I was NOT going to make any Amber Heard videos! AND THEN. . . . . . . .

 

Goat Birth! Welcome Blossom!

It's another day on Sunflower Farm, which means the birth of another adorable kid. It amazes me how the newborn goats almost immediately begin hopping around on those springs we call legs. When the world is too much, when all seems woeful, just have a  look at the goats - they're better at this life business than we are.

EERIE, ANCIENT FOLK SONG: "She is only a pauper, who nobody owns"

This snippet came from a very strange documentary from decades ago, about a woman from rural Maine in the late 1800s who was ostracized from her community for what was considered the ultimate sin. This woman had a desperate life of privation from childhood on, and was violated and made pregnant at age 13 (already stigmatized by poverty, and now by illicit pregnancy). The baby was taken away from her and sent away, perhaps even sold, destined to be an unpaid farm laborer. She was forced to go on struggling through a harsh life, marrying a poor farmer, being widowed, then later in her life meeting a younger man whom she thought understood her soul. 

She married him for love, a rare thing back then, in spite of her community's disapproval of the age difference. A few years later, someone came to visit her and recognized the young man. To everyone's horror, this turned out to be the baby she had been forced to give away at age 13. Without any knowledge of it, she had married her own son. She spent the next few decades of her life living as a hermet, with virtually no contact with other human beings. Only occasionally, someone would begrudgingly donate food to keep her alive. Children would be sent over to her shack with bags of basic provisions, a sack of potatoes, a few garden vegetables - and THROW the sack over her fence so they would not need to talk to her. The town congratulated themselves on their charity towards such a sinner.

This woman was a pauper - a person so poor and so devoid of fundamental resources that she becomes a pawn in the hands of the powerful. I was horrified to learn that paupers were actually bought and sold as an acceptable form of slavery. They were expected to be grateful to be "rescued" from starvation and homelessness and given the golden opportunity to perform unpaid, backbreaking labor on a farm for room and board. The only escape from this fate was death.

This song seemed to sum it all up. It was so eerie it made my hair stand on end. The words are as follows:

There's a grim horse hearse
And the hearse has no springs,

And hark to the dirge the sad driver sings:
"Rattle her bones (her bones)

Over the stones (the stones)

She is only a pauper

Who nobody owns."

This evokes the image of a corpse lying in the back of a rickety old wagon, given a pauper's burial which the community no doubt thinks is too good for her.

Yoo-Hoo from Honolulu! (family photos)

 

HARRY'S RUSSIAN DANCE!

Is this my Grade Nine science teacher? (animation)

I love taking a tiny snippet of film and "doing things to it". 

Smiling Madonna

 

Pearls before Swine. . .

Meghan Markle REMOVES all references to doomed Netflix animation series from Archewell website after woke show was axed by the streaming giant

• Pearl, the working title for the Markle-created show, was officially canceled last week as part of a wave of cutbacks prompted by Netflix's drop in subscribers
•  On Sunday, a prior description of the series under the Archewell Productions subsection was nowhere to be found
• 'Like many girls her age, our heroine Pearl is on a journey of self-discovery as she tries to overcome life's daily challenges,' a now-removed quote read 
• The quietly deleted references come a week after Netflix announced the cancelation of the animated show, which had Meghan as an executive producer 

By Andrea Blanco For Dailymail.Com

Published: 12:54 EDT, 8 May 2022 | Updated: 13:28 EDT, 8 May 2022

A humiliated Meghan Markle wiped all references to her doomed Netflix animation 'Pearl' from her Archewell website after the series was axed by the streaming giant.

Pearl, the working title for the Markle-created show, was officially canceled last week as part of a wave of cutbacks prompted by Netflix's drop in subscribers.

A prior description of the series under the Archewell Productions subsection was nowhere to be found on Sunday, 

'Like many girls her age, our heroine Pearl is on a journey of self-discovery as she tries to overcome life's daily challenges,' a now-removed quote from Meghan read.

It continued: 'I'm thrilled that Archewell Productions, partnered with the powerhouse platform of Netflix and these incredible producers, will together bring you this new animated series, which celebrates extraordinary women throughout history.

The quietly deleted references come a week after Netflix announced the cancelation of the animated show, in which Meghan was taking the role of executive producer along with David Furnish, Elton John's husband.

'Like many girls her age, our heroine Pearl is on a journey of self-discovery as she tries to overcome life's daily challenges,' a now-removed quote from Meghan read

Meghan Markle wiped all references to her doomed Netflix animation 'Pearl' from the Archewell website after the series was axed by the streaming giant

The show was officially canceled last week as part of a wave of cutbacks prompted by Netflix's drop in subscribers.

Pearl, which focused on 12-year-old Pearl's exploring achieving women throughout history, was only in the development stage.

The Archewell website now features 'Heart of Invictus,' a docu-series about competitors on their journey to the Invictus Games in The Hague in 2020, as the Duchess' sole active media project.

It is Meghan's and Harry's second attempt within a week to salvage their status, after the Queen sensationally banned the couple from appearing at the palace's balcony for Trooping the Colour, the start of the Jubilee commemorations.

The defiant Sussexes later revealed in a tweet via their friend and journalist Omid Scobie that they will still fly in from California - with Archie, three, and Lilibet, 11 months - for the events to mark the monarch's 70 years on the throne that begin on June 2.

Meghan and Prince Harry established Archewell Productions in the autumn of 2020 to create scripted series, docu-series, documentaries, features, and children's programming.

Pearl was expected to be the first animated series created by the production company.

It was set to see a young girl inspired by Meghan - whose name means 'pearl' in Welsh - take on various social injustices, while highlighting the work of feminist icons.  

It is Meghan's and Harry's second attempt within a week to salvage their status, after the Queen sensationally banned the couple from appearing at the palace's balcony for Trooping the Colour, the start of the Jubilee commemorations. Above, Meghan, Harry and the Queen pictured during Trooping the Colour in 2018  

Despite dropping Pearl, insiders claimed Netflix remains optimistic about the Archewell deal and has several projects planned, including a documentary series called Heart of Invictus, which follows the recent Invictus Games.

Netflix made several cuts in late April and early May, including dropping two other children's shows and firing staff.

The streaming service scratched Dino Daycare, which was created by Jeff King, and the South Asian-inspired adventure Boons and Curses. Both shows were already in production.

Sources familiar with the cancellations told Deadline that Netflix had warned producers to take projects still in the development stage elsewhere.

It is unclear if they offered Archewell Productions similar advice. The streaming giant shelled out a $100million in the deal with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in September 2020.

As of yet, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are yet to produce any published content for the streaming giant. But the company has pinned hopes that their upcoming series documenting the recent Invictus Games will prove value for the money.

Meghan announced the now-canceled program last July. She was taking on the roles of 'creator and executive producer' - marking the first time the former actress and Suits star would work in the position of EP.

Filmmaker David Furnish, husband to musician Elton John, was also expected to serve as an executive producer on the series.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are yet to produce any published content for the Netflix. But the company has pinned hopes that their upcoming series documenting the recent Invictus Games will prove value for the money

It comes as the streaming behemoth has lost 200,000 subscribers in just three months, while shareholders of the US firm have been warned to expect another two million subscribers to leave in the three months to July

Meghan said Pearl would 'weave together fantasy and history' while focusing 'on the adventures of a 12-year-old girl' as she attempts to 'overcome life's daily challenges'.

While few details had been released about the series, many believed the show was based - at least in part - on Meghans own childhood, citing how she named the show and its title character Pearl, the original meaning of her name.

The name Meghan originated in Wales, where it is traditionally spelled Megan, however, it originally came from the Greek name Margaret, derived from the word margaritēs, which translates to 'pearl'.

Pearl was not the first time that Markle has seemingly chosen to draw on her own life as the inspiration for her professional projects - something that she did most recently with her debut children's book The Bench, which was firmly panned by readers on both sides of the Atlantic.

Meanwhile, over half of Netflix's own reality TV shows and dramas released in 2018 have not been commissioned for a second series, compared with more than a third launched in 2017 and 28 percent in 2016, The Times reported.

The Troll Doll Channel: TRIPLE UNBOXING! Viking Bank, Cave Man Plushie, ...

A triple-troll triple threat! It's amazing to me how many of my subscribers are now watching my troll videos. This is one of the very rare videos where I actually address the camera. My channel is still booming at a ridiculous rate, and all due to one very DUMB, short, thrown-together video. Well, it happens! I recently saw a small channel which garnered 50 MILLION VIEWS for a 30-second excerpt from somebody else's video. Not even original material! And, typically, the views dropped back down to the usual few hundred after that one. But somehow or other, people are subscribing, including my grandchildren and their friends! I am now known as "famous Nanny" or "Erica's crazy grandmother". This is full-circle, as I started the channel to post videos of Caitlin and I doing baking and crafts. The coolest moment of all is when Erica's boy friend Ryder posted a comment under one of my videos, and I thought - oh no. It can't be "THE" Ryder, is it?  IT WAS!!!! I asked him to say hi to Erica for me, and he said, sure, next time I see her. It was probably the highlight of the whole ten-year-long ferociousgumby experience.

My Lord, What a Morning!

Echoes of the past. This is the Eagle Ridge Church choir under Bill Prouten. I can say nothing about the experience except that it was life-changing. I put no identification marks on it whatsoever, not wanting to poke the Copyright Beast. Nor are there time stamps or even a road map. Get lost in this. The description under the video reads:

Music from my old church choir, circa 2001: two mikes, ten singers (all untrained), led by a jazz musician who had never directed a choir before, and without a penny for good sound equipment. We recorded these songs a cappella, in somebody's living room, interrupted by doorbells, phones ringing and dogs barking, not to mention the occasional giggle fit. The result wasn't perfect, but I think we sound pretty darned good for a group which started out with very limited skills. The songs Bill Prouten arranged and composed sometimes sound strange, because most of them are dissonant, with very tight chords, and do unexpected things (listen to the end of Coventry Carol!). Often he'd come to choir practice with a sheaf of handwritten music, the ink still fresh on it like something out of Amadeus, and we'd work all evening trying to master it. He made us better singers and better musicians than we knew how to be, or ever thought we could be. Bill Prouten was a major influence in my life for five years, and what he left me with is permanent. It's only now I can bear to listen to this, and why, I do not know! My dub onto YouTube added an extra problematic level of sound reproduction due to the crappyness of my equipment, but it's better than not having the songs at all. I chose the cover because, from the back, that might be Bill himself.

Leaping Goats in sweaters: slightly surreal, very cute!

I'd say we need more goats.

Little Apricot is queen of the adult stall!

It's most definitely a Sunflower Creamery day! Time for a few little baby goats. This is the smallest one I've ever seen, but she still has that inborn instinct to JUMP UP on things - and other goats. 

Tina Brown says Prince Harry and Meghan Markle underestimated the impact...

Meghan and Harry: straight from the author`s mouth

 

Meghan saw there were deals to be made because they were royals': Ex-Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown says former actress couldn't resist what was on offer 'at the celebrity buffet'

• Tina Brown said Meghan desired to have wealth and stature like Michelle Obama
• The former Vanity Fair editor also claimed Meghan wanted to 'cash in' on royalty
• However, she said Prince Harry would have left the royals even without Meghan 

By Danyal Hussain For Mailonline

Meghan Markle saw they were 'deals to be made' as a royal and couldn't resist what was offer at the 'celebrity buffet', ex-Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown has claimed.  

Appearing on Washington Post Live today to promote her new book 'The Palace Papers', Ms Brown, who was Princess Diana's diarist, said the Duchess of Sussex has 'no purpose' and wanted to 'cash in' on the commercial arm of being a royal. 

Discussing Harry and Meghan's exit from royal life, she said: 'They wanted to be able to have a commercial arm to their activities. That was the stumbling block. Meghan certainly saw the deals that were there to be made because they were royals.

'It's as though she couldn't resist everything that was on offer on the celebrity buffet.

'A hunger to avail herself of the global leverage, to live in glorious houses without strings attached.'

Ms Brown suggested that Meghan was inspired by Michelle Obama and wanted to have the wealth as well as the stature. However, she also insisted that Harry would have wanted to leave the royal family even without Meghan. 

She added: 'A very close adviser told me 'we always knew he would go at some point he was very unhappy'. Even the Queen knew. 

'I really think Harry wanted out, himself. Meghan gave Harry the tools to leave. She understood the world of agents and deals. I mean this wasn't Harry's world, but suddenly he had in Meghan a very worldly strategist who he decided to trust above all the other advisors.' 

Tina Brown, who was Princess Diana's diarist, said the Duchess of Sussex has 'no purpose' and wanted to 'cash in' on the commercial arm of being a royal

Ms Brown suggested that Meghan was inspired by Michelle Obama and wanted to have the wealth as well as the stature

The couple have struggled since leaving the royal family, Ms Brown believes. She thinks Meghan is finding it difficult to find a 'brand' and the Sussexes didn't realise how hard life would be while cut off from the palace. 

She said: 'They both completely underestimated what it was going to be like to be without the palace platform.

'The Palace has amazing convening power, every major invitation in the world comes through that conduit. All of that is now gone. 

'Meghan doesn't really have a brand – you feel that she is grasping at the 'Twitter caring' of the moment. Vaccinations, Ukraine, Women's rights, my 40th birthday, let's have a mentoring scheme. Nothing is really going anywhere for Meghan.

'And the whole problem, with entertainment deal is you have to produce. They've signed with Netflix but what have we seen? Nothing.

'Creating entertainment that works is very hard to do. Their Spotify podcast is going nowhere. Netflix is not doing so well are they going to renew that contract?'

Ms Brown also discussed why Meghan would have struggled so much after joining the royal family. 

She suggested: 'She was suddenly completely dependent on her husband for money and he was completely dependent on the bank of dad – Charles and at the same time had to ask Granny for one of the houses on the royal estates to live.

'That kind of infantilizing was very maddening to Meghan.

'I think the queen and the palace set them up for a lot of success. She gave her patron of the National Theatre and vice chairman of the commonwealth foundation – no better platform to talk about women's education and the question of minorities.'

Her latest comments come after she previously claimed Meghan would not want to return to the UK for more than a fleeting visit if Harry mends his relationship with his father and brother because 'she disliked England',

Ms Brown has said she believes Prince Harry may even want to make a sensational return to the Royal Family after the Queen's death - splitting his time between Britain and the US - though Meghan would be unlikely to be fully on board. 

Her latest comments come after she previously claimed Meghan would not want to return to the UK for more than a fleeting visit

Ms Brown has described Megxit as a 'disaster for both sides' and claimed Harry and Meghan caused 'maximum mayhem' when leaving the Royal Family because they are 'addicted to drama'.  

She said: 'I think that Harry is going to want to come back when the Queen dies to serve his country. And I think they will find a way to reel him in. And it's possible that Meghan - maybe they will have a commuter arrangement. I don't know. I don't see Meghan ever wanting to go back. She disliked England.' 

Ms Brown claimed that the British public are 'very very sad' about Megxit, because they took Harry to their hearts and also tried to support him when he found love with Meghan. Ms Brown also labelled Prince Harry a 'very impetuous man' and revealed how Palace advisors 'always thought he would leave'.

She said: 'I actually think there is a Harry-shaped hole in the royal family now. And Harry was beloved, actually, by the British people. And people adored Meghan when she came into the mix.

'So it was actually very, very sad for everybody that it went so wrong because they actually need Harry and Meghan now. You should see, the Queen is failing, and she's very frail. They kind of need Harry and Meghan to bring that star power and to be on the balcony at the Jubilee. We have to have a royal family up there. We can't have Andrew up there.'

Harry and Meghan arrived in Britain after an overnight British Airways flight from Los Angeles. They did not bring their children, Archie, two, and ten-month-old Lilibet – who the Queen has still not met.

They were driven to Frogmore where they spent the night. After his failure to attend his grandfather's memorial service last month – amid an ongoing legal row with the Home Office over the removal of his police protection – Harry's offer to visit the Queen was being viewed as an olive branch.

But the Duke of Sussex upset palace officials and reportedly his father and brother after claiming part of his visit was motivated by 'making sure she's protected and got the right people around her.'

Harry went on to claim that the Queen tells him things she feels she cannot tell anyone else.

He said: 'We have a really special relationship. We talk about things that she can't talk about with anybody else. So that's always a nice piece to it.'

🤫PRINCE HARRY SNEAKS INTO THE UK.

This guy is absolutely hilarious! What I like best about his Harry bits is that they are BITS - only a couple of minutes long. Right now in Internetland, things are either drastically too short (TIKTOK!) or drag on forever (obnoxious podcasts that drone on and on for several hours). Two and a half minutes is about right, I think. 

I am too upset to write about this - so I will let someone else.

Letter: 'Too many of these decisions are being made behind closed doors,' Port Coquitlam writer says of tree loss

Port Coquitlam residents witnessed a number of healthy, mature trees being removed from Veterans Park and Leigh Square in Port Coquitlam on March 15 and 16, with more still to come down, this letter writer states.

Letter to the Editor Mar 17, 2022 4:00 PM

To the Editor:

Port Coquitlam residents witnessed a number of healthy, mature trees being removed from Veterans Park and Leigh Square in Port Coquitlam on March 15 and 16, with more still to come down.

Many passersby expressed shock, dismay, and even anxiety at seeing the big trees fall.

In addition to enhancing Port Coquitlam's "small town" charm, these urban trees provided a welcome habitat for birds and other small wildlife species.

Seniors could often be seen resting on the benches and chatting under the shade of the flowering cherry trees along Shaughnessy Street.

Trees buffer city noises, calm our senses, and are good for our mental health.

Healthy, mature trees also provide valuable ecosystem services including helping to cool our cities during increasingly hot weather and summer heat domes.

During wet weather and atmospheric rivers, the same trees help to manage storm-water run-off and mitigate risk of flooding.

Trees produce life-giving oxygen, take up carbon, and filter out air pollutants.

Twenty-one trees in total are slated for removal in this portion of the project. Approximately 40 "replacement" trees will be planted.

However, it's worth noting that urban trees reach their most productive point in terms of providing ecological services between the ages of 60 to 150 years, depending on the tree species and health.

Many of the trees which are being removed are just coming into their most productive years.

High-level public consultation was carried out on the development plan, but confusion and lack of clarity remained with respect to tree retention.

Environmental groups were excluded as stakeholders in the consultation process and information was not made publicly available regarding which trees were to be removed.

Too many of these decisions are currently being made behind closed doors and too many voices are being silenced.

As we continue to grapple with the effects of both a global pandemic and the climate crisis, retention of healthy, mature urban trees is more important than ever.

Port Coquitlam mayor and council: It's time to stop paving paradise.

Dr. Nancy H. Furness

on behalf of Wondrous Tree Fellowship

(PLEASE NOTE: Though I am still too traumatized to write about this in any detail, just let me say that ALL the mature trees were removed from the downtown. There is not ONE SINGLE TREE left in the town centre of Old Port Coquitlam, not even a sapling. The magnificent flowering cherry trees, at least fifty years old and just at their peak of blossoming, were ALL ripped out. The entire character of the downtown has been ruined, and cannot come back. The fabled "replanting" cannot happen, because every square inch of the downtown has been paved over. There is nothing but a sea of cement, solid concrete with no end, NO earth to plant anything, not even any grass! The lovely tulip garden in front of the City Hall has been paved over. This is called "improvement", and it was done for no good reason, except perhaps commerce. When I first saw it, reacting with shock and horror, I thought, they must be widening the road. But no. Diseased trees? No, not at all. It is to "beautify" and "improve" the area around Old City Hall, considered the most beautiful landmark and most famous tourist attraction in Port Coquitlam. And it has been ruined forever. I will assume the promised "replanting" cannot be done unless it is very small trees in cement pots by the side of the road.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, YOUR MAJESTY!

 

BIZARRE DANCE ROUTINE on 1950s TV VARIETY SHOW

Television was in its infancy, and it shows. Early TV was a combination of recycled ratio shows (with pictures) and vaudeville, done live, so there were plenty of glitches which were often the most entertaining part of the show. Here a youngish Jack Albertson performs his dance routine, an old-time shuffle/buck-and-wing which the audience applauds madly, because they think he is an "old man" who can barely stand up. But no - it's Jack Albertson in aged makeup, which becomes apparent when he sticks his face right into the camera lens. These weird closeups were common in early TV, a way to impress the folks at home, or scare them half to death. Jack Albertson went on to be a successful character actor who actually WAS an old man when he appeared in such '70s sitcoms as Chico and the Man. 

Pelican trying to Eat a Capybara Pup and Failing

Oh my goodness.

HAPPY EASTER!

 

CHECK IT OUT! Brilliant dancing on competitive stage

Click lower right corner to go full-screen!

"BLACKBIRD, FLY!" I follow a handsome wild bird on Blakeburn Lagoon

These bird encounters are a more profound spiritual experience than anything I knew in fifteen years of church attendance. Following this bird to a magnificent closeup was nothing short of magical.

💥LOOK OUT!! Announcer is HYSTERICAL over OCTOPUS ATTACK!😳

LOOK OUT! A completely harmless cephalopod may be somewhere nearby! 

GOT MY MOJO WORKING: Yarn Dolls!

I've written about my yarn dolls before. I have to try to keep it cool and not reveal ALL the things I've used these for. Just stay on my side and you'll be OK.

😲The Troll Doll Channel: 😮HELP! MY TROLLS HAVE TAKEN OVER!😲

Sometimes I wonder how much longer this madness can go on! This isn't even my whole collection. Not by a long shot. Every once in a while I look around and say, "THIS IS CRAZY!" Then I see something on eBay that I simply MUST have. 

I have three more trolls coming. Three. If it weren't such fun, if it wasn't such a dopamine hit, I suppose I'd stop. Maybe when I run out of cash.

Camera falls from airplane and lands in pig pen--MUST WATCH END!!

I just had to share this with you RIGHT NOW THIS MINUTE. It HAS to be real, it's so bizarre! And if you tried to do this, it'd never work in a million years. The pig steals the show!

TEN! THOUSAND! SUBSCRIBERS!!!

When I started doing baking and crafting videos with my nine-year-old granddaughter (now an adult going to university), I barely knew what a subscriber was, and I even remember asking her, “Do I have a channel?” In the ten years or so since then, my channel has been a fun hobby which incorporates many of my favourite activities, such as running around in the park photographing ducks and collecting WAY too many trolls. (The rest of it is just freaky stuff.) I do plan a special celebratory video and even have a ferociousgumby tshirt, but am recovering from a nasty bout of COVID and have to lay low for now. But to everyone who enjoys watching these crazy little things, thank you for giving me a chance to share the things that give me joy. More to come, once I stop coughing!

You Have Never Heard Capybaras Sound Like This. Extraordinary Sound of 2...

Kinda creepy, but interesting. Capybaras are unlike any other creature on earth, and maybe it's just as well. These videos are taken in a huge wildlife sanctuary in Japan, where visitors can roam freely among the capys in their wonderland of water, bamboo and dirt. I have reservations about this, as these animals have teeth like a beaver's or a rat's, only twenty times the size. They could easily lop off a human finger with a single chomp. The tourists roam freely among mothers and babies, and I learned a long time ago NEVER to go near a wild animal with young. ANY sort of perceived threat will lead to an attack. But then again, I've never run a capybara sanctuary, so maybe they're smarter than I am.

The Great Capybara Bamboo Chase グレートカピバラバンブーチェイス 大水豚竹追逐

When all else fails, there are capybaras. Who wouldn't be inspired by a 200-pound guinea pig that makes the same squeaking, squealing noises as the tiny pet version? They are bizarre creatures, aquatic, their eyes and nostrils (not to mention their ears) at the same level on top of their big square heads so they can keep them above-water like a crocodile's, and with feet like - I don't know - just weird feet, webbish, as if nature made a mistake or something. These creatures are eaten in South America, and since they were allowed to be eaten by Catholics on Friday, they were once categorized as "fish". 

😊The Troll Doll Channel: UNBOXING of WISHNIK, "MUTINY" in TROLLANDIA, an...

I`m still on the COVID comeback trail, though feeling a lot better now - and a week ago just seems like a distant nightmare of aching, coughing, and being literally unable to sit up without fainting. I don`t usually get sick, so it seemed almost like an insult. For the first time I truly understood that this is a disease that could kill you. It`s also beginning to look vaccine-proof, which alarms hell out of me, and we are now being offered a FOURTH shot - being as how the first three seemed to have done doodlysquat to prevent our household from coming down with it, bad. It`s a medical whack-a-mole situation that may go on indefinitely, which is rotten because the disease is so rotten. But I will try to focus on the fact that, after three days of feeling like shit on the bottom of someone`s shoe, I feel almost normal today, and it`s a sunny day. Tomorrow we might even go outside for a walk, so long as we stay well away from our fellow human beings. All this has indeed made me profoundly grateful for small blessings.

This video, well, like a lot of my stuff on YouTube, it got way more views than my troll things used to get (maybe five or six). Some of them go up over a hundred now. My subscriber count teeters on a momentous brink, causing the eternal pessimist in me to think the algorithm will just freeze now and I will be at (literally) 99.99 subscribers FOREVER. Or, worse, that the count will begin to drop. But the truth is, it has all been trending upward due to one very silly video that also appeared on TikTok. Coincidence, really. 

I think my channel has helped keep my interest alive in my various hobbies - it`s nice to be able to share unboxings and displays of my finest and most beloved, as well as my ugliest. The down side is that I cannot stop BUYING the things. It is an addiction, plain and simple, but such an enjoyable one that I don`t really want to stop. COVID (I refuse to use the wretched p-word) confined me and everyone else enough to focus inward, or at least on indoor things you can practice without social contact. Sometimes I think my main social contact now is with my trolls. 

I lied. . . THIS is the first sound recording!

Leon Scott's COMPLETE DISCOGRAPHY 1853 - 1860

These are generally considered the first sounds ever recorded (on a lamp-blackened sheet of paper stuck to a spinning cylinder, the sound waves etched by a stylus), and sometimes I wonder if they were really worth playing back. In the early '00s, when the discovery of an ancient recording of a ghostly voice singing "Au Clair de la Lune" was storming the media, I honestly thought it was a hoax. Reminded me of the time someone claimed to have found a recording of Chopin playing the Minute Waltz back in 1840 or something, only to find it was an April Fool's joke. The claimed technology was the same, strangely enough, etchings on dirty paper that in fact WEREN'T designed to be played back at all. A curious guy just wanted to see if sound waves might make an actual, visual pattern, and they did. Experiment done. There was a huge hubbub around this discovery, press conferences, public presentations, a specialized website (and I think it's still there, looking about as up-to-date as the Heaven's Gate cult site from the '90s) - but there was no followup on this miracle of early technology, because in spite of all the "THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING" hype, that's all there was - squeals, burbles, fuzzy might-be-voices, and one rather grisly voice haltingly singing a phrase or two from an old French folk tune. Interesting that someone had SOME idea of how sound waves might look when traced on paper, but that's all. 

PLEASE NOTE. This might be badly written, because I am badly sitting up and fog-brained from having COVID. Yes. I have it, as does my entire family now, and it is without a doubt the sickest I have ever been. I have to go lie down now. 

ADDENDA! Out of curiosity, I looked up the First Sounds website, and yes - nothing, but NOTHING has changed about it, including the P. T. Barnum hype! This is on the introductory page. Seems they were out to save humanity with this stuff.

First Sounds strives to make humanity's earliest sound recordings available to all people for all time.

First Sounds seeks out the world's oldest sound recordings—wherever they are.
We rewrote history in 2008 when we discovered and resurrected humanity’s first recordings of its own voice, created in 1860 in Paris by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville. Since then, we have identified and played back even older recordings. First Sounds remains the authority on Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville and his recordings.

First Sounds is dedicated to audio preservation.
We have digitally preserved every airborne sound recording known to exist from before 1861, plus many recordings made thereafter.

First Sounds pioneered the playback of the oldest sound recordings in 2007 and has been in the forefront ever since.
Sound recordings made before the invention of the phonograph were not intended to be played back. Extracting their sounds remains our specialty.

First Sounds is collaborative.
David Giovannoni, Patrick Feaster, Meagan Hennessey, and Richard Martin founded First Sounds in 2007 to facilitate, coordinate, and promote the efforts of individuals who share their passions and of organizations that share their goals. First Sounds is unincorporated; we neither solicit nor accept financial donations.

First Sounds offers free and universal access to its work.
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🦆SYNCHRONIZED DUCKS!🦆

These parallel dabblers really surprised me! I could even hear their busy little bills dribbling and drabbling in the delicious muck. I'm not sure what this is called, really, because "dabbling" actually means dunking their heads under, asses up, to dredge food out of the water. This is more like nibbling. I love how you can actually hear the mucky little sounds they make. I've never seen a mated pair act exactly like this, pretty much mirroring each other, with the odd little tiff as they stake out their own square millimeter of muck. Ah, nature!

A Family Occasion. . .

SILENT VERSION. . . 

Creepy 1961 Computer Sings DAISY (HAL'S song from 2001)!

 

OK then, so this one has OVER FIVE MILLION VIEWS now. It's still rising, along with my subscription count, which is WAY higher than I ever expected. And it's really dumb! But by coincidence, the song, sung by a computer in 1961 (and quoted, slyly, in the movie 2001 when HAL was being shut down) was also "big" on TikTok, which I barely knew about, and now DON'T want to know about because all I hear about it are negative things, and all I've seen of it is pure crap and bad for kids. BUT. . . I didn't put any more effort into this than I did into literally thousands of other videos (I generally post at least one per day). In fact, somewhat less, as all I did was put two videos together which were initially posted well over 10 years ago. More like 12, and on maybe half a dozen other channels. Let's just say it was well within the public domain! But even at that, YouTube ludicrously put a song credit at the bottom so I wouldn't get a copyright strike. It doesn't matter if a HUNDRED other channels post the EXACT same video. I'd still get dinged, and maybe even shut down for good. It's all done by bots - no human being ever sees them - and I have had "warnings" and copyright strikes for the most ludicrous things. You just have to go ahead with it and hope for the best, while watching some of your favorite channels being terminated for doing nothing at all but tell the truth.

🦆A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A DUCK🦆

My nature walks keep me sane, or at least as sane as I can expect to be in these horrific times. I love extreme closeups of mallards, as they seem to have actual facial expressions. Sometimes they're not too happy I'm there, though the zoom lens makes it look as if I am much closer than I am.

Harry and Meghan: THE NOVEL! (not really).

 

What DO they do every day? Harry and Meghan solemnly pledged themselves to a 'life of service' and 'global action' after their Oprah interview - alongside their lucrative work for Netflix and Spotify. So how's it all going? Prepare to be underwhelmed!

• A year after the so-called 'interview of the decade' with Oprah, what have Meghan and Harry actually done? 
• According to our audit, their accomplishments have been scant after promising a 'global wave of service'  
• World events rarely pass without some intervention from Meghan and the self-appointed Prince of Woke
• All in all, the controversial duo's schedule hardly compares with the daily work of the royals they left behind
• The couple can tell whether their year happened as intended but it doesn't seem to have added up to much

By Richard Kay and Barbara Mcmahon For The Daily MailPublished: 17:01 EDT, 11 March 2022 | Updated: 20:07 EDT, 11 March 2022

With its bucking broncos, yee-hawing cowboys and pitchers of cold beer, the Fort Worth Stockyards is a rowdy and testosterone-fuelled throwback to the old days of the American West.

While today tourists throng the mule and horse-barns that were once the last 'civilised' outpost for livestock traders on Texas's famous Chisholm Trail, breeders compete for trophies for their longhorn cattle and prize bulls.

Last weekend, however, there was another spectacle at the first night of its championship rodeo — a Stetson-wearing Prince Harry. 

Judging by the photographs posted online — before they were mysteriously deleted — the Duke of Sussex did not look entirely comfortable.

Perhaps it was the gushing posts that appeared on Instagram. 'We get a lot of rodeo royalty but this is the first prince I've seen,' enthused Cory Melton, a muscular wrangler who breeds bucking bulls. 

Yet his genial observation — which also claimed that Harry was going to enter the bull-riding competition but had lost his 'rigging bag', an essential piece of rodeo kit — was swiftly removed.

As, too, was a message brimming with Southern hospitality from rodeo secretary Cindy Reid, in which she generously thanked Harry for his visit.

No doubt some will wonder if an event reeking of 'toxic masculinity' might sit uneasily with Harry's image as the self-appointed Prince of Woke. But was there, perhaps, another explanation why he might not be pleased to see pictures of himself at the so-called 'Cowtown coliseum'?

The visit coincided almost exactly with the first anniversary of his and Meghan's Oprah Winfrey interview from which, we were assured, a 'global wave of service' would be unleashed by the couple. 

An appearance at a kitsch tourist attraction can hardly be described as an illustration of their 'shared commitment' to a life of good works. Indeed, the embers of their incendiary claims about cruelty, neglect, snobbery and racism aimed at the heart of the Royal Family are still glowing.

More than 50 million people around the world — including 12 million in Britain and 17 million in the U.S. — tuned in to hear Meghan discuss how royal life had made her suicidal, blame sister-in-law Kate for making her cry at a bridesmaids' dress-fitting and, infamously, allege that a member of the Royal Family had questioned what colour her son Archie's skin would be.

The repercussions are still being felt as are the memorably damning soundbites: 'Were you silent, or were you silenced?'; 'My family literally cut me off financially'; and complaints that Archie 'won't be given security, he's not going to be given a title'. 

More significantly, 12 months after the so-called 'interview of the decade', we are entitled to ask what on earth a couple who set themselves the loftiest of standards has actually been doing since — apart from overseeing the stream of platitudes and wearily right-on slogans that are issued with monotonous regularity from the luxury of their nine-bedroom, 16-bathroom mansion?

Take, for example, their attendance at last month's National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Image Awards, where they accepted the President's Award that recognises special achievement and distinguished public service.

Over the years this venerable organisation — set up in 1909 in response to violence against black people — has handed its most prestigious award to some significant individuals, who have done much to raise the aspirations of America's black population, from boxer Muhammad Ali to preacher-turned-politician Jesse Jackson and former U.S. Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice.

 No wonder questions have been asked about the frankly modest achievements, by comparison, of the duke and duchess.

Yet according to the citation, they received this honour for 'heeding the call to social justice' and 'joining the struggle for equity' in America and around the world.

Doubtless it was merely a coincidence that the media for the awards was organised by Sunshine Sachs, the New York-based public relations outfit that has been advising Meghan since her days as an actress.

Activism, of course, is part of the identity the couple have moulded for themselves since abandoning their royal lives for California. As the website for the Archewell Foundation, their American-registered charity, grandly proclaimed: 'Each of us can change our communities. All of us can change the world.'

But for all this and other high-minded declarations, the 'shared purpose and global action' has not quite materialised.

For instance on her 40th birthday last August Meghan launched her '40 x 40' project, a scheme which asked 40 of the duchess's friends to give 40 minutes of their time to advise women how to get back into the workplace after the Covid-19 pandemic. In a video with actress Melissa McCarthy, Meghan promised the scheme would have a 'ripple' effect across the world as each person asked 40 of their friends to take part and so on.

But what has it accomplished? According to reports, the initiative has since gone rather quiet.

There is one area, of course, where there has not been silence — the various legal battles they have fought with newspapers and broadcasters including The Mail on Sunday, The Sun and the BBC, and more recently, the Home Office, which Harry is suing over the loss of their police protection in the UK, for which he has offered to pay.

It is only fair to point out that the main event in the Sussexes' lives in this 12-month period has been the birth last June of their second child, Lilibet, and Meghan has therefore spent much of the past year on maternity leave.

The Queen has still not met the great-granddaughter given her family nickname and it is not clear when that situation will change.

We now know Harry and Meghan will not attend the thanksgiving service for Prince Philip later this month and their presence at June's Platinum Jubilee celebrations — which coincides with Lilibet's first birthday — is increasingly uncertain. In fact, relations between the Sussexes and the Royal Family have barely improved since the Oprah 'truth-bombs'.

If anything, they have worsened. Harry's revelation that he has collaborated with a ghostwriter on a tell-all memoir, due out this autumn, has spread a deep anxiety across the royal household. 

A well-placed source this week told the Mail that the Royal Family were 'absolutely dreading' its publication. 'God knows what one-eyed nonsense will be in it,' the source said. The fear that its contents could overshadow the Queen's anniversary is more intense than those that surrounded Prince Andrew before he settled his sex-abuse lawsuit.

We understand that recent reports that Harry and his father are in frequent contact are wide of the mark. Prince Charles is often unavailable when his son calls and, because he does not have a mobile phone, Harry relies on officials to patch him through when he does ring. And that is often not possible.

This is an extraordinary case of history repeating itself. At the height of the marital differences between Harry's parents, Princess Diana was similarly thwarted in phone calls to both Charles and other senior royals.

And in both cases there has been an issue of trust. Thirty years ago, Charles never forgave Diana for leaking intimate family secrets to author Andrew Morton. Now, Palace aides believe Harry could damage Charles's hopes of making his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, his queen if he raises new questions about her role in the break-up of his father and mother's marriage.

Pointedly, Harry was silent when the Queen announced her stated wish that Camilla should be her son's queen when the time comes — rather than a mere princess consort as was originally planned

There has been at least one phone call between Charles and his son where voices were raised.

As a friend of Charles says: 'Simply put, the worry is how on earth will things be resolved if Harry is unkind about Camilla.'

As for Harry's relationship with his brother, that has still not recovered from the Oprah interview — and the allegations (still being investigated) that Meghan had bullied royal staff, something that Meghan's lawyers have denied.

Whether the Duchess of Sussex ever returns to Britain remains to be seen. She was absent from Prince Philip's funeral because of her pregnancy and did not accompany Harry to the unveiling of his mother's statue in Kensington Gardens in July.

Glimpses even in the U.S. have been rare. Her first post-Oprah appearance was in the trailer for The Me You Can't See, an American documentary series on mental health featuring Harry, the singer Lady Gaga and actress Glenn Close. Then there was her toe-curling turn on the Ellen DeGeneres show where she took part in a skit, drinking from a baby's bottle and singing a song about kittens.

Television is, of course, crucial to the Sussex brand. Their biggest commercial deal on moving to the U.S. was a £75 million contract to make shows for Netflix. And what do they have to show for that? Precious little so far.

Only two series are thought to be in the pipeline — Heart Of Invictus about Harry's initiative for wounded warriors, the Invictus Games, and an animated show titled Pearl, the adventures of a 12-year-old girl inspired by influential women in history. Meghan and David Furnish, Sir Elton John's husband, are producers.

So what else have they done since that Oprah spectacular? Have they achieved even one of their ambitions, or has it been a year of living aimlessly?

The answer, according to our audit, suggests accomplishments have been scant. Two weeks after Oprah, Harry was unveiled as 'chief impact officer' for mental 'wellness' app BetterUp, described as 'a platform for coaching and mental fitness' in the workplace.

On May 3, the duke was a participant on stage at the 'Vax Live' awareness concert at the SoFi stadium in California with artists such as Jennifer Lopez and the Foo Fighters and which called on world leaders to make Covid vaccines available all over the world.

A fortnight later he was happily filmed going through therapy on an Apple TV+ series that focused on the importance of mental health. Four days after the birth of their daughter, Meghan published her children's book The Bench, with hundreds of copies given away free to schools and children's libraries across the U.S.

Although it became a New York Times bestseller within a week of release, overall sales are said to be disappointing. Certainly, it has not been flying off shelves at the couple's local book store, Tecolote in Montecito. A store saleswoman was reported saying: 'Meghan has never come into the shop.'

On July 1, Harry was in London for the flying visit to unveil, alongside William, the Princess Diana statue outside Kensington Palace. Then, 18 days later, came the bombshell announcement from Penguin Random House of his autobiography with his grandiose statement: 'I'm writing this not as the prince I was born [sic] but as the man I've become.'

World events rarely pass without some kind of intervention from the Sussexes. Thus, on August 17, with Kabul in crisis following the return of the Taliban, they issued a statement about the 'many layers of pain' in Afghanistan while also pontificating on the humanitarian disaster in Haiti following an earthquake.

So far so predictable. Making the cover of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People issue last September was surely validation for all their endeavours.

Next stop New York, where then mayor Bill de Blasio pulled out all the stops for the couple's 'royal' visit. On stage at the Global Citizen Live, a 24-hour broadcast from Central Park, on September 25, they held hands.

Intriguingly, their participation came after Global Citizen was named Organisation of the Year at the 2021 American Business Awards — nominated by none other than . . . Sunshine Sachs.

Six weeks later, the couple were back in the Big Apple for the November 11 Salute to Freedom gala, which honoured military veterans and to which Harry wore his insignia as a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO), a medal he received from the Queen.

That same month, Meghan was criticised for using her royal title to lobby U.S. senators on the issue of paid parental leave.

Then came the couple's Christmas card — showing the first photo of their daughter — and its cheesy message: 'Archie made us a Mama and Papa, and Lili made us a family.'

In February, Harry opened up to BetterUp about how he sets aside 45 minutes a day to 'build resilience' and meditate. He admitted to 'burning the candle at both ends' before he learnt how to embrace what he described as 'inner work'.

All in all, the couple's schedule hardly compares with the daily work of the royals they left behind.

So might this indicate they have been busier in their private lives?

The evidence does not suggest so. They have shared information about Archie's chicken coop and in April there was footage of them playing with their new dog Pula on the beach in Montecito.

Last month, accompanied by his cousin Princess Eugenie, Harry was photographed at the Super Bowl in Los Angeles, American football's blue riband event. And on February 22, Harry, Meghan, Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank were pictured dining out in Santa Barbara.

But sightings in their neighbourhood are rare. Harry has been spotted pootling on an electric bike while being trailed by his security team and also at the wheel of his Range Rover. He has also been seen buying groceries while Meghan was spotted in December carrying bags from the Pierre LaFond delicatessen.

They did attend the town's July 4 parade. But according to Sharon Byrne of the Montecito Association, 'no one knew it was them'. And they contributed as sponsors for Montecito's Christmas parade.

With so few local appearances, rumours circulated that they may even have moved out — but this does not appear to be the case.

Certainly, locals are protective of their celebrity residents.

For example when reporter Richard Mineards revealed that Archie had taken his first riding lesson, he did not name the upmarket stables he attended.

But it's always been that way in Montecito. There are no 'maps to the stars' or tour buses past their homes, as in Beverly Hills.

A neighbour who has lived near the Sussexes' property said he had never clapped eyes on them. 'I've only ever seen their security,' he said.

The bodyguards who constantly patrol the couple's perimeter fence in golf carts are far more visible.

Only Harry and Meghan can say whether a year that began with the hype and rage of their Oprah interview has turned out quite how they intended.

On the face of it, however, it doesn't seem to have added up to much.