Thoughts

Two mothers, six kittens

The wonderful (and unique) thing about our two cats, Mitzi and Trixie, is they share responsibility for their two litters of kittens. They each gave birth to three kittens, a few days apart, and soon afterward, began to take care of them together. They groom and feed each others’ kittens, regardless of who they are, and the six kittens play together and sleep together all the time. I haven’t heard of another case like this.

We expected this somewhat, though. Mitzi and Trixie are sisters, and they’ve always cared about each other, although they do argue from time to time. We got them when they were close to two months old, and they’ve been together ever since. They’ve eaten together, played together, slept together — done everything together. I think they were even courted by the same tomcats. Before they gave birth, I recorded a video clip where they were comforting each other, and that’s another thing I hadn’t seen or heard of in cats until then.

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Places

Castelul Grofului din Pribilesti (Boyar’s Castle)

In the village of Pribilesti, province of Maramures, in Romania, there’s a beautiful little castle called simply “Castelul Grofului”, or, roughly translated, The Boyar’s Castle (see definition of a boyar).

As the story goes, when the Austro-Hungarian empire invaded Romania and took over most of its lands, a ruler was set over that region. The Hungarian boyar built two castles, one in Pribilesti, and another, a larger one, in the mountains. At the time, his castle was the only structure around. He was surrounded by tens of square kilometers of open fields, which were tended by the peasants from the surrounding villages.

Nowadays, houses have sprung up around the castle, and the boyar’s land has been divided and subdivided, sold, and resold,  so much so that there’s no land around the castle anymore. It’s surrounded by the villagers’ houses, all around. It’s an odd sight — a castle with no land around it, but it is what it is.

During Romania’s Communist regime, the castle was taken over by the local farm cooperative, and it was used as a barn for animals. The upper floors were used as offices for the cooperative’s leaders — the members of the Communist Party. The castle’s extensive library was (naturally) burned, the paintings stolen, and everything else of value looted.

Don’t feel too bad for the boyar though. It turns out he was one mean s.o.b. He used to yoke the peasants like cattle and force them to till his land, because he thought they weren’t obedient enough.

After the Communist regime fell in 1989, the boyar’s family got the castle back, but the details are fuzzy. I spoke to a few villagers, and it sounds like either the family’s still got it, or some other foreigner’s got it, but they’re not doing anything with it, and they’re not putting money into renovating the place either. It’s falling apart. It has a new roof courtesy of the Romanian government, who paid for it. Hens and local urchin climb through it every day. Drunks pee on it and inside it. Nobody knows how much longer it’ll stand.

It’s a beautiful place, but what are you going to do? A castle with no land around it isn’t worth much these days. You’d have to sink at least 500,000 Euros into renovating the place, then a few hundred thousand more into buying back some of the land around it, so you’d have a bit of space to breathe.

I do hope someone renovates it. If I had that kind of money, I’d do it. It would be a pity to lose it.

I’ve got more photos from Castelul Grofului in my photo catalog.

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Exercise

The RPM System just got better!

As I mentioned in some of my recent posts, I recently (5/18) started on the RPM System, a new fitness regimen that you can do with only an exercise ball and an exercise band, and I love it. I recently passed my 6-week progress point, and I plan to post the results from that re-assessment this week.

There have been some changes in the works on the backend of the RPM System website, which have just been completed. As a result of those changes, many of which came about from feedback provided by early users of the system, like me, the RPM System is a lot more affordable and easy to understand now:

  • The cost has been reduced to $9.95/month, which makes it affordable for just about anybody. It’s now much, much lower than a gym membership, and since you can do it at home, you’ll be saving time and money.
  • Those using the system will have the opportunity to sign up their family members at $7.95/month, with a special code, which will make it easier and even more affordable to stay fit. You’ll be able to work out together and encourage each other.
  • It’s much easier now to get the equipment you need for the program. There’s a new Equipment tab on the site menu, where you can purchase the exercise band and the ball, plus the door wedge and the metronome, which are the two additional items I didn’t know about when I started the workouts. Fortunately, you can get all of this as a bundle from the Equipment page, so you’ll be able to get right to the workouts without missing a beat. As a matter of fact, the door wedge is included with every exercise band, right off the bat. And you no longer need to get a metronome, unless you want to. All of the exercises have been changed to the same beat. If you want to try different beats as you advance through the workouts, you can, by using a metronome, but it’s no longer a must-have piece of equipment.

I took a few screenshots of their website, to give you a sense of the changes. Here’s the page where they describe why you should use the program. The new price is clearly posted there.

And here’s the Equipment page. As you can see, things are nicely bundled and the prices are quite affordable.

One of the things I like about this fitness program is the fact they donate to charities. It’s nice when a company decides to do that, especially in these troubled economic times. The founders donate 10% of the corporate profits to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer foundation.

If you’d like to try the RPM System, you can get a 2-week free trial through this referral code: 553677456. The normal free trial is 1 week, but this way, you get to really use the system enough to see its true benefits to your body. I have, and I plan to keep using it for a long time.

As I mentioned in my very first post about the RPM System, I am using the system for free. When the founders asked me to review it, that was one of the benefits I got in exchange for putting in the time and effort of using the system enough to be able to speak cogently about it. But I wouldn’t have stuck with it for 6 long weeks if I didn’t love it, and I do. When I say you should give it a try if you’re not already exercising, I really mean it! You will see results!

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Events

C&O Canal photo on cover of poetry book

One of my photos from the C&O Canal has made it onto the cover of a poetry book to be published this year, written by Jean Wilbur. The book is called Walk the Towpath, and it can be pre-ordered from Finishing Line Press.

Here is the photo.

Here’s what it looks like on the cover of the book.

From Ms. Wilbur’s bio:

“Jean Gleason Stromberg, who writes under her maiden name, Jean Wilbur, has been writing most of her life, primarily in the service of others. She grew up in Northern California where she learned to love the outdoors, was educated at Wellesley College and Harvard Law, and practiced corporate law for many years. She is increasingly focused on writing, especially poetry, for herself. She walks on the C&O canal towpath in all seasons. She lives with her husband, Kurt Stromberg, in Washington DC and on a houseboat in Sausalito, California. Her sons have settled in Northern California.”

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Thoughts

Follow the PCB and Mercury trail in our oceans

Marine biologist Stephen Palumbi gave a talk at TED about the massive problem with pollutants in our oceans, and the disease and death this causes everywhere in the world, throughout the food chain, including us.

Keep in mind what he says, then read this article, where the problem of toxins found in whales is shown in grim detail. Quoting from the article:

“The researchers found mercury as high as 16 parts per million in the whales. Fish high in mercury such as shark and swordfish — the types health experts warn children and pregnant women to avoid — typically have levels of about 1 part per million.”

“Ultimately, he said, the contaminants could jeopardize seafood, a primary source of animal protein for 1 billion people. ‘You could make a fairly tight argument to say that it is the single greatest health threat that has ever faced the human species. I suspect this will shorten lives, if it turns out that this is what’s going on,’ he said.”

“‘The biggest surprise was chromium,’ Payne said. ‘That’s an absolute shocker. Nobody was even looking for it.'”

“He said another surprise was the high concentrations of aluminum, which is used in packaging, cooking pots and water treatment. Its effects are unknown. The consequences of the metals could be horrific for both whale and man, he said.”

“‘I don’t see any future for whale species except extinction,’ Payne said. ‘This is not on anybody’s radar, no government’s radar anywhere, and I think it should be.'”

Guess who is the largest manufacturer of PCBs in the world? Monsanto.

Is the US government doing anything about this? No. They’re too busy blocking the press from seeing and reporting on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

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