Empress of Mars: Undisputed @zebratron2084@awoo.space

If you're NOT picking a pro-Trump legislator, calling them once a day, and leaving an annoying 10-second filk song about DJT on their voice mail...

...why not?

You can't have Marjorie Taylor Greene. She's all mine. >:D

So very very very much of life, especially on the Internet, is an elective. If I don't like it, I can just drop it and get my credits elsewhere. Leaving in mingled apathy and disgust is an underrated strategy.

And if people tell me I'm Doing Something All Wrong, I have the option to just stop doing it for them, *especially* when they start making demands.

"So what do you want to be when you grow up?"

https://i.imgur.com/58ewN6p.gifv

@Oneironott I CHALLENGE normal people to find a source of joy greater than the look of sheer indignant disgust on a dragon's face after a warm gross mammal has slurped her nose.

^____________________^

@Austin_Dern "Three cents! By gum, Smithers, know you nothing about finance? With that kind of lucre, why, that cunning young animal magnetist could start a whale oil company that spans the whole nation, from Iowa to Boston!."

@JulieSqveakaroo @JoyfulSkunk Haha, my first was in the same ultra-beige office park where my dad's trucking company was located. Just a bunch of pegboard displays with clear cellophone bags with one (1) cheaply photocopied paper insert and one (1) game by Sirius Software each. My first game was a text adventure that i can't find ANY trace of, that was definitely NOT a good starter game for a five-year-old... :p My second was Wavy Navy, which went MUCH better. :)

@packbat This is an excellent post, thank you. I love Negativland.

We called the vet and they couldn't think of any reason we couldn't put CJ's medicine in wet food. Tried it and... 100% success! In fact, Peg just informed me that Ceejay licked the bowl clean. We are almost certainly going to get all five doses into him and KILL THOSE PARASITES REAL GOOD.

Then we just gotta start thinking about getting the rest, because they share everything, and if he got 'em they got 'em. (Although we took CJ because he was looking poorly; the rest are all looking pretty energetic so if they got 'em, their own immune systems probably have it under control?)

i just wanted to say this was the most absurd thing i've ever eaten and if i didn't want so badly to live i'd do it again

https://kingcakehub.com/collections/all/products/brennans-chocolate-black-gold-king-cake

@LexYeen That's on the list, somewhere around Plan D or E. :) Poor guy had such a total freakout at the first attempt, I really don't want to do _anything_ that involves physical restraint with him unless we absolutely can't get it in him any other way! But if we gotta, yeah, that's probably our top plan that doesn't involve "mix it with something tasty, hope the vet approves, and hope he goes for it." Poor Ceej has just had enough stress already, and was suspicious enough of us to start with.

I'd probably be more for the purrito technique if we had the faintest idea what we were doing, too. :) An experienced cat friend could probably pull it off in ten seconds, but...

So here's an interesting question that came up at work:

Would the Japanese word 居酒屋 ("izakaya") ever be applied to a British/Irish/American-style pub? Or is it strictly only applied to traditional izakaya, with more traditional Japanese bar food?

Well, let's get y'all caught up here real quick.

Ceejay is gonna be fine eventually but he's got tapeworms and possibly more. They got one dose of medication into him at the vet, but our attempt at a second dose was traumatic all around and we only got about half of it in him.

Luckily, he still trusts me just enough that he could be coaxed out from under the house with a bowl of food, and he even VERY warily let me pet him. That's a real good sign.

We're gonna call the vet and let them know their advice of "just scruff him" failed utterly and we need a less intrusive method. I'm not sure why they didn't just recommend mixing it with food, and we're gonna explicitly ask if that's OK.

So basically, even worst-case, Ceejay is probably not at death's door and even just 1-1/2 doses should leave him happier than he was. But I can't turn off the Cat Stress Alarm until I know we've got a way to at least try to get the rest of his medicine in him.

@Soreth @anthracite if you don't hear from us again, tell everybody we said it was all worthwhile

it's half gone already dear god it's half gone

@Austin_Dern I wonder if you had the same unsettlingly cheerful record album to go along with it?

@JulieSqveakaroo Yeah. *hug* We got an appointment for him AND apparently found a vet who's quite used to "uh... this is not quite our cat and they don't 100% trust us, can we kinda just have a 'we get there when we get there' appointment?"

Still scared for the little dude and (far far less so) the potential expenses, but this also gives us some hope that we'll figure out why he's been a little weird and distant from day one, maybe even get him a better standard of living if he gets thru whatever this is...

huh, looks like i hypothetically made eight bucks already on predictit

maybe there really is a profit to be made by betting against delusional conservative optimism XD XD XD

@JulieSqveakaroo @anthracite Yeah. He's at least eating and seems comfortable and at least not being vocal about any distress. We didn't get to set anything up tonight but we're gonna try to get a hold of someone tomorrow or Monday.

@JulieSqveakaroo @anthracite Not that sort of bloated. ;__; It's one of the boys. He's defintely got something going wrong.

Well, Sugarfoot is definitely the barfer, but in the process we noticed that Ceejay has a distinctly bloated belly and... um... other inflammation I won't detail.

Guess it's vet time. I'm okay, dealing with the stress by reminding myself I'm less those cats' parent than I am their caretaker, friend, and caseworker.

There's nothing I can do for them immediately (though Peg is looking into contacting vets later today, hopefully for a Monday appointment), so the best thing I can do is stay calm and professional, get on with my day such as it is and act when there's an opportunity to act.

Still can't help worrying about the critters. Ceejay more than Sugarfoot now, though this does make three days in a row this has happened.

I knew the job was an emotional attachment risk when I took it. I have every reason so far to think a vet trip, stressful though it might get for everybody, will fix this in the long run. And if it can't, I'm prepared to make whatever decisions have to be made. I need to be OK, so I will, right?

@JulieSqveakaroo by god you're right