Here’s a quote to ponder, from Bertrand Russell on the “scientific view” of the world:

That Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of Man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins—all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain, that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand.

Happy Tuesday to you too.

Put up the awesome photos taken this weekend. Combine autop and the curly quotes and make them both work perfectly, dangit. Write a paper on Aristophanes, and another and the Euthypro dilemma. Can I finish it all tonight? Doubtful. But I’ll fall asleep trying…

Tonight was the second time I’ve come to Austin and locked my keys in the car. Luckily this time it was easier to get them out, and was free thanks to AAA. They have saved my butt so many times, it’s worth every penny. (Of course I don’t pay, but if I did it would be worth all the pennies.)

“Today looks like it’s going to be a long day.” Oh Fate! Such a cruel and fickle force. It started shortly after the last post when I missed the shuttle to transport me across the UH campus to my car. Because of some sort of irregularity in the bus schedule, or perhaps just horrid management, instead of having a bus come by say every 7 or 8 minutes, they have two come every 15 minutes. Of course that is just for the Blue route, the other three routes just happened to have their buses come at the same time, so it takes forever for everyone to load up. The loading was made even longer by the fact that we had to load a wheelchair up too. Now I’m not complaining about that, as no one can help that situation, but I’m just pointing out that it is an amazing set of circumstances.

So I make it to my car. I can’t write the rest of the story, because it’s too painful. Too make a painful story short, I stopped to pick something up, left, left my wallet, went back, and when I started to leave for the second time my car would not start. So here I sit awaiting the white trucks of AAA to pick me up and tow me home. The timing couldn’t be better either, I have two important appointments this afternoon and I was planning to go to Austin tomorrow.Times like this I try my best to see the bright side of things, try to find of ray of light in this gloomy day. I guess things could be worse, but I don’t want to tempt Fate, or Murphy, again.

Update: Ray of light — it was just a minor battery problem.

I can’t win! Several days ago I made a remark to the fickleness of weather, and she has not given me a break since. I dress warm, we have a semi-tropical day in humid Houston; I dress light, and a cold front comes in that has me shivering all day. Some days you just roll with it. Today looks like it’s going to be a long day.

Well the good news is that Helsa is home now, and is getting more care and attention than she could ever receive at vet. Like I said before, the main problem right now is that she lost so much weight and her body has been using her fat for nutrition, and the lipids have overwhelmed her liver. The solution for this is for her to eat and give her liver a break, but the problem is that she really doesn’t want to eat. For several days they did force feeding, which is basically where you squirt the food in the cat’s mouth and even though they don’t want to eat they swallow it because, well, it’s there. Needless to say the cat in question generally doesn’t like this.

It became harder and harder to feed Helsa until the decision was reached that the only way to get her the nutrition she needs was to do a short surgery and set her up with a feeding tube, which is exactly what it sounds like. So many times a day she gets food, water, and medicine through the tube, and after 2–6 weeks her liver will finally recover and she can begin eating on her own again. The time range is uncomfortably big, but there’s no way to predict when she’s going to recover.

The Carnival of Vanities #21 is up and looks really great this week. I’ve only made it through about half on the links so far but I’ll go through the rest tonight. This is my first time participating in the carnival and I’m kinda excited about it. Check it out.