| Morning Maunderings |
[Nov. 21st, 2009|12:58 pm] |
I just discovered something disturbing in the shower. No, not that. I know about the ring of stuff around the drain and I have honestly been meaning to clean it. No, it has to do with the bottles.
There’s a good-sized collection of bottles in there and I glanced at some of the labels. A high proportion of them are “moisturizing.” You’d think this wouldn’t be a problem in a shower, where water is typically quite plentiful. Perhaps it’s designed to help hair absorb water? Is that why long hair seems to flow? Is that why they refer to hair having waves?
More concerning than that was the issue of “exfoliating” products. Now I’m not entirely clear on the technical meaning of this term but we can figure it out pretty easily from examining the word. We can see the same root, so to speak, as in “foliage.” We also have the “ex-“ prefix which indicates removal.
So there’s a need to remove leaves. This is quite disturbing. I wasn’t aware that my wife had a leaf problem but this would obviously be a sensitive topic. I’ve not noticed any leaves sprouting from her skin… Perhaps she’s nipped the problem in the bud?
There’s also a lot of “nourishing” bottles. They tend to have pictures of leaves and flowers on them. Isn’t this counterproductive, like having a humidifier and dehumidifier in the same room?
So many mysteries.. |
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| Space and Astronomy Links |
[Nov. 18th, 2009|10:11 pm] |
- Space Shuttle Atlantis had a great liftoff a few days ago. The crew is just a quarter of the way through their 11-day mission to the Space Station. You can keep up with the latest on this Shuttle news page. And isn't that the coolest mission patch?
- The Ares 1-X test launch went well. Here's a nice writeup by LJ friend
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) menagerie73. Bonus points for a cool photo showing the shockwave condensation! Everyone's still waiting to see what will happen with the Ares program, though.
- Want to learn some astronomy? Ever better, have you ever wondered about the search for extraterrestrial life? Astronomy 141 - Life in the Universe at Ohio U is a great lecture series. It's a broad overview of topics, starting with Earth's geology, humanity's understanding of space, planetary science, chemistry, biology... then where to look beyond Earth. You can grab it as a podcast for some brain-enrichment during your commute! (Note that this class is happening now so the lectures are still being added to the feed regularly.)
- Back on Mars, they're trying to free Spirit. The rover's been stuck in a sand trap and they're now trying some maneuvers to get out, having studied the problem as best they can in the test sandbox at JPL.
- A personal fave, the New Horizons mission is still flying through interplanetary space... Yup... It'll get to Pluto (the last used-to-be-planet for us to visit and one I've always found intriguing) in, oh, another six years. Lessee... They're about to pass 1400 days mission elapsed time (MET). Yay! ...So check in again around 2015.
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| Random News |
[Nov. 17th, 2009|11:32 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  tired | ] |
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| NaNoWriNoNo? |
[Nov. 1st, 2009|09:32 pm] |
For the past four years I've participated in NaNoWriMo (and really enjoyed it). If you're interested in a crazy writing project or have had a story idea kicking around the back of your brain for a while, give it a shot. It's not too late to get started!
But not me this year. I'm doing a NaNoEdMo! This is an offshoot for editing your novels, though it's not normally done in November.
That my personal lappy is dead and I'm borrowing time on my work computer is one reason. But the real reason is just that I have a good second draft of last year's novel (NaNo 08 -- "A Place Without Walls") that I really want to finish up.
I took it to my writer's group and got a lot of good critiques on it as well as encouraging comments. (One guy whom I rather like despite having a different style, genre preference, and overall attitude spent most of the session making very direct but valid comments -- "I didn't like this scene because yadda yadda. Didn't work." -- at the end said that it was still a good story and asked how soon I planned to query agents!)
So I want to finish this one up and get it ready to send out. That'll mean a moderate amount of rewriting (because I agree there are major scenes that just don't work right), shuffling of sections, and lots and lots of polishing. The standard goal of NaNoEdMo is 50 hours of editing, which is what I'll follow. I will update my "wordcount" on the NaNo site based on 1hr=1Kw.
As a final note, all of my writing posts are under a friends filter to keep my "regular" journal a bit easier to read. If you're interested in following NaNoWriMo or my writing generally, let me know by commenting on this post. (If you can see a post around now about the Scrivener program, you're on the filter already.) The filter isn't used to keep things "hidden" though I obviously expect you to respect it if I do share anything.
A happy November to all, madly writing or otherwise. :) |
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| Halloween Fun |
[Nov. 1st, 2009|10:53 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  cheerful | ] |
Had a fun time this Halloween! We had family and friends over (including Tim's two cousins and a boy Tim's age from up the street) and we went trick or treating downtown.
Bainbridge Island is a fun little place. There's a scenic downtown shopping district in Winslow, just off from where the ferry comes in. They basically close four blocks of that street and all the stores and businesses do trick or treating from 4-6.
And I think the whole island turns out for this event! Plus I know a lot of people come in from the peninsula. The street is a swirl of people. Not so crowded you can't get around and see the costumes (a solid mob wouldn't be fun) but a continuous stream that definitely qualifies as a "crowd".
There were a lot of the usual mass-produced costumes but also a fair amount of creativity. Either people put things together in a fun way (dad as a gorilla carrying a babe as a banana) or entirely homemade ones (there were some cool robots out there).
I went in Tatters the werewolf and Timothy was along as my "little bad wolf" in a hood with ears, paws, and a tail. This is really his first Halloween -- rather, his first trick or treating. He had a blast! We went around as a pair and got lots of compliments, which was a big ego-boo for me. I got in a few good werewolf scares, too.
And I got to ham it up... Walking on the sidewalk down streets open to traffic I was getting some car honks and lots of waving kids hands. We stopped where someone was doing photo shoots and the next people in line wanted to know if they could get their picture with the wereolf! The photographer had to explain that, no, I was just another visitor and not part of the official setup. :)
 
(More pictures coming just as soon as I can get them off various people's cameras.)
And I think there's a chance Tim will be into fursuits... Going out to breakfast this morning, he felt the seat of his pants and said, "No tail! Where's my tail?" So we all went out to breakfast and one of us had a little wolfy tail swinging behind him. (No, not me. Though I was tempted, too.)
Hope everyone had a happy, safe, and furry Halloween! :D |
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| What the Hail? |
[Oct. 26th, 2009|09:54 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  shocked | ] |
Earlier today, mild showers. Just now, heavy hail.
We just had a drop of 1cm wide hailstones accompanied by some lightning flashes. We had the sliding door open downstairs and one was quite close. The thunder followed only a second later, shaking and rumbling over like an earthquake. Beautiful! (Unlike the hail, which is in the pretty-but-ouchy category.) |
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| Trench Coat Weather |
[Oct. 24th, 2009|08:26 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  silly | ] |
Late summer gave up and crept away last week. Fall moved in with its chill and blustery evenings. Time to pull my trench coat back out of the closet.
I admit, I like trench coats. They are convenient one-piece weather protection plus they can hide a bunch of pockets. Above all, though, they can swoosh dramatically.
I don't generally think of myself as a foppish dresser but I do like the way a trench coat can spread out when one is striding purposefully towards an important meeting. I think The Matrix was probably the heyday of dramatic trenchcoats, albeit ones with gathered waists. (Anyone else notice that Neo's trenchcoat is based on a traditional woman's coat pattern?) Dramatic garments then got downgraded again with The Incredibles. ("No capes!") Personally, I always think back to earlier references: those scenes where Sherlock Holmes (the Jeremy Brett incarnation, of course) would grab his top hat and coat and bolt out into the thick, industrial-grade London fog, chasing after a nefarious criminal.
I'd consider a layered Victorian frock coat if that was still socially feasible. Instead, a trench coat works wonders. One can stride in such outerwear. Striding in a windbreaker isn't the same. An anorak lacks potential. Pea coats are too dull and leaden. Snow jackets leave one feeling hollow. Slickers? Don't get me started!
Today's random screed courtesy of the lack of morning caffeine. "Caffeine: OMG! Bounce!" Brought to you by the Caffeine Council of Excitable People. |
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| Fog on the water |
[Oct. 20th, 2009|08:18 am] |
I'm riding to work on the ferry an it's a beautiful foggy morning. I'd post a photo except that you can imagine it just as well... Picture a solid wall of opalescent gray mists sitting serenely over the water. Gentle ripples stir across the small patch of water that's actually visible, uniform apart from an occasional chunk of driftwood. Very relaxing. A little mental break. Now on to this morning's work. |
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| Twenty Years Ago |
[Oct. 18th, 2009|12:07 am] |
Since everyone else is posting memories of the Loma Prieta quake, thought I'd contribute mine.
It was my freshman year in high school and I'd just got home. At the time, I lived near the intersection of 280 and Foothill in the south bay. My parents weren't home yet. I expected that my mom would be there but she was probably running a little late. I heated up a stack of microwave pancakes for a snack. (Hey, I was a teenager. But I do remember that detail for some reason.)
I was standing in the kitchen when the shaking began. I'd lived in California all of my life, up to that point, so I had earthquake safety reflexes drilled into me. I was into the doorway between the kitchen and the family room within a second.
The cupboards began rattling and as the slower, rolling waves of the quake reached us the whole house sounded like it was inside a thunderstorm. Everything rumbled and swayed.
From my vantage point in the doorway, I could look out across the patio to the pool. My most vivid memory of the whole earthquake is looking out and seeing the water sloshing from side to side. It looked just like when you were a kid and would use your legs to slide back and forth in the tub, driving the water in rhythmic swells.
The rolling motion was so long that the water sloshed up out of the pool, the wave crest clearing the tiled rim by nearly a foot. It rolled over the patio, out into the garden paths and over the low flower beds in an expanding sweep.
Inside, there was a shattering crash. I looked around and, though I saw cupboard doors flapping in the kitchen I couldn't see anything that had fallen out. When the shaking died down, I headed across the kitchen, eying the floor carefully for signs of fallen glass. But it turned out to be in the entryway.
Our china cabinet had toppled over. Now my dad (and I, subsequently) is conscientious about earthquake safety. All of the big pieces of furniture in the house were secured to eye bolts in the wall studs. Except that we were painting the entryway where the china cabinet stood. And for this one week, it was untied from its harness. Seriously. Nature has a cruel sense of humor sometimes.
After dashing through the house looking for any other damage, I headed out to the side yard. I grabbed the emergency gas key from the nail where it hung beside the meter and main line into the house. It was a straight bar with a slot and I spun the valve on the gas line. (Yes, I wasn't kidding about the family preparedness... Maybe this is why, at several jobs now, I've been a company safety warden. I like knowing safety procedures.)
Not knowing what else to do, I went to a couple of the neighbors that I knew to see if they were okay. There was no serious damage though many broken possessions.
My mom got back before too long, taking into account the magnitude of the quake. I'd been through enough earthquakes even at that age that I could guess how big this one was. I knew that roads might've been damaged or impassable.
Mom was on the 280 freeway heading home when it hit. She thought at first that it was a flat tire until she noticed that everyone on the freeway was suddenly driving like they had flat tires. Traffic slowed and she pulled over.
She noticed one guy ahead of her also pulling over except that he continued along the shoulder until he came to a stop directly under an overpass. Under a big, heavy, concrete overpass -- that's where he chose to stop. Her guess is that he remembered something about doorframes being safe and, well, overpasses are kinda like freeway doorframes right? |
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| Lappy Broken? Very Yes. |
[Oct. 11th, 2009|06:48 pm] |
So if it seems like I've been absent online, there's a reason for that...
My trusty ol' iBook G4 has developed some serious issues around its fifth anniversary. It's one of the chips on the logic board, a problem known for that series of computers.
It was dying after about 3-5 minutes. It just locks up, the screen will go black and then flash different colors or line patterns until you power it down. I tried opening it up for surgery and shimming the chip like this which has helped -- I now get 15-30 minutes before it halts. So that seems to confirm that it's the chip issue yet it's not enough that it's "fixed".
Getting this repaired is like $600 (through Apple, at least). Money we don't exactly have to spend right now. For the moment I'm using my work computer until we figure out how to either save some bucks this month, manage to dig up Kit's old laptop and resuscitate it, or go further into credit card debt. :|
(And, of course, writing ideas are popping up while I'm lappy-less...) |
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| Goldfish at Night |
[Sep. 27th, 2009|09:42 am] |
It was almost pitch black in the bedroom when the horrified cry of, "Goldfish!" erupted next to my head. Timothy had moved into our bed sometime during the night as he was having trouble sleeping. Now he was evidently again having trouble staying asleep.
"No goldfish!" Twitching, unable to see what was going on in a tangle of sheets and darkness, I sensed that some sort of rebuttal was required. I managed something between a gurgle and a poorly-articulated mumble.
Kit was more successful. "Goldfish?" This was met by the shrieked rejoinder, "No more goldfish! No goldfish downstairs."
"Were you having a bad dream?" elicited the sullen response, "No goldfish downstairs."
"Yes, there are no goldfish downstairs," I said, carefully recapitulating the established facts.
Mommy, thinking quite swiftly for someone jolted awake at 4:15, asked, "Are you hungry?"
Everyone in the room held their breath. Even the dog held her breath. If nothing else, it was nice to get silence back for a moment. At last, there was a quiet, "...'kay."
Having identified the issue, we sprang into action. By that, I mean I tried to stand up and stumbled into the bedroom wall as I hunted for the door. It had evidently moved a couple feet to the right sometime during the night as a security precaution and it took me several attempts to find it.
My departing call of, "I shall fetch you some goldfish crackers, my lad," was somewhat diminished by the fact that the muscles responsible for running my mouth were still asleep and I'd possibly just given myself a concussion on the wall. I think the word "goldfish" was intelligible.
"But no goldfish downstairs," Timothy said, circling back to his original tenet. "They upstairs."
I left Kit to explain that goldfish could cross the boundary between floors while I went to the kitchen, journeying across the creakiest of all floors. But that's another tale.
I managed to bumble back downstairs with a tupperware container holding a handful of goldfish. Kit sat up with Timothy while he munched and then, slowly, with several false attempts, fell back asleep. We eventually fell back asleep and are vaguely coherent this morning. But if we react to goldfish crackers as if we have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, perhaps you'll understand why. |
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| Visual Stuff |
[Sep. 24th, 2009|04:26 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  busy | ] |
From everyone:
☞ If you like, post this meme and your current wallpaper.
☞ Explain in no more than five sentences why you're using that wallpaper!
☞ Don't change your wallpaper before doing this! The point is to see what you had on!
* The stylized Sly Cooper logo. Gotta love that ringtail rascal!
* It's abstract so it doesn't get in the way or obscure icons.
* I prefer blue as a nice relaxing color.
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What happens when graphic designers go wild with their resumés.
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The Mesopotamians by They Might Be Giants will get stuck in your head soooo bad. TMBG is great even after all these years. (My god, has it been that many?) And Timothy loves some of their kid tunes too.
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Your moment of (satirical) zen. |
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| RainFurrest 2009 |
[Sep. 23rd, 2009|10:29 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  grateful | ] |
I had a great time at RainFurrest as the fursuit GoH. Thanks again to North and the whole con staff.
We can actually dress up if we choose to.
After narrowly missing opening ceremonies due to an awkward ferry schedule, we got checked into the hotel and spent some time looking around the just-started con.
That evening was a "roast" of yours truly. All things told, they were pretty nice to me (and traded barbs with each other). Shared some passing words with Uncle Kage, who was in attendance. I got a chance to talk to 2 for a bit. Turns out we've both known each other indirectly for some time through our roles in the fandom. Thumper, Twig Mouse, Trey Cat, Croc, Kit, and North were also up at the high table. Good friends (even afterwards). :)
The new guy. A werewolf partial for RF2009.
I brought a new suit along to the con. He's been christened Tatters by Crocodile. Works for me.
He was constructed as an example for the "Fursuiting on the Cheap" panel. I documented a lot of his construction and will be posting details about that in the next week or so. In the meantime, for those not at the panel, how much do you think he cost in materials? (As a hint, it is decent fur. That's the big expense.)
"Fursuit Performance" panel with Kodi, Thumper, Avery, and Yippee. No silliness ensued.
In addition to being on 5 panels myself, I got to attend a couple. RainFurrest has some nice programming. Though due to it being a short con (3 days) the different tracks overlap a lot. I only got to a single writing panel (though I did get to chat with a number of writer and publisher furs I much admire -- thanks Rikoshi, Malin, Rolo, et al). Attended a few fursuit panels, such as the one shown above.
Got to meet some new folks. Klickitat was great and terrific help with some of the panels. She works with Matrices, whom I saw in Beef Jerky (yay!) but never unsuited (I think it's a myth she exists outside of suit).
I was able to sell some books, which is always nice. Thanks to everyone who purchased one. You'll never guess what I do with the proceeds... Yep, attend furry cons. :)
At the closing ceremonies they presented me (well, Tatters) with a framed set of the year's badge and pins. Quite nice. Plus I got to fool around on stage as the wolf so mission accomplished there.
So many events and so many old friends and so many new acquaintances! It's hard to capture it. This will always be a very special con in my memory. Thank you to everyone there.
The traditional post-con ramen at a little noodle house near where I work. It's a tradition because this is the second year. |
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| Post-RainFurrest Post |
[Sep. 21st, 2009|12:22 pm] |
Wow, what a con! That was an amazing and brilliant whirlwind.
I normally don't do con reports but this time I just might. ;) Gimme a day or two to get notes and some pics up.
In the meantime, here's an excerpt (aka edited down version of what I recall saying) from the GoH dinner. It's a bit sappy, perhaps, but if you know me you'll realize that it is most certainly sincere.
I often hear the question "What is furry fandom?"
It's you. Every one of you that says "I'm furry." Every one of you that goes to conventions, sees something that energizes you, pursues it in art, performance, writing, or other ways.
This thing called "furry" isn't something that comes from elsewhere. You define the fandom because it's something that you care about. And I hope that all of you continue to do the weird and wonderful things that make this fandom such a great place. My thanks to you.
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| The Con approaches! |
[Sep. 6th, 2009|10:53 am] |
Poll #1454007 Will you be at RainFurrest?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 57Only two weeks until...
I'm getting prepared for the con. Still have far too much to do yet at the same time I'm anxious -- really looking forward to it.
I have four panels to do (plus some GoH functions). I'm doing two specialty ones: Patterning and Fursuiting on the Cheap. These are taking some extra preparation to ensure I have new presentation materials and specific examples. I also got a projector so I'm trying to get everything into a laptop slideshow and seem all organized and stuff. :P
I'm also on two general panels: Body Construction and Head Construction. Always good to cover these topics for people tackling their first project. And I'll try to think of as many different things to throw in as I can -- broad coverage of approaches and such -- to keep it interesting.
Oh and if you've been thinking about getting my book, "Critter Costuming," there will be copies available at con. Cheaper than Amazon plus you can catch me and have me personally deface your copy! :)
Fun fun fun... Now back to the workroom... |
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| (One-)Eye-Catching Businesses |
[Aug. 20th, 2009|11:35 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  excited | ] |
Sometimes you have business plans that are carefully thought out, underwritten and vetted...
...and sometimes you have business plans that are pure awesome.
Hey, I made a point of stopping there. Wouldn't you? Be truthful now, matey. |
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