riotheclown | Entries tagged with blogs

The girl who had the birthday has invited me to paint faces every year for the last three years. When I met her it was at her dad's client appreciation party. She wanted to be a clown. She was a very intense little girl. She is still intense but now is also very kind and generous. It was one of the nicest (and intense) group of kids I have ever had the pleasure to work with.

Now I say "work with" not intending to be entirely facetious. By the age of six imaginative thinking is an engine in kids. One must work with it or be prepared to be run over.

The biggest challenge of the day was "Rainbow Kitty Kat". It required I use every colour in my box. The satisfaction with the result made the effort worth it. I wish I had taken a photo.

I took no photos because I did not stop for two hours straight. The line just got longer. I didn't paint everyone of the twenty-five kids at the party but almost. Once the water balloons came out and then the pizza arrived my job was done.

This photo was after the chanting of "CUPCAKES! CUPCAKES! CUPCAKEX!" I mumbled something about "Lord of the Flies", the only person who laughed in agreement was a grandmother, about my age.

I got paid. L's mom told me she told her, "RiotheClown is the best face painter ever! She can do anything!"

I wonder if I can keep up my repertoire to meet L's expanding expectations, or if I will have to pass my brushes and paints off to a younger, stronger clown...

This is the very last one in this meme. It is also Elisi's birthday. She has posted a link to a wonderful fan vid on her blog that is all Buffy the Vampire Slayer! Great way to start you day, a peppy song and lots of killing vampires, oh and dancing. There's dancing!

The coincidence of finishing this meme and it being her birthday is not lost on me. Here in this reality all sorts of interests and events, personal and global and beyond are available to enjoy, ponder and discuss. I blog to be a part of what I have come to appreciate.

I first followed troyswann here. It was scary and new but I wanted to read her fabulous fiction. She is one of my favourite people/writers in the world and in that other world the RL, as it is called. Eventually I got more comfortable, joined a few communities and started writing a bit myself. I took an on-line interactive course and we were required to start a blog about our business. It began as "Work Better at Home" at Wordpress. I ran out of money and had to stop taking the course but soon started two more blogs, one for clowning (but also about other things) and then one about quilting but which also includes cake decorating and lately, making a wedding dress.

For a time I used this blog here at LJ to talk about things I couldn't talk about generally. I am fairly isolated here. I moved from my community to this my childhood home with my three children after my marriage ended and I had gotten worn down by my struggle to get off social assistance and keep my kids (custody battle with ex). I had had a good network of single moms in Ottawa. We had Friday Night Movie nights where we rented videos for the kids, filled a room with sleeping bags and pillows and cooked pizza and then enjoyed a good mom's night in the kitchen without the cost of a babysitter. I had neighbours I could run to in a crisis. I had a school principal who had also been a single mom who gave me her home number when I had cancer! I didn't realize how lucky I was. I didn't realized that I was moving here in "disgrace". I didn't realize that other single moms were better family than I had ever known.

Blogging filled the loss of emotional support. Blogging got me through CHOP chemo. Blogging helped me work on improving my writing, but more, it gave me a social life. It still does. Is that pathetic?

Iceland Penny, or "Walking Woman" at Wordpress. She walks around Toronto and other places and takes photos and talks to people. She has covered some of my favourite neighbourhoods in my town. I feel close to her. Sometimes she comments on my blog over there. I enjoy a few over there on my "following" list but I feel over there (Wordpress) like I do when I go to Quebec. Yes I understand what is being said but I don't feel comfortable contributing much to the conversation...

The Urban Pantheist. Did I mention I am a visual person? I love looking at photos of things I have or may actually see in my own environment. He is also very generous with answering questions. Through his blog I feel I have made blog friends. Cottonmanifesto doesn't post much here anymore but I follow her on Facebook. She supplies pictures of TOO MUCH CUTENESS! As she fosters pups that are mind blowingly adorable. She is married to the author of The Urban Pantheist.

Salieri or Sal, who posted this meme btw, also posts pictures of her art work, inspires me with her fan fiction to do my own illustrations for said, and makes me laugh with her stories of her Punk Rocker Poodle, adventures with hair colour and thrills and chills of being a University Prof. Through her I found "the nicest person on the internet" Jenlev who I consider a friend though we've never met.

Rio the Clown Is this blantant self promotion?

Okay there are a bunch more but strictly from a perusal point of view I have to say Natures Beauty because I like to look at pictures. Reading from the computer screen is not good for my brain which gives me headache most of the time. It also helps my depression to look at these amazing photos. Yes I am the empty-headed Wombat who just looks at pictures and never reads the text. I even type with my eyes closed, because text on a screen is not my friend. It explains a lot about my writing huh?

Apologies to all I have not listed here.

This comes care of Sal who got it from someone else. I am going to try to write some thing for every number on the list.

1. Introduction and recent photo
2. 20 facts about you
3. Your favorite quote
4. What are you afraid of?
5. 10 songs you love right now
6. Your 5 senses right now
7. Your pet hates
8. What's in your handbag?
9. What are your worst habits?
10. What's your best physical feature?
11. List 15 of your favorite things
12. What's inside your fridge?
13. What is your earliest memory?
14. If you won the lottery...
15. Timeline of your day
16. What's at the top of your bucket list?
17. What is your most proud moment?
18. The meaning behind your blog name
19. What do you collect?
20. A difficult time in your life
21. Your 10 favorite foods
22. The best thing to happen this year
23. Your dream job
24. Your favorite childhood book
25. Your 5 favorite blogs
26. An old photo of you
27. Post your favorite recipe
28. What are you looking forward to?
29. Where have you travelled?
30. What's in your makeup bag?
31. Why do you blog?

I feel better. i got one hundred "likes" on Wordpress. weird eh?

I now have 33 total strangers who read my blog regularly.

http://riotheclown.wordpress.com/

Current Mood: depressed
Current Location: still in my parents' basement
Current Music: weather report

Given that I feel uncomfortable in rooms with four or more people that is oddly disturbing. However, given my self-destructive habit of looking for comments to my postings several times a day, born of a need for approval, I am slightly buoyed by it.

My son is watching "The parades end" so the above paragraph should be read with an English accent as I wrote it with one.

I have no control over most events in the world. I am bitterly brittle infact and my bones snap so easily that I avoid crowds and public transit at rush hour. I certainly avoid large demonstrations but chocolate gives me migraines. However it also makes me feel better when I am sad.

Peaceful demonstration combined with the use of the internet has been able to do what bombs and police have not. What all humans beings (except those most calloused) seem to want is not more cheap consumer products, but happiness, peacefulness and freedom.

I wonder how many choices are made for me without my knowledge. Maybe the Freedom vs. Chocolate is not a choice at all! Hummmm.

I am hearing that SOPA and PIPA are all about limiting the flow of information on the internets. (Internet or Internets?) This comes from Wikipedia:

SOPA and PIPA represent two bills in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate respectively. SOPA is short for the “Stop Online Piracy Act,” and PIPA is an acronym for the “Protect IP Act.” (“IP” stands for “intellectual property.”) In short, these bills are efforts to stop copyright infringement committed by foreign web sites, but, in our opinion, they do so in a way that actually infringes free expression while harming the Internet. Detailed information about these bills can be found in the Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT IP Act articles on Wikipedia, which are available during the blackout. GovTrack lets you follow both bills through the legislative process: SOPA on this page, and PIPA on this one. The EFF has summarized why these bills are simply unacceptable in a world that values an open, secure, and free Internet.

My blog over at wordpress got three "likes" from total strangers!

I think it was the cute photo of my eldest at one year of age.

I got the powerpoint slide show I did for G.D.'s b'day sent off to be printed to give her on Xmas. (Only hand made things being the rule for prezzies I am stretching things a bit...)

I am pushing through this depression. I am looking at my thoughts the way a kid looks at dinner. I will simply push the peas aside. I might have to eat them but for now I will just leave them. Lets see how it works shall we?

I could feed the bad thoughts to the black dogs if they were real, but they are just a metaphor for depression. Sheesh. My metaphors are eating my metaphors...okay I didn't invent them. Wikipedia has stuff about who came up with the Black Dogs thingy... Winston C.just made them popular.