Yet another quick post

Today's pointless doodle is one that I did for Illustration Friday ages ago. I used to be much better at lettering -- my mother, especially, encouraged it to help improve my hopeless lefty writing -- but this was done fairly quickly.

And obviously with no ruler.

So yeah, we've hit the season of fiddling with the clocks again, which this year means that those of you who celebrate Halloween by getting drunk will have an extra hour to do it, I guess. Personally, I'm not looking forward to it being dark before supper. I say, just keep the damned clocks on Daylight Savings all year long. It would keep some of us saner.

Well, one or two of us at least.

Anyway, that's it for me for the month, unless for some reason I decide to post from my phone. It's happened before, but it's really not kind to my data plan so I'm trying to get out of the habit. So let's assume that I won't then, and I'll say Happy Halloween if you're into that sort of thing, and if not... um... Happy November?

Later, folks.

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Edited to add: yes, I did go to DAVIDsTEA. Yes, the person at the counter was extremely glad to see that I knew what I wanted and wasn't going to ask for every single canister to be brought down. Yes, they were freaking busy. Still nice to finally have them in town, though.

And maybe I'm not the only one here who hates Teavana.

Another quick post

I spent all day in Lethbridge yesterday (about eight hours or so in a car, all told). Spent today twisting chenille stems (long story) and documenting the installation of our new displays at work.

Plus, I have a cold.

Yeah, I'm a little too tired for a blather at this point. Catch you later in the week, probably, because after all we have to talk about the fact that this city now has a DAVIDsTEA at some point.



Maybe I'll go there on my way home. I wouldn't mind some (more) tea.

Bye for now, though.

Very short post

Bad pic, but new rocks. There was a sale. Tourmaline, malachite cat, & carved picture Jasper.

No, I'm not an addict.



Shut up.

Happy Thanksgiving Turkey... Brothers

Well, I spent a little time this morning doodling something for Illustration Friday, which you can find on the other blog if you choose to. The blather over there (which, oddly, is called vague mutterings. Made sense to me at the time, I suppose) means that the blather over here is getting short shrift today. However, I will give the holiday a bit of a nod by presenting some non-feathered turkeys:

For anyone who didn't believe how big these guys are, I present to you one chair full of cat. Oh, and for those new to the program, the Turkey Brothers, Bob on the left and Tom on the right, are my father's cats and are, indeed, brothers. They're also proof that mamma cats fool around.

When I went outside a little later to take more pointless photos, I noticed a window full of Bob. And no, he's not responsible for the duct tape fix job. He would have been talented to break the window on the outside when he's usually on the inside.

Coming back in, I was greeted by Tom. Dad's alarm system has an audible "back door" prompt when the door is opened, and it's become the cat caller. Tom especially needs to see who's coming in. As you notice, he decided to show me how well he can cheek shoes.

Apparently they were delicious. Um, whatever, Tom.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Expect mostly radio silence from me in the next day or two. As usual.

The yearly purge

I just finished my annual look at the stuff hanging around my flash drive (yes, flash drive. I don't own a computer -- really -- and haven't taken to the whole cloud thing much yet, so the stuff I need still travels on a flash drive) in the folder marked Round File.

I don't have to explain the title to most of you.

The round file is where the vast majority of my photos go once I've edited them as much as I'm going to. Most of them get used on the blog and then deleted. A very few of them get sent to one of my "keepers" files. The rest? Just sit there until I do something about them.

Thus, the purge.

Pictures that were sub-par even for this blog get deleted. Summer flowers that weren't bad but just didn't used stay for those days in winter when I just can't bear posting another photo of snow. Cat pictures go over to the Animals file in case my father ever wants them for something. Or in case I ever get desperate enough to make a grand collage of Pets I Have Known.

I guess I'm ready for the next round of pointless photos, then. And for anyone concerned that I'm so cavalier about getting rid of my shots, well... digital, right? Anything that I thought decent enough to post is out there if it needs to be retrieved, through the Picasa album that's attached to the blog, through the blog itself, or, failing that, image search. And besides, most of the stuff that I shoot can be retaken in some form the next year.

And often is.

So, yeah, the pointless photography is mostly disposable, and I have very little regret in doing the deed. If I were in a more rambley mood I suppose I could take that in the direction of how it reflects on our society, but I'm more in the mood for lunch at the moment than philosophy.





That probably reflects on our society, too.

Ok, shut up now

Red-osier Dogwood leaves, if anyone wondered.

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I took the time today to wait in line (and boy, it was a wait. Two polling stations at that location, and everyone who came in seemed to have to go to the same one) at the advanced poll today and vote in the federal election.

The interminable federal election.

You know, the one that Just. Won't. Go. Away.

The one where the "official" campaign started way too early, the unofficial one has been going on forever, and the electorate is groaning go away, already.

I should explain to the non-Canadians out there that normal practise here is to have a federal election within about a month after the election's officially called (and right now the long-suffering Americans are saying Seriously?), but not so this time. Whoever decided that it would be a fantastic idea to force us to watch those annoying nits natter on for so many weeks ought to have his (generic his, there. Sorry, gender-neutral folks. Until the structure of English drastically changes, there's always going to be a verbal gender bias) ears boxed, frankly. And if they get lower voter turn-out yet again, they only have themselves to blame for going on and on and on and on...

I wouldn't vote for the Energizer Bunny, either.

It didn't help that out of the three major party leaders, there's really not one of them that I want to see running the country. That's counting personality and platform, by the way. I do my research, even if I hate the politics.

Personality-wise, leaving the other stuff aside for now, Justin's pretty and seems to say whatever his advisers tell him to even if it's contradictory, Mulcair is the angry Cheshire Cat (really. In all of those photo ops with his candidates I expected him to disappear slowly, leaving only the creepy smile and the beard), and I just can't ever trust Harper after watching his government try to kill the ELA, muzzle their scientists, needlessly destroy decades of archived research... and that's just on the science side. This government's priorities are so effed up that it makes a person want to say sorry to the rest of the world.

Being good Canadians, of course.

And being a good Canadian, sorry for bringing in the politics even when I said I wouldn't.





Anyway, I've voted so in my world they have all shut up now. Ads will be muted, sponsored tweets will be blocked as much as possible, and they can all get into the handbasket right now if they'd be so kind.

And I'll shut up too.



Ok, I may grind my teeth a time or two on Twitter (thanks for the new follows, by the way), but only to scream silently about the impossibility of escape.

I voted, though.

Now leave me alone.

Bob the Cat

 It's never a good sign for content when I temporarily label a post "something" while I load photos. Something usually is more akin to nothing, as far as the blather goes.

And I still haven't thought of anything, even while looking at hermit crab information during the wait.

Um, no reason.

Yet.

Anyway, here's a couple of pictures of Bob that I couldn't remember whether I'd used or not (and was too lazy to look up in the archive). You have to admit that he's a handsome dude, even if I think that he could afford to lose some weight.

So could I, of course, so I guess I shouldn't judge too much.

Actually, both he and Tom are surprisingly heavy anyway. They're both big cats to begin with -- without much exaggeration I'd wager that you could fit two of my brother and sister-in-law's burmese in the space of one Bob -- but then they're both so muscular.  Don't go trying to pick one of the Turkey Brothers up unprepared. My usual reaction even though I've done it lots of times is oof.

Or something less polite.

Anyway, that's what I'm calling a post. Off work a bit early today, and I'm thinking of driving across town to a pet store local vendor market that has been enticing me long enough with their tweets about the cool (and did I mention local?) stuff that they stock. Might make a special addition to Thanksgiving or something, I don't know.



We'll see if the car actually gets there, or if it automatically heads for home like it usually does.

Phone games

This'll be quick. I have work to do. Actually, that's what led to this.

I was out taking phone shots for work instagram (I'm not on instagram, but work is. I'll give the handle another time if anyone's interested) and twitter, and decided on my way back to the office to try a panorama since I've never done that with this phone. Or anything else, for that matter. Anyway, for a first go it turned out not too badly:

As usual, click on the thumbnail to see the bigger version.

And that's my workplace. On the phone you can pan across the photo, which made Wheat a little jealous since his doesn't do that. Maybe it's a feature of newer Android phones? Dunno, but I'll probably be taking more of these now.