Tag: love

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Zito the Rat 2013 – 2016

Kara HartzLeave a comment
 
Is this not the most adorable rat you have ever seen?  
He is our rat, Zito, who passed away today just a month or two short of his third birthday. He came to us when his owners dumped him off at the sister veterinary hospital to the one I work at. My friends there knew we had a rat, so they called and asked if we wanted this little guy too. 
Often, I’ve noticed, rescued pets, or those that you find yourself with unexpectedly turn out to be the best pets ever.  That was true of Zito anyway. I’ve had lots of pet rats over the years. At least ten that I can think of off the top of my head. But Zito was special. He, more than most of the other rats I’ve known, seemed to really love human company. He was snugly. Loved his ears rubbed. He was just plain fun to be with.
Our other rat at the time Zito came to us was named Frito. We thought we would give the new guy a matching name. I suggested Cheeto, but the kids didn’t like that. They argued he wasn’t orange, so it didn’t work. They came up with Zito. Since then he has been the subject of many stories and poems and other school writing assignments. In fact, I just realized today that I have never given a character a pet rat, and that needs to be remedied. 
Thank you Michelle for taking such good care of him at the end for us. 
He will be greatly missed. Small lives can still  have a big impact on our hearts.

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Things I Love – Orphan Black

Kara Hartz1 Comment


I first heard about this show on Wil Wheaton’s blog, and shortly thereafter I read an article about it titled something like, ‘The Best Show You’re Not Watching’. (I would link to it, but I can’t find it again now).  It is an amazing show, and I agree that not enough people are watching it because I have trouble finding people to talk to about it!
The tag line that comes up with a Google Search for Orphan Black is :
“An orphaned outsider witnesses a woman’s suicide and decides to assume her identity.”
What lets our orphan, Sarah; assume the woman’s identity is their eerie similarity in appearance. Before long Sarah finds out the reason for the similarity is that she is a clone – and there are more out there just like her.
The lead actress, Tatiana Maslany, who plays the clones, just blows me away with her talent. While I’m watching I often forget that these characters are not actually different people, so completely does she give individual personality and mannerisms to each clone. There are many scenes over the course of the series in which one clone steps in to impersonate another, and even then, she doesn’t just act like the impersonated clone. She maintains the layers of both, so that it is clear to the viewer that this is not clone B, but actually clone A pretending to be clone B. (I’m trying to avoid getting spoiler-y here. They aren’t really called clone A or B, they have real names.) 
Maslany isn’t the only great talent on the show. The entire supporting cast is fun and diverse and wonderful. 
If you are interested in watching, and you should be, this is definitely a show to start at the beginning of season 1. Right now there are 3 completed seasons available, so it shouldn’t be too hard to get caught up. I should also probably note that this is not a child-friendly show. Lots of sex and violence.
I confess, I actually wrote this several weeks ago, but was slow in posting it but since I did, now I can add that recently Orphan Black won the Hugo award (a science fiction/fantasy award) for Best Dramatic Presentation Short Form. While I voted for Orphan Black, I didn’t expect it to actually win since it was up against episodes of Doctor Who and Game of Thrones which I believed were much more popular. So – Yea!
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How the whole focus thing is going. . .

Kara Hartz2 Comments

Well, I’ve taken a few baby steps in the right direction toward getting myself more organized and focused – and so far without giving up any of the things that I love.

How did I do it, I hear you ask. Well, I took a bit of advice from those books I mentioned before, as well as one I read awhile ago called, “Refuse to Choose” (I added it to the recommended reading list if you want a link) It’s basically about a certain personality type that the author calls a “scanner”, or a person who loves a variety of topics and activity and has an unusually difficult time focusing or picking one single life path, career, goal, etc. It’s me 100%. I really loved it when I read it because it stressed that I didn’t need to give up anything or “pick something” to do with my life in order to be successful – pretty much the opposite of what is implied in the other books I mentioned, and in my previous entry. However, it does say that keeping organized is important to success for a scanner. Now, I only ever implemented a few of the tools she suggested to help me fit the things I LOVE to do into my life around the things I WANT to do, but I’m trying to get back to that.

What I’ve done in the past several days is to plan my day a little ahead of time, and not try to do it all every day ( so I can focus on each thing I want to accomplish – see it all coming together here?) Yesterday I ran errands in the morning and in the evening I worked on items for my Karabu Etsy shop. Today I’m cleaning house and tonight I’ll write. Granted, my Etsy projects aren’t finished yet, my house could always use more cleaning, and there are other projects I haven’t gotten to yet, but I have to say, I’ve made more progress on each of these areas than if I’d gone about things in my normal fashion of fluttering around trying to do five things at once. We even spent several hours at a playdate with my daughter’s friends and I did a little craft project with my kiddo too today!

So far I feel really good about this, and since my extended maternity leave ends next week I’ll really need to have a time management system in place in order to work, have time with my family and accomplish my other goals as well. I’ll keep you posted on how it all goes.