2 Tired

[howeird]

Stayed up too late last night/this morning, and woke up too early, thinking if I got to the nails place when they opened it would be a better start. I got there at 10, turns out they open at 9. Waited 15 minutes for my favorite nail artist, Niko. We had an interesting chat about talent vs. skill. She thinks she's good at doing acrylic nails because she has been at it for years. But I think it goes beyond mere skill and practice. I think there's a huge dollop of talent, too. She doesn't buy it -like many talented people, she believes "anyone can do it" because she can. I gave her the example of my musical talent - I can pick up almost any musical instrument and make music with it. How good the music sounds depends on how much I've practiced, but just the fact that I can do it at all I think can be chalked up to talent. OTOH, no matter how much I practice, I can't draw a picture of a person which looks even remotely like the person. I don't have that particular talent.

I sometimes wonder where talent comes from. Is it a gene? A hormone? Maybe there's a story in this about a once-in-a-lifetime musical genius who makes a goodwill tour of a distant planet, where their advanced medical screening at customs detects a chemical imbalance, which they cure at the local clinic. It also "cures" his musical ability. Brrrrr.

After the manicure, I went next door to PetSmart and got a much needed hug from farmount, but had to go to Pet Club across the street for the baby betta food and inexpensive small tank heater, which PS doesn't stock. Also picked up a piece of cat furniture.  Then next door to Costco, which is no longer stocking my favorite breakfast-at-work, Jimmy Dean's croissant sausage and egg sandwiches. So I bought croissants. But I did get a lot more of my groc shopping done than expected.

Home, set up the 5 gallon tank, took the lid off the 2-gal tank the bettas have been in, and discovered a bubble nest loaded with eggs. So the move to the bigger tank will wait till the babies hatch. 

Next it was Walmart and Safeway,  where I got Jimmie Dean turkey sausage patties to go with the croissants, and the rest of the groceries, including buy one, get one free light whipped cream for Domino. Home, sitting on the easy chair with Pumpkin on the arm, he leans over and starts licking the croissant. I gave him a piece, but he didn't want to eat, he just wanted to lick. Domino declined the offer. Pumpkin explored the new cat tower, just a simple cylinder with two diamond-shaped holes and a round top suitable for curling up in. He tried slowly climbing it - he is taller than it is when he's up on his hind legs - and managed to get it to fall on top of him when he tried to climb into the top platform. If he jumped, he would be fine. I later tried to put each of them on top, they just jumped right off.

Plans for tonight: Maybe cook up the periwinkle which I bought on my last trip to the oriental supermarket. I have garlic and olive oil, that ought to do it.

Tomorrow:
Pump up the bicycle tires, ride to the park with my camera, take an award-winning photo. Bring a book, do some relaxing/reading at the park. The book is The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett. I'm reading it to find out what Discworld is, and it has done that for me. In his later Discworld books, Pratchett has given up on referring to directions in Discworld terms, and both Going Postal and Thud! may as well be set on Your Standard Earth-like Magical Planet™. However, I find the concept highly amusing of a world which is flat, disc-shaped, and rides on the backs of four elephants which are carried on the back of a giant turtle. Though I think the elephants technically belong in another myth-time continuum, and I would not have missed them had Pratchett left them out.

On the TV stand are three items which ought to be viewed this week. Netflix has sent Enchanted, and I bought the Doctor Who box set of K-9 Stories from amazon.co.uk, and there's the DVD of Hardware Wars which I bought online at the Positronic Film Festival before last.

Comments

[edith-mf.livejournal.com]

yeah all the talk of gene therapies has me a bit worried the same way as your musician scenario.

I read a science fiction short story once where a bunch of aliens borrowed a group of humans on a plane, gave them a cure to allow them to live essentially forever (400 years give or take), along with the formula and proof. This causes such a mess, that, even with the best intentions and planning, the guy with the formula (and who has taken it) ends up a hunted man, has killed about 5 people by the end of the story, and is swearing to continue killing the people trying to exterminate him. Perhaps the aliens got the root cause investigation a little wrong if they really wanted to help.