Busy bee

When/if I ever spawn, I want a kid like weetanya's.

Although my kid will probably be speaking Simlish and explaining how a router works, given her parents. I can see it all now:

A is for ASCII
B is for bandwidth
C is for CPU
D is for disk
E is for Ethernet...

Of course, as far as our current babies are concerned, computers are just glowy, humming things that keep Mama and Daddy from constantly feeding and petting them.

And speaking of furbabies, Kitty Bob had another appointment today, to check her liver function. They also got back the results from the aspirations they took. Doc says there are no apparent malignant cells at all! Yay! Looks like the growth is some combination of cyst and hematoma--basically a big blood clot/internal zit. Unfortunately, given the size of it and how integrated it is with her liver, getting rid of it surgically probably isn't possible without major risk. They might be able to remove some of it, but with the liver integration, there's a risk of severing blood vessels. Plus the surgery itself would be traumatic for her. So, pending the results of today's test, we're probably just going to let it be, and check her every four months to see if it's growing or interfering with her liver.

The doc also said the radiologist finally looked at KB's x-rays, and said she seems to have some arthritis in her lower back, so that explains her being slow and stiff. Hopefully the glucosamine we have her on will help with that.

The really good news is that all of her other chemistry looks good. Her kidney function and glucose are looking good. So what's needed now is to just keep feeding her--we can even give her some tuna and higher protein stuff, too--so she gets some non-cyst weight back. Easier said than done. Because of the cyst, she doesn't have a lot of room for stomach expansion, so she only eats a small amount at a time, but is hungry again in a couple of hours. So, since I'm going to be going back to school in a week, and M's gone all day, I think we're going to have to drop the ~$80 on one of those refrigerated programmable feeder thingies. Not that we haven't spent a fortune on her already. She usually costs about $500 a year in various appointments, plus food and meds. The tally so far for this problem has gone past $1,000. But I don't mind. It's all going on the credit card, and we'll pay it off eventually. M just got a good raise, so that helps.

So it looks like we've dodged a bullet for now. As long as her behavior and liver function are fine, she'll be okay. Of course, she's still old, and I don't expect her to go forever, but for now, she's alright, and she probably will be at least until I've graduated. I'm still worried about her, but I'm very glad she'll be with us for a while longer.

More on the moron/legal stuff

Exchanging comments with one of Jason Fortuny's idiot defenders, and I posted this:

( Welcome to the Revised Code of Washington )

The only legal issue wrt BDSM in this state has to do with the state's domestic violence laws. If called to a domestic disturbance, police who find an injured party have to take the "assailant" into custody, even if the "victim" claims consent or doesn't want to press charges. This is to keep domestic violence victims from putting themselves in the path of further harm because they're too scared or brainwashed to defy their attacker ("Battered Wife Syndrome," etc.)

Obviously, on further review, charges would be dropped in consensual BDSM cases like that.

How the law treats consensual BDSM varies from place to place. Some believe that there's no such thing as consenting to being physically injured at all, others draw the line at major injury (body modification, for instance.) However, as body piercing is legal in most places, as a consensual injury, there's really no reason other consensual "injuries" shouldn't be.

I've never been personally involved with the kink community per se. Not my scene, as it tends toward play I don't like, and has too much stranger involvement--sorry, but I gotta know someone well before they get to see me naked, much less get anywhere near my tingly bits. You'll never see me at The Wet Spot. But I do know plenty of people involved in it and have sort of been on the fringes of the wider community for quite some time (there's lots of kink/queer/poly overlap, especially here.)

There are some practices I don't get. There are also some for which I truly think the people involved need a full psych screening prior to doing it. BDSM is assault, both physical and emotional, and just like some people with psych issues involve themselves with abusers, sometimes people are drawn to BDSM for the wrong reasons--non-consensual abuse can and does happen within the kink community. I especially question lifestyle D/S, and any arrangement in which someone's kids are aware of what they do. The idea that some kid knows why mom wears a collar is stomach churning.

But outside of those limitations, there are valid reasons why people do what they do. It's really not all that different from people who do extreme sports or work out a lot. Heck, would we argue that boxing should be illegal because supposedly no-one can consent to being beaten up (and, for that matter, because boxers primarily tend to be from disadvantaged ethnic and economic groups, and therefore might not be fully consenting to their career?) What about tackle football? Wrestling? Fencing?

There is definitely a psychological component to what some folks do--either giving up total control to another person or taking total control can be cathartic for some. But for most, it's just about chasing endorphins. And unless we're going to make any other physical activity that involves injury or the risk thereof illegal, there's no reason BDSM should be illegal, either. The mantra within the community is "safe, sane and consensual." And within that, I see no reason to bug anyone, legally or via stupid harassment like this, who wants to do it.