Body Armour

This is the name of an art project I am doing in connection with the Soul Food Cafe. I have purchased my mannequin ($15 from a shopfitting mob) and tomorrow I am off in search of papers to use for collage. I don't really have a plan in mind. I intend to go with the flow and let it take me where it will.


I will post pics as I go along. I also today found some hard-bound visual diaries at the local stationery shop. I've been searching for these for some time but most places only stock the spiral bound ones. I bought an A4 and an A5. The A4 pages are of light cardstock in an off-white, which will be good for the art journal I wanted it for. The A5 has nice watercolour type paper in a lovely cream colour. I'm saving this for an online journalling course I hope to do in January of next year. I'm very happy with my finds today!

Lords of the North by Bernard Cornwell

An historical novel about Saxon Britain at the time of King Alfred (9th century) when the Vikings were running amok across the north and east. Quite bloodthirsty but very interesting. It was all rape and pillage and running away, but a good read and a period I knew little about. I know the Danelaw stretched for quite a way across the eastern part of Britain, which is where I'm from so I could relate to many of the places. There is a list of the Roman town names and their modern names at the front of the book. It only took me two days to read it as it rolls along at a fast pace.

http://www.bernardcornwell.net/index.cfm?page=2&BookId=45

Go here, if you're interested, for information on the book.

Having just visited the site myself, I see there are several more books/series of his I would like to read.

Just Had to Share This :)

I was out with my daughter, Emma, yesterday and we went to the small shopping mall near her house. The usual 'tin rattlers' were lurking just inside the doors. It's getting close to Christmas and the more obscure donation seekers are out in force. One of them was sitting at a card table with a collection of 'homemade' tins and some pictures of wildlife and a hand-written sign asking for donations. They are legally NOT allowed to rattle their tins, but you get my meaning. Em said, 'Quick mum, put on your kangaroo-skin hat and your possum slippers!' We were curled up.

Then my little granddaughter (9) said, 'Don't you want to give to the donkey hospice?' (something out of Little Britain), which just added to the hilarity. Bless her, she went and put a few cents of her own money into the tin.

I don't mind giving to charities, but I like it to be something I've heard of.

Further laughs were had in the $2 shop. I found this wastepaper bin which made me laugh, so I bought it, even though it's really tacky. The message is in Chinglish. Click on the pic to enlarge if you can't read it.

Thought for the Day

Life's too short to spend it in queues!

Michael Moore

We went to see Michael Moore's new documentary yesterday - Capitalism: A Love Story. As usual a very biting and enlightening movie. This should be compulsory viewing for everyone. It tells how America's Banks and the Stock Exchange got rich by shafting everyone. However, the 'peasants' are rising up and revolting, which was good to see. I use the term peasants because in one part of the doco he revealed that corporations were taking out secret life insurance policies on their workers - not to benefit the bereaved families, but to make themselves richer. The policies were referred to as 'Dead Peasant' policies. I think that says it all.

More Art

This is for a November Challenge. The theme is a one-eyed Zetti postcard. Hand drawn/painted and collage. (click on image to enlarge)

My Thoughts on Euthanasia

I think that while you are still of sound mind and body you should be able to get a legal form (similar sort of thing to a Will) to stipulate at what point you would like the needle for the long goodnight.

Now I can feel the 'Right to Life'-ers bristling and getting ready to come out of their collars, but I'm not advocating that this should be compulsory, just that we should have the choice to legally opt out. Everyone should have the right to choose, and the 'Right to Life'-ers would choose not to. By the same token it should not be up to these same people to enforce their beliefs on everyone else.

This hypothetical legal document should allow you to decide at what point in your decline you wish to end it - constant excruciating pain; having to be fed and changed; inability to communicate; not being able to recognise friends and loved ones - whatever your particular benchmark/s may be which would make life no longer viable for you. The document should be witnessed and lodged with a solicitor, with copies for your family. Family members would not be allowed to over-ride your wishes, however, you could change your mind at any time while you are still of sound mind. The only person you could use one of these documents for is yourself.

What's brought this on? I have been visiting the nursing home and there are so many poor, empty husks of people in there. Whoever they were, they left long ago. What's left is the packaging. I feel more sorry for their visitors because there is nobody home when they sit and talk to them. I would not want my husband or kids to have to visit me in that state. It must be heartbreaking. If it was a dog, animal welfare would be pounding on your door.

Let's face it, the end destination for all of us is death. Ya can't avoid it. Much better to have a needle and go to sleep. Then they can grieve and get on with their lives. I've already told my family that I don't want to be kept on life-support machines if it ever comes to that. They are to pull the plug.

A Bit More Artwork

This is Bella, a character from my story. She likes hats.

Huh!!

I watched an item on the news last night. It was about the world's fattest man in the UK - weighs 400 odd kilos (2lb 2oz to the kilo). They were having to devise a way of getting him out of his home and to hospital so that they could put him on a diet.

Now there was no way that this man could possible stand up and get into a kitchen to get food. Someone has to be poking stuff down his neck, so why don't they determine what he gets and how much? It's not as if he's going to leap up and knock the living daylights out of them.

Today's Little Ripoff Rant

I'd almost forgotten about this. It was in the newspaper while I was in the UK.

OXO Cubes. Now Oxo cubes have been around almost since the dawn of time. I remember them as a small child and I'm sure they'd been around a long time before that. They are stock-cubes (beef) and were little 1.5cm (approx.) cubes wrapped in silver foil.

They are no longer cubes. They are now Xs.




The purveyors of this item said that they'd changed the shape because it was easier for them to dissolve. What a CROCK! Everyone I know who's ever used Oxo cubes crumbles them up when they add them to soups, stews, gravies etc.

So not only are they robbing us, they are treating us like half-wits. Why can't they just come straight out and say, 'You're gonna get less for your money!'? We all know that is what's happening. I, for one, would appreciate a bit of honesty from all these manufacturers. At least I wouldn't feel like they were insulting my intelligence into the bargain.

Climbing down now.