Via dmiessler.com

I want Zoe!!!! Ohhh how I miss my loveables!

Pallas' Cat (Otocolobus manul), also known as the Manul, is a small wild cat of Central Asia. It is about the size of a House Cat, at 60 cm (24 in) long, not including its 25 cm (10 in) tail, and an average weight of 3.6 kg (8 lbs). Its fur is ochre in color with vertical bars, which are sometimes not visible due to the thick fur. (Wikipedia article)

Brief blogging pause for the Valentine’s Day weekend break. Went to Luxembourg to visit the miss and relax a bit, before another burst of work and study. I'm now also expanding my mobile working horizons to work from different countries etc. The only drawback is that I have to carry Madot around and he's not exactly the most mobile of laptops. I didn't foresee that I was going to travel with him much, otherwise I would have got a lighter laptop. I know this is cruel and heartless but if anybody is interested in buying him off me, I'll give you a good price (Specs).

This week there's no "in the inbox quotes" section but today I got this pic in a mail. Not difficult to guess who sent it (cats + food). Too good not to share.

If you've ever kept a cat you're going to identify with these very witty cartoons on the Hallmarks of felinity

I know Halloween was yesterday but I think that I'm still in topic. Check out this pumpkin cat and his friends at this cat picture site.

If you're still in the mood for some horror stories, check out this list 20 classic spooky stories compiled by one of my favourite bloggers, Matthew Baldwin from defective yeti.

Found through Funniest Stuff on the net

Check out the cats that look like Hitler site for a good cat laugh.

Seems that some cats do really look like Hitler.

This cat thing is becoming a bit of a paranoia. I'm seeing cats all around me from featured animals on the animal of the day site to firefox theme, to my inbox. In the last weeks there were two uncommon cats featured on the AOTD site, the Andean Mountain Cat (Leopardus jacobitus) and the Palla's cat.

Then yesterday I found this firefox theme (a way to customise the look and feel of your web browser). I think this theme is so cool that it might even appeal to non cat lovers. What's more is that it's very useable. I particularly like the cat bouncing the world globe on the top right when a page is loading.

Last but not least, extreme cat lovers might want to read this article about how researchers found that cats cannot taste sweets. Thanks to Melissa for this who sent me the link by mail ... at least somebody is reading the blog :))

I am a cat and as yet I have no name". A perfect sentence to start the chronicle of an unwanted kitten narrating his life in the household of a Japanese teacher in the Meiji Era (early 1900’s). I am a cat by Soseki Natusme is a humorous satire on the upper middle class, academics and aesthetes. The text originally appeared as a series of 10 articles in a Japanese magazine, and the book is a collection of these articles divided in 3 parts.

The observations on humans and their peculiarities as seen by a cat make this book very humours. If you own a cat you’ll appreciate how the cat describes his superiority to mere humans. The importance of sleep, scratching, and the overall owning of the place are just some of the opinions this highly observant cat has to offer. The flowery language the cat uses in his descriptions and the archaic and bombastic tones in the conversations between people are one of the most pleasant aspects of the book.

I found the first two sections of the book to be very enjoyable, however in the last part I admit that I lost my interest and started skipping some conversations between the main characters. They seemed to become quite long winded and uninteresting towards the end as well as a bit inconclusive.

Even though the book was written in the early 1900 in Japan, and classified as literature, I found the book easy to follow and enjoyable. I highly recommend the book to any cat lover or cat owner. However if you’re totally indifferent to cats, academic snobs, and character based books I don’t think this book has much to offer for you. 4/5 stars.

Today I received my first birthday present, 3 days in advance. It definitely helped start the day on the right foot and with a smile especially when I saw the card with the cat fish. To celebrate the postcard I've added a cats category to the blog.

Got three CDs of bands I’ve been listening to a lot recently. Pain – Dancing with the dead, Finntroll – Ur Jordens Djup and Ajattara – Tyhjyys. Great stuff and most welcoming. The Finnish theme of the bands gives off the sender doesn’t it. Thanks!

I think I'd better start a new category called "Cat News" with all this cat news being published. Today BBC published a story about how cops are being punished in Thailand - ridiculing them by making them wear a bright pink Hello Kitty armband.

While talking about cats, I'll put up a pic of my lovable Krupel playing with my bag last Friday.

By now probably everybody knows about Oscar the cat, the cat able to predict deaths. If you don't check out his story here at CNN. Being the cat lover I am, the reason I haven't blogged about this before is that every other blog mentioned Oscar's story. Well now I found a good reason to blog it cause I found a hilarious post by Miss Cellania called the LOLcat of death at Mental Floss with a set of parodies on Oscar.

Some of the pictures are from the great I can has Cheezburger site. This features funny pictures of cats and adds even funnier captions to describe the picture. An absolute must for any cat lover.

Murphy's law for antigravitatory cats

One of the nomiated top 10 articles of 2006. very funny.

A periodic table of visualisation methods

An example of many information visualistation methods (charts, mind maps, timelines, parameter ruler ...) displayed in a periodic table.

Surreal art collection

Some great art work around here. Check out Mark Ryden

Crocodile in Gambia

Great desktop photo. You can even make the croc eat some shortcuts.

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An image to celebrate the birth of my 5 little black perls. I've got 11 cats and kittens now - enough for a soccer team.