Watermark

Whew!

Almost back! You Bloglines users out there, it's time to pay a visit to Watermark -- lots of new stuff.

I've moved Oratory, my poetry site (and Small Poems and Commonplace Book) to TypePad. These are relatively static sites, not blogs, so it was a bit of a technical challenge. At some point, when my energy level creeps back up, I may do a post at Blogging Blog about the details.

What I would like to know from you, though, is: does it work? Do the sites make sense to you; do you know where you are and how to get where you want to go? Does everything seem to flow naturally, or are there bumps?

I also brought over the About page from Oratory; and, after much agonizing, made a Wish List page. Of course, instead of just putting a donate button on Watermark, I had to make a big production out of it.

Finally, I made a new weblog: Abide. This is about fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and maybe chronic illness in general; resources, news, coping strategies, and whines that I don't want here.

Oh, yes, and the Links blog has a new address: links.sbpoet.com (the old one will still work.) The only thing that's not working yet is the sbpoet.com URL (minus the www) but GoDaddy promises it will be up soon.

I've also added lots of new fun to the Watermark sidebar, and redesigned the navigation list at the top to be consistent across the sites.

So tell me what you think.

[By the way, for those of you who have flash enabled, there is a neat little penguin at the bottom of the left sidebar on Abide. If you click her in the right place, three times, she falls off the iceberg. And then, of course, she climbs back on again.]

Candles

Photo by Abigail Robinson

Web Hell

I have been in site-building/ domain-mapping hell for days now. I see that some of you (Smedley) have been able to get to sbpoet.net -- I have not, and so am unable to finish setting it up. Now, per instructions from GoDaddy, all of the new sites, and possibly even Watermark, will be down again for a day or so.

Hopefully, when they come back up again, all will be well.

A Franciscan Travel Blessing

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers,
half truths and superficial relationships
so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice,
oppression, and exploitation of people,
so that you may wish for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless you with enough foolishness
to believe that you can make a difference in this world,
so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.

From Ditch the Raft; via Via Negativa

Robotic Cats

Adore cats, but can't have one?  Roommate allergic?  Mother doesn't allow pets in the house?  You are the proud owner of a house-full of expensive upholstered furniture?  Significant Other detests cats?

Perhaps a robotic cat is the answer.  Robotic cats don't shed (some don't even have fur), don't claw the furniture, and don't need litter-boxes.  They come in a wide range of prices:  $14.95-$1700, not including batteries.

 

     

     

Moving clockwise:

Kitty #1 [will] meow and purr, play and run around, nag you for food, and respond to your loving touch . . . now only $14.95!

Kitty #2($19.95) [is] so amazingly close to a real cat, you won't even know the difference!

Kitty #3 is no longer available, sorry. 

Kitty #4. . . loves to dance!

Kitty #5 (the orange one, remember, we're going clockwise) [is] designed to be a conversation partner for elderly people [and] can be connected via cell phone or ISDN line to a network system center, allowing health or social workers to send local news, medical information, and encouraging messages to elderly people ($500).

Kitty #6 [may be]  "Awesome!" That is, until you see the little bastard move in the videos at the bottom of the page. . . (click the kitty to go to the Japanese product page -- I couldn't find the video, but maybe you can.) 

Kitty #7 was . . . a research tool to explore the evolutionary approach to generating robot locomotion and other behaviors within a physical reality simulation environment . . .

Kitty #8 . . . has tactile sensors on its ears and back, and an audio visual sensor array which lets it recognizes its master’s noises, movements and the calling of its name [and] a whopping $1700 [price tag].

Kitty #9, an addition from Ivy:  Breathing Cat, [an] awesomely lifelike cat being sold as the ultimate seatsaver, is the perfect pet for lazy people.

Those of us who value our cats' snarky independence would probably not be satisfied with one of these substitutes, no matter how "true-to-life".  Then again, if you name your computer, talk to it, yell at it, and invest a sizable amount of money in it . . .  maybe a robotic cat is not such a leap . . .

 

This cat has just heard about robotic cats.

This week's Carnival of the Cats is still up and still entertaining; next week's Carnival will be at Sharp as a Marble; entries to be in by Saturday night (tomorrow.)

Oratory

Some of you may have noticed that Oratory, my poetry site, is down.  It is likely to be down for a few days, as the domain gets transferred and I finish rebuilding it (I am moving it to TypePad) -- but it will be back soon, and better, I hope.   

UPDATE Friday September 10:  The Links blog is also down.  This is unrelated to the above issue; it's something to do with subdomain mapping.  Since I am using subdomains with Oratory, too, this needs to be resolved before I can finish setting up Oratory.  TypePad Support tells me:  We're working on it.

I can see, though, that TypePad is getting slammed with comment and trackback spam, so those folks are busy right now. 

Snapshot 08 September 02004

the wind tastes of ice
and it is only
September

wind in the trees
whisper whisper

I am reproached

each day
the same challenge

     wake up

         

Poem From A Friend

This Garden
      Cindy Smith

you cannot know
what you have planted
buttercup, bramble, or choking thorn
they are all here before you
in their most secret form,     root threads
or seeds closed like fists in the sun

and you must pick, and plant
unknowing,  and never knowing
if the mud in your hands
will bring you any living thing let alone
what you want  what you want     water  is

everywhere it is flowing
through your veins it is rolling
in the delicate limbs of the plants
remember to water
life is so thirsty some days it needs
more than you can carry

it all takes faith,
that mute and stubborn stranger
who always waits for what has not happened
and time while the sun etches lines in your face
and luck, who only taps some shoulders
some times
and may never tap yours.

GMail Invitations

I have lots of GMail invitations, and you can have one! All I ask is an amusing, enlightening, or entertaining comment somewhere on Watermark. Then email me at blogdiva [at] gmail.com, with your name, and I will send one off to you.

As before, regular readers get preference.

ADDITION: A pin in my new GuestMap {on the sidebar} would do it, too.

UPDATE 27 September 02004: The invitations are all gone. I am shutting down comments on this post, and will post again when/if I get more invitations. Thanks to all who pinned my guestmap or otherwise contributed to Watermark.

Raccoon Morning

This is what I woke to the other morning -- a raccoon managed to bend the iron bar with the 'squirrel proof' bird feeder and bring it down nearly to the ground (it usually hangs at the same level as the suet feeder in the upper right of this photo.)  It also managed to get the lid off of the galvanized steel bucket that holds the feed -- and bent the entire bucket so out of shape that the lid won't fit anymore. 

[Note:  I say "it" not to deny its personhood, but because I don't know if it's a girl raccoon or a boy raccoon.]

It also left raccoon prints at my neighbor's house/ building site -- I'm glad for that, since I briefly feared it might have been a bear.  We get bears in Missoula, but not generally this far into town.

Now I must come up with a more raccoon-proof feeding system.  At least it did not get any of the pond goldfish.