The Artist is still in a state of misery because of the hand thing--we're really sorry.
However, the Author wishes to report that Benjamin, who passed away in October, now has a successor. This is Aengus, a three-year-old, seal lynx point Ragdoll boy. Mr. Black and I went to a local shelter last week to check out a positively enormous (22 lbs) black Maine Coon boy, but he was extremely shy, skittish, and could not even be touched or picked up. However, while we were discussing options, this charmer (a petite 11 lbs) ambled out of a kitty hut and introduced himself by soliciting petting and making "meep" noises and staring at us with his huge blue eyes. Less than ten minutes later, paperwork was being signed. Sometimes, it just happens.
Aengus looks like a nice little guy. Plenty of brushing practice for you! Is he an active cat; play a lot? He's got nice markings. He's a good enough page for me!
I hope you're not in a lot of pain, @Centcomm. :(
@Cent, and @Rose, You don't have any real reason to be sorry! Just take care. :)
Here's our newest addition, as our oldest (Makar & Edge) two turn 19 this year!
His name is Noly, and he's either a hellion, or sleeping! He's about a 8mos. to a year old. His face markings are similar to Aengus' but you can't see them here. If I am ever able to get a picture of his face, holding still (unlikely) then I'll post it. *edit, I did get one, but light is bad. He has those orange-green eyes that you don't see too often. *edit2: Replaced with a better one of his face. He doesn't stop moving unless he's asleep! You can see the orange tinge in his eyes.
Noly decided on his own to come live with us. One morning in February, I was going to shovel off the front porch, and when I stepped out, he heard it, and came out from under. He's very curious, and I opened the front door to say something, and he trotted right in as if he owned the place. (He does, I guess) We checked with the pound, humane society, took him to the vet to see if he had a chip, and kept an eye in the paper, but no one seemed to be missing him. We live out of town, and we have had people abandon cats before. Makar, and Edge were both abandoned here as kittens 18 years ago. So now we have Noly, got him neutered, and chipped, got him his shots, dewormed, and here he is!
I assume he's probably going to be a strictly indoor cat, but it still reminds me of a story...
(I'm old, something always does :P )
We had one that just had to roam, we thought he was just hunting a lot until I noticed while walking the dog...
he was going to at least four different houses a few blocks apart, being taken in and apparently fed,
which explained things since he'd ended up looking like a fur covered football and he was on half-rations at home...
ended up going around and telling every house in the neighbourhood not to feed him...
he lived to be almost 22 and none the worse for wear until the very end...
should have gotten him this tag...looks almost exactly like him too
Just another day in retirement for me...
the time goes by the way I want it to..completely ignored :).
Netflix, youtube, a ton of webcomics, the odd online game and a bunch of books I've been stashing away for far too long
Had to take the dog out to get clipped this morning...
She should be down by about the weight of that cat when they're done
Stopped at the grocery store on the way back from dropping her off, pure bliss...
No crowds, no lineup at the tills, everything we wanted was there.
Toilet paper, paper towels and bottled water stacked to the rafters...
The only bottled water we use is distilled for the keurig, it keeps it from scaling up with the hard water here
If you've ever had to field strip and clean a keurig, use distilled...
First time it scaled up solid in six months from tap water, haven't had to do it in almost ten years since switching.
Got 4x4L bottles, that should do us until next week
apparently the panic has subsided some :)
Stay safe and pat kitties, best medicine for anything, even sore hands...
the "limit of two packages" signs for select items are the interesting part...
half pound boxes of pasta = sold out, 2kg bags = full shelves
small jars of pasta sauce = sold out, 2litre bottles = full shelves
dozen eggs = sold out, cartons of 18 = full shelves
small boxes of cereal = stripped, 'family sized' boxes = full shelves
4litre jugs of milk = gone, 4litre bags and 2litre jugs= tons of them
If the limit is 'two', with no size specified, why buy the small ones of everything except milk ?
then again, I still can't stop laughing at the picture of a half dozen people with those giant costco carts filled with industrial sized bags of rice...
The best I can figure is one guy owned an asian restaurant and had wholesaler or delivery troubles and the rest just saw him buying it and panicked...
It looks like the supply chains are catching up with the unanticipated rush on things...
Costco has one of the best, most lenient return policies going...
I've had people tell me they've returned things after ten years, without receipts and they were accepted.
Right now, according a few articles I just read, Costco is advising that they will not be accepting returns on:
Toilet paper, paper towels, hand sanitizer, bottled water, lysol wipes, or rice...
Their new policy seems to be "you wanted it that badly, keep it !!"
who in the $@#$%!! buys ten 50lb bags of rice at a time ? I like rice, but that's 20 years worth...
I used to live with 2 Chinese brothers. They would buy a 50 lb. bag of rice every month. They literally had rice with every meal, and for supper, often had one or two friends in, so they would use the whole bag.
We went to look at all the cats. "Chubs" sauntered over to me and head butted me repeatedly until I presented a lap for him, at which point he occupied it and would not relinquish it until one of our friends came by and sat down, presenting an alternative lap.
There were four of us there to look at the cats. Chubs insisted on being all over at least one of us the whole time, and complained loudly at the end when our more experienced cat handler removed him from the fourth person so we could go fill out the paperwork.
We took longer than 10 minutes, but that was because we wanted to give all the cats a chance. We changed his name, though, because we aren't fans of names based on weight shaming terms. Also, it's not like he answered to it.
Hope it works...
I wonder if it's cortisone ? I'm not sure if it works for that but I had a shot in my shoulder about 30 years ago...
I swear I can still feel it...I heard 9and felt) the needle scrape bone...
but yours is entirely different and you aren't having it done by a military vet(erenarian) :)
could be steroid injection or there's a bacteria extract that attacks collagen that can be used to...
I remember hearing the name of the condition before, probably from looking up the condition I had in my hand, but I never knew it was called the 'Viking disease'
Have you had any uncontrollable urges to raid and pillage lately ?
I was also thinking cortisone. Hopefully that helps. Otherwise yeah the orthopedist should be able to help. Our favorite orthopedist is retiring soon. :( I don't know what we'll do it we need one. It's not like you need him every day but . . .
It's called "Viking Disease" because it only affects people of northern European Decent... it is extremely rare outside of Scandinavian, Germanic, Celtic or Saxon descent.
Variations on your picture were already common in Viet Nam when I first visited in 1997. When my wife joined me in Phoenix it was one of the first things she insisted on installing. The exact model shown by Ms. Wu is available from Home Depot. link
a local knockoff of the $5,000 Japanese toilet ? :)
I'm thinking I'd rather hook it up to both hot and cold and have a mixer valve...
That ice cold shock in the middle of a January night might make it a tad difficult to get back to sleep ;)
debated adding a bidet when the bathroom got renovated but after fixing the last guy's plumbing nightmare just didn't want to and since the bathroom is completely tiled...floor, ceiling and walls, I'm not running another hot water line now
But when hoarding time comes, not having to fill your cart with TP means more room for the really important stuff like peanut butter and instant coffee.
Isolation, day 16: My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre dangling objects. I have been trying to learn their language, but it is difficult because they lapse into a degenerate dialect that seems to have no coherent grammatical rules every time they get too close to me. It is possible that I am some sort of cognitive hazard to them, but I have not yet been able to take advantage of this effect if so.
The rations provided have been reasonably good, although variety is sadly lacking. There are tasty meals on display outside, but a transparent barrier prevents me from actually killing any of them.
I fear for my own mental health; the boredom is getting to me. Yesterday I ate a houseplant. Tomorrow I may eat another.
Rose is a sucker for the cute kitten eye move......good to know.
Seriously though centy take all the time you need I know first hand being in constant mild to severe pain is no picnic. Just rest, take meds and stare into the kitties eyes. And you'll get better....ish
Nice looking cat. And I hope Cent's injection (whatever they give her) works.
I'm still out and working. Security Guards are considered essential personal in AZ. I plan to work as long as I don't show any signs of COVID-19. So hang in there those of you forced to stay home, things can only get better.
Yes, I'm an optimist.
It's slowly starting to thaw here, not fast enough but enough to start thinking about the garden...
Stores were sold out of veggie seeds, guess the sheeple are scared enough they think they can tear up their lawns and grow all the food they'll ever need...
The only downside is that you have to harvest the rolls just before the packages open...
If you wait too long, they can drop the seeds and it's a nuisance rolling them up again...
It's not surprising that a Kentucky Hillbilly has more on the ball than the 'smartest generation' who lick toilet seats then wonder why they got sick o.O
When I showed it off to an American friend of mine, he claimed it was because of our socialistic ways !!
Seriously, what could be a more capitalistic than that ?
Those sorts of replies usually come from people who don't actually know how economies work. Maybe a civics class would help them? Course in economics, perhaps?
I think I've got it figured out....
If you divide 2020 by 5, you get 404
This whole year is an error message...
It's just a glitch in the matrix...
That, or it's being directed by George RR Martin
I don't normally drink, and when I do I prefer a kosher wine or a black rum, the blacker the better :)
Buuttttt...if ya gotta, ya gotta...for health reasons...if JD can't kill it then we're doomed anyway
The type of Everclear we get here is 95% along with some others like Cariboo...or my old fave '151 Rum' at over 75%
or the infamous 'rite of passage', Alcool...94%+
For comparison, rubbing alcohol is 91%...using a mixer is suggested
To help pass the time, and if the staff of Datachasers (c)(tm)(R in a circle I don't remember the ascii code for)all rights reserved, patent pending; don't mind
I sort of like this comic, don't know why, but I keep checking for updates for some reason and am disappointed if one gets missed...
I have them saved somewhere, just couldn't remember off the top of my head and couldn't be bothered looking up...
besides, if you have to explain it then it it isn't funny anymore ;)
I LOVE OUTSIDER! The author/artist is very skilled at giving the reader a look at alien cultures through a human perspective and the setting reminds me so much of the Master of Orion 4X games that it feels nostalgic. Shortly after MoO3 came out (many years ago now), I had started my own fanfic based on the game I was playing, but never managed to finish it. The latest iteration of the franchise, Master of Orion by WGLabs, is much like MoO2 in execution, but is definitely a graphical upgrade (I love the colony ship landing scenes). MoO3 had an incredibly steep learning curve, but it had a tremendous community (too bad Atari went under) that had volumes of help and strategy in the forums. I even played a couple of multiplayer games with some of the community via shared saved games, which was fun. My favorite trick they discovered was planting a colony, using diplomacy to gift it to an enemy/competitor or ally on one side of your empire, then watch the sparks fly when they could now attack their racial enemy on your other border. Pure genius!
Fun times. :)
Oh, the guy who does Outsider also did all the art for another 4X game you can find on Steam called Stars in Shadow, which is also like Master of Orion II. I've played several games, but can't seem to get the hang of it well enough to actually win, unfortunately.
Always interesting to see which ones others like to read in between DC installments :)
Wednesdays only come once a week and there are the other days to fill too.
Do our creative staff have any favourites they'd share with us ?
I have to say, that Outside is an excellent little space opera.
But I can't shake the feeling of De Ja Vú, that I have read the story before .. in a book.
John Gardner once said that there are only two plots in all of literature:
you go on a journey, or the stranger comes to town.
Christopher Booker lists the 7 basic plots as:
1. Overcoming the Monster
2. Rags to Riches
3. The Quest
4. Voyage and Return
5. Comedy
6. Tragedy
7. Rebirth
but his book came out in 2004 and I remember reading something long before that
plus he refuses to recognize the mystery as being a plot because 'it doesn't address the protagonist's feminine side' and while that's all well and good in the world today, I don't see it as being an 'absolutely must be met' criterion for fine literature or even for a rollicking good story, although it can definitely be included, so take his analysis for what you would
I've seen it written differently a longtime ago with a larger number but can't quite lay my hands on it at this exact moment...
oh well, tomorrow's a new page, so it doesn't matter anyway :)
I hope you're not in a lot of pain, @Centcomm. :(
@Cent, and @Rose, You don't have any real reason to be sorry! Just take care. :)
His name is Noly, and he's either a hellion, or sleeping! He's about a 8mos. to a year old. His face markings are similar to Aengus' but you can't see them here. If I am ever able to get a picture of his face, holding still (unlikely) then I'll post it. *edit, I did get one, but light is bad. He has those orange-green eyes that you don't see too often. *edit2: Replaced with a better one of his face. He doesn't stop moving unless he's asleep! You can see the orange tinge in his eyes.
Noly decided on his own to come live with us. One morning in February, I was going to shovel off the front porch, and when I stepped out, he heard it, and came out from under. He's very curious, and I opened the front door to say something, and he trotted right in as if he owned the place. (He does, I guess) We checked with the pound, humane society, took him to the vet to see if he had a chip, and kept an eye in the paper, but no one seemed to be missing him. We live out of town, and we have had people abandon cats before. Makar, and Edge were both abandoned here as kittens 18 years ago. So now we have Noly, got him neutered, and chipped, got him his shots, dewormed, and here he is!
(I'm old, something always does :P )
We had one that just had to roam, we thought he was just hunting a lot until I noticed while walking the dog...
he was going to at least four different houses a few blocks apart, being taken in and apparently fed,
which explained things since he'd ended up looking like a fur covered football and he was on half-rations at home...
ended up going around and telling every house in the neighbourhood not to feed him...
he lived to be almost 22 and none the worse for wear until the very end...
should have gotten him this tag...looks almost exactly like him too
I'd love to learn how well he settles in if you decide to do another story time!
cuted) out. (is that even a word?)
Still, he's a handsome fellah, and I wish you many years together.
Regards,
Eli...
I can recommend some YouTube channels if you want?
the time goes by the way I want it to..completely ignored :).
Netflix, youtube, a ton of webcomics, the odd online game and a bunch of books I've been stashing away for far too long
Had to take the dog out to get clipped this morning...
She should be down by about the weight of that cat when they're done
Stopped at the grocery store on the way back from dropping her off, pure bliss...
No crowds, no lineup at the tills, everything we wanted was there.
Toilet paper, paper towels and bottled water stacked to the rafters...
The only bottled water we use is distilled for the keurig, it keeps it from scaling up with the hard water here
If you've ever had to field strip and clean a keurig, use distilled...
First time it scaled up solid in six months from tap water, haven't had to do it in almost ten years since switching.
Got 4x4L bottles, that should do us until next week
apparently the panic has subsided some :)
Stay safe and pat kitties, best medicine for anything, even sore hands...
half pound boxes of pasta = sold out, 2kg bags = full shelves
small jars of pasta sauce = sold out, 2litre bottles = full shelves
dozen eggs = sold out, cartons of 18 = full shelves
small boxes of cereal = stripped, 'family sized' boxes = full shelves
4litre jugs of milk = gone, 4litre bags and 2litre jugs= tons of them
If the limit is 'two', with no size specified, why buy the small ones of everything except milk ?
then again, I still can't stop laughing at the picture of a half dozen people with those giant costco carts filled with industrial sized bags of rice...
The best I can figure is one guy owned an asian restaurant and had wholesaler or delivery troubles and the rest just saw him buying it and panicked...
Costco has one of the best, most lenient return policies going...
I've had people tell me they've returned things after ten years, without receipts and they were accepted.
Right now, according a few articles I just read, Costco is advising that they will not be accepting returns on:
Toilet paper, paper towels, hand sanitizer, bottled water, lysol wipes, or rice...
Their new policy seems to be "you wanted it that badly, keep it !!"
who in the $@#$%!! buys ten 50lb bags of rice at a time ? I like rice, but that's 20 years worth...
Great new family member, Rose =)
We went to look at all the cats. "Chubs" sauntered over to me and head butted me repeatedly until I presented a lap for him, at which point he occupied it and would not relinquish it until one of our friends came by and sat down, presenting an alternative lap.
There were four of us there to look at the cats. Chubs insisted on being all over at least one of us the whole time, and complained loudly at the end when our more experienced cat handler removed him from the fourth person so we could go fill out the paperwork.
We took longer than 10 minutes, but that was because we wanted to give all the cats a chance. We changed his name, though, because we aren't fans of names based on weight shaming terms. Also, it's not like he answered to it.
I wonder if it's cortisone ? I'm not sure if it works for that but I had a shot in my shoulder about 30 years ago...
I swear I can still feel it...I heard 9and felt) the needle scrape bone...
but yours is entirely different and you aren't having it done by a military vet(erenarian) :)
could be steroid injection or there's a bacteria extract that attacks collagen that can be used to...
I remember hearing the name of the condition before, probably from looking up the condition I had in my hand, but I never knew it was called the 'Viking disease'
Have you had any uncontrollable urges to raid and pillage lately ?
Is there something you haven't told us, Centcomm ?
Mebbe let Centcomm pet the cat, purrs heal hands, I hear.
And if it don't, I could always bark at it, and chase it up into a tree! 😁
Especially if I also bite the owners. 😓
And he looks like a handsome boi. ;)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRduYc6GWHk
I'm thinking I'd rather hook it up to both hot and cold and have a mixer valve...
That ice cold shock in the middle of a January night might make it a tad difficult to get back to sleep ;)
debated adding a bidet when the bathroom got renovated but after fixing the last guy's plumbing nightmare just didn't want to and since the bathroom is completely tiled...floor, ceiling and walls, I'm not running another hot water line now
The rations provided have been reasonably good, although variety is sadly lacking. There are tasty meals on display outside, but a transparent barrier prevents me from actually killing any of them.
I fear for my own mental health; the boredom is getting to me. Yesterday I ate a houseplant. Tomorrow I may eat another.
Seriously though centy take all the time you need I know first hand being in constant mild to severe pain is no picnic. Just rest, take meds and stare into the kitties eyes. And you'll get better....ish
the enemy
and remember...above all else...
I'm still out and working. Security Guards are considered essential personal in AZ. I plan to work as long as I don't show any signs of COVID-19. So hang in there those of you forced to stay home, things can only get better.
Yes, I'm an optimist.
Stores were sold out of veggie seeds, guess the sheeple are scared enough they think they can tear up their lawns and grow all the food they'll ever need...
Got a good deal on these though ;)
If you wait too long, they can drop the seeds and it's a nuisance rolling them up again...
Bluegrass Toilet Paper Solution
I fully approve of it!
When I showed it off to an American friend of mine, he claimed it was because of our socialistic ways !!
Seriously, what could be a more capitalistic than that ?
If you divide 2020 by 5, you get 404
This whole year is an error message...
It's just a glitch in the matrix...
That, or it's being directed by George RR Martin
wouldn't it be awesome if 2020 was a "Year not found"?
Make the writer work harder,no slacking off for pussy petting... crappy stick figure time !! :)
Buuttttt...if ya gotta, ya gotta...for health reasons...if JD can't kill it then we're doomed anyway
or the infamous 'rite of passage', Alcool...94%+
For comparison, rubbing alcohol is 91%...using a mixer is suggested
and 'keep away from open flame'...
but they beat me to it...
I sort of like this comic, don't know why, but I keep checking for updates for some reason and am disappointed if one gets missed...
https://well-of-souls.com/outsider/index.html
On phone or tablet there usually are keys for them or they Can be found here, or Google, copy paste. Easy peasy!
besides, if you have to explain it then it it isn't funny anymore ;)
XD
Fun times. :)
Oh, the guy who does Outsider also did all the art for another 4X game you can find on Steam called Stars in Shadow, which is also like Master of Orion II. I've played several games, but can't seem to get the hang of it well enough to actually win, unfortunately.
Wednesdays only come once a week and there are the other days to fill too.
Do our creative staff have any favourites they'd share with us ?
But I can't shake the feeling of De Ja Vú, that I have read the story before .. in a book.
so many are so similar in so many ways yet so different in so many others, that's why we keep reading :)
you go on a journey, or the stranger comes to town.
Christopher Booker lists the 7 basic plots as:
1. Overcoming the Monster
2. Rags to Riches
3. The Quest
4. Voyage and Return
5. Comedy
6. Tragedy
7. Rebirth
but his book came out in 2004 and I remember reading something long before that
plus he refuses to recognize the mystery as being a plot because 'it doesn't address the protagonist's feminine side' and while that's all well and good in the world today, I don't see it as being an 'absolutely must be met' criterion for fine literature or even for a rollicking good story, although it can definitely be included, so take his analysis for what you would
I've seen it written differently a longtime ago with a larger number but can't quite lay my hands on it at this exact moment...
oh well, tomorrow's a new page, so it doesn't matter anyway :)