Life, the Universe, and my Cats
This page is about sanity maintenance.
As they say, "all work and no play....."
For some real excitement, check out the photos of my cats
- The Weed: He's a cat - in other words, the world and everything in it is a cat toy! This can be great after a bad day - I can yell at him and he completely ignores it. I blow off some steam, he could care less. As long as he gets a kitty treat. Knows how to use the litterbox!! but doesn't play well with others (cats or dogs).
- Giesha. My new kitty. Picked her up mostly to entertain the Weed. He's getting old, fat, and cranky because of a lack of company. Update! She's the fattie, while Weed has slimmed down.
- Vermin: The big guy. My old cat - he's no longer with us, but lives on in photos and on the web.
Let's see... What do I do in my spare time?
Well, no day is complete without starting off with the best medicine of all - humor. Many of the best have retired (Calvin & Hobbes, The Far Side, Bloom County), however, Dilbert and Doonesbury, thankfully, are still with us. A couple of up and comers to keep an eye on are Zits, The Norm, Frazz and Get Fuzzy. To check out all these cartoons (except Frazz) and many more, visit the Houston Chronicle Online. You will have to register (free), but it is well worth it. There have also been a few in the past few years that were excellent: Swan Factory, Thatch, Citizen Dog, and Frumpy the Clown. Alas, all have stopped. If anyone sees any of these on the web, please let me know. Good news - I just found the Frumpy archives. Nothing new, but at least it's something.
I've also set up an academic cartoon of the day page (with the programming help of Tim Barnhart, a former graduate student at CWU). A new 'toon every day!
To maintain the old bod and work off some steam, I try to abuse it in either the dojo or the weightroom. Or, maybe, tennis, biking, running.....
To rest the brain (and the bod), I tend to bury my nose in a book. Unfortunately, my choice tends to be mind candy (SF/Fantasy flavored). Check out my new "reading list." I inherited this tendency to read a lot -- Mom is the Dean of the Elon University Library, and Dad is a retired physics teacher. I was doomed.
I've also discovered computer games. For the old school, my recommendations include Master of Orion (MOO), Master of Orion II (MOO II), X-COM (but only the first one in this series of games), Fallout, and Fallout II. Baldur's Gate (and expansion set and Baldur's Gate II) and Icewind Dale are pretty good, too. Talk about a fast way to lose a whole mess of hours doing nothing productive. Nowadays... World of Warcraft. Definitely the most addictive (and fun) game I've played! Yup - six lvl 70 toons and more en route. Sad.
p.s. for no apparent reason, my favorite soda is Hires Root Beer. Which cannot be purchased in Ellensburg. Very sad.
last modified: 10 July, 2008