Life is Grand Again

Part of my view into work:



Yes, I think in terms of workplace, I've definitely traded up. :)

Also, in the hopes that I really am about to resurrect this blog, a picture of a cat:



Specifically, it's this cat. I got back in touch with his owner, who sent me a more recent picture. Ten years later he's doing well and looks the same. :)

There's a cat outside...

It wants to know if I can play with it.

Or it wants to eat me. I'm not quite sure. It stares at me while I'm sitting around at the computer, then goes into stalking mode. A friend says that means it wants to move in. Which I'd be fine with, but the complex management wouldn't. :(

New Improved Fetch and Classic Fetch, together at last!

So a while back I posted some pictures of my plush toy dog Fetch, who bears a striking resemblance to an old icon of the FTP program by the same name. I was quite fond of the program when I was still using Mac OS pre-X.

Well, it turns out that the FTP program is still around, updated with a new icon for Mac OSX. Furthermore, the fellow who created the software, Jim Matthews, saw my post. He has kindly provided me with a plush toy of the new, improved Fetch.


The new dog is every bit as cuddly as he looks. :)

I haven't tried out modern Fetch yet, though it looks quite spiffy from the guided tour. In a year or two when our Solaris machines become obsolete, we're probably going to move to Macs. Then I'll very likely become a Fetch fan once again.

Offerings to the Blog Police

As it happens, I actually did comply with the International Internet Code of Conduct when I first started this blog. However, since I'm surrounded by people who didn't, and who are now in the midst of rectifying their non-compliance, I thought I'd go with the flow and share a pet picture.

Unfortunately, I have no pets. So here's a stuffed dog that sits on top of the monitor to my Powermac 8500/G3. Its name is Fetch. Those who have ever used Mac OS pre-X may recall a popular FTP program (also known as Fetch) which had an icon that looked almost exactly like my stuffed dog.

I'd fret about whether stuffed animals are sufficient for fulfilling the Code of Conduct, but since I'm already in compliance, that seems counterproductive.

Update: Followup post here

Doggie

(picture compliments of my brother, who has declared me weird for wanting it)
Meet Doggie. He was our most beloved pet. He was named after the stuffed dog in They Cage The Animals At Night by Jennings Michael Burch, which my mother read when we were children, and in turn told to us a little at a time during our afternoon naps. He once won first place in a dog show in the stuffed dog category.

Nowadays he lives with my mother. I think he spends his days guarding the end of her bed.


(This post was inspired by Janiece Murphy's giant schnauzer Boogie, who is big and black and recently seen on a white light-colored! couch futon!.)

***
UPDATE: For all the people landing here looking for a picture of Burch's doggie: 8th picture here. :p

A pet chubsucker

This is a lake chubsucker, Erimyzon sucetta. It was caught with a dipnet from a lake in Wilmington, North Carolina, and it lived in my fishtanks for about two years before it became ill and died. It was a big placid fish that got along splendidly with my clown loaches. I keep its picture in the photo slot of my mousepad.

That was when I was a graduate student several years ago. I have no fishtanks running at the moment. Someday soon I need to start up my 20-gallon again...

Obligatory Picture of a Cat

To avoid breaking international blog law, I now have a post with a picture of a cat. Hopefully the blog police won't mind that I'm ten days late. o.O

This is Poofy. Or rather, his name is Solace now, last I heard. He adopted me when I was a graduate student, but unfortunately I was in no position to take in a cat at the time, so I arranged for him to live with a friend. Said friend eventually graduated and found a job in Massachusetts. I haven't seen either of them since. :(