Wordless Wednesday: curiously close-up cat
taming a cat the Minecraft way
Every Friday, my six-year-old son, Porter, gets excited. It's stay-up-late, skip-the-bath night, and he can't wait to play Minecraft. If you have a boy at home between the ages of five and forty-five, you're probably familiar with this highly-addictive game. I am opposed to video games, in general (that's a WHOLE other ball of wax you don't want me to go into here), but when a few of my trusted mommy friends began singing the praises of Minecraft and Porter began to beg for us to "just check it out," I decided to cave–literally–and let Porter give it a shot. It seemed creative and something that might require actual thinking with a brain rather than mind-numbing button mashing. For those of you unfamiliar with this game that can be played on basically any platform you can imagine, the Minecraft Web site summarizes it:
Minecraft is a game about breaking and placing blocks. At first, people built structures to protect against nocturnal monsters, but as the game grew, players worked together to create wonderful, imaginative things.
It can also be about adventuring with friends or watching the sun rise over a blocky ocean. It's pretty. Brave players battle terrible things in The Nether, which is more scary than pretty. You can also visit a land of mushrooms if it sounds more like your cup of tea.
The game developers release periodic updates. One of the recent updates is a big hit in our house. You can have a pet cat! Or lots of pet cats!
I've talked before about the why I don't have a cat. But virtual cats? I let the kid bring home as many as he could wrangle.
You see, these cats don't start out purring in your hands. They begin their Minecraft existence as ocelots, roaming wild and free. In order to have them as pets, you have to gain their trust through being near to them and offering fish. Lots and lots of fish. Fish = love.
And the best part? No litter box!
So Porter showed me how he trains ocelots to become suitable pet cats. Talk about a fun way to spend a Friday night! First comes the approach, and like any decent cat would demand, you must prove yourself with a delectable offering, getting close enough to the ocelot so he can smell it, but not so close that you scare it. Once you've enticed the creature and gained his trust, you give him fish. More fish means more love, and your new pet cat isn't shy about showing his affection.
After you've earned this kind of devotion. You can't shake it. So Fluffy then follows you everywhere, practically winding between your legs. And if one isn't enough, you can go for more.
Just as Porter had trained his pride, the rain set in. And we all know how much cats like to stand out in the rain.
So in order to keep his feline family happy, Porter had to quickly build a structure. He has gotten very good at building, so he threw something up rather quickly and baited the cats inside.
Everyone needs something to do in the rain, right? It was then that I noticed the kitten. It appeared as if the cats had already gotten busy entertaining themselves in the inclement weather. I asked Porter where the kitten came from. He explained it well: "Well, Mommy, when you have two cats, you get a kitten." I didn't probe for additional details. Cute kitten, right?
In Porter's rush to create a shelter for his new cat family, he skimped a bit on the windows providing only bars as a barrier to the open air.
What happened next is too graphic to show you, and it happened so fast that I was unable to capture a photo. As the virtual storm grew to a crescendo, the lightening began to strike. Porter started to block up the windows, anticipating the inevitable. In a split second with a flashing crash, two of the cats were struck simultaneously and went up in flames. It was heartbreaking.
As the duo burned in a meowing fury, Porter summed up the whole experience: "Oh, NO! Cats are much more harder to take care of than dogs."
RIP, kitty-cats.
We can't replace our beloved pets in real life, but, thankfully, Porter can spawn new kittens in Minecraft. We don't want the cats who have passed to feel as if they have been replaced. But they've been replaced.
Minecraft demands a lot of animal interactions, but this new cat training update is proving to be a fun challenge both to play and to watch.
it's okay that my first grader is failing Spanish
He got +2. He's IP (in progress) in Spanish. He's going down. Mayday.
But let's put this into perspective, okay? He's in first grade. It's Spanish. And he didn't know there were hints at the bottom!!! He didn't know! He said he didn't know, and I totally believe him, because he's rad, and he would have gotten them all, had he noticed.
So let's look at the positives, shall we? Of the two he got right, he got 2/2 for pets. So, technically, he got 100% where it really counts, right? And he even threw in some French. Because he's so advanced. You know...I don't want to brag.
do the ASPCA commercials make you want to hang yourself?
My friend, April, recently posted on Facebook that she always mutes the TV when the ASPCA commercial comes on because it brings her to tears. She asked if anyone else mutes the TV. She got an overwhelming response, and no one said "I always watch them and then call in to donate money." Responses ranged from "I turn the TV off," to "I change the channel," to "I fast forward on my DVR." I explained that I shut my eyes, plug my ears, and sing "la la la, la la la, la la la..." My conclusion was that not too many people are watching these commercials, and my friend who started the post asked how effective the commercials could be if everyone was turning away. That got me thinking. Us die-hard animal lovers probably already donate to some sort of animal-saving organization, perhaps local or, in all likelihood, the ASPCA. We know the horrors because we probably think about all the animals we can't save on a daily basis. We volunteer hours and we open our pocketbooks. We even write blog posts. Most of us can't bear to watch, and certainly can't keep the tears at bay when Willie Nelson sings to us about love as the pitiful, sad faces in cages stream across our TVs.
I found the ASPCA commercial that is currently airing with Willie Nelson and Kim Rhodes on iSpot.tv:
When I pulled up the commercial on the computer for the purpose of this post, the littles even had a strong reaction. Campbell, my 4-year-old daughter, said "awww" every time the picture changed, and then declared "we have to save all those animals. I want to get them all." Yeah, Cam. Me, too.
Porter, my six-year-old son, said "those animals all need our help? When can we get a cat?" Once again, I explained to him why we don't have a cat.
And, of course, I was crying. These commercials are depressing. Does anyone actually watch them?
iSpot.tv is pretty cool because you can track the statistics on the commercials. Like when it last aired and how many times it's aired and which programs it interrupts. What you can't track is how effective it is. In a 2010 blog post, writer Franny Syufy reported that she asked the ASPCA directly about just that and they responded that "the ASPCA measures our success by the number of animals we are able to help and by how efficient we are at raising the money that allows us to help those animals." They went on to say that they see significant revenue growth surrounding these ad campaigns. Yes, the same ones that are making most people I talk to turn away. So it appears that they do produce enough revenue to justify the cost of advertising. I won't get into the debate about whether or not the ASPCA is a good organization to donate to because we all have our opinions about whether we should donate to national or local organizations. Suffice it to say that the ASPCA is a highly rated charity. Donating to a legitimate charity is a wonderful thing to do and a personal choice.
So I'm thinking these commercials can't be targeting people like April and I (and all of her Facebook friends), because we're just turning them off. We already understand the atrocities and don't wish to be saddened further. So who do these commercials target? Who knows? But somebody is watching and donating because of them, or the ASPCA wouldn't keep airing them, right? For those of us who don't turn away, pulling at our heartstrings is effective.
But why not add a bit of positive into this advertising campaign? April put it perfectly:
I would much rather them show heart-warming stories of animals that have been impacted by the support. Showing them in loving homes, etc. I think that would have a much better impact than sad music, injured animals and stories of them being tortured.
She makes a great point, doesn't she? I would totally watch a commercial like that!
Whether you're turning away or opening your pockets, both, or neither, find a cause that you can support wholeheartedly and go for it! Helping animals in need, or anyone or anything in need just makes you feel good, even if the commercials make you want to hang yourself.