My name is Pixel. I'm a cat.
This is my page.
My hobbies:
- Sleeping
- Eating
- Purring
- Napping
- Checking to see if my dish has wet food in it
- Asking my family why my dish doesn't have wet food in it
- Looking indignant when it is pointed out to me that I have a full dish of dry food
- Dozing
- Gazing out the window
- Staring intently at nothing
- Resting
- Flopping at people's feet demanding to be loved
- Tearing small stuffed animals to shreds
- Snoozing
- Stropping legs
I dislike:
- Veterinarians
- Car rides
- Kitty jail (which my family refers to as "pet boarding," but I know better)
- Hurting insects
- Catnip (my family doesn't understand why I think it's boring, but that's my opinion)
- Dry cat food
More about me (my favorite subject):
I'm about nine years old. I adopted the Smith-Negrino-Smith family in 1997, when they walked into the pound and I decided to keep them. Sean's mom was paying too much attention to the cat in the cage next to mine, so I tapped her on the shoulder and informed her that I was the cat they were bringing home.
I required a home that allowed me to be indoors all day long, as well as one that had no other cats. This was necessary in my new residence, as my previous people had made the disrespectful decision to have me declawed. Now, not only had they made this unfortunate choice (and we won't even talk about having me neutered!) and then left me at the pound, but they had started my life off on the wrong paw by naming me Elvis. Obviously, my true home lay elsewhere.
Given that poor start, choosing a new name was one of the first tasks undertaken by my new family. Suggestions ranged from "Five" and "OneBit" to "Spot." My suggestion was, of course, "Meow" but it was rejected as being too similar to a previous unfortunate cat named "Mew." Finally, "Pixel" was agreed upon, and I have given it my blessing by occasionally answering to it. If you send me email (see below), I promise that I will answer to my name.
Editor's note: If you've met the family, you should be able to guess who suggested each name. Also, you're just not geeky enough if you don't understand why we thought about naming a cat Five (hey, we'd just been installing Ethernet...).
My favorite books:
- French for Cats: My person keeps reading this to me, though I'm not sure why. Sometimes I pretend to listen.
- The Cat Who Walks Through Walls: This not-very-good book features a cat named Pixel. That's enough to make it worth recommending.
- Callahan's Key: Another so-so book that features Pixel the cat.
- Callahan's Con: If it works once, Spider Robinson will do it twice, so here's Pixel again.
And of course, the ones that feature me:
- JavaScript for the WWW, 5th edition: Visual QuickStart Guide: There's a picture of me in Chapter 1. Worth buying just for that! (I'm not sure why I'm referred to as a "cat object," though).
- Java 2 for the WWW, Visual QuickStart Guide. I'm still a cat object, but I'm in Chapter 2 in this book.
- Office v. X for Macs for Dummies: I'm not sure why I've been put in a Dummies book, but I'm told that it keeps me in cat food.
- HTML for the WWW with XHTML and CSS: Visual QuickStart Guide, 5th Edition: Liz Castro asked if she could show this web page in her book. I said yes, and now I brag that my books sell better than anyone else's in this house.
- Microsoft Office v. X for Mac Inside Out: Tom's big Office book. Look for me in the Entourage section; I'm a contact with the title "Fish Inspector." If only.
- Mac OS X Unwired: my first appearance in an O'Reilly book, and I'm still claiming to be a "Fish Inspector."
- Quicken 2003 for Macintosh: Visual QuickStart Guide: Tom wrote this book to help people with their finances. I recommend that you invest in sushi.
- Contribute 3 for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickStart Guide: In this book, I demand fish, while showing off the wonders of table alignment.
- Keynote for Mac OS X: Visual QuickStart Guide: I'm part of a presentation called My Life as a Cat: The Greatest Story Ever Told.
- Mac OS X Panther Hacks by Rael Dornfest & James Duncan Davidson: yes, another appearance in a book written by someone not in my family, but it's because Dori's O'Reilly Network article linked below was included.
- Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickStart Guide by J. Tarin Towers: what can I say? I deserve to be a famous cat; if my people don't publicize me enough, I have to sneak into books by other people.
- Creating a Presentation in PowerPoint : Visual QuickProject Guide: Tom couldn't think of where else to put me in this book, so I let him dedicate the book to me.
Other Web sites where I can be found:
Other, less important sites that my family maintains:
Email me!
Send me email, and I promise that I'll reply. But note that my email address has changed, due to the number of spammers that kept trying to sell me products that, well, weren't quite suitable for neutered cats.
Last updated: 19 September 2004