HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

The P5 would like to wish you all a safe, happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

Words and Pictures: Nicholas Ray pt 1

"The celluloid strip is not made in the writer's studio"to be continued...http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2007/04/real-dialogue-versus-cartoon-writer.html

Cowboy Scramble up the Maelstrom Vital 166 - Find its sweet spot!

Does a boat have a sweet spot? I think so. Especially when you are doing the cowboy scramble.

Ok, I'm in the water in a nice warm Canadian lake in July in my cute new Maelstrom Vital 166 that I bought in May without really testing if I could get back into it unassisted. I just assumed I could. "Of course I can, I can do it in my Boreal Baffin in 5 seconds." I count. It's a game in warm flatwater when I'm doing it for fun and rescue practice.

In the first pic above, look how far the nose is sticking out of the water. This boat has one very upturned kayak nose!

 The Malestrom Vital 166 is 21 inches at the beam and is 16 feet 6 inches long. The beam is the widest measurement across the kayak. That has to be at the cockpit. It's where we sit. Makes sense, especially after the Christmas holidays, we need to fit in there. Everything gets skinnier from there. Yes, after Christmas we work to get rid of what we gained, and from the cockpit, everything gets narrower. So when you think beam, think widest part. In a sea kayak, it's somewhere around the cockpit, the middle. On us, let's hope our middle is not our widest part!

The wider the kayak, the more stable it can feel. And, at 21 inches at the beam, the Maelstrom Vital 166 is starting to get skinny and very responsive. Which is what I wanted, and it is designed to be that way. But getting back into it from the water as a 5'6", 125 pound vertical being hanging low in the water and trying to hoist yourself up onto a light, floating, horizontally oriented sea kayak is starting to feel a little different! Like tippy and I have to think about it. I'm not complaining. I'm going to figure it out.

Let's see. Each time I try to get up on the back deck of the Malestrom Vital 166, I pull the kayak on top of myself. A common problem with a lot of people who try this manoeuvre with their kayaks. And a problem I got past with the Boreal Baffin with the help of an instructor.

Now what did he tell me? "Try it farther back on the back deck, away from the cockpit, over the back hatch." Well, I was trying to come up over the back hatch of the Vital, but I needed to find its sweet spot a little further back. And once I found that sweet spot, I could cowboy scramble up it each time (in calm water). If you can't do it easily in calm, warm water on a nice sunny day . . . it could be stressful in other conditions. Practice is fun.

So here we go, grab a breath, pull yourself up and kick those legs at the same time to get horizontal with your boat.

If you make it up and over the back deck, it's the first moment of truth in the cowboy scramble. Getting up on your boat without tipping it over. Not cute, but this is a skinny boat to balance over. Now all you have to do is swing your leg over your boat and ride it like a horse. That's why they call it the cowboy scramble, right?

This is a nice moment. Up on your boat. Wow. I'm a pretty light, small paddler at 5 foot 6 inches and about 125 pounds sitting on the back deck of the Vital. Look how high the nose is!

Next is what I call the "grunt work". Pulling yourself up the back deck of the boat to the cockpit. Normally I would be low pulling myself up from the decklines, but I'm finding I get stuck on the fiberglass and don't slide easily along it like I normally do on my plastic Boreal Baffin. And those skinny edges of the Maelstrom Vital 166 on my thighs feel very hard. I'm thinking "Ouch". I'm also thinking, this is so much easier and more comfortable in my Boreal Baffin. But I like the Vital, so I'd better get used to it and make it quick.

When you make it to the cockpit and slide yourself in, it's a great feeling! And before I do, I can't help but take a moment to claim victory with my beloved GP (Greenland paddle) and do some nice torso rotations and stretch out a bit.

Now it's time to play and do it all over again!

Happy cowboy scrambling and figuring out your boat!
The BaffinPaddler

And you can watch someone else do it in another boat on YouTube who will make it look easy, but nothing beats practice. It's all about you and the boat you are paddling!

The Racket - Great Story, Dialogue, Acting, Direction

Here is a clip from one of my favorite movies, directed by John Cromwell and Nicholas Ray. "The Racket" along with other Robert Ryan movies was the inspiration for my web series "Weekend Pussy Hunt".This movie works on almost every level. It has a good story, great dialogue, brilliant direction and what I look for most of all in movies- wonderful interaction between rich personalities portrayed

Next...

Nicholas Ray on the relative roles of words and pictures in film.

Musicians We Lost in 2010

There Must Be Something

in common with these images.I'll explain later.

I want to say that I miss you.

But I'm stopping myself from doing it.

I want to say that I love you.

But I already did.

I want to say that I want to be with you.

But I already did.

But then I am still alone.

So I stop myself from doing that to you. And wait for you to make that decision on your own.

Xoxo

Jeffrey james

FurryBoots*PinkFur

Since I was very little, we used to go with my parents in England for vacation very often, as my cousin was studying there. At around 2003 I got these furry boots. They were so in fashion back then and very warm for Englands temperature as well. A couple of years ago I was ready to throw them away, as I wasn't wearing them anymore, but luckily I didn't. Now they're back in fashion and I feel so happy to have them. That's what happened with this pink faux fur. My grandparents bought it some years ago as a Christmas present and as I wasn't wearing it I wanted to give it away. As you can see I didn't!

(zara long shirt, topshop leggings, extreme pink faux fur, fringy bag from a random shop in Athens, furry boots from London, vintage jewelry)

2010 in a nutshell

Got a new DSLR camera and a ring light, which every other female blogger is using now too. Gave Pumpkin away. Had my biggest advertorial client of a total of 7 posts from Essential. Got married.

Wedding day

Went to London, where I watched Wicked and ate at a 1 Michelin Star restaurant. Removed my tongue stud. Did plastic surgery on my eyes - made no difference so I started wearing eyelid tape.

Newly cut eyes

Gave a presentation to over 300 people in the Canon Symposium. Went to Bintan for Gillian's birthday. Flew to Dallas, Texas in May, and in December again where I blew up fireworks for the first time. When to Kuala Lumpur in May for a press conference, and again in August for a shopping advert.

With my favourite KL girls Cheesie and Audrey

Got on Shin min, Cleo, Style Weddings etc. Nanolove passed away. Started to be a skincare freak. Started on invisalign to get straight teeth.

Wearing my aligners for the first time

Went to Tokyo where I had the best ramen I've ever eaten and shopped in the famed Shibuya 109. Made a video with top female youtube star Michelle Phan, which was the top freaking viewed video on Nov 10, 2010.

Invited to Tbilisi, Georgia, to give a talk about vlogging. Started learning Japanese. Painted a self portrait. Invited to the awesome Pixar studios in San Francisco with 15 vloggers chosen worldwide to watch Toy Story 3 before everyone else; met director Lee Unkrich.

With the director and producer of Toy Story 3

Went on a sponsored trip to Phuket with Mike, where we stayed in a villa like royalty. Flew to Los Angeles to watch Rapunzel, a Tangled Tale and interview Mandy Moore and Zachery Levi.

Why hello there!

That about sums up my year!! Can't believe I got out of the country (if you don't count JB) 10 freaking times! Madness! 2010 has been a great year for me. :) There were probably some bad stuff that happened too but I can't remember most of them coz my memory is super bad wtf. I think it's some subconscious ability to forgot the shitty.

If you are bored you can click the links if you haven't already read them all.

Hopefully life gets even better come 2011!! :D

How was your year?

Rusty Caricatures

Well sometimes they just come out boring. I apologize.The best reason for animators to do caricatures is to help us break from formula animation shapes, features and expressions. It's a long road though.

high school jocks

Do any of you remember the high school jock? Where all the girls had a crush on and all the guys wanted to be. I was one of the highschool girls who had a major crush on the jocks. Throughout most of my primary and secondary school years, I was the fat fag who secretly wished he would be swept off his feet by the scho
ol's sportsmen or mvp basketball player. Only until my senior year in highschool I started to come out of my cocoon.

I wasn't exactly as hot as I am now (yes, I'm complimenting myself), but I certainly wasn't the fat kid anymore. People started to notice me but deep inside I still thought that I would never be as hot as the high school jocks. And I was still one of those little girls who had a major crush on them.

Fast forward four years. I'm twenty one, and looking at these high school jocks, and of course some of the guys who were 'hotstuff' back then, they aren't actually 'hotstuff' anymore. They're unfit, fat, balding and rugged. It's sad to actually see their looks deteriorate while the former fat fag is getting better looking. Well, most of them are getting uglier la with a small amount getting better looking or mantaining their looks. And there are also the ugly getting uglier and normal getting uglier as well.

Life is so unfair.

Xoxo

Jeffrey james

Male victims get lost in domestic-abuse data

WASHINGTON — When Adele Freeman fired five .38-caliber bullets into her boyfriend in 2000, she contributed to an often-overlooked statistic within the sometimes-deadly world of partner abuse: namely, that more than one-third of all homicides each year connected to domestic violence are perpetrated by women.

By Jon Aerts

Capital News Service

Related

WASHINGTON — When Adele Freeman fired five .38-caliber bullets into her boyfriend in 2000, she contributed to an often-overlooked statistic within the sometimes-deadly world of partner abuse: namely, that more than one-third of all homicides each year connected to domestic violence are perpetrated by women.

"Men can be victimized in the same way women can," said Laura Martin, the Calvert County, Md., state's attorney who helped secure Freeman's first-degree murder conviction in 2002. "And it's not just the violence. It's about control, dominion, power," she said.

The fact of female abusers and male victims is often lost in the discussion of domestic violence. In fact, women's advocates have used selective statistics — the same federally funded survey that found women are equally as abusive to men — to bolster their plea for funding and services.

That absence of attention to the men's side of the coin has contributed to an imbalance of services for men who are victimized in abusive relationships.

"This is the best-kept secret on family violence," said Murray Straus, a sociologist who led the commissioned survey in 1975, and again in 1985 with the same results. "There is a tremendous effort to suppress and deny these results."

No one disputes that when physical violence occurs, women are prone to more serious injury than men; however, Straus and others caution that this should not obscure the fact that about a third of men sustain injuries, or are killed, from partner violence.

Bill Hall, of Adam's House, a health and wellness center in Suitland, Md., agreed. He called domestic violence an "equal opportunity" issue that often gets overlooked by the 24 or so women's advocacy centers throughout the state.

"It's kind of hard to find programs that cater to men and boys," he said. "Most of the agencies I know of refer men to us ... as abusers."

Each Monday night, he and his wife, Stacie, counsel two groups of some 30 women and 65 men. Within each group, about 70 percent have been court-ordered to attend the 90-minute-long counseling sessions, aimed at curtailing future violent behavior.

In dealing with those who've punched out girlfriends and choked wives, socked boyfriends, stabbed exes and even shot at spouses, both Halls agree that domestic violence is anything but a one-way street of male-on-female violence.

"Most women who abuse in the relationship [do so] because they feel pressured and don't feel that they can communicate any other way," Stacie Hall said. "Because he's just not listening, and [men] are much bigger than we are."

But other advocacy groups ignore female-on-male violence.

Take one particular bullet point from a brochure sponsored by Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence, a state advocacy coalition backed largely by federal funds: "Every 15 seconds a woman is battered in the United States by her husband, boyfriend or live-in partner."

To Michaele Cohen, the nonprofit's executive director, that statistic sounds about right. "There are male victims, of course, but the majority of victims who come forward are female," she said.

Cohen said other data suggesting that men suffer from equal rates of violence are unreliable.

"That methodology is very controversial because, you know, you're saying that every hit is equal and you're not taking into account context," she said. "I think you have to look critically at those studies."

Yet both sides of the debate are actually looking at the same studies: that 1975 survey, updated 10 years later, that revealed nearly identical rates of abuse by men and by women.

Cohen did not know of the connection to the statistics in her group's brochure, but said anecdotal evidence supports their contention.

"I don't really want to quibble about the particular stats," she said. Instead, Cohen pointed to the "huge number" of female victims she sees in need of assistance each and every day.

"I'm not relying on statistics. I'm relying on 30 years of experience."

That reliance on nonscientific data is no shock to Richard Gelles, who co-authored the 1975 and 1985 surveys with Straus.

"People cherry-pick their numbers for advocacy studies," he said. "This is what advocates do, and that's not sad. What's sad is policymakers don't create evidence-based policy."

Gelles, dean of the School of Social Policy and Practice at the University of Pennsylvania, offered up the Violence Against Women Act as an example.

Since 1994, the federal law has doled out some $4 billion to states — dollars aimed at eliminating domestic abuse, stalking and sexual assault through increased financial, legal and housing support to women. The act has also upped the penalties against offenders and more closely knits prosecutors, judges, police and victims advocates to the effort.

Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee last May, Gelles said the law, which is set for reauthorization in 2011, mostly ignores services and resources for male victims of abuse.

"No other federal legislation dealing with an aspect of family violence, including child maltreatment, sexual abuse and elder abuse, singularly focuses on one sex," he testified.

So what of services available to men?

Laura Dugan, a public-policy expert and associate professor at the University of Maryland, said you might not know of a need for men based on the services available to them.

"All of these service providers, they do not let men on their premises," she said, recounting a case she was familiar with in which an alcoholic wife was abusing her husband. "She really abused him. And he had nowhere to go."

In Maryland, the House of Ruth, one of Maryland's largest domestic-violence service providers, will assist men, but active outreach efforts seem in short supply.

"We also work with men," said program development director Cheri Parlaman, referring to an abuser intervention program

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2013743521_domesticviolence26.html

It Is Possible

to be good looking and still have distinct features. I can tell these two guys apart.And all the rest of these fellows.On top of their looks they all have extremely distinct voices, personalities and mannerisms. That's why they called them "stars".

Duke Starts To Morph

Everybody changes as they age but nobody did it better than the Duke.He turned into a completely different design.And everyone loved him even more.His personality is as distinct as his head."Distinct" is the thing that to me is most missing from entertainment today and especially animation.From some of the comments I can see that many people are actually repulsed by anything that isn't

StudsAndShoulders

(Topshop jacket and studded pants, zara shirt, grandmas vintage necklace, mums booties, Loewe bag)

GENERAL MEDICAL COUNCIL AND SWEARING ON THE BIBLE

Following years of religious privileges at the General Medical Council, UK, and the persecutions of the innocent doctors by the religious left, now the General Medical Council has put a Bible on its website in the section on helping the witnesses.
Now click here to watch Mr George Carlin on the subject of Stop Swearing on the Bible
The rise of the religious fundamentalism has been noted in the last ten years in the world and so has the deterioration in human rights.
At the General Medical Council doctors run the risk of being declared mad simply for being critical of some religious practice or local NHS small lords while doing this in the interest of the patients. Women are more at risk than men of being declared mad but this is to be expected from a sexist organization which would employ people who applaud their own narcissistic image.
Most religions are patriarchal and asserting religious supremacy as the General Medical Council has done now has a number of political motives, one of which is to sabotage the reforms that the new government wants to make to this notoriously poorly performing body in the eyes of those who have experienced that dark side of controlling the freedom of thought by the state organs.
Discrimination against freethinkers/atheists is rife in medical profession and having the Bible and other religious texts for witnesses opens witnesses just to that discrimination. A bit like declaring one is a homosexual to homophobes. So the whole thing is really not just silly but actually nasty.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND MY SWAP DOLL

I hope all my wonderful friends out there in blog land had a beautiful Christmas filled with Peace, Love, family and friends:)

I know, I know, I am really late posting AGAIN.....but I am getting better!! LOL

SO my amazing swap partner from Zan's holiday swap http://vagabondcreations.blogspot.com/ was the ever so talented Carisa Swenson from http://goblinfruitstudio.wordpress.com/


This is my adorable Dia de los Muertos and Easter Rabit!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE him and am honoured to have my very own Carisa doll:)


This is the doll I sent to Carisa. She is Easter/Valentines Rabit girl .

A Pretty Boy For Ashanti and Carmine

Top 50 Kayaking Blogs - BaffinPaddler made the Rest of the Best

Wow! It really pays to pay attention to your Web stats and see where your traffic comes from. Mine is small but very cherished. I'm so surprised where it comes from too.

I just noticed that Guide to Online Schools, Top 50 Kayaking Blogs was linking to my BaffinPaddler blog, so I went over and took a peek. How cool!

Guide to Online Schools reviewed a number of kayak blogs and ranked the Top Five and the Rest of the Best.

BaffinPaddler is listed 5th in the Rest of the Best (that's because they are listed in alphabetical order so it helps to have a blog that starts with a "B") and this is what they say about BaffinPaddler, "Most of these blog entries are personal reviews of various sea kayaking routes. This kayaker makes sure to put safety first and always reviews the weather conditions and safety concerns of sea kayaking."

Hey thanks Online Schools! It's an honor to be reviewed and ranked. And a great motivator for a blogger. I'm a big fan of blogs and bloggers. And now I've just discovered yet another great resource of some kayak blogs I didn't know about that I can also share on my blog. Some of my favorite kayak bloggers are listed on my blog roll in the right column of my blog.

There is a kinship amongst kayakers in general and with kayak bloggers in particular. It is great to stay connected to other kayakers this way. They are the ones who motivate me to get out there and discover something new and maybe paddle with some of them one day.

This review is great for us bloggers..Looks like great photos and videos are an expected hit along with the stories and adventures that we all manage to find and share along the way. And readers do appreciate the balance of including the mention of safety aspects and technique when it comes to our sport. I'm glad to hear that. That's what makes our sport more fun! When we come back safe, sound, and in one piece so we can head out time and time again.

People want to know how much fun we're having, where we're having it, and what kind of gear we like. We love our gear! We need our gear. We rely on our gear as much as we rely on ourselves. When you think about it, we're a team.

It's winter, and in Canada and a lot of other places around the world, winter means cold! Which can also mean fun or freezing your butt off whether you are on or off the water.

Gear is really on my mind right now. The freezing wind running up my belly early in the season made me stop and think in between shivers. So, I indulged in one of my other favorite sports - shopping (at gear stores of course)! I'll be talking about some pretty simple gear soon. The most important gear to think about first but we often think about last, the foundation. The base layer!

Happy blogging!
The BaffinPaddler

YULETIDE GREETINGS

I hope you have a warm wonderful holiday with lots of presents, turkey and cartoons.Your pal,John

It's the most magical time of the year, Merry Christmas!

I am soo soo happy my babies are here! Today we had a big family gathering at my grandmas house and then took some pictures under the christmas tree. 

***I feel magical***

Me and Marisse

our Christmas tree

Marissaki and I next to the fireplace

Christmas day outfit

(via stylecopycat, fashiongonerogue, anitadarling, candyflosscurlscupcakesandcouture)

silent night

Christmas or in other words, the year end holidays are the time when my friends, family and I would all gather back home in k.k to celebrate together. We would normally come back around the same time and would just spend the holidays together. Usually it's the end of the year. However, this year is my first year skipping my year end holidays back home. It's a sad story. My best friend ness also has the same fate as me. I'm working during christmas, and so is she.

I was talking to her about it earlier and she was telling me that as we get older, we will have to get used to the amount of holidays we're going to miss out on. About the time we spend with our loved ones at home getting lesser and lesser. It's true because this year I haven't gone back as often as I did before.

So as I was working today, during christmas, and when I was chilling at my friend's place during christmas eve. I thought about my loved ones back home. I think about the christmas eve dinner they're having which I'm not attending, the after party afterwards with my friends, and the presents opening later on christmas morning. I thought about all of it. And I can say that everytime I do, I feel like crying. I feel like breaking down.

Even though tonight I had a christmas dinner with some good friends, it's just not the same as the ones I have back in k.k. I have one or two loved ones here. But I can't spend enough time with them too.

This is a part of growing up. I'm sad but I have no other choice. We all would have to face it someday.

Xoxo

Jeffrey james

PreciousChristmas

My cousin has finaly arrived with her sweetest babies ever and I am SUPER DUPER excited. 

Christmas has officially started for me! 

(pictures of our first day together coming soon)

 (via fashiongonerogue)

Happy holidays from the BaffinPaddler

Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, I wish you the best, today, tomorrow, and forever!

Cheers.
The BaffinPaddler

Pete's Remedy

C sent this line up of a pesky virus we just can't seem to shake off.Then Pete Emslie sent this all natural cure. Thanks Pete!Is the Duke struggling to make a 'tude face? Looks like he ain't built fer it.

Fear - Fuck Christmas

Fear's second single, "Fuck Christmas" was backed by "(Beep) Christmas". Neither track appeared on an album though the A side was added to their debut album, The Record, when it was re-released on CD. "(Beep) Christmas" is identical to "Fuck Christmas" but with censored profanity, done as a way to promote the single on radio.



Wikipedia: Fear

Video: Fear - Fuck Christmas - live - date unknown - youtube

Blogload: Fear - The Record - http://punknotprofit.blogspot.com

Santa baby

It's kinda difficult to blog over here in Dallas with my super laggy old laptop... Each step of photoshopping takes a few seconds!

So I'm gonna just do a patronizing entry with one camwhoring shot done in the car:

On Xmas day it's gonna be -2 degree Celsius! But with no chance of snow.

Oh well! Still, over here in USA got a lot of Xmas ambiance!!

Hope you guys have a Merry Christmas with your family and friends! Except for haters. Hope haters all choke on a turkey bone.

Tata~~

AbbeyMania

I am a huge fan of mania mania and the second I saw Abbey Lee modeling for it, I just fell in love with all the pieces. That means I'll have to buy something from the collection soon :)

(via fashionising)

OMG Bambi

(via fashionising)

The Inherent Beauty Of Holes and Dents

Here's a scary hole with teeth like hairs waiting to trap you.

Microscopic Moon Like Objects

I love how nature has geometry and form, yet is not mechanically perfectly proportioned.

Nicole

(via nicolerichiefashion)

Rest In Peace Joe

On this date in 2002, Joe Strummer died suddenly in his home at Broomfield in Somerset, the victim of an undiagnosed congenital heart defect.

Wikipedia: Joe Strummer

Official Website: strummerville.com

"Strummerville is a registered charity that aims to create new opportunities for aspiring musicians.

Set up by the friends and family of Joe Strummer in the year after his death, the charity seeks to reflect Joe's unique contribution to the music world by offering support, resources and performance opportunities to artists who would not normally have access to them."

Blogload: Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros discography - yovengodelhoyo.blogspot.com

Blogload: The 101ers : Elgin Avenue Breakdown (1975) - urbanaspirines.blogspot.com

Blogload: The Clash - The Essential Clash (2003) - rockermusical.blogspot.com

Melaka Babey!

Kainen, Josh and I made a random trip to Melaka last monday. I loved it. Absolutely what i needed:) I'm rushing so ill blog about it later!

Loves!

xoxo

Jeffrey James