I’m so easily distracted.
I have too many things that I’m trying to do or learn how to do at any given time. I get wrapped up in one thing and then something else shiny catches my eye and I’m off.
I could list a ton of things here (commuting, working full-time, learning Flash, learning Action Script, polishing my Photoshop skills, playing guitar, going to the gym, blogging, trying to finish my movie on Auschwitz, that I have to learn Final Cut to do, shooting photos, shooting video … sleeping) but I won’t.
So I started posting photos on Flickr just over a year ago.
At first I posted one or two then weeks would go by before I would even visit the site.
Distracted again.
Then recently, I started posting pretty regularly. I tell myself I’m going to post at least a photo a day, then after a couple of days go by without a post I realize that I’m preoccupied with the blog, which is supposed to photo driven.
Then a few days will go by and I haven’t taken a photo at all.
I started the whole Flickr/blogging thing because I spent most of my life shooting 200-300 images (shooting film wasn’t nearly as efficient as digital) every day and now I’m finding that I pretty much miss it. And while I may not be drawing primo assignments to photograph President Bush or Shakira or The Rose Bowl (done that four times and believe me, that’s enough) I still manage to nail a fairly good image now and again.
And I have all manner of cameras and lenses around here which would be dust-collecting ornaments if I didn’t get them out and use them for something besides pounding nails.
So as anybody who has a Flickr account will tell you, or for that matter anybody who has internet access at all, there are a lot of photographs of cats out there.There is something about the domestic feline that human beings have a weakness for. Not every human being of course there are some humans who are allergic to them (yeah right) so I give them a pass, and then there are some who say they just don’t get cats.
These are almost always men, who drink a lot of beer, wear their hair in ways that make them look like a squirrel is sitting on their heads and don’t have a clear understanding of the purpose of deodorant. I don’t really classify them as human, kind of a soulless, sub-species.
These types usually have a snake for a pet. Not that there is anything wrong with having a snake for a pet. There are lots of people who have snakes and cats.
But most of the rest of us totally get the cat. Even people who would call themselves “dog people,” and I love dogs too, understand the spell that kitties put on us.
By the way, “dog people.” Who wants to admit that they are included in a group called dog people? That sounds unsavory. It sounds like if you are one of the dog people, you might just smell bad when you get wet.
Cat people don’t smell bad when they get wet, they don’t leave slippery gifts on the sidewalk and they’ll never kill and eat the bunny in your backyard.
The only affliction we collectively suffer is we can’t wear black unless we have one of those sticky roller things.
There are a gazillion photo sharing services out there and I assure that I do not own any stock in Flickr. I don’t even know if that company is publicly traded, but if you’re not a Flickr member I strongly suggest you sign-up at Flickr.com. Once you’re logged in the first search you should perform is visualkaos. Your next search should simply be “cat.” You’ll be amazed.
Flickr has groups you can join and share photos with other members with common interests. If you’re into vintage Ramblers, then someone has photos of one just like the little, old Romanian lady that lived on the next street from you drove with wooden blocks on the pedals so she could reach them, when you were a kid.
If it’s Duran Duran that floats your boat, some soulless sub-species will have images of the first concert he ever went to at the Miami Jai-Alai in 1980 when he had to be carried out after being found in the bathroom stall in a pool of his own vomit from drinking too much beer and eating too many qualludes.
By the way, beginning July 4, 2007, Miami Jai-Alai will no longer offer live jai alai on Wednesday evening. Wednesday evening performances will resume December 26, 2007.
If you like cats, a simple search in Flickr groups will reveal that there are no less than 9,848 groups about “cat” with names like:

• Black cat brigade
• Cats – small to big
• Somebody else’s cat
• LOL cats (invited photos only)
• Cute cat
• Ginger cat
• I love my cat
• Really huge cats
• Cats in our hearts
• Cat belly lovers
• Orange cats
• Tuxedo cats
• Cat macros
• Cats in windows

Etc.
The group ‘I love my cat’ has 10,534 members. All of the groups have 400, 500, 1,000, 2,000 members.
That’s a lot of sticky roller things.
For those of you who have been around since my first blog post here on Labor Day 2007, you’ll remember my disclaimer that there would be a lot of kitties.
Well, I warned you.