Miscellany of a Cheshire Cat

More Monster comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

tags: cats, comics, monster cat, silly, tennyson

Somehow it got to be after midnight.

I have an 8:30 meeting in the morning.

For which I need to do a half hour of prep.

And perhaps I should be caffeinated before the meeting too.

Worst part? I’m rather awake.

Bother.

Maybe being in bed will make me sleepy.

tags: late, meetings, sleep

Another fabulous Sinfest today.

The week is half over, more than that really. Thank goodness.

Random free music. (US iTunes required.) And by “random” I mean really really random. I haven’t heard of most of these bands but it looks like the kind of randomness that could result in a new favorite or two. There’s quite a spectrum in terms of genre so it will be an entertaining mix to try out if nothing else. So far it’s entertaining.

If anyone knows how to keep iCal from crashing (which it has been doing within 60 seconds of starting up since I upgraded to iLife ‘08 on Mac OS 10.4.11), please let me know. My Google-fu has provided no good leads. (But if you’re having this problem in 10.5, this seems to work for most people:
1. Open /user/Library/Caches/
2. Move /com.apple.iCal/ folder to your desktop
3. Launch iCal
Not that it works for me on Tiger… I’m not ready to move to Leopard on the desktop machine yet. That would mean giving up CivII forever!)

tags: , comics, ical crashes, mac, music, random

Cats do sleep a great deal of the time. Monster Cat is no exception. He’s really incredibly cute when he sleeps too. Especially when he’s sprawled atop his tree (the scratching post in the upper right photo). He needs to be adorable really… otherwise I might not be quite so contentedly resigned to sharing my desk (and keyboard, and mouse, and trackball, and notebook, and … everything on my desk that he decides to sleep on) with him.

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

tags: cats, cat’s pajamas, comics, monster cat, pajamas, silly, tennyson

So the toy is showing some signs of wear. And by “signs” I mean that it’s starting to come apart - the white fuzzy sleeve has opened up. Hopefully it will stay together a little longer for the sake of the heart of our dear Monster Cat.

The complete collection: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

tags: cat toys, cats, comics, monster cat, silly, tennyson

More moon photos! I cropped the first one and played a bit with the color for fun. The second is cropped to show off the various other objects visible around the moon during the eclipse. I love how the light changed as the eclipse progressed and regressed. Just amazing really. I’m also still incredibly happy that I was inspired to find my tripod… (I blame Mike.) More cool night photos may happen now.

The green reflection in some of the photos? It was caused by my UV filter. It didn’t occur to me to take it off. Apparently this is a common side-effect of leaving on the UV filter when taking photographs of points of light. The earlier photos didn’t have as intense a light source as the last bunch I took of the moon emerging out of the eclipse. I admit it, I’m lame and use my UV filter primarily as a protective shield for my lens.

Oh, Very Happy Friday to all of you! Buon Weekend! Hurray! I think I may have lost Thursday this week but I’m not sure. Hopefully it won’t reappear in the future to make another week longer… that is unless it picks a week I’m on vacation.

I did survive the week though and for that I thank my lucky stars. And my unlucky ones too because they weren’t too horrible this week. I did make the big french press of coffee this morning instead of the little single-serve press but I think it was a good decision. I *know* that it was good coffee. I felt vaguely on top of things when I shut down the work laptop this evening. Monster Cat was later rather than earlier (in the day that is) most of the week but I have some ideas that I want to play with this weekend so that next week’s Monster Cat episodes are posted first thing in the morning instead of at lunch.

Most importantly, at least to me, is that it snowed today. We got about 2 inches of accumulation then a bunch of misty wet in the afternoon. We might get a little more snow overnight and tomorrow but the radar isn’t promising. Still, it was fun to shovel the walks this afternoon and the world is a better place when it’s covered with snow.

More than anything I want more free time… specifically free time when I’m not already mentally spent and exhausted. Seriously.

tags: lunar eclipse, moon, photographs, photography

Sometimes, Tenny is coy.

More often he’s a brat.

This strip captures both sides of this particular kitty coin.

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

tags: cats, comics, monster cat, silly, tennyson

I might be perhaps a little crazy… but here’s a link to a set of lunar eclipse photos I took. I was excited to get to see the eclipse at all given that it was snowing (hurray) earlier this afternoon! I went outside 3 different times - I found my tripod for the 2nd and 3rd. So, my tripod is aluminum or stainless steel or something equally shiny and silver. It’s sturdy, not terribly light but not too heavy and is “on loan” from my dad. (Hi Dad, um… yeah, I still have your tripod.) It also gets cold very quickly. Very very quickly. And it stays cold. Plus it’s 25° out there tonight. The first time I went out, I didn’t wear mittens or gloves - after that I took my fingerless gloves
(thanks so much again, Violet! They continue to be perfect!) and wore a more wind-resistant coat. Yes, it’s windy tonight too!

Mike’s night photos (specifically his mooning) inspired me to actually find my tripod and use it for a change as opposed to just thinking about it. His eclipse photos are also full of awesome.

The third time out I realized that my tripod-fu is indeed lacking. The moon was almost directly overhead. I wanted to be able to look through my viewfinder and my back was not exactly thrilled with the contortions I’d already done. So… I ended up kneeling on the sidewalk to look up through my viewfinder.

Did I mention that it had snowed earlier today? Snow rocks. I love snow!

Yeah.

A dusting isn’t much unless you’re kneeling on a frozen sidewalk. Luckily, I didn’t mind. My knees were a little less happy though.

Ultimately though, I’m not the brightest girl on the planet tonight.

But I have awesome photos!

Finally… what is up with this green shadow/reflection? I think it has something to do with the length of the lens? I used a 300mm zoom with a UV filter to take these shots. (Juli’s Google-fu points at the UV filter as the culprit.) Of course, it only happened the 3rd time I went out so it could have been some of my electronics telling me it was too cold and could I please stop taking them in and out of the house. (Note: the tripod didn’t care. Nor did it warm up much in the house between shoots.) I’m too tired right now to go research it so if anyone knows, please share!

So, in short, I had a lovely evening. It was cold, clear, brisk and fun. And it was the last chance to play with a full lunar eclipse until December, 2010!

tags: , cold, lunar eclipse, moon, photographs, photography, snow, weather

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

tags: breakfast, cat comics, cats, comics, got milk, monster cat, silly, tennyson

Itty Bitty Kitty Committee is back with new cuteness of doom!!!

Mini donkeys are possibly the most adorable pack animals ever. (I blame Sparrow for this.)

If you’re on Ravelry, I’m greenness there. I promise pics of stuff soon. I remembered how to knit Saturday night (well, I confirmed that I haven’t forgotten how to knit) so I actually have a project in process.

A relatively tiny box, a complete apartment worth of furniture.

And Revival Clothing is having a store-wide 20% off sale (orders > $50).

tags: donkeys, furniture, kittens, links, random, ravelry, revival clothing