Amazing Musical Week

Two fantastic things happened this week.

I saw Axl live. He was just totally brilliant. Hearing November Rain live just made time stop. There were so many awesome moments during that concert that I just want to keep them locked in my memory. If I try to describe them, the impact will be lost by the time the words show up on the screen.

I also caught two Point Blank shows by one of my long-time favourite artists: Mr Dave Graney. But that’s not the best part. We actually had a conversation. One that he’ll forget, but I’ll remember. Heh. I told him that I was too scared to open my mouth in case crap came out. And that’s exactly what happened. But, somehow, I think he understood. Again, I’ll keep it all in my memory. It will preserve better that way.

The Inspired Woman Forums

I’ve started a project called “The Inspired Woman” and I plan to run it for 8 weeks. You can see it in action over here. It’s an establishment of forums for women to inspire, empower and encourage each other. I have a kind of mission statement, which is:

A place to promote our qualities and strengths, celebrate our differences, share our experiences and find common ground.

If you are looking to inspire, or be inspired, come along and join us.

Visual Of The Week!

On Saturday morning, I was at the local shopping centre and I passed by the pet store. Something horrendously cute caught my eye. A labrador pup was asleep in one of the cages. However, this was no ordinary slumber. His little body was pressed against the wall of his huge water bowl, and his long, floppy ear (wait for it) was draped over the bowl, the edge of it submerged in water. He was dead to the world, and to the water. Hehe. Seriously now, is that not the cutest image ever? It certainly made me want to run home and squeeze my little Arky.

Still Beating…

This morning on the bus, I wrote an entry that I had planned to post here today. It was going to be called, ‘Life’s simple Monday morning pleasures’. The mood for that died not long ago when I found out some devastating news about a close friend of our family, who passed away from brain cancer last night.

The last time that I saw him, as the spirited man I knew, was on my wedding day.

Today, I honour his life, because he was a great man, and a great friend to my father. I saw him a lot throughout my childhood. He had a heart that, in a sense, has not stopped beating.

I send lots of love and support to his family, and I acknowledge a very strong but sweet young man — his son. His heart is just like his late father’s…

To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go

To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far

To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be willing to march into Hell
For a heavenly cause

And I know if I’ll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I’m laid to my rest

And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star

Zaadz

Are you over at Zaadz? Yes? Come and say hi.

Livien Needs To Stay Focussed

I have a very bad habit of changing web addresses from time to time, and moving content back and forth.

I guess I’ve been behaving like some sort of web fugitive.

By doing this, I’ve been discouraging the build-up of a strong web presence. From now on, I’m going to make a conscious effort to stay where I am, and leave the data alone too.

Perhaps if I looked at the real reasons why I want to keep a web journal, I’d be able to work out why I’ve been moving around; the next time that I contemplate another move, I will ask myself: is it really necessary?

To date, this journal has existed as an outlet for general thoughts and ramblings. I do enjoy being able to note what I saw, what I felt, what I thought, what I learnt, at any time.

I’d now like to take the thoughts and ramblings here one step further. I’ll write more about that soon.

“Facing Robin Sellick”

Today I spent some of my work lunchbreak browsing this book. It was entertaining; my eyes widened a few times — put it that way.

Robin Sellick’s portraiture style wasn’t really influential for me (although who knows what will happen to my vision in future!) but I could still certainly appreciate it.

Loved the portrait of Dave Graney of course. (I’ll be seeing his show on June 16th, mind you. Yay!)