Cat On My Head

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Heart Rejoicing (painting by Jaya)

Monday, June 11, 2007

Well, I've gotten my new computer, and it's great. But for some reason I'm having frequent problems viewing what's on my monitor... It's almost as if something were blocking my view. But what could it be? I've taken a few photos, so you can see what I'm talking about:

Zebbie says: "Monitor? What monitor?"

Zebbie helps me search for my monitor...
"Nope, it's not down there, either."

"Are you sure you really have a monitor??"

Cat Scratch Fever!

Well, of course I could not resist THIS

when I saw it offered as a scratch card...

And guess what...

I won fourteen dollars on it!

Sunday, June 10, 2007

ViralTags Blog Rank Boosting Experiment

I'm In - What About YOU??

First, thanks to Jimmy Huen, over at Founders Cafe, from whom most of this is copied. This is Jimmy's Improvement on the ViraLinks experiment begun by Andy Coates. I'm joining in on this experiment to see how it affects my rankings on things like Google Page Rank and Technorati.

Apologies to non-blogging readers who are not interested in this stuff. We bloggers sometimes obsess about our rankings and ratings. But, for me, the MOST important thing is YOU, my readers! The more the better. If you are a blogger, I hope you'll join in on this experiment, by following the instructions below. If this stuff has no interest for you, just ignore it, because I'll be posting another new post later today that should interest you more!

========= Copy and Paste below this line ==========

Instructions:

Important Update - Please read here!

1.) Copy and paste the matrix of “ViralTags” below courtesy of Founders Cafe .

2.) Substitute the Host Tag and one of the “Viral Tags” in the matrix with your anchor text of choice with your blog’s URL. Please keep anchor text to a max of 3 words (or 4 short words) to keep the matrix size manageable.

3.) When you get a ping back from someone that has your link in one of their “Viral Tags”, practice good karma by copying his/her Host Tag’s anchor text (automatically the associated link will also be copied) and paste it over one of your “Viral Tags” below.

4.) Encourage and invite your readers to do the same and soon this can grow virally.

Host Tag: Cat On My Head

Important: Once I get a ping back from you (I promise to do the best I can), I will add your anchor text and the associated link you designate as “Host Tag” here, replacing one of the “ViralTags” from the matrix above. As more and more bloggers copy and paste this matrix, the more backlinks you will have with your anchor text. If everybody who copies & pastes from your blog does the same, this will spread and soon go viral. So, the sooner you participate, the more links with anchor text you will receive.

****** Important Update (06/10/2007): Hello all, during the past 3 days I have been noticing that some bloggers did not update the “Host Tag” after they copy and paste the Viraltags matrix. If you are one of them, please update the “Host Tag” with the anchor text you want for your blog and its URL.

The main idea of this tagging program is to allow others that got pinged by you to easily go to your site, and copy your updated “Host Tag” anchor text and URL and paste them into their ViralTags matrix. Not everyone will bother to try to let you know to change your Host Tag like I do. I’ve spent some time to notify those that didn’t update, but it can be a hassle. If you follow the instructions listed below exactly, it’ll make everything easier and clearer for everyone. Thanks for your participation! *********

======== Copy and Paste from Above this line ========

So that's it. Let's hope this improves ranks for all who use it- blessings be upon us from the Cyber Gods! Please leave comments here if you have copied from this matrix so that I can add you just in case your ping back didn’t reach me.

Just so we can see how well this experiment works for ME, here are my rather sad rankings as of right now, and I'll update them later to show if the hoped for improvements occur. As I'm posting this, on June 10th, my Google ranking is a whopping 0, and my Technorati ranking is 592,405 with an authority of 9. (For those not familiar with Technorati, you want a lower rank number, and a higher authority. I was at a rank of almost one million and an authority of 6 when I first started paying attention to it a little over a week ago.)

UPDATES:

Aha! Less than 3 hours after I posted this, my Technorati authority has gone up 4 points to 13, and my rank has (FINALLY) gone down under the half million mark, to 419,196.

Hmmmm... a half hour later, my Technorati authority has gone up another point, to 13, but my rank (arggghhh!) has gone in the WRONG direction, worse than when I began this, up to 593,039. Does Technorati disapprove of my using ViralTags to improve rank? Am I being too neurotic about all these numbers?? (That's a hypothetical question, folks, no need for you to answer it!)

And here is how the numbers continued to change over time (remember
you want to see your 'authority' go UP, and your 'rank' go DOWN:

1 day after posting: Technorati authority 31, and Technorati rank 170,318.
2 days after posting: Technorati authority 52, and Technorati rank 137,795.
3 days after posting: Technorati authority 69, and Technorati rank 74,069.
4 days after posting: Technorati authority 82, and Technorati rank 60,055.
6 days after posting: Technorati authority 131, and Technorati rank 42,195.
9 days after posting: Technorati authority 175 , and Technorati rank 26,735.
2 weeks after posting: Technorati authority 206 , and Technorati rank 21,182.
On July 13, 2007: Technorati authority 302 , and Technorati rank 13,633.

Thursday, June 7, 2007

Night Of The Dancing White Buck

In the hills above Santa Fe, the snow was falling in the silence of the moonlit night. I was sitting outside in my hot tub, watching the flakes fall. Down the hill, in town, Reynaldo lay dying.

Our AIDS support group members had been visiting him, even though he'd been unconscious most of the time and none of us knew him. We were able to do some small things for him. We touched him, so he knew he was not alone. His family was on their way to Santa Fe. He was part Apache, and once, when he regained consciousness, he asked us to have a Medicine Man come to him in the hospital. We found a man with sacred knowledge who came from a nearby Pueblo and performed a ceremony to help ease Reynaldo's spirit for the journey he was undertaking. It felt good, and purifying.

I'd planned to go down once more to the hospital later that night, after relaxing a bit in the hot tub. But soon after I'd gotten in, I had a strong urge to get to the hospital RIGHT AWAY. I was about to get up, when I noticed a movement in the piñon and juniper trees that surrounded the little clearing the hot tub was in.

As I watched in silent amazement, a large white deer stepped out into the clearing, clearly visible in the moonlight, even through the falling snow. He paused, turned his head towards me, and seemed to look directly into my eyes. Then, he began to DANCE. He lept, and twirled, and pranced with obvious joy. And then he vanished, leaving me staring out through the snow to the empty space where he had been.

Mystified, I climbed out of the hot tub, pulled on my clothes, and drove down into town to the hospital. It took me right around 20 minutes to get there. When I arrived, several members of the support team were outside the hospital. They told me Reynaldo had passed over. I asked how long ago he had died, and they told me it was just 20 minutes earlier. Then I understood, and I knew that Reynaldo had found great freedom and exhilaration in his release from human form, and I knew that the vision of the white buck was his parting gift to me.

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Mr. Lee's CatCam

I just discovered CatCam, by reading about it over on Curious Cat, a Science and Engineering Blog, and it has made me very happy. If you are a cat nut, you need to check this out for yourself, over on the CatCam page. What is CatCam, you ask? Well, it all begins with a cat named Mr. Lee. His human, Juergen Perthold, became curious about what Mr. Lee was up to when he went off for his outings in the neighborhood. He (the human) came up with the clever idea to hook up a camera to Mr. Lee's collar, programmed to snap a photo every 3 minutes. Now he has set up a website, explaining exactly how he did it. Even better, there are CatCam photos on display. Here is Mr. Lee (who looks a lot like my childhood kitty, Schultzie), wearing his CatCam:

The photos themselves are fascinating! There are numerous other cats that Mr. Lee visits who get photographed. Who are they? What is the nature of their relationship with Mr. Lee? There is an amazing bright blue snake Mr. Lee photographs in the woods. I'm now wondering if I could get any of my cats to wear a CatCam, so I can find out about their secret lives. Kudos to Mr. Lee's human for creating the CatCam, and putting the results online for all of us to enjoy! Again, to see this for yourself, head on over to the CatCam page.

Monday, June 4, 2007

Dangerous (poem)

Dangerous,

the hidden rocks,

lying rough

below the surface.

Still I dive,

deep and deep,

Scraping tender flesh

across the unforgiving rocks.

Blood in the water.

Mine, or yours?

Deep and deep,

whose pain is this?

The poem above was written a few years ago, thinking about a childhood summer spent at a camp on Lake Champlain. We spent a lot of time swimming, and there were large rocks hidden beneath the surface of the water. Until you memorized where they were, you had to swim underwater to see them in advance, and avoid crashing into them. They scared me a bit, although I liked climbing up onto them and being able to sit or stand high up in the middle of deep water.

Remembering these rocks, I thought how they could stand as symbols of the hidden emotional triggers we can crash into within ourselves, especially if that territory is yet unexplored. And those crashes do create the experience of pain. And yet, how often when we feel discomfort or misery, and assume it is ours, is it actually not ours at all, but the pain of another we are tuning into, or the some random suffering floating around in the collective unconscious?