poetry: weep little willow

weeping willow weeping and swaying
wind caressing its sorrow
gently, gently, softly crying
saving cries for tomorrow

Ravens are such BULLIES!!!

I woke up today to find two California Condors sunning in a tree not far from our deck in Idyllwild.  A Raven sees the two Condors and decides he doesn’t like this.  Immediately he starts pestering them:

A raven decides he doesn’t like condors in his tree.

The Ravens shows the Condors who’s Boss….

The Condor shows the Raven his….Wingspan

The Raven wins, no more Condors, no more Ravens

The Condors spanned their wings repeatedly in order to defend their tree but the Raven kept up.  He eventually brought another Raven to help him in the assault.  They attacked the Condors from both sides.  In the end, the ravens chased off the Condors only to abandon the tree themselves.  They didn’t want the tree – they wanted to show the Condors who’s the boss!  I thought this was unbelievable!  And to top it off, about two hours later, I watched the Ravens chase off a RedTail Hawk who was just cruising over my house.  The ganged up on it, dived bomb its head and kept chasing it until it too, flew off!  I tell you, Ravens are the Bullies of the bird world!

Global Warming is a Crock!

I was delighted after watching “George Carlin on Global Warming” on YouTube.  I know, I know, this was published last year, so I finally emerged from my rock and had an EPHIONY!   Mr. Carlin is one of the most intelligent and articulate men who ever lived and now I see why!  He is RIGHT ON TARGET in this video!  It moved me so much, I felt I had to share it:

Pencil Drawing – Rhinoceros

I love pencil drawing, so i decided to record myself.  The actual drawing took me 28 minutes from start to finish, but don’t worry, the final video is just over 3 minutes.  I imported the recorded video to Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 and sped it up by 1,000%.  I added some funky Beethoven music and then scanned the finished drawing.  I had a blast making both the drawing and the final video, please enjoy!

My First Animations

I have been fascinated with illustration and animation since childhood, but now since I purchased my digital drawing pad (Wacom Intuos 2 small – which I highly recommend), I am now dabbling in the world of digital illustration & animation.  Here is a few of my first Flash animations:

This was my VERY FIRST ONE, and of my cat, Smokey.  He has so much personality that I thought this was very fitting of him.

This is Kayla, a 6 yr old with a lisp.  Since I myself have a lisp, she was an easy character to create.  Since Flash is very new to me, I wanted to keep the drawings very simple so I could focus on lip synching.

This is Kayla again and of courssssse, she is afraid is sssssnakes, high-lisp potential here, just couldn’t resist!

Now this is simply just an inside joke, a very short one-liner from our friend, John.   Looks like him too, lol!

I Love Family Guy!

I can’t help it, the immature teenager inside of me just can’t get enough of Family Guy.  It’s true!  I admit, there are times when it can get a bit strange, but who doesn’t appreciate the twisted humor?   My favorite character is definitely the father, Peter.  He always cracks me up!  I also like Bryan, the dog, very cool character.  I am least fond of Stewie, who in my opinion, is a bit too demented.  I admit, however, there have been many times he made me laugh.  Most of the time, though, Stewie’s character says some pretty off-the-wall, and frankly, totally uncool stuff.  Never-the-less, I can’t get enough of the show!  I watch it at work from Hulu, a cool free online place for watching full episodes of all my favorite shows. Now excuse while I go watch so Family Guy!

Mom’s Birthday was “Amazing”!

My mom had a very interesting “39th +++” birthday.  Mom is the ringleader of ‘treasure hunts’, so my brother Michael, his wife Viola, and sister, Melissa, decided to send her on one – “Amazing Race” was the theme!  My mother is an avid fan of the show so my siblings decided to have some fun sending her all around the little town of Gallatin, Missouri on “chores” in search of clues. 

Mom loves her clues!

After being ignored all day, Mom was beginning to think what had promised to be a great birthday just wasn’t going to happen. About the time she decided to quit pouting & take a nap, her little apartment began filling with her family: son Michael, daughter Melissa, Mother Lorene, daughter-in-law Viola, son-in-law Mancho, grandchildren Chris, Amanda, Beth & baby Angelina.  She was handed a birthday card and thus began “The Amazing Race”.  The first clue was attached to her card:

     1)  “Happy Birthday Mom, we hope you’re not a quitter, to begin this challenge we’ve picked you a sitter.  Look at the faces, one grinning from ear-to-ear, your clue is not there but on her derriere.”

 
After a search of everyone’s bottoms, the person with the smiling face and the clue in her back pocket was Beth, my niece.  Mom read aloud the next clue:
 
     2) “This is a pass to spend $5 on gas, that’s not all, the rest is for our Powerball.  Don’t be blue, the lady in red has your next clue.”   This clue included a $10 gift card to the local gas station.”

Mom finally realized she was going on a “treasure hunt”.  After wasting about 10 minutes jumping up & down in excitement and running about her apartment looking for her shoes, she (with her “sitter” & camerawoman Beth in tow) hopped in her car and they were off.
 
Mom entered the store, found the ‘lady in red’, purchased the gasoline and the lottery tickets and was given her next clue:
 
     3) “Revenge is sweet as we have all done this before, now it’s time to look inside your car door!”

There was a small glitch as Mom’s gas tank was almost full, so she had to go back into the store to get a refund.  She had already found the 4th clue, and the cashier wanted to know what is was, so Mom read the clue in the store to anyone who wanted to listen:
 
     4)  “We just didn’t have time to get the shopping done, so for your next run, go to Dungy’s, hun”. 

See the manager, Jeremy, within and say with a grin, “it’s my birthday you see, have you something for me?”
 
Dungy’s is the small local grocery store, so off Mom went and entered the store asking for Jeremy. Well it turned out Jeremy had left, but the clerk said she had a clue and handed it to Mom. Mom, thinking she had the clue already, decided it would be funny to call son Michael and tell him Jeremy had left. Michael says “I’ll call you back” and after a small amount of panic on Michael’s end, Viola was sent to Dungy’s. In the meantime, Michael called Mom to let her know Vi was on her way, and just as Mom was telling Michael she had only been messing with them and she had the clue, she realized it was the wrong clue:
 
     6)  “No big deal, the same side as your wheel, look under your seat for your next feat.”

Vi shows up, get it all straighten out and Mom gets the correct clue:

     5)  “You need to pick up some chips, dip, pop and OH, your birthday cake.  No go check out but don’t be late (don’t forget to ask the cashier for your next clue)”.

 In that clue was $30 to make the purchases, so Mom picked up the chips & dip, soda and her own birthday cake (which had been wrapped so she couldn’t see it). Waiting to make the purchases, Mom, still excited over her ‘race’, told everyone willing to listen about her adventure.  Back out to the car, since Mom had already located clue # 7,  she proceeded to her next stop:
 
     7)  “Even though he is not regular family, you can always count on him to be there happily.  Go to the “Freeway” without any travel, then your mystery gift will begin to unravel.”

This latest hint was referring to a family friend, Wayne, and his dog, Freeway Jack.  Mom found Jack on a freeway, hence the nickname.  Mom was fully convinced everyone was at Wayne’s so as she approached his house, she scanned the area looking for vehicles, but there was none other than Wayne’s. Wayne handed her the next clue:
 
      8)  “Your car is disgusting, it could use some dusting.  Now be clean, go through the car wash before your next scene.”  In this clue was $5. 
 
Mom headed to the car wash, all the while bemoaning the fact she had to ‘work’ on her birthday, and how mean her kids were to her to make her wash her car  and where on earth was she going to find her clue at the carwash lol.  She was unaware of the smudged lettering made from potato peels on her windows that only could show up through the car wash.  The water and suds were supposed to stuck to the hidden potato mash and spellout her next clue;  “See Beth”. 

Unfortunately it didn’t work, but as they left the carwash, Beth gave her the clue anyway: 
 
      9)  “It’s true, “HIS” van is not blue, it’s sitting at home here all alone.  In the window you’ll see something from me.”

This meant Mom had to drive to Michael Lee & Viola’s house, since Michael drove a van, which was not blue.  On the way there, she decided Beth, who was her ‘sitter’, should be renamed Miss Treasure Huntsitter.  Upon pulling into the driveway she saw a large sign taped in the van’s rear window: 
 
     “10)  NOT FOR SALE, no not at all.  For more information, here’s who to call…”
 
On the sign in the window was my cell phone number.  Now, I had been waiting for this call since 12:30 PM California time and it was already well past 3:00 PM.  There was a lot of noise and distraction in my office so I had to abandon my cell phone for about 10 minutes, and OF COURSE my Mom called during that time!  I raced back to my phone only to see a MISSED CALL from her!!  OH NO!!!  I really thought I had blown it, but only a minute had passed, so I immediately dialed my mother back and to my surprise, she answered!  I profusely apologized but she was patiently waiting for instructions, so I proceeded with my verbal clue:
 
     “11)  Happy Birthday Mom, a dear friend you have become.  Now before you leave, a light is on, I do believe.  Sorry for this mundane task, that’s all from you I’m going to ask.”
 
Mom (still giggling) said thank you for adding to her birthday fun and we hung up. Mom, by now convinced everyone was still back at her apartment, entered the house and headed for the only light on which happened to be in the bathroom. Finding a birthday card taped to the mirror, she opened it and just as she exclaimed “You mean I did all of this for a card!”, out comes everyone, pummeling her with balloons & shouting “Surprise!”.  Within minutes tables were ladened with food and all the trimmings. 
 
The entire family had worked hard to put her party and hunt together, and Mom said it was the best birthday she had ever had. I am glad she had so much fun and even though I’m many miles away, I felt very much a part of this celebration.  Happy Birthday, Mom!  And thank you to my wonderful, clever family for all the fun!!

The Faces behind the Hunt!

New Twitter Jitter Blog!

Hi Folks, I just launched a new blog (website coming soon) for TwitterJitter.com sharing my love for Twitter!  I know this may be a “fad” but it’s gaining popularity at a breakneck speed!  I will be posting “twitterjitters” on my new blog, so feel free to bookmark!  I will also be adding cool info and news all related to Twitter, so please enjoy!

High School Yearbook Memories

I just found my yearbooks from my days at Yucca Valley High School, and what a trip down memory lane!!!  I had such fun thumbing through all the pages. I decided to post the photos on Facebook to share with all my YVHS alumni – everyone loves them! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See more of this album at http://picasaweb.google.com/shawna.sullivan/YVHSYearbookMemories19891990#

Cute Friggin’ Baby Pandas!! PART 2

Easy! EASY!!!

Ok, so I got this email today that featured MORE of those LOVABLE, CUDDLY, CUTEY PATOOTEY, WANT-TO-SQUISH-BECAUSE-THEY-ARE-SO-DAMN-CUTE baby pandas, and thought I’d share them with you!!!

Timeout in the Corner

Comptemplating Life…..