily annoyance for anyone who cares.  Won’t make any money, but at least I won’t be clogging this blog with chicken shit.

I don’t know.  Maybe I can distract myself by designing a blog layout that would be fun for that.  By “designing” I mean modifying an existing layout with my own graphics…I’m no coder.

So mostly I’ve had this one song stuck in my head, it goes like this:

(scroll down to “nothing on my mind”)

(sorry, couldn’t figure out how to get just the one song)

And another “I can’t believe they spent time/money researching this“.

Georg Steinhauser of the Vienna University of Technology has spent the past four years studying navel fluff

I mean really.  REALLY.  Four years?