Thursday 28 October 2010

The Trials of Mrs Doonuthin

You see... I can't get any sense out of Mrs Doonuthin still. I am beginning to doubt placing the fate of my career in her hands... film wise.

It's not as if she is even getting to grips with the film-making software on her new laptop.

No, she's still pratting around with the computer itself and it's own software or "Operating System" as she so grandly calls it. It's a new version of Windows - for her - and she keeps looking all over the place for the bits she wants. I mean, I have sneaked into her workroom and watched her in action. She keeps shrieking as little windows pop up silently and tell her something she doesn't understand.

Not too mention that she is "in between laptops" and therefore can't find what she wants because it's "on the other one".

I am seriously beginning to doubt her powers of organisation.

Anyway, she gets the animation software (AnimatorDV Simple), that she had already started to use, onto the new laptop... only to find that it wouldn't operate. It was fine on the old Windows XP laptop - but not on 64bit Windows 7 with loadsa RAM. That's because she was trialling a freebie, wasn't she.
Savin' the Money.
All the more for glasses of "Red" and tortilla chips, yes?

Seriously. She had started to make a go of it, I suppose.
You can check out her efforts on "The Cat" post by clicking here. But even THAT won't work if you're trying to view it on an IPhone. (Thank you for feedback, david r.)

You see, that's ANOTHER thing she hasn't quite mastered. Namely, what kind of file to turn the animation into - so that everyone can see it working regardless of what they are viewing it on.

But back to current problems. She downloads a trial of one of AnimatorHD's current programs. And can't understand it, can she.

Pause for un-animated eye-roll.

So now she is on yet another trial software download - this time a version of Stop Motion Pro.

Or at least she makes out that's what she's doing. But really she is still puzzling over and prettifying her new laptop. What colour will that desktop be? To Firefox or not to Firefox? What FireFox Persona shall she have? Shall she alter the sound scheme? What other software would she like to install. Will it be pretty?

This woman is not a serious proposition.
And I am still WAITING.

Sunday 24 October 2010

The Love Life of Birds

You know everyone goes on about Spring and the birds and the bees? All that lovey-doveying and twittering?

Keeping a close eye on the goings on in local bird life, I can tell you that they don't start up in Spring.

No, No. The planners amongst them start sorting out the spouse and nesting thing in the Autumn. I have seen sparrows dragging each other out of the potential nest sight by the wing this time of year. Fierce squawkings, screamings and tail pulling amongst the pushy ones in the sparrow community. We even put up our sparrow box in the autumn - hoping someone would check it out. And they did. And they came back and nested in it. I think it would have been too late by the spring. But then I am a Know-It-All in case you hadn't noticed.

I am reminded of this autumnal courtship stuff when The Old Man (Yes - he who shall be reported) points out the activity of a couple of rooks he has spotted - on a telephone wire at the end of the garden. They sidle up to each other, perusing their mutual "fitness" so to speak. There is a moment of eye-gazing and beak closeness. Then one starts the exaggerated bowing and tail-spreading thing. You know the routine? (For more detail read my Post on Wood Pigeon Wooing with this here click.) Finally there is the mock "feeding" routine. You can imagine how it goes, can't you. After all animal nature .... is in us all.

"Would my little wookiewookie like a sunflower seed?" say he, bowing and scraping.

"What is this? A seed?" say she squinting at offering. "I expect at least a leatherjacket. A fat caterpillar or something else exquisite. But a seed. A seed from that feeder over there. All ten wing flaps away. You cheapskate. You are not fit to father my rooklets. Feh. I'm off. "

And she flaps away - leaving her would-be suitor looking a little glum, all alone on his telephone wire.

Thursday 21 October 2010

Indian Summer but Feeling Very Crabby

It is indeed a bit of an Indian summer. The Rook is singing. There are wheatears (birds - not corn) on the granite blocks of Long Rock beach. The sky is blue. The Old Man has finally got his drugs sorted out...

Oh but I am crabby today.

First frost last night. Central heating up the pole.

And that Mrs Doonuthin... still all at sea with her animatin' and computer. And... she says she's gotta make space in her workroom to make a "set" and lights and stuff. So she's wanderin' around with bits of fabric and arty rubbish from some previous endeavour and getting all confused about where to put things. And getting very irritable, I might add.

And of course that makes me very crabby. This is no way to treat a Star... moi. No respect. No consideration. I am bored. I want to get on with things.

But what respect do I get from my audience, let alone the Technical Person?
None. Not only have people pleaded with me not to stop with the news of the Old Man. (I wasn't going to stop with the news of The Old Man.) One email even requested MORE of him and his doings.

See that Old Man there - with his starring role and witty opinions? Do I take up my valuable time to report on his doings and sayings? Do I honour his trials and tribulations with my reportage?
I certainly do. But apparently that makes me - a mere amanuensis. The Old Man is the centre of this Blog and the concern of all who read my Posts.

I have nurtured a CUCKOO.

Saturday 16 October 2010

Richard Cook at The Exchange

Just wanted to say that there is an exhibition to enjoy at The Exchange in Penzance: the landscape paintings of Richard Cook.

Large scale canvases with subdued colours; paint - thick and voluptuous but still suggesting light; always a sense of the landscape being described in the rhythm of the paint marks. These paintings are shown together with a series of vivid, fluid, large framed water colours and a series of watercolour sketchbooks. The exhibition is on til the end of December.

At the same time there is a joint show of Richard Cook's work, together with that of his late wife, Zia Partou, at the Wills Lane Gallery, St Ives. This exhibition is on to 14 th Nov. Check their website (click above link) for opening times. But I fully intend to go and take a look. Zia Partou's work was also exhibited at The Exchange - Dec 2008 - February 2009. I loved it so much I visited three times to drink her paintings in.

And while I'm in St Ives I'm going to check the Millennium's upcoming exhibition of figurative prints and paintings by Marcelle Hanselaar. A much darker, Bosch-like view of the world.

Monday 11 October 2010

The State of The Old Man

OK. I give up. Some of you probably want to know about The Old Man's health progress. The truth is - that I am not sure really.

Everyone we meet, who knows him, says how well he is looking - that it is unbelievable that he could have been so ill this summer. He is doing more and more. Some cooking now. Sunday, he took pity on an Old Grey Doll and did the washin' up.

But he has his flakier days.

Last week he trots along to the Heart Nurse, for the second of his regular four-weekly visits.... And she tells him that his heart is worse on the function front than it was on his last visit. And he comes home and mentions this to me. And I feel like clocking her one.

Medical people don't appear to have any idea what it means for someone who is battling away on the health front - when they airily make a bald statement which they believe to be factually correct, but can be somewhat brutal. I mean, good for them. I admire their medical skills and knowledge. But they know how to take the precious wind out of a previously billowing sail.

Chugging along, we thought we were. Chugging along.

The Old Man is philosophical. And brings to bear upon the problem his years of experience of being poked about and scanned for this and that. In particular, he says, the scan that she's basing her pronouncement upon could be different each time you take it... and the technician who did it recently was different from the one who did the scan in August. And it can be their difference of interpretation alone that could emphasise that difference.

See how subtle we get when we are trying to "be reasonable" about stuff?

But I'm still growling and snarling. I could swing for the Nurse and I could swing for The Old Man's Cardiologist.

Because what the whole medical world agrees upon.... or at least that portion of it which has examined him.... is that he needs to have another drug reinstated as soon as possible. This is the drug that his Cardiologist said needed to be reinstated back in August when he saw The Old Man. But the Cardiologist refused to prescribe it. (see the Old Man's Prescription Post). He says the prescribing is for the Heart Nurse to do.

The Heart Nurse does indeed want The Old Man to be taking this drug. But it's not actually in her power to generate the prescription. The prescription, she says, must come from the GP.

Now the GP wants him to be on this drug also (as does the Surgeon) but..... he thinks he will just write to the Cardiologist to make sure.... As will the Heart Nurse.

How long will this circular "pass the prescription parcel" be going on for?

And it's not as if this is a new drug for The Old Man. He was on it before the operation. They all think he should be on it now. So what's the problem?

In truth, people, this and the distraction of Mrs Doonuthin distracted state and her technical preoccupations..... is why I haven't been posting quite so often this last week. I am feeling a bit anxious I expect. A little crestfallen. A little like a Grey Doll living with an Old Man.

Certainly, when The Heart Nurse's view is recounted to me by The Old Man, I feel a little low.
Then in recounting to The Old Man why I feel a little low..... I shout myself into a headache.

The optician has suggested that I get my blood pressure checked. Because of the pretty little lights that I see running along across my vision every now and then.

"Though it's probably a headacheless migraine." she says.

Oh, forget it. Getting my blood pressure checked - would just raise my blood pressure.

Saturday 9 October 2010

You Can't Get the Help....

No indeed but you can't get the help these days. If you are wondering what's going on here. Why am I not communicating with my public?

Blame it on the help. That Mrs Doonuthin. Apparently she decided she needed a new laptop. She got one. Now she's parked in front of it... sighin and moanin that she's gotta do this. Gotta do that. Can't understand this...bla-di-blah. And so on.


I'm bored. I'm just waitin for her to get her act together.

And you know what?

When I do check up on her.... she's chokin on her tortilla chips larfin at animashun DVDs what she is playing on the thing.

You just cannot get the help these days.

Tuesday 5 October 2010

The Old Man's Word Power

The Old Man has an interesting command of language. A friend of his once accused him of having "an overactive thesaurus".

So this morning he is reciting chunks of his daily paper to me - as he frequently does. And I say: "So what did so-and-so do before he did that?"

Old Man says: "He was a columnarist."
We both look at each other and start to snigger.
"What's that?" say I.
"Someone who writes about architecture." say quick as a flash Old Man.

Monday 4 October 2010

When Stardom?

I work like a ... a... I work really hard the other day for that film.
Lookin all charmin and playing with the cat.
Where did she get the cat, that Mrs Doonuthin? That cat .... that cat gets petted ... and fed tidbits ... and choochy-chooed at....
Me? Nada. Not a tortilla chip. Not a glass of red. And certainly NOT a chair with me name on the back.


The production values are a bit naff, aren't they. Talk about a beginner. Sheesh.

But everyone wants to be a star round here. The other day I speaks to The Old Man about me encouraging Mrs Doonuthin to start up another Blog (preferably somewhere far, far away from here). So's she can talk about makin her films and stuff.

And he looks at me all horrified.

"What. Leave my Blog?" say he.
"Whose Blog?" say I.
"It's got all my medical history on it." say he.

Sheesh. Everybody wants to be a star.

Saturday 2 October 2010

Mrs Doonuthin's L-Plate Films: The Cat



Mmmn.... Not quite the star vehicle I fancied. A bit rough I say. See... she hasn't got the hang of converting things so's she can put them on my Blog.

You just can't get the staff these days.

But can you see it? Can you play it? Let Mrs Cecil B DeMille know would ya?