#A-TO-Z CHALLENGE 2016 – LETTER ”M” FOR MAMA, CAT MATRIARCH, IN MEMORIAM

It's with sadness that I write this post and highly ironic, for I've sung Mama's praises to the skies since the day she allowed me to be her friend and it took a long time for that to come to pass. Mama died recently after a long and fruitful life. She originally adopted JC, and actually, it's been one year today, since JC's passing, so that too is ironic. I'm not a person who believes in coincidences, or anything of the sort, but she had been JC's cat, and I worried about her after he died. Alex said she's with Jim now. Yes, in some highly disordered form, I guess.

Speaking of highly disordered form; there is no perspective here, but near as I can figure out, I am behind here, on my bed, and that's a map of the us of a on my computer monitor. I have no clue what I was going for here.

Yet, she was so affectionate and even closer to me than she was to him. However, about six months ago, she came down with Distemper and being elderly and having lived most of her life on the streets, she never really came back from it. Outdoor cats have a hard life and she really could not adjust to becoming an all-the-way indoor cat, which is what I would have preferred and once JC died, I had to keep the doors locked all the time – even THAT didn't stop two idiots from getting in, while I was sleeping, woe unto them. Mama ended up crafting her own little pet door in a window screen, so she could come and go as she please. It was perfect.

She spent lots of time indoors, and followed me all around, and when I sat on the porch, she sat on the porch with me. She had two older sons that would come and visit; they looked like her, just so much bigger. Mama was never a big cat, but she had such distinctive markings; such as I had never seen on a cat before. I guess as old Leonardo da Vinci said, “The smallest of the felines is a masterpiece!”, I take it to mean both in the general and the specific. But all of the felines are, big and small.

Gotta love essential tremor. I was asked "is it REALLY essential, why is it called that?" I thought for 5 seconds and my head exploded. Some dumb neurological term. "Dystonia" is muscle cramps. Every picture I take looks like art from the Impressionist Period.

She had her funny ways and ways to drive me crazy. When she was healthier, she played a lot with her toys and would tear around my little apartment and she could literally bounce from the bed into the kitchen, or from the bed into the living room. A friend, Nancy Cooper sent her some artisanal catnip mice and she went crazy over those. One disappeared, as such things often do.

She could be a little con-artist, too, as most cats can be. I was trying to get her to eat a good dry food and for the longest time, she acted like she hated it. So, I was buying her Friskies and feeding her this stuff, which wasn't really that good for her. This went on for a couple of weeks and I cut back on the Friskies, because it was getting expensive. I walked into my kitchen one Sunday and here she was, happily munching on her dry food. She looked up and the look was priceless: “Oooh, I am soooo busted.” I turned and walked out of the kitchen and she came running after me, hollering about how lousy that dry food was.

This looks like a graphics "feature" in Runescape3, where everyone's head melted for a few weeks. Good times. Good times. She shook her head JUST as I clicked the clicker.

But, she had a really wonderful thing that she did. I have 2 towers made out of milk crates on either side of my blogging chair. One holds a board and a mousepad on the right, and the other, on the left, holds a land-line phone, or a laptop. I have two computers in front of me, side by side. Mama would jump up on the right-hand side and “rest” on my mouse pad, or hand and gradually creep her way up my arm.

She's just starting to work her way up my arm. . .

Now this is a cat that I couldn't even look at without scaring 4 years or so ago, and we had gotten to the point, where she had to have some part of her on me, at all times, while she was in the house, or would lie down between my feet. She also slept with me, sort of.

What she mostly did was walk around on my head, knead in my hair, or with her tiny, less-than-dime-sized feet, stand in my ear. Or I'd feel little feet walking all over my face. But, her most endearing quality was when she would sit on my mouse pad, and reach out with one dainty paw and make me look at her. She would look into my eyes and she seemed to show such love and gratitude that she had a home. I will never forget that, ever. Animals grace us with our present and I was gifted with that grace beyond anything I ever hoped to see from her.

. . . Slowly creeping upward. My only regret is that I never was able to get a decent shot of her reclining on my entire forearm. That was pretty funny. She will be missed. Rest well, Mama, my heart!

I haven't said much, only very close friends like Jeremy Doll who is a fellow Leader of SpiritZ and horse enthusiast and all-around animal lover and such a good person, and Alex Cavanaugh and my Aunt Lande. “She was such a nice cat.”, Jeremy said. And that she was. In all the time she was with us, she never scratched, or bit and never got angry or irritated, she was just such a wonderful being. It was hard for me to fathom that someone had abused her, but she was blind in her right eye, and it wasn't from a cat-fight. I know what that looks like. She would occasionally get scared of the kids playing next door and hide behind the toilet and I'd go and take her some sardines.

Alex and I knew she was going to die and I was in West Palm Beach when it happened. My better 2/3, was all for packing up and driving to Tampa, when Alex called. I thought on it for a while, but said, “No. The offer is so lovely, but it's okay. You care. That is all that matters.” I called Alex back and he agreed. She was put lovingly to rest and will never be forgotten. The really wonderful thing is this; Her progeny gave birth to some more of her progeny, and I will have two little great x infinity grandbabies to keep me busy. Kittens are fun, but these will be indoor kittehs, except for playdates with Oso!

#A-TO-Z CHALLENGE – LETTER “M” – MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS

MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS

Monty Python's Flying Circus was a British sketch comedy troupe and their show aired originally on the BBC from 1969 to 1974 and in the USA, the first segments of the show were aired during NBC's summer replacement series, Dean Martin's Comedyworld. The shows were made up of surreal sight-gags, risqué or innuendo-laden humor and observational sketches with no punchlines. The show also features animations by it's one American comedian, Terry Gilliam, and these were often sequenced or mixed with live action. The Flying Circus flew from 5 October 1969 on BBC One, with 45 episodes airing from 1969 to 1974, plus two episodes for German Tee Vee.

Monty Python's Flying Circus Logo; I can never play the "Liberty Bell March" by John Philip Souza without seeing that damned foot!

Again, with the grounding of Gilbert & Sullivan and with a heaping helping of Spike Milligan's style based upon his ground-breaking series Q5 (which became Q6, Q7, Q8. . .Q10, and then just There's A Lot of It About), the Pythons' show was not in the traditional sketch format and often targeted the idiosyncrasies of British life, especially that of professionals, and is at times politically charged. The member of Monty Python were highly educated; Terry Jones and Michael Palin were Oxford University graduates; Eric Idle, John Cleese, and Graham Chapman attended Cambridge University; and American-born member Terry Gilliam graduated from Occidental College. The team intended their humor to be nigh impossible to categorize and were so successful, that the adjective, “Pythonesque,” was invented to define it, and later, similar material.

Jones as Mandy, Brian's mother in The Life of Brian. Just hearing "her" talk prompts hysteria!

The Pythons play the majority of the characters themselves, including the majority of female characters (Terry Jones is undeniably the best and screechiest, at this) but would occasionally cast an extra actor. Regular supporting cast member include Carol Cleveland (referred to by the team as the unofficial “Seventh Python”), Connie Booth (Cleese's first wife, and regular on the amazing Fawlty Towers) series Producer Ian MacNaughton, Ian Davidson, Neil Innes and the Fred Tomlinson Singers for the musical numbers.

The John Philip Souza March, The Liberty Bell was used as the opening music, because it was in the public domain and could be used for free. I've played this many a time, and I can never play the thing without seeing giant feet coming down and squashing things.

Monty Python's Flying Circus Opening Montage

The title Monty Python's Flying Circus was partly the result of the group's reputation at the BBC. Michael Mills, the BBC's Head of Comedy, wanted their name to include the word “circus” because the BBC referred to the six members wandering around the building as a circus, in particular “Baron von Took's Flying Circus”, after Barry Took, who had brought them to the BBC. The group added “flying” to make it sound less like an ACTUAL circus and more like something from World War I. They were coming up with their name at a time when the 1966 Royal Guardsmen song Snoopy vs. The Red Baron had been at a peak. Manfred von Richtofen, the WWI German flying ace known as the Red Baron commanded a squadron of planes known as “The Flying Circus.” The words “Monty Python” were added because the group clamed it sounded like a really bad theatrical agent; the sort of person who would have brought them together. They chose “Monty” because the name “Monty” made them laugh, as in “Lord Montgomery” the great general of Second World War.

Each of the Python members had recurring characters that they specialized and honed. Among the afore-mentioned Jones' screechy, loud and disheveled “Rat-Bag woman”, the best in the business, were Terry Gilliam's “Cardinal Fang” as a member of the Spanish Inquisition, which would pop up from time to time in some completely unrelated sketch. John Cleese, played ridiculous authority figures (a role he was to re-create in Fawlty Towers) and intimidating maniacs. Terry Gilliam claims that Cleese was one of the funniest Pythons in drag (a staple of their humor) as he barely needed to be dressed up to look hilarious, with his square chin, 6' 5'' frame and one of Cleese's most memorable, Mr. Praline, the put-upon consumer, is featured in some of the most famous sketches, most notable “Dead Parrot” (voted by TV Guide as the second-funniest sketch of all time).

TerryGilliam was responsible for the off-the-wall animation that would go off on bizarre, imaginative tangents. Some running gags culled from these animations were a giant hedgehog named Spiny Norman, who appeared over the tops of buildings showing, “Dinsdale!” The foot is appropriated from the figure of Cupid in Agnolo Bronzino's “Venus,Cupid, Folly and Time”. Gilliam was hired mainly as animator, and didn't even think of himself as an on-screen performer at first, but the others felt they owed him something, so he occasionally appeared before camera, usually in skits that no one else wanted to play, generally because they involved a lot of make-up or uncomfortable costumes. His most recurrent character was The-Knight-Who-Hits-People-With-A-Chicken, a knight in armour who would walk on-set and hit another character on the head with a plucked chicken when they said something really corny.

Graham Chapman often portrayed the straight man, of any age or class, frequently a military officer, policeman, or doctor. He could, at any moment, though, break character, launch in “Pythonesque” maniacal behavior and then just as quickly, revert back to his former calm self. 
 

Eric Idle was most known for his roles as a cheeky, suggestive playboy “Nudge, Nudge,” or as a crafty, slick salesman (“Door-to-Door Joke Salesman”) and the merchant who loves to haggle in Monty Python's Life of Brian, and the master of the one-liner. He was also the best singer/songwriter of the of the group; for example, he wrote and performed “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” from The Life of Brian.

Camelot (Knights of the Round Table) "Monty Python and the Holy Grail

This was prior to "Life of Brian" which faced charges of being

sacrilegious to Christians! I'm a Catholic and we find this hilarious, because Catholicism isn't for wimps. If you've ever seen an ex-communication, you'll understand; that's how we roll. Look at the Spanish Inquisition. Ain't nothin' Christian about that!

Michael Palin was regarded by the other members of the troupe as the one with the widest range, equally adept as a straight man or wildly over the top character. He portrayed many working-class characters and in contrast, also played, weak-willed, put-upon men, such as the husband in the “Marriage Counsellor” sketch, or the boring accountant in the “Vocational Guidance Counsellor”. He was equally good as the indefatigable Cardinal Ximinez of Spain the “The Spanish Inquisition”. One of his best and most famous creations was the shopkeeper who attempted to sell useless goods by very weak and ineffectual attempts at being sly and crafty, which are always spotted by the customer (often played by John Cleese), as in the “Dead Parrot”. Palin is also well known for his leading role in “The Lumberjack Song”.

 The Lumberjack Song

For a short-lived troupe and show, their influence on comedy has been monumental. At the end of their BBC run, the show earned enough money and interest to allow it to be picked up in its entirety by PBS, although bits and pieces of it had run on American television for years. The Flying Circus went one to create and produce, “Monty Python's Meaning of Life”, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”, and “Monty Python's Life of Brian” among others. There have been stage shows and SNL's Lorne Michaels counts the show as a major influence on Saturday Night Live sketches. In computing, the terms spam and the Python programming language are both derived from the series. None other than Douglas Adams, the writer of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and a sometimes writer on the show, wished to audition for the part of John Cleese, and was saddened when he found the "part was already taken". Probably the highest accolade however is this: as of 2013, questions concerning the Pythons' most famous sketches have been incorporated into the examinations required of those seeking to become British citizens. Quite an honor, for a surrealistic comedy troupe!

BOOK RELEASE ANNOUNCEMENT AND RAFFLE-COPTER!!!

Title: Golden Dawn

Author: Aldrea Alien

Genre: Paranormal

Release date: April 18^th, 2014

From now until April 18th, I will be show-casing Aldrea Alien's newest release, Golden Dawn. This will include an raffle-copter (be sure and enter!) and well. . . I'll let her take it from here!

 Family and blood.

After 1100 years, these simple words mean everything to Herald. His life has been ruled by keeping his siblings safe, keeping them from becoming prey whilst feeding on the weaker. His failures have been many and measured by those he has lost. People like his twin brother.

There has always been an enemy to push back or defeat.

Just who the enemy is comes into question when Herald meets the dangerous, angelic creature he is to guard. Wondering where his true loyalties lie is a dangerous thought. No matter whether he chooses family over the heart, it will mean death.

Only the right choice will ensure the life taken is not his.

Buy Links:

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/411514

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/golden-dawn/id828141989

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/golden-dawn-aldrea-alien/1118739415

MuseitUpPublishing: https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore/index.php/coming-soon/april-2014/golden-dawn-detail

Bookstrand: http://www.bookstrand.com/golden-dawn

Omnilit: https://www.omnilit.com/product-goldendawn-1429463-234.html

CoffeetimeRomance: http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/BookStore/pubs_product_book_info/museitup-publishing-c-98/golden-dawn-p-11898

Andrea Alien

Author Bio:

Born and raised in New Zealand, Aldrea Alien lives on a small farm with her family, including a menagerie of animals. Since discovering a love of writing at the age of twelve, she hasn't found an ounce of peace from the characters plaguing her mind.

Website: http://www.aldreaalien.com

Blog: http://thardrandia.blogspot.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Aldrea-Alien/262519090516776

Twitter: https://twitter.com/@AldreaAlien

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7328363.Aldrea_Alien

a Rafflecopter giveaway!!

BLOGGING FROM A TO Z APRIL 2013 – LETTER “M”

MIND, MOOD and MEMORY

I blogged about this for the Parkinson's P.A.N.D.A. Foundation once. At least I think I did. As I remember it. The funny thing about these three “M” words, is that they are closely linked. We tend to remember our experiences colored by our moods at that moment; good or bad, or blah, or happy, or mad. An obvious statement if ever there.

But, how reliable are our memories really when we are mentally ill, or are dealing with something like a bipolar condition? Or Asperger? Is it possible to go back later on and dissect some incident of the past in a rational manner, when you weren't in a rational state of mind during the incident itself?

My brain is attached to my mouth and it's going constantly.

I think if one is able to look at one's own behavior dead on and honestly, that answer is “yes.” I've done it. Over the past year, I've learned a lot about what it means to live with all manner of odd behavior; running the spectrum of being numb (not catatonic) to just short of schizophrenia. I have a cousin who is schizophrenic and has been most of her life. Consequently, I am shunned by the rest of my surviving family. Not that I give a damn.

Other than my first psychotic break, I've been able to either get on top of my episodes of dementia and remember them, and I've only come close twice to full-blown psychosis again. These are usually brought on my physical triggers and I know I have to get to a hospital. The saving grace is, I remember them. I didn't the first time and that must have been a doozy. The 2^nd time, I called 911, here came the fire trucks and half of the Tampa Police Department. Oh my! I remember Officer Fair and he lived up to his name.

Officer Fair was nice, but nervous. I think he thought I might bite him. My dad cured me of that when I was 4. He bit me back. That shit hurt!

So, either because I'm a fast learner, or because I don't want to spend my life in either the Mental Hospital or Jail, I figured I should learn some of the triggers. Frustration, total lack of understanding by people who should know better and problems with my sugar play huge issues. It's amazing how large a part some of these things can play, especially if they build up day by day. But, everyone has these issues and they don't go off the deep end. This is where the Parkinson's comes in. It is a constant emotional roller coaster. Up and down. There is no even keel. It's like bipolar on speed.

Every once in a while, I get the bradykinesia (freezing, or stop-action movement) associated with Parkinson's. It's weird, just weird. Mostly, I'm ahead of myself. Chronos is broken.

Anyway, I think it is possible to go back and mindfully dissect those memories. Bad mood, good mood, to draw conclusions that will help in the future. I really, really don't want to wake up in some Mental Ward, having been Baker Acted (committed in Florida) again after a month's sleeplessness, with a psychiatrist asking me, “Just what were you trying to do? Hmmm?” 

Source: www.parkinson.org and me.