Ten Questions I Wanted to Ask Today
According to this article, the earth's rotation has shifted all the astrological signs, and that means I'm now a Gemini. Which is cool with me; I've always like Gems -- but does it mean I have no more excuse to be crabby?
Evidently 500 million people are on Facebook (probably more now.) So why when I read that did I immediately think of bacteria and the number of burgers served at McDonald's?
How come every time I go to buy some bookmarks at BAM the only ones left on the rack are Harry Potter-, Jesus- or Zombie-inspired?
I love my guy, but he is a terrible speller and he knows it, and I know it. So every time he asks me to correctly spell a word for him, and I do, why does he say "That doesn't look right"?
If the cat catches and eviscerates something, why does he always drop the juicy remains on my chair, my pillow or inside one of my shoes? Also, why don't I ever discover this before the squish as some part of my body comes in contact with it?
What, exactly, is in these chewy granola bars that makes them chewy?
When writers paid (usually a substantial sum) to self-publish their books in the old days, we called it vanity publishing. Now that it doesn't cost anything to self-publish digitally no one calls it that anymore. So is it only vain if it costs you money?
Why do puppies walk right past the new, lovely chewy bone you just put down for them to gnaw on something plugged into an electrical outlet?
Why is the most expensive package to send overseas always the only one that gets sent back due to some customs snafu?
Zodiac thing again (can't resist the Z) -- our planet has been rotating the same way for a very loooooooong time. Astrologers likewise have been star-charting all of us since the Babylonians were the hip kids on Earth. So why didn't anyone notice the signs were messed up before now?
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My son, who doesn't want to lose his Aquarius status, points out that what matters is the stars you were born under, so already born people shouldn't change.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if you really want to know your sign, go to the Farmer's Almanac for the year that you were born. That's a publication that has been noticing the shifts. I'm a Gemini on the cusp of Taurus for the year I was born. For the newer years, I'm nowhere near Taurus.
I can only answer a few of your (probably rhetorical) questions:
ReplyDeleteIf someone is used to haphazard spelling, the correct spelling will always look strange.
The cat is leaving the eviscerated kill for you as a gift. The squish is supposed to thrill you with delight.
The Zodiac changes have been written about since at least the 1960s. I don't know what the big deal now is.
All the rest can probably be answered with the annoying word, "because," except for the granola question. I'm pretty sure no one wants to know the answer to that.
...why does he always drop the juicy remains on my chair, my pillow or inside one of my shoes?
ReplyDeleteThey want mommy to see what they did & be proud.
Or they want to watch the inferior human stroke out.
Depends on their mood.
Also, why does Scorpio only get a week? How does that make any sense?
ReplyDeleteI'm still a Pisces, so my world hasn't turned completely upside-down. I'm afraid I don't act anything like the people on either side of me.
Maybe the whole HP/Jesus/Zombie thing assumes we at least believe in something. I'm surprised vampires aren't there, though--seems like vampire books are spilling over everywhere.
Every time I go to Borders all the bookmarks are Twilight, so maybe it's just BAM. Or maybe it's a conspiracy.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad my cats don't leave me presents. Just the thought of stepping on critter corpse... ewewew.
I'm with Margaret's son. No matter how they change the Zodiac now, you are the sign you were born into. Which is why I'm full of bull. ;o)
LOL, the zodiac will not change from what the news said that's been de-bunked. I'm staying a Sagitarrius even if they do for some idiotic reason change them, I'm stubborn that way :-)
ReplyDeleteAs for the cats - LOL I have to agree with raine.
I always thought the chewy in granola bars was the same marshmallow fluff you use to make rice krispy treats.
I want to know why a cat who has to vomit will make a beeline to carpet to do it. In a house with no carpet, the cat will find a nice, expensive rug.
ReplyDeleteYour hubby's comment about spelling made me think of a funny about my hubby. His first language is not English, so he often asks me for definitions of words. I was in the other room when he called, "What does S-C-O-F-F spell?"
ReplyDeleteI said, "Scoff."
"What's scoff?" he asked
I made a scoffing noise.
A moment of silence. Then he said, "Well, geez, I was only asking!"
AARGH! This is what happens when astronomers get a holier-than-thou attitude and stick their noses into astrology, claiming to be all superior and stuff.
ReplyDeleteWestern astrology doesn't have a darn thing to do with the constellations except that way back when astrology was formed, the sun signs were named after the constellations. Otherwise, no comparison, tyvm. Here's a good basic article to read up on: http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/13/no-your-zodiac-sign-hasnt-changed/?iref=allsearch
Western astrologers use the tropical zodiac, which is fixed to the seasons, not the sideereal, i.e. the stars. So no, unless your birthday changes, you're still your sign, both Chinese and Western.
Vedic, i.e. Indian astronomy is already sidereal, and has already accounted for the things the astronomer is talking about.
In the end, this astronomer created nothing but a stink completely out of ignorance for how astrology works. Really, astronomers and astrologers should stay out of each other's business unless they take the time to actually educate themselves on what is going on. *mutter*
My only comment on the astrology thing is that when I talked about it with a friend her response was "I found about that in an astronomy class 8 years ago". Whether it's news depends where you've been.
ReplyDeleteA guaranteed remedy for hairballs is to have your carpets cleaned. Your cat will deposit one right where you step first thing in the morning before you have turned on the lights. They want you to experience the feeling and they know where you spend your time.
ReplyDeleteFor the zodiac thing, it isn't some big new discovery. People have known about the other sign forever, but every few years this "new" sign gets publicized again. Also, the zodiac they are talking about has nothing to do with your star sign. The "new" sign is used in the European astrology. The astrology used for star signs still does not include it. So your sign hasn't changed, and it's not the big deal people are making of it. Nothing is any different than it was last week.
ReplyDeleteAnd if that isn't enough to pacify some people, then astrology was invented to help farmers know when to plan their crops, not to describe personalities or horoscopes.
My wife asks me to spell words for her a lot. It only frustrates me when she is typing and uses the spell check after I spell the word for her.
ReplyDeleteYou ask, "When writers paid (usually a substantial sum) to self-publish their books in the old days, we called it vanity publishing. Now that it doesn't cost anything to self-publish digitally no one calls it that anymore. So is it only vain if it costs you money?"
ReplyDeleteI'm reminded of this passage I read last week from the (highly recommended) book "Cognitive Surplus" by Clay Shirky, a professor of media studies at NYU. The book deals with how, given new technology, people will choose to spend their free time in creative acts instead of consumptive behavior.
"Services that help us share things thrive precisely because they make it easier and often cheaper for us to do things we're already inclined to do. One function of the market, in other words, is to provide platforms for us to engage in the things we value doing outside the market. . . . The fifteenth century model of media production didn't allow for that kind of sharing, because its inherent cost and risk meant professionals were required at every step. Now they're not." -- Clay Shirky, "Cognitive Surplus"
Shirky is speaking about creative endeavors in general, but the examples he uses range from YouTube to Wikipedia to fan fiction (a form of self-publishing).
In other words, individuals have always valued writing, but previously most of those folk who valued writing were excluded from actually publishing, because the cost and risk meant commercial publishing (the "market") offered a limited opportunity for many individuals to engage in writing for a wide audience. Likewise, those individuals were deterred from self-publishing because of that same cost and risk.
The market & the technology were not constructed to facilitate easy self-publishing; someone who wanted to do so had to assume an inordinate amount of cost and risk. Hence "vanity publishing," because who but the most vain would defy the constraints of the publishing market and assume that risk themselves to self-publish a work?
Today it requires far less cost and risk to self-publish than it did 50, 30, or even 10 years ago, and, since it requires less cost and risk, it thus requires less vanity (or perhaps bravery?) to do so.
(But, of course, I also suspect the term "vanity publishing" was coined by the commercial publishing industry as a way to pejoratively describe self-publishing.)