Moonflower's Reflections

I found this article very interesting, and regardless of what it concluded, I would have answered the question with a yes. Clearly other animals can feel compassion, so why not primates, our closest relatives?

When I first read about this idea (in a science fiction book) I loved it. Not that I'd ever want to go to the moon, but the idea in itself is so intriguing. Fancy being able to send material up into space, without needing to use a rocket or similar space craft. Just send it up. And now apparently, people are working on making the dream come true. The other day I read about it in this article. Then the day after, I found that someone actually had succeeded in the competition, not in sending anything to the moon. More about it here.

We live in scary times, but this sort of thing helps make up for it to some extent.

I just read an interesting article about dolphins. It seems the more we learn about dolphins, the more intelligent they turn out to be. Which is one reason I'm devastated whenever I read about cruelty against them or any other whale species (no, any species at all, except possibly really evil specimens of homo sapiens...).

This afternoon, I went to pick up some books I had ordered. Not that we can afford them, but just this once, we decided it would be alright. When I got to the store - no post offices anymore, which is such a shame, considering that we (Sweden) used to have the oldest postal service in the world, as far as I know - I made a total fool of myself, by not being able to find the text message with the package number. Very embarrassing. Fortunately, the woman behind the counter was familiar with Nokia phones.

On my way back I had a bit of a scare. As I was passing a goldsmith's shop, I noticed that two young guys were standing around, talking. This is a small town, but it was getting dark and I was on my own, so I was wondering what they were up to. Suddenly they said hi to me with sort of an undertone, that made me wonder. It was like 'don't look at us, we're not up to anything'. I said hi back, thinking maybe they were trying to sell something or had a sort of survey, but apparently that was it. So I began to walk a little faster - I would have anyway, it was pretty chilly - but I couldn't help glancing over my shoulder, just in case.

Just my luck that the only people passing by, other than these two, were an older woman on her bike heading in a different direction and someone walking with an invalid's cane - blind and most likely something else - brave person. Then after a while I passed a church and a cemetary (not theirs, an older one, from a cholera epidemic in the 19th century). A gang of younger guys were hanging around there. After that there were a couple of different people. Besides, it didn't take me more than five-ten minutes to get home.

Today the sun was shining and it was actually quite warm and not windy at all. Very nice in fact. I hurried out so I wouldn't miss the sunshine. My mom and I went shopping (groceries, nothing more fun).

That's when I was hit with depression. By staying indoors for quite a while (except for bringing in the mail, apples etc or hanging the laundry) I'd sort of been in denial. Partially shut myself down. Now it all came back to me. What a pathetic failure I am. What a loser.

At the store we ran into a woman my mom knew from way back. I remember her kids. It was like looking back in time. There he was, that kid (who wasn't my friend, but I knew him - he lived in our neighbourhood). Except he's not six years old anymore, with one of those toothless smiles, six-year-olds have. It was the guy's son. And according to the grandmother there are more grandkids, and she and this boy were going to get them.

Great. This guy, who quite honestly is younger than me, has more than one kid now. Then look at me. Living with my mom. Still struggling to get a degree and later, hopefully, a job. No boyfriend, no kids. Help!

I know many other people are a lot worse off, so I'm ashamed to whine like this, but I just hate myself for failing this badly. The worst part is I've never known what to do or rather how to do it, obviously, or I'd have done it years ago. (Close your eyes, take a deep breath. If you can't even calm down, how are you ever going to straighten out this mess you've made of your life?) There. One thing at a time. Sounds easy, doesn't it? A pity it isn't, not really.

Before posting this, I debated with myself  - should I post this or not? I told myself I was too grown up for this kind of thing. Then I thought wtf? I can be as young as I want. :) So here it is:

You Are Fantasy / Sci Fi

You have an amazing imagination, and in your mind, all things are possible. You are open minded, and you find the future exciting. You crave novelty and progress. Compared to most people, you are quirky and even a bit eccentric. You have some wacky ideas. And while you may be a bit off the wall, there's no denying how insightful and creative you are.

Perhaps I should add that while I agree with the conclusion (that I'm a fantasy book) I don't agree with all the details. I'm not sure I crave novelty and progress, though come to think of it, maybe this quiz knows more about me than - I do?

On one of my other sites – Moonflower’s Books and Stuff – I’m discussing all my favorite books, authors, tv series, movies and more. That includes actual reviews of a kind. LOL. I’m not promising they’ll be perfect, but if you like you’re welcome to take a look.

I am promising that I haven’t forgotten about that site or abandoned it. Eventually, there will be more reviews. Honestly. :)

Since it's Monday today, I've posted a new pic on my photoblog. (I suffer from an acute shortage of photos right now, so it's not absolutely every Monday I can post a photo, but today, I had one). If you like, you're welcome to take a look.

I recently noticed something funny. Cats seem to prefer their own colours. For instance, one of them, who is orange, absolutely loves the colour orange. It doesn't look that great to me, but she insists on lying on a surface that clashes the most with her own colour. Pink (and similar shades) are ok too, as far as she's concerned. I keep wanting her to lie (read pose) on something white, grey, blue or green. No such luck. Besides, getting her to pose for the camera (read lie still for a few seconds at a time) is more or less impossible.

Another of my cats - grey this time - adores (you guessed it) the colour grey. In this case, I wouldn't say that grey clashes with grey, but in my book, another colour, like white, red, blue and so on, would look a lot prettier. That is if I ever got her to stay in one place long enough for me to get a few pictures of her.

Oh, well, I'll have to commit the images to memory and maybe, once in a while, I'll be able to snap a few shots of them before they take off...

Today I noticed that my cockatiel, Alexander, had pecked a hole in a bag of bird seeds I'd bought for him. He was sitting there, eating seeds, looking pleased with himself. And so he should. He's such a smart bird. I was so impressed. He wasn't too happy when I poured the contents of the bag into a glass jar though. Oh, well. He'll get it all, in time. I only wish I'd been able to take a photo of him. Maybe some other time.