Miscellany of a Cheshire Cat

The Monster Cat strips this week were really fun to make!

In Flying Monster, our favorite Monster Cat is caught mid-flight between the couch and the cat tree. It’s a terrible photo but I love the pose he’s in as well as the concept of mid-flight cats. I’ve been trying to figure out for ages how to use this photo. The amateur photographer and UFO angles finally clicked and I’m happy with how it came out. You may see it again with a cape drawn in.

Anatomy of a Monster Cat is an experiment in cat-macro photography. I’d been meaning to start an anatomy theme in Monster Cat similar to the Flashback theme. Stay tuned for more… wet nose, tail, paws, fierce claws… and of course soft, white belly fur! And, of course, I take requests.

The photos for Surprise where taken in a quick series one afternoon. I’m very much a fan of taking lots and lots of photos. This is why I have three 2 gb cards for my primary camera. When I photograph the cats, I take a lot of photos quickly to try to get something cute and usable. Sometimes Tenny reacts, sometimes he doesn’t. The girls are also fairly comfortable with the camera. I am particularly happy that these photos capture classic Tennyson expressions: non-committal and surprise.

The strips for the coming week are already done as well… a continuation of the Surprise conversation is queued up as well as some audience participation.

cats, comics, monster cat, photography, tennyson

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Sunday I took a class at The Bead Garden, a nearby bead store. We picked beads and made wire-wrapped bracelets. The instructor, Gina Struebel, was great and adapted to our different learning styles and abilites very well. Plus she was fun. I’m looking forward to taking her wire ring class next year.

I keep looking at this bracelet in awe. It was really way easier than I thought it would be. There are magical steps involved to make it all come out right, but ultimately it’s a pretty simple process and I feel like I learned some basic stuff that I really needed to know. I’m going to play around more with the copper wire I have on hand. I have some lovely beads that will look great with copper.

beads, bracelet, crafts, jewelry, projects

“We shall tear this toy to shreds!” declares Abby. “Shreds, I say!!!”

Or rather, the roses are still blooming. Through rain and gray and temperatures in the 50s, the rose bush out front carries on as if it were still August while the climbing rose out back is starting to peter out. We are getting a proper autumn here this year! YAY!

This week has been really busy… work is in a whirlwind, kittens are little tornadoes of energy and my brain hurts quite literally. Oh, and laundry is on-going. Why is laundry *always* on-going? And did I mention we’re going away next week? Tadcaster Cruise. I’ll be working on vacation again, which doesn’t bother me too much as it beats coming home to a huge mess. Plus it gives me the excuse to bring my laptop so I can start working on my Nanowrimo project.

The messages from the cat planet were strong today. Quite strong. Today’s kitten “toys” included: a post-it note of unknown origin, Tennyson, a bottle cap, sister’s tail and my slipper. I also had to defend myself while eating my lunch. The girls have figured out the telltale signs of eating cereal with milk and swarmed me. Tennyson, of course, took a stoic yet expectant pose by my elbow. The little fuzzy ones, though, climbed all over my keyboard and arms in an attempt to get into my bowl. I had to use one hand to defend my cereal and the other to eat.

There are a few more kitten photos up over in their Flickr set.

In the interest of completely random, UserFriendly’s link of the day was an amusing site: Cheese or Font? Dreda, I thought of you immediately.

In other news, NASA would like to reassure us that the world won’t be ending in 2012. [Giggle alert: the linked article uses the phrase "fictional fiction" - you have been warned.] From the article: “People are very gullible,” he added. “It a sad testimonial that you need NASA to tell you the world’s not going to end.” Sad, yes, and media-hyped to a frightening degree. We are also the country where the media went to NORAD to ask about their planned course of action when they thought some little kid had taken off in a balloon the other week.

“Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr,” growls Tasha.
“GRRRrrrrRRRRrrrrrrrr…” she adds more emphatically.
autumn, bengals, kittens, random, roses

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

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anatomy, cats, comics, monster cat, silly, tennyson, tongues

The little conspiracy theorist in the back of my head expresses concern…

Last week, Wired reported that the CIA’s spin-off tech branch bought a stake in Visible Technologies. Visible Technologies helps clients “listen to their customers” by parsing public social media data and packaging it in more useful forms for effective monetizing. Visible Technologies doesn’t bug me at all… parse my public social media data all you want. (Monster Cat is not a spy.) What actually surprises me out is that I didn’t know that the CIA had an investment branch (spin-off really, they’re independent), called IN-Q-TEL, that makes strategic investments in and partners with emerging technologies that could prove useful to the CIA and intelligence community. Both cool and creepy. The variety in their portfolio is quite interesting and they are apparently a non-profit to boot.

IQT’s aims, as published publicly, are quite useful, logical and probably provide significant value both to the companies they partner with and the intelligence community as a whole. There are numerous other firms that perform similar roles in other markets. Strategic consulting firms often tout their abilities to help new companies get their foot in the door within a given market. The market in question here just happens to be government agencies often known for their equal-opportunity domestic and international espionage. But anyone who wants to crawl through the dreck … er… content of social networks is welcome to check out my tweets about coffee, cats and catastrophes. That’s why I post it. I wonder what the intelligence community really expects to glean from Twitter. Will they infer that because Stevie834 (not a real user) is getting a second cup of coffee on a Sunday that he was up too late with his cult plotting to take over the government? Or perhaps he just had to get up too early to man the bake sale to fund buying a compound in Montana. Or perhaps the CIA would like to track how many people actually care that GeoCities is being shut down today.

Of course, maybe there are domestic and international terrorist organizations stupid enough to use Twitter and other publicly accessible sites as communications hubs.

cia, in-q-tel, public data, technology, visible technologies

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“I would say that after an urgent visit with the vet that I am contemplating my own mortality,” Tasha muses, “but, in fact, I am plotting my revenge.”

Our vet is cool. He’s open on Saturday mornings and generally has appointments available. When I called yesterday, the only appointment available was for 9:15 a.m. Perhaps you’ve met me? I’m not a morning person. Perhaps you’ve met cats? They don’t enjoy getting in their boxes and going to the vet. Miss Tasha, in particular, promised to be challenging.

I got up this morning at 8:15 a.m. hoping I’d catch the girls still asleep so Tasha would be easy to snag. No such luck. Played with them for a couple minutes in the living room. I was not fast enough to catch her. I went to the kitchen and fed them and Tasha even wandered into Tenny’s carrier (the big carrier that is suitable for a 30 pound dog) but I wasn’t quick enough. Finally, I distracted all 3 cats with treats and was able to snag the Terrible Tasha, who promptly slashed my wrist. Tennyson was easier to box up and I packed them into the back of the Mini Clubman.

I got to the vet about 20 minutes early, which was fine because I’d sprung the fact that I was bringing Tenny on them in a 1 a.m. voicemail overnight. Being early was a show of respect for their crowded schedule. I really did feel bad but both cats needed checking. I put down the carriers, checked in and then realized I hadn’t locked my car and my purse was in there. I stepped out to lock my car, realized I’d need to use my purse for that whole payment for services rendered things. Two more steps and I realized my purse wasn’t in my car but still on the stairs at home. Two cats, two carriers, two hands, no purse.

Oops.

In my defense, I hadn’t had caffeine yet. I did have my phone at least!

Tenny and Tasha each have an infection and have medications to treat their appropriate infections now. I was quite relieved that I wasn’t being overly cautious about Tenny’s swollen eye. And I was additionally relieved that we have a treatment that may resolve the Terrible Tasha’s Tinkling Troubles. (Don’t ask.) I love this vet. He explains everything and is easy to talk to. Plus, after Tasha’s examination was done, she hung out in my arms for the rest of the appointment!

So, I dropped off the ferocious felines (Tenny had stopped whining at this point so I can refer to him as “ferocious”). I grabbed my purse, made sure my wallet was actually in it, and headed back to the vet’s office to deal with that whole paying for services rendered things. Home again, home again by way of Starbucks. I may have nodded off while waiting for the chai to be made.

Back at home, I rounded up the Terrible Tasha again. I swaddled her in my fleece vest and administered her liquid antibiotic stuff. First, this stuff smells like artificial banana. It’s horrible. Second, Tasha is not really a fan of being restrained. Third, I now have a slashed paw and forearm. She’s quite fierce. And now she smells like artificial banana.

“Perhaps you should be contemplating your own mortality,” she whispers. “I do not enjoy smelling of banana.”

cats, kittens, mornings, vet

Yes, this is exactly how it goes. Karma comes back and bites you in the butt… or tail in this case. Karma, aka Abby in this case, is apparently adorable.

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“Oh look what we have here,” Tasha muses. “A fine toy for me to attack!”

There are new pics in the kitten set on Flickr. Like all adorable kittens, the girls are so fierce with each other that we often wonder if they’re playing too hard. They aren’t playing too hard for kittens, of course, but sometimes they’re playing too hard for things around them. In the morning (and afternoon, and evening), I find stuff on the floor that wasn’t on the floor previously.

I’m sure they would explain that their wrestling matches are simply experiments to further prove the law of gravity. Or something. They’re very inquisitive. And suspicious of our laws of physics.

Their experiments are on-going. Gravity seems to be their primary target of late. Tennyson has been able to steer clear of their experiments for the most parts though he’s been showing off some awesome akido moves when he needs to show the girls who’s the big cat… and then they sleep on him.

Abby rolls to her back and prepares her weapons, “Your attempts to subdue me will be met with claws!”

bengals, cats, kittens, photographs