I Think It Was a Cabbage

It's day 20 of Thingadailies!

First, some silliness

My Mastodon feed is 80% cat pictures, but of the text, a significant portion is in Spanish (a language I'd like to speak) or German (a language I spoke 37 years ago and would like to refresh). Occasionally, other things get boosted onto my feed by people I follow.

(Mastodon has no algorithm — it shows you exactly what you asked to see, in chronological order, which seems like it shouldn't be as innovative as it apparently is.)

Today, I saw a post in French with a picture of bird legs coming out of a hole in a metal sheet. I was curious, so I clicked on the handy LibreTranslate link, and it included this section:

Original: 

Elle était trapue avec une tête ronde donc je pense que c'était une chouette, je sais pas si quelqu'un qui s'y connait en rapaces aurait une idée plus précise ?

Translation:

She was a trap with a round head so I think it was a cabbage, I don't know if anyone who knows about it in raptors would have a more accurate idea?

That's just a great sentence. She was a trap with a round head so I think it was a cabbage! That image will set your mind free.

(In case you're curious, it was a tawny owl.)

Foster news

Lucy is doing great. Nova is doing well except for her poopiness, which led to both Nova and Lucy getting bathed this morning. I did one load of laundry today and I'll probably run another in the morning.

Lulu climbed or jumped up on the couch today. Amazing girl!

Gnocchi continues to have a bald spot. It really doesn't look like ringworm — maybe she had a mosquito bite? Why couldn't this have happened two weeks ago? Oh well.

AITA for refusing to give up my job at a vampire club?

Geography

It's day 19 of Thingadailies! That means we have less than ten left. Woohoo!

As usual with the foster duties, there was a plan and then the plan changed. (That isn't a criticism of any shelter employee — there are a zillion things happening every day and plans need to be flexible.)

Nova's spay incision didn't need surgery, so she was ready to come home earlier than originally stated. So I dropped off Lulu along with enough meds to get her to Saturday afternoon, which was when I was supposed to pick her up. But that turned into Sunday afternoon, which was okay because they had enough of her drugs at the shelter. But then, someone decided that Lulu actually didn't need x-rays after all (which was kind of what I was hinting at yesterday when I sent video of her playing), so I drove back and picked her up again.

To recap: Gnocchi is here, Lulu is here, and Nova and Lucy are together again. (Also, Gnocchi has a bald spot on her forehead and it looks more like she scraped her head on something and not ringworm, but I will lose my mind if I'm wrong. I'm not sure how she would have picked up ringworm in the past six weeks though, so I'm thinking good thoughts and moving on with my life.)

Today I realized something about screen geography on YouTube shorts: The bottom 15% of the screen is covered by the video title/description and the controls, so if you put a title down there, it's impossible to read. Did I go back and fix it and re-upload? No, I did not. That's a lesson for future Theresa.

Anyhow, yes, it's another AITA Floodmouth Edition.

Now it's time to finish up my newsletter!

Just Keep Swimming

Welcome to day 18 of Thingadailies!

Yes, it's time for another episode of AITA, because this is quick and easy (the questions have already been written) and I haven't had the time to mess around with covers again.

Apparently I shall just keep banging my head against this until I improve.

But first, foster updates!

Gnocchi is still in my office and you can hear her purring as I was reading the AITA question.

Lulu is doing really well. She goes back to the shelter tomorrow for a couple days for x-rays that they scheduled last week. (The shelter can't take x-rays, so Lulu will be going home with a vet tech on Thursday evening, going with the tech to her other job where the x-rays will be taken, and then come back to the shelter on Saturday at which point I will pick her up again. Lots of traveling.)

Only one of the new foster kittens (Lucy) came home with me today. The other kitten (Nova) was spayed yesterday and her incision didn't look great today, so they are going to fix that tomorrow and I'll pick her up in the afternoon. In the meantime, poor Lucy has spent most of the afternoon crying because she's never been alone before.

And now onto the video!

(Once again, the foster kitten is the star of the show.)

Tada!

Welcome to day 17 of Thingadailies.

I'm tempted to say that these videos will continue until I'm comfortable speaking on camera, but clearly that is not on the horizon and I don't really want to extend Thingadailies into next year. Maybe I should write out a script or something. I don't know.

Anyhow, my breakthrough of the day was adding an image of my book in the editing stage. So now I don't have to hold it up and actually get it on screen. Progress!

Lulu is obviously the star of the show.

Now that Lulu is in the spare room, I took the time today to disinfect the bathroom where she'd been staying previously because... two more teenage cats are supposed to show up tomorrow! They just need to fix their GI issues and then they'll be off for adoption.

(I didn't take the 1-day-old kittens in terrible shape — I don't have an incubator, so other fosters are better equipped to give those guys the best shot at survival.)

Comfortable

Welcome back to day 16 of Thingadailies!

Today I did another AITA episode. Production went faster this time because things always go faster the second time. Someday I will be comfortable talking on camera, but today was not that day.

The good news is that Lulu looks really good. She moved into the larger room today, so she has more room to move around and play.

Tomorrow may be another short like today, or I might get back to book covers. We shall see!

Shorts

Welcome to day 15 of Thingadailies!

My goal today was to figure out how to create a YouTube short — without having to install an app on my phone. Luckily, it wasn't hard. You just need two things: the video has to be vertical (not landscape), and it has to be under three minutes.

The Mighty Gnocchi helped me out and we managed to produce a short. As always, there was a learning curve, and I had to do a couple things twice, but the whole thing is less than three minutes, so it still didn't take terribly long.

Do I want to become a YouTube star? Absolutely not. (Unless it will sell a bunch of books — then maybe, but there are easier ways to market.) I am trying to get a little more comfortable on camera. (Amazing lack of eye contact, T!)

Anyhow, enjoy.

Lulu is doing well, and I'm actually going to go clean the spare room (which has ear cleaner all over the walls from when Mister was there) so she can move into a bigger space.

Click!

Welcome to day 14 of Thingadailies!

Remember back on day 2 when I created a video that was definitely not going to convince anyone to adopt my foster cat Gnocchi? Back then I said I'd create a real Gnocchi video someday.

Today is that day. Gnocchi currently has three tricks (touch, kennel, and sit). During my first attempt at filming, I screwed up and filmed all the spaces in between when I wanted to film. Yeah, one of us in this video is competent, and it ain't me.

Therefore, much of this footage is the second time I was asking Gnocchi to do these things within 15 minutes. Luckily, she really likes treats.

She has potential adopters coming to see her next weekend. Fingers crossed that works out!