Random Geek Child

Autumn, The Thrilling Sequel

It’s like fall happens every year? Who knew?! Last year’s pretty leaves can be found here.

A tree with bright orange leaves, in stark contrast to the green behind it and the darker purple-ish to the right. There's a sort of pale blue haze at the top as the clouds try to camouflage into the sky behind them.

A tree with deep purple-red leaves, dark and light greens visible behind it. The clouds in the background are fluffy-looking and wispy, like cotton that's already half pulled apart.

A large pile of apples, featuring a wide variety of colors and sizes.

That last one is the haul from our most recent trip to Kuipers Family Farm!

Window Kitties

June is particularly fond of the dining room window, especially when it’s sunny. Her company varies.

June and Zuko are sitting on a wooden chair in front of a window, through which catnip plants are visible. June is lying in a crescent shape with her paws poking through the vertical slats on the back of the chair; her head is towards the window, but turned to face the camera. Zuko is sitting upright in the little space left for him behind her, watching out the window.

June and Arwen are sitting in the narrow ledge of the open dining room window, a backdrop of catnip plants, cement walkway and grass behind them. June is loafing and watching out the window, while Arwen sits upright behind her, facing the same general direction but with her head tilted up as if to observe the windowpane above her.

June and Arwen are sitting on a wooden chair, with June along the back and Arwen curled up leaning into her. The sun is bright across both of their upper bodies and the catnip outside.

My bizarre Duolingo adventures continue, this time featuring an idiom I didn’t know existed, what I’m hoping is an abnormally high price for toilet paper, and the sort of goofy mistake one makes when you’re taking multiple languages and also it’s three in the morning.

The mission is to "write this in English." The target? "El amor es ciego, pero los vecinos no." The result: "Love is blind, but the neighbors ain't!"

At the top of the page, an orange bar says "12 in a row." Under it are the directions "translate this sentence," and the sentence, "'Umi kālā me kanalima keneka no ka pepa hāleu." The translation, marked correct, says "Ten dollars and fifty cents for the toilet paper."

"Write this in German." The sentence in question is "one apple, please," and the translation I provided is "ein Apfel, por favor!" It is, naturally, marked incorrect. The correct answer listed is "bitte einen Apfel."

Is There A Theme?

Who knows? I certainly don’t. But these are the pictures that jumped so these are the pictures I’m posting. Have a great week!

Two cats curled up on a pale bench; they're at maybe a 45-degree angle from each other, which their faces nearly touching. The cats in question are June, our tortoiseshell, and Arwen, our white and black kitten.

A yellow sunflower with a fly near the base of one of the petals. Behind the flower are many more stalks and leaves of other sunflower plants, blocking the light such that most of the flower is dark, with sunlight only shining through the upper-right and lower-leftmost petals.

There's a seagull walking across a glass roof. On one square panel of the roof, the gull. On the next, the gull's reflection. It walks with purpose, as though it knows where it's going and means to get there expediently.

Strawberries Are For Sharing

I found a friend in our strawberry patch this week!

A small squirrel is perched on a piece of wood that runs the top-left to bottom-right diagonal of the screen, facing the right. To the lower left is the strawberry patch, with some red berries and white flowers peeking through the leaves. To the upper right is grass. The squirrel's tail is almost comically large compared to the rest of its body.

The squirrel is squarely in the middle of the strawberry patch, sniffing at a flower and berry right in front of its nose. Its head, part of its body and some of the fluff of its tail are visible through the leaves in front of it, with other berries and white flowers appearing sporadically in the background.

Only the squirrel's head is visible, poking up through the leaves of the strawberry patch. It appears to be staring directly at the camera, which is level with its head.

Behold The Spoiled Children

Featuring Zuko and Arwen! (Zuko continues to be the grey one, Arwen is still white and black.)

Zuko, sitting on a dark grey-beige rug with his paws stretched before him in what would best be described as Child's Pose. He's near the edge of the rug, so the paler wooden floor is visible to the left and bottom of the picture, as well as the corner of a dark wooden shelving unit.

Arwen is curled up on a raised platform, with a paw over her tail and her nose nestled between paw and tail's tip.

Zuko is lying on his side on a raised platform, paws clutching a fluffy brown and white toy as he bites it. There's a "Cat Crossing" sign visible on the wall behind him.

Mushrooms

Apparently it’s that time of year again, when the shrooms magically appear in your lawn overnight. Here are some of my favorites!

A white-ish mushroom photographed from above, with grown in the center of the cap and a roundish shape featuring multiple sharp indents. Parts of smaller fellows are visible through the nicks and at the right edge, and to their right is a line of green-tinted bricks.

The most square mushroom I have ever seen. It's trying so hard to be a rectangle. Featuring a gradient of pale browns with white texture streaking in from the edges towards the center, which is the darkest part of the shroom. There's what looks to be the bottom of another mushroom belly-up beneath it, like the wannabe square won a wrestling match. Another victim is top-side up but looking pretty squished, poking out from under the top right quadrant. They're surrounded by grass and one lone fallen leaf, so pale it might at first glance be mistaken for more mushroom.

Hiatus Announcement + Cats

For personal reasons, I’ve decided to take a break from the longer written posts. Instead, my weekly updates are likely to consist of cute cats, pretty flowers, and whatever else I decide to photograph. Enjoy!

Arwen (white and black cat) and June (tortoiseshell) sitting side by side in a shallow carboard box that barely fits them both, looking out the window. Zuko (stripey grey) is walking behind them, nearly perpendicular to their arrangement.

Zuko (stripey grey) on the left, Arwen (white and black) on the right, each curled up in a shallow cardboard box next to a window.

Diane (black and white), curled up next to a large pile of yarn balls.

Cardiac Arrest: It’s The Best!

If that seems like a ludicrously terrible catchline, I’m doing something right! A couple months ago, I had a prompt to write an ad that deliberately employed at least 3 logical fallacies. I figured I might as well ride that train all the way to Station Absurdity, and this is the result:

Furthermore, we are proud to introduce the Cardiac Arrest deep-fried quadruple decker coconut butter burger, served completely encased in white chocolate! First of all, it's delicious! According to acclaimed astronaut Jessica Gonzalez, it's "the most incredibl[e] greasy thing [she's] ever consumed!" (The recommended maximum consumption is one serving per month; Greasivores Co. is not liable for any weight gain, heart conditions or death that may occur by disregarding this recommendation.) Cardiac Arrest: it's the best!

Tic Tac Chec

Tic Tac Toe meets chess in Tic Tac Chec, a short and simple strategy game that can be used to teach new players how chess pieces move, or to shake things up a bit for more seasoned players. I’ve been playing chess for years, but adjusting to new mechanics is always a bit of a learning curve, and our first round was actually kind of embarrassing – we were both so busy setting ourselves up in chess terms, we forgot the Tic Tac Toe part. But I’m getting ahead of myself… again.

Each player has four pieces: a pawn, a knight, a bishop, and a rook, all of which move the same as they do in chess, except the pawn switches directions when it reaches the end of the board. Tracking that is a little tricky, so I’d advise having the pawn on the side of its space closest to where it’s going next, instead of centered. We figured that one out the hard way, too.

The board is a 4×4 grid, and the goal is to align all four of your pieces vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. The first step of this is having pieces on the board – on your turn, you may place any one of your pieces on any open space. Once you have three pieces on the board, you may begin to move and capture as you would in regular chess; captured pieces are returned to their players and “can immediately be played again on any open square.” It’s up for interpretation whether than means “they get to place it as soon as you hand it back to them” or just “there’s no cooldown before they can use a turn to put it back on the board,” so sort that out with your opponent before the game begins. It’s also up to you whether the “three pieces on the board before moving” rule applies to more than the beginning of the game. The rules on this one are pretty loosely defined, so there’s a lot of room to experiment and see which way is the most fun for you!

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