My scanner's breath smells like Cat Food. Happy B-day.

July 14, 2003 4:47 PM

Cat-Scan.com is one of the strangest sites I've seen in some time. I have no idea how these people got their cats wedged into their scanners, or why.
posted by Stan Chin (79 comments total)

does anyone read the posts down here?
posted by Stynxno at 4:49 PM on July 14, 2003

Try to avoid scanning the Cat's genitals. We really don't need to see Fluffy's junk up close and personal.

Hmm, no.
posted by Ty Webb at 4:50 PM on July 14, 2003

Hey! What happened to Stan Chin's gold star?
posted by timeistight at 4:52 PM on July 14, 2003 [1 favorite]

Barring a lack of an actual Cat-Scan.com site, be assured I came extremely close to linking to Tubgirl. Back into the land of meficide I go.
posted by Stan Chin at 4:54 PM on July 14, 2003

Just don't try to navigate this site. All roads lead to 404.
posted by fezdel at 4:54 PM on July 14, 2003

so, is stan chin being blisteringly ironic, or have i been online way too long? this isn't meant to be snarky in the least (or i'd have taken it to meta) (promise!) - i'm just confused by an (ex-)gold starred uber-mefite posting old-skool (so old it's dead) links. is it a joke?
posted by andrew cooke at 4:57 PM on July 14, 2003

It's MetaFilter's birthday, andrew, or at least the close thing to it.
posted by timeistight at 5:00 PM on July 14, 2003

I think it's an anniversary greeting (July 14, 1999). Maybe tomorrow we'll do the Death Clock. Interesting to see the original link, which has been broken for a long time.
posted by onlyconnect at 5:02 PM on July 14, 2003

Holy crap, I totally forgot.

Four more years!
posted by mathowie at 5:03 PM on July 14, 2003

ok, now i feel stupid... thanks!
posted by andrew cooke at 5:03 PM on July 14, 2003

thanks to matt, too.
posted by andrew cooke at 5:04 PM on July 14, 2003

Curse your zippy little fingers, timeistight! Twice in one week! (Sorry)
posted by onlyconnect at 5:05 PM on July 14, 2003

Barring a lack of an actual Cat-Scan.com site, be assured I came extremely close to linking to Tubgirl.

There's always nob-scan. Nothing says happy birthday like a nice nob card (NSFW.)
posted by homunculus at 5:16 PM on July 14, 2003

What! Again?

Happy Birhtday!
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 5:17 PM on July 14, 2003

What is a much more troubling trend is going to someone's home who has a cat. You pick up that cat. Hold the cat out at arms lenght. Now, make mechanical-sounding humming while moving the cat in front of the human who owns the cat...side to side, slowly lowering the cat. Eventually, the person will ask what you are doing. Explain that there is no reason for alarm, its normal that people are troubled by cat scans.
posted by rough ashlar at 5:17 PM on July 14, 2003

Happy birthday, MetaFilter!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 5:18 PM on July 14, 2003

Holy shit, I never realized I share my birthday with MeFi. And Gerald Ford!
posted by gleuschk at 5:19 PM on July 14, 2003

SO...tonight we're gonna party like it's NINETEEN...NINETY...NINE!

Four years. In web-terms, MeFi now qualifies for the "Seniors Menu" at Denny's.
posted by davidmsc at 5:25 PM on July 14, 2003

In my long tradition of horrifying riffs on the traditional American birthday song:

Happy birthday to MetaFilter
Glad you're not always PETAFilter
You'll not find a bettah filter
Happy birthday to MetaFilter!
posted by frykitty at 5:26 PM on July 14, 2003

Twice in one week!

That is weird, isn't it. Maybe if my fingers weren't quite as zippy I wouldn't make so many typos.
posted by timeistight at 5:27 PM on July 14, 2003

wow, metafilter's birthday is on joe jackson day.

who woulda thunk it?
posted by eyeballkid at 5:30 PM on July 14, 2003

You forgot, Matt? The site is 4, not forty!

Happy B-day,Mefi!
posted by dash_slot- at 5:38 PM on July 14, 2003

So... if the oldest post still in the archives is #19, what were the first 18? Inquiring minds want to know.
posted by wanderingmind at 5:42 PM on July 14, 2003

Happy birthday metafilter on the day I get my braces off AND bastille day AND joe jackson day AND mad pride day (I don't know what that is but that's what my Ad Busters Calendar has marked)!

So much excitement!
posted by Salmonberry at 5:44 PM on July 14, 2003

Don't give up the day job, frykitty.
posted by MrBaliHai at 6:07 PM on July 14, 2003

So... if the oldest post still in the archives is #19, what were the first 18? Inquiring minds want to know.

In the beginning, mathowie said "What, did you not like the movie or something?"; and then there was light.
posted by eddydamascene at 6:08 PM on July 14, 2003

Happy birthday, MetaFilter, and thanks for all the fish. (Or something like that. I'm strange tonight.)
posted by swerve at 6:14 PM on July 14, 2003

Hey matt, what happened to 1-18 and 20-23?
posted by delmoi at 6:15 PM on July 14, 2003

Happy Birthday MeFi!!! (and many more!)

Now, blow out the candles on the Nigerian yellowcake before it all disappears! : >
posted by amberglow at 6:18 PM on July 14, 2003

Holy shit, I never realized I share my birthday with MeFi.

Happy Birthday Graham, and mefi too!

Someone scan a cat!
posted by jokeefe at 6:46 PM on July 14, 2003

Happy Birthday you frickin' awesome site!
posted by riffola at 7:01 PM on July 14, 2003

Wow. Four years. Happy Birthday, MetaFilter!
posted by yhbc at 7:06 PM on July 14, 2003

Metafilter is 4?! That must mean I'm, like, old.
posted by zpousman at 7:10 PM on July 14, 2003

Holy crap, I totally forgot.

Four more years!

Now that's comedy gold.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:18 PM on July 14, 2003

If Metafilter's birthday is Bastille Day, shouldn't we storm the server to set free all of the deleted threads and banned users?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:24 PM on July 14, 2003

ZIPPITY BOP!
posted by languagehat at 7:33 PM on July 14, 2003

Hey, languagehat, where you been!

ZIPPITY BOP indeed.
posted by jokeefe at 8:25 PM on July 14, 2003

posted by Ufez Jones at 8:26 PM on July 14, 2003

well put, languagehat.
posted by graventy at 8:28 PM on July 14, 2003

"Wow, spanning two decades!" -- Bart Simpson
posted by LinusMines at 8:42 PM on July 14, 2003

Happy Birthday, Metafilter. "Metafilter: A much better way to waste time online."
posted by umberto at 9:07 PM on July 14, 2003

The truth comes out!
cat-scanFilter.
posted by graventy at 9:23 PM on July 14, 2003

ponies for everyone!
posted by Hackworth at 10:38 PM on July 14, 2003

Holy crap, I totally forgot.

Four more years!
posted by mathowie at 5:03 PM PST on July 14

I
Give
Up.
posted by wendell at 11:38 PM on July 14, 2003

happy birthday, mefi
posted by shadow45 at 1:03 AM on July 15, 2003

So Metafilter is a Cancer...

Explains a lot really.
posted by drezdn at 1:25 AM on July 15, 2003

Hey matt, what happened to 1-18 and 20-23?

They were double posts I think.
posted by bifter at 1:34 AM on July 15, 2003

Hey matt, what happened to 1-18 and 20-23?

Like many TV series, MetaFilter went through several 'unaired pilots', making cast changes and other tweaks along the way. But it all came together when the actors playing mathowie and quonsar swapped roles, and a new Production Designer threw out the orange backgrounds and the Mr.Coffee-inspired logo.
-from "MetaFilter: Behind the Site", on vh1.com
posted by wendell at 1:45 AM on July 15, 2003

Holy crap, I totally forgot.

Damn, I was waiting all day yesterday for the birthday stuff to start, to the point when I thought you must be counting it from the 15th or something. I've gotta get more proactive around here. The Post page is your friend... the Post page is your friend...

Birthday IV: A New Hope?
posted by rory at 1:48 AM on July 15, 2003

oh man, i really hope i haven't been here this long.

fuck.

yeah. bed sores.
posted by fishfucker at 2:58 AM on July 15, 2003

A rope bangs listlessly against the rusted flagpole. Sun-baked marigolds rattle against the faded blue front porch. Bleached envelopes overflow the silver mailbox.

Inside, a starving cat scratches gently against the front door. And from around back, driven by the heat, a sour, insistent warning smell drifts from a bedroom window...

Happy Birthday, Grandma MetaFilter.
posted by Opus Dark at 3:33 AM on July 15, 2003

Me too rory. I really thought wendell was going to do something, especially after he had that announcement on his metalifter thingy and everything. So I waited. And then I waited. I even typed up a metatalk post at one point, and then deleted it. And then I forgot. Still ... Happy Birthday MeFi! For yesterday, that is.
posted by walrus at 3:44 AM on July 15, 2003

bang! pow!
posted by quonsar at 8:50 AM on July 15, 2003

Or was it just a dream?
posted by john at 9:09 AM on July 15, 2003

Oh dear, where do the days go?
posted by squasha at 9:15 AM on July 15, 2003

Tuesday is ice cream day, so don't forget to have some with your birthday pancakes.
posted by fidelity at 9:40 AM on July 15, 2003

Only fifteen posters to this thread have a user number lower than mine. I've been posting here for a looong time.

Best wishes, Matt, and thanks.

It's been a bumpy ride.
posted by feelinglistless at 3:51 PM on July 15, 2003

Sixteen posters.
posted by kindall at 4:13 PM on July 15, 2003

42
posted by shadow45 at 4:49 PM on July 15, 2003

Only fifteen posters to this thread have a user number lower than mine. I've been posting here for a looong time.

Semi-serious question: Does Matt ever go through the user numbers and delete the non-posters/non-users? Obviously there aren't 17,000 people leaving comments here every day. Or once you have a mefi user number, you have it forever? Could user number 2 just show up at any time?
posted by jokeefe at 5:46 PM on July 15, 2003

As you get older, jokeefe, you will find that, yes, number 2 can just show up at any time.

Fortunately, there are many excellent products to help with this problem.
posted by yhbc at 5:48 PM on July 15, 2003

jokeefe: Thank you for selflessly serving as a straight man for yhbc, whose vitz gave me the best laugh of the day. As for your question, it's been addressed on MetaTalk (probably more than once), but I'm too lazy to look up the link. At any rate, the answer to "Does Matt ever go through the user numbers and delete the non-posters/non-users?" is No. You can check out, but you can never leave.
posted by languagehat at 6:34 PM on July 15, 2003

The first user after our great leader seems to be peterme at #27.
posted by VeGiTo at 7:14 PM on July 15, 2003

sixteen, feelinglistless.
posted by crunchland at 7:17 PM on July 15, 2003

damn. damn. damn. seventeen.
posted by crunchland at 7:18 PM on July 15, 2003

Oops... It's 8, actually
posted by VeGiTo at 7:20 PM on July 15, 2003

Metafilter? Ooops, sorry, thought this all must've been some prank by Fark. Well cheers anyway!
posted by moonbird at 8:36 PM on July 15, 2003

jokeefe: Thank you for selflessly serving as a straight man for yhbc, whose vitz gave me the best laugh of the day.

Always willing to take a bullet for the greater good...

You can check out, but you can never leave.

Oh great, now I've got a cheesy 70s dual guitar solo running through my head... A friend of mine taught English to Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong. One day, she discovered that some of her students not only knew Hotel California, but were under the impression that it was a cheerful and celebratory song about life in the USA. She didn't have the heart to tell them.
posted by jokeefe at 10:55 PM on July 15, 2003

Happy Birthday, Joe Jackson!!!

Huh?... wha?...MetaWho?...
posted by soyjoy at 10:46 AM on July 16, 2003

Hey! What happened to Stan Chin's gold star?

It got taken away because this was a double post.
posted by Vidiot at 2:36 PM on July 16, 2003

I'm a bit wiered out by shadow45 saying '42'. What does that mean?
posted by feelinglistless at 3:58 PM on July 16, 2003

42 is the answer. It's up to you, now, to find the correct question.
posted by timeistight at 4:19 PM on July 16, 2003

Only fifteen posters to this thread have a user number lower than mine. I've been posting here for a looong time.

feelinglistless, don't feel old - I, too, remember the good old days ... I'd be number 18, but then I somehow forgot about it and accidentally became someone else. If only I'd known these numbers would be important for something later on....

{sigh}

Oh, well. Happy Birthday, Metafilter. And thanks, Matt, for putting up with all of us.
posted by anastasiav at 10:12 PM on July 16, 2003

I like popsicles.
posted by turaho at 8:13 AM on July 19, 2003

Only fifteen posters to this thread have a user number lower than mine. I've been posting here for a looong time.

I'm sure there are some of us that are lurking around. Lurking is fun, for the most part. The only exception is when you lurk and hold off on getting an account... I coulda been sub-1000! I coulda been a contender!

Mefi hits four -- I feel old now.
posted by mkn at 12:55 PM on July 20, 2003

Egad, happy belated birthday, MeFi! Guess I'll be #18....
posted by Lynsey at 10:21 PM on July 22, 2003

yay!
posted by joedan at 8:42 AM on July 24, 2003

Could the lurkers with userid's lower than me please keep lurking? Either that or we'll all have a "If only I'd signed up earlier" meetup...

Happy birthday MeFi! Zippity Pike!
posted by fvw at 5:01 PM on July 24, 2003

Yeah!
posted by piskycritter at 9:48 AM on August 13, 2003