Showing posts with label cats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cats. Show all posts
Las Vegas Boyz Trip 2011
We had one of our Poker Boyz trips to Las Vegas last week. Mike, as always, provides great photos for us and seemingly doesn't mind the intermittent nagging - "Get a shot of my with the stripper!" He also wanders around early morning and late at night for shots like this one. We did stay at the MGM this trip.
If you don't show up for a Poker Boyz trip, you get your head put on a stick and rude sometimes evil photos are produced. Viewing of those more seedy and salacious snapshots is restricted to bona fide PB members and blackmail.
OK, maybe not completely restricted.
Poker was played. This is me making a final table at Binion's. Two-tiered seven-way chop for the poker players out there.
Matty with Chihuly art at City Center.
Me, also with Chihuly.
Amy at our annual visit to the Cat Condos at the LV-SPCA.
me with kittums at spca
Upon Being Trained by a Cat
This was back in the early 70s, I was sharing my place in Michigan with a couple of roommates, two dogs and three cats. My favorite was Sam, a big black cat who slept with me every night.
On one particular night I was unable to locate the land of dreams. I was awake and apparently I was going to stay awake. Sam, on the other hand, settled down by my left hand got a good dose of ear rubs and was sound asleep in minutes. I laid there for an hour, then two... somewhere in the middle of the night I was drifting a bit, not asleep yet. Sam woke up, stood up, stretched then walked across my chest and laid back down with his head in my right hand and I reflexively started petting him.
At that moment I realized he did this every night, maybe more than once. He had me trained, the paw impressions on my chest made my sleeping conscious aware of him without waking me up and when he put his head in my hand I would subconsciously scratch him until he fell back to sleep.
Trained by a cat while I was asleep. And they say dogs are smart.
Saturation Saturday: Orange
I found the offerings in orange to be more esoteric
than the other colors so far.
than the other colors so far.
Everyone's favorite glass artist, Dale Chihuly likes to work in orange. This is a painted piece to suggest a glass creation to his associates.
an orange bird
an orange box
an orange Warhol by Warhol
an orange alligator
and finally, you know how much I like kittens. . .
and an orange one at that!
Hang In There
If you know anything about cats, you know this was not his first attempt to get into that hanging nest. You also know the first try did not end well.
After the loud crash coming from the closet, you know there was a cat sitting on the floor next to a pile of pants and hangers saying - "I meant to do that, no really I just wanted to show you how unstable those hangers can be."
But not only are cats curious, they also can be persistent, that's his permanent bed now or at least until you notice and get a picture to put on the web. And just think all those slacks now have a nice even vertical fur crease on one leg.
I know the "Hang In There" slogan has prompted a lot of dangling photos, so rather than have you labor at finding them. I have given you what I think are some prime examples.
you knew there would be at least one more cat
betcha weren't expecting pandas
sometimes hangin' in there is not your best option
it would seem that frogs might dominate this category
see what I mean . . .
Gratuitous?
A Cat of a Different Color
Let's call this a topical picture dump for this month. I offer these without comment either from the Humane Society or the proprietors of the NYC salon that charges $400 for a feline dye job.
He doesn't seem to be sharing the obvious vibes of peace and love.
Envy is not often associated with cats.
No cats were harmed during the making of these photos; no hallucinogens were used either by the photographers or the fur stylists.
You have to go to sleep sometime.
Apparently they breed.
Care to try out your skills in a claw-free environment?
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Why? Because sometimes I like to know my blog content drives Michael crazy with the sheer level of the mundane I can achieve.
Myron, Rascal and Java
Cats illuminate our lives, they bring a particular brand of love into our homes. You know you deserve it when they sleep with you undisturbed by a cough, a breath or a tear.
We allow them to have longer, healthier and we hope happier lives but we do so knowing that nature would surely have taken them sooner without our protection, so in the end our responsibility is to thank them for the joy by not letting them suffer. Sleep well my friends and thank-you Java, Rascal and Myron.
Kliban
Bernard "Hap" Kliban (1935-1990) is best known for his cat cartoons. But many of my generation first encountered him in Playboy in the early 70s, which was about the time most of us stopped reading Playboy, except for the interviews of course. In fact, it was a Playboy editor who spotted some of Kliban's cat cartoons and set him on his infamous feline career. Personally I knew he was "the other" cartoonist at Playboy because Shel Silverstein and Gahan Wilson were the more famous architects of illustration for Hefner.
I still remember being introduced to Kliban's work in 1978 when I was handed Tiny Footprints, Whack Your Porcupine, and Never Eat Anything Bigger Than Your Head. Those to me remain the quintessential Kliban.
I thought we might reminisce with some of his drawings and commentary on life as we don't know it.
Attentive readers may have noticed I have varied a bit from my every-other-day blog production. Today was simply a visual thing. I use my blog as my home page and quite frankly having that cobra head pop up all day yesterday got a bit distracting, so I moved up my ode to Kliban due to reptilian hebbie-jebbies.
Who hasn't felt the need for such relief, I find the political talking heads drive me quickly to the mint flavored floss. I prefer the the Glide polymer variety and I like the flat tape over the string version, it gets into all those folds and ruffles of the cortex.
He just gets it. Anyone care to take a shot at defining "it"?
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Of course I can't end without another cat cartoon, here his nod to Botticelli's Primavera (Spring).
Methinks I shall need a 2011 Kliban Kalendar. Search Amazon.com for kliban
100 Things About Me (2010)
This is the fourth annual edition of "100 Things About Me". It's a blogger tradition to do this once, but I'm an overachiever plus I direct potential partners from online dating to this post. It works to intrigue the right ladies and more importantly to avoid a whole lot of one time coffee dates.
There has been about an 17.6% update this year, mostly because I got bored by the old me.
There has been about an 17.6% update this year, mostly because I got bored by the old me.
1. This blog [Keeping Your Head in (All) the Game(s)] will soon total more than 400 posts since 2007. I have disclosed more to the void of the world wide web than I have to my closest friends.
2. For 15 months in 2009-10, I was undomiciled (not homeless) while traveling in my Cube to see family and friends around the country.
3. As of March ’10, I have a semi-permanent address in Berkeley, CA.
4. I got my first passport to study in Germany in ‘68. I used my second to go to Antarctica in ‘80. The third one took me to Singapore & Bali in ‘97. I was traveling on my fourth passport in Australia in ‘07, when I wrote the first draft of this list.
5. That fourth passport is currently awaiting a visa stamp for a long romantic trip with my soon to be once and future lover.
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6. I grew up in a rural village in Michigan near Ann Arbor.
7. I am the middle child of five; I am typical of a middle child. Also an Aquarius, double Capricorn, Emperor-Fool, INFP.
8. I have lived with four women in my life; this total does not include lesbian housemates, my mother or sister.
9. Only one relationship ever mutually got anywhere near the conversation that begins: “4½ yellow gold with….”
There were several others that got that close for her but not for me or so I was later informed.
10. I got my undergraduate degree in political science from Kalamazoo College in 1969.
11. I received a Ph.D. in East-West Psychology in 1999 from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco.
12. I was Jane Fonda’s bodyguard for a day (1973).
13. I once grew my hair for two years, it never reached my collar. These days I shave erratically, unless a current paramour prefers a smooth cheek.
14. My first book was published in May of 2009, it has sold about 25,000 copies; the screenplay languishes in Hollywood.
15. The title of my great American novel is: “All My Friends are Nearly Normal”, that has been the title for sixteen years.
16. The title of the book I am actively writing is: “Pay Attention!” I’m not sure about the exclamation point.
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17. I went to a Catholic grade school. The school, church, rectory, convent, playground and the big field were on the same block as our house.
18. I skipped from the 4th to the 5th grade mid-year.
19. I do not have a tattoo or any piercings and only three major scars; broken baby bottle, clothesline, scalpel.
20. I don’t wear jewelry, cologne, boxers, pelts or chartreuse.
21. 99.3% of my clothes are cotton.
22. A Google search of me will find a lot of papers presented to the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness.
23. The most important feature of a car is head room; come to think of it, that may be the most important feature of life.
24. I have been told I have really great hands. I have not been told that often enough.
25. I was mesmerized twice during an Easter weekend in Paris in 1968.
26. There were seventeen academic awards for boys given out my senior year in high school. I received seventeen.
27. I have written under several pseudonyms.
28. The first live poker tournament I ever played was raided by the Ohio State Police.
29. I worked as a media writer at the World Series of Poker for four years: ’06-’09; I was not there in ’10 and will not be there in the future.
30. I once received a job evaluation that read: “Not completely sure what Tim does; prefer not to ask. Overall rating: Excellent, perhaps.”
31. I ran several political campaigns in the 70’s; none of my candidates won but none of them served time in prison either.
32. I have voted in every presidential election. I have never voted for a winning presidential candidate. I have voted for one democrat and no republicans -- George McGovern.
33. The 1972 election was the last time I drank the kool-aid.
34. I have a lengthy rant/tirade on third party voting, which no one is required to hear more than once. I would add that several friends have come back years, even decades later and asked me to repeat my argument.
35. The last presidential speech I heard was Richard Nixon’s resignation. I enjoyed it much too much.
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36. I don’t believe in the Cartesian mind/body split.
37. I do believe in Karma and Reincarnation, well at least this time.
38. From the age of ten to twenty-six, I had the key to a pharmacy in my pocket. I refer to those as my “chemically formative years.”
39. My father was a naval officer, small business owner, pharmacist, village councilman and volunteer fire chief.
40. I have a not so deeply repressed attraction to redheads.
41. I have about six dozen favorite quotes. Among them: "True wisdom needs decades to ripen."
42. I think that The Simpsons once was “a brilliant commentary on American culture” and so is the woman who first said that to me.
43. When anyone says their family is dysfunctional, I ask if they have ever seen The Osbournes; available on DVD.
44. There always seems to be one current reality show that I am addicted to. The previous list includes: Intervention, The Osbournes, The Girls Next Door, and currently Family Jewels.
45. A country needs jesters; we have John Stewart and Steven Colbert.
46. I have many qualities that resemble a hibernating bear.
47. There is a sign on my front door that reads: “Arouse only as necessary.”
48. I have had several “families” over the years; the one in L.A. will always be the most memorable, we lost our center and drifted apart.
49. I have never been arrested. I have put up bail several times.
50. I have only three addictions: chocolate, oxygen and that other one.
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51. Apocalypse Now is my favorite movie but not the director’s cut. I have a blog post: Movies of My Life that may interest movie buffs.
52. Catch-22 was once my favorite book. These days my favorite changes often.
53. Annie Lennox is my favorite female singer.
54. I adore cats of all sizes and I am fond of manatees.
55. In the last three years I have discovered the answer to several of life’s questions. However, I have also realized that an equal number of previously ‘known’ answers, no longer seem to be true.
56. Three of the most remarkable women I have ever met all live in Texas.
57. The other three I met in San Francisco. I am open to expanding this list.
58. I have lived in Michigan, Massachusetts, Germany, several L.A. South Bay suburbs, San Francisco, Las Vegas and now Berkeley.
59. In the past twelve months I have spent more than five consecutive nights in Las Vegas, San Francisco, Weed, Sonoma, Windsor, Fort Wayne, Ann Arbor, Kalamazoo, Hinckley, Atlantic City, Satellite Beach, Biloxi, Austin, Phoenix, Palm Springs, Oakland and Berkeley.
60. I have a new website.
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61. I have many more conservative friends than I used to, but most of them tend to not know about my previous incarnations.
62. I read Tarot. Those new friends tend to ignore this bit of information.
63. I have some limited shamanic abilities. Ditto.
64. The best vacation of my life was in Bali. The second was Key West. The third she still hasn’t shown up for.
65. I would like to see New Zealand and much more of Canada; plus there are many parts of the U.S. I want to visit again.
66. Favorite Band: I am rethinking this one, again.
68. Tiger, Clarence, Sam, Gisele, Geniver, Samson,Truman, Wally, Armistead, Honey, Rascal, Smokey, Midnight.
69. I discovered I was buddhist in Singapore.
70. I am likely not to be here next year.
71. “Here” is not an easy term to define, particularly in the context I use it here.
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71. “Here” is not an easy term to define, particularly in the context I use it here.
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72. The most important part of a movie is the dialogue.
73. After the writing comes the music, except Koyaanisqatsi.
75. “It is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all” is empirically, if painfully, true.
76. I do not watch nor follow team sports. I do watch the Super Bowl commercials.
77. I don't play any musical instruments and can't carry a tune. Prose is my vehicle.
78. I eat the M&Ms by color, dark to light.
79. Omnivore with predilections for turkey, avocado, asparagus, barbeque, crusty loaves and the aforementioned cocoa in all dark forms.
80. I have never participated in sports where your legs randomly go in opposite directions.
81. I was employed for several years as a benevolent demi-god in a virtual reality world. It was typecasting. I never smote anyone.
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82. I believe that U.S. America post-1492 can genetically be a country of origin. I have officially declared myself an albus americanus.
83. As my friends approach retirement, I offer each of them this advice: "Fix up your guest room."
84. Is my favorite number but not my lucky number.
85. Grey is my favorite color; followed closely by gray.
86. I have made love in hell.
87. Until I was 35 everyone thought I was older than I was.
88. After I was 35 everyone thinks I am younger than I am, even now.
89. I lived in Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach but I never, ever lay on a sunny beach.
90. 1984 was the first book I ever stayed up all night to read.
91. About the only pastime that keeps me from writing is reading.
92. My favorite job is the one I have now; teaching is a close second and working with my dad in the pharmacy made both of those possible.
93. I lived with a woman named Faith. I got hit by a car driven by Hope. Was asked to have coffee by a hooker named Charity, she really did want to have coffee (some years later she asked me to be her daughter's godfather.)
94. I will eat a hot dog, sausage or link no matter how many snouts and lips are in it. Prefer the links be barbeque, the sausage in an omelette and only the occasional weenie.
95. I will eat almost anything chocolate and will ford any stream to locate and devour it.
96. I once camped for a weekend with seven gay men, six lesbians, and four newborn kittens.
97. I currently have three goals: Not just a woman, not just book, just a synchronous life.
98. I have two lingering regrets in my life. Both involve relationships I screwed up. One when I was too young, the other I couldn't break through the shimmering walls of her past.
99. I have one prejudice; I abhor voluntary stupidity.
100. I will listen to almost any thoughtful position, unless it violates the limits referenced in 33 and 99.
Courageous Cat
Today's post is all about inter-species communication. The black feline in the picture is Vlad who resides at M's house. The picture was taken by the next-door neighbor, who is the owner of the very large twenty year old parrot. Vlad is a wise animal and is fully aware that the parrot is larger than he is and has a very sharp beak. But sometimes he just has to hop the fence and ponder the possibilities of 'what if'.
I am going to make this a long weekend, so today I leave you with other furry and feathery images.
Enjoy the weekend.
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