The vicious black cat looked much like the roadkill I saw on Fontaine Avenue yesterday on my walk to the Amoco. It was brutal, its hair was matted by rain and its sharp fangs were bared. But the cat in the dream didn't have his intestines hanging out.

I also needed a utility to translate .wav files to .ra files. On the Mac, there is a freeware utility that does that. Not so in the Windows world. So today I bought my first software online. For 50 dollars, I got the crappiest piece of shit, bug-laden monstrosity called SoundMix. Every function on it crashes the program except the part that translates to RealAudio, and even that part has its problems. For example, the progress bar only works for the first half of the progress. After that you sort of have to extrapolate. And I paid $50. There's a new version of the utility out there somewhere, but I can't get into the special part of the website where it can be downloaded, even though I'm supposedly entitled. The consequence of all this: even more bitterness and cynicism on my part.

But... I did managed to convert files to RealAudio today. If you have the time, listen to:

• Rain Gorgeous, sung by Zachary, from the Jehu End of the World Party, 1995. 700K.
• Riot, sung by Morgan Anarchy, instruments played by Ray (on drums), Raphæl (guitar) and Zach (bass), January 1996. 440K.
• Me talking to Isis at the Jehu End of the World Party. That's Sara Poiron you hear in the background. 16K.

It's been a while since I had an opportunity to watch informative teevee. For most of past two years, I've had to share a teevee with others, and those others, for the most part, have always seemed to revel in their scientific ignorance. I can't imagine, for example, Matthew Hart sitting through a discussion of Nature vs. Nurture or the Uncertainty Principle. He'd be bellyaching the whole time to see "the big game" or the Food Network. Of course, his obstinate refusal to learn about the world contributes continually to his bad decisions. Unfortunately, he's the rule, not the exception. Lucky for Matthew, he happens to be very intelligent.

[On a related note, I heard on Morning Edition that a group of Arkansas teenagers broke into a Neon factory and stole several dozen pounds of elemental Mercury, that heavy liquid metal stuff used in thermometers. The teens divided it up, played with it, dipped objects in it, smeared it on their skins and even smoked it. Several of them are now hospitalized in serious condition, and they (along with their families) have all been evacuated from their contaminated homes. If I'd been in that group, I would have been able to defuse the scientific ignorance of my friends. But that misses a serious point; all children in America should have been taught in elementary school that Mercury is extremely dangerous. The fact that none in this group knew is a serious indictment of American science education. I have no doubt, by the way, that these teenagers knew all about Noah's Ark, Adam and Eve, and other nonsense the religious right would like to be teaching as science in public school.]