Showing posts with label art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art. Show all posts

Thursday, July 4

Happy 4th Of July and Start Of Summer


Today it's the 4th and we like to celebrate it. Fireworks, water, alcohol, food on the grill, and being outside is the idea for the day.

My roommate and I are going to dine-in with burgers and such from Red Robin because we live in an apartment without room to grill. We are thinking of riding our bikes down to Coyote Point and spying on the fireworks across the Bay around the area by the Harbor around 8pm.

Are you going? Where do you go to watch?


Remember to keep your pets indoors and comfort them if the fireworks are too much. They shouldn't be outdoors for any reason! They won't understand our celebration but can pick up on our excitement.




As you can see I do love my GIF files. Lol!

I hope you have the best 4th with friends and family! Since it's a long weekend cycling will be in our plans quite a bit. 

I am going to have both of my knees replaced on August 26th so I only have so many days to ride until I'm laid up recovering. I look forward to it because I have a deformity in my knees called "Windswept Knees" which will be fixed along with the replacements. Just as I'm social online about my biking and life so will I be about the surgery. More later, this is a holiday.

Have a great weekend!


Sunday, June 9

Older Than Dirt!

That pretty much sums up how I felt at turning 65 in May. Dirt can be pretty darn old.

We all deal with getting older differently as we are unique individuals but one thing stays true, it surprises us all. One day you look in the mirror and all is changed. When that happens we become a senior citizen almost overnight.

Of course, it doesn't really start overnight but time (which used to be on our side) is fickle. We realize it's moving at an alarming rate. Soon there's no time for anything! Time starts to pass us by.

That's not all! If single, (like me) love and romance get put on the sidelines as time feels like it's running out. One day the men who used to look at me with interest in their eyes start to ignore me. They stop looking and I'm confused. Where are all the men I ask myself? They can't all be married and needing Viagra!

While I'm trying to figure out where the men are and how to sign up for Medicare I become aware that people are putting me into a niche. That's when I start hearing the term, "for your age," added to sentences where it wasn't before.

When you start hearing this term added to everything people say about you, then you've become older than dirt. 

"You have great hair, for your age!" (My hair is my greatest asset it runs in the family and has been there my whole life.)

"You're in great shape, for your age." (Not the fact that I workout and exercise daily, eat the right foods, and get 8 hours of sleep a night.)

"You have a great memory, for your age." And so on and so forth.


No one knows this but when I find the right phone booth on a night when I've had way too many drinks I become Super Sanchez, a female Hulk/Superman mixture. When Super Sanchez shows up you better look out!
  
It really starts to grate at me. That, and being called, "ma'am" everywhere I go. Is there a rule that when you get grey hair you must be called ma'am? I still have a name last time I checked.

You better be careful what you say around us seniors some of us have super-powers.


Hell yeah!


Keep On Bloggin'!

Friday, March 25

Ten Reasons People Dislike Cats



1. Cats Are Independent

People tend to like pets that fawn over them and cannot live without their owner’s company. Cats do not fit that mold. This personality trait is not true for every single cat; there are some who are insecure and clingy. However, the average cat will be very self-possessed and will exert their own will over what their owner wants at any given time. Cats do not always come when called (although many do as long as it suits them), will hide when you really need them to go to the vet, and hate to be restrained in any way. Cat lovers learn very quickly not to hug their pets too closely and to always let the animal go when they do not want to be cuddled anymore. Even docile cats will scratch to escape a tight embrace. If you try and force a cat to stay in your arms that animal is less apt to come to you again. Cats are not pack animals like dogs and do not require affection to survive. They can definitely fair better when alone or homeless than dogs. Despite being independent and proud, cats still gift their owners with attention and love if the human is worthy.

2. Litter Boxes

The very idea of a litter box can tip the pet scale away from owning a cat. Many people simply do not want a box in their home where an animal goes to the bathroom. Unfortunately, litter boxes have gained a bad rap because owners forget to clean them enough and the smell and mess become overwhelming. Imagine having to step into a filthy outhouse every day that has overflowed and then you can empathize what cats go through in full litter boxes. Also, people need to have one box per cat in the household to avoid power struggles amongst their feline roommate. When a cat out of necessity starts elimination in areas outside the box it can become a chronic issue. Cats are creatures of habit and often develop favorite litters, areas and even times of day to go in the box. Try not to disrupt the routine and keep the box clean so litter won’t be the reason your cat is an outcast in the home.

3. Scratching

Cats like to scratch and you will never stop them from doing this activity. The only hope of saving your carpets, furniture, staircases and curtains is to divert their attention to acceptable scratching areas. The fact to remember is that cats do not scratch to make you mad or because they maliciously want to destroy your possessions; they scratch because it is natural for them to do so. Scratching exercises their muscles, sharpens their claws and takes off the old covering on their claws. The easiest solution to the scratching dilemma is to buy your cat a post and put it somewhere convenient for the pet. If the cat does not seem interested in the post try rubbing some catnip onto the post. You can also discourage the animal from scratching areas other than the post by employing a few proactive tactics. For example, the judicious use of a squirt gun when you catch the cat scratching might change their behavior but this method will not work when you are not home. Another effective method for stopping the scratching is rubbing fresh orange peels or spraying bitter apple on sofa arms and carpet to scare your cat away; they hate the smell. If you cannot stop your pet from scratching ask for advice at your vet. There are many products designed to keep cats away from areas in your house. These anti-scratching products use scent, sound and texture to keep cats at bay. 

NEVER remove a cat's claws because they are extensions of the toe and act as the cat's fingers. Declawing is very frowned upon now.

4. Hairballs

There are very few things in life as surprising and disgusting as walking through your home, especially at night, and stepping on a warm, mucus coated glob of fur with your bare feet. Even seeing a hairball can forever put people off owning cats. Hairballs are produced because cats lick themselves clean, sometimes spending a considerable part of their busy day grooming and chewing on their fur. Cats don’t swallow their fur on purpose; they have no choice because their tongues have little backward barbs on them which do not allow the cat to spit loose hair out. Most of this ingested hair pass through the intestines easily but sometimes if there is too much hair it mats up and can get stuck. Cats need to regurgitate the hairball or serious health issues like blocked intestines can result. The easiest solution to this potentially serious problem is to brush your cat regularly. This will reduce the amount of loose fur your cat ingests and be a pleasant bonding activity. You can also feed your cat petroleum jelly or butter to help lubricate the passage of the hair wad and make sure you buy high fiber cat food to keep your cat’s digestive system healthy.

5. Cats Seem Perverse
Cats have very strong personalities which can rub people the wrong way. They run around the house, careening off of furniture and walls, knocking valuables off of shelves for fun, leaping down from cupboard tops with no warning and then attack your feet when you try to change positions in your sleep. Sharing your home with cats can be like living in a minefield; you never know what the day might hold. Men, in particular, have a hard time with pets that cannot be controlled or at least intimidated and cats tend to be immune to disapproval. One of the most common complaints by non-cat lovers is that these pets seem to take delight in leaping into the laps of people who genuinely do not like them. This behavior seems like a deliberate act designed to annoy but there is a reason for the cat’s actions. Cats are aggressive animals and will make eye contact, move towards and hiss at other animals when threatened. People who dislike cats tend to ignore them, avoiding both eye contact and physical interactions. Cats see this type of reaction as extremely friendly so they jump right up to make friends. They don’t know the cringing person does not like them.

6. Allergies

Many people are allergic to cats and tend to hate the little creatures that produce such unpleasant symptoms. A common misconception about cat allergies is that all that congestion and red eyes is caused by the cat fur. This is incorrect. Cats have a protein in their saliva which is put on the fur when the animal grooms itself. This protein can also be transferred off the fur onto couches, carpets, and beds when the cat walks, plays, sleeps or rolls around. Allergens from cats also can be airborne for long periods of time so you need to utilize several strategies to control exposure. Rubbing the animal with a microfiber cloth can remove some of its dander; this is more effective (and safer) then bathing the animal. You can also keep the cat out of your bedroom completely to make it a dander fee zone and wash all your bedding (and chair covers) at least every two weeks in hot water. Getting a high-quality HEPA air filter system and vacuum can remove a great deal of allergens from your home. The easiest way to minimize your symptoms, besides getting rid of the cat, is to wash your hands after petting the animal with a good antibacterial soap.

7. Attitude Based in History

Some schools of thought maintain that men dislike cats because of the subconscious association to witches and continuing historical prejudice. Cats went from being worshipped by ancient cultures such as the Egyptians to being despised for over 800 years after the 10th century. Accused witches were usually women who performed healing and midwife duties. These independent women were feared and persecuted and their cats were labeled as witches helpers in the dark arts. Cats were thought of as agents of the devil and many believed that witches could turn into cats to perform their wicked magic. Hundreds of thousands of felines (sometimes with their human companions) were burned, buried alive, drowned and otherwise put to death in the name of protecting the church or community. Cats, especially black ones, to this day are still thought to be bad luck if they cross your path. This fear and distrust is not logical but catching sight of glowing cat eyes in the middle of the night can bring a shiver down many people’s spines.
 
8. Cats are not Manly

Stereotypes are not acceptable in modern society but several still revolve around pet choices. Cats have gained a reputation as being somewhat feminine despite the obvious macho attitude that most cats tend to exude. This misconception might have its roots in the familiar story about old ladies and their many cat companions. Countless jokes are made about mature single women who start to accumulate cats as a defense against their lack of masculine companions. This feminine scenario has no place for a single man and his cat. Cats are only considered okay as a man’s pet if he acquired the animal through his wife or girlfriend. Otherwise, he would have a big masculine dog to walk and throw sticks to in the park. Despite these prejudices, cats are actually perfect for men because they require very little maintenance besides feeding them and cleaning the litter box. Cats are also very forgiving if an owner has to work late or has no time for cuddling.
 
9. Cats Rub Against Everything

Cats despite their well-deserved reputations for independence also like to rub their faces and bodies against people. Women tend to love this type of appreciation but men are not as enchanted by the shedding fur and inevitable cat behind in their face. Cats rub against their owners for many reasons including the need to be affectionate. Cats also rub against things they want to mark as theirs in a territorial manner. Basically, cats have glands located all over their bodies that secrete different pheromones which are used for communication through scent. When your pet rubs against your legs these pheromones cling to you and tell other felines that you belong to a cat. Cats also like to butt their heads against you to produce a shared scent which is comforting to the animal. Anyone who has tripped because of a cat twining through their legs can attest to the fact that cats will rub up against their owner when hungry as well. No matter what your cat is trying to tell you, it is obvious that rubbing and cuddling are crucial to feline communication.
 
10. Cats Are Not Dogs

The most prevalent reason some people don’t like a feline is cats are not dogs. People tend to fall into two camps when it comes to pet ownership: dog people and cat people. Dog people enjoy the loyalty, unrestrained affection and need to please that canines display to their owners. Cat people are proud of the quirkiness, personality and self-reliance that felines exhibit. Cats should not be penalized because they are hard-wired genetically in a different way from dogs. Canines are pack animals that are submissive to their owner because that person is the “alpha” in the pack. They display loyalty and obedience because many types of dogs have these traits bred into them over centuries. Cats are not part of packs and are in many ways still relatively undomesticated. Cat and human relationships are often give and take scenarios where each receives a benefit from the other. Cats are fed, kept warm and dry while humans get the pleasure of the cat's company and occasionally a dead mouse or two.

I personally like cats just as much as dogs and that any preferences between the two is just a person’s likes and dislikes. This ‘person’ can be a man or women and can like dogs, fish or gerbils. I’m just happy when a pet gets a good home and every pet deserves that! Let’s all treat our pets like they should be treated, with as much love as they give us.

Before you get any pet, do your research on it. Does this pet fit your lifestyle? Your home? How much can you afford to spend on a pet? Should you get a baby animal or an older animal that needs a home? How much time and energy can you put into that pet?

Talk to a person who has a pet like you’re interested in and see what they have to say. If you're thorough in your search for the perfect pet, you will have the perfect pet at home and they will love you forever.


OMG It’s Friday! Keep On Bloggin’!

Friday, February 25

Migraines And Migraine Art Drawn By Patients

By Sarah Chapman

Those of you that have experienced real migraines know that the terrible side effects can make normal functioning in daily life hard, if not impossible to deal with.

Classic migraines start with a warning sign called an aura. The aura often changes the way you see things. You may see flashing lights, or temporarily lose some of your vision, such as your side vision.

This is what an aura is like to one migraine sufferer.

You may also feel muscle weakness on one side of your body. You may have trouble talking or feel depressed and irritable. You could feel restless.

Auras last about 15 to 30 minutes and may occur after, before or even overlap the pain of a migraine itself. The head pain of a migraine may occur on one side of the head or both sides.

Common migraines don't start with an aura. They last longer and interfere with daily activities more than classic migraines. Usually, these are on one side of the head. The pain can last from 4 to 72 hours.

A person having a migraine may have trouble eating normal foods they usually like or keeping food down during an attack. Light and sound bother them. If you want to know more Migraine Action is a good place to start and get help if you need it.

Lewis Carroll, who wrote Alice In Wonderland had classic migraines. He also had a syndrome named after him because he suffered from a very rare type of migraine aura called Alice In Wonderland Syndrome.

Now doctors are finding out that by looking at drawings done by patients having classic migraines they can learn a lot about these terrible headaches and get an insight into what migraines might be like to each patient. These stunning pictures are from different artists who experience migraines.



 


























Classic migraine art takes place during the aura which changes the way a patient see's and feels things. Doctors are continuing to study this type of art to better understand migraines and how patients feel when they have one. This way new and better migraine medicines are being made to relieve the side effects of auras and migraines.

Only 1% of us escape headaches altogether. 16 to 17% of people get a migraine headache sometime in their lives. There are over 20 million migraine attacks happening every day. Some migraines are mistaken for sinus headaches. (These numbers change each year.) 

People with migraines will look at these pictures with recognition, as they know how they suffer. I hope migraine patients get some relief from these studies that are being done. New therapies are being discovered every day.

I find the art troubling yet it's beautiful too. One can pick out similar threads that each patient feels in the artwork.

I am lucky to be in the small percentage of people who don't have headaches often and I've never had a migraine that I know of. When I do have one it makes me miserable. Mine are usually from my sinuses.

The holidays are here and there's no escaping them so I hope no one is having headaches of any kind right now! Enjoy your Friday!

One more example of aura's from a patient's point of view.

Saturday, March 27

Will The Real Alice Please Stand Up?


Lewis Carroll had many talents besides his famous books. He was a mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon, poem writer, a good artist and photographer. Lewis Carroll is the pseudonym of Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. 

Before Lewis Carroll wrote his books about Alice In Wonderland he already had a girl in mind for his character. She was actually a neighborhood girl he was infatuated with and her name was Alice Liddell.

Alice Liddell was not at all like the “Alice” we now are used to seeing with golden locks of hair brushed back from her blue eyed face. When Carroll thought of his Alice he pictured Alice Liddell. And his book was to start with her name.


Even thought Carroll was an artist and did his own drawings for the very first book that he presented to Alice Liddell, when he finished his book to be published he had John Tenniel do the artwork for it.

John Tenniel was a cartoonist and his work was satirical, often radical for doing a book like Carroll’s but he did the drawings for Carroll’s works nonetheless and Carroll was not happy with the results.

Tenniel's pictures of Alice were not pictures of Alice Liddell, who had dark hair cut short with straight bangs across her forehead. Carroll sent Tenniel a photograph of Mary Hilton Babcock, another child-friend, recommending that he use her for a model, but whether Tenniel accepted this advice is a matter of dispute. That he did not is strongly suggested by these lines from a letter Carroll wrote some time after both Alice books had been published. The letter is quoted by Mrs. Lennon in her book on Carroll;


"Mr. Tenniel is the only artist who has drawn for me, who has resolutely refused to use a model, and declared he no more needed one than I should need a multiplication table to work a mathematical problem! I venture to think that he was mistaken and that for want of a model he drew several pictures of "Alice" entirely out of proportion-head decidedly too large and feet decidedly too small."

From The Life Of Lewis Carroll by Florence Becker Lennon


The symbol at the lower right corner, which you see on all of Tenniel's drawings, is a monogram of his initials, J.T.

I must say that I can see what Carroll means about Tenniel’s drawings. It does look like a “caricature” of Alice although I rather liked the strange drawings from the books. When I first read Alice In Wonderland I had no idea that a “real” Alice existed nor that Carroll didn’t like the art in the book.

The comparison with the fictional Alice has been a very controversial one. There are at least three direct links to Liddell in the first two books. First, he set them on May 4th, (Liddell's birthday) and November 4th, (her "half-birthday") and in Through the Looking-Glass the fictional Alice declares that her age is "seven and a half exactly", the same as Liddell on that date. Second, he dedicated them "to Alice Pleasance Liddell". Third, there is an acrostic poem at the end of Through the Looking-Glass. Reading downward, taking the first letter of each line; spells out Liddell's full name. The poem has no title in Through the Looking-Glass, but is usually referred to by its first line, "A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky".

A Boat Beneath A Sunny Sky

A boat beneath a sunny sky,
Lingering onward dreamily In an evening of July--
Children three that nestle near,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Pleased a simple tale to hear--
Long has paled that sunny sky:
Echoes fade and memories die.
Autumn frosts have slain July.
Still she haunts me, phantom wise,
Alice moving under skies
Never seen by waking eyes.
Children yet, the tale to hear,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Lovingly shall nestle near.
In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die:
Ever drifting down the stream--
Lingering in the golden gleam--
Life, what is it but a dream?

In "Alice On Stage," an article cited in the first note on the prefatory poem, Carroll gave the following description of his heroine's personality:

What art thou, dream-Alice, in thy foster-father's eye? How shall he picture thee? Loving, first, loving and gentle: loving as a dog (forgive the prosaic simile, but I know no earthly love so pure and perfect), and gentle as a fawn: then courteous-courteous to all high or low, grand or grotesque, King or Caterpillar, even as though she were herself a King's daughter and her clothing of wrought gold: then trustful, ready to accept the wildest impossibilities with all that utter trust that only dreamers know; and lastly, curious-wildly curious, and with the eager enjoyment of Life that comes only in the happy hours of childhood when all is new and fair, and when Sin and Sorrow are but names-empty words signifying nothing!

Hearing Carroll describe his creation, "Alice" in his own words is such a treat! Through the many years since his writings have been out "Alice" has held the imaginations and fantasies of more people than even he could ever have imagined. Through fan art "Alice" has had many personalities and faces and will continue to be with us forever.

Keep On Bloggin'!