Dyed to the Bone

Missing Michael Jackson

I am sitting here listening to Michael Jackson's 'Number Ones' cd, and still feeling very sad.  The first 'pop' song I can remember singing (besides the usual toddler standards) was Puppet on a String, and The Jackson 5's 'ABC' (I was about four/five).

Yes, I confess.  I love MJs music.  I didn't mind the poor bugger either, despite what people claimed that he did.  I have always thought of him as this strange but wildly talented being.  I have never really made up my mind about his 'guilt'.

How the hell does anyone know?  There are three sides to any story.  One persons' the other persons and what really happened.  I believe Michael Jackson was a serial hugger of children.  I also believe the poor man was seriously mentally unstable, thanks in large to an abusive childhood.  Therefore in his reality, there prolly was nothing with having sleepovers with children.  He was in essence, his own worst enemy.

I might be wrong.  He may have been a paedophile.  Who knows.  I want to separate that side and mourn the singer and dancer.  Man, the only ones he fell short of IMHO, was Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor.

I wasn't a great fan of the crotch grab, or even the Moonwalk, clever as it was.  It was just the litheness, the grace and the power.  I never could believe that skinny frame could have so much power.  The muscle strength to bust those moves was enourmous.  A lot of people don't stop and think about that.

His music has always, always been in my life, whether I liked it or not (mostly I did).

My favourite (despite the once cringeworthy monologue in the middle, which is now just painfully sad) will always be "Will You Be There".  Earth Song, Black and White, Thriller, Rock With You, Ben etc etc etc.

A poor tortured soul, hopefully now at rest, out of the world he could never quite fit into.

Ouch!

That's the sound my credit card will be making tonight when it pays for the next order from ProChem for Annies Dye Pot.

At least the good news is that I will have a bazillion new colours to play with when the order comes in to land! Yay!

Golden Delicious, Soft Orange, Wedgewood, Old Rose, Kiwi, Iris, Lilac - just to name a few.  As well as a re-stocking of my bloody Raspberry, Mulberry, Grape etc.

Hopefully now that Dad's stopped the yo yo-ing between home and hospital I'll have some more time to devote to throwing dye at cloth.  I have missed it so bloody much.

Love working with paper, love working with fabric most of all!

On Nekkid Trees

Every April/May in Canberra, huge flocks of White Sulphur Crested Cockatoos give the grass of Canberra a bloody good going over.  I believe they are digging for native yams.  You can see well over one hundred birds on the ground at once.  Stunning sight!

The other foggy morning on the way to school, Matthew and I saw a huge nekkid (read it has shed its leaves) tree, with about one hundred cockies perched in it.

I said to Matthew "Quick, look at the cockatoo tree".  For a nano second he almost believed it 8-)

We roared laughing at this bizarre sight, that for all the world looked like it had a crop of cockies on it, and have been keeping our eyes (and my camera) peeled ever since.

Of particular hilarity and riot is when their crests are up.  This happens in moments of extreme emotion, and when they land.

This morning two of them were patrolling the median strip alone Adelaide Avenue.  One head down, digging and the other stalking very solemnly around.  Just as I noticed them, a Police car shot past at about 120 KPH, missing them by less than two feet.

I now know what a Cocky looks like when he's saying "WTF!!!!!!!!".  Tallest crests I ever did see...

Gotta love Canberra in the Autumn.

Cards For Etsy

I have been busy making cards, and having a capital time doing it.  But they cannot live here forever.  I am loathe to leaping into the trash and treasures, or even the Craft markets, as I hate the sun (or at least my Lupus does) and I have SFA time left on a weekend anyway.

What's a body to do?

Resurrect my ETSY store "Annie's Bitz".  My photography still sucks I feel.  I'll have to consult with the Darlinge this evening:

and:

a few close ups:

and:

I kinda like making cards actually.  It's not as scary as scrapbook layouts, especially the 12 by 12 inches of blank card.

Back to updating the website...

Boss of Annie's DyePot

Here is the Lord of the Dyes. 

Choosing which new one ounce dyes to get in the next order...

Today he's been keeping a close eye on me from on top of the cupboards  (just underneath the aircon vent).

A happy day tarting up the new website and chasing up our orders...

Do cats suffocate?

Interesting.  As I am sitting at my computer, Sparta the Wonder Kitteh is sleeping under about a square metre and a half of piled up polar fleece.  He also spends days when he thinks that it is too cold for his liking under Matthew's piled up quilt.

This of course, plays with all my fears about children/small animals suffocating.  Even now, when I check on the kids last thing before I go to bed, I will pull the quilt away from their face if I think that they are not getting enough air.

I do the same thing to Kitteh.  He hates it.  I always get a baleful eye and a determined snuggle back under the quilt/covering/cat cave.

So I turn to the great god of Google.

I had to wade through four pages of the do cats suffocate babies argument, before I got to a can the suffocate themselves article.  Even then it didn't mention death by quilt.

Sigh.

The big questions today.

Have any other cat owners had experience in this matter?

Orac Rulz!!!

In searching for a succinct article about mercury in vaccinations, I came across Orac's article.  It's a great article as a basic primer on the whole controversy.  I did read the comments and rather wished I hadn't as they got hijacked by the usual suspects of logical fallacy-spouting  ijjits...

I really think that the reason for the increase may be found in the better diagnostic training and tools, as well as the 'widening' of the term "Autistic".  I don't know. I am not  statistician, nor a scientist...  I am on a learning curve though 8-)

About that Vaccination link

In a previous post where I was screaming about the antivac lobby, I noticed the second link doesn't work.  It looks purty but doesn't work.  It was merely a repetition of the first link.  Der.

Facebook is a Blog Destroyer!

I have to spend less time on Facebook and more on my blog.  Actually that better read "I should do more to be learning about web design and running a dye business..."

Heh.

Gracie started basketball last week.  She did pretty well considering she's never played before.  I got a picture of her after the game (as before the game we were in danger of running late).  Unfortunately, Sparta wanted in on the act, and we got the world's most unflattering shot of him.  Ever.

Thusly:

Talk about One Eye the Wonder Cat!!  We also call him 'demon kitteh' or 'headlamps' when his eyes relect like that.He is also quite skinny and not a fat little tick!

So Gracie is now number 12 in the Canberra Girls Grammar School  "Grammar Yellows under 10's".  Gotta love the imaginative names... 

I can now kiss Monday afternoons and 2 hours each Saturday a fond farewell.  And I cannot even get a seasonal break, as Gracie has discovered much to her delight it's played all year around in Australia (not the national league level, just normal sports level)

Aaahhh KIDS!!

I Really Reeeeeaaaaaalllly Want to Swear

I really do. 

I want to call anti-vaccers everything I can lay my hands on.  Well, mouth on... as it were...

But that would just make me sound as strident and ignorant as they are.  I'd love to resort to ad homs galore.  Maybe I'd feel better.

But I'll let the science of it all tear them DOWN.  Right

HERE

So, for a well informed perspective on the AVN 's antics click and why they are just ever so slightly deluded, click


HERE