Red Shoe Ramblings

Ok, WordPress and I just had our first lover’s quarrel. I just wrote a whole big post, complete with LOTS of links and stuff and I hit save and it frickin’ ATE the whole damn thing! Whooooosh….gone! Aaarrrgggghhhh!!! We are NOT amused. So I will try to somewhat recreate that post now, but I’m making no promises. Sigh.

Anyway, this whole thing is in response to some comments received on yesterday’s schnapps-soaked post because I decided the replies deserved a post of their very own. Maybe this time WP will agree with me.

About Squirrels

Shaz wrote, “Do they bite? can you train them?”

Yes, they bite if you try to get too close, which they mostly won’t let you do. They are, after all, just wild rodents with fluffy tails. As Dragonfly mentioned, they can be trained to be pets if you get one really young (like an orphan or something) and I’ve heard of some squirrels in city parks who get so used to people that they’ll come close for food. But mostly, out in nature, you want to just watch them from a distance, because if they let you get too close it probably means they’re sick, and they can carry some nasty stuff, like rabies and other diseases.

About Veronica Mars

Kristen wrote, “I want to know if I should be watching Veronica Mars…..I’ve heard it’s great!”

I see by other comments that I’m not alone in saying Yes! You should be watching Veronica Mars! Or at least you should if you like the same sorts of shows I do. Read on…

I’d never seen VM during its regular broadcast because we don’t get the WB network or the new CW network, but I’d heard so many good things that I’d figured maybe I’d want to watch it on DVD “someday.” I wasn’t in any hurry though.

But then I read an interview with Joss Whedon, creator of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (and “Angel” and “Firefly”), and a god. Not THE God, of course, but a god. I wish I could remember where I read the interview so I could link to it, but unfortunately I don’t. Anyway, in that interview, Joss mentioned how much he liked VM, saying he thought it had some of the best writing of any show currently on TV. When your favorite TV writer praises the writing of another show, well…that made me move VM from a “maybe someday” show to one where I put the Season One DVD set on top of my Christmas wish list.

J said to order it for myself “from” him and it arrived a few days ago. I’ve watched 8 episodes so far and I’m hooked. I’ll definitely be ordering Season Two soon and Season Three when it’s released on DVD. It has very clever dialogue and the sorts of characters who aren’t all good or all bad, but rather a very human mix of the two. It isn’t focused on the supernatural like Buffy was, but it’s similar in the way it mixes humor and darkness in almost equal measure - kind of like real life.

About the Daily Art Thangs

Amy was the first among several to say she hoped I’d continue with the DAT series.

Y’know, one reason I hadn’t said anything is that I’ve had moments when I really considered not doing this next year. I don’t mean I’d never have posted another photo or anything, far from it. But I thought about making it an “Almost Daily Art Thang” because there have been days in ‘06 when I SO did not feel like dealing with figuring out something to post. But I’m stubborn about following through with commitments, whether they’re to others or to myself, so I did it even on days when I really didn’t feel like it. And I think that’s been good for me. It’s forced me to look around and FIND something creative (well, more-or-less anyway) even on days when I didn’t think I could.

So yes, I plan to continue to post a Daily Art Thang. And if I’m really sorry I said that a few weeks or months down the line, I’m going to post a big, fat WHINE about it and I expect every last one of you who wanted me to continue this series to give me virtual pats on the shoulder and “aaaahh, there, there, Deb” comments. HA!

Speaking of Daily Art Thangs

Here’s today’s:

“Thorn Tree”

(clickable)