The Misadventures of Jynx the Kitten, Chapter Two: Jynx vs. My Computer

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Jynx: 1, Computer: 0.

Tonight’s feline insanity started while we were watching Star Trek — the episode where Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock go up against a planet full of nuclear-armed Space Nazis.

Apparently, cats — or, at least, this cat — find Nazis disturbing, which, of course, they were — and will be again, if they appear in the 23rd Century . . . because some half-crazed future historian went and violated the Prime Directive, becoming, a few years later, a fully-crazed future historian. Jynx was so incredibly disturbed by the Space Nazis, in fact, that he bounced over pillows and blankets, in a series of nicely Newtonian . . .


&^ (Stop that, Jynx!)

. . . parabolic arcs, to land on my computer. He then proceeded to pause the episode — then close my browser (the picture-moment, with my wife laughing hysterically as she took it), and finally tried to bite the heads off several Space Nazis as the screen slowly darkened. After due consideration, Jynx decided this was not enough, and so, next, he reached out a paw, and quickly turned my computer completely off. A smug look followed. You haven’t seen a look this smug, unless, maybe, you’ve also seen one on the face of a kitten.

Getting it (my computer, not Jynx) turned back on was not easy. For a little while, in fact, I thought Jynx had destroyed the Internet. In reality, the Internet had been fine all along, for this picture, taken a little earlier, with a tablet, got to my e-mail account almost instantly. It took much longer, however, for me to actually get to my e-mail account.

My computer now has tiny bite marks all over it, and plays Radiohead’s song “2 + 2 = 5” so slowly that it’s turned the song into “1.5 + 1.5 = π” – and that song sounds terrible.

I hope my computer lives long enough for this post to make it to my blog. In the meantime, Jynx reigns — OW! — triumphant.

[2016 update: that computer is now officially dead. Jynx the Cat lives on.]

Names for Black Cats and Kittens

Once our new kitten came home today, I asked my Facebook-friends for suggestions for a name. That particular, very simple status message (“Name suggestions for a black kitten, please?”) now has well over fifty comments. In alphabetical order, here are most of the names which have been mentioned, so far, in that lengthy conversation. The kitten, by the way, is male.

  • Akiko
  • Aleister
  • Bear
  • Bluebird
  • Box
  • Cantabell
  • Chunk
  • Cinder
  • Coco
  • Darwin
  • Dark Chocolate Thunder
  • Demon
  • Dingus
  • Doom Kitty
  • Eisenhower
  • Eris
  • Feline X
  • Felix
  • Flip
  • Friday
  • Graphite
  • Grimm
  • Helga
  • Helicopter
  • Illidan Stormrage the Betrayer
  • Inkspot
  • Jesus (I’m unclear on which pronunciation of that name was being suggested)
  • Jinks
  • Jitter
  • Jynx
  • Licorice
  • Lint
  • Loudmouth
  • Lucky
  • Madalyn
  • Maleficent
  • Marley
  • Maurice
  • Michael
  • Midnight
  • Mischief
  • Moonbeam
  • Mudflap
  • Noir
  • Obama (to which I replied that, if I ever named a cat after a president, I’d go with “Thomas Jefferson”)
  • Obsidian
  • Ol’ Scratch
  • Olive
  • Oliver
  • Onyx
  • Peter
  • Puss
  • Pusschief
  • Satan
  • Shade
  • Shadow
  • Smudge
  • Snowflake
  • Spectre
  • Squirt
  • Sratch (Scratch?)
  • Sthylvether
  • Sumi
  • Thumb
  • Tyson
  • Waldo

We went with “Jynx,” with “Jynxy” as a nickname. Considering what happened, just a little later (see the post right before this one), that name turned out to be quite appropriate.

The Misadventures of Jynx the Kitten, Chapter One

We have a new kitten, and his name is Jynx. He’s between four and five months old, and has short black fur.

As the adults of the house were enjoying a nice, peaceful, Saturday afternoon nap, we were suddenly awakened by multiple crashes, along with the sound of glass breaking, from the nearby bathroom. According to eyewitness reports, my reaction was to jump straight up into the air, hair standing on end, yelling a long, colorful string of profanity, which I shall not post here. It’s difficult for me to remember what I do, or say, immediately upon waking, and I don’t want to misquote myself, you see.

As it turns out, Jynx had been running back and forth along the counter in the bathroom, trying to get to the “other kitten” in the mirror, and knocking just about everything off the counter in the process. Our evidence: horizontally-smeared, feline nose-prints, at kitten-height, on the mirror — plus a big mess, all over the bathroom floor. Jynx, having scared himself silly, is now hiding under the bed, and I’ve thrown away all the tiny glass-shards I could find.

Blog-posts here usually come with pictures, and I tried to obtain one . . . but Jynx isn’t ready to come out from under the bed yet. My camera doesn’t have a flash, and it’s pretty obvious what a “no-flash” picture of a black kitten, hiding under a bed, would look like, is it not?

Mark Twain, on Education and Cats

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Mark Twain, On Education and Cats

Cats in a Rotating Dodecahedron

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Cats in a Rotating Dodecahedron

I made this using “Stella 4d” — software you can download and try, for free, at http://www.software3d.com/stella.php