First, I found these two images above, from a blog called Catnip Studio Collage, while hunting around for cheerful flower images, and got pretty excited about them. Gorgeous seed packet circa 1893, wouldn’t you say? So of course, I had to continue investigating a little bit, just to see what this “Mayflower” publication was all about… Continue reading
Like countless other readers, I’ve been a lifelong fan of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and it’s safe to assume that this person has been too. Then again, it’s perfectly fine if (s)he chose to have John Tenniel’s illustrations inked in just for the look of it; I wouldn’t have necessarily taken my fondness that far, but Tenniel’s version of the story is a classic for good reason. To view more work by Berlin tattoo artist Sara B. Bolen, click here. To see Alice’s adventures interpreted by other artists, visit here.
Photo found on Le Blog de Shige.
Ladies who lunch: 13 of the The Montreal Book Bloggers (names will follow)
The luncheon yesterday with the Montreal Book Bloggers was quite fun. There were thirteen of us; big surprise… all women! We started with the best part: trading books (see the dozen I brought home below). It took us a while to settle down with newcomers like myself getting acquainted with the members of the group who were able to attend, then there was comparison shopping of e-readers something I haven’t yet seriously considered (until I received a copy of War and Peace earlier in the week.) There was a big group of Japanese tourists seated just behind us who kept staring and were obviously wondering what the heck was going on with us milling around with piles of books multiplying on our long line of tables. One Japanese woman asked me what we were doing and were we book sellers? I tried to explain to her what we were about, but I don’t think she quite got it, so I summed it up with “We’re all just crazy about books”, which she seemed to think was very strange. We had… well lunch, obviously, chatted a lot about books (duh!) and time flew. After 2-3 hours, we made our way to Indigo, our big box Canadian bookstore, which was, not coincidentally, practically across the street. We had a look at the sales section, where I picked up the only book I actually paid for, the Sarah Dunant, and also swung by the Graphic Novels section which was filled with plenty of tempting treats—I discovered two books by Lynda Barry—who is, according to Wikipedia “One of the most successful non-mainstream American cartoonists”. One of the two titles was called What It Is, about which Wikipedia says: “What It Is (2008) is a graphic novel that is part memoir, part collage and part workbook in which Barry instructs her readers in methods to open up their own creativity.” The other, published in 2010 is called Picture This: The Near-sighted Monkey Book. Both show amazing creativity and a very unique mix of styles and influences that show the artist behind the cartoonist. I very nearly, against my better judgment purchased them online when I got home, but then checked out the library catalogue and found they had them both, so have done the reasonable thing and reserved them. Which is not to say I won’t end up purchasing them anyway but whatever the case, I will of course show as well as tell when the time comes.
I should point out that this was the very first time for me seeing people in RL (‘real life’) that I’ve met via online book-related sites (dating sites, well… that’s a thing of the past now, thank heavens.) Nice bunch of ladies too.
Here are the books I brought home:
When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson (Audiobook)
Peony in Love by Lisa See
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
The Gendarme by Mark T. Mustian
Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
The Buccaneers by Edith Wharton
Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant
Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh
Am off to a luncheon get-together with a new group, the Montreal Book Bloggers in just a few minutes. There should be about fourteen of us in attendance. I was quite surprised when I was invited to join in because: 1. I didn’t think anyone actually read my blog, other than my mum and dad and the occasional passer-by, and 2. While I do blog about books quite often, I would definitely not say this is exactly a book blog. The cool thing is we’ve organized a book trade and we’ll all be going home with a new pile of books. Neat eh? As if I needed more books at this point; I’ve long ago run out of space for them, but that’s hardly relevant for a book lover…
The Crows of Pearblossom by Aldous Huxley, illustrated by Sophie Blackall ★★★½
Mr. and Mrs. Crow, who have a nest in a cotton-wood tree in Pearblossom, haven’t had much luck so far when it comes to growing their family. Every time Mrs. Crow has laid an egg, it has disappeared before getting a chance to hatch. When, coming home early from her errands on day, Mrs. Crow catches the rattlesnake who lives at the bottom of the tree eating her latest egg, she tells her husband he must go and kill the snake. Mr. Crow isn’t sure this is a good idea, so he consults his friend Mr. Owl, who comes up with a brilliant plan to teach the snake a lesson he is likely never to forget. A fun and slightly wicked story by the author best known for Brave New World, this was Huxley’s only children’s story, which he wrote as a gift for his niece Olivia, who had moved to Pearblossom, California with her parents. Bright and cheerful illustrations by Sophie Blackall. (click on cover to view larger) Continue reading
I just got some feedback from the good people at WordPress on my blog’s performance in 2010. I was surprised to find that it’s doing much better than I would have guessed, considering I haven’t been quite as assiduous with it as I have been in the past. Since it’s always nice to get good news, I thought I’d share some of what they had to say:
A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 6,500 times in 2010. That’s about 16 full 747s.
In 2010, there were 143 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 1217 posts. There were 288 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 70mb. That’s about 6 pictures per week.
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
Rants & Raves May 2010
Thirteen Things That Intrigue Me About India [#7] January 2008
More Alice in Wonderland January 2008
Talking About The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time* June 2008
Round and Round September 2008
Some of your most popular posts were written before 2010.
Your writing has staying power!
[I thought I had posted this some time last week but just realized with dismay that it was still in my draft queue. So here it is—better late than never—good thing I don’t work on deadlines anymore!]
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There were some protesters in front of the Mexican Consulate yesterday, and the striking appearance of the person on the loudspeaker prompted me to take pics with my iPhone. Most of the signs and speeches were in Spanish—not a strong suit of mine—but I figured out they were holding Canadian mining companies (who apparently represent 60% of the world’s mining industry) responsible for incidents in Mexico. Leslie Ning, one of the friendly organizers asked me whether I was a journalist and when I told her I was a blogger, she took the time to explained what they were doing there, gave me a press release and shyly smiled for the camera. Not at all the brooding, angry militant stereotype. She asked questions about my blog, showed interest about createthreesixty5.com, and she even suggested I check out another blog celebrating creativity called Learning to Love You More which has currently operating though one can still visit to see works and assignments posted in the many archives from the project’s seven-year lifespan. All in all, a pretty interesting encounter.
The Comité pour les droits humains en Amérique latine (CDHAL), or Committee for Human Rights in South America, were holding a vigil and protest that day to denounce the assassination of two civil rights defenders in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. A caravan of international observers was attacked on April 27 2010 as it was making it’s way to San Juan Copola in Oaxaca. There were about 15 injured and two people perished: Beatriz Alberta Cariño, the coordinator of CACTUS and an activist defending the rights of socio-environmental rights who was particularly opposed to the presence of Canadian mining companies in Mexico, and an observer by the name of Tyri Antero Jaakkola, a young man from Finland. The attack was carried out by a paramilitary group “Unidad y bienestar social de la región Triqui” (UBISORT). The activists are demanding a thorough investigation of this incident and the adoption of Law C-300, currently being debated in the Canadian Parliament. This law would force Canadian mining companies to be accountable for their actions and entail financial sanctions for companies operating in developing countries to ensure decent standards of living for the workers and communities they exploit.
I keep having to remind myself that when I get discouraged, it usually has nothing to do with the state of affairs but is rather a clear marker that I’m over-tired and need to give myself a break and get some rest. It’s also a good idea in those moments to give myself credit where credit is due, so I’ll start by patting myself on the back for going to drawing class today, even if I really, really didn’t want to.
There was an unpleasant incident last week when a student next to me took a phone call in class and then proceeded to whisper into her phone a few feet away from me. This was breaking my concentration—something I need in vast amounts especially when drawing—so I tried to flag her down to ask her to take her call outside the studio. She didn’t see or hear me after a couple of attempts, so I asked more forcefully and was met with grimaces, eye-rolls and nasty stares from both her and her stupid friend. I don’t know what they’re doing there to begin with since they’re both airheads and can’t seem to understand even the simplest of directions, besides which drawing can sometimes get your hands dirty and I would think these girls could better put that time towards even more primping. At the end of class, I pulled the woman aside and told her (as gently as I could) that in future she should take her calls outside so as not to disrupt people. She started making a big deal about the fact that she’s alone raising children and needs to take calls in case of emergencies… and even though I kept repeating that nobody was denying her rights and all I was asking was for her to step outside the fucking class next time (I didn’t swear at her, though at that point I wanted to rip her stupid head off), she and her friend marched off in a huff, giving me dirty looks again, making me out to be the bad guy.
This didn’t sit with me well at all because for one, I felt like I had endured something which shouldn’t have taken place to begin with, so I took it up with the teacher who against all expectations, refused to see my point while another student kept saying the woman had been talking softly and wasn’t being disruptive at all actually so why was I making a big deal about it. To say I was pissed is putting it mildly. Nothing gets me worked up as much as being confronted with such a high degree of stupidity combined with lack of common sense and/or respect for others, besides which I’m paying good money for these art classes and refuse to let a complete moron ruin the experience for me. When I saw the director of fine arts this week, I mentioned the incident to her and asked if there was a school policy about taking phone calls in class. It seems there isn’t, it’s up to individual teachers to decide. Still, she added they would send a memo to all the teachers to ask them to remind students not to disrupts others by taking calls in class.
Still, this morning I had no motivation to show up to class and put up with stupid #1 & #2 as well as unsupportive teacher, but I went anyway telling myself that worse come to worse, I’d bitch-slap the next idiot who got in my face (not really, but just entertaining the thought provided good entertainment value). So I want to congratulate myself for going to class today and leaving feeling better than I did walking in, while not having recourse to violence to take part in what ought to be a peaceful and relaxing occupation.
When I got home this afternoon, I had a look at how both this blog and createthreesixty5.com are doing in terms of traffic and clicks and so on. Not well. Not well at all. In fact, for the past weeks, both blogs have been getting no more than 20 or so visitors per day. I don’t mind so much about this blog—which actually gets up to 50-60 clicks on some days (woo hoo!)—because who wants to read the kind of crap I’m writing about just now anyway, right? But the other blog… well that hurts a little. Because not only are people NOT participating in something I think can be immensely rewarding for all involved, but they aren’t bothering to see what those who ARE participating are posting even. And then I ask myself the question I always ask myself when I feel down and out: why the hell do I bother? And that’s when I have to remind myself that I do it because I can, and that should be plenty good enough. But should be doesn’t mean it is, and it’s not, actually. So I ask once again, why do I bother?
Off to let the universe work that one out while I take that much-needed nap now.
Another day, another raving lunatic. I’m still not feeling very well what with the migraine having kicked in to add to my general misery, but at least I’m laughing, not least of all because of a raving madwoman called Miss Oksana Y.
Miss Oksana Y. is a person I had the great pleasure of meeting through my dealings as an eBay seller. She purchased some CARE products from me and I offered her a discount. She then asked for the cheapest shipping alternative, so I offered her ground shipping, something I usually don’t do because it can easily take 4-6 weeks (and more) for packages to arrive to destination, and buyers—the finicky lot they can be—have in the past complained that this was too long (even when they were fully cognizant of these shipping delays I might add).
Until yesterday, my last words to miss Y. were something to the effect that her package should get to her within approximately 4-6 weeks and that I hoped she would be delighted with her purchase. Then, out of the blue, I received an email from her informing me that she was opening a dispute with PayPal (an eBay merchant service) because after 4 weeks she had still not received the package, and though she was willing to wait another 2-3 weeks before elevating the dispute to a claim, she wanted to be sure she would be covered for her expenses should the package not arrive as planned. I didn’t have a chance to reply to this because the very next email was from PayPal, informing me there was a dispute claim and that the amount of 80-odd dollars was being held from my bank account until the dispute had been resolved. Needless to say, I was not happy about this and promptly wrote miss Y. to try to resolve manners amicably, explaining to her that there was no need to open a dispute since I was more than willing to communicate with her and assuring her that there was a $100 insurance on the package provided by Canada Post and she therefore had nothing to fear.
Miss Y. would hear none of it. Was I worried because I hadn’t in fact sent the package to begin with? She asked. In fact, was I not worried because ALL I had in my possession was a mere tracking number which offered no proof of delivery—indeed—would NEVER offer such proof (presumably because she intended to claim the package had not arrived, would in fact NEVER arrive?). It was clear from the onset that I was dealing with a raving lunatic, so I promptly called PayPal merchant services to try to clear up the mess this woman had created.
Perhaps it was sheer dumb luck, or perhaps (more likely) PayPal has seen other scam artists try this kind of thing, but they quickly unfroze my assets and assured me everything would be fine. I wasn’t so convinced. I sent her a short note telling her where things stood and that I was quite confident that she would receive her package in due time. Her response was the following:
it [the dispute] was opened due to “non-receipt”. i have not received this item. Do you have a delivery proof? You don’t. In fact, I am being nice to you as I said I will not escalate it to claim. Would you like me to? I would be happy to. You have no delivery proof and I have no item. These are the facts. If you have other facts, you can pursue this with your insurance. Or better yet, you can escalate my dispute to a claim yourself, if you really believe that PayPal is on your side.
As I mentioned, I was not feeling well yesterday and was quite rattled by the woman’s flagrant display of bad faith. So again, I called PayPal, and this time landed on a gem of a client service woman. I read to her some of the personal emails miss Y. had sent me in the interim and she quickly agreed with me that we were dealing with an person who was bent on causing problems. She added that there were cases she liked to keep an eye on personally a couple of times a week, and that she would add this one to the list. Furthermore, she said, if miss Y. had the bad idea to elevate the dispute to a claim, she would only do herself a disservice and clearly show that she had bad intentions from the first. She suggested I send another final note to the buyer reminding her that as she herself had started the dispute, she was to abstain from contacting me directly and was to use the moderated disputes forum provided by PayPal.
Of course, all of this might be of no interest to you, but if it is, here is the comment thread which followed after that latest message from me (during which it was confirmed that she unwisely elevated the PayPal dispute to a claim therefore closing off our ability to communicate via the dispute forum on PayPal):
Me: Dear Ms Y., please be advised that since you have started a dispute, as per PayPal procedures and standards, you are to refrain from further direct contact with me via email or otherwise and should only use the PayPal forum should you wish to enter into further communication with me.
Miss Y.: you made it so, my dear.
Smiler: You’re insane.
Miss Y.: you just made a personal attack. I will make sure to forward this to eBay and PayPal.
Smiler: By all means, be my guest. Be sure to add in your forwarded comment that I also said that I feel sorry for you that you are compelled to make problems for people where none actually exist elsewhere than in your own head. I’d also like to take the occasion to thank you for the sheer entertainment value this is providing for me. Definitely worth the 80-odd dollars you are falsely claiming. Best regards. :-)
Miss Y.: The problem is a non-receipt. Nothing more, nothing less. I would encourage you to contact your post-office as the claim will be decided in my favor, there is no doubt.
Smiler: Vous vous trompez sur toute la ligne chère dame [you are out of line dear lady]. It’s been 4 weeks. delivery standards state approx. 4-6 weeks. You are prematurely assuming the package will not arrive to you. Not the post office nor Ebay nor PayPal will go ahead with your claim until this delivery delay has been met (they will actually wait longer in case the package has been delayed). If anything, you made yourself look bad by elevating the dispute to a claim this early on in the process. If you claim the package hasn’t been delivered and stick to your guns, you will only look like what you actually are: a scam artist. Therefore you did me a favour. Again, I say thank you miss Y. Now kindly get lost.
I am sure this isn’t the end of Miss Y. as she hasn’t yet said her last word, but as far as I’m concerned, this is where the story ends. Some of you may think it unhealthy of me to give this woman so much room on my blog, but I must say that having turned her into creative fodder has made me feel much better. My migraine is miraculously dissipating. Smiler is smiling again. And at the end of the day, that’s all that matters.
