Tobias DreamTree Panther

7 Random Things (Tag - I'm It!)

The other day I was 'tagged' by The Translator, over at his excellent Rosetta Rants blog, to post 7 Random Things about myself. Then I'm supposed to tag 5 other people to do the same. I'm going to flake out on tagging others, as it seems to cross some internal boundary I have (tagging phobia, perhaps?).

On the very same day The Translator tagged me, I was also nominated by both Gerri, over at Absolutely True, AND Adria, over at the In Cinq Project, for the Rockin' Girl Bloggers award. Both of them are themselves Rockin' Girl Bloggers, and I appreciate them tossing this title my way. I'm now supposed to nominate others, who will nominate others, who will nominate others... but I'm going to flake out on this as well (see tagging phobia comment above). I've also taken the liberty of taking the 'girl' out of my nomination, since I haven't felt like a 'girl' for around 30 years! Check out my blog roll, though, of sites I've enjoyed, as there are numerous Rockin' Bloggers of all ages and sexes on there, both human and feline!


Now, let's get on with the 7 Random Things About Me:

#1 - My first spoken word was CAT. (Yes, even at a very young age I knew what was important in life.)

#2 - I have come close to dying four times so far in this life:

- First, when I was 6 months old and ate almost an entire bottle of Vicks Vapo Rub. I was rushed to the hospital in a coma and my stomach was pumped.

Baby Me

- Second, when I was 3, and fell into the Bosporus and almost drowned.

- Third, and most unhappily, when I was 16, and took an large overdose of sleeping pills & alcohol in attempted suicide. I was once again rushed to the hospital where my stomach was pumped.

At Sixteen (tough grrrl)

- And fourth, about 6 years ago, when my appendix went kaplooie, and I had to have an emergency appendectomy.

#3 - I've had my name legally changed 3 times so far. The first time I had it changed was when I was 28, and since then I seem to have gotten the itch for change every 10 -11 years. I've officially been 'Jaya' for about 3 years so far.

#4 - I've had, in my younger, friskier days, an equal number of male and female lovers... and probably a few too many of each.

#5 - I am now entertaining all offers of marriage from any wealthy humans who would like a plump, aging, antisocial wife (with 9 cats). The cats and I will require our own house, with swimming pool, on a quiet section of your estate. Age, sex, and appearance not important, but you must like cats, be intelligent, and have a great sense of humor. If you prefer not to marry me, but would still like to bestow your financial favors upon me, that is also most agreeable.

#6 - I'm not involved in any organized religion, even though I have a sister who is a Catholic nun, and spirituality is a very important part of my life. The only religious organization I ever DID join was the Unitarian Universalist Church, back in 1987, when I lived in Provincetown, Massachusetts. That was in large part due to the intelligent and moving sermons being given by the wonderful Rev. Kim Crawford Harvie, who is now the Senior Minister at the Arlington Street Church in Boston.

Rev. Kim

#7 - I wrote these 7 Random Things down while driving my car to Santa Fe, finishing just as I drove past the Ohkay Casino, north of Española. I do NOT advise any of you to copy this behavior. Not only did it hinder my focus on my driving, but it was also a bit difficult to read what I'd written when I got home again.

Funny Face Henry

When I came home yesterday from a drive, Henry was waiting for me. He was making some peculiar faces, which I immediately photographed and now have posted below. I'm still not sure what he was trying to express...

When he inhaled, he looked like this:



And when he exhaled, he looked like this:

More from 1981...

A few more images from old scrapbooks.
Click on any image to see it larger.

Close up of text in image above:

Twitter Tweets From My Life

Just in case you are not on Twitter, I thought I'd share some of the moments and random thoughts from my life, over the past few months, that you have missed. The comments go from the most recent ones down to the oldest. Twitter 'tweets' can only by 140 characters long. The longer ones below are 2 'tweets' combined.

Rushing off to Santa Fe, 1.5 hours away, to take photos for a future blog post I'm researching. Zoooom, a blogger's work is never done!

Psyching myself up for early AM trip to dentist... forking out big bucks to replace cracked tooth with new crown. Will soon be smiling more.

Eeeeeek! Rexie brought a bat into the bathroom. Thanks a lot, Rexie!!

Dead guy Kuthumi, the wise and creative Cosmic Comedian, is telling us that the world (and we along with it) has become quite 'wobbly'... And wobbliest of all are our minds! The mind was supreme, but now it is wobbling, changing... no worries, let it happen, open into the new.

Survived another staff meeting. Removed stuck turds from long haired cat's butt. A good day's work is done. Time for bed.

At work. OK... the morning is shaping up... after being at work for 4 hours, I finally noticed I'd put my shirt on inside out!

Ahhhh... twelve hours of sleep, 9 cats, tea, and pickles... life is good, very good, and I am smiling.

At work: Argggg... 3 different teenagers blasting music I don't like. Where's that school bus???? Later: One teenager taken off to work... sadly, it was the quiet one... the screaming loud angry one is still here until the school bus comes

(Yawwwwwn) Waking up again. Dreamed I was making codes that would protect me from getting sucked up by aliens...

Fixed vacuum. Feel like genius. Vacuumed up 4 inches of cat fur off floors. (Pretty sure it was JUST fur, and no whole cats I sucked up.)

Sad... my friend Rich is moving to Chicago and will be eaten by Zombies... ah well, that's the way it goes sometimes.

Silence in my mind. Echoes, echoes , echoes... Peaceful emptiness. LaLa (cat) settling down to nap on the printer's tray.

Oh Damn, Damn, Damn ==>One of the cats has discovered the joy of unrolling the toilet paper toll ==>toilet paper all over the bathroom

When the sun rises, I shall venture forth to buy lottery tickets. If I win the jackpot, I'll buy this home --> http://tinyurl.com/22tjez

Eating cookies --> Glad I'm already fat, so I don't have to worry about getting fat. --> Yep, always looking at the bright side, that's me!

Arrrrrrrggggggggggg... software is misbehaving. It must be the software, right? It could NOT be operator malfunction... no, no, not that.

My sister Wylie, who is a nun, told me, when we were children, that she could FLY, that she flew around in her bedroom. I wonder if it was true?

Interesting how nowadays online people have to clarify if they are bots or 'real' people. Think you're one of the 'real' ones? What PROOF have you?

Zipped out to supermarket for half & half. 11 PM. Town is dead. Only saw 11 other cars on the road and 3 of those were cops.

It rained here Sunday. What's that mean? Little spring flowers? NO, no. It means 40 filthy paws tracking mud over EVERYTHING (including me). Off to bed again. I must wipe away some of the mud the cats have tracked all over the sheets first, and get to sleep before they bring more.

Relieved to hear that new German 'robotoilet' can only be entered by paying customers. Less chance of children & cats accidentally being 'auto sanitized'...

stared at my fingers for only 23 seconds before they got nervous and began to type these words. hah. fingers are easy to manipulate.

Recently up from sleep. My head feels peculiar. I will soon follow up on this by going to mirror to see if it also LOOKS peculiar.

The new energy = no compromise, said the dead guy, and then my computer crashed... hmmmm...When the computer crashed, I got the dreaded blue screen, which told me I had a 'BAD POOL CLEANER'. This is odd, as I don't even have a pool.

Oh wake, Beloved! Come into the trees, look up to the sky, lie down on the earth. Feel the wind move your bones. Rejoice!

Head slowly spinning in circles. Thoughts moving in circular patterns. Cats curled into furry circles. There's a message here somewhere....

Appalled that my co-workers do not know what TRIBBLES are. (think Star Trek) What is the world coming to???

Under a purring pile of cats, Jaya sleeps, dreaming of blue dragons, as she slowly drools upon her pillow. Outside, the world moves on...

Coyotes howling and yip-yip-yipping outside, under a fat New Mexican moon... I seem to have used up another 2.5 hours of my life. I could be bitter, but I'm not. I'm feeling good in this moment... how about YOU??

The Boarding Cat has been dropped off. My cat Henry was VERY upset to see another human! Guess he's gotten used to living with a hermit.
Discord among the cats: Rexie & Gamma attacked Henry, and LaLa is hiding under a table, growling. I think they're upset by Boarding Cat. I reasure them that Boarding Cat will only be here for 9 days.
Boarding Cat just bit my arm. She's upset by smells of my cats. Ouch. I bleed. I put hydrogen peroxide and teatree oil on the wound.

Odd- seems the cats were checking the RSS feed while I slept. They were reading up on birthing choices, dairy farmers, and cocaine barons.

My friend Jana is explaining to me that she has a loaded BB gun, and is ready to shoot invaders, whether from this dimension or another one! She is also thinking about shooting men from the town who are coming to expand the road. She's a bit worked up, feeling her inner warrior...

Went outside and threw the dog's fluffy pink ball, for her to chase. She rejoiced. Simple pleasures

Smelling mind viruses in the air... wet wood with a dash of cinnamon.. and a very subtle undertone of rotting fish.

Passed into a Gravity Light zone. Now clinging to roof, hoping not to get sucked off the planet and out into space. Rexie-Puss sneezes.

Arrrrrrrrg. Up again. Had a nightmare about work. Damn. Now have headache. Time for a relaxing bubble bath, I think. Maybe I had the nightmare because I wore socks to bed. That gave me subconscious feelings of constriction and impending doom.

Yikes... I just got accused of sounding like someone's mother, and ordered not to do it again!!! Sounds like 'someone' has some Mama issues!

At work: The outgoing staff member gave me long detailed description of her earlier bout of severe Diarrhea and Vomiting. Lovely- Thanks for sharing. Eight hours later: This place is crawling with humans now. I must make my escape SOON.

Off to work, if I can make my way through the cats and out the front door. Oh wait. Damn. I should get dressed first!

I've been wandering loose and unsupervised in the astral realms... coming soon to a delusion near YOU. If pigs have wings, and the dust bunny behind the couch is growling at me, does this mean I can have some more coffee ice cream??

Henry's First Big Cat Pile!

Images from 1981...

Back in 1980 and 1981, I used to keep little scrapbooks with drawings and collages in them. Now that I have a scanner, I thought I'd revisit those and preserve a few of the images that I liked best. And of course I want to share them with you here on the blog. Some have been a little digitally enhanced for better effect. Click on any of the images to view them in larger size.

Istanbul

Istanbul, Turkey, is a place where I almost died. Just as I turned 3 years old, my family moved from the US to Isanbul. We had a house that was right on the Bosporus, a body of water that connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara. One day I tumbled into the Bosporus, and would have drowned if not for my older sister, Paige, who was around 14 at the time. She heard the yells of our servant, who could not swim, and rushed out to dive in and save me. (Thanks, Paige!) The image above is the Bosporus, as seen from Satellite, and below is one of me at three, on the very edge of the Bosporus, tempting fate.

Last night I found a family Christmas card handwritten by my mother while we were living in Turkey. Mom has been dead for 40 years now, so it is rare for me to come across her handwriting. Her note is below. I have no idea who Aunt Jane was, but I was the baby she refers to. (My younger sister Temple was born just over a year later, after we returned to the US.)

And here is the front side of the card:

Here is a photo of me with both my parents while we were living abroad, taken in 1958 or '59. It looks as if whatever I was saying to them was amusing. I'm guessing now that I was having a vision of the future, and telling them all about the internet, and how someday I would put photos of them on my blog.



UPDATE: Aha! The mysterious Aunt Jane my mother was writing that Christmas note to has now been identified, thanks to my helpful brother Richard. She was Jane Erin Emmet de Glehn (1873-1961). She was the youngest sister of my great grandfather, Robert Temple Emmet. She was married to the artist Wilfred Gabriel de Glehn (1870-1951) and was also an artist herself, one of several women artists in the Emmet family, including Jane's sister Lydia Field Emmet. Below is a painting by John Singer Sargent, from 1907, showing Jane painting, with her husband nearby:

'The Fountain, Villa Torlonia, Frascati, Italy'

And below is an older Jane, painted by her husband:

And finally, here is one of Jane's own paintings:

Cooper

My friend MaLu lost her best pal a couple of days ago. He was her cat, Cooper, a handsome and steadfast warrior kitty who was 18 years old. Now he is waiting for her at the base of the stairs to the Rainbow Bridge, as seen below.

MaLu says this to us:

"Take a hit of Coopness anytime you feel really alone...

He brings unconditional protection, loyalty and strength.

If you really need it he'll put his forehead to yours

and just stay until you've had enough mind meld."

Riding the BloggerWave Wave

Have you heard of Bloggerwave yet? I've just joined, and this is my first post for them. If BloggerWave likes this post (and what's not to like?), they will pay $10 into my PayPal account. Easy money! Maybe you'd like to check out Bloggerwave for yourself? They are looking for more bloggers NOW. Here's a partial screen shot of what I was seeing when I accepted this assignment:

This seems like a simple way for even beginning bloggers (like me) to earn some money. I'll give an update to let you know if they find this post an acceptable submission. Meanwhile, the cats are calculating just how many cans of catfood I can buy with the $10 payment. I wonder how much I could get if I go to the shelter and adopt another kitty and name it 'BW' for BloggerWave, and then feature it here on the blog? Hmmmm... stay tuned!

Cats In Libraries Map!

As you can see from the photo above, of Rexie studying his astrology book, cats and books are a natural combination. So, it's not uncommon (much to the delight of cat lovers, and the dismay of those allergic to cats) to find cats in book stores, or cats in libraries.

And speaking of cats in libraries, there is a fun website I'd like to bring to your attention. The Library Cats Map is a feature of the Iron Frog Productions Web site, and it is certainly worth a visit. Check out their map of worldwide library cats, and you may find out about a library cat near you! Or, perhaps you know about library cats that have not yet been added to the map, and you can add them. Go HERE to see!

Thanks to the humans over at Cat In The Bag for alerting me to The Library Cats Map. Also click HERE to visit the Shopcat website, where you can read about many other 'working' cats!

Fridge Door Won't Close...

I added cream to my evening cup of tea, pouring out a little taste of it for Rexie, who, as usual, had jumped up for his treat when he heard me stirring my tea. Then, without paying much attention, I returned the cream to the refrigerator, and shut the door. Or rather TRIED to shut the door. There was a problem with that, as you can see for yourself:

Ouch! My Neck Is Out Of Wack!!

A few weeks ago an area in between my shoulder blades started hurting. It's never gone away, but it was more of a dull ache than a screaming pain, so I wasn't much concerned about it... But then, a few days ago, my neck got strange. I was just lying in bed, after having woken up, and all of a sudden I felt a weird sensation in my neck and then it became painful. When I moved it, I could feel a clicking, as if some of my neck parts were knocking up against each other. And now, for the past day and a half or so I've had an obnoxious headache. I'm NOT a happy camper.

So, what do you think, Dear Readers:

Should I go see a chiropractor,
and get it put right again?
Or should try waiting it out,
and see if it resolves on its own?

Wonderful World Sand Art

I think these sand art creations are both fun and fascinating to watch, and there are some amazing videos of them out there. But when I came across THIS one, which was paired with one of my favorite songs, I knew I had to add it to my blog. Enjoy the show!

Lone Tree (painting by Jaya)

Heart Rejoicing (painting by Jaya)

Where's My Monitor???

Well, I've gotten my new computer, and it's great. But for some reason I'm having frequent problems viewing what's on my monitor... It's almost as if something were blocking my view. But what could it be? I've taken a few photos, so you can see what I'm talking about:

Zebbie says: "Monitor? What monitor?"


Zebbie helps me search for my monitor...
"Nope, it's not down there, either."

"Are you sure you really have a monitor??"

Cat Scratch Fever!

Well, of course I could not resist THIS

when I saw it offered as a scratch card...

And guess what...

I won fourteen dollars on it!

ViralTags Blog Rank Boosting Experiment

I'm In - What About YOU??

First, thanks to Jimmy Huen, over at Founders Cafe, from whom most of this is copied. This is Jimmy's Improvement on the ViraLinks experiment begun by Andy Coates. I'm joining in on this experiment to see how it affects my rankings on things like Google Page Rank and Technorati.

Apologies to non-blogging readers who are not interested in this stuff. We bloggers sometimes obsess about our rankings and ratings. But, for me, the MOST important thing is YOU, my readers! The more the better. If you are a blogger, I hope you'll join in on this experiment, by following the instructions below. If this stuff has no interest for you, just ignore it, because I'll be posting another new post later today that should interest you more!

========= Copy and Paste below this line ==========

Instructions:

Important Update - Please read here!

1.) Copy and paste the matrix of “ViralTags” below courtesy of Founders Cafe .

2.) Substitute the Host Tag and one of the “Viral Tags” in the matrix with your anchor text of choice with your blog’s URL. Please keep anchor text to a max of 3 words (or 4 short words) to keep the matrix size manageable.

3.) When you get a ping back from someone that has your link in one of their “Viral Tags”, practice good karma by copying his/her Host Tag’s anchor text (automatically the associated link will also be copied) and paste it over one of your “Viral Tags” below.

4.) Encourage and invite your readers to do the same and soon this can grow virally.

Host Tag: Cat On My Head

Cat On My Head / esofthub's web finds / Political Social Media / Blog Plus Ultra / Miraz turorials.com / Investing Women Online / Diwatangbyaning / Father of One / Mariuca's Perfume Gallery / Running Fitness Marathons / Islam4me / Web Design California / laketrees / Derrich.com / Sexy Celebrity / revellian / 2 Write Hands / Justice Investments / Make Money Online / Business Chats / International City Travel / Asian Celebrity News / One Million Shirts / Tech at Hand / Rich Minx / Internet Marketing Austria / Ageless Beauty / Web 2.0 Tutorials / Technology Music Life / infokarir jobs / Manila Mom / Link Love / Blogging Money Secret / Internet Startup Blog / Web Design Blog / Daily Life Technology / Make Money Blogging / Steve’s Tech Blog / Agloco Internet Marketing / Daily Bulls Investing / Tech Gadgets Stocks / Affiliate Program / Computer Seventy-Five / Learn about e-Learning / Tech Hack Ramblings / Jack Book / Screen Writer Guy / Overseas Filipino Worker / Filipino Programmer / Startup Entrepreneur Money / 7Confessions / Meandering / Earn Money Online / Really Smart Guy / Earn Income Online / Day Mind Xpression / Entrepreneurship Internet Web / Make Money Blogging / Create a Blog / Pie Hole / start a blog / Make Money Blogging / Marketing Made Simple / Tech Startups Web2.0 / Diary of Bad Girls / Build Rankings Fast / Mrs Sparrow / Hot Buzz / Weight Loss / Really Funny Jokes / Best of Blogs / The Junkie’s Wife / Internet Marketing German / German - USA / Domain Development Blogs / Sundhed og Helbred / Giving Link Love / Business Blog Web / Photoshop Tutorials / Anitokid Chronikos / Klapkids Chronikos / esofthub’s web finds / Everything iPod / Jason’s Random Thoughts / Fun Web Development / Monetize Your Blog / Yung Silent Whisper / Greg Stratz My Journey / Music Videos / Social Media / Colors of the Internet / Wealth Blog Ibujempol BundaWAH / Gadgets & Technology / Make Money Home / MAXFORAS / The Broken Bow / Paid to Blog / Fanatic Space / Cheezmizan with Chuva / Adsense / my silent cuffs / ViralTags / Ngadutrafik 2007 / ViralTags / ViralTags / Russian Jokes & Humor / Make Money Blog / ViralTags / ViralTags / Malaysian Stocks INC / My Traders Journal / ViralTags / ViralTags / ViralTags / Huma B~ Post / ViralTags / ViralTags / ViralTags / Anything n Everything / Humor Pictures / ViralTags / ViralTags / ViralTags / ViralTags / ViralTags / ViralTags / ViralTags / ViralTags / ViralTags / ViralTags /

Important: Once I get a ping back from you (I promise to do the best I can), I will add your anchor text and the associated link you designate as “Host Tag” here, replacing one of the “ViralTags” from the matrix above. As more and more bloggers copy and paste this matrix, the more backlinks you will have with your anchor text. If everybody who copies & pastes from your blog does the same, this will spread and soon go viral. So, the sooner you participate, the more links with anchor text you will receive.

****** Important Update (06/10/2007): Hello all, during the past 3 days I have been noticing that some bloggers did not update the “Host Tag” after they copy and paste the Viraltags matrix. If you are one of them, please update the “Host Tag” with the anchor text you want for your blog and its URL.

The main idea of this tagging program is to allow others that got pinged by you to easily go to your site, and copy your updated “Host Tag” anchor text and URL and paste them into their ViralTags matrix. Not everyone will bother to try to let you know to change your Host Tag like I do. I’ve spent some time to notify those that didn’t update, but it can be a hassle. If you follow the instructions listed below exactly, it’ll make everything easier and clearer for everyone. Thanks for your participation! *********

======== Copy and Paste from Above this line ========

So that's it. Let's hope this improves ranks for all who use it- blessings be upon us from the Cyber Gods! Please leave comments here if you have copied from this matrix so that I can add you just in case your ping back didn’t reach me.

Just so we can see how well this experiment works for ME, here are my rather sad rankings as of right now, and I'll update them later to show if the hoped for improvements occur. As I'm posting this, on June 10th, my Google ranking is a whopping 0, and my Technorati ranking is 592,405 with an authority of 9. (For those not familiar with Technorati, you want a lower rank number, and a higher authority. I was at a rank of almost one million and an authority of 6 when I first started paying attention to it a little over a week ago.)

UPDATES:

Aha! Less than 3 hours after I posted this, my Technorati authority has gone up 4 points to 13, and my rank has (FINALLY) gone down under the half million mark, to 419,196.

Hmmmm... a half hour later, my Technorati authority has gone up another point, to 13, but my rank (arggghhh!) has gone in the WRONG direction, worse than when I began this, up to 593,039. Does Technorati disapprove of my using ViralTags to improve rank? Am I being too neurotic about all these numbers?? (That's a hypothetical question, folks, no need for you to answer it!)

And here is how the numbers continued to change over time (remember
you want to see your 'authority' go UP, and your 'rank' go DOWN:

1 day after posting: Technorati authority 31, and Technorati rank 170,318.
2 days after posting: Technorati authority 52, and Technorati rank 137,795.
3 days after posting: Technorati authority 69, and Technorati rank 74,069.
4 days after posting: Technorati authority 82, and Technorati rank 60,055.
6 days after posting: Technorati authority 131, and Technorati rank 42,195.
9 days after posting: Technorati authority 175 , and Technorati rank 26,735.
2 weeks after posting: Technorati authority 206 , and Technorati rank 21,182.
On July 13, 2007: Technorati authority 302 , and Technorati rank 13,633.