I am Kitteh, hear me meow

She's been with me for eight years now; I got her when she was only three months old, a wee black thing with one white whisker, who reached up to smell my face and then kissed my nose. She was female, so I didn't name her Gobbolino, but Eskarina suited her down to the ground.

I call her my little dog, because she likes nothing better than being around her people - even though she doesn't like being stroked (the hunim touch must be avoided! Well, most of the time). If I'm sitting on the couch, reading, as I did most of today, she wants to snuggle up against my leg and stretch out so I can stroke her soft tummy. Her lips are going grey with age now, as are the hairs on the inside of her legs and across her ankles.

She's still one of the most agile of my six cats. And she still drapes comfortably when slung across a shoulder. She has the most pathetic mew in the world, and she's not above pretending to be injured to get an extra tidbit. She looks like a little meerkat when she stretches up on her hind legs to see what I'm holding in my fingers, and the look of disdain she shoots me when she discovers that my fingers are empty, makes me laugh every time.

She's the best hot water bottle I could ever ask for, the quietest sleeping companion when MadCat's away, the bitchiest kitty matriarch ever spawned and the friendliest of my felines - the only one to use when introducing a new cat, a dog, or kids.

I love the way she wanders into the computer room if I've been away for a while, and climbs onto my monitor, rests her head over the top so she can look at me, then goes to sleep.

Love you, Pesky one. Some fishy food on the way for treats.

The Badass of the Week

Ben Thompson has an amazing site called Badass of the Week, and he's not simply talking about men (or people, for that matter). It's also not only about badasses throughout history; there are plenty of real-life, modern-day heroes too. 

And naturally, the ultimate female badass: Ellen Ripley.

This is one of my favourite entries; although the one on Amelia Earhart is pretty badass, too:
The Badass of the Week: Blenda and the Women of Smaland: "Blenda was basically your typical sixteen year-old woman – she more-or-less enjoyed picking flowers, plowing fields, and fighting off full-scale invasions from neighboring militaries – and when she heard word that the Danes were coming, she took it upon herself to get all the women of the land together to devise a way to withstand the inevitable onslaught of beards, swords, and more (even bigger) beards.

The King of Sweden returned from his campaign to find that Blenda and her girlfriends triumphantly standing on top of a massive heaping pile of dead Vikings, and was so pumped up about the whole thing that he granted the women of Smaland a bunch of totally awesome political and social rights that had been previously unavailable to them. From that point on, all daughters had the right to inherit property, money and land equally with their brothers, and were allowed to wear military-style garments around town and at their weddings. They were also given the prestigious right to wear the Royal Coat of Arms on their clothing – a tradition that has lasted to this day. Blenda is still recognized as a national hero in Sweden.

And that, my friends, is a pretty badass way to fight for women's rights. "

(The irony of Blenda's name has not escaped me, when taken in conjunction with the fact that she and her gal pals basically blended those Vikings into a pile of mincemeat.)

The Secret Identity of Wesley Crusher – The Blogs at HowStuffWorks

The Secret Identity of Wesley Crusher – The Blogs at HowStuffWorks:

"If you’re not a big fan of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” or of Wil Wheaton, you may not have heard about Wil’s latest book series, “Memories of the Future.” Imagine if Television Without Pity recappers had been writing about TNG back in 1987, only with more swearing, more digressions and more geeky in-jokes, plus behind-the-scenes memories for every episode. That’s what Vol. 1 does for the first half of the first season of TNG, from “Encounter at Farpoint” to “Datalore” — it’s just the thing for people who love TNG and snark. I decided to wait to read the book until the accompanying “Memories of the Futurecast” podcast wrapped up on Monday, which means I got to the last page of my paper copy this morning.

In the podcast, Wil talks about how working on Vol. 1 helped him come to terms with (and understand) the world’s hatred of Wesley Crusher. It’s a hatred I never had. I loved Wesley Crusher. When TNG premiered, I was just starting high school, and I was a serious know-it-all. Seeing a kid on TV who was essentially correcting his teachers, doing science projects and being a huge nerd all the time was kind of awesome. And enabling. I’m sure I was as annoying to the adults around me as Wesley was to adults trying to watch TNG.

But in listening to and reading “Memories of the Future,” I found a whole new reason to love Wesley. In episode 12 of “Memories of the Futurecast” (and the corresponding book chapter),Wil talks about how Wesley repairs the malfunctioning holodeck in “The Big Goodbye” with one zap of a magical holodeck fixing thing. In the middle of my morning train commute, I thought, “Ha ha ha, Wesley has a sonic screwdriver.” Then, accompanied by lots of mental capital letters and exclamation points, and possibly even a ZOMG, came the follow-up thought: “Wesley Crusher is a Time Lord!”

Maybe he’s even the Doctor in disguise."

I have always been a little bit in love with Wil Wheaton, given that he is my perfect idea of a nerd, what with his soulful eyes, shaggy hair and that lanky body. Whenever I laid my hands on one of the teen mags at the time, it was always Wil who drew my attention; the Coreys were cool, natch, and I will admit to a teensy crush on Jason Bateman and Ricky Schroder. But Wil and his nerdiness rocked my world.

Then I discovered him on Star Trek: The Next Generation and oh boy! Sci-fi AND Wil Wheaton! What could be better? Especially since he was a little know-it-all nerd ON THE STARSHIP ENTERPRISE, going where no man has gone before.

I haven't watched TNG in years, apart from the movies, but that was my favourite of all the Star Trek series. And my love for Wesley Crusher never died. Who cared if he was an obnoxious social outcast? He saved the Enterprise more than once! And no, he was not a wimp - wimps don't get thrown off the bridge of the Enterprise for constantly gainsaying the commanders!

Then I discovered Wil's blog, and his role as a poster-child for geekiness, and my crush, it expanded. His love for words, for writing; his adoration of his wife and son; the way he writes about his pets; his overwhelming geekiness, science love, D&D reminiscenes, fanboy-attacks; Memories of the Futurecast.

Every day, with every post, I fall in crush with him that much more.

Sorry, MadCat; I know you weren't a Wesley Crusher fan. But I make no excuses for the Wil love!

And I totally want a Memories of the Futurecast mug!