A Kind Of Last Post

I have been thinking long and hard about this.
As I get older and The Old Man gets older, I spend so much time being angry about stuff that words fail me. And I don't find so much to laugh about. Of course this could be the consequences of old age and a long memory whilst I still have one.

This blog and your company have helped me through some rough patches, in particular during the early days (2010) when The Old Man became suddenly and seriously ill.

You can read those posts at "Heart Surgery" though remember they will run back to front chronologically.

But now The Doll and The Old Man are packing up the blog bags for a while. Mrs D will miss me (The Doll) I know... and The Old Man ... naturally! 

Meanwhile she continues with her own Syb&Me site where she struggles with learning animation and other things creative.

So for now, in this place, it's time for me and The Old Man to say "Good Bye, my dears. Take care. Keep safe. And Thank You."

January 2018: The Doll's Doubts

So here I am again and here you are too. I have to say that, after posting to this blog for seven years or so, I am wondering whether I can go on with this. I get older, ironically angrier, and therefore less inclined to play and have fun.

I wondered whether to simply make images with a single sentence or link: one a day... snap, snap, snap.

I wondered whether to migrate to another platform (cos Blogger is lonelier than it used to be and Mrs D do enjoy her time at WordPress.) But where to go? Tumblr's parent company has been gobbled up by Verizon - not a fan of net neutrality.

Instagram is owned by the giant Facebook now ... although I think they are currently supporting net neutrality...

I am full of confusion. I may pack my bags and leave but, for now, I appear to have made another post!

All good wishes for 2018. As the immortal Bette Davis said in "All About Eve" 

... "Fasten your seat belts. It's going to be a bumpy night."

A New Day - A New Doll

Let me introduce myself ... Grey Doll calls me Bike Girl. Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. But those who follow this blog may have seen me before: perhaps on my bike or with my trusty Dog. Often I'll be sharing a bottle of red with The Doll ... like in Mrs D's film "Seating the Guests". Remember that? How could you forget.

So why am I here? Frankly, I told The Doll and The Old Man that if they are reduced to telling the world which flavour of ice cream they last ate... they may as well go to Instagram and get on with it. Besides which, The Doll's foot fell off whilst she was attempting to pose for a photo.

Time for you both to take a break, I said. Let's face it. You are old and tired. Go away and see if you can recuperate. Leave the blog to me for a while. 

So here I am. One hundred percent.

Mrs D Cooks Up A Cartoon

Well... what do you know! Mrs D has managed to cook up a cartoon after all. It has only taken her about five months. But people say that the latest thing is "slow-cooking" and Mrs D is the Mistress of Slow.

I should perhaps explain that she has changed technique and is trying out hand-drawn animation instead of traditional stop-motion. As she has no dedicated 2D drawn-animation software, she has tried out a process based on her ancient graphics software program and her stop motion animation software. I could explain how she did it but unfortunately I fell asleep whilst she was explaining it all to me - so I'll spare you the details.

Find the cartoon on her Syb & Me project. It's called "All Change" and involves Syb, Mrs D and a cat. It's very short but it makes The Old Man laugh so press its arrow button and play.

Navel-Gazing

When my own Inner Child gets fed up with my "boring" blog ... What can I do?
I must have drifted away from what excited me. After all, time was, I used to snigger and think of ideas and take Doll-selfies on a regular basis - each would feed the next, with room in between for incident and outbursts. Bits of Grey Doll dropped off through metal or plastic fatigue and there would have to be a body remake or two. But that was all part of the excitement.
No ... I must have oughted and shoulded too much. The Inner Nag told me to "grow up and focus".  And I did try.

Books and Film?

Opinion and politics?

Look! I lost myself whilst focusing! I am just not a grown-up Blogger. And so this will have to be a Ragtag and Muddle of a Doll Blog. Something has to occur to me to make me want to post ... and usually that's something that makes me feel good. There is enough going on in the world at the moment not to feel good. I am only too aware of it. And I can't be eloquent about it. 

So bear with me. I'm doing a default reset. Welcome back to The Doll's House and Playroom.

Explanation of Absence: Mrs D Tries To Animate..Again

Well, has your heart grown fonder during my absence? Perhaps not. I don't blame you. First rule of blogging. Post something.

But I can't drag Mrs D away from her latest obsession in order to help post something here. And her latest obsession involves drawing away on that graphics tablet. More to the point - trying to find a way to make hand-drawn animation. Yes. You have read me right. Having gone on for years about filming stop motion animation ... like what I be made for ... now she wants to draw it.

Do not hold your breath. There won't be a feature-length film anytime soon for it has been a saga. First it was a question of software. She tried downloading various software testers. The first would not run at all and her computer skills were not up to curing that problem. Then she tried  a second program - which was bit temperamental. She started to make it work but couldn't transfer the end product into a watchable media file! Others? Well, one look at the interface was enough to leave her jaw slack and her eyes glazing. And they are so varied as to how they operate. Bless her she is a simple old-fashioned girl and she did want to just "draw" the thing... like bitmap stuff. She cannot yet do this vector stuff, nor Flash, nor 3D rendering....

Anyhoo. She is currently practicing a very complicated work around involving using layered images in her ancient graphics package and turning each layer into a separate image file and importing the sequence into her current (rapidly aging version) of Stopmotion Pro package... which (bless it ) do allow you to import image files. So far... enough is happening to keep her glued to a stylus most afternoons. I'll show you a sequence of images. They are based on her Syb & Me project. What do you think?

Mrs D Takes A Tablet

No. She has not succumbed to one of them iPad thingies. Instead she has got above her station and has purchased a Wacom graphics tablet.

I do not know what this means for The Doll that is me. I must say that I do feel a little flat here.

And ... there has been much shouting and hair pulling by Madam. And much random opening and closing of software packages, images and losing of toolbars as she practices dabbing and scratching with her "pen" and swiping her fingers around the tablet.

... Don't expect another post very soon at this rate.

Mrs D And Me

It's very hard when a Doll has to review her career future. I wanted a taste of being a film star, a life in films... And Mrs D was supposed to give me that. Then The Old Man muscled in. Never one to dodge the limelight, that one. And now here I am... a would-be film star of a certain age. You know that there are no decent parts written for older women, don't you. OK, so I have lost my head and hands occasionally and things don't bend the way they should. (Mrs D is a slave-driver when it come to animating... a cruel and brutal director I must tell you.) I suppose I have to accept the fact that Mrs D is spending a lot of time elsewhere ... on a new project... a new website... a new life... Well, hardly.
It's all right for some.

Mrs D claims to be "devoting this new space to animating" ... but I have taken a quick look and I don't see much filming going on. I'm not bitter. If Madam prefers playing with plasticine at the moment I suspect it is probably a reversion to childhood. You will find her (frankly weird) site at "Syb & Me" .... and if you pop over there now, you will also find that she is bickering with her dead mother over a cup of tea. How long can this go on?

Look on the bright side... I know you will.... Me and The Old Man are still here. That will be a great comfort to you I am sure.

Too Wrapped Up

My dears. I have neglected my blog-posting most woefully.
It is cold. I am an elder person. I am so wrapped up against the cold of the house (rural heating... bottled gas... and so on) that I just roll around the warm sitting room like some kind of fattened seal.
My room what I do blog from be very cold. What? I do not have wi-fi and tablets and stuff? This is a house full of tablets I do assure you. But not of the digital kind. And contrary to popular belief some homes of the older granity kind have problems with their wi-fi getting through the internal walls to nice, warm, comfortable spots in which one can sit and blog-post. Smart phones? Well I do not have one of course. And if I do... it has been known for people round here to have to climb up onto convenient rocks (outside) in order to get that wonderful thing known as a signal.

Anyway, as I say, I be too tightly wrapped to bend in the middle, never mind putting one foot in front of the other. If you knew what sending this communication do cost in terms of dripping nose and numb fingers.....

Just So You Know...

(... yes... this is me looking uncharacteristically "pokey".... which is The Old Man's in-house slang for "irritable"...)

.....just so's you know and in case the posts get more erratic or more grumpy than usual.... Me and The Old Man are embarking on a bit of rebuilding.... in that the plastic bit on the back of the house what be leaking, spider-infested and falling apart.... is being replaced by something a bit more robust.

This have meant a bit of worry... and a bit of getting to grips with molto troppo belongings. That is to say... sifting through and moving them.

We therefore be grumpy, anxious and tired. And this be likely to go on for a month or two. With apologies if the posts get too ratty or fail to appear.

Viva building work!

RIP "Drawn" Blog...2005-2013

I be so self-absorbed that I do not always keep up with the blogs I am supposed to be following. So I be ashamed to see that "Drawn" a collaborative, illustration, graphics, whatever blog started by Canadian illustrator John Martz has closed.

I shall miss it. It gave me the work of cartoonists and illustrators whose work I fell in love with: Jason ... Mattias Adolfsson .... Brecht Evens....going on to get some of their books... and there was animation stuff as well....product stuff....


Time and the internet moves on... as do "blogs".

My Dears.... These Computers...

I'll give Windows Backup and its hours of gathering its petticoats together only to refuse to put it on the disk.... or to demand another disk cos it's taken against the one it happily spoke to last time.... or to demand a labelled disk.... or to refuse to format a new one.

Quelle horreur.... I do go on line and get another backup package...

So instead of giving you a jolly and informative blog post about what I do not know...
I be sat on top of me electric fire... freezing me fingers off attempting to back things up in as many ways as I can think of cos I'm that kind of girl...

Cold... innit.

January 2nd And I do Say....

.....Hello my dears and here we do go again.

Putting the rubbish out this mornin' (Old Year), I do spy a primrose (New Year)... although it do try to hide its head under its leaves.... after the stuff what do go on in 2012 what do you expect? The rain, the floods and all sorts of dreadful stuff. Yes I do include the ill-thought-out, knee-jerk-rubbish Mr Smoothy-Face Cammo and his governing cohorts do come out with an' all.

Oh Fine, you do say. January the Second and already she be going on about stuff. Bang. Bang.

Anyway... have observed Mrs D getting her pantaloons in a twist considering the remake of The Old Man and attempting to purchase a basic kit for keeping his legs and arms on. The Old Men (both "avatar" and "analogue" be apprehensive.)

And I Also Resolve....

..... to get Mrs D to give me ("moi aussi") a makeover also.

I be working quite hard this last two years for an old girl made of pipe-cleaners and cotton wool. Do you remember my head did fall off a while back? Mrs D had to step in quick there. Not to mention the time me finger snapped off as well. Which be worse you think? Head drop off? Leg drop off?
What a pair us Old Uns be.

The time has come to grasp the pliers, Mrs D.

In 2013 I Resolve.....

... to get that Ol' Mrs D to give The Old Man a makeover.

I mean, tis a worry when a leg drops off just when one is about to shoot a scene for the annual Christmas movie. Which is why in part it do not happen this year... Mrs D do give him a temporary fix with a "metal hip" but we both know......

And this do make the "real life" Old Man a bit queasy....

Blogging Without a Brain

Sorry... I's been remiss. No posts for a few days. I plead the headaches... or rather one of those Big Headaches wot go on for several days and during which I contemplate nausea...

and for some reason... cutting me hair off.

Know what I mean?

Functioning better now.

Back soon.

Blogging Without Connection

Well my dears it can't be done. Without an internet connection I do mean. And mine did crash several days ago. (Though fortunately I do schedule some posts to crop up later... and that was what I done, otherwise my blog be silent for even more days.)

As you do see from the pic here I do live in a rather rural place.... with plenty of Cornish granite and hills. This does not bode well for "signals" if you see what I mean. So my internet connection is hardwired.

When I first try to connect to the internet with my phone.... I have to march to the top of this hill...

(Phone companies do not always understand that the only way that you can get reception for your emergency alternative... the"Mobile"... is hanging by your toes from the bedroom window which faces south.)

So rightly or wrongly a "wireless" connection for my laptop... I'm just as suspicious of.

For those of us down here... amongst the first to be switched to digital-only telly kinda thing... well don't tell us about the wonders of digital telly. First get a signal! The Old Man has the art of tuning; with which digital set-top box... and which brand of digital telly to avoid... down to a fine and precise art. It is all worth it for BBC4, mind.

I admit that my phone's internet connection is not so bad at the moment, but I can't imagine hows I could smart blog when I's runnin around with miserable connection and zero smartphone knowledge... Can hardly call my dear ob'un phone top-rankin "smart" either....

gotta screen the size of a postage stamp. If you remember what a postage stamp is....

No.. I may have to resort to steam power.... um... steam-punk bloggin sounds a notion to conjure with! Now that... I could fancy.

Deadlines

Reblogged from the group blog Drawn.....

which brings my attention to great little film on YouTube from KreativMagazin illustrating that deadlines can be a problem.... and creativity can take time to blossom.

Oh Yeah....

Graphic Passions: Norwegian Ink: Comics Artist Jason

And just in case you think it's purely a question of Scandinavian Crime Writing... Consider the possibilities of Scandinavian Comic artists...

My eyes were drawn (by the group blog Drawn!!) to an interview with Norwegian comic artist Jason by Dan Wagstaff on his book culture blog "The Casual Optimist"... which is great.

I borrowed Jason's "The Living and the Dead" from my local library some time ago. (Good choice!) And very much enjoyed it.... Zombies as Krazy Kat. (If you don't realise my tastes by now...) So for me this was a happy reminder of the intriguing work of another comic artist which I'd like to see more of.

Oh and comic artists in Norway? Well let's just say that Jason decided to base himself in France for more work opportunities. Bande-dessinee and all that.

"The Killing is Killing Me"

Gotta another mail the other day from my insomniac "Forbrydelsen-fan" friend. Now she is lying awake worrying about some plot points that are puzzling her. She did send me a whole list to clear up. But I says: "Don't look at me. You need Mrs Doonuthin for this."

So I has a go at passing some of the questions over to Mrs Doonuthin... like
"Was Nanna killed at the flat or in the woods?"
"Who cut the wire to the stairwell light outside Lund's flat"
"Why did the powers that be want to cover up the link between Nanna's and Mette's murders?"
... and many more.

Mrs Doonuthin, ever helpful, looks up at me with bleary eyes, hiccups, and says: "I dunno... didn't spot them dyscreppersies meself... I just thought it was a jolly good telly-thing, me."

Sorry, dear friend - despite her cutting edge critical faculties, Mrs Doonuthin is of no use whatsoever. Meanwhile, I can assure you that you only have to Google "Forbrydelsen Nanna..." to get plenty of blogospheric discussion links on the matter of plot points.

But I shall step over Mrs Doonuthin's snoozing form, ponder on your questions - and get back to you.