Captchadef

Here's another captchadef.

guesisi (n): Someone who is afraid to guess anything. If pressed to do so, they may begin to cry or look for a place to hide.

How Cats Became (Somewhat) Domesticated

The Puppy Blender linked to this terrific piece by Nicholas Wade defending cats from some recent attacks on their nature and behavior. Amidst that fine article was this interesting bit.

All the other species, in the authors’ view, were bred by people for their desired qualities. Cats, being without utility, were not. Instead, they domesticated themselves and chose their own mates without human interference.

It all came about, the researchers concede, because of wild cats’ powers of observation. They had the wits to notice that the first human settlements were full of uncleared garbage strewn about by their slovenly inhabitants and so were overrun with rats, mice and sparrows.

The cats decided to move into this inviting new ecological niche, even though the price of admission was to develop a disdainful tolerance of people.

What a great analysis! When you look at the way our cats behave with us, you can see that same principle at work every day. Rudyard Kipling put it more poetically and had that very same theory pegged about a hundred years earlier. Here's a tidbit from Just So Stories about how the cat came to live with people. In the story, the dog has just surrendered his freedom to the woman in exchange for a regular feeding of bones.

Out in the Wild Woods all the wild animals wondered what had happened to Wild Dog, and at last Wild Horse stamped with his foot and said, 'I will go and see and say why Wild Dog has not returned. Cat, come with me.'

'Nenni!' said the Cat. 'I am the Cat who walks by himself, and all places are alike to me. I will not come.' But all the same he followed Wild Horse softly, very softly, and hid himself where he could hear everything.

In the end, the cat does everything on his own terms. Read the whole thing at the link. It's well worth it.

Hawaiian Boneyard

Out by the Waipio Soccer Complex where we're playing our games, there's a bay where the Navy is storing some of its mothballed ships. Here's one of several amphibs anchored there. I left the original photo fairly large. I think the clouds give it some drama. It might be worth a click to see the bigger version.

A modern-day Flying Dutchman?

Hawaii Soccer Tournament Game 1 Final

2-0 bad guys. We got tired in the second half and they shot well. We're playing with a hybrid team, too. Only 7 of our girls made it to Hawaii and we're borrowing six locals. They played well, but it's not a team that knows itself at all.

Tomorrow is game two. Win or lose, it's a great tournament for us to play.

Hawaii Soccer Tournament Game 1, Halftime

It's nil to nil. Wow, what a game! Total excitement!

Err, I guess. What can you expect? It's soccer, fer cryin' out loud.

The other team lost their goalie to a leg injury. Ouch! Both teams had chances to score, but the defense always came up big. They've got a girl who looks like she drove the team bus to the game. 12 years old and just huge.

My daughter is playing a good game. They have her at left midfield. She's got mediocre ball skills, but she's a total pest when the other team has the ball. She's like and angry wasp around her opponent when they have the ball.

Next update at game's end.

Providing Interweb Tubes - Ur Doin It Rong!

So this morning I go down to the common area in my hotel, which is the only place where you can get their "free wireless Internet" only to find out that this time my schleptop can't acquire and IP address from the thing. 20 minutes and a reboot later, I give up and go back to my room, 8 floors up.

Free wireless Internet? Bah!

Cheezburger of the Day

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Hilarious!

Dig this.

Jungle Waterfalls

Here's a peek of Manoa Falls from the trail as you make your way to the base of it.


I never get tired of waterfalls.

Futbol Update for Dean

Our first game is on Thursday. Scores and details then. Thanks for asking!

Fern Buds

We took a hike to Manoa Falls yesterday and I got some good photos. My favorite was this macro shot of fern buds just about to unfurl. I think it's worth a click to see the full-sized version.

Cheezburger of the Day

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Captchadef

For someone who does so much scurrying, I'm terrible at keeping up with our captchadefs. Meanwhile, our readers keep leaving good ones in the comments. Here's the one that made me LOL from our Holy Scribe.

aquatort (n): a legal action in civil court involving water, as in "The dispute over water rights led to an aquatort in district court."

As our Maximum Leader is my witness, I promise to try and do better in the future and bring more captchadefs to the blog.

Serious Blogging

... can be found at both the Secular Apostate and our Monastery of Miscellaneous Musings. Both are blogging up a storm. I had a serious, venomous debt snark written, but decided not to post it. Instead, we're in the holiday mood, bringing cash* to financially hurting Hawaii. Their local paper had a front page article yesterday about how badly the tourism trade is doing. I really feel for them. They're good people doing their best with the raw materials they have - a beautiful location and terrific weather.

I'm also blegging here for some prayers for our Holy Scribe who is under the weather. Stop by and leave him some kind words if you can.

* - Yes, that means cash, not plastic debt. No credit cards were harmed (or used) in the making of this vacation.

Waikiki Sunset

Aloha! Our hotel in Hawaii has Interweb Tubes. Yay! Unfortunately, it only has them on the 6th floor and I'm on the 14th. I have to schlep my shcleptop down to the common area on the 6th floor to blog.

Oh well.

The trip has been everything I've hoped for so far. The girls are having fun and the place is gorgeous as always. I snapped this shot with my Blackberry as we left the restaurant last night.

Heading to Hawaii

... for a soccer tournament for my daughter. She's so excited, she could practically fly there herself.

This is a big deal for us. It was an expensive trip, but one that is very well worth it. I was determined to have her go with her team to reward her for her hard work and to encourage her to stick with the sport. She's just starting to get good at it and the payoffs are showing up all over her life. There's nothing like making a strong connection between hard work, success and fun to motivate hard work in other areas.

Unlike our trip to Santa Clara last week, I'll be travelling with a heavy footprint this time. That means the big laptop, the Nikon artillery piece camera and even a secondary camera - a little point and shoot one. We're packing our own snorkeling gear as well as her soccer stuff. We'll be there for a week and I have no intention of roughing it either in our activities or in blogging. My laptop has Photoshop and Premiere, so I can do multimedia editing albeit a bit slowly because of the small processor.

I hope your week will be as fun and rewarding as mine. More posts to follow once we land and get settled.

Aloha!

One More Thought on the WaPo Pay-to-Play Deal

It was illegal. Totally, completely, from start to finish, illegal. Government officials cannot do things that bring a profit to a private business without a contract that has gone through proper bidding and award procedures.

One of the most frightening things from the past twelve months in the financial world where banks and car companies have been absorbed by the government and the total capitulation of the MSM to the Obama Administration is that there are no more rules. This is just one example of many.

Scurrying Around the Theocracy

... I came across this.

Here's a teaser from it.

If you stood still, you could hear them munching, munching, while their droppings rained down, patter-patter-patter.

Hmmm. Now that I look at things I note that this blog is not actually from the Theocracy, but it should be. I need to deal with that. In any case, go check it out.

Enjoy!

We Need to Repeal Prop 13!

Out here in California, we have a revenue problem. Our taxes are too low and so the state doesn't get enough money. That's why there's a deficit. Don't believe me? Dig this reply to a San Diego Union-Tribune blog post:

Company that I do consultant work informed me Friday that they are pulling out of California and moving to Franklin Tennessee. That is 43 more decent tax paying jobs going to another State who is welcoming them with open arms. They will be telling their employees on 8/1/09 and all will be offered their jobs in TN, they expect only a 1/2 dozen will accept. The owner told me that it is impossible anymore to conduct business in California. Workman's comp is insane. The cost for Workman Comp forklift operator in CA is 20 times more pricey than TN and none of the red tape ... they have to go through

Hey, wait a minute! Now that I read that again, maybe they're not arguing in favor of more taxes. Hmm. I think I need to read it a few more times.

While I do, you might want to ponder this question: Who is John Galt?

Happy 4th of July!

All of us here at The Scratching Post would like to wish you and yours a very happy, blessed and safe 4th of July, particularly those who have served in our armed forces.

And to one of those especially.

Happy 4th of July, Dad. Thanks for working to keep us safe and free.

Bodie the Wonder Dog Receives Theocratic Instruction

Our Maximum Leader has been instructing Bodie the Wonder Dog on just how to behave in and around the Catican.

Like this.

Well, Now We Know What Sarah Palin's Problem Was

She didn't recite Urdu poetry and cook keema and daal.

Here's the per capita income scoreboard for those who missed it on ESPN last night.

USA: $47,000
Pakistan: $2,600

Oooh, and it was so close! I'm sure it was our fault and all. We must have stolen prosperity from them through something we did in 1948 or so. It can't be that the nation that eats chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes has anything to teach the keemavores.

There's so much we can learn from Pakistan. Particularly the part about the strongman style of government.

The Last Normal Human Being Leaves Politics

Sarah Palin resigned. We're left with the careerists and their coterie of sycophants in the media and entertainment. Of the four major candidates, McCain, Palin, Obama, Biden, I believed that Sarah Palin was easily the most presidential and best qualified among them. Her counterpart, Joe Biden has been as much of a clown as we thought he'd be and his boss, Barack Obama is an academic's dream. He's also a total catastrophe as a president.

Shocking, that. After all, he had the one quality that made him totally invulnerable in 2008. He was black. He still is, you know. He had positively nothing else to offer, but I'm sure we could find a wise Latina and a certain reverend to agree, that was enough.

John McCain would have been a decent president, but like the others and unlike Palin, he knew nothing at all about how Americans work and live. That's the big missing ingredient now that Sarah Palin is gone. There's no one left in the field on either side that knows America.

Good for you, Letterman. Hurrah for you MSNBC. Mission accomplished, lefty trolls and the MSM. It will be fine for those of us whose kids go to private schools and who live the Dave Ramsey lifestyle. We'll still thrive and prosper.

You can mow our lawns.