The New Look and New Name

Saguaro Cactus, Mesquite and Turpentine bushes

So I figured that it was time that I stop lying to myself (not about anything important), but about this Blog.  It was never going to be any kind of serious discussion of animation. Thus far there is hardly any reference to animation at all.

So as Google again changed the format of Blogger, I thought it was a good time to change the format of my Blog as well.

I have no idea what I'm doing, but that never stopped me before.

The background picture is my first lie.  Titled "backyard" or something, it's actually about a mile or so north of my house.  If you'd like to see more, just Google "phoenix mountain preserve saguaro" and select images.  They are outrageous cactus and grow in a very limited area. I intend to change the picture occasionally if I get out with my camera.

If you are reading this Blog and you are not ON Blogger, then you probably are not seeing the pictures anyway.

The only thing I regret about changing the Blog is that I lost the pendulum clock that told visitors the time in Arizona, which doesn't change (we don't need no stinking daylight savings). I miss the ticking and the chimes on the hour and half hour.  It was a nice reminder of just how much time I was wasting.  But I cannot seem to get Blogger to accept the gadget again.

As for the entries, they will be whatever comes to mind, I suppose.  I have no great plan.  No mission.  And no agenda.  

I hope these changes find you well.  And I hope you stop by the Blog, the real one...
http://distorteddogma.blogspot.com/  and leave me a reply or comment.

I'm also working on some new cartoons for my YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/distorteddogma 

So, enough.  Time to move on to something more interesting.  Whatever that will be.

Be Well.

Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else. -Margaret Mead

Just random...

Yup, its real. 4 leaves.

Everyday, I am amazed how Arizona drivers demonstrate their inability to grasp the concept of merging traffic. It's "I go,then you go." What's so hard about that?

How can the burgers be "Fresh Flame Broiled" if the damn broiler machine is never on?  Or does it beep like a microwave oven... Teenie tiny flame broilers.  The great big one must just be for show.

I told you those damn computer storage "clouds" weren't secure.  Now the NSA has copies of all your naked "selfies".

I text you when it's something I want you to read at your convenience. Not while you're driving.
I email you to give you the details that are too long and involved to text.
I call you to apologize for not texting or emailing you.
I don't tweet.  It's just silly.

Does anyone really think that "liquid smoke" makes anything taste better?  It just gives me the "liquid smoke" burps the rest of the day.

After having been married and divorced twice, I was asked if I would ever marry again.  I suppose the person was insinuating the "third time's a charm" rule.  My answer is no, I don't think so.  instead, every 10 years or so, I'm just going to put half of my stuff out on the curb.  At least that way I get to pick what goes.

Windows 8 = Windows ME you can touch.

Why is it that my cable company only agreed to lower my monthly bill AFTER I cancelled my cable?  Really!  I had done everything to keep my bill below $100 a month until I finally didn't have enough left to make it worth keeping. NOW I get emails and snail mail adverts telling me how inexpensive my cable would be if I came back... Too late.  I invested in a TV antenna and a ROKU.

I just set up a ROTH IRA on one of the trading sites and I'm looking at the stocks I can invest in on the market.  Perhaps someone can explain to me why the stock price of General Motors ( a company that had to be bailed out by the federal government or go bankrupt) is nearly twice that of the Ford Motor Company that remain solvent and needed no bailout during the entire financial crisis?  Do these people really believe that GM learned anything?  Or do they just think that they haven't lost enough money in the markets.

This is the time of year when I have to find five things to give up so I can have my eggnog and brandy at bedtime and not gain weight... *sigh*

My veterinarian closed or moved or something.  Anyway he's gone and I had to put my 16 1/2 year old dog down after she had a stroke followed by a seizure the next day.  I contacted a local pet hospital that came very well recommended.   They were very nice and patient and took care of all the grizzly details after I sat with my dog and watched her pass.  My problem is, now they are sending me discount dog healthcare coupons... ?

Enough for now.  Be Well.

Haunting Halloweens

The 2002 entrance to the haunted tent

When I was younger, about 1973- 75, I devoted months of my life to a Haunted House in Willowick Ohio.  It was put on by the JC organization and staffed by volunteers.  Admission was $1, half that if you were under 12.  

Times have changed. Now to enter haunted houses can be as much as $20.

Halloween was always a big thing for me.  Later it was dressing up my own house with all kinds of figures and lights, spiders, webs, skulls, and carved pumpkins everywhere.

When my youngest son was in grade school, they had a fund raiser 
Halloween party. Every year I did something for them. Usually some kind of entrance to the tent they used, just to set the mood.  (see the photo above)

Now my participation is simpler.  I put out a few decorations and pass out treats to whomever comes to the door.  Part of me misses the "big deal" of it all,  but then I see the little face of a first time trick-or-treater. The awe and wonder of getting all dressed up and going house to house, seeing all the strangers and getting sweet treats...

..and I'm young and happy again.

May the Great Pumpkin bestow happiness upon your little pumpkin patch.

Be Well.

Taking No Hostages...

So I have been absent for over a year and a half, partly because I've been busy, but mostly because I did not feel that I had anything to say that anyone would be interested in reading.  Even if someone was reading.

Simply put, I had a series of major changes in my life, all linked, and happening in what seemed to me to be a rapid succession of cause and effect. 

I was happy about none of it.   

So what to do with my now empty days and nights?  

My kitchen more or less BEFORE

Call all my friends and cry on their shoulders until they began avoiding me? Nah. 

Write it all out here so my private life would be spooled on so many backup tapes and archived for a hundred years? Again, nah. 

Maybe curl up in a fetal position on my bed at night and cry myself through it all?  

Definitely, nah.

Instead I did something that I had been wanting to do for a very long time, but my ex and I could never agree on what was to be done....  I remodeled my house. Not that I could afford it, but thanks to some timely offers of deferred interest from some local do-it-yourself retailers, I pulled it off.

So days at work and working nights.  It took eleven months. If I could have rustled up some more credit, I'd still be at it.

More or less AFTER

Some rooms got just paint, others got more.  Ceiling fans, light fixtures, paint, furniture, drapes, floors, cabinets.. nothing was sacred.  For the first few months, my right hand held little but a three pound sledge hammer.  I had lived in this house for nearly nineteen years and had changed only the laundry room and a bathroom.  Now those were the only rooms semi safe (although the bathroom did get a change of towels and shower curtain). The kitchen would be the biggest change. Lights, cabinets, floors, ceiling, counter tops... the works.

This would be my sanctuary, my therapy, the route to a new life.  I would do it myself (which I did about 98%). I would not go down, and if I did, I was not taking anybody down with me.

No hostages.

A time to leave...

It began as a glance.  

Not across a crowded room at a party or anything quite so romantic or cliché, but you walked past on a jobsite.  

Covered in paint, hair like a wild pony’s mane, coarse, knotted and bleached by the summer sun.  

It’s been a long trip since that day, well over twenty-three years.  

Since that first day I knew I would never be able to keep you.  

No one ever will.

Even before I had you, I knew.  

But I held on for as long as I could.  

Longer than I should. 

There is so much good to remember, sad that some is spoiled by the ending.

I will never know another woman like you.

But you will never be loved, like you were by me.

Good-bye.

Having a head cold is not the same as having a cool head

 I hope you will excuse my recent absence as the New Year has brought me the opportunity to explore the staggering semi-liquid production capacity of my nasal passages in the form of a whopping great head cold.  A journey which I continue this morning.  

I have also been struck by the amazing resistance, which my affliction exhibits, to all forms of remedy, store bought names, generics, and home styled.  No matter the active ingredient, nor the manufacturer, all seem to be totally ineffective.  

At one point it was suggested that it might be an allergy and not a cold at all.  But alas, Allergy meds from A to Z have also been tried only to find their way to the kitchen dustbin in miserable failure.

Felled by my cold have been boxes of various name brand facial tissues, all of which I now equate to the coarsest and most abrasive sand paper.

No sneezing, no “itchy eye,” no fever, or ache, just a continuous production of ever changing colors and consistencies as tissues by the truckload are filled and tossed away.

So excuse me for not participating in all the resolutions, hoopla, and joy exhibited by some.  I'm just not up for it right now.  

Happy Fricken New Year.

Today is the last day of my winter vacation.

I usually take one in the summer, around the fourth of July, and one in the winter around the Christmas holiday. It's a tradition that started when my boys were young and in school. It was done so that I could be home with them.

Sometimes we take trips, sometimes not. Sometimes I get a "Honey do list", most times not. As the boys were growing we have "fed the mouse" several times and been to almost every rollercoaster park in the states. (Cedar point in Sandusky Ohio is still the champ). This year was simpler.

Things throughout this vacation were quietly busy. My wife (scenic artist) was working two shows, my eldest son drove in from New Mexico for the holiday, and my youngest started a new job. We all gathered for the traditional dinner and exchange of gifts at my Mother's house, but for the most part stayed out of each others way.

For myself I dabbled with some new ideas, watched some animation tutorials, and got my holiday cartoon up just before Christmas. I also worked on a second cartoon that I’ve been at for nearly a month. It should be done soon.

And I spent way too much time getting to know Google Plus, and twitter.

I did manage to gain only six pounds this holiday, a sum that my old three speed Beach Cruiser and I will work off without much extra effort. My annual winter cold arrived late, just before new years. It would seem that no amount of prevention can do more than postpone its arrival.

Looking back, it was a nice vacation, filled with family and friends, occasional quiet times for me to clear my mind and do whatever I liked or nothing at all. It was just nice.

But for this year, today is the last day.

Be Well.