Bradley's Old Fashioned Weblog

Recent updates

  • Green Sign Cat Litter Is Horrible!

    Green Sign Cat Litter Is Horrible!

    I know it’s kind of odd to actually write a post about litter, but I just wanted to mention this to hopefully save someone else some hassle and wasted money.

    I got this Green Sign litter at the local pet shop. I normally buy Fussy Cat, but I saw this sitting out on display so to speak with a sale tag on it. Normal price: 24 SGD. Sale price: 12 SGD. So, I thought, ‘Hey, it’s on sale! Something that normally costs 24 bucks has to be good right?‘ So I grabbed a bag and went up to the counter. I did ask the girl there if the litter was good, and she said that it’s supposed to be good for the environment. I told her that I’m not really interested in that. I just wanted to know if it was good for cats. She gave some ambiguous answer that I can’t remember at the moment and I proceeded to buy it.

    In retrospect, my first thought shouldn’t have been, ‘It usually costs 24 bucks so it must be good.‘ My first thought should have been, ‘It’s on sale for more than half off. Why?‘

    Well, I found out why.

    1. My cats hated it. They actually refused to use the litterbox for over a day. I was getting worried they would crap or pee on the floor somewhere so I had to put them both in a cage with a litterbox full of this stuff until they used it. I later found out that cats get partial to their litter type and don’t like to switch up. So, that may have been part of it, but the whole time I had it I swear they ate less and went to the litterbox less. So, why didn’t I just dump it and get the regular litter? Well, litter isn’t cheap, and Fussy Cat isn’t light either. They just had to deal with it until it was time to get fresh litter.

    2. The stuff is MESSY!

    As you can see from this lovely image, it does clump… sort of. What actually happens is that it turns into a green gel like substance that adheres to the bottom of the litter box and has to be scraped off with your scooper. In fact… I still have to clean my scooper now that I think about it. (I just replaced the litter today.)

    3. Cats play with the darndest things. These weird litter pellets seemed to fascinate them in ways I hadn’t anticipated. The cats were very quick to dip their paw into the box, pull out a few pieces, and then play kick with them all over the place. I’m sure I’ll be finding these litter pellets under and behind furniture for weeks. Fussy Cat (sand-type) litter isn’t much better, but at least it doesn’t give cats the notion that it’s a toy.

    So, save yourself some time and bucks and avoid this fancy enviro-friendly junk. Just stick with your regular sand-type litter. Oh, and Fussy Cat is great! It really helps to reduce odor, and it clumps up very nicely.

  • “D” for what?

    “D” for what?

    My wife related an interesting story to me the other day that I thought I’d share.

    We’ve all had conversations on the phone where we’ve been asked to spell something out so the other person can make sure they’re copying it correctly. We say things like, “A as in Apple,” “B as in Boy,” and “C as in Cat.” Now… maybe it’s different where you’re from but I’ve always said “D as in Dog.” That’s what’s normal right?

    Well, often times when you’re in another country you come across things that may be normal for that country, but they just sound odd, or even hilarious to you. This is one of those things.

    My wife was on the phone with a local man, and the man was spelling something for her. Just to make sure she had heard correctly, she asked the man, “Is that ‘D’ as in Dog, sir?”

    So….

    So, what do they say in Singapore?

    “No, ‘D’! D, for…

    Donkey!”

    Maybe Shrek wasn’t such a big film here, but in the US it’s well known to the point that almost everyone associates the word Donkey with the film. Apparently that’s the case in the Philippines as well, but not here! When my wife told me this story, I just couldn’t help but hear the phrase in my head, but with Shrek’s voice. “D for Donkey!”

  • Do Video Games Cause Violence?

    Do Video Games Cause Violence?

    I know this is an old topic, but I just wanted to say my piece.

    There has been a lot of controversy in the US about video games and the effect they have on kids. Some parents complain that video games loaded with violence give kids the impression that it is an appropriate way to solve their problems.

    This whole concept of blaming video games seems to have sparked off with the incident at Columbine High School, which, by the way, has spawned its own video game called Super Columbine Massacre RPG. The parents of the victims were looking for someone to blame, which is only natural, and somehow they latched onto video games and movies as the source of the two offenders aggression. These parents went so far as to attempt to sue the makers of video games and movies for their supposed influence in the Columbine incident. Thankfully, their suit was thrown out as ridiculous.

    Do video games contain a lot of violence? Well, sure they do. Violence and action are the main staples of some of the most popular video games ever to come out, like first-person-shooters Doom and Halo. There’s also the wildly popular Grand Theft Auto series which, as the name implies, focuses on stealing cars and also involves crime-filled storyline scenarios and prostitution, among other things. Even the MMO genre has its share of violence. Most of the more popular MMOs incorporate some form of PvP (player versus player) combat into their gameplay.

    So, does that mean video games are to blame for inappropriate behavior? Well, no, it doesn’t. Responsibility always falls back on the person who commits the act, and on the parents if the person is a child. I grew up playing video games. As an adult I’ve played a lot of violent video games as well. I’ve also seen a lot of violent, gory, criminal things on television, in the movies, and in real life, both as a kid and as an adult. So, does that mean I can go kill someone and then blame it on video games? Can I say TV made me do it? Get real. People are set above animals for a reason. We are sentient. We can think. We can assimilate new information and come to logical conclusions. It is up to each person to use that knowledge appropriately. Just because I’ve seen someone die on TV from a shotgun blast to the face doesn’t mean that it’s something I should do too. I’ve also seen the Roadrunner run through a wall with a road and scenery painted on it. I’m not going to do that crap either. If someone can’t distinguish between fiction and reality, that’s not a matter of the media they’ve been exposed to. It’s a matter of a mental disorder.

    In the case of children and childrens behavior, the responsibility ultimately lies with the parents. If parents don’t want their children playing violent video games, then maybe they should take an active role in their child’s life and monitor what they have access to. Either watch or research what they’re planning on watching and make a yes or no decision. Check out the music they’re listening to and decide on whether or not you think it’s right for them. Oh, and those labels on the covers of video games (and the ratings on movies for that matter) are there for a reason. They don’t get marked “Mature” because they involve calculus, you know.

    On top of keeping track of what your kid is seeing, doing, and listening to, another great idea might be to get involved in your kids life. Remind them that you’re not just their parent, you’re their friend. Ask them how they feel. Ask them about problems they’re having. Tell them they don’t have to be embarrassed with you because you may have been through it too. Emphasize “may” so they don’t think you’re being condescending. If they want to see or listen to something you object to, ask them why they like it. Just… talk to them. If parents talk to their kids more and develop a better relationship with them, then I’m sure most of these crazy things that happen (like Columbine) can be avoided. The biggest thing to remember is that kids should be respected too.

    Then again, this all makes too much sense, and we’re living in a time when common sense just isn’t so common anymore.

  • Clerks 2 Meets Silence of the Lambs

    Silence of the Lambs, Buffalo Bill Dance:

    Now, Jay’s version in the movie Clerks 2 (which is a must see by the way):

    Priceless

  • My Cat is in Heat

    A few days ago, we noticed that one of our cats, Bouncy, was acting funny. She was being a lot more affectionate than usual. Typically, this cat is the epitome of the aloof bitch cat. So, we were wondering what had happened. She was even coming to us and rubbing against our legs.

    This went on for two days, and then she started making these weird mewling noises in the night. I was beginning to wonder if she was sick, and then it dawned on me. She’s about 8 months old. Maybe she was in heat? Sure enough, that’s what it is! Today, she started assuming the position and scuttling around with her butt in the air. It’s kinda weird really. It’s like my cat is hitting on me. To make things more interesting, we have a male kitten in the house. He’s only two months old, but Bouncy apparently thought he could satisfy her urges. She started laying down near him with her butt in the air. Being a kitten though, Timmy was only worried about one thing. He wanted to PLAY! So, when she poked her butt up at him, he bit and swatted her tail. Then he started slapping her cootchie. She didn’t like that much. She would scoot forward a bit, meowing strangely, and then poke her butt back up in the air.

    We wanted to double check, to make sure it was actually her being in heat and not some weird cat illness, so we looked it up on the internet and found the following information on About.com:

    • Immediately preceding oestrus, your female cat may become unusually affectionate, by sidling up and rubbing her hind quarters against furniture, stuffed toys, other cats, and/or her favorite human.
    • She may spend excessive time licking her genital area. Note: Lacking the other behavioral traits on this list, genital licking can be a symptom of a urinary tract disorder, which can be serious if not treated promptly.
    • The Queen (name for female cats of breeding age) will vocalize loudly. This “calling” may go on for several days, unless she mates.
    • She will assume a mating position: head down, forelegs bent, rear quarters raised to expose the perineum (this raised posture is called lordosis), with the tail raised and held to the side of the body. Her rear legs will tread rhythmically, as if walking in place.
    • Queenie may also spray vertical surfaces with a strongly scented fluid. She will accomplish this by backing up to the surface and raising her tail high. The tail may quiver, and she may perform the rhythmic treading described in step four.
    • If your female cat does not mate, she will go into oestrus as often as every two to three weeks, for several months each year, until she either mates or is spayed.

     

    We also found the following tips:

    • Unless she is a qualified pedigreed breeder, your female cat should be spayed. It will not only cease the uncomfortable heat cycles, but prevent certain serious medical problems.
    • Your veterinarian may be able to give your female cat hormones to stop the oestrus, if spaying is not immediately possible.
    • Female cats as young as four months can go into oestrus.

     

    So, bad news for Bouncy! Looks like she’s in an “uncomfortable heat cycle” and will have to get her junk chopped up in the near future. Poor Bouncy. At least she’ll get a cool ear tattoo out of the deal. (Spayed/nuetered cats in Singapore either get their ear clipped, or get an ear tattoo to indicate completion of the procedure).

    I managed to get some of it on video, so for your viewing pleasure:

    Horny Cat, Playful Kitten

  • Itim Na Pusa Photo Update 2

    Itim Na Pusa Photo Update 2

    My, my! Look how Timmy’s grown! He’s getting so big so fast! He’s a really good cat. I wasn’t sure about him at first, but now he’s very energetic and playful. Our other two cats have both taken a liking to him. My wife is really fond of him too. What’s best about Timmy is his poses. I’ll try to get some pictures of that later. When he sees something that interests him he stretches his neck to look and his eyes get really really big! I’ll try to get some photos of that for next time. The only thing about Timmy that disappointed me is that his bright blue eyes turned green. A black cat with bright blue eyes would have been really cool. Still, a black cat is neat. Sometimes he’ll sleep on a black blanket, or in a shaded spot and you won’t even see him til you’re almost standing on him. It’s fun, but sometimes it scares my wife. We’ll be laying on our bed, watching a horror movie, and all of a sudden Timmy will pop up out of the shadows next to her and startle her. I think it’s funny…


  • Itim Na Pusa Photo Update

    Itim Na Pusa Photo Update

    By request, I’m giving a photo update on how Itim Na Pusa is doing.

    Itim, or now sometimes Timmy for short, seems to be doing better since he got here. He’s a lot more playful and active. He cleaned up nice too. One strange thing about him is how he likes to stand in his food while he eats.

    This kitten is small. I don’t think it’s supposed to be off milk yet, so we’ve been giving it soft food. The problem is, I think it eats when it’s hungry and eats when it’s thirsty too. It doesn’t seem to visit the water bowl much. When we run out of wet food it’s gonna be hurtin, because he’ll have to eat dry food, which he probably won’t want to do. This wet food is necessary, but it’s gonna spoil him. The other cats are jealous of him too. They only get wet food for treats.

    Of the two cats the only one that seems to have accepted him at all is Dapper. She kicks him around sometimes and lets him walk around behind her, or sleep near her. Bouncy on the other hand either runs from the kitten or hisses and growls and then runs. I don’t understand what her problem is, except that now she’s the least favorite.

    And one other interesting thing about Itim is when he sleeps on my lap he really relaxes and stretches out.

    So, he seems to be fitting in ok. Bouncy is a bitch. She doesn’t really like anything. She doesn’t even like it much when Dapper tries to play with her, and they’ve known each other for months. I just wonder how we’re going to convince him to start eating dry food.

  • ITIM na pusa!

    ITIM na pusa!

    A few days ago, a kitten that my wife took in named Fievel died on us. We hadn’t really expected him to live long. He was in bad shape. The person she took him from had found him in a pile of garbage, and was planning on throwing him back in, but she agreed to take him instead. She wanted Fievel to die warm, happy, and fed, if he was going to die. Unfortunately, he did die. I suppose that left a gap that my wife wanted to fill, so she found a new kitten to adopt.

    Originally, she was supposed to adopt a kitten named Nala that was 3 months old. We’re still not sure what happened to Nala, or why the person we were going to get her from chose to offer us this cat instead, but she did. It seemed like an amusing twist of fate though. Here’s why:

    My wife is from the Philippines and of course she speaks Tagalog. She’s been trying to get me to learn some of it, and it’s an interesting language. I’ve always wanted to speak a second language. I studied Spanish for a while too, because my mom’s side of the family speaks it. I could probably perfect my Spanish with enough diligence, but I haven’t been able to muster up the desire to do it yet. Anyways, my wife seems intent on me learning some Tagalog, so I started studying it on my own a bit. I acquired a copy of a program called Rosetta Stone. Rosetta Stone is a language learning software for most any language you can think of. It’s a fantastic program and you can learn another language in leaps and bounds with it. I highly recommend it!

    Learning a new language always starts with the basics: numbers, dates, simple words, and of course, colors. After you learn a few of those basic words it starts teaching you simple phrases based on what you already know, to start teaching you sentence structure. One phrase was “Itim na pusa.” This was coupled with things like “puti na ibon” and “dilaw na isda.” My wife would come home sometimes and ask me if I’d learned anything new. So, I would tell her a few phrases and she would get a laugh out of it.

    One day we were walking from the hawker area back to our place. We were almost at the elevator doors, when I looked over and saw a cat laying down on the cement, looking at me. I wasn’t really thinking about it, but I pointed and said, in a loud, confident voice, “ITIM na pusa!” My wife looked at me, then looked where I was pointing and had a great laugh over it. I started laughing too. The cat didn’t seem to care, but after that I would say “ITIM na pusa!” every time I saw it. It became sort of a joke, and sometimes she would ask me to say it even when we were just sitting around the house. I guess the way I say it is amusing.

    So, like I was saying earlier, we were supposed to get a cat named Nala from the woman my wife had contacted. When the woman showed up, she showed up with a black cat. After the usual chatter about taking care of it, and if it needed wet or dry food, etc, etc, my wife asked if the cat had a name yet. The woman replied that no, it didn’t. So, my wife said she thought I had a name for it. I looked at the cat and said, “ITIM na pusa!” We were laughing about it, but the joke went over the lady’s head. She’s Singaporean, so she didn’t understand the Tagalog.

    Now, this cat has a sentence for a name, but it’s still amusing. His name is “Itim na pusa,” or Itim for short. For anyone who hasn’t worked it out, “Itim na pusa” means something like “The black cat,” or the “The cat is black.” I think “pusang itim” would be “black cat.” This is the first cat we have that we’ve named ourselves, and it’s great to have a reason and a story to go behind it.

  • Fievel Goes To Heaven

    Fievel Goes To Heaven

    This morning I was sitting at my computer in the room after just having gotten out of bed, checking my e-mail. My wife came in and said in a serious tone, “Fievel is gone.” She was trying to be tough, but then she sat down on my knee and broke down, saying that she was so sad. So, I asked where Fievel was, and she told me that he was in the living room, in a small box she had lined with towels so he could rest in the sunlight while she was cooking lunch.

    We went out to the living room and I saw the box sitting on the couch. I shifted the towels and saw Fievel laying there on his side. He could have been sleeping, but his chest wasn’t moving. I poked at him a bit, tickled his belly and rubbed the back of his head, but he didn’t move. So, I picked him up and listened for breath and felt for a heartbeat, but he truly was dead.

    We got Fievel just over a week ago. Someone had abandoned him in a pile of garbage and one of my wife’s coworkers picked him up. Well, actually her dog picked him up, but she brought him home, and my wife, being the cat lover that she is, volunteered to take Fievel in, in the hopes that he would recover. She went over to her friend’s house after a long day at work and brought Fievel home.

    When I first saw Fievel he was in pretty bad shape. He was filthy and crying. He was crapping blood and struggling weakly. He cried quite a bit too. We did what we could for him. We gave him a bath in warm water to clean him up and made sure he ate. The strange thing was that he didn’t want to eat. We had to force him to drink special kitten milk that we got for him. For a few days Fievel seemed to improve. The bloody crapping stopped and he seemed to get stronger, but then I noticed that he had a serious infection in one of his eyes. There was quite a bit of pus, which I tried my best to clean up. He still seemed to be doing ok though, and I still had hopes he might recover. Yesterday though, my opinion of the situation changed. Fievel had been keeping his infected eye closed, which is understandable, but yesterday I noticed that he was keeping both of his eyes closed and when I checked I realized that the infection had spread. He couldn’t walk anymore either. When he tried to, he would fall over and then he seemed too weak to be able to get up. He would try, then fall back over and pass out where he was. I talked to Margee about it and we were considering whether taking him to the vet was a good idea, or whether it was just too late. Then this morning, my wife took him to the living room to get some sun. She sat there for a bit, petting him, and he seemed to take comfort from that. He meowed weakly a few times and settled into the towel, and then he died.

    At least we can be satisfied that we took him in and gave him a chance to live, when someone else had simply thrown him in the garbage. We kept him as comfortable as we could and made sure that he was fed. We held him often, because he liked it so much. He even purred when cradled in one of our arms, which I thought was amusing. The kitten was so small, but it already knew how to purr. One of our other cats, Dapper, was finally getting over her jealousy and was taking a liking to Fievel. She would stop by the carrier we were keeping him in to check on him, and would often walk up and give Fievel a few sniffs when he was exploring the floor. So, at least Fievel died comfortable and knowing that someone was caring for him. How cruel would it have been to leave him in the trash, to die alone in the heat, or to be eaten by something?

    My wife prepared a shoebox and I gently laid Fievel into it. Then she covered him with a cloth and some newspaper and then I taped up the box, and wrote a few words on it. While she went to finish preparing lunch, I took Fievel out and placed him into the trash chute. It seemed a wrong and almost disrespectful way to send him on his way, but where in Singapore do you bury pets? It doesn’t matter much though, Fievel was already gone. Still, I hesitated when it came time to push the chute closed.

    I suppose he chose a good time to go. My wife happened to be off from work today. At least she was here to spend some time with him and she got to see him off. I’m sure she would have felt worse if she had been at work and I had told her what had happened when she got home. We didn’t have Fievel long, but he had become part of our little family. I was never too interested in cats, but it’s hard to have any pet and see it die, no matter how short a time you’ve had it. It’s even harder to have a young pet die on you. This is the first time I remember having a pet pass away on me since my hamster died in Germany when I was a kid. I still remember my dad burying it in the woods there. I’m consoled by the fact that we did our best for Fievel and he died comfortably.

  • Shokudo

    Shokudo

    This sign wasn’t thought through to well was it? I took this photo last night while my wife and I were walking up and down Orchard Road looking at the Christmas decorations and taking pictures. We were coming out of one of the malls where we’d stopped to have dinner at Subway. When we saw the sign we both cracked up laughing!

    Apparently there’s a new Shokudo establishment that has just opened, but what exactly is on the menu? Judging by where the illustrated guy’s hand is, do I really want to know? Shall we have one serving or two?

    My wife told me I should write about it. Shokudo definitely serves… interesting… food. A couple of months ago a new Shokudo Japanese Pasta restaurant opened at a mall downtown near Orchard Road. I think it’s called Cineliesure Orchard. When I had first come here in March for a few weeks we saw that it was being built. It looked like it was going to be a well set up restaurant and we were excited to see what it was going to be. So, a few months ago when it was finally open we went to check it out. The name of the place kind of put us off. Who associates Japan with fine pasta? There was a long line of people waiting to eat there though, so we thought it must be great! We were disappointed, unfortunately.

    The service there was great. I’ll give them that. The employees are friendly, attentive, and our food was brought to us without much of a wait. Plus, it’s in a great location. Depending on where you sit you can look out onto the street below, which is usually bustling with people, or you can look out on the mall. The mall is designed so that the center is open from top to bottom, with stores around the outside edge of the building. You can see quite a bit from the railings, and from the tables in Shokudo. The prices were a bit steep, but from what we’d seen of the restaurant we took it in stride. Most good restaurants have high prices here. The food itself was the let down. I can’t comment on what my wife ate, except that she said it wasn’t very good. She didn’t even finish half of the dish. My dish had a bland, homogeneous taste. The whole thing tasted the same, from the sauce and what was in it to the pasta. It all had an overbearing, unpleasant fishy taste to it. I didn’t finish my meal either.

    So, that was the first and last time we went to Shokudo. Now, for all of our pasta needs, we stick with Pastamania. It’s cheaper by half, and twice as good. Not to mention that there’s a Pastamania in sight of this Shokudo restaurant. The Cathay Cineleisure has a great movie theater in it. It’s the one we go to the most. It advertises that it has the only fully THX certified sound system in Singapore. Plus, it’s comfortable and shows all the new movies. So, when we want to eat pasta before we watch our movie, Pastamania is where we go.