Sol Niger necklace...

I made this necklace today. It's dark, but with some speckles of gold to it. I named it Sol Niger or "Black Sun", an alchemical term that represents the results of the Opus Magnum's first stage, the Nigredo, or blackness, darkness.

Ruled by Saturn, it also means decomposition, putrefaction, whereas everything that lives has to eventually die and give birth to a new stage (Albedo). New life arises from this melancholy process. The focal bead represents the inner fire, the inner, occult sun, and the crystals (black and clear) are both the prime matter and the result itself of the alchemical process - the Gold, and the promise of rebirth, which culminates in the last stage: the Rubedo.

I made this to remind a phase of my life, where I was into Alchemy and all sorts of "magic". It was magic. Even if I am not into it right now, it played a major role in my life one day and I am grateful for that.

I have used:

- Czech dichroic beads, black with colourful sparkles;
- A Murano focal bead in mostly black and gold and multicoloured foil;
- Swarovski Golden Shadow bicones;
- Murano small gold foil beads and sommerso black;
- Czech tiny "black bean" beads;
- Gold-plated oval and round beads, disc spacers and clasp;
- 2 small Czech fire beads.

Some close-ups:
















The Murano focal bead, a microcosmic Black Sun, surrounded by Sawrovski bicones (Gol Shadow, a very appropriate name!) and two gold-plated balls.


















I love the way the flash is reflecting in the bicone here, it looks very pretty. You can also see the small gold-foiled Murano beads.


















Finally, a detail of the dichroic beads, one Murano in-between and a Czech Fire above.

The Byzantium necklace...

I made another necklace today and called it Byzantium. I have used 3 Czech wedding cake beads (being one focal), gold-plated spacers, Czech glass golden balls and gold-plated oval small beads, and the most special gemstones: 2 dragon veins round, smooth beads and all the rest in shades of pink/burgundy jade.

It is called Byzantium because of its crimson and gold, almost solemn shades - perhaps smelling a bit like old churches and incense - and the use of Chinese beads (jade and dragon veins agate). These beads allude to the Silk Road, and the role played by Byzantium as the rendez-vous for the merchants on their way to the East, searching for spices, silk, precious resins, gemstones, and so forth.

It tries to symbolically link East and West, or at least the idea I used to have about Constantinople, the Silk Road, and its heritage of churches, gold, stained glass and History.

Here it is:
The close -ups are:

Czech focal bead, 2 spacers (plastic with bronze effect!), gold-plated thin spacers, 2 small cherry jade rondelle beads and the 2 chunky, heavy dragon veins (dark burgundy). The remaining beads are the rose, cherry jade ones in different shapes and sizes.

And finally, the other two Czech beads surrounded by the cherry jade beads:

Blooming Part 2...

On this necklace, I have used again 1 fioratto focal bead (the oval one) and 2 fioratto tubes, as it happened in the Serenissima one . I called it Giardino, for obvious reasons!

I also used antique Czech seed beads (in pink), some Swarovski bicones in peach/champagne, Swarovski crystal pearls in Rosaline, Czech glass beads (leaf, tulip and oval shapes) and poilshed rose quartz beads, besides the usual gold-plated spacers, caps and clasps.

Some close-ups...














Focal bead, Swarovski bicones & Rosaline pearls.











Fioratto tube beads & Rosaline pearls.

Blooming Part 1...

I made two necklaces this afternoon. All in shades of pink, and mostly due to my Mother's request. I hope she will enjoy them.

The 1st one I called Rose Sommerse, aka, Submerged Roses. I made a bit of a pun using the name of the glass technique of some of the beads, and the fact that they are rose-coloured and have a rose motif to them in the fioratto ones. The glass technique is called "sommerso". This method melts different layers of different colours (usually two) under clear glass. I also used wedding cake (fioratto) pink beads, as shown here...

Details of the Sommerso beads, in shades of pink and gold (aventurina)...

And the wedding cake ones that follow. These are very irregular and I even had to re-thread everything after it has cut the nylon thread! For safety I used gold-plated caps on every single hole of them:

Besides the Murano beads, I also used some antiqued glass pearls, gold-plated caps, 2 tiny Swarovski bicones and the usual gold-plated beads.

The second necklace I will still photograph and post it tomorrow!

Serenissima necklace

Yesterday, I have finished my blue necklace. I decided to call it Serenissima, as a little tribute to Venice - where Murano is, and all those beautiful glasses come from.

"Serenissima" means "the most serene" and refers to the title given to the republic of Venice - La Serenissima - which lasted over a thousand years (until the end of the XVIIIth century, precisely).

I used blue beads, trying to imagine Venice on a crisp sunny day, surrounded by the waters and the sun light reflecting on its surface and on the glass.

I have used 3 blue wedding cake beads (Murano obviously), Czech crystals, tiny faux pearls and gold-plated beads/spacers and clasp, as well as some tiny opalite beads (the blue ones at the end, a real pain to thread due to their almost invisible holes):

This necklace is shorter than the previous ones, thus, I made a little extension chain with some links I have here and one knot cover. I will have to replace it for the links are a bit big, and I also want to add a tiny bead to it. I only had links on that size, and also did not have any golden pins to make the bead, but I am going to buy some on Saturday, hopefully!

Some close-ups below. First, the focal bead, in aqua blue and similar to the black one in the Amarena necklace...

And, finally, the two little tubular beads, that are very pretty and delicate...

And, finally, another view here - I love "rolling" the necklaces when taking pics!

The Amarena necklace

I have decided to name my necklaces. This morning, I have finished my Amarena, or "cherry" in Italian. Why an Italian name? Because of all the Murano beads, of course, and because I love that country. Why "cherry"? Because of the two big pink beads surrounding the focal bead:


It was very hard to make it. Mostly because I firtsly threaded it with a silk cord. It turns out that I had to redo everything because I missed one or two black beads and then the cord ended up too short, and so on. Also, it is hard to thread with silk since it is too soft and you need to use a needle. But that's not quite the problem: due to the friction of the beads, the cord may end up frailed, and the fibers start to unravel. A pain. That's why I decided to do it again with a nylon wire - as it's usually done, it seems!

Some details:


The above is the focal bead, a wedding cake Murano in black, really big and pretty. The ones beside it are the cherries!

I also used...

This is a Japanese Tensha bead, which is made of acrylic and has a lovely shiny design with a floral motif. They surround the medium Murano beads and the cherries.

And this is the clasp:

The clasp is a small toggle one, gold-plated.

I basically used here:

- Murano beads - all black ones, cherries and focal;
- White-foiled beads (probably Chinese);
- Czech Ghost white beads;
- Tensha beads;
- Gold-plated toggle, spacers and discs.

A red necklace

Another update on my necklace adventures! Here is the last one, that I made on Sunday night...


Again, I mostly used Murano beads (as least the 3 big ones), gold-plated and bronze little balls, and Czech crystals. Well, 2 Swarovski bicones as well - but they are tiny.

The picture had to be taken with flash, since it was way too dark here last morning - even with all windows open. Gray, rainy Irish weather!

Here is some more views, just in case...


And a little close-up (this time, no flash, but still visible)...

New necklaces!

Here are two necklaces that I made yesterday:


This one was made using 4 aqua Murano beads, silver-plated spacers and focal bead from Bali, cotton thread in the same shade and knots to hold the pieces in place.

In detail...



The knots cane be seen (barely) under the spacer beads.

And the second one:



This one I made using 3 lovely vintage Wedding Cake beads from Murano, gold-plated and bronze-coloured little balls, polished Czech beads as spacers, and other Czech iridescent crystal beads all over - including the tubular ones and the faceted gold ones. All vintage. The Czech beads I have recycled from two necklaces I had bought 25 years ago. They were intact, as new, really. The new necklace is all in shades of dark blue and amethyst/dark purple.

Some details as follows...



The above are the Wedding Cake beads. They are much prettier in real life, under sunlight, when you can actually see the true colour and the light refracting though it.

The iridescent Czech beads in a close-up...

And, finally, the clasp...

Latest necklace pics

Well, I could not wait to post the pics of my latest necklace. I made it on Sunday, and people are liking it, which makes me very happy indeed...



I used here:

- 3 big Murano beads;
- 2 silver Czech Fire crystals;
- 10 round Amazonite beads;
- 8 oval Czech crystal beads;
- Silver plated Bali beads as spacers;
- Small irregular silver Czech beads instead of metal beads;
- Tiny silver balls and small crystal beads near the clasp;
- 1 silver S clasp.

In detail:



You can see the little seed beads and the two silver Czech Fire crystals. The seed beads are very irregular, but I like their asymmetry somehow.

I am right now in a "green" phase, since my colour tastes are always changing. Every time, every season, I may have a different favourite new colour. And the "queen" right now wears green.

The Amazonite beads have a gorgeous teal shade and a pretty, pigmented texture. These and the Muranos I bought in a lovely jewellery shop in Rio.

Necklaces

OK! Time to show a bit of what I've been doing lately! The necklaces, as mentioned on my previous post.

My 2 first necklaces were made of plastic beads, during my course. I learnt how to bead with nylon, and how to make pins and assemble a necklace only using metal chains. I also learnt a basic knot using a cotton thread for a more casual look.

Here they are:

Used nylon on this one...


On this one, I put beads together with eye pins and links, no thread.

So, these were my first ones! They look very unprofessional though, due to the quality of the beads (plastic, training purposes!), the fact that they were my first ones, and also the extremely poor quality of the pics themselves. If I don't have my tripod with me, I am at a loss, I must say. Also, having Mark to help me is essential, no?

To another one now... This one was remade from an existing necklace: not using all the beads, not following its original design (and bad finishing, by the way!), and adding completely new beads. That means I recycled a necklace that my Mother had and never used it. There are some nice Murano beads on that one, as well as wood, metal and crystals. No plastic! I liked the results and so did Mom...

Redesigned and recycled.

On my friend Marcia.

Unfortunately, this time I had to use the mobile camera, which is a very low res. This is because I had some problems trying to open the battery compartment on my camera and ended up by locking it up, d'oh... But it gives an idea.

Another one is an Antica Murrina pendant, also belonging to my Mom. The only thing I did here was to add some metal and black Murano beads and a gold-plated S-clasp. I reused the ribbon that came with it and shortened it a bit. My Mother has threaded the beads for me, so, I just redesigned it, no hands-on:


You can see the beads (Murano and gold-plated tubes) and new clasp.

I have also remounted a big Tibetan necklace for my Mom, that was completely broken. That took quite a long while, I must say, mostly because of the tiny chips of turquoise and jade. Could not get any decent pictures though, they were all completely out of focus. Again, the lack of a tripod (and probably old age too) is to blame. Hhhhmmmm...

Anyway, this was a long, long post.

(Tomorrow, I will publish the pictures of my newest necklace, that I made last Sunday.)

Back from Rio!

I am finally back from Rio, where I stayed 2 months, ie, since Aug'29th. I arrived last Wednesday and, since then, I am feeling a bit down - but it's always like this when I come back from my home town. I miss it lots!

By the way, Rio is still pretty and the weather was quite gorgeous - the way I love: not too cold, not too hot, just mild, breezy and perfect.

News in brief:

- Diet - I am on a diet since, dunno, July maybe? And all is working and going well. My Dietician is great, dr. Mary, here in Blackrock Clinic, I love her.

- Gym - along with the diet, I am going to the gym, here in Dublin and also while I was in Rio. That helped me loads too. I mean, helps me (present tense). However, since I came back, I did not go yet. Ha ha...

- Weird stuff (aka, "shit happens") - the day after I came back, I went to my local Post Office and when I left, I fell on the floor, face down. Yeah, I kissed the ground. Literally. The only thing I saw was people coming to help. Two lovely ladies brought me to their shop, where they helped me cleaning my face (blood everywhere) and gave me sweets. It seems I fainted, and it happened again inside the shop. Well, I cannot remember much, but it's true that I was a bit dizzy (as quite usually nowadays) and did not have breakfast, so... I am lucky that I did not break any teeth or nose though. Well, I am bruised - but even that is starting to clear up now.

- Jewellery - yes! That is great! I made a very basic jewellery course while in Rio, in a shop where I used to buy my own necklaces and stuff before! It was very good, and I was loving it. Well, I still am loving it because I've been making some nice necklaces and buying some beads and findings out of eBay lately. Next step will be a more detailed, advanced course if I can or perhaps a good book. I am super-interested in the materials that can be used and mixed: gemstones, glass, crystal, wood, porcelain and so on. No plastic though. I love the weight of real stones and glass instead. Wires and threads are also interesting me deeply right now! Anyway, will post some pictures of what I've done later tonight - or more certainly, tomorrow.

Sony, yay!

We just bought a Sony hifi system! It's this one here: CMT-HX90BTR. We will be picking it up on Saturday, it just arrived to our local Sony store now, but we need the car to carry it home, I think.

It looks great:

Shopping Bags

We went to Tower Records yesterday and I bought myself this cute shopping bag. These are the front and back views:

It's really nice, spacious and cheap. I have now in my wish list a bag from these same makers that is kinda weird, but very funny: Looking Good For Jesus. Mark wonders if it would be safe for me to use one of these here in Ireland?

Being crabby, part 3

I am back and crabby again (but is that really something to be boasting about???). Anyway, I've been feeling quite tired as of late, and a bit anxious about my trip to Rio, since my passports are not ready yet. But I prefer not to talk about it - this way, I will not feel even MORE anxious.

This time, I will have Lenore instead of Lucy Van Pelt to portray my own "crabbiness". Lenore is the "cute little dead girl", and sometimes she gets crabby alright, in spite of being a nice little sould (ahem, most of the time).

Like me - even if not literally a "soul", of course.

Mkay, then... Here are some more little things that crabbify me:

• Tyra Banks - especially when she turns any little event into a part of her own life and basically transforms America's Next Top Model in her autobiography. You know, we want to see the girls being bitchy, the catfights and so on... But not to hear TB going on about how great she thinks she is. Oh, and there's also those theatrical silly faces she makes. And the chicken legs. And...

• December issues of most magazines - with those silly Gift Ideas guides. Seriously: have you ever bought anything based on those guides? Me neither.

• People who spell "concealor" instead of "concealer".

• People who spell "definately" or - even worse - "definatly", instead of "definitely".

• People who spell "diSSapointment" instead of "disappointment".

• Girls who insist in matching the colour of their outfit to their eyeshadow. Like: orange top, of course an orange eyeshadow. Green top? You guessed! Green eyeshadow! And so on... Haven't they ever heard of neutrals, ie, khaki, taupe, black, brown, grey, gold, silver? Or colour combinations? Green with browns, browns with reds, blues with grays, lavenders with pale greens etc etc?

• My passports not being ready.

Mona Lisa's Face!

Taking a ride on Mark's post, I also morphed myself into the Mona Lisa! That website is addictive. So, my next step will be to morph myself onto Hello Kitty, maybe?

I morphed myself into some guys, but then I ended up with a beard, very weird. Some characters/people really "swallow" you and it looks just like them, not even very hybrid at all. These must be the ones with the strongest features, I think! Some others look cool though!

Being crabby, part 2

More stuff that makes me crabby:

• All the rave about some interchangeable blonde singers - Gwen Stefani, Christina Aguilera, well... Bitchney Spears, I should add. I really hate those red lips and that silly quiff of the former. As for the Aguilera one, what is that... The latter, heh, what else remains to be said??? Seriously, when I say "interchangeable", some times is hard to distinguish between them, no? Blonde and talentless. Bleah...

• Well, celebrity scents - by the way all of the above singing blondes have their own now. I would hate to smell like them.

• User-proof packaging and wrappings - those that require you to use a knife and almost stab yourself in the process. Marks and Spencer's deli stuff is an example. Annoying...

• Bureaucracy in general - I will not even mention examples here because it makes my blood boil. And this is not healthy.

• The Olly Girls (is that it?) - a pair of dumb blondes (also interchangeable) in the cable TV here (E Entertainment TV, methinks). I don't even know the exact channels, but they are squeaky and utterly "stoopid" and have annoying voices.
  

• Daytime TV with ads for: life insurance, death insurance (eh? Yeah, stuff like "leave more than good memories after you're gone", how morbid is that???), debts and loans, how to sue your employer or anyone else etc etc... They (media moguls, wha'ever!) assume daytime TV is something that only losers and people with one foot in the grave watch. Hey, I am not dying, 'kay? And I am not a loser either. Ha!

Mark's Marathon

Mark is going to run the Dublin City Marathon on Oct'29th, in aid of MS Ireland! I have added the banner right under my blog header, in case you wish to make a donation to the society and sponsor him!

Thanks so much for your support!

Being crabby, part 1...

Yes, time to vent a bit... Some things that make me crabby, real crabby:

• People that refer to themselves in the 3rd person - that seems to be a bit of a fad among some bloggers these days. It really drives me nuts.

• TV ads for car insurance, especially women's car insurance, eg, Diamond and Sheila's Wheels. I will not even link to them here because they seriously make me ill and do not deserve a single click. Ditto.

• Being in a queue and having someone invading my personal space from behind, like almost leaning on me to the point where I can feel their breath on my neck. Even worse when you don't have where to escape.

• Women with baby trolleys on a rampage. Just because they have babies they think they not only rule the world but also can run over you. Who cares about your legs? It's a mum with a baby, and in a hurry! I know it sounds mean - people get over-sensitive when you complain about mothers-with-babies - but let's face it: it can be extremely annoying.

Sexy Swimwear (huh?)

... Mmmkay then... I found this while browsing the web. It's priceless, really. And unbelievable. But, no, wait. It is for real. Swimwear that preserves "your modesty". With culottes, sleeves and all you need to look, well, unique (to say the least)... And moronic - to say the cruel truth:

But, what really disturbs me is that the pics in the website all show under age girls, sort of pre-pubescent, long-haired average all-American kids (and Caucasian, exclusively). Apparently their objective is to emphasize the "face"... No boys aimed either - and they show much more "flesh" in the beach, for that matter. As you can see, no diversity allowed. At all.

(Entertaining, nonetheless!)

The last few days... (and some drawings)

I haven't been feeling too well the last few days. I think I have a hay fever because my eyes are itchy, my nose congested and sometimes bleeding, and also very itchy. It is very annoying hto have an itchy nose, believe me! No, frankly now, since I came back from Rio, I haven't been well enough. I hope I will feel better soon and resume my activities, such as going to the gym and sitting down to draw a bit - once again.

It's not like I am lazy and long for staying in bed. I love staying in bed and sleeping, it's true, but not all the time, while things happen outside, most importantly, while time goes by so quickly. In this sense, MS has been quite a debilitating factor in my life. As for drawing, I have been thinking a lot about re-starting. Will it be OK? I mean, will I be able to draw again? Is it something that gets "lost" when you age? It used to be easy for me some years ago. Then I stopped and, now, when I want to go back, I am not sure I will be able to. It sort of freaks me out the idea of not being able any more. I guess I can only know if I try. Obvious. But, what if I don't succeed? How will I cope? It's true that my vision is not what it used to be neither...

Here are some examples of my art work. These were part of a Tarot deck, and I really enjoyed doing it. But that was like 18 years ago. Will I be able to do something like that again? I only wish...



They represent the 4 suits of a Tarot deck (and of a normal deck of cards) and its corresponding elements:

• Clubs - element Fire, first drawing from left to right...
• Hearts - or Cups, element Water, 2nd drawing...
• Diamonds - element Earth, 3rd drawing on bottom row...
• Spades - element Air, the last one.

I miss a plan right now. Maybe coming back to it should be one of my plans, from now on.

SnapShots : to have or not to have...

Today, I have decided to (at least temporarily) give up on SnapShots. I think it makes navigation a bit crummy sometimes. For example: in some posts I have lots of links. If, in one hand it's great to have the snaps, in the other hand if there are too many links it can become confusing and the snaps can end up being mixed up with pop-ups. And this can become quite annoying, no?

Feeds, subscriptions and stuff...

I have decided to revamp a bit this blog. I have lots of plans, but as usual I'm a bit too lazy (or confused, d'uh...) to start making them a reality, he he! Anyhoo, here's the deal:

If you kinda like it (by "it" I mean, this blog) and would like to keep up-to-date with my silliness (kyaaahhh!!)... - you can subscribe to it! See my picture with fluffy Scruffy O'Bear at the bottom of my profile (right hand-side please, pretty please?) ? Yes? Good... Immediately underneath you will see a hyperlink saying...

"Subscribe to Andrea's Random Lil'Blog by email!"

Click on it and the dialog to enter you email and that security thingy with letters (you know what) will pop up. Then you enter your email, copy the random letters in the bottom field, click on "complete submission request" and ta-daah! Fingers cross'd, fingers cross'd! You should indeed receive updates on this blog after activating your subscription via an email that will be sent to your Inbox by the domain "emailenfuego.com"! I love this name by the way, "email onfire"! Sounds cool or what!

Well, it is very, very, very easy indeed. Sounds complicate here because I love going yada-yada-yada when I'm excited and this post is no exception.

Enjoy!

Selling on EBay!

Well, this week I finally started selling stuff on EBay! Audrey came here and helped me to set the "business". Now to what exactly I am selling... As you may expect, duplicates of my Hello Kitty mascots and netsuke, and other cute stuff, such as mobile phone pouches, notebooks etc...

We have listed only 5 items so far, to see how it works. But, if it turns out to be OK, I will also sell some manga books, DVDs, stationery and other things that became "redundant" down here! Let's see how it goes, let's see...

My stuff is listed here, in case you want to have a look!

Snap Shots!

Introducing Snap Shots from Snap.com

I just installed a nice little tool on this blog called Snap Shots that enhances links with visual previews of the destination site. That's why you will see a little balloon following any links available inside the posts, indicating that preview is enabled.

Sometimes Snap Shots brings the information needed right to the readers, without them having to leave the current blog, while other times Snap Shots enables users to "look ahead," before deciding if they want to follow a link or not, saving them time and effort and increasing their ability to focus on the content that matters most to them.

However, should you decide this is not for you, just click "Disable" in the upper right corner of the Snap Shots bubble and opt-out of it. I believe some people may find it annoying at times!

Need to rant a bit now...

Sunday is general elections day in Brasil. As a Brazilian Citizen living abroad, I also need to vote here, in the Embassy of course. Just for President at least.

Every year those people from the Embassy send me an email confirming details for the day. Not this year though.

Since I like to have everything confirmed an so on, what did I do? First thing in the morning called them (yes, today). Follows the painful dialog:

Me - Good Morning (all in portuguese)... I would like to confirm about the elections on Sunday.

Satan's minion - What about the Elections?

Me - Ehr, hmmm... if they will happen, if they are confirmed?...

Satan's minion - Of course! Don't you see that everywhere in the newspapers and TV etc?

(Moment of silence, I was shocked... For Chrissake, I do live in Ireland now, not in Brasil! Which newspapers is he on about? Which TV? Sesame Street Expatriate News??? Just to confirm if everything was OK there, times, blah blah. The basics, really)...

Me, after-shock, intimidated- It's just because every year you send me an email to confirm and this year you did not, and I... I'd like to confirm that it's OK, just that.

Satan's minion, with a condescending tone of course - Yes, from 8am to 5pm.

Me - O-OK then. T-thanks...

Aaarrghh... I wish I haven't been so shocked or perplexed and replied accordingly at the time. I mean, treating him like a "fellow eejit", but I could not. Seriously, what could I expect? No wonder Brazilian civil servants have a bad reputation. They can be very, very obnoxious and have this icredible power to make you feel as if you were owing them a favour, or as if you were a helpless, pitiful, terminal moron. Mind you, not all of them are like this, of course. But there's something about having a bureaucratic sort of a "mystical aura" with some of them. As if you were just a pile of worthless dust in comparison, and they the Almighty-Chosen-Ones.

They certainly have no Customer Services training, or nothing of that sort. Because, we citizens are their Customers in the end, no?

I expected that, by living here, at least I would be spared that kind of awkward situation. But no. No. I also expected that, somehow, they would have become a tad more educated, polite, helpful. No again. It's all the same. All the bloody same!

And then, I need to vote for President. Who will probably be - again - the same one we have right now, the same one who apparently likes to send money (that Brasil, let's face it, doesn't even have), to terrorists (or so it's said). The same one that admires figures like Hugo Chávez. Nice, no??? See, things will never, ever change up there, and it's so sad. I would love to go back, but those things just freak me out. And all that ancient, almost chronical bureaucracy. I start to get stressed just to think about it. I feel really bad. It's not even the violence that scares me, but that kind of behaviour, which seems to be turning into a standard.

(By the way, is something like "free speech" still allowed? I hope so.)

Facial Recognition Web Gimmick

Look at this thing. Facial recognition software. You upload your photo and they come up with your celebrity "look-alikes". Meh... Well... It's fun, because some of them may make sense. It seems to take into account the visible bone structure, which pretty much depends on your position in the original photo, or the angle it was taken from. I tried with several pics, here's an example (this pic from 2 or 3 years ago, full of makeup and different haircut):


Now, the one I could kind of agree there is Winona Ryder, for some people say they think of me when watching her in Coppola's Dracula, ha ha! But I think it's just because she loved a vampire and I have this attachment for horror films and stuff like that. And I would befriend a Vampire, if that was possible in real life, why not?

As for Michelle Branch - who the hell is she by the way? Anyway, we have the same hair colour at least, ha ha! Kate Bosworth?? Ah, yes, the white of the eyes this time, of course! Anna Paquin, I can see some similarity, especially when I was younger. Fernanda Tavares, well, she is Brazilian at least. However, she is a giant of a lady and has a nice tan, while I am just, ehrm, just pale mini-me...

Another celeb I get a lot is Rachel Weisz, and that fella, Orlando Bloom, as well as the guy that plays Ross Geller in Friends. Also, Itzhak Perlman, the violinist. However, if I look like any of these people at all, that would be for sure Paloma Picasso, or Lúcia Veríssimo (Brazilian actor/singer). There is no picture of them on that database though. I even was mistaken by Lúcia once in the streets by no one less than Leiloca, ex-Frenética-turned-astrologer (Brazilians will know what I mean here!), ha ha! Embarrassing, huh?

It's something about the nose and chin, that are quite strong features of mine, it seems (in the sense of "big": prominent chin, and significantly developed nose). At least I did not get Dumbo... Well, I also do not absolutely look like an anteater, of course.

Speaking of which (I mean, Dumbo, not my nose - or ears for that matter) I decided to try it with pics of animals, just to see what would happen. You never know! Well, I should know... I got error messages, needless to say. I tried Cookie's pic (my Siberian Husky, now deceased, boo-hooo...), for I used to think she looked like me (that's serious, not joking, we had the same brown eyes). The system could not read it.

What was I expecting when entering Cookie (a dog) into that FR thingy? I expected that she would get the same celebrity look-alikes as me, of course! Since the site does not allow me to compare, say, my picture to a friend's, for example, but just User against Celebrities I decided to try that "common celebrity matches" technique! Clever or what? It didn't work though.

Yeah, I know, call me silly or a big eejit even, but wouldn't you try??? I know, you probably would not tell anyone about it, he he... But I have nooooo secrets...
:P

(I should try with some nice pictures of chimps, maybe?)

I want a dog like this to be my pet-driver...

Ha ha! This is so cool! I could not believe when I read this on the web today: this woman in Mongolia crashed while teaching her dog how to drive! How crazy! How cute! How...

Me too, me too! I want a dog who knows how to drive, because I don't! See, instead of having the dog in a leash, it could drive me around in a car! Brilliant! Well, that lady in Mongolia, she surely knows how to drive; maybe the only problem here is that she is not a very good trainer, mhwahahahaaa!

(Aw dear... This made my day... What's next??)

If we only knew the breed, huh? Perhaps a Labrador or an Alsatian would have scored better, no?

Bye bye Brasil...

Tonight Brasil was eliminated (in the World Cup I mean!). The French won the game. I was supporting Brasil of course, but did not get very sad or anything. I like watching the games but I am not a soccer person. I don't care about football, but it was fun.

I liked to see Brasil and France playing because the players in general were quite friendly and civilised. A bunch of real gentlemen! That's nice to see... Probably because they all know each other in their everyday job, playing for those clubs and so on. It was good to see them embracing each other, and being all friendly in the end. But we must admit that Zidane fella is a super-cute player! Aaaaahhh, he looks soooo lovely!

There is one thing that freaks me out in those games though. They have this thing of exchanging the jerseys in the end, and it's all sweaty and yucky! I get a bit "nervous" when I see that exchange of jerseys (and bodily fluids, gyaahhh!)... See, I could not be a football player if I were a guy (actually I would probably be working in "Queer Eye for a Straight Guy" instead...). I mean I would be very embarrassed by that ritual. Mark says he would not care at all because "everybody is sweaty and stinky in the end"... Yeah,yeah, but you know your own sweat, another different thing is someone else's... Not nice, I think...

Blah, I am just digressing and being silly maybe... (As usual!)

World Cup Days!

Yeah, yeah, I don't care about soccer alright. But this is a great opportunity to post this:



Isn't he the cutest??? If all soccer players looked like him, the games would be much easier to watch, no? Keroro, Keroro in my heart... Ta, ta, ta, ta... De arimasu!

Doctors, World Cup games etc...

Today I will go to St. Vincent's Hospital to find out what needs to be done about my stupid gallstones.

Yesterday I went to the Bon Secours Hospital to see a 3rd or 4th (I don't even know anymore at this stage) Neurologist, about my condition. This was requested by the company where I work. They need to ensure I work in the right conditions for law purposes, blah-blah. According to that neuro (who's got the tackiest hairdo I ever saw in my entire life - something out of a 70's B movie, really bad), there's nothing to be done about fatigue. Unless I start a fitness regime, which may help. I already took all possible tablets for that and they did not really work, so, last resource would be joining a gym. Not that it's a bad thing. It is a very good thing, I think. As far as I feel up to it and force myself a bit. These days, I actually feel up to virtually nothing, I must admit.

Yesterday we watch the match Brazil X Croatia. It was boring. Not that I care about football to start with. There was a stupid Brazilian player called Adriano that made a foul (sp?) against the Croatian captain. That Adriano is a good-for-nothing little muppet, it seems. But the cute Káká scored the goal.

Look, I feel very divided with these games. I have friends in Croatia. As I have friends in Japan. So, I feel a bit awkward! At least, if Brazil doesn't win, the countries of my friends will. And that's very good too. So, either the Croatians or the Blue Samurai - that's just fine with me! Not to mention Italy, of course, which I love especially after being there and being so well received. But I don't know if they will be playing each other and when. I know nothing about these games, duuuuuhhhh...

A Southpark character? No, just my new haircut!

Thanks to my lovely grand-nephew Afonso, I got to know this cool little website: Minijuegos.

There you can build your very own Southpark character, or make yourself into one! So, this is what I might look like if I lived in Southpark!

It's quite cold here at the moment, that's why I am wearing a scarf. Also the hair is what looked more like my new haircut.

I love the links Afonso sends to me, they are always so cute!