CatSynth

This past Saturday, November 12, marked the 75th anniversary of the opening of the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge, known conventionally as “The Bay Bridge.” It is a regular part of life for many of us here, one of our main connections to the communities across the bay and a principal landmark during walks in my part of the city. It has been featured in many previous articles here on CatSynth.

The Bay Bridge is a workhorse, spanning over 4 miles and carrying an estimated 270,000 vehicles a day, making it second busiest in the U.S. after the George Washington Bridge in New York. But the western double-span is quite a beautiful structure, both as seen from the hills of San Francisco and from up close.

[Click to enlarge]

[Click to enlarge.]

Don’t let that last photograph fool you. Even though it may look like it was taken 75 years ago, it was actually taken yesterday using the iPhone Hipstamatic app during an early afternoon walk by the bridge.

It was quite an engineering feat when it was built, the longest bridge of its time and built in challenging geography of the bay.

[Image from Wikimedia Commons.]

This video (as seen on the official Bay Bridge info site) captures both the era and the engineering:

Much like the Brooklyn bridge when it was first built, the Bay Bridge towered over the surrounding architecture of the cities it connected. It is anchored in the middle to Yerba Buena island with tunnels connecting the two spans of the bridges. On the the San Francisco side, it is anchored to Rincon Hill, once an upscale neighborhood in the late 1800s that fell into rapid decline and largely destroyed in the 1906 quake. The eastern bridge was built resting on mud rather than bedrock. It was the most expensive bridge built to date.

The idea of a bridge crossing the bay has been around since the 1800s. Indeed, such a bridge was proposed by Emperor Norton in the 1870s (I think this even made it into Gino Robair’s opera I Norton). But unlike his other proclamations, this one seemed like a good idea. After that, there were many proposals, such as this one that in some ways resembles the bridge that was actually built.

The bridge proposed in this drawing connected to Telegraph Hill rather than Rincon Hill, and has suspension bridges on both sides of Yerba Buena island.  The spires also make it look like some of the older suspension bridges on the East River in New York.

When bridge first opened, it carried US Highways 40 and 50 as well as the trains from the Key System in the East Bay. The upper deck had longer ramps leading to Harrison and Bryant Streets at 5th, roughly the same as the rather long ramps at those streets today. On the Oakland side, the bridge had viaducts from Cypress Street (Highway 17) as well as San Pablo Avenue and the Eastshore Highway (US 40). The bridge now carries Interstate 80 across the bay. The railway is long gone. Gone also are the connections to the old Transbay Terminal and Embarcadero Freeway, both of which have been demolished. The area under the bridge on the San Francisco side, once a gritty industrial waterfront, is now a picturesque boulevard that is great for walking. Through all of the changes, the bridge itself has not changed very much at all…

[Bay Bridge approach, 1940s]

[Bay Bridge and Embarcadero, 1970s and 1980s. Photos from Wikimedia Commons.]

[Present day, Bay Bridge and southern Embarcadero. Photo by CatSynth]

…until now. The eastern truss span, which was badly damaged in the 1989 earthquake, is now being replaced with a new more graceful cable-stayed span. The construction has progressed to the point where the tower is in place and the cables are being hung. It is indeed a bit distracting when traveling the bridge. But I am looking forward to seeing it completed, probably around the 77th anniversary in 2013.

Today we mark the 5th Anniversary of CatSynth!

I started this site on July 19, 2006 as a novelty when a friend and former colleague at E-MU systems suggested that I “should make a website about cats and synths.”

Every anniversary we feature the photo of Luna from the inaugural post.

I still have that Novation keyboard, though it does not get used as often of late. Luna of course still is very territorial about that beanbag chair. Times have changed a bit, here is an iconic photo of Luna from this past year, this time with an iPad app (in this case, the Smule Magic Piano):

Another quirky way we like to celebrate is with statistics. First the basics:

1559 posts.
0.85 posts per day.
8784 comments.
5.63 comments per post.
476 posts featuring cats and synthesizers.
195 reviews (and gig reports).
381,735 visitors.

Even after five years, people from around the world continue to send us pictures of cats and music gear. These days most of those come via our Facebook, which together with twitter has become a major way people engage with this site.

From Google Analytics (which we finally got working properly over the past year), here is an overview of where our visitors come from around the world.

By far and away most of our visitors are from the United States, followed by the United Kingdom, Canada, India, Australia, France and Germany. I’m gratified to see so many visitors from India, though I’m curious why we never receive any comments from there…

It’s also interesting to look at cities.

Not surprisingly, the top cities are San Francisco and New York. In Google, it’s SF followed by NYC, while in Facebook, New York is the top city.

Our most popular posts judged by number of visitors are the annual endangered wild cats on earth day.  Over the past year, our most commented posts were:

Our top commenters the past year:

Thanks to all our friends (in time zones earlier than U.S. Pacific Daylight Time) who already sent in comments for the anniversary, and to the Cat Blogosphere for their anniversary shout-out!

And while we will continue to keep doing what we do, it has been more of a challenge over this past year to keep up with posts, especially the longer-form reviews. There is a trade between doing music and art, and writing about people doing music and art. But I still love doing everything here, and will find a way…

This weekend marks the 6th anniversary of Weekend Cat Blogging.  It was started by a group of food bloggers who took a break from the regular topics every weekend to post about their cats.  It is not an in appropriate combination, as like their human counterparts cats enjoy good food and good company.

We at CatSynth found Weekend Cat Blogging back in 2006 and have been regular participants ever since.  This is of course not a food blog, but we do appreciate food and have indeed made recipes posted by long-time participant.  Indeed, a diverse collection of bloggers have participated on and off over the years.

If you would like to participate in this anniversary edition, please leave a comment below, or tweet us @catsynth with hashtag #WCB.  We always welcome new participants!

We are also celebrating another anniversary this weekend: Luna’s adoption.  If you have not had a chance to yet, please visit Luna’s Gotcha Day post.

And so let us get on with round-up.

Jules of Judi’s Mind Over Matter has been a regular participant, and he can be counted on to make an appearance whenever we host.  Call it “black cat solidarity” if you will.  In any case, we think he makes a very handsome outdoor model, though he sometimes wants to eat the props.

Catsparella has a Caturday post featuring several cats from around the internet, including Mar (aka Mar(ilyn) Manson aka Tuxedo Bad-Ass).  In addition to having an interesting namesake, he is a cancer survivor.  He also loves eating spaghetti.  We wish him the best for a healthy and happy future!

Over at Gattina’s “My Cats and Funny Stories”, Rosie is practicing her seduction skills on one of the many cat statues that adorn their garden.  It makes for some very cute photographs.

At Pam’s Sidewalk Shoes, Smudge is posing on the garden pathway in an apparent attempt to distract us from the garden weeds.  We think it is a very handsome portrait.  And the weeds in the stones of the pathway add a rich texture to the image.

At The Chair Speaks, Pebbles enjoys a day of relaxing.  She evokes an image of poolside bliss on a deckchair.

Regular reads know that we at CatSynth are regulars in our local arts community in San Francisco, so it’s great to see our “TX furriends” Samantha and Clementine featured at a gallery near you.  That’s a gallery near you, not near us.  But it’s great to see their virtual art show – and nice prominent placement of their images (I particular like the big one of Clementine).

Our friends at Animal Shelter Volunteer Life present the cats in Cat Room 8 taking it easy on Sunday.  Our Sunday is busy as usual, so we will just have to live vicariously through their great photos.  These cats are likely dreaming of loving homes in their futures.

At Herman’s Hideaway, it appears that Herman and Emma are stuck in an infinite loop (are stuck in an infinite loop) as each watches, ready to pounce if the other does anything.  Read the post to find out the full story.

Our dear friends from Vienna Kashim, Othello, Salome and Astrid have been participating in Weekend Cat Blogging just about as long as we have.  They look back on WCB’s origins this week and link to their original post.  They also discuss the fun and value they have received from sharing these posts over the years, and we could not agree more!

As we wind down this edition of WCB, Ritzi shares a contented moment with a blanket at Mind of Mog.

Our friends Georgia and Tillie along with the rest of their household stopped by for the WCB 6th Anniversary.  Check out their Friday Close-ups!

It’s always great to here from another Luna!  This week Luna T Katt and Zulu are remembering Luna’s littermate Keiko, whom they lost to the rainbow bridge last year.  The kitten pictures are very cute – and they all miss her very much.

It seems that Gracie has been having trouble with the blogger monster and thus having trouble leaving comments for friends.  But she was able to make it though and wish Luna a happy 6th Gotcha Day and everyone a happy 6th Anniversary of WCB.

We will continue to post entries throughout the weekend, so please continue to comment or tweet us if you would like to participate.

June 10 is Luna’s “Gotcha Day”. It was six years ago today that she was adopted from Santa Cruz County Animal Services and became the much beloved member of our household that readers have come to know and love.

As we often do on this occasion, we look back at some early photos in comparison to the present. This particularly cute one was taken during her first week at home in June, 2005.

By contrast, here is one of the most recent photos of Luna:

She is quite fond of that PurrPad at the moment.

Another interesting comparison. Here is Luna sitting with our often-featured glass table in June, 2005:

And here she is again in 2010:

Some things stay the same.

Please join in me in wishing Luna a Happy 6th Gotcha Day! It is a day to celebrate, and to remember what’s important in life.

We would also like to give a mention to Friends of Santa Cruz County Animals – I support them every year in gratitude connecting us.

Photo Hunt 230 is hosted by tnchick.  This week’s theme is Anniversary.

Another year has past since we started this site four years ago.  Thanks to everyone who already wished us a happy anniversary, and to the folks at the Cat Blogosphere for their shout-out today.

And just as we have with previous anniversaries, we are celebrating with statistics of questionable import.

Over the past four years, we have written 1220 posts, and readers have contributed 6699 comments.  We have received 293,916 visits.  This comes out to about 5.5 comments per post, and about 43 visits for every one comment left.  We also have about 270 “catsynth pic” or “catsynth video” posts.  Make of these numbers what you will.

In terms of tags and categories, there are not really any surprises.  These top terms do reflect what the site continues to be about:

We now turn to stats specific to the past year.  The top five days for visits since July 19, 2009 are:

Hmm, November 6, 2009.  Who knew our post on Reconnaissance Fly and Noertker’s Moxie at the SIMM Series would get so much attention

The posts that received the most comments over the past year:

And the top commenters over the past year:

These are the stats that change the most from year to year, as we welcome new readers and others fade away for any number of reasons.  One interesting thing to note is our two top commenters (who have retained those spots for the last two years running) are both from Canada.

Our Facebook page gives us a new source of questionable stats to reflect upon.  We have received  about 30 contributions (pictures or videos).  The city with the most declared CatSynth fans is New York.  The countries with the most fans (after the United States) are Canada, the United Kingdom, and Finland.  These are all plausible, but I am a bit skeptical of Facebook’s data gathering and presentation tools.

Thanks to everyone who has read and supported us, wherever you happen to be, and we’ll look forward to more over the next year…

This past Thursday we celebrated Luna’s adoption anniversary (aka “Gotcha Day”).  For Weekend Cat Blogging we present some photos from our celebration that evening.

Of course, there was yummy food.  In this case, Sardines, inspired in part by a (human) recipe I had heard on the radio few days earlier and still want to try out.  Luna devoured her feline fish treats with aplomb:

There were some cards from friends.  And of course, new toys.  I was particularly fond of this toy, which seemed apropos of this year:

Luna was not quite as interested (though I did see her kick it around briefly):

On the other hand, she took right away to this black mouse toy and spent quite a bit of time kicking it around, even getting it stuck on a shelf and pawing diligently to get it out.

And after a spell of vigorous play, it was time to relax:

Not only is this Luna’s fifth adoption anniversary, but it is also the 5th Anniversary of Weekend Cat Blogging. It was started by group of primarily food bloggers who set aside a post on the weekend for their cats. We found it back in 2006 as I was first starting this site. This special edition is being hosted by LB and breadchick at The Sour Dough.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up this Sunday at Nikita’s Meowings of an Opinionated Pussycat. And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Today marks five years since I first brought Luna home from the Santa Cruz County animal shelter.  Time certainly does pass quickly.  We celebrate this anniversary (otherwise known as Luna’s “Gotcha Day”) with a look back at photographs from our five years together.

Here she is back in 2005.

and then in 2006

and finally in 2007.

That series of photos ends after we moved to San Francisco in 2008, but there is no shortage of images of Luna basking in sunlight.  Here she is in 2008 (outdoors):

and 2009:

and finally this year:

(There are so many photos it can be hard to choose just one representative.)

Our friends at the Cat Blogosphere made an announcement today along with this nice banner:

Please join us in wishing Luna a “Happy 5th Gotcha Day!”

Well, this site has now been running for three years. And we’re marking the anniversary the best way we can think of: with stats of questionable significance.

886 posts.
195,501 visitors.
4638 comments.
Over 15,000 spam comments squashed.
Over 400 cat-and-synth pics and videos

The top 20 terms (a term is either a tag or a category or both):

The 11 most commented posts:

And the top comment contributors:

This list includes sites that are no longer active, and at least one person who has passed away.

I did also go back and look at those early posts from July and August of 2006, expecting to reflect on how much things have changed over three years. But instead I found myself noticing how much things on the site have stayed the same…

July 19 is the Second Anniversary of CatSynth!

And by coincidence, we are hosting Weekend Cat Blogging (really, it is a coincidence). So we invite all our friends to participate and celebrate with us. As always, please leave a comment with your link, and we’ll post it during the roundup later this weekend.

Of course, we must post the photo of Luna that started it all on July 19, 2006:

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and some fun stats for the occasion. Over two years at CatSynth, we have:

657 articles.
2,476 comments.
106,000 visitors.
298 “catsynth pics.”

The latter is using some custom analysis tools I created for the occasion, which also provide the top 33 tags/categories here at CatSynth:

Some tags, such as “photography”, should really be much higher.

Many readers may recall that last year, on our first anniversary, the site went down due to a rather annoying problem with our service provider, and we were sent into exile at the CatSynth FEMA Trailer. So we are leaving an anniversary post at the trailer as well.

A year ago, we at CatSynth had no idea what was going to be in store for us over the next year. A new job, a new home, a new life.

We traded the sun and greenery of our old home:

for our new home:

and life in the big city:

But some things remain the same. Luna, of course, is always here. And our friends and family. And CatSynth!

And we’ll still be here, continuing to do what we always do…

Some other significant milestones this weekend:

The 200th Friday Ark boards this weekend at the modulator.

Our friend Dragonheart is two years old today.

This is week also includes several birthdays for friends, whom we won’t embarrass by announcing their ages on our rather public forum…

It’s only one weekend after the Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos first anniversary, so let us include it as well. This weekend’s edition will be at Life from a Cat’s Perspective with Samantha and Tigger.