I have had a lovely relaxing evening blogging with Indigo sitting beside me keeping me company. I am feeling inspired after the cartoon writing seminar I attended on Wednesday and I am eager to begin creating ideas I got from the seminar and Personal Creations website.

I watched images that had been created using Adobe Photoshop at the cartooning website and it reminded me of my love for the old Microsoft ware program Picture It.  I Goggled to find out if there was any way to try to get it to work on a Windows 7 computer and apparently if I spend $100. upgrading this to a Windows 7 professional program I could ten download a Windows XP onto my Windows 7 Pro to run the old Microsoft Program and then create those personal image creations I want to make.  lol - do I know what I am talking about? No - Not really.  I just loved Picture It and it was so much easier to use than Adobe Photo Shop. I long to have access to it again. 


It is amazing the fun you can have creating if you have the right tools for the job.

I just arrived back at our summer retreat in the country after attending a seminar in Melbourne with the creator of the 'First Dog on the Moon' cartoons as my tutor.  Indigo went to melbourne with us and stayed with our daughter and her two golden retrievers. As she always watched whatever I do creatively with great interest I am sure she is going to enjoy my animal cartoons I plan to do for her blog. Right now I am a bit of a HickingArtist fan as you can see.

I won the seminar so that made it a special treat.
Thank you to Writers Victoria I had an excellent time at the seminar. I learned heaps from an excellent tutor and loved meeting and talk with other writers/artists. A most worthwhile trip to the city from country Victoria and I will be reopening my page on facebook as a result of the PR talk at the end. 

Who are Writer's Victoria?
writersvictoria.org.au
Writers Victoria is a non-profit organization that assists writers through all stages of their development. We provide high-quality information and professional development for aspiring and established writers, and special benefits for members.

_
It was a GREAT Seminar.
Theory beginning, Practical drawing and punch line creating of cartoons afternoon then some networking PR talk.Great talking to other writers.

Summer School: Cartoon Writing Wednesday 18 January 2012, 10:00AM - 4:00PM Presented by: Andrew Marlton

Type: Workshop

Cartoons capture and entertain audiences by combining the written word with the powerful impact of images and humour. Cartoons are an effective medium for social commentary, inciting political awareness or for simply creating a story.

First Dog on the Moon (Andrew Marlton) is the senior editorial cartoonist at Crikey.com.au where he mercilessly lampoons anyone who gets his goat. By all accounts a lovely fellow and quite approachable, his cartoons are in wide demand and are available on t-shirts but not yet underpants. Andrew illustrated The Wombat and the Grand Poohjam, written by Jackie French. His most recent book First Dog on the Moon’s The Story of the Christmas Story, which he wrote and illustrated, was released in 2010 (Text).

One of the best and worst events of our life was "The Buskers Festival."  I will always remember my pleasure at seeing three elegantly dressed geese being herded along by an Australian Cattledog.
It had been recommended to me as a retail venue by someone with no comprehension of the 'right' venue for fine art.  For starters I was promised an undercover prestige venue to mount a fine art display from an award winning art gallery and I found myself being given a trestle table by the roadside alongside trash and treasure on one side and cheap Asian imports on the other.  I would have been happier at a field day event exhibiting beside jeep parts.  At least that would have brought out a lot of country men who love the Australian landscape paintings.

Now that was the second time that happened to me - there is a lesson there - qualify your prospects before you waste valuable time with them.

Added to the insult of being brought out on a 'bum-steer,' it poured with rain ith one of the worst storms in the century. It was however - WONDERFUL weather for  - DUCKS.  Well geese anyhow. and what geese. While my art exhibition was dismal failure hidden away under tarpaulins, these geese were the outright star attraction of an otherwise doomed buskers festival.

_There has been another incident of Hendra virus in north Queensland on a rural property in the Townsville region and Biosecurity Queensland is investigating.  The last Hendra case in Townsville was in December 2004. Queensland's Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young says staff will travel to the site to determine if any people were exposed to the infected horse that died last week.

She says the department is ready to provide any testing or treatment if required.

This is the first incident of Hendra virus, this year. last year was the worst with more than 20 horses and one dog being affected or put down due to the virus which appears to be spread though bat droppings.  So far the outbreaks have mostly been across Queensland as well as northern New South Wales.

Australia has always have strict quarantine regulations and so far we have been protected against Rabies. However this disease has spread close to Australia and is now on islands within 600 kilometers of our mainland.  I think the main risk would come from an infected dog having an assisted entry as a passenger on a boat and then getting into the huge wild dog population within Indidginous Australian communities. 

This is something I hope will not happen

Vets in the Top End warn an epidemic of rabies in Indonesia could have disastrous consequences if it reaches Australia, because of the large dog population in remote Indigenous communities.

The disease is highly infectious, has been a killer in parts of the developing world for decades, and is spreading quickly across the Indonesian archipelago.

It arrived on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali four years ago and is now on an island 600 kilometres north of Darwin.

"They tracked it back to a fisherman who brought his dog on a boat, and that dog had been incubating rabies," said Janice Girardi, director of the Bali Animal Welfare Association.

Ms Girardi says eliminating rabies is tough because it is so contagious and the most effective way of preventing the disease is through vaccinating all dogs.

Her organisation has already vaccinated close to 300,000 canines across Bali.

"Extensive studies have come up with the R0 number, the infectious number, to be under two, so one rabid dog will infect one and a half other dogs," she said.

"You put an unvaccinated population of dogs, you will see how quickly it spreads because every dog is infecting one and a half other dogs.

"If you vaccinate above 70 per cent of those dogs, the disease will die out."

She says rabies has spread beyond Bali and Australia is not immune.

"You have very good quarantine controls, which is excellent," she said.

"But people are still brought in to Australia and still get through, so the chance of a dog coming in on those boats is likely.

"If it's undetected and you have a population of dogs that are not vaccinated then those dogs will get rabies and it will start spreading, as it did in Bali."


In Australia, most dogs are not vaccinated because there has never been a case of rabies in the country.

Vet Dr Jan Allen says an oral vaccination against rabies is now being developed in Australia but there's still a long way before it's ready for use.

Dr Allen works with AMMRIC, an independent group that helps Indigenous communities in the Top End to improve the health and welfare of companion animals.

"There's only been early work happening in oral vaccines, and that would certainly be the way to go in Indigenous communities because of the numbers of the dogs, because the dogs aren't used to being handled so it's actually quite difficult to catch the dogs, but it's a long way down the track," she said.

Dr Allen says that rabies could have disastrous implications if it reaches the Territory's remote Indigenous communities.

"If it did get in to the communities it could be an absolute disaster because there are so many dogs, and the problem with rabies is that the incubation period is several months. So once an animal starts showing signs it's almost too late because it's been in contact with so many other animals," she said.

"So it could rapidly get out of control."

The Department for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, which is responsible for the Northern Territory's quarantine strategy, was not available for an interview.

I just had to share this cute series of dog and child training photos.

Have a wonderful and Happy New Year. May it be safe and prosperous for you and your loved ones.

Best wishes from Indigo, Reg and Kathy here at Doggiesblog.

Indigo is keeping me company, enjoying a relax beside me as I have a big, post Christmas read in.

What are you reading?
I just finished reading "How to write Mystery and the roller coaster of suspense". I have a greater understanding of the genre now.
I love an after Christmas long reading session :-).

"How to write Mystery and the roller coaster of suspense" is the second of the Mystery books I've read recently. I found it hard to even find any in Kindle.
I think what helps me with my writing more than any books, is my previous art career of over 50 years. I just apply the same degree pf professionalism to it - I know you have to study, practice and just do it, listen and learn and the inspiration only flows after you have made the plan and gotten stuck into doing the work - on a daily basis. Just set a date - soon and decide how much time you have to work at it , how much time you can give to training for it (reading ) and then do it.

I love it so much I have to do the opposite. I have to plan what time I must spend away from my creative passion and just do it, regardless of injury or desire to break from what i love, excuses. Observation and correction tools, are your best teacher. I wouldn't spend $9.95 (Kindle price) on that book again for what I learned from it, but it would be worth borrowing from a library. I'm into the book on avoiding book rejections now. :-). Enjoying a good read in today and this evening. :-)

Parenting.
When your arm has fallen asleep but you don't dare take it back.

Isn't this gorgeous?

Have you experienced this feeling?  I certainily have.