This is a DSLR camera clipholder being made by Peter Dering that looks like a better way to have your camera attached to you, so that you can carry it around, ready to take shots while having it more rigidly attached to prevent accidental damage. (Of course, it doesn't take into account walking yourself into objects that could damage your camera, but at least you won't be swinging it into said objects.)
Aside from the actual product, (which does sound nifty, but I'd have to defer to the resident DSLR photographer in the family, Lee, to determine its true user niftiness), I was also intrigued by the method by which this is being manufactured, getting funding, getting advertised. I'd have to look into it further to see how he found his small run manufacturers, but the product clearly has some prototypes but hasn't gone through a larger scale production. He's using the Kickstarter website to solicit funding and generate some enthusiasm out there before he has production going. The marketing apparently worked since I stumbled across this on the internet and I don't know the guy. I know enough people with good ideas for useful designs that could hook into this system for getting that good idea into the hands of more than just their friends and family. It strikes me as somewhat akin to Amazon's self-publishing system only for more than just books. I'll have to keep this in mind the next time I get a bright idea that needs to be made in bulk.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Nifty Technology: Photography
Friday, February 5, 2010
My Top Five Video Games of All Time
That's a daunting title. I went through an entire discussion in my head why I don't need to do this (and honestly I don't except for I wouldn't have this blog post otherwise). That stating my Top Five OF ALL TIME would commit me to supporting this post for the rest of my life even if I change my mind and I would end up with a miserable existence supporting something I knew to be a lie and I would never respect myself again.
Then I took a deep breath and talked myself into a better perspective; this list is for fun. My criteria for the games making this list is whether I remember playing the heck out of the game. There are many other good games I liked, but I didn't repeatedly play it. This can be a misleading metric for me because of my obsessive tendencies. I may play the heck out of a game merely because it's the phase I was in at the time, but it doesn't necessarily mean it was good or I really liked it. Don't ask.
On to the list.
Dragon Age: Origins
This is probably on here because I'm still currently playing the heck out of this game. It's the source of ridicule from my gaming friends (and husband) but I don't care. In typical fashion with BioWare games, I replay the game because I want to see the story as a good guy and a bad guy. I'm currently replaying Dragon Age as four different characters concurrently, one of which is an exact (but better looking version) of a character I've already played through. If the 'obsessions' part of this blog wasn't evident before, here's some proof.
Final Fantasy 12
While I'd played previous Final Fantasy games (8, 10, and 10-2 specifically), this one snuck up on me. It was already out by the time I noticed it and I didn't even rush out and get it. I really enjoyed the characters, particularly one whom I consider Square's best character to date: Balthier. I had my share of annoyances with the game, but he made it interesting enough for me to finish the game. The story itself left some room for improvement. Without that, I wouldn't have been motivated to write my own behind the scenes interpretations to explain what they didn't. Perhaps I should thank Square for rekindling my interest in writing.
Dance Dance Revolution Series
Thus begins my music/rhythm game fascination. I saw these mini dance club floors in the arcades and at first thought it was silly to call playing Simon Sez with your feet 'dancing'. Then I found the home version (I didn't really want to spend time and quarters learning it in the public arcades) and played it on our PS2. Since that first game, I collected the subsequent releases with new music. I could play it to the point of injury after which Lee counseled me to put it away for my own good. It just so happened that one of those later game discs provided a preview of another game that had you singing into a microphone and dancing. Which leads me to the next entry.
SingStar/Karaoke Revolution Series
I grew up being told I couldn't sing and making people cringe when I attempted. This is why I was a band geek all through middle and high school instead. But I think I had some of my grandfather in me and I couldn't just leave well enough alone. (My grandfather would take any party as an opportunity to serenade my grandmother to her feigned embarrassment.) These games measured my pitch and timing, giving me feedback as to how far off the mark I was so I could correct myself. As a result, I could learn the right notes to hit and maybe inspire less cringing. I'm still not going to perform like my sisters can, but my car singing may be more palatable. I also played these games to the point of hoarseness.
Guitar Hero/Rock Band
I wasn't initially interested in these when they were plastic guitars only. Once they added drums and allowed a group of four to play as a fake band, I was all over it. Knowing myself, I would have played the plastic guitar to the detriment of my hands. But playing the drums seemed more ergonomically friendly and I looked forward to banging on plastic drums. And if I got tired of drums, I could switch to the guitar or bass and when I got tired of that, I could drop back to singing. Turns out I had to fight Lee for the drums, so I play guitar/bass more often than not, but it's still fun.
That's the five games. Three of which are music series. This was originally meant to be a Top Ten, but I only came up with maybe seven. 'Top Seven' doesn't ring as nicely so I'm down to Top Five with a few honorable mentions.
Monkey Island Series
This is a set of adventure puzzle games featuring an atypical pirate named Guybrush Threepwood. Adventure puzzle games have been in decline for some time because it takes a lot of resources to produce and not very many people play it. Nevertheless, I was delighted when they developed some recent episodes to visit with Guybrush again. (I still have 4 of the 5 episodes to finish).
Knights of the Old Republic
Another BioWare game and possibly the first one of theirs that I played. Again, I played it more than once. But it makes it on this list because I will occasionally quote myself to hearken back to myself playing the game.*
*Language deliberately obtuse to prevent spoilers. I guess this is only funny to Lee because he's the only one who's heard me quote myself.
And I'm done. No one hold me to this list because I don't want to have to live a lie. But I'll take cake.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Paper Stash Reduction
The idea of reducing the amount of paper in my house has been intriguing me for some time. Happily, I have my paper files in a file cabinet grouped in file folders that make sense to me. Unfortunately, I also have paper files going back more than ten years. Cleaning them out at this stage is a daunting process. I didn't have an impetus to start that process until I found the Neat Receipts system on sale on Woot for a significant discount. It was my first (and thus far, only) purchase on Woot and I've been pretty happy with it. Read on for my review.
The Neat Receipts system includes a small scanner and a database system to put the scanned data into. To my mind, the money I spent is primarily for the database (I already own a scanner).
The nice thing about the scanner is that it's a feeder scanner. I have the portable travel scanner although I keep it on my desk at home. It keeps the desk footprint small while still able to scan in long receipts and full 8.5"x11" documents. The larger scanner is able to scan in double sided documents at once. The scanner I have requires flipping over the paper to scan in the second side. It's decent and relatively fast.
But that's enough about the scanner. The real reason I like this is for the software. There are two pieces to the software system. The software that scans in the documents and the software that organizes the data. The scanning software provides options to automatically sense whether the object you're scanning in is a receipt, a business card or a document. I've found that this can be tripped up distinguishing between a receipt and document. I will typically manually set it to the document type to get over that hiccup. Even if I don't, it's easy enough to switch the type in the database afterwards. It also provides an option to import pdfs or images - handy for my online shopping receipts.
I spent the most time trying to figure out how to set up the database fields so that I can find the information easily later. I haven't been able to test how well the system I set up works, because I haven't found a need to go look up information I've already scanned in. The online documentation and tutorials keep talking about pulling out receipts and other documents for tax purposes, so perhaps I'll be testing that functionality out soon.
My Receipts Category has 2 main sections, one for my debit receipts and the other for my main credit card. Each section is broken down into monthly folders.
The Documents Category has sections for the companies I have documents from. For example, I have a section for the telephone, gas & electric, water, and mortgage bills. Each section is further broken down into yearly folders. I've also started a section I've labeled 'Mementos' where I've been scanning in concert and show tickets so I don't have to hang on to the physical tickets.
Thus far, I've scanned in roughly 80% of the relevant daily paperwork I have. I still have the past accounts to scan in, but since I haven't been receiving more statements and bills from them, I gave myself a break once I got the current accounts up and running. The initial scanning and organizing step is definitely a hefty chunk of work. Unfortunately, I have also added steps to my daily paper management regimen. In the past, I would get the mail, pay the bill online and then file the statement in the file cabinet. Now, I get the mail, pay the bill, scan in the statement, then file it into its appropriate section, then shred the paper. To be fair, under my previous regimen, I'd only been deferring the paper shredding event to a later date.
At some point, I'll have to figure out how to set up the data backup so I can still retrieve the information when I inevitably change computers. Right now, the paper database is backed up to my external hard drive along with the rest of the data on my computer.
Overall, I am very happy that I'm no longer adding to my paper stash in the file cabinet. There's still some more scanning and hashing out the details of backing up the database, but I feel pretty good about my new system.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Video Games the Musical
We have finally succumbed to the Guitar Hero/Rock Band tidal wave of video games. I think it was the drums that did it. Oh and playing Guitar Hero World Tour (the full band version) at a friend's house. Aside from my lack of drumming skills, it was fun. We'd played Guitar Hero at another friend's house a few years ago, but with my repetitive stress issues with my wrists, I didn't think it would be healthy for me to injure myself on a video game, playing a mock instrument I hadn't previously expressed any interest in learning.
So when Guitar Hero added drums and vocals to their game, we perked up. Rock Band had already started out with the full band experience, but all reviews pointed to the guitar controllers of Guitar Hero being better made. After test playing it at the aforementioned friend's house, we headed out to Target and gave it to ourselves as a Christmas present. I later found out via internet research that the controllers for Guitar Hero World Tour would also work for Rock Band 2 so we got that also. After a few weeks of playing it, we've mostly switched over to Rock Band 2 (with Guitar Hero controllers) as our music game of choice.
Our music game collection (at my instigation) started with something very different: Dance Dance Revolution. I saw these in the arcades and movie theater lobbies and I was intrigued watching the people who were clearly very skilled at it. They had their water bottles and towels nearby, hopping in intricate patterns in time with the arrows scrolling by on the screen. In many cases they weren't even looking at the screen; they had memorized the steps from playing it so much. Over time, we bought the game and all subsequent releases, and even upgraded our flimsy dance pads to hard plastic ones in the quest for mastering harder and harder songs. Then, I pulled my Achilles tendon playing ultimate frisbee. Once I healed (many weeks later) I got back into my DDR habit only to find that it was painful. I have this weird quirk where I'll ignore non-excruciating pain when I'm really focused on achieving a goal (finishing a song or 15 in this case). I thought it might be best for my health if I put it away.
But there was a game preview on one of the Dance Dance Revolution games that bridged the way to my next music game obsession - Karaoke Revolution. With my dreams of Dance Dance Revolution divinity dashed, I turned to the less physically strenuous activity of singing. But it was more than just singing, this game would tell me when I was off pitch and possibly train me to sing more acceptably in bathroom acoustics. I come from a musical family. My sisters and mom are all trained singers, performing solos and in choirs, etc. My Lolo (grandfather on my dad's side) would always serenade my Lola (grandmother) whenever there was a microphone and an audience available. For my part, I once attempted singing in public, but it was probably an event best left to the bloopers reel.
At any rate, with practice in my own home and a scoring system, I got up enough confidence to agree to semi-regular karaoke parties at Todd and Ali's house complete with cocktails. Once again, I collected every version of Karaoke Revolution and SingStar games that they put out and have now started the collection on the Playstation 3.
This meanders me back to the Guitar Hero/Rock Band 2 acquisition. The nice thing about the band experience is that if my arms start to hurt from the guitar, I can switch to the drums and even if that starts hurting, I can fall back to the singing. Nothing like cross-training to keep the music flowing. According to Lee, who has actually been part of a rock band, the games actually do a decent simulation of the cohesive feeling playing in a band and trying to keep the songs together. I suspect, having never been in a rock band, that the real thing did not require near blinding focus on little colored bars or dots scrolling by on the screen (concert band, marching band, pep band, jazz band: yes. rock band: no. Yes, I was once a band geek, why do you ask?).
Rock Band 2 seems to do a better job at actually teaching beginners how to work with the instruments than Guitar Hero does. They have tutorials on the disk for guitar, vocals and drums - how to read the symbols on the screen, how to make the guitar work and beginner practice sessions and even trickier tips for the more advanced. For the drummers, they have a whole series of beats and rhythms to practice without getting scored. It also has a wider selection of downloadable songs for pay. We've probably spent an additional $20 on additional songs for Rock Band 2 and haven't bought any for Guitar Hero.
There's character creations for both games. A friend of mine insists on creating as close of a personal likeness as he can, while I prefer trying on the craziest outfits I can find. I did try creating myself in Rock Band 2 this past weekend and my normal t-shirt and jeans just doesn't look like it belongs on that sort of stage. I figure if I were actually a rock star, I would have a wardrobe and makeup to match the production level of the concert. I might be more casual for a small bar setting and crazy glammed out for an amphitheatre setting. My latest phase is creating my favorite video game characters so that I can watch them rock out in this video game.
One thing I don't think these music video games does is teach you how to play the actual instrument. Perhaps vocals might be the closest, because you're actually using the real thing - your voice. But as I said earlier, it mostly helps you find the right pitches in song rather than teach you how to sing well. Drums might be the next closest. There are fewer drums in the game than you can actually play in a drum set. But it does make you practice rhythms and coordinating your eyes, hands and one foot to follow the screen. While they do provide you with real drumsticks, I'm sure the drums themselves have a completely different feel. The guitar is the farthest away from the real thing. Unless of course you take away five of the strings on a real guitar and make that remaining string really thick. Interestingly, a lot of my friends who actually do play guitar seem to enjoy the mock guitar playing anyway.
I don't have any delusions that I'm going to take my music game prowess on a public stage, but it combines my love of music, satisfaction in improving a skill and the capability to gather with some friends and enjoy an evening of gaming. Who ever said gamers can't be social?
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
I Like to Read: Past, Present and Future
One time, shortly after my sister was born, I gave my parents a fright by disappearing for several hours. At the time, I figured with all the hullabaloo about the new baby no one would miss me heading off to entertain myself. I was 10, I had a bike and an afternoon to myself. I'm not sure what horrible, perhaps criminal scenarios entered my parents' minds at the time - maybe they imagined me loitering at the mall, vandalizing neighborhood property, doing drugs/alcohol, trespassing on some abandoned industrial building or somesuch. Alas, I was a much nerdier delinquent than that.
I had gone for a luxurious visit at the local library. I spent hours poring over my favorite sections, doing as thorough a sampling as my attention span would allow of the authors I hadn't read yet in the mystery and sci-fi/fantasy categories. A kid's bike and a healthy anxiety around traffic could only get me so far on my afternoon of freedom. But at the library - the books there could get me to so many more places and situations! When I got home I got in big trouble. (Hey, I was even home in time for dinner.) But it remains a cherished and amusing childhood memory for me.
My family still teases me today about my reading appetite. But their teasing is a little less warranted these days. I only get a chance to read books on vacation or any flights where I know I'll have a lot of waiting around to do. I'm far too easily distracted with gadgetry (computer, PS3, iPod, and other shiny, powered objects) to pick up a book in my daily life.
Come to think of it, most (but certainly not all) of what I'm trying to do on such gadgets is read. Web content provides me news, further information on my latest obsessions, gadget reviews, troubleshooting guides, a whole slew of opinions ranging from well-informed to comedic. Not only can I search for any of these things, I also have choices of sources when I find them.
Right before Christmas, Lee got an Amazon Kindle as a company gift. When I first heard of the e-reader idea, I was skeptical although I'm not entirely sure why. I'm fine with reading on gadget screens and being able to cart around an entire library of books in the size of a single book seems like a fantastic idea. It would make vacation packing easier. I think now it was probably more of a knee jerk reaction to changing the way I've always interacted with books. Despite my love of gadgets, I'm not an early adopter type; I prefer that new things have been proven out for a bit before I latch on.
Now that I've had a chance to interact with the Kindle, I'm less skeptical. I probably wouldn't mind one of my own so I don't have to distract Lee with a Terry Pratchett paperback so I can read a book on the Kindle. In the meantime, Lee was happy enough to share his new toy.
It's roughly trade paperback size and comes in a leather case that makes it look like a Moleskine notebook when closed. It turns out that the case actually helps make it usable. Buttons span the length of both sides where you would conceivably grasp it. And since very few people tend to stick their thumbs on the screen they're trying to read, it makes for some accidental page turning when you first pick it up. This layout makes the case the only thing you can comfortably grasp without hitting buttons. I think they're fixing this in the next generation device.
The Kindle is based on e-paper technology which is much easier on the eyes than the typical computer screen. The text is dark grey on a light grey background - not quite the black ink on paper look but a pretty comfortable approximation. There were a few times I was so engrossed in the story that I forgot I was reading on the Kindle and looked for a page to turn instead of a button to push. The font size is adjustable on the fly. It uses advanced cell phone network to download the things you want to read, both pretty quickly and with no need to find a Wifi hotspot. You can download books from Amazon's store, subscribe to newspapers, blogs and probably some other stuff I haven't thought of using it for. Buying is linked to your Amazon account - so you don't have to fiddle with entering transaction data on the Kindle (even though it's got a keyboard). Battery life is excellent. The e-paper technology doesn't consume power to merely display the image on the screen, only when it changes the image on the screen. As a matter of fact, when you turn it "off" it puts up a random literary image. During a 2 week trip over the holidays, it was charged only once and even then it was more of a due diligence act rather than really needing it.
How will these e-readers affect how we read books in the future? With Amazon, a main-stream distributor and store, and Sony, one of the largest electronics manufacturers jumping into the fray, the e-reader has definitely entered general consciousness. It's still an expensive gadget, but within the same range as Apple's iPods. Will books end up like vinyl records - accessible and wanted only by the uber bibliophiles? People have been predicting a similar destiny for newspapers for some time now and indeed, the newspaper industry has been struggling and making cutbacks for years in an effort to stay alive.
I think we'll still have books on paper in the long run. In the vinyl record/book analogy, I think there's one important distinction. With music, each format needs a player to enjoy the content. Vinyl records need turntables, CDs need CD players and mp3s need mp3 players. E-books need an e-reader. However, books in their current printed form don't need a specific gadget to deliver content. Nor do they need battery power. I think that alone will stave off any pending demise. It's actually easier to consume book content in its current form than the new, emerging form. But as e-readers, handheld computers (Blackberrys, iPhones, Google phones of the future) become more prevalent, the issue of ease of consumption changes. On the other hand, it's easier for content providers to provide many copies of content (books) in electronic form than in physical form. If the money starts coming from electronic content rather than physical content, that's where the providers will focus their efforts.
Which brings me to the other side of the equation: the source of the reading content. With the internet came the advent of the new information model. It used to be only a few providers would funnel information, entertainment, etc. through to the masses. Compared to the numbers of consumers of such information, such providers were very few. Only the few television networks, movie studios, newspapers, magazines, publishing houses could provide content to the masses. If you wanted to get out your message, you needed to go through these gatekeepers to access the consumers. The internet has changed that to open up the content sources to anyone with a computer and an internet connection. Youtube serves up user created mini-movies. Wikipedia serves up definitions of people, places, things as defined by many people. Bloggers have served up everything from news to opinions to obscure hobbies and much more. Self-publication in terms of providing electronic reading content is trivial. There is a button at the bottom of this Blogger window that says "Publish Post". Obviously I've hit that by now, or you wouldn't be reading these words on my little blog.
Self-publishing has been encroaching into the book publishing world as well. Many authors, frustrated with the process of trying to get agents to represent them to publishing houses and possessing a lot of self-promotional enthusiasm and skills, have published small runs of their own work and sold them to book stores. A small percentage of these self-published authors have garnered enough attention that a publisher decided it wasn't so risky to take them on and publish their work in larger runs. Which seems like a win-win situation. The book publishing business isn't particularly lucrative in the average book's life. Obviously, at the Harry Potter level of bookselling, there's a lot more money. But that's more of a dream realized every once in a while rather than the norm. Agents and publishers wade through thousands of manuscripts searching for the next Harry Potter and are unwilling to risk publishing and advertising costs to something that will sell only hundreds of copies. Which makes the chances of getting published seem miniscule. Authors who have taken on the cost of that initial small publication and advertising and have proven successful enough to gain a wider audience represents less of a risk for the publisher.
Common wisdom among author wannabes is that self-publication doesn't get authors street cred. "You're not a real author until someone else has judged your work and deemed it worthy of publication." But recently, I talked to a fellow Nanowrimo writer who had attended a writer's conference. She told me that there were some agents at the conference who expressed the opinion that self-publication may be a legitimate future for the book publishing industry. So perhaps this common wisdom is softening and turning around.
Which brings me back to Amazon and their Kindle adjunct system, the Digital Text Platform where anyone with an email address and SSN can publish their work to be bought on the Kindle. They don't charge you for publishing, but they need a bank account to deposit your earnings into. I plan on looking into this system more closely if/when I have work that I feel would warrant digital publication. Perhaps even multiple things that would warrant publication. After all, if a reader likes an author, they tend to want to read more things by that author. At least I do. Judging by my content producing pace (glacial), it might be good for me to have a couple things ready in that happy event people actually like my novel/writing to want to read more.
Regardless of what format my reading takes, I know I'll still hopelessly be addicted to it in the future, even if I write my own stories in order to read something!
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Cirque of Ka and Zaia
We haven't gotten very far with new tricks. Ka and Zaia get so enthusiastic about receiving the treats that my fingers bear battle scars. So I guess we need to work on some kitty zen with them - that clawing and biting don't get them the treats any sooner. The trouble with learning that rule is that it involves more battle scars before they get it. I have to space it out and let my fingers heal in between lessons.
But they do have the following trick down pat:
Ka is a much more linear and impatient student than Zaia. Once he figures out what will get him the treats, he'll repeat it over and over and over and over. He does experiment now and then but gets frustrated easily. Zaia loves the treats too, but perhaps not with the passion of burning suns that Ka has. So she tends to be much more random. I think she picks up tricks by watching Ka do something and then she follows. However she is more willing to do random things to try and figure out what I'm trying to get them to do. Except that without Ka's powers of retention, it remains somewhat random until Ka learns it and repeats it (over and over and over).
We're working on getting Ka to High-Five sans claws. Right now, I put a hand up, he puts a paw out with claws to bring it closer and see if there's a treat in it. But when we leave the house, he has taken to sitting on his cat tree next to the window and putting a paw up to wave goodbye against our hand on the other side of the window.
Then there's Fetch. I've seen them both pick up things and carry them around so we just need to get them to bring those things to us. Right now, they tend to carry it off to their favorite spot (i.e. under the Christmas tree) to play with it there. It's a hit or miss endeavor.
As for the Litter Robot, it's like it's always been their litterbox. (And there was much rejoicing in the household.) They still go to the bathroom together. And they both find they have to go right when we're adding new litter to it or otherwise tending to it. There's no longer any flinching and looking nervously towards the upstairs bathroom when it starts cycling. So we'll call this a win-win.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
High Tech Gadgetry, Zaia-Ka Style
In my youth, one of my chores inspired my lyric misunderstanding of the song "Rock the Casbah" by The Clash. I heard, "Cherie don't like it. Not the catbox, not the catbox" and thought they wrote it just for me. I hadn't lived with cats since I lived at home before college, but I knew I would live with them again. And now, I have Ka and Zaia.
But let me back up a little and get to the point. Two years ago, when I was daydreaming about having cats again, I remembered my "Not the Catbox" song and researched possible ways that the 21st century might have been brought to the litterbox. That was when I discovered the Litter-Robot being raved over at the Automatic Litterbox Forum (if you don't think there's a forum for just about any topic, rest assured, there is one). Intrigued, I headed over to the company website to see how it worked, and why I should believe it would be reliable. The product itself is essentially a barrel on its side atop a waste bin. The barrel holding the litter, upon detecting cat usage, would roll, sift out the good litter, and continue rolling until the clumped litter could be dumped out into the waste bin underneath it. Then it would roll back, putting the unused litter back in place and ready for the next visit. Thus, scooping would be done automatically, requiring only that the waste bin be dumped out every few days or so. The smell, hopefully, would be confined to the waste bin only. Cats, being cats, could still find ways to foil this ingenious system, not the least of which would be refusing to use it. This was by far the biggest obstacle according to the litterbox forum. But I was intrigued (and not a little jealous that I hadn't thought of the idea myself). But I didn't have cats then.
Now I do.
Since Ka and Zaia are still kittens, I figured it would be easier to get them acclimated to a fancy new litterbox than if they were older. So it was a red letter day when I pushed the order button. And with much anticipation, I saw that it would be delivered on the Friday before Thankgiving.
We predicted that Ka, as our resident adventurer, would be first to check it out, use it, and thenceforth try to figure out how it worked. Zaia would be a little slower to take to it, but once Ka experienced it and didn't yowl in displeasure, she would be fine with it.
And so it arrived:
The box was huge. Ka was with me when I opened it and put it on the floor to have a look. It was still huge. He didn't seem too perturbed about it. He sniffed all the parts. It wasn't until I carried it up the stairs to their bathroom that it began to dawn on him that he ought to pay more attention to it. Zaia was with us by then and she sat farther off to watch the goings on. I moved their current litterbox to the side and set up the Litter-Robot in its place. It took both Lee and I to read through the instructions and put litter in it. Once it was ready to go, we unplugged it so as to not freak the cats out too much. According to the company's suggestion, we left the current litterbox in place, but didn't bother cleaning it. We put a clump of the old litter into the new litterbox to give them the right smell of an idea.
Both had a habit of having to use the litterbox the second we dug around the litter to clean it out. So we scooped around in the new litterbox to get their attention. To our surprise, it was Zaia that led the way. She poked her head into the old litterbox, sniffed disdainfully and stepped up into the new one and used it. Ka was not one to be left out and crawled in after her, relishing in the depth of the new litterbox with apparent glee. Said glee was evident in the rain of litter making it out of the box as Ka flung it about, rearranged the clean litter, dug to the bottom to find out what it was made of. All seemed to be going well so far. That is, until we cycled it sometime later in their presence for the first time. Ka fluffed himself up and backed up. Zaia ran to their bed and hung out there for a few moments. She hopped down and made it halfway back to the litterbox by the time the cycle ended. A soothing pet for Ka soon after the litterbox cycle sent him all-paws into the air. No, that didn't go well at all.
The next time Ka went to the litterbox, he went into his old box, out of it, sniffed at the Litter-Robot's step, then ultimately went in his old box. Sigh. But it was only day 2. We had 58 days left in the company's money back trial period. We left the old box in place over the next couple of days and only cycled it while the cats were distracted with their feather toy so they could get used to the motor sound of the litterbox cycling (which sounded eerily like their nemesis, the Roomba). During the week, we soon graduated to cycling the Litter-Robot while they played within sight of it. They would perk up and show interest in the box, but played on. By Tuesday night, when we were gathering up the trash for trash day, we decided to keep the Litter-Robot on supervised cycling only and remove the old litterbox. At the start of Thanksgiving weekend, we left the new litterbox on automatic mode during the day and turned it off at night. By Friday, we were leaving the box on 24 hours a day.
But now, on Sunday, we have a new challenge. Ka has gotten over his initial wariness and is in full investigation mode. As soon as he hears the motor going, he trots upstairs to watch it. He has since discovered that stepping on its entrance step will stop the cycling momentarily, a handy safety feature. It also allows him to go inside and see what's different if the barrel is upside down (there's no litter and there's some sort of grate to stand on). Unfortunately, it also starts moving again 15 seconds after he stops it mid-cycle unless he triggers the sensor again. We have not yet come home to a thoroughly confused robot, but I foresee that event in the near future. Hopefully it won't be long after that until the Litter-Robot finally becomes their regular old, boring litterbox.