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Kitten Converts Reluctant Owner



 
 
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  #31  
Old January 19th 17, 07:29 AM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
John Kasupski
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Posts: 112
Default Kitten Converts Reluctant Owner

On Thu, 19 Jan 2017 04:12:39 -0000 (UTC), Bastette
wrote:

I was wondering if you did something related to writing - have you also
written your own material? (Not for that job, necessarily.)


Well, prior to that, I had written other material back in the 1980's that was
published in one other magazine and in the newsletters of several computer
users' groups of the period, but nothing like a book or anything like that.

I've wisecracked that I could already write one about Minnie, but it isn't
something I've seriously considered. Given the millions of people here in the
U.S. who have cats as pets, maybe I should. Even if only a relative few bought
the book, the royalties might at least buy Minnie a few more jars of Pounce.

Also, while I'm new to this newsgroup, I've been active on other Usenet groups
for years. I even maintained an FAQ for a sports-related one at one time. So
there's plenty of my drivel around on the internet, but most of it's too old to
be relevant anymore, and one has to know where to look for it or not be too
proud to beg a search engine to locate it.

John D. Kasupski
Niagara Falls, NY

PS: I'm also available if someone out there wishes to hire me and offers fair
and reliable compensation. The e-mail addess on my posts is legit. - JDK

  #32  
Old January 19th 17, 07:53 AM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
John Kasupski
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Posts: 112
Default Kitten Converts Reluctant Owner

On Wed, 18 Jan 2017 22:21:52 -0800, Joy wrote:

Okay, if you work for a magazine, I can understand your mortification.
That said, it is far easier to proofread something someone else has
written. I, too, notice errors in books I'm reading. However, I have
sent out far more than one email that wasn't correct. A Toastmaster
friend and I have fallen into the habit of proofreading anything the
other one writes for the club website. We've both found errors that
needed to be corrected.


See? It's not THAT hard to do! :-)

Unless it's 2 AM, you've been up since the previous sunrise, the prospect of
another is looming in the not-so-distant future, and you have an adorable kitten
around who occasionally becomes jealous of the computer when you're in the
middle of rewording a sentence. Then it can be a bit of a challenge. But, that's
not her fault...it's mine for not taking the time to do what I know I should do.

John D. Kasupski
Niagara Falls, NY

  #33  
Old January 19th 17, 03:06 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
jmcquown[_2_]
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Posts: 8,008
Default Kitten Converts Reluctant Owner

On 1/18/2017 11:00 PM, John Kasupski wrote:
On Wed, 18 Jan 2017 21:13:22 -0500, jmcquown wrote:

It's just that once upon a time in a galaxy far away I was a contributing editor
for a nationally circulated magazine, and I was known for turning in what we
referred to as "clean copy" - so I hate letting errors like that slip by me.

Okay... contributing... you're not being graded here. I'm pretty sure
everyone who read the post understood what you meant. Added the word
"world" and understood.


We interrupt this program for a brief look into the thoughts of a man who has
noticed errors of spelling and grammar in Tom Clancy novels.

*laughing* Where I live there is a little "library" filled with books
donated by people who live here (this is a gated community, don't get me
started). Just take some books, bring them back. Got new books you are
done with? Donate them. I keep a pencil on the table where I read; I'm
constantly correcting spelling in books. I blame spell-check. I don't
think they have actual proofreaders anymore.

I grew up before our schools started routinely handing out diplomas to
functional illiterates as they do today. When I look at a newspaper and see the
trash that now makes it into print from people with degrees in journalism that
wouldn't have gotten me promoted out of elementary school in my day...

I grew up in that era, too. I also don't believe being a jock with some
potential for a sports scholarship should entitle anyone to a free ride.

Oddly enough, I never really attended a proper grammar class when I was
growing up. (Do try not to cringe when you read my posts!) My dad was
a career Marine. We moved at least every two years until he retired.
Each school I attended was different in terms of what they taught in
English class; they were either way ahead of the prior school or lagging
behind what I already knew. Just don't ask me to diagram a sentence.
I never managed to take a class in geography, either. Don't get me
started on history. I complained to my senior (high school) history
teacher that we were starting all over again with what I'd been taught
in grade school - the early explorers. No history class I ever took
managed to get any further than the American Civil War.

Look at it this way - how would YOU feel if you just discovered you'd somehow
managed to burn dinner beyond recognition? It's simply a matter of us having
certain expectations that we consider it obligatory for us to live up to. When
we don't live up to them, our inner selves tell us, "Shame on you!"

I understand that, especially since I love to cook. (I carry a timer
around with me if timing is critical. LOL) BTW, should RPCA get hit
with a spate of trolls, our response on this ng (other than outright
killfiling them) is to frustrate them by posting recipes!

That said, I'm sure most people's minds filled in the blank. My own mind has
plenty of blanks to spare grin and it did exactly that before I clicked the
"Send Now" button - that's how I failed to catch it. But thank you for letting
me off easy. My editor at the magazine would've been mortifed and probably
would've sent an e-mail to ask if I'd been feeling under the weather lately.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled discussion of preposterously
precious puddytats, already in progress... :-)

John D. Kasupski
Niagara Falls, NY

Indeed we shall!

Jill
  #34  
Old January 19th 17, 03:19 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
jmcquown[_2_]
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Posts: 8,008
Default Kitten Converts Reluctant Owner

On 1/19/2017 1:21 AM, Joy wrote:
On 1/18/2017 8:00 PM, John Kasupski wrote:
On Wed, 18 Jan 2017 21:13:22 -0500, jmcquown
wrote:

It's just that once upon a time in a galaxy far away I was a
contributing editor
for a nationally circulated magazine, and I was known for turning in
what we
referred to as "clean copy" - so I hate letting errors like that
slip by me.

We interrupt this program for a brief look into the thoughts of a man
who has
noticed errors of spelling and grammar in Tom Clancy novels.

That said, I'm sure most people's minds filled in the blank. My own
mind has
plenty of blanks to spare grin and it did exactly that before I
clicked the
"Send Now" button - that's how I failed to catch it. But thank you for
letting
me off easy. My editor at the magazine would've been mortifed and
probably
would've sent an e-mail to ask if I'd been feeling under the weather
lately.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled discussion of preposterously
precious puddytats, already in progress... :-)

John D. Kasupski
Niagara Falls, NY


Okay, if you work for a magazine, I can understand your mortification.
That said, it is far easier to proofread something someone else has
written. I, too, notice errors in books I'm reading. However, I have
sent out far more than one email that wasn't correct. A Toastmaster
friend and I have fallen into the habit of proofreading anything the
other one writes for the club website. We've both found errors that
needed to be corrected.

I used to proofread marketing materials when I worked for an insurance
company. Obvious typos are easy. Proofreading for context requires a
tad more diligence. I later went to work for a small software company.
In the first week the owner got in a big batch of freshly printed
brochures to be used in a mass mailing campaign for software resellers.
He excitedly handed everyone a copy of the new brochure. I read
through it and got to the final little blurb at the end. Being the new
kid on the block I hesitated. One of my new co-workers urged me to
speak up. "Excuse me, Jeff, did you know this says you offer
*toll-tree* support?" He was mortified! At least two other people had
read it before it went to press. It took the newbie to catch the error.

Jill
  #35  
Old January 19th 17, 08:16 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
Joy[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 397
Default Kitten Converts Reluctant Owner

On 1/18/2017 10:53 PM, John Kasupski wrote:
On Wed, 18 Jan 2017 22:21:52 -0800, Joy wrote:

Okay, if you work for a magazine, I can understand your mortification.
That said, it is far easier to proofread something someone else has
written. I, too, notice errors in books I'm reading. However, I have
sent out far more than one email that wasn't correct. A Toastmaster
friend and I have fallen into the habit of proofreading anything the
other one writes for the club website. We've both found errors that
needed to be corrected.


See? It's not THAT hard to do! :-)

Unless it's 2 AM, you've been up since the previous sunrise, the prospect of
another is looming in the not-so-distant future, and you have an adorable kitten
around who occasionally becomes jealous of the computer when you're in the
middle of rewording a sentence. Then it can be a bit of a challenge. But, that's
not her fault...it's mine for not taking the time to do what I know I should do.

John D. Kasupski
Niagara Falls, NY


LOL! I hope you get more sleep tonight, and maybe a nap or two during
the day.
  #36  
Old January 19th 17, 08:35 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
John Kasupski
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 112
Default Kitten Converts Reluctant Owner

On Thu, 19 Jan 2017 09:06:41 -0500, jmcquown wrote:

I understand that, especially since I love to cook. (I carry a timer
around with me if timing is critical. LOL) BTW, should RPCA get hit
with a spate of trolls, our response on this ng (other than outright
killfiling them) is to frustrate them by posting recipes!


I've suspected you were the same Jill McQuown from rec.food.cooking! So, be
advised that your reputation in the online culinary community has preceded you.

Don't worry, I'm not a "google stalker" or anything, it's just that when you're
a man living alone - or with a feline friend who also loves to eat - sometimes
you find yourself rummaging through your cupboards to see what you have,
entering your list of available ingredients into a search engine, and hoping to
stumble across a recipe that looks like it might not be beyond your cooking
capabilities. In so doing, I've run across some recipes you've posted to RFC,
its unofficial website, or elsewhere. The best that you could probably say about
my own culinary skills is that so far I haven't starved to death when left to my
own devices in the kitchen and occasionally I even learn something new, but
Minnie, being the very smart kitty that she is, watches what I do in the kitchen
very carefully, and just last night she rescued me from a potential disaster.

When your cat starts alerting you to your mistakes, you know you're not quite an
expert yet.

FWIW, I've always wanted to try your signature potato leek soup, but while
potatoes are plentiful enough in my neck of the woods, finding somebody who
grows leeks around here seems to be like looking for the proverbial needle in a
haystack. I find that a little strange - we're not all THAT far from PA - but in
this area the farmers and gardeners seem to go for plain old onions and act like
they've never even heard of leeks if you ask. So that's what I'm up against
here. If you live in Niagara Falls, "low country" is the infamous Love Canal
neighborhood about a half a mile from me that's been abandoned because it's
contaminated with toxic waste that was dumped there decades ago.

That's another reason I don't want my cat outside. The creek that runs through
my back yard runs right through that area a bit upstream from here. For all I
know, you might be able to grow great-tasting leeks there...but if you let your
cat eat them, her kittens might come out with 6 ears, 3 eyes, and 2 tails.

John D. Kasupski
Niagara Falls, NY

  #37  
Old January 19th 17, 09:23 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
John Kasupski
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 112
Default Kitten Converts Reluctant Owner

On Thu, 19 Jan 2017 11:16:59 -0800, Joy wrote:

LOL! I hope you get more sleep tonight, and maybe a nap or two during
the day.


That would've been last night - and yes, I did...it was actually light out
already this morning before Minnie decided it was time for us to get up.

She's napping right now, naturally - wakes me up, then goes right back to sleep.
Another man might go over to the recliner she's lounging on and jostle her just
to get even, but she and I have reached an unspoken agreement - I don't disturb
her when she sleeps on the recliner, and she sleeps on it rather than under it
where I can't see her and am always wondering where she is.

John D. Kasupski
Niagara Falls, NY

  #38  
Old January 20th 17, 12:24 AM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
jmcquown[_2_]
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Posts: 8,008
Default Kitten Converts Reluctant Owner

On 1/19/2017 2:35 PM, John Kasupski wrote:
FWIW, I've always wanted to try your signature potato leek soup, but while
potatoes are plentiful enough in my neck of the woods, finding somebody who
grows leeks around here seems to be like looking for the proverbial needle in a
haystack. I find that a little strange - we're not all THAT far from PA - but in
this area the farmers and gardeners seem to go for plain old onions and act like
they've never even heard of leeks if you ask. So that's what I'm up against
here. If you live in Niagara Falls, "low country" is the infamous Love Canal
neighborhood about a half a mile from me that's been abandoned because it's
contaminated with toxic waste that was dumped there decades ago.


Ah yes, the infamous Love Canal. I wouldn't want to eat anything grown
there either!

I had a difficult time finding leeks when I wanted to make that soup
recently. Publix, which is a very large upscale supermarket in the
Southern US, didn't have any. The person working in the produce section
had no idea what leeks are, which surprised me since they're usually
pretty knowledgeable. I had to go to Food Lion to find them. I dislike
having to shop at different grocery stores to purchase ingredients for
one simple dish. Oh well, at least it was just across the street rather
than miles away!

Jill
  #39  
Old January 20th 17, 02:10 AM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
Jack Campin
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Posts: 675
Default Kitten Converts Reluctant Owner

*laughing* Where I live there is a little "library" filled with books
donated by people who live here (this is a gated community, don't get
me started). Just take some books, bring them back. Got new books
you are done with? Donate them.


Quite a few pubs in Edinburgh and around have shelves of free books.
Working in a charity bookshop, I can often add to their stock (things
in too poor a condition to sell, but still readable and worth more to
people that way than the 5p/Kg we'd get for them as pulp). I make it
my mission to get the pub stock as varied as possible. It tends to
drift towards being all Harlan Coben and Readers Digest stuff, so I
add everything from Maya Angelou to South American travel guidebooks
to cardboard children's books. When I put in a book on differential
geometry it vanished in a day or two.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
e m a i l : j a c k @ c a m p i n . m e . u k
Jack Campin, 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU, Scotland
mobile 07800 739 557 http://www.campin.me.uk Twitter: JackCampin
  #40  
Old January 20th 17, 03:00 AM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
John Kasupski
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Posts: 112
Default Kitten Converts Reluctant Owner

On Thu, 19 Jan 2017 18:24:35 -0500, jmcquown wrote:

Ah yes, the infamous Love Canal. I wouldn't want to eat anything grown
there either!


This entire Buffalo-Niagara Falls metropolitan corridor is loaded with places
that are polluted with industrial waste, dumped chemicals, even radioactive
stuff that reads 30 times above background if you stand there with a Geiger
counter...which I've actually done. I know the woman who's in charge of disaster
planning for the county health department here, and I told her I wouldn't want
her job for all the tea in China.

I had a difficult time finding leeks when I wanted to make that soup
recently. Publix, which is a very large upscale supermarket in the
Southern US, didn't have any. The person working in the produce section
had no idea what leeks are, which surprised me since they're usually
pretty knowledgeable. I had to go to Food Lion to find them. I dislike
having to shop at different grocery stores to purchase ingredients for
one simple dish. Oh well, at least it was just across the street rather
than miles away!


Is it Publix that's right across the street from you, or are you telling me you
have a food store that's named for a big, beautiful cat right across the street
from you and expecting me to believe you didn't go directly there to begin with?

We hardly know one another, Jill...I hope you're not Lion to me already. :-)

I only go to upscale supermarkets to buy meat. Can't see paying $3.00 for a box
of spaghetti that tastes the same to me as what I get elsewhere for $0.99. But
maybe next time I go meat shopping, I'll swing by the produce section as well.

It won't be at Food Lion, though. I just found their website using DuckDuckGo
and searched with the store locator, and there isn't one within 50 miles of
here. If I'm going to travel that far to find leeks, I might as well just go
right down to PA and start randomly knocking on farmhouse doors.

John D. Kasupski
Niagara Falls, NY

 




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