"Blackbird" (The Beatles) Animation for the "In My Life" Tribute/Theater...

Faith and Hope...

This year has been a truly crazy one. My computer has been on-off all year and my hands weren't working properly at the start of the year. So, all in all, I've done very little writing or blogging this year. 

On top of that in one of my computer crashes I lost all my blogblast for Peace 2012 work - my posters, globe ideas and notes. I had already downloaded the shared posters to Facebook, but my own stuff was gone and I simply haven't been able to find or recreate what I lost. 

So I started again and... it's been such a slog! I actually thought of writing a rant for my blog post for peace yesterday, because internet "red tape" is driving me insane this year.You see - every year I write on a theme and every year I ask permission from places to use their info, website or pictures for that theme, but this year almost every thing I want to use for my idea is under copyrights that demand I pay or sacrifice a pure white lamb before they'll say "yes" (rolls eyes). Only one very nice person has said yes and I do intend to thank him in full on the day. The rest are just 

SOURPUSS GROUCHY GRINCHES!

Rant over. 

Now on to the more interesting news as of yesterday evening. You see... yesterday evening a friend   emailed me with her own woes. She's had a similar time and even worse, to be honest. She can't even access her blog as blogger went bananas and decided she was a hacker and trying to get to a real live person to sort it out is near impossible.

Finding a real live person to talk to is becoming more and more of an issue for us all. How many times recently have you ended up on hold on a phone trying to reach a real live person? How many times have you had a problem that you can't talk to anyone about because everything is automated, done by email or phone rather than face to face?

How many jobs has this planet lost to machines that don't "get it", cannot understand being human and have zero common sense?

So, this morning I was trying to figure a way to help my friend get back blogging by trying some experiments on a test blog I set up years ago to try out different layouts and backgrounds. I go there to try some things and... what do I find? I find a test post I created in 2009 that I do not remember at all! Here it is...

A faintish journey do I make
As through this frazzled world I wind,
With heavy heart and weary steps,
But with determined mind.

Beseech I for a flicker of
The faith than can a mountain move,
And hold that tenet close to me,
Believing where I cannot prove.

The pow'r that comes when sinking low
To man who grasps for straw or rope,
Will clutch til has he breath no more
For where there's life, there's hope.

If my good turn be given to
My fellow man's deficiency,
I'll try to share my lowly gifts
Of Faith and Hope and Charity.

faith, hope, and charity - anne shannon demarest - 1965

How's that for perfect timing?

glitter-graphics.com

For the Love of Books

The Scottish Book Trust has declared a League of Extraordinary Booklovers for Book Week Scotland

As they put it:

"Book Week Scotland will be a national week-long celebration of reading, delivered on behalf of Creative Scotland by Scottish Book Trust, the leading agency for the promotion of literature, reading and writing in Scotland. Scottish Book Trust will work with authors, workplaces, libraries and schools across the nation to deliver a packed programme of free projects and events, bringing Scots of all ages and from all walks of life together to celebrate books and reading.  

 Running in support of the first ever Book Week Scotland – which runs from 26th November to 2nd December 2012 – the Scottish Book Trust are forming a band of special book lovers who will be at hand to recommend and advise (via email and Twitter) those who seek ‘superhuman’ literary guidance.

The League of Extraordinary Booklovers is a group of people from all walks of life who love books and reading, who are volunteering to share their passion and expert knowledge with readers across the nation during the first Book Week Scotland (26 November – 2 December 2012)."

You can find the entire list of assorted superheroes on their website here and you will find my name on the list.  I'm thrilled and honoured to have been chosen. I feel all superhero powerful... 

Now I know this event is taking place in Scotland, but please don't let that deter you - you can be a superhero too! The world can never have enough book-wielding, word-weaving, story-reading superheroes. So grab your capes and get out there - get sharing your love of books!

Burning Bright

I'm finally getting to the last of my photos from our trip to the Highland wildlife park in August.

There are several sections you can walk through. There's a portion for the bigger animals, like the Amur Tigers as well as two more heavily wooded portions for the forest-loving creatures, like the Scottish wildcats, the wolves and forest reindeer.

The walk up to the animals was lovely, surrounded by heather with stunning views towards the mountains.

Then we went down through the trees and onto wooden walk ways to see the tigers.

The tigers are Amur tigers, from Russia. There is a female, Dominika, and a new young male, Marty.  Dominika was born at the wildlife park. When we got to the viewing window one of the tigers was  pacing up and down in front of the viewing window. I've never been that close to a Big Cat! 

It was walking past so close my first photo was this...

And my next attempt this...

You could see the claw scratches (and smears of licking or paws?) on the glass, which was a bit disconcerting... but they are such beautiful animals that everyone there just stood and watched in awe. It completely ignored us...

One tiger sat meekly amongst the thistles watching as the other kept pacing past us humans. It did try to get the other's attention once or twice and was acknowledged with a sneering snarl.

Not often you see a tiger posed with thistles!

The photos don't do justice to their colours. They seemed to glow. William Blake was right when he wrote...

TIGER, tiger, burning bright 

In the forests of the night, 

What immortal hand or eye 

Could frame thy fearful symmetry? 

In what distant deeps or skies 

Burnt the fire of thine eyes? 

On what wings dare he aspire? 

What the hand dare seize the fire? 

 And what shoulder and what art

 Could twist the sinews of thy heart? 

And when thy heart began to beat, 

What dread hand and what dread feet? 

What the hammer? what the chain? 

In what furnace was thy brain? 

What the anvil? What dread grasp 

Dare its deadly terrors clasp? 

When the stars threw down their spears, 

And water'd heaven with their tears, 

Did He smile His work to see? 

Did He who made the lamb make thee? 

Tiger, tiger, burning bright 

In the forests of the night, 

What immortal hand or eye 

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

There... and Back

Well.. after I wrote my last update, that my computer seemed to be fixed, it crashed again. :-( And then started... and crashed again. This weekend Hubby went into full attack-seek-fix mode. He took the hard drive out, saved my stuff to his machine, then stripped my computer's brain bare. Now we're slowly putting everything back ad so far... it's working fine.

I have lost a few bits, I have all my emails (sent and inbox) shoved into one folder, but mostly everything is there and working. Now I just have the drab dull plod of reinstalling software, putting back everything to where it should be.


Hopefully I'll be able to finally put up my last photos from the wild life park, that I took in August!  

Update

I'm sorry I've been so absent. Not only has my hand surgery held me back, but my computer hasn't been working properly for most of the year. Hubby has checked everything, renewed all sorts of bits, reinstalled, deep cleaned, scanned and rebooted (should be as in booted out a window!) without finding the source of the problems. :( and this last week it went really crazy and was freezing up for about 5 minutes, then working for about a minute... freezing up again. 

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH

My dad suggested it might be the cable connections and re-crimped all the wiring/cables. So far... it seems to be working.

Each time this has happened, each time I've "lost" a drive, I've also permanently lost things like emails, documents, photos/art I was working on. So it has been a very slow frustrating time, but hopefully I'll be back more often now. 

Blog Blast for Peace - Reminder

It's less than a month to BLOGBLAST FOR PEACE, on Nov 4. Mimi has created some smashing new templates you can use, alter or post as-is on your blog or Facebook page for the big event. :-)

You can find them HERE