Pete Seeger Nobel Peace Prize Petition

This little note has come along from Dean Verger from Rasputin's Folk Cafe, via Andy Cohen via Mitch Podolak:

Pete Seeger Nobel Peace Prize campaign...
We have mounted a campaign for a grassroots movement to persuade the American Friends Service Committee to nominate Pete for the Nobel Peace Prize. Pete Seeger is a crusader for Peace and Social Justice and has been over the course of his 87 year lifetime. The aim is to show grassroots support to the American Friends Service Committee to nominate Pete Seeger for the Nobel Peace Prize. I know there are many people interested in adding support.

To read about and sign the petition go to:
http://www.petitionthem.com/default.asp?sect=detail&pet=3774

Pete Seeger appreciation page here.

Check out Pete on You Tube for some amazing footage... ya can't go wrong with Pete. I saw him and Arlo Guthrie with my Mom when I was 15 at the NAC.. an unforgettable duo for one of my first concerts. I'll never forget Pete teaching "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" to the crowd in 3 part harmony with Seeger doing the descant. It was an amazing experience where we all felt like one big family in the theatre, intimate, warm and loving.

How much for the tofu-dog in the window?

I'm feeling better--the above drawing aside ;-) If you'd like to see more of my SICK drawings, hop on over to Kunstpike for the whole bunch of me looking ill :-P

Work was ok.. I hate Mondays, period, no ifs & ands or buts. Even when I'm unemployed Mondays suck. I don't mind Thursdays though. Weird eh? HRSDC was as numbing as ever. My pod-mates were all antsy today too. No one wanted to work, it was a consensus of irritable boredom. 2 months (sort've) I've been at it, and it is still as icky as ever. Who knows what'll happen next? I keep applying to whatever comes up in the ICN. So far I've applied for 2 graphics jobs and got an application in to the Canada Council for the Arts. Now we just wait for a few months (or longer... the wheels turn slow!)

Speaking of slow wheels. Development (in animation-land) also moves slowly. But not for lack of trying. I just received an offer to renew my contract with Decode for "Ivy & Dummy" and my "Moon Warriors" show ideas, so that's cool. I can't believe 4 years have swung by already. But everyone down there still seems keen, so I said "sure"! At least with the Development happening, I feel like one day a ship may come in, even if it's an optimistic coracle ;-)

What else? I have a few things lining up, might even get a chance to sharpen my pencils and help my friend Nick on some storyboard clean-up, which would be nice. It may even save this old wreck of an artist; at least from gnawing off a limb or two! There may be creative things brewing with my dear friend Tracy too! That would be swell :-D Also, the summer is coming..and with it possible travel plans.. have to see how the dough holds out, but I am hoping the Clay-dude & I may hit Detroit for the Palladium Books open house in May, and if all goes well, a wedding out west in June. Again; tentative, but something I can look forward to. Yay!

Had a nice lunch Sunday with Mom at Mexi's at Centrum which I'd never been to; it was huge! We had fajitas (of course) and used Mom's coupon. The beer went very well with it. I'm so glad I'm not feeling nauseous any more. Yes! Poked around at Cdn. Tire for colour chips and got some sandpaper. Sandpaper costs .72 cents. That's your fact for today! I'm going to sand, scrub and prime the studio... then we'll slap on some paint... just have to see if I'm firm on the idea of a bright violet wall or not *wink*.

I have been reading like a monster, as usual... Reviews will follow when I have more time. I have to hit the books and study; this is my last week of French study at work (Block 5) and all the tests and evaluations are this week..so.. je devrai etudier mes livres! Zut alors!

I hope everyone is well and that the creative fires burn brightly for you all. Courage my friends!
May the Muse be generous, the creative souls quiver with eager anticipation and the pieces of time you carve in which to lay down those juicy creations be enough to salve your souls.

*hugs*
Suzanne.



I got a bunch of these this week from a buddy at work.. this is my fave. I am tempted to print it on good photo paper and get it laminated. I think it would look swell over my computer. It's one of those lovely little pics that Management would glance at and go, "Great! It's one of those motivational pics! What a great sign of glowing morale!" When it fact, it is a sign of moral decay and the need for suicide prevention officers wielding mega hypos of thorazine to chase us down one by one and cart us safely to the Quiet Room for Deprogramming.

wheee!

PS: Today's "secret word" is salve.

Who spiked the biryani?

Yeow, just got off an unintended 3-day fast :-P Got a wicked stomach flu Sunday night which basically left me praying to the Porcelain God every hour on the hour and wishing a) I could die b) that biryani and popcorn had not been my Last Supper and c) that I had some way to stop the nail in the head pain coupled with nasty stomach cramps. Geez.. where did this come from?

Monday I stayed home and stayed comatose in bed, with Clay tending my small needs (glasses of water, acetominophen, cool cloths, more blankets/ less blankets etc.) I vaguely remember getting up a couple of times, but basically I was sick sick sick. Gahhh... You know when you get up and your brain thumps the front of your skull? Then you sit back down and your brain thunks the back? That sucks.. urg.

I slept a little better Monday night, but still, tossing and turning, cramping & headache like a sledgehammer pounding a railroad spike into the old cranium. Clay headed off to work and I got up like a dummy thinking that I could go to work too. Except I felt nauseous, and every time I tried to think I kept getting these terse little messages from upstairs: go to bed or drink some water. Weird. It was like direct messages from the subconscious with no bullshit in between; no ideas/ thoughts/ distractions, just "instruction". Sue followed instructions...

Yesterday was exponentially better than the day before and so on. But still no food. Right up until lunch today, I just lived on water, acetomenophen, the odd gravol pill (that really knocks you out btw) and a Tums. Whee. I was a bit wobbly getting in to work today. Everything had an odd surreal quality; especially the drive in. I left very late, because everything seemed to take an extra-long time to accomplish.

My pod-mates Edythe B, Sumintra P & Lily C insisted that I get some food into me to try and get my strength back up. Eventually I capitulated and headed for the caff. I was leery though. Just the evening before the mere smell of food made me feel sick. Who knew what a whole gigantic room full of food smells would do to me?? But.. they were right; when I swung by the caff's soup area, the soup looked good. The banana I snagged near the salad area looked really good. And I can't tell you how the cool tall bottle of OJ looked. MMmmm sugar water....

Meal #1 went down ok and stayed down (hurray.)
Made it home eventually and am determined to have a good, restful sleep if I can get it... hope to be in better shape tomorrow!

*urg*
sick-Sue

Allwords Review

I signed up to Review Me last month to see if I could get paid for reviewing sites (part of my Work At Home scheme..) Most of these schemes have worked with mixed success (I think I've earned about $10 at Helium for writing, but that's still kinda cool..considering I've only penned about 10 articles; you leave 'em alone and they just generate cash for you. I really should put more articles up I suppose..)Anyway, this an advertisement, so feel free to read, enjoy or skip it if you want. I do have to say that I found the fun Anagram Genius site via the Allwords "Word Games" link, and for that alone it is cool. Where else can you declare that your place of work is the Devil's playground? Onwards....

After logging onto Allwords and poking around a bit, I concluded that it's a versatile and useful web page for writers who need quick reference tools that are more than just your run- of- the- mill e-dictionary. It was interesting being able to type a word into the search engine and having the page spit out not only the usual description but also 4 or 5 other language roots, meanings and the like. It definitely broadens the creative palette to have a few new colours thrown on.

The site is Free, which is handy, considering that there are a lot of sites which require a monthly fee (not just erotica ones my friends ;-)) It's also well-organized, which is a relief. It is aggravating logging in someplace and finding that you have to hunt all over for the most basic tools. I don't have to say the fun I've had clicking on the Anagram link.. if only to find out that my full name translates into "Razes inaner mundaneness". Yay, proof that the creative spirit can burn through the most dull things of life. The Crossword helper is cool too.. try stumping it with long weird words and see what happens C_AU____P_O_IA!! Ackk.. and if you can't remember the meaning of the word, a handy dictionary-link will explain it for you.. and if you press the link, you can make a soft electronic voice *say* the word (imagine STNG's Data quietly telling you how to say 'Obsequious.') This can be amusing in its own way... Ok, maybe I don't get out much..

For others who don't get out much, there's a "Word of the Week" that picks a word and goes into not only its definition, but description, etymology and how it relates in other languages. I think this week it's "Mythology" (I don't have to say how interesting Robbie & I would find that!) The Links for Word Lovers offers an endless array of things to lose yourself in, including: Slang, Quotations, Crosswords, Thesauri, Glossaries, Translation services, etc. There's a Blogger area where you could submit your own site if you wanted to (that is if you felt it was in some way of interest to other writers.. ;-)

All in all, it's a site that I'll probably spend some time on, (even if I wasn't being paid to write nice things about it ;-) If only to have another dictionary link that doesn't throw advertising up every time you want the spelling and meaning of a word, it is valuable. Hope this helps and that you have fun there. I would love to see what everyone else's names anagram to...

Cheers,
Suzanne.
Razes Inaner Mundaneness!
(DragonHead Studio = Guarded Sainthood)

Link:
http://www.allwords.com

I don't make this $@*# up..

The horror..the horror...

Can do

I went in to work with the usual dread in my gut, which has become my unwelcome companion. It reminds me of the days I spent half of my time not at University, then invariably would turn up for exams and critiques to try and pass somehow. (Not recommended.)

Tried reviewing my French material this morning over breakfast and the dim gloaming of another winter sunrise turning the horizon to breathtaking dusky purple and fuschia. These sunrises are wasted on me because I'm caught up on the treadmill of the joe job.. poor Mother Nature, shaking the hell out of her palette for all the sleeping artists to miss. And the wretched one who is awake is motioning through the movements, staggering to work and remembering the beauty in half-wary dreams and haunted whining.

So, my exam got postponed til next week. YAY. I was soooo not ready. Missing a couple of weeks can do that to you. I had done a few of the excersises and one of them we corrected (I was actually prepared! go figure.) When I got back, I keyed for about an hour and then the department exited for an extended lunch! Now before you go all "You Gov't People And Your Extended Lunches" on me... this is like, the only extended lunch that has ever happened to me in the department. This is OID, the most uptight division at Stats. And within that is Data Capture.. and, well, so on. So it was a nice (singular) event.

We went to the Tansy Buffet near Lincoln Fields. I enjoyed it; lots of broccoli and plenty of tasty Dim Sum. The dish labeled "Lasagna" contained suspicious looking eggplant (go figure...) They had canned peaches though.. MMmmm Peaches For Sue! :-D

So, returned to work in time for the afternoon break. Yay, I love days like these. Keyed for an hour, caught up a bit with Myra and then turned the Echo Westward and home. Worked on a Sudoku when I got to Kanata... I'm getting a bit better at these. My brain felt like it had sprained itself. Math... echhh :-P

Then Fi called! Yayyy Feefers. We've been playing phone-tag for months. So it was cool finally catching up for real. She's knitting like a fiend and has a special surprise for me that she's been working on since before my bday last year! (A house cosy?) We'll see.

Well, I should go and draw.. the pencil is calling my name...
Cheers,
Suzanne.

PS Check out my post on Kunstpike about Nick Cross' "Waif of Persephone" that arrived yesterday!
PPS Check out Art Wanted. "Black Diamond" one of my drawings got voted the site's Top Ten today!
PPPS Don't forget to vote for Amanda on the Model Search. Only 3 days left!
PPPPS Umm.. can't think of anything else.. :-)

Marking passage

I finally uploaded the pic of our backyard covered in MANGO FOOTIE PRINTS. Can you believe it? Of course, now the backyard is smoothed out with fresh snow. But only a couple of weeks ago it looked like a doggie playground. As you can see, I have two sheds, a fence, a nice thick cedar hedge at the back and off to the far left is my compost mound. Whee!

Work was so-so. It is with myopic blinking gurgledge that I spasm back into the leather traces of HRSDC and keying. Only the people make it bearable. I know, I shouldn't whine; I could be digging ditches, laying pipe, swimming across the North Atlantic or something.. but at least there would be a bit more of a mental engagement happening. A wee little one? Hmm..

Got paid, got my over-time pay.. and headed off to the Bulk Barn, Pet Value and Farm Boy to get whole wheat pasta, rabbit food and .. well, more rabbit food (but for people :-) It wasn't too busy out.. but almost got creamed by a couple of trucks. People A) don't look where they're driving in parking lots *and* B) don't signal their intent. Thus C) Sue almost got creamed. I always figured I'd do more damage to a grill than they would to me.. but these were muchos big trucks. So, I just kept scooting out of the way with my cart and hoped that they'd spare me.

Although considering my fate tomorrow (French exam & keying HRSDC) it might've been preferable.

On a sadder note.. my elderly rattie Diego passed away yesterday, at the age of almost 3 years old. He was a rex who at the end was looking a bit threadbare, but still was an engaging friendly fellow who accepted Cheerios with gentle jaws. He lived alone more than half his life after his cage mate Gandalf passed on, and after he was rejected from integrating into a group cage with his brothers (Salty & Coal.) He lived his days between eating yummy grapes, pizza crusts and rat blocks, sleeping in his Mandarin box and sipping water. When he wasn't doing that, he tottered along the couch, a geriatric rattie who had outlived all his brothers.

He'll be missed.

Vote for Amanda!

Hello folks,

Just heard from my friends, Mario & Ivonne in an email; turns out their daughter, Amanda, has entered the Ottawa Sun Model Contest! So, if you'd like to help out, feel free to vote daily for her til March 11th. Go to this link and press the VOTE HERE button. An email template will pop up. In the Subject line, type #6 and Amanda. In the message body, put your name, address & phone # for verification.

It would so awesome if she could win! Yay!
Thanks everybody,
Cheers,
Suzanne.

But you can eat the fish

My bro sent this to me... OMG!