Getting Meaning From This Cat

OK, I'm back in the house with the animals!  Not babysitting, this time, just hanging out. 

The cat was so happy to reconnect with me!

Communicating with animals—inter-species communication—is an incredibly fascinating thing.  With some sorts of animals, it can be done exactly; you've probably read about the gorilla who learned sign language, and could actually talk to humans.  There are dogs that actually know words, about a hundred or more, and they often know what you want to say before you finish saying something!

Some dogs, I have read, listen intently, their heads tilted to a side—you know, in that listening attitude—and then respond intelligently!

The cat tries to communicate, by blinking ("Hi!"), jumping up on my lap ("I want something!  You have to guess!")  Purring, miaowing, standing in a special place, etc.  The only thing is, she doesn't try very hard.  Dogs won't quit, but the cat quits fairly soon.  It's amazing that it tries at all!

In their own home, the cat is allowed to go out.  If she stands near the door, it means "I want to go out."  If she's doing that, but I don't see it, she just walks off, and does something else.  No wasted effort. 

There's a cat I know, who keeps howling until someone responds.  That's annoying; but that's a very young cat.  This cat (I'm tempted to call her my cat, but she isn't, though) sometimes jumps into my lap.  I say "What do you want?  Go outside?" And she jumps off, and walks to the door.  Then I know: she's wanted to go out, but I wasn't noticing her, so she jumped on my lap, to get my attention!  She hardly ever cries, so she gets my attention by jumping on me, or jumping on the arm of the chair I usually sit on. 

Kay

Plurals

 Most of the time, you just add an 's' at the end.  That's all!  One cashier, two cashiers!

With certain names, you have the option of doing something extra:  'The Joneses have invited us over!'  That's because, the name Jones ends with an 's' anyway, so people have done plurals this way for a long time; and you pronounce it that way, too. 

'Count all the 3s, and ...'   Well, today it's not considered too strange to write 'Count all the 3's, and ...'  Did you notice the apostrophe?  It's not required, but it makes the sentence look a tiny bit less strange.  Same rule applies to sentences about decades.  You are allowed to write 'The 1970's were an ...' whatever. 

New Pair of Words to Not Confuse Under ANY Circumstances

I recently read a really sweet story about a newborn calf that had disappeared from a pasture.  The title said that its mother cow had been 'balling' furiously for hours, or days, or whatever.  (The little guy had fallen through a sinkhole, and was later rescued.)

As it happens,'Balling' is a word that means screwing, having sex!

Clearly, this poor mother cow was not enjoying herself; the intended word has to have been 'Bawling,' crying for the missing calf.  Mothers are usually like that.  Also, as it happens, she was trying to show the farmer exactly where the calf had disappeared. 

I'm guessing that the confusion arose from a combination of Voice-To-Text software, and an AI routine that was obviously trying its best.  If you use V-T-T, check your text carefully. 

Checking In

Well, I haven't written about the Deviant Art site for quite a while.  I have sort of concluded that, well, I had expected whoever managed the site to be a human, but it seems it's just a robot, or, as they are called, AI.  My incoming stream is pure clickbait.  AIs are good at generating clickbait; in fact any idiot can generate clickbait; all you need is a record of what sort of things member x has 'liked', for each member of the site.  Then, they show you only that sort of stuff.

All the sites do it; I was just slow on the uptake.  You guys must have been chuckling to yourselves.

In fact, I was frustrated because all the girls were looking similar to each other.  Well, duh.  The site itself probably has a fake AI 'member' who simply generates images based on the girls each member 'likes', using AI, of course, and does this for (with) every member.  It's quite possible that there are more of these AI members than real members.

And now, members use AI almost totally.  It's so easy, especially for kids who like to look at girls, more than create pretty girls from scratch.

I'm not dissing on (real) members who have complex ideas to make images, and use an AI to realize (that is, make them come true) what's in their minds.  That's what art should be, especially fantasy art.  But some Real Members then proceed to dump a million versions of their idea on the website, which cheapens the whole thing. 

Some RMs—as I've written before—are a little weak in the head.  They are so eager to upload their fantasy creation, that they forget details such as: anachronism (clothes or accessories that are the wrong style for a period image; such as a metal sword for a stone - age character).  Or blowsy hair for girl engaged in a fight.  If anyone of you are women, getting ready to fight, tie your hair back.  You don't want your hair getting in your eyes while fighting.  Trust me: you don't fight to look cute; you fight to win, assuming you're fighting seriously. 

BTW, the little cat that figures in my posts sometime, has taken quite a proprietary attitude towards me!  She gets irritated when I don't pet her long enough, and taps me with her paw, sometimes with the claws out.  You can just imagine my attitude to that. 

Kay.

Cruelty or Tough Love?

I think I've figured out the rationale for some of the things that the administration is doing, that seem incomprehensible to ordinary folks. 

A lot of what the government does is: cover up for the carelessness, or absent - mindedness, or obliviousness of people.  For instance—and I'm not sure whether this particular offense is one that they have targeted: lots of people forget to do something by a deadline.  Pay your taxes, get your car inspected, etc.

A kinder, gentler bureaucracy often softens the blow of a harsh penalty by either giving warnings, or making the punishment proportional to the lateness.  Though the people are grateful for these (old time) leniencies, they don't realize that it is expensive.  There is often additional staff to handle the processing, and checking the conditions for the leniency.  They need to be paid.  They need to be supervised.  And people have to deal with the paychecks and benefits of that extra staff, which—knowing how bureaucracy operates—requires yet more staff.  

Musk probably thinks that 90% of the Washington bureaucracy is for the purpose of determining who the shysters are.  Instead, Musk probably thinks, let's slap the fines on anyone who appears to be out of compliance, and let the person assessed for the fine, deal with convincing us about deserving leniency, instead of us proactively being lenient.  This is a sort of 'Kill them all, and let the gods decide the innocent' approach.

This attitude is sure to be seen as harsh by practically everyone.  We can all sympathize, having been in the position of forgetting to do something, or do it on time.  (Caused by the multitude of stupid things that everyone has to do, which makes it impossible to remember all of them.  Register to vote.  Fight the crowds at the polls.  Remember who to vote for, because not every candidate is marked so that we can tell whom to vote for, etc etc.  To make it worse, a lot of judges are on both the Democrat and the GOP ticket.)

So as time goes by, the bureaucracy gets bigger and bigger, as the government makes it easier and easier for people to do their duty.  "In the old xxx days," Musk must have said, "we just beheaded people for not having gotten the safety inspection on their chariots.  In this society, we let them off easy, and give them a lollipop if they pay their fees on time!  We treat adults like babies."

And of course, similar hostility towards education.  What about the poor deserving souls, who can't do their homework because of their heel spurs?  Well, off with their heads.  (And we impound their Mustangs.)

Of course, all this has to be explained to the representatives of the MAGA crowd in the House and the Senate, who are (of course) pea brains, who possibly bribed their way through law school (though some Democrats probably did that too, like this Menendez guy, who took bribes from Egypt).  So it's all stated in terms that are common in MAGA circles, in terms of huge lies that people tell, and Social Security checks being paid for dead people, etc etc.

Meanwhile, there is a huge amount of waste in the armed forces and the Pentagon.  It remains to be seen whether Musk's horde of hackers have the guts to walk in there, and demand to inspect their receipts.  Their budget—unaudited for absolutely decades—is unbelievably enormous; so one estimates that the waste is, proportionally, enormous.

My savings are invested in stocks, because the pitiful interest that banks pay for savings can't keep up with inflation.  So I'm not at all happy with how things are going.  I don't support Hamas, but I support Netanyahu still less, so that's pretty bad anyway you look at it. 

Kay.

This Crazy Affectionate Cat!

I did another—brief—stint as a cat sitter. 

Honestly, this kitten loves me far too much!  I was seated in a nice comfy chair with my glasses on.  She hopped up on my lap, gazed into my eyes, purred, and proceeded to lick my lenses!  My glasses weren't too clean after that. 

K

Setting Teslas on Fire? Why?

'Liberals', and those opposing Musk—which is almost everyone I know—are naturally eager to ruin the Tesla brand, which they hope will be detrimental to Musk.  I hope so, too; I used to suspect that there was a lot of unnecessary bureaucracy in Washington D.C. that kept track of whether various tiny laws were being respected.  But the high-handed way Musk has been shutting down agencies such as USAid has got a lot of people angry, including—let's be honest—me.  If there were a Tesla dealership in our town, I would picket against it (if picket is the right word).

But some of these anti-Maga jokers are shooting at Teslas, and setting fire to them!  What's the idea?

If you picket the dealership, and carry anti-Tesla signs, that makes sense; Musk has been demonstrably against the common people, particularly poor people.  But attacking Tesla cars, owned by ordinary people, is a blow against people who have very little to do with Tesla.  They've already paid their money, and now destroying their cars does not hurt Musk at all!  It certainly conveys their rage.  But it looks a lot more like just giving these people—the shooters—the thrill of using their guns, and their gasoline!

No; focus on the Tesla dealerships, and supporting the Federal agency heads who are suing DOGE and Tesla in court.

Kay.