The New Ideas Blog

Opie, our cat, stepped on my keyboard a few days ago, and the time and date appeared on the document I was working on. Now I know what the “F5″ key does. That might be a useful feature. It may seem surprising that I have never learned that before, but it is common to get used to using  things a certain way and ignoring other possibilities. How many of us actually know what every button on the television remote control is used for? (Well, not me anyhow - our’s has 80 buttons.)

That is the second time his curious paws and claws have (more…)

Ana and I recently adopted two cats, the only pets we have had in the seven years we’ve been married. I have already written about the “life lessons” learned from them in a previous post. Now I want to cover some of the ideas they have given me.

First, we were looking for a “cat condo,” a carpeted playhouse or platform for them to entertain themselves with. Checking them out online we saw (more…)

We tend to think of “lessons” as something that we are taught in a classroom or a book. Meanwhile the most valuable lessons that life offers are often disparaged as “struggles,” “bad experiences,” “inconveniences,” or just plain “problems.” With this in mind, why not treat such problems as though they are happening for a reason? The lessons we are currently being taught by our fighting cats, for example, are worth something if we pay attention.

We recently got a cat from the local shelter. Previously we “stole” a neighbor’s cat (more…)