Thanks everyone

Thanks for all the kind comments and understanding about this year’s hiatus. I am especially delighted to hear about the adopted black kitty. Thankfully, I recovered some time ago from my minor surgery and related woes - currently I am just fighting a run-of-the-mill winter cold. As for the computer, it is now in rude health after two weeks in intensive care in the shop. It all started when I decided to add some memory and upgraded my video card in order to speed up Vista. When I got it back from the shop, it would just randomly power off with no warning. I defy anyone to troubleshoot this problem while remaining calm and collected - I developed a phobia about going into my office to see if it was still running. When I took it back, the techies did many hours of testing and found that the motherboard was bad. They replaced it with a new one, put in a new power supply, then also discovered that my hard drive was about to die. So they replaced that as well. Luckily they are the masters of backing up and moving data, so I did not lose much. About the only original hardware left at this point is the case and some memory. I am now running XP again - I don’t know how other people find Vista, but on my setup it was way too slow and unpredictable. I am usually an enthusiastic early adopter, but I’m going to wait awhile before trying it again.

Where is Tate?

Dear friends of Tate and the advent calendars,

I had hoped to do the calendar story again this year, but it’s just not possible for various reasons, including serious computer problems at a critical time. I have sent Tate and Pierre on vacation for some much deserved rest and relaxation - you can see their postcard at catwholaughed.com. I am very sorry to disappoint those who have been counting (so to speak) on the calendar, but I do hope to see you next year! Have a lovely holiday season, and best wishes for 2008.

–Penny

I’m back - and still thinking about LOLCats

www.canhas.com

fun with fonts

This is a tiny sample of my new handwriting font. I’m finding that the kerning aka letter spacing is a bit problematic. In the sample above, I’ve had to move the capital “T” way over toward the “a” using Photoshop for instance, there was too much space around it. This is not really practical for large amounts of text, so I may need a workaround. Ideally I would be able to edit the letters in the font myself - I might look at tools that allow you to scan in your own letters and edit them. This is still pretty cool though. It wasn’t terribly expensive, and is a good start. The hardest part was writing the special characters that I never write - and will probably never use!

New project

The first post of 2007… and my first as a (gasp) 40 year old. This fact really hit home when I was using my 1966 edition of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and realized that the book was 41 years old. Just one year older than me… I’m currently reading a very enjoyable book by Julia Child that I was given for Christmas, My Life in France. It was written with her husband Paul’s grandnephew and published posthumously. She recounts her move, with Paul, to post-WWII France, and her adventures learning to cook French food in Paris. Perhaps the most appealling aspect is the way she clearly found her true calling - once she got started, she pursued this passion with incredible dedication and gusto (as was obvious in her television appearances). Her account of her sister’s take-no-prisoners approach to the French language and Paris traffic is also hysterical.

For those following the calendar saga, I’ll bring you up to date on my latest idea. Before doing this year’s story, I read some of Scott McCloud’s great writing on “comics”, an increasingly varied and evolving storytelling method. I find it quite fascinating - it seems to sit in a space between video, drawing, storytelling and lots of other things that interest me. I know that “comic books” may not appeal to everyone, and I find the term “graphic novel” too precious for words, but I hope you’ll bear with me while I experiment a bit. Currently, I am trying to retell the JT Agapanthus story in comics format - it may be two or possibly three pages. When it’s done, I plan to upload it as a pdf file so people can download it and see what they think. Watch this space.

Oh - and I’m also trying to set up an art gallery in Second Life. More on that later…

Cat Who Laughed logo v2

Cat Who Laughed logo v2
Originally uploaded by bgaloot.

Just a couple changes to the new logo. In the end I decided against incorporating the cat ears, they seemed too pictorial. Better to have Tate in the illustrations I think. Also, I’ve changed the background to a “Tate’s eye” green that looks better on the web. And I’ve removed the black outline (you see one here but that’s just how it appears in the blog). Now to the business of revamping the website…

Cat Who Laughed logo

Cat Who Laughed logo
Originally uploaded by bgaloot.

Here’s the new logo for the catwholaughed.com website. I may tweak it a little bit, but generally I’m pleased with it. Of course Tate had to make an appearance, however abstract.