General Musings for the week April 17th 2011

Sunday evening and Monday morning saw me at the vets with the cat.

I had arrived home Sunday afternoon after a delightful trip to the local airfield for a drink and a sit outside in the sun watching the aircraft (I know, it's all go in my life), to find my cat lying listlessly outside the back door in the sun. Opening the door to him I realised he wasn't his usual, ebullient self and he moped inside and snuck away to sit under the bed in the back bedroom. A few moments later I went up to see him and realised he had been in a fight with something that had left him cut at a couple of points on his body. I left him under the bed for a while to see whether he would recover a little. An hour later he hadn't moved and I noticed that his right front knee/elbow had swollen up quite considerably so I called the vet to see if she could look at him that afternoon. It was now about 20 minutes before the close of surgery hours so I grabbed the cat carrier and went to pick the cat up.

Being the intelligent cat that he is, he worked out what I was doing and crawled right under the bed, laying in the most invonvenient place he could. I ended up crawling under the bed on my back, grabbing him by the scruff of his neck and dragging him out from under there. He didn't like that at all.

Five minutes later we were in the vets. The weekend vet took one look at him and proclaimed "Not another cat in a fight. That's all I've had this weekend!" She cried out again a few moments later when she checked the history: It was exactly one year ago that day when I had taken him in to see her after his last fight.

My poor cat was severely distressed at this point. His fur was shedding copiously, they shaved his leg in two places, took an anal temperature reading and gave him three different injections. Not a happy cat. The vet recommended either leaving him there that evening or bringing him back in the morning to have the wound lanced and flushed. I elected to take him home, knowing that he would be very distressed to stay in the vets overnight.

The following morning we had another game of hide-and-seek as he saw me bring the cat carrier out again. This time I cornered him in the bathroom and slipped him into the box. Down at the vets they took all his details and told me to leave him there, coming back at 2.30 to pick him up. I had checked the swelling on his leg and noticed that it was much smaller than the night before so I asked the vet to take a look at it to see if he really needed to have it lanced and flushed.

After a few moments of examination (plus another anal temperature reading and injection) the vet announced that he could probably go home and if the problem recurred I could come back in to have it dealt with.

Total cost for both vet visits: £102.65. Potential costs for staying overnight and having sedation, lancing and flushing: £500+

Good call, I thought.

In other news: Thanks to everyone who watched and commented on 27 Arbour Street, the Sci Fi London 48 Hour Film Competition entry I posted about last week. Unfortunately we didn't make the final 10 shortlist, but I think we did fantastically anyway.

If you're going to make a reality television show you want something that has the potential to have conflict, excitement, danger. That's why programs such as Trawler Wars and Ice road truckers are so compelling. So why would Sky premiere a new reality tv show called 'Hunks' about self-obsessed, vain male model types? Where's the danger in that? I can foresee another program where selective editing and VoiceOver build fake suspense to try and make the program more interesting.  Not that I'll be watching, of course.

Video of the week this week is a must for all movie fans out there. Peter Jackson - director of Lord Of The Rings and King Kong - has started filming on the Rings prequel "The Hobbitt". Being  a big fan of the internet - and being determined to avoid any unauthorised spoilers coming from the production - he has elected to create a regular series of videoas about the shoot. The first one has just been released. Enjoy!

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What's under the fridge? What??!!

There’s something living under my fridge.

It’s not very big - after all it has to live under the fridge - bit it is there. How do I know? Good question. I can’t hear it, I can’t see it, but I know it’s there because it cleaned my kitchen floor. Not all of it, obviously, but it did do something very peculiar. Let me explain

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Thought for the day: Kitteh's and their weird sense of taste

Why is it that my cat, Zeke, will catch mice, shrews, birds, snakes & frogs, eat them all whole (feathers/bones and scales included), and yet turn his nose up at me when I offer him 'The dry cat food' instead of 'The moist pouches'?

Surely it can't be the taste?

Can it?

If so I'm speaking with the cat food manufacturers to make sure their food smells and tastes of 'freshly killed rodent'

There's got to be a marketing opportunity here.

Just a thought . . .

Posted via web from The Posterous Cafe

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What my cats taught me about life

I'm going to get a little philosophical today and I make no apologies for that.

Regular readers of this blog will know about my cat (Zeke) and his late brother (Moe). Zeke is now 20 months old and considers himself a grown up. He doesn't do the "wide-eyed-chasing-anything-that-moves-like-a-kitten" thing any more.

Well not often, anyway.

These are the first pets I've ever had myself. My parents had pets, of course, but they always seemed to be at-one removed from me. This is the first opportunity I have really had to observe their behaviour 24/7. One of the things that having cats has taught me is that certain cat behaviour applies to everybody.

See how many of these you recognise:

Anything can be a plaything. It's a matter of using your imagination
When I first got them as kittens I went out and bought the cat scratching posts, the furry mice substitutes, the long sticks with bells and feathers on the end, you know: the toys that were needed to help them develop. These were all bought in an attempt to ensure the kittens had things to play with, weren't bored and could cope at home all day while I was out working.

Well shortly after that I had something delivered for work. It came in a box with those polestyrene 'chips' for packing as well as bubble wrap and binding tape. I took everything apart, opened the box up and took out whatever was in there. Instantly the cats were in there playing with the things. I couldn't coax them out to play with the wind up, fur coated mouse, or the expensive feather and fur chase stick. Nothing. They loved the box, they loved the chips and they adored the bubble wrap. Ever since then I've stopped buying specific cat toys. My cats play with toilet-roll inners, wrapped up potato chip packets, empty boxes (see the picture above) and bits of string. Anything is a plaything if you use your imagination. It's the same at work. Anything can be used for what you want it for - as long as you have the imagination.

Image via Wikipedia

It's the message not the medium
If Zeke wants to go out he might sit at the door and stare at me. He might walk around and meow. Or he might jump up and slap the keychain in the lock with his paw causing it to make a noise. In any case the meaning is the same "I want to go out". What that's actually taught me is that sometimes you have to ignore the medium and focus on the message. With Twitter, blogs, Facebook, Friendfeed etc all vying for attention it is easy to get the same piece of information come across your field of view in different formats. It doesn't invalidate the information, though. Remember "It's the message not the medium"

It may be dead and half eaten - but it's still a gift.
Moe was a real hunter. In a short period of time I've known him come back with: a mouse, 3 fledgling birds, a pigeon, 4 shrews, a frog and a fully grown, half eaten rabbit. He could chase and catch almost anything that moved - I've seen him eyeing up small aircraft and helicopters that passed overhead - and it was probably this hunting instinct that put him in the path of a car on the day he died. But at the end of all this work he would always drag whatever he had found into the house and present it to me. It was a gift (granted, not one I could do a lot with), but it did teach me that sometimes you get things you don't always want but they are given with the best intention. This is the same in life. Not everyone can afford to give large gifts (or indeed any gifts). Sometimes the little things are what count - even if they mean more to the giver than the receiver. Accept them for what they mean, not what they are.

If you have someone who likes your company and somewhere to be together, not much else matters.
The thing about cats is that they know how to manage their owners. Zeke knows I'll let him out when he wants, I'll let him in when he needs, I'll clean his litter try and I'll feed and look after him. In return he asks for nothing more than a little stroke behind the ear now and again (and being worshipped and adored as a god - which is standard for all cats). In life, it's also worth remembering that big houses, fancy cars, highly paid jobs and lots of activities to keep you busy are not a substitute for good quality of life and having friends you can trust and be comfortable with.

Sometimes you can get in the way when you mean to be helpful.
I sit and work at the computer most days. Generally Zeke will head out first thing, case the neighbourhood, visit the usual places and come back to eat. Shortly after that he'll come into my office, walk across the keyboard, sit in my lap and start to rub against me. He purrs, plays and goes to sleep. It disturbs me and stops me working - it is difficult typing with a cat paw placed on your trackpad, moving the cursor all over the place - but I generally let him stay on my lap and work around him. I realise that he doesn't know he's in the way and if I scold him or chastise him for that he won't always understand. He's probably just trying to be helpful, or useful. (In a way he is, I have low blood pressure due to the cat. He always calms me down and stroking him is very therapeutic). But it does make me think of times when, maybe, I've tried to be helpful to other people and it hasn't been received the right way. Knowing that what you intend to happen and what actually happens don't always match is a great way of understanding that you can get in the way when you're meaning to be helpful.

Moe and Zeke taught me a lot.

For those of you who are cat lovers you might want to check out the best cat site on the internet which is Icanhascheesburger.com

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Things I didn't know last week - February 28th 2009

This is a post in a regular weekly series about things I've learned or come to realise during the previous week.

This week "Vets - They don't know what to charge"

My cat Zeke got into a fight recently with the neighbours cat. He gave as good as he got, but ended up with a nasty bite to part of his tail. I didn't know anything about this until one evening when he he came and sat next to me. Suddenly I could smell something.... pongy. It smelled awful! On further investigation it appeared to be an abscess that had burst at the site of the bite and was kicking out some foul-smelling green puss.

Quick as a flash I had him down to the vet's - which is especially disturbing for him because the last time he went there he was neutered and still bears the scars and the memories.

The vet looked at his tail, wiped it with some cleanser and cotton wool, gave him an injection and 8 antibiotic tablets.....

....and charged £36 ($50)

Now I realise that the vet has overheads. I realise that the vet spent years studying biology and anatomy and zoology just so he could wipe my poor cat's abscess, but isn't $50 for 4 minutes of work a little out of proportion? After all I have a friend who is a trained physiotherapist. She works with learning disabled people in the local area, visiting them, helping them walk, move, and sit correctly. She even goes to their houses at night to ensure they are sleeping in the right positions. She earns somewhere in the region of £8/$12 per hour. She too has studied for several years doing internships at big hospitals. She can talk 'medical speak' with the best of them. (She even knows the correct definition of 'phalanges') but she doesn't earn anywhere near as much as the vet.

Is that right and just?

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A day in the life......

A number of people have asked what, exactly, I do all day.

I have a job I love. I work at home, I write a lot and I'm my own boss. A lot of people are jealous or envious of that and I can tell you now there's is no reason to be. There is a perception that work-at-home folks have an easy life. We get up when we want, work when we want, go and play golf when we want (actually that bit is generally true...), and we generally don't work as hard as office based folks.

Well, rather than take you through a typical day let me try and paint a picture of my life as it relates to you, the reader.

I subscribe to a number of newfeeds and blog feeds which talk about productivity and so-called 'Life Hacks'. A lot of what follows is a direct result of my implementation of the ideas found there.

Early start
The first thing to remember is that I like to get an early start (6am when possible). Sometime's it's not easy. Sometimes I really want to stay where I am an keep the duvet on. But I try my best to get up when the alarm goes.

Standard routine
The day starts with a standard routine regarding the computer:

I run a Mac (as those of you who read my 'Mac musings' series will know), and this gets turned on just after I get up. First thing that happens then is Morning Coffee. Note that I have put that in capital letters. This isn't a cup of well made java, rather a Firefox add-on that preloads a set of pages I want to read (you are using Firefox as your browser, right?). One click and I can load up all the key pages I want to go through in a morning. These pages change on a daily basis (thanks to Morning Coffee's functionality), but include BBC News, Aint-It-Cool-News, Google Adsense, Google analytics, a couple of forums, Dilbert, and Wall Shadows (a site run by Algo, a friend of mine, that talks about films and philosophy - it sounds wierd, but go!)

I also do a quick check of e-mail at this point (but only to see if there is anything of great interest that needs an immediate response). The productivity guru's swear by not checking your e-mail first thing and I agree with this. However, I justify this by saying that it's only 5 minutes and it's just a skim read.

Yahoo! Answers
First job of the day is Yahoo! Answers. I run several web sites, one of which is about free video editing. As a means of promoting this I spend time most mornings at Yahoo! answering questions related to video. 90% of the questions are along the lines of "What free video software can I get?". In fact this is such a popular question that I have dedicated a complete page at my site to people coming in from Yahoo! It seems to be working - I have answered nearly 200 questions and 2 out of 3 are rated best answers (approximately 1 out of 4 are either still open or not rated yet). I'm quite pleased at that.

Site Build it!
My free video site is hosted by a company called Site Build it! who are the best all-in-one web hosting and site development service. Read more here. One of the things I like about them is that they provide a good number of management tools to help run your site. I check these next. This includes things such as visitor stats, search engine rankings, inbound links etc. I can also check who has signed up to my ezine or left a contact for me through the site.

Writing!
Then I get down to writing. Apart from the free video editing web site I also run three more blogs and a business process consultancy company. On any given day the focus is usually on one of these things. At the moment I am finishing up and starting to promote my ebook "The Perfect Process Project" which will be released next week. The Process Cafe is used as my process blog so I'm adding entries to that in support of the launch.

I also recently got my private pilots licence and started a blog that talks about that. I'm looking to extend my flying skills by doing what's called 'difference training' to allow me to fly more powerful planes. There are entries related to that at the Flying Cafe.

Of course there are these entries on the Musings Cafe that need to be done as well. This is a 'catch-all' blog that has entries which don't fit on the these blogs and which I want to write about. See my posts on environmental tips for an example of this.

I also work on building the business process consultancy business. I spend time on Linked-in answering questions relevant to my area of expertise, connect with folks in that area, answer forum questions from related groups and ensure I keep in contact with business associates from past and present. At the moment I am prepping for a pre-sales meeting with a company in the healthcare industry so I need to spend time researching the company and putting together the presentation.

Productivity
Basically I write every day. It could be a blog post or two, it could be a complete new entry on the latest free video tool to come out. It could be a new chapter in the ebook or a particular white paper on BPA or process facilitation sessions.

So how does this work in reality? Well, getting back to the productivity guru's, they recommend finding the best time to write and write as much as you can in that time. I find that first thing in the morning works for me, before the neighbours are up and before I start to feel tired as a result of waking early! For example, this particular document was started at 6.20 in the morning.

I do realise that I could actually be more productive and I'm working towards it. One of the reasons (as espoused by Leo of Zen Habits) is to declutter your workspace. My workspace sucks. I have papers, cables, documents, 7 hard drives, 3 computer carcasses, boxes and two CRT computer screens around where I work. I really should find time to move that clutter out and get back to something nice and simple. Although, to be honest, when I'm writing I don't find that stuff like that distracts me. I find that if I'm looking for something though, (like a note I made on a sheet of paper about a new piece of video software) I can spend longer looking for it than I would in a decluttered environment, but that's about the only downside.

Wonder what that says about my mind....?


Work breaks/ distractions
The only problem with writing is that occasionally I can get outside the zone. Sometimes it's a matter of not being totally committed to an article or a post I'm writing (that happens if I have a half-baked idea for a post and not enough research into it). So occasionally I need a distraction. I've talked in the past about my cats (one of whom loved to sit and watch me write before he was killed by a passing car), so I do like all things feline. So when I came across icanhascheezburger I was overjoyed.

"Cheezburger" is a site dedicated to funny pictures of cats and kittens but captioned using 'lolspeak' which is the internet chat speak language. I don't spend a huge amount of time on this site, but I can occasionally drop in to see what's just been added.



Generally my writing environment consists of no interruptions. By this I mean no IM (I turn Adium off when writing), no e-mail (I close the email notification noise/alert and just let the mails accumulate in the background), and no phone (generally I send all calls to voice mail). One thing I have found incredibly useful (and infuriating at the same time) is the use of a Mac product called Anti RSI. As the name suggests it's a small application which will work with you to combat RSI. Basically you define work chunks which could be, say, 10 minutes at a time. After 10 minutes a message is displayed with a 15 second countdown. You cannot remove the message and countdown unless you leave the keyboard alone completely. Then, every 50 minutes you can set a ten minute break. It works really effectively to let you work has hard as you can for a while but still remind you to stop typing and give your fingers (and mind) a rest. The infuriating thing is when you are right in the middle of something interesting or inspire) and the message pops up. it can make you lose your focus and concentration for a while! There is a similar product for windows called Workrave

Now that I'm down to one kitten, he can be a little clingy. There was a time when they would go out first thing in the morning and return for food and an afternoon nap and that was it. I would see nothing of either of them other than that. Moe would occasionally come back and sit on the window sill to watch. But now that he's gone Zeke likes to spend time with me. He'll come in during the morning and walk around on the desk, on the keyboard, on my lap and in front of my face. Generally he'll then insinuate himself into my space and settle down across one of my arms, or something. It's very difficult to write with a cat asleep on your arm!

Conclusion
I said I wouldn't take you through a typical day for me and It seems to have ended up doing just that. But there's a reason for this. There are lots of people out there who work in their own routines every day. Some of them work at home like I do, some of them are in an office, some even go out and spend time at the local Starbucks tapping on their laptop.

But however you do it, I think it's worth remembering the following: What I do is not so different to a standard 9-5 job. You work in an office (So do I, but in a different type of office). You are producing in the hope of earning money (so am I). You are trying to get as much done with as little effort as possible (so am I). You are distracted occasionally (so am I).

Where it differs is that I have a lot more freedom about where and when I work. I can work hard all morning, go play golf in the afternoon, and come back and work in the evening if I want. You can't. Although you do get a regular paycheck at the end of the month. Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don't....

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Run out of instructions

The best way to define Moriarty (or Moe, as I called him), would be to tell you what he wasn't.

He wasn't a particularly social cat - with other people, I mean. When friends came around he would hide, usually. When my sisters kids came over he would leave the country for a few hours, appearing about 30 minutes after he was sure they had left.

He wasn't particularly well co-ordinated. I have video of him as a very small kitten trying to jump on to the settee. He started way too far away and only just managed to reach the seat of the settee with his claws, leaving him hanging there for a few seconds while he scrambled to get a purchase with his rear claws. Oftentimes he would go for a jump and underestimate it (particularly amusing when trying to jump up onto the kitchen cabinets!). His balance wasn't always the best either. He was wondering around the edge of the bath recently when he decided he wanted to turn around in a corner and head back in the opposite direction. As he tried to maneuver around he fell off the edge and into the bath. Luckily it was empty. He was asleep on the window sill last week, sunning himself in the glorious weather we were having. Being a cat, he stretched himself out, yawned and rolled over - off the sill and onto the floor. Twice. In the space of 45 minutes.

He wasn't particularly cat-like in his behaviour. He is the only cat I know that would run and fetch items and bring them back to you. I have footage of him fetching a small stuffed mouse and bringing it back, dog-like, over half a dozen times. People wouldn't believe this until they saw the video. He liked to watch the golf on TV (see picture). He was also the sort of cat who had an evening routine with me. I would bring the food up for him and his brother Zeke and put it in the corner of my bedroom. Zeke would immediately start to chow down so Moe would come into the bathroom with me. As I brushed my teeth he would always jump up onto the cistern at the back of the toilet and watch me. A stroke behind the ear would elicit a purr from him. Then Zeke would appear and Moe would go and eat in his turn. Then he would adjourn to the corner of the room where he would settle down to sleep

He wasn't a very demonstrative cat. At least he wasn't when there were other people around. Or even other cats. If Zeke was around, Moe would barely deign to let me stroke him, ditto if there were friends around that he knew. But when it was just me and him he became a different cat. Very affectionate, purring loudly and letting himself be stroked and petted.

He wasn't the Alpha Cat. That's Zeke. Moe was always second to have the food, second to chase the birds and small animals, second to get the cat toys and play with them and second to use the litter tray. He knew his standing in the hierarchy and he was happy with it.

But mostly he wasn't very bright. In fact he was slightly stupid. In a very endearing way. He was the cat who would follow the end of a piece of string around the floor for hours (shoelaces were his favourite), whereas Zeke would realise that the string was being pulled and go for the hand that was pulling it. Moe was the cat who would charge headlong up a tree, or into a dark hole, or even into next door's house before realising that it probably wasn't the brightest thing to do. Moe would go out into the garage, look around and investigate things and then realise that there was nothing new to investigate so he would come back and sit by the, now closed, door. But rather than meow or scratch the door to attract attention he would sit there. Sooner or later I would realise he was out there, open the door, and see him sitting just inside the door waiting. I used to think it was because he had run out of instructions. The same thing would happen if I went out for the day and left him outside. Regardless of what time I came back he would be sitting in the middle of the driveway waiting for me to return. He had run out of instructions.

He was a very good hunter though. In the last month he caught a rabbit (!), a couple of mice, a dozen shrews, a young pigeon, a blue tit, two frogs and a whole nest of fledgling thrushes. Some he would kill and play with outside, and others he would bring into the house, alive, and release. What hours of entertainment we would have trying to catch them!

I kind of think that his hunting ability and his lack of brightness were two contributing factors in his death.

In my mind he was stalking some small rodent, or maybe a bird, when the aforementioned target set off at some speed across the road outside my house. Being not-too-bright, he probably set-off at speed behind it at just the same time as a vehicle came roaring past. The feline/automotive interface is never going to result in anything good for the cat and I found him several hours later on the grass verge, apparently fast asleep. When I picked him up though, he was cold and stiff.

He's buried in my back garden now near the tree he and Zeke would play in. As far as I know he's still there, awaiting instructions.

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