My friend Victor sent me this link: The Mapping of a Cat’s Brain. Seems about right to me.

Because the world doesn’t have enough, right? Some recent pictures of my cats. First up is Mishka. We had just finished playing a rousing game of door tennis – or door tether. It involves batting a ball (that’s tethered to the top of the door via a string) back and forth. He’s quite adept at it.
mishka/mishka_dresser

Next up, is Freya looking out from her comfy cube. When she’s not sleeping on my pillow, she lives in this cube.
freya/freya_cube2

In the article Is Apple The New Microsoft?, Lisa DiCarlo looks at some disturbing trends in the way Apple has been behaving lately.

My friend Suvi sent me this link. It’s just wrong on so many levels. Will the toy go AWOL after awhile?

Well, I finally got around to updating my site. It took awhile, but I switched everything over from my home-grown blog to WordPress. I also redid the design and killed a lot of the site pages. I never updated them, so what was the point? So, what have I been up to lately? Not a whole lot – mainly working on my TARflies site. I went to NY in February. You can see the images from that trip here.

Just what is this man doing to the president?

You know, I’m a firm believer in the idea that pets aren’t disposable. You don’t just give them back if you don’t get along. But honest to god, I have no idea what to do with my cat Mishka. He’s been driving me batty doing his “jump up on things and slowly shove everything off” – looking over at me after each shove to make sure I see that he’s the one causing trouble. He’ll do this until I pull him off the shelf or spray water and/or bitter apple on him. He’d done this for 2 hours straight tonight and, I guess, wasn’t getting enough of a rise out of me, so he went where he is absolutely forbidden to go – up on top of the china cabinet. He promptly shoved 3 flamingos off the top and broke one of them. I go over there, reach up to grab him and pull him down. He flails the whole way. So, I now have a gash on my right check (not that long, but deep) and one that starts INSIDE my right nostril and ends just outside the nostril below the end of my nose. Neither of them will stop bleeding. I just spent 20 minutes in the bathroom trying to get them to stop. When I come out of the bathroom? Where is the damn cat? Yep. On top of the china cabinet. *sigh*

From Heart of Indonesia’s Disaster, a Cry for Help

MEULABOH, Indonesia, Jan. 1 – A dozen towns that once thrived near here are gone. Some 10,000 people have been buried, local officials say, and the effort to collect bodies cannot keep up…

…It is a picture of grief and devastation beyond that of any other in the dozen countries hit. Apart from a few sturdy mosques and buildings, there is simply nothing left under the mountains of black mud and debris.

For more information on how to contribute to relief projects:
Tsunami Relief
Blogaid
Disaster Aid

The death toll is currently estimated at 140,000. It’s impossible to comprehend. Of course, my local paper knows how important a story this is…that’s why on Friday’s front page it was below a story about the Rose Bowl. I hate my local newspaper.

You know how cats can seem to sense who’s not a cat person? And then bug them?

My mom came over tonight. She hates cats. She’s learned to put up with my cats, but they make her nervous. Mom is standing next to me looking at the computer screen to make sure the updates I’ve made to her website are okay. I’m concentrating on the screen and then hear mom let out a bit of a yelp. I look up and Mishka has jumped up onto Mom’s shoulder! The look on her face? Hee! He was standing there sniffing her hair. Mom looks at me and says, “what happens if I stand up?” (She was stooped over looking at the computer screen.) I say, “you get cat scratches down your back. Trust me.” I manage to coax him off her shoulder without any scratching going on.

I can’t help it, but every time I think of the look on her face, I laugh.

The news about the earthquake/tsunami in Asia is devastating. The current death toll is 23,000 – but it seems to be constantly rising.

The fellow behind the wonderful site Asterisk has assembled a list of relief organizations that could use your help.