I was going to ask the doc whether my insurance had approved Tysabri or not. Guess I don’t have to now. Quoting Yahoo:

Biogen Idec and Elan Corp. Plc on Monday suspended sales of their much-heralded new multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri after a patient died from a rare and often fatal infection of the central nervous system.

The shares of both companies plummeted as the drug, approved in the United States last November, was widely expected to become the world’s leading treatment for multiple sclerosis and an important driver of growth for both Biogen Idec and Elan.

The companies based their decision on one confirmed, fatal case and one suspected case of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a rare infection of the brain and spinal cord.

Bummer, I was hoping. Drug looked so promising. After the flap over Vioxx, guess they are being more cautious. Oh well, I’ll stick with the Copaxone for now.

Booted perfect first time. Now that the G5 is operational, I can get back to the business of upgrading to the stable, not nightly, WordPress 1.5, nicked Strayhorn (not Longhorn). It’s been out since the 17th but I was preopccupied with a sick computer…

and work, did a lot of that and, of course, the cats.

Thirty sites in the Carnival, took me most of the day to do when not cleaning the cat pee off the canisters. Done mucking with it. Hope I didn’t forget anyone.

Got to get some rest, cause tomorrow, hopefully, I will get my now fixed and midplaned iMac back. It’s rather heavy so lugging it back home is a chore. Store - car (hoping one of them help) and car - bedroom, too far.

I remember why I bought it, iBook does get rather warm (read - hot), one big disadvantage to the laptop.

Keaukina starts it out with a puzzle. What is this furry thing? Answer here but you have to guess first.

Captain Oates shares this scrounger of food, poor hungry kitty. Too bad cats don’t eat oats. Camera hog too.

Nick, on the other hand fetes his cat in style with a birthday party. Ernie is one lucky cat.

Somebody’s gone mousing over at nycbabylon’s. So says MJ Cat. Ah, but do we believe him? The jury’s out on that one.

Aunty Holly, a cat herself, rates dining establishments for the vacationing feline.

Kitty Zen or is it kitty mischief presented by Gir.

Ferdinand T. Cat shares the benefits of crocheting blankies for the kitties.

Miss O’Hara caught an actual action shot of a cat. Hard to believe they actually DO stuff other than sleep, but…

OK, they sleep a lot which is a good thing.

Jeremy shares some artwork, look before you judge now. Who knew indeed.

Ogre presents Don’t Move Mickey sits, ready to attack our cameraman…

Oddybobo presents baby strangling cat what could be cuter?

Cassie introduces us to Mouse. Cat. Cat named Mouse. So what does he name the mouse? Cat?

Here’s Boo, well that’s better than Mouse. Northstar’s cat I’m guessing.

Barry shares cat and his bear, really getting it on with the wild animals. Mr Gato remixed. How do you mix a cat nevermind remix one?

Must ask Glenn.

Janet has captured faces to sucker the hard-hearted, in other words wallpaper for my iMac, just the prettiest kitties.

Watermark has a R.F.O.A.C. plus a bunch of kitty links.

Clickety Split captured the most amazing photo. Those photo ops are so rare, so hard to capture the moment.

Cathouse Journal filled with cats of course, and four catcams.

Somebody I know only has three. There is a solution: the FriskyCAMpaign.

Maggie knows just how difficult it is to get the purrfect shot.

NaFe(SiO3)2 from BJ, you figure it out.

The kitties get tuna-water as a treat. Mira is good to her cats including the scaredy cat, Kitty MacBoingBoing.

Elisson’s cats look nice and comfy. Everything covered with cat fur.

Sissy’s on a roll, Tiny demonstrating why an old fashioned monitor is best. Forget the LCD displays. Then there’s the cat house by moonlight no less. Babe shows her resemblance to a certain well known figure who we hope will run for President in 2008. Meanwhile, Tiny checks the books, buggy-whips anyone?

Matt’s in love and boy is he a looker.

Jazz has some cool cats in love.

None other than Lair bought Nardo a new Harley Davidson collar, way cool.

Hey, it’s not 6PM here yet so I’m a little slow.

Steve shares some very cats needing good homes.

And I have an entry suitable for my cats (actually my kid’s cats but I pay for everything), well they did hurl all over the nice clean sofa.

Mark has the right idea.

Next week’s Carnival of the Cats will be at Maximum Stacy. Send your posts/cats to cats (at) isfullofcrap.com. Somehow, I don’t think Meowza will fit in the email.

Had recently replaced the blender cover, like yesterday, when I discovered the little monsters had peed on it again. And on just about everything else on the counter. I’m too tired to deal with it now, still somewhat sleep deprived. Sides it’s all dried on and will require scrubbing. Big cleaning tomorrow, ugh. Phoned kid (who’s never home) who proposed getting rid of the Tupperware on the counter (by giving it to her friends). Blender is not Tupperware. Bread making machine is not Tupperware. Only Tupperware are the peed on canisters which have essential stuff in it, the utensils (covered with a plastic bag), and stuff needing washing. She always comes up with a solution which is no solution.

Wait til she sees what her cats did to her bathroom.

Aww, they are going to miss their Pope’s blessing.

An aide is to read the Pope’s words and bless crowds on his behalf in St Peter’s Square, a statement said.

The Vatican says the Pope is breathing without assistance, but cannot speak.

Perhaps he could lipsync. Worked for Ashlee Simpson.

This might work for the Pope too, a new iPod. OK, it always comes back to the Macs. Hey, it is white, fits right in with his outfit and that trach. It would be perfect.

That’s the news that greeted me after I fed the cats. Quoting from the Yahoo:

“The bottom line: BTK is arrested,” Wichita Police Chief Norman Williams said at a news conference in Wichita with some of the victims’ family members.

The BTK killer - a self-coined nickname that stands for “Bind, Torture, Kill” - has been linked to eight killings committed between 1974 and 1986.

That’s nice. I like hearing nice news. Makes me think of Exodus 21:23-25, would be nice yes it would.

Won’t happen thou.

Come home to a disaster. Right below Jezi’s chin (on the freshly washed sofa slipcovers) in that picture is where someone hurled a big one and I want to hurl whoever did it out the door along with their seven cohorts. That in addition to the pee on the blender which actually got my designer appliance cover so now I have to go to Target to get some more blender covers (their plastic shopping bags are the perfect size and are prettier than the Wal Mart bags). That in addition to trashing the kitchen cause I ran out of dry cat food and haven’t gotten to the store. They did get plenty of kitty treats to tide them over. Didn’t deserve them either. Kid could buy cat food but no…

Speaking of food, real food, Carnival of the Recipes is up. And the Modulator should have a Friday Ark up sometime today, like now. Someone’s up with the birds. He’s got those too.

And don’t forget the Carnival of the Cats is here Sunday, send your posts to cats (at) isfullofcrap.com.

Frank J. has a quiz up at IMAO and since I haven’t done anything like that in a while.

THE “WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?” BLOGGER QUIZ

1. Who the hell do you think you are?

A blogger with way too many cats which cats give much bloggy pleasure..

2. So, other than blogging, what’s your job? Do you work at some fast food joint, dumbass?

No, I’m one of those people. Don’t ask, I won’t tell.

3. Do you have like any experience in journalism, idiot?

Absolutely not, this is more a journal not some professional reporting. And neither of my degrees are in journalism either.

4. Do you even read newspapers?

Yes, almost daily read the Arizona Republic,best part is Get Fuzzy, worst is Maureen Dowd, yes they reprint her.

5. Do you watch any other news than FOX News propaganda, you ignorant fool?

Used to watch CBS News (insert loud laughter) and CNN, still watch CNN on occasion.

6. I bet you’re some moron talk radio listener too, huh?

Nope, iPod. Thou the rare times I actually listen to the radio to catch traffic reports, I catch a few minutes of Howard Stern. Does that count?

7. So, do you get a fax from the GOP each day for what to say, you @#$% Republican parrot?

Nope, no fax machine, emails thou.

8. Why do you and your blogger friends want to silence and fire everyone who disagrees with you, fascist?

I don’t, nice to have an reasoned, opposing viewpoint. Sides, some of the cartoons are rather funny, Ted Rall excepted.

9. Are you completely ignorant of other countries, or do you actually own a passport?

Didn’t need one at the time, it’s been a while. Oh, I do have one, so it’s a MS Passport.

10. Have you even been to another country, you dumb hick?

Yes, only two thou.

11. If you’re so keen on the war, why haven’t you signed up, chickenhawk?

Three years US Army, 12 years USAR, Vietnam War vet, been there, done that. Would have gladly gone after Saddam if I were able.

12. Do you have any idea of the horrors of war? Have you ever reached into a pile of goo that was your best friend’s face?

Yes, John Kerry the horror of the Vietnam War. I will never forget his treachery. Have you ever reached in a pile of goo that was someone’s brains? I have.

13. Have you ever reached into any pile of goo?

Goo, poo, what’s the difference? Yes, cats make sure that is a daily occurance.

14. Once again, who the hell do you think you are?!

A blogger with way too many cats, which cats I must now feed.

Hat tip Lair whose answers aren’t for the faint hearted.

Curled up like a ball, too sleek to be like a RFOAT, one Jezi.

Krissie on her pillow, note she has personalized it. Could have waited a month or two, it was just washed.

Jezi is a good girl, she doesn’t hurl - on the sofa at least.

And Izzy, he’s just lounging around looking cute.

Cheaper, more memory, 6GB iPod mini and a 30GB iPod photo, sweet.

Is he a normal person who fits the classic profile of a pedophile cause he is one just with tons of money so he can entice the kiddies and buy people off so he can continue with his perversion?

Or is he really weird, someone who never grew up, who coincidentally fits the classic profile of a pedophile but isn’t? Just a big kid, you know. But then children, irregardless of their size or age are not suitable parents. Dangled. Baby. Out. Of. Window.

Wonder what the defense will go with?

Mind you, unless he is severely brain damaged, it might be hard to pull it off. Could read his autobiography, “Moonwalk.” Maybe that’s not such a good idea, makes him out to be a shrewd businessman, brilliant entertainer, a man totally in control.

Safe bet, plead insanity. That’s believable. Even living in his own little world isn’t much defence. He does read.

Then too Geraldo think’s he’s normal.

Notably absent from the below photo is Meowza. Why? He was in the garage or, more properly, in the attic where he got from the garage, the cover to the opening having broken and me without a saw to make a new one. Got me thinking and what I thought chilled me to the bone. I can imagine 15 pounds of fur falling thru the ceiling over my bed or even worse, stinky yellow cat pee dripping down from the ceiling onto one of my beloved Macs. That cat must go. I can’t afford the repair bills.

L-R Jezi, Krissie, Izzy (behind pillow), Keefe, Bazel

They’re at it again, trying to control the net. They can’t even get Iran to stop human rights abuses. And considering some of the member countries are rather heavy handed regarding how their own citizens access the net (Iran, China), one can only imagine what the U.N. would do. They don’t exactly have a stellar record of achievement in other areas, oil for food, the raping of Africa, stuff like that.

Think if the U.N. controlled the net and the U.S. decided to pull out of the U.N. or do anything else that might displease the despots running the show, they could pull the plug on the U.S.. There is a good chunk of businesses that use the web. And all those blogs, all that free speech. Definitely don’t want the U.N. to have that kind of power.

Course, wouldn’t have to worry about dissident bloggers now as they wouldn’t even be able to blog. Mullahs would just have a few words with (payoff) some U.N. official and the web address would be gone long before they arrested him and sentenced him to 14 years in prison for blogging. Think, no blogs - noone would even know about the bloggers plight.

Looks like everyone’s getting into blogging now. So, since it is official, is it a blog or an UNblog?

And will they go the Wonkette route? Peeps will want all the sordid details.

Safe bet, it’ll be boring. I’m not adding that one to my blogroll.

I expect they will ignore this travesty of justice. And yes, although bloggers don’t have to cover every story, when you’re the U.N. and a member country is guilty of gross human rights violations, I expect it to do something constructive. (more…)

Who are they? Iranian bloggers. And what are they imprisoned for? Blogging. Why? Cause they don’t have one of these. The relevant quote:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

But they do have one of these although Iran chooses to defy it. Relevant quote:

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Today is dedicated to them.

Hat tip Sissy. Wow, the Beeb noticed.

OK, I got up and didn’t fall over, still dizzy but I managed to make it to the kitchen when I was surrounded by kitties. Hungry, hungry kitties. I did manage to feed them without keeling over into the cat food. Psycho Cat was her usual, nasty self, today she sniffed my hand and took a swat at it. No rubbing, no petting, just a nasty cat. Not superbowl nasty, just cat nasty. Mind you her kittens aren’t like that. They are friendly, so Izzy is always after food, still friendly. And Meowza is a big lovable lug who just has the tendency to cause massive amounts of devastation to my house. Like an earthquake. Bazel has even come up to me for love and Jezi is the Nermal of the household. Hmm, Nermal has his own fanlisting too.

Kid came up with a solution to too many cats in too small a house - build a Arizona room or whatever they are called just for the cats. Uh, although it is a nice idea, it’s not too practical. Get estimate. Remortgage house to pay for it. Hire contractor. Get building permits. Takes time and lots of money. I still have the carpet to finish ripping up and then have to buy and install flooring, another expensive project although not as expensive as building an addition to the house.

She did get the fun of cleaning up the little presents her cats left around her bathroom. Lots of cats equals lots of cat crap. Sorry, no pics of that.

Haven’t done much today cause I worked last night then had PT then crashed. Slept maybe an hour and woke to discover that when I got up, I nearly fell down, very dizzy. Vertigo. I lay there with the room swirling around before finally getting up the energy to get up again to find me some Meclizine. Waiting for it to work so I don’t have to be horizontal all the time.

Work was exciting, busy weekend. The excitement - first they are testing some new computer equipment, going the flat panel route. Big panels, all black equipment not the ever present corporate beige. Oh and the ride to work yesterday. Trigeminal neuralgia bilaterally almost to the point of tears, it did settle down to be mostly on one side, still have it. Blurred vision. Weak and shaky. Think I’ll be calling the doc tomorrow. Had been holding off cause it wasn’t that bad.

Carnival of the Cats is up at Flying Space Monkeys and if you’re wondering why I didn’t enter it’s cause when I was typing the mail, I typed in the to: cat and Mail filled in rest I thought it filled in the right address but apparently it didn’t and my entry never made it. I was half asleep at the time course I could just blame Apple’s default mail program. I’m a little more awake now but not much. Anyway, enjoy the kitties. Next week I am hosting it so I won’t have to worry bout messing up in Mail. This and this and this were to be my entries.

Update: I will blame Apple’s default mail program as it screwed up filing mail in the wrong folders, crashed bigtime too.

My observations weren’t near as scientific as Lair’s. I just noticed the Friday Ark had a ton of cat posts this week. Cats always outnumber the other pets. And I do like to check out all the pretty kitties.

Guess people prefer posting about their cats than their mice. More fun to watch too. Cats chasing mice. Mmmm, fun.

Read a couple of dumb things in the local rag. First, teachers are shying away from red ink when correcting students papers cause the color is traumatizing to the poor little things. They might actually come to the conclusion that they did something wrong. I thought that was the whole idea of correcting papers. Now, they are using nonthreatening colors and other means to guide the children in the right direction rather than point out their mistakes. Feelings trumps learning. Dumb.

Then there is the renaming of America or great chunks of it, this time eliminating the word squaw from the public arena, used to have a place called Squaw Peak, since renamed. It appears that the word is derogatory to native American females. Not sure what the fuss is cause native American males treat native American females like crap. They treat non native American females like crap too, good only to wait on their every need. Least the ones I’ve met have acted like that. It’s the treatment of females that is derogatory not the word IMHO. Used to mean female in one native American language.

Sides which native Americans don’t have a lock on treating females like crap. Think Saudi Arabia, Iran, places like that. They put everyone else to shame in the treating females like crap department. They invented the technique. And perfected it beyond anything we do here.

Today, Psycho Cat came up to me, sniffed at my hand then rubbed up against it. She then let me pet her. She did this twice then bit me. Getting a tiny bit more friendly. It was unexpected cause she’s not in heat. She’s always friendly then. Didn’t try to get out course fact it was pouring outside probably made a difference. She got out once before when it rained, only once.

Good thing I cleaned the litterpans and mowed the weeds yesterday when it was just sprinkling. Not doing anything today. Icky, dreadful weather. Though I might be tempted to lay around and pet kitties.

The Friday Ark has loads of kitties this week, far more than I have. Thankfully. I doubt I could handle that many cats. Could it be that cats are the favored pet?

However, more people have mice. (more…)

Kid fixed her toilet so it has a small litter pan in it in an attempt to teach the cats to use the toilet. So far it’s working. Cats have peed and pooped in it.

And in the sink.

And in the tub.

And on the floor. Cat neatly covered it with a large portion of a roll of toilet paper. Wonder who the guilty party/parties are? Here’s Psycho Cat playing keep away. It’s her bathroom.

The tool that adds hyperlinks to web pages, this time it’s not Microsoft’s doing. It’s Google’s toolbar. Quoting ZD Net:

When Web surfers install the toolbar in their Microsoft Internet Explorer Web browser and click the AutoLink button, Web pages with street addresses suddenly sprout links to Google’s map service by default. Book publishers’ ISBN numbers trigger links to Amazon.com, potentially luring shoppers away from competing book sellers such as BarnesandNoble.com. Vehicle ID licenses spawn links to Carfax.com, while package tracking numbers connect automatically to shippers’ Web sites.

Let’s see, first you have to use IE. Then you have to download the toolbar. And then you have to click the AutoLink button. And of course, you have to find a page with street addresses, ISBN numbers and vehicle ID’s. Pretty sure if you find a street address, you are already at Mapquest. ISBN numbers, you are probably already at Amazon.com. Clueless why anyone would post a vehicle ID on the web.

Smart people will use Firefox or one of the other fine browsers out there. Oh wait, the other fine browsers only work on a Mac. PC users are best off with Firefox as it is quite customizable. I especially like the adblocking plugin. Firefox rules.

And it was one long walk with one heavy computer. Ok, so it’s under 20 pounds but, to me, that’s heavy. Just slightly heavier than Meowza who got outside. Couldn’t find him out front so checked out back and he was meowing so I picked him up and brought him inside. Oof, heavy cat.

Now I have to go change the kitty litter and pick up the little messes they left around the house. Not looking forward to that. Oh, and buy canned kitty food. They will insist.

They really need to fix spellcheck as it didn’t recognize the words Mozilla and Firefox. I had to add them to spellcheck. While they’re at it, it would be nice if when I typed in those words, the links to the site showed up.

Think there was something that did smart tags or something a while back, um Microsoft I believe. Therein be the problem.

So this week, the push is to reform Social Security. You can help reform Social Security and improve your retirement income. If you want to invest some of your Social Security taxes as you see fit, then visit this web site and sign the petition. In the interests of fairness, I am probably old enough that whatever they do probably won’t affect me if I live long enough to collect. (more…)

I had thought to use a list in that last post forgetting I had to fix a whole bunch of stylesheets to get rid of the little bullet. So, for a while I had played around wondering why they didn’t work when I realized I was playing with the theme stylesheet not the style one. So for a while last night, the site was themed. I’ll play more later after I go feed the kitties. Just woke up here.

This has been sitting around in my draft folder waiting for me to finish it so I will, feeling somewhat dead (tired), tackle the dead. Or not quite dead. Not that I’d wish any of them any harm, but just think maybe, just maybe, one or more of these might die. My Dead Pool picks.

• Annan, Kofi - drowned in oil might be fitting.
• Asner, Ed - getting old there, does he do anything anymore?
• Castro,Fidel - regime change here.
• Chiraq, Jacques - he’s still our enemy, Condi notwithstanding.
• Chomsky, Noam - leftest writer here.
• Fisk, Robert - maybe he should go to Iraq, hear journalists haven’t been faring so well there.
• John Paul II - he’s getting closer, much closer.
• Jung-Il, Kim - nuked or radiation poisoning from his own nukes.
• Kennedy, Teddy - time to let the air out of this old gasbag.
• Love Courtney - one of these days she’ll OD and that will be the end of her.
• Mofaz, Sha’ul - got to have one unique pick.
• Moore, Michael - the air might have been let out of this gasbag, not all the way, not all the way.
• Osbourne, Ozzy - drinking and drugs do take a toll after a time.
• Rall, Ted - can’t draw, not funny, downright tratorious.
• Rooney, Andy - the old fart is getting on in years.

Man, I should have stuck with Michael Jackson, had him last year no luck, now spending the night in the hospital. Probably just has the blue flu.