Welcome to Katfrog's Corner

Freaky Friday News: Unicorn Licenses

2022-12-09T17:39:00.003-05:00

Los Angeles County Gives a Young Resident a Unicorn License

Last month, a resident of Los Angeles county, Miss Madeline, sent a handwritten letter to animal control asking if she has permission to keep a unicorn. In an act of kindness, Los Angeles County Animal Care and Control replied to her letter with the following:

A letter listing out the "requirements" for keeping a unicorn
A stuffed unicorn, complete with a metallic owner tag (to be a placeholder while the young lady searches for her real unicorn)
An official unicorn license

In times like these, this simple exchange brings me some hope for the future.

Why did I confess?

2022-11-09T16:11:00.003-05:00

What it feels like in the middle of a mood episode
Photo by Sonia Remizua on Unsplash

I had a few people ask me why I posted my confession yesterday.

"Aren't you scared that someone will use that information against you?"
"You'll never find a job if people know [the truth]."

Here's the thing. In America, truthful information about mental health is difficult to find. A lot of stigmas exists around both mental health problems and people who have them. But not talking about mental health will not get rid of the stigmas.

We need to normalize mental health discussions. If a person has ADHD or autism or bipolar disorder, they need to be able to discuss their diagnosis without running into prejudice and bias from society.

Today, that is not the case for the majority of Americans.

I announced my new diagnosis to do my part in helping to normalize bipolar disease. I am not a celebrity; I am a normal person with normal wants and needs. Furthermore, I have a family I love, amazing friends, and a dog who is honestly the goodest boy ever. Having a diagnosis of bipolar disorder is not mutually exclusive to having a life.

So if you have any questions, I will answer them to the best of my ability. If you know someone with bipolar disorder and want more information, I can point you to some great online resources. If you are just curious, awesome!

Only if we work together, can we overcome societal stigma about mental health. Only if we work together, can we make society a safer place for everyone.

Confession Time: I just learned that I have Bipolar Disorder

2022-11-08T15:42:00.000-05:00

And yes, it still hasn't sunk in. I mean, I'm bipolar?!?!???

Why is this so hard to acknowledge? Because I am human, and whatever I feel, feels normal.

Only needing 4-5 hours of sleep sometimes? Normal.

So tired I can't get out of bed until noon, other times? Normal.

Speaking too fast? Thoughts racing between ideas? Unable to fall asleep or wake up at the same time?

Normal. Normal. Normal.

To have a psychiatrist tell me, well, your normal is actually a series of bipolar mood episodes. That blows my mind.

Image by Freepik

I started an antipsychotic medication - Seroquel - which turned me into a sleep zombie for a few days. Luckily, I'm adjusting to the side effect and staying awake for more than 30 minutes at a time. But the new changes in my sleep needs is only the most obvious effect to other people.

Internally, I can focus now on one thing at a time. I don't have to corral my thoughts every few minutes, as I also feel calm inside (though to be honest, "calm" isn't the correct word, just the closet to how I feel). I have a clarity to my thoughts that I did not have before. To be honest, I did not realize I needed the clarity until I had it.

I guess the strangest thing is that I now feel more like "me" than I have before. It's wonderful and scary to feel as though I am more a whole person now than I was last week. In turn, I wonder what I will feel next week, next month, even next year?

Wordless Wednesday: Fantasy Restroom Sign

2022-10-19T12:44:00.004-04:00

Music Monday: A Tribute to Loretta Lynn

2022-10-10T11:47:00.000-04:00

I am not a huge country music fan. I have no idea who is on the charts and I don't even know how to find the local country radio stations. But I grew up listening to Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, and John Denver (along with classical, disco, and rock music). These people define "country" for me.

And now Loretta Lynn is dead.

It's hard to describe what I'm feeling. I'm numb because the news feels fictitious. I'm sad because she was such a lovely person. I grieve for her family, because I know that they are reeling. I'm happy when I remember singing along to her on car rides.

I never knew that Loretta wrote and songs that were banned from radio stations. I listened to "The Pill" last week, and nearly laughed myself out of my chair. The woman had so many children, I completely get why she would be so happy at the advent of the pill. "Fist City" is violent, but in a way I understand and even approve of. Honestly, I would be introducing any woman hitting on my husband to my fist.

I guess it's time to say goodbye to Loretta Lynn, the woman. Luck for us, her music will stay with us forever.

Wordless Wednesday: You Oughta Mow

2022-10-05T07:00:00.001-04:00

Today is National Taco Day? Sort of...

2022-10-04T17:10:00.002-04:00

Larry Miller, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Tacos - a wonderful handheld food that Americans eat by the dozens

As the American melting pot grew in the early 1900s, tacos became a staple of American diets in the Southwest. During the last century, this food moved across the country until nearly everyone in the country has eaten at least one taco during their lives and many restaurants even advertise Taco Tuesday every week.

In 1968, Congress officially recognized the importance of tacos, saying:

On May 3rd of every year National Taco Day will be observed, in honor of the birth date of the great Texan and American, the Honorable Henry B. Gonzalez, Congressman of Bexar County and San Antonio. The highlight of National Taco Day will come on the night of May 3rd, at which time a celebration will honor the birth of a new era for the Taco and the Mexican Food Industry.

[From the Congressional Records of 1968, pg. 11132]

So why are we seeing images for National Taco Day now, on October 4th?

Because in 2009, Del Taco set up a marketing campaign the celebrate a "National Taco Day" on October 4th. I have absolutely no idea why they decided to create this campaign, but it both worked and didn't work. You see, I have heard of National Taco Day in October, but I had no idea where this idea came from until I did some research.

From Chef Lola's Kitchen

So which National Taco Day is the "real" one?

Taco Trivia

Back in 1989, Taco John trademarked the name Taco Tuesday. For decades, the business defended their trademark against others, though in the end it was all for naught. Nowadays, plenty of restaurants advertise their own Taco Tuesday since the term is now considered "a commonplace term, message or expression widely used by a variety of sources that merely conveys an ordinary, familiar, well-recognized concept or sentiment." by the United States Patent and Trademark Office [citation].

Music Monday: Chris Barron & The Spin Doctors

2022-10-04T13:20:00.001-04:00

I don't know how many of you remember when the Spin Doctors first hit the scene, but I do. I remember gong out to clubs or bars and dancing to these high-energy songs while singing along.

Like a lot of bands, Spin Doctors released a hugely successful first album and then never managed to match that success with their following albums. Mind you, the music is still exceptional. It just never became as commercially popular as A Pocket Full of Kryptonite.

Chris Barron, singer and songwriter, still sings with the band. But he also does some solo work. I re-discovered Chris Barron in the 2010s, when I bought the album Songs from the Summer of Sangria off of his BandCamp website. The music is more chill but just as thoughtful as his Spin Doctors music. And I recommend listening to it when you want to just kick back and let life flow.

Music Monday: The Bright Side of Life

2022-10-03T07:00:00.001-04:00

I didn't see "Life of Brian" until I was almost 50, and I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants. This particular song is one of my favorite earworms.

The Questionable Morality of America, part 1

2022-09-29T07:30:00.002-04:00

mo●ral●i●ty

noun

principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior.

"the matter boiled down to simple morality: innocent prisoners ought to be freed"

a particular system of values and principles of conduct, especially one held by a specified person or society.

the extent to which an action is right or wrong.

"behind all the arguments lies the issue of the morality of the possession of nuclear weapons"

Have you ever wondered how the normal, regular people living in Germany in the beginning of the 20th century followed and supported both the Kaiser and Hitler into brutal, terrifying wars? I'm not talking about the zealots; I mean the average citizens living average lives.

How could these people reconcile the atrocities done with their own moral code?

I wondered about this since I first learned about Hitler and the concentration camps through reading books by Corrie Ten Boom and Anne Frank. As a child, I assumed that everyone had roughly the same morals as I did, and I could not imagine standing by as people were herded into train cars.

As a young adult, I traveled to Germany and stayed with friends of my grandmother. This couple was alive during World War 2, young adults during that time, but I never got the courage to ask them what happened. I can tell you that these people welcomed me into their home, showed me around West Germany, and were kind and caring individuals.

Sadly, I think I have an answer now. It's not that the German citizens were temporarily turned into monsters, or had secret brain surgery. They simply were faced with questionable morality of their society, and their own moral spines bent.

It's the same thing that is happening in America today.

I should not say "today" as if this is a new thing. America has never had a shiny moral spine.

It started with our Independence, when our Founding Fathers compromised and allowed slavery even though the majority of them did not feel that slavery was morally correct.

Our Founding Fathers and Slavery

George Washington: Never made public statements about slavery, he freed all of his slaves in his will.
Benjamin Franklin: Founded the first abolitionist society
Thomas Jefferson: Said about slavery: “we have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other.”

Our entire country almost split into two with the Civil War, but even that did not stop discrimination against people who are not of European descent.

But racism isn't the only place where America's lack of morality shows. During Prohibition, the federal government poisoned whatever alcohol they could, with the pretense of "stopping people from drinking". But government officials knew that this would not stop anyone from drinking alcohol. They just did not care how many people died from their poisoning.

Then during World War 2, while the Nazis rounded up Jews and shipped them off to concentration camps, the American federal government rounded up people who had Japanese ancestry, and sent them off to concentration camps. To be honest, when I first heard about this, I. Was. Floored.

Why?

Because I never heard about this particular atrocity in any of my history classes.

Not. One.

After World War 2, McCarthyism took over during a time we now call the Second Red Scare.

McCarthyism

noun

the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner.

That's right, folks. Senator McCarthy used a campaign of fear to temporarily control the American public.

During the 1960s, black Americans finally got fed up with being treated like second class citizens, and pushed for equal civil rights. Instead of supporting what is (in hindsight) a righteous cause, many white Americans either sat by and did nothing to help, or put on white robes and tried to terrify black Americans into being quiet.

In 1964 we also learned about the "bystander effect" when no one intervened to help Kitty Genovese when she was raped and murdered in public. Some people did try to call the police, but no one physically helped out.

I assume I do not need to keep listing the ways in which the American government or the American public has shown immoral activities or beliefs from the 1960s until 2016.

So what happened in 2016?

In 2016 the world learned that a large segment of American society does not have working ethics. These people laugh when someone makes fun of a handicapped person. These people encourage below the belt comments in conversation, and accept having double standards as the norm.

The world learned to be dubious about any agreement with our country, because there is no guarantee that the US will uphold their end.

The world learned that racism is still a problem here, as a police officer - who is tasked with public safety - knelt on the neck of a black man because he was black.

George Floyd died. No amount of jail time or fines will bring him back to life.

And the American public stood there and watched.

Police officers lied to a judge to get an arrest warrant and then killed Breona Taylor.

And the American public did nothing.

A group of Americans, emboldened and encouraged by the sitting President, invaded Congress in an act of sedition.

And the American public stood there and watched.

A SWAT team in Albuquerque burned an innocent teenager alive in a house.

And the American public did nothing.

Okay, to be fair, the death of George Floyd and Breona Taylor did cause some uproar afterwards. And there are trials against the people involved in the attempted coup. But even with the uproar and the trials, there have been no substantial changes for the better.

It feels like America not only lost the "moral high ground" in world relations, we lost our morality. Yet if you ask people if they think they have morals, most (if not all) would answer "yes".

Read the next blog post for a discussion on why Americans seem to have lost their morality.

Wordless Wednesday: Old Newspaper Article on Coal

2022-09-28T07:00:00.001-04:00

An Australian newspaper, The Rodney and Otamatea Times, reported about how coal consumption effects the climate back on August 14, 1912. The only error in the article is that it would take a few centuries for the temperature to rise.

Music Monday: Mercedes Benz

2022-09-26T07:00:00.001-04:00

Last month, my dear husband and I went to see Reina del Cid in concert here in Atlanta. One of the last songs she sang was a cover of Janis Joplin's "Lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz", but with an extra verse asking the Lord for a new guitar.

This got me thinking about what that song would be if Janis wrote it today. These days, housing is hard to afford. So I wrote a new verse to this classic.

Lord won't you buy me a new mobile home
My old one is broken. It just will not roam
A new double wide one, with accents in chrome
So Lord won't you buy me a new mobile home.

You can listen to me singing it on SoundCloud.

Wordless Wednesday: How To Drive (19th Century Edition)

2022-09-21T07:00:00.001-04:00

The Lost Children of COVID

2022-09-20T07:00:00.001-04:00

Recently, a research letter came out stating that approximately 10.5 million children lost a primary or secondary caregiver to COVID-19. These children lost parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other adults who watched out for them. About 7.5 million of these children became orphans.

Many countries and organizations are currently working to identify and help these children and their families with money, food, and different childcare arrangements.

Do you know who's not helping these children?

The United States Federal government

(Probably none of the state governments either, but I have not done the research to verify this.)

We live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. But we, as in the American society, are doing nothing to help these children deal with the grief of losing someone so close to them. We are doing nothing to help their families cope with the lose. We aren't even discussing the situation or widely acknowledging that this is a problem.

I grew up thinking of the U.S. as a humanitarian country. We sent food to starving nations. We sent clothes, shoes, and books to people who needed them.

But that is a lie. The United States has, as far as I can tell, never been about helping people. Any humanitarian effort is window dressing, a way to appear good without actually being good.

Did you know that the U.S. federal government purposefully poisoned alcohol during Prohibition to kill anyone who drank it?

In early 1927, Dr. Charles Norris (pictured above in 1918) made the following statement about the situation:

The government knows it is not stopping drinking by putting poison in alcohol. It knows what bootleggers are doing with it and yet it continues its poisoning processes, heedless of the fact that people determined to drink are daily absorbing that poison … Knowing this to be true, the United States government must be charged with the moral responsibility for the deaths that poisoned liquor causes, although it cannot be held legally responsible.

And don't even get me started about the Japanese internment camps the government set up during World War 2. Or how the government uses up soldiers then cuts them loose with no real support from the Veterans Administration.

So what happens now?  

American society needs to decide to help these children and these broken families. Regardless of what our elected officials say, we the American people need to take care of our neighbors, help out those in terrible situations. Not for fame or to give ourselves a pat on the back. But because it's the right thing to do. 

The question is, as always, will people do what's right? Or what's easiest?

Music Monday: Fast Car

2022-09-19T15:03:00.003-04:00

In 1988, the world celebrated Nelson Mandala's 70th Birthday with a huge concert at Wembley Stadium. Over 74,000 people showed up to hear good music and honor the South African. Early in the afternoon, a young unknown singer called Tracy Chapman performed a few songs. She didn't make a big splash, but did a good job.

Later on, Stevie Wonder was supposed to take the stage. Only, he misplaced some computer programs and needed time to get everything together. The people in charge called on Tracy Chapman to come out and entertain the audience to give Stevie time.

No one expected what happened next.

Wordless Wednesday: Dymaxion Car

2021-10-27T08:00:00.001-04:00

By Supermac1961 from CHAFFORD HUNDRED, England - Type Dymaxion, 1933,
CC BY 2.0

Time for Not COVID News

2021-10-21T08:00:00.019-04:00

A Witch's Portal?
from the Witches Vs Patriarchy subreddit

It feels like COVID-19 dominates the news cycle these days. But there must be other things happening in the world, right?

Right! And you can find some of them here, a place where COVID new is verboten and anything else goes.

Chinese Scientists Find Evidence of
More Recent Volcanic Activity on the Moon

Recent is a bit of a misnomer. The Chinese mission Chang’E-5 returned with moon rocks that place volcanic activity from around 2 billion years ago, give or take 4 million years. Not exactly hot off the press. But previously the scientific community believed that the last volcanic activity on the moon was around 3 billion years ago. A billion years later does, in fact, mean more recent.

The interesting find here, though, is the cause of the volcanic activity. Or rather, the lack of causation. There was an expectation that radioactive elements would be a heat source of any volcanic activity past after the 3 billion year mark. But the moon rock samples showed no indication of radioactive elements. This leads to the question - what caused the volcanic activity in the first place?

(Image credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University)

Citation:

Li, QL., Zhou, Q., Liu, Y. et al. Two billion-year-old volcanism on the Moon from Chang’E-5 basalts. Nature (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04100-2

Reason #134 To Avoid NYC in 2021:
Disease Transmitted through Rat Urine

While it's not a plague, New York City now hosts leptospirosis, a zoonotic bacterial disease with 15 cases so far in 2021. While this sounds low, NYC averages around 4 cases per year, so this is a four fold increase.

While no one can state with certainty why there is a spike in cases now, theories abound with shout outs to climate change and weather. What we do know is that the likely carrier is the humble rat, and the transmission method is rat urine.

So far, 14 out of the 15 people have been hospitalized, and one person died.

"Flesh-Eating" STI in the UK??

Who knew that Eddie Murphy could predict the future? For those who have not seen Delirious, Eddie jokes that STDs were evolving from a simple rash to exploding penises. While I know of no exploding penises yet, the UK now reports a spike in donovanosis, which appears to be a flesh-eating STI.

In reality, this disease causes:

loss of color in genital tissue
large, deep red bumps that can bleed
widespread ulcers around the genital area and anus

If it is not treated properly, donovanosis can spread internally and can cause scarring. Oh, and proper treatment takes a minimum of three weeks, with a decent chance of the infection reappearing up to six months after what you think was an effective treatment.

Ugh, that sounds almost as bad as flesh-eating, doesn't it?

Anyway, doctors are urging people to use condoms, since that significantly reducing the chance of transmission. To help spread the word, here are some slogans to encourage people to use condoms:

Wordless Wednesday: Floating to the Wedding

2021-10-20T08:00:00.001-04:00

Due to flooding, this couple floated to the temple in a large cooking pot.
Alappuzha, Kerala, India
@Shilpa1308/Twitter

We Now Interrupt this Blog For a Funeral

2021-10-19T14:02:00.003-04:00

The perfect gentle~~man~~ dog

Last week, I received a terrifying phone call. My son's dog, Kareem was hit by a car. The entire situation does not bear repeating, because it was an unfortunate accident. There was no way anyone without the ability to see the future could have prevented it.

All Wednesday, we sat around on pins and needles as the status reports came in. Kareem seemed to be okay; his front left leg wasn't working but didn't look broken. Probably nerve damage that may or may not heal on its own. His right eye was swollen - would he lose his eye?

Kareem lasted for over 10 hours. Then the call came in. Kareem went into cardiac arrest.

He died.

Waiting for his daddy (my son) to come home

Wednesday night was one of those times that demark a before and after time - an event that makes a lasting impression, creating an internal division in your personal history. Before I had a grandpuppy named Kareem who loved it when I sang to him. After... well, after my family is in the midst of the grieving process.

We buried the body in our backyard on Saturday. It was... I lack the vocabulary to describe the mix of emotions on Saturday. But it's done and we all began to go forward again.

Even though Kareem was not my dog, per se, I find myself grieving for him. Bouts of sadness hit me out of nowhere. I usually like watching Girl with Dogs on YouTube, but now seeing the dogs feels bitter sweet. When I walk my dog, Titan, we'll see something interesting, and I will remember that we can't show Kareem anymore.

I also find myself using the wrong words this week. I'm not suffering from word aphasia, but rather word misplacement? For example, I will want to use the word "stapler" but instead say "sandpaper". I am also using the wrong names for everyone. I keep calling my dog my son's name, and vice versa.

I know myself well enough to know that this is a sign of internal anxiety and sadness.

Playing at a local dog park

I know that life goes on. I survived so many people dying, and I know that I will be okay soon enough. I also know that a piece of my heart belongs to Kareem.

Monday Morning Blues: Why Do We Still Celebrate Christopher Columbus???

2021-10-11T11:02:00.000-04:00

A map of trade routes used from 1300 to 1600

I'm serious. I mean, the man was completely mistaken about where he was, and he refused to believe otherwise. Columbus' travels resulted in the enslavement of several groups of people, and the extinction of more than one civilization. Plus, he was not the first person to discover the "New World"; the Vikings landed here centuries earlier. And the Vikings were not the first people over here either.

A modern replica of a Viking ship. This ship is of the snekkja longship type.

Attribution: archiwum własne wikingów, Jarmeryk

But the alternative of calling today "Indigenous Peoples' Day"?

That feels... like not enough. Hundreds of thousands of people died because of the arrival of the European invaders. The number is too large to truly comprehend. So semi-dedicating a single day to recognize them feels like a token, a gesture offered to history that still rejects any hint of responsibility.

Now I realize that no one alive today is responsible for the massacre that happened centuries ago. But we are responsible for how we treat people today.

So maybe we do need this holiday, as a reminder that we are responsible for our behavior. When a hurricane hits an impoverished area, regardless of which countries are involved, do you help out in whatever reasonable ways you can or do you gloat that it wasn't you? Do you even care if it doesn't effect you directly?

Do you treat others with respect and kindness? Notice that there are no stipulations to that question. Skin color, spiritual beliefs, sexual preference, biology... none of this matters. Everyone deserves to be treated with respect and kindness. So do you act that way?

Or do you expect people to treat you with respect first, before you will treat them that way? If everyone waits for the other person to act nice, when will anyone act nice?

And the answer is....

2021-10-07T18:50:00.003-04:00

They are all coronaviruses. The pictures represent (in order):

Influenza
COVID-19
Measles
Common Cold

Wordless Wednesday: Which one is a Coronavirus?

2021-10-06T07:00:00.002-04:00

Answer tomorrow.

Could You Really Not Just Put This in an Email?

2021-10-05T11:24:00.001-04:00

Boxes - A Piece of Philosophical Poetry

2021-10-04T12:02:00.000-04:00

Life is all about the boxes.

People physically live in boxes.

Actually, people live in boxes that are organized into boxes.

They also use boxes to...

drive
hang pictures
hold their stuff
store food
wash dishes and clothes and themselves

Sometimes people even eat out of boxes.

People also figuratively live in boxes. Everyone has

an Individual Box of Morality
a Societal Box of Morality
a Government Defined Box of Laws
a School/Work Defined Box of Rules

Some people have even more boxes, based on religious or spiritual beliefs

Stress is when an individual wants something outside of their boxes.

Happiness can only happen when living comfortably inside the boxes.

And when all is said and done, a person dies. When they are then put into a box and buried in the ground.

Wordless Wednesday: Nature Abides

2021-06-23T07:30:00.001-04:00