TOTALLY non-cycling related.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

My "other side"? Hmmm....I have more than one.

On this forum I'm a cyclist and walker and snowshoer.
My daily work is as a technical illustrator doing patent invention drawings. My husband and I have a business doing this together.
I used to be a fine art painter and sculptor and had gallery shows for years before I started to draw commercially for a living.
I play old-time fiddle tune music on banjo and mountain dulcimer with my husband who is an excellent fiddler. I also sing old murder ballads without instrumental accompaniment. I can yodel a little too.
I have a small cactus collection.
I can ride horses, shoot rifle, and catch giant snapping turtles with my bare hands. I know a lot about animals and plants and nature, having studied them all my life, and have raised/bred many kinds of animals. I used to collect mushrooms in the woods as well, and cook the edible ones.
I do like to shop for good clothes.

[7rider]

I also sing old murder ballads without instrumental accompaniment.

Hey!
I can murder ballads, too!!!
Oh, wait. I don't think that's what you were saying.
Okay....what is a "murder ballad"???

I'm a one act show. Bikes.
Okay, well maybe not.
I have a boring job managing projects associated with the implementation of an act by Congress.
I volunteer with rabbit rescue groups.
Ask me about bikes or bunnies, and I can't shut up. Ask me about my job, and I'll tell you...yup...it's my job!
I enjoy skiing and kayaking.
I'm not much of a cook, but enjoy torturing guests...er, feeding them...every so often.

[TsPoet]

I hate ABBA - 15 years ago I drove from Arizona to North Carolina with all my possessions and a cage full of budgies (parakeets). My dad helped me pack and was furious when he showed up to find I wasn't farther along, he threw everything into boxes, including the CDs I set aside for the 4 days of 12+ hr driving. The only CDs I had were a 4 box set of ABBA.
4 days of ABBA with budgies chirping along (for those not familiar, budgies are unusual in the bird world in that they can't carry a tune and aren't terribly melodic).
Then again, I used to love ABBA, maybe I can listen to them again and the inadvertent aversion therapy has warn off!
Back on topic - my Meyer's Parrot would love those shoes!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Hey!

Okay....what is a "murder ballad"???

A VERY short definition from Wikipedia:

Murder ballads are a notable portion of recorded medieval ballads from Scandinavia and Great Britain. In those, the victim overcomes the murderer, tricks him and stabs him to death while sleeping. Thus, justice is fulfilled, and the murderer is punished. Many of those ballads mention a row of dead brides, from seven and up to ten, until the final surviving heroine.

Often the details and locales for a particular murder ballad change as it is sung over time, reflecting the audience and the performer. For example, "Knoxville Girl" is essentially the same ballad as "The Wexford Girl" with the setting transposed from Ireland to Tennessee - the two of them are based on "The Oxford Girl", the original murder ballad set in England.

American murder ballads are often versions of older Old World ballads with any elements of supernatural retribution removed. For example, the English ballad "The Gosport Tragedy" of the 1750s had both murder and vengeance on the murderer by the ghosts of the murdered woman and her unborn baby, who call up a great storm to prevent his ship sailing before tearing him apart. In contrast, the Kentucky version, "Pretty Polly", is a stark murder ballad ending with the murder and burial of the victim in a shallow grave.

Here's just one example out of thousands, this one recorded in 1953:
http://www.lyon.edu/wolfcollection/s...blood1233.html
(I also sing this one)

[light_sabe_r]

Not much of a fashion nut but I am an Anime and Cartoon nut.

I love cartoons. Can't get enough of them. I was even serialised in 2004 for my own comic which I wrote and drew myself. (but then my other career took over)

I could easily spend days in front of the TV watching the entire series of Fruits Basket or Dragonball Z. Or sitting on our balcony reading graphic novels!

I've actually started drawing again recently- Trying to draw cartoon people on bikes.... :P My sketchbook's starting to fill again.

[TsPoet]

I was even serialised in 2004 for my own comic which I wrote and drew myself. (but then my other career took over)

You can't get away with not showing us a sample!

[OakLeaf]

Huh. I always thought of songs like "Banks of the Ohio" or "Cruel Mother" when I heard the term "murder ballad." Do those count? "Cruel Mother" at least includes the divine retribution. Or are those just ballads about murder, not murder ballads?

[light_sabe_r]

You can't get away with not showing us a sample!

Okay Poet - Just for you!

http://light-sabe-r.deviantart.com/a...-page-17780688

http://light-sabe-r.deviantart.com/a...Page13-7711769

and one of my Fave sketches.... A father meeting up with his delinquent son...

http://light-sabe-r.deviantart.com/a...wrong-16654048

[Tri Girl]

Amazing drawings, Light!!! Wow!