Ziggy in her Cubby Cube

As you can see and hear, the Cubby Cube is a smashing success. I thought Ziggy was going to rattle her bones apart purring.

Ziggy Happy in her Cubby Cube

Got lots done

The past few days of sunshine and warmth (relative warmth) has inspired a plethora of yard work and gardening.

I hired Un-son, Robin to spread mulch around the plant bed in front of the house, and on the upper level of the front yard. I had tried, moved about 5 containers of it, and it laid me up for almost 2 weeks.  I really wanted the mulch spread out before it started decomposing too much. I don't mind it being a bit loamy, as that is good for the plants.

Today, I went out there with my clippers and give the lillipilly a close trim, so it will shrub up rather than out. Got rid off all the dead and dying fronds on the Bird of Paradise plant. Put the clippings in the new compost bin in the back yard.

Also, had an unpleasant surprise from Ziggy. Not only was she stress toileting on the stone floor, she decided to pee on the carpet I had spent weeks last year getting the leftover odors of Affy out.  So, I used my cold water rug shampooers, with "Animal Odor Removing" shampoo. It helped, but I will probably do it more than the two times I already have.  I have also swabbed down all the wooden items around there with lavender oil.  I think between the shampooing and the lavender oil, the smell will be conquered. I did tell Aikidomayland  that if Ziggy keeps doing this, he will have a new hobby. Cleaning up after her.

Last call for this sale!

Redbubble 15% off T-Shirt Sale ends tomorrow! Also, if you get 5 shirts, postage is free!

Some have already taken advantage of this sale, and I thank you for it!

Thou shalt not kill

I have been mailing things to friends in the US for at least 9 years now. I am an old hand at addressing and getting all the right forms filled out.

I packed up, and addressed a gift for a friend. Double checked the address and it was all good. Got the customs form filled out, paid for postage, and away it went... only to be returned because some bright spark in the US who inspected the parcel slapped an inspected sticker over the damned apartment number. Chances are the parcel made it within 4 blocks of the intended recipients house before it got "Insufficient address information".

Did I blister anyone's ears?

Two Cubbies for Two Cats

And I was wise enough to have them not facing the same direction!

Ziggy, she is on the left, and our big boy Loki is in the right one.

The Tale of a Cat Cubby

One cat cubby... two cats.

Ziggy likes the new cat cubby

Surprisingly, so does Loki!

Ziggy is NOT happy that Loki likes it.

Ziggy doing some covert ops.

INTRUDEER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!

Go away! It's MINE! (for now)

What the &#$% what he thinking??

Or maybe he just wasn't.

At archery today, DimJim and John were 'in charge' because Ian was away at the indoor shoot. First off, John didn't put out enough targets, his reason being he didn't think that many people would show up. Nor did he think it was necessary to put up the 'false fence of safety' to keep silly people out. Jim was the line captain. It was his job to signal when to shoot, when to go collect arrows, etc.

The target problem was easily solved, Aikidomayland just trundled another one out.

The 'safety fence'... well two idiots decided to enter the archery range from right corner of the range, behind the targets, and started walking on an angle, getting closer and closer to the 60 meter target, with people shooting on the line. Jim just stood there, didn't bother giving the 4 sharp whistles meaning "stop shooting immediately" even after one of us mentioned how perilously close the two people were getting. They were close enough, that if someone missed on the 30 meter target, they stood a good chance of getting hit!

I said "Idiots!" and Ron (one of the other archers) said "Where's your brains?". The two silly girls decided to walk to the far left side in a hurry. Then DimJim chews Ron and me out for daring to saying anything! That it could 'fall back on the club'. What??? Like someone walking through an archery range and getting shot wouldn't??!! I was all I could do not to say "Well, Jim, if you pulled your thumb out of your ass, and actually did your job we wouldn't have had to say anything."

Now wasn't this a nice surprise

Aikidomayland  and Alan prepared dinner tonight. Not only was it very edible, it was restaurant quality delicious.

*urp*

The toy *will* be his!

Loki, the bwave huntah of pink feathery toys!

I will get you!

Success!

Dear Microsoft

What the f**k is the use of making manual restore points when you thrice damned OS refuses to use them!!??

Sometimes you have to very careful

When taking something out of the back of the car. Aikidomayland found that out.

He came home, the usual time, went around to the back of the car to grab his 'bag o' stuff' (calico bag with lunch dishes) and it snagged on something. Ever impatient, he gave it a tug, it suddenly came loose and smacked him square in the nads. He folded over so gracefully. I mostly contained my giggles.

RedBubble is having a 15% off T-Shirt sale!

15% off T-Shirts

We’re knocking 15% off the price of all t-shirts for one week only, to mark the the anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s acting debut.

And if that wasn’t enough, if you buy five discounted shirts, you get free shipping as well.

And you don’t have to do anything special, it’s all automatic, we’ll take the 15% off the price, and magically deduct shipping costs if you buy 5 or more. Well, it’s not actually magic, but you get the point.

Anime Style graphic design

Objects Appear Larger

The Moon

 

And many others

Gallery

Loki has me well trained

Was fixing lunch, some noodles with shrimp. I turn to look and there is Loki, patiently waiting in the doorway for his 'tribute' of two diced shrimp.

Ah, the joys of being owned by cats. *chuckle*

Well, that's done

Have made two back ups of the OS partition, saved on different drives, and have made new copies of the "Recovery Discs". Each set will be stored in a safe place. Not so safe that I can't find them. That level of 'safe' is something Aikidomayland does.

Had a nice visit by Delicious Irony. She will be by again tomorrow, and I will tweak the setting on her netbook to improve performance.

Nerds Rule!

I'm not paranoid

Just cautious.

Got some software, and am in the process of making a disc image of my OS partition, including the 'hidden' files, and the partitioned off OS recovery. I have already exported the matching registry to go with it.  I know that sooner or later, probably due to lack of space, this machine will need a new hard drive.

Cold damp weather makes

Being active not easy or fun. Cold has settled in my lower back and is giving me trouble. Still managed to go to Tai Chi tonight. Was wondering if they were going to be able to keep the room on the building. The wind was howling so loud I could barely hear the instructor. I was a designated 'corner' tonight, too. Since this is a beginners class, and I have been through it onto 'continuing', it's all good.

Managed to get Sacred 2 - Fallen Angel installed and functional. Actually managed to get some game play in. <| <| <| and there was great rejoicing! |>> |>

Off to sleep land for me. I wearily bid everyone a good night.

You know it's damp and chilly when....

Your Bengal curls up under a blanket to sleep.

Ziggy under my "Cuddlee" blanket

My purchase curse strikes again

Whatever I purchase, the first one is always faulty or defective. Luckily for me, I tend to hedge my bets.

I spotted some nice stainless steel salt/pepper mills, battery operated. So, I ordered two. They arrived today. When I opened the shipping packaging, one of the faces of boxes facing the inside of the other box had a hole in it. It was on the only side not visible. I carefully opened the box, and removed the mill, only to find a radiating crack in the acrylic base.

I took photograph, emailed it and the above to the merchant, requesting a replacement and an address to return the faulty goods.

*sigh*

Why yes, that is steam coming out of my ears

Two hours downloading the game update.. it gets to 99% completion.

Enter lighting, then thunderclap, and internet kicks off for a millisecond. And of course there is no 'resume' feature.

*Smash forehead on keyboard to continue*

Since my son mentioned that my painting looked like the Seraphim in "Sacred", I decided to get the game. Installed without a hitch, even went through that annoying 'You must activate this game" bs that Microsoft seems to think stops people from hacking their games.

Started the game, and the mouse crawled at a glacial speed across the screen. :-/ I persevered and played for a while, and it was fun. I checked to see if there were any updates or patches, and there were.

I download one. 800+ megs. "Sacred 2 update could not find Fallen Angel on your system. Please reinstall the game." Huh? Time for Google. It seems that is a common problem, so I follow the links to another patch. Over one gig, but I grab that one, double click the file and three guesses? "Sacred 2 update could not find Fallen Angel on your system. Please reinstall the game." One more time, back to Google. I find a smaller patch file, 400 megs. Download that, and voila! it worked.

I start the game, only to find out one of the things the patch fixed was having the game 'call home' for an update. Grrrrrr. Start downloading that one. 2hrs later, update is applied. I start the game and and the mouse is working fine, scrolling smooth and quick, but the graphics are all blown to hell. Whohuhwa..?

Double clicked the update checker.. and there is yet ANOTHER patch. Waiting for that to finish downloading.

An end of an era

Walter Cronkite, the man who narrated history as it was happening, has died, age 92.

Walter Cronkite, the CBS anchorman known as both "Uncle Walter" for his easygoing, measured delivery and "the most trusted man in America" for his rectitude and gravitas, has died. Cronkite was 92 years old. At the height of his influence, Cronkite's judgment was believed to be so important it could affect even presidents.

He had been in ill health for some time, and 92 years is a good long run.  I grew up listening to him report the news and his show YOU ARE THERE.

Seraphim at Repose

More anime styled artwork. Son told me this one looked like "The seraphim in 'Sacred'." I'll take his word for it, as I haven't a clue about it, but decided to use 'seraphim' in the title.

I really enjoy using the Intuos3 tablet. Still like using the Bamboo tablet, but the sensitivity and performance of the Intuos3 is noticeably better.

Anime styled Graphic Design

Son suggested I try something a bit outside of my comfort zone

Very satisfied with the result. Feels pretty good doing graphic art again.

Used TwistedBrush Pro, and Intuos3 graphics tablet.

That explains their interest

Keito and Loki have been staring into the neighbors yard through a hole in the fence. Found out Jean got some chickens, and they are in an open air coop. That explains the bleating and chattering.

When they are polite

It's a good thing to be nice and politely decline when missionaries drop by.

Pillaging and Aikido taping

A bit of a rush but we got the shopping done and out of the way. We were just a few minutes behind schedule and the universe decided to conspire to make sure that we were going to be more than just 5 minutes late. We hit every red light from Fremantle, into Kardinya, then from Kardinya, to Perth to Subiaco, every....fracking... red light.

We arrived 20 mins late. Fiona was waiting for us, taking a nap in her sun warmed car. She must have been a kitty in a previous life. :)

Managed to get some good video. Will try for some more next week.

More from "As the Stomach Churns!"

Subtitle: the inanity of tech support.

I have a great program. BlazeHDTV 3.5 It works great. But there is a small issue with it. It's supposed to work in "Desktop Mode". For those who don't know what that is, it plays on the desktop like the Wallpaper.

I have tried to use this program on two different, almost identical computers, but running different OS, and the problem persists. Drivers are up to date. So I send them a support request.

"Desktop mode doesn't work. I have tried it on two different computers, running different OS, and it doesn't work. (insert Fully name, and serial number here) Thank you."

I get :

Please send us your full name, date of purchase, confirmation number for further assistance.

I do so.

I get:

"The latest version Blaze HDTV 3.5 can be download from (insert link here). Your serial no# is *************. Thank you for your purchase."

Huh, what?

I sent them a rather scathing reply.

NO, I don't need a new copy of it! I freaking using it NOW to watch a DVD! I requested TECH SUPPORT!

Desktop mode doesn't work. I have tried it on TWO DIFFERENT COMPUTERS. Both computers are Core 2 Duos, 4 gigs ram, 752 megs video memory, one is running Vista Home Premium, the other was running XP Pro.

One more time, just in case you didn't get it.

Desk Top Mode Doesn't Work. Greyed Out On the MENU. Can Not Be Selected. Tried to use it on two different computers, with the same problem.

Have I made myself clear this time?

Yes Amun-Aten, I do sometimes get the impression that corporations only hire mental defectives?

Pet post

Loki and Ziggy are sitting closer and closer, without any hissing or growling. Ziggy still teases him, though. At least she didn't mind him being close.

Loki gazes up at Ziggy.

Loki enjoys the tight squeeze of a small cardboard box. It was so funny watching him flatten himself out to get in there.

Warm feet

I think many of the worlds ills could be cured by warm cozy feet. I know I am cranky if my feet are cold, and in a better mood once I don warm socks and slippers.

I don't know why it's hitting me so hard

But Michael Jackson's death is like a kick in the guts for me. I keep hoping it's some sort of sick hoax. That he wanted to pull a disappearing act, and just vanish. I feel as if I have lost a part of me. I think about him, and I cry.

I believed him when he said he did nothing untoward with children. He loved children, and I don't mean carnally. He loved all children, because he was still childlike himself.

I'll miss you, Michael. Your death has left a painful hole in my heart, and has left the world a much sadder and darker place.

Putting "Pharaceutical Strength" Red Bull to good use.

I was feeling very draggy and tired, even after my normal coffee with breakfast. I had a great deal of laundry to get done (I swear the clothing breeds when you are away at conventions), and get some floors vacuumed. I slowly imbibed in a small bottle of "Red Bull" 8)

Got the laundry done, got the floor cleaned, the kitchen cleaned, and also (with the help of Alan) finally put the new cat tower together.

Ziggy likes it





Ziggy shows great interest in the ceiling vent.






"Oooo, toy mouse!"

It seems SupaNova photographs got me going through others I had taken while in Albany. Totally forgot I had some great shots of herpetofauna.

Day is just about over...

And I'm glad of it. Cons always mean lots of laundry, and other domestic chores need to get done. Wasn't easy, but I got most of it done today.

Spent time going through the pics I took at SupaNova. Have already posted a goodly number elsewhere. Have to resize them, upload them to LJ Scrapbook, and then add the descriptors. Maybe tomorrow, because right now I just can't handle it.

Ziggy, the Princess Bengal, was miffed because we were gone most of the weekend. She has been "Attend to me now!" all day. So has Loki, but in a lesser fashion. Keito, mega mellow as usual.

Well, I'm off to la la land. Bon nuit, buenos noches, good night!

p.s. I just watched Aikidomayland whap himself in the head with his jo. I tried my best, and did not snicker until after he left the room, and then did so quietly.

From the annals of "Day late..."

Today, the two camera batteries arrived. As did the netbook back pack.

Well, at least I have them for next time.

Having hard time keeping eyes open.

Time to pay the piper

I knew that taking  meds to mask the pain, thereby ignoring it,  over the weekend would come home to roost. And it did. At the tail end of SupaNova, the implant area on my spine was audibly creaking and cracking. Doesn't mean it was breaking, just meant I could feel and hear it from doing too much.  

Legs are Jello weak, and I feel as if I have been through a human sized food processor, with blunted blades, of course. Funny thing is, I wouldn't have done anything differently had I known for a fact, rather than just suspect, the results would be.

Karl Urban is delightful Con guest. He is also a clown.  Personable, approachable, and one helluva sense of humor. Aikidomayland  sandbagged me with a question to ask Karl. I found out just what it meant... let's just say it's about a rivalry between Aussie and Kiwis.

Richard Hatch: I could talk to him for hours. Something he said really struck home.  When there is something you really want to do, there always be people who will try to tell you that you can't do it.  And tell you why you can't. And if you disregard their nay saying, and try, they get angry at you for ignoring them. When you start succeeding, they do their best to sabotage you.  Funnily enough, this applied to a certain group of females that did just that. They failed in their attempts, but they did tell me I couldn't, I wouldn't, and when I did, tried to sabotage.  Their efforts were wasted.

Dirk Benedict: hmmm, what to say. A man of very strong convictions, who enjoyed his time on Battlestar Galactica, and the A Team.

Herb Jefferson Jr:  Boomer on First "Battlestar Galactica". He so reminded me of my Uncle Al. The same ebullient personality, with a touch of friendly smart ass.  :)

Gil Birmingham, a quietly friendly man. I asked "Could you give me a smile?" and he did. :)  

Jake Lloyd: a very level headed young man.  He actually has no idea how he was the one that landed the role of "Anakin".

Will post gallery of pics, when I have finished going through them.

Well, I am off to heat up a wheat bag, and do some self leg massaging. Should help.  *wince* Hopefully.

SupaNova - Saturday

Crazy, fun, and abso-fracking-lutely insane.

Got to natter with Richard Hatch about his dual roles in Battlestar Galactica.  This guy is a hoot. Herb Jefferson called me a smart ass. Tis true, tis true! He asked me what brought me to Perth and I said "An airplane."  Was able to tell Karl Urban that both ShadoutCarver
 and I are very glad that he decided to do a good generic American Accent, rather than a really bad Southern one.  He was most appreciative of that.  
Waiting for Dirk Benedict's commentary about BSG 30 yrs later. Wow, has it really been that long?

I think my going here without Aikidomayland was a good idea. He can be such a buzzkill at times, and I didn't need someone quipping at everything I do.

Battery pack, update

It appears the lazy S.O.B. (that doesn't mean Short of Breath, either) didn't bother to clean up what spilled from the blown batteries out of the case before putting the new ones in. I have used baking soda on the spillage. Here's hoping the lazy bastich's methods didn't screw up the new ones.

If it's not ONE thing, it's another

Ok, I got a new backpack for my netbook. Not just for the netbook, but to be able to carry other items (ID, wallet, pen, etc). Got my external flash for my camera, and have charged up all the batteries for it, and it's working just fine.

However.... the battery pack that replaced my scooters' 'dead' one is leaking. Luckily it's on the stone floor, as what is leaking is corrosive and has stained the floor. We will have to go deal with the little Napoleon again, but for $320 you're damned right I am gonna deal with the jerk.

Also, the new external hard drive I had gotten for my son 2 weeks ago, has decided to die. At first we thought it was the USB cable. Annoying as the return process is going to be, at least it's still under warranty and we can get it exchanged.

Insert naughty words here

My back is a wreck. This cold wet weather has settled in well and good.. or should I say bad? Meegan came by today, and we ran a few errands. Mailed something to ShadoutCarver (no Carver, don't go sitting at the mail box. It's going to take at least a week to get there), got son some Strepsils, paid a few bills, and by the time we were finished, a whole whopping 45 minutes if that, it felt as if someone was kneeling with spiked kneepads buried in my lower back. Meegan said when she just walked into the house, her back started twinging. It's meat locker cold in here. Slate and stone floors are great for summer, but they are a misery for me now. Wheat bag and other heat packs work while I am sitting with them, but they don't do much good when I am mobile.

I think the next time Aikidomayland is out of town on business, I am going to see about getting reverse cycle installed.

I want to go to SupaNova this weekend. I know Aikidomayland isn't interested but I am. He is probably worried that I will get a a Wacom Bamboo.. oh wait, did that last year. ;)

Ziggy Makes Biscuits!

Ziggy Makes Biscuits!