Animation, Art, and Other Shiny Things
Besides being a funny little tale, this is one of the best cut-paper animations I’ve come across in a long while. The sets are intricately drawn without being over-drawn or distracting.
‘Catwalk – Black Cat Crossing’ is a humorous animated short film that takes the viewer into a lovely and detailed designed comic city. There you’re going to witness a row of odd incidents that are obviously related to Matilda, a quite inconspicuous old lady (via)
Animation and concept by Dennis Beckstein, Patrick Kayser, Marian Sander, Manuel Ritter
Two of my favorite things, together; science humor and cats!
I, for one, welcome our Chemistry Cat overlords…
Quickmeme.com has a bunch of ’em collected for our perusing pleasure and there are generators everywhere.
And this is a perfect excuse to post a great little animation of Tom Lehrer’s The Element Song. The man was brilliant and will have a digression of his own here one of these days soon.
I worked in a veterinary clinic as a teen and can attest that this works – to varying degrees. A hard-wired behavior that keeps them from squirming overmuch when mama cat carries them.
And no, I will not be trying this on Izzy. I mentioned it works better on some cats than others? Yeah, and you have to get the cat by the scruff in the first place. Iz would make me pay dearly…
Consider it an educational film…
If you have a cat, or have ever lived with one, sit and think about this for a few moments – it is truly a scary thing…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6CcxJQq1x8&feature=player_embedded
There are some videos that make you giggle no matter how many times you watch it. Don’t bother with the sound – they’re giggling too…
Whatever the subject matter or genre – if I read book 1 of a series, the rest will fall, in order. Perhaps I should qualify that; if I can complete book 1, then I am compelled to read the rest of the series.
Discworld; flat, on the backs of 4 Elephants, riding the back of the Great A'tuin through space.
This is a terribly important trait in what otherwise is a compulsive idiosyncrasy as it saves me from plowing my way through encyclopedias and Harlequin romance series.
I have suffered through some atrocious monstrosities disguised as paperback entertainment because I held the vain hope that the story would get better. And then book 1 ends and I’m committed…
Working at a library only feeds the problem: even before book 1 is complete, book 2 either on the reserve shelf with my name on it, or on it’s way. Most often, though, I already have it checked out, providing me further inducement to complete book 1.
It can be vicious.
I still shudder when I recall that sci-fi quadrilogy whose books averaged over 600 pages each.
When you begin to despise a character for their blinding stupidity and begin to harbor a vain hope they get “removed” in a story-line-appropriate manner (or at least injured) then you’re generally in for continued disappointment until you can close the back cover of the book. (there is a potential for ‘lingering disappointment’ reserved for the exceedingly pin-headed character’s continued existence… Need I make reference to Jar-Jar Binks? No, I thought not…)
"Garden of Earthly Delights" (ca 1503) by Hieronymus Bosch - Yes, there is a reason it's in this post. Two of them, actually. Figure it out for yourself.
Now before you get all bent out of shape and petulantly expound on how much your little gray cells work out during the perusal of a Spenser or Bosch tale, let me note that a mystery novel is still merely a relatively small set of clues couched in a large number of semi-associated ideas.
If were much more than that it would be a textbook, or at least be so convoluted as to be unreadable for entertainment. Having to take notes just to keep the story straight really kinda takes the fun out of reading a novel. But I digress…
Xanth, Book 1. One of the most evil books in the world.
Amidst the mountain of potentially unfortunate reading material I occasionally do luck out and dive into an exceptional series of books – despite the generally trashy genres I tend to enjoy. Xanth and Discworld are two places I love visiting. As a kid I visited and revisited Narnia alot.
And that is a snapshot of the problem; Xanth is contained in over 30 novels, Discworld in near 40 (Spenser too), Harry Bosch in over a dozen. All other reading materials are forsaken in favor of another world clothed in a character of words until the last page of the last book.
Worse still, I can’t read multiple books during a series. If I am pondering Seldon’s psychohistory, then walking into a Bene Gesserit Chapter House could induce a stroke. I know this because I tried once. Was out of sorts for several days.
Common Wisdom says that if you know you have a problem then you’re on your way to solving it. The corollary is that if someone else knows about that problem, they can use it against you.
And that’s what happened…
Book 1 of the Warriors multi-series. Some of the books in this series cause actual pain when read by anyone who has been a parent.
I’ve know Merc for over two decades, we’ve played many a game together – on the same side and against each other. Of anyone, Merc knows my strengths and weaknesses and knows how to lever either of them.
With full knowledge, and malice aforethought, he brought me a book 1.
The Warriors series is up to somewhere around 3 dozen books including prequels, guides, and mangas. Into the Wild is the first of a 6 book sub-series set in the Warriors world. Written to the pre-teen and young teen audience, it follows ‘clans’ of cats as they struggle to survive. It idealizes and anthropomorphizes cat culture a bit, but the underlying themes of loyalty, trust, and achievement are good ones. Watching the characters work their way through worry and self-doubt shows the young reader that they aren’t alone. It’s engaging, and a lifetime of Disney helps me to suspend my disbelief in favor of my new friends in Thunderclan.
It took me about 3 books to realize I was reading the books like a parent. An affliction that continues to plague me as I’m beginning book 1 of the 3rd series. (multiple book 1’s in a single series is particularly malevolent, by the way) It’s like watching the kids go through middle school all over again. Painful…
In an off-handed way, though, being in the middle of a large series is somewhat comforting; I know the next book I will be reading.
And best of all? I am protected from the other book 1’s out there.
In taking a stroll through the blog here I noticed a definite trend: Cats.
You would think that I would’ve noticed it before – this is my blog and these are my posts – but then the forest is indeed hard to see when amidst the trees. I just write what catches my attention and post it if I can actually finish the piece and it appears to make sense. (I have a seriously overloaded Draft folder of posts in progress…)
Between the animals we’ve domesticated and the habitats we’ve encroached on, humanity is living amongst a pretty sizable menagerie. Arguably the most interesting beast on the urban landscape is the Crow. One of the few, if not the only, truly omnivorous bird. (well, maybe pigeons are too, but they aren’t even half as interesting as crows.) Check out the PBS Nature episode A Murder of Crows for a great look at one of the most intelligent creatures on earth. (full episode streaming goodness! A digression, certainly, but a worthy one…)
On the micro-urban landscape, at least on mine, the most interesting beast is the common house cat.
Now, about this blog’s trend; If you’re waiting for an apology and a heartfelt promise to balance my posts more between cats, dogs, and perhaps even the occasional budgie, well…. I do feel bad for you because you won’t be getting one, and if you’ve read any of my blog, you know how deeply I care about my readers and their feelings.
And really, when it comes right down to it, I’m a “cat person” anyways.
No offense to dogs. I’ve had some great friendships with dogs – grew up with them – like ’em in general. (except for those little nervous, yappy things)
There are some distinct advantages to cats over other domestic pets, not the least being that they all come in generally the same size: About 650 cubic inches in volume; two-fifths of a cubic foot. (empirically speaking, actual cat size is completely independent from the size the cat thinks it is) This handy, standardized size means that accessories and furnishings are consistent as well. No problem of having to check the size on that collar that catches your eye when it’s for a cat.
Another major bonus is that a cat does not need to be walked. In fact it’s contraindicated in the vast majority of cases. While initially trying to take your cat on “walkies” it is more of a test-of-wills drag or perhaps a spirited rodeo-on-a-rope, eventually though Muhammad will come to the mountain – and you are that mountain. Easy access to a First Aid kit is an essential precaution should you decide to attempt this feat.
Thirdly, and the most fascinating to me, is that a cat does not rely on it’s humans to define it’s self worth, and they make that very evident. A nice, self-contained psyche. This does not mean you can’t play mind games with a member of the feline persuasion, I make it a point to do just that, (I have a diploma from the Monty Python School of Cat Confusion [correspondence] so it’s OK.) but be aware that you can lose a battle of wits to a cat and they modify your behavior.
These things alone make it easy to quickly find yourself with your very own pride of domestic lions prowling the living room savanna.
To further complicate the matter try walking into your local rescue shelter then doing a bit of math. Assuming a 1000 square foot home, seven foot 2 inches in height, you get about 7,160 cu ft of volume, enough space to fit nearly 18 thousand cats! Now, stacking cats like cord wood is a practical nightmare, ask anyone who’s attempted to put a single feline in a box without said tabby’s consent.
In practical terms, however, our home is beholden to the ubiquitous force of gravity so we really can’t think of it as a volume, but rather as a collection of potentially grimalkin-laden surfaces. In looking around my local habitat there appears to be about 5 percent of the floor area Izzy can’t access, however in most cases there is a corresponding surface atop the offending furniture item. Assuming a cat covers about three-quarters of a square foot this makes our cat potentiality just over 1300 felines.
Unsurprisingly one can assume that as cat density rises, cat attitude drops, and it would be in the best interest of our health to factor that in. Averaging the take-no-prisoners temper of Jazmine with the inquisitive acceptance of Izzy I come up with a reduction factor of 15 making our herd about 86 and a tail. (you’re free to check the math yourself) This allows for nearly 12 square feet of area per cat.
86 is still a largish number but can logistically be managed assuming that small-space cat herding is your primary occupation and you have a small personal fortune to finance truckloads of kibble, the salary of a full-time veterinarian, and annual furniture replacement.
And this is how a crazy cat lady is created; by doing the math. And by doing those calculations and coming up with numbers that sound perfectly reasonable it becomes easy to consider adopting a whole wall of caged cats from the rescue shelter.
Yet it’s also those beautifully precise figures that illustrate the fact that there are just too many kitties for one crazy cat person to save, no matter how many square feet per feline. We could adopt every cat from every shelter and by next week their cages would be re-filled.
So what can we do to make a difference (short of convincing neighbors and friends to become crazy cat ladies)?
Adopt a cat. Fix the cat. Love the cat. When your cat passes on – do it again.
You can be a crazy cat lady with a single cat. I am.
It’s been a week! My apologies at being remiss in posting a new digression, but as you can imagine, the Calf household has been a bit out of whack since losing Miz Jaz. It’ll be a couple weeks still until we start crawling the shelters looking for a cat that needs a family, but I’ll see what I can do about posting around here in the meantime. I’ll keep ya posted, as it were…
For now, please watch this instructional video carefully. Take notes if you need to. This film will save lives…
When first I saw these pictures I was terrified. Feline armor could tilt that delicate balance of power between us and cats from our mere subjugation to broken cat toys.
White Knight Cat by Jeff de Boer
Brutal, strutting intimidation. Vicious, helmet-resonating growls. Simply weaving in between our feet adds serious risk and danger. Jumping into our lap could knock us unconscious.
And the Machiavellian nature of Felis Cattus, especially the armored one, will certainly exploit these possibilities to the extent they don’t inhibit their feeding schedule. And get the litterbox while you’re at it too… Read more of this post
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The Ruffled Crow 