This is a picture of our fourteen-week-old kitten, Kote. She has an adorable little black face and body, except for her white chin, white whiskers, white belly, and white feet. 

And a single white hair smack dab between her eyes. 

It’s a little hard to see in the picture, but it’s there. Just one hair. Usually they seem to come in clumps of at least two or three, if not hundreds. But this is just one single hair.

Sometimes I just want to yank it out and make her face a nice even, solid black. That would be cruel though. Other times, I just can’t stop looking at it because it’s so adorable. Still other times, I find it kind of hilarious that there is only ONE white hair there among all those black ones. 

I don’t want to sound creepily obsessive over one hair (I probably do anyway), but it fascinates me in a way. What, genetically speaking, made that one hair, and not any other in the surrounding area, be white? Why that one? It’s so perfectly centered, too. At least it doesn’t ruin the symmetry of her fur (that would be a tragedy, indeed). It’s a funny little thing. 

I check on it every once in a while, just to see if it’s still there. I wonder if it ever falls out (I’m sure it will have to eventually), will it be replaced by another white hair? Or will it grow back in black? Such are the mysteries of life. 

For now, I will just enjoy her fur patterns as they are and appreciate the little things in life, like random, single white hairs on a kitten’s body. (I think I need to find a new hobby.)

I rate it…

5 out of 5 random genetic oddities

There’s nothing like having breakfast for dinner. I mean, it’s breakfast. FOR DINNER. It’s intrinsically awesome. As you may have noticed from my previous post, I have a thing about breakfast foods.

Tonight, I was pretty darn hungry so I opened up the fridge to see what I could forage. I found some leftovers that, while delicious, just weren’t appealing to me at the moment. While I WAS hungry, I was also feeling lazy (what else is new), so I wanted something I could throw together quickly and easily. I remembered seeing some salsa in the cupboard and pulled out some chips that had been opened ages ago and thought I could snack on that for a while and have it satisfy me, but it wasn’t really what I wanted. 

Then I opened the fridge again and spied BACON. Now, this may not be too thrilling to most people. As yummy and fattening as it is, it’s nothing too special. However, having eaten mostly (not all) vegan food for the past, what, two years(?) and no meat at all for about a year or so, then abruptly switching back to a regular, meat-eating, dairy-loving diet in February (that’s a whole other story, so don’t even ask), meat is still a novelty for me. So when I saw that bacon, sitting in it’s unopened package just screaming at me to eat it, I just had to put it out of its misery. 

Then I noticed the bags filled with grated cheese my husband had so thoughtfully bought. And the carton filled with eggs that would be past their expiration date in a week or so. And some bread. 

An idea started to form in my mind…

BREAKFAST. FOR DINNER. YESSSSSSSS.

As soon as I thought it, I knew it was what I had been searching for. Now, I am still relatively inexperienced with cooking with meat and eggs, so this was an adventure for me. Usually, when I plan on making something with either ingredient in it for dinner, I strategically wait juuuusst long enough for Nick to come home and tell him, “Oh, I’m trying to get dinner going, but I could use some help. Maybe you could cook the meat/crack the eggs/do all the work for me?” Somehow, because he loves me oh so much, it works. Alas, he was working until 8 tonight and my stomach would not wait, so I was left to fend for myself. 

Cook that bacon, I did. Crack those eggs, I did. 

I was brave! I was ambitious! I did it all by myself! I think I stood a little taller and a little prouder throughout the cooking process. 

That is, until it came time to crack that second egg. 

Oh, second egg. Why did you have to ruin it for me? 

I was going along so well. I cracked the first egg with no problem. I allowed myself a little satisfied grin. Maybe I got too cocky. Maybe I was so focused on the delicious dinner a-waiting me that I didn’t pay attention. Whatever it was, I knew as soon as I saw a little egg..goo..coming out of the shell that I was doomed. I tried to pry it open, stupidly, and…

CRACK-SPLATTER!

Egg everywhere. I think a little actually made it into the pan. A lot of it made it onto my work pants legs (go me) and the floor. I ran into my room and angrily ripped off my pants (not literally, because that would have made the situation much worse), and changed into pajama bottoms. I wiped up my mess on the floor and let my egg(s) cook. Luckily, by the time I was finished wiping up all the guck (yes, I just made that up), the egg was done. I somehow managed to actually have some semblance of a fried(?) egg. I put it on the bread I had toasted, realized I’d forgotten to put the cheese, salt, and pepper on it while it was cooking as I had planned, and called it done. I grabbed some bacon, put some butter and agave nectar (remnants of our vegan days) on the other slice of toast, poured myself some orange juice, and declared the dinner moderately successful given the circumstances. I sat down to eat, briefly paused to take a picture of the meal (see above), hoovered up (yes, I also made that word up) everything on my plate, and rubbed my belly happily. 

Despite some minor, egg-related setbacks, I’d say I did pretty well for myself. Considering my odd squeamishness around cooking meat (the possibility of undercooked meat-disease!) and eggs (salmonella! run!), I am proud of what I did. Besides, you can’t really go wrong with breakfast for dinner.

I rate this meal…

4.75 out of 5 (minus .25 for egg guck) very happy bellies 

I was so distracted by the thought of delicious muffins that I forgot to rate them. Muffins are definitely…

5 out of 5 individual slices of gloriousness

Muffins. I love muffins. They’re like cupcakes, but not so sugary. 

I made a dozen chocolate chip muffins yesterday, and I would’ve posted a picture with this post, but they didn’t make it through long enough for me to take one! My stomach is rumbling at the moment, which is why I am now thinking of muffins. 

Let me just tell you there are two people in this house, TWO, and we went through a dozen muffins in a night and a morning. They were supposed to be for breakfast today, and they just made it that far before they were gone. That’s not to say some weren’t consumed the night before, because, oh, were they. 

The best part about muffins is how flexible the recipe is. Just take a simple, basic batter recipe and toss just about anything sweet, fruity, or nutty in it and you’re set. Blueberries, walnuts, chocolate chips, lemon, poppy seed, carrots or even zucchini! Just about anything works. And the recipe is SO simple, it’s ridiculous. Throw some flour, sugar, butter, eggs, baking powder, baking soda, salt all together, mix it all up, add the extra goodies, throw it in a muffin tin then toss it in the oven for 15 minutes or so and you’re good to go.

Just about the only thing that’s easier than muffins is cookies. And don’t get me started on cookies. I don’t think my stomach can handle the thought of those gooey, warm wafers of goodness without punching me in the face for the cruelty of it. 

My primary computer is a MacBook Air. It’s the best and fastest computer that I’ve ever owned, but in addition to blogging, I also enjoy doing some very basic graphic design. (I made that monkey! That one up there!) The MacBook Air doesn’t quite have what it takes to run the go to app for graphic designers: Adobe Photoshop I also don’t have 600 dollars to spend on Photoshop, so I needed something else. Something lighter, cheaper, faster.

Enter Pixelmator (Shu-na-na-na-na-na)

Pixelmator is an App available in the Mac App Store, that’s as of this writing $29.99 which is expensive compared to… I don’t know… food court food, but relatively inexpensive compared to most photo editing/graphic design applications. I decided 30 bucks was a reasonable amount to drop to get into the basics of graphic design again, so here are my thoughts.

• It’s not Photoshop Just to avoid anyone getting mad at me I figure I’ll get this out of the way. No it doesn’t have all the features of Photoshop, it’s also not big, bloated, and expensive like Photoshop. Oh, and it runs amazingly on my computer as well. But for those of you that depend on Photoshop for your workflow, you’ll probably find that Pixelmator isn’t a viable replacement.

• It’s fairly easy to use It’s not quite to the level of iPhoto, or even Aperture, but for a layer based image editor complete with most of the things most people rely on to get basic graphic design or photo editing/compositing done. What’s being done is complicated, and as a result, some of the features are a little complicated. Not surprising, but worth noting. I do get the impression that wherever possible the Pixelmator team is working to make this App as easy to pick up and use as possible. I’m only a couple of icons in and I’m already having very few issues.

• It’s Quick I’ve mentioned this already, but this application screams on my Air, I’ve been able to design a bunch of things that I’m proud of without ever feeling encumbered by the App. Now admitedly I’m not exactly pushing it to it’s limits, but for my needs, and I’d imagine the needs of most, my tests have been more than enough to say that it’s a very fast and responsive app.

• It makes you want to make stuff This is probably the most important part of any Application, getting you to the point where you actually want to get work done. When I open Pixelmator, I want to make cool icons or edit some photos. It gets me to the point of creation very quickly, and I haven’t as of yet found myself coming up with excuses for fiddling instead of actually working.

I have some other minor complaints, like the lack of ability to add certain layer blending effects like stroke that can be manipulated later, but they’re just that. Minor complaints. I can’t pretend to know everyone’s needs, but for mine they’ve been something I’ve had to work around, but not something I wasn’t able to work around.

All in all, if you’re looking for something less expensive, less system intensive, or easier to use than the full featured Photoshop, you really can’t go wrong with Pixelmator. It’s also a great starting point for image editing for those that are just getting started. I’d imagine kids of all ages will get a lot out of learning to use Pixelmator, and what you learn there scales up nicely to Photoshop, if you ever do run through what Pixelmator can do and need to make the switch. Pixelmator is great, it’s fast, lightweight, and easy, and it’s fun to make stuff in. When it’s only major downside is that it’s not the de facto image editor that’s been developed by a major corporation for decades, it’s hard not to recommend it.

I rate it:

4 out of 5 Surly Pro-Level Graphic Designers

At certain points in their lives many men are tempted to shave their heads. I recently acted on this impulse and would like to share with you some first impressions.

• My head feels weird. I’m sure this is just a matter of getting used to the feeling, but man, wind is an entirely new experience. I have yet to take a shower, because as of this writing it has been only a few hours since I shaved it, but I can’t wait to experience the new sensation.

• I feel inexplicably cool. Make no mistake, I don’t think I’m a good looking person, nor do I think that shaving my head has helped that any. But I do feel very cool. It feels very vulnerable to have my head shaved, like I’m exposing parts of myself to the world that everyone else is more comfortable covering up. Yeah, check it world. Right through here? That’s my brain.

• I want to keep shaving my head. I already want to go grab a razor and shave my head again. I don’t know why it’s suddenly so alluring. Maybe because it makes me feel cool.

• I wonder whether anyone else likes it. Again this may just be because it’s new. But even though people have sworn up and down that they like how it looks, I just don’t think I can trust them. If you’re pondering shaving your head, it’s probably worth noting that you will find something to worry about. If you’ve got strange bumps on your head or odd moles, you’ll probably worry about those. If you’re fortunate enough to have a decently sculpted scalp, you will instead spend your time worrying if you look like a penis.

• I want to accessorize my head. Hats, beanies, headwax, new razors. I don’t even have any idea what sort of accessories the shorn head requires, but I want them!

• I feel like I’m a part of something. Again, I don’t understand this, as up until a couple hours ago I had no inclanation that shaving one’s head was anything to give much thought to. But here I am analyzing it, wondering if other shaved headed people feel the same way, and just knowing in the back of my mind that of course they do. How could they feel any different? They have shaved heads! We are the same! 

• I feel a little bit Buddhist. The people that read this blog at this point are most likely just friends, so you know that I run another blog about minimalism called Finding Simple. My two disparate interests aside, shaving my head makes me feel like I’m in touch with something meditative and peaceful, even though as far as I can tell, I’m not.

Anyways, those are some initial impressions I wanted to share about shaving my head. Obviously this rating is in flux, and the jury is still out as to whether I’ll keep it cut this short or not, but for now I rate it:

4 out of 5 Cue Balls

There is nothing like a clean car. After driving around for months, possibly years for me, with a dirty, no, FILTHY car, we finally decided it was about darn time we gave them a wash. We briefly entertained the idea of taking both our cars to the professional, touch-free car wash, but after our previous experience with it (read: sitting foolishly in front of the machine to pay for it wondering why it wouldn’t take our credit card only to realize twenty minutes later that we had the card upside down - and failed to notice the GIANT sign telling us which way to insert it), we decided to be tough and wash them ourselves. So, we drove to my in-laws’ house and broke out the hose, bucket and soap. By we, I of course mean Nick and my father-in-law. i let the men handle the watery stuff. They hosed off the cars, soaped them down and scraped off all the gunk that had found its way into every crevasse of our vehicles (winter did a number on them). I don’t think my car has every looked so good since I bought it. 

Then, after a brief break to shave Nick’s head (an adventure on its own), we (and I actually mean “we” here) waxed the cars. Oh yes, we did it. With the sun beating down on us and already sore from running this morning, we waxed them, and buffed them, and made our babies shine. Didn’t do much for all the three-foot-long scratches criss-crossing the roofs of our cars (thanks, ice),  but it was an improvement. 

After all that, we didn’t even get to the best part. We VACUUMED THE INTERIOR. And by “we,” I mean Nick. I had no part whatsoever with that one. Oh man, did that feel good though. I can actually see the carpet again. I will no longer have to breathe the clouds of dust that came off of the rugs (gross). That is, until about a month from now when it will be just as disgusting as before. But hey, gotta start somewhere. 

I rate this car wash…

5 out of 5 accomplished smirks

When taking on a kitten as a pet, it is important to keep certain things in mind:

• Their poop smells like a nightmare that satan would have, and what is otherwise a soft exterior is marred by no less than twenty dagger sharp claws that seem specifically designed to rend human flesh, which they will do.

Frequently.

• They appear, as creatures, to alternate their time between ignoring you completely, and circumventing every fucking attempt you make to do something useful. Usually in the reverse order that you would hope them to.

• They also sleep quite a bit, and if you are lucky enough to earn their favor, they may do so on top of your body, which is almost universally acknowledged to be a pleasurable experience. However, the duration of their rest is typically short, and in no time at all it’s back to rending your flesh and destroying your furniture.

• Proponents of kittens generally speak to the fact that they are low maintenence, conveniently ignoring the fact that while they do poop in a designated area, that festering pile they left in a sand filled box must be removed almost immedietely, lest your entire house become infected with it’s smell, which nearest I can estimate has a half-life of all eternity.

Any prospective owner of kittens should be aware, however that all of these faults, though they are numerous and impactful, will immediately cease to exist as soon as the kitten either looks at you and meows, rubs its sandpaper tongue across your skin, or does something foolish, even if said foolish thing involves breaking something valuable or cherished.

I rate them:

5 out of 5 Adorable Pets

mrbillgeorge asked: What are your thoughts on Google+?

I will be able to post a more in depth review later, but apparently Google in their infinite wisdom decided to give out invitations to members that they couldn’t honor yet, so even though I’ve been invited twice when attempting to sign up I get informed they are temporarily over capacity, and to try again soon. How soon? I don’t know. 5 minutes? 5 years? No time frame is given.

So this review will be mostly theoretical, and attempt to explain what it seems Google is trying to do with their Google+ project. Which I believe amounts to several things:

• Give their UI designers and Ad Copy people a chance to shine. If you have the time please check out their preview videos, interactive tours, and even their website, it looks like it was put together by a real artist instead of a four year old with Microsoft paint. They’ve clearly upgraded their presentation ability and to be honest, it works. Watching the videos it seems like something Apple would come out with, except it doesn’t look quite that good, but seriously, they either know that they’ve got something great here, or really want people to think that they’ve got something great here.

• Get people off of Facebook I don’t think Google is too concerned with Twitter, which is probably a good thing because I don’t know if they could compete with Twitter. Twitter’s already got the market cornered on sharing with the world as easily and basically as humanly possible, and while Buzz may have been meant as competition in that regard, and failed, Google+ seems far more poised to take on Facebook. This is a place to spend time with your friends, not a micro-blogging platform. It’s far less ubiquitous and therefore, to my mind, far more likely to succeed than their last two failures: Buzz, and Wave. Both of those didn’t really have a proof of concept.

Google+ is overflowing with proof of concept

In fact, for those of us that can’t get in, (even if we were invited… twice) all that Google+ is at the moment is proof of concept. And the concept that it’s trying to prove is that it’s a viable replacement for Facebook. As a system poised to take on Facebook, it needs to do two things:

1. Do what Facebook does well, just as well or ideally even better. Ideally it will be easier to understand, more customizable, and personable, and address many of the concerns people have had in the past with Facebook, mostly in the realm of privacy. But at the very least it needs to do all the things that people are regularly logging onto Facebook to do, post status updates, share photos, arrange events, etc. And more importantly

2. Do well what Facebook does poorly. Google+ needs to provide itself with a legitimate reason to exist along side of Facebook, at least until it is viable competition for Facebook, otherwise they won’t be able to win over people that are already invested in another service. Just being Facebook but made by Google isn’t enough. So far based on my reading the best thing that Google+ has going for it is Circles.

What are Circles?

I’ll tell you what Circles are, they’re the ability to quickly and easily filter your posts to selected groups of people. You create distinct circles of friends/coworkers/enemies/relatives, and you get to choose whenever you post something who you get to share with. It all looks effortless, and from the videos and first impressions the UI for this is actually quite neat.

In addition to Circles, Google+ also has group chat features, video chat features, and Sparks, which attempts to analyze every fiber of your being in order to deliver content that you would be interested in.

I’m curious as to whether Sparks is how Google is planning on making money with this social network. Giving you an endless list of paid sponsors that you’re probably actually going to be interested in seems very lucrative. I’m sure there will also be advertisements, but the idea of integrating a system of making money that actually benefits both the user of the system and the sponsor of the system is exactly what Google does best. Or did best when they started Google.

These aren’t the only features of Google+ and they all look moderately exciting, but I’m mostly excited to get in so I can analyze what it actually does, rather than what it’s supposed to do. Facebook certainly has a monopoly, and many users of computers aren’t necessarily going to be eager to jump ship. Just like Microsoft is able to desperately cling to life thanks to those that are used to the system, I’d imagine that even if Google+ does provide a superior experience, it’s going to be an uphill battle getting people convinced to abandon all their friends on Facebook for the potential of having a better experience with all their friends if they decide to go over to Google+. And will it be worth it for people to juggle two primary social networks in the meantime? Only time will tell.

I also know I’ve already complained about the fact that people are not allowed in right now several times, but I want to elaborate a bit further on that. I’m not a Google executive, so I have no idea whether they have legitimate capacity concerns for the Google+ rollout but considering their massive data centers I would wager that they could manage an open invitation policy if they chose too. Instead I think that they are trying to play off the success that Facebook and indeed Google (GMail) had in the past with using a limited rollout to generate feelings of exclusivity in order to make people want to be involved. It’s working, to a limited degree, but I think they’re playing a dangerous game. Google+ is close enough to Facebook that if they’re too slow rolling out invitations, than people will lose interest, and if they’re too fast with rolling out invitations… people will lose interest.

It’s tricky, but I do know one thing for certain, when you have people that actually start to use your service, and want to bring their friends onboard the process needs to be understandable, and it needs to work. It doesn’t really matter if you can have circles of friends if the friends you invited can’t get even into the party.

I rate Google+ (with the possiblity of revision later on, once I get access)

3 out of 5 Internet Startups

NimbleBit, the company responsible for the insanely addicting game Pocket Frogs, has come out with another, you guessed it: insanely addicting game. The name? Tiny Tower. The game? Build a Tiny Tower. While not as in depth as Sim Tower, there’s always something to do!

• You can shuffle around tenants so they can work the jobs that are best for them, (or if you so choose, evict them if they aren’t up to snuff, like I do) So basically you can run your tower like a big happy hippy ville, or like Soviet Russia!

• You can operate the elevator carting little Blitzens (that’s what the people are called) to their desired floors in exchange for tips!

• You can stock the commercial parts of your tower with different products!

• You can repaint each floor, and restyle each Blitzen!

• You can spend coins to add floors and stock items, tower bucks to speed up progress or for coins, and real bucks for tower bucks so you can go broke and starve in an alley!

The game also runs in real time so a lot of what you’ll do in Tiny Tower is jumping in to manage a couple of important items before going back to whatever you were doing in real life. And it supports push notifications so you can be alerted right when something needs your attention.

All in all it’s a lot of fun, it’s got a great graphical style (if you like the retro look) and it’s free in the app store. Being a freemium game (a free game that tries to entice you to buy things later) there are certainly plenty of opportunities where you’ll be enticed to spend real dollars on fake dollars, but if you are strong-willed and patient enough to avoid that impulse, you don’t really lose any aspect of the game by not investing money. Real money only speeds things up. The game will occasionally make you wait for things that you are excited for (like to see what the new floor your constructing will contain, you can choose general categories, but not specific floor types.) But it’s hard not to recommend picking it up, it doesn’t cost a thing to try, and if you’re patient it doesn’t cost you a thing to use indefinitely. If you’re an iPhone or iPad user I think it’s worth a download.

I rate it:

4 out of 5 Freemium Titles