The Kitchen Cat-Platform Thing, Finished!

Well the cat-platform thing I constructed in the process of stabilizing the previously-built scratching post is now complete! (Actually it was complete on Friday, but I didn't get to posting until today, but that's really neither here nor there).

I am quite pleased with how it turned out...this might sound a bit silly, but even just my recent learning of the fact that screws generally hold wood together more securely than nails and/or glue has hugely increased the range of stuff I can conceivably make. Plus it complements the kitchen, both in style (which, for this house, is turning into a sort of amalgamation of mid-century modern, craftsman, and industrial, at least inasmuch as I'm familiar with such aesthetics), and in color (the advantage of using leftover paint!).

But I digress. I like when things I make turn out well by my standards, but it isn't my standards that really matter as far as cat-furniture goes. This whole thing would be a total failure in my mind if the resident feline critics disapproved.

Yes, I'd tried to take their preferences (e.g., they all prefer to eat on some sort of raised platform, rather than out of a bowl on the ground, but are less particular about water) into account, as well as avoid some of the asinine mistakes I've seen in various kitty-furniture designs (e.g., cabinets that have both a cubby for the litterbox and a compartment for food bowls in close proximity -- nobody wants to eat right next to the toilet if they can help it!).

But of course I did not know for sure whether they'd rate it a Win or a Fail until the paint dried and all the screws were in and the thing was installed in the kitchen (in their favorite snacking-and-birdwatching spot, in front of the window).

The results? Observe, below!


Nikki was the first to investigate, and very quickly found the new food spot:




All three youngsters (from left, Brodie, Shadow, and Coraline) come by to check things out:




Brodie finds the water bowl location acceptable, moreso because he gets to hide partly behind a support post during the hydration process:




Cora realizing "hey, I can jump between platforms of multiple heights here now!"



Shadow listens to a bird from the food platform:




...so while I cannot articulate their precise opinions on the new structure (at least not in human language), it looks to me as if they are quite pleased with it. Hooray!

For those interested in the technical details, here is a rough list of the materials and components I used to build the structure:

- 3" general-purpose screws (lots of these, this was the main item I used to connect the different boards together)

- 1" drywall screws (to secure sisal doormat-material to the tops of the 2 smaller platforms -- which aren't made of drywall, but those screws are nice and grippy and I find pre-drilling is not necessary when I use softer wood like pine)

- Miscellaneous wood scraps: several bits of 2x4 from the garage de-conversion, several bits of 2x6 stock (left over from a work-bench Matt built recently), some very small pieces of what I think was some kind of particle board from two bathroom cabinet shelves I removed, one square of 3/4" plywood (the food platform -- also leftover from Matt's workbench), and a few pieces of pine board from the old kitchen (which we basically demolished).

Interestingly, I only ended up cutting two or three pieces of available wood. Everything else was already just about the right size for what I needed it for -- what luck!

- Leftover paint: Behr "Dark Cavern" for the base (eggshell enamel), a mixed green color (also eggshell, I forget what colors I mixed though) for the platform things, and (from a tiny sample-size jar) a color called "Oat Straw" in flat interior sheen on the support posts.

- Two rectangular sections of a sisal doormat thing

- Gaffer's tape (on the edges of the doormat sections, to keep them from fraying where they were cut)

- Small metal corner brackets, on two of the support posts and on each piece of the little corner-angle food-bowl-stabilizer (which keeps the food bowl from being pushed off the back or side of the feeding platform).

- Anti-skid shelf covering material in a light tan color (I put a piece of this under the food and water bowls to avoid them being pushed around and/or spilled)

The tools I used were:

- Power drill / bit driver (ours is a Ryobi something-or-other; it's serviceable but kind of old and the batteries don't hold a charge very well anymore, but it got the job done)

- Philips screwdriver (the manual kind, medium-sized)

- Wood saw (the packaging said it had "aggressive teeth", which was good because it went through the wood fairly fast)

- Shop vac! (Craftsman, 2 gallon model)

- Misc. paintbrushes and rollers

- Paper towels (ok not really a tool but pretty indispensible for any project involving paint)

I don't have plans or blueprints or anything because I did not create any. I just took the dimensions I knew the kitchen could accommodate, and the dimensions (roughly) of the wood scraps I had on hand, and the parameters I figured were cat-relevant, and combined them. I also took into consideration things like surface texture -- a lot of commercial cat trees are covered with carpet and I did not want that sort of fuzz factory in the kitchen. Something made mostly of smooth / painted wood, with the only textile-ish parts being of natural sisal fiber, seemed much more appropriate for where the structure was going to be used and what it would be used for.

OK that is about all I can think of regarding this DIY project but feel free to ask questions! I would also be happy to advise on possible designs for some kind of custom structure for your home if you have cats and a small / odd / specialized space in which you'd like to put a bit of furniture for them.


NOTE: Comments are closed on this post temporarily (as of 4.26.10), because I keep getting these really obnoxious serial spam link-comments about "nude celebrities" and whatnot. And it's doing this weird thing where I have to delete the same comment 10 or so times before it actually goes away.

DIY Cat Furniture! (Or, Fun With Wood Scraps And Leftover Paint)

(Yes, it's another picturey post pertaining to actual physical objects.)

Directly below, observe: ye olde scratching post, perched upon by Nikki, who prefers to be above the action whenever possible (particularly as the "action" in question generally consists of "three young whippersnapper-kitties tearing around the house at breakneck speed for hours at a stretch").



(The other kitty in this picture is Shadow, one of the aforementioned whippersnappers, though at 6 months old, definitely no longer tiny!)

I made this post a few months back out of old scrap wood and some sisal rope from the hardware store.

At the time I was quite pleased with how it turned out, and the kitties seemed to like it...but as the younglings grew, it got to the point where I started hearing something akin to "thumpthumpthumpCRASH!" in the wee hours of the morning. In short, Scratching Post 1.0 simply could not withstand the force vectors being unleashed upon it by the thundering horde of adolescent feline feet as they made their daily semi-midair circuit about the house.

Hence, that black stuff arranged rather artlessly on the base: gaffer's tape. Which is awesome stuff, to be sure, but not something I want stuck all over my kitchen floor.


Sooo...this week I determined that some modifications were in order. My initial intention was, merely, "stabilize the base". I got a bit carried away, though, and the Super Mario-esque results (so far) can be viewed below:



(The three sections of 2x4 under the base aren't permanently attached, the unit is just resting on them for painting purposes, i.e., so the bottom would not get stuck to the plastic sheeting I put down to protect the garage floor from paint drips.)

I plan to add some additional surfacing (little sisal mats on top of the two smaller "perches"), and some kind of thingy to hold food/water dishes in such a way that they won't be tipped over easily. Then I shall put it in the kitchen, where it will serve as a combination kitty lunch counter / scratching post / bird-watching station. Yay!

Seriously, though, I am really happy with how this turned out, especially given how expensive most cat furniture (even the crappier sort) is. I'm a cheapskate at the best of times, and being presently Between Jobs, I am, shall we say, even more inclined toward frugality than usual, making it tremendously satisfying to put stuff together using material I just happen to have on-hand (in this case, wood scraps and leftover paint).

House Progress Update

According to my octogenarian next-door neighbors, there is no such thing as "finishing" work on one's house.

I'd certainly believe it, seeing as it's taken me nearly seven months just to get my desk area properly organized! (Of course it looked great right when we first moved the furniture in, but it promptly became a disaster zone as soon as our actual stuff showed up, and its present appearance was a long time in the making). Observe below (click to see full size image):



I'm really really happy with it. Hopefully it stays this way -- as much as I like and need properly organized environments to function well in, I've never been very good at maintaining them, and it takes me ages to get them set up in the first place.

But: I am more optimistic this time since having discovered the wonders of (a) plastic storage containers, and (b) the electronic label-maker (mine is a Brother P-Touch but there are probably multiple kinds that do about the same thing).

Moreover, I think I've finally learned my lesson regarding "knick-knack" type objects, which is to say that while many of them may be nifty and fun to look at / play with, it is not necessary nor desirable to display (or have within reach) ALL of them, ALL at the same time. The "old" incarnation of my desk zone used to include Star Wars figures, Lego spaceships, various Pez dispensers, a chess set, bumper stickers, and the odd greeting card. And I still have most of that stuff, but the vast majority of it is packed up in yet more of those clear plastic storage containers, and stored on shelves in the garage.

I think what taught me this lesson (aside from having gotten sick of the vast quantities of dust that used to accumulate) was hearing on a "home design" podcast of some kind (yes I was listening to stuff like that during the course of my move) that when you have a collection of anything, you can actually diminish the "impact" of individual pieces if you try and put all of it out at once. So what's better is to put out just a few at a time, so you can appreciate them more individually (and not clutter your visual environment / workspace nearly as much).

And while everyone is different of course, and some might not find this helpful, I've found it massively useful advice to apply (particularly as I now live with four very energetic cats who have no qualms about knocking stuff over if it happens to be in the way of their leaping!).

Oh and another thing I am pleased with is the orange shelf-thing on the left (where the label maker is). It was originally this cheap ugly veneered thing from Target but I painted it, and now it matches the orange accent wall in that room nicely (and also the robot and the file folder thingy!).

Here's another shelf in the same office/computer room, showing the awesomeness of plastic storage boxes:



It is SO NICE to have all my and Matt's Random Geek Detritus (network cable, heat shrink tubing, etc.) all tidily sorted and stored rather than in a tangled, dust-gathering pile in a corner somewhere. This shelf, you will also note, does triple-duty as Geek Detritus storage, bookshelf (we put all the computer/programming related books here, as well as one of my EMC books), and cat-bed apartment (the "ground floor" has two boxes lined with fleece for the kitties to nap in).

And finally (for now), check out this cool green lamp!:



It's actually bigger than it looks -- the round "dome" thing has about an 8 inch diameter and the total "arm" length is around four feet. We badly need more light at the front end of the living room (the big windows let in lots of natural daylight but that doesn't help us at night!) and have been searching for the right lamp, but none of the ones at Ikea, etc., seemed proper.

But then, lo and behold, I remembered this past week that we had this old green thing in the garage left by the previous owners. I didn't even know if it was going to work, and it was horribly dirty before I cleaned it up, but after cleaning and replacement of the light bulb it looks lovely and works beautifully. Also, it matches our kitchen cabinet face frames, etc., almost exactly, which is a funny coincidence! I utterly love finding stuff like this -- this lamp reminds me of something from one of those fancy furniture catalogs I sometimes get (e.g., "Restoration Hardware") but never buy anything from because it's too expensive even though it's made to look "old".

(Also, incidentally, if anyone knows what model of lamp this actually is, and how old it might be, I would love to know. The only thing I can find on it identification-wise is a brand name, "Fostoria".)

Weird Spam Species

So like everyone else in the universe with a blog, I've had to deal with spam comments. Overall I think I have the situation reasonably under control, especially since I turned on comment moderation for posts over 60 days old. This way, I get comment notifications in my email inbox, at which point I can decide whether or not to publish or reject the comment.

Predictably, most of the spam I get seems to consist of people trying to link to other websites, where one might, for instance, purchase mis-spelled variations of prescription drugs (especially of the supposedly "manhood-enhancing" sort), download viruses disguised as virus-protection software, or look at pictures of what can only be described as "disturbing barnyard scenes".

And while all that is certainly obnoxious, I can at least see a "purpose" in the comments -- that is, the commenter (or comment-bot, as the case may be) wants people to click a link and go to their site, which presumably will result in someone, somewhere, making money.

BUT: there's also another variant of spam going around that utterly baffles me, as I don't see any purpose to it whatsoever. These spam comments indicate no identities (meaning they're generally posted "anonymously"), contain no links, and mention nothing that to me even remotely suggests a product someone might be trying to sell.

For example, I just deleted two comments that read as follows:

(1) "Brim over I acquiesce in but I think the collection should prepare more info then it has."

(2) "Opulently I to but I contemplate the post should prepare more info then it has."

(Which remind me a lot of the output of Racter, one of the first "computer games" I ever played as an elementary-schooler, and which I think employed some sort of Markovizing algorithm.)

I also recently received a comment along the lines of, "Excuse me, but can you tell me where I can buy a unicorn?", which I know several other folks received as well.

So, anyway, this kind of thing? I don't get it.

I know it's not that important in the grand scheme of things, but it's so danged weird I wanted to ask around and see if anyone knew what purpose comments such as the above examples could serve.

I am thinking maybe something to do with loading search engine results / messing with keywords, but I can't see how the indicated comments would actually serve that function.

Any ideas?

(And remember, this is NOT a case of people commenting nonsense but then embedding a link in their comment -- I get those ones too, but in that case it's clear they at least go somewhere. The ones I'm talking about do not contain any links, or any URLs, or any clickable identity tag -- they're just plain text that doesn't make any sense).

EDIT:

Many thanks to commenter Raoul, who explicated thusly:

The bots leave them in as many places as they can. Later they poll Google for that specific phrase.

Hits on the Google search will be sites that are (a) indexed, therefore can help generate PageRank, and (b) poorly maintained, 'cause the nonsense spam didn't get moderated away or erased.

So the bots go back for a second round, leaving the real linky spam in places it will fester longer.

(In other words, I think the mystery is solved!)

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My Resume Is Posted...

Figured I'd try out some of this new-fangled future Internet technology and put a link to my resume on my blog.

I am sure that any potential employer who designs to Google me is going to come across this blog anyway, so I might as well make pertinent information easy to find!

As for my job objectives, I am specifically targeting (in the San Jose/Santa Clara, California area) either:

(a) A position entailing electrical engineering / EMC duties at a company which designs and/or manufactures medical devices (i.e., life-support, EEG, etc.) or assistive technology (text to speech, mobility assistance, etc.)., or

(b) A position entailing EMC test engineer duties at a laboratory

I believe that my experience, skills, and enthusiasms would go well with either (a) or (b) above (SUPER bonus if I could somehow apply my EE/EMC background in a position contributing toward longevity biotech or something of that nature!). So if any readers know of any companies looking for someone in those areas, feel free to pass that information along. I will certainly return the favor if I come across any information myself that may be of interest to fellow job-seekers.

Thanks!

On Job Seeking and Disability Acknowledgment

Recently, I made the acquaintance of someone who works with [Non-Profit Organization Meant to Help Job-Seekers With Disabilities Find Work]*. I was referred to this person, in turn, by another person via [Generalized Job-Search Assistance Firm]*, which my former employer set things up with to assist laid-off workers.

So far that firm has actually been surprisingly helpful -- I mean no, I haven't found a new job yet, but I've definitely got my resume in much better shape and I've got a decent idea of where to start.

But anyway, I'll get to the point of this entry: during a recent meeting with my go-to person (whom I'll abbreviate as GTP from now on) at the firm, I had an interesting experience with "not passing".

I had not mentioned specifically that I was on the autistic spectrum, and had not intended to bring it up unless it became inevitable or "absolutely necessary".

And I have to admit I was sort of assuming I was "passing".

But then, out of the blue (from my perspective), at one point during the meeting the GTP asked if I was "able to establish eye contact".

That, in turn, led into a discussion about disabilities, and disclosure, and "barriers" I might face in my job search. My GTP noted that she could tell I was "bright" and "able to work", but that clearly I would likely encounter some difficulty in, say, an interview setting (and there are also various "on the job" issues that would likely come up, but first things first).

This got me thinking: at my prior job (the only job I had post-college, in fact), I never had to deal with the Big Interview that "regular" new prospects went through, seeing as I'd already proven my technical prowess as a summer intern (a position I was assisted in getting via a family member who worked for that company).

And I did face difficulties at that job, but managed to stay employed there anyway -- probably in no small part because I started figuring out some things about how my brain worked, and was able to actually put some terminology to it (one reason I'm glad to have an actual diagnosis; some people may not need one, and some might disagree with the concept, and I myself disagree with "medicalizing" autism -- but right now, for many of us, a diagnosis is really the only route to actually getting needed accommodations, etc.).

So, to make a long story slightly less long, I got referred by the GTP at the job-search assistance firm to another GTP who is affiliated with the aforementioned nonprofit. And it sounds like they may actually have some information and/or resources that would be helpful to me (and others like me).

But: in order to get "officially" involved with them I would have to get a "verification of disability" from a medical professional. As in, my doctor would have to fill out a form, which I guess I would then give to the agency (or something).

That should not be too difficult for me -- so long as my COBRA application went through, I should have access to the same doctors I was seeing prior to the layoff. And I can't imagine [particular doctor] refusing to fill out the form (though I am slightly worried that they perhaps won't have time).

But: that's me. I am all kinds of lucky and privileged (class privilege, white privilege, etc.). This means that while, yes, I am disabled in some respects, I also have a lot of "safety nets" in my life that help reduce the amount of sheer fail I'm likely to encounter when things go badly.

And...not everyone who might presumably need help with their job search is going to have access to these safety nets, nor to professionally-sanctioned "proof of disability". I am not blaming the nonprofit for this -- it's part of the culture we're in, to imagine that "gatekeepers" must exist between individuals and services. And there may be good reasons to have those gatekeepers in some situations.

Still, though, it worries me to think that there might be some other autistic person out there who might not even have an official diagnosis, let alone an accessible and willing professional to fill out forms for them. People of color and folks from low-income backgrounds, so I've read, tend to be way under-identified with developmental issues; instead they get presumed to have "behavior problems". As a middle-class white nerd living in Silicon Valley it is not lost on me that (aside from being female) I'm probably in the Most Likely To Be Identified group as far as ASD is concerned.

There are also logistical challenges that go along with this sort of thing (forms, setting up with nonprofits and service organizations) that, heck, I don't even know if I will be able to handle myself, and I'm in a pretty good position (all things considered) for someone of my neurology.

So...I am not sure where I am going with this, except to say two things:

(1) Please, if you are a professional or just a Concerned Acquaintance, or friend, or family member of a disabled person who is looking for work, do not think you are somehow helping to say things like "oh, don't call yourself disabled! You're too smart/talented/good at [thing]! Why do you want to sell yourself short?"

Not only is this incredibly patronizing, it could very well end up feeding into the disabled person's already-present internalized stigma. And making them reluctant to even use services that might be a huge help to them, because of "not wanting to define [self] as 'disabled'", even when it's actually quite contextually appropriate to do so.

(And I am writing this in part to encourage myself here, because I actually have a lot of internalized stigma myself, and have been feeling guilty all day about the prospect of benefitting from a service meant to assist disabled jobseekers. Even though I was referred to the GTP for this service by someone who called me out on my own disability because they could see it themselves. *headdesk*)

I realize that some of this kind of response might stem from the fact that some people equate "disability" with "sickness", or more generally with meaning a person is intrinsically broken or damaged.

I've taken part in some very frustrating discussions wherein the other party just does not seem to get that disability does not HAVE to mean anything bad, but is rather a neutral description of a situation that needs to be addressed (i.e., that I have non-standard needs in some areas, and that no, pretending they don't exist is not going to make them go away).

Also, I don't put any stock in philosophies that seek to build up some people's sense of self-worth at the expense of others. Hence, no, I do not consider it reassuring when someone tries to assert to me that I shouldn't apply concepts like "disability" to myself because that would mean failing to distance myself from the sorts of disabled people who are presumed to be tragic, pitiable, and undesirable.

When from my point of view, the problem is that pity is ever considered appropriate to apply to anyone, regardless of type or "magnitude" of their disability. There is no way you can simultaneously pity someone and see them as an equal, and it is grievously wrong to figure that someone who discloses or displays non-standard needs is somehow asking for pity. They aren't, and it's beyond insulting to presume they are.

(2) It does not actually help anyone to figure that people like me (that is, college graduates with engineering degrees and whatnot who are also on the autistic spectrum, etc.) are somehow "polluting" or "appropriating" the meaning of what it is to be autistic, or disabled, etc., to the detriment of folks who currently lack abilities we have.

I know full well that there are people with "spectrum" diagnoses who struggle a lot more than I do to be understood, or to deal with academics, or to perform "daily living" tasks.

I also know that there are people with "spectrum" diagnoses who drive, and who have PhDs, and who have a better sense of danger than I do.

And yet...I don't sit around getting annoyed at those folks and yelling about how they're "taking away" something from me, regardless of whether they can do more or fewer "standard" things than I can, at any given time.

Because they're not.

They have their own struggles, as well as their own triumphs, and the reality of what they've achieved (by standard measures) does not negate the fact that they might need non-standard forms of support in some areas.

Nor does extreme struggle in one or more areas negate the potential for capacity in other areas.

Disability is not a generalized lack of all ability, and I find it obnoxious and bizarre that autism in particular seems to be relegated to the "can't do ANYTHING" box so much of the time.

Which is a silly box to begin with -- I mean really, would you figure that if a blind person happened to (for instance) own a home or play a musical instrument that they weren't really blind? Pretty much everyone can do some things -- disabled people just have our can-dos and can't-dos in unexpected (per our culture) places.

So please, if you're tempted to say "but you can do [thing]! how dare you call yourself autistic/disabled!", just...don't. Because that would be ignorant, and would not actually help even a tiny bit to get better services for, say, non-verbal preschoolers or "severely impaired" adults.

Finally, I guess I would like to say that I think autism, and disability at large for that matter, should be a broad category**, sort of like how the designator "bird" can refer to both, say, penguins and hummingbirds. Calling a penguin a bird doesn't even begin to invalidate the reality of hummingbirds, after all.

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* I may give the names of these groups/agencies in the future, especially so I can recommend them if they actually end up helping me get a job! But for now I am just referring generically to them, as I don't want to make this discussion about specific firms or service providers.

** Within reason, and with respect to good scientific/ethical practice. E.g., I don't think it makes any sense at all to call, say, gastrointestinal issues and food allergies "autism" (particularly when one is promoting the use of autistic kids as experimental subjects for any number of bizarre supplement regimens). I mean, good grief, one of my cats gets what I've come to term "poopfetti" (based on what I find in the litterbox afterward) whenever he eats anything containing corn...and I'm not about to go around calling that (corn intolerance + poopfetti) "autism", even though Brodie does like playing with string...

Movie Review: Ink

SPOILER LEVEL: Mild to Moderate - includes discussion of themes, but does not reveal the ending or other major plot points.

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So, recently I signed up for a trial of one of those online DVD-rental services, figuring it might be a reasonably economical way to get to see some interesting films I might not otherwise encounter. After filling out a little introductory questionnaire about my tastes I was presented with a list of "recommended titles", the first of which was a movie I'd never heard of called Ink. Curious to see how well the service had pegged my preferences, I placed Ink at the front of my queue, and received the disc in the mail shortly afterward.

Prior to watching Ink, I had only read a few (spoiler-free) comments from other people who'd rented the film. I had also scanned the synopsis on the DVD (which appears below):

Late one night, a lost soul named Ink snatches 8-year-old Emma (Quinn Hunchar) into the world of dreams. There, he hopes to use her soul to join the ranks of the evil Incubi. In the real world, Emma lies comatose, to the despair of her father, John (Chris Kelly). But the Incubi's benevolent opposites -- the Storytellers -- rally to help Emma, motivating John to wage war for his daughter.

...but had not read it closely, so I commenced my viewing really not knowing what to expect. Moreover (such is my preference), in writing this review I have avoided reading other reviews/analyses of the film, so this commentary represents my own minimally-biased impressions.

My verdict post-watching? Ink is very, very good. A bit rough in some places -- apparently, writer/director Jamin Winans did not have much of a budget to work with, relatively speaking -- but not jarringly so. The above synopsis doesn't do the film justice, at any rate, as Ink is not a film that lends itself to easy, accurate summarization.

Yes, on one level it's a modern, urban fantasy about supernatural "dream-people" (of which there are both Good and Evil varieties) vying to, depending on their alignment, either help or destroy the humans in their midst, but describing the film on that level alone fails to convey very much at all about Ink.

For one thing, Ink does far more "show" than "tell", challenging the viewer (especially in the first half of the film) to figure out the rules and mores of the universe being presented, and to suss out just what the heck is going on with the characters anyway. We are not given explicit biographies of anyone; we learn who they are through example, in snatches of (somewhat) non-linear imagery that manages to communicate quite a lot about the movie's denizens.

For another thing, Ink touches on what, for lack of better phrasing, I would term "deep themes". In my estimation, one of the primary marks of well-done fantasy fiction is that it manages to tell some truth about actual reality. I will elaborate further on this later on in the review; for now, suffice to say that I was impressed with Ink's treatment of (particular kinds of) good and evil, and with its conveyance of the distinction between stories and lies.

As for my overall impressions, I would say Ink manages to be both painful (at times) and fun to watch. By that I mean that I found myself thinking "gah, that sucks for that guy, wow, that's really sad, but whoah, cool, I think I just figured out what that thing in that other scene was!" throughout much of my viewing.

Ink is not a total angst-fest or anything, mind you -- in fact I would not classify it even remotely as a "dystopia", and there are a number of Whedonish "comic relief" moments. The little girl who plays Emma is also really cool, and impressively well-characterized for a kid that young (as in, she isn't just The Cute One or The Bratty One, she clearly has a mind of her own).

Effects That Drive The Story Rather Than Obfuscating The Lack Of One

As "special effects" (mainly of the visual sort) are now a mainstay of modern filmmaking, particularly in the science fiction and fantasy genres, I have started paying attention when I watch movies to how they employ these effects. As I am, admittedly, a bit of a sucker for Shiny Lights And Pretty Colors(TM), I can enjoy watching something silly and superficial so long as its Shiny Quotient is high enough. However, I much prefer it when (as the title of this section suggests) the shiny is used as a storytelling tool rather than a means to distract from lazy writing.

As such, in contrast to my reaction to Avatar, I walked away from watching Ink thinking along the lines of "Wow, okay, this is what movies can be like if people actually try!" It was very nice to be reminded of what true effort to tell a good story looks like.

Ink, while it does utilize its share of special effects (impressively so, in fact, for its budget), does not condescend in this manner; special effects are used in story-appropriate places as tools, not as a substitute for depth elsewhere. Ink depicts a world at once fantastic and "believable"; yes, we have things like inter-dimensional gates opening up mid-air at the command of various dream-people and their arcane devices, but both the shiny portals and the mechanisms that activate them are presented very matter-of-factly.

In other words, Ink succeeds in showing extraordinary things but having them appear quite thoroughly ordinary in context, which of course they would for the denizens of its fictional landscape -- and as far as I am concerned, this is another one of the hallmarks of fantasy well done.

That said, Ink also makes fairly heavy use of color filters, blurry edges, and other "post-processing" video effects, which I imagine some viewers will find annoying or "overly artsy". I liked it, though, and did not find it distracting, and in some ways I think it helped communicate what was going on (i.e., scenes representing one character's memories had a yellowish cast to them).

And as a final comment on the film's visuals (and overall visual-orientedness), I would actually be very curious to learn how Ink comes across to a blind person or someone with low/limited vision. I have not done much research into movie accessibility features for blind folks but I presume there are some out there (additional descriptive tracks, etc.), and am wondering how a story that to me seems very heavily imagery-dependent would be communicated to someone without the requisite sensory modality. (Also, I should note that this question occurred to me in the first place because there is actually a fairly significant character in Ink who is blind.)

Themes in Ink: Good and Evil/Stories and Lies

Now, I am an engineer, not an English major, and I certainly couldn't tell you exactly which ancient myths and fairy-tales Ink alludes to -- but I can say that the film definitely comes across as feeling rather like a fairy-tale itself. This, of course is not a bad thing. After all, there are numerous themes, images, and modes of character development that will tend to come up over and over again in creative works produced by humans, because some experiences are just very human.

As such, Ink reminds me vaguely of several old stories, poems and characters all at once, but "quietly" so, if that makes any sense. This film does not, unlike other recently-viewed works (*cough* Avatar *cough*) come across as a trite re-hash of something else; there was plenty of originality layered atop Ink's "archetypical" material.

E.g., the "good" dream-people (called Storytellers) and their "bad" counterparts (called Incubi) represent something fairly common (personification of good and evil is nothing new), but nonetheless, there was just something very fresh-seeming about the portrayals of both factions. For one thing, the Storytellers all unabashedly look different from one another, whereas the Incubi seem to be trying their hardest at homogeneity (even though you can clearly see behind their distorions that they are different from one another).

Now to elaborate on the good/evil and stories/lies thematic elements I referred to earlier: this is not something I can personally easily express in quantitative language, but one very real type of evil portrayed in Ink is that of distorting a person's sense of self and reality in a manner that can lead to their destruction (and in doing so, often set up a chain reaction leading to yet more pain and despair for yet more people).

In real life this brand of evil occurs when people are abused, discriminated against, and denied basic ethics -- but it also occurs when people just happen to encounter certain patterns and get "stuck" in them via the adoption of certain attitudes.

Again, language is failing me somewhat here, but basically I think Ink alludes to the same species of destructiveness that is portrayed by, say, the Echthroi (in Madeleine L'Engle's fantasy works), and by the "Nothing" (from The Neverending Story), and even by Bill Murray's character's attitude at the beginning of the film Groundhog Day (which, yes, I am reminded of because yesterday was February 2!).

In all those cases, regardless of where it comes from (whether it be a particular creature, or a set of societal influences, or something resembling depression, or any number of other sources), you have some sort of force urging people to effectively erase themselves, bury themselves under illusions (with these illusions presented as "undeniable truth"), and to drag as many others down with them in the process (whether this is done intentionally or not).

And, in all those cases, the way to fight the evil seems to be in basically standing up to the would-be destructive forces and refusing to accept or adopt their illusions (whether they pertain to you or someone else, or to reality-at-large). In L'Engle's works this is done through "Naming" (that is, asserting the significance and unique identity of everything and everyone, whether they be a human or a star or a tree). In The Neverending Story this is done through imagination, wish, and (ultimately) the distillation of what truly does matter from a whole slew of possibilities.

(And in Groundhog Day, weatherman Phil Connors figures out via trial and error that maybe being a nihilistic jackass is not the optimum, or the most reality-acknowledging, way of going about life. Which is very...different in form from all the other examples listed here, but I wanted to mention it because Groundhog Day is actually a pretty good depiction, in my opinion, of the difference between good-producing and evil-producing attitudes, where the attitudes themselves are not personified as good or evil creatures.)

Along these lines, though again putting its own spin on things, Ink's good characters fight evil through a combination of storytelling (in that particular way which permits truth to be conveyed) and by something that is not labeled specifically but which looks to me to be a lot like "Naming". There is also a cool scene in which one character uses his particular capacity to play with probability in a manner that sets up an opportunity for one of the human characters to change the direction of his life for the better, but which does not force a given outcome.

To me, these things, while not literally having counterparts in real life, do represent ways in which actual people can (and do) triumph over real evil -- that is, by learning the difference between destructive illusion and the truth about who we are, what we could become, and what the world is genuinely like.

As for the matter of "stories versus lies": there is one particularly telling scene in Ink in which two characters are arguing over this very quandary. One character seems to actually believe that his take on things is the only truly rational way to interpret reality. The other character, however, asserts the falseness of this and insists that there is a difference between stories and lies.

The way I read this scene, the second character seems to be pointing out that sometimes one can actually end up trapped in lies because of being led to disavow the utility of stories! In other words, part of what I see happening in Ink is a kind of...backlash against the notion that in order to be Super Rational And Therefore Connected With Actual Reality,- one has to decide that the "worst case" (of who one is, and how the universe operates) is the best possible "default". I appreciate this backlash because it is one I see myself as taking part in -- the very name of my blog attests to this!

Put another way, I do not think you have to believe that Everything Ultimately Sucks in order to be a rational being, and I guess that compels me to appreciate it when I come across "hey, look, actually, there is no good reason to presume life is meaningless, because hey guess what, meaning isn't made by stuff outside you anyway, but by what you bring with you to the stuff you perceive!" messages in my entertainment.

Finally!

So...yeah, if anyone is still reading at this point I will conclude by saying that Ink is definitely a film I would recommend, to pretty much anyone who enjoys a good sf/fantasy tale and who appreciates a bit of sustenance with their special effects. I would especially anticipate anyone who enjoyed films like 12 Monkeys or Brazil (there's a very Terry Gilliam-ish weirdness to Ink, which is always happy-making for me), or Dark City, or The City of Lost Children will like Ink.

Catur-Monday Photopost

As I am currently finishing up another movie review post and working on a few others, here are some more cat pictures (taken mostly last week / this past weekend).

The kittens are now nearly six months old! And Nikki, the most recent addition to our feline family (who is eight years old) is definitely settling in, though she and Coraline are still having swat-and-hiss fights every now and then, as they are both very territorial ladies. Still, I figure so long as nobody is actually shredding anyone else, we're doing quite well. I was all asquee to see all four of them napping on the couch (as one of these pictures shows)!

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Snuggle-pile on the couch! Shadow and Brodie are total best buddy-brothers, as their entangled cuddle-hug configuration demonstrates. Cora is comfortably positioned next to the boys, whilst Nikki keeps a respectful (yet proximate) distance on the arm of the sofa, where she likes to perch.

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So far Nikki seems to be getting on best with Shadow (out of all the kittens). I was figuring it would be either him or Brodie she would warm up to first, as both boy kitties are very social when it comes to other felines.

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Brodie having an utterly luxurious nap-stretch on the electric blanket.

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Bird-watching is fun for the whole (feline) family!

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Coraline is being naughty here (kitties are not allowed on the counters, and she knows it!) but this was such a neat shot I had to get the camera and take it before shooing her down. I then did some editing in GIMP to turn down all the color saturation except for orange, and I think the effect was rather cool!

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