I originally sat down to do a little writing, but I wanted to hear a song that I don't have - rather than going out and getting it, I looked it up on youtube and there went the rest of the night :P

And here it is - I love this song. John Mayer just does not get enough credit for his guitar work.

John Mayer: Gravity





I also love this song - it's a cover of a Ray Charles song that appeared on John Scofields tribute to Ray Charles, 'That's What I Say: John Scofield Plays the Music of Ray Charles'.

John Mayer & John Scofield: I don't need no Doctor





Which leads us into a little Blues improv with John Scofield at a Music store:





For the lighter side, we find Susan Tedeschi Live on Austin City Limits - she has an absolutely incredible voice. Plus - it's just hot when a chick plays guitar.




And finally, a little Tab Benoit: Nice and Warm




Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.

~P

...because I teased her about this show.





~P

Not something I'm planning on doing anything with soon--I have some of the world and multiple characters, but nothing even resembling the plot. I actually wrote this snippet mostly so that I would have a record somewhere of the names of my central players. >_>

Wee bit of clarification: Arden is King of some as-yet-unnamed union of four separate regions. The rules of kingship say that the King has four wives, one from each region, one of which is his Queen--though he's expected to beget children on all four. (There is a complicated system wherein the Queen has almost-equal power with the King, and either or both of the monarchs can be overridden by the wives if all three are in agreements.) The sons will then duke it out for the inheritance, literally. Juinaver is Arden's half-sister, who loves him muchly and is kind of broken and killed all their brothers so that he would be King. Then picked out all his wives for him, including the leader of a rebellion against him--who actually became the Queen, for political reasons.

( And, uh. Juinaver kind of has a crush. )

Our yard, though tiny, is practically a wildlife refuge. There are birds everywhere. It's hard to do the large-scale projects we have planned without stepping on or disturbing a bird's nest or getting in their way.

First there was the finch(?) nest in the junipers. Then today I was about to ask my husband to hang a birdhouse on a tree - the painted one we got at a thrift store 3 weeks ago. I tried to hang it myself but I couldn't reach, so I just left it on the ground under the tree.

So I picked it up, and it squawked! I put it down immediately and we backed off.

After lunch we went shopping for sheds. Everything we found was too expensive. It's hard to support local businesses when they only cater to the wealthy. However, we would still like a shed, so we'll keep searching for something within our budget.

Then we went to Wal-Mart and bought nothing. We're not really Wal-Mart people. We are yard sale people. Next week we'll go yard saling instead.

From my 'Mellow' playlist

1. The Dandy Warhols: We Used to be friends

2. Lazlo Bane: I'm no Superman

3. Dexys Midnight Runners - Come on Eileen

4. John Mayer - Waiting on the world to change

5. Kenny Wayne Sheppard Band - Believe

6. America - Tin Man

7. Sarah McLachlan - Prayer of St Francis

8. Jack Johnson and Ben Harper - Gone

9. Elton John - Someone saved my life tonight

10. The Doobie Brothers - Black Water

I wanted to try out the Wii's Internet Channel... it does seem to take forever to type, but now at least Rachel has access.

I have been doing more with my calligraphy, which, after what seemed to be the Sepia Spill of 2008, is a good thing. It feels much better to have a table, where the ink is much more stable. I'm also planning to play NERO again - thinking about a Drae again, because I really miss playing my Piper. I'll be hitting the Starlen's Crossing Event at the end of May, if anyone else is planning on going.

I had a fun time at the house concert last night held by jaguarraven. Some folks who had seen me in ER many times got to see some different facets of me, and there were new folks there as well. I met several people that I knew only though WOW. Allergies were hitting pretty hard so the high notes in "Listen" did not want to come out, but on the whole I felt pretty good about both sets. I told "The Tale of LLeu and Blodeudd" ,"Tristan and Isult" and The story of Pwyll's first encounter with Rhiannon. I interspersed and illustrated the tales with song- sort of a mini musical thing. Most of the music came from "Poetry of Wonder," but included several ER songs, and a couple of cover songs as well.

My son has created a scenario on RPG maker for me to play and I think that will be my afternoon. Seen on a church sign yesterday " God proves his love with Mother." Maybe I think too much or maybe I have a naughty mind.dancingwriter informs me that she may celebrate Mother's Day by going to the outlet mall to buy new underwear. She is actually pretty excited about it. oops maybe I wasn't supposed to sat that.


Todays welsh word " mam" = mother

Hi, Flist!

I'm taking a quick break from yardwork. shaharazad has his chain saw out and he's sawing up the logs that are too big for our wood stove. Plenty of warm cozy nights ahead! Just in time for.... summer. Oh well.

I'm alternating between mowing the lawn with my little yellow push mower and filling in potholes with bucketfuls of dirt. Quite strenuous. Now I feel all justified at my refusal to buy a gym membership. Bwahahaha! And people think I'm off my rocker when I mention that. But seriously! Why buy a riding lawnmower AND a gym membership? Utter waste of money on both accounts, if you ask me.

Water/internet break is over now. Off I go to push push push and dig dig dig. Living outside myself is awesome. I never did like being the center of my own universe.

The vet checked her over, and gave the unfortunate news that both knees felt "thick." This means that while she was limping and obviously hurt on her right side, her left might be injured as well. So basically, once the right one heals, we shouldn't be surprised if she starts limping on her left side. We're keeping our fingers crossed.

The surgery went ok. She is now home, with a shaved backside, and a cast on her leg. She has to sleep with an E. collar on, which she absolutely hates but looks awesomely funny in. And she's on pain meds. She woke Greg and I up early today, crying. But Greg suspects it was because she REALLY had to pee, and not that she was in horrible pain - but she got her morning pain pill regardless.

I spent all evening cuddling with her on the couch last night. She's so sad.

I've already pulled a muscle in my back. Lift with the knees! Lift with the knees!


Edit: Oh! I forgot to mention... while she was under we had the vet do a small operation on her nasal passages. She breathes a lot better now, and hardly ever snorts (which is sad in it's own way, but I'd rather her be able to breathe properly instead of making noises that are "cute.")

OK I've just seen the film. So let's sum this up:
* It is basically a live-action cartoon.
* It is a mix of the old cartoon and modern anime/videogame aesthetics.
* Said aesthetics in many cases are what you get when you let Willy Wonka make Bladerunner.
* It is FILLED with references to the old cartoon so they knew what they were doing.
* It is not a totally remake or sequel, more an homage - what the cartoon SEEMED to be to people like me who watched it when I was eight. Thus it aspired to be very great in being a giant living cartoon treat, and modest in that it doesn't try and make it more than it seems to be.
* Because of this modesty, it actually succeeds quite well, and gives people room to breathe and do their work.

( More beneath the cut )

Today, I went and bought alcohol for the after-finals celebration we're having Wednesday or Thursday. (I promised Beth a while back that she could get me absolutely smashed just this once, because she's convinced it would be hilarious and... honestly, I'm curious too.) My shopping bag--a canvas one I use, to save plastic/trees, is a canvas bag I got from The Cove (Billy Graham's training center)a*. As she put the wine bottles in the bag, she tipped it up to read the Cove logo on the side, then started laughing.

XD

For the record, the roommate picked me out two white wines and a red (I remember one was a Chardony[sp?] or whatever, but not the rest, and am too lazy to pull them out of the shirt drawer), and I got a mix-n-match six-pack of Mike's hard lemonade/limeade/raspberry stuff. The roommate picked the wines because I am officially NOT ALLOWED to purchase alcohol on my own anymore, after the rum fiasco. (Plus I know NOTHING about wine.) Although she pre-approved me going and getting some of the Mike's pomegranate-flavored stuff at some point over the summer. :D

*We took a field trip there last year, because it's about a ten-minute drive. While there, I got the bag, containing an annotated Bible (gave it to Dad), a book by Billy Graham (I think I intended to give it to my pastor, but forgot, so it's sitting at home somewhere), and a promotional booklet and DVD, both of which I viewed for the lulz and then tossed. The bag, however, is PERFECT for shopping with.

Hamlet 2

"So ours may well be called the Age of Makeshift..shoddy is King"

( I need this documentary )

I had a dream last night that we were living in Manhattan in The Village. I was making my living as a magician doing lunch shows at a place called "The magic Mug." It was a sort of coffee house-resturant. dancingwriterwas on her third best selling novel and our son was at oxford. I did street magic in the afternoon and specialized in jumping off high places. Now there's a tangle of a dream for you. Trust me, this is not my idea of a totally ideal life, but this was one of those hyper-real dreams that leave you confused on waking up. It kind of felt like an alternate reality.

One cool thing about soundclick is that I can see what countries people are listening to my music in. Besides the US, there are , of course, our Canadian neighbors, but also Greece, Denmark, The Czech Republic, The UK, and The United Arab Emirates. It must be one person who is very fond of my stuff, but I m getting a lot of play in the UAE. Go figure.
It looks like it will be a gorgeous day as I get ready for tonight's gig.

And found while eating my oatmeal Those wacky Japonese

Todays welsh word is "hindda"= fair weather

Tonight I want to talk about Knifeclaw Company. But I can't because I'm too tired.

I have the beginnings of Page 32 in my lap. In the first panel, Hraith is combing himself. In the next panel, he'll be doing more grooming, though I haven't decided what yet. In the third panel, he's putting his armor on. It's big and clunky.

I have to fight for every line, I'm erasing a lot, and my enthusiasm is down.

But I just sketched out panel 4.

Meh.

For lillieoz: Ophelia/Ozma art.

( Attempt at art nouveau. )

-- Gil

Side note: Love to Lillie.

I actually spent today working outside! Yay! I saw snakes and hawks and vultures and three swallow-tailed kites. I see them a lot these days; apparently they're more common up here. But they still make me smile every time.

My fire boots still suck -- they're too wide in the feet part and too narrow in the leg part. Combine that with annoyingly high heels (WTF? Whose idea was it to put those big heels on fire boots? And can I beat them over the head with said boots?) and they are wobbly. But waterproof, and as snake-proof as I had available, so I wore them and put up with the sore feet.

Speaking of sore feet, I hurt so much from the pack test two mornings in a row that this morning I did it without the pack. I wanted to just skip it, but it's a bad idea to skip a day when you're trying to establish a habit. So I took a leisurely three-mile stroll. (Well, I ran the last 1/8 mile or so, because two hornets were chasing me. I have no idea what I did to piss them off.)

I am sunburned and scratched and cut and bruised and bitten. Climbing up levees covered with forty years of edge-effect brush, then through the canals at the bottom, is hard work. I do not feel bad at all about doing my morning walk sans 45-pound vest. I'm surprised that I'm not in more pain than I am.

But I think I'll postpone my trip to the rock gym tomorrow.

Also, I'm switching from Windows 2k to Kubuntu. It's been surprisingly un-frustrating so far.

Ooops!

First of all, humble apologies to the lady I promised this to last weekend. I can only plead migraine and hormone-related brain misfunction.

This little technique takes less than a minute to do, and builds on the programming already carried out by practicing deep abdominal breathing (anyone who wants to know more on that subject, either shout out here, or in AIM if you are happy for me to talk your ears off, or look it up on Wikipedia, they have a pretty good description).

Basically, after a couple of weeks of practising the breathing pattern and relaxing all your muscles, your body will associate the one as a trigger for the other. Kind of like when people take their first sip of coffee and get that 'ahhh' moment, way before the sugar or caffeine could possibly have got anywhere.

When you feel a panic building or the hamster revving its wheel up to make smoke come from the axle, then try this:

1. Say "STOP!" - either in your head, or if practising on your own, out loud. (It can be kinda fun)
   
2. Take a deep abdominal breath, inhaling slowly, expanding your gut, keeping collar bone still, then exhale even slower, dropping your shoulders, relaxing your hands and arms.
3. Inhale again, slowwwwwwly, then as you exhale pay attention to your face, jaw and neck. Smooth your forehead, unclench your jaw, relax the muscles.
4. (optional) Smile. 
   
5. And carry on with whatever you were doing, in a relaxed and leisurely manner.

I've used this in team meetings, speaking in front of people, in check out queues, in the middle of the street, sitting at traffic lights, all sorts of places.  And actually, no one can tell you are doing it... unless you close your eyes like I do sometimes.

It works.

It works better if you practice the breathing and relaxation techniques.  And it helps if you practice this little exercise while you aren't heading for a panic. 

This is one of the things that I found helped me immediately I tried it.  Some days it works better than others, but everything's like that, and it's ok to do it a couple of times. Just don't breathe so incredibly slowly that you pass out.  Because that's not, you know, a good look.  Not really.

Unfortunately, I have yet to find a simple technique that boosts my memory, hence the tardiness of the post.  Please forgive me, and give this a go.

Lots of love,

Caroline