Feb 172009
The other day I blogged about the autofeeder I got for my cats and how much I like it. What I didn’t mention was that one of them seems to have the intelligence of a delinquent 14 year old and figured out how it works. Not only did she understand that the food comes out of a little hole, but that there is extra food behind a little lever there and if she can push it on her own food will come out when it’s not planned to. I didn’t mention it because I didn’t think anyone would believe me. But now I have video so check it:
If she had a opposable thumbs it would be all over for sure.
Feb 162009
Feb 142009
Feb 132009
I travel a lot. You may have noticed this. I also have cats. The cats like to be fed. Sometimes I’m traveling when the cats are home expecting to be fed. You can see where the problem lies. Over the years I’ve had any number of friends help out with the cat feeding duties and I’m happy to say I’ve never had a single cat starve to death in my absence. However, always asking people for favors and the cats having to put up with different schedules is kind of lame, so I decided I needed to hire a robot to feed my cats for me. I didn’t find one of those, but I got the next best thing.
If you look around you’ll find no shortage of automatic pet feeders. Most of them are variations on circular compartments with a moving cover that holds measured portions for 3-5 days theme. I thought those kind of sucked and the reviews I read online tended to agree. Plus I wanted something I could use all the time so the cats would be used to it, not something I’d just throw out when I was gone. I found the Petmate Le Bistro
It hold about 5lbs of dry food, and you program in how much food you want it to kick out up to three times a day. I have it set to give out a cup in the morning and again at night and it works flawlessly. The thing is, it’s got a bunch of secondary benefits I didn’t even expect. The first is that my fat cats trimed up. I was always trying to measure how much food I was giving them and was often giving them too much. The automagicness of this isn’t swayed by their cute little kitty eyes and gives them exactly what they should have every time no matter what. Additionally, the cats have all realized that their food comes from this machine instead of me now so when they are hungry they go over and hang out next to it thinking they can talk it into feeding them early, instead of climbing on my face or laying down on my keyboard whilst I type to get my attention. It’s amazing, it’s defected all their annoying leaving me to only focus on their snuggles. I’m a big fan. Plus, it does what it was supposed to do and if filled with a new bag can easily feed them while I’m out of town for pretty much anything. They still need fresh water and clean litter boxes, but one thing at a time…
Feb 122009
As you may have gathered from Objectified 03 I’m kind of into the flashlights. And as you may have also gathered from the comments there that one, while small, might be a little too big to carry with you all the time which is really when a flashlight is handy – not when you are expecting to need it but when you are caught in the dark by surprise. Which leads me to what might be the worst photo I’ve ever taken with my iPhone.
If there is a better single AAA battery keychain flashlight then the ones made by Arc I’ve certainly never seen them. The entire thing is barely larger than the AAA battery it uses and depending on which model you choose puts out up to 10 lumens which is just stupidly bright for a little thing like this. This thing weighs next to nothing and is made out of super rugged stainless steel and while mine is a darkish military green which was the only option when I bought it a few years back, it looks like they have some colored versions available at the moment. I’d buy one, but honestly this works as good as the day I first got it and it’s just as bright even though I’ve never had to replace the battery yet. I’ve carried it daily for years and with the exception of a few skuffs from the keys it’s attached to, the thing is perfect. When I bust it out people are always blown away by how much light comes from such a tiny thing. This gets my vote for awesomest keychain light ever.
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