Where did July go? Man…
I had a weekend that scared even me in its hyperfocussedness. Cenobyte needed a steampunk costume for GenCon too (yes, needed!) and that apron just kept calling to me, since it’s adjustable enough to fit both of us.. So I made one. And embroidered it. And made my goggles. And shopped for the cybernetic hand.* And started the embroidery on my costume.
I wonder if I should pursue the possibility of doing stuff like this for a living wage more assiduously. Or would it, Tom Sawyer-like, become a chore once I have to do it?
For your consideration… The Case of the Disappearing Coffee. R:tAG had an early morning physio appointment, so when I dropped him off at work I came in to steal a cup of coffee. They had no lids, so I drank the coffee down to half-way and hoped for the best. Driving to my workplace, I got engrossed in the radio** and forgot about the coffee. I got to work… and the coffee was almost gone. I swear I didn’t drink it (when you drive a standard in the California rush-hour, there is no such thing as absentmindedly taking your hand off the wheel or the gear shift) but there was no detectable spillage. Oooooo, mysteeeerious.
Oh, and a cooking tip, do not use a really hoppy beer (like an IPA) to deglaze a pan and make a sauce. The good flavours of the beer go away, and all that’s left is palate-assaulting bitterness.
And just to make this post be a completely random collection of statements, here are some links! An abnormal number have to do with fashion, since I’m sort of in a costuming head-space.
Before and After Makeovers - Some of these cannot be considered improvements, by any standards.
What-the-hell-is-this Knitting - Well, as costumes...
I Don’t Do Walking - Horrifying.
Facebook: Big Brother with a Smile - Noooo! Don’t do it!
Literary Lolcats - I mentioned the Lolcats thing before… this is really, really, funny.
Scary Soap - Because a list of links just isn’t complete without a horrifying picture.
Beautiful Wildlife Photography
World’s Biggest Yarn Stash – This is not a shop. This is a private collection. I now feel better.
Construction Site Floods – Wow!
* Not a euphemism
** A discussion on veterans’ health administration… some caller was trying to use the current VA mess as an example of why socialized medicine could never work. Because, somehow, people working for the government can never have the best interests of a patient in mind, but people working for an insurance company always do. Grrr.
... so the corpse sits up and says, "Do you have anything to stop this coffin?"
I don't remember the actual joke, exactly, though it's implied from the punchline. My sickness has morphed into a persistant-tearing-hacking-coal-mining-smoker thing that is getting seriously old. Buckley's doesn't touch it. A pack of Fisherman's Friends barely took the edge off. Two packs of Chloraseptic Relief Strips helped only as long as it took for the numbing gel to dissolve.* It might be time to test out this wierd HMO thing.
We watched "Thank you for Smoking," which I do not recommend to anyone who is an ex-smoker or trying to quit, because it will probably make you want to smoke.** But it is a good and very funny movie, more about truth and perception than smoking. And I thought my coughing just added to the cinematic ambience.
Amusing links:
Google Fight (this is probably old, but I just discovered it. Again, I remind you that sickness makes me regress)
The 80's Tarot
Inexplicable Objects
Useful German Phrases (this can't be real. Can it? Nah. Can't be.)
Useful Latin song translation
* So these things are menthol/benzocaine versions of those breath-minty slips of gelatin that you put on your tongue and God forbid you should get stuck on the roof of your mouth. That goes double in spades with the medicated ones; I had several misfires that resulted in numb areas of my hard palate and gums, which felt interesting but did damn-all to stop my cough.
** Or maybe not. Upon reflection, there are not many scenes of people actually smoking, which is very funny in the context of the movie. I still thought about lighting up, but then, SuperSize Me made me want fries. I'm just a patsy in the hands of the hidden persuaders.
OK, so I can't post a picture of my Olympic knitting progress, because R:tAG took the camera with him to a gaming convention today. But I do have one of the Super Secret Project mentioned earlier, which is now declassified because it's been given to the recipient.
Yep, the CEO of R:tAG's company and his wife just had a baby boy, so obviously the Heir Apparent needed a Statesman toy. The Heroclix figure is shown for scale. I was pretty happy with how it turned out, except for the helmet which I think could be better. But it's not bad for about eight hours' work, no prior planning, and using only materials on hand.
And in other news... well, not much. I'm a full-time employee now, my probationary period of two months having been reduced because they realized how awesome I am.* Which means a pay raise, so yay!
Some cool links:
Party recipie (some day...)
Good interview with Dan Savage (favourite quote: "...everyone's so completely pussified by our therapy culture, where anyone who's seeking counsel has to be f*ckin' nursed at your hairy tit for half an hour before you say a discouraging word")
Also from the Onion (it's a joke, obviously, but it's also part of what my thesis was about. The concept of adding visual usage information to digital content is a valid one! Really!)
Superbowl Entertainment (OK, too late for this year, but it's a great idea. We didn't watch the game, but this actually made it tempting)
Squee!
Art Knitting (um, probably should be for grownups only)
* I'm experimenting with Tomas-style blogging, but I'm not sure I can sustain it...
... and I can still count on one hand the number of times I've felt the need for a coat this year. So odd.
Still no pictures, but dammit, I'm going to talk about knitting.
I've been just itching to cast on for my Olympic project, which would be Bad, and Cheating, so I'm distracting myself with all sorts of little stuff. I started a doily. I am so not a doily person, but I love knitting with teeny tiny needles and thread. Plus after this, the Olympic sweater will seem like I'm knitting with broom handles by contrast and will go speedily. I started and finished a hat. And I started a Secret Project which has had both positive and negative progress (i.e. lots of knitting and ripping) because I'm both designing it on the needles and using scrap yarn. I gave up last night after I realized that the yarn I was using just wasn't going to do what I wanted nohow, even after knitting and ripping it about six times, and I didn't feel like digging around in my stash closet in the dark. At least it was a small stitch count at that point.
I'm also ploughing through the mound of books I got at Dark Carnival during our lovely trip to Berkeley last weekend. I just finished Rats, which I'd been meaning to read for a while. I liked it, though I was hoping for something other than a personal "This is me in New York" story. I was expecting either an academic work (Rats, Lice and History) or a small specific story as used a springboard to broader themes (The Orchid Thief) and I don't think Rats was either.
But I couldn't believe the number of grammatical errors in the text! Either authors don't use editors any more, or the editors are getting more ignorant.* This was my favourite, on page 176:
"By 1952, a team of 14 men was exterminating rats, including Louis A. Lindecop, the port's chief sanitary inspector at the time."
I do not think that sentence means what you think it means, Mr. Sullivan.
Tonight we're playtesting some material for Deadlands:Reloaded, and the creator of the game is running it. This is definitely the upside of living here and R:tAG doing what he does; meeting the people responsible for all the stuff we love. Oh, and to link the themes of "knitting" and "benefits of living here" (not to mention the theme of "finally being gainfully employed"), Stitches West is soon. Squee!
Oh, and some links to stuff from coolhunting, which is a fantastic place to waste time:
A cool alarm clock
A cool USB stick
A cool guitar
A very very cool knitting project
And just plain funny (um, but adult content warning):
New Acronyms for Today's Discerning Freakazoid
WFIE!
* Or I'm getting pickier and more crotchety. What are the odds?
Well, this is what blogs originally were, right? I'm just being old school. Of course, blogs have changed...
Folksongs are your Friends - an absolutely hi-larious list of lessons you can learn from folksongs. If you're a folksong fan (i.e. you know what the Child collection is, who Barbara Allen was, or have ever sung, for any reason, the words "whack-fol-de-diddle") read not only the post but the comments.
You Knit What? - the dark side of knitting.
Mammatus Clouds - I miss seeing all the sky.
Knitted Art - by Freddie Robins. I want this.
The last one brings up something I was pondering. I would very much like to have that in my home (no, I don't know what I'd do with it. That's not the point. Did you see it? How could you not want that?). I could make it, fairly easily.
Is this legal? Is this ethical? It's different, I think, from a painting where even if you try to reproduce it yourself, it's probably going to be different. The pattern for making this is much more reproducible. Is it more like music, where you can easily play the same tune? Should there be a mechanical license to allow a "cover" (an unfortunately ambiguous term when it comes to knitting, but there you are)? Does the fact that I'd make only one, for me, make a difference? If I fully credit Ms. Robins at all stages, does that make a difference?
I suppose I could alter enough about it to make it mine, like cooks do recipies, but I want it just as it is. There would be differences; that picture gives no idea of scale, for example, but that's like me transposing "Yesterday" to a different key and calling it mine. Isn't it?
I also suppose I could just do some reading on knitters' copyrights but most of what I've found concerns written patterns. Techniques and ideas can't be copyrighted, apparently, and that's what I'd be using from that piece. But if it's a "copyrightable work of artistic craftsmanship" (and I'd definitely call it art, rather than something utilitarian) then I'd be doing something illegal. Maybe I should just ask Ms. Robins.
If WWII Had Been a Realtime Strategy Game
More to come, describing our yachting weekend (yeah, no kidding, we're going to start calling each other Biff and Muffy and wintering in Antibes at this rate) and maybe a few pictures!
If you haven't seen The Story About the Toddler, go and read it immediately. The previous "The Story About the Baby" is partly available, but the author actually made it into a book so most of the content is taken down. But damn, that's some funny stuff.
As is I am a Japanese Schoolteacher.
Oh, and never, ever buy presliced mushrooms. Hm. I guess that is original content. Oops.
