Brain Flotsam V2.007

Especially for fandom:

I AM MOVING THIS WEEK. 

This means that I will have questionable access to: the fandom parts of the internet (you know what I mean), my art supplies, and in fact, all my stuff.

I'll try to be back and on point for any pending deadlines by this weekend, but it'll depend on how cooperative the cable modem is.

Hey, I get a bed on Friday! w00t!

Packing, shopping for a bed, figuring out that maybe I'm hypoglycemic in addition to the stomach issues because I almost passed out and was shaking Friday night and had to miss a birthday gathering for a friend because I didn't trust myself to drive.  :(
But Saturday was much better and I watched what I ate and there were birthday people to greet and a party to go to. (Why is almost everybody I know born in March?) Donna and Jon and Lando the Magnificent Walking, Babbling, Playing Boy met me for Donna's birthday lunch, and have now seen my apartment, empty and echoing. Lando christened it with drool and laughter, so yay.

Then I went to my cousin Dave's birthday party, which was a live action role-playing card game called Long Live the King.  It was pretty awesome, although I was still trying to control my headachy symptoms (plus even I get a couple weeks when the pollen wreaks havoc with my sinuses).  I played the Archbishop with a 3-minute Mitre made of construction paper, while there were vast levels of costumery among the other folks.  From simple tunics and capes to full-on Henry VIII style gear, it was a good night for costumes.
I didn't know most of the people there, because this cousin was one of the ones that I used to see only for Christmas each year, if then.  But he's discovered that I'm a geek and a gamer, so now I get invited to these things. :)
It was a fun time, but as with many of these games, I think that the next time it's played, things will go much more smoothly.  Last night we were a bit confused about what we could and could not do, and nobody knew exactly how to win. It always takes at least one round for the players to really grok the strategy.  So, I can only hope we find excuses to play again!

Also, another cousin had a birthday last week (and I should have e-mailed him or something - bad me.) and Peter and Hillary are Tuesday and today, respectively.
March - a popular month for being born.

Today mom and I have made it our mission to buy me a bed, and then I have to get the rest of the assorted misc junk off my floor and shelves and into boxes, because the movers are coming on THURSDAY. Yeep.

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.

Today I whipped out two decent pieces, instead of the usual one awesome one and one craptastic one.
Of course, that means I now have fewer duds to noodle on the back of, but oh, well. Our exercise was "saving the whites" for which we mostly painted laundry.

Laundry with fence:

This one has some wax pencil on it, which didn't work quite as well as I'd hoped.

Laundry up a hill:

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.

So today my watercolor class was da bomb. Behold my awesomeness:





Also, Neil deGrasse Tyson was on the Daily Show just now and he was awesome! WIN!

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?)

My portrait just came back from the framer, and it looks pretty awesome. I think I'll hang it in my office until I make something even more awesome.
It really came out well.

This is based on this fabulous portrait photo, remixed under Creative Commons.

Today Lila and I learned that when snow hits her windshield it doesn't make a raindrop patter, it makes a kind of weird muffled crackling noise.
Yes, it really snowed here.  No, there's none on the ground. My pants were entirely too thin for the day, really.

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 )

Almost done with the portrait for class...

Man, I think I love these pencils.

I'm still not totally caught up on my deadlines, but hopefully I'll get that taken care of very soon.

I'm very excited this morning because this afternoon Julie is landing in my town and we are going to have an awesome time!  We will be visiting the Butterfly Center, the Planetarium, at least one major garden, and the Texas Renaissance Festival.

Now I'd best get myself going and get ready for the day.