Cat on my stomach (lucky it’s ample)

I like the way Mr Bats drops in on my stomach for a pre-dinner chat. Thankfully it’s ample so it’s like sitting on a cushion. Despite the need to hammer the keyboard, I embrace the moment.

Mr Bats was born in Dec 2003 (estim.) so he’s nine years old now. He originates from Geylang Bahru and escaped the hysterical roundup and killing of cats during SARS thanks to Cat Welfare Society.

He’s the most emotional cat of the three boys and likes to snuggle up the most, so I can’t be overseas too long at any one time without worrying about him. What a dog!

Pet Lover’s Foundation Dry Food Donation Drive in aid of cats and dogs, 14-30 Dec 2012

Friends posting the Dry Food Donation Drive flyer on Facebook had me look out for this when I visited Pet Lovers Centre at Holland Village just now. I was there to pick up dry food for my three cats and looked for the poster. I need’t have as counter staff were alert and helpful, had all the details and the transactions were completed in seconds.

I thought this co-sponsorship is pretty neat. The animal welfare groups receive their preferred feeds and delivery is settled.

From the PLC webpage: Pet Lovers Foundation is celebrating Christmas through its fifth Dry Food Donation Drive from 14 – 30 December 2012 in benefit of cats and dogs with Animal Lovers League (ALL), Action for Singapore Dogs (ASD) and Cat Welfare Society (CWS). The CWS donations are directed to cats at Metta Cats, Lily Low Shelter and OrphanCats.

Altogether 6,664.50 kg of dry food was donated last year and the target this year is 8,000 kg of dry food. The purchase of dry food you make is co-sponsored and donated to the care of stray and abandoned animals.

Make the purchase at any Pet Lovers Centre stores or call 1800-PETFOOD (1800-7383663).

For more information, see the PLC webpage,

Company during marking – Xylo the cat

As a practised overnighter, I lose track of time and it is usually Xylo who reminds me daybreak is a crepuscular way, by settling on my trackpad with his warm stomach and suffocating any attempts by my hand to continue gesturing.

Company during marking – Tiger the Cat

I have loads to mark every end-Nov – early Dec, during which I throw in a Sungei Buloh Aniversary Walk.

So that meant many late nights marking the 500+ scripts of essays and short answers I determinedly set for my 1st, 2nd and 3rd year students, instead of chickening out with MCQs which machines will add up for us – a fantasy I often imagine in the midst of marking. Well, thankfully not while setting exam questions as these offer a better insight into student understanding for changes to teaching the following year.

Well, the cats love all the late night activity, and like when I am up nights preparing lecture material, they keep me company.

Tiger the cat never just sits companionably by my side, instead he first plops himself on the exam papers rouses his tail to sweep over pages, head-butts me and mews, twists and turns, demanding the massages he has been receiving since he was a kitten.

He’ll scrunch his head up around his muzzle until I inevitably relent. His massage requires concentration and I run up and down his spine, so I take a break while working on him. Cat wins every time.

There is always one more thing…

With three concurrent modules, it would be best to leave some lecture slides alone, that was the plan. If they are good enough, surely they can survive without tweaks?

But most things can be improved, and science is hardly stagnant. Well, even my public talks get edited each time, no matter how many times I have done some topics.

Mr Bats is mostly resigned about these ovenight sessions

This inevitably means going hungry in front of the mac. And the cats will have to remind me about mealtimes – theirs.

For an explanation during lectures can be clearer, a better delivery attempted, a conversation with a student prompts an idea or clarification, there is recent research to add to mix, an idea has been enhanced or weakened, a better image avails itself, recent news can be incorporated…

And then suddenly, its 4am.

Mr Bats is sitting on Yoda (arrowed) and with Xylo stalk me
in demand of dinner. Slide says predator deterrence.

After the edits, what to chuck out since an early finish is desired for some students to get to U Town. But the socratic method is time-costly. But third year students deserve encouragement to think.

This morning, there was no relaxing cup of coffee but more edits. Then I jumped into a cab because I had lost track of time. By this time, I had inserted a photo of Mr Kinky Tail the Civet from Weiting honours year study, to show his masked face, suggested to be “sunglasses” typical of crepuscular and riparian animals who deal with a harsh glare.

In the taxi, I thought of the banded-leaf monkey we saw in the forest. It was difficult to get a clear photo of its face, as it dodged behind branches and trunks, just enough to break the line of sight with me.

Very much like the anti-predator behaviour I describe on one slide.

So hunt, hunt, hunt for the slide on my Mac Book Pro, while advising the taxi driver of the best route to take. “Not that lane, most cars will turn into NUH”, and then get him to slow down at Lower Kent Ridge Road. “Don’t run down my students!”

I got to the LT at 9:57am. Thankfully, everything worked.

Then in the afternoon, amidst a meeting, I realised I had approached the earlier two lectures all wrong! So immediately, I made plans to reorganise next year’s lectures. And I’ve just about figured out how.

Self-healing Mac

The Mac Book Pro never fails to surprise me, and did so this time not through its OS but in an entirely different area.

A few weeks ago after an ICCS meeting, it tumbled off a table in LS Lab 7 at NUS. It landed on its edge and despite the encasement of the messenger bag it was in, appeared dented.

Back home, a blue sheen greeted me, which I ignored to carry on working. Eventually the screen gave up its ghost and was dark. I borrowed Civetgirl’s MacBookAir to run Keynote at my ecology lecture. At work, I used an external monitor since the hard disk and CPU were still whirring

By the second ecology lecture after the mishap, the MacBook Pro had somehow revived. Leaving it plugged in and alone had worked!

Or maybe the cat fixed it.

Oddly enough, the external monitor at work has blacked out. It seems while it was a primary display, the MacBook Pro sucked out all its mojo, like a Dementor. I know how that feels.

“I fix external monitors too”

Making inescapable computer time bearable

It’s always like this in October before my FIVE-phyla lecture in LSM1103 Biodiversity!

2011

2009

Xylo demands dinner

If ever a cat had X-ray eyes, it would be Xylo. This photo is flattering to my fat boy who is the most rotund and persistent of the three cats when it comes to meals. He provides an excellent alarm service in the mornings, probably sensing when the spirit is in denial and the flesh is weak.

The best images of him in my mind’s eye, though, are of him rolling about on the rough tiles of the corridor to scratch his back in complete abandon. Read about him from six years ago when he found me in the mangrove.

Bishan’s Xylo (the cat) look alike

Civetgirl Weiting spots him again. He’s a stray, cared for and gladdens the hearts of passerbys.

As an outdoors cat, he’ll live about half as long as an indoors cat, exposed to the ravages of the harsh world, but it’s a richer and more stimulating life.

Which would you think you’d prefer?

Photo by Xu Weiting, via What’s App, after we return from our First Aid test at Penang Lane.

Xylo the Cat

Photo by Xu Weiting [05 Jun 2012].