Classic SESAME STREET: "Ladybugs' Picnic"

It's been some time since I posted any classic Sesame Street material.  Need to get better about that.

Well anyway, here from 1971 or so it's the very timeless "Ladybugs' Picnic"!



Few items of interest about this clip. Firstly, that's legendary muppeteer Jerry Nelson singing, with fellow muppet operator Richard Hunt playing the kazoo.

And it's also worth noting that this was animated by Bud Luckey, who is currently an animator at Pixar. Just think: this cartoon is from a guy who went on to work on stuff like Toy Story, WALL-E and a bunch of other Disney/Pixar movies.

This song was always memorable to me for some reason.  At one point it was seriously stuck in my head.  So now I'm showing it to you guys so that you can share my, errr... enjoyment :-)

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Another chapter completed

Late last night I finished another chapter for my book about having mental illness and specifically bipolar disorder.  So depending on how you figure it, that's three chapters I've done in the past few weeks.  Three chapters done since I picked up the project again in the wake of Dad's death.

In all honesty, I never expected to have come this far along, so fast.  I don't know if I could have before now.  Maybe I had to go through some things before I could arrive at the place where I am now.  Dad's death... well, it changed me in some ways.  Most of all it renewed my faith in God, that His timing is perfect though we often can't see that.  That aspect has made me realize anew that everything that I've gone through, everything that has happened, has had some purpose.  It hasn't been for naught.  What that purpose is, I don't know... but it's there.

I am writing the book in part because this is what I'm supposed to be doing at this point in my life, looking back on all the other points that were leading to this precise place.  I want to believe that I am poised exactly where God has been moving me to be for all of this time, despite how dire the circumstance may have been.

I could not write what I am now, were it not for those things happening.

I like to think that that belief in God will be reflected in the book, regardless of how it will come across to many people.

Let me be clear, in no uncertain terms: this is a harsh, harsh book.  The chapter that was finished last night is the longest so far.  You'll know it if this is published.  It's manic.  Very manic.  We're talking rapid-fire machine gun of barely-controlled thrill ride framed by what remains one of the very worst mistakes of my life.

But now, at last, I have come to the edge of a very, very dark place and I am so not kidding: in all of my long career as a published writer, what I'm about to do next is the most frightening thing that I have ever attempted.

This is the abyss, and I'm about to plunge into it.  Worse, I'm asking readers to come along with me and look into the darkest heart of mental illness.  There are things in there that will disgust many, if not most.  I am not going to be looked at the same way again.  I may lose friendships.  I may lose opportunities

Tonight the notion struck me that I couldn't be doing this if it weren't for God bringing me to this place.  If this had been just me, I could not be writing at all.  We are told that in our weakness, He is magnified.  If what I am doing in this book gives God the honor and the glory, then what I'm about to do will be a small sacrifice.  One that I won't mind in the long run.

But right now, I'm scared.  Really, really scared.

I hope you people have a strong stomach.

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One of the sport's greatest has left the court...

Dean Smith 1931 ~ 2015

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This is one of the best campaign ads you will ever see

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come out with a commercial for his campaign (and the Likud party) and... well, it's pretty gosh-darn brilliant no matter who you are!  A couple expects a babysitter and instead they get a "Bibi-sitter". Check it out:



I understand that there is some play-on-words here that will probably go unnoticed by most English-only speakers.  F'rinstance, when they mention "carpets" that's also Israeli terminology for "territories".

I've a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for Mr. Netanyahu.  A tremendous amount.  But I never thought that he'd be making a commercial like this.  Seeing him let his hair down with such a clever ad seems perfect somehow.

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Book status (maybe this should be a weekly thing?)

I think... I think... that Chapter 23 is in a form which I can be content with.

I refuse to say "comfortable with".  There is nothing comforting about this chapter.  This has been difficult to write because it is becoming very painful to write about some things.  Indeed, at the moment I'm trying to take steps to help more accurately convey what was happening at that point in my life.

Chapter 23 has been rough, to put it mildly.

The next few are going to be the harshest of the book by far.

The thought of revealing the original title has been floating around.  The more I think about it the more I find myself of the notion that it was a great title at the time.  That it may have been the best that I could have come up with, that it was the title that got me through that stretch of the journey.  But now it sounds like crap.  And I'm kicking myself for using that title to try to sell the book for some of the past several months.

No, that wasn't a good title.

The new one is better.  Much, much better.

And though it didn't originally, there is now a subtitle and I like it a lot.  The few who I've shared it with also think it rocks.  I'll give a hint: Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist.  Read that and you may find something of the direction the whole book is heading into.

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Official Doctor Who LEGO sets are coming!

We will soon have a TARDIS officially rendered in LEGO...

That pic is just the proof of concept from two guys who submitted their design through the LEGO Ideas page and have had it approved.  The actual sets will probably look somewhat different.  But even so... we're getting BBC-approved Doctor Who LEGO sets y'all!!

Nerd Approved has a lot more about this awesome news.

I wonder if the little Weeping Angels minifig moves when you're not looking at it...

"Everything is Awesome!"

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Look at what I just found!

It's The Weird Spinning Head of Chris Knight!

That's from 1998.  It was on my personal websites for a long time. "Weird" Ed helped me make it: he snapped the photos with a film camera while I sat in his office chair and rotated around to get the various angles. Then after getting the pics developed I scanned 'em and then put them together with GIF Construction Set.

sigh...  Those were the days.

Have spent most of the day working on my book.  Chapter 23 took several huge steps forward this evening.  I wound up taking a break and came across that GIF.  Was bored and figured I'd post it for a few cheap laughs :-P

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