Cats

Weekend Cat Blogging #295

Weekend Cat Blogging #295 will be hosted by…wait, it’s being hosted by us!

Weekend Cat Blogging (WCB) is a weekly event where bloggers share entries about cats, whether or not cats are the focus of their blogs.  We welcome longtime participants and newcomers.  If you would like to participate, please leave a comment below or tweet us @catsynth with hashtag #wcb.  We will add you to the roundup, which will appear below.

We are excited to have several first-time participants this week  First up, we have a visit from Catsparella where they are having their own Caturday roundup, featuring several cats including Miah, pictured above.

Aurelia from the blog Modern Woman also joins us for the first time with a post featuring Poppy, the neighbors’ kitten.  Poppy is very cute, but apparently not supposed to be in the garden. “As cute as she is, would you want to mess with the claws behind that face?”

Over at The Accidental English Teacher we have Oliver poking his head into the frame and wondering what could possibly be more interesting to look at than him.

Over at Pam’s Sidewalk Shoes, Patchouli demonstrates the fine art of napping.  And she does so in such tasteful surroundings.  On a side note, Pam and the cats are longtime participants, and several of the new participants this week found their way to CatSynth through them.

From Create With Joy, we have this expressive and detailed photograph of Tsunami.  Follow the link to see the full-sized version.  Meanwhile, Legend comments on the latest pantry items.

Uh oh, it looks like Clementine is being a bad kitty.  But it also looks like Samantha is ready on defense.  See the whole drama unfold at Life from a Cat’s Perspective.  (I have to admit, I was hoping for at least one combative post after finding out my #WCB hashtag on twitter is also being used for a boxing match.)

At Herman’s Hideaway, Herman is displeased with his busy mom.  This apparently involves the appearance of both the area vacuum (aka the “sucky monster”), but also the feline vacuum (aka the “furminator”).

I have to admit, I’m a little envious of the picture of Elvira, Nikita and their dad sharing a bed on a lazy Friday.  They look so relaxed.

Oh dear, “The Boys” and Karen over at Kittens ‘n Things had quite a few scares.  First, Bowie had a scary moment with his asthma.  Then, as they describe in the comments below, there was an explosion and fire in a neighbor’s garage.  Fortunately, no one was hurt.

Conrad is one of the many cats from PAWS in Norwalk, Connecticut, featured on Animal Volunteer Shelter Life.  He is apparently quite well read and keeps up with current events in the newspaper.  We hope he finds a permanent home soon.

Finally, we have this question from Mama Grace and Company: is Audace a cat in the manager? Look at the picture above and follow the link and decide for yourself.

That concludes Weekend Cat Blogging (for now).  Next week, we will be hosting Carnival of the Cats.

Weekend Cat Blogging #294: Looking out the Window

While many of our friends were dealing with snow, we enjoyed a some sunshine here in California this past week, even a bit of warmth. Here we see Luna intently looking out the window in a patch of strong afternoon sun:

I like the warm colors in this one, and the way it contrasts with her fur.

I also made this video. The original came out rather dark, but it was good for experimenting with black-and-white, digital grain effects and contrast. Wait until the end to hear Luna’s sweet little voice.

Weekend Cat Blogging #294 is hosted by Billy Sweetfeets. (Watch the french toast video at your own risk.)

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted this Sunday by Nikita.

And next week we will be hosting Weekend Cat Blogging here at CatSynth!

CatSynth video: Modular Robot Cat

From popitem on YouTube, submitted by vlern via facebook:

“My modular playing a lfo based patch and a scary robot cat i rescued from the trash.”

I was a bit skeptical of this somewhat creepy robot cat, but I did find more info about it. It’s called a Yume Neko Smile from Sega. Here is a promotional video:


Yume Neko Smile, the Creepy Cat Robot from Sega
Uploaded by AkihabaraNews. – Explore more science and tech videos.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Shadow (with Hipstamatic)

For today’s combined Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt, we follow Luna in her favorite morning spot, the dining table. The bright sun from the southeast brings warmth to the surfaces and also casts strong shadows.

I am experimenting again with the Hipstamatic app for the iPhone, which simulates old lenses, film processes, etc. This particular lens was relatively clear but makes everything high contrast (a common theme in my photography). I also tried out another lens that has a rather streaky and overexposed quality:

The oversaturated image brings out contrast between the shadows and the sun patches.  It also has an interesting effect on Luna’s black fur.

Weekend Cat Blogging #293 is hosted by Samantha, Clementine and (honorary cat) Maverick at Life from a Cat’s Perspective.

Photo Hunt #248 is hosted by tnchick. This week’s theme is Shadow.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up tomorrow at iMeowza.

CatSynth pic: Grainslide for Monome

From the B-Roll, via matrixsynth:

“…a friend and fellow monome user Jared just recently released his new monome app called Grainslide. I tested an early version of the app on Day 213 and he has since made adjustments and released it to the community. It’s a simple but effective concept. His layout design is unique to most other monome apps which I think is great. It’s not a quick sample cutting app although you could play it that way. It’s a layering tool really.”

I am curious to check out Grainslide. The mlr application that I often use with the monome would be the quintessential “sample cutting app” – it has worked well for me in live performance, but I really have only scratched the surface on what I can do with this controller.