Author: Stephanie Booth

Flexible [en]

I’m amazed at how easily Bagha adapted to his temporary home up in the mountains. The first day he was exploring his new territory, and the second day he was making friends with all the camp children.
He did give me a little fright, though, when he stayed out half of the first night. I was really afraid the screaming-and-running children might have scared him off.
Of course, I was wrong – I always worry too much about wandering cats – and Bagha is not the kind of chap to be scared away by a bunch of noisy humans.

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Underground Web [en]

Just when I was thinking I had absolutely no excuse to use my new little toy (i.e., blogger), I stumbled upon Zeldman‘s Second Site column, a commented list of cutting-edge sites, or the Underground of the web.

This gives me a little excuse to let you know that not much is happening in my life (so I won’t say too much about it). Work is OK (I almost manage to do a day’s work in half a day), the cat is looking increasingly forward to strolling in the grass again (though he still doesn’t know it will happen soon!), and my father (my own father!) asked me where I had copied my Thoughts from.

So, let it be said once again, loud and clear: I wrote them. There : )

I will be away during next week, cooking food for a bunch of little scouts, so don’t expect much posting around here.

And while I’m at it, to give you something to do while I’m away, I’ve uploaded another song in the music section, with the lyrics.
Very nice song. Check it out!

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Futile but funny [en]

I did the weekly shopping this afternoon (Switzerland is a country that still has closing hours for shops – 6 or 7 pm weekdays, 5 pm saturday, and sunday clo-osed). Back in the kitchen, as I was waiting for my groceries to walk into the fridge on their own, I noticed Bagha looking at me in a queer way.

Damn! I forgot to buy the cat-food.
Got back in the car, went back to the shop, stopped at the doggy-kitty department. While I was hesitating between beef, chicken or tuna flavoured meat mash for the perpetually hungry feline, I noticed a little sign upon one of the tins.
It said “spoon included”. Yep. You know, the little plastic ones they sell with ice-cream cups so you can feast on them right away.
I immediately imagined Bagha opening the cupboard and catching one of his tins (he’s smart enough to do that), peeling the lid off, and using the little plastic spoon to eat his snack…

HA!

Of course, the spoon is meant for the owner, silly – not for the cat. Cat owners don’t want to run the risk of getting smelly meat-mash juice on their fingers when dumping their kitty’s dinner on the plate.

How on earth have we survived until now without those marvellous little plastic spoons?

I remember the days when we needed a tin-opener to feed the cat…

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Secret [en]

Your words will not give your secret away.
Your silence will.

A secret leaks through what you leave unsaid.

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Intimacy [en]

As you grow more intimate with somebody, whether a friend or a lover, that person’s dark side takes more importance.

People show their darker shades only to those they feel close to. If you cannot deal with somebody’s dark side, then you will most probably never be able to be really close.

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Reverse Culture Shock [en]

Things I could not have seen in India:

  • A few weeks back, a man at the bus stop was spending his waiting time chasing cigarette butts into the gutter, systematically, undisturbed by curious onlookers. Now you understand why Switzerland is a clean country.
  • Two days ago, a woman in the (clean) toilets at my workplace dropped her purse on the floor near the sink. She actually took a piece of paper to pick up the purse with.
    She was doing something with her ham sandwich before that – I now suspect she was washing and drying the ham.

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Communicating [en]

To communicate, people need to be standing on the same ground. Too often, conversation is flawed, because we think we are on the same ground, but the reality is that each person’s ground is different.
By clarifying which parts of our ground are different, we can understand better where and why we disagree.

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Outlook Beware [en]

[fr] Twitter n'envoie dès à présent plus de SMS aux utilisateurs basés hors des Etats-Unis, du Canada, et de l'Inde: trop cher. Oui, ça veut dire que même vos DM ne vous parviennent plus sur votre téléphone. Très déçue et embêtée par ce changement assez important dans l'intégration de mes communications online et offline.

Some versions of Outlook and Outlook express can be vulnerable to viruses that act as the mail headers are read, i.e. even without you opening the message or the attachment. The good news is that a patch is available.

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Flat and Car [en]

I got my flat!
Bagha is happy, although he doesn’t know it yet, because in a bit more than two weeks he will be allowed outside again.
My collegues at work saw me leap in the air with joy as I received the news by phone.

I also found a cheap car. Car, flat, cat, job and studies awaiting me in October… what could I ask more?

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Astounding [en]

I’m posting quite regularly at Astounding these days.
I also discovered CitizenX – a rather cool place to hang out. Contact me if you need my nickname at any of these two places ; ).

Two personal sites caught my interest:

  • First, [the bwg update]. After having spent a year in India, the site of a person living in Hong Kong could only interest me.
  • Second, CannBoys. Though I must admit I didn’t spend much time on the main parts of the site, I had a really good time (so did my brother!) trashing the web.

Apart from that web-news, I have started work. The three first days of instruction were a bit of a bore – the kind of days that leave me wishing I was a little less swift and a trifle more dumb.
Lots of time spent amongst students, professors and other smart people can make you forget what the Real World Mind is like.

Update 01.06.2004: Astounding is long gone, as its (short-lived) successor Fathom5. It was nice while it lasted.

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