Cat's Feeble First Attempt at a Video Blog

Hi Guys,

Well, after my last blog post waded into some fairly heavy territory, I thought perhaps it was time to lighten things up a bit, so this is something completely different!

I've actually gotten sucked into the world of YouTube recently, and I'm thinking that I might try my hand at it, but since I'm such a Luddite, it's gonna take me a while to sort out all of the technical stuff. And since I totally suck at learning things for the sake of learning them, and I seem to require little exercises to get myself to actually do things rather than just think about them, I decided that rather than leaping into one of my many ideas for a meaningful YouTube channel, I'd just experiment with it for a bit by doing a few video blog posts.

And you all get to be my guinea pigs... you lucky devils, you!

So, I made a little YouTube video describing all of the exciting things I've been up to recently. It sorta got cut off at the end... did I mention I don't have a clue what I'm doing? Well anyway, for your viewing pleasure:

Anyhoo... hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving that was (ahem) a bit more restful than mine was. Perhaps the universe just wanted to remind me that I ought to be grateful for hot water and indoor plumbing? Seriously, folks, I tried to boil water on the stove to take a bit of a bath, and after an hour of shuttling every pot in the house from the kitchen to the bathroom, I managed to get a whole 4 inches of water into the tub. OY! At least my crazy closet full of bottles of water came in handy with the water shut off for several days.

So that's the news from the funny farm! I hope my video at least serves as amusement!

Hugs to you all!
-Cat

Missing the Point

Well folks, the elections are finally over and I have heaved an enormous sigh of relief knowing that the Democratic takeover of the house means that I, along with all of my self-employed friends will still be able to purchase health insurance for at least another two years.

Perhaps my anxiety over this issue is overblown, but having watched so many people being denied coverage, or being charged literally twice their monthly income for premiums, I honestly don't think so. The orange beast and his minions can still do plenty of damage, but at least that one little piece of the puzzle is safe for the moment.

Anyhow, with that knot in my stomach fairly well dissipated, my mind has been set free to wander a bit this morning. So as I was scrolling through my Google news feed, I noticed an interesting article about a house for sale in Colorado - one inspired by Henry David Thoreau's classic, Walden.

Sounds interesting, doesn't it? Then I clicked on the link. Good Lord! I'm pretty sure Thoreau is rolling over in his grave. Call me crazy, but somehow I don't think that a lavish $29 million 10,500 square foot luxury estate with 7 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms is exactly what he had in mind when he penned these words:

It just sorta makes you wonder doesn't it? How could someone who claimed to be inspired by Walden, create something which is its absolute antithesis? And even more to the point, how could the people writing articles about the place fail to notice this rather glaring point?

I dunno, perhaps it's just another example of the enormous hypocrisy and contradictions that seem to permeate our society these days. As horrifying as I have found the political divide in this country to be, one thing is sure, a lot of true colors have come to light. 

I found it interesting and sad that as last night's election results came in, there was no repudiation by the evangelical community of the politics of hate, in fact, it was quite the opposite. I've never been a Christian, so perhaps I'm missing something, but it seems to me that the current administration, in terms of both policy and personal behavior, represents the exact opposite of what I understood to be "Christian values."

I'm curious to know what those of you who are Christians think about that. Do you consider it hypocritical to see people who consider themselves to be morally superior lining up behind a racist demagogue who seems to be actively working to harm as many people as possible? Or is there just some completely different interpretation of morality at work here... one that I'm obviously missing.  

Anyhow, those are my thoughts on this November morning. Hope you're all enjoying autumn. Here's the view from a recent bike ride - and I'm thrilled to report that I'm back on my bike - more on that lengthy topic later...