There is an online Carnival Soiree on March 14th that is being hosted by Lisa from Faerie Enchantment. This day long Blog Event and Giveaway goes from sunrise to sunset..... here is a little excerpt from the announcement from her blog: Make sure you wear your Carnival best, think rainbows and pointy harlequin hats, Pageant Queen gowns, or Mermaid dress, top hats in every color and tutu's complete with pixie wings.What to expect:-Carnival Tea-Games-Tokens-Giveaways consisting of my collage cd: Circus Follies and an altered poker chip kit.-Free Circus images/ephemera-Carnival party pictures-Circus projects-Stories

Sounds like fun huh? Everyone should pop on over and have a lookie-lou and consider joining in the fun! Now, I already have a top hat.... but it is black, sounds like I'm needing a colorful top hat! So, I'm making myself a new top hat. So far not to shabby! Now I'm just needing some color... and a tutu, I must have a tutu~

Pink & pearl garland

Here is a little something I whipped up recently. You know those strings of beaded garland that are about 18' long that you can pick up super cheap at Christmas time? Well, I crocheted around each bead on this long strand of beaded garland. Kinda cute huh? Its a great project to work on while watching t.v..... something you can just mindlessly work on and before you know it-- its finished! I'm going to add this (and several more) to my Christmas tree next year. Here is the easy-peasy instructions just incase someone out there wants to give it a try~

First of all, your needing to attach your crochet thread to the end of the garland with a slip stitch or knot, whichever you prefer. Once the crochet thread is attached you simply chain 4 stitches then make a sc in between the next two pearls. Thats it....just continue with the ch 4 and doing a sc in between each pearl. At the end chain 12 or more then come back down the other side doing the same ch 4/1 sc in between each pearl. Easy-peasy~ Once your garland is completed.... you could go back up and down each side again adding 5 dc in each ch 4 space and a slip stitch in each sc space. This makes a wider garland, but I was wanting a smaller/simpler garland for my own tree~

TAKING IT IN THE SHORTS

Yesterday, Chapters & Indigo Books, Canada's largest bookseller, launched a new service called "Shortcovers" an eBook delivery system designed to rival Amazon's Kindle reader by transmitting books, magazines, blogs, poems, speeches and even (God, help us) Fan fiction to your iPhone, Blackberry and other electronic devices.

No word yet on whether the CRTC will regulate the amount of Canadian content available for download or if that wide access to Fan Fiction finally made DMc's head asplode.

Like a lot of new media technology, Shortcovers is pretty stunning stuff. I create an account and from there on, with the simple push of a button, the book I used to have to drive around looking for is on my iTouch, ready to be consumed -- and usually at a fraction of the price of the hardcover version.

The service includes a lot of added perks like the chance to read sample chapters of the book you're interested in buying for free and recommendations for or samples from other material related to the title you're already reading.

What the Shortcovers website, Chapters and the glowing reviews in most of today's papers don't tell you, however, is that there's a dark side to this technology. A lot of the writers you're accessing on Shortcovers won't be benefiting from the money it makes from selling their work to you.

A year ago, television writers, members of the WGA (like myself) fought the major media conglomerates for a fair share of the money they were making by distributing our work online. The arguments the networks and studios made were all the things they said when the last new delivery format arrived, "We don't know if people will want this." "Nobody really knows if there's any money here." and "Give us a free ride until it catches on."

We knew they were lying and the immediate explosion in new media profits that followed the new contract made it clear that so did they.

But now that same argument is being used by Canadian publishers negotiating eBook rates with Canadian writers.

Chapters began planning Shortcovers about a year ago and simultaneously Canadian authors got calls from their publishers. Although the costs of creating an eBook are a fraction of the normal expenses for publishing a novel -- no paper, no printing, no warehousing, no shipping or stocking -- many of those writers were told that the costs were "comparable" and what's more "Nobody is sure there's any money to be made in the first place".

Canadian writers, long familiar with a system that has never seemed able to fully reward them for their intellectual property, and being eternally hopeful types eager to help out their (usually Government subsidized) publisher if it might bring that day a little closer -- agreed to terms that gave them a small percentage of the new earnings. Many were even pressured to hand their electronic rights over for free.

What these writers weren't told was that the publishing industry had lots of data showing that eBooks were a massive source of new revenue.

In the United States, in a market primary serving the then still problematic Amazon Kindle, eBook sales had doubled from $8 to 16 Million during 2008. In some Asian countries, 300% increases in book sales were now coming from eBook downloads to cell phones alone.

Indeed, an entire new art form called keitai shosetsu has emerged in Japan. These are novels written specifically for and often on cellular phones. One website that specializes in them is visited 3.5 Billion times -- per month.

Three and a half Billion visits per month!!! I know at least one blogger who read that and just came in his pants. I could hear it from here...

But Canadian publishers -- they weren't really sure there was any money to be made.

And once again, Canadian creatives, those supplying the raw material the publishing industry (and Chapters) rely on for their own corporate livelihoods, are getting it in the shorts from Shortcovers.


This is more than a familiar story for anybody writing for Canadian movies or television (industries also receiving substantial government funding). And we're not alone in finally having had enough of being screwed around by people who go to the public trough with their "I support culture" pin prominently displayed, while sharing so little of the largess they receive with the artists they pretend to support.

But Canadian novelists, magazine writers and those who will otherwise be available on Shortcovers, still have a chance to receive their rightful share of this new revenue stream. Sarah Sheard, published novelist, former editor and currently the chair of the Contracts Committee of The Writers’ Union has started a blog to inform writers of their rights in this new media and how to negotiate a fair return for their work.

If you're a Canadian Writer whose material may be destined for Shortcovers, check out Ms. heard's blog before you sign anything.

And if you're thinking of buying something from the site, you might want to ask Chapters if the author is receiving what he rightfully deserves for the work.

And maybe all of us should start asking our MPs how come so much of our tax money never gets to the people we're told we're assisting, but instead gets eaten up along the way by those who exercise the term "exploit" in its less palatable form.

We really have arrived at a place in time where the distribution systems we have in place no longer serve the purposes for which they were created and it's almost easier for artists to deal directly with their audiences. What's the point in continuing to throw public money at publishers, TV networks and the like if their top-heavy structures and outmoded technologies under serve both the creator of a product and its end users?

Let's move on, people. It's a whole new world where no writer and no reader needs to be short-changed anymore.

Hall tree~

This hall tree I have had for about 5 years. It was originally a dark-dark wood which I painted white. I closed in the bottom part and made it into a cat bed :-) It has been like this for a looooooooong time. Never quite finished.... I've dragged it out to sell at yard sales...I guess $30 bucks was to much to ask for it...cause I always had to drag it back in. Now that I've added some brown paint to it making it look a little more "shabby" and of course covering the cushion for the cat bed (not that they have EVER slept in there) I'm liking it! and its no longer for sale lol

Here is a close up of the cat bed.... it doesn't look so "obviously" distressed with paint in person!

Trash to Treasure party~

Jen over at Sanctuary Arts at Home is hosting a "Trash to Treasure make over party"..... I am contributing my $1 dollar dresser that I recently made over. Here is the before....and here is the after.Here is the original post of the transformation with a tutorial on how I did it. The appliques were made using joint compound.... peeked your interest?...come for a lookie-lou!

Mmm-mmm Monday~

Here is a pretty tasty peanut butter cookie recipe that has oatmeal in it. Makes for a chewy/crispy cookie :-)

Peanut butter cookies

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 cup peanut butter

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 cup oats

Cream together the butter, white & brown sugar, eggs and peanut butter. Add to the mixture the flour, baking soda and oats. Once thats all blended together drop by rounded teaspoon onto a cookie sheet. These suckers spread super large. So, I would suggest the rounded scoop be no bigger than a quarter. Once you have 12 cookies on a cookie sheet, take a fork thats been dipped in white sugar to compress the cookie ever so slightly to make the criss-cross pattern on top. You don't want to flatten them anymore than you have to as these will spread... and you'll end up with an overcooked cookie! Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. Easy-peasy and oh so yummy!

Very Vintage Easter basket swap...

Heidi over at Foxgloves, Fabric and Folly is hosting a "Very Vintage Easter Basket Swap~
You've got until Sunday, March the 8th to sign up. What are you waiting for? You know you want to!! Come join in on the fun~

LAZY SUNDAY # 59: MICKEY ROURKE

There comes a time in every life when you recognize where the bar has been set. "You Must Be This Tall To Ride" does not just apply to kids yearning to test the roller coaster for the first time. We're all told what the acceptable standard for our craft or behavior is at some point -- and then we have to decide whether or not we're going to meet or exceed it.

For some that's paying the mortgage, keeping the kids out of trouble and hoping the world's a little better because of our contribution when we go to sleep at night. Athletes can refer to the records in their sport for direction. Actors see what the rest of the tribe is putting out there and come to terms with it.


As a young actor, I saw my bar raised to a new level by Mickey Rourke and Eric Roberts in "The Pope of Greenwich Village". Roberts came to that film as one of the hottest stars in Hollywood with "King of the Gypsies", "Raggedy Man" and "Star 80" already on his resume. Rourke had stumbled out of the gate with forgettable roles in "1941" and "Body Heat" but shot to luminescence in "Diner" and "Rumble Fish" the year before.

Walking into the theatre to see "The Pope of Greenwich Village" you were accompanied by the same expectations as those who looked forward to finally seeing Pacino and DeNiro duke it out in Michael Mann's "Heat".

What you witnessed on that screen was two young men with more talent than anyone could imagine possessing at the time, working together, building off one another to create an emotional experience unlike any you'd experienced before. You walked out of the theatre knowing where the bar had been set. You needed to be that good.

Oh, you'd always be able to find work as an actor. There's no end of opportunities in guest star roles, dinner theatres and soap commercials for folks who can be create a character, remember their lines and not offend anybody too much. But the road is rougher and the bar set much higher if you want to do anything memorable.

Neither Rourke nor Roberts ever regained the pinnacle they reached in "The Pope of Greenwich Village". Roberts came close in Andrei Konchalovsky's "Runaway Train" and Rourke took a couple of decades to reignite in Frank (Robert Rodriguez) Miller's "Sin City". But the greater part of their careers has been spent doing junk.


What happened to them? Life, mostly. Somebody drank too much, did too much coke or fucked the wrong guy's girlfriend. They acquired reputations that sold supermarket tabloids and inspired late night comics. And people came out of the woodwork to make money building their own careers on that rep.

I once watched a guy on a pay phone in the Santa Monica Mall, reeling to stay on his feet because he was so drunk, reading potential Enquirer style headlines from a notebook, clearly hoping to sell one of them to whoever was on the other end of the line.

A week later, I noticed one of his headlines gracing my local check out line. I figured he'd succeeded in securing his liquor budget as well as ensuring the employment of several publicists, "journalists" and magazine show hosts as the subject of his imagined scandal regrouped or attempted to gain from the spin.

That aspect of the business has led to a current world where the most innocent of asides are chastised and brainless "interns" on TMZ come to believe they're also stars by snarking on celebs going through airport security. The caustic comments of critics are now more valued than their actual thoughts. In this world, dreams die and great art goes unmade while Harvey Levin sucks his sippy straw and watches his bank account climb. That man's a wealthy genius in our world, while the rest of us have fewer films with courageous actors in them to enrich our lives.

And that's what a lot of Mickey Rourke's bad-boy image is really about. I have no doubt he "crossed the line" on occasion. Actually, I'm pretty sure he hurled himself headlong beyond the established parameters. You don't create characters like he and Eric Roberts created without raising some ugly issues with thirsts that need to be slaked while you're purging them from your system.

I've worked with a number of "Difficult" actors. My belief has always been that if what's on screen is worth the pain off screen it's more than a fair trade. I can't tell you how much pain that has left me to swallow from time to time -- and how much I'd swallow again for the same level of craft.

Once or twice, I've fielded that call from an insurance company letting me know they won't cover somebody who's fucked up somewhere else. Networks get nervous. Studios have some upwardly mobile minion, who's fully with the program, call late at night to ask if you really want to roll this poison pill around in your mouth.

"It's your candy store, Jim. If you want to make Cyanide candy, that's up to you. But..."

Like the PR people and that lost soul in Santa Monica, they're all part of the same pre-judgmental machine. They're, as Bill Hicks once remarked, "Demons dispatched by Satan to lower the standards".


Mickey Rourke never lowered his standards and, unfortunately, never met enough people with the courage to place themselves between he and the machine to buy him the room he needed for his art. I can't imagine the pain he endured going home after a hard day on the set of "Harley Davidson & the Marlboro Man" but I'm pretty sure I can see it in his eyes in those speeches to his daughter in "The Wrestler".

Frankly, I don't care if Mickey Rourke wins the Oscar tonight. Winning or losing won't change my opinion of the man. But I know for certain that the machine will not allow him the latitude he received at last night's Independent Spirit Awards to speak from his heart.

It's a voice we were denied too long and need to hear more often in the future.

Mr. Mickey Rourke. Enjoy your Sunday.

Show and Tell~

Here is a small chest that I recently picked up for $4 bucks that I remade into a pirate chest for my grandson's upcoming Pirate Party that I host every year. Here is the before...... Here is the after....I've written two tutorials (with photos) on how to do the faux leather treatment on the outside of the trunk....and one on how I made over the inside of the pirate chest as well. If you've linked to my blog through "There is no place like Home" and wish to have more of a lookie-lou you can click "here" to enter~ You can view more Show and Tells here~

A little stepping stool...

that I made using a shallow wooden box that I picked up from a second hand store for $2 bucks. This (of course) is for my grandson to give him a little boost so he can climb into his toddler bed that I made for him awhile back ;-)I spray painted the box black and painted the two cars using acrylic paint and then used some clear gloss sealer over the top :-)

Pirate chest

Easy peasy tutorial on making over the inside of a pirate chest. You can view the Faux leather tutorial I did on the outside of this pirate chest here.The supplies: a map, some glue, scraps of paper, scissors & paint. Also, if you wanting to make an embossing on the inside lid your going to be needing a stencil and some joint compound-- oh and some spray adhesive.
I pulled out the perfectly good black velvet fabric out of the trunk I just made over with the faux leather treatment. With the inside bare, I made a paper template for the sides, bottom and top of the trunk-- cutting a smidge bigger on each piece. It is so much easier to cut away extra than to have to recut a whole new piece if its to little. Once all the pieces were cut I dry fitted the pieces just to make sure everything was cut just right.... then I got out my map paper. The map paper I am using is actually from a roll of wall paper that I picked up from a thrift store for .95cents. You can use a regular map that you find in your glove box as well. Lay your paper templates of each piece onto the map, keeping in mind that your wanting your cut map pieces to be "right reading" not upside down or cock-eyed. (unless thats the look your wanting) Once all your map pieces are cut...just glue them into place inside your chest. You can use regular cheapie glue or use Modge podge. I always have to trim away my paper as I cut everything larger...so to get a super clean edge on your map -- let it dry-- then trim away any excess paper with a razor. (I think this is why I always have so many projects that I work on at one time, I don't like to WAIT) Anywho...Now, the fun part. Distressing and aging the inside of your pirate chest. I use several different colors of brown and black paint to age the seams and edges of the trunk & lid. I apply the black to the very seam of each inside piece and then the brown fades out into the trunk getting lighter and lighter~Once it is looking aged, the next step is to add some depth to the trunk. (this is in keeping with my philosophe of "more is better") I of course pulled out my trusty joint compound! I adhered a small stencil to the lid with spray adhesive (the lid is bowed and wouldn't let the stencil lay flat) I applied the joint compound to make the embossing. I turned the trunk over to make it easier to work on. Next, I globbed a bunch of joint compound onto the stencil. Seeing how it is a curved lid, I couldn't use a putty knife...so I used my finger to spread out the joint compound evenly over the stencil. Next, I pulled up the stencil. At this stage I used a pencil to add more detail to the embossed area. I just pushed & pulled the joint compound to fill in some areas... and pressed deeper to take some of the joint compound away from other areas. Here is a photo of the skull with the stencil removed and after I had worked my pencil magic on it lol.Once dry, I went over the raised area with a base coat of brown paint. Then I just kept adding browns & some black until I liked it. Once it was all dry, I dipped my finger tip in a light brown paint and went over the raised skull design to give it more depth. Now it looks like its a piece of carved wood on the lid. I then measured and cut a piece of burlap fabric to fit inside the lid of my pirate chest. I used a pin to pull up some of the threads to make it look old and worn. I then used my sewing machine and zig-zagged around every edge to keep it from fraying in the future once I attached it to the trunk. Next, I used some watered down paint straight onto the fabric to give it a dirty look...Once that was dried, I used hot glue and glued it to the bottom of the lid to hold extra special stuff. Fill with some of your pirate look and enjoy!Taaaaaaaa daaaaaa easy peasy!

Keeping it green~

I've been saving these plastic cat litter containers for awhile now.... wanting to reuse them but nothing was coming to mind. I've cut them down to use as little toy containers, but-- they just were not cute enough! I started cutting one apart and found that it cut rather easily with a razor and also scissors. Sooooooo I cut them down to this, recycling only the curvy handle part. Next, I cut them with my paper cutter to get them all the same size-- because I like love matchy-matchy. I used some of the flat pieces to make stencils of patterns pieces I use often....The bottoms of the plastic containers I am using for paint~Its working out nicely :-)

THE FILM THE CBC DOESN'T WANT YOU TO SEE

About half of Canada has today off to celebrate "Family Day". Despite the warm and fuzzy moniker, it's really just an excuse to sneak a long weekend into the drought between New Year's Day and Easter. For Irish Canadians and their imitators, it signals one final month to rest up or practice.

But for some it is about family and that put me in mind of the thousands of Canadians who don't have that luxury because they're half a world away, fighting a war in Afghanistan.


Not long ago, in one of their traditional post-casualty reviews of whether or not we should be in this war, the CBC National News noted that a lot of Canadians still don't know why we're over there -- avoiding the most obvious answer -- maybe because the CBC isn't doing its journalistic job.

Before I go further, I think we all need to acknowledge that there's a growing feeling of biases in our media. Right-wingers think the CBC skews Left. Those on the Left don't like what gets said in the National Post or on Global TV.

A friend of mine once posited that "Good books are those that reinforce your own prejudices" and I think that applies to movies, newspapers and newscasts as well. Some think Fox's Bill O'Reilly is a goof and some feel that way about MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. I'm willing to bet that if you drilled down far enough, you'd discover both sides had a case.

But every now and then you hear a story that makes you wonder if there might indeed be a concerted effort by our National Broadcaster to weaken support for the Canadian men and women fighting in Afghanistan.

Some part of me has always wondered why we can go days, even weeks, without hearing a word about Afghanistan on the CBC, but hardly an hour goes by without somebody making an argument on one of its services for repatriating Omar Khadr, the Canadian born Taliban combatant currently being held in Guantanamo Bay.

I don't know whether this young man is a dangerous terrorist or not, but I'm given pause when I see him being championed by Bob Rae, a politician I find utterly without shame, who is now claiming Mr. Khadr was an innocent child soldier. This after his party spent years openly supporting those who relied heavily on recruiting child soldiers.

I think the average Canadian is beginning to wonder why one aspect of the Afghan conflict requires so much coverage, while the part which impacts directly on thousands of Canadian families is barely referenced.

Are there stories and images coming out of Afghanistan that the CBC does not want you to see?

Unfortunately, the answer appears to be -- "Yes!"

In 2002, award winning Calgary filmmaker Garth Pritchard, considered by many our most experienced military documentarian, made his first trip to cover Canadian troops in Afghanistan. Since then he's been back six times, shooting hundreds of hours of combat footage.

According to Pritchard, "Every time my footage or documentaries were offered to the CBC -- both to the National and the CBC's Documentary Unit, they were refused."

Okay -- so maybe the guy's not as good as some people think.

Except...

Pritchard was actually on the ground and in a position to film the "friendly fire" air attack in 2002 that accounted for our first Afghan casualties. It was a huge news story and any news outlet in the world would have jumped on that kind of footage.

But the CBC said "No!" and later hired a Toronto filmmaker who'd never been to Afghanistan to do a one-hour documentary on the attack -- without using any of Pritchard's footage.

Seven months ago, Pritchard was embedded with Combat Engineer Sgt. Shawn Eades in Kandahar, risking his own life on one occasion covering Eades' men as they dismantled a Taliban bomb factory. Footage the CBC, once again, declined to air.


Pritchard shared his disappointment with Eades, who had served in the Canadian military long enough not to be surprised. "What do you expect, Garth," he said. "They have no intention of telling our story."

Not long after, Eades and his squad were killed. Pritchard immediately offered the CBC free footage of these latest Canadian casualties. The broadcaster again declined. "This time they took it to a new level," says Pritchard. "'How do we know you are telling the truth?'"

If this isn't unsettling enough, a few days ago, the CBC aired a documentary on our troops in Afghanistan -- shot by an American filmmaker -- three years ago.

There's so much here that should give us all pause (no matter our political leanings). And at the very least, we deserve to see Garth Pritchard's work and make up our own minds.

So here's your chance.

This is some of Pritchard's original "friendly fire" coverage. It's powerful and moving stuff. And I'd venture it's unlike anything you've ever seen regarding Canadian troops in Harm's way -- certainly unlike anything you've seen on the CBC.

Maybe we should all be asking questions on why we're not allowed to see this kind of material. Is it in somebody's interest to shift our attention elsewhere?

Chloe~

Here is my grandaugher Chloe minutes after being born....she is screaming for hair and makeup~ You have no idea how much that dark hair shocked me!! Here she is with that stuff they glob into the newborn babies eyes.... she smeared it all over her face and chest. She heard that stuff makes your skin youthful. Look at her casually striking a pose, she is such a diva~ Here is Chloe sitting in a blanket nest having her first bottle given to her from her nurse. The nurse only gave her half...she screamed for more. Thats my girl! Chloe fell asleep while trying to take off her hat because she just KNOWS it doesn't match her outfit. She was upset her bracelet didn't come in another color as well.... white is so last year~Chloe using her fathers finger as a cell phone. You never get good reception in hospitals. I think she is setting up a manny-peddy for tomorrow~Lastly, big brother Jonathan peeking in at his little "pet" sister. He took one look at her and called her a truck...a red truck~

Mmm-mmm Monday~

For President's day I am sharing a recipe that I got from Hippie dogs blog. (I asked permission to post it on my blog) Anywho, it is called Cherry Squares. Its pretty good....although its not that sweet and very heavy. The men at my hubbies work really liked it. Personally, I thought it was a tad eggy tasting, 6 eggs- go figure. I think this is a recipe that I'm going to tweak :-) I mean its so easy peasy, I think I might try adding applesauce instead of so many eggs and even more vanilla than whats called for...and next time I would put some of the batter in muffin cups as it did rise up an awful lot and took forever to cook. Geeze, sounds like I'm complaining doesn't it! lol... I'm not, I'm just "saying" for saying sake~ Anywho, if I haven't scared you off, here is the recipe!

Cherry Squares

3 cups flour

2 1/4 cups sugar

3 sticks butter

6 eggs

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 can cherry pie filling

Mix all the ingredients together except the pie filling. (that goes on top!) Spread the mixture into a large greased rectangle pan. (it will rise, so figure it will double in size) You might want to make two pans. Place blobs of the canned cherries filling here and there on top of the cake mixture. (I would add more of the cherry pie filling than less of this, as this is what gives it a little kick!) You can even make a little indentation with a spoon and add some cherries this way as well. The cake mix does rise up around some of the cherries a little bit. Bake 35 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool completely. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and cut into little squares!

"A" meme~

Brenda from B's place has a fun Meme on her blog. She assigns each participant a letter and your to find words beginning with that letter that defines you~ coolio huh? Drop her a comment telling her you'd like a letter! :-P My assigned letter is "A".... and no, I'm not starting off with a$$.....
1. Artsy~ In most everything I do...I like things to have an "artsy-flare" to them. A little flourish here...a little doo-dad there, just make things a little cuter/sweeter than they already are. On the flip side there is an ever present pressure to forever do this because everyone expects it from me!
2. Audience- I used to be a member of my high schools Chamber singers group. We would preform in front of large audiences all the time. We even spent a week in Hawaii singing.
3. Attention- I like attention, lots of attention.
4. Antiques- I love classic cars, vintage items, old photos, old sewing items and furniture. I could spend hours & hours in antique stores.
5. Ambiance- I am all about ambiance. Every party HAS to have a theme. It gives me a jumping off point to create a new and exciting event.
6. Ability- I have the ability to do a lot of interesting things. I can mix/pour & smooth cement, lay brick, hammer/nail/saw with the best of them. With most things if I see something I can make it. I also have the ability to visualize things from start to finish immediately--- I'm just needing a theme! I have decorated several big convention events with huge success.
7. Attitude- I like to think I have a Polly-Anna attitude about most things. But on the flip side I am extremely realistic person with no false idealistic beliefs.
8. Asymmetrical- I do not like things that are asymmetrical. I like "matchy-matchy" I like balance, symmetry.
9. Audacity- I am pretty bold and daring. I call it "razzle-dazzle" lol
10. American- I am very proud to be an American.

LAZY SUNDAY #58: COUNTDOWN TO WHISTLER

Celebrations were held across Canada this week to mark the beginning of a 365 day countdown to the 2010 Vancouver (& Whistler) Olympics. From shining sea to frozen one to other shining sea, our politicians and Olympic Media Rights holders popped champagne corks and began the marketing portion of the pre-Game festivities.


I already have a letter from my bank asking me to carry the Olympic torch over part of its nation-wide hopscotch. I wrote back requesting the Olympus to Santorini leg of the journey, letting them know I am available anytime between now and the Spring thaw.

Our airwaves are also filled with ads for Olympic coins from the Royal Mint, Olympic pins from Coca-cola and "Collectible" Olympic glassware from our local Petro-Canada gas stations. The glasses were apparently a huge hit during the Calgary Olympics in 1988. Although I'd be cautious in believing they will some day be worth a fortune on eBay. There isn't a yard sale in my neighborhood that doesn't feature a ton of these for around 10 cents a dozen.


I also noticed that Petro-Canada's new design no longer features the gold embossed torch and rim that used to flake off if you drank anything stronger than Kool-Aid from them. I guess the nice folks who raped you for gasoline last summer aren't giving back any of the precious metals they bought with their looted booty.

I wonder if it's unleaded glass. We should all go in and ask. But then, they're probably made in China, so you don't have to.

In Vancouver, where the Olympic committee has already cut its souvenir prices in half because nobody's buying them, local taxpayers recently discovered they were on the hook for a Billion dollar shortfall in constructing the Athletes Village/Future Yuppie Condo Enclave (as if Vancouver doesn't have enough of those. This week they learned that the security bill was rising from $175 Million to $1 Billion.

I think all those politicians were drinking champagne to celebrate successfully pulling over another one on us idiot taxpayers. How many Olympics do we have to have in this country before somebody asks those successfully submitting the "lowest bid" for contracts to be on the hook for any overages?

Meanwhile, the CTV and Rogers Media empires rolled out details of broadcast coverage of the 2010 Games, revealing how these two fierce competitors would be following the rest of the world's example and "coming together" in Vancouver to present every hundredth of a second of the Winter Olympics over all of their mutually available platforms.

They waxed on endlessly about how personalities you now only see on one sports channel in one empire would be sharing desk and parka space with their identical others from the opposite empire. Then at the end of the week, their bosses clammed up after the CRTC suggested the convergences they were so happily utilizing would also be taken into account when considering the "historic losses" they're apparently suffering in their free-to-air divisions.

Sorry, Media guys! Seems you can no longer have it both ways.


However, don't take my "characteristically bitter ranting" the wrong way. I love the Olympic Games and will definitely be one of the boobs glued to every second of coverage, be it on TSN (1 or 2), CTV, my BELL mobile phone or my SYMPATICO Internet account -- not to mention whatever sports the Rogers outlets offer and what's only available for download from iTunes.

I just hope one of these Media entities have the courage to offer something Australia's ABC created for the 2000 Sydney Games and has retained as part of their Olympic coverage ever since.

"The Dream".

ABC broadcast every minute of the 2000 Games with all the generosity and respect the visiting nations and their athletes deserved -- until 11:00 pm. At that point, "The Dream" recapped the day's events in a somewhat different manner.

Host sportscasters "Roy & HG" (comedy duo Grieg Pickhaver and John Doyle) presented such things as Greco-Roman wrestling with a Barry White soundtrack and invented new names for the moves in Men's gymnastics including the "Flat Bag", "Dutch Wink" and "Hello Boys".

They also created a new mascot, "Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat" to replace the three official mascots they dubbed "Syd, Ollie, and Dickhead". Fatso became so popular Australian athletes carried him to the medal podium and the Olympic Committee tried to have him banned.

A statue of Fatso has since been erected at Sydney's Olympic Park.

Insulting New Zealanders was also de rigeur on "The Dream". When New Zealand won their first gold in Rowing, Roy remarked that Kiwis were "only good at sitting down and going backwards". As for the former Olympic host city of Atlanta, it was regularly dismissed as "the toilet".

"The Dream" helped keep the Olympics in perspective. Sure they were fun, but does anybody really take prancing around with a ribbon seriously? And if you want to be recognized as one of the politicians or civic movers behind the Games, maybe you should also have to go on TV and exhibit that you have no grasp of simple math.

The next 360+ days are going to be painful for Canadians already tired of the corporatization of the Olympics. And the decades following will be equally painful as we realize that it's us and not Petro-Canada or Coca-Cola who are paying for the cost over-runs.

Finding a Canadian Roy & HG might help us all bear the burden a little easier.

Here are three separate clips of their brilliance. Enjoy your Sunday.

What a beautiful day~

My grandaughter made her entry into this world today at 9:18 this morning. Both my daughter and grandaughter are both perfectly healthy... Chloe was 7 pounds and 19 inches long... The most shocking thing was/is that my grandaughter has black hair! I took zillions of photos, but of course shooting through the nursery window none of them turned out. When we finally did meet face to face, I stopped taking photos! I'll take some more photos tomorrow and hopefully those will turn out cute and I'll let everyone have a lookie-lou at this little gift from God~

Happy-happy...

joy-joy....my grandaughter is coming into this world today!!