Cats

Autumn sun, Midnight Monday, and Site Improvements

Well, I am back home at CatSynth HQ in California. That means back home with Luna, of course:

Although she is calm and poised in this photo, it's been all purrs and cuddling today, even while I try to work. Not that anyone is complaining.

Today we enjoyed what I traditionally called the “August sun”, that really deep yellow sunlight that gives everything, but especially green leaves, a rich yellow coloring, that feels warm even as the air cools down. It is difficult to capture in a digital photo, but here is one attempt:

I think I should change “August sun” to “Autumn sun”, since the phenomenon extends well into September and even October. And not only here on the west coast. New York was exceptionally warm and getting plenty of “Autumn/August” sun this past week.

I have been working on several improvements for this site, including upgrading our software. As usual, a few things break in the process (e.g., comment displays were a little off, the “tag search” featured on the highways page and elsewhere was completely broken, our “cats synthesizers music art opinion” slogan was missing, etc.). Those are mostly fixed, and now we can proceed to making actual improvments.

Actually, the main change we need to make is in our hosting service. The good folks at A Plus net (the same people who messed up our domain name and left us stranded in the CatSynth FEMA trailer for a week) let us know that we have exceeded our CPU usage limits (not storage or bandwidth) and will need to switch to a more expensive hosting plan – all in a message from the friendly-sounding “abuse at aplus dot net.” So we could simply upgrade our plan, but since our lease is up on October 7 anyway, it might be a good time to shop around for an alternative. We welcome suggestions from our readers on good and bad experiences with hosts – please leave a comment or contact us. Of course, we have to act quickly on this matter…

Weekend Cat Blogging and more: It's all about Luna!

Well, I am still in New York this weekend, and meanwhile Luna is home at CatSynth HQ in California. I thought it would be appropriate to share some photos taken during some previous trips by our pet sitter Ronni West:

It's great getting to see these photos from Ronni, knowing that Luna is happy and being herself. Here we see her kneading some laundry left on the bed, which remains one of her guilty pleasures:

I make sure to leave some laundry out when I go away, I think it gives her a sense of familiarity and comfort.

Even though I do enjoy travelling, it's always great to come home and be reunited.

Weekend Cat Blogging #121 is being hosted this weekend at masak-masak.

The Bad Kitty Cat Festival of Chaos is going on the Mind of Mog. The theme this week is catnip, and while I know Luna is getting to enjoy fresh catnip during my absense, I don't have the photographic evidence on hand (yet).

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted this week at Life from a Cat's perspective. And of course the Friday Ark #158 is at the modulator.

Finally, thank you to everyone who sent their kind thoughts this week, through comments here at CatSynth as well as via email or other media. I will try my best to answer individually as well, but wanted to say something here for everyone.

Weekend Cat Blogging: Beds, Pillows and Rain(?)

As usual these days, we are consolidating our weekend cat blogging activities. Weekend Cat Blogging is being hosted by Kate and Puddy (one of Luna's look-a-likes) at A Byootaful Life.
This weekend's theme for the Bad Kitty Chaos Festival, hosted by Pets Garden Blog, is pillows and beds. Well, soft cushions are one of Luna's areas of great expertise:

Of course we have seen her curled up on the bed many times:

And it is one of those days where curling up on a bed or a cushion seems like the perfect thing to do, with a steady cold rain coming down around us:

That wouldn't be much of a problem, except that we have an outdoor music festival tonight! September is the usually the hottest, driest month here, so something is wrong…

In addition to WCB and the Festival of Chaos, we also have the Carnival of the Cats, hosted this week by This That and the Other Thing, with Amber, Kosmo, Mouse and Indigo (another fellow black cat). And of course, the Friday Ark at themodulator.

Midnight Monday Studio Cat

Luna wanders into the (somewhat messy) studio, where I spent much of this weekend working on several projects, including music you will probably never hear and the Sunday podcast. It's a rare shot of both the PC and Mac laptops along with the keyboards and other gear.

Actually, I think the ketzela is more interested in those cushions and bedding than in any musical or technological mischief.








Octave CAT, and more classic Synth Ads, and a Poll

This ad for the Octave CAT is one of many classic synthesizer ads from the 1970s and early 1980s on display in a new gallery at polynominal, the home of frequent contributors Mimì and Eric Pochesci.

They have quite a collection, with over 180 pictures. It is definitely worth a look, not only for those interested in old synths, but anyone either nostalgic or fascinated by that era.

They also have a poll for the the most ugly synth ad. And they have some really good candidates for this illustrious title. I did vote for one that definitely stood out, at least for me. See if you can figure out which one it was. Hint, it is probably the most “Republican” (US) synth ad I've seen…

Always time for Weekend Cat Blogging

Even in the midst of an incredibly busy weekend, we at CatSynth always try and find a few minutes for Weekend Cat Blogging:

Regular readers know that Luna is quite fond of towels, resting upon them, kneading them, etc. She has taken over this green towel which I left for her one day on the bed, and it has become a great spot for those all important afternoon naps/meditations.

Yes, being unemployed seems to leave me more busy than I was before, and this weekend is no exception, with several upcoming shows, and major and software projects with looming deadlines (but which I can't talk to you about), revamping my main artist/professional website, and a lot of time on the phone in touch with friends, colleagues and others. But one of the best parts of this period has been spending lots of quality time with Luna, even if just for an hour here and there in between other events, or having her around while I work online or in the studio.

Weekend Cat Blogging is being hosted by Megan and the Bad Kitty Cats. It seems that their site is down while recoving from hackers. Very rude and incovenient, those pesky hackers. We hope they're back up soon.

Carnival of the Cats will be at the House of the (Mostly) Black Cats this weekend.

The Bad Kitty Cat Festival of Chaos #10 is being held at the *New* Tuxedo Gang Hideout. They have a great graphic to go with it, reproduced below:

And of course, Friday Ark #156 is at the modulator.