M. Belanger

What you can’t get from the photo:

The surprisingly loud rasp of his sandpaper tongue as he obsessively licks his catnip toy

As someone with PTSD where noise absolutely wrecks me when I try to sleep, I feel so terrible for you and hope you have a beneficial change in your situation soon.

No one should have to live like that ☹️

As long as you keep telling us about all your quirky neighbors and your delightfully ridiculous dog

No pierogies for him, ever

Slowly crawling toward 6K follows on here (after abandoning my 50k+ legacy verified Twitter)

If I hit 6K, what should I do to celebrate?

More cat pictures, obviously. Maybe some micro fiction?

I can never tell if people are here for the cats, my political rants, or the occasional bit of poetry

A large dilute gray tabby cat reclines on a beige carpet near an elliptical exercise machine. He claps a rainbow shaped catnip toy to his face in delight. A small pair of free weights lay on the floor behind him.

Today’s cat is tasting the rainbow 🌈 #CatBreak #BlueSkyCats

Happy birthday!

A young black cat sleeps on a square beige pillow. His back legs are extended toward the camera. You can see his soft brown toe pads. One foot has a small spray of white fur between the toes.

Today’s cat is a sleepy boy with a glorious set of beans #CatBreak #BlueSkyCats #ToeBeans

From EMSC

⚠Preliminary info: #earthquake (#sismo) about 4 mi N of New York City (New York) 1 min ago (local time 22:18:51)❗MAGNITUDE NOT AVAILABLE YET❗Updates at:
📱https://m.emsc.eu/#app
🌐https://m.emsc.eu
🖥https://www.emsc-csem.org

Occasional reminder that Grammarly once tried to get me to post a graph on my blog proving men are better writers than women and they wanted to pay me for it with an Amazon gift card.

Fuck Grammarly forever.

Chef Jose Andres

👆🏻

Screen capture from the remastered game Elder Scrolls Oblivion of a smiling elf with pale skin and blonde hair that looks improbably like the top of a creamy whip ice cream cone.

You know the one: #ElderScrolls #Oblivion

No, I will not be sharing a photo 😅

Put on the bandana in an attempt to avoid hat head

Instead, my hair looks like that swirly soft-serve ice cream hairstyle from Oblivion Elder Scrolls 😂

A kind of iron curtain descends over the USA with the end of PBS and NPR as we knew them.

Those things are a special kind of magic

A pale-skinned human wearing sunglasses, a black face mask, a gray bandanna, and a pirate hat takes a selfie in front of some trees at a Renaissance Festival

It was in the 70s today (delightfully mild for early August in NE Ohio) so we went to Great Lakes Medieval fair for a few hours

Yaaaarrrr!

In the end, no one needed to be forced to accept the surveillance state of Big Brother

All Big Brother had to do was convince people to surveille themselves for the sake of convenience and “personal safety”

Marketing self-surveillance in fun, shiny gadgets helped get us here:

Alleycats & Aristocats - Cat Rescue & Adoption in Medina County Alleycats & Aristocats is a 501c3 Non Profit Organization Based in Brunswick, OH and serving Medina County with Cat Rescue and Adoption.

The rescue currently fostering this adorable sun-kissed kitten:

alley-aristo.org

One of the fosters posted it to our discord group, and I immediately told them to share it on all social media accounts because that video healed my heart (then asked if I could share it here)

Such wonder as he chases the light!

Have a little extra whimsy on this #Caturday. A creamsicle-colored kitten discovers the sun and chases the light as it streams in from the window above him. He is a foster with @alley-aristocats.bsky.social in NE Ohio #CatBreak

Remember if you're calling, a good way to 'refresh' the bit is to act like you just heard about this issue from this article.

There’s some irony in the fact that this could equally describe Cleveland and its relationship to its sports teams - one of the best of which was arguably stolen from us and moved to Baltimore (I know oldsters in Cleveland who still curse the Ravens)

National Institutes of Health (NIH) | (.gov) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov Air Pollution's Hidden Toll: Links Between Ozone, Particulate Matter ... by M Waxman • 2024 - In this cross-sectional study, we investigated associations between ozone, particulate matter, and depressive symptoms in adolescents acro... ScienceDirect.com https://www.sciencedirect.com Association between short- and medium-term exposure to air ... by Y Lim • 2024 • Cited by 2 - Short- and medium-term exposure of air pollution may be associated with an increased risk of depressive episodes, especially for c... Website AirNow (.gov) https://www.airnow.gov Publications Airborne particles, the main ingredient of haze, smoke, and airborne dust, present serious air quality problems in many areas of the United States. This ... Missing: depression | Show results with: depression Clarity Movement Co. https://www.clarity.io Air quality, cognition, and mental health: How air pollution impacts the...

North Central Behavioral Health Systems https://www.ncbhs.org What Poor Air Quality Means For Your Mental Health Jun 29, 2023 - Exposure to above-average levels of air pollution showed more symptoms and behaviors associated with mental health challenges, including...

The air quality is linked to mental health concerns/depressive episodes. It's not just you.

Understand this is part of that impact & let that ground you through this one.

Maybe watch a cheering-up movie, have some treats or comfort foods, go visit with friends indoors...

Tangentially related: I adore your screen name

A fluffy black cat curled up on an elevated cat bed next to a window. The cat bed is a soft blue gray. The wall behind her is a dark sage green. The sunlight picks out chocolate tones in her fur.

Today’s cat is cozy in her sunbeam #CatBreak #BlueSkyCats #Caturday

Keep calling

I played that a lot during early access back when cake parties were all the rage

But it was pretty buggy back then.

How would you rate gameplay? And is the community still generally kind and mutually supportive?

Our cats:

Bliss, as in “Follow your bliss”
Ozzie, short for Ozymandias
Watson & Lestrade (brothers from a Sherlock Holmes themed litter)
Mystery (Watson & Lestrade’s mama, formerly known as Mrs. Hudson, Sherlock’s land lady)
Ria of the Amber Eyes - a white & black cat with startling amber eyes