Cat Talk
Hey everybody, hope your 2025 is going well. Things have been busy here. In good news, we decided to take in a stray kitty we found going through our trash in the cold. My wife named him Hobbes, we took him to get neutered/microchipped, and he’s already done wearing his cone.
He’s a sweet little man who is fitting into the household nicely. He’s already getting playful with Tifa. Hope, being the smallest, is voicing her opinions, but thus far there’s been no fighting. Having to say goodbye to Ed was rough on all of us. We obviously weren’t looking to replace him, but everyone agreed it was getting way too cold to let Hobbes stay outside. He was very friendly once we gave him food and, though we couldn’t find anybody looking for him, he’s clearly been a pet.
When Charity passed away in 2006 it took me a full year to even start looking for another cat. (We grew up together and I didn’t want somebody new living in her shadow) Then in 2008 I found Hope at a shelter. As another Lynx Point Siamese she reminded me of a friend. When they asked if I wanted to hold her, that was it, get her things because she was coming home with me. There’s similarities to Charity that bring back good memories, but she very much has her own personality we all love her for. Hobbes doesn’t look like Ed but he does things that makes us think they somehow had a talk before we met.
I’ve actually been trying to work out my feelings in a short film I’m titling Edmund in honor of Ed. It’s the most personal project I’ve ever started. I don’t want to share too much about it right now, though I will say putting it into a story is helping with closure.
When It’s Cold Outside
As for bad news, we had a few days where the furnace quit working and had to get it replaced. January in Canada is not a time and place you want to be without proper heating.
Fortunately that’s been resolved. There was a whole ordeal where one of the motors was whining and we assumed that was the problem. First repair crew checked that out, got it running and left, then an hour later we still didn’t have heat. Another person showed up, told us it was actually another motor that had gone out. Next day our landlord had someone else come in to give a second opinion and list options. They booked an appointment, took the old one out, brought in the new one and hooked it up.
Online Situations
Lately I’ve been thinking about the internet and the places we all hang our hats. Social media has its moments but the platforms are largely dumpster fires.
The recent situation with the US ban on TikTok has me considering how much we depend on these apps that can either turn to crap or be shut down on somebody else’s whim. I remember in the early aughts when forums and community sites would disappear, the groups on them scattering onto the next host to find each other. I mostly hung in webcomic circles then so it was buzzComix, ComicSpace, the Blank Label Comics Forum, etc. – which was fortunate compared to the losses of CG Hub.
This blog is of course my own to maintain but hasn’t felt like it for a while. I think it circles back to the standardization of the web and stuff not being as fun or exciting anymore. (When WordPress started picking up steam and ComicPress launched it seemed like an improved way to handle archives. Now it powers 43.6% of the web and is embroiled in copyright drama.) Obviously sites need to be secure and functional but consider what we’ve lost. The death of Flash and the unfulfilled promises of HTML5. Elon Musk buying and ruining Twitter. Meta giving up fact checking on US Facebook and Instagram. Zuckerberg blew probably $50 billion trying to make the Metaverse happen.
The entire concept of Web 3.0 is little more than tech bro Silicon Valley grifting garbage. First it was Blockchain, then it was Cryptocurrency, then Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). At the moment the latest hot button topic is Artificial Intelligence (AI). It’s actually a collection of different technologies being developed, but for simplicity, let’s focus on the speculation bubble and the reckless disruption for the sake of being cutting edge.
Final Thoughts
I’m obviously going to share my work where viewers are while blogging here, though I think it’s important to build something myself outside of the restraining environment we find ourselves in today. I want to think there’s more to be had than what’re being offered. I miss having fun making things. Moreover I miss there being fun stuff out there that’s different and unique.