Happy birthday to Obese Cat

Today is the birthday of Robert Earl, my hugely overweight, semi-sentient tabby cat, who weighs 18 pounds, eats like a pig-animal and wakes me up every night with his ceaseless whining and yowling. (demanding yet another lump of food.) My pet doctor sent along this personalized birthday e-card, showing a bunch of kitties cavorting and playing and celebrating the birthday of my utterly shiftless feline, who has been attacking me and biting my face and trying to asphyxiate me ever since I rescued him off the streets of Santa Cruz. I am thinking of writing a book about him called The Fatness Eaters: How I Lost my mind – and Never Found Myself – While trying to Look after my Lazy, Snorting, Morbidly Obese “companion animal.” Anyhow, I hope you will send along your birthday greetings to him, or, even better, a sack full of cat chow. He’d appreciate that….

Hello to my blog readers in Korea, Bahrain, Australia, Nigeria, India and Iran

I want to hear from you — send those bios in!!Don’t be shy.(I haven’t heard from my reader from Iran for a while – If you’re out there, I hope you’re doing OK)I think I’ve got this whole RSS thing sorted out – almost. One of my readers sent me a how-to video showing me how to set it up. I’ll do my best. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Wild nights at the Booksmith: William Vollmann, Peter Coyote, the drummer from Aerosmith (and more)

Check out the wild assortment of events at the Booksmith this month at the Haight. In other news, you might have seen the “poet for hire” at the corner of Haight and Ashbury. He’s got a typewriter, and if you set a price and determine a subject, he will write a poem for you on the spot. I am going to take him up on this and blog his poem next month. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Advice for today: ramp up your confidence with a fake “power salute”

Sometimes – especially during a long recession — you need to “fake it ’til you make it.” Here is a heavily pixilated photo of me doing just that: making a fake power salute and victory gesture at the end of last week’s marathon. At the moment this picture was taken, I did not feel victorious; in truth, I was exhausted and wanted to fall to my knees and possibly vomit. In spite of this, I used my last little bit of energy to pump my fist at a camera man perched over the finish line. This strategy worked; it took the edge off my exhaustion, and helped me pick up my speed at the end. The woman in front of me looks very bummed out. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default