Asa, just thought I would say that I read your blog, becuase unlike alot of the other mozilla blogs yours isn't strictly buisness. You give us Mars, cats, mozilla, humor and more. I'm certainly wiling to sacrifice an "only mozilla content" blog for getting regular entertaining updates. It makes the nuggets of mozilla'ey goodness all that much better.

Thanks!
Anders

NOOOOOOOO, not the CAT pictures...!

;)

Good glory, he looks like he's wrapped around himself in the "inside" one.

I agree with Anders, too - I generally don't read blogs by people who just write about one topic; after all, there's only so much to say on a subject. Gotta mix it up, like a DJ... or something.

I enjoy the Mars posts and the other non-Mozilla related posts. Sometimes distractions are like a breath of fresh air.

In other news, Asa needs to setup categories on his blog to prevent the flames.

I have a cat, its name is Pedro. Recently it has become aware of it own mirror image. Now it tries to scare the cat in the mirror away and it gets really angry. In my house we have 3 doors out of the house with glass all the way down. When Pedro wants to go out he gets upset and want to attack the cat outside (I think he get frustrated since he cant find or smell the cat).
We have talked about renaming him "schizzo cat"..
We will try to cover glass in the door before it gets dark outside so he won't be too stressed. I really do hope that our countermeasures will have effect so we can get Pedro back. :-)

Why is she an indoor cat? If think I was to restrict my cats like that I would not be very popular with them. They like to roam all over the neighborhood.

Robert, I set up categories a long time ago. I categorize all of my posts just in case some day I want to offer category specific feeds (not this day though.)

- A

I am an avid supporter of people that use Blogs to express themselves however they wish.

Post away, and if anybody complains, tell them to journal about it and leave you out of it :D

*hugs*

Asa: You own a Simamese cat of the "old breed style". Today - speaking as a skilled European cat breeder - these cats are called "Thai-Cats". What strikes me as strange regarding this fact is, that Siam is the old name of Thailand, but the cat pedigrees are called viceversa...

Just to round up:
Old "style" Siam cats: Thai cats
New "style" Siam cats: Siam cats

So where is the difference between Old and new (I preffer Thai cats - as I said Ptolemy is).
Siam are very skinny and have a triangular head, when you look from the front. In many cases IMHO they barely look like a cat but mor then a bat... The Thai cats are compact and round in shape, and the head is rounder an much friendlier then the one of a Siam...

Just my 2 cents as a small roundup on Siamese cat breeding... In fact I owned "holy cats of burma". Follow the homepage URL to see some :-). Sorry, but texts are in German!

Cheers,
Chris

Gary, she is an indoor cat with outdoor priveleges :-) She walks with us on a leash and spends afternoons lounging in the garden with us.

The primary reason that she's an indoor cat is that we're selfish and we want her around for 20 years or more and not the average lifespan of outdoor cats, about three years.

"Free-ranging cats in the United States have an average lifespan in the general population of only 3 to 5 years; indoor cats have an average lifespan of 12 years and frequently live longer than 20 years. Car accidents are the biggest killers of free-ranging cats."

We also care a great deal about our wonderful outdoor visitors like the migrating songbirds that occupy many low branches in our persimmon, ginko and apricot trees, and the squirrels that dance along our wood fences.

Restricting a cat that has grown accustomed to roaming can be difficult and I can imagine that they'd be none too thrilled about that. Ptolemy lives a very fulfilling life with lots of variety and plenty of time out of doors and she'd be pretty unhappy if we abandoned her to the cars, raptors, dogs and coyotes.

- A

Gary asked "Why is she an indoor cat? If think I was to restrict my cats like that I would not be very popular with them. They like to roam all over the neighborhood."

I can't speak for Asa, but some cats grow up as indoor cats due to the neighborhood they are in. If you're near lots of traffic, for instance. Or here in Astoria where there are a ton of feral cats just waiting to fight with your pet. Or in Tucson, for instance, where owls with 6 ft wingspans regularly make off with neighborhood cats and small dogs... right out of their owners' backyards.

Chris, thanks for the post. Deanna and I also prefer the old style. They seem more "cat" and less "alien" to us. But I love them all, the Siamese - old and new. I also like the Burmese, and the "in the middle" Tonkinese.

Thanks for introducing me to the Birmans. They are very beautiful as well. I like the white feet :-)

- A

OT, but I'd just like to thank Mozilla Foundation for the two t-shirts I was sent yesterday! I'm not really sure why I was sent them exactly, but all the same, thanks alot!

My mouth started making involuntary fish-like gaping movements when I read "no one cares about your Mars stuff, we're just reading for the Firefox news"! To be honest, while I came here for FF news, I find the Mars stuff more interesting now. I wasn't aware just how well the two Mars rovers have been doing and you provide a very useful service bringing us highlights from the missions!

The cats are cute too :)

Asa, Your blog is the greatest, regardless of whether you write about Firefox, Mars or Cats. It's the number one blog I follow, so keep up the great blogging!

^^ Me says the same.

I don't agree about the "alien" feeling to modern Siameses. My mom had one for eight years, but he was more muscular and compact than the extreme Siam cats. The best thing about Siameses (and Orientals, not sure what they're called in the US) is their communication. They really talk a lot, and with a darker (almost sheep-like) voice compared to other cat breeds who usually sound more like mice (higher pitch). You can actually have a conversation with a Siamese.

I'm not sure if I asked you this before, Asa, but who took that old picture of Ptelomy? It looks like a professional photograph, with the short focus rance and nice lighting.

Asa, cut it out with the Mozilla stuff and the Mars stuff. This is what I want, more cats!!

;-)

P.S.: Tell Ptolemy she's wonderful for me.

I've personally always enjoyed the off-topic posts in your blog. The recent one on Spirit cleaning itself was something I would never have heard about otherwise.

Keep up the great work... :-)

Yours,
Xavier

Very cool Asa. It's awesome how much you love your cats! I had two cats (brother and sister) for their entire lives up until a year ago, they both died within three months of each other.(they were 15 and never spent a day apart until the end) I miss them tremendously, and it really ticks me off to see people mistreating their cats. It's obvious you take good care of your cats. After they died, I got the opportunity to give more cats homes and that's exactly what I did.

At the moment I have my two cats sleeping peacefully on my desk. One where my keyboard goes (I have to put my keyboard on my lap or he'll contribute :) and another on a towel I have next to my monitor... which was supposed to encourage them to stay off my desk but hasn't really worked out that way. :)

David, I knew you'd make it here for this one :D You are of course right, there are all varieties between the two extreme's and the photo you showed me some time back was of a very handsome cat that didn't look too terribly alien :)

You are also completely right about the conversational nature of Siamese. Ptol is a real talker and has a great variety in her volcalizations. We regularly engage in "conversations".

The photo on the left, I took, and the photo on the right, Deanna took. Deanna's the real photographer in the family, but somehow Ptolemy makes anyone with a camera into a professional. She's very photogenic.

- A

Asa, I love your Mars and other non-mozilla posts!

But I could be in the minority here, since people interested in mozilla news seem to be very focused! For example, more than 9 out of 10 people replying to a recent mozillazine poll were more interested in the success of Mozilla than in their presidential candidate.

Maybe your cute cat pictures will increase interest in you mars posts; people will be lured into thinking "firefox and cats" are great, so "mars and more" should be too :-)

Ptol is a total cutey. Keep up the non-Moz posts. I also dig all things Mars and Cats and certainly don't mind the variety.

~ Kevin

P.S. - Lulu is our cutey -- put up this site for my sister/Lulu's former owner to see her after moving to Scotland.