Adventures In The World Of Cat Excrement

Not too long ago, one of our cats began to poop outside his box. It happened once in a while, so we figured it surely must have been an accident on his part, surely. After about a month of this, the sans-box poop began to appear more frequently, and before long we had a daily treat of extra-box poop to deal with.

More recently, the situation escalated. We came home one day to the wonderful smell of cat pee in the closet where the litter boxes sit. Sure enough, someone had peed on the carpet outside the box (conveniently close to the poop that had also been deposited outside the box). A quick trip to the store yielded some Resolve carpet cleaner to help the situation. While it cured some of the smell, it didn't seem to break the habit of using the carpet as a toilet; the pooping and peeing continued.

I decided to turn to the illustrious Web for help. I read quite a few tips and tricks for getting rid of the smell in an effort to discourage repeat offenses (vinegar, enzymatic cleaners, Oxy-Clean, etc.). But one product came recommended by several people as a way to get cats back in the box: Cat Attract litter.

A trip yesterday to PetSmart yielded a 20 pound bag of the stuff. I dumped one of the boxes and filled it with the litter. I then showed it to our pissed-off (literally) cat.

As if by magic, he looked in the box, got in the box, pooped, turned around a few times, peed, and hopped out. Amazing!

I must sound like one of those Ron Popeil customer testimonials, but hey, the litter did the trick. No more carpet-for-toilet, thanks to the enchanted litter.

UAE's Gay Marriage Policy

I had to read this article more than once to fully grok the proposed punishment of the two dozen or so gay men caught trying to get married. Jail time? Lashings? Hormone treatments?

A representative quote:

“Because they’ve put society at risk they will be given the necessary treatment, from male hormone injections to psychological therapies,” [Interior Ministry spokesman Issam Azouri] said. “It wasn’t just a homosexual act. Now we’re dealing with a kind of marriage. There was a ritual involved.”

Compare with a quote from this press release from the White House:

Marriage cannot be severed from its cultural, religious and natural roots without weakening the good influence of society. Government, by recognizing and protecting marriage, serves the interests of all.

Note the similarity? Both positions are trying to protect society's status quo with respect to marriage. The first approach is extreme in our (well, at least my) eyes. But if the end justifies the means, is that means a constitutional amendment, or something even more severe?

I'm a big believer in a live-and-let-live approach to governance and society. I also believe if a person's action "crosses the distance of their nose", then it's of public concern. It's why I'm for public smoking bans, but it's also why I see the UAE's response (and, truth be told, the White House's response) to gay marriage as extreme.

Black Friday (Now Leaking Into Thursday) Is Still Not Worth It

Chalk one more up on the board of receding holiday traditions. Local news reports that the Quil Ceda Outlet Mall in Marysville is opening its doors to drooling shoppers eager for a fix at midnight. That's right - eat turkey, enjoy a slice of pie, rest, then get up and shop in the wee hours of the morning.

What's worse:

Major retail chains open on Thanksgiving included K-Mart, Big Lots, and Fred Meyer.

Great, one more way to cut into valuable family time free of the bustle of commerce and the pressures of shopping.

Black Friday is known to scientists and researchers to radically affect otherwise rational, logical human beings into becoming rabid and animalistic at the opportunity to score a great deal. Higher concentrations of unrest seems to appear at the bastion of low-prices, Wal-Mart. Note these examples, courtesy of this article:

Extra police were called to a Wal-Mart store in Renton to help control crowds of shoppers who pushed their way into the electronics department after doors opened this morning...

Things got out of hand at a Wal-Mart store in Orlando, Fla., where a man who allegedly cut in line to get a discounted laptop computer was wrestled to the ground.

Count me out. I'll enjoy a nice brunch, maybe cruise some online retailers for Christmas present ideas, and then head to a party. I'll be out that wonderful deal on a plasma TV, a laptop, or a sweater, but I'll be happier, I promise.

Thanksgiving Baklava

This evening we're heading over to a friend's place to enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner. Granted, this is an American holiday, but what better excuse than the National Excuse To Be Gluttonous day to make a pan of baklava?

It was easier this time than last time I made it, and it turned out quite well. I eased up on the syrup this time so the top would remain crisp while the bottom absorbs the syrup.

It's currently sitting on the dining room table, its buttery honey vapors wafting through the house. It's taking quite a bit of self control not to devour several pieces in advance of dinner.

King And Bunny's: The Worst Local Commercial

Every weekday night, without fail, on UPN 11 around 11:50PM, this short little local commercial comes on. It's comprised of a still image of some people sitting amidst some washers, some logos, and other information about the business, King and Bunny's.

The voice over begins..."King and Bunny's!" it calls. In the span of no more than 10 seconds, it claims that King and Bunny's has the "Whammer Deals" on home appliances, repeats the name of the business, and...that's it. Commercial over.

What? What was that? What did I just see?

I can't decide what's worse about this commercial:

• The fact that it's not only short, but it's really irritating. The voice over grates on your ears after the 37th time you've heard it.
• The fact that it's shown every single weekday night, without fail. I get it already. King and Bunny's. The appliance store that thought a 10 second still image with a voice over would sell more Kitchenaids.
• The fact that it made me notice enough to check out their web site and blog about them.

Google Is Not Immune To Security Bugs

I heard today that Google released Google Base with a cross-site scripting bug (reported here, here, and here. For the non-geeks, this basically means that, for a period of time, you could use Google Base to get at a user's GMail or other personal information hosted on (something).google.com. Comforting, huh?

"But, George, no one is immune to security bugs!" you may say. Sure, bugs exist, especially in beta software. But these are basic, well-understood bugs we're talking about, not some obscure security hole that is hard to exploit.

Security is something that should be part of the "checklist to release this Beta on the web" list. It should be part of the team culture to ensure that these security tests happen. It's something that is typically learned the hard way, but something that is invaluable to learn once, and then leverage often.

Electric Sheep

Electric Sheep isn't new, but it's getting popular recently at the office. In short, it's a screen saver that helps make more screen savers. The ones produced are based on people's votes: popular screen savers live longer and pieces of them get reused in new animations.

I'll spare you the geeky computer science stuff - the graphics are pretty hypnotic.

Fish Flavored Ice Cream

What is up with sweet foods and drinks going seafood? I just posted about salmon soda when I come across this post about seafood ice cream. Liny Hsueh must be stopped.

Salmon Flavored Soda

Thanks, Jones Soda. I knew there was something missing in my soda options. That is, until you produced sodas with flavors such as Smoked Salmon Pate, Corn on the Cob, and Wild Herb Stuffing.

Quick, go suggest a flavor. Maybe Fraser Fir in time for Christmas, Boiled Egg for Easter, or BBQ in time for July 4th?

Bagpipes Are Not Detrimental To Your Health

According to this article, playing the bagpipes is perfectly safe. That is, assuming you're OK with risking Repetitive Strain Injury, hearing loss, marital problems, alcoholism, and a penchant for speaking in a Scottish accent.

Aluminum Foil Helmets Don't Protect You From "Them"

Thanks to the wonderful work of Ali Rahimi et. al., we now know that Aluminum Foil Helmets don't protect you from "invasive radio signals". Read the findings here. Of course, everyone knows that "They" had something to do with Rahimi's study, and therefore the results must not be trusted.

It's Voting Time

Tomorrow is voting day for many places, including Washington. If you're registered, and you don't vote by mail, go out and vote. If you're not registered, take the time tomorrow to do so for the next election.

At the very least, you'll help pick who you're going to blame if things don't go well during the next couple of years.

Come On Out, The Snow (Will Be) Fine!

I love the reports the slopes are presenting regarding the snow forecasts. "Put your mind at ease," they say. This season will be fine! Reporters in local media are doing the same, writing about how this winter season won't be like last year's, which was plagued with lower-than-normal precipitation and higher-than-normal temperatures.

Sure, signs point to positive. But there's implicit fine print here that you may recognize from another domain:

Past performance is indicative of future results and returns.

This should sound familiar to anyone who's invested in stocks, bonds, real estate, or the like. It's a disclaimer written in 6-point text at the bottom of those glossy ads that advertise high returns from a mutual fund, or a strong strategy of diversification from an index. They do so because, simply, you can't predict the stock market. And, despite what the ads say, you can't really base future results on what the past has resulted in.

I believe the same goes with weather. Even more so, actually. With stocks, bonds, and funds, you have a large number of variables that are impactful in the price of an investment (earnings, expenditures, products, services, acquisitions, divestitures, and the like), and the non-zero chance of scandals, crimes, and other "bad" things can all serve to drive the price of stocks up or down. So it goes with the weather; sure, we think that the rains/snow and the cool temperatures will continue. But all we have to base that on is two things: what we've seen to date, and what our weather models tell us. The models are great; kudos to the Jeff Renners of the world for making them. But they're not perfect, or even close to perfect.

Models and past results are enough to make a prediction on. But they're not enough to base a promise on. I'm all for a great snow season, both for the businesses and workers involved as well as the folks who enjoy snow sports. But I tend to be cautious & surprised rather than over-optimistic and disappointed when it comes to unpredictables like the weather.

Summed up:

The trouble with weather forecasting is that it's right too often for us
to ignore it and wrong too often for us to rely on it. ~Patrick
Young

Safety Is Relative

I don't buy British American Tobacco's claim that they've produced a "safe" cigarette that cuts the risk of heart disease and cancer by 90%. According to this article, they've produced a cigarette using treated tobacco and a new filter designed to cut toxins emitted from the cigarette and, thus, going into the user.

I don't buy it, at least not fully. Reasons:

• First off, are these claims independently verified, not only the output of the cigarette but its effects on people? Clearly there's a market for feeling like there's a "safer" alternative, but is it true, or is it just a claim by the manufacturer?
• The smoke coming off the end of the cigarette is not filtered. Bystanders, as well as the smoker, inhales that end-smoke.
• Nicotine doesn't appear to be one of the toxins filtered out. That makes sense; why remove the addictive element from the drug? That said, nicotine isn't a great thing to be ingesting. For example, it can increase your LDL ("bad") cholesterol, and constricts your blood vessels which can lead to hypertension.

So Long, Vanilla Coke

Due to declining sales, Coca-Cola has decided to pull their roughly three-year-old Vanilla Coke and Diet Coke with Lemon flavors. From the article:

Analysts have said that one of the keys to the company's future is to
innovate new products that will help Coca-Cola capture more consumers who have
moved away from sugary soft drinks to diet versions, or to healthier low-or
no-calorie beverages such as water and orange juices with reduced sugar.

I wholeheartedly agree. It's novel to get a familiar cola flavor mixed with something new, like lemon, lime, orange, vanilla, cashew, spaghetti, or prosciutto. But, after the novelty wears off, you're either purchasing the variant along with the regular flavor, or have forgotten the variant and have moved back to regular cola.

Coca-Cola's #1 in the cola biz. Sure, it feels threatened and wants to match PepsiCo when Pepsi reveals they have a variant cola. But it's new and budding beverage markets where Coca-Cola will make head-way, not drag-racing with other companies on the best way to mix cola and Nutella.

Oh well, if you're truly addicted to the vanilla sugar water, you can always purchase the regular stuff and add some vanilla syrup to it.

Seattle Voting Guide: Web Site Showdown - King County Council District 3

It seems that Kathy Lambert is running unopposed for the 3rd District's Council seat. Oh well, I guess I can still critique her web site on its own.

First up on the home page, I'm immediately drawn to those two, animated .gifs of the U.S. and Washington State flags. Wow! That's awesome! How did she do that? If Kathy has that much control over the pixels on my monitor, think what she can do with King County policy! Needless animation: -2

Moving on, I see Kathy adds a personal touch to the home page by signing her name, and presenting it in the form of a graphic. Too bad her web designer doesn't know how to make transparent backgrounds. Bad graphic: -1

There's a navigation frame along the top. I'll be objective here and say that, indeed, the frames do offer you a way to navigate the site. They don't make it more efficient, mind you, since the site is pretty flat and the pages aren't that long. But, what's with the yellow background? White text on black boxes on yellow background doesn't do it for me. Color: -1

And, why do I need footer navigation that's exactly like the header navigation, which is always present because of the frame? Needless duplication of framed content: -1

I wanted to post a link to just the Endorsements page here, but the site has trapped the right-click on the header navigation buttons, so I can't copy the link directly. Needless trapping of right-click: -1

The photo gallery is decent enough. But, where are the thumbnails, so save low-bandwidth connections the time it takes to load every picture? Is Kathy implying that she's not interested in modem users' vote? Lack of low-bandwidth consideration: -1

Go to any form on the site, and, without entering any content in the fields, hit Send. Hey, you get a nice thank-you from Kathy! Hey, great job not validating the form! Lack of form validation: -2

Overall, Kathy Lambert's site scores a -9. I looked for some good content to give her credit for the information she was delivering, but there's extremely little about her opinions, platform, and so on. I guess running unopposed means you don't have to really care as much. Congratulations, Kathy, your web site wins by losing!

Mesmerizing

It took me a moment to realize that this was done using repeating background. Even though, it's still well done and fun to look at.

Seattle Voting Guide: Web Site Showdown - Seattle Mayor

Ok, ok, so the vote by picture thing maybe wasn't the best guide in the world (a fun one, nonetheless). How about we try a different angle to decide some key elections? Let's look at the information each candidate delivers through their web site. But, more specifically, let's judge the web site itself and use that as a metric for who to vote for. Sound fair? Of course not. Let's have at it!

As a general rule for this and future Web Site Showdown posts, I'll use the ever-popular and highly subjective Points System to grade each web site. Criteria will vary by web site on the basic premise of what strikes me as I visit each site. I'll focus primarily on the home page of these sites, only because I love to skim and don't have time to nit-pick every page.

First up we have Greg Nickels versus Al Runte.

Color and Branding
Nickels's site was created by someone who most likely is used to designing print ads. Look at that giant orange-on-blue "Re-elect" text. Very in your face. Also pretty ugly. A thinly-ruled orange and white background further distracts from the main content area. Nickels: -2

Runte's site is pretty clean and toned primarily with a blue color that fades into his Seattle waterfront banner. A good bit of white surrounded by a light blue background adds welcome clutter-free space to the page. Blue's also a good choice: lots of people like blue. Runte: +2

I'm surprised no one picked green, given we're the Emerald City and all.

Graphics:
Pretty poor Photoshop job there on Nickels's site of himself; you can pretty clearly see the white space haloing his head, due to a bad lasso job. Otherwise the graphics are average. Nickels: -1

Decent, albeit not great, shot of the city seafront on Runte's site. His headshot is nice and friendly, however; much better than his image in the voters' guide. Runte: +1

Content:
Nickels's site reads like a brochure. Not great, not bad. Nickels: +1

Runte's site is more like a blog, and feels much more current than Nickels's. The posts feel much more first-person and personal than Nickels's. Runte: +3

Layout:
Why does every page in the site have to feature that silly 3-step panel on the left hand side? Nickels: -1

Runte's site breaks no boundaries, but optimizes space in the center for content and doesn't repeat elements needlessly. Runte: +1

Useless Stuff:
Man, Greg, what is up with that banner of moving pictures at the top of your site? Try clicking on a picture - nothing happens! Why is that there? Also, why do I get to view every page as a PDF or in a popup, text-only window? Is there a reason why I get a breadcrumb on what is effectively a flat site? Hey, I get today's date at the top of the home page - thanks Greg, I forgot what day it was. Hey cool, I get to view only 5 news items on the News page. Uh...why? Why would I ever want to do that? Nickels: -10

Runte's site has some nit impracticality, but nothing that hit my priority list. Runte: 0

Missing Stuff:
Nickels, any thought to RSS feeds? A blog? Nickels: -2

Runte, you effectively have both. Runte: 0

Overall, we have Nickels at -15 and Runte at 7. Congratulations, Al Runte, your web site wins!