Eric J. Korpela @SETIEric@qoto.org

It may be raining, but boxes still exist. #caturday

It's a rainy #caturday. Joker says that should never happen. Riddler says it won't affect her nap schedule.

Riddler is depressed this #caturday. Her preferred afternoon room is off limits for preparations for tomorrow. Only belly rubs will improve her mood. (reposting because of missing alt text.)

It's December 23rd. Tonight we will be visited by the Ghost of #Festivus Past.

Here are some pages from the 1966 Herter's catalog. Herter's was a mail order only equivalent of Bass Pro Shops. In fact in 1981 the remnants were bought by Cabela's and is in some small part in the Bass Pro Shops family. For people interested in converting, a 1966 dollar is $9.20 in current dollars.

#throwbackthursday #herters #cabelas #bassproshops

It's December 21st, the winter solstice, and as fulfilment of my obligations as an astronomer under the Retrograde Mars Treaty of 1821, I must post a picture of an #analemma or the sun rising over a calendar circle to mark the #solstice.

The photo was taken in 1998-99 by Jack Fishburn at Bell Labs and is available under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)

It's December 19th, and that means it's time for the ceremonial posting of the #trekmastree picture.

This year's acquisitions include #Sulu, #SevenOfNine, and a #BorgCube. #trekmas

I guess #Musk really does have assassination concerns. I wouldn't want #MBS or #Kushner to know where I am.

So what happened to them since 2016. Well, even after getting them fixed, Joker was still a male. As he aged he started chasing off his sisters, starting with Penguin. One night we decided it was time to get Penguin and Riddler inside for their own protection, but we never saw Penguin again. We heard from the original owner that someone had taken her inside, but we were never able to confirm that. Riddler came inside and because fat and lazy and pampered. We tried to bring Joker in, but it didn't work. It turns out he is a gigolo. He goes by the names Patches, Buddy, Runner, and Bad Boy in addition to Joker. He gets fed 6 times a day as far as we can tell. Because the coyotes have killed all the neighborhood cats in the last few years, we share the task of getting him inside with another neighbor. 5/5
#caturday

We weren't even sure the third cat existed until the day I took the first picture in the thread. We had maybe seen it, but it what very skittish. So before I even was sure she existed, I named her Riddler. 4/
#caturday

Shortly thereafter, this one started following Penguin. I hadn't named Penguin with a Batman these in mind, but given the funny face, Joker seemed appropriate. 3/
#caturday

The first to show up was this one. Because of the the black and white coloring we decided on the name Penguin. 2/
#caturday

Final set of #caturday introductions.

Cats abhor a vacuum, and in 2016 after we brought the late Spawnie indoors, these three happened. It turns out a neighbor though he had spayed all his 28 cats, but one female got missed. Of course, those kitten are going to head out to new territory. 1/

For the record, Operation Ivy also achieved break even, in 1952, and ushered in a world where cheap clean and abundant #fusion energy was only 20 years away.

Some posts do age well.

Random one of Grandpa's #QSL Cards:
Card from 8DNV
1924-12-01 0630 CST (1230 GMT)
9DPR (Superior, WI) <> 8DNV (Cincinnati, OH)

received through interference.

1 step audio frequency amplification.
Low loss circuit.
10 Watt Transmitter.
1.1 amp total current.

Antenna: 4 wire cage 37 ft. long. 42 and 30 ft. high. Counterpoise 7 wire fan 6 ft. above earth.

Note: PSE QSL crd to give me some dope on ur tuner OM. Mine no good. Ur my best DX OM. On a good rec I culd get u QSA.

#ham #hamradio #vintageham
Translations not guaranteed.

With the passing of Spawnie last weekend I've realized I haven't introduced other cats. This weekend I'll introduce Eva (pronounced Ay-va). We met Eva and her sister Zsa-Zsa is a cage full of kittens when we were bringing another cat to the vet. The other three cats in the cage were being adopted by vet techs, so we took Eva and Zsa Zsa. They were inseperable, but Zsa Zsa passed away at age 6 from metastatic Feline Ocular Sarcoma. Eva is 13 now and starting to feel her age. She's probably the smartest cat we've ever had. She opens closets and boxes. The wins the award for most likely to be invisible.

Today on cooking like an Astrophysicist (COVID edition): tuna salad sandwiches with champagne #cocktails.

So you haven't been able to go out for a while and you've got to resort to what's on hand. Tuna sandwiches you probably have made before. The important thing is what to drink. We all know that sparkling wines are the usual pairing with tuna salad sandwiches, but you've got COVID, so you need to pump it up a notch. Go with Champagne cocktails, but not the wimpy modern version that only uses 1/4 ounce of cognac. I'm sure you've got everything you need.

Someone brought a bottle of bubbly last new years eve that you haven't opened. You've got sugar cubes. Nobody has ever lived to finish a box of sugar cubes. You've got a crusty old bottle of Angostura bitters somewhere.

So plop a sugar cube in a glass. Drip bitters on it until it is soaked in brown. Add an ounce of cognac or brandy. Then slowly top the glass with champagne. Optionally add a half orange slice and a maraschino cherry.

Today was Spawnie's last #caturday. He found us in 2008, when he was already about 5. He came in with a colony of ferals, so we assumed he was one of them, until he climbed in Angela's lap one day. We had named all the feral cats "Jordan" because in 2008 that was the unisex parents were using to frequently at the time. We assumed the new cat was a kitten, so we called him "Spawn of Jordan". Spawnie was FIV positive, so we didn't feel we could bring him inside.

Despite being a small cat, Spawnie never punched down. He was famous for chasing raccoons three times his weight out of the yard or forcing them under the deck. We figured that he taught them to fear him when they were young. Squirrels, on the other hand, were not a concern.

We finally let Spawnie move indoors in 2016 because he was getting sick frequently. Spawnie survived a 2 year long stint an insulin dependent diabetic, before getting better suddenly (that happens in cats). Unlike every other adoptee from outside, Spawnie never expressed a desire to go back outside. Luxury and comfort were what he desired. He spent his last days in front of the fire.

I've always been a fan of the #Colecovision version of #DonkeyKong. The reproduced levels were relatively faithful and the control action was good even with the Colecovision mini-joysticks. The Colecovision was essentially the last console system before the dark time... Before the gamepad empire.

Of course I didn't pull out my colecovision for this. I'm playing on RetroArch/blueMSX with a
Hyperkin Trooper 2 Atari style joystick.

#throwbackthursday #joysticksFTW