iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 24/01/2026

My 1-week extracurricular project is sort of a Dragon’s Den for planning - my team has been assigned a historic disused/underused property to envision as an Adaptive Reuse build.

A view of the back of a 19th century industrial building. The facade is a faded buff brick factory wall, with many small latticed windows. The word Krug can be seen painted on the brickwork between the 3rd and 4th level of one part. A lower part of the building is in the foreground with a chimney stack on top.

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 26/12/2025

Traditional Jewish Christmas, as the legend goes: Chinese Food and a movie. Post-Pandemic Jewish Christmas, our house: Indian Take-out, podcasts, and sorting the 20,000+ piece Lego collection. Followed by Jewish Boxing Day: shopping for a new storage organizer tower.

A view from above of a living room, furniture stacked with half-sorted odd bins and shoeboxes of Lego.

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 30/08/2025

Been quieter online lately, as I took on a short-term, but full-time-plus, "day" job - at an art studio. The artist/owner needed a heap of extra hands for component assembly on a large installation. Can't say much more about it, because I don't even KNOW much, it's […] [Original post on pxlfd.ca]

A hand in a protective glove, holding pliers, over a component of a steel-bead-and-wire sculptural work-in-progress.

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 19/08/2025

I’ve started a job which, while it still involves time seated on my ass, is more physical than things have been in a long time. Wrestling steel “beads” and cables into a textile- like construct at the direction of an architect is definitely something I’ll have to […] [Original post on pxlfd.ca]

A gloved hand, holding a few braided steel cables and a pair of needle nose pliers. A bowl of hollow steel spheres and a partially assembled component is in the background.

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 19/08/2025

A belated #caturday, featuring Leelo(o) Ten, who is demonstrating a workable Cat Trap can be developed from a non-rigid take-out burrito bag just as well as her usual coffee pod box. Which leads back to the question… if a burrito bag is a corrugated box, is a wrap indeed a sandwich?,

A large (though slightly smaller than before) roundish Sortamese cat has tucked her ample self into a folded-over paper bag which once contained a take out meal. She cares not for the past food content, but the bag itself is the treasure.

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 31/07/2025

Attempted Murder in the VPL rooftop garden.

3 crows gathered on a checkerboard rooftop patio.

3 crows gathered on a checkerboard rooftop patio, two have hopped up on a chair and one is confronting its reflection in a window.

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 31/07/2025

Well hi again, YVR. My history with this airport includes a few arrivals or connections in the wee hours now. Not sure how I keep doing that. Too late this time to even catch the train to downtown… posting from the Night Bus. Night buses are odd liminal spaces. As are abandoned airports.

Towering art in the Vancouver airport. Two tall, blue-green poles made of translucent material evoke traditional totem poles and tell the story of two rivers

A view from the aircraft window as the plane descends over Vancouver

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 17/07/2025

I am terrible for this, but after submitting my Collection, I'm finding more things I want to revise or add to it. here's a bit of a placeholder for the moment of inspiring words and stories around Singapore

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 16/07/2025

The Force of Nature, 2008 ed. 8/8 Because of my ADHD tendency to keep following things down rabbit holes, I'm still refining my already-submitted Pixelfed based based photologue of my Singapore trip. Trying to look up references and validate links, I found this […] [Original post on pxlfd.ca]

https://www.pub.gov.sg/Public/Places-of-Interest/Marina-Barrage/Arts-Trail#

A photograph of a metallic-finished sculpture apparently installed on a high plinth, photographed in sunlight against a bright blue sky with a small cloud transiting the background. The sculpture is of a nude female form holding the ends of a length of wide fabric as if it is a sling or reins. Wrapped in the fabric is the Earth, formed in this statue as if it is flying away from the figure, who struggles to hold on to it, perhaps to be drawn along or perhaps to try to pull it back towards herself.

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 15/07/2025

Collection Cover Page of Singapore cityscapes. All photographs in this collection c. Johanna Botari unless otherwise stated. Screenshots generated as needed, web links to reference material generated and verified as of 2025-07-13. Please note that descriptive […] [Original post on pxlfd.ca]

Tall, futuristic high-rise buildings appear over the rainforest treetops in the distance.

Gondola system over the forest-and-highrise cityscape. 3 cars are visible against a cloudy and clear sky

A light-and-fountain show, with choreographed and laser-lit jets of water in Marina Bay providing a nightly entertainment interval in front of the Marina Bay Sands Casino and mall.

A view of the Artscience Museum from across the bay. The unique architecture looks somewhat like a lopsided concrete artichoke and is coloured (or lighted?) in bright golden-yellow

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 13/07/2025

I don't usually post stuff not mine or not with permission - this is a downloaded compilation I found in my photo library. But it's #caturday and I needed a laugh, please enjoy cats vs. toasters.

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 13/07/2025

It's #caturday. This photo's from a little while ago, but very typical of this guy.

A siamese cat lying on a deep windowsill in the sunshine. He is on his back but twisted around so front end and back end are going in opposite directions. Cats are liquid.

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 29/06/2025

I haven’t quite missed #caturday . Here is Sudo to recommend some light reading.

A seal point Siamese cat sits on the end of a wall mounted, floating bookshelf. He is looking directly at the camera and is positioned so he appears to be the bookend.

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 23/06/2025

A study of bricks and a late #fensterfreitag addition - heritage style. I can't remember if I explained the brick thing here. I learned, through the process of creating and getting approval for a Heritage by-law for the building I live in, that there is a certain […] [Original post on pxlfd.ca]

A large window frame inset into a historic brick wall that is probably much older than the window in it.

Below and slightly left of the window pictured previously, this shot shows a heavy wooden beam embedded in the brick wall. I cannot tell for sure but it possibly goes all the way through to the exterior and was likely once either the edge of the floor framing or a sill itself for a larger opening in the wall.

A little discontinuity both in the surface of the interior wall, and the layers and eras of brickwork used. On the left is older, unfinished, deteriorated brick, looking very much like a crumbling exterior wall but on the interior. On the right, newer but nearly-matched colour/size bricks were used to build a facade layer which looks like it might have enclosed a (faux?) fire place or other feature that is no longer there.

A neon sign, the tubes of blown glass shaped into the scripted words "come as you are", mounted on an old brick wall interior.

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 23/06/2025

I just counted all my snapped but sporadically posted June photos. I'm caught up to the 20th but I'm a bit out of turn/late on posting. Here's some Waterloo Park vibes from the already-hot Saturday morning after my yoga class.

A wide view of the footbridge over the downstream end of Silver Lake, leading walkers across from the trail outside the Perimeter institute to the old Abraham Erb Mill building and raceway that is still preserved here.

A cluster of water lily plants, the pads are all overlapping to form a small mat and there are several white flowers in bloom on top of the pads.

The edge and outflow of a stone weir/small dam. The structure is at the downstream end of the reconstructed Silver Lake, a retention basin created on the Laurel Creek Waterway floodplain in part of Waterloo Park. The dam creates a small outflow so the creek again becomes a creek and flows in a more orderly way into the massive box culvert that carries it below uptown Waterloo past Regina St.

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 17/06/2025

A view looking "upstream" at the water feature opened last year on the Waterloo Town Slab.

The photo shows a concrete wall in the top and right of the frame, and a reflective water surface below and left of the frame, showing how the slow-moving waterfall steps of this fountain look from the base of the basin.

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 17/06/2025

Some urban decay of a sort. The city invested a lot in this weird hodge-podge of street lighting in recent years, including these I guess "rustic" looking concrete-of-some-sort posts for the oddly anachronistic oversized faux-Victorian lantern lights. not all of […] [Original post on pxlfd.ca]

An eroding concrete pole. The plate attached to it says "Stresscrete" but I don't know if that was supposed to indicate it came apart at the least stress?

A view looking up the same eroding concrete utility pole. One wonders when the large Victorian lantern fixture on top (out of frame) will come down.

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 14/06/2025

Since I’m up and it’s now early #caturday morning, here is some Leelo(o) to kick off this week’s observances.

A blue-eyed but tortie-patterned Siamese mix cat with her head turned around to face the hand that is scratching her back. Her tongue is stuck out, as she responds to being petted in certain ways by licking.

A close-up portrait of the face of a Siamese-mix cat. She appears unamused, but it’s just her resting grumpyface.

Leelo(o) misplaced her tail somehow before she joined us. She hasn’t really explained the situation, but doesn’t seem to mind being teased about her BunnyButt. Actual description: the rump of a roundish, brindled cat showing the small stump if tail she has left.

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 14/06/2025

Second Friday post to make up for my missed Thursday. When I travel (someday I’ll dig out my Italy and Iceland and Cuba trips) I end up taking many photos of doors, windows, and the views theough gates, down alleys and corridors that despite being clearly open […] [Original post on pxlfd.ca]

The back facade of a city block which contains street-level retail units on the front. Clearly there are living spaces above and behind. A wooden framework of 2nd and 3rd level balconies or decks has been mounted on the rear of the background building and the centre of the frame shows the beginning of a small corridor which leads between the ground floor units to an entry door.

An art deco (ish..) glass facade tower rising over a lower level retail block. Looks impressive! Who lurks behind that tinted glass, overseeing the city centre? Ahhhh… jokes on us, that’s the stairwell for the parkade. Kind of a follie, if you ask me. We need to reclaim that space from being just underused car storage.

Waterloo’s “time square”, another historic building that looks to have been cobbled together through the ages (you should see the rebuild in the back of it). The clock tower has five levels - elevated street to a doorway, 2nd through 4th having 3 completely different configurations of windows, and the clock faces on top.

The view down a worn, gravel/dirt surfaced alley that meanders a bit between two building blocks. The side of the foreground building is a hodge-podge of brick, patchwork and additions, and in the back is a similarly patched-lioking brick building, the back of a building facing onto the next street over.

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 14/06/2025

Thursday failed to happen at all due to some sudden health outage, but I’ll post my penance with some extras for #Fensterfreitag . I really need to thank whomever came up with that hashtag, as it has got me looking around my local cityscape with some fresh eyes.

The side of a many-times-renovated, heritage-brick building. What appears to be an addition but might just be facade “upgrade” adds a partial 2nd then 3rd floor on the rear of the back. The corrugated metal siding looks like it’s been dropped onto/into the original brick like a tetris block on top if another below. Windows of all different shapes and probably eras are placed in an uncoordinated manner.

Another detail of the brick wall from the first photo. It shows a series of 3 square window panes with a continuous sill which looks to have been inserted into a previously larger, then bricked up, opening in the wall.

The Button Factory, another historic building with characteristic Waterloo Region “buff” brick walls and several narrow, tall windows in an even array in the wall. A modern addition has been added to the building, mostly taken up by a new elevator so this community gallery and event space is now accessible without risking the very worn and steep stairs inside.

A tiny, narrow, sidewalk-level opening into a mysterious space below an uptown shop. Who have you imprisoned down there, merchant?

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 12/06/2025

A Wednesday #everydayiscaturday post for you. Sudo’s vision is failing but his nose is not. These days-old takeout boxes are just waiting in our “to be recycled” corner, but one of them contained *chicken*, so himself has camped out in hopes that a remaining wing […] [Original post on pxlfd.ca]

A Siamese cat is perched atop a stack of cardboard “pizza” takeout boxes, one of which contained chicken wings. Though he would probably have appreciated the pizza too.

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 12/06/2025

Here’s a Tuesday backfill for ya. The strange barrel-stave fern- fronds of #waterlooregion and the Town Slab.

These structures are some sort of public art, providing lighting at night and supposedly daytime shade, over the public square of uptown Waterloo. They are meant to evoke not just fern fronds, but the staves of the whisky barrels which were iconic to this area as it is built upon the original Seagram Distillery lands, the few remaining buildings if which are nearby.

A close-up of the centre, taller structure with others receding on either side.

A different framing/perspective, with a lower frond between two taller ones. The cloudy sky is being rather mire dramatic in look than delivery, we didnt get the rain promised.

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 12/06/2025

I have a few days to catch up on. These photo-a-day for howeverlong challenges never get done completely. That said I AM managing to snap some, just failing at the posting now. Local peonies as I come and go on errands are an easy target. Hey! My first […] [Original post on pxlfd.ca]

A nearly red peony(? I hope I am id’ing that right) in a nest of green foliage.

A fuchsia (the colour) peony (the flower), already bloomed and starting to droop.

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 08/06/2025

The Grand Porch Party, a neighbourhood music & arts festival in the Uptown West neighbourhood, #waterlooregion . #notsosilentsunday

A guitar-shaped signpost announcing the Grand Porch Party on a closed residential street.

A large burl on a cracked/split but still growing neighbourhood tree. It might sorta look like a face, if you squint. Probably haunted. Possibly by squirrels.

The neighbourhood provides amenities for all our guests! The Grand Porch Potty, an accessible outhouse rental.

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 08/06/2025

Hello from this #caturday goof who decided to try to eat a tub of garlic sauce when I turned my back on my leftovers for a second.

A seal-point Siamese cat. His name is Sudo. "Sudo do not eat that" is not an effective instruction.

Sudo the seal-point meezer is extending his nose toward the camera in case the photographer have something else he should not be eating.

Sudo the seal-point meezer posing a little more properly but still trouble.

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 07/06/2025

Some #fensterFreitag (just-above-the-)streetscapes from a hazy urban Ontario city. I'm not certain I appreciate how there's enough wildfire smoke in our air that it adds a filter to everything I'm snapping this week.

The 2nd and 3rd stories of a late 19th century building. The "buff" coloured brick is, I'm told, a particular characteristic of this era and location. It is featured in quite a few Waterloo, Ontario landmarks.

A newer, painted-over brick frontage on a retail ground/rental upstairs uptown building.

Slightly varying facades on another block up uptown buildings.

3 adjacent buildings in one commercial city block, each seemingly from a different era of the built history of this place.

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 05/06/2025

Not sure if it shows in photos, but today, even after rain, it’s cool and quite hazy/smokey here still. The smell is odd - mix of smoke and petrichor with quite a metallic tang. I’ve been thinking my sore throat & clogged lungs were related to anaesthesia 2 days ago, now just suspecting air quality.

#fensterFreitag but not Friday. The side of a brick building with many small windows. The slight sepia tone and hazy sky are due to smoke from provinces west of here .

Wide view of a water feature in a city park adjacent to a brick warehouse building.

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 05/06/2025

Today’s slightly late post is a bit of kitchen mad science as my kid dealt with the remains of some dry ice from a frozen delivery.

A frothing-over, apparently smouldering pot on a stove. Warm water with dish soap, with chunks of dry ice dropped in. The sublimated CO2 fills the bubbles, which eventually burst, burping out clouds of vapour.

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 04/06/2025

Today’s travelogue - hospital. 1) my view, pre-surg 2) waiting… 3) surprisingly little time later, packing to go 4)&5) home-care crew

View from my gurney - IV bag hanging on a pole in front of a bland beige drape

All checked in and charted. Me, a pale-skinned dark-haired middle aged patient wearing a blue hospital gown

View off the end of a hospital gurney in the day surgery ward, I’ve just very slowly and carefully finished putting my sock on, and promptly requested another warm blanket compress and pain relief because OW ABS.

Leelo(o) Ten has a particular was she cuddles up when MomHuman is on a particular end of the sofa that is usually the ‘not feeling awesome right now’ spot. She is draped chest over my shin, front limbs reaching towards me and back feet against me.

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 23/05/2025

Birbs. First shot is from last week in Singapore. One of the first and one of the best I got with the cheap camera that is in fact so cheap I am returning it, was mostly awful and sometimes completely failed to even store the photo. I found it funny though that […] [Original post on pxlfd.ca]

Some variant of heron standing in a neighbourhood retention pond known as Alkaff "Lake".

A Great Blue Heron that nearly knocked my head off a moment before this photo as it glided in with landing gear down onto the MUT I was strolling along.

A(nother?) Great Blue Heron in Waterloo Park, shading the water so it can see its intended snacks.

(Yet) A(nother?) (I have no idea if these are all the same bird, never see two together) Great Blue Heron at the Laurel Creek Uptown outlet basin. It frequently hangs out here and I suspect it snacks on wee ducklings occasionally, because this is a spot where ducks nest and over the first couple weeks I'll see 10-12 hatchlings gradually decrease to 3-6 bigger ducklings following the parents around. I've noted that duck parents are not very hazard-avoidant, this is an annual phenomenon.

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 23/05/2025

WHY can I not just spend my life at home talking to this goofy grumpyface? (Not really grumpy. Definitely goofy). #caturdayeveryday #caturday

Leelo(o) Ten, my mixed-up Sortamese cat, giving me a slightly miffed, slightly cross-eyed look because she really does NOT understand that her meals arrive on a schedule from a robot and I do not need 2.5 hours of reminders every afternoon that she would like her food, please.

Shot by my dearest, @shuttermonster@pixelfed.social, of my two cats who rarely snuggle up, being snuggled up. Possibly one of the signs of the apocalypse. Possibly the result of a chilly spell in late May.

Another view of Leelo(o) being a little annoyed-looking at probably the lack of kibble delivery.

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 10/05/2025

Some #fensterFreitag fun, with extra Magnolia blooms. Sorry if I've overdone the blooms - they're so brief every year, I'm always trying to get just the right picture.

The brick wall of a building, with a magnolia tree or 3 blooming in front of it, and the corner of a stone wall of a fountain in front of that.

The wall of tiny windows - originally just open vents - in the old Seagram Distillery barrel warehouses, now heritage-designated condos.

A branch of magnolia blooms, with greenspace and a massive public art item in the background.

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 03/05/2025

My first few shots with my new, barely better than P&S, cheap camera.

Parts of the walls of two converted warehouse buildings. In the foreground is a park plaza with a stone fountain, with a just-bloomed magnolia tree in front of it.

A slghtly different angle of the warehouse walls and fountain.

A wider view of the entire wall of the old Seagram Distillery barrel warehouse building.

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 20/03/2025

We are now shifting the “OMG I AM STARVING DO NOT FORGET MY DINNER TIME IS COMING” thrice-daily routine to a full 2 hours in advance of actual mealtime. She would be funny if I weren’t trying to do stuff. She starts working on it by stimping around on my desk […] [Original post on pxlfd.ca]

A large, round, blue-eyed and oddly upholstered Siamese mix cat is sitting on my desk riser near my monitor, obstructing one corner of the screen.

A large, round Siamese mix cat sitting on top of a stirage tower, trying to convey to me by loud purrs and intermittent snorts and huffs that she may die of starvation any second now and 2 more hours is too long to wait for snackies.

Portrait of a large, round, Siamese mix cat, caught with her tongue out mid-lick.

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Johanna, through a lens(Cdn) @johannab.pxlfd.ca.ap.brid.gy · 05/03/2025

My afternoon PEBKAC (PEBCat?) has arrived on time, to begin the thrice-daily 90 minute pre-meal performance of “I am starving, I am dying, I fear you are forgetting my meal time is in 90 minutes.” It is amazing how well she knows the time, equally so that she […] [Original post on pxlfd.ca]

A brindled tortie-siamese mix cat sitting on the desk riser beside my monitor. She has carefully parked her round butt amongst my desk tchotchkes without knocking them over. THIS time.

The large round Sortameezer monster, now relocated to my lap such that i cannot operate my keyboard. She wishes you all to hear her plight , for she is starved unto wasting away and the ape with opposable thumbs is cruel and likely to just completely forget her dinner at the appointed time, 90 minutes from now.

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