The Scratching Post

Everyone, meet Sasha. we adopted her from the local animal shelter. she’s a sweetie!

Michelle, our faithful canine family member passed away this morning. We miss her already.

Cata Pult has been working on making Cat Radio Tshirts. hopefully they will be in full production soon.

It’s such a nice feeling, waking up after being unemployed for 6 months and having a really good job offer!

we got new mountain bikes at walmart for $49.00 each! sure could use the exercise!

So back about May, my ex-wife told me that there was a possibility that her and her husband and the kids would have to move to Ohio because of hubby’s job.  We talked a little about it, and she told me she would let me know if it was going to happen.

2 days ago, she texted me, to let me know that she had a moved, and wanted to send me the new address.

WTF happened to ‘I’ll let you know if it’s going to happen’?  She was supposed to let me know BEFORE she moved, not after!  I could have gone and seen my son before he move had she told me!

Now instead of 400 miles to see him, its 2000 miles.  Of course, I could fly, or fly him here, but as I am unemployed, that makes it a wee bit difficult.

What a Bitch!!!

Christmas.  A time of year where Advertising and Marketing take over your TV and Radio, and totally commercialize a holiday that goes back long before the birth of Christ.  Whether people like it or not, our Ancestors are the ones that created Christmas into a Christian holiday, and it was corporations that change it into a commercialized slug fest that makes boxers out of grandmas.

No one knows what day Jesus Christ was born on. From the biblical description, most historians believe that his birth probably occurred in September, approximately six months after Passover. One thing they agree on is that it is very unlikely that Jesus was born in December, since the bible records shepherds tending their sheep in the fields on that night. This is quite unlikely to have happened during a cold Judean winter. So why do we celebrate Christ’s birthday as Christmas, on December the 25th?

The answer lies in the pagan origins of Christmas. In ancient Babylon, the feast of the Son of Isis (Goddess of Nature) was celebrated on December 25. Raucous partying, gluttonous eating and drinking, and gift-giving were traditions of this feast.

In Rome, the Winter Solstice was celebrated many years before the birth of Christ. The Romans called their winter holiday Saturnalia, honoring Saturn, the God of Agriculture. In January, they observed the Kalends of January, which represented the triumph of life over death. This whole season was called Dies Natalis Invicti Solis, the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun. The festival season was marked by much merrymaking. It is in ancient Rome that the tradition of the Mummers was born. The Mummers were groups of costumed singers and dancers who traveled from house to house entertaining their neighbors. From this, the Christmas tradition of caroling was born.

In northern Europe, many other traditions that we now consider part of Christian worship were begun long before the participants had ever heard of Christ. The pagans of northern Europe celebrated the their own winter solstice, known as Yule. Yule was symbolic of the pagan Sun God, Mithras, being born, and was observed on the shortest day of the year. As the Sun God grew and matured, the days became longer and warmer. It was customary to light a candle to encourage Mithras, and the sun, to reappear next year.

Huge Yule logs were burned in honor of the sun. The word Yule itself means “wheel,” the wheel being a pagan symbol for the sun. Mistletoe was considered a sacred plant, and the custom of kissing under the mistletoe began as a fertility ritual. Hollyberries were thought to be a food of the gods.

The tree is the one symbol that unites almost all the northern European winter solstices. Live evergreen trees were often brought into homes during the harsh winters as a reminder to inhabitants that soon their crops would grow again. Evergreen boughs were sometimes carried as totems of good luck and were often present at weddings, representing fertility. The Druids used the tree as a religious symbol, holding their sacred ceremonies while surrounding and worshipping huge trees.

In 350, Pope Julius I declared that Christ’s birth would be celebrated on December 25. There is little doubt that he was trying to make it as painless as possible for pagan Romans (who remained a majority at that time) to convert to Christianity. The new religion went down a bit easier, knowing that their feasts would not be taken away from them.

Christmas (Christ-Mass) as we know it today, most historians agree, began in Germany, though Catholics and Lutherans still disagree about which church celebrated it first. The earliest record of an evergreen being decorated in a Christian celebration was in 1521 in the Alsace region of Germany. A prominent Lutheran minister of the day cried blasphemy: “Better that they should look to the true tree of life, Christ.”

The controversy continues even today in some fundamentalist sects.

It is our wish at Cat Radio that people look past the commercialized holiday, and try to find real meaning in their lives on a holiday with such humble beginnings.

We at Cat Radio would like to wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving. remember to be thankful for what you have, and not be dwelling on what you don’t have. it’s been a tough year for everyone (except rich bankers and wallstreet tycoons and politicians) and we are hopeful that we will see a big change in the near future.

Somehow, I managed to finally fix the Blog for Cat Radio!

Over the past 15 years, I have used many different chat programs.  I’ve met many people, from many places, but overall, most chat programs have the same types of people.   I’ve spent time thinking about the different personalities, and thought it might be nice to come up with a callsign and definition of what they are.  Some of these deal specifically with Internet Video Chat Programs.

1. The Lurker — Everyone knows what the lurkers are.  These are the folks that sit in the directory, silent, bombarding all the users (usually the females and couples) with QMs (Quick Messages).  They usually have some sort of body part showing, but occasionally you see their face as well.  Most of the time, these folks are just trying to get a little cyber action.

2. The Tease — These are the folks (usually women) that always talk the talk, but never walk the walk.  They always try to get people to ’show’, but will never show themselves.  Pretty much similar to the types of girls in high school that were labeled that way.

3. The Fakers — These are usually guys, posing as a Couple, or as a Woman.  You never see the female part of the couple, or you always see the same picture in the chat rooms and in QMs.  Some have gotten smart and got a few pictures so it looks like they are changing positions in the chat room, but usually you can tell in QMs that the picture are all the same in different orders.

4. The Downers — This type always comes into the chat room and participates, but always ends up with some sort of sad and depressing story to tell everyone.

5. The Princess/Prince — These are the folks that have to be the center of attention.  If they aren’t then they get quiet, or grumpy, or go to another room, just to try to get the attention they need.  They usually take over the chat room, and drag the lurkers out of hiding.

6. The Gawkers — These are the ones that make such a fuss over a certain man or woman, that it completely disrupts the chat, and shuts down everyone else in the room.

7. The Linguals — These folks tend to talk between each other in a different language than the chat room, instead of just taking it to QMs so that the entire room doesn’t have to watch it.

8. The Know it Alls – Frequenting the trivia rooms, these folks don’t do much to contribute to the conversation, but spend all their time racking up a tremendous trivia score.

9. The unintelligent – those that spend all their time typing emoticons or single letters and numbers into the chat room, or just typing nonsense to the chat room.

I’m sure there are many more that people can think of, but these are the top personality types that I have noticed and catalogued.   Hopefully you find amusement, and don’t take offense, as these are just my own opinion and impressions for about 15 years of online chat.