Not Another Cat-Blog!

My blog is starting to look like a blog for cats. I love cats, as you may already have guessed, and I constantly dote over my three adopted kittens. Over the past month, it’s the cat posts that drove traffic to my site; the crazy cat pics I borrowed from Lol’Cats were the most popular.

Not really a bad state of affairs, except that this blog is supposedly a “writer’s blog” and a blog for writers. Writers may generally exhibit a predisposition to like cats (arguable), but this blog is not meant to be a blog for writers who love cats, either.

I’ve set up another blog just for cat-related topics (more about that later!) so I could stay on topic. (I can’t help it! I simply adore them. They help me relax after a stressful day. They’re the first that I look for upon arriving home. Cute kitty-kitties…how fast they’ve grown!)

Cat Memo #1: Scratch Only on the Right Places

Attention: All Our Cat Tenants, namely Marbol Pusbahay, Daggee Pusbahay, and Gellan Pusbahay
Subject: Proper Scratching Places

It has come to my attention that the living room sofa has sustained extensive damages due to multiple, unrestrained scratchings over the past weeks. I have also received complaints of numerous perforations made on the queen-sized mattress that could only be attributed to claws of climbing quadrupeds. I have noted, too, with much consternation, that the foam in my bed is starting to fall off due to your relentless onslaught.

Please note that I have already donated, for your scratching pleasure, the rubber puzzle mats that I formerly used for exercise since I don’t have time to do that now. These mats have been placed at strategic places to curb your desire to mutilate the sofa and the beds. However, your use of such mats has been inconsistent, and you’re often caught with your paws on the aforementioned banned areas.

I understand that you prefer classic wood over cheap rubber for sharpening your claws and releasing your frustrations over the blockheadedness of humans. Please understand, however, that high-grade scratching-post wood is hard to come by in the city, unless you opt for plastic.

Arrangements will be made, charged to my expense account, for shipment of a real wooden scratching post, sturdy but of cork-like texture so as not to hurt your delicate paws, to be imported from my provincial hometown 410 kilometers away. The said wooden post will serve a double purpose as your climbing “tree,” since you all have this habit of trying to jump to every high place you discover and reach, a habit that is laudable except that objects get toppled over and I continually fear for the CPU perched on its makeshift stand. (I shall address this matter in another memo, for the list of your offenses is long.)

I’d like to think that you have been wreaking havoc to my place innocently and by instinctual need, not out of any malice towards me, I who have taken you in six months ago to save you from getting run over by cars in the common garage, a fate that befell your predecessors (and heaven forbid, your mom because she seems to have disappeared).

I repeat: Please scratch only on the mats designated for that purpose. I will not hesitate to employ the full force of the water squirter (the only tool that seems to work) against you if you keep to this bad habit.

I and the rest of the human occupants of this dwelling would also like to impose certain sanctions against any further serious violations of this rule, such as but not limited to:

• Very minor offense (3 instances of misplaced scratching in a day): Violator will be given an unscheduled bath without the benefit of warm water; bathwater will be administered straight via the water squirt.
• Mild offense (6 instances in a day, stubbornly clinging to the sofa fabric despite warning squirts): An untimely bath because feline involved won’t let go; violator will be fed cheap, tasteless cat food for an entire week.
• Grave offense (8 or more instances in a day, stubborness and biting/scratching the human): previous two punishments, plus snubbing by the human whom the guilty feline approaches for the customary feline adoration sessions.

Cat tenants who commit repeated grave offenses in 3 consecutive months will be considered for giving away to non-cat lovers who are meow-illiterate cat-cuteness-blind doggy-types, who only see a furry four-footed mousecatcher when they see a cat, and who don’t know how give a cat proper respect and a proper bath.

For your strict compliance.

By Management

A Fossil of a Blog

I haven’t been able to post anything new to this blog for more than a month, and in the hyperfast timescale of the Internet universe, that has been forever, and if I’m competing for rankings, I’m already buried way down there in the deepest stratum—along with near fossilized, forgotten relics of yesterday.

I’ve been tinkering with a hosted version of my WordPress blog—a hosted WordPress is a more powerful, sophisticated WordPress. Lots of beautiful, masterfully done templates to choose from, to say the least.

You’ll see it as soon as I put enough content in it and buy my own domain name.

A Jet Li and Jackie Chan Movie At Last!

Or is it “a Jackie Chan and Jet Li movie”?

I’m stealing some time from my busy schedule to post something about The Forbidden Kingdom—Jet Li and Jackie Chan’s first ever movie together! Just thinking of that possibility is already exciting enough. And now it’s happened! Woohoo! I really can’t wait to watch the movie.

But I don’t want to get my hopes too high. The movie looks rather Hollywoodish. (And sounds juvenile, even. That teen character reminds me of Power Rangers—yikes!)

I’m crossing my fingers that I won’t end up really annoyed. Let’s approach any promising (read: hyped up) movie with suspicion.

Here’s a version of the trailer:

[TechTip] Get quick word definitions from Google

If you need a dictionary real quick but don’t have anything at hand, try this with Google:

1. Open a browser and go to Google.com. Or, you can just use the Google search bar on your browser, if you have one.

2. On the search field, type define:word (where “word” is the word you want to be defined. In my example, it is define:beta). Take note that there’s no space between “define,” the colon sign, and the word that you’re looking up the meaning of.

3. Hit the Search button or Enter on your keyboard. You should get something like this:

.

Neat, huh? Now you don’t have to wait for Merriam-Webster Online or Dictionary.com to load.

Postscript!

What I did before I discovered this search technique, especially when I forget about my bookmarked online dictionaries, is to simply type into the search field, “define [word]” or “meaning [word]” or more naturally, “what meaning of [word]?” Of course, you can also do this, and Google or any other search engine will point you to pages, usually specific pages of online dictionaries, that define those word/s.

Adding the define:word parameter, however, gives you much more relevant searches. It tells Google that you are looking for definitions of a particular word/phrase, instead of just random high-ranked pages that have those word/s in them. (This is a bit oversimplified; how Google brings you relevant results is more complicated. If you’re interested, you can read more about it here.)

It means that instead of you having to sift through each search result as a regular search does, using this technique brings you those definitions instantly. Try finding out the difference between typing define parameter and define:parameter.

Personally, I find the last search option much more convenient. However, when I’m unsure of how a word or expression is used (especially idioms and prepositions) and when I want to check proper usage in general, I still do it the old way. That’s another tip for you. More to come.