Kuro = Chrome
SenGen
TBA


Small cats have a talent for being adorable without even trying. One blink from those giant eyes or one tiny squeaky meow, and suddenly you're ready to hand over your entire life savings. Their paws are about the size of a bean, their bodies are barely bigger than a sandwich, and yet they walk around like they run the universe. And honestly, we all let them.
Half the time, they act like miniature superheroes in training. A kitten will wobble three steps, trip over nothing, and then pretend it meant to do that. They sit dramatically on the edge of the couch like they're contemplating the meaning of life, when they're probably just wondering when snacks are coming. Their attempts at being intimidating are especially priceless. A baby fluffball puffing up to look tough is basically the cutest threat known to humanity.
And then there are the naps. Small cats fall asleep anywhere, anytime, in positions that defy both gravity and logic. One minute they're playing, the next they're knocked out like they just worked an overtime shift. Their tiny snores and curled-up poses make even the grumpiest day instantly better.
The one I want to highlight today is Kitchens of Hope by by Linda S. Svitak and Christin Jaye Eaton with Lee Svitak DeanA quiet morning suddenly turned exciting when Boone, the outdoor king of the condo, was about to head out after breakfast. A claim about a rat outside stopped everything. Except the tiny sounds on the other side of the door didn't sound like any rat or Boone. When the door opened again, everyone realized the "rat" was actually a tiny grey kitten having a very serious staring contest with Boone.
The little visitor clearly needed a meal, so a bowl of kibble was set down. He pounced on that food like he had been dreaming about it all week. And before anyone could blink, he zoomed straight into the condo and began exploring every corner like he owned the place.
Boone was taken out for a comforting walk, but when they returned, the kitten had completely vanished into the house. Hours later, the kitten reappeared, curled up sweetly on a pillow, accepting pets and purring like he had already decided this was home.
The family will check for an owner and visit the vet, but their Cyber Monday surprise already has a name. Simon. And he seems very ready to stay.
People really go out of their way to save animals, and that's the kind of energy we could all use in our lives. In the story below, the protagonist is a man who hears some meowing outside. He sees several kittens running around across the street from his house. He easily takes in three of them, then goes back to the fourth. His bathroom is full of hungry, purring, pawdorable kitties who are just beginning their furrever home journey. He sees a pregnant mom cat outside and goes to get her as well. His path is stopped by a car driving by, spooking the mom cat so that she jumps out of his arms. He rushes to emergency care to take care of the bite and scratches, but his heart remains in a good place.
This man went from catless to having four kittens to take care of in one day. It's always magical and special to read what people are willing to do to save innocent and pawdorable animals from the streets. Read the full story below for all the juicy details.
For lo these many years (i.e. basically since I got a smartphone) I've been using Swype as an onscreen keyboard. Some time ago it was announced that it had reached end-of-life-and-support, but it wasn't until I went looking earlier today that I realised that happened in 2018, that being when I posted asking for suggestions for replacements.
And then I didn't think about it again for, apparently, approximately eight years, through several new phones and quite a lot of new major versions of Android... and then a few-ish weeks ago Fairphone rolled out Android 15 to the Fairphone 4 and alas That Was The End Of That.
Recommendations back in 2018 were for Gboard and Swiftkey; a question posted to reddit in 2022 garnered similar responses.
Since the Abrupt Keyboard Failure I've swapped to Gboard more or less by default. I don't hate the bit where language switching is now automatic (for the purposes of language learning apps, at any rate), but good grief I am missing the ability to e.g. type < or | without needing to go like three clicks deep in menus. Yes, when I have "Touch and hold keys for symbols" enabled -- as far as I can tell that only gives me one symbol per key, not "now select from a variety of them" as with the much-lamented Swype. I'm also missing the gestures I know for "yes, that word, but change the capitalisation", and still grumpily adjusting to the shift key mode cycle being in a different order to what I'm used to.
I've experimented briefly with AnySoftKey but rapidly got annoyed by the total lack of any Irish language pack (and how difficult it is to navigate the app listings to establish this fact). I'm trying to persuade myself that it's worth giving SwiftKey a try even though it (1) is now Microsoft, (2) has gone all-in on Bundling With Copilot, and (3) apparently "contains ads".
Eheu, alas, etc; all is woe; ... unless anyone knows of any other Android keyboards that provide ready access to All the punctuation...?
You know you had a bad day when the next day
angelofthenorth brings you coffee as soon as she gets home, saying "well your blog post from yesterday made me think you'd need it!"
I actually had a much better day at work today: no meetings to speak of and I even started messing around with the slides for the presentation I have to give on Tuesday. Plus, Tuesday turns out to be the London staff's Christmas lunch and I can go to Wahaca (yes, that's how they spell it) with them, they're all excited about Taco Tuesday.
I was able to slip away from work early enough to walk Teddy before D and I went to see Pillion, which was well-acted and horny (even in the audio description!) and had some genuine funny moments but is a little too Fifty Shades of Gay in that its basic message that being a dom makes you a dickhead who is incapable of healthy relationships. But I had fun and I'm glad we had time for a pint in the twinkly outdoors before coming home to delicious homemade stew and dumplings.
And before I'd finished eating,
angelofthenorth offered wanted cinnamon tea and when I made interested noises brought me some in the clear glass mug with the flower petals between its two walls which V bought in the Hebridean Tea Store, and then D asked if anyone wants a mince pie, so I had my first mince pie of the season with the perfect tea pairing for it.
Before bed I emptied the food waste bin, locked the doors, turned off the little plant lights, and changed my bedding. How nice to be in such a functional house, doing my little bit to reset, maintain, upkeep.
All this made me think of Kurt Vonnegut saying:
My uncle Alex Vonnegut, a Harvard-educated life insurance salesman taught me something very important.
He said that when things were really going well, we should be sure to NOTICE it. He was talking about simple occasions, not great victories: maybe drinking lemonade on a hot afternoon in the shade, or smelling the aroma of a nearby bakery; or fishing, and not caring if we catch anything or not, or hearing somebody all alone playing a piano really well in the house next door.
Uncle Alex urged me to say this out loud during such epiphanies: "If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is."
So I do the same now, and so do my kids and grandkids. And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, "If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is."
Welcome to today's bowl of cat memes. It's not a rice bowl, not a acai bowl, not a bowl of anything else – here we just have cat memes. Everyone likes a sweet treat, but what about a feline treat? Being able to munch on delicious and delectable cat memes is one of the great achievements of the 21st century. No matter rain or shine, sick or well, or anything else in life, the ubiquitous joy of scrolling cat memes will never go away.
These 30 fluffy feline treats aren't just cute; they're unhinged-in-the-best-way cute. From the classics of "if I fits I sits," to CatGPT jokes, these cat memes will have you rolling on the floor and begging for more. If you're a cat owner, a cat lover, or a cat yourself, then these memes will speak to you in ways you didn't know existed. Memes are really a language – a language based on trust, understanding, and most importantly, humor. Each treat in this wholesome bowl will satisfy a different craving. Want something sweet? We've got fluffy cats giving tiny boops to their human's face. Craving something savory? Enjoy a confident chonker strutting across the room like he pays rent. Need a little spice? There's always a spicy tuna—also known as the cat who decides your ankle is a threat level red. And for dessert? A slow blink from a cat who finally, begrudgingly, admits you're the chosen one.
It is no big secret that the Cat Distribution System is an other worldly wonder that simply cannot be explained in any kind of plain English. It has no one way of working and no one way of deciding who gets what cat.
But the one thing that is clear about it is that it gets cats to the homes that they need to be in. and much like the many stories we have shared about it in the past, this story too tells the tale of a cat getting to the home they needed to be in, the exciting part being that the home is in Atlanta when the cat is in Fort Lauderdale and the cat would be coming home to its pawrent from nine years before. A truly unreal result to a story that makes little to no sense. The only thing we can say with any kind of certainty is that the CDS works in mysterious and mind-boggling ways.
What I read
Finished O Shepherd, Speak! - as ever, Lanny manages to find himself at major historical events. A particularly fascinating thing considering that news story about Hitler's DNA - he is admitted to the bunker and takes a slice of bloodstained sofa-cover.... In the aftermath of WW2, he has been left money to work for World Peace and he and friends are working for this. One thing I do find a bit curious about Lanny's generally progressive line is that the civil rights question (was it being called that in the 30s/40s?) doesn't seem to feature: maybe because he was brought up in Europe and mostly lived there? His focus on the World Stage???
Val McDermid, The Skeleton Road (Inspector Karen Pirie #3) (2014): not sure this was really doing it for me - there was a point where it just seemed to be going on and on.
Have plunged into a re-read of Barbara Hambly's Silver Screen mysteries (getting myself back up to speed on the series with a new volume forthcoming): so far Scandal in Babylon (2021) and One Extra Corpse (2023). Possibly one reads for the evocation of Hollywood at that era rather than the actual mystery plots, but good, anyway.
On the go
Saving Susy Sweetchild (Silver Screen #3) (2024)
Still dipping into Some Men in London, 1960-1967.
Up next
I am feeling the siren call of The Return of Lanny Budd.
I also realise that I have managed to sign myself up for 3 bookgroups meeting in January, 2 online (Pilgrimage, first meeting, Dance to the Music of Time, concluding volume) and 1 in person (fairly) locally - have managed to fight off suggestion that we read the Mybuggery wot won the Booker, but am now committed to the extremely LOOOOONG new Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
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Further to yesterday's mysterious email from Academic Publisher, have received a further and more official-looking email today:
You may recently have received a message from us with the subject line "Welcome to [redacted] GCOP".
This email was caused by a system error. You can therefore ignore it and do not need to take any action.
Apologies for any confusion the message may have caused.