The End of Another Era
Current mood: sad
Category: Pets and Animals
About two months ago Nutmeg, my elderly kitty, died after a short illness. Today I got a text message from Ben saying he hadn't seen Kylyssa in a few days and he was worried.
We found her in the sump in the basement and buried her in Ben's back yard next to her daughter, Nutmeg.
All that's left of that little family of cats is Fatbat and he's also over 18 years old.
Nutmeg, sitting on Ben's monitor, her usual perch.
I Always Dive In Head First
Current mood: vexed
Category: Life
Some of you may know that just over a year ago I sustained a broken hand/thumb/wrist and suffered a bit of nerve damage. Recently, I've been trying out new drawing techniques because, frankly, with the shake and lack of dexterity in my hand, my art has not been up to par. I drew something a few days ago and decided to put it up anyway. I figure my MySpace photos can serve as a measure of recovery over time.
Anyway, I started drawing shortly after Cyrille left for work today around 2pm. Bent on my (frustrating) task I was startled to see Rich coming through the door what seemed like a short time later. Three and a half hours had passed though it seemed like much less. I started scanning in my latest (unsatisfying) effort and realized my hand, wrist, and forearm were really hurting. You can really tell her curled toes were among my last pained efforts.
Damn! It really isn't very smart to go from nothing to three and a half hour drawing sessions.
Like The Japanese Pan Noodles From Noodles & Co? Try This!
Current mood: hungry
Category: Food and Restaurants
I've come with a recipe that tastes rather similar to the Noodles & Co version of Japanese Pan Noodles or caramelized Udon noodles. You can see the recipehere.
Open Mic and Feeling Better Than Expected
Current mood: sneezy
Category: sneezy Writing and Poetry
I swallowed a few painkillers and went to the open mic anyway. It was nice, actually. It was the first one at the 28th Street Barnes and Nobles. I got the definite vibe that it wouldn't be a good idea to read anything risque right off the bat. There were quite a few conservative looking types there so I carefully selected three of my most vanilla poems.
Apparently my idea of vanilla is some people's idea of exotic and spicy. I got a few looks but I got decent applause and a gentleman suggested I must have lots of experience with this. Actually, I haven't. I told him about how my last (and first) poetry reading caused the open mic to get shut down at Quinn and Tuittes Pub. He seemed interested so I gave him a flier for my poetry group on Harbork.
I gave the rest of the fliers to a college student who promised to hand them out at school. This seems like a fun little group though I'll have to check out the Wealthy Theatre open mic because they appear to have a bit more liberal vibe.
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
Current mood: pissed off
Category: Life
Actually my title is a bit melodramatic. I've been doing better lately. I'm on medication for my lupus and I'm starting to feel like a human being again. I even had a great day yesterday. I got up early, went swimming for about an hour and a half, went out to watch WALL-E, and hung out at the bookstore with my roomies until closing time.
I woke up feeling great today and decided I was up to visiting my kitties who still live at my ex-husband's house. The kitties and I shared some quality time. I went outside to pick some catnip from the herb bed alongside his house. Then - Yeouch! I stepped in a brand new (to me) hole in the ground at the side of his house.
I twisted my ankle pretty good, wrenched my hip, lost a hunk of hair on a piece of decorative driftwood, and gained a decent sized bump on my head.
Bugger!
I had plans to attend a poetry open mic tonight at Barnes and Nobles. I don't know if I'll still go. I had intended to walk but that's right out. I might drive if my head stops pounding and my ankle de-puffs enough. I haven't been to a poetry open mic since March of 2007 and I thoroughly enjoy them.
Oh, well, at least my lupus is getting manageable.
Phoenix of the Glacier - Potentially Disturbing To Some Readers
Category: Writing and Poetry
Glacier dropped, a terminal moraine begins where cold ended where vast crests of ice came to die and dropped their stony load, now covered with soil a rocky cairn for times long gone. A battered farmhouse sits on the hill paint peels and broken windows gape - its decomposing carcass where my childhood came to die. A skeleton stripped of meaning, a splintering wooden fossil buried by time so shallow yet so viscous it is now innocent in its post-senescence.
I am not.
I am a dirty phoenix, the frost of the glaciers reborn. The iceberg's gravel armors me as tender skin could not proof against the feverish, sweaty hands of a ghost whose corpse has yet to die, proof against his stifling weight atop my childish form which is nothing compared to lying beneath ice that endured for fifty thousand years or more. If I could live a thousand lifetimes perhaps the ice I have become might melt, leaving only the strength of stones.
Currently
reading
:
Crashlander
By
Larry Niven
Release date: 1994-03-02
The "Orphaned Works Act" is an attempt to require all created materials to be registered with as yet non-existent private agencies for the creator to have any real ownership of their own work or control over its use. Anyone who has made a "reasonable" search to determine ownership of a work can use it any way they see fit, potentially even registering it as their own. Additionally, the "Orphaned Works Act" would require you as the registered rights owner to track down violations of usage on your own registered work.
The companies behind this bill are Getty, Corbis and Google. If passed, this act would allow them free access to millions of free images which they could license and sell – the only possible consequence being that they'd have to pay the registered owner of the work a "reasonable" amount for the work - if and only if the registered owner finds out.
It's also a method to get revenue from all creators. Currently every creative work is automatically protected by copyright laws – free of charge. I see it as a method of getting the creative arts back under the thumb of big business. Just as private citizens are self-publishing, producing their own CD albums, and creating their own online galleries big business is stepping in to bring the process to a halt. Currently, the public decides what they want by word of "mouth" and personal experience. These acts would take the choice out of the hands of the public and put them back into the hands of the wealthy once more.
Who knows how much the fee will be to get your work registered? Will you be able to afford it? Will we all end up unable to afford the rights to our own writing, music, and art?
If you don't want to have to buy the rights to your own creations get off your ass right now and do something about it! Contact your Senator and your Congressman about these acts. You can find more resources atORPHAN WORKS RESOURCE PAGE FOR ARTISTS.
You can read the acts themselves at the links below.
Monthly Contributing Writer
Current mood: frisky
Category: Writing and Poetry
The Jen aka Meander aka Kylyssa has been invited to be a monthly contributing writer for the erotica publication, Bare Back Magazine. You can see my first article there tomorrow!
sad
vexed
hungry
pissed off
eccentric
bitchy
frisky