Easing back into things after a couple of weeks away… time spent usefully, more or less… not much TV, although I have gotten into Mad Men and am following Design Star with Pat on Sunday nights. For the most part, though, I tried to talk less, listen more, and learn something. As for our cats, they have been — as always — Good Cats, and beginning tomorrow we’ll again attempt to supply photographic proof right here in cyberspace. Traditional Friday Cat Blogging this week will feature our Kelly Cat. For today, here are 3 Good Links:
One Good Cat Link: Although Annika Sorenstam isn’t dominating women’s golf the way she used to, reading this story about her engagement seems to say that she has her priorities in order. The article is from Golfweek, which is lax in its journalistic duties. Yes, they reported the engagement story, but inquiring minds want to know — just how many cats does Annika have? Not surprising that she likes cats, though… they both like going for birdies, y’know?…
One Video Link: Speaking of sports, about forty seconds into this clip from an NFL pre-season game, a cat gets in on the action… one announcer admits to his ignorance about the greatness of cats, and another misidentifies the cat as a calico:
One Other Link: Finally, Lance Briggs of the Chicago Bears bought a brand new $345,000 Lamborghini Murcielago about a month ago. Then last Monday, he wrecked it. On the case is a site called WreckedExotics.com, which has one picture of it, and the Chicago Tribune, which has a photo along with the rest of the story.
It’s summer vacation ‘07, and although I had a number of things in mind, I’ve become focused on learning Linux, which is why there have been no other posts lately… everyone’s fine here, and I’ll be back eventually… at least by Labor Day…
As much fun as this blog is, it’s time to cut back for a little while. Last summer I took a few months off from blogging, and while sipping fruit juice and thinking things over, I learned that even though I like spontaneity in my spare time, some kind of framework helps keep a blog (and its blogger) from coming up dry.
Here’s how it’s been done here since Labor Day last year:
Monday: Either (1) Home Video or (2) Man Cat Monday
Tuesday: Either (1) What is a Good Cat? or (2) Tummy/Toesday Tuesday
Wednesday: The Good things in life
Thursday: 3 Good Links
Friday: Traditional Friday Cat Blogging
Saturday: 3 Good Dots…
Sunday: Easy Like Sunday
Here’s what you should see here this summer, unless I absolutely can’t help myself:
Tuesday: Either (1) What is a Good Cat? or (2) Tummy/Toesday Tuesday
Wednesday: The Good things in life
Friday: Traditional Friday Cat Blogging
Sunday: Easy Like Sunday
How I plan to spend my summer vacation:
– Spend much time with Pat, with our Good Cats and with granddaughter Diana.
– Get outside more. Longer bike rides; emphasis on distance, not speed.
– Catch up on reading in English, too: For instance, some of those books I’ve bought off discount and clearance tables over the years. It took me nearly 10 years to start reading “Washington Goes To War”. Still haven’t finished “Car”, and I still want to. Pat got me the Complete New Yorker for my birthday a year ago, and there’s so much more to go through. Things like the article by Garrison Keillor where he visited the Grand Ole Opry, before beginning A Prairie Home Companion.
– I have 3 teams in Internet simulation baseball leagues. Now, I know good and well that nobody but me cares about how one of my teams rallied to win a game 12 to 11, or how I traded for Felix Hernandez this past spring, so you won’t see anything else about them here. But doing these sim-league things is a lot of fun.
– Keep dinking around with Linux, banging my head against the wall, learning about it, with the goal of installing it on one of our computers. (No anti-virus needed? A sufficient firewall included? Free? You’ve got my attention.) I had some limited success with PCLinuxOS 2007, and here’s where I am now:
Action: Searched PCLinuxOS and Linux forums to see whether anyone else has had this kind of problem.
Result: Found a post that seemed similar.
Action: Followed its recommendations.
Result: Still didn’t work, but learned more about why it didn’t.
Action: Copied down the error messages and Googled them.
Result: Learned that the problem is that our laptop just isn’t equipped to handle this OS. Since the laptop was meant just for basic websurfing and playing comparatively simple games, I cut costs by leaving off a video card or sound card. Integrated video and audio are fine for a 2nd computer. For PCLinuxOS, however, more computer power is necessary.
So now I know more than I did before. Either upgrade the video and sound cards or live with the Linux live CD on the PC upstairs.
One Good Cat Link: Everyone’s invited to visit Pennsylvania Persian FiFi and read about The Life of a Cat.
In addition, FiFi has tagged me for the meme 7 Random Facts About Me, so I need to read the blog called Overcoming Laziness, which contains advice on human sloth and procrastination. As soon as I get around to it, of course…
One Video Link: And now, here’s a word from our alternate sponsor… or, as Stewart would put it, “Let’s light this candle”…
One Other Link: Over at Colleen’s Corner, it appears that spring fever has struck hard. Coll observes that for her, blogging “is more of a winter sport.” I can relate! “It’s all Good.” took the summer off last year, and although I don’t want to shut down completely this year, posting will likely remain irregular and light from now until U.S. Labor Day. More photos than brain droppings.
And those 7 random facts… yup, gonna get started on them real soon now…
Like last week’s photo, this was taken on the boat dock in Sandusky. Cormorants had been flying around all day, but it was just luck that I got them in this picture. My favorite photo from the summer, and it was my wallpaper at work and on the home PC for several weeks.
At the boat dock in Sandusky this past June, with Cedar Point in the background across the water, a blue heron stood on the rocks. This was as close as Pat + I got to the world’s best amusement park.
A few minutes later, I lucked into our favorite picture of the vacation — I’ll save that for next Monday.
Here’s a small version of another view of Cedar Point. Click it to see a nice big shot.
A little different angle, but not much. The utility pole at the left of the 1958 photo is in the center of the 2006 photo. Going up in the background, in what used to be our back yard, is an expansion of a vocational school. By the time it’s finished in a couple of years, there may be nothing else left to see here the next time I drive by.
