NaNo eats your brains....

The Faeries Dance
(William Butler Yeats)

The wind blows out of the gates of the day.
The wind blows over the lonely of heart,
And the lonely of heart is withered away,
While the faeries dance in a place apart,

Shaking their milk-white feet in a ring,
Tossing their milk-white arms in the air:
For they hear the wind laugh, and murmur and sing
Of a land where even the old are fair,

And even the wise are merry of tongue;
But I heard a reed of Coolaney say,
"When the wind has laughed and murmured and sung,
The lonely of heart is withered away!"

I thought to walk with thee upon a day --
in summer, through the greenly breathing field,
or down the river-way; we'd go, and wield
our tongues in fierce debate (but only play.)
Or haps we'd stroll along beside the bay,
come fall, and sit upon the harbor-shield
of rocks, and watch the tide, and sweetly yield
to sea-bird songs and salty splashing spray.

But summer went without thee, o my love,
and all the leaves of fall are gone as well:
the winter's chill has stolen them away.
I found thee late, beneath a shrouded day --
no time is left to us, and who can tell
when we shall walk, the gentle sun above?


Yes, I know it's in need of work. Comments, anyone?

:FIRE:.

[ ] You have a short temper.
[ ] You often act on your emotions without thinking first.
[x] You are very competitive.
[x] You like to play with fire.
[ ] You are not a strong swimmer or you can't swim at all.
[x] You prefer warm weather over cold weather.
[ ] You often lose control over yourself.
[ ] You can be quite reckless.
[x] You sometimes hurt people without realizing it.
[x] People have often called you insane.
Total: 5

.:WATER:.

[x] You have a calm, laid-back personality.
[x] You like to go to the beach.
[x] You rarely get angry.
[x] When you do get angry, you know how to control it.
[x] You think before you act.
[x] You are good at breaking up fights.
[ ] You are a good swimmer.
[ ] You like the rain.
[x] You can stay calm in stressful situations.
[ ] You are very generous.
Total: 7

.:EARTH:.

[ ] You are physically strong.
[x] You have a close connection with nature.
[x] You don't mind getting dirty.
[ ] You form strong opinions on issues that concern you.
[x] You could easily survive in the wild.
[x] You care about the environment.
[ ] You can easily focus on your work without getting distracted.
[x] You rarely get depressed.
[x] You aren't afraid of anything.
[ ] You prefer to have a strict set of rules.
Total: 6

.:AIR:.

[x] You have a free spirit.
[ ] You hate rules.
[x] You prefer to be out in the open rather than in small, enclosed spaces.
[x] You hate to be restrained.
[x] You are very independent and outgoing.
[x] You are quite intelligent.
[ ] You tend to be impatient.
[x] You are easily distracted.
[x] You can sometimes be hyperactive and/or annoying.
[x] You wish you could fly.
Total: 8

.: DARKNESS:.

[x] You spend most of your time alone.
[ ] You prefer nighttime over daytime.
[x] You like creepy things.
[x] You like to play tricks on people.
[ ] Black is your favorite color.
[x] You prefer the villains over the heroes in movies, TV shows, videogames, etc.
[ ] You don't talk much.
[ ] You are atheist.
[x] You don't mind watching scary movies.
[ ] You love to break the rules.
Total: 5

.:LIGHT:.

[x] You are very polite.
[x] You are spiritual.
[ ] When someone is in trouble, you never hesitate to help them.
[ ] You believe everything you see or hear.
[ ] You are afraid of the dark.
[ ] You hate violence.
[x] You hope for world peace.
[x] You are generally a happy person.
[ ] Everyone loves to be around you.
[ ] You always follow the rules.
Total: 4


Heh. I'm more balanced than I thought I was. I did think I'd score higher on Fire, though. And I didn't expect Light to be the lowest one. (Air's not even remotely a surprise.)

As re: the earlier post? The neighbour found the body. In her yard. In a number of pieces. And showed it to Heather because I was not home.

.....Cat, you are really lucky I like you.

So. I sleep in for almost two hours and wake up at about 7:30. Not bad. I get up, put on a kettle of water, contemplate bringing in the clean laundry from the machines, and head out to the backyard to check the doves' food and water. On my way, I wonder whether I ought to take Moon to see the vet, because he isn't showing any signs of appetite at all, and is pretty much ignoring me: very nearly one of the signs of the apocalypse, considering he's normally all over me pleading for breakfast the instant I wake up.

I open the door, step out, and see wing-feathers, tail-feathers, and a couple chunks of body-feathers. This is not a big deal; Moon's caught birds before. More power to him. It does, however, mean that I need to find the rest of the body before Heather wakes up and freaks out. So I walk out into the rest of the yard and pivot.

Bloody cat.

The door to the cage in the corner of the yard is hanging wide open. The cage is empty but for more feathers scattered inside it. There are feathers all over the yard, actually, in the trees and under bushes and half-buried in the gravel. And yes, the dove was in its cage the night before: I checked.

I go searching through the house for "presents" and find nothing. I search the backyard and find nothing. I take a peek over the side gate and find absolutely nothing. But with that many feathers gone there is no way Moon didn't get the dove.

Conclusion: he caught it, ate it, and that is why he does not want his breakfast.

Bloody cat.

Question: did he figure out how to open the cages? Siamese are known for being smart enough to figure these things out, and he does know how to open drawers, sliding doors, windows left open a crack, and boxes. Because the cage was shut and latched, and now it is open, and the cat is smug. And I have another cage of doves, and also Saiwe is used to going outside in a small cage to enjoy the sunlight and change of scene.

Did I mention that doves are Heather's favorite birds, and that she is going to notice awful quick that there's one fewer, and probably that there are locks on the present cages? Jen, too, for that matter.

Bloody cat.

Meme:

List 10 of your favorite characters from different fandoms, and ask people to spot patterns in your choices, and if they're so inclined, to draw conclusions about you based on the patterns they've spotted.

Silmarillion - Finrod Felagund
Star Wars - Mitth'raw'nuruodo / Grand Admiral Thrawn
Stargate SG1 - Colonel Jack O'Neill
Star Trek - Spock ch'Sarek
Harry Potter - Luna Lovegood
Lord of the Rings - Galadriel
xxxHolic - Doumeki Shizuka
Dragonlance - Raistlin
Song of Ice and Fire - Arya Stark
Synergy - Tor

...Well, I can see a couple, but I'll admit to curiosity as to what others think...

For Mom again, and Dad, I did not need to hear that.

The Female of the Species
Rudyard Kipling

WHEN the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his pride,
He shouts to scare the monster, who will often turn aside.
But the she-bear thus accosted rends the peasant tooth and nail.
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.

When Nag the basking cobra hears the careless foot of man,
He will sometimes wriggle sideways and avoid it if he can.
But his mate makes no such motion where she camps beside the trail.
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.

When the early Jesuit fathers preached to Hurons and Choctaws,
They prayed to be delivered from the vengeance of the squaws.
'Twas the women, not the warriors, turned those stark enthusiasts pale.
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.

Man's timid heart is bursting with the things he must not say,
For the Woman that God gave him isn't his to give away;
But when hunter meets with husbands, each confirms the other's tale—
The female of the species is more deadly than the male.

Man, a bear in most relations—worm and savage otherwise,—
Man propounds negotiations, Man accepts the compromise.
Very rarely will he squarely push the logic of a fact
To its ultimate conclusion in unmitigated act.

Fear, or foolishness, impels him, ere he lay the wicked low,
To concede some form of trial even to his fiercest foe.
Mirth obscene diverts his anger—Doubt and Pity oft perplex
Him in dealing with an issue—to the scandal of The Sex!

But the Woman that God gave him, every fibre of her frame
Proves her launched for one sole issue, armed and engined for the same;
And to serve that single issue, lest the generations fail,
The female of the species must be deadlier than the male.

She who faces Death by torture for each life beneath her breast
May not deal in doubt or pity—must not swerve for fact or jest.
These be purely male diversions—not in these her honour dwells—
She the Other Law we live by, is that Law and nothing else.

She can bring no more to living than the powers that make her great
As the Mother of the Infant and the Mistress of the Mate.
And when Babe and Man are lacking and she strides unclaimed to claim
Her right as femme (and baron), her equipment is the same.

She is wedded to convictions—in default of grosser ties;
Her contentions are her children, Heaven help him who denies!—
He will meet no suave discussion, but the instant, white-hot, wild,
Wakened female of the species warring as for spouse and child.

Unprovoked and awful charges—even so the she-bear fights,
Speech that drips, corrodes, and poisons—even so the cobra bites,
Scientific vivisection of one nerve till it is raw
And the victim writhes in anguish—like the Jesuit with the squaw!

So it comes that Man, the coward, when he gathers to confer
With his fellow-braves in council, dare not leave a place for her
Where, at war with Life and Conscience, he uplifts his erring hands
To some God of Abstract Justice—which no woman understands.

And Man knows it! Knows, moreover, that the Woman that God gave him
Must command but may not govern—shall enthral but not enslave him.
And She knows, because She warns him, and Her instincts never fail,
That the Female of Her Species is more deadly than the Male.