I got cat class and I got cat style…

A couple of new Web 2.0 applications have come across my desk in the last few days:

First, thanks to the ever wise Reverend Jim, I am now on Facebook. If you’re there, you can find me here (or with the new Facebook badge in the sidebar). If you’re not on there yet, you should be; it’s like MySpace, only without all the ugly and the silliness.

Second, thanks to Cory, this blog now has a loop. Loopnotes is a neat little application that lets you set up notification loops. Think of them as high tech calling trees, only that each person in the tree gets to decide how they receive the message (text message, IM, email, RSS feed), and only one person has to actually pass on the message. Cory uses it to notify all the coaches in the local youth soccer league of game schedule changes. I’ve set up a loop for this blog so that you can get notified, via your chosen method, whenever I post a new article. Go on, sign up. You know you want to.

On an unrelated note, regular readers may remember I’ve been having problems with my iPod. TechRestore did a great job replacing the faulty hard-drive, but, about a week after I got it back, it started doing what it was doing before. Suspecting that it was a problem with the battery (which would barely hold a charge for more than a couple of hours anymore), I ordered a very inexpensive battery kit, which came with the tools to open the iPod, and replaced the battery. It’s working like a champ now. My guess is that as the battery drained, the voltage would drop enough to not allow the hard-drive to function properly.

On a final note, for tonight, I pass on the funniest thing I’ve seen this week. To understand this tale, there must be a little stage setting. We have, sharing our humble abode, three dogs (all at or near seventy pounds each), and two cats (there are other animals but they aren’t relevant to this story). So our cats don’t starve, we keep their food bowls up on our dinning room table (the dogs can’t reach up there), on a tray to keep everything nice and neat. On the one or two days a week I am fortunate enough to work from home, I work at the self-same dinning room table (with the leaf in it seats eight comfortably … it’s a big table) because it’s a nice airy room, is central to the house, has lots of outlets, and gets the best cell reception.

Recently I have been given a Blackberry, as my new position with the company requires it. The Blackberry makes new and apparently frightening sounds. I was quietly working, the Blackberry at my side on the table, when Khan, our sixteen-year-old orange tabby, jumped up to eat. As he was eating the Blackberry went off, vibrating against the table like a rattlesnake. Khan jumped so high and so hard that the whole table shook. He then stared, pupils completely blown, not at the Blackberry, but at his food bowl. When the Blackberry vibrated again, almost immediately, he spit out the food he still had in his mouth and tore off. I think we’re going to have to get him a new bowl. He’s convinced his current one is mad at him.