Science fiction, fantasy, mystery and what-not
Floofcate (catfinition) – to sooth or mollify a cat through concessions.
In use: Kevin rose from the chair. The little tabby cat jumped into the vacated space.
“There,” Kevin said. “Are you satisfied?”
The cat began washing her paw.
“I’ll just…stand,” Kevin said, staring at the cat. “I sit too much anyway.”
The things he did to floofcate his pet.
One ending often signifies a new beginning, but some never turn the page.
Sighing
staggering
grunting
sniffling
coughing
sneezing
wheezing
moaning
groaning
vomiting
He blew his nose, wiped tears from his eyes, and gazed out the window.
Yep, he was still a force to be reckoned with.
He was just on the wrong vector.
I was in the military for twenty plus years before moving into the corporate business world. After leaving the military, I worked at startups on the SF Bay area peninsula. Corporations swallowed the startups, and I ended up with IBM, where I stayed for fifteen years.
I preferred the military over the corporate world most of the time. Corporations paid better and demanded less work of me. The pay is a benefit, but the less work meant the jobs were less satisfying and less spiritually, emotionally, and mentally rewarding. Our sense of time in the military was much different. Now meant NOW in the military. For civilians, now was a blob of indeterminate time that can stretch from a day to a year.
Other differences were noted. Corporate employees had less sense of unity. Morale seemed worse. There was a greater sense of malaise, of “Here we go again.” Civilians had far less accountability, too. In the military, screw up, and the laser beam of ownership and explanation found you fast.
I liked the ownership and accountability, because they also quickly recognized you. The other good deal to me when I was in the military were assignment rotations. Every two to four years (it varied by rank and assignment), I moved to somewhere else. While on assignment, I could change duties and responsibilities, and even units. That kept things fresher and more interesting. Keeping it all coherent was a strong understanding of the mission. The mission didn’t change.
It wasn’t so in the civilian world, except when I left companies and joined another. My job at IBM changed three times, but I had many, many bosses in those years. IBM did a lot of restructuring and re-organizations. They started many projects (and most of them faded away). They had great ideas but poor execution. New products were often exciting, but the finished product rarely seemed to fulfill the initial promises.
That was my life with the corporation. Your results may vary, but I found that with U.S. Surgical, Tyco, and ISS, as well.
Anyway, wherever I was, I often thought of this song as I left one job and went to another. Here’s “Take This Job and Shove It,” by David Alan Coe, performed and released by Johnny Paycheck in 1977.
I can’t believe how quickly and ruthlessly modern clothing and accessories shrink. Even my leather belts are shrinking.
Really, what’s the world coming to?
Pax Felina (catfinition) – that time in a house when all the cats are sleeping.
In use: “The evening was most pleasant, with nary a demand for food as pax felina ruled.”
Does it bother anyone else that CVS and Walmart stores turned people away during the false missile alert in Hawaii the other day?
It bothers me. I heard it rationalized by business folks as a liability issue. You know, if everyone survived, but something happened to someone while they were in the store, they might sue the store or corporation afterward. I think that rationalization shows skewed — and flawed — priorities.
I did read two aspects of the alert scare which amused me. They came from the same source, an SFGate.com article about Duane Kuiper’s experience during the false alert in Hawaii. The article said, “The outdoor restaurant was emptied with breakfasts still on the tables.” Kuiper was quoted, “When people leave food, that’s not a good sign. Especially if you’re from Wisconsin. You don’t leave food.”
Too true. You know it’s serious when we’re all getting up and leaving our feed.
The second amusing aspect from that same article was, “The guards were yelling at swimmers to get out of the pool. An older man doing laps while wearing earplugs did not hear the order, so a guard walked into the pool fully clothed to drag him out.”
From the way I read it, it seems like they were concerned about people being in the pool during a missile strike, like the pool was a dangerous place to be when the missile hit. I know, it’s just me, and my warped sense of humor and perspective.
We can laugh about it now (or some of us, well removed from the threat, can), but it was an intense experience for those in the threatened area.
I started thinking about this song on the fifteenth. The fifteenth used to be my pay day, back in the days when the man employed me.
It’s always fascinating how pay day affects the area’s dynamics. Being close to poor when I was a married airmen in the Air Force, I understood. Every penny was saved and accounted for in the budget. Saving enough to pay for a treat, like Ho-hos, was a big deal. Ho-hos were ninety-nine cents back then.
But we knew we were more fortunate than others. We lived paycheck to paycheck, but we were saving, and slowly pulled ahead. We had food, electricity, clean water, shelter, and security. We had each other, a cat, and a car.
So, in honor of who I was, and the others who work and struggle, here is ZZ Top’s “Just Got Paid,” from 1972.
Pseudofloof (catfinition) – a cat’s fictitious name, often used privately between cats, or between people and cats.
In use: “His name was Quinn but the other cats gave him the pesudofloof of Stinky Tail.”
Flouch (catfinition) – a cat’s low bend, normally used when seeing a cat they don’t know, or when they’re not certain of the situation.
In use: “See the new black and white kitty across the street, Tucker flouched.”
Michael Seidel, writer 