When cats are BAD, Holiday Edition & more!

You know what the definition is of "BAD CAT"? A cat who removes an ornament from the tree and has to play with it, loudly, at 4:27am. A cat whose name is MORGAN.

(This was, luckily, one of the styrofoam ornaments that I hang on the lower branches with just this eventuality in mind. I'm a little bummed, though, because -- and raqs will know what I'm talking about -- it's the only blue one left from the set of ultra-cheap styro balls wrapped in shiny silky floss that we bought at, like, Ames or something a skillion years ago. I have lots of red ones left, but just one blue and one green. They're very shiny! I like them on lower branches, and on the window-facing sides of the tree. I wish I knew where to get some more.)


I can't brag about my shopping prowess today, because Someone is likely reading this LJ. But I can say that there are certain stores that are really, really dangerous to go into at any time, and it was only with a great effort of willpower that I got out without purchasing many more things. (Hah! Let 'em wonder!)


You know what I hate? How when you go back to the same vendor to buy a pair of jeans to replace the jeans you love but that unfortunately have finally developed holes in strategically inconvenient places, you [a] have to buy the next size larger, even though it can't just be your Ever Expanding Ass's fault, because the old jeans still fit perfectly well (are a bit LOOSE, even), so, BITE ME, Gap; and [b] are seized with the suspicion that these new jeans are somehow flimsier than the old ones, and honestly, the old ones are not THAT old, what gives? Grr.

It's not just my jeans, either. My gloves, which have done yeoman's work for something like 4 or 5 years, finally developed a hole after shovelling on Sunday. *sigh* And my BELOVED GREEN VELVET SCARF (which raqs brought for me years and years and years ago, from Germany) is developing a lot of holes/splitting/rips in its silk lining, and I just don't know what to *DO*. *sob* (Also, the gloves perfectly match the scarf, which is sad, because that particular nice shade of dark olive is so hard to find.)

I wish my clothes would get the memo that it's a week to Xmas and replacing key items of my wardrobe wasn't on my agenda.


ETA: What do you do when your bosses give you a holiday gift that is genuinely very pretty, but difficult to actually use/wear? I've just been given a lovely ethnic-y woven scarf, and my feeling is that I would like to figure out some way to use/wear it around the office in future, but... it's very *short*. Difficult to wear in practical terms. And I deeply suspect that if I do wear it the only way I can figure doing so, it will look like nothing so much as a prayer shawl.

Gay Naked Surfing Nazis FTW!!!

The great thing is, not only is that subject line an attention-getter, but, it's completely accurate and germane to the subject of this post! :D

If you have never heard of THE DESERT PEACH, how to explain it? A b&w, small-press comic by Donna Barr that debuted in the late 80s, it's the story of Pfirsich Rommel, "the Desert Fox's pretty younger brother", and the most femme gay colonel of a Germany Army unit in the North African desert in WWII that you can possibly imagine. It is, needless to say, completely satirical (not to say, more than occasionally outright farcical) fiction; but underlaid by an impressive knowledge of period detail and an IMO gorgeously kinetic art style. The PEACH seems like it started off as a joke that was trying to see how broadly offensive it could possibly be, both dancing along with and puncturing stereotypes, but as issues went on, Barr's writing and treatment of Pfirsich and his supporting cast became more complex, and in ways more thoughtful and serious, though always bitingly funny.

Well! If you *have* ever heard of the PEACH, but never read it because you couldn't be bothered to track down back issues (or even the compilations that have been occasionally put out), you're in luck! And so are those of you out there who just read my description (or maybe just the subject line) and said "I've got to see this with my own eyes!"

Donna Barr has just announced (via her deviantArt account, http://rummelhart.deviantart.com) that she is scanning and putting up all the issues of THE DESERT PEACH for FREE DOWNLOAD at the following site:

http://www.wowio.com/index.asp


Issues #1-5 are there already (including the one to which my subject line refers, #3). She says she has scanned up to issue 10 so far. She's planning to put up all PEACH material, and when she's done that, she'll move on to posting all STINZ material (another comic by her about, um... centaurs... sort of 19th century German rural-farmer centaurs... and believe me, no comics artist draws horses as gorgeously as Donna Barr does).

I don't know much about Wowio. Looks like you have to register. Barr reports that downloads are free for us, and that she and her publisher make a little cash on each download you do, from ad revenue or something. I'm going to play around with it when I get home -- because yes, I own all the PEACH run and all the STINZ run in various formats, but I sure as heck wouldn't mind having a backup of all of them on my hard-drive, no sir!

Enjoy!