It's Friday, and what better day is there to post a gratuitous cat picture? So here you go:


Madam, snoozing happily, while other folks have to work...

It's Friday, the car is half-packed (well, less than half, to be honest, but things are stacked up here ready to be carried outside and set into the car) and I'm dealing with the last bits of things to do before leaving. This time, it's not too far to drive for me, which is nice, and there's opportunity to set up for the fair in the evening, which is also nice, as it means there's plenty of time to figure out what goes where.

If you think I should have a system by now, and a plan of what goes where - yes, theoretically, that is true. However, the setting is always different from fair to fair, sometimes only slightly (differently sized tables, for instance) and sometimes very much so (standing behind vs in front of the table, or having corner tables, or having a room with non-standard fair furniture, like we'll have in the museum this weekend), so there is always a bit of figuring out to be done.

While I'm finishing my packing and printing of things, I have cat pics for you - of the lady hanging out on top of our mailbox pillar, for instance.


And remember my comment that she'd be outside all day long when I was blocking that shawl? Well. Of course she came back before it was all dry.

And of course she helped to dry it faster by taking a nap right on top of it.


Neither shawl nor cat were harmed, though - they both came out of their quality cuddling time together perfectly dry, and perfectly content.

Here's a stack of things you might find helpful...

Dark Patterns - this is a library of tricks that some websites use to trick you into buying things or doing stuff you normally wouldn't (such as subscribing to a newsletter or service). It explains the different techniques and lists examples from websites doing it. I was surprised to find audible.com on one of the lists...

There's a new book out, called Agent-based Modeling and Simulation in Archaeology (editors G. Wurzer/ K. Kowarik/ H. Reschreiter). The book was published in the Springer Verlag, with the typical high price point, as Archaeologik rightly criticises (link to German review. You can find English reviews here and here). Still - it might prove to be a helpful tool for archaeologists trying to model things (not in the clothing sense, obviously).

The EXARC Journal issue 2014/2 is now free to read online.

There's a startnext project running called "Schaf und Schäfer" (sheep and shepherd) with the aim of buying wool from shepherds in Northern Germany for a fair price, and getting it washed and spun in the region. You can support the project and get a stack of knitting yarns, too (though there's not much of the yarn reward tiers left).

Aisling has posted another list of tablet-woven bands on her blog: bands from Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages (in German).

Not as helpful as these links might be:


The little cat, picking my laptop as her pillow-of-choice. She also manages to choose different positions where she places her paw on the touchpad... which is just as non-helpful.

There's a long weekend coming up, with a public holiday here on Thursday (Ascension day), and we'll make good use of this. Really good use as in "stretch it into a super-long weekend by sticking a day off to each side of the holiday".

Which means I will not be blogging the rest of this week - I'll be back on Monday. Meanwhile, you can amuse yourself with the Cat's Meow here, a study about the vocalisations that cats use. The project has just kicked off, so there's not too much on the site yet - but it might be really interesting to watch. And while we're at the cat topic, here is a fitting image from discardingimages.

You could also amuse yourself with thinking up questions - it's been a good while since I've done an "ask me anything", and I think it's time for this again. So if there is something you would like to ask me, put it in the comments, and I'll do my best to come up with an answer, and blog about it next week.

Have a nice (maybe also long) weekend!

Jim Hines has posted a long article about the Puppies in 2016, linked to the upcoming Hugo nominations. It looks like there might be less of a kerfuffle and less nastiness this year in the nominations and the voting - at least I hope so. In case you can nominate, or are just interested in current sf/f lit that is eligible, you can take a look at Hugo Recommendations, or jump right to the huge spreadsheet list of eligible nominees here.

In case you don't care about that stuff at all - here are links to cats doing Extreme Napping, and tiny cats sleeping, also thanks to Jim Hines. Our little cat does some napping at the moment, too, but it's not as spectacular...



Speaking of spectacular, though - there's been a mammoth find (literally!) that points towards a much earlier human activity in Arctic zones than previously thought. This also could include earlier human presence in North America.

Over at Ossamenta there are links to several opportunities - bursaries for attending the Association for Environmental Archaeology on the Orkneys, their research grant, plus a fully funded PhD in York about Mesolithic bone tools. Check out the blog post to learn more.

I'm travelling today, so you're getting a picture of the cat licking her paw:



There. Clean paws are important, as we all know.

Dear Little Cat,

you are very soft, and very cute, and very cuddly. You are also a very friendly cat, and I do appreciate that you like to be in my company. I like to be in your company, too.

I can also understand that you wish to be petted from time to time, and that a nap close to someone you love is much better than just a nap. Finally, I am delighted that you take an interest in my work, and sometimes wish to participate.

However, you curling up on my desk? Especially in a way that means your paw rests on my laptop's touchpad?



Not. Helpful.