Brain Flotsam V2.007

I'm busily trying to divide my whole life into boxes and it's driving me batty.
Alas, none of my usual chatrooms are active, and nobody is on gmail. 
I guess I have to get used to just working without the distractions.

Isn't it funny that in all the planning for the new apartment, we keep denoting space for the TV, and where the cables are going to go, but I don't actually own a television?
Ha, modern life.

Moving will drive you mad!

Happy Pi Day!

Last night I went to see Jonathan Coulton with Paul & Storm, of whom I had never really heard before last summer, nor ever seen perform, whether on youtube or live.  It was a really fantastic performance with lots of humor and audience interaction. Paul and Storm's opening show had me falling over laughing. Jonathan broke a string on his guitar in the first song, then later discovered his mouth harp was in the frame backwards. It being Friday the 13th, he joked, of course things went a bit awry. But none of that really interfered with the show, or the music. I could have done without the hair-flinging, loud-singing guy sitting one row down from me, but every concert-goer has crosses to bear, and as concerts go a hair-flinging, loud-singing obnoxious dude is better than drunken groping or being fallen on.
At one point near the end the entire balcony was doing Thriller-type zombie gesturing from their seats while shouting "All we want to do is eat your brains." Yeah. Nerds in groups. I should have taken photos. (The few I did take will be posted later, mostly of House of Blues itself.)
I went out with a party of six folks from the Houston SFF community, all active con-goers or organizers. We had dinner first with a few of them, then met at House of Blues downtown, where there were a bunch of other local nerds that folks in my party knew.  We ended up with seating right near each other in the balcony, oddly enough.
After the concert, we all went to a diner/coffeehouse on Westheimer and had food and drink and conversation until after midnight.  I did not get back to my car (I'd been ridesharing to avoid the downtown/midtown parking crunch) until 1:30 am. 
I haven't had a night out like that in quite some time, so it was pretty awesome.

Today I woke up at an ungodly hour to take care of my unruly stomach (it's pretty much a clockwork alarm all on its own - 6:25 am it wakes me without fail, just before my alarm.  I nibbled on a rice cracker and some orange juice and chatted with mom for a few minutes, then crashed again. I got up for real at about 11, and looked soberly at the packing I should be doing...  and turned away.
Instead, I cut some batting and the backing fabric for the quilt in progress, pinned it all together and trimmed it, and now I'm working on attaching the border pieces to the front before getting in there with the machine quilting.
Ideally I would like to have this finished in time to take it to New York at the end of April and present it to the recipients in person. I may not finish it before I move, but I'll definitely try to get as much done as possible before then, and keep the pieces in a separate box so I can find them pronto in the new place.

I just finished giving the kitchen floor a sweep and clean and mop, so I'm taking a sit-down break in front of a fan to type this up. My only minor angst today is that I really wanted to watch Ghostbusters while I did my sewing but I couldn't find the DVD.  I am pretty sure that I actually bought my own copy, but I could be mistaken. (Sorting out my stuff from the family stuff will be such fun!)  I put on The Last Unicorn  with Real Genius in the bullpen instead. 

Ok, and Dad just told me a joke he heard on Prairie Home Companion and I didn't know enough about music to get the pun in the punchline without clarification. FAIL.  :P   He needs to tell it to Peter.

Good: finished the quilt top, except for the photos, which can be put in later on top of the quilting.
Bad: couldn't print the photos because my printer is borked and full of blots, and the parental printer is out of color ink.  D'oh.

But it was a good day for progress.
Had a mediocre weekend health-wise, with some downs and some okays, and even this afternoon when things were really good.
Did not go to the art museum, but will hopefully get that in soon. 
I need to start making some lists in anticipation of my move, whenever that ends up being.

Haven't finished my art for Wednesday yet. Coming up on a series of deadlines now, plus I'm now signed up for THREE Big Bangs in a row this summer.  Geez. Not only is it con season, but I've signed up to illustrate novellas in two fandoms.  Fun times, indeed. ;)  At least there isn't any active overlap in production time, nor any crucial overlap with my travel times.

And now, snack time then bed, with fanfic. Yay fanfic.

Toll-free Congressional Switchboard: 800-828-0498.

Who is making the decisions that will affect your future? People as old or older than your parents who won't have to deal with the fallout? Don't let Congress gut the programs that could help us. 800-828-0498. Call today. And tomorrow. And the day after that.

Paul Krugman's Op-Ed: On the Edge, should you need talking points.  (NYTimes)
Also: List of Current United States Senators by age (Wikipedia)
Note that age does not necessarily say anything about political viewpoint, but that doesn't change the fact that the people we have deciding the fate of the country very likely won't live long enough to see the consequences. And have perspectives and poltical views mired, most of them, in long-ago decades of Washington political playing.  These are the John McCains who don't bother learning how to use a computer, who don't understand social media or the digital world that we all live in, and who don't tend to have a global vision.  (With some exceptions, of course.)

And on a partisan point, these are the Republicans who are taking their marching orders from Rush Limbaugh, who has stated in so many words his desire for the FAILURE of this president.  Does no one have the vision to understand how such a failure would affect this country, on a world stage if not domestically?  Does he have so little patriotism that he can wish disaster on his fellew Americans in his quest to take down one man? Because that's sure what it sounds like.  What else are we to think when every Republican turns his or her back on us, in lock-step? They need real leadership in their party, not this poisonous rhetoric. Where are the men and women of integrity and intelligence who represent their constituents rather than corporate or celebrity overlords? (And that question can be asked of both parties.)

Toll-free Congressional Switchboard: 800-828-0498

If you don't know who your elected representatives are, http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov. 
I'll even call our local asshole Big John, although it feels rather like spitting into the wind.

Ask them point-blank if they've even read the whole stimulus bill.

Because sometimes it seems like they forget that they should be trying to create jobs and offer educational programs and child-care programs that will allow Americans to be productive.

A Joyous Imbolc to all - may good things grow from here.

I fail at weekend productivity, mostly.  Although with the assistance of Fabric-Stash Enabler Mom, I did acquire some smokin' awesome additions to my stash (and the things I actually needed for my current project) during a trek through Houston's southeastern neighborhood fabric stores.  We should learn that in most cases, we will find fun novelty fabrics at the chains, but for quality color/value cottons, going directly to The Painted Pony would save some time and money.  ;)
The only thing we didn't find was the Hoffman Challenge fabric. It's on some of the online retailers, but not yet in stores around here. We'll wait a bit and check back.

We also went to the uber-awesome catfish joint and scored a party platter overflowing with hushpuppies. WIN.

I did not actually get the fabric washed, although that's probably good as now it has bonus cat hair to wash off, too. Apparently my quilting table is Zephyr's new favorite nap spot.

Suffered through the Sunday blahs and Sunday night insomnia, which really made for a grand morning today.  Ugh.  Did manage to get my iTunes playlists transferred to Sofia at last, and got rid of most of the repetitive entries in the Library. Also acquired hotel accomodations for both ApolloCon and WorldCon. w00t!

Did some art, including laying in colors for the commission portrait for llnm. Finally. It'll take several more color layers to get it done, and I'm not sure that I'm happy with the chosen palette, but the nice thing about digital is that I have a great amount of control over individual colors. Did not do any writing.  Did a lot of reading, both of the fanfic and regular variety. I finished Skulduggery Pleasant (hey! It has a sequel!) and have gotten firmly addicted to The Stepsister Scheme.

Lalala. I think that was it. I got the feeling there was some kind of nation-wide sports event going on, but it never really got onto my radar. I will probably catch up on the cool movie trailers over the course of the next few days.

January is a crunch time at work, and I have been home only a couple of hours (awake anyhow) for the last few days. Next week looks like more of the same. It's CRAZY busy at the office and I have tons of club meetings and an evening art class and I just haven't had a space to breathe since I got back from Philadelphia.

I am thinking that there are fests signing up that I am missing...
And I could do a Year in Art post...
And I think reveals have gone up that I missed... (will have to catch up this weekend for thank-yous and such)

The only thing I've managed to do fandom-wise is my clunky Happy Birthday sketch for Snape, which I will post when I get back to Ginevra, I hope. Sofia is a mighty little machine, but she doesn't keep any art.

What am I forgetting? 
Don't you hate that feeling?
And seriously, I have this Godzilla quilt practically designed in my head, but I haven't had the chance to get out my fabric yet. It's all in a basket on my desk! Curses! Where is my Time-Turner?

Ok, lunch is over. Time to be crunched by the Jaws of Industry.
I hope this settles down by February.

Ok, I'm back! Hooray!
I had a wonderful fabulous time and hopefully there will be pictures later and stories and stuff, too, but I was much too busy to do much internet stuff while I was away.
Now I have lots to do! Eep!

Wow, Ginevra's screen looks wildly huge after a week of Sofia's. LOL.
Sofia is going to be a great little music machine for my office, though.

Ok, must go catch up, and unpack my stuff.

Mom and I have some last-minute errands to run before I skip town tomorrow.  (I scheduled another crack-of-dawn flight. Egads.)
We're going to the art supply. Yay!  I will be there more often soon.  One of my Yule gifts to myself was a Watercolor class at the Art League.  w00t! 
I am so excited. It starts my first week back in town. I am really looking forward to getting into more media on paper, and perhaps combining the watercolors with the pencils.  I had great success with watercolor pencils on my travels during high school.  My Poland journal is full of great art. I need to get back to that.

This afternoon the kids promised they'd be around to play games, so yay. Hopefully we can get in some railroad-building, some gloomy family wrangling, and some volcano sacrificing.  w00t! Mom and I have played a few games in the course of our holiday celebrations (which included reading the comics, doing the crossword, baking cookies, and reading aloud to each other from The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation and The Quotable Atheist, which I gave to Mom for Christmas. Yes, irony, I know.) but we haven't had everybody together yet.

Then I have three pieces of digital art to finish and send before I leave town, and I must pack. I am bringing some art with me to work on, already in progress, and will have to decide about the rest of it. I am going to freeze my butt off!  Where did I leave my tights? And my boots? At least I have a new scarf.

Ok, must run. Happy Boxing Day/First Day of Christmas, people!

Once more Mom and I attended the family gathering at my aunt's house, and this year I sat out on the back patio with a bunch of folks and played games for a few hours while Mom watched John Wayne movies in the house. It was a lovely time. We played Pictureka and In a Pickle, neither of which I had ever heard of. Both were pretty fun and entertaining.
My cousin is big into crochet, so she made everybody scarves. I was very happy to tell her that I was going to Philadelphia on Saturday so I would get some good wear out of mine.
Happy Christmas, folks.

Mom came in earlier to ask me where I was going to put my altar in my newly re-arranged room.  She asked about what goes on an altar (did I need some doilies? -- this is a running family joke), and I mentioned that I didn't have all my tools yet, missing a ritual knife.
So she goes off and comes back holding several small folding knives with mother-of-pearl handles that belonged to her mother. Now I have two of them on my shelf with my wand, chalice, candles and incense.
She also reminded me that I have a 3-or-so foot tall plaster column with a Corinthian capital left at the house from my younger days, and did I want it back? Perhaps it would make a good altar. So I moved that into my room, too.
Peter had to work today, and Hillary is off with her family, but they are going to be home tonight to spend time with us. Hopefully we will play some games.

There have been so many funny little moments that I'd love to share, but I find they don't all translate very well to screen.  You'll all just have to take my word for the fact that we're mostly enjoying our time, even though we aren't really having Christmas as such.

Now I'm going to work on more art, and write out some cards to send during the Epiphany and pre-Imbolc season.

Things I have done that are fun:

- went to see The Day the Earth Stood Still with my dad. We snarked. And enjoyed ourselves. And snarked. It was good.
- played two rounds of The Downfall of Pompeii with my mom. w00t! Sacrifice them to the volcano! Muahahahaha!
- made cinnamon pecans, watched Donna bake while entertaining the little one, played with Lando, danced Lando around the kitchen, introduced Lando to Sandra Boynton's brilliant Hippos Go Berserk! counting board book, and ate yummy festive holiday pound cake (which isn't fruitcake. really).
- watched A Muppet Family Christmas  and A Muppet Christmas Carol with Donna and Lando and, later, Jon.

also done:
- laundry. lots of it.
- moved furniture, re-arranged my room, sorted books, sorted more books, including antiques, moved boxes of toys, and helped mom hook up her computer to the network printer.

coming soon:
- baking cookies! (maybe.)
- playing more games with the family.
- big extended family Christmas meal and game playing.
- making art.
- sewing.
- moving all the boxes to make space for the new craft table.
- packing for Philadelphia (what do you mean it might snow in December? Where did I put my boots?)

Well, I'm at the close of my last day of work this year, and it's time to prepare for an art weekend. (And a cleaning weekend, and a purging weekend, and a haircut weekend, etc.) 
I have some deadline stuff that I must get done before I cut out for Philly after Christmas, so I have to buckle down now. I was getting some done as well as reading/commenting at fests and writing/drawing Advent Drabbles earlier, but then I got a cold and then I had some unexpected (but very useful) meetings and now I just can't keep up.  I'm tired of feeling like I'm running late. So, I must now actually stop reading/drawbling and start producing the real stuff.  I'll hopefully be able to do some reading and commenting later next week, or in the New Year.

This comes, of course, right as I also really need to be working on original creations, both written and artistic.  Although there is the Azkatraz Art Show to consider, I suppose. I may investigate printing ideas for my tarot cards for that.

I'll probably write the beginning set of Dark Season Greeting Cards before Solstice hits, and then start mailing them shortly after Christmas.
I'll have to ponder what to do for Longest Night this year. I have many many candles, and actually several wands, although a few of those should be restricted to costuming use only. One thing I would really like to achieve during this time of cleaning and re-arranging is finding a place to put up a semi-permanent altar. I would feel so much better if my ritual stuff weren't tucked into odd corners or still packed in bins.

I have a new illo in the works - not a drawble, but an actual illustration. currently trying to decide if I should render it digitally or with colored pencils once the line-work is done. (I'm doing that digitally until I have an image I like. Too much erasing, otherwise.)
The muses (and the snupin chat) finally coalesced a Steampunk HP idea.  Not related to the steampunky snupin_santa story, but gushing about that in chat did help the ideas process.
In other news, advent drawbles are going well, although I am having so many ideas for side-stories or previously unseen moments in the Far Away as Moonshine universe that I may switch back to drabbles for a few.  Seriously, I sat in traffic this morning (there was a truck on fire at the last interchange before I get off for work. Everything was going so swimmingly until I hit that snarl, sigh) and got two new ideas for bits in that world. Include one featuring Alice Augusta Longbottom and her friends at Hogwarts.
I should make Moonshine-verse stuff my reward for finishing a new scene of the original novel that I should really be doing more work on.

Also, this weekend there must be some sewing. I have some millinery to finish and a quilt to design. Plus I have to go buy fruit pierogi from the Polish Deli on the other side of town. The office party this year is themed "Food Around the World" and we're supposed to bring a traditional ethnic dish. Well, when I was in Poland the only pierogi I was ever served in the dormitory were desserts.

So, er, yeah. I'm still here, still doing stuff, getting behind on the writing but all caught up on the art at last. Looking forward to traveling at the end of the month although I will need to stock up on Airborne for the trip. Egads, it looks cold up there.
Thanksgiving was a festival of drinking, eating, movies, games, cleaning, sorting, drawing, reading, and lazing about. There was also some unfortunate GI distress, which has prompted me to make an appointment to discuss the pharmaceutical option with my doctor. Ever since he ran down the typical symptoms, I've been noticing ones that I hadn't really connected with IBS before. Plus I can't eat anything, it seems, without a lot of discomfort.
We're doing the Food Plan again so we didn't actually make Thanksgiving foods at home, and partook of them sparingly at my aunt's. I am trying to be more diligent about the food diary. With sickness came the inevitable holiday depression, although thankfully that didn't last too long. Somehow I have in my head that achieving a certain level of crafty productivity will mean I never feel depressed again. But experience shows that no matter how many works of art I produce, I will still occasionally be sad. Such is life.
Mom and I watched her favorite reality TV program yesterday: Smart People Doing Real Stuff. The NASA Channel had live radio and video feeds from Mission Control and the cockpit as the shuttle landed. It was pretty cool.
Now that all of my anonymous exchange art is turned in for the next month and a half, I hope to do some work that I can post free and clear, as well as participate in various December writing games, and of course I have a quilt to make. Need to print the photos for that. And find the final important design element to print and applique. It's something very specific, but that has many variations, so I will probably be scouring various sources for a good one. (And I'm hoping that part of it, at least, will be a surprise, as it is a gift.)
And here, since it's December: a meme about Christmas.
Hey, I can start playing my Holiday Playlist now! w00t!

( Christmas meme )

We're having a good time!



So are the Storm Troopers!



More photos to follow when I get a spare minute to process them. Plus of course we're going back to the Festival tomorrow.

I'm not sending "Holiday Cards" as such (and certainly not Christmas cards) but I do have piles of fun cards and things, and the Samhain-Imbolc season is one that cries out for connection and reminders that we're not alone in the dark.
So if you'd like to receive an actual piece of actual mail from me sometime between now and February, please let me know by leaving a comment below or emailing me.
I am screening comments so that folks can leave their addresses.

Well, after the jumping-up-and-down stuff last night, this morning brought to light the realities we will face in the coming year and coming term.
This morning on Demacracy Now! Amy Goodman's guest (whose name I didn't catch, and the transcript isn't up yet) said, "Barack Obama's victory is a victory over racism in this country. But it is not a victory for the left. Progressives in this country must keep fighting." Or something to that effect.
And it's so true.

I am hopeful, but I am also determined. I want this election to be a sign not only of the changing face of American political power, but also of increased and consistent activity on the part of citizens to shape their world. I want people to think about what they are voting for - and what they are enshrining into their state constitutions. (The returns from states with anti-gay marriage and anti-gay adoption measures just depress me, then infuriate me. The returns on the "personhood" and feticide propositions give me a smill measure of hope, although too many such laws are already on the books and damaging women's rights and health.) I want people to get out in their neighborhoods and learn how their local politics affect what happens to them, to find common ground with one another so that discrimination of any sort can be stamped out as we come to know one another as human beings. I want people to go back to the candidates they supported, or to the candidates they opposed, and tell these people what they think.

I want people to get out and take part in their democracy even after this morning's hangovers fade. This is not the win. This is not the magic fix. This is, as Barack said, a chance to work for the change we want.

Let's get to it.

Since my left hand hurts and it's hard to draw, I decided to start my art homework right-handed, using a grid.


The photo and its grid. Mom and I bonded over Viggo Mortensen in The Two Towers while I was working.


The sketch in progress.

So the other day I burned my forearm while I was cooking.  Somehow I managed to unbalance the pan lid I had in my hand and it flipped back and got caught under my watch. When I was applying ice to it in the initial aftermath, I accidentally touched the loose skin and opened it, so then it was a big ugly burn AND an open blister. I had it under a loose gauze at work on Friday, with Vitamin E oil on it. Yesterday I purchased some raw honey, since that is esupposed to be even better than Vit E for reducing scarring, eliminating infection, and whatnot.
The thing is that with the honey on the burn, I can't put gauze on it anymore. It sticks, and is bloody painful to remove. I found that out the hard way.
So now I have all this honey smeared on my arm (which throbs at random moments) and it gets on everything unless I am extraordinarily careful in the way that I move.  I can't even fold my laundry.
The kicker? It's my left arm.  I make a tremendous mess when I try to draw, either with traditional materials or my tablet. If I don't put the honey on, then the wound still throbs anyhow, and boy will it scar good. I'd rather have the mess for a little while longer.
But I want to draw. *whine whine whine*
I am going to try doing a little bit of cleaning - most of the stuff on the floor and in the boxes can be touched/thrown away without risking it brushing my arm. (Which does hurt like a bitch in addition to getting honey all over whatever it is.)

A moment of humor, though: When I bought the honey, I went straight from the store to eSlate training, and began applying the honey during the lecture because my arm was throbbing. One of the girls at our table looked over and said, with horror, "Are you putting garlic on your burn?" Hee.

I wonder if I could tape a plastic lid or something over the burn... too bad those little Easter eggs are too small.
(Noting: I'm not looking for alternative treatments, the honey seems to really work - I can see the difference after a day. And the burn will hurt when I try to use my hand no matter what. Just venting, and being amused.)

The 65 mpg Ford the U.S. Can't Have - BusinessWeek:

Ford's Fiesta ECOnetic gets an astonishing 65 mpg, but the carmaker can't afford to sell it in the U.S.

Dad and I were discussing this when I drove him to get his car from the shop, and it does seem a bit like the reason Marketing departments exist in the first place: to sell a product to a public who may not know it or realize what it does, or who have an inaccurate picture of it. I suppose the Marketing people are too busy convincing Americans to vote against their best interests to really think about rejuvenating an industry or promoting fuel efficiency.

I have said before that if I had had more experience with cars or more time to do the research, I might have chosen a diesel car instead of a hybrid, but in this case the hybrid was easier and familiar. (I'd already driven one, and Mom got one of the first generation. Plus the early Priuses are so cute!)

(I'd love to see a move toward more efficient public transportation and alternative vehicles, as well, but I don't really think there's any chance, barring total Apocalypse, that we will see the end of a car-based infrastructure in my lifetime.)