Things are ever so slowly progressing with the kits. The brave little black kit (who I think the other feeders have dubbed ‘Panther’) let me PET him while he ate!!

He’s still a little skittish, and if I tried to pet him over his head he’d back off. But if I came from the side he was alright. Okay, so he was totally only allowing such an event to happen there because of the food, but I’m impressed anyway. Allowing a person to touch him is a HUGE step towards tame! It’s important to remember that he’s still a wild wild creature, but I’m stoked that it happened.

The other kits, alas, are still quite skittish and won’t come within a metre or so of me. I’m happy that they are eating, though. They aren’t chubby housecats, but I’m glad they aren’t starving either.

I get such a kick out of being help out my community, and to visibly see the results each week, even if it is such a small little thing that I do. There is something satisfying about being able to help.

Do you help out in your community?

Again (and at the risk of repeating myself), just a Forgotten Felines shout it. If you’re in the Auckland area and you’d like to adopt a kitten, please please please check out the Forgotten Felines website (forgottenfelines.co.nz) for adoptable kittens who need homes.

The Fourth Quarter and I went driving the other day. The kind where one of us goes ‘lets get out of the city’, and we get in the car and go. We didn’t really have a destination in mind when we started (I love these kind of drives), but when maybe an hour out of Auckland we saw a ‘Mt Auckland ->’ sign, we followed it. No questions asked.

It took us up a gravel road, what I think I was actually a logging track. Good for rally driving and views :)

Alas, when we got there we realised that we were (1) ill equipped for an hour and a half tramp (meaning I was in jeans and he was in jandals), (2) we’d timed it all wrong (by the time we’d got back it would be dark, and those ridge tramps aren’t lit by handy street lights) and (3), we’d brought Quinn (and there was a big ‘fuck off dogs’ sign).

So instead we clambered around the wood left by the foresters and enjoyed the sun and more pretty views!

While the day would have been better had it featured a tramp up to Mt Auckland, I think it was still a good day. And now we have a destination for another day where I’m sure we’ll be better prepared :)

Tweenbots, a human-object social experiment of space and interaction by the fabulous Kacie Kinzer is one of those ridiculously cute sociology experiments that make you feel better about the human race.

In short, Kacie sent a small little cardboard robot (who could travel in straight lines unassisted) out into New York with nothing more than a flag which said ‘Help Me!’ and a destination.

Kacie said “The results were unexpected. Over the course of the following months, throughout numerous missions, the Tweenbots were successful in rolling from their start point to their far-away destination assisted only by strangers. Every time the robot got caught under a park bench, ground futilely against a curb, or became trapped in a pothole, some passerby would always rescue it and send it toward its goal. Never once was a Tweenbot lost or damaged. Often, people would ignore the instructions to aim the Tweenbot in the “right” direction, if that direction meant sending the robot into a perilous situation. One man turned the robot back in the direction from which it had just come, saying out loud to the Tweenbot, “You can’t go that way, it’s toward the road.””

Surprisingly, the cute little guy made it to his destination in 42 minutes with 29 interventions from the passing public.

Doesn’t that make you feel all warm and fuzzy? That strangers went out of their way to help a smiling, 10 inch cardboard cutie on its way, with no payment whatsoever? Go them, I say. :)

I’m one of those people who has the start menu at the TOP of the screen. This is usually fine, as all the applications and windows take note of this and open BELOW the taskbar in all very fine displays of usability.

When I first started at work they’d never known anyone to do that. It was wildly commented on when someone tried to use my machine (very much like ‘Ahh! Things are different! Ahh! FAIL AT USING! Why must you be different?!’ This squawk also happens one someone tries to use the ergonomic keyboard I have).

Alas, the frustrating thing is because no one had known anyone like me, the software that we develop always opens at Absolute 0,0. Which meant to use it I had unlock the task bar, minimise, move the software explorer, and then reopen the task bar.

When you running a bajillion different versions at a time having to fiddle with the task bar every five minutes is only a tad annoying (the kind where you develop a weird eye tick, and you want to gnaw on something intangible like the task bar itself).

Today I started testing the new release that’s hopefully going to go live in the next little while, and check it out:

It no longer opens at 0,0! XD!

That the engineers thought about this, and made the little change to better my (and users like me) working day was really a warm fuzzy moment.

Working here? Completely awesome. :)

The Boy’s friend, Steve, set up a facebook group to ‘stop this cycle of internet addiction’ and get people out in the world doing things. In this case, it was an Orienteering mission. Post three photos of yourself doing very specific things.

The April Challenge was thus:

1. Get on up!

(Go to a really high up place and take a photo)

Summit of One Tree Hill, 183 metres above sea level, one of the largest volcanoes in the Auckland Volcanic Field, and a prominent Auckland landmark. Win!

2. The Weirdo in the Warehouse

Go to your local warehouse / DEKA / walmart or the local equivalent and find two items that if purchased together would make the checkout operator think that you’re a total lunatic.

Insect Soil Killer and a salt shaker? A spade and large carpet? Win!

3. Feed some fowls / dine with ducks / break bread with birds

Go to the park and feed some ducks or any other flavour of feathered flocker

Those geese were MOST ferocious! Still, they ate our bread. Win!

Doing this was a pretty fun way to pass a couple of hours, and a good way to encourage people to get out of their houses and DO things. If your keen to join in next month – join the facebook group! :)

It doesn’t matter how old you get, if you go out drinking it’s more than likely that the end of your night will be spent in a Burger King booth where you will partake in the righteous passage of ‘eating away the hangover’.

And we, quite naturally, are super classy like that. :)

I spent my Sunday with The Square eating good food, playing anti-chess, laxing AND swimming at the beach. What better day could be spent?

First The Fourth Quarter collected me from The Boys, and we went to Revel (one of my very favourite cafe’s) where we enjoyed iced chocolates, eggs and anti-chess.

I also encouraged the use of lines on the barrister with the fantastic attitude, but The Fourth Quarter wasn’t having it. He did humour me by listening to my argument with the grace I wish I had. Ah well. From there we went the Third Quarters partners place to admire the purchase of a very fine house and to lounge around outside on the porch on beanbags.

As the day cooled off, we all packed up and went down to the local beach. We are SO lucky to live within ten/fifteen minutes of places like this! The water was a little too cold for my tastes, but The Fourth Quarter was happy to flop around like a fish in the water. :)

It was an epic epic day – the best of its kind really. Good food, good friends, good weather. Gorgeous weather, actually. We definitely tried to make the most of it – I’m hopeful it’ll hold out till the long weekend. Fingers crossed, anyway. :)

So, this chick buys a cd, gets in her car and plays it. Never before has watching someone do this evoked such an sympathetic reaction, for serious. You need to watch this.

The subtitles let you in on what’s going down, and then her expressions explain the rest.

:)