Recovery?

Some of you might know that I was ill last week. Actually, I have been sick longer than that but I never mentioned it, thinking I was just feeling unusually depressed, which is to be expected in my situation. (Besides, aren't most bloggers depressed, anyway?). Unfortunately, I am still sick, although I am doing better than I was last week. After my pals found out that I was feeling poorly, some of them emailed me things to cheer me up so I thought I would share those things with you.

First, is a set of pictures from K, a friend who lives in NYC whom I met on Craigslist's "jobs" forum;

A week ago, I was writing about my job search woes on Craigslist using rather depressing word choices, so one of my friends noticed and sent me this picture in an email message entitled Where is Pale Male when you need him?

You MUST click on this picture to see a larger version in all its glory so you can more easily identify this man's pet. K wrote the following about this picture; I had fun taking it [the picture] - The guy spotted me photographing his rat, and started turning away, protecting his rat [from] whatever I angle I tried, so that first pic is the only decent one, hence the only one I sent. He finally, after a minute or two, began muttering at me, and then snatched up the rat and stuffed it in his bag, and left. What a goof! This took place out in front of the Flushing Library.

A couple days later, when I am really sick, K sent this very cute picture;

K writes; I got distracted by the "anti - fur" protest going on in front of Prada, which is next to where the cats were.

Who says that New Yorkers are heartless? Has anyone seen such a thing in their cities or towns?

Another friend, I, who lives near Seattle, sent a link that he knew would cheer me up, even if it could not alter the course of my illness; Bush has slime-mold beetle named after him. This story says that Cheney and Rumsfeld also have their own slime-mold beetles. I wonder if GW's, Cheney's and Rumsfeld's beetles all have blackened and twisted hearts? Besides the fact that there are undoubtedly more jobs in the slime-mold beetle research field than in mine, I see irony in this such that I almost wish I was doing research on slime-mold beetles (or even on slime-molds) instead of parrot evolution. Although I prefer living with parrots to living with slime-molds or with beetles.