joe_chin

blueberry hill

2009-10-28T18:42:03Z

After months of planning, preparing, calling, scheduling, organizing, worrying, irritation, excitement, confusion, panic, and all sorts of other things, hyperbard and I got married on Saturday. I've got a lot to say about it, so I'll just reiterate this before I put in a cut:

Not all weddings suck.

To prove this, let me relate the whole story of the day, beginning with Friday. My best man did not in fact show up before he was supposed to go with me to Mom's for a night of drinking and watching crappy movies. To make matters worse, Hyperkitty severely sprained her ankle trying to see if her matron of honor had arrived. So our bachelor and bachelorette parties pretty much ended in both of us passing out at some point. I somehow managed five hours of semi-restful sleep before my brain finally told me, "Dude, you're getting married!!"

After getting everything in order, I finally arrived at O'Connor's for 10:15. My groomsmen, A & S (familiar to the Quintavians on the list), arrived with Mrs. B before I did. chrystie69 got there immediately after I did, with our priestess. After formulating a basic plan, we walked through the door and got the setup underway in The Parlour. The Parlour's chief feature is a trio of paintings on the far wall depicting four gentlemen entering a tavern, getting drunk, and arriving at one of their doorsteps unable to get in.

S quickly took over the organizing with the ease of a Zen master, for which I am eternally grateful, as the stuff HK and I would remember after our heads stopped spinning might not have happened if he hadn't stepped in. A offered his services as a King Lear-esque jester, half-jokingly suggesting that "if I get as crazy as he does, that's when I've got a problem". I set up the altar, gave instructions to the band and sound man (my stepgrandfather and stepdad respectively), and even briefly greeted Brendan Himself.

At 10:45, I found out about HK's matron's car getting towed during the night. S quickly confiscated my cellphone and made sure we focused on the stuff we needed to do. It was around then that I realized my best friend had arrived. I spoke with his wife the night before and was overjoyed to find out they were making an 11th-hour RSVP. He was my first choice for best man (no offense to HK or her brother), and I was very happy to see him again for the first time since 2006 or so. And so I drafted him with only minimal hesitation once I realized HK's brother wouldn't make it up in time. He quickly got to work, doing the one job I knew he was a master at: making silly remarks about everything going on.

The bride finally arrived at 11:45 or so. Mrs. B, who graciously acted as ad-hoc chauffeur at least three times that day, presented me (and my bride, I later found out) with beautiful grounding bracelets. Mine fit me effortlessly. I was now very nervous, but I looked behind me and to my amusement spotted one of the many curios at O'Connor's: an advertisement stating, "Lovely Day For a Guinness" with a toucan balancing a pint on his beak. It comforted me, partially because it was absolutely true.

Our priestess began the ceremony with the words the three of us (me, HK, and her) had painstakingly drafted over the course of two months. And then Rodrigo's Concerto de Aranjuez played, and my perception shifted. By the time I took my place next to my best man, my perception had narrowed. And when I saw my bride for the first time in her gown, I was stunned. I only vaguely remember seeing a man behind her walking her down, and the music changing as she appeared in my field of vision, and that there was anyone around me other than her and the priestess. Anything outside the three of us and the altar seemed like it was on another world entirely.

For all the planning we did, there were only five parts of the ceremony that formed a lasting memory on me:

The vows. I spoke mine and only barely managed to stay composed. She spoke hers, and though she insists she was on autopilot, there was no doubt in my mind that her vows were directly from her heart, and I was
The handfasting, the only unscripted part of the ceremony. The priestess's seven blessings as she fastened our hands together were either from memory or improvised, and I only remember four parts: "blessing of earth", "go with the flow", "dominate your fate", and "so mote it be".
The kiss. This space left intentionally blank.
The presentation. I was overjoyed as the Traveling Song hit, and as my perception returned to normal, my one big regret for that entire day is that I didn't invite the others to join our private celebration; instead, trying to do it the other way around.

After that there was plenty of talking (though I feel like I left so many people out, not the least of which was my stepbrother, the one person I had invited for me, and seemed to feel the same way), pictures to be taken ("crazy prospector" cracked me up, as did fitzw's "Mandarin eggplant"), cake to be eaten (and stuffed hilariously in my face), food to be consumed (including Brendan's Legendary Potato Pizza, which IS that damn good), some Guinness, Murphy's, and mild buzzes, and a bouquet to be thrown. Some of it got rushed, which S apologized profusely for afterwards, but we were so much in a daze anyway that if he hadn't, it's likely we would've forgotten it.

Oh, and there was a dance! My stepgrandfather and his friend (who were an amazing wedding band) quickly learned how to play "Blueberry Hill" after I requested it of them, and I asked my bride up for a quick dance. What I didn't know was that our band had somehow transformed into Fozzie Bear and Floyd from the Muppets for that song. And so we cracked up when I heard him sing "The wind in the willows," in the most over-the-top manner possible. We literally laughed our heads off at every line he sang, and then his great finishing comment: "He thought we didn't know this song... but we showed him!!!"

There was a small after-party at our place after we had gotten all out stuff out of O'Connor's at around 3, where our primary goal was to just relax. We opened gifts, and a few hours later, after HK's bridesmaids had gotten their rides home, we settled in. I needed to be jolted out of Host Autopilot, at which point all the safeguards my mind apparently put up for me to ensure I didn't collapse into a fetal position just shut down. I realized that I had just experienced a day full of so much love that I couldn't think of anything else but to give it all back and share it with the world, and not least of all the woman I had just married.

There's been no honeymoon because we have no money, but I am in retrospect very grateful that my wife has insisted I wait until today to make an attempt to get anything substantial done. We're both workaholics, and we've definitely needed these past few days to simply relax. I'm only just beginning to comprehend the significance of even my placeholder "magnetic" ring that was given to us as a gift from the proprietor of Taproots. It is proof that I have swore oaths to the woman who holds its partner (also a placeholder, and also a gift), and the lengths I would go to in order to defend them.

But getting back to my counter-hypothesis, that not all weddings suck, let me say this: of all the bad things that happened at the wedding, none of them came even close to bringing it down. Why? Because a great wedding is like a space-time singularity, where impossible things happen naturally. Where disasters result in happy endings. Where chaos is a sign of order. Where people who normally wouldn't agree on the color of the sky are there for the same reason. Where reason takes the day off and lets miracles happen.

Or, if you prefer:

Good weddings are one fail after another that are secretly made of epic win.

Finally, as a way of saying thank you to character_notes

20 Hours

2009-10-23T19:40:02Z

I've been quiet here, and that's partially because I haven't had the presence of mind to post an update. As you probably know, I'm going to be getting married tomorrow to my darling hyperbard. I've been handling the planning with O'Connor's and doing last-minute stuff with our priestess, who is perhaps the best person I could ask for to perform our handfasting. Between the two of us, we've come up with a ceremony that represents our very different spiritual beliefs and joins them as beautifully as we can.

The two big problems I've got right now are these:
One, I've had to start things an hour later, due to a miscommunication on my part with O'Connor's. I've sent an E-mail out to as many guests as I can, and phoned as much of the wedding party as I can about the change. I was panicking at the time, but it shouldn't be too much of a snag in the long run.

Two, my best man, if he IS going to make it on the trains (and will hopefully be a legal passenger), needs to be here before 8 for my Hyperkitty's sake. If he DOES get to our apartment at some ungodly hour with his Australian sheepdog, we have absolutely no idea how we're going to accommodate him. For one thing, she's going to have her bridesmaid with her who absolutely cannot under ANY circumstances stay with a dog in the same apartment. For another, she needs minimal distractions anyway. And perhaps most importantly, that bastard promised me a bachelor party/Ed Wood movie night, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let his ass get detained by CSX while we're supposed to be drunkenly watching Glen or Glenda.

The good news is, my two groomsmen are perhaps the best men for the job I've asked them to do: keep me as sane as possible no matter what crazy stuff goes on tomorrow. A & S, two of the first Quintavians my bride-to-be introduced me to at our first SCA event together, graciously accepted on short notice. And I have the feeling I'll need them. But as I've been told in various ways, it'll all work out. All that's left is going through it.

Wedding update

2009-10-06T20:43:48Z

Moved wedding ceremony to O'Connor's instead of Elm Park
E-mailed as many of the guests as I can find about the move; must call the rest
Realized I only printed directions to O'Connor's in the original invitation from the park
Have a suit!

And that's all I can think of right now.

HELL YEAH

2009-09-07T05:45:14Z

If I were a Dead Russian Composer, I would be Dmitri Shostakovich!

I am a shy, nervous, unassuming, fidgety, and stuttery little person who began composing the same year I started music lessons of any sort. I wrote the first of my fifteen symphonies at age 18, and my second opera, "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District," when I was only 26. Unfortunately, Stalin hated the opera, and put me on the Enemy Of The People List for life. I nevertheless kept composing the works I wanted to write in private; some of my vocal cycles and 15 string quartets mock the Soviet System in notes. And I somehow was NOT killed in the process! And Harry Potter(c) stole my glasses and broke them!

Who would you be? Dead Russian Composer Personality Test

188!

2009-08-17T17:12:56Z

For the first time in several months, I've gotten my weight back down under 190 pounds! I certainly feel thinner, and it seems like my metabolism's sped up again, in part thanks to my current meds and allergy shots. Next milestone: 180 pounds, which I haven't broken in about 15 years. I'm not sure exactly where I want my target weight to be, but I'd like to know what it's like to weigh around 175 again.

SmoltzWatch '09 Update #3!

2009-08-07T07:51:34Z

Innings Pitched: 3.1
Earned Runs: 8
Current ERA: 8.33
W-L: 2-5

Number of times word "change" used in post-game interviews: at least 5
Amount of spinning Dave Roberts needed to blame Smoltz and praise him in the same sentence with a straight face: 600 RPM

SmoltzWatch '09 Update #2!

2009-08-06T21:57:30Z

Just got this in time before the game!

G: 7
W-L: 2-4
ERA: 7.12
BAA vs. Left: .403

Number of batters faced after someone talks about the "athleticism" of John Smoltz before he gives up a home run: 1

Merce Cunningham, 1919-2009

2009-07-28T07:40:59Z

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8171036.stm

Merce Cunningham lived and breathed dance, and the work he did with John Cage and countless other artists has trickled down into pretty much every visual medium that incorporates dance today. His life from beginning to end is worthy of celebration, and he will be missed.

SmoltzWatch '09 Update #1!

2009-07-27T05:47:21Z

Current stats for John Smoltz, current Red Sox starter:

G - 6
W-L 1-4
ERA - 7.04
Opp. AVG - .321

Number of times NESN broadcasters have used the term "Vintage Smoltz": TOO MANY.

Mario Marathon!

2009-07-12T03:19:23Z

http://mariomarathon.com/

Gamers play through the Mario games for the charity Child's Play.

A great cause, a great idea, and if you like video games, not bad to watch.

As of right now they're in World 6 of Super Mario Bros. 3, for those interested.

Lunar Mecha Soundtrack: The Lost Hero

2009-07-07T19:51:44Z

(Another crosspost from lunar_mecha)

It's been a while, but I've finally completed something I've been tinkering around with for a little under a year. Mia distinctly said that there is no Dragonmaster in Lunar Mecha, but since it IS a Lunar game after all, there has to be some kind of hero -- whether it's one of the PCs or not, living or dead. That was the inspiration for The Lost Hero. This is meant for the Big Moment in the game where the obscure peasant finally realizes he can actually save the world, or whatever the equivalent turns out to be.

The opening chord was inspired by an absolutely terrible book that a former English Lit. professor gave me called "The Girl Who Trod On A Loaf" by Kathryn Davis. She couldn't finish it, and I'm sorry I did. But the book did introduce me to the chord which I used to start this melody. I wanted the tone to be modest but sweeping. I struggled mightily with the last section of it for months, unable to figure out how to end it, or what to do with the strings, but I'm mostly pleased with the end result.

Hopefully you all will be too. :)

Sarah Palin resigns

2009-07-07T00:00:39Z

I'm not sure if anyone's heard about this yet, but...

...

...

... never mind, I quit.

Michael Jackson dead at the age of 50

2009-06-26T18:06:30Z

I couldn't believe it. I remember hearing about a comeback tour, and just scoffed at it. How do you come back from everything that guy's lived since 1994? It turns out we never got the answer to that question.

His legacy to most people will and should consist of at least five things: The Jackson Five, Thriller, Beat it, Bad, and the first half of the Black and White video. (Apologies to fans of anything I missed in advance.) He broke into MTV's lineup (back when all they did was play music videos), leading the change in music videos from Zappa-esque experimental films to high-production value theatrical extravaganzas. In 1993, he made the Super Bowl half-time show into such a musical centerpiece that only his sister Janet and Justin Timberlake could screw it all up 11 years later. He was and still is beloved around the world.

Already we're being presented with that and his darker side by news organizations. The abuse allegations. The plastic surgery. The baby-dangling. The trial. The Neverland ranch. Michael Jackson stayed relevant not because of his music, but because his life became performance art in its own right. And that's the real shame of Michael Jackson's death: that it's the only way the public would ever stop gawking at him.

Nobody wants to remember that Michael Jackson was a creepy albino man-child whose abuse allegations seemed so easy to dismiss and simultaneously easy to mock because he was that fucked up. Nobody ever wanted to look at him that way, despite the snickering and cheap sense of superiority it elicited from me and his biggest detractors. That's where the comparisons to Elvis that keep getting bandied around are at their most striking. Both men reached such extraordinary heights and then plummeted so dramatically. And both men after their deaths will be remembered primarily for the former rather than the latter.

What I find most striking is the suddenness with which Michael Jackson seemed to transform from derisive spectacle to immortal hero. Not just in my mind, but in the media coverage. Sure, they showed references to all the problems he's had and the repulsive things he's done. But I've never seen media coverage go through the motions so much as I saw CNN's Headline News cover his death, alternating between perfunctory references to possible drug overdoses and his past misdeeds, and warm (or as warm as you're going to get from a second-string news anchor) anecdotes about living with his music back in the 80's and people dancing in front of the Apollo Theater in celebration of everything he did. Say what you want about "fair and balanced" coverage, but this is really an example of when blatant bias is okay. You don't see coverage of Farrah Fawcett's batshit insane ramblings over the last five years, so why show us footage of him gleefully holding a baby in a surgical mask precariously over a balcony?

I grew up on rock and classical music. I never really cared much for Michael Jackson even if I thought there was something unique about his music that I couldn't express. But I am a musician, and in the years that I've spent analyzing every piece of music I can find (consciously and otherwise), I've learned that Jackson was a musical genius as Mozart or Beethoven or Prokofiev or Lennon. And for that reason, maybe he could've produced another #1 hit. Hell, if Madonna and Cher can pull it off, why not him? He's a man with the power to create music, and that's why I'm so willing to forget everything I didn't want to see about Jackson's life in favor of everything I loved about it. And that's why everyone else seems so willing to do the same.

You can't say "fuck" in an opera

2009-06-23T08:07:20Z

I've been unusually productive tonight. I've gotten the basic format of my second of a planned 5 tunes for DNW's LufiaRPG commission, after having been nearly musically dry for weeks.

And I've finally figured an opera idea that might actually work: The Three Kingdoms, a battle over control of an opera about the making of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It's sort of inspired by Love for the Three Oranges, Braid, and the realization that even postmodern opera follows traditions that work against it. No idea how far I can run with it, but it'll at least give me some good ideas.

And it's all thanks to a really crappy retelling of the Journey to the West called The Lost Empire. Terrible miniseries (with a few good ideas, like a celestial lawsuit to stop a fight) but provided a spark of creativity, so it's fulfilled its purpose. Which is good because I never want to see it ever again. Or Thomas Gibson, AKA Greg of Dharma and Greg fame, for that matter.

A belated announcement

2009-06-02T05:42:49Z

Some of you may know that I've been dating hyperbard since late 2006. A few of you may already know what I'm about to say as I made it unofficial back in late 2007, but I made it official about a week and a half ago with... a ring. Yup:

We're ENGAGED!!!!!!

She's talked about the first ring I got her nearly two weeks ago in her blog, but for some reason I never got around to posting something myself. I'd told her that I wanted to get her a ring with the extra money I received earlier in May, but I didn't have time to actually organize a time do go down and get it. So we went down to the Auburn Mall two Wednesdays ago, where I got her a pearl ring. (She hates diamonds, and we'd talked about getting either that or a moonstone.) It was nice, and though I didn't say anything at the time, it suddenly hit me that I was taking a big step forward, and that everything we'd talked about was about to get a lot more real.

Unfortunately, we realized quickly that the pearl wasn't going to be something she could wear consistently, and so the next day, after taking a bit longer to think about exactly what she wanted on her finger, she settled on a gorgeous peridot ring that was far more stable and far better suited her. I've told Mom and Dad, and she's told her parents too. Our current wedding planner is about to give birth to a baby girl, and we haven't gone further than planning something in November, but we're hoping that between us we can somehow put together a medium-sized wedding and reception. We're steadily solidifying plans, however, so a lot of the vagueness should be settled by the end of June.

So, to sum up:

OH NO! THE NES BROKE DOWN!

2009-05-15T19:15:48Z

This is from the final chapter of a comic included with GamePro magazine back in 1990, plugging Culture Brain's Little Ninja Brothers for the NES. For those who've never heard of Culture Brain (which includes probably everyone reading this except my sister), they made games like Kung-Fu Heroes, The Magic of Scheherezade, Flying Warriors, and, of course, Little Ninja Brothers. The latter three were all RPG hybrids, involving a quirky mix of action, strategy and poorly-translated Japanese zaniness.

Writer's Block: Looking Back

2009-04-15T17:33:28Z

LiveJournal is turning 10 and we're feeling nostalgic. What was your first LJ post about?

View 503 Answers

joe_chin (</a></b></a>joe_chin) wrote,
@ 2006-07-13 14:25:00

FYI
Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

Started this LJ in 2006, mostly so I could stay in touch with people online. The story behind this was an interesting one though, as I'd been hospitalized with a nasty case of acid reflux that my doctors initially thought was heart failure of some kind, due to a wonky EKG reading. But my heart catheterization came back clean and I figured that this was as good a place as any to let people know that I was okay.

Culling the Herd

2009-04-08T05:35:47Z

I've been going through old CuBase stuff (CuBase is my musical editor/sequencer of choice, for those who've never heard me talk about how I write music) and have found a bunch of good stuff, a bunch of bad stuff, and a few things where I seriously wonder what I was thinking. One was actually good enough to submit to vgmusic.com as-is, though far too many of the others were projects that just never got off the ground.

I'm really excited to finally be in the right frame of mind to get back to musical endeavors, even to the point where I don't mind dredging through several years worth of old stuff just to find some gems still worth polishing. One or two might even make for some really good lunar_mecha stuff. As always, stay tuned.

1980's Video/Arcade Game Quiz!

2009-03-29T17:32:55Z

www.sporcle.com/games/videogames_80s.php

I think the use of Atari and NES games are cop-outs, but at least they included some nice obscure arcade games.

Review Blog Updates

2009-02-23T19:16:04Z

1) The name is now "International House of Downloads"
2) The address is now http://ihodls.blogspot.com .

We now return you to your regularly scheduled rambling.

Music of the 81st Academy Awards Ceremony

2009-02-23T06:31:52Z

I, like probably thousands of other LJ users, am posting my thoughts on the 81st Academy Awards. Unlike most of these thousands, my focus is more on the musical director of the program, Michael Giacchino. You've probably run into his music somewhere, whether in Lost, Fringe, Cloverfield, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, the Space Mountain ride at Walt Disney World, or the Medal of Honor series. You'll also hear it in the new Star Trek movie. And if you watched the Academy Awards, you'd have heard his work in the music cues throughout the show.

As you've probably guessed by now, I'm a huge Giacchino fanboy. And when I saw his name pop up as Musical Director for the Academy Awards this year, I literally screamed and giggled like a preteen girl at a Miley Cyrus concert. hyperbard was there, she can vouch for that. So what did I think of the music? The answer should be obvious.

It sucked.

I can understand the producer phoning it in with all the budget cuts and the overall old-school/industrial theme of the show. I can understand the set designer phoning it in with a labyrinthine 30's-era seating arrangement that not only literally divided the stars from the rest of the audience, but also made the lower-profile winners run a 100-meter dash to get their awards. I can even understand the godawful camera crew phoning it in, making it impossible to see half the people in the "In Memorial" clip. I can understand all of them phoning in a fiasco of a show and blaming their ineptitude on an economic downturn. What I can't understand is why Michael Giacchino did it too.

Sure, he's primarily responsible for just the interstitials and the music choices in the show. No one listens to interstitals, right? They're just background! How can you screw up background? Giacchino demonstrates exactly how. He talked about re-orchestrating classic Oscar-winning soundtracks in the little clip before the show began. But the remixes are so high-concept that they completely mangle the music people loved so dearly. His peppy jazz renditions of the Lawrence of Arabia, Cabaret and Never On A Sunday themes, for example, layer a cheese-crusted lounge band sound over melodies so warped as to be unrecognizable. He may as well have just remixed the soundtrack to Alias instead of condescending with these "tributes" that are more monuments to his own talent than the original composers'. In fairness to Giacchino, they would've seemed slightly less pretentious if the band hadn't played over the presenters as they started speaking.

But while I can forgive him for his complex arrangements, the music that played right before each Oscar was handed out is inexcusable. I thought the boring John Williams-esque theme was originally from the movie Milk, but then I heard the same banal music shoveled out 20 different ways, most with arrangements more appropriate to an aging Vegas Night club act than the biggest and oldest movie awards of the year. By the time the show was over, I'd rather have sawed off my ears than heard that obnoxious, lifeless theme one more time. Never mind the boneheaded decision to play it instead of the films' own soundtracks for all but three awards; this was pure vapidity that should never have made it to a final orchestration.

And then there was the tribute to the musical. My poor lady doesn't like medleys to begin with, but she said that this one was even tougher to follow. I agree. And for medleys, that's an especially flagrant error when the whole point is to enjoy all the tunes. Giacchino crammed around a hundred different showtunes from dozens of different composers into one ADD-arranged collection that doesn't even give you time to register what song you just heard before the next one plops out. Even Moulon Rouge had the decency to artfully weave in their 700 pop culture references. This medley was a jarring trainwreck from start to finish, begging for just a sliver of self-editing that never came.

The worst part was when his work from other movies (specifically Cloverfield and The Incredibles) popped up. The 30-second clips he cribbed had more creativity in them than the show's entire body of original music. I don't care how many other projects he's working on, that show deserved better than the steaming pile of garbage he pushed through the ears of millions of people. The only saving graces of his musical direction came from the goofy opening number and his conducting of the Best Musical Score nominee selections. Other than that, he should be lucky that I and many other people will remember his past successes rather than this musical mulligan.

Question:

2009-02-14T03:39:56Z

Am I the only one who thinks Dollhouse was complete ass?

Laptop shopping

2009-01-29T00:26:53Z

Last night, not one but two devices in the apartment stopped working. hyperbard's trusty 10-year-old Canon StarWriter seems to have conked out, and while I was trying to print out the stories she was writing on it (from the floppy drive), my trusty 4-year-old printer decided it wanted to cause a paper jam and start shoving its cartridge carriage around like it was in a mosh pit. The printer is DOA, and the StarWriter at least needs a new power cord and at most needs to be outright replaced.

The printer'll be relatively easy to replace, but the big question is how to replace the StarWriter if I can't find a proper power cord replacement. My two options are:

1) Find a word processor that can support text files, or
2) Find a laptop with a floppy drive.

For option 1, I've seen some things on eBay such as AlphaSmart 2000's and even a vintage StarWriter for around $100, but there has to be a cheaper or more efficient alternative. That leads me to option 2. For that, she literally needs just a laptop with an AC adapter, a floppy drive, and support for text files -- NOTHING else.

I'll see if the StarWriter is salvagable when I head out Friday, but if not, the hunt begins. If any of you know what price range I should be looking at (since I've never bought a laptop before) or have any other suggestions or warnings, I'm all ears.
</lj>

MC Mike Goza

2009-01-03T04:39:28Z

If there's one thing that always cheers me up, it's lame wrestling stuff.

First desensitization shots today

2008-12-22T22:19:20Z

A week or so ago, I went to my new allergist, who after doing some extensive allergy testing declared that I'm "allergic to everything." Evidently my biggest score was on the Cat stuff, though I also tested high on all molds, weeds... pretty much anything you'd expect to run into in Massachusetts, I'm allergic to it.

So shot #1 was today. I had a mild headache about 10-15 minutes after the shot, but other than that, no major side effects. I'm told that I need to stay on them for the next three months, then the maintenance shots start up; once every month or so. I should expect to see results in about a year or so.

I'm not expecting to start inhaling cats like that guy in the air freshener commercial, but it'd be nice to have a little less dependency on anti-allergy meds.