So here I am in the real world.  This is from a photo shoot that took place for the show that I'm in.  We used my fantabulous Nikon to take pictures of the people we would be portraying.  Noreen took this of me, wearing a Hill Tribe hat.

Cricket likes the "saintly" uplifted eyes.  I think I was looking up to stretch my chins out!

This is my new photo, as I just started the Animal Behavior College.  I started a blog, to record my experience.  Don't go there yet.  It is just a wisp of an idea.  I may just write it all here, because I'm layzee!

EDIT:  Well, I changed my avatar yet again, to a sketch that I did.

I just got done holding a 12-Step meeting in prison.   Thank you all so much for your kind support, compassion and understanding.  (D.M., you have my special gratitude).  Cricket has been incredible, as well as Lori from Oasis.  No, silly, not the "Gentleman's Club" Oasis!  The Oasis Arts Center that put together the portrait project.

Stepping back from the abyss, I tread softly.  I don't want the edge to crumble beneath me.

It is the worst of times and the best of times, (thanks Chuck).  A time to regret the old year and experience hope for the new year.  In the U.S.A. we will likely watch the Tiffany (!  I just found that out and can you fecking believe it)? ball drop in Times Square.  Or the enormous "Peep" somewhere else in this great land.

Writers will try to sum up the year, with lists, points and endless "I told you so!", etc.  Critics will make their best and worst lists.  The musicians have already cashed in over the holidays, so are free to booze it up, or make appearances at Industry parties.  Perhaps only painters and other visual artists are excused this annual feeding frenzy.  Theirs is private communion between their hearts, minds, souls and their medium.

It is constant like the tides of the sea, the light of the day and the turning of the seasons.  All continue regardless, ebbing and flowing, fading and lighting, dying and returning.  We who are given the gift of expression must obey only one rule.   To use it to the best of our ability.

In that I have been remiss.  I have written rather than paint.  I would like to embrace both in the future.  Starting now.  I'm off to work on my self-portrait.  In a bit.  I just found some lovely things to watch, when I was pootling around for links.

That sometimes deadly shape-shifter water is our friend, our life.  We are filled with her, surrounded by her, fail without her and are made of her.  She travels via heat in steam, flows in eddies, streams and tides, causing pause with snow and ice, floating in beads of soft fog.

I offer you some fog, some water, some mist.

It had started out as a simple search for a link to the word "Raindeer", also spelled in the Americas as "Reindeer".  Trawling down the various links, I stopped by one that promised videos of said creatures.  I clicked and lo! and behold! I found myself at a site which had a slew of them.  But what caught my eye was not the little scenes of various clips of Raindeer, but the box to the upper right.

The legend that ran below it was "Metafestwinner"  Now, what made it more appealing to me, was the still-shot of a ventriloquist dummy's grinning face.  I clicked play.  It was creepy, disturbing, provocative and gosh-darned well done.  It  is not for the faint of mind and spirit.  But it's bloody good.

So, here's the link to the films that were their top choices, for your viewing enjoyment.  If you feel hearty and hale, content and peaceful, sure in yourself and your world, then watch the winning entry.  But if you are disturbed by dummies, bothered by nightmares, or have eaten some cheese a little late in the evening, this may not be the best thing for you to watch right now.

Oh, but why was I searching for raindeer, when I do not hunt, eat or even cross paths with them?  Because my friend Jodi over at the CVS was filling some of my scripts.  I felt compelled to explain why I was buying clear, glittery nail-polish.  (I'm making Christmas cards, and most people don't like actual glitter on the cards, as it makes a pretty mess).  She told me about a tradition that she has done for over ten years:  Raindeer Food.

She mixes glitter, (she says the large crystal kind) with bird-seed.  She puts some in a little cloth bag, with instructions and a story.  She gives them to the kids she knows, with instructions to pour a little trail for the raindeer, heading up to their house.  In the morning, the birds have eaten the seed and all that remains is the glitter!  How brilliant is that?  She says that she has fifteen year old nieces who still ask her for Raindeer Food.

Well, Hell, Bells and Yells, (a WWII expression), if she can have fifteen year-olds still asking her for this simple, shiny magic, then there is hope for the world.