Sometimes things just fit. I don’t know how often I’ve chased around for the thingie that I need for something, sometimes leaving a marker to remind me to find that thingie and sometimes settling for something that’s close but not quite right. It depends on whether what I’m doing can work with a nearly right thingie or whether it needs the right one.
And yeah, sometimes I get it wrong. Probably more than merely “sometimes”, but that’s life. You screw up and learn from the mess.
It actually doesn’t matter that much if you’re looking for the right word to describe something or the right piece of fabric to use in a patchwork quilt (although the latter is arguably easier to find, if sometimes more frustrating). Life in general seems to involve a lot of finding pieces that fit together in ways that help.
That or I’ve spent too much time with one or more of software, software testing, writing, or cats (cats are very good at fitting. Sometimes where you wouldn’t believe they’d actually fit – although they do tend to expand to fill the space available, just like they increase their mass as soon as they’re on a bed. Or you).
I know I’ve spent entirely too much time trying to work out the name of a new cat (they might come to me with a name, but it’s often not a good one. The much-missed Bugger-cat was originally named Rufus. Midnight was Oscar. No way) only to have their name show up purely by chance, or more often by deed of the cat itself. And once found, it was obvious the name fitted.
Like Her Royal Highness Princess Buttercup, who has proven repeatedly that she is not only beautiful, but the ruler of all she surveys and don’t you dare forget it. Or the Dread Kitty Westley, who despite occasional Farm Boy tendencies shows his dwead piwating kittieness on a regular basis.
And Midnight, who is very much a Basement Cat, lurks. He parks himself on surfaces where he’ll blend in so all you can see are the gold eyes staring at you from the darkness.
Which is why the featured pic is Her Highness fitting herself on the Husband’s tentative selection for a work “wear red” day. Obviously, the “red carpet” was put there solely to show her beauty to the greatest advantage.
Mad Genius Club 
21 responses to “If It Fits”
Well…she is very pretty…..
Indeed she is. And she knows it.
In fact I don’t think I’ve ever seen a …. tortoiseshell Siamese …. before…. quite lovely.
My cats get whatever unfortunate appellation first comes into my head, so we’ve had … Cracker; Dirt, Dust, Grime; Soot, Smog, Ash (two litters of same parentage, each with black, blue, and silver); Skunk, Larry and the Darryls (Larry, his brother Darryl, his other brother Darryl, and two more Darryls all identical tuxedos); Mangey (inherited skin problems), Stupid Cat (you stupid cat, if you wouldn’t lay where I can’t see you, you wouldn’t constantly get stepped on; you stupid cat, if you wouldn’t always sit there you wouldn’t get the slops bucket on your head every single day….), Tigger, Bast, and the present barn cats…. Milk, Milk2 (would you like some milk too?), Runt, Smart Blue, Dumb Blue, Pretty Girl, Bear, and Kinky of the remarkable Z-shaped tail.
My characters should be grateful for their names having had a bit more thought, or in some cases being peeled out of typos or off highway signs.
I’m a sucker for the big blue eyes. The tortie effect comes from her mother who looks like a tabby with blue eyes and a siamese body shape – and is purebred. Apparently modern siamese have changed a lot from the old days of seal point, chocolate point and not much else.
You certainly come up with… interesting cat names.
Ha, I’m old enough that Siamese only came in seal point and blue point! But yeah, once folks discovered how to breed color points, the list became endless. And of course the various offshoots (the prettiest being perhaps Havana Browns, but lordy the genetic issues, and the desired color is heterozygous…. )
And if my cats want less-embarrassing names, they need to learn how to name themselves! As to poor Stupid Cat… actually a very smart cat, and I tried diligently to name him something, anything… nothing stuck.
Oh yes. I forgot Mud. (Gorgeous tortoiseshell-patterned butterfly tabby.)
Rani the cross-eyed Siamese was my first cat. My parents gave her to me for my 5th (maybe 6th?) birthday – she was seal point, and the crossed eyes were a breeding problem.
Of course, right now I have a rather disturbed Buttercup and will soon have two traumatized boys. The boys have a vet checkup, and Midnight does not do well with getting picked up. As in he goes from fluffy black sweetheart to fuzzy blender in no time flat. Westley squirms.
Thankfully The Husband got home in time to a) help me get them into the cat carriers, and b) actually take them to the vet.
Was once in a discussion where someone mentioned the oldest known cat name, Lady Miaow. (Egyptian)
But autocorrupt interfered and it came out Lady Now.
For once, we approved.
Lady Now is a very appropriate cat name.
One of my frustrations when I write stories in longhand is how much description gets dropped. Because I don’t have mental “hands” left for finding the proper words I need—muscle memory takes up too much space. Once I sit down and start typing the thing into the computer, or if I type from the beginning, then adjectives and long words flow. I don’t have to process as much when I type as when I write. On paper? “Dark blue.” On screen, “azure darkening to the lapis lazuli of the high desert sky.” When you’re writing landscape descriptions, adjectives matter.
Yep. Typing uses different brain pathways than longhand – and yes, longhand takes more brain-space. As well as more physical exertion.
Mind you, when you’re perfectly capable of sleep-typing, strange things happen. Sleep-writing just produces illegible scrawl.
I tend to revise more on the fly when using a word processor. It affects things.
My process with a word processor/computer is definitely not the same as with a pen and paper. There’s more reread from start and tweak as I go, as well as reading the last few pages and adjusting before moving on. With pen and paper it all seems much more set in place.
I apologize for leaving an off topic post, but I have a question I am hoping one of the authors here can answer. If I re-read a book on Kindle Unlimited, after a long enough time that it has fallen off my 10 book limit, does the author receive additional royalties? Should I be re-reading my favorites on a regular but long cycle basis?
If I re-read something, I generally buy it. Though I do make exceptions both ways: Some I buy the first time; some I re-read on KU. I think I might have read April four times trying to figure out what made it so addictive before I finally bought it. Now, if it has Mackey Chandler on the cover, I just buy it.
Indeed yes. Although when I buy books, they are never in a proprietary formant that I can be locked out of. Which as a practical matter means I tend to buy a hardcopy at some point.
My specific query was caused by accidentally re-reading a book. Which does happen once in a while. I find such accidents much less annoying with KU than I did when I was buying paper copies.
From Amazon: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201541130
A customer can read your eBook as many times as they like, but we will only pay you for the number of pages read the first time the customer reads them.
The statement you quote implies that Amazon has a database that keeps track of what is read. And I have seen evidence of such a record, since sometimes I am notified when attempting to grab a book in KU. But not always. Which suggests to me that their records are incomplete, and additional payments might be possible.
Princess Buttercup understands that no outfit is complete without being accessorized with cat hair. She’s making sure you’re properly turned out.
Oh, of course. She and the boys manage to get cat hair on everything, even the outfits that are kept in the protective plastic the dry cleaner put them in. Everything in the house is accessorized with cat hair.
Then there was “That Darn Cat” (star of a book and of a movie). 😉
Around here, “darn” is not likely to be used. We tend to be a bit more… robust.