Charles De Lint books

One of my goals is to read all the Charles De Lint books. It took me forever and a day to finish Moonheart, which had so many characters and plot lines I'm sure I missed the nuances.

Now I'm reading I'll Be Watching You which is about abusive men. It's depressing as hell. And it lacks the magical elements of his other books. He wrote it under an alias Samuel M Key. I'm about halfway done. It's going a lot faster than Moonheart so if I hang in there I'll finish it fairly quickly. So for New Year's I should reinact my goal to read 100 books in a year. Anyone else want to join me? Even though it's kinda cheating because it's still 2008 for a few more days, I'm going to make this number one.
So:
1. I'll Be Watching You

What are you reading?

Raisin Bread and Rainy Days

I'm happy to say I've got raisin bread cooking in my bread machine.

I got an mini article written on Steampunk Neovictorian costuming, I got the dishes done, and I'm working on a hat crocheting tutorial.

It's been raining on and off, so I try to run outside and do a few things whenever the rain stops.

My boyfriend's dad called from Oregon to say they were snowed in. I feel a little guilty running in and out of the house in a sleeveless tank top and skirt.

For dinner I'm going to cook 2 chickens in the rotisserie, but that won't be for hours. I want to take the raisin bread out first so I can move the bread machine to make counter space for the rotisserie. Small apartments equal minimal counter space. I have a tiny kitchen but I don't let it slow me down much.

Talk About Lazy

While I was standing out in the alley working on getting a stain out of some pants by our garage door, I see something sail over the fence and land in the alley. It was a dirty diaper the neighbors threw off their balcony aiming for the dumpster and missed. I have a feeling that is also how the diapers end up on top of the closed dumpster. I was out there another 10 minutes and no one came down to pick it up. Can we say ewwww? I've even found dirty diapers in my garden. Unacceptable.

Zenchantress Today

Today someone invited me to a new blogging site where at least for the first 30 days they will pay me $1. a day to blog. http://zenchantress.today.com/ So I got approved in one day even though it says it will take much longer. And I've already made my first two posts. I think bloggers should be paid and I am gradually dropping the sites that don't pay anything so I don't spread myself too thin on the non-paying sites. For example I almost never blog on Yahoo360 anymore. I think I'm also going to start striving to make each blog post 100 words or more in length so that people coming to my site feel like they haven't wasted their time. That is about 10 lines with 10 words per line.

And by the way, Wondrous Winter Solstice everyone. I hope you got to make a snow angel or throw a snowball or at least light a green candle today.

51 Things

Now that my computer is working again I want to start vlogging again. I want to make a response to this video thread http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_yzVK6JaB8&NR=1 where you show 51 things in your room. Seems like fun. A whole bunch of them are linked together on youtube. I watched the one by freakishlemon first and went from there. I love his stuff. He knits, he crochets, he goes to Ren Faires. What's not to like.
Anyway, it's 1:27 AM and the batteries in my video camera are dead, so it will have to wait until another day.

I'm not sure what to think about Yousaytoo

I joined a site called YOUSAYTOO hoping to get more readers for my blogs and more revenue as well. But some of my blog posts are very short. They are short for 2 reasons. One is I only have so much time in the day. The other is that a daily blog is more or less a project report such as 'I am knitting a sweater' or 'I finally got that yarn I needed in the mail.' But I'm getting marked down in the ratings on yousaytoo. Maybe people have different views of what a blog post should be. People complain both when they are too long and when they are too short. Then I get a thumbs down. I'm not sure if I like yousaytoo enough to stay on it or not. If I keep getting negative ratings I'll probably leave, because who needs that? I only give negative ratings if the person either spells a lot of words wrong, or says something racist or demeaning in some way. I prefer giving positive ratings if its a particularly helpful blog post, or no rating if it's just a little blurb. Some people just get off on judging others I guess.

I've added this particular blog today because I tend to write longer posts here, though they are much more infrequent. Normally if I'm going to spill my guts its in long hand in a notebook style journal. And no one reads it but me.

Sideways Photos

How come when I put photos on my computer and use thumbs plus to turn them right side up, then upload them to blogger, they are sideways again? Sorry about the sideways photos. There must be a way to fix this. Does anyone know? I hate sideways photos.

Intent, chatrooms and pointlessness

All day today I've been lapsing in and out of depression. Typical the commercialism of Christmas depresses me, but that's not what I want to talk about here. I want to talk about the power of intention. How our thoughts change our lives either for the better or for the worse. How once again for the millionth time I have to remind myself that negative thoughts lead to negative outcomes. But you can't just say 'now I'm going to be positive' and just do it anymore than you can tell a pot of boiling water 'now you are going to be an ice cube'. It's true they are both made of water, but some other processes have to be involved first. For one thing, it takes time. And it takes intent. You have to ask yourself why you are boiling the water in the first place if you are supposed to be making ice cubes. But that's how we are, doing one set of actions but expecting different end results.

I've been wasting a lot of time in chatrooms. Which isn't to say you can't meet interesting people and have some good conversations in chatrooms. But at least in the chatrooms where I've been there is a lot of down time when people are either not talking at all, not talking to me in particular, or talking about depressing things or topics I have no interest in. So for maybe 20 minutes of useful chatroom time spent, there may be 2 hours of time wasted. Or I bump into Paul for example, and Paul and I have had pretty much the same conversation the last 20 times we've talked. Do you know what I mean? It's just chit chat and goes nowhere.

And when I'm depressed the conversations go downhill. The person starts offering advice on how to fix my business, and they are all things I've tried twenty times before and I just end up more hopeless and helpless than ever.

I thought this blog was going to have some epiphany at the end, but so far I just feel more blah than ever.

Up in a Hot Air Balloon

For those of you living in OC California, you may have noticed a giant hot air balloon that looks like an orange floating within view of the 5 freeway. Well, Toys for Tots is offering a tethered ride in the hot air balloon with the donation of an unwrapped toy. I may have to take them up on that. The info is here: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/orange-county-great-park-teams-up-with-toys-for-tots,636180.shtml

Family Photos

Photos I took on my last trip to San Luis Obispo CA to visit my kids. The tiger is my grandson. The blond is my older daughter and the nun is my younger daughter.

Countries I'd Like to Visit

Here is a list of the top 10 countries I'd like to visit.

1. Scotland
2. Italy
3. Australia
4. New Zealand
5. Turkey
6. India
7. China
8. France
9. Greece
10. Ireland

The sad part is I'm 50 and the only country I've been to other than the one I live in is Mexico. And I'm living with someone who has zero interest in traveling.

Local Fires

The air is full of ash today. We have the Corona fire on one side of us and the Sylmar fire on the other and in both cases it's been a disaster for the people living in those areas. I've been watching the news on channel 11 for updates. I have all the windows closed in my apt. Unfortunately we went to the swap meet this morning in the blustery winds and ash filled air so my sinuses and throat are not happy. Many of the freeways have closures today so I'm glad we had no plans to go out of town. First time in over a month we haven't had to go to Arcardia on the weekends. I'm more than happy to stay home the rest of the weekend and work on archery equipment.

Pumpkins on the Pier

On Oct 25, 2008 I'm going to be up at Pismo Pier doing facepainting for Pumpkins on the Pier. I've never gotten to do it before because it always conflicted with another event, so I'm looking forward to it.

Family Tales

I totally enjoyed International Talk Like A Pirate Day yesterday even though I was all alone. It's always a good day to be a pirate.
Today we have errands to run, grocery shopping and all. My bf wants to go to four different grocery stores. I'm more of a 'one stop shopping' person. I get tired being dragged around from place to place. So much for the stereotype that women like to shop more than men.
I still haven't gotten up to Central CA to see my first grandchild. I'm trying to save the money for the trip, so of course I just got my business license bill for another $100. Ugh. I'm going up there anyway for a gig on Oct. 25, but it's hard to wait. I feel like everyone is seeing my grandson before I get too. I had planned to just catch the very next train up there, but then my bf and I had a fight about it and it sucked all my enthusiasm right out of me. He doesn't have children so he doesn't see what the big hubbub is all about.
Then a few days after I would have gone was that big train head-on collision in Chatsworth, so that made me feel a little funny about riding on the train. I guess the whole situation with my truck not being safe for long trips and family stuff and money stuff all just wears me out so I stick my head in the sand.
Speaking of which my truck was vandalized again. I got in it to drive to KFC last night and someone had written 'fukyou' on the driver's mirror. I think the poor spelling bothered me more than the act itself. Luckily it wasn't permanent marker like I thought. It rubbed off with a wet paper towel. But still. This neighborhood sucks.

Trains Collide in Chatsworth CA today

Local news is reporting a head on collision between a Metrolink commuter train and a freight train in Chatsworth today. I haven't been able to find any website entries on it yet so I'm just going to blog about it. At least 3 confirmed dead and many ambulances on scene. One of the passenger cars is laying on it's side as they rescue victims. At this point, the cause has yet to be determined. Weather is perfect today. Check your local news if you are in the area and have friends or family that might be involved.

Update. The news is now reporting 6 casualties. More news here: http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local&id=6388256

My heartfelt wishes go out to the families of all involved.

Join Tagfoot While its still in BETA

Tagfoot is still in Beta Mode. I'm trying to figure out how to get you, my friend, onto the site. I think this link will do it. http://tagfoot.com/sign_up_wizard.moonmaiden But I can't test it myself because I'm already a member. So if you are so inclined and want to get in on the ground floor, let me know if this does it. The site is free. And so far I'm having a blast.

YAY! My first grandson

I just called the hospital and my new and first grandson was born at 12:45 AM. 8lb. 14 oz. and 21". Sounds like everyone was too tired to call me and I woke up at 4 AM because no one had called me and finally gave in and called the hospital at 6 AM. I talked to my daughter. She was happy to tell me all about it, and was feeling lonely since all her helpers left after the delivery. She named the baby Hudson Hideo. I'm glad she didn't pick a boring name! Dad is Japanese so the middle name is also Japanese.

Still waiting

I woke up at 4 AM, still anxious to hear if my daughter has given birth yet. The problem is, everyone else who could call me probably doesn't want to wake me up. And I don't want to call them in case they are either in the middle of the delivery situation, or trying to catch a bit of shut eye so as to be rested when they are needed. So instead I've been watching youtube videos.

One thing that fascinates me at youtube is people can subcribe to you or just randomly comment on your videos, and they develop a certain expectation of you and can be even a bit demanding of what you should be doing with your own life and time. If they decide to unsubscribe they might even send you a poison pen 'email' telling you just why you are no longer worthy of their viewership. I think that's hysterical. Seriously, we don't owe them anything, either content wise, or production wise.

It is almost 5 AM and my tummy is growling at me. It's confused and doesn't know breakfast is still 3 hours away. If I lived alone I would just go cook breakfast. But I don't want to wake anyone up. I might just eat some cold leftovers.

If I do manage to go back to sleep, the phone will ring, because that's the way it goes.

Here Comes the Baby

My daughter's water just broke a week early so they will most likely induce labor. I haven't talked to her directly. She's a little busy.

I just signed up for Tagfoot. http://ping.fm/lfV6m Come see all my links and comments and my wishlist.

Allergic to Mosquito Bites

The humidity has been so miserable all week. Last night about 9 PM I decided to sit on the cool front porch and read my Harry Potter book 'Phoenix'. Well, suddenly my right shoulder started to itch and I knew a nasty pesky mosquito had bitten me. But then behind my left heel began to itch, and then behind my right heel. So I started reading faster and faster trying to finish the last bit of the chapter. Suddenly I could take the itchiness no more and ran into the house. I had at least 7 mosquito bites by the time I sat on the couch. Two behind each heel, one on my back, one on my shoulder and one on my ankle. I immediately put topical Benadryl on them. Then I started breaking out in hives. So I grabbed another Benadryl pill and took that too.

It took the edge off and then the drowsiness of the Benadryl hit me. I remember laying down. At some point my boyfriend turned off the light and shut my door. I didn't wake up at all. Today I'm still drowsy. It won't be until about 6 PM that the effects of the Benadryl will wear off.
I hate that feeling. But it beats being covered in hives.

The Bun is Almost Done

As you can see on the baby ticker, my daughter's baby is due in about 2 weeks and the Dr. is already saying over 8 lbs! My first daughter was 10 lbs. 1 oz. The one having the baby was about 8 lbs. (don't remember exactly). It's going to be a boy. I was joking that she should call me Grandmama like on the Addam's Family. I do wish we didn't live 300 miles apart though.

Want to join ping.fm too? Go to http://www.ping.fm.Use the code 'legendofping' and you could have the luxury of posting to all your blogs in one fell swoop like I do. Way more efficient than doing it one by one.

I'm not sure what 'ping my default' means but I guess I'll find out when I hit send.

The week sure went by quick. I had a lot more planned but didn't have the energy to do it. My hands are still sore from woodcarving, and so I've had to lay off the knitting and crocheting. I'm looking forward to the weekend. My daughter may visit. We'll see.

Not everyone loves the hula I guess

Around the corner from me there is a Hawaiian dance studio and about 4 times a year they are getting ready for some big production and have too many people to fit into the studio, so they practice in the alleyway behind the studio. So tonight I heard the drums and curiousity got the better of me so I went over to have a look. They had just started their routine with maybe 100 members when a clear glass bottle came sailing over the wall from the apartment complex behind them. It shattered about four feet away from the group. Momentarily everyone froze, then suddenly a bunch of the men went running around to the other side of the brick wall. A few minutes later I heard a van peeling out.

That was a little more excitement than I was expecting.

Blue eye self portrait

Come view my Flickr photo stream. Over 3000 photos I've taken are waiting there for your pleasure. http://ping.fm/3TTAi

I just signed up for Ping.fm to make social networking more effiecient.

The Wild Hunt

I ran across an interesting pagan blog called "The Wild Hunt'. It's a news blog of how paganism interfaces with the rest of the world including politics, health issues, and media icons. I will definitely go back to read more of that.

4 am is too early for me

I was so overstimulated from learning new skills with a Laguna artist that I literally woke up at 4 AM because my dreams were so intrusive and I kept dreaming I was still at the shop carving away. It's like my mind was still carving while my body was supposed to be sleeping. Then I woke up and realized my hand was really sore from spending 2 days straight carving. I'm glad I quit when I did yesterday. I told the teacher I had to stop as I was getting blisters and he said 'put tape over them'. Which I didn't do. I kinda know my limits and clearly I should have stopped sooner. So I took some Ibuprophen and now it's 5 AM and I'm heading back to bed. I'm exhausted.

Then no doubt my boyfriend will wake me up at 8:30 AM thinking I'm just a lazy bum sleeping in late.

I hopped into Etsy chat waiting for the Ibuprophen to work and a lady in there had gotten up at 3 AM just because she loves morning. But she has to go to bed at 8 PM to pull that off. I'd rather be shot than get up at 3 AM each morning. Plus those early risers seem to be on an intravenous coffee drip and that can't be good for you.

Horse sculpture by David Brunetta.

the Artists of Paleo Planet

Just yesterday we got to talking about just how talented the archers of Paleoplanet.net are. What originally started out as a few people with a desire to make bows and arrows has grown to become a family. And so many of us are artists. So I was talking to Aimee saying it would be great if we could have a gallery show somewhere featuring the members. Because between us we make not just bows and arrows, but carved spoons, reed flutes, drums, woven baskets,sculpture, forged knives, gourd art, paintings, drawings, beaded jewelry, chainmaile and a plethora of other things. One guy has even made 4 kayaks. Pretty amazing stuff.

Making money on line

Yay I just made my first .78 with Kontera. Small successes lead to bigger things.

blogging like a maniac

Blogger has changed their formatting a little and I was surprised to find I have 51 blogs on here and I have others on different email addresses as well. No wonder I feel like I'm never caught up on my blogging! Have mercy.

A New Family-Oh No

I got home last night and was too tired to do much of anything.

While I was out of town a new family moved into the front duplex. Logistically speaking, my computer/office is in the back bedroom and the only thing between me and the the patio of the house in front is a brick wall. So I literally hear every footstep in their backyard. And it sounds like the new family has a lot of kids who have spent the entire day screaming in the backyard. I sure hope some of them are school age because I'm not going to be able to work with all that noise.

Last night they were hammering on the wall opposite my bedroom until late in the night...like maybe 2 AM. Why are people so inconsiderate?

The last family had chihuahuas that barked around the clock. I was hoping to get a nice quiet elderly couple with fish.

The Witch Dream

I had the most amazing dream last night. I was my ideal and perfect self.
I lived in a college town and artistic community. I was dressed in a floor length black lace Victorian gown. And I was a witch. I rarely walked on the ground; I pretty much floated everywhere. And I danced a lot. I would fly up into the air and spin and twirl around. A group of goth college students wandered by and I tried to blend in with them, but they were all younger than me and doing role-playing so I didn't really fit in so I slowed down and they wandered off without me.

I was about 30 years old, and I wasn't overweight. And I was a very happy person.
I didn't have a wand but I carried a magic paintbrush. It was always full of clear liquid and I used it to repair fabric. I wonder if I could have used it to repair cuts and scars.

At one point I ran across a bunch of Christians having a revival of some kind, and one of them, who was a Native American came running over to me to try to convert me. I told him he needed to go back to the teachings of his peoples before Christianity poisoned his mind.

After that I was sitting at a table with friends and I was reading this little boys palms. His hands were black as ebony. He had a very strong head line and heart line and I asked him if he was considering psychology or psychiatry as a career. Because you have to use your head and your heart in a career like that.

And there was a lady in yellow lace that accused me of ripping her dress so I used my magic paintbrush to fix the tear. Only she said she didn't want it fixed with magic and she huffed away.

And there was a group of girls all dressed in fancy clothes and they had a headmistress teaching them manners and they were reciting some essay or something and this one girl just floated into the air. She got yelled at by the headmistress and told to come down and act normal at once, but I just smiled and clapped for her and shouted out,'Well done.'

Much like in real life I was a complete loner and though I kept trying to find an equal or a peer to hang out with, I never did. I helped people where I could, but in the end I was still alone. But I was happy because I was true to myself.

Idealism V Perfection

Pause for a moment to ponder the difference between idealism and perfectionism, because the first opens up the world to amazing possibilities, and the second is a coffin on a dead end street.

I am perhaps the queen of imperfection. I read all the Nancy Drew books as a child too and some of them as an adult.I feel like all the books have the underlying thread that Nancy is the thin hot chick and Bess is somehow the fat frumpy and none too bright one. What a horrid message to send to girls everywhere.

When I see a mistake in my paintings, I deliberately make it bigger and bolder. It adds so much life to what could have been an overly thought out perfectionist bit of blandness.

Better to dance an imperfect dance than never dance at all.

In my idealistic world, women love each other even if some of us are fat and lumpy. Kinkaid paintings get collaged over by Picasso's and Dali's. Hand puppets do politically incorrect things. I'd be bored to tears in a perfect world.

Ghandi was an Idealist. Martha Stewart is a perfectionist.

I predicted today's Quake

About 30 minutes ago I heard that warning Emergency broadcast tv thing beeping in the living room and my first thought was LA area earthquake. So I ran in there. But it was just one of those stupid practice warnings.

Then we really did have a quake. I dove next to my bed, and both cats were right with me. Rocky made it under the bed first, and I tucked wallop in my arms and we waited it out.

When I went in the living room the water was sloshing in the aquarium. I checked on the neighbors and they had run outside.
5.8 in Chino Hills CA.

Just heard from my boyfriend. His office building in Santa Ana was evacuated. All okay now.

Damage reports from the epicenter are sure to follow. Tune in to your local news stations if you are in the LA area.

Map of Chino Hills, CA.

Update: My dad always said that people act like idiots during earthquakes. Sure enough the only injury report I heard so far was when some people running out of a building trampled each other.

Also, everyone they interviewed said they dove under a desk, or ran outside, two things you are NOT supposed to do. Don't people watch those 'triangle zone' info shows? http://www.itszone.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=91315&sid=a52616a0c79bde445eab9a6cf8d80d4f
See #1 and #6. People who rely on antiquated information will die. Memorize this, it could save your life.

Stop Reading and Go Do

Yesterday I was chatting to a person in the Etsy chatroom. And it became obvious that he's very enamored with new age self-help books. So he kept telling me, "You should go read this book and you should go read that book." I kept saying I already read that (most of them I read years ago). Finally I told him don't be a baby bird sitting in the nest all your life, go out and fly. He didn't understand what I meant at all. I meant that though reading can be a wonderful thing, it is no substitute for living your life. You come of an age where you need to switch roles and become the mentor and the teacher and the writer.
Case in point I asked him if he wanted to see my psycho telekinesis video where I'm doing fork bending. So he starts going on and on about Uri Geller and how he's a psychic who now works for the FBI. The other person in the room asked what we were talking about and he says, "She's talking about Uri Geller." And I said, "No, I'm talking about me and my fork bending video." Evidently I don't exist because I haven't written a book on it and I don't work for the FBI. Shrugs. I think we forget that authors are people too and while books are important, at some point we have to put them down and go apply the knowledge. Otherwise we become like the guy in the chatroom that has a booklist as long as his arm and no life experience.

Surprise

I woke up to the romantic phrase," You might want to get up. A swat team in full attire just went to the apartment upstairs."

Did I mention I hate this neighborhood?

Zenchantress and Pigglewiggins

My life is so multileveled and complex it drives me half crazy. I built a youtube account for my hypnosis clients called Zenchantress, and proceeded to fill it, not with hypnosis videos, but with arts and craft videos, which really should be under my ETSY shop name pigglewiggins. So today I made a new youtube account called Pigglewiggins so once again I could keep my art life seperate from my hypnosis life. But it's not so easy because I have my craft videos on various art sites so I can't just delete the craft videos from Zenchantress. Nothing is ever easy is it?

Things I've written.

I just found out my Hubs on hubpages.com are viewed about 600 times a day. That amazes me. Maybe I really should write a book. Here's my profile: http://hubpages.com/profile/Moonmaiden

I write on all kinds of topics from metaphysics to feminism to craft tutorials. I'm sure you can find something in my over 200 articles that interests you. Plus it's not just writing. Most of them also have video links, RSS feeds, photos, comments and videos that enhance the content.

I ain't your mama

I am sooooooooooo feeling this video. Love the pink tools too. Every man needs to watch this to save their relationships.

Spirit has been telling me

In fact spirit has been rubbing my nose in this to the point where I finally had to look it up on Google. What is Steampunk and why does that term keep crossing my path. Well, boys and girls, it turns out I've always loved Steampunk, I just never knew there was a name for it. So read this if you don't know either http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk. It's like wandering into a strange village and then realizing you belonged there all along. Like the ugly duckling that finally realized it was a swan after all.

Its All Good

Its All Good

Manifest IT

Just yesterday I was down to two whole dollars in my paypal account. I manifested 3 desires in a random way. One was that I needed money to get a train ticket for my daughter's baby shower. Two was that I wanted to go to the SLO Ren faire and connect with old friends. Three was that I needed 'not just enough money to get by on, but enough to really enjoy a fruitful life'. So this morning I rolled out of bed all groggy like, and the phone rings. It's my ex offering me a face painting gig by my daughter's house, a day before the Ren faire, and with enough pay to cover the trip, a place to stay and transportation to the event. Wow! Thank you Goddess!

Good News on the Psychic Front

An internet friend told me his wife lost her glasses. So I told him I could see them under a bed. Well, no glasses. Now, months later he tells me they are moving furniture to make a guest room, and voila, under the bed in the spare room are her glasses. She never looked under THAT bed. Haha. Glad he let me know I was right. It's good for the ole ego.

My witch

My boyfriend took me to dinner to meet a friend of his. I asked him if he told her he was bringing his girlfriend. He said,"No, I told her I was bringing my witch." I was amused.

Me and IV

Yesterday I spent 3 1/2 hours in the ER making sure I didn't have a detached retina. That was a close one. Scary moments.

Things I love

Things I love in no particular order:

Literati, stretch velour, sock monkeys, fistfuls of polished gems, mobiles, tricorn hats, kites, pinatas, Johnny Depp, dangly earrings, obedient minions, unexpected cash, most forms of belly dancing, rhinestone pins, onyx figurines, carved wood, SCA tokens, hand struck coins, casting pewter, silk dyeing, bread dough art, Mr. Bill, Swarovski crystals, spirals, wrought iron, black lace, ornate pocketwatches, fishnet stockings, fans, parasols, opera gloves, granny boots, shell buttons, seashells, sea glass, rubber stamps, watercolors, pepperoni pizza, houseplants, propogation, botany, marcasite, poison rings, flintknapped daggers, throwing knives, schlaggers, long bows, wooden arrows, dance studios, new juggling equipment, people that support the arts, my paypal tip jar, old-fashioned quilts, tiddly winks, jacks, folk art grumpy dolls, copper jewelry, crystal balls, spheres, corsets, doves, swans, boa constrictors, legal pads,feathers, silk flags and banners, Rennie boots, pumpkin pie, long legs, redheads, homemade bread, brownies, fudge, roses, gardenias, pansies,

An article I wrote on Romance

I wrote over 200 articles for hubpages. If you start at this link, you can follow it around to the rest of them. Or you can choose to write your own articles. It's a lot of work but once you get the hang of it, it's a lot of fun.

http://hubpages.com/hub/How_to_be_a_Hopeless_Romantic

The Mad Potter of Biloxi George Ohr

I found out about this potter on the Antiques Road Show and looked him up on the internet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_E._Ohr

According to the Antique Roadshow he was quite a character. He built his own kiln, had arms to rival Popeyes, and dug his own clay. He called his pots his mud babies. After a fire destroyed his studio, he went in and rescued his pots from the fire. He called the ones he saved his 'burnt babies'.

Some moods are hard to shake

I've been in a strange funk. Sometimes I just need to get away from the Internet for a while. It's hard when I have daily blogs and I'm in no mood to write. I don't think anyone really notices when I don't post daily but I know. I often wonder if the cost of being an artist is worth it. I can't even afford to drive to craft fairs anymore and I'm tired of paying for a business license each year when I don't even sell anything in Anaheim. Like most artists I hate marketing, taxes, rules & regulations and all the malarkey that goes with running a business. But the thought of punching a time clock isn't going to make me happy either. I feel like I'm in a no win situation.
I was hoping to make a decent broadcast on ustream.tv, but I just don't have enough geek in me to get all the bells and whistles that go into making a cam stream that people will actually show up for on a daily basis. And when I do finally get a few visitors to my chatroom, that is just about the time the system freezes up (not that it freezes up on any other ustream users that I met). For some reason I can't figure out, it freezes about every 20 minutes, just when I get the room off the ground. Of course when I reboot and come back everyone is gone. So I wrote to tech support after Walt Ribeiro assured us that the ustream staff was excellent at working out bugs for their members. Well, maybe he had great experience with them but I emailed asking for help days ago and haven't heard a word from them. So I started my cam today, got frustrated with the poor quality, and when someone did come it, the whole thing crashed.
Right now I'm suppose to relax and go to bed for the night and I'm all frustrated again. Also, I need to lose weight so I've given up my nightly dessert. So here's a virtual dessert. It's all I'm getting tonight.

more blogs and Plurk

One of my Plurk pages: PURPLE The busiest one at the moment.

I also started a new musician's blog today called Rhythm of the Heart.
I'm typing this from the Anaheim Library. I wasn't planning to go until Monday but got a call that my 12 books were overdue. Egads! So I had to drop everything and return them.

Sudden burst of enthusiasm

Yesterday's post was very cathartic to me. It somehow cleared up some stuck energy and today I actually started and finished a whole craft project which included making a blanket that turns into a backback and has a pillow inside. You can read about it in my juggling blog if you are interested. It was so nice to have that much motivation on a day that was already scheduled with many mundane tasks. I don't know quite how it happened but I got twice as much done today as usual.

A Pivotal Moment and Passion

Sometimes things said in jest can strike a chord. Today in a chat with music teacher Walt Ribeiro I said, "Where is that magic practice pill that you can take to get better faster." And he took a long time answering that. He said you have to be passionate about something, and the passion is the equivalent to a 'practice pill'. I'm paraphrasing. But say the piano and the guitar are equally hard to play, you are going to master the one you have the passion for.

So I started thinking about passion all day and I realize that while I had a passion for many things in my life over the years, I have lost a lot of that passion. What kills passion? Many things like not succeeding at a chosen career, gaining weight, non-supportive spouses, never getting your big break, poverty, apathy, shyness and so on. So if right now I immediately stopped doing anything and everything I don't have a burning passion for, I'm pretty sure there would be nothing left. And that is the saddest statement in the world. And I wouldn't worry too much if this was just a phase I was going through, but I've pretty much felt this way for the last five or more years. What if I feel this way the rest of my life? I think what feeds a passion is seeing success at what you are doing. Like if I'd actually mastered juggling five balls, or my paintings sold or if I'd ever had a cohesive belly dancing troupe, or if one of my books got published, then that would feed my passion. I feel like I've never mastered anything.

And I have the feeling there are a whole lot of people in that same boat, and it's sinking. Being passionate is like being in love. You can't force yourself to go there.

Tote Bag V Baggers

There's been a big media push to stop using plastic shopping bags. So I've been stocking up on totebags I dutifully took my tote bags into the grocery store. When I was focused on the cashier ringing up the right prices, the bagger was busy throwing everything into plastic bags. So I yelled down that I had my own. So she glares at me and puts the plastic bags into the tote bags, rather defeating the purpose.
When I walked out of the store it was raining. It looked like it would soon be worse so I scampered home. By the time I parked I could hear thunder.

Flying Rose

I haven't heard from my sister in a long time so I added her RSS feed from her previously very busy Stumbleupon account in the off chance I can make sure she is still alive and well.

Two cats

I have the first screen all set up and ready to print today. I’m so excited. My first design is two cats.

See more progress on: silkscreening

Success Feels Good

I’ve gotten to go to some archery events once or twice a month that include lots of walking and archery as well. I’m gone to an event with the Conejo Archers and another one with the Mohave Archers, and of course the monthly gatherings at the Arroyo in Pasedena with Paleoplanet.net

See more progress on: Take a monthly hike.

I am a chaos generator

This guy that writes for Soulcast with the user name Silverwhisper posted a question about what our weird compulsive habits are. This was my reply to him.
"Silver sometimes you make me think so much my head hurts. I have a thing. I want to undo everyone else's 'things'. I would be the one going against traffic down the hall and using the left door. I'm the one that will face away from the elevator doors because I might be missing something if I face the same way as everyone else. I always want to go backstage instead of sit with the audience. And I want to unfold anything someone else has folded perfectly. The perfection bugs me. I want things to be random and wild like in nature. I plant flowers with my vegetables. I go to bed a different time each night. I drive a different route every chance I get. I want every day of my life to be completely different. My house is utter chaos, and I want it that way. Straightened rooms make me twitchy; like Martha Stewart has taken over. I even sleep on different ends of the bed as the mood strikes me. I don't know why I am this way. It is maddening to most other people".

Penalized for buying milk.

I'm addicted to soft drinks (soda). Being borderline diabetic, and hearing that even one soda a day doubles your risk of being diabetic, I really want to quit drinking any drink with high fructose corn syrup in it. I started analyzing why I'm having so much trouble quitting.

Here is one reason. When you get a combo meal at a fast food place, a soft drink is included in the price with bottomless refills. I usually have 2 medium cups of soda. This morning I decided to have milk instead. One child's sized milk is included in the price. They don't even have an adult size. So I needed at least two to get through the meal. The extra milk cost $1.09. If I got the equivalent of 2 medium soft drinks I would be paying $3.27 more for the same amount of meal. That's just not right. My thrifty mind almost gags knowing if I do the healthy alternative, it costs me as almost double. There is something wrong with the system.

Since we are out and about every weekend I am faced with this dilemma time and time again. I could buy the iced tea instead, but I don't like unsweetened iced tea and I'm guessing the sweetened ones also contain high fructose corn syrup. Plus the taste of iced tea is very inconsistant from place to place.

I'm sure I'm not the only one with this situation.

Going to an archery event.

I'm going to a four day archery event tomorrow. And I'm really torn as to what to take. Which projects do I want to work on? Which ones are too much trouble to bother with? If I take too many will it interfer with the time I want to spend interacting with others? It's a social event and if I'm not careful I'll spend the whole time with my nose buried in various tasks. There will be opportunities to learn new things too, but I'm always too shy just to come right out and say, "Teach me to do this." I mean I don't want to usurp someone else's time. So then everyone else comes home having learned something new, and I haven't. I know I should be more proactive but it's just not my nature. And the people in the group that are experts are always super busy helping other people. They barely have time to do their own projects.
I really want to take my guitar, but then again, do I really want other people to hear how much I suck at it? And what about my juggling equipment? My hula hoop? There is only so much space in the truck and most of it will be taken with inventory, tent, tables, a canopy, sleeping bags, and so forth.

My mother

Today was one of those days where I really missed my mother. I was at a fabric store and I started thinking about her. How much she would have liked the store, and how happy she would be that her great grandchild will be born in Sept. She really loved babies the best. Maybe that's why she had five kids. But then we kept growing up. She made many of our clothes when we were little. She also loved to crochet and tat. She was forever fixing my dad's pants when he would split the backside. He is a big man and hard on clothes. He'd even wear out fatigues. I'm dating myself...I don't think they call them fatigues anymore but that olive drab was everywhere in my childhood house. I dislike it to this day. Funny where our color preferences come from isn't it?
My mother liked all the cute things like the Campbell Soup Kids, Kewpie Dolls, roses, I Love Lucy, and Mr. Magoo. She also collected old time radio shows on tape, though I no longer remember which ones. And she was a Kay Starr fan.
She was a housewife and military wife who never learned to drive. Imagine having five kids and no way to get around. Many families only had one car in that era, and the man of the house usually drove it to work. Such was the case in my family. We take so many things for granted now a days.

Expired food

Photo caption: Even combing your hair is a chore when you are sick.

Well boys and girls, I managed to give myself food poisoning and so haven't done anything productive in four or five days. The sad thing is I knew better but listened to someone else's advice. So there's one lesson I hope I learned. Trust my own judgement. I could have avoided this whole thing.

Going back to Soulcast

I went back to one of my old blogging haunts at Soulcast and saw the site much improved. I wrote a post about Moleskine and noticed the Stumble Upon button on the post and hit that, and within an hour I already had 112 hits. Holy Guacamole! The reason I left soulcast was no one was reading my stuff. I am so thrilled to see the potential of sites like Stumble Upon I've decided to give Soulcast another go. So here are my Soulcast blogs: Purple, Storyteller, and Butterscotch.

Wardrobe malfunctions

I just got back from a week long trip and went to wash my clothes yesterday. As I was putting my vest into the wash, I thought, "I should check for things in the pocket." But then I remembered I had already checked them before tossing them in the wash.

So last night I put them in the dryer.
Today I took them out to find they were covered with blue blobs, splotches, dots, and measles. I had washed and dried a blue ink pen and a sharpie marker with my clothes. Now what? Somehow random blue spots don't look all that great on a red floral skirt. This is even worse than washing a red shirt with your white items. Most of the stuff in my wash was already red or pink or black.
I guess I may be using those new sewing patterns I bought a lot sooner than I had planned.
At least with the sweatshirt, I can spritz it with other colors to give it kind of a Grateful Dead look.

My train trip to Goleta

At the Santa Barbara station the train was delayed because they were trying to reunite some lady with her missing purse.
There was this doofus teenage guy that hopped off the train to have a smoke in Santa Barbara. A few minutes later I see him back on the train. He was walking by the open doors between two conductors. One of them says to him, "This is the Santa Barbara station here. We are pulling out so if this is your stop you better get off."
Instead the kid turns to go back upstairs. So they say, "Where are you going?" And he says, "All my bags are still upstairs." So he goes racing up the stairs, comes back in a minute, and hops off. And the conductor shut the door and off we went. So either that kid would have ended up in Goleta with his bags, or if the train left while he was smoking he would have been left in S.B. without his luggage.
The only reason we were in S.B. still was because of that lady and the purse, other wise that kid would have be SOL.

My daughter and her hubby and I had lunch at a beachfront restaurant in Goleta called the Beach Bar. Both he and I had shrimp quesidillas. They came with a big glob of fresh guacamole and sour cream, and a corn veggie mixture. It was excellent...very shrimpy tasting. I bet you'd like some of the spicier items on their menu. The average entree there is about $13.00. Ours was $10. I think. My daughter had clam chowder and bread.
Then we strolled the beach. This guy was using the shower to rinse off, and the ducks were playing in it with him. And I got a piece of driftwood that looks like a phallis. I wasn't gonna say that outloud but my daughter did. I figure I can sand it and carve something on it.
Then there was a couple making out on the beach with the guy's laptop sitting next to him. Now that's what I call a day at the office. They about got tangled up in 2 scotties that ran up the beach and tried to jump over them. HA.

And Then Breakfast Got Weird

This morning I took my library book Blogging For Dummies to breakfast. I'm not new to blogging but I thought I could pick up some tips from his book. I was reading it at McDonald's and got up to refill my drink when the local seniors club evidently spotted the title and by the time I got back this blowhard was spouting off about how blogging and chatrooms were for people with too much time on their hands and a bunch of crap anyways. The whole group is discussing it loudly from the three tables around me, so finally I'd had enough and said "Do you mind? After that we had some witty banter where he basically told me what a loser I was, so I went back to reading. Then another man who was directly behind me apologized on his way out for his loud mouthed friend. I told him, "I can't believe you actually hang out with that guy.

Well soon, and not too soon for me, mr. loudmouth and his merry gang of opinionated bigots got up and left, but not before I heard the N word a few times about the N that was running for President. So chalk it up to a very interesting and weird breakfast.

Going on a little trip.

I'm getting all excited about a train trip I'm taking on Thurs. I'm going up to San Luis Obispo to paint faces at a company picnic on Sat. I wish someone would hire me to do that every weekend. I love it. And I get to paint faces with both of my daughters and another person I haven't met yet. I already dug out my bunny ears to wear. I'm going to take the train to Goleta and meet up with my daughter and hubby for lunch, then it's off to Atascadero so he can study for finals. Then Friday I get to play tourist, Sat. I'm doing the gig, Sunday is Easter (Ostera) and Mon. I'll come home on the train most likely. The trick is to not spend all my earnings before I get home again.

Mr Crabworthy gets a new home.

My hermit crab has been in the same ole shell for at least 3 years. So I bought $20 worth of hermit crab shells for him, and he did try one on, but it wasn't to his liking. So, I bought him a bigger one at Michael's. Well, it was way too big and he never gave it a second glance.

Then today I was watering the back yard and my eye happened upon some bleached out snail shells I got from an asian buffet last year. They used to be bands of green, but now they are white as snow. I noticed it was similar in shape to Mr. Crabworthy's old shell. First I gave it a good washing. Then I set it by the water dish this afternoon. He actually moved away from it when I set it down, so I figured that was that.

Then tonight when I went in the front room my boyfriend says non-chalantly, 'by the way your hermit crab changed his shell'. He's been in it a few hours now and I hope he sticks with it. He really is too big for the old one. I didn't take a photo because I sure don't want to startle him and make him leave his shell. Maybe in a few days if all goes well I will take one.

I got off my Can and took in my Cans

I just recycled $23 worth of aluminum cans, plastic bottles and glass. Considering some of the yarn I use is made from recycled bottles, I am happy to keep a good thing going.

And I'm very happy that the new recycling trailer is open 7 days a week. I can't count the times I've gone over there to find them closed when it was owned by someone else.

This one is in the Food4Less parking lot on Beach and Lincoln in Anaheim, CA. And they pay cash, not the vouchers that you have to go stand in line at the grocery store to redeem. Less time standing in line makes me happy. And no risk of the slip expiring like those stupid vouchers.

Thank you Pete Seeger

Today I kept my promise to myself, and not only played guitar outside, I even sang for the kid upstairs. I notice she hung around for the whole song. That is a huge step for me. I haven't sung in public in years. Took some new photos too.

Where have all the flowers gone.

I very much enjoyed watching a Pete Seeger documentary on public television tonight. His heart was always in the right place and he was treated like garbage by the US Govt. in his day. All he ever wanted was for the rest of the world to sing with him. More time singing and less time killing each other. Sounds like a pretty timeless message to me.

It's midnight now, but tomorrow I'm going to play my guitar for sure.
What blew my mind was when Arlo Guthrie came on to talk about Pete Seeger and Arlo had long wavy silver hair! I didn't recognize him at all. Good thing they had a caption.

Lunar Eclipse

I was fortunate that the clouds in Anaheim cleared away just in time for me to see the lunar eclipse from start to full coverage. But the next time I ran out to look the clouds had covered it completely. I got my neighbor to come out to watch it with me and her daughter and her daughter's friend were so enamoured with it. Some of the neighbors glared at me and gave me the 'I could care less' stink eye. But it meant a lot to me to be able to see it...the last one for 3 years according to the news. That little orange disk that you can barely see is the total eclipse.

A Twyla Tharp Moment

So this morning I had a Twyla Tharp moment. So what if we are not still young and pretty...we can still dance for the joy of dancing.


After watching Twyla Tharp videos on Youtube.com until 1 AM last night, I actually woke up at 4 AM with her Percolator song going through my head.

Twyla

I feel like Johnny 5 sometimes...need more input. That is why I'm up so late when I should be sleeping. I started watching Twyla Tharp dance videos on Youtube. She is right. You have to do the dance because you are compelled to do the dance and worry about fame and fortune later. Because they aren't really a part of the dance. Too many people are putting the cart before the horse expecting the rewards before they've done the work.

I tried to add Blogger to my youtube account. But if it's there I can't find it. But then again maybe it won't show up until I type a current post. I'm afraid I'll have to figure that out another time because I can't stay up forever.

Tomorrow I hope I dance. My left knee is still bugging me.