anniverary

CatSynth 12th Anniversary

It’s our twelfth anniversary!  It’s hard to believe that this little project I started as a lark in 2006 is still going and expanding.  Here is that first picture of Luna that went up on July 19, 2006!

As always, we look to the anniversary as a moment for reflection and for changes.  We don’t have compiled detailed stats this year, but we do have several high-level milestones.  Most notably, we launched CatSynth TV last October, and since then have shared 74 videos! More are on the way.  We have continued to develop our apps, including the original CatSynth: The App! and Highway☆, though there is so much more we want to do there, both with existing and new apps.  And Sam Sam has blossomed into the new star of CatSynth!  With so many facets competing for our attention, there has been less time for the long-form reviews that once dominated this site, though we still write long-form articles when we can.  So with that, we make some announcements:

  • Sam Sam finally takes her rightful place on the masthead alongside the late great Luna!  It’s a change that is long overdue.  And appropriately, we are featuring one of her scratch’n’roll poses.
  • We are going to open up the site to new voices.  We have already had a couple of guest music reviews, and of course the semi-regular Mensa Cats cartoon series.  This is going to expand in the coming months.  If you have an idea for an article you would like to contribute, please let us know.
  • And as always, please keep sending us your cat-and-gear pics.

So please join Sam Sam and me in celebrating twelve years of CatSynth!  We look forward to sharing many more with all of you.

CatSynth 11th Blog Anniversary

Luna on iPad at 11:11

It’s been 11 years since we started CatSynth on a bit of a lark, and since then it has grown into something that we treasure, and quite seriously. But not too seriously. As always, we mark the annual milestone with a few stats.

3210 Posts
14358 Comments
4.47 Comments Per Post
1202 Cat-and-synth pics
474 Reviews and related posts

Comments and interaction on the blog has continued to decline (from an average of 4.7 to 4.47 comments per post). This is not surprising as interaction has largely moved to social media platforms.

Our most visited post this last year was our Sad Farewell to Luna, both on the blog itself and on social media. This, too, is not surprising, and we continue to be very grateful for the outpouring of emotional support we have received.

Other individual posts that were widely read and shared including our explainer on Lake Oroville, our review of James Chance and the Contortions in San Francisco, and of course our annual NAMM coverage.

Every year we share the photo that started it all on July 19, 2006. It featured Luna in the beanbag chair along with a Novation keyboard. We feel its still appropriate for this day.

Luna with Novation Keyboard

We continue to grieve for Luna, but we also welcome Sam Sam who we hope with be with us and featured on these pages for years to come.

Emphatic Sam Sam

CatSynth pic: Happy Times

From Retribution Body on flickr, via matrixsynth:

“I’m very happy with the new rig. It’s very West Coast Serge / Buchla compared to the ARP, it’s a very different beast. I’m looking forward to doing some serious recording with it.”

“Once again, Ernie is very helpful.”

You can see more on the associated flickr set.

Weekend Cat Blogging: Service Disruption

We had a major service disruption on CatSynth today. Basically, an upgrade that our service provider did this week led to a series of problems with images, comments and writing new posts. Fortunately, the tech support team was on the case:

and we have everything restored. But there is still some difficulty with writing new posts. We are going to try and press ahead with hosting Carnival of the Cats tomorrow, just expect that it might be a bit late.

Meanwhile, Luna has been able to catch up some important napping:

Our friend Diamond Emerald Eyes is hosting Weekend Cat Blogging, and we definitely did not want to miss it.

Carnvial of the Cats will be right here at CatSynth tomorrow. You can use the handy BlogCarnival submission form&trade or visit the main site for more info.

And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Luna’s 3rd Gotcha Day!

June 10 is Luna’s Gotcha Day, or the anniversary of her adoption.

Here is her official adoption photo from Santa Cruz County Animal Services, back in 2005:

This photo had not yet been posted when I went to the shelter on June 9, 2005. I was browsing the kennels and this charming little black kitty came up and greeted me. It was perfect, I knew I really wanted a black cat. It turned out she had just come up for adoption after being surrendered to the shelter by her previous family. I played with her for a bit, and said I would think about it overnight, even though that wasn’t really necessary. The next morning, June 10, I called the shelter to hold her for adoption, and I picked her up and brought her to her new home that afternoon.

She has been such a joy for the last three years. I get verkempt thinking about how I found the ketzela and brought her into my life.

We have since left behind that first home. But she has truly shined in her new life as an elegant and sophisticated city cat:

Please join me in wishing Luna a happy 3rd Gotcha Day!



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