Friday, June 29, 2012

Spoonerisms: To Catch the Bird, Become the Bird

Dippy, Level 67 Wizard! Every spring, hordes of pigeons descend on Southern California for breeding season. This must be a bonanza for free-range cats, but for some house-bound cats, it's the stuff of daydreams. Dipity spends these months peering through the blinds. This last month, not having managed to capture a bird through the closed windows, she tried a new tactic: to catch the bird, first become the bird.

First, one day I was sitting on the couch while she was watching cooing pigeons from the nearest window. All of a sudden she zipped into the closed, and, trust me, not so clean that it was all that transparent, window. The window, of course, stood its ground, she bounced off, knocking a bunch of stuff on the storage unit under the window off, but less than 5 seconds later, she was peeking out the window at the birds again, although she didn't try to go through the glass. It occurred me to that birds are well known for flying into closed windows. Perhaps Dippy was trying to emulate them either to understand them better, or to convince them that she was one of them.

A week or so later, I got woken up at 6AM because Dippy was at the bedroom window, energetically jostling the blinds and making those weird warbling sounds cats often do when they're stalking prey. To me, it sounded like she was trying to mimic the birds to talk them into coming on over. "Hey, I'm a bird just like you. Come play in my mouth."

The pigeons were not convinced. And while it is pretty amusing behavior, I don't really like being amused at 6AM on a work day.

The pigeons have mostly departed now, so Dippy is back to running around, stalking things generally only she can see. But at least her imaginary prey friends seem to stay on the same side of the window glass.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Knittin' Crap: 2,000,000 Angry People With Pointy Sticks

Apparently the US Olympic Committee sent a cease-and-desist letter to Ravelry (posted here for people with Ravelry accounts, and reproduced in full on Gawker for those without) over use of the term "Ravelympics" for the knittin'-and-crochetin' tie-in event hosted on (but not officially sponsored by) Ravelry.

Needless to say, the floodgates have opened.

Yes, in less than 12 hours, it got onto Gawker. The letter is being dissected, denigrated, and worse, in many venues, but I'll pick out my two favorite little bits and leave it there.
We believe using the name “Ravelympics” for a competition that involves an afghan marathon, scarf hockey and sweater triathlon, among others, tends to denigrate the true nature of the Olympic Games. In a sense, it is disrespectful to our country’s finest athletes and fails to recognize or appreciate their hard work.
Really? There are athletes who are so petty and have so much time on their hands that they've told the USOC that they're upset by a bunch of afghans? (The insulation device, not the nationality.) I call shenanigans!
The Olympic Games represent ideals that go beyond sport to encompass culture and education, tolerance and respect, world peace and harmony.
Really? Because the whole letter sounds pretty disrespectful, especially since they do go out of their way to denigrate afghans (again, the insulation device, not the nationality) and the effort put into them.

With this post, I'm inaugurating a new tag: facepalm.

Karen, Captain, Team Minecraft, Ravelympics 2012 (so sue me, assholes)

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

News: Stuff I've Totally Never Done

I would never even consider doing any of the... oh, who am I kidding. I've done all these things.


And I've never done this, but knowing this now almost makes those $79 MacBook power cords (no, seriously, that's what Apple charges for them) seem worth... $20 max. $79? Who the hell do those numbnuts think they're kidding?

white trash repairs - No Bottle Opener?
see more There I Fixed It

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Whiteboard Jungle: The Clean Underwear Server Rule

Yesterday, I came to realize that the Clean Underwear Rule (you know, always wear clean underwear in case you're in an accident, which really makes no sense, because they probably wouldn't be all that pristine after an accident) needs an edit: always wear clean underwear and always configure all your servers in a clean, maintainable way, because if you're in an accident (or get fired/laid off/transferred/abducted by aliens/etc.), the person who ends up getting blessed with the responsibility of migrating those servers to a new location won't be faced with an undocumented, nuclear-fallout-zone, steaming-pile-of-horse-shit setup and thus will be saved from coming to the inevitable conclusion that you're either lazy, incompetent, or an idiot, or maybe even all three.

And if that person who gets to clean up your mess just happens to be me (and it's always me), you will be saved from worrying that she will also strongly consider making a voodoo doll dedicated to you.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

News: Boss Kitties, Part n

I don't know about you, but I need some cute kitty overload to battle stress right about now.


  • Funny Animal Gifs - Animal Gifs: Gimme a Hand With This
    see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!
    This cat has evolved beyond needing paws with opposable thumbs.

  • funny pictures - CAT-AT: Finally, an AT-AT Walker for Kitties!
    see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!
    I still like the Enterprise from some time ago more, but that's one boss kitty hangout.
  • I nearly died laughing when I saw this greeting card, because it reminded me of Pandora. The biggest boss kitty of all time.

  • funny pictures - Cyoot Kitteh of teh Day: Chillin' Like a Villain
    see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!
    That kitten would totally pwn me. Little spotted kitty belly!

  • funny cat pictures - YAY!
    This cat is most definitely not feeling in charge. That's pretty much Dip's take, too, by the way she howls the entire way *anywhere*. (Granted, I think she's reacting more to being in the carrier, but she'd just freak if I let her out.) Spoon, being rather doglike to some degree, is pretty damn mellow in the car as long as he's not closed in a carrier and can see me. He'll just lie there, meowing once every few minutes to remind me he's there.

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