When you get done watching this, go on over to SpacePaintings.com where you can (and should!) buy one of his originals. Brandon Mcconnell is the artist, he’s amazing!

Right now, his paintings are right around $30 - and they won’t stay that price for long. I bought this one - and I cannot wait to see it in person!

Ready to Fly

I’ve been trying to open the door
To the secret of my destiny
And every new road I think is the one
Seems to lead right back to me

I’ve looked for a way to be wiser
A way to be strong
Now I see the answer was hiding
In me all along

Chorus:
And I’m ready to fly
Over the sun
Like a rocket to heaven
And I’m ready to soar
Right through the sky
Never dreamed I’d find something to lift me so high
I’ve always had wings
But I wasn’t ready to fly

Restless, hopeless, and misunderstood
Like so many others I know
So busy tryin’ to keep holdin’ on
When I should’ve been letting go

I was given the gift to find it
The spirit inside me
But I never really imagined
All I could be

Chorus:
And I’m ready to fly
Over the sun
Like a rocket to heaven
And I’m ready to soar
Right through the sky
Never dreamed I’d find something to lift me so high
I’ve always had wings
But I wasn’t ready to fly

The answer to all of my wonder
Was right in my hands
Now it’s time for me to discover
All that I am

Chorus:
And I’m ready to fly
Over the sun
Like a rocket to heaven
And I’m ready to soar
Right through the sky
Never dreamed I’d find something to lift me so high
I’ve always had wings
But I wasn’t ready to fly

I’ve always had wings
Now I’m finally ready to fly

~Richard Marx Site
~Richard Marx on Myspace

You all know how much I love my squirrels. And I know many of you don’t like the little buggers, but this might just change your mind - if not you’ll at least get a little chuckle-snort out of it.

I recorded this video this morning for you, and figured out the inner workings of windows movie maker so that I could present you with your Friday entertainment - The Squirrel Proof Feeder. If you’re inclined (and I think you need a YouTube account), throw a star or two his way, wouldjya?

Our little Quaker parrot, Quintin, is a hoot. He’s still a baby, 3 months old, and he’s starting to really get animated. We play ball - he “throws” a little wiffle golf ball for us to catch, and it’s really funny. I’ll get video of that after we have a few more practice games. For now, you can see his silly personality starting to come out. Enjoy!

(don’t have your volume up too loud, you’ll be plugging your ears when you hear my “talk to the cute little birdie” voice!)

Yes I’m finally figuring out how to use my dang movie maker thing. Yahoo!

I saw a MasterCard commercial lastnight that was really disturbing to me. Maybe you’ve seen it? If not, allow me to set the scene for you - (and I’m being loose with the details because I won’t claim 100% accuracy):

• Man in zoo (caretaker) sneezes.
• Elephant hears man sneeze.
• Man goes home with a cold.
• Elephant goes galavanting around from store to store buying cold remedy stuff for man with the cold.
• Elephant swipes MasterCard in front of this new little MasterCard PayPass device and without question from sales clerks, leaves with merchandise.
• Elephant goes to man with cold’s house and with his trunk wrapped around the merchandise, gives it to man with cold sitting in a chair through the window.

Update: Watch the commercial!

insert audience supposed reaction: “awwww how sweet of the elephant!”

insert intelligent audience reaction option 1: “Is MasterCard approving elephants now, and if so, why didn’t they approve me?”

insert intelligent audience reaction option 2: “That elephant just used a stolen MasterCard, charged it up and no one even noticed!”

No matter how you look at it, this swipey thing is nothing but trouble. When the worlds largest living land mammal can use a credit card in front of a clueless albeit cheerful sales clerk, something is wrong. You don’t do anything but swipe your card in front of a little laser - no ID required. So let’s say you lose your wallet, someone just snags your MasterCard and goes on a shopping spree, and gets away with quite a lot before the card is reported stolen and the perp is found.

MasterCard claims:

the concept of a “Tap N Go” way to pay is very appealing. MasterCard PayPass offers added security because the card never leaves your customer’s hand.

Security for who? Who is going to check the signature, or validate the ID of the person using the card?

• Faster than cash: handle more customers in less time.
• Faster than a card swipe: eliminates the trial and error of customers swiping their own cards or handing their card to sales clerks.
• Merchant differentiation: customers are more likely to return to merchants that accept PayPass.
• Customers like to use it: MasterCard PayPass is simple and easy to use, great alternative to cash.
• Higher tickets: MasterCard PayPass will drive more of your customers to use their cards, and their purchases are not limited to cash on hand.

So they’re promoting the thing as “who cares if it’s a stolen card, you can be hands off with your customers, and make even more money! cha-ching!”

This whole thing bugs me. Any thoughts on it? And MasterCard people, if you’re reading this, sorry for the bad review. Please don’t cancel my cards.

Quintin is such a sweet little birdie, if you like birds - you’ll enjoy watching his silly snuggly nesty behavior. Cozy cozy!

I’ve finally got all of my painting scans pieced together and uploaded to my portfolio, so I thought I’d give you a quick rundown of what is on display with more quality images than the initial window display photo in my “Now on Exhibit” post.

I posted the Great Blue Heron scan here in my blog because the image in my portfolio is really pretty small.

Here are all the thumbs (linked to their painting details in my portfolio):

Great Blue Heron

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Monochromatic Rainbow Silly Kids

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“Eye Ate It” Series
View these paintings in my portfolio
Buy “Eye Ate It” paintings in my shop

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Kiki the Calico Cat

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All paintings © 2007 Leanne Wildermuth, All rights reserved.

All of these oroginal oil paintings are available for purchase, feel free to contact me if you’re interested in purchasing any of them.

As promised, a night video view with much less glare. :)

If you’d like to “walk around”, click the pic for the (not narrated) video, walking up to the display and all that fun stuff you would get to do if you were HERE. (Update: I converted the thing to a windows media file and it’s much smaller and faster loading, sorry about that humongo file!) I’ll get back over there when the tags go up, in the evening, when there isn’t a funky glare from the street.

These are all available for purchase, so if you’re interested in any of them you can contact me for pricing and I can give you the number to call MidCoast Fine Arts to purchase through the gallery.

Here’s a YouTube, since it seems to be a universal viewer:

As promised, a night video view with much less glare. :)

I captured this video to keep for future reference. You know I’m going to be digging it out of my archives in about 12 years, when she’s screaming at me that she can’t stand our rules (blah blah blah) and is going to run away.

Heh.