Thanks to everyone for playing, it was a great experience.

Click thumb for large version.

The triptych is dedicated to

- Meerkat, The Smile (to the left)

- Kookaburra, Reading To The Crocodile (to the right)

- The whole bunch of you guys: It Was So Much Fun (middle)

- And Eurydice: It is a triptych!

Both the book in the background and the knights belong to Joshua. He has countless books on and about knights. That one is a great book with parts can be swung open and moved around, as the tower and the drawbridge.

After some burnout-days, this was fun again. Thanks so much to everybody for their encouraging comments!

Also, thanks mk for suggesting backlighting. I sort of had forgotten about that and had to try it immediately.

Today, for the first time, I could not decide which one I liked better. So you shall have both (Inside the posting).

The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis

A great children’s book. The one in the front is my own, the one used as background is my son’t version, with wonderful illustrations. I like the warm colours, and the play with perspective.

A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R. R. Martin

I am a huge fan of the fantasy author George R. R. Martin. Before there was Worth (yes, there was a time before Worth) I frequented a message board about his series “A Song of Ice and Fire”. Not only did we discuss the books, but we also wrote stories together and talked about pretty much everthing. Some people there became very close friends. Well, the Worthians among you will know what I mean, more or less.

One of us found that GRRM had put three chapters of the third book in the series, A Storm of Swords, into Ebay. Three preliminary chapters, and signed! We (as the board community) decided that we needed to have them. And instead of outbidding each other, we teamed. We chose one of us to win the auction. We opened a thread where everyone said how much he could give and calculated the end account. I think more than 30 people from all over the world participated.

Greg paid a really outrageous amount for these three manuscript chapters, but we were thirty. Of course there was a risk – we did not know each other personally, only over the site. He just PM’d everyone his bank account data (this was before PayPal) and had to trust us. And not one bailed out on him. Everyone paid his money. The funny thing was: Greg had said he would make copies for everyone for free. But each and every one decided to send a bit more money for the copying and his efforts and shipping, so in the end he had not only the amount, but copies, shipping AND some spare. We told him to get a good dinner from it, but he did not want to. So we donated the money for a foundation helping artists who could not pay for medical care.

I received my copy a bit later, with a singature for Greg and all of us from George R. R. Martin upon it.

Some months later, I met with George R. R. Martin on the German book fair. We had a good talk, and he told me he was coming to Cologne the following week, and would we like to go out for dinner? We had dinner with George and his German translator, which was quite an amazing evening. So at the bottom, he signed once more, a personal signature just for me.

These pages, I keep with the book. They really mean a lot for me, for they are not only manuscript pages from a great book, signed by a phantastic author, but also a reminiscence of a crazy stunt we pulled, and a great time we had. It was a team effort of mutual trust that I am proud I was a part of.

So.  Which of the two pictures do you like better (apart from the story, of course)?

Bonus photo can be found in the post: Click “more…”

After days of graphic experiments, I wanted to do something funny. This, of course, made me think of Paula, who is an infinitely patient photo model. She sits and lays down and even looks the way I want her to. Best dog ever.

So here is a bonus for today, because she played along so well. It also is dedicated to Eury’s triptychs, which are awesome.

Click for the full version.

Background story? Click more:

In old Jewish stories, the Golem was a Homunculus said to be created by a Rabbi in Prague, Judah Loew. I am familiar with these stories both because I am a storyteller and because I am phascinated by Jewish culture and storytelling. There are quite a lot of stories about how Rabbi Loew created the Golem, what he did and how it all ended. Some of these stories are funny, but most are rather creepy – messing with creating life has never been a good idea even before Ms. Shelley thought of Frankenstein.

The Golem in this picture is a clay figurine actually bought in Prague. The book in the background is a book with Jewish legends and tales, opened at the page about the Golem – the Hebrew word written on the picture is “Golem”, too. I could tell you much more about this picture, but you probably should just see for yourself.

I would like to dedicate this picture to G. – she will know why. You are a precious person!

t was so incredibly awesome on so many levels that I spontaneously broke into tears when I unwrapped and saw the gift. Even my dirty-harry-hardfaced hubbylove teared up a bit (but don’t tell him I told you). And despite being still a little sick and exhausted from Christmas joy, I was too hyper to sleep until 5 AM because I was working on realizing the awesomeness of our present and the incredible generosity and kindness behind it.

I have wanted a “real” camera forever and ever. I more and more felt that my crappy point-and-shoot was not up to what I wanted to do, and I really wished for a DSLR.

Before we bought the house, my and hubby’s plans regarding this were more or less like “OK, if we save money, in one or two years, we’ll buy one”.

But then along came the house. As some of you might have followed a year ago, we were in a really stressful situation at home and had to move out. We jumped into the adventure of buying a house rather quickly, and all our monies went into it, and will go into the mortgage for, well… centuries.

So the plans of getting a DSLR went down the drain. Apart from the mortgage, this is an old house that needs repairs. Sudden surprises like mold in unexpected places eat up resources like nothing else, believe me.

Do you know when you wish for something really badly, but you know it’s just not possible, not ever will be possible? You push it so far away that it is almost nonexistant anymore.

But still, being a true friend, and doing quite our share of photography talk amongst us, the meerkitten knew all of this.

So Christmas Eve. The candles on the tree are burning, we have sung sufficiently many Christmas carols, read the Christmas Story, and now it’s time to unwrap the presents. We all are quite happy with everything: Books, some games, some trinkets, some more books. Then, my son brings to me a cute, unobtrusive box…

As the writing indicates, it comes from meerkat and is for “The Roos artists”. Heh. Cool.

So we unwrap. And then we’re speechless. I mean, totally and utterly.

This is what is in the box:

This is not just “a camera”. This is HIS camera. He actually gave us HIS camera, the one he used to do all of this!

When you want something for so long, really want it, and it is impossible to have it, and you push the hope for having it so far away, and then all of a sudden you get it as a gift, then all the wishing comes back. It’s like a backdraft of happiness. I started crying. And couldn’t stop for quite a while.

This picture was taken an hour or so later, I think, but you can still see how awed I am. And that I had been crying.

So what happened? What in all the worlds made him do such a thing as giving his beloved camera, his baby away?

Well, as this part is more his story to tell than mine, I shall make it short. He, too, felt he had outgrown his equipment, and to get to the next professional level, he needed something else. It was not easy, as he really did love this camera, but there it was. Of course, he could have sold this one and added the money to the savings for a new one. But he decided to do something else.

I cannot begin to say just how much this means to me. Seriously. This gift is awesome on so many levels.

Kittenz started explaining the functions to us right away.

And today, we went for a long walk into the forest, both with our new cameras. Yes, he actually brought his new camera, too, and yet another brave act was not to show it to me the whole week before Christmas, and just letting it sit in his suitcase without sharing, so that I might not guess his gift beforehand. Not that I WOULD have guessed, ever.

So hubby and I have a real camera now. Roarr. Be happy with us.

This year, we had my little meerkitten brother over from Stockholm for the holidays. So that made, together with my husband and me, three Worthians! Of course, we had to do the challenge.

Here is the thumbnail. To view all pictures, click “more”:

12 Pictures of Christmas

07:30 AM

The first look out of the window. Snow! It’s going to be a White Christmas this year, undoubtedly due to Mr. Meerkat’s magical weather influencing abilities.

8:30 AM

We put up the Christmas tree. Yes, we always do this on Christmas Eve, not a day earlier. Here are my three boys occupied with the task.

09:30 AM

My son doing some emergency Christmas gift arrangements. He hates drawing and procrastinates as long as he can – but granny will want a picture drawn by him, won’t she? He has the smartest ideas, but oh, the pain to make them appear on paper! You can see just how taxing this is.

10:30 AM

It is time that I took a hot bath. A long, hot bath…

11:30 AM

Now that the tree is up, it needs to be decorated. As you can see, we still use candles. Real beeswax candles. I like those little lights all over the house – but not for the tree. A Christmas tree is only right when it has candles.

12:30 PM

The house has to be clean on Christmas Day! At least as far as my husband is concerned. Me, being rather obliviant to all things cleaning and housewife-ish, I cannot even see that it’s dirty. But, as I always say: “If you think it’s dirty, clean it up, by all means!” And as we can see, he is happy to oblige.

1:30 PM

So when Worthians assemble to celebrate Christmas together, what do they do on Christmas Eve? Check Worth, of course. As you can see, the example rubbed off on sonny, who persuaded me to let him play for half an hour, too.

The observant reader will see that Joshua and meerkat are using the same computer, which is certainly not possible. But the hours given are rather rule of thumb, and they both switched places during that hour.

2:30 PM

Not only my son is doing emergency Christmas-presenting. But be assured: Meerkat is only wrapping. The gift that goes into this box is already there, and actually, has been planned by him for months! It is to become the most wonderful Christmas gift not only of this Christmas, but perhaps of ever. Worthians already know what it turned out to be.

I might copy the thread about the gift in here, so that you may know, too.

3:30 PM

Ahem. Sorry. I mean. The day went smoothly so far, but when we went to church, we forgot the camera. Skipping the 12 Hours of Christmas? No way? Cheating? Nah. So we took a really crappy cellphone pic, and you will have to deal with it.

At least the crappy quality guarantees no quarrels with model releases for the picture. None of the kids is recognizable anyways. You will have to believe me when I tell you that the glob in the left corner is Joshua, having a performance with his church kid’s choir for the mass.

4:30 PM

Back from church. The tree, a minute before getting lit. Of course Joshua is very impatient and fidgety by now, especially with all the presents now being there! Still – he has to wait a while yet…

5:30 PM

When the tree is lit, we sing Christmas Carols. And not only one or two. We also read the Christmas story. Joshua does quite well, considering his impatience. Only after the singing and storytelling does the unwrapping begin.

6:30 PM

Finally! Kids unwrapping gifts on Christmas is one of the bestest things in the world.

7:30 PM

We had funz!

8:30 PM

And of course, we had food. This is dessert. Dessert was a yummy combination of several icecream tastes and profiteroles.

But my li’ll meerkitten brother is a tricky eater. Amongst all the things he does not like, he certainly does not like the flavours on his plate being mixed. So he bitched about this during the whole dinner politely brought the topic up once or twice, and being the caring sister I am, I provided him with a substitute way of serving his dessert. Plastic divider plate. Not pretty, but exactly what was needed.

And here end our 12 Hours of Christmas. I hope you had fun looking at them – and I hope you had an equally lovely Christmas, you all!

But! A time will come where you will hopefully see a post each day. Right, EACH day!

I committed to the 30 Days Photo Frenzy of Worth, where a photo will be taken each day according to a self-chosen topic. I already have my topic, and it will be fun!

We also decided to do a 12 Hours of Christmas photo series, so you will see some Christmas pix for sure. So stay tuned, photos are bound to come.

“If you could have any ONE “super power” (as in “super hero ability”), totally ignoring all known and unknown laws of nature, physics, whatever … what would that be, why and what would you use it for?”

Chrome is right. The more you think about this, the tougher it gets. This is not about “Do you wanna be Superman or Batman? First thoughts were easy, like being able to fly, or x-ray vision (very useful when it come to… ok, forget it ). But then, I thought about the endless possibilities, and things got difficult. What about being able to never forget ANYTHING you read? Like, nothing at all. You’d all have it ready for use. Imagine how amazingly much you’d KNOW. Knowledge is quite enticing to me.

Another knowledge-related thing would be to be able to read and speak each language of the world fluently. I’m in love with languages. I’d love to be able to plant and grow things in the blink of an eye – imagine what this could do against famine. Or to read thoughts… no, wait, I CAN do that already.

Well, I think I could end up like chrome and ponder this for decades. But there is this 20 Days of Questions challenge, and I don’t want to let you wait. So I decided.

I want to be able to Apparate. Like “Beam me up, Scotty”. I want to be able to disappear where I am right now and appear that very second (or minute, I don’t care) somewhere else, no matter the distance.

That’s be my superhero power of choice.

Why? Because I have friends and loved ones all over the planet. Some of them I haven’t seen in a very long time because they’re so far away. Others are not THAT far away, but I don’t see them quite as often as I want to. Others again, I haven’t seen at all – yet. I’d love to be able to see them for a coffee or a drink, or a hug, or a weekend, just whenever I want to. That would not be anything grand, I know, but I’d give away my chance to save the world for the chance to be with the ones I love more often.

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