Cat Update

I have received quite a lot of email from folks who are struggling with Feline PU Surgery. Here is an update on NASA for those interested.

When NASA came home from the vet after his surgery, I thought he was going to die. It was a LONG (six weeks) healing process, and the afflicted area wasn't pretty. There was not only blood in his urine, but a little incontinence to go along with it. So, every time he sat down, when he would stand up again, there was a little red spot where he had been.

We kept his collar on him all the time, and he learned to adapt to it. He would lick the collar, and then use his paws to press the collar on his face and bathe himself. Occasionally when we would wake up in the morning, he would have found a way to take the collar off at night, and once we even found it in his litter box with a very distinct message on top of it. But eventually he did get better. And two years later, I am so glad we did it. In NASA's case, it was emergency, and we didn't have much choice. But in retrospect, I think he had been suffering from pain for almost a year before we diagnosed it. He is just so much healthier and happier now.

One thing I did that seemed to help the situation a bit was board him for a week. About two weeks after the surgery, I had a trip scheduled that I couldn't get out of, and I couldn't find a sitter. So, I boarded him at my vet, since they knew all of his medical history and could watch him. And since he was in a cage (ugh, i know.) for a week, he couldn't do much jumping around that might tear the stitches. When I picked him up from the vet, he had healed considerably, and seemed to be in much less pain.

I hope this is helpful for some of you out there worried about your cats.

NEW BLOG

ok ok ok. i have a new blog, and i am actually going to keep up with it from now on. i promise. it's here: www.lightemittingsketchbook.blogspot.com

did anyone (besides alicia?)

notice that i have been gone?

i was reminded today that i have to come up with a brief abstract of my thesis topic in the coming weeks.

um.....

YAY!!!

image credit: the above illustration was appropriated from this awesome flickr set

minimal

so, maybe i don't need the eyes to be a part of the work.

i think i should simplify.

more thinking

so after pondering this whole chris gilbert situation... i am starting to wonder. maybe this storm the white house idea is just another version of the same old big hands brute force form of a revolution that ultimately works to reinforce a system built on aggression. a similar form of aggression that fuels revolutionary mind sets.
maybe there's a way to do what i want to do with my work without taking on the world in conflict.
maybe i can follow the models of people like my mom, who just did her own thing or my gal selena, who when asked what kind of tea regular people drink, smiles and quips, "i don't know, i'll ask around, and get back to you."
i think about struggles between imperialists and indigenous people. how it seems to me that cultures which were more matriarchal or less industrialized had only two options: to stand up and fight the imperialist enemy, but thereby becoming more like the imperialists, or to die, but do so by embracing their own ways of life.
this perception of mine, no doubt is informed by a western written history, though.
i wish i knew more about my cherokee ancestors.

curt's response to all this is that i basically "want to be the art dalai lama"

no, i don't. i don't think my inner struggle with the art world has nearly the weight to even amuse myself with that thought... besides, i am in crisis with a culture that doesn't even know i am in crisis with it, much less care.

i just have to sort this stuff out, so i can keep on making things.

laurie anderson look alike grew a pair

i recently read chris gilbert's letter of resignation from berkeley. i have to apologize for the things i wrote about him on june 29 . he's my new hero.

sketches

eyes