Category: Aspiration

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Was He Naughty or Nice?

This flu holds on tenaciously, and seemingly everyone around here has it. My wife started her decline late morning. I am three days in and feeling almost as crappy tonight as the first evening. As such, I present another sickly post; something easy before early bedtime overtakes me.

Granted, Christmas is behind us. Ho. Ho. Ho. I neglected to share a special stocking for Rick, who appeared in my “Cat’s of University Heights” series in August 2021. He relocated himself from a home in an alley to a house on the street, where he is treated lavishly by the new owners and garners massive amounts of petting by passersby.

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Shadow Selfie and Friend

Last night’s post is a testament to perseverance. Some variety of virus overwhelmed my immune system. Sick is an understatement—and for the first time since Christmas 2017. Today, I slept in three hours until 7:30 a.m. PST and conked out for several hours this afternoon.

Sleep sure is therapeutic. I feel better this evening, although far from normal state. I don’t take cold medicine or pain killers, choosing to let the body’s defensive mechanisms work without interference. Besides, if over-the-counter anything makes you feel better when not, the tendency is to do too much when the body needs you to slow down and rest.

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Room 8 Class Antics

Yesterday, in my news feed an odd story popped up: A cat wandered into an elementary school and made himself comfortable with the kids. He returned every school day from 1952 to 1968, delighting teachers and students. They named him Room 8, because that’s where he consistently went.

One commenter to the story flagged it as Artificial Intelligence fraud because of how it was written and Room 8 nomenclature. Not even kids would choose that name, he asserted, but AI would. I must admit that the story’s sentence structure was juvenile, which could suggest AI fakery—of which there is too much.

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Funny Bunny

You are looking at my first purchase from Etsy, and I am surprised that we still have it. I ordered the “Amigurumi Flowery pink bunny rabbit with matching bag” for our daughter on July 27, 2006. Yep, that’s 20 years ago this summer. Pricey but handmade: $28 before shipping fee.

I don’t shop Etsy often, but it’s my go-to when looking for hand-crafted, hard-to-find, or specialty items. I am impressed with any of the early dot-com e-shops that survived all matter of doom—from economic calamities to mismanagement to pandemic shutdowns. May Etsy continue to be a survivor.

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Adventures in Anthropomorphism

We the people crave relationships, including inanimate objects that are given human characteristics (e.g. anthropomorphizing) so that there is something shared in common—something familiar, relatable.

Take the Featured Image as example. One of my neighbors ever-so-slightly adorned a cactus with eyes, making meaning in the process. The taller cacti suddenly is an adult—let’s say single parent—standing alongside a shy youngster. Maybe someone else sees a shaggy little dog instead. Regardless, some story suddenly emerges where before there was nothing more than two cacti.

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Nikon Zf: Alley Harley Film Grain

Early fourth quarter, Nikon released firmware version 3.0 for the retro-styled Zf, which I own. Among the many new features is built-in recipe (e.g. filter) film grain, which styling is succinctly named. When flipped on, the camera captures a standard photo in RAW and nostalgic film look in JPG.

But how meaningful is it, really? Let’s compare with the alley Harley that I photographed in early December 2025 using the  zf; I converted the color original to monochrome in post-production. The Featured Image was film grain-stylized in camera, six days later on the 16th of the month. Additionally, the Zf has a dedicated switch for shooting black and white; both capabilities were active.

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She’s on a Mission from God

My wife and I heard the reverberating sound several blocks away—a voice carried on the wind, coming from the direction of Old Trolley Barn Park. The woman stood valiantly reading inspirational words and scriptures from a Bible. She rarely glanced up, which explains the character of the portrait.

I don’t know how deliberate the choice but can guess. Rather than face park goers she turned to the street, where across the way was a Jehovah Witness meeting hall. Tone and content made me think that she preached to the Witnesses.

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Meaningless Milestones–or Are They?

In the Featured Image, taken with iPhone 6 on Dec. 31, 2014, our cats Neko and Cali look out into our old apartment’s courtyard and onto the impending new year. The portrait showed up in my photo memories feed for today. Vitals: f/2.2, ISO 32, 1/250 sec, 4.15mm; 2:40 p.m. PST.

I take a moment to look ahead and behind with respect to meaningless milestones with respect to my use of online services—some of them for longer than many Gen Zs have been alive. October marked 20 years using Flickr. Yep, since 2005. Christmas Day was the twentieth anniversary for Twitter, now X.

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The Cats of University Heights: Christmas Cat

Merry Christmas! We celebrate the holiday with a kitty seen yesterday along Monroe Avenue (cross-streets withheld). This fine feline takes the day for posing beside a holiday tree. What could be more appropriate than that?

I used Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra to take the Featured Image and companion. Vitals: f/3.4, ISO 100, 1/125 sec, 115mm (film equivalent); 10:59 a.m. PST. The second: f/3.4, ISO 50, 1/60 sec, (synthetic) 230mm (digital and optical zoom); 10:59 a.m.

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The Cats of University Heights: KitKat

I may not have the spelling right—two words or perhaps “C” instead of “K”—but the name is correct. This forlorn little thing came to her current owner quite unexpectedly about three years ago. A young man and woman came by looking for the, ah, pet parent after witnessing some beastly human kicking the cat in the face, injuring her jaw and breaking considerable number of teeth.

They were going to drive the wounded cat to San Diego Humane Society but instead left her behind. The couple had come to the home of an animal lover. She puts out food for stray cats, possums, skunks, squirrels, crows, and other birds. She once rescued a snake whose tail got crushed by a car. She nursed it back to health and had it released six months later. She likewise cared for KitKat (and had help from a relative who is a veterinarian).

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Better Off Dead

I am a big fan of repurposing. Take that thing and use it another way. Even when buying something new, I look first for multi-purpose uses. What else can this thang be used for?

But I don’t know about this! I see the rationale, though, and can’t argue with it. One of my neighbors repurposed his Halloween decorations for Christmas. The Featured Image and companion tell the story.