cat's cabinet

In any other person's life, what the title of this blog refers to would be written as "cat's bed."

In my life, the mad kitten has adopted the lower portion of an old kitchen cabinet (2 doors, you could park a dishwasher next to it, add water and voila! instant kitchen). She likes to sleep in it. She can open the doors...sometimes

What she does is open the door just enough so that it then bangs shut. If she really wants to go sleep in the cabinet because "she needs her space" she has no problem opening the door and going inside.

But when she would like me to open the door or, when she is dissatisfied that for whatever reason I am not doing what she would like me to do - she will sit in front of it and open the door, let it bang shut, open the door, let it bang shut, until I do whatever it is she wants.

It would appear to be far more effective and more deeply satisfying then picking up and dropping the food dish over and over until I cannot stand it anymore.

Today she raced into the cave with this...thing she caught. The biggest dragonfly I have ever seen. I didn't even know we really had dragonflies here. And there it was, triumphantly placed at my feet.

I am holding off on starting part 2 of "What is Wrong with the World" because...well, you will see but today and tomorrow I am wrapped up recording something else for you.

And yes, if you saw my tweet yesterday, I did so too congratulate Kevin Costner and commend him on the use of his money.

Now, I do not believe that just because you have money you should give it all to those that have none. That creates a very complicated set of expectations, entitlements and general nastiness that is difficult to navigate.

I do think that you should do more with your money then increase your insulation from the world and yourself. Money, I believe, should be used to make of yourself the best that you can be and to fulfill your potential. It is from this that more people will benefit in the long run. Again, it's a complicated subject but maybe sometime soon I will take a stab at explaining it.

Anyway...Mr. Costner, while creating one of the most notorious, glorious, and expensive movie failures of all times - Water World, had an idea. The concept behind that movie was motivated by his concerns for the environment. I assume, between takes, as they floated around on their drilling platform islands, some how the issue of oil spilling into water came up and it captured Mr. Costner's imagination.

He then came up with an idea about a machine that could remove oil from water. His brother is a scientist, he had scads of money and they embarked on a quiet road of invention and testing to develop this machine.

Turns out, the machine has been ready for a while and Mr. Costner had demonstrated it to the US Coast Guard, the Army, the Government and some of the major oil companies and not a one of them expressed an interest. Not a one of them cared that the machcine was 99% effective in separating oil from water.

Until know, when 5 weeks ago he showed up with the machines, gave BP 6 and said "try it." Mr. Costner just finished testifying infront of congress the other day about the machines and BP found out that yes, they do it and they ordered 32 more.

Now, I know nothing about how much oil and water they can process.
I am not really even that interested in the fact that no one was interested in the machines until after disaster struck.

But I do want to point out that what happened is he had an idea and he followed it through.

Most of us do not have millions of dollars to oversee the protype and testing of an invention.

But all of us do have ideas.

And have access to pieces of paper.

There are more mutli millionaires on earth then ever.

But not so many ideas that are invested in with brain power in the beginning.

Most of our ideas we dismiss as too grand, too unrealistic or frankly, too much work to even really sit down and figure out.

While money can make a viable idea come into being, money cannot create an idea, capiche?

There are two types of people with the type of money it takes to make an idea like an oil separating pump happen. One, those with the money to spend on the idea they are passionate about, and two, those that recognize that spending the money on an idea will make them even more money (which they are passionate about).

Oh my god I need coffee.

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