Maverick the Muffin

I couldn't stop laughing... That's her food dish she's sleeping in. And ballooning out of. And even better, I saw her deliberately settle down in there.

boy, they've got everything on the 'net these days

I think I've been called "oversensitive" by most of the people I know - sometimes disparagingly, sometimes affectionately. Most people who know me well have observed that I have a really hard time in crowds or cities - spending any extended period of time in such an energetic environment leaves me physically shaky and weak. I've always described it as the "sponge" effect - I soak up what's around me to an insane degree. I plug my ears when loud things happen, like braking busses or jackhammers. In virtually any party situation, I can interact with the crowd for some limited amount of time, after which I always need to unwind, and retreat to my room to sit in the dark. I am completely unable to watch violence or tension on TV or in movies; during these scenes I usually plug my ears and shut my eyes; even when watching completely tame shows I find myself tense and stiff and really on the edge. Even if I *like* watching them, they do me in.

These weird traits have been interpreted in various ways. I think some people think I'm kind of faking it, like a lot of middle school girls fake being afraid of bugs just so they can all squeal in "fear" at the sight of one, which in some twisted way connects people socially. Others see it as a very negative thing; the result of my not watching TV as a child. Still more feel they have to be very careful around me, for fear of "setting me off" - that's not a great way to say it, but many of my friends do realize that I notice and respond to little things VERY quickly.

Well, it turns out there's actually quite some information about people like me. It's all over the web - search for Highly Sensitive Person or Intuitive Empath, and you can look through lists of traits that describe me in a nutshell. Most surprising of all was this site, in which the essayist also describes herself as a "giant sponge", a description I've never heard anybody else use.

I'm pretty suspicious, generally, of hokey spiritualist personality descriptions, in which the page seems sincere until you get to the bottom, and then they tell you that you're "most like the Elephant/Cockroach/Spiny Lobster" or "destined to be psychic" or "exhibiting extrasensosupranaturalistic mental techniques" or some other weird mumbo jumbo. In those cases the writer is usually somebody who has adopted an Indian pen name, puts a lot of sentimental .wav music files on their site, and has a picture of him or herself engaged in a little-known religious practice.

The author of the article linked above is an MD. She also asserts that people's bodies "are made of flesh and blood, but they're also composed of energy fields", and a section of the article is about Energy Vampires, who drain intuitive empaths of energy. Does this sound believable to you?

Think carefully. Personally, I have enough experience being *me*, complete with Issues in all their glory, to realize that a strict modern Western medical perspective is not enough to explain why I often feel the way I do, even though I am neither physically sick nor clinically depressed. But I find it incredibly irritating that people who try to explain these emotional tendencies and traits often use language like "Energy Vampires", which in most peoples' view robs the thesis of any credibility. This woman describes me very well, which by its very nature is bound to mean something to me - but her book categorizes people in to boxes like Drama Queen, Sob Sister, and Blamer. Why, once you've liberated a few confused souls from thinking they are incurably weird, must you go on to further categorize? Identification of a trait, articulating it so that you can state who you are to those who care about you, is important. Knowing that you are a Sob Sister, while your neighbor is a Drama Queen, and therefore you two really can't quite relate, is NOT.

I know, and my friends know, that the way I feel is CLEARLY influenced by the way people around me feel, to a very profound degree, and that I easily pick up on how people are feeling. It is also true that the more people there are, the more influence pours in, and I tend to get overwhelmed. But this doesn't have to be mystical, folks. It doesn't need to involve vampires. By describing it, you don't have to make a religion out of it. It's just how some people are.

introducing Emily

This is Emily. Isn't she darlin'?

Getting her to play nice with Maverick has been hard, though. Or rather, getting Maverick to play nice has been hard. This is not entirely unexpected; introducing new rats to each other often takes time. One accepted strategy is to put dabs of perfume on the rats so as to mask their scents, and then introduce them in neutral ground. It's taken 4 days of doing that, but the two girls finally are able to stay in the same cage without fighting.

They have, however, constructed separate nests in far opposite corners of the cage. Ha!

UPDATE: They now sleep next to each other (aww), but they still fight over sunflower seeds.

dryness

Boston is dry. Extremely dry. I sound like a frog in the morning, my throat hurts if I speak for more than 5 minutes. My hair looks suspiciously as if I have been hanging out with a Van de Graaff generator. My lips are split and sting horribly if I eat salty things. Even my hands are cracked and itchy. I've been drinking at least 2 liters of water per day, but it just doesn't seem to help... And there's no better way to appreciate how much your face hurts than to bike around Boston when it's 12 F, at night, in the wind.

extra terrestrials

If you had a peaceful extra-terrestrial encounter, what would you want the aliens to be like? What kind of alien would make you understand the purpose of life?

Think carefully. This is peaceful, which means the aliens are not in any way trying to hurt you or Earth. (But they could, out of kindness or misunderstanding. If you've ever read Speaker for the Dead, there's a good example in that book of how what is highest honor to one species could be death to another.)

Would you be moved by the one-ness of life if the aliens were humanoid like us? If they had legs and arms and heads and made noises to communicate and saw in the visible spectrum with eyes? Would it fill you with a sense of understanding about the order of things in the universe?

Or, would you think it was more beautiful if they were completely different? What if they're not even made of carbon? Could they be metallic? Or silicates? Would you decide that humans are truly special and unique, and be thankful that chance (or God, I suppose) allowed us to be the way we are? Would you collapse at the feet of entropy?

Maybe you would see the aliens and realize just how unevolved we are. Maybe they are near-perfect machines. Maybe they aren't machines at all - maybe their bodies are useless and their brains are everything. Maybe they don't even have bodies.

What would you want their senses to be? Do you wish they could see in the visible spectrum so you could take them to your favorite place and show them how beautiful Earth is? Do you wish they saw in x-ray or infrared or something else, so they could tell you about the world you can't see? Should they be able to hear sound? Should they have sense we don't have? What if they feel cosmic rays pounding through their bodies? What if they feel emotions like we feel force?

What do you want them to think about us? Should they marvel at us? Should they be disgusted? Should they be confused? Why?

What would you say to the alien? What would you tell them about Earth?

Earth is the sacred and the profane. We are children of paradox.

ugh.

Sunday I worked 7 AM to 1 AM with a 1.5 hour break.
Monday isn't looking any better.
Neither is Tuesday...

gooood morning