you saw me standing alone

love it. ian mcculloch's version of blue moon for tonite's blue moon. or rather, a luminous pearl moon, high above in the perfectly cloudless night sky.



can't you just imagine echo and the bunnymen's front man serenading you with this song?

a cup o' jo

i don't drink coffee, but i do like this photo mosaic app. its called percolator and it transforms your pictures into dazzling mosaics.

you upload a photo and the percolator will grind the beans, boil the water and percolate an image. then you can further customize it by scrolling through the grind, brew and serve options.

looks like, overall, i prefer my coffee:

grind: fine
brew: rings
serve: black

it sure does makes photos look like art that you can hang on the wall.

here are what the pictures look like before they were perc'd:

*hat tip to kimli for the heads up!

maxed out

well, this is new...

i got a pop-up message on my iphone yesterday, saying that i played all the way up to the highest level there is in zombie swipeout. technically, i can still play to accumulate cash, but having reached level 50, there is no more leveling up at the moment.

wowzers, i made it to the point where the developers are working on expanding the game. i feel like such a social gaming nerd.

the lynch three project

it's here! my birthday gift to sean has finally arrived. (and it only took a few months)

back in april, i donated to a kickstarter project for a david lynch documentary, as sean is a huge fan of his. i made the donation in his name, so not only was he getting the signed and numbered, limited edition lithograph of lynch's abstract self portrait, but he's also getting a DVD copy of the movie when released and his name listed in the end credits.

as a bonus, a high-res downloadable 23" x 33" portrait of david lynch was included. and if the movie gets screened in vancouver next year, we'll be invited to that as well.

although the estimated delivery date kept getting pushed back (david lynch is a busy man, you know), i'm glad it finally arrived safe and sound. and i'm glad that sean loves the present. he went to the framers the very next day! can't wait to see it on the wall.

happy birthday babe.

i can go outside now?

i was in the bathroom, washing up before bed, when all of a sudden, i heard a rustling in the hallway. turns out it was charlie tossing his stuffy, snowy the owl, out of his carrier, so that he could get in it.

well, this confirms that charlie was not put off of going out by jonesy's behaviour.  in fact, it looks like he wants to go see his little buddy again.

our little diva

one of our favourite things lately is going to the park with the kitties. we're trying to take advantage of the limited amount of sunny and warm days before fall hits.

and yes, charlie did venture out of his carrier and onto the blanket a few times...only to be hissed back into place by jonesy. she was not so much upset at being out at the park, but rather, still feeling rather threatened by charlie's presence. all he wanted was to do was go up to jonesy and make friends. 

but she wasn't having any of that.

not a happy camper

don't worry - her bark is worse than her bite. jonesy did not bolt, bite or scratched her humans or charlie. she's just a little diva, who's not used to sharing the spotlight. she showed her displeasure a couple of times by hissing and then something remarkably funny happened when we reassured her. she didn't know quite what to do with herself. 

like the moment a kid stops having a tantrum...

...to take in her surroundings...

...and frozen, wonders what she should do next?

these 3 pictures may look identical, but look closely and you'll see that it's not. this is me taking 3 pictures of jonesy after her hissy fit, one right after the other. the little diva held nearly the same pose for each, looking like a wide-eyed child, dumbstruck, after a tantrum or waking up to new surroundings. and cats are not known to hold a pose, when faced with a camera. 

sean and i couldn't stop laughing at her "my bid for attention has been met, so what now?" look. it was like she forgot why she was mad in the first place.

oh jonesy, we just want you and charlie to be the best of buddies. for how could you not like charlie? he's the sweetest, most affectionate and lovable kitty in the world. and he wants to be your pal.

wanderful

Blindeye | Films - Gypsy & The Cat 'Time to Wander' (Live London Session) from Blindeye Films on Vimeo.

not much summer left, but this song will trick me into thinking differently. the jaunty beat brings to mind visions of road trips, beach days and frolicking in the water. hopefully vancouver will be blessed with a good indian summer this year.

or there's always the option of getting on a plane to a sun drenched destination.

kitty park life

over the weekend, sean and i took the kitties out to the park again. this time, charlie was more curious, even coming out of his carrier to check things out. he still meowed like a firetruck in the car though.

charlie was a lot more brave than jonesy, who still preferred the comfort and security of her carrier. jonesy was a good sport though, lasting longer than the last time we were at the park. however, she's still gets a little insecure when charlie's around and needs lots of cuddles afterwards for reassurance. 

charlie on the other hand, is all zen kitty around her. i think he enjoys being outside in the shade, instead of my hot and humid apartment. it'll be interesting to see if the next time we're at the park, he'll hang out with us on the blanket. my guess is yes.

simply red

continuing my quest to try out different photo apps, here's color accent, a colour swapping tool that lets you highlight up to 9 colours in a photo.

choose your highlight colour(s) and swipe to refine and adjust. 

like any paint program, you have to watch the lines where colours can bleed. as i chose red, in this case, my lips and face with red/pink undertones would come through on the picture. but nothing a broad swipe can't fix.

another thing to be aware of is that in one colour, there can be a few shades found in there. so you have to choose all the shades (be it shadowed or lighted), in order to have total coverage.

for a quick and dirty iphone app, it does what it says and is easy to use. it's also fun to play with, what with the finger swiping motion reminding me of my addiction to zombie swipeout.

the animal museum

strange things are afoot at the....beaty biodiversity museum. who knew that there were so many bizarre and fascinating things hidden at a what feels like deep underground bunker within ubc? the awe-inspiring 26 metre long skeleton of a blue whale, hung in the atrium, does not prepare you for how "dark" the rest of the museum is.

although, not be as grand and well known as the museums of natural history in new york and london, it was a fun and slightly creepy way to spend the afternoon. the 20,000 square feet museum, with its 26 narrow rows of taxidermied and bottled specimens, reminded me of the book stacks found in libraries. sean and i started the zigzag at the cowan tetrapod collection, which contains over 40,000 specimens of mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles.

that was followed by the marine invertebrate collection, the herbarium, the entomological collection, the fish museum, the fossil collection and discovery lab.

but enough chit chat. let's get to the good stuff. disclaimer: you might not want to be eating when viewing these pictures.

reminded me of interpol's cd cover for our love to be admired

little lemur

the creepy wasn't the lying down. it was the cotton eyes.

what lies beneath

watery beasts

suckers

giger-esque creatures

antlers galore

our favourite part of the museum was the taxidermied animals, particularly the horned animals. although sad but yet beautiful in the way it was displayed, these weren't the things that gave me icky shivers. it was all the watery beasts in bottles of formaldehyde. and the skinned crocodile. that one made me yelp. 

although the admission was on the expensive side, it is definitely worth checking out. there is much fascinating and repulsive things to take in. and if biodiversity is not your bag, at least you can escape the summer heat in this concrete underground facility.

the outside world

got bag, will travel!

new purchase alert (sans fluffy white dog). i recently bought the above canvas pet carrier for sean and myself, so we can take the cats out. no paris hilton toy dog purses for us. i've always like soft carriers better than the hard one because i find that holding pets close to your body, when they're in unfamiliar environments, comforts them more. and they're aircraft approved too.

hello world!

well, jonesy's no stranger to being outside, having been to the park on several occasions. charlie, on the other hand, has never been outdoors. so last week, sean and i packed up the kitties and took them to the park. the reason was two-fold: get some sun and get the cats familiar with each other. and since both of them were outside their homes, neither can feel territorial.

how did they fare?

jonesy seemed to like being in the carrier, peering out of the mesh panels, while feeling safe at the same time. charlie, however, was meowing like a little firetruck while we were in the car. he's not big on the car vibrations.

although neither cats ventured out of their carriers, charlie was very chill at the park.

taking it all in

jonesy was too, but we found out that she has a tolerance limit, when it comes to being around another cat. understandably. she is older and we have fawned over her longer. and when she reached that tipping point, she threw a little hissy fit.

with her buddy, snowy

jonesy's 'cut a bitch down' stare

the cats did well overall, considering they were within a foot apart, facing each other. not cat scrapping. no fracas. just a little grumbling from jonesy at the end. charlie noticed but it didn't seem to bother him at all. i think he was just happy to be somewhere new. 

the 4 o'clock doze

so relaxed in fact, that he actually fell asleep, enjoying the late afternoon sun on his fur. 

all in all, an experiment that turned out to be a success. here's to more sunny afternoons outside with the cats.

digital poe

if you're an edgar allan poe fan like i am, and you have an iphone, then you should definitely check out the ipoe collection. the stories included in this interactive app are: the oval portrait, the tell-tale heart, annabel lee and the masque of the red death. it's brilliantly illustrated and the accompanying eerie music and haunting sounds really brings the stories to life. 

my first introduction to poe's work was through vincent price and roger corman movies as a kid. although i loved the gothic-ness of it, it was indeed super creepy. years later, i would come across poe's poetry, namely annabel lee, which became the backbone for tale of a vampire, a movie starring julian sands. *sigh* i remember thinking that julian sands was the cat's meow.

but i digress...

my favourite out of the whole collection had to be the tell-tale heart, a tale of an evil man so consumed with guilt about his crime. 

hopefully this is just volume one and that the app developers, play creatividad, are working on the next edition. crossing my fingers that that one will include fall of the house of usher and the pit and the pendulum!

*hat tip to tris hussey for the heads up!

and the bartender says...

charlie: wanna hear a joke?

me: sure!

charlie: what do you get when you cross an elephant with a cat?

me: i don't know. what?

charlie: a big furry creature that purrs while it sits on your lap and squashes you! hahaha! (falls off big boy bed)

sorry friends. i just couldn't help myself with this picture.

2am cuddle sesh

the tower fan i planted at the foot of the bed temporarily usurped charlie's place on the bed. unfortunately, it's summer and even though it's night time, it occasionally isn't cool enough to sleep at my place. even with just a flat sheet. and since charlie doesn't really care to have wind blown in his face, he tends to sleep on his big boy bed on the other side of the room. or in my walk-in closet at the other end of the apartment.

as a result, our daily cuddle seshes have decreased significantly. but last night at 2am, charlie came to neck cuddle his human. (the fan wasn't on as it was rainy and cool the whole day) i was a happy panda.

sure, i was pinned down for half and hour but i didn't mind one bit.

i want to be a biker girl

long weekend. record breaking hot weekend. and all i want to do is glide in a cool breeze.