The Webcam Has Landed

During the Unpleasantness, when I realised I would have to take part in Zoom meetings or be useless, I acquired a webcam.  This lives clipped, with an old eraser to keep it upright, on the top edge of our desktop computer screen 

(or Visual Display Unit in old money). 

From Facebook Archives

4 May 2020

Webcam has landed.

And I might/can work Skype and Zoom on it.

Not certain though.

CF  Just stay away from the emojis

Mr Etwin  I have a problem with Zoom because my ancient laptop has a webcam but no mic input

Mrs Quilt  Just think what Ferretfingers can do with that new bit of technical wizardry!

Bentonbag  He already has one inside his laptop.  This one is just for me on my pc vdu. What worries me is Fester wandering into shot late at night (Mrs Leftfoot can explain)

Mrs Jeremy  The mind boggles...

Mrs Quilt  I don’t think I need an explanation thank you !

Bazoukiboy  Great. Yet another picture in my mind that I can't unsee

Mrs Leftfoot   If only it were just in the mind.... Etched in MY memory.

 

Cat Tales #40 Landscape To Portrait

There is nothing in the archives for today. I was on my travels last Friday and didn’t use this one, so shall inflict it on you now.

26 April 2017 at 10.01

Felixcat's favourite sitting spot when anyone is in the office is on a keyboard, preferably Fester's laptop.   

Fester uses a pc for work and the laptop for tv and radio, either live or iplayer.  

If we're both in the office I expend a deal of effort in persuading Felix to walk around the back of the laptop.

It's not unusual for Fester to doze off whilst working.

We were in the office the other evening and Felix creeps, un-noticed, onto the laptop and settles down comfortably.  Eventually Fester wakes up, shoos Felix away and discovers the laptop screen has been turned through ninty degrees.  Instead of being landscape it is portrait.  Also he thinks the mouse isn't working because he's shifting it so vigorously he can't actually focus on it.

So there are cries of

"Me bloody cursor's gone!"

"It's there, stop moving the mouse."

"The mouse isn't bloody working!  It's all over the place!"

"Then stop moving it."

Of course Fester had no idea how to return it.

I had a vague idea about the control panel but with the mouse 'not working' even when we can get in there's no obvious screen orientation menu.

I suggest we ask Ferretfingers as he once turned his VDU's screen upside down in secondary school (the technician had to close down and reboot the whole school system to get it back). However the atmosphere was so fraught communication was impossible.

Then "Thunderthighs come down here a minute."

Thunderthighs looks at the problem, laughs, says "hang on a minute", thunders back to the loft and down again, presses three keys and - Hey Presto!- it's back as it should be.

"What did you do?  Show me what you did!" demands his father.

"Control, alt and an arrow key."

"Which arrow key?"

"Any arrow key."

Thunderthighs trundles off and peace, for a while, returns.

Beejay  It's a cat thing - Diggle can do things on my laptop that I can't, including rotating the display.

Bentonbag  There are upsides to having autistic offspring.

Woolerwoman  Can I have 2 tickets for next week’s performance please!

So much better than the telly. 😁

 

With Just A Single Thought

I've been away for a weekend of chillin’n’chattin’ with Middlesister.

Last night I asked Fester

“Did Thunderthighs do as I asked, take the hoover into the loft and get all the dust out from behind his bed?”

“Yes he took it up but it’s stopped working.    

We think the bag is full.  There’s a red light come on.”

“So you didn’t think to change the bag?  Or work out how to change the bag?”

“Oh no.”

“Three minds with just a single thought: ‘She’ll do it.’”

“Two minds; Ferretfingers wasn’t involved.”

 

St Roch

St Roch on Salisbury Cathedral

Many years ago I spent a summer working as a kitchen assistant for PGL AdventureHolidays at their camp in the Ardeche.  On Sundays I would go to Mass at the church in Vagnas, and noticed the different saints they had on view.

British Catholic churches usually have 

St Patrick, or in Wales St David, as well as popular ones such as my mother’s favourite St Anthony of Padua, and of course The Blessed Virgin Mary and the Sacred Heart.

When the Coven met in Salisbury last March (2023) we naturally visited the cathedral; I really wanted to see the font again as I find it quite magical and moving.  We also spent some time in the refectory and gift shop, and then stood for quite a while looking at all the saints depicted on the West façade.  Being good Catholic girls, some even educated by nuns, we were able to identify quite a few.

Then the most middle-class English thing I’ve ever experienced happened.

A shortish, tweed suit and trilby clad gentleman stopped and started pointing out saints to us, both ancient and modern.

“... there’s St Cecilia with her organ” he said.

“And St Roch with his dog” I added.

“Who?”

“St Roch.  Him there in the kilt with his leg out and his dog looking up it.   

He’s quite popular in the southern parts of France.”

“Oh … I’ve never noticed him before … 

I shall have to look him up … Do enjoy the rest of your visit ladies” and with that he tipped his trilby to us and departed.

A few weeks later I was in the bookshop of Newcastle's Catholic cathedral looking for something enlightening for Middlesister and came across the display of little plastic cards with sayings, poems, prayers and saints on them.  There were five laminated 

St Roch prayer cards.  Something I’d never seen before.  However as one of his special areas is plague and pestilence maybe he’s been invoked more often in recent years.   

I bought them all and handed them to everyone at the next Coven (Leicester, that's a saga for another day!).

We were staying at the Premier Inn.

Mrs Fitz said “I wonder …” and popped the card into the little holder by the door that you put your key-card in to work the lights.

It worked, the lights stayed on.

Very handy if there is only one key to the door, two people and one needs to stay in the room while the other goes out.

Yesterday morning I received this message from Dr E who has been travelling abroad.

St Roch has been up the Rhine from Amsterdam to Basel.  He is about to fly to London and then IW.  His is an enlightening ministry!