Paula is looking for work in Education, Web and Graphic Design, and/or Illustration

My year of teaching Advanced Graphic Design is up, and I am now looking for full-time employment.

Please let me know of any temporary or permanent opportunities of which you are aware, or networking opportunities I shouldn't miss.

Thanks so much!!

Paula has a cold...

Gotta love getting sick. First, a sneeze or two. Then, you notice a kind of scratchy sore throat, and some stuffiness... and that general whacked out tired feeling, not quite up to your usual snuff. And then the tiredness of the body, and an amping up of all the symptoms, some overheating, a need to down as many lozenges as possible, just to make your throat feel better, if only for a moment. Definitely feel like feeding this cold. Blah.

Thirty-five

January 22, I turn 35. I remember as a child, thinking that the 6th graders seemed awfully tall. And I figured that by the time I was "grown up" I'd be a famous children's book illustrator, artist, and opera singer.

(Gorgeous "35" photo by Todd Klassy, www.flickr.com/photos/latitudes/ )

Some quotes and poetry for the occasion:

Thirty-five is a very attractive age. London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained thirty-five for years.
-----Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, Act 3

********************

Ballade at Thirty-five

This, no song of an ingénue,
This, no ballad of innocence;
This, the rhyme of a lady who
Followed ever her natural bents.
This, a solo of sapience,
This, a chantey of sophistry,
This, the sum of experiments, --
I loved them until they loved me.

Decked in garments of sable hue,
Daubed with ashes of myriad Lents,
Wearing shower bouquets of rue,
Walk I ever in penitence.
Oft I roam, as my heart repents,
Through God's acre of memory,
Marking stones, in my reverence,
"I loved them until they loved me."

Pictures pass me in long review,--
Marching columns of dead events.
I was tender, and, often, true;
Ever a prey to coincidence.
Always knew I the consequence;
Always saw what the end would be.
We're as Nature has made us -- hence
I loved them until they loved me.

-----Dorothy Parker

********************

At Thirty-Five

Three score and ten, the psalmist saith,
And half my course is well-nigh run;
I've had my flout at dusty death,
I've had my whack of feast and fun.
I've mocked at those who prate and preach;
I've laughed with any man alive;
But now with sobered heart I reach
The Great Divide of Thirty-five.

And looking back I must confess
I've little cause to feel elate.
I've played the mummer more or less;
I fumbled fortune, flouted fate.
I've vastly dreamed and little done;
I've idly watched my brothers strive:
Oh, I have loitered in the sun
By primrose paths to Thirty-five!

And those who matched me in the race,
Well, some are out and trampled down;
The others jog with sober pace;
Yet one wins delicate renown.
O midnight feast and famished dawn!
O gay, hard life, with hope alive!
O golden youth, forever gone,
How sweet you seem at Thirty-five!

Each of our lives is just a book
As absolute as Holy Writ;
We humbly read, and may not look
Ahead, nor change one word of it.
And here are joys and here are pains;
And here we fail and here we thrive;
O wondrous volume! what remains
When we reach chapter Thirty-five?

The very best, I dare to hope,
Ere Fate writes Finis to the tome;
A wiser head, a wider scope,
And for the gipsy heart, a home;
A songful home, with loved ones near,
With joy, with sunshine all alive:
Watch me grow younger every year --
Old Age! thy name is Thirty-five!

-----Robert Service

********************

New!! Paula got mugged for Christmas

Addendum:
I tell you, holidays with relatives can be dangerously bad enough, but I just got mugged for Christmas. Strong-armed robbed, actually. I will be ok, although rather sore. I'm quite a bit poorer cash and plastic-wise (plus no phone, camera or stereo faceplate, fountain pens and the like). But I am in one piece, which is the important thing. And the nice police officer came and took my statement.

Wish I had seen the mugger's face (better) - since I am a portrait artist, I wish I could have done what this great old artist did:
www.theage.com.au/news/nati...91594.html

Former post:
Have a merry holidays, whatever your religious persuasion. Drink lots of egg nog and eat holiday treats. And relax!!!!

(Malls are bad, stay away).

I'MMATURE

Re: Upcoming Tribe Changes: Mature, and Flagging

In short, no more mature content (Photos and the like). You have to remove it. And more!

"This new system will replace our current Mature system altogether. The TOU is changing to prohibit content that 'portrays obscenity, pornography, or sexually explicit conduct.' "

tribeideas.tribe.net/thread/...da1ed600

Happy TurkeyDay 2005

Happy Turkey Day to the lot of you. Even the damn vegetarians.

I'm currently on a Southern California roadtrip, with the folks, hitting the motels, on our way to a turkeyless vegetarian family funfest...

Yes, I will be having a turkeyless Thanksgiving tomorrow. Since my one sis is vegetarian, and the other sis has decided to cook squash lasagna instead.

I'm ok with squash, and lasagna (since it has one of my favorite foods, cheese!) However, for a girl who is not all that traditional the rest of my days, I guess I kinda like my traditional Thanksgiving, complete with savory turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce (whether homemade or straight out of the can).

I spent nearly 4 years in Canada, where Thanksgiving is another day entirely. And since I was away from my family, I tended to miss out on both the Canadian Thanksgiving and the American Thanksgiving. So I was kinda hoping to have a little of that old fashioned kinda Thanksgiving. Not the Norman Rockwell variety, but at least the meat and potatoes type.

Gobble, gobble. Or not.

www.flickr.com/photos/ink...n/66414064/

Ten-gallon hats and relative beauty

I just have to say, that although I know I am prejudiced in his favor, and rightly so, my nephew is the cutest baby ever. Clara Bow herself would be jealous of his bow mouth and bright blue eyes.

www.flickr.com/photos/ink...set-695019/

FUR get me not.

I don't understand the American public. Everything becomes a fad, from environmentalism to wholesale slaughter.

Granted, I think most PETA folks have their undies in a bunch, and I don't mind a vintage jacket with a fur collar, or leather shoes/jackets/skirts...

But what is with FUR coming back as a major fashion statement? IN CALIFORNIA, no less!!!

It's like 50-something degrees Fahrenheit at the very coldest, and this woman walks in with a thick black fur coat. I've been seeing tons of fashions recently with fur-linings, fur embellishment, and fur doo-dads.

Now, if this were the Yukon, or the North Slope, or perhaps Siberia, I can see the need for layering up on the skins of other creatures. Heck, its a dog-eat dog world, and I plan to be top dog, myself. Hand me that steak, medium-rare please. Just lightly seared.

But what is up with this? Did these folks tire of showing off their conspicuous consumption by driving their massive Silicon Valley Hummers and SUVs? Tire of paying 100 per fillup, and decided to wear that extra cash they can't keep from flying out of their wallets on their backs, instead, in the form of dead animal pelts? They've run out of ways to max out their credit cards, and those Atkin diets have left them so undernourished and stick-thin they need thick fur to regulate their delicate temperatures?

When it comes to fur acoutrements, give me skinned stuffed animal anyday. I want to be wearing teddy bear. Or Garfield (he deserves to die anyway). Perhaps a Teddy Ruxpin, a Tickle-Me-Elmo, or the pelts of someone's entire Beanie Baby collection.

www.flickr.com/photos/ink...n/53872171/

Pulp Fiction

Just uploaded more images to my Pulp Fiction flickr set - I have over 170 covers up - most of these are ones I photographed while working as a volunteer for the Friends of the Palo Alto Library. I currently run the Bargain Room, full of thousands of books, magazines and records. And *lots* of vintage paperback fiction.

www.flickr.com/photos/ink...ets/919339/

Tens of thousands march in SF against the war

I joined the tens of thousands marching through San Francisco on September 24, 2005 in protest of the war in Iraq.

The march began at 12:30 p.m. at Dolores Park in the Mission district, went down Market and Van Ness, and ended about two hours later at Jefferson Square Park.

The event drew about 20,000 people, according to police. Organizers put the figure at closer to 50,000. Seemed like a lot of people to me.

Took some photos of the event, see here: www.flickr.com/photos/ink...ets/941988/

I like the stylish lady pictured with her white gloves. Revolution is all the fashion.