Okay, a whole lot of small things:

• Ammy's put a bid on a house last night. They have until 8pm today to accept or decline. It's a big underbid, so who knows, but she's really excited.
• I picked up a couple of original TiVos for $50 apiece (employee discount on outdated inventory), and I'm looking to use them for some cool projects, but I'm not sure what yet. One I want to work on is a TiVo for radio. Further details will follow.
• Rachel and her mom arrived in town on Wednesday after a 3500 mile road trip from Rochester. Rachel's staying with me until she finds work and an apartment, probably around the end of the year-ish. Ellie's going back home on Tuesday, and she and Rachel will be doing sightseeing before then.
• I'm new car shopping. I've had the new car bug since June, when I realized that Mutant is over six years old. Several years ago I promised myself that I wouldn't get a new car until I had a place to put it, since her life on the streets has caused Mutant to age faster than I'd like. Now my townhouse has a real bona-fide garage with a garage door opener and everything, so I guess it's time! I've been researching cars for the past three months, originally focusing on an Accord or Passat, then gravitating towards something more utilitarian like a Honda CR-V, but then refocused on a Subaru Forrester and, after looking at them, changed to the Subaru Outback. I've been keeping tabs on the new Prius though, and the more I see, the better it sounds. I'll have to adjust to the equivalent of a 104hp engine, but other than that the Prius looks really good. Most of my hybrid concerns have been addressed in this model, and I'll be very keen to take a look at them when they arrive in showrooms on October 17th. 60mph City, 51mpg Highway is nothing to sneeze at, and the optional Bluetooth integration with my new cellphone (I got the Ericsson T616 by the way, but more on that later) is also pretty sweet.
• Karen's car got broken into a few days ago. They took her stereo and (nonsensically) the controls for her air conditioning. Basically the whole center panel.
• I need a name for my place. I was thinking about 'Rendezvous' because I have a fully equipped guest bedroom and wanted to play up the 'I know it's a long drive from the East Bay, but come on down 'cause there's crash space' angle, infused with a little bit of the Three's Company theme song. Now I'm over it, but I'm still looking for a good name that's not based on a trendy fantasy or sci-fi book or movie.
• I really, really love my job.
• Kisa's still at Emily's place. I thought it made sense that, since Emily's living by herself while Chris is down in Los Angeles until who-knows-when, we shouldn't switch Kisa to my place until I was living alone. It didn't seem fair to take Kisa when I already have a roommate keeping me company.
• Rachel's cat Nym is being fostered by Ammy and Rick, who live about a mile away from me. If you're wondering about the seeming contradiction, it's that Kisa was carefully chosen as one of the few breeds of cat I'm not allergic to. Nym, unfortunately, is not, so while Rachel's staying with me, Nym would drive me (literally, though not figuratively) to tears after a day or so. Nym's having some adjustment issues at Ammy's, mostly because she doesn't yet know what a great cat-lover Ammy is, and how happy Amy is to have Nym around after Tigger passed away less than a year ago.
• I'm reading Cory Doctorow's "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom." It's a very interesting story, and not what i expected. Cory's probably known just as much or more for editing the fabulous site BoingBoing!
• Listening to Aphex Twin alone at work in the morning creates a really interesting mood.
• Last week I added Google AdSense ads to Fury. They make me about $1.50 a day, or nearly enough to pay for Fury's hosting! If you're thinking, 'Where are the ads? I don't see them!' it's because I love you, the regular reader.
• Gah. I really should link up a lot of things in this post, but if I'm too lazy to have seperated this post into the five it warrants, then I'm too lazy to go look up hyperlinks all over the web.

So, that's it in a nutshell! Any questions?

Comments? (18)

My kitty's four years old as of yesterday, and she still looks the same as when she was 2 (and not much changed from 1). I've been spending a lot more time with cats recently, and I can still definitely say that she's the bestest kitten, and I'm so looking forward to spending more time with her again when I'm back on the Left Coast!

(8 hours later) and now my friends are all emailing, "busted!" because I forgot to click 'submit' on this post. Argh.

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Thank you Emily for bringing to my attention the recently discovered pages of Genesis detailing the origins of pets.

It's true though, that Kisa seems to be more dog than cat. The best of both worlds, really.

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Working on Weakest Link story and photos. I'll have 'em up soon. Doing loads of laundry for the upcoming trip.

Meanwhile, check this out: A company called Transgenic Pets, LLC is planning to offer genetically modified non-allergenic kittens somewhere around 2003. They remove the protein that produces cat allergens. It's a cool idea, but it gives me the willies after seeing A.I.

The thing that weirds me out is the cat's sense of history: Will this cat have parents? Can you submit a sample for them to make a non-allergenic cat? Will there be two or three 'models' to choose from?

I like Kisa just fine thankyouverymuch, besides, she's about as non-allergenic as they come naturally.

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Today's Kisa's second birthday, as you may have noticed (or even anticipated?) by looking at the "Look Ahead" widgit to the left.

Kisa is still the best kitten in the world (though I suppose less of a kitten now) and is adorable beyond compare. She's taught me and Emily a new game, involving getting wrapped up in chanille and tussled. It starts her purring like nothing else I've seen.

Anyhow, it's the end of a great week. I hope everyone else has a great weekend!!

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I think I speak both for Kisa and myself when I say that this has (so far) been a pretty nice, lazy weekend.

Comments? (15)

I love it when my kitten has mouse-chasing kitten-dreams while she's sleeping in my lap. I love it almost as much as I love inane weblog entries.

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Why do we pass strict laws on what mood-altering substances are legal, are doubly cautious about what our kids get in contact with, but have no problem giving our cats catnip?

Does anyone have info on what catnip is analogous to in people?

Comments? (6)

Today's Kisa's first birthday. She's my cat (I use the term 'my' like 'my sister' or 'my cousin' both because she doesn't think I own her and because I share her with my friend (there's that nonposessive 'my' again) Emily.

So of course I have to do it, I have to put a cat photo up. I'm breaking out the camera right now, so don't expect posed perfection. More like candid kitty:

She's just adorable, and though she has no clue it's her birthday, she certainly enjoys her new fur mousie.

Comments? (63)

Okay, so it's absolutely anecdotal evidence, but my cat, Kisa, (sorry, no obligatory cute photos up (yet...)) is a fair judge of interface affordances. She's recently discovered the computer screen, and loves to tap at it with her paw (there's a case for direct interactivity instead of using a keyboard and mouse!).

Anyhow, cute as that is, the interesting bit is what she taps on. Basically, she loves the cursor (naturally, it's small and moves fast) but she'll also tap on icons (like the top navbar), and solitary beveled buttons, but never other interface elements like imagemaps or text links.

As obvious and rational as this may sound, it's still important to remember that there is a very real difference between inhierent affordances that come from within (low, sturdy flat things can be sat upon) and experiential, learned affordances (chairs can be sat upon).

While text links are the strongest experiential affordance we have on the web, other ones, like non iconographic imagemaps, or worse yet, navigation methods whihc require text ("Click on the country you're currently in') require forebrain thought. People designing for the web should try to reserve the forebrain to the content, and not the navigation.

At any rate, it's clear Kisa needs her own laptop now.

Comments? (9)