Other – Page 2 – Random Geek Child

Solo Shots

Yep, more cat pictures! What can I say? They’re photogenic. These photos were taken in the spring, featuring:

Arwen, sprawled in the bay window and glaring half-heartedly at the camera.

Arwen’s contempt for photography when I could instead be petting her;

Zuko, napping on a fluffy grey blanket with his nose tucked behind one outstretched front paw while his other crosses under his neck to stick out towards the camera.

whatever this nap position of Zuko’s is called;

Diane, lying on the couch and staring in the direction of the camera. Meanwhile, a crocheted Totoro pillow stares into her side.

Diane, by far the most awake and cooperative;

Tortoiseshell paws, tail, and part of June's back stick out from under a purple blanket with gold sun and moon and white star patterns on it. The rest of June is curled up comfortably beneath it, out of sight.

and June’s best impression of the Wicked Witch of the East!

I am delighted to inform you that I’ve spent the week thoroughly distracted by my fiction writing, so your weekly dose of nonfiction will be cat photos, featuring June and her perennial lack of personal space (or interest in it). Enjoy!

June and Diane napping together, heads touching, Diane's paw draped across June's side.

Arwen curled up partially on top of June, sharing a shallow and not all that wide cardboard box. Arwen has her front paws crossed and eyes closed contentedly as June is caught with her tongue out, about to lick Arwen's cheek.

June is laying flopped against the backrest of a comfy chair. Diane is curled up facing the other direction and with most of her upper body on top of June, paw resting between June's back legs and head resting on her paw.

Kitties, Boxes, and Windows

There are some constants in this world. If there’s lightning, there will be thunder. If there’s smoke, there will be fire. And if you have boxes and cats, you will at some point have cats in boxes. We happen to have two shallow boxes that live permanently in our bay window, so the view looks something like this!

June and Arwen in side-by-side boxes, with only a thin lip of cardboard separating their backs. Sunny grass is visible behind them through the window.

There are two boxes in the window, with sunlit grass outside. Zuko is in a box. June is not, instead using the edge of the second box as a pillow, while it lies empty between them.

The grass outside is again sunlit. Inside, the boxes are further apart than in the other two photos, and Arwen lies in one, about to lick her paw. Zuko lies in the other box, paws braced against the edge as though pushing June, who once again lies next to the box rather than in it.

Wandering Flowers

Ok, so the flowers don’t wander, at least these ones don’t. But I do take photos of flowers while I’m out walking, and these ones demanded to be shared. Narcissistic fl– wait, no, that’s daffodils. Pretty flowers, then. They’re pretty.

Three frilly, pale pink flowers bloom on tall stalks above their base plants. Behind them, many pink buds are rising towards the sky, only just starting to open.

A bush, sporting a layered pink flower with little black spots. There are two closed buds within view.

A large flowerpot features several decorative plants, including silver leaves, marigolds, a ruffled yellow flower, and simple five-point flowers in a variety of colors.

Zuko & Company

Exactly what it says on the tin. Zuko hanging out with the other cats… and a bear.

Zuko's grey head and front paws peek out from the fold of a blue curtain, where he's sitting on the bottom edge. He's in a bay window, with two empty cardboard boxes and a container of wheat grass nearer the glass. Further away is Arwen, who's lying on her side with her head up so she can see back behind her, where the camera is.

June and Zuko, both lying on the floor with their heads nearer the camera, stretched out and reaching towards each other with their front paws.

Zuko, on a bench padded by a purple blanket, looming over a plush black bear.

May Flowers

Featuring more of our flower garden! Today we’ve got daylilies, Aussie tulips, and lilacs.

A yellow daylily with some purple petals, the only bloom atop a long stalk. The daylily plant grows within a circle of mulch bordered by bricks.

A pink tulip, whose petals have spiky-looking edges. It sits in a triangular garden bed with encroaching weeds at the edges. Outside the triangle are daylily plants, though none of their flowers are visible.

A lilac bush, with lilacs in full bloom amongst the long, almost hand shovel-shaped leaves.

Recommendation Lists

Has a friend ever recommended something that you thought sounded cool and interesting… and then promptly forgot about? I used to have that problem, and eventually I found a solution: write it down! Whether that was a continuation of my Write It Down principle for story ideas, or inspired by Captain America: The Winter Soldier, in which “I’ll put it on the list” entails an actual list – or, more likely, both – it’s had a major impact on how I approach new content.

With comprehensive lists come a reduced sense of urgency, more (remembered) options at any given time, and, of course, more ways I can organize those options to best suit my needs. To begin with, I split my lists out by those books/shows/etc. that were directly recommended by friends or family, versus content I’d heard about indirectly that I decided might be interesting. That way, when I got around to something a friend recommended, I’d know who to thank and talk about it with.

After a couple years, I realized the lists – especially the indirect one – were getting inconveniently long, and adding items in the order I heard about them wasn’t making it any easier to navigate. So I subcategorized by medium: what to watch, what to read, what to play, etc. And again, it made life so much easier! If I want to look for new shows to watch, I know exactly where to find them. Some already have side notes about which streaming platforms they’re on, or whether they’re available through our library. I put a tiny bit of work in, each time I find something interesting, and it manifests as a massive convenience later. Cool, right?

I think the point, ultimately, is that how we manage life is a constantly evolving process. What worked before might be an obstacle now. The tools you overcame an obstacle with may need to be improved. But if you have the tools to improve your day-to-day, even a little bit… why not use them?