I have a confession.
For the past 3 months, I’ve been trying to teach Loki to understand Klingon.
For reference, this is Loki.
He’s our cat.
And Klingon, of course, is a made-up language from Star Trek. But as far as made-up languages go, Klingon is pretty well developed. And due to my constant watching and rewatching of Star Trek episodes as I fall asleep each night, I’ve picked up a few phrases.
The phrase of importance here would be “choghoS,” which loosely translates to “you follow me.” The capital “S” isn’t a typo, by the way—in Klingon, it represents a distinct sound that is closer to “sh” in English. So as far as phonetic pronunciation goes, the entire phrase comes across sort of like “choh-GOSH.” If you’d like to actually hear it audibly, I’ll kindly refer you to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Season 5, Episode 1, where Ben Sisko (disguised as a Klingon) says it to other Starfleet officers (who are also… disguised as Klingons), as a signal for them to—yes, you guessed it—follow him down a hallway. You can watch with captions on and see for yourself.
Why is any of that important? It’s not. I’m just nerding out and you allowed me to take you down a massive rabbit hole. For Loki, I wanted some sort of command phrase that was contextual, and with at least some semblance of meaning, but not something that I would use in regular conversation. Klingon was perfect.
Maybe too perfect.
I feed Loki around midnight. He’s usually up in our room at that time hanging out.
So for the past 3 months, I’ve been standing up, looking at him, and saying “choghoS!” before walking downstairs to set out his food.
Every day.
It’s true. Go ahead, ask my wife. She just thought I was being weird for a while, but eventually she asked me about what I was saying to our cat. And yes, I took her down that rabbit hole, too.
Anyway, the results of my little experiment? They’re quite astonishing. I’d say that I currently have, roughly speaking, a 90% success rate with getting Loki to follow me downstairs upon hearing the Klingon command.
Of course, he does tend to follow me around the house regardless of what I’m doing or what time of day it is. I’m not sure if that skews the numbers at all, but either way, I’m going to keep it up.
For science.
Good morning and happy Monday, friends.
New Post: Vision Boards
Friday night was coven night. Our goal was to make vision boards, but I think we were all feeling a little lazy. What transpired was mostly chat and perhaps a little bit of searching for images to use. I’m sure I’ll get around to actually making mine later this week. Instead, I wrote about them, resurrecting a post I started sometime in 2024.
I still have a lot of half-written posts hanging out in my drafts folder. I guess I’m just waiting for certain things to inspire me.
Looking back, it feels like not a lot was going on this past week. And yet, at the same time, everything is going on. Maybe it’s due to the strangely cold weather in Florida. I’ve had to wear jackets and stuff. It’s weird.
On Saturday, we got some Dim Sum.
I only thought to take the picture after we had eaten half.
Craftiness continues. I’ve never made so many Brigid’s Crosses in my life. Also finishing up a new batch of Kyphi.
My classes have started and they’re really ramping up at the moment. I’ve had hours of work every night. I’ve decided that I may possibly wish to take an industry certification test at the end of this semester, so I’m taking things pretty seriously—the tests are not cheap.
In book news, I am pleased to report that I have crossed the 50,000 word mark on my next project. The finish line is in sight as long as you don’t include the one million hours of revising.
Oh, and I’d like to extend a great thanks to whoever became my 1,234th subscriber on YouTube. I found the sequence of numbers to be extremely pleasing. It was a fleeting moment and has since passed.
New M3 is coming up for you this year. I’m mapping out my next season of M3 and I’ve already got some great guests lined up.
That’s all for now. Stay tuned for more soon!
Aerik Arkadian 
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