Pream or scream?

I love Pream ads more than life itself, because they're so odd. (For those who are less than 100 years old, Pream was the first powdered coffee creamer, and it was made of milk solids, which is why it ultimately failed. The damn stuff just didn't dissolve in coffee and turned to sludge at the bottom.)

Oddest of the odd is this lady with her weird facial expressions, which lent themselves to manipulation through screenshots. I was surprised to see how easily I could completely change the look on her face, from puzzlement to near-paranoia. 

She obviously has her doubts about that Pream.

The cat with kaleidoscope eyes

It's rare to see a cat with two differently-colored eyes (heterochromia), but even more rare to see sectoral heterochromia, in which each eye has two or more colors. It gives these cats an eerie look, and as you can tell from the pictures, usually (for reasons unknown) they're white. Except for this remarkable kitty. . .

Those who've been off the internet grid for a couple of years won't have heard of Venus, who has been called a "chimera cat" because she is supposedly her own fraternal twin. In truth, she's probably just an unlikely-colored calico (sometimes called a tortoise-shell or "tortie") who happens to have heterochromic eyes. Other cats have popped up on Google images with similar facial markings, but no other cat has that glamorous blue-and-gold "I vahnt to be alone" gaze.

Hot dog monster

Cooking tip: clean the rake first.

Harold's moment of glory

Ten seconds of movie history! The scene that secured Harold Lloyd as one of the three great geniuses of silent comedy.

WHEN CRANES ATTACK!

Bears run! 

Gators hide!

Poor little kitty

Gonna go for a ride!

Dogs scamper

Flowers cringe

And the poor armadillo

Is going off its hinge

IT'S THE CRANES

(the cranes)

THE CRANES

(the cranes)

The rockin' and a-rollin'

Peckin' and a-trollin'

Gopher-eatin', bear chasin', wing-flappin'

SANDHILL CRANES!

The actor: Harold Lloyd's reaction shots

A memorable Harold Lloyd reaction shot from Girl Shy. Harold plays a yokel whose book "How to Make Love" has just been rejected by a publisher as ridiculous and worthless. But his expression isn't a reaction to that humiliation. This was his one chance to win a very wealthy girl he has fallen in love with, and that dream has just turned to dust.  

This scene proves what Hal Roach famously said: "Harold Lloyd was not a comedian. But he was the best actor playing a comedian who ever lived." Any dramatic actor would be hard-pressed to sustain scenes of emotional distress with such skill. 

He himself didn't think he was very funny, but he could "do" funny superbly. His pathos never turned to bathos, as sometimes happened with Chaplin (whose films are much more dated than Harold's). And as Roach said, Harold was a plausible leading man whose romantic quests weren't vaguely creepy or driven by pity.

Harold didn't wear a clown suit or pull faces or do any of the things silent comics did to get a laugh. He was an ordinary person caught up in extraordinary circumstances, and his complete inability to cope brought the audience on-side like nothing else. But when he triumphed in the end, all of our own failed fantasies were brilliantly realized. 

And one more thing - he always got the girl.

Rescuing Cats From Super Tall Trees

These two guys are my heroes! They're arborists (we used to call them tree surgeons) who have a sideline which is fast becoming a specialty: rescuing cats stuck in trees. The plaintive meowing of these poor little creatures is pathetic to hear, but the reunions with anxious owners is gratifying. They used to be on a show called Treetop Cat Rescue which was on Animal Planet, but they only made about eight episodes (which I keep watching, whenever I need to remind myself that there is MORE to life and the world than the direness, misery and hate we all see on the news every day).

Screenshots: Harold in stop motion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This may not look like much to you (and, in fact, it isn't), but for me it represents something big: my first attempt to capture stills from video. I never even tried this for years, because every time I went on a site to find out how to do it, the instructions seemed more and more complex and full of bafflegab (not to mention contradictory, with everyone describing a different method). Then, bingo, I found a page today where you only have to highlight, copy, paste, and click. 

Et voila! You have a screenshot.

The thing of it is, though, that taking a series of screenshots and then putting them back together into an animation is kind of - well, it's a little redundant. An exercise, at best. I tell myself: honest to God, I can't help but learn something about REAL animation this way. But a gif would do just as well, wouldn't it? Or better.

But perhaps not. This way I can edit scenes, add characters, use title cards, include surreal images, and all manner of other stuff, once I know what I'm doing.

This is a kind of stop motion Harold cartoon. Claymation, if you will. His middle name was Clayton, after all. I have fantasies of manipulating this little clay figure, making him do things, even things he doesn't want to do. . . time to go to bed, Margaret.

The pre-recorded eye

Who ARE these people?

How I wish I could find out more about this video and the women in it! I found it on a YouTube channel that has hardly anything on it. The song was featured on a couple of movie soundtracks, including Fargo and Brother, Where Art Thou? It's a traditional tune with many versions, but is believed to originate with slaves in the U. S. south, predating the Civil War. Some say it's about a runaway slave; some say, a runaway mother leaving a child behind. What fascinates me about this version is the rhythmic table-thumping and clapping. I love the joy of these singers, but WHO ARE THEY? This is what is so frustrating about YouTube, and about the internet in general: the fragmentary or non-existent information about things you are fascinated with. 

I did find a name, Cartes sur table (cards on the table), but when I clicked on it I got reams of news videos from somewhere, don't know where but "not here". Nothing else. The name of the channel it was on rings no bells. Mystery. 

Nigerian romance scam: one woman's story

wow, I know you must get this compliment every day.. what a beauty, my conscience wont forgive me if I don't say "you look cute"

I was looking through some profile and yours caught my eyes.. so I stop to say a quick "Hello".

Hello Pretty, how are you doing, I saw your profile while surfing through and your profile caught my attention... I will want to know more about you...

Blogger's observation. This message was in my "junk inbox" this morning, the one I'm not supposed to open, so I just had to have a look at it. I've had my share of "hello pretty ladt" and "how you are today?" and stories of lonely men in the military and distance not being an obstacle to romance and blah blah blah (two grown sons, an Irish setter named Champ, bounding along the beach at sunset wearing a Cowichan sweater, etc. etc.)

They want my money, they must, because they (whoever they are - possibly Nigerian scammers) have absolutely no idea who I am. If they're following me on Facebook, my profile pics are of horses and Harold Lloyd. 

The weird thing about this "message" is that it's really three messages glommed together. They're trying to pick me up three times in a row, which is odd. Even if they DID see my actual profile, what I really look like, and so on, I am 63 years old, a grandmother four times over, and decidedly NOT the Hello Pretty type. 

I'm not saying I look "bad". I look 63. Nothing wrong with that, but how many lonely widowers in the military with Irish setters named Champ are after 60-something pensioners with no money?

The thing of it is, this shit must work. All this ungrammatical, poorly-spelled glop about nice smiles and "wow, you must have heard this a thousand times" does something to somebody, or they wouldn't keep doing it. These are mass mailouts, of course, going out to thousands. Even if one bites, it must be worth it. I've heard of supposedly intelligent women having their life savings, hundreds of thousands of dollars, siphoned off by some heartless parasite, bankrupting her and destroying her happiness forever.

I haven't had any "filtered requests" on Facebook lately, perhaps because they're actually filtering them now rather than tossing them into a secret junk file. They're some of the best, my favorite being:

HELLO PRETTY LADT I WAS JUST PASSING WHEN I SEE YOUR WONDERFUL BEAUTIFUL FACE I WAS CATIVATED IF YOU DONT MINE CAN WE BE FRIENDS


I'm still trying to figure out what it means to be "cativated". Maybe I'd better ask my cat?

This is a somewhat related, but plenty weird "filtered request" I received a few years ago. As with most of these things, I didn't even see it until recently. I have no idea who this is or why he wants me to have this information. I don't remember writing anything about schizophrenia. What interests me is that he lives on Pitcairn, a remote Polynesian community in which almost all the residents are genetically related to Fletcher Christian of Mutiny on the Bounty fame. Far from being a romantic South Seas island, Pitcairn is a grim place known for its rampant sexual abuse, in which the small local prison is always overflowing. 

You and Mike Cee aren't connected on Facebook
Lives in Adamstown, Pitcairn Islands
10/14/2014 11:32am

I spoke to some doctors about stem cell therapy for schizophrenia as a cure. They said it might work cause the cells have the ability to transform and repair existing cells. Its not done publicly because many drug companies would loss billions and many doctors would loss their practices. Let the doctors explain it.

http://stemcellofamerica.com/
http://stemedix.com
www.stemcellrevolution.com
http://www.worldstemcellsclinic.com

10/15/2014 6:49pm

The truth is already out there. It has worked on rat brains. These are published articles of stem cell working for Schizophrenia:

www.news.wisc.edu/21698

www.theguardian.com/science/2010/may/27/bone-marrow-transplants-mental-illness

www.nature.com/mp/journal/v18/n11/full/mp2013111a.html

www.schizophrenia.com/sznews/archives/004111.html

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130909152958.htm

uthscsa.edu/hscnews/singleformat2.asp?newID=4590

weill.cornell.edu/news/news/2014/05/brain-cell-transplants-reverse-psychosis-in-schizophrenic-mice-betsy-ross.html

timesofsandiego.com/tech/2014/09/11/ucsd-finds-chemical-cause-schizophrenia/

schizophrenia.com/?p=394

www.pnas.org/content/111/20/7450

www.jneurosci.org/content/34/29/9506.short

www.google.com/m?q=interneuron+stem+cell+therapy&client=ms-opera-mini&channel=new

www.google.com/m?q=neural+stem+cell+therapy&client=ms-opera-mini&channel=new