J.L. Doty

Simone and Paris bonded as little kittens and like to sleep together. They're still a less than a year old, and for some reason, at night, they like to sleep in my sink in the master bathroom.

Paris is a climber. She'll climb up curtains with her claws, and just about anything else.

Seattle, 1971, a couple months before graduation for my BS, the night before I got on a plane to fly to New Jersey to interview at Bell Labs. We gathered to cut the hair off so I could pretend I was a nice clean-cut guy, not some wack-job hippy. One of my future colleagues met me for breakfast before the interviews. He confessed that he was supposed to check if I was a long-hair type. I lied.

Computer nightmare time. Friday morning I got a Blue Screen of Death, spent about two hours trying to recover the system, but it would only boot into WinRE, and nothing else worked. Lost everything, all my apps, settings, everything, and it's crunch time on a new book I'm working on. But only lost about two days of work on that because I had it backed up. Still, it took me three days to reinstall everything, including Windows, apps, settings, everything.

I was a grouchy piece of s**t for three days, and I owe Karen a nice night out with dinner and the works.

The desert is starting to bloom.

I've recently discovered a fundamental and universal law of physics: all cat toys end up under the refrigerator. QED.

Simone (L) and Paris (R) are now 5 and 7 months old, and they haven't broken too much around the house. They do keep attacking my ankles, and my legs look like I walked through a cactus garden in my shorts.

Our two little kitties were in my office, and I was wondering if they might jump on my keyboard and do a little cat typing. But Karen said, "Just let them go. They'll probably invent AI." And it occurred to me they will probably do a s**t-load better job than the AI companies have done. And they'll do it without pirating protected IP off the internet.

Last November was a sad month for us because we lost our kitty Julia. She was 18 years old and her kidneys finally stopped working.

We waited for a bit, and a couple weeks ago adopted 2 new kitties from Pima Animal Care Center. They came from a horrible hording situation (the PACC people told us 48 cats) and were exposed to all sorts of stuff. So we had to quarantine them in a bathroom for two weeks, and twice a week yours truly got to dip them in a lime-sulfur bath. They didn't like it any more than I did, and I've got the scratch marks on my arms to prove it.

Meet Simone (all black) and Paris (B&W), 4 and 6 months old respectively.

Last weekend I was invited to participate in the Board of Directors Strategic Retreat for the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineer's in Montego Bay Jamaica. The IEEE is the largest professional organization in the world with over 460,000 members. It was two days of hard work, but in the evenings everyone relaxed and enjoyed the good company, food, and excellent weather. And our Jamaican hosts provided entertainment and some wonderful food.

Next week I'll be participating in an IEEE panel at CES in Las Vegas: “How Will AI Impact the Jobs of the Future?” Come and see us if you can. Follow the hashtag for panel updates and more news.

Last night we watched the first couple episodes of "Mrs. Davis" on Peacock. A nun from the 14th century is resurrected in modern day to search for the Holy Grail. It's weird, a bit snarky, a lot of fun, and it frequently makes the Coen brothers seem tame. Really enjoyed it.

Coming this year: "Dread Child", book 1 in "The Dreadmark Chronicles," a new coming-of-age epic fantasy by J. L. Doty.

The birthmark on a young boy's arm; is it just a smudge of discolored skin, or the Dreadmark, a harbinger of Armageddon?