Worth a thousand words...

Recently I was trolling online looking for images of a tired woman. Yeah, that's me, always tired. Anyway, I came across a photo of the painting below. The darn thing just fascinates me. It evokes a different response each time I look at it. All sorts of 'what ifs' go through my head.

When I found the picture the site didn't credit it. I was curious to know who had painted such a fascinating piece. Besides, I also wanted to post it and didn't want to do so uncredited. Consequently I had some research to do.

The painting is called 'The Nightmare' and the artist's name is Henry Fuseli.

Want to know some interesting facts? I know you do, because I did all this research and clicking around so, trust me, you want to know.

It turns out Mr. Fuseli had a love affair with Mary Wollstonecraft. Historical readers might recognize that name as the resident feminist referred to frequently in British historicals. Ms. Wollstonecraft's principal premise was that women were not intellectually inferior to men, they just didn't have the same opportunities for education. Go Mary!

Mr. Fuseli and Ms. Wollstonecraft alas were not meant to be. She did, however, eventually marry and had a daughter Mary Godwin.

Mary Godwin married the poet Percy Shelley. We all know that name. Right? And Mary Godwin is now Mary Shelley. Anybody recognize that name? Mary S. also wrote. You might remember a little book called Frankenstein perhaps?

Connections. Weird stuff huh? I know. Finally the painting. What do you think about when you look at it?

FURAN SAN - Or How I Discovered Ninja Art

The plan was to do a post to tell all the Gold Rush players not to come here any more. Yeah, that works. NOT!

Anyway, somehow in my browsing (how does this happen to me!) I was checking out to see if Racy Li had made any progress with her web site. AngieW had posted this week asking us to nudge Racy to finish her site. I linked to it and thought it was a pretty cool site, so back I went today for a more thorough looky-looky. BTW, I'm intrigued BIG TIME about your WIP about the ninja. So hurry up Racy...would ya!

So, there I am at Racy's site and I decide to click over to her blog. While reading her back posts I come across one with a link to Deviant Art and some really kick-ass cool ninja art by a young woman in Puerto Rico...Furan San. All I can say is Wow! I went through her whole gallery and really liked what I saw. In fact, I'll probably be trolling over frequently to see what she adds and what she's up to. The Nosy Nora coming out in me again.

(This part is boring background so you might want to jump ahead). I come from a big family. There were nine kids in all. Yeah, NINE. I was the oldest. Immediately following me in birth order are four boys. To say I was a tom-boy is an understatement. I competed really hard with my brothers until I got boobs. When I say I got boobs, I mean I got BOOBS! Those boobs ruined life as I knew it. I say those boobs because I eventually got a breast reduction...but I digress. That's a post for another day, or, better yet a visit to a therapist. I actually never thought much about this until recent years. The one thing I could still share with my two (closest in age) brothers after the boob explosion was comic books. Our family was stationed in Japan at the time and the three of us would wait expectantly each month for the comics to arrive at the Base Exchange. We would pool our money and go buy the most recent Spiderman, X-Men, Superman or Batman comics. I swear those were the roots of my romance reading. Tortured super hero, unrequited love. *sigh* I have lots of great memories tied up with comics.

So with this love of comics from my youth and Hollywood's venture in putting comic book heros on the big screen, my love of the super hero has sort of been reborn. I haven't actually purchased any comics yet, but I do indulge my sons' from time to time. You can't believe how many discussions a family of four can have about Batman, Wolverine and the Green Lantern.

Back to this morning when I clicked on that link in Racy's blog I was ripe, I was ready...I was fascinated! I really was. Furan San is very good. It sort of makes me want to check out manga. Anybody a manga fan out there? Where would I start? What would a total rookie pick up for the first time? Any recs? I'm very curious at this point. Help me!

Because, you know, what I need right now? Another hobby to feed! Here's one of my favorites from Furan San. Thanks for the link Racy...I really enjoyed this.



-Holy Order Frederick- by *furan-san on deviantART

If it's June it must be VACATION!

I'm so excited! We go on vacation this month. We will be traveling to Idaho and Montana.



My youngest brother will be in an Ironman in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho. That will be exciting. He has done an ironman twice before in Australia and Utah. This will probably be his last one. Training for this event takes an incredible commitment and alot of time. Throw in a demanding job and the joys of being a new Daddy and he decided that he would be spending more time with his family instead of training for big events like the Ironman. He already has plans to continue doing triathalons so I'm sure before we know it he will have his daughter as his training buddy. His daughter is KADEN of Kaden's Place on my sidebar.


So after the Ironman we go on to Montana. My Dad has a second home there. Dad's 75th birthday is within days of the Ironman, so several of our family members will be with him in Montana to help Dad celebrate this milestone.

So it's June. Time for vacation. I can hardly wait! Wouldn't you like to just rest in a summer breeze?

SUMMER BREEZE
by Stephen Darbishire

Cell Phones

I got a new cell phone yesterday. For those who know me, you are probably laughing because this has turned into an every six month occurence.

In my defense, I had my first cell phone for almost 3 years. I only bought a new phone because I needed a new battery and good old trusty flip phone #1 had been discontinued. And, thus begins the cell phone chronicles. I bought my second phone which was similar to the first one. This was flip phone #2.

I broke the lid on phone #2. It literally wouldn't stay on the phone any longer. That happens when you repeatedly drop and then kick or bounce the phone with your foot before you get it picked up. I had dropped the phone so many times that I cracked the joint thingys that held the phone together. Of course, we found out I have arthritis in my hands and that explains some of the dropsies, but I really beat the crap out of the poor phone. *sigh* So, as a result six months later I bought another phone, flip phone #3.

My son called this phone "the Hummer" because it had a black rubberized bumper around the phone and seemed virtually indestructible. I really, really, really liked this phone. By now I had lots of information from the previous two phones and new stuff from work all saved in this wonderful slick black indestructible phone.

Unfortunately, I used to put this gem in the big outside pocket of my handbag and it got stolen. Can you say pissed off? The worst part was loosing all the stuff I had stored in the phone! Boy I was mad! At this point it's maybe been 18-20 months since phone #1 bit the dust. Feeling guilty over the loss of "the Hummer" I decide to suck it up and buy an inexpensive phone. This is phone #4 which we affectionately call the "crap phone".

The "crap phone" didn't get its' name because I loved the phone. Not only was the menu a beast to deal with it constantly dropped calls and broke up calls so badly that I couldn't carry on a coherent conversation. No it wasn't my provider...the rest of the family and their phones were just fine. It was the damn phone! What can I say...don't buy LG Electronics. Their phones suck!

Fortunately, or not so fortunately, my youngest son lost his phone last week. He is the lucky recipient of the "crap phone" and I decided to splurge with my first pay check from the new job and bought a totally awesome Treo 650.

I've just spent most of the day putting all my life into it. Address books, calendar events, business, etc. I'm bleary eyed and pooped. Isn't any wonder I've written the most boring post of my life about cell phones for God's sakes?!! I love my phone...but I'm tired!

I'm Tired

By Gizem Saka

Impressions - Part Deux

Blonde Woman with Bare Breasts
Edouard Manet

Gabrielle with Bare Breasts

Pierre August Renoir

Two more impressionists paintings for your viewing. Any thoughts?

Do you note the trend of bare breasts? My first post about impressionists had a painting of bare breasted women with a plate of mangoes. I think I will challenge myself to periodically see if I can find tasteful and beautiful artwork of bare breasted women.

Why? You might ask. Well, I have been inspired by one of the dearest and funniest guys I know.

Craig, this is for you because you like my blog when there are "boobs" in it and because you make me laugh and that is very dear and precious.

Rather beautiful aren't they?

Impressions

Two Women with Mangoes

by Paul Gauguin

It all started with a google search for pictures of women. One of the first links was to a site of paintings of women. When I saw this one it immediately reminded me of a great teacher I had in junior high school.

I was a military brat, 13 years old, living in Japan and I was attending a DOD (Dept of Defense) school.

Miss Halford would bring in a different print of a painting each week. The prints were mostly of impressionists. The print would hang in the classroom for a week and then on Fridays we were asked to journal about it. There were no limits on what our remarks could be or the length. Who knew at the time it would have an impact on me so many years later?

When I finally got to Paris a few years ago and went to the Musee D'Orsay and saw some of the actual paintings I'd first seen as prints in Miss Halford's class, I cried. Yeah, real tears! It was such an incredible feeling to feel linked to these paintings.

I stood in front of a couple of Van Gogh paintings for 10 minutes looking for those first impressions and thoughts I'd had so many years before.

Gauguin was one of the artists that shared our classroom. As soon as I saw this picture the memories came rushing back. So, here's to you Miss Halford...where ever you are!