Originally published at sixhours.net. You can comment here or there.
The colors aren't quite right, and I want to add a lot more detail, but here's what I've been working on for Calobee Doodles. My initial thought was to have this be an animated Web layout... when a user rolls over one of the houses (presumably they'd each be a link), something happens. Maybe a kitty pokes his head around the corner, the chimney smoke moves, or a curtain is pushed to the side to reveal a little boy staring out.
But then I'm not sure I want to get so involved... I have a tendency to lose interest when a project takes too long to complete. I may scrap this as a Web layout altogether and just make it into a print for the shop. Or maybe I'll do both! Either way, it's fun thinking up all the little bits and pieces that bring the doodle together (I'm particularly enamored with the mini clothesline for some reason) and watching each house grow into its unique personality.
(Click for a larger version!)
Originally published at sixhours.net. You can comment here or there.
I had fun designing this one, if you couldn't tell. It gave me a chance to flex my (rapidly deteriorating) Photoshop muscles and better familiarize myself with the WordPress Theme structure. A huge part of this redesign is not only design, but a re-branding of sorts. I decided to treat Sixhours.net less like a photography portfolio and more like a personal Web site... and so the design is a little more me and a little less Serious Business (tm). Speaking of which, it's been eight years (!) since I first bought this little nook of the Web. I think this is the domain-equivalent of a birthday at the spa.
I'll be the first to admit I've been in a rut, and I know it's because I've defined my creative life by my photography, but photography isn't doing it for me lately (there's also that pesky new-baby-itis problem, but I'm recovering). When I allowed myself to apply my creative energy to other tasks, I found I had a lot of ideas and more motivation to work on them.
So now I have a list of projects that should keep me busy for a while. I'm already working on a new look for Calobee Doodles which will hopefully be up soon. Another thing I've been meaning to do for a few months is doodle a desktop calendar/wallpaper for each month... and now is the perfect time to start those for the new year. In the same vein, I may open a new "downloads" section on Calobee Doodles. The problem is I'm always working on someone else's projects and I don't make enough time for my own (tsk tsk!)
I'm also working on a "bucket list," a la Mighty Girl, and that has me thinking about the big picture--the things I'd like to do that might seem too big or too scary to accomplish at first glance. One thing I'd love to do is write and illustrate (and maybe publish?) a children's book. I've been thinking about that since Elspeth was born. Even if no one else ever read it, I'd love to make something for her to enjoy when she's older.
The signing of the Lisbon treaty today marks the end of a once proud nation. A
nation that has fought for the freedom of all Europeans through two
World Wars. A nation that now becomes just a vassal state of the
European Union. A nation whose Prime Minister now reports to his E.U. masters.
As Dr Richard North put it so clearly on October 9th:
Since the membership of the European Council comprises the heads of state of governments of the member states, this means necessarily that our prime minister becomes a servant of the European Union, bound by the treaty to promote its objectives, and subject to its law. He will no longer represent us in the European Union but, as part of the supreme government of Europe, is one of 27 who will determine the policies of the EU for individual vassal states to implement.
Thus, as we have remarked many times, come the next general election, we will not be electing MPs, with the wining party then go on to form our government. We will we choosing an electoral college which will then go on to choose the person it wishes to send to Brussels, not as our representative but as one of the 27 who will take part in the supreme government of Europe.
Despite the general election, therefore, the government will not change. We only get to change one member of our government – our member of the European Council. Those MPs who go on to become ministers will, by and large, assume junior roles in the rubber-stamp machine of the Council of Ministers, and then go home to implement EU laws.
To that extent, the next election is devoid of any great significance. Barring those few areas which have not been taken over by Brussels, the new "government" will be shorn of its power. The election is primarily an electorally mandated (partial) reshuffle.
And that is why the
The genius of it all though, it that so few will notice. The EU has learned that the way to take over independent countries is not by force of arms but to create "institutional changes" that go unrecognised for what they are. Leave intact the façades of the formerly independent institutions of the member states, and reward the politicians handsomely with the trappings of power, and the deed is done.
The end game is all but complete. Our politicians have sold the pass. They have allowed our government to be stolen. And if they don't care, we should. We are to be ruled by an alien power. It is not our government – it is theirs. We owe it neither loyalty nor obedience.
[Photo from England Expects]
On 3rd November, 2009 at 1500 CET, The United Kingdom ceased to exist as a Sovereign Nation, when Czechoslovakia signed the Lisbon Treaty. The Sovereign Nations of Europe are now just part of the new European Union Empire.My father fought in a World War and my Grandfather was killed in one to prevent a day such as this.
This website has now served its purpose. The subjects of the United Kingdom are becoming increasingly aware that all meaningful government power has been handed over to the undemocratic unelected, officials of the European Union, despite assurances to the contrary and despite no public support for this transfer of sovereignty. There are many useful websites exposing the truths behind this E.U. government and the Westminster puppet regime's blind love of all things Big Government and especially the EU.
I suggest the following sites, shown below.
But please do not forget the plight of
Andrew Symeou while he rots in a Greek jail, almost forgotten by most
of us. He epitomises the Whitehall Government's attitude to both the
individual and to the E.U. Superstate. The former is unimportant and
can rot especially if he is innocent but an embarrassment. The latter
must be obeyed and its rules implemented and gold plated.
Dr Richard North's valiant expose of the E.U. vs Truth at EUReferendum.blogspot
Roger Helmer MEP's attempts to expose the Great Global Warming Scam
Lord Lucas supporting the freedom of parents to choose how to educate their children
Helen Szamuely highlighting the almost daily increased restrictions on personal freedoms
[Photo: Andrew Symeou]
31st October 2009
According to Snopes.com, one Alan Baxter of Rochester, U.K., wrote a short, four-item article in November 2000, as a wry commentary on the then recently concluded (but far from decided) U.S. presidential election. The original article spawned a whole subset of articles, which snopes details. These included this repost.
DECLARATION OF ANNEXING THE BRITISH ISLES AS PART OF THE USA
To the imperialist British colonizers.In the light of your indecision over joining a common European Currency, your dissatisfaction with the European Union, your bickering with European Governments and the fact that you already almost speak our language and refuse to speak any other European languages, you are to be annexed as a State of America. Your state code will be GB. Zip codes will be assigned to replace your old postal districts. The state capital will be Stratford-upon-Avon which is a lot prettier than London. Princess Diana will be declared a saint. You have already assimilated so much American culture that you are unlikely to notice the transition. To aid in the assimilation, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:
1. Look up "aluminum" in any good American Dictionary. Check the spelling and pronunciation guide. We discovered it, we named it, you are mispronouncing it. Learn to live with it. You are, of course welcome to your idiosyncratic and illogical place-names such as Edinburgh, if you wanted it pronounced 'Eddinburra' you have spelled it that way in the first place. You will quit using words such as "fortnight". The correct term is "a two week period". You will learn words such as "credenza", "intern" and "chad".
2. There is no such thing as "UK English". UK English is the relic of a defunct colonialist power which attempted to impose British English linguistic superiority on a nation which has a higher number of English speakers.
3. Your film-makers should learn to distinguish the American and Canadian accents. American accents are not limited to redneck drawls or New York accents. Mainland Americans have more than enough accents to cope with in our own country, so all British dramas will now bear subtitles, especially those made in impenetrable dialects such as Scottish, Scouse or Geordie. To make life easier for mainland America, all British films and TV programs must use American vocabulary and accents; Scotch characters will wear plaid, Irish characters will have shamrocks on them, Welsh characters will not be used since we don't have Welsh Americans, and English characters will wear bowler hats and pinstripes.
4. The British film industry will no longer portray all Americans as cowboys, rednecks, trailer trash or Beverly Hills billionaires. Hollywood will continue to use "Mockney" and "Posh" British accents as this makes it easier for viewers to identify which characters are British. You can have Hugh Grant back. He's a lousy actor and we don't want him either. All British films will be made in Hollywood where the weather and scenery are better. Your film industry is already unable to make a halfway-decent film which doesn't contain a American in the starring role. All American characters should be 'good guys'.
5. You will learn your new national anthem "The Star Spangled Banner". It shall be sung every morning at kindergarten, high school, university and your places of work. Your Union Flag will be hung up any damn way we wish so stop bitching about it being upside down. If there was meant to be a right way up you should have made it simpler. All Union flags will be replaced by the Stars and Stripes over a 12 month period of time.
6. You should stop playing soccer and rugby. There is no need to have two games, one of which is confusingly like Football and one of which is called football but patently isn't real football. If it doesn't require 45 pounds of padding, it isn't football. You should also stop playing cricket. Americans can't understand the rules. If you insist on playing this game which is only played by former British colonies, you will introduce a simplified scoring system, timeouts, colored strips and cheerleaders to make it more interesting. Any match which takes longer than 90 minutes will be declared a draw.
7. In films, as in real life, we decide who the bad guys are. The bad guys are those guys who don't do as we tell them. They are also the guys who attract the biggest audiences into movie theaters. You will cease using the word "cinema". They are "movie theaters". The snippets of forthcoming films are not "trailers" they are "teasers".
8. November 5th is no longer a day for fireworks. July 4th is the appropriate fireworks festival. If you want a big fireworks party on November 5th, we will help you to blow up your Houses of Parliament. You won't be needing them any longer; Disneyland London will be situated there. Hunting with packs of dogs is also banned. Instead, you will go hunting with a pick-up truck, some six-packs of beer, two coonhounds and enough guns and ammo to equip a private militia. There is also no such activity as "caravanning". It is properly called "camping". The thing boy scouts do with tents and bedrolls is called "tenting".
9. Roundabouts will be banned. What is the point of turning left in order to turn right? They are confusing to Americans and are death traps. You will start driving on the right with immediate effect. Most of the world drives on the right already. You will be allowed to turn right on a red light if safe to do so though you must check local county legislation as this is not permitted in all areas.
10. Those things which you call chips are cholesterol-soaked abominations. You will start to eat fries - light fluffy potato in crisp coating. If you want to eat British-style fried potato sticks you will need a certificate from your doctor and good medical insurance. Beer is to be served cold. The warm, flat drink you call beer is properly termed 'ale' and the FDA have determined it to be unfit for human consumption. You will also learn the difference between crackers, cookies and biscuits to avoid causing unnecessary confusion to mainland Americans.
11. All inter-personal communications between family members, even if resident in the same house, must be through a lawyer. It is compulsory to sue somebody at least once per year - be inventive. It is compulsory to have therapy three times each week and to recover false memories of your childhood which allow you to sue your parents and/or your therapist. Therapy will take the place of speaking to family members. You will be given compulsory courses on how to become dysfunctional. Name your children after interesting medical conditions.
12. You will not have guns. In the eyes of Mainland Americans you are wayward children. Children are not permitted to play with firearms unless they have a legitimate reason to do so i.e. they plan to gun down the population of a small town (self-defense) or slaughter every living creature within a mile radius (hunting).
Thank you for your co-operation. You will be assimilated.
... and with only 40 days left for saving the world!
The BBC has maintained a united Global Warming front, in all its news stories, until recently, but the cracks are beginning to show. It started with its scientific correspondent, Paul Hudson, on 9 October 2009 saying What happened to global warming?
“This headline may come as a bit of a surprise, so too might that fact that the warmest year recorded globally was not in 2008 or 2007, but in 1998. But it is true. For the last 11 years we have not observed any increase in global temperatures. And our climate models did not forecast it, even though man-made carbon dioxide, the gas thought to be responsible for warming our planet, has continued to rise.”
Now the BBC's Andrew Neil is saying “Apocryphal, some might even say hysterical“ about Lord Stern's recent outburst. Neil makes some sound points:
- Part of the problem is that, as those worried about global warming become more apocalyptic, so the supposed scientific consensus about the matter begins to fray at the edges. Then there is the problem that global temperatures have actually been falling since 1998:
- And there is the simple populist resistance to rock stars and rock politicians who lecture the rest of us on the evil of low cost flying while circling the globe in their private jets.
- The media also needs to become tougher in questioning what the experts tell us -- for example, there is much coverage of claims that the Arctic is melting, very little mention that Antarctica, which counts for 90% of the world's ice, has been cooling for the past three decades.
- And we need to be very wary indeed of events that are clearly stunts: there was much unquestioning coverage of the recent underwater meeting of the Maldives cabinet, meant to highlight the danger to the islands of rising sea levels, caused by global warming. Hardly anybody bothered to ask the question: are the seas around the Maldives actually rising? The answer, from the world's greatest authority on the subject, the Commission on Sea Level Change, would seem to be no. It has visited the Maldives regularly in recent years. Its studies show that sea levels today are about 20 centimetres LOWER than they were in the years below 1970, that the current lower level is stable and there is no sign the islands are about to be submerged.
Is global warming just one big scam? It would begin to appear so and remember it wasn't many years ago that the scare was that we were entering a new ice age. However, don't expect this scam to disappear anywhere soon. It is far too convenient a scare for the worlds political class to create new “green” taxes and other powers that have very sinister undertones.
David
Birkinshaw and Matthew Neale were enjoying a stag weekend in Riga, when
they found themselves accused of assaulting a policeman. There is no
doubt that a scuffle of some kind took place, and a Latvian policeman
claimed to have been hurt, although his injuries were described as
"minor". It was never clear that the two Derby men had any part at all
in the fracas.
Initially they came home to Derby, where David Birkinshaw was planning to marry his long-time fiancée, and mother of his child, Rachel Gee. But both men were sent back to Latvia under the European Arrest Warrant, where they spent ten weeks in a Stalin-era prison described by Latvia's own President as "not fit for animals". This was a time of appalling uncertainty. For a long time they had no details of charges, no assurance of a trial date, no assurance that adequate translation would be provided - and the looming possibility that they might be found guilty, and imprisoned in dreadful conditions for a lengthy period.
[Photo. Andrew Symeou]
The extract above is from the blog of Roger Helmer MEP.
Andrew Symeou, another victim of the EAW, has now spent 3 months, almost forgotten, in his Greek prison cell, with no sign of a trial date. His father said (fairtrials.net):
'It has been hell ever since he arrived in Greece. I've never seen anything like it. When I first saw him, he'd been forced to sleep on a concrete slab with a filthy, flea-infested blanket which had been left unwashed in the cell for years. 'At one point he was sharing a cell with five Albanian illegal immigrants, in 37C heat with the windows welded shut and a stinking toilet in the corner of the room. He wasn't allowed out of his cell once in four nights. 'When I looked into his eyes this week I saw sheer, blind terror. I'm not sure how many pieces my heart is in now, but what I do know is that it will take a lot for it to heal. 'This is a young man who has never been in any trouble before. He's never been in a fight or been violent to anybody, and the so-called evidence brought against him in this case would be laughed out of a British court. 'But our authorities put Andrew on a plane without any questions asked. We feel utterly helpless and it makes me so angry I can't tell you.'
Ann Winterton, MP, won the ballot to ask the first question in the first Prime Minister's Question Time in the new session of Parliament, on Wednesday (Oct 14th). She asked the most important question of the day so I listened to the BBC's “Today in Parliament” to hear it, but it was not mentioned, but then, The European Union rarely is. I wonder how many people really understand the significance of the question that she asked. It seemed, from his answer, that Gordon Brown, did not.
Ann Winterton (Congleton) (Con): When the Lisbon treaty comes into force, the European Council will become a formal institution of the European Union, and the United Kingdom will be a member of that institution. Will the Prime Minister confirm that he is bound by its rules, and is thus obliged to further the objectives of the European Union in preference to those of the United Kingdom?
The Prime Minister: We joined the European Union in the 1970s, and we hold by our obligations to the European Union, but that does not prevent us from representing the national sovereignty of this country.
As Richard
North reminds us, The European Council becomes an institution of
the European Union when the European Constitution
Lisbon Treaty comes into force,as it will shortly, when the last
remaining EU vassal State, Czechoslovakia signs it. This is important
as the European Council, as an institution of the EU (Art 9 of the
Treaty of the European Union):
... shall aim to promote its values, advance its objectives, serve its interests, those of its citizens and those of the Member States, and ensure the consistency, effectiveness and continuity of its policies and actions.
You might want to read those words again. It says that our Prime Minister, as a member of the European Council “is bound by its rules, and is thus obliged to further the objectives of the European Union in preference to those of the United Kingdom”. Ann Winterton was spot on. He becomes a servant of the EU, serving ITS interests, above those of the UK, however much he cares to represent “the national sovereignty of this country”.
Wake up Britain to what is really going on, before it is too late.
Remember when you vote in May, that our Prime Minister, whoever he or she will be, will just be a servant of the EU, bound in law to “promote its values, advance its objectives [and] serve its interests”, not yours.
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