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Tag: Luna

  • Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: One

    Today’s combined Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt features the theme of ONE.

    Of course, there is only one Luna. No one can dispute that.  And this particular pose features one paw sticking out.

    We also veer away from cats and into the realm of highways with California Highway 1. This view from Pescadero (between San Francisco and Santa Cruz) is a quintessential image of our coastal highway.

    This one is further north, crossing over a harbor in Fort Bragg, in Mendocino County.

    Although thought am sure I have lots of images of Highway 1, they have become rather hard to keep track of in the ever increasing library.   (It’s hard to keep track of all the Luna photos as well, for that matter.)  Tagging and naming files does help, but I would like to use image similarity search as well. Does anyone have any suggestions for this?

    Weekend Cat Blogging #323 is hosted by Samantha and Clementine at Life from a Cat’s Perspective

    The Photo Hunt #278 is hosted by tnchick. This week’s theme is one.

    The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted this Sunday by Nikita and Elvira at Meowsings of an Opinionated Pussycat.

    And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

  • CatSynth pic: Luna with Wicks Looper

    Today we present Luna with the Wicks Looper.

    Black cat with a small synthesizer that contains a black cat…

    Luna is making a rare Monday appearance for World Cat Day. Of course, every day feels like “cat day” here, but we’re happy to participate with this elegant photo.

  • Weekend Cat Blogging #322 and Carnival of the Cats #386

    Weekend Cat Blogging #322 and Carnival of the Cats #386

    We at CatSynth are planning a quiet August, and what better way to begin than with hosting both Weekend Cat Blogging and Carnival of the Cats on the same weekend!

    Call it efficiency, or poor planning, but here we are and we’re ready to host both events together in a combined round-up.  So feel free to leave a comment below to submit your WCB post, or if you prefer use the handy COTC submission page.  Either way, it ends up here.

     

    We begin with Nikita and Elvira of Meowsings of an Opinionated Pussycat. First Elvira demonstrates good diet and exercise practices.

    Then we get a sneak preview of Kiril’s appearance at a charity event at the Oprheum Theatre in Downtown LA. We see the special name tags and business cards he printed up for the event, as well as his new suspenders.

    Next up, Animal Shelter Volunteer presents Loreen and Krystal, two sisters available for adoption. They are a beautiful pair, and need to adopted together. Today, they are taking it easy while they wait for a forever home.

    At Lost in the Cheese Aisle, Elisson introduces as to Bean, the littlest Barn Cat-in-Training.  Very cute, indeed!  Bean lives with Elisson’s “Elder daughter”, who has left urban (and urbane) life for a more bucolic existence, at least for the moment.

    Catsparella presents The Catsparella Podcast Episode 2 and an Exclusive Sarah Donner Interview and Performance.  Follow the link to check out the videos of the podcast and performance. It turns out Donner is an animal advocate who fosters kittens when she’s not on tour, and even has a hit YouTube video featuring one of the kittens she rescued.

    At Judi’s Mind of Matter, Jules poses very handsomely for Luna.   Black cats rule!  We always know we can count on Jules to provide a great shot for WCB.  Meanwhile, Vincent looks horrified at what happened to his friend Smudge from Pam’s Sidewalk Shoes.  What could it be?

    It turns out Smudge had a trip to the vet for grooming and some serious dental care.  That does sound painful!  But in truth, he feels much better afterwards.

    The cats at Friends Furever are celebrating Bora Bora day.  We’re not entirely sure what it’s about, though it looks like a lot of fun (Bora Bora is an island in French Polynesia).  And it involves a big fish.  We are also sending healing thoughts for Ellie, who is not feeling well this weekend.  Get well, soon!

    We are also sending healing vibes for Samantha at Life at Cat’s Perspective, who could use some healthy thoughts after her last vet appointment.  But amidst the seriousness, the whole gang is also heading to Bora Bora.

    It’s a low-energy day at Chez Ranger, so they are reposting some old pictures.  But hey, they are new to us, and the first picture is quite nicely composed.  They report that Maddie is in good health, after her recent vet trips and health concerns.

    As the above entries suggest, health concerns and sickness theme to be a big theme this week.  And sadly, there are many others beyond those participating in WCB and COTC.  Our friends Tillie and Georgia are foregoing their usual Friday close-ups and instead offering thoughts for all their sick-kitty friends.

    But we do have some great close-ups from Team Tabby.  All five cats are in a happy mood, and we are happy to have them join WCB this week.  We show a side-by-side comparison of Mindy’s photographic portrait and a more stylized rendering.

    We conclude with a bit of WCB apocrypha.

    We meet Cheops of Donna’s Designs, who is joining WCB for the first time. Welcome!

    At The Chair Speaks, Captain Jack Sparrow HAWK looks displeased (one might even say contemptuous) after his claws were clipped.

    It looks like Faz wants a closer encounter with a nearby seagull.

    Thanks to everyone who commented or participated this week. We will continue to post both WCB and COTC entries through the end of Sunday (US Pacific time), so do join us if you are interested in participating.  Also, please let us know if we missed your entry in the complexity of handling both at the same time and we’ll add you right away.

  • Weekend Cat Blogging: Luna discovers iPad game for cats

    I recently downloaded an iPad game for cats by Hiccup for Luna to try out. For a cat that spends a lot of time surrounded by technology, including the iPad, she is quite reluctant to touch it, so I wasn’t quite sure how she would react.

    The game features a little mouse that resembles a cat toy scurrying around the screen. When the cat (or human) hits the mouse, it emits a little squeak and the player receives points; and the process repeats. That’s it – very simple. I started it up for Luna, and she immediately went to tracking the mouse intently, her little head shifting back and forth in deliberate motions. Tentatively, after a while, she started to paw at it, and eventually managed to pounce on the mouse. She seemed to be quite enjoying it, though she was still a little nervous and often backed away from the device after a pounce.

    Here a brief excerpt of her first day of playing:

    This is really just a little diversion for both of us to enjoy together, Luna playing with a virtual toy that draws her attention, and my taking delight in watching her do so. But this is clearly a demonstration of user engagement in the app space, for both cats and humans. Sometimes simplicity wins out.

    I set up the game again in the office/studio while writing this article, and managed to get a brief iPhone video of Luna’s play. As one can see, she has gotten a bit more confident, even aggressive with it.

    This does not seem to be a good game to play a small cluttered space.

    Weekend Cat Blogging #321 is hosted by Pam with Coco, Patchouli and Smudge at Pam’s Sidewalk Shoes.

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

    And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

    Weekend Cat Blogging will be hosted here at CatSynth next weekend, so do check then and submit your cat-related blog posts. New participants are always welcome.

  • Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Korg MS-20 Patch

    The theme for this week’s combined Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt is Patch. We at CatSynth have an alternative take on the theme, as Luna poses with a Korg MS-20 patch on the iPad:

    As a bonus, the app’s simulated interface features patch cords. They’re a little challenging to manipulate on the screen, but the make for nice visuals.

    Appropriately for an iPad-centric post, Weekend Cat Blogging #320 is hosted by Meowza at his blog iMeowza.

    Photo Hunt 275 is hosted by tnchick. This week’s theme is Patch.

    The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted this Sunday by Nikita and Elvira at Meowsings of an Opinionated Pussycat.

    And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

  • CatSynth 5th Anniversary!

    Today we mark the 5th Anniversary of CatSynth!

    I started this site on July 19, 2006 as a novelty when a friend and former colleague at E-MU systems suggested that I “should make a website about cats and synths.”

    Every anniversary we feature the photo of Luna from the inaugural post.

    I still have that Novation keyboard, though it does not get used as often of late. Luna of course still is very territorial about that beanbag chair. Times have changed a bit, here is an iconic photo of Luna from this past year, this time with an iPad app (in this case, the Smule Magic Piano):

    Another quirky way we like to celebrate is with statistics. First the basics:

    1559 posts.
    0.85 posts per day.
    8784 comments.
    5.63 comments per post.
    476 posts featuring cats and synthesizers.
    195 reviews (and gig reports).
    381,735 visitors.

    Even after five years, people from around the world continue to send us pictures of cats and music gear. These days most of those come via our Facebook, which together with twitter has become a major way people engage with this site.

    From Google Analytics (which we finally got working properly over the past year), here is an overview of where our visitors come from around the world.

    By far and away most of our visitors are from the United States, followed by the United Kingdom, Canada, India, Australia, France and Germany. I’m gratified to see so many visitors from India, though I’m curious why we never receive any comments from there…

    It’s also interesting to look at cities.

    Not surprisingly, the top cities are San Francisco and New York. In Google, it’s SF followed by NYC, while in Facebook, New York is the top city.

    Our most popular posts judged by number of visitors are the annual endangered wild cats on earth day.  Over the past year, our most commented posts were:

    Wordless Wednesday: Herman (Groundhog Day) 35
    Wordless Wednesday: Doll and Metal Beams 28
    Wordless Wednesday: 6506 (Baker Beach) 27
    Wordless Wednesday: Matzoh Man 27
    Happy Birthday Luna! 25
    Wordless Wednesday: 7643 (New York, Late Autumn) 25
    Wordless Wednesday:  Wet Paint 25
    Wordless Wednesday: Mosaic with Saxophones 24
    Wordless Wednesday: Summer Solstice 24
    Wordless Wednesday:  Harrison Street Hipstomatic 23

    Our top commenters the past year:

    Kitty 199
    Mickey, Georgia and Tillie 146
    Gattina 94
    CatSynth 90
    The Chair Speaks 66
    meowmeowmans 65
    Snowcatcher 56
    AVCr8teur 51
    Daisy the Curly Cat 48
    Cats of Wildcat Woods 41
    Beth @ 990 Square 40

    Thanks to all our friends (in time zones earlier than U.S. Pacific Daylight Time) who already sent in comments for the anniversary, and to the Cat Blogosphere for their anniversary shout-out!

    And while we will continue to keep doing what we do, it has been more of a challenge over this past year to keep up with posts, especially the longer-form reviews. There is a trade between doing music and art, and writing about people doing music and art. But I still love doing everything here, and will find a way…

  • Weekend Cat Blogging #319

    Our foggy, overcast summer days in San Francisco make for great cat photography:

    Luna enjoys looking out the window, and a nice stretch.

    Weekend Cat Blogging #319 is in honor of Sher, one of the original WCB participants we met back in 2006, who tragically passed away in July, 2008. Like many longtime participants, Sher was primarily a food blogger, and in tribute we made one of her recipes. Between work, music and social events we haven’t had much time to cook here at CatSynth HQ – and as I look back through the archives, that has happened each July since 2009. But we will make time this summer to try out a new recipe and share it on an upcoming weekend.

    Weekend Cat Blogging #319 and Carnival of the Cats will be hosted this weekend by Billy SweetFeets.

    And the friday ark is at the modulator.

  • Weekend Cat Blogging #318

    For Weekend Cat Blogging #318, a few interesting photos of Luna from multiple cameras. First a high-contrast picture in the window:

    And here is Luna today, once again napping in her favorite beanbag chair:

    This was done with the impulse-acquired Roboto Glitter lens for the Hipstamatic iPhone app. The first photo was with done with the conventional camera.

    Like Luna, I am looking forward to a relatively quiet afternoon.

    We know that several regular WCB participants are foodies, so do check out the report from the Outsound Music Summit Benefit Dinner that I posted yesterday.

    Weekend Cat Blogging #318 is hosted by Jules and Vincent at Judi’s Mind over Matter.

    The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted this Sunday by Samantha and Clementine at Life from a Cat’s Perspective.

    And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

  • Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Busy

    There is rarely a moment that we at CatSynth aren’t busy, thus it is an appropriate theme for this week’s combined Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt. Even going into the extended holiday weekend.

    Luna poses once again with the iPad, but the app on display isn’t as exciting as the synthesizers and music controllers we usually show. It’s Toodledo, the cloud-based todo-list service that I use on iPhone/iPad and the web in a valiant attempt to keep ahead of the extreme busy-ness of the past two years. Not very exciting, but we do our best to make it at least look pretty in photos.

    For those who obsessively try to do such things, the task being shown on these photos (strategically distorted via the Hipstamatic) is a daily reminder to brush Luna. There is also a weekly task for Weekend Cat Blogging. Many of the tasks on the list are about getting in touch with friends and professional contacts. I do need to catch up on those! On that note, we have been a bit remiss in visiting our WCB friends. We will try to do so this time.

    Weekend Cat Blogging #317 is hosted by our friends Kashim, Othello and Salome. Even though they live in Vienna they honor us with a Fourth of July theme.

    Carnival of the Cats will be up this Monday (rather than the usual Sunday) in honor of the Fourth of July as well, hosted by Nikita and Elvira at Meowsings of an Opinionated Pussycat.

    Photo Hunt #272 is hosted by tnchick. This week’s theme is BUSY.

    And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

  • Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Cards

    This weekend we are once again combining Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt. The theme is cards, and we start with an unexpected take on the theme:

    I recently came across these older “Smart Media” data cards while cleaning. They’re bigger (and a bit more interesting to photograph) than the current SD cards my current cameras and other devices use, but they are essentially useless. I do have a reader that can read/write them, but no particular reason to do so. Anyone have any ideas?

    Here is Luna with some of her past birthday cards:

    I believe they are from 2010 and 2007. It’s not Luna’s birthday, but the cards are out because of the recent cleaning (similar to the memory cards).

    Weekend Cat Blogging #316 is hosted by pam at Pam’s Sidewalk Shoes.

    Photo Hunt #271 is hosted by tnchick. The theme this week is cards.

    The Carnival of the Cats will be up tomorrow at When Cats Attack!

    And the Friday Ark is at the modulator