My Dear Friend, Mr. Blues

A dear friend of mine named Mr. Blues had just passed away about three months ago. He never got to experience the last beautiful days of summer. I met Mr. Blues about a year ago during the summer of 2009. I remembered summer was beginning soon in early June revealing nice warm, cozy, and breezy summer weather forecasted over the beautiful eastside town of Washington. Mr. Blues was very fond of summer weather. Seattle is known for raining most of the year and having short summers. He especially loved rainy days of the beautiful Northwest as well.

I remembered very precious moments and times of taking care of Mr. Blues, his siblings, and his mama Ruby. Mr. Blues was known as the “pack-leader,” “hunter,” and “warrior” out of the group. Mr. Blues is the oldest sibling out of the bunch. He had lost a twin brother years ago whose name Mr. Red was very similar and identical to him. The lost of his twin brother affected him deeply. He had this amazing, special bond with his brother that was so breathtakingly passionate and loving. Mr. Blues has looked after his other siblings by teaching and mentoring them along their “cat lives” together.

Remember a common myth that “cats have nine lives?” In many cultures, this famous myth is still believed to this day that cats do certainly have “nine lives.” This myth is most important because many people believe that cats have this keen sharpness, body swiftness, and sense of balance that keeps them entirely focused to avoid and escape life-threatening situations. Mr. Blues is most definitely one of those special people that have escaped many life-threatening situations such as battling an illness, cuts, scrapes, fights with other creatures, and miraculously surviving after all those brutality. Not only is Mr. Blues a beautiful feline, but a dear, wonderful friend of mine. He has touched my heart in so many ways. Thinking back of all the special moments and times I have spent with him had deeply affected my life in a personal way. I am very proud to have Mr. Blues as part of my life. He is a very strong individual with a special spiritual bond to people closest to him. Mr. Blues undying, compassionate love for others can be truly seen on his face with a beautiful smile of warmth and kindness. 

My dear friend, Mr. Blues had emotionally touched my heart and changed my life. In words, he had a strong heart of gold, love, energy, compassion, patience, and enjoyed his freedom running out in the wild forests near his house. His childhood hobbies included hunting, scavenging, picking small fights with his siblings, being playful with the neighbors, and most importantly, touching all the lives of people who have met him. He demonstrated passion, charisma, and love for those who have treated him with respect. His warrior-like attitude reminds me of him fighting in many endless battles trying to fight for freedom and world peace. What is so special about him is the fact that he only has one eye and no tail. He was born 12 years ago with no tail and developed a loss of one eye due to a glaucoma condition. Nursing him back to health was an incredible journey for me. I will always remember those memories. Mr. Blues was an incredible dear and loyal friend of mine. I will always truly remember him in my heart and prayers. Mr. Blues will always be a very special part of my life forever. You will always be remembered and missed deeply. R.I.P. my dear friend.

Interview with Jeweler Jenifer Gallagher [Part 2]

Do you get more excited about the design or technical aspects of jewelry art?

Tools are definitely where it's at for me. I'm not one who makes a sketch before diving in. To
me, the fun is in seeing where the tools and materials can take me--although silver prices being what they are, I'm being more careful!

Can you name another jewelry designer whose work you admire?

Donna Veverko's architectural pieces are extremely inspirational. Her skills represent my aspirations. I love the use of metal only. The designs from Happy Art Studio are so, well, happy!

One of my best friends, Deb from AWEShop is a true kindred spirit in terms of design. We have similar proclivities at the bench, and both prefer metal to stones. She gets me off my butt to push the boundaries, and her pieces are some of the only jewelry I'll wear that I didn't make myself!

Another designer I adore is Carole Axium. Her sensibility is strong, grounded and her jewelry is very well executed. Although I'm not a gemstone girl, Carole somehow makes me want stones!

Do you find the process of experimentation frustrating or inspiring?

Experimentation can be both frustrating and inspiring. Unfortunately, I don't have time to do
much true playing around. What I do usually comes about when a customer commissions
something new and I learn what I need to in order to fulfill the order. This isn't a bad way to
learn, but sometimes I'm under the gun with a deadline, and then the inevitable setbacks are less easy to swallow.

Do you prefer doing retail or trade events?

I'm all about retail right now. Since personalization is kind of my calling card, it would be hard to wholesale. I do have one client that I work with on a wholesale basis, but am focusing most of my energy on my own marketing.

If you could have any jewelry super-power to help you with your jewelry what would it be?

I just need a well-trained assistant. Wait, that's not a superpower. . .I know! I'd like to be able to solder with a touch of the finger. Soldering stresses me out, and I'd be thrilled to save that
nervous energy for late night creativity!

See Jenifer's creations at her website, http://www.thescarletrobin.com/catalog/

Do you know of a jeweler you would like to see featured on The Jewelry Report  http://jewelryreport.com? Leave us a comment.  You can also talk to us and share your work with other jewelers on our Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Jewelry-Report/261999620793

Halloween: A Holiday?

Oh Halloween. Since Halloween is about three weeks away, I have always since wondered as a child if it really is a holiday. I am not a huge fan of Halloween, but did enjoy the fun and experience of trick-or-treating, dressing up, attending kid’s parties, showing up to school in my costume, and of course, seeing what other people were going to be dressed up as. I thought the best way for me to find out more about Halloween is to research the history behind this scary event once a year on October 31st.

Halloween is observed as an annual holiday on October 31st dating with roots back to the Celtic festival of Samhain and All Saints’ Day symbolized and recognized in the Christian holiday. In today’s society around the world, Halloween is regarded as a secular celebration. Many people especially children enjoy the benefits of this holiday by wearing costumes, trick-or-treating, attending parties, haunted houses, telling ghost stories, making bon-fires, bobbing for apples, watching horror movies, and of course the all time favorite, carving pumpkins (jack-o’-lanterns).

According to history, the Samhain festival celebrates the end of the “lighter half” and the beginning of the “darker half” during the year. Therefore, it is regarded as the “Celtic New Year,” in many cultural traditions. Many ancient Celts believed that our world had a border with the “Otherworld,” in the festival of Samhain. This allowed different types of spirits whether harmless and harmful to pass through. During this celebration, it is believed that the best remedy to ward off a harmful spirit is by dressing up in a mask or costume. For example, in Scotland, young men would impersonate themselves as spirits dressed up in white with a masked face, or decorated with a dark, black face. Bonfires would often be set up to do a cleansing ritual and people would even have their own livestock burnt. The use of bonfires was a huge part of the festivals. In most parts of the world today, this tradition is being practiced and recognized. What is more interesting that I found is the practice of divination used during this festivity, an attempt to gain spiritual insight into a situation with asking questions to a certain practiced ritual. The use of food and drink is popular during the Halloween holiday as well.

I’ve learned a lot of different facts about the history behind Halloween. I honestly think Halloween is a great holiday for kids each year to experience something fun showing their creativity and interest in this once-a-year event. I still love the idea of carving jack-o’-lanterns, a classic fun activity amongst my family. I also deeply love what people are dressed up as bringing out their creative side as part of this Halloween celebration.

Ladies / Womens Irish Rhinestone Ireland Heart Tee - $3.99 Shipped

Hello Ladies - have some Irish in you? Want some on you? Oh that sounds so wrong... but I mean in the form of a t-shirt! You can get this nifty little IRELAND shirt (that has been painstakingly bedazzled), with free shipping from DeepDiscount.com - this item comes in Small, Medium, Large, and Xtra Large for only $3.99! I can't even think of a time when I could get a shirt shipped to my door for this crazy low price.

If you are debating whether or not you should get it - keep this in mind - St. Patrick's Day is only 6 months away and this shirt would look adorable with with some of that Irish juice, we are all so fond of, spilled all over it - heck, it even looks great on its own!

Just imagine for a minute how great the little orange, white, and green rhinestones will look across your chest - telling the world that you are Irish and proud (or want to be). If that is not your idea of a good time then ponder this: I can't think of a better way to spend 4 bucks - can you?

A little St. Patrick's Day history to put you in the mood (although I can't imagine a shirt under $4 not being enough): Irish Society of Boston organized what was not only the first Saint Patrick's Day Parade in the colonies but the first recorded Saint Patrick's Day Parade in the world on 18 March 1737.(The first parade in Ireland did not occur until 1931 in Dublin.) This parade in Boston involved Irish immigrant workers marching to make a political statement about how they were not happy with their low social status and their inability to obtain jobs in America.

New York's first Saint Patrick's Day Parade was held on 17 March 1762 by Irish soldiers in the British Army. The first celebration of Saint Patrick's Day in New York City was held at the Crown and Thistle Tavern in 1766, the parades were held as political and social statements because the Irish immigrants were being treated unfairly. In 1780, General George Washington, who commanded soldiers of Irish descent in the Continental Army, allowed his troops a holiday on 17 March “as an act of solidarity with the Irish in their fight for independence."This event became known as The St. Patrick's Day Encampment of 1780. Postcard postmarked 1912 in the United States  Irish patriotism in New York City continued to soar and the parade in New York City continued to grow. Irish aid societies were created like Friendly Sons of St. Patrick and the Hibernian Society and they marched in the parades too. Finally when many of these aid societies joined forces in 1848 the parade became not only the largest parade in the United States but one of the largest in the world.

Japan Apologizes to American WW2 - POWs?

Government Apologizes; Companies that used Slave Labor Silent.

Yesterday in Tokyo, the Japanese foreign minister, Katsuya Okada, said to an American group of six former World War II prisoners of war, "I offer my deep, heartfelt apology for the inhuman treatment you suffered."

90-year-old Lester Tenney, a survivor the Bataan Death March in 1942, and leader of the POW group's, said, "he welcomed the government's apology but still seeks recognition from the private companies that 'used and abused' prisoners in their mines and factories, often under brutal conditions." Mr Tenney said, "At no time have we gotten from these private companies just a letter. These private companies have kept quiet for 65 years. It is an insult, because by their keeping quiet they are hoping we will die off.'"

After surviving the death march, Mr Tenney was taken to Japan and forced to work as a slave laborer for Mitsui Mining Co. — now Nippon Coke and Engineering Co. This company and others, if they are doing business in America, need to be exposed, and their customers need to be informed of the companies' horrible mistreatment of American World War Two POWs.

Abraham Lincoln—Finally Proven to Have Been Gay?

A comment from a reader of Change.org’s article, “Growing Number of Historians Believe Abraham Lincoln Was Gay,” pretty much sums up how I feel about the idea of President Lincoln being gay: “Honest Abe has long been one of my favorite American presidents and if he was gay, well, then bless his little rainbow heart.” I would alter the comment only to say “big rainbow heart,” since it seems like the man likely had one.

I love the idea of President Lincoln as being gay, actually. I am in love with the fact that he wrote same-sex poetry—especially regarding the marriage of a man with a man. (I wonder why this isn’t quoted more often, especially when all of that “founding fathers” historical sentimentality comes up regarding so many issues?) Though I’ve only heard about Lincoln’s possible homosexuality in passing, the fact that more and more historians are “coming out” about the evidence surrounding it, so to speak, brought me to look at what we know historically more closely.

The fact that Lincoln was more comfortable around men than women could mean nothing or something; he did, after all, have four children with his wife. Plenty of gay men, of course, have had children with women—and Lincoln did call off his engagement with Mary Todd at least once. In Carl Sandburg’s biography of the president, an allusion to Lincoln’s romance with a man, Joshua Fry Speed, was made. The two lived together for several years, sleeping in the same bed. Some historians say that Lincoln’s depression stemmed from his homosexuality and inability to be his true self in public—something that so many people with any predilection other than “straight” suffer from still today. His own stepmother admitted that he never liked girls much, either.

None of these pieces of evidence proves Lincoln’s sexual orientation one way or another. Lincoln slept with over ten boys and men during his life, for example; but at the time, sleeping with other men was a fairly common occurrence. (Wouldn’t it be nice if it was still so casually, non-judgmentally approached?) Lincoln’s bodyguard, Captain David Derickson, also slept with the president when his wife was away.

If Abe were gay, would it make a difference? I would say a big fat yes and a big fat no. The yes would be, of course, because he would present a wonderful gay hero in history we could look up to, refer to, and be proud of having had as a president—perhaps helping pave the way for more gays in politics. The no, of course, is because it doesn’t change the man in the stovepipe hat or his policies and the legacy he left us with.

Japan Offers An apology

Today, Sunday, August, 15,  the 65th anniversary of the end of World War II, Prime Minister Naoto Kan of Japan, that nation's  new leader, took an important step to lead his country into the 21st century. The gentleman apologized for the suffering World War II caused.

The Associated Press reports, "Last week, Prime Minister Kan apologized to South Korea for its 1910-45 colonial rule. Imperialist Japan committed atrocities in Asia, including forcing Koreans to fight as front-line soldiers, work in slave-labor conditions and serve as prostitutes in military-run brothels."

Today, Prime Minister Kan broke with the past, he did not visit the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, which honors Japan's World War II dead, including her war criminals. The annual  pilgrimage to Yasukuni Shrine, led by the prime ministers of past governments, outraged Japan's Asian neighbors, whose populations suffered under Japanese aggression. The Associated Press reports that, the leaders of the now-opposition, the conservative Japanese Party, that goes by the name of the Liberal Democratic Party, and which "ruled Japan nearly continuously since the end of the war, made a point by carrying out their own trip to Yasukuni Shrine. About 40 legislators went to the shrine."

Prime Minister Kan has still much to do. His apology is a good gesture and a start.

We owe Japan No Apology

Today, Friday, the 65th anniversary of the atomic bomb blast that destroyed Hiroshima, in Japan, the US .ambassador, for the first time, joined Japanese officials at a ceremony at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. This which was a good thing.

A writer in the British base blog "The Independent," wrote-- "At last we’ve apologized for Hiroshima – well, sort of. We’ve recognized the suffering our atom bombs caused –well, kind of. President Obama was showing off his anti-nuclear credentials in the killing grounds of Hiroshima, but this was not to be confused with saying sorry."

What?! We owe Japan no apology. Japan owes us an apology for Pearl Harbor. (Japan attacked us.). Let Japan apologize for its occupation of the Philippines, then an US protectorate. (Japan attacked our protectorate). Japan should apologize for the harsh occupation and the daily atrocities that her imperial troops inflicted upon the people of the Philippines. (Japan committed atrocities against a people who were still under the protection of the United States). Japan should apologize for the brutal treatment American and allied prisoners of war received in Japanese prison camps. (Japan committed war crimes against our POWs). Japan should apologize for Nanking, for the savagery inflicted upon our Chinese allies. (Japan committed war crime against our friends and allies). Let Japan apologize to the people of the Pacific for the hundreds of other Nankings. (Japan committed war crimes throughout Asia)

Two final thoughts on this topic: First, yes, nuclear weapons are weapons of horror, and we should do everything that we possibly can to see that they are never used on people again. Second, I have no doubt that if Japan had developed the bomb first, she would have used it against us,

Body of Female Gladiator Discovered

“Are you not entertained?” She roars to the crowd. She is fierce, mighty, unstoppable. She will bring death—and Rome will love her for it.

I won’t profess to be a fan of gladiators, fighting, or violent, death-inducing sports of any kind; I certainly am not. But knowing that the strong, muscular body of a female gladiator has been found is somehow cool to me.

The woman, said to be “massive and muscular,” was discovered buried in Herefordshire, Britain, in a coffin made of wood, iron, and brass. This burial case is considered to be an elaborate one, reserved for someone important or who was honored. Researchers thought immediately that she was a man, since she was so big and strong—until they examined her head and pelvis, which prove that she was likely female.

Archeologists are still excavating the area, and don’t know much more about the warrior.

I know, of course, that it shouldn’t be, since not only was the “sport” a violent way to control the masses, resulted in a gory death for both people and animals, and was largely made up of slaves. But there is also the chance that, like some of her male counterparts, this woman chose her role for honor and glory; in fact, her body suggests that this may have been the case.

It’s like the concept of knights and soldiers, I suppose. As a pacifist, I don’t support violence—especially in the name of religion—but somehow when you hear about female knights and soldiers in history, a form of romanticism develops. You know they had it harder. You know they were probably attacked sexually, and if not they were still likely ridiculed if discovered. Is my fascination a double standard? Yeah, I think it is. Is the depiction of a woman in the traditional role of a man, no matter the role, always positive? I’d say no, not always, even in this case. Still, it remains to be, at least to me, a fascinating discovery. I have to wonder at her life, how she became a gladiator, and yes, how she did in combat. Did she have a family, children? Where was she from? Her physique and burial suggest that perhaps she was well-trained and well-fought, her body both developed and honored as a gladiator. I do look forward to hearing more about this discovery, despite my disapproval of Rome’s use of blood and violence for sport.

AT&T 1993 Commercials

Compare these commercials, which focus on digital technology and everyday use of that technology by individuals, to the 1939 New York World's Fair "world of tomorrow" promotional films by General Motors trying to imagine life in 1960. GM is, naturally, going to emphasize transportation, while AT&T is going to emphasize communication techonology, but think about the greater implications of the two "futuristic" views—given the lives people are living all over the world, and the vast differences between various cultural and economic groups.

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