KKChat -- 13 March 2005

[Bynw]

[17:54] * KK has joined #Deryni_Destinations
[17:54] * KK sets mode: +q KK
[17:54] <DeryniBot> Adam Sinclair welcomes his newest member of the
Hunt ... KK
[17:54] <Shiral> Hi Martine
[17:54] <Shiral> hi kk
[17:54] * Mistyck has joined #Deryni_Destinations
[17:54] <RainbowDragon> Greetings, KK!
[17:54] <DeryniBot> Following a Lehr Cat Mistyck enters the chat.
[17:54] <Mistyck> hiyas all
[17:54] <KK> Hi, guys.
[17:54] <Bynw> Hi KK!!
[17:54] <RainbowDragon> How was your week, Katherine?
[17:54] <KK> Sorry I missed you last week.
[17:54] <natlog> hi kk
[17:54] <Mistyck> hi kk!
[17:55] <KK> I was in CA working on the Deryni RPG with Nancy, and
taking care of some family business.
[17:55] <Martine> And now we have a castle overhead drawing :-)
[17:55] <Mistyck> good news about the RPG
[17:55] <Mistyck> hope the family stuff wasn't bad
[17:55] <RainbowDragon> that is good news
[17:55] <KK> We really, really worked--and ate Moose Track ice cream,
which is now my official favorite. :-)
[17:56] <RainbowDragon> hee hee hee
[17:56] <the_Bee> moose track?
[17:56] <Shiral> Nancy can be very "motivating"
[17:56] <Shiral> =o)
[17:56] <Martine> LOL yes indeed, she can.
[17:56] <Harvey> Moose Track is good.
[17:56] <KK> Well, Scott's mom is starting to fade, so I had to talk to
her doctors. She'll be 81 in July.
[17:56] <Mistyck> ahh...
[17:56] <Mistyck> sorry to hear that
[17:56] <Martine> She even motivated me to replace my cordless phone
system and all its handsets when all of them died within five minutes
of picking up the phone with her <g>
[17:57] <KK> I discovered Moose Track in WV a couple of years ago, and
was delighted to find that it is now available commercially.
[17:57] <the_Bee> I assume it contains chocolate ;o)
[17:57] <KK> I have to replace our house phones. I'm told that the
DECT system is the way to go.
[17:58] <KK> Chocolate swirls of crunch DARK chocolate, plus
mini-peanut butter cups the size of a pencil eraser, also with dark
choc. Yum!
[17:58] <Martine> I went with a GE system that expands to six handsets
and includes a three-mailbox digital answering machine.
[17:59] <Martine> When I was talking to Jim Fox-Davies yesterday, the
battery lasted a full hour and a half - and still wasn't giving "low"
warnings when we were done! Each handset has a built-in speakerphone,
too. Very nice :-)
[17:59] <KK> Various companies make what I've been eyeing. Siemens is
what I saw first, at Dr. Dieter's house; and Panasonic does a good one.
[17:59] <the_Bee> hour and a half=good or bad?
[17:59] <Martine> I think Motorola might do one too.... if I'm
remembering correctly....
[18:00] <KK> It will enable us to dispense with the antiquated
mini-switcher, which was becoming obsolescent when we got it--nearly 20
years ago--gasp!
[18:00] <Martine> Bee, hour and a half for a cordless phone battery to
be on "Talk" is pretty darn good in my book!
[18:00] <RainbowDragon> Is your computer back to 100% effectiveness
now?
[18:00] <Martine> brb. dinner just arrived!
[18:01] <KK> Yep. Though I got a recharging cordless mouse in CA, used
it for 2 days, and this afternoon it froze up after sitting idle and
not in its cradle for several hours.
[18:01] <KK> I've put back the old cordless one for now, and will
hassle with the new one tomorrow.
[18:01] <RainbowDragon> uh oh
[18:01] <KK> But my new flash drive is super!
[18:01] <Martine> back :-)
[18:02] <Martine> And now that you're home, I can send you the
replacement for your old flash drive and you'll have a backup :-)
[18:02] <KK> Now, this week, I really am going to get back on the
Childe book. I'm dying to do it, just keep getting interruptions.
[18:02] <KK> yes!
[18:02] <the_Bee> what is a flash drive for?
[18:02] <Martine> Hooray! more Childe!
[18:02] <Mistyck> yep!
[18:03] <Martine> It's sort of a replacement for floppy disks, Bee.
[18:03] <KK> Portable, removable hard drive, good for trsnaferring and
transporting files.
[18:03] <Shiral> Or else the Childe will grow up without you, Katherine
=o)
[18:03] <Martine> It's a small memory stick that plugs into a USB port.
[18:03] <the_Bee> ty
[18:03] <Mistyck> yeah, they are totally awesome
[18:03] <RainbowDragon> Great news about Childe Morgan!
[18:04] <Martine> My new Palm Tungsten V PDA also acts as a flash
drive. Address book, calendar, MP3 player, to-do list, and vital
computer files all in one package. It's my dream organizer!
[18:04] <KK> Cat perplexities: Someone cut off all but one of Sasha's
left whiskers sometime last night. What's left are only about 1 inch
long. Who would do such a thing?
[18:04] <Mistyck> ick!
[18:04] <Martine> What??
[18:04] <Mistyck> that's terrible
[18:04] <KK> It will take months for them to grow back.
[18:04] <Martine> That's horrible!!!
[18:04] <Shiral> A crazed child?
[18:04] <Shiral> poor sasha!
[18:04] <Martine> That can just about cripple a cat!
[18:05] <Shiral> A cat without whiskers is definitely at a disadvantage
[18:05] <KK> Has to have been a child. He's a very friendly cat, so
it may have happened over at the stables.
[18:05] <the_Bee> ? I thought a flash drive had to be downloaded off
the internet. You mean I can *physically* take it with me?
[18:05] <Shiral> I hope he scratched the person when he was getting
away
[18:05] <KK> Thank God he still has one full-length one on that side,
and all the upper ones.
[18:05] <Martine> A flash drive is a piece of hardware, Bee.
[18:05] <Mistyck> Flash drives look like a key chain sort of
[18:05] <Martine> Thank goodness! he's probably still a bit
disoriented, though.
[18:05] <KK> About the size of a Bic lighter.
[18:06] <Mistyck> poor Sasha
[18:06] <the_Bee> probably some thoughtless ignoramus did it ;(
[18:06] <Harvey> Maybe she walked too close to a fire and singed them
off.
[18:06] <Shiral> Whoever did it was certainly thoughtless
[18:06] <KK> No, they were cut. No question.
[18:06] <Mistyck> no, there would be some burn marks if that was the
case
[18:06] <Harvey> Yeah. I'm trying to talk around human cruelty and
failing.
[18:06] <the_Bee> don't cats need whiskers to measure spaces?
[18:06] <Martine> yup
[18:06] <Shiral> yes
[18:07] <Martine> And to navigate in the dark, when even they can't see
well.
[18:07] <Martine> And they're also a vital piece of their "touch"
sense.
[18:07] <KK> He was curled up in his basket this morning, and I didn't
notice right away, because his head was tucked down. Yes, they act
like the whiskers on a car, that scrape when you're parking--and that's
where gar designers got the idea.
[18:07] <the_Bee> I hope Sasha doesn't get stuck somewhere
[18:07] <Harvey> Jumping and landing...simple things like that.
[18:07] <KK> car designers
[18:07] <the_Bee> cars have whiskers??
[18:08] <Shiral> They might work better if they did =o)
[18:08] <Martine> lol!
[18:08] <KK> Some of them have little metal feelers that make a noise
if you get too close to the curb.
[18:08] <the_Bee> some highways have a feature that does that
[18:08] <KK> Yep, but that's much more advanced.
[18:09] <Martine> Observing Rowena, they may also have something to do
with balance. On one side her forehead whiskers are disfigured and
curled where she's missing the eye.
[18:09] <the_Bee> drive near the edge and your wheel gets rubbed
[18:09] <Martine> She's definitely less confident jumping/balancing
than Arwen.
[18:09] <KK> At first, I thought he'd just broken off a few--which
sometimes happens. But then I looked more closely and saw that they've
all been cut off cleanly. Grrrr!
[18:09] <Shiral> Poor Sasha
[18:10] <Bynw> poor kitty
[18:10] <Martine> Thank goodness nothing worse happened to him.
[18:10] <KK> Martine, I suspect that's just because she doesn't have
3-D vision, having only one eye.
[18:10] <Shiral> I hope somebody has a thoroughly scratched hand,
though
[18:10] <KK> When I discovered it, I said very vehemently that I hoped
that whoever did it had all their hair fall out--for good!
[18:10] <the_Bee> Sasha may be too goodnatured to scratch
[18:11] <Martine> I think that's most of it, but I've noticed she
balances much better when she's got her left whiskers brushing
something (the good side).
[18:11] <Shiral> There may be a bald, bewildered Cat Whisker Clipper
wandering around in Bray right now, Katherine
[18:11] <Martine> If she's depending on her right whiskers for feel or
otherwise, she seems a bit shaky on balance.
[18:11] <RainbowDragon> I hope he doesn't lose his trust of humans over
this incident
[18:11] <KK> The whiskers certainly play a role.
[18:11] <KK> He was still very sweet and affectionate with us.
[18:11] <Martine> Good :-)
[18:11] <the_Bee> he knows who his friends are
[18:11] <KK> And it wouldn't have hurt when it was done; just left him
feeling unbalanced.
[18:12] <KK> But it could have been far worse.
[18:12] <Mistyck> kinda drunkish
[18:12] <RainbowDragon> ahhh
[18:12] <Shiral> As Martine said, thank goodness nothing worse DID
happen to the poor fellow
[18:12] <Martine> Better a bald, bewildered cat whisker clipper than
what happened a short time ago in New York State.
[18:12] <the_Bee> ?
[18:12] <Martine> Someone broke into one of their animal shelters and
murdered five of the cats rather brutally. :-(
[18:12] <Martine> They still haven't caught the person.
[18:13] <KK> ohhhhh!
[18:13] <the_Bee> no!! <
[18:13] <Shiral> That's awful! Poor cats!
[18:13] <KK> People can be so damned mean!
[18:13] <Martine> Let me tell you, it took no time at all for the
shelter to raise enough money to install an alarm sistem and
barbed-wire fencing. But still, those poor cats were tortured.
[18:14] <Bynw> Cat whiskers are yet another example of nature's
efficiencies. Cats usually have 24 whiskers, twelve (2 rows of 6) on
each side of it's face. They are thicker than ordinary hairs and root
through the skin attaching to a highly packed cluster of nerve endings.
Extremely sensitive to air movement and pressure, whiskers can detect
an object's presence from a distance, acting like radar. This is
especially useful in low light when a mouse runs through the room,
moving the air ever so slightly
[18:14] <Shiral> Makes me glad I keep mine inside
[18:14] <KK> What's even creepier is that people who would do that to a
cat might well progress to doing similar things to people....
[18:14] <Shiral> I never have to worry that they're being mistreated
that way
[18:14] <Martine> That's usually how serial killers get started.
[18:14] <Shiral> Animal abuse is a definite danger sign
[18:14] <Mistyck> same here Shiral
[18:15] <Mistyck> I'm glad all of my guys are inside guys
[18:15] <Shiral> Fortunately, there are many good, decent people in the
world who DO love and care for animals
[18:16] <Martine> I have no idea what Arwen endured in her life, but I
*do* know she shows signs of abuse and NO interest whatsoever in going
outside. She's always been terrified of the Great Outdoors.
[18:16] <Mistyck> and the few times that Chance finds the back gate
open and runs away, he just goes up and down the street and then knocks
on the front door to be let back in
[18:17] <the_Bee> it's a sad world when you're afraid to let a cat
explore;(
[18:17] <Shiral> indeed, bee
[18:18] <natlog> today is approximately 4 year anniversary of my
wandering around Bray -- bewildered, but with all my hair
[18:18] <the_Bee> Natlog: I din't know you were a cat!
[18:19] <Martine> Shiral - you're right. We should be glad and focus on
all the people who do try to help lost animals :-)
[18:19] <Shiral> Just want to steer chat into happier waters =o)
[18:19] <Martine> :-)
[18:19] <KK> Indeed. And be happy that Sasha is ok.
[18:19] <Mistyck> definitely!
[18:19] <Shiral> I'm sure Morgan was always VERY nice to the animals he
knew as a child =o)
[18:20] <Bynw> hopefully he had a cat
[18:20] <Mistyck> maybe this can be a side episode in Morgan's growing
up
[18:20] <Shiral> And a couple of dogs
[18:20] <Martine> It's why the rescue organization that gave me Rowena
finds it so easy to twist my arm on adoption days and show up WITH
Rowena - who tends to draw in the crowds with her "love me pet me be my
very best friend" personality :-)
[18:20] <KK> I'm sure Morgan had many pets, and was very kind to them.
After all, he could talk to animals.
[18:20] <Shiral> And a number of ponies and horses
[18:20] <Martine> Lots and lots of dogs, I'll bet!
[18:20] <Shiral> A man who can summon gold fish has his heart in the
right place =o)
[18:20] <Bynw> bah! on dogs ... cats are better
[18:21] <Mistyck> but he would've been VERY upset at someone cutting
off the whiskers of one HIS kitties
[18:21] <Martine> Yes, but cats unfortunately were not viewed so fondly
in our middle ages.
[18:21] <KK> Yes. And this little experience may well find its way
into the next book.
[18:21] <Shiral> In some ways, I would think MOrgan would like animals
better than many people
[18:21] <Martine> Hopefully Gwynedd is kinder to felines :-)
[18:21] <the_Bee> witches' familiars
[18:21] <Mistyck> I kinda figured that KK
[18:21] <Martine> At some points in his life, I imagine he *would*
prefer animal company :-)
[18:21] <Mistyck> yep
[18:21] <Martine> Animals don't care if you're Deryni :-)
[18:22] <Shiral> Well, St. Francis of Assisi helped to make being a cat
a respectable thing, again in the middle ages
[18:22] <Mistyck> and cats are a likely companion...both would be seen
as "outcasts"
[18:22] <Mistyck> at least to a young boy's mind
[18:22] <RainbowDragon> If that pops up in a future book, hopefully the
perpetrators will get their comeuppance!
[18:22] <KK> They probably like it better if you are, since Deryni
could communicate with them.
[18:22] <Shiral> Animals like Deryni very much, I think
[18:22] <Martine> Toss them down a well! <g>
[18:22] <the_Bee> animals don't care if you're a good person or a bad
person, as long as you're THEIR PERSON
[18:23] <Shiral> Yup. Unconditional love is their thing
[18:23] <KK> I'll have to think of a realistic punishment, that will
make the point without going OTT.
[18:23] <Mistyck>
[18:23] <Martine> Their person and good to them :-)
[18:23] <Shiral> Some animals will still remain faithful even if they
are mistreated
[18:24] <Martine> LOL Apparently not Rowena! She's being horribly
mistreated by not getting enough attention.
[18:24] <Harvey> Some people remain faithful even if they are
mistreated...
[18:24] <KK> Well, gang, it's getting late, so I'd better head out.
See you next week, hopefully with good progress to report.
[18:24] <Shiral> Which I find very sad...
[18:24] * the_Bee scritches rowena
[18:24] <Harvey> Both.
[18:24] <Martine> This is sadly true, Harvey.
[18:24] <Mistyck> g'nite KK and take care
[18:24] <Shiral> good writing, kk
[18:24] <Harvey> Good night KK.
[18:24] <the_Bee> nighters kk
[18:24] <RainbowDragon> Do the animals in the Deryni world think actual
thoughts or is it mostly emotions?
[18:24] <Martine> Rowena's taken off for John and more fertile ground
<G>
[18:24] <Martine> Good night, Katherine!
[18:24] <Shiral> I hope inspiration strikes and keeps it up!
[18:25] <Shiral> Sleep well, in the meantime
[18:25] <KK> Take care, y'all. And hug your kitties and puppies and
other loved ones. :-)
[18:25] <Martine> RD, if cats can have a meow vocabulary of nearly 200
object words, I think they have actual thoughts in our world.
[18:25] <Bynw> night Katherine!
[18:25] <RainbowDragon> Goodnight, KK
[18:25] <Martine> We just probably wouldn't understand them :-)
[18:25] <Shiral> Give Sasha an ear scritch from me
[18:25] * KK steps onto her Portal, waves good night, and disappears in
a shower of green sparkles.
[18:25] <Mistyck> I know dogs too
[18:25] <Mistyck> do
[18:25] <Martine> Yes! Spoil Sasha rotten!
[18:25] <Shiral> bye, kk
[18:25] <Mistyck> extra lovings for Sasha from all of us
[18:25] <TerryOBrien> Cats vocabulary: feed me, pet me, aren't I cute?
and where's the fish?
[18:25] <Shiral> Give him some sardines!
[18:26] <Martine> lol, terry!
[18:26] * KK Quit
[18:26] * KK has left IRC