Musings...

[daringspirit]

[daringspirit]

This broke me...

I took this from reddit that someone else had posted, I don’t know the original author.

Dogs never die.

They don’t know how to. They get tired, and very old, and their bones hurt. Of course they don’t die. If they did they would not want to always go for a walk, even long after their old bones say: ‘No, no, not a good idea. Let’s not go for a walk.’ Nope, dogs always want to go for a walk. They might get one step before their aging tendons collapse them into a heap on the floor, but that’s what dogs are. They walk.

It’s not that they dislike your company. On the contrary, a walk with you is all there is. Their boss, and the cacaphonic symphony of odor that the world is. Cat poop, another dog’s mark, a rotting chicken bone (exultation), and you. That’s what makes their world perfect, and in a perfect world death has no place.

However, dogs get very very sleepy. That’s the thing, you see. They don’t teach you that at the fancy university where they explain about quarks, gluons, and Keynesian economics. They know so much they forget that dogs never die. It’s a shame, really. Dogs have so much to offer and people just talk a lot.

When you think your dog has died, it has just fallen asleep in your heart. And by the way, it is wagging its tail madly, you see, and that’s why your chest hurts so much and you cry all the time. Who would not cry with a happy dog wagging its tail in their chest. Ouch! Wap wap wap wap wap, that hurts. But they only wag when they wake up. That’s when they say: 'Thanks Boss! Thanks for a warm place to sleep and always next to your heart, the best place.’

When they first fall asleep, they wake up all the time, and that’s why, of course, you cry all the time. Wap, wap, wap. After a while they sleep more. (remember, a dog while is not a human while. You take your dog for walk, it’s a day full of adventure in an hour. Then you come home and it’s a week, well one of your days, but a week, really, before the dog gets another walk. No WONDER they love walks.)

Anyway, like I was saying, they fall asleep in your heart, and when they wake up, they wag their tail. After a few dog years, they sleep for longer naps, and you would too. They were a GOOD DOG all their life, and you both know it. It gets tiring being a good dog all the time, particularly when you get old and your bones hurt and you fall on your face and don’t want to go outside to pee when it is raining but do anyway, because you are a good dog. So understand, after they have been sleeping in your heart, they will sleep longer and longer.

But don’t get fooled. They are not 'dead.’ There’s no such thing, really. They are sleeping in your heart, and they will wake up, usually when you’re not expecting it. It’s just who they are.

[daringspirit]

This broke me...

I took this from reddit that someone else had posted, I don't know the original author.

Dogs never die.

They don’t know how to. They get tired, and very old, and their bones hurt. Of course they don’t die. If they did they would not want to always go for a walk, even long after their old bones say: 'No, no, not a good idea. Let's not go for a walk.' Nope, dogs always want to go for a walk. They might get one step before their aging tendons collapse them into a heap on the floor, but that's what dogs are. They walk.

It’s not that they dislike your company. On the contrary, a walk with you is all there is. Their boss, and the cacaphonic symphony of odor that the world is. Cat poop, another dog’s mark, a rotting chicken bone (exultation), and you. That’s what makes their world perfect, and in a perfect world death has no place.

However, dogs get very very sleepy. That’s the thing, you see. They don't teach you that at the fancy university where they explain about quarks, gluons, and Keynesian economics. They know so much they forget that dogs never die. It’s a shame, really. Dogs have so much to offer and people just talk a lot.

When you think your dog has died, it has just fallen asleep in your heart. And by the way, it is wagging its tail madly, you see, and that’s why your chest hurts so much and you cry all the time. Who would not cry with a happy dog wagging its tail in their chest. Ouch! Wap wap wap wap wap, that hurts. But they only wag when they wake up. That’s when they say: 'Thanks Boss! Thanks for a warm place to sleep and always next to your heart, the best place.'

When they first fall asleep, they wake up all the time, and that’s why, of course, you cry all the time. Wap, wap, wap. After a while they sleep more. (remember, a dog while is not a human while. You take your dog for walk, it’s a day full of adventure in an hour. Then you come home and it's a week, well one of your days, but a week, really, before the dog gets another walk. No WONDER they love walks.)

Anyway, like I was saying, they fall asleep in your heart, and when they wake up, they wag their tail. After a few dog years, they sleep for longer naps, and you would too. They were a GOOD DOG all their life, and you both know it. It gets tiring being a good dog all the time, particularly when you get old and your bones hurt and you fall on your face and don’t want to go outside to pee when it is raining but do anyway, because you are a good dog. So understand, after they have been sleeping in your heart, they will sleep longer and longer.

But don’t get fooled. They are not 'dead.' There’s no such thing, really. They are sleeping in your heart, and they will wake up, usually when you’re not expecting it. It’s just who they are.

[daringspirit]

Pattern can be downloaded here:

Snowdog Knitting Pattern

[daringspirit]

That time of year again. Enjoy.

[daringspirit]

Pattern can be downloaded here:

Snowdog Knitting Pattern

[meantfortheshore]

[moremetalthanyourmom]

Okay but after seeing this I started doing it too and it’s amazing how many men I’ve run into bc they expected me to move

[youcangofindatree-deactivated20]

Gotta try it

[clevermanka]

I work (and walk) on a college campus. I’ve lost count of how many men I’ve smacked shoulders with.

[emmagrant01]

Recently, I was standing outside my son’s classroom waiting to talk to his teacher. I stood on one side of the hallway, not even close to the center. At some point, a man came walking along. I was standing right in his path, but the hallway was empty, so I logically expected him to swerve around me. Instead he kept walking right toward me, got to me, and stopped, as if waiting for me to get out of his way. I didn’t; I just smiled politely at him. He finally walked around me, clearly annoyed that I hadn’t leapt out of his manly path.

Now I’m wishing I’d leapt aside, taken off my jacket and laid it on the floor before him, then bowed deeply and said, “My Liege!”

[mercurialkitty]

I also work at a college campus. I smack shoulders sometimes, but I find that if I stare straight ahead and follow the advice below, people get the heck out of the way.

[songbirde108]

Honestly this post changed how I carry myself when walking alone in public, or in a situation where I’m the one leading. People definitely move for the murder gaze.

[onethingconstant]

Confirmed. I once had to rush back inside a convention hall as the con was closing in order to a retrieve a sick friend’s medication, and I didn’t understand why people in the crowd were jumping out of my way (literally—one guy vaulted a table) until I realized I was dressed as the Winter Soldier and doing the Murder Walk because that’s just how I walk in those boots. I got the meds, got out, and made a mental note.

I repeated the experiment later, wearing the boots but otherwise my usual clothing and mimicking the expression I thought I’d had at that moment. People parted like I was Charlton Heston.

I now wear that style of boots whenever possible. I recently had a man do a double-take as I walked by and ask me, politely, where I had served because I “looked like a soldier.” I’m not current or former military. I was wearing a flowy purple peasant top and looked as un-soldierlike as possible.

Moral of the story: wear comfortable shoes, square your shoulders, and walk like you’ve been sent to murder Captain America.

[thorinobsessed]

MY NEW ATTITUDE: Moral of the story: wear comfortable shoes, square your shoulders, and walk like you’ve been sent to murder Captain America.

[omakeno]

[daringspirit]

Pattern can be downloaded here:

Snowdog Knitting Pattern

[androlphegax]

[giraffepoliceforce]

[nizzlekicks]

i can’t beleive this

[michmoon]

IT IS 2015

[amroyounes]

Answer: The third, the lions already starved to death

Answer: The poison was in the ice

Answer: She shot her husband with a camera and then developed the picture

Answer: There is no mail on Sundays

[riotworkshop]

[micdotcom]

Watch: Lillian is a burlesque dancer and her TEDx talk nails the key to positive body image

[the-desolated-quill]

The 12 Days of Christine - Inside No. 9 blog

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

Very rarely do I watch or read something that leaves me utterly speechless by the power of its story, characters and themes. It happened with George Orwell’s Animal Farm. It happened with Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. And now it’s happened with The 12 Days of Christine, which in my opinion is one of the most perfect television episodes ever made.

The story follows a young woman named Christine during significant days of her life. She has a one night stand with a guy she met at a New Year’s Party, then 13 months later their in a relationship on Valentine’s Day. She introduces Adam to her mother on Mother’s Day before he moves in the following year on Easter. On May Bank holiday it’s revealed that Christine and Adam are married and that she’s pregnant. Fast forward thirteen months later on Father’s Day where we see them tending to their baby. Another thirteen months later, it’s Christine’s birthday and she begins to suspect Adam is having an affair. Yet another thirteen months later, we see Adam and Christine’s relationship become strained on the first day of the summer holidays before we skip forward to her son’s first day of school where we learn Adam and Christine are now divorced. After that events occur on Halloween and Bonfire Night, which I will talk about in a bit, before everything builds to a grand emotional climax on Christmas Day and quite possibly one of the most shocking plot twists this side of The Empire Strikes Back.

This episode is effectively an analysis of the ups and downs of life from the perspective of a normal everyday woman. Part of what makes this episode so compelling is Christine herself, played by Sheridan Smith who gives a truly phenomenal performance. She accomplishes the very hard task of making Christine feel like a real person. She’s likeable and incredibly sympathetic, making the slow deterioration of her life that much more tragic and the final scenes all the more upsetting.

Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith have always been great writers, but this is by far their best work to date. The exposition never feels clunky, the characters are fully rounded and three dimensional, the dialogue feels completely natural and there is just a real sense of maturity about the whole project. They have come a long way as writers and this feels like a culmination of everything they’ve learned over the years. Like an accumulative learning experience building up to this very story.

Okay. I suppose I should talk about the twists and turns of the narrative. In case you’ve missed the spoiler warning at the beginning, if you haven’t seen this episode, stop reading now. This is one of those stories you have to experience for yourself and I’d hate to ruin it for you. So go away and watch it now if you haven’t already. Don’t worry. I’ll still be here when you get back. I’ll wait.

…

See? Wasn’t that ending a real punch to the gut?

Watching this episode the first time was incredibly confusing. Why exactly were we jumping around all over the place? And what’s the deal with all these strange occurrences? The eggs being thrown on the wall. Reece Shearsmith in a soaking wet yellow mac. Andrea Bocelli and Sandra Brightman’s Time To Say Goodbye being played at inappropriate moments and dead relatives randomly popping up where they shouldn’t. Pemberton and Shearsmith really go out of their way to put us in Christine’s shoes, making us feel her disorientation and confusion, and really making us question what the bloody hell is going on.

Pemberton and Shearsmith offer us a couple of red herrings. The first being the Valentines card Christine receives from her ex-boyfriend. It’s revealed that the boyfriend actually died years before so he couldn’t possibly have sent the card. Now the stranger that keeps appearing in Christine’s flat bears a striking resemblance to the photo we briefly glimpse of Christine’s ex and so I first assumed that he was perhaps the spirit of her ex exacting revenge, or perhaps repressed memories of her ex tormenting her as she starts her new relationship. It sounds like the kind of thing Shearsmith and Pemberton would do.

Then we discover that her father has Alzheimer’s disease and he’s slowly deteriorating eventually leading to his death. Now they actually spend quite a lot of time on the father and making reference to his condition. There’s even a beautiful scene where Christine breaks down and cries over how everything seems to have gone wrong and his spirit/memory comforts her. So I thought they must be subtly foreshadowing that Christine is afflicted with the same condition and as she gets older, we see her memories getting more and more jumbled before we see a full mental collapse. And I was half right.

From Halloween onward we see Christine become more and more aware of these strange occurrences and random leaps forward in time, whereas before she dismissed them as bad dreams or mere coincidence. She sees the stranger again, thinking he’s kidnapping her son, then we switch to Bonfire Night where her son has burnt his hand on a sparkler, only for him to suddenly be healed and her realising that she was the one that burnt her hand on a sparkler years before. On Christmas Day, both Christine and the audience are incredibly confused. What the fuck is going on?! Then we see her look through a photo album and she comments on how it feels like her life is flashing before her eyes. And that’s when everything falls into place with a horrible clang.

Turns out all of this has been taking place inside Christine’s mind. What we’ve been watching is her life literally flashing before her eyes as she slowly dies after a car crash. Suddenly everything makes sense now. The stranger we’ve been seeing was actually the man who walked out in front of her car causing the crash and was the one who pulled her son from the wreckage, hence the numerous scenes of him ‘kidnapping’ her son. The eggs being thrown on the wall were actually the broken eggs on the windscreen. Time To Say Goodbye was playing on the car radio when the crash occurred. And the jumbled memories, dead relatives and mysterious Valentines cards were her memories getting mixed up as her mind tries to make sense of her last dying thoughts. Constantine writers, take note. This is how you do a good plot twist.

Watching The 12 Days of Christine a second time around was a lot more fun as we can now pick up on the subtle hints and clues scattered around. Like the strange sounds that occur during scene transitions is actually Christine’s heartbeat and the car alarm or the flickering lights that on a second viewing look more like the flashing lights of an ambulance. There’s even a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ bit of foreshadowing where we see Christine nearly trip over a toy car. And it’s interesting to question whether or not what we’re seeing is what actually occurred or if it’s a rough facsimile of her life as Christine’s mind slowly shuts down.

The 12 Days of Christine is one of, if not the, best episodes of a television series I’ve ever seen. It’s expertly written, wonderfully performed, beautifully directed by Guilem Morales. If I was feeling arrogant and pretentious (which I am) I would call this a masterpiece. In fact, I award The 12 Days of Christine the Quill Seal of Approval. This is a must-see. A truly phenomenal piece of television. If Inside No. 9 gets cancelled after this, I’ll be EXTREMELY upset.

[officialqi]

Hippos use their sweat as sunscreen.

qi.com/zoo

[daringspirit]

Inside No. 9 | Season 2 Episode 2 | The 12 Days Of Christine | Full Episode

[daringspirit]

Pattern can be downloaded here:

Snowdog Knitting Pattern

[crochetknitnut-blog]

Off D'Hook Creations

https://www.facebook.com/OffDhookCreations/photos_stream

Beautiful crochet dolls - not mine but worth checking out. She occasionally sells them here https://www.etsy.com/shop/OffDHookCreations but mostly she donates to worthy causes.

I was asked this on Instagram but I thought I’d share it here to if you don’t mind. There are so many new followers. This is my journey: I thought this was the perfect time to explain Offdhookcreations again and what I stand for. I originally learned to crochet when I was 16yrs old. I actually taught myself from a book ( yes a book, long before the Internet). Then after my daughter was born I stopped crocheting for years. I picked my hook back up after years of not crocheting when I watched a child removed from their house by CPS (child protective services) & they had to leave everything behind. Not only was their world shattered but all their possessions and everything they held dear was gone. My heart was broken! I was tired of looking around me and seeing the misery and suffering of people less fortunate then I was/am. So I decided to help in some way, however small. I had always loved making dolls/toys, so I decided to combine my love for creating and helping. I began giving dolls/toys to local police stations, emergency rooms, and cps agencies so the kids would have something comforting to hold on to. This expanded to include domestic violence shelters, some homeless shelters that allow kids and occasionally children’s hospitals. I donate to ANYWHERE that I think I could bring a small amount of happiness. The little angels go to people in nursing homes and the local meals on wheels programs. Recently my path changed direction when I joined Instagram and people got to see my dolls. Soon I had a few requests to make my dolls available to the public. I honored that request, but still wanted to give to my charities as well. So I switched the way I gave to charities. This allowed me to donate specific things requested, as well as dolls, clothes, and monetary donations. Then my path changed again. I found that I was able to create special little browndolls for browngirls all over that wanted a doll that look a little more like them. Unfortunately the commercial market doesn’t carry a wide selection of these dolls, so I’ve taken on the mission to make as many as I can, as long as the need is there. I still make all types of dolls, but browndolls have been my focus lately, as that is where the need/requests seem to be. I absolutely love what I do, and am very fortunate to be in a position to help others and I strive to help at least one other person daily. A sort of pay it forward type of concept I guess!! It brings me such joy and happiness to see how one of my dolls makes a person smile, provides a little girl with a best friend to identify with, and actually make a small difference in this world. I believe there is still some good in this world we live in!! I’m not restricted though, if and when I see a worthy cause I jump in where and when I can. I just happen have a soft spot for soft toys and I LOVE LOVE LOVE to both to create and crochet!!!!! :)) Thank you so much for all your encouraging and kind words! I’m happier then you know to share my creations with you all!!!