KRAD's Inaccurate Guide to Life

I have shared my home with two cats for almost seven years now. At various times in those seven years I have done the following to and/or for the cats: force-fed, given shots, given pills, fed, taken to and from the vet, and tons more, including burying one.

But until tonight, I have never changed a litter box. That was always terri_osborne's job. (Just like my job is to throw the garbage and recycling, and also I'm the one who always takes the cats to the vet.) But she threw her back out last night and can't really bend over. And the litter box really really needed changing.

So, with verbal guidance from Terri, I changed the litter.

Bleah.

But hey, I know how to do it now. And maybe the smell will get out of my hands some day. (Yes, I've washed them. Repeatedly. I feel like Lady fucking Macbeth, I've washed my hands so thoroughly, but the smell lingers.)

From a mailing list: Bookseller magazine's oddest book titles prize shortlist announced.

Some of these are actually really good clever titles (like If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs). Cheese Problems Solved makes my head hurt. I'm not sure why People who Mattered in Southend and Beyond: From King Canute to Dr Feelgood is on the list, though.....

Spent most of the day working on Ghostwriting Project #1, which continues to kick my ass. I hate pretty much everything about it and want it to be over. *sigh*

The good part of today was when terri_osborne and I went over to suricattus's new place to aid her with some decorating stuff, and then go to one of the local Chinese places for a lovely Sunday dinner.

Then, y'know, more writing. Guh.

My magnificent agent, and good friend, Lucienne Diver has taken the LJ plunge. Go make faces at her at varkat.

Grade 4 / World Geography

True or False? On a globe or map, meridian lines meet at the poles.


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Ralph Nader has announced that he's running for president once again.

Unlike many, I don't blame Nader for the 2000 election. I, in fact, blame Vice President Al Gore, who ran an incredibly bad campaign -- one sufficiently dreadful that it actually transformed Governor George W. Bush from a punchline to a viable presidential candidate, and that it left us with having to rely on Florida to decide an election, which is rather like relying on a kitten to keep your ball of twine from coming unraveled.

Gore was the vice president under an immensely popular (if scandal-slimed) two-term president running against a charisma-challenged state governor. The last time we ran that script was in 1988, and Vice President George H.W. Bush read it word for word, embracing the notion of continuing President Ronald Reagan's legacy, and beating the pants off Governor Michael Dukakis. Gore, however, tried to distance himself from President Bill Clinton, which was remarkably stupid; he actually bought into the Republican propaganda, forgetting that Clinton's approval ratings stayed steady despite the best efforts of Special Prosecutor Starr and the Republican-led Congress.

If Gore had done what his opponent's father had done twelve years prior, Nader's third-party run would not have been at all relevant.

Anyhow, all that aside, all Nader's announcement accomplishes is to further damage a legacy that should be focused on his consumer advocacy, not his doomed runs at the presidency.

From Steve Goldman's "You Could Look It Up" column on BaseballProspectus.com, regarding the PECOTA player projections that will appear in the Baseball Prospectus 2008 book:

The [PECOTA] comparables are only supposed to suggest what a player might do in a particular year; if the top comparables for young outfielder Johnny Wetcougar, 22, are Dave Winfield and Ed Delahanty, the most you can infer is that the system likes him and thinks he’s going to be a good hitter in the style of those players at a similar point in their career. The comparables do not suggest either that Wetcougar will deliver 3000 hits like Winfield or get drunk and fall off of an open drawbridge like Delahanty.