That, not their claws, is their primary defense mechanism
Dec 08, 2009
It's very cold out, but it's also absurdly sunny and bright. Two of my cats (if you've read me for previous years' Holidailies, you've met them before) are curled up on the fuzzy red blanket on the bed. They're in identical poses, but facing away from each other - like quotation marks. They look perfectly still, sweet, and lovely.
Which means they're Up To Something.
That line from Harry Potter - "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good" - cats never need to say that line. They embody it entirely, from the tips of their whiskers to the end of their tails. They are masters of appearing innocent. Oh, the makeup on your vanity? I guess it just fell down. The bird ornaments on the Christmas tree three years ago? No, I didn't chew those, it must have been one of the other cats...you know how they are. The dwarf blue spruce tree, the one on the fireplace mantel? It just fell over while I was basking by the fire, minding my own business. The food you left unattended for less than ten seconds? But it smelled good, and you just left it there!
The kitty-hurk? Yes, well, I was imperfectly delighted with the quality of the wet food you served me and so I used this method to express my displeasure. Yes I know it was exactly the same as Those Other Two get, but you didn't feed me first.
The water, sloshed out of the water dish to soak the rug around the bowl? I was going after some dropped kibble and my paw slipped. What are you complaining about, I kept it on that little blue rug you put there for spills and such. I'm just making sure that it gets to fulfill its purpose.
The kibble all over the floor of the kitchen? Yes, well, that's deliberate. You see, I'm eating some now and saving some for later. In order to know which was the "later" food, I had to put it elsewhere while I ate the "now" food.
I love my cats, I truly do. The two eldest are over 10 years old, and while they're both pretty healthy I occasionally catch myself worrying about when they might finally leave: in four years? six years? dare I hope for eight or nine? (Some cats do live as long as 22 years, so I may still have a good while.) They don't play as much as they did when they were much much younger, but I still do enjoy sitting with them and petting them.
But there are moments when I just want to scream and get a pet rock.
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I just need a bit of a push now and then.
Dec 07, 2009
Last night the temperature dropped below 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Tonight and tomorrow night it’s supposed to do the same thing. We have an arctic weather front that invited itself into our neighborhood and ZZZZIP!! just like that, we transition from a mild fall into a pre-winter with ice in the parking lot all day. (I only slipped twice, though.) Thank goodness I have two great big fuzzy blankets and three cats. The cats love sleeping on top of the big fuzzy blankets, usually snugged right up against my legs - which not only traps warmth beneath the blankets and covers, but adds to it. They and I both get radiant heat out of the deal.
I have my wreath hung, and my tree decorated. I haven’t hung the Christmas lights or the stockings yet, and I’m kind of debating on the stockings. (I have to change the porch lights, so might as well hang the blue icicle lights.) I’ve found an exchange to participate in, so am looking forward to putting the cards together and to receiving mine. Right now, though, I’m just looking at the clear sunny day, shining forth so innocently, as if the local climate didn’t try and freeze our collective nonnies off last night and won’t be doing so again tonight and tomorrow night. (Meh.)
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many things. But here's a short list of the things that are making me happy today.
Dec 06, 2009
...a newly-decorated dwarf blue spruce Christmas tree (which will be planted in the side yard once the holidays are over.)
...a fresh-cut real evergreen wreath that’s as wide as the front door.
...blue icicle Christmas lights that don’t have any burned-out bulbs - not one single one - even after a year in storage.
...fresh coffee with a shot of gingerbread syrup that I bought from the store the other day. No more giving money to Starbuck’s!!
...a kitty who crawls under the covers with you and sleeps right next to you, purring loudly, for an hour. (Sure it means your day starts later, but it’s a weekend.)
...a server management company whose support people are excellent teachers, who actually do teach when you ask them a reasonable question, and who can out-subreference you.
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...or even 'goes well' (no endings, please)
Dec 03, 2009
One year ago I was still getting unpacked. I was still trying to find my other set of silverware. I had yet to make my first actual mortgage payment (because the first one that I had to pay that wasn’t part of the closing costs was for January.) And I wasn’t aware of it, but I was about to experience the heaviest snowfall I’d ever experienced in my life. (This is what happens when one grows up near the ocean, and south of San Francisco CA.)
Holidailies is happening again this year. It’s kind of cool to sign up again and see a bunch of familiar names and blog titles. It’s like a family reunion, except that no one has to endure a long trip to get there and there’s no squabbling over who has to be the host and keep those kids from running amuck and get out of my kitchen or don’t put your feet on the coffee table (or “Get in the house before we’re on the news”.) It’s a more sedate reunion: Oh, hi, there you are again. Hi, haven’t seen you in a while. Oh, hey, I was just over at your place last week - but hi, good to see you here too.
I’ve been busy this year on another project, and I haven’t even updated here as much as I would have liked. I am still debating whether or not to participate in the portal, or just sign up for Holidailies at Home (which doesn’t have the strict writing requirement, but also doesn’t get one as much exposure.) I had a half-thought of not participating at all, just taking a year off - but that would be kind of like not showing up to the family holiday gathering, in a way. (Or maybe I’m the only whackjob who thinks like this?)
At any rate, it’s been a busy year. I’ve served as the HOA treasurer, and I won’t be running for a board position next year. I learned a lot, I felt like I got to help out a bit, and I have told one of the folks who will also be serving next year that I’m willing to assist with the occasional project here and there - I just don’t want to be an officer full-time several years running. (There aren’t even 20 owners in the complex, anyway - everyone should help out from time to time. Maybe if the board actually reached out a bit and asked for more help, people would be willing to give it?) At any rate, I’m also putting up a web site for homeowner concerns: how our heating systems work (and don’t), how our fireplaces work (and don’t - contractor didn’t install the convection fans to blow the heat into the house), what other gotchas to watch for (apparently most of the wall seams weren’t taped at all - more halfassed work)...things that aren’t the board’s responsibility, but that the homeowners may or may not know. I like doing research, I like sharing the results of that research, so this will be a good way for me to contribute back to the larger community. Some folks bake cookies and give them out. Others will offer to wash folks’ cars. I…I will do this.
The weather has been mild, but when I went to take the garbage out this morning there was frost on the ground and a definite crisp bite in the air. So yep, winter is on its way. (Though hopefully we won’t have snow again this year. I now own a snow shovel, and since I’m a telecommuter I won’t have the getting-to-work problems; but still…that was brutal.)
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Tool users versus consumers
Nov 15, 2009
This is interesting. It’s about how the digital revolution has lead to people who know how to use computer applications, but don’t know how to program them. They know how to use the tools they’re given, but they don’t know how to create new tools themselves. I’d had similar thoughts, but hadn’t ever put it into words.
The digital should have made all of this more probable and more possible, not less.
College kids learn how to use word processors, spreadsheets, and basic graphics programs - but they can’t write a graphics program themself. They’re limited by what they learn - and by which tools they learn to use. (Microsoft’s counting on this…which is why they donate so much software to schools. They’re playing the long game.) I know HTML and CSS, and a teeny tiny bit of JavaScript. I could, if I wanted, sit down and learn SQL programming and even Perl. But I don’t know how to write a program more complex than the simplest GOTO Basic routines that I wrote more than 25 years ago, when I was first learning to use the (then fairly new) Apple IIe that my farsighted dad bought for our home. I can make Photoshop sing and dance, but I don’t know how to write a program to manipulate or edit graphics.
Then again, is it just another step in the journey? The author writes out an interesting analogy about how each revolution raised the social bar, but most people never used the full potential of the latest tool:
- the invention of the 22-character alphabet lead to a society that could write down its knowledge…but only a few ever learned how to read
- the printing press lead to widespread availability of printed material…but only a few (those who could afford the apparatus) mass-produced and distributed written material
- broadcast radio/film/television lead to a more widespread availability of information…but only a small segment of society were producers of the content
Those are some interesting points. The author goes on to state that the real power of the digital renaissance is not in using the tools (blogging, YouTube, et cetera) but in creating the tools (programming). Well…isn’t that how it’s always been, really? A few create the tools, many more make use of the tools, most are consumers of the works produced by those tools. I think this is a result of a few things: the tool creation/tool use mindset and teaching, and peoples’ inclinations. When people don’t know how to create a tool, they won’t - or they’ll juryrig the existing tools to do what they want it to. (I’ve had a few go-rounds of this with my CMS.) Most people may not care about being able to create tools. As long as some do, society will continue to advance. Let’s take a look at me as an example. I learned HTML when the spec was first released in 1991. I learned CSS in 1997, but had to wait until 1999 for serious implementation because so few browsers could render the code. But even those are just markup languages, not true programming languages. As neat as it may be, I don’t care to learn how to program. I’m quite content to use the tools around me. I think that many people feel the same way: they could learn to change their own brakes, but they’d rather just pay someone else to do it. They could learn to spin their own cloth and sew their own clothing, but they’d rather (for the most part) buy something premade. The entire fast-food industry, and to an extent the food distribution industry (grocery stores), is built on the premise that while people could raise their own livestock and grow their own food, for the most part, people would rather buy the ground flour and processed sugar and harvested vegetables and assemble the ingredients - or even buy a loaf of bread or a box of cookies or a bag of salad fixings or a cut of meat (or a burger, or an entree at a restaurant.) I don’t know if human inclination can be overcome so that most of society knows how to create digital-media tools. I think it would be cool if more people had the opportunity to learn, and were given the awareness that those opportunities were there - but, again, look at me. I know where to go to learn PHP programming, and SQL, and JavaScript. I just choose not to do so. I don’t care that much, in my day-to-day life, to learn how to use those particular tools to create other tools.
But I’m quite happy that others do. Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to run this blog on my own hosted web space, with the script of my choosing/installing/configuring.
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If money were no object, I'd get a few goodies for the house...
Oct 31, 2009
This is all aside from the new water heater, which is a) already being saved for; and b) darn near a necessity.
- a tool shed. I've already got the one picked out: it's an Arrow Yardsaver. 4 foot by 7 foot, large enough to store things (even a bike, should I ever buy one) but not a ginormous 6 foot by 5 foot monstrosity that will eat my backyard.
- a rake, to clean up the fall detrius the big tree gives me daily from September through to mid-December.
- a shop vac. When my brother came up for a visit, I saw just how insanely useful those things are. Plus, I could keep in the tool shed.
- don't know what they're called...but they're used for removing hex-head bolts and screws. Useful, especially for cleaning the furnace fans and for changing the porch lightbulbs.
- new carpet for everywhere but the library, which was recarpeted before I moved in. This other carpet isn't dead yet, but it's been lived on and not really ever cleaned. (And I've continued the tradition. How shameful.)
- the wall of the upstairs rooms, expanded into the empty space under the roof. I could have another 100 square feet of living space without having to change the exterior of the house one iota (and to change the exterior I have to get board approval. That's not all that likely to happen, methinks)
- a retaining wall for the east side yard. It doesn't have to be high - in fact, lower is better because I want to keep the view - but something's got to stop or slow the soil erosion over there.
- circulation fans for my gas fireplace. The fireplace is equipped to have a fan that blows the heated air back into the house. The asshat builder just never installed any of them...and, since I'm not the original owner and since the warranty period's long past, I can't go back and force them to finish their job properly. (Nimrods...)
- two more chairs for the dining room. The ones I got a few months ago work quite well. Now I just need to get two more.
- several bars of Lindt Intense Pear chocolates - dark chocolate with slivers of pear and almond. Mmmmmm... (okay, that's for the owner more than for the house)
It's almost gingerbread latte season!
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