Why Ryan is such an awesome kid!

For one thing, he plays a trombone that's bigger than he is. He could've played clarinet in band - even a trumpet - saxophone, those are cool - but no. It had to be trombone.

Playing an instrument like this is hazardous. Musicians are vulnerable to certain kinds of injuries, and this one was particularly painful. While putting his instrument together, his hand was literally pinched in the slide, necessitating a trip to Emergency. There was just one problem. . . his Taekwondo red belt test was in a couple of days. Obviously he'd have to cancel. This is a very big deal because the whole class takes the test together, and it's a rite of passage for them.

But let's not forget, this is Ryan, the Taekwondo Kid! Here he is ace-ing his test, a private test as it turned out, making it much more dramatic (and filmable - you usually can't pick them out of the herd). It has a sort of Karate Kid/Pat Morita/wax-on-wax-off vibe to it.

Breaking the board. And overcoming considerable adversity at the same time. So bow to the new red belt champion. Way to go, Ry!

And here he is getting ready to play his trombone at the school Christmas concert. 

Special bonus gif: Ryan singing in the choir.

AWESOME images of Christmas!

Boy did it take me a long time to make this! I had to assemble some of my favorite Christmas images, but then the gif program didn't want to accept them, or even acknowledge them. They seemed to have disappeared in a puff of smoke. I kept working at it, found a better gif site (they are everywhere now), and lo! Here they are. These are things that remind me of the comfort, coziness and awe of the season. The Christmas squirrel is especially meaningful, reminding me of the squirrel in my favorite Christmas movie, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Enjoy! (You know as well as I do that the "awesome" is clickbait.)

Taekwondo Master: Ryan earns his red belt!

Ryan aces it, nails it, bam! He's the Taekwondo Kid, earning his red belt with moves that are well-practiced and confident. He had to miss his group test due to an injury, but the advantage is this unobstructed video that reminds me of the Karate Kid working out with that guy, you know, Pat Morita? Oh well. It's cool! Way to go, Ryan.

Wax on, wax off.

Taekwondo Master: Ryan breaks that board!

The final step in Ryan's red belt test for Taekwondo. This little guy really takes it seriously, and as you can see, he aces it. He was unable to take part in the group test due to a hand injury, but there was an advantage in the delay: Mom was able to take this awesome video (and I never use the term unless it is absolutely warranted!)

I was delighted to get a comment from a reader in Tanzania telling me they couldn't view the original video (which was in the wrong format - I YouTubed it to make it easier to post). I don't always know who my readers are, or where they are. I try not to be too obsessive about this, afraid I'll lose the purpose of the blog (the satisfaction of writing and putting it out there). I've had a lot more views lately, inexplicably, and I'm happy about it, but I will keep going even if I don't. I recently passed three thousand posts, and though I was going to celebrate it, I decided not to. Just a signpost along the way.

Yaaaay, Ryan!

Scary Santas

Some of these Santas aren't even human. I am not sure what they are. Many should not still be at large. And why is it we ask our children to go sit on the lap of a man they don't even know, a big obnoxious man covered in fur who keeps going "ho, ho, ho"? The rest of the time we tell them not to even TALK to strangers. No wonder so many of the little kids in these pictures are screaming with terror.

A scary litttle Christmas

W'all, w'all, w'all (Jimmy Stewart festive stammer), usually this time of year I make gifs of weird, creepy or disturbing Christmas videos. Just the good bits. But not everyone likes gifs, and they don't always even run smoothly. They're being replaced by mp3 videos which are infinitely more sophisticated. But from the format of this blog, I think you can gather that I hate infinitely more sophisticated.

This year I'm posting whole videos. There's always the risk my zillions of readers won't bother to watch them (and with gifs, they don't have much choice: there they are, repeating, and repeating, and repeating). But some of these things cry out for context.

This is a harmless enough stop-motion video from the 1950s, and it used to run every year on public television. Kids looked forward to seeing it. The elves are cute enough, though Hardrock seems oddly named. Is there a cafe named after him, I wonder, or is he a hard rock musician, or what? The mystery is never solved.

But the reason I'm posting it under this Festival of Creepy Christmas Videos is that the Santa in this thing WON the First Annual Creepy Santa Smackdown in 2014 (which included gifs from all sorts of bizarre old cartoons and puppet shows from the '50s). That is, he won it in the first year. In the second year (link below), I found a whole bunch of new shit. I might re-run the whole post, which I don't like to do, but Lord-oh-Lord did it take a long time to make all those gifs!

(I just went back and looked at the actual post. He won in the second year, too.)

You're not going to believe or even comprehend the Santa in this thing. Why were so many children's programs so creepy back then, or were they maybe not creepy at all and our standards have changed?

You decide.
 

Second Annual Creepy Santa Smackdown!

(Read at your own risk.)

Mother cat and kitten: furry love

Lazy cats

A Margaret Atwood Christmas

Atwood is a great subject for my PicMix art because every one of her images on Google is a posed, professional author photo. That means lots of blank space in behind - either that, or walls of books, and both of them gif up really nicely. As it turned out, there was a minimum of silliness in these (a little disappointing, really, but these aren't meant to be mockery). At the same time, the greatest weakness of these photos is that they are posed, professional author photos, meaning they are virtually interchangeable.

You have to try on all sorts of background effects for these things. One of them had her entire library in flames, and her in it. I didn't use it. This has some sort of vibrating Santa in the background, but that part doesn't show. The feverish, shifting stars are a nice touch. The animation is so bad in these that it's a kind of poetry.

Atwood as Santa was just too tempting to resist. 

In this one she looks uncannily like Barbra Streisand. I think the background of exploding roses is, if anything, restrained, so I had to use puppies and kittens to balance it.

This will cause seasickness if viewed for longer than ten seconds.

Jinglebell rock.

Icelandic horses: disaster on ice

I saw a gif of this a few years ago and quailed. Yes, I quailed. Not to be confused with kvelled. I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. There is a complete version in the video below, but I am not sure you want to see it. I watched it - the parts of it I could watch - through my splayed fingers.

It soon becomes apparent that the water is not terribly deep, only coming up to the horse's backs, but that poses problems of its own. Trying desperately to gain a footing, the horses flail violently. Broken legs and hypothermia were a dread here, because these horses are small - ponies, really, though accustomed to harsh conditions and thick-coated. This is ice water, however, and they are soaking in it for God knows how long.

I want to tell you, and I WILL tell you, that all of them were rescued, though no one was remotely prepared for this sort of thing. There was much criticism of having this many horses run on the ice at the same time. It's some sort of traditional race held every year, but with global warming - well, never mind. I promised never to write about that again.

The shock and horror of this tiny clip still resonates. It seems like a disaster without a solution, but these horses are plucky and tough. They must have good grips in their hooves, too, or the ice would have proven too much for them.

It's a wonderful cookie: classic Christmas shortbread

Christmas Shortbread Cookies

1/2 cup cornstarch

1/2 cup icing sugar
1 cup flour
3/4 cup butter, room temperature

Combine dry ingredients in large bowl. Cut in butter, then mix with your hands to form a soft dough. Shape into 1 inch balls or roll out and make shapes with Christmas cookie cutters. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet 1 ½  inches apart. If making balls, flatten with a fork. Bake in 300-degree oven for 10 - 15 minutes. Watch very carefully, as these can turn brown in seconds! 

I've kept this blog for - I don't know how many years, and I am not sure I want to check. I do it mainly for myself. It hasn't helped me sell a single copy of my three published novels, though I was urged to start it by a publisher. And after more than three thousand posts, I am finally doing the thing I swore I'd never do.

The lowest of the low points in a blogger's life.

I'm posting a recipe.

But hey, it's a really simple one, and my mother used it before me. Her shortbread always came out better than mine, with a light texture, not flaky, but better than flaky - sort of velvety, like her pie crust. Yet I use the same ingredients for my pie crust, too.

This time of year sucks big-time in a lot of ways, and yet, when I'm not abysmally low and almost despairing, I find myself getting all frisked and sparkly like the Grinch's little dog. And I want to clap myself down in the same way.

Why?

You guess why. This ain't a good world, and please don't tell me about the kindergarten program that makes Christmas cards for homeless people, and how this act redeems all the ugliness and hate in the world - nay, totally negates it. Things haven't been good this year on the world stage, and no matter how chirpy and Jiminy Cricket-ish some people are getting (as a form of denial or, perhaps, whistling in the dark), I can't see it getting much better. To say the least.

That's as much as I am willing to say about it.

So I take what comfort I can - and it's considerable - hell, it's the best I've ever had - from my family, who have always been the best anyway. Nothing else is even close. No matter what kind of failure I think I am as a writer (and it's not that I think I'm a shitty writer, as everyone assumes - it's just that I sold three copies in 2015, and that ain't good no matter how you look at it), I know I am an awesome Grandma. How do I know? To differentiate me from the other one, who by the way is a lovely person, the kids call me "Awesome Grandma", and I don't mind, no, I don't mind at all.

I don't even use the word awesome, or I use it very sparingly, and only when something is truly worthy of the term.

So there!

Bracing for the avalanche

Having grown up in Southwestern Ontario, where a few feet of snowfall and minus-40 temperatures aren't that unusual (OK then, minus-20, but it was minus-40 in Alberta), I find the snow phobia in Vancouver somewhat laughable. 

All week, and even last week, people have been anxiously talking about the horrendous blizzard which was about to hit the Lower Mainland on Thursday night. When I went to ask the pharmacist at Walmart about vitamins, she said, "I don't know about vitamins. Everyone wants to talk about the snowstorm coming."

The anxiety was palpable. Could we risk driving into the city to go to Ryan's Christmas concert on Thursday night, when the disaster was supposed to hit? We weren't sure. Everyone was telling us not to. Everyone told us cars were skidding all over the place and colliding, because nobody around here has ever heard of snow tires. (It's also hard to text and drive at the same time.)

So here's today's report for Friday, December 9, one day post-blizzard (emphasis mine):

A snowstorm that was expected to hit the Metro Vancouver area failed to materialize Thursday evening, but snow was beginning to fall across the region early Friday morning. (OMG - look at that thing! What is it? Is it a snowflake?)

After a witheringly cold, clear couple of days in Metro Vancouver ("better wear a jacket today, hon"), a major storm was set to hit the area late Thursday. While the weather was relatively clear Thursday night (oh come on, guys, admit it, you were WRONG about this!), another wave of precipitation is expected Saturday, though that will likely fall as rain at lower elevations. (In other words, it will rain. In Vancouver.)

With the entrenched Arctic air mass over southern B. C. and the looming (! Let's get some menacing language in here) Pacific storm, Metro Vancouver is bracing to respond to the weather challenges. (I see a good half-inch of snow on the ground outside my window.) 

Insurance companies are bracing for another avalanche of calls (avalanche??) as the region braces for another snow storm. ("Bracing, braces - " was this written in a hurry?)

This week's icy and snowy weather has caused the city to burn through more than double the amount of salt and brine that it used last year (and OK, so it didn't snow last year - AT ALL! Some editor told this reporter, "For God's sake try to make this sound dramatic, so we won't feel like total fools!").

Visit Margaret's Amazon Author Page!

Bentley does not want to be wrapped for Christmas.

My doll's eyes are MOVING!

Christmas waterfall

The most amazing light display at Lafarge Lake was the waterfall, reflected in the lake. I've never seen anything like this. I want to go back just to see this again and get a better shot of it.

Christmas Wonderland

This video does not begin to reflect the beauty of the light display at Lake Lafarge. We nearly froze to death, but it was worth it. No longer do we need to drive all the way in to Stanley Park to see an impressive light display! The reflections in the water were particularly beautiful.

Happy Birthday, Dear Bentley!

Bentley is a very brave cat. He's special to me because he is a survivor of considerable adversity: lost, homeless, attacked by a dog and left to die. It amazes me how much animals endure without becoming bitter, angry, resentful. They are simply grateful for everything they have.

The Glass Character: a celebration of Harold Lloyd

The Glass Character: a celebration of Harold Lloyd

I went and tweaked the title of my Facebook page for the novel. Let's face it, nobody knows what a "glass character" is! Harold's name probably should have been there from the beginning. It has morphed into more of a fan page now, so I guess I'll keep it going for a while. 

Steve Buscemi - Hitler has only got one ball

In keeping with the festive season, a historic song (they really did sing this during World War II, and no wonder!) sung by the incomparable Steve Buscemi. He has a nice voice, too, and has probably done some stage work, like so many enduring character actors. It's true that Hitler had an undescended testicle, and also really terrible teeth, but I will leave that for a later post.

My lack of "real" posting is due to the stresses of the season. Do you want to hear a whole lot of depressing stuff? No? I didn't think so. Here's Steve Buscemi.

Click on this!

  

The most sublime horse video ever. . . CLICK HERE

Yes! Yes! Click on this to see the most gorgeous horses from Spain, doing all those things Spanish horses do. 

I love the Latin breeds. The Paso Fino is a proud-bodied horse who holds his head half an inch higher than any other.  He is imbued with a quality which horsemen call "brio". 

There is something of the war horse about him, the fullness in the chest, the massive neck. In motion, he becomes liquefied.

I am glad such creatures are alive in the world, that I share the same planet with them. This boosts me up when I am discouraged (and I am often discouraged). I think of this dark thing with the proud head, the look of eagles.

Brio.

The most exotic cat I've ever seen

Jingle cats: UNPLUGGED!

I was amazed to find actual videos to go with my all-time-favorite cheesy Christmas album, The Jingle Cats. Predictably, the videos are just as lame as the CD, which I haul out every year and play. No one wants to hear it. Since my brain has turned to jello in recent weeks, and I am capable of writing nothing except doomsday predictions since the election, here are some mercifully-mute Jingle Cat gifs!

Believe me when I say, this is a lot better with the sound off. The high-pitched, irritating, autotuned, synthesized meows on the album are excruciating. They bother cats, too. Cats normally leave when the Jingle Cats are on.

There are touches of surrealism in these things that elevate them beyond the level of total cheese. But not much. 

The Jingle Cats videos have an '80s mentality to them - if it can be said that they HAVE a mentality. I keep thinking about MTV when my kids were in high school. Weird Al Cat-ovic, or whatever.

It's kind of sad to think that this kitten has probably died of old age by now. Kind of like watching It's a Wonderful Life, or thinking about your old high school teachers.

Aren't they pretty cats, though? I've always liked that blinky thing they do.

This isn't really a Jingle Cat, but it's too cool not to put in here. 

Somebody spiked the catnip.

Do you meow what I meow?

Aren't you glad you only have to watch ten seconds of this?

A mood piece. Cat is obviously chewing something.

I have to assume the videographer filmed hours and hours of footage of cats yawning, eating, horking up furballs, etc. and then edited it all together into these minor masterpieces.

Cats versus Christmas trees!

Saaaaaaay  - I was about to post some swell gifs of cats in Christmas trees (and I might still post a few of them) - then I found this! Probably the best compilation to date.

The hardest thing to wrap for Christmas?

Honestly, I am thinking of trying this on Bentley. If he's sleepy enough, if he is plied with enough Little Friskies (seafood medley only), he might just be coerced. He LOVES lying down on paper, especially paper I am trying to write on. He likes being rolled up in blankets. Stay tuned! Video to follow, maybe.