• 01:37 It's almost 2am, I can't sleep, and I have Christopher Walken's chorus of 'Poker Face' stuck in my head. At least the weekend is almost here
• 08:51 Heh. @techdragon just got carded at Target for my nyquil. Maybe next time I should have a :responsible: adult buy it for me. :grins:
• 10:18 Hark, fellow geeks! What other sorts of geeky words and phrases should I put on my pendants? I've got an Oh, Hai! WTF, and RTFM so far..
• 12:01 Note to photo client: your faux Lego needs lg amts of stickytac to hold together long enough to be photo'd. They're meeting my E6000 next.
• 12:32 Wow, that's some crappy moulding. They almost look like they're made out of fondant or something.. twitpic.com/p90l8
• 13:57 News of note: MPD says residential burglaries in Madison are down about 50% vs. 2008, most likely b/c of the rise in unemployment. Ironic.

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Yep, we're on :D

Supernatural, SGU, Sanctuary, all starting at 8

Food, folks, and fun

Casa Cthulhu

Come one, come all.

Here I am, with a hundred things to post about, the rest of St. Petersburg and the wedding and a new book...and I'm playing Mortal Kombat vs. DC and staying up while everyone else is in bed.

I guess I'm having a bit of wedding withdrawal. For awhile there was so much to do that it could never get done, and then it was done and there were so many loved ones to spend time with that I could never spend time with them all, and then there was the honeymoon and it was all SO MUCH. And justbeast was there all day every day for two weeks, and now he's gone again, from very early to very late, working in Augusta, and I miss him. I'm taking a month off before starting on the next book that's due (Prester John Book I, due oh-my-god January 30th) and I want to do awesome things, I want to do everything I've been putting off, but I'm so enervated and tired and just want to be cuddled and relaxified. But it is not to be, just now.

I'm going to get up early tomorrow, I think. I have the Interfictions reading in Boston at 7:30, but I can do things before then. I'm going to try out my new ice cream maker (flavor suggestions welcome). Maybe take a stab at unpacking. Definitely hit the post office. Pretty myself a bit and maybe get my nails done in town before I go. (I am HOPELESS with doing my own nails. It always looks like a monkey went at them.) I don't know. I want to feel awesome. I feel like butter scraped over too much bread, to quote another small, hapless thing.

At least I made yummy dinners for my house full of people. (I feel that it should have a name, like House Cerulia has, now that we are so many.) Beef stroganoff last night and pelmeni lightly fried with curry paste along with green beans sauteed in a bit of bacon fat tonight. And we valiantly work on ingesting the alcohol leftover from both our weddings.

Thanksgiving is coming up, and along with justbeast , babymonkey , and mishamish , we have blazepoet , yakavenger , ioianthe , and her husband Bill-I-can't-find-his-username. Full house! Right now the menu is looking like: plum-molasses glazed goose with cherry-sage stuffing (I make this every year, it kickes the shit out of turkey), lamb shashlik, borscht, butternut squash-apple soup with bacon and goat cheese, homemade bread, spinach salad with warm bacon dressing, cranberry compote, sweet potatoes ala babymonkey, pumpkin chiffon pie with cranberry whipped cream, apple toffee pie with a white chocolate glaze, and gluhwein. What? My inner Sicilian grandmother kicks in when there are more than two people in the house. ALL WILL BE FED.

For future holidays, we can accommodate two other couples. First come, first seated--let us know early if you want to come and we'll hold a seat at the table. This goes for all food-related holidays, not just Thanksgiving.

So yeah. I'm trying to take it easy but taking it easy is weird and a little unnerving. I need to start knitting again.

Yesterday we went walking to Battery Steele, the WWII fort here. It is so very The Barrens and I mourn that no one in this house has read IT but me. There are even fucking terrifying dark corridors and graffiti and abandoned rooms and I so have to get greygirlbeast up here someday, it reminds me so of The Red Tree, too. I love my island so much. I'm so viscerally grateful to be home, to not have missed autumn, to smell the sea and get mud on my boots climbing around the woods with the bittersweet and the sumac. I just...am feeling disconnected, afloat, dreamy and strange.

Is beyond irritated at an Etsy seller. Its been 2 years since I bought something and now shes claiming she refunded the money after I was beyond patient with her. Unbelievable. Last year she said she was so embarrassed she thought she had refunded and she would send the item out. Where the proof of said refund?! Honestly I would have bought more stuff from this person too if this hadn't turned out to be a nightmare. I can't even leave bad feedback since it's been so long. Trying to solve it with Etsy dispute system which seems like a joke?

Ok, I am launching a new product. Natural dye kits. Awesome, cause they are mini (designed to dye 4 ounces/100 grams of fiber), but they are causing me issues figuring out how to put them on my website so they are easy for people to understand and not a total pain in the arse for me to program in to the website.

Suggestions?

Here is the issue:
There are 2 mordants: wool and cotton. There are several types of natural dyes (ie, cochineal, madder, lac, etc). And there are also color changers (cream of tartar and iron). Each is packaged individually with instructions, and due to the size of the packaging- about the size of a business card- there is not room to have instructions for both dyes and mordants on there.

It seems to me the easiest way for people would be for each dye to have an option: wool or cotton mordant, and do you want to add the optional color changer(s)? Annoying to program, and could confuse people with all the add ons.

I also want people to be able to buy just the dye or mordant parts, since they are packaged separately anyways- way too big of a headache to have each dye + mordant option.

So right now I am leaning towards having them all be separate and just linking the dyes to the different mordants and having people add each one to the cart separately. I think this would make it easier for wholesalers too- they can add as many of whichever they want more easily. And it wouldn't be confusing when they then didn't come packaged together...

(this is the current dye kit page, if that makes it make any more sense.)

Someone was asking about steampunk boots on here a week back, but I couldn't find the URL for the boot manufacturer at that time. I dug through my bookmarks and located them:

One of my favorite places to drool over boots I wish I could afford is Motorcowboy.com - check out their Cavalry, Jedi and Motorcycle Officer boots. They are a very pricy store, but they make some of the best looking boots out there. All of their boots are handmade for your foot, so they are 100% custom.



The second place was stomperboots.com, especially their 32 inch long engineer boots. Not nearly as pricy as motorcowboy, and very nice stuff.

And of course, I always recommend Red Wing Shoes for great boots and shoes for under $130.

Enjoy!

-zen

I hope it's ok to post the artwork contest we're having on our blog. Chrononaut Mercantile, LLC. will be conducting a contest for our airship or time-travelling vessel design to be used on the blog, Chrononought.com. Please check it out, and let your friends know if you think it would be right up their alley!

The Chrononought

A couple experimental pics. Early morning pics. Frosty pics.

( Pond pictacular )

• 07:43 Eric Clapton, Unplugged and Kim Vicente's book _the Human Factor_ made a 6 am flight much more pleasant than expected. #
• 07:45 On my way to Rome, NY today, then on to Chicago tomorrow evening (to Windycon). I already wish I'd brought a hat. #

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So tempting to log into Google Chat from my Gmail interface.

More words down on paper on my lunch break. Once again with the not much, but hooray for regularity! I'm hoping

Horoscope:

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): "Dear Rob: I've read horoscope columns written by many astrologers, and yours is the only one that's not prejudiced against at least one of the signs. You really do treat everyone equally. You play no favorites. But that's exactly the bone I have to pick with you. I'm wondering if you've got a passion deficiency or something. It seems abnormal not to display a hint of bias now and then. -Suspicious Taurus." Dear Suspicious: My own birth chart includes elements of both Taurus and Libra. The Taurus part of me has strong feelings and deep passions, while the Libra part of me is fair-minded and well-balanced. They've worked out a synergistic arrangement that allows me to maintain my equilibrium as I feed my intensity. I recommend this approach to you right now.

I think that my moon sign is Libra. Huh. Why do I have such a hard time with finding balance? Is my Taurus set to override?

Chin strap for CPAP machine is at home! Looking forward to a restful night tonight!

Originally published at David M. Crampton.

As any feline servant can tell you, it's quite normal to get out of the shower and find that your feline overlord and master has kindly taken up post as a guard either on the sink counter, the toilet or somewhere in the bathroom. Humans having not realized that there is a far more dignified way to keep clean without going to the extreme of drenching yourself completely in water. This guarding is to ensure that when you finally emerge from this strange habit, no strange cats will see you and point and laugh. Do not be fooled that this is some great show of benevolence, rather it's to ensure you don't embarrass your overlord and master. It is not to benefit you in any way.

Being a very well trained feline servant I have stopped commenting on this and just accepted it. Of late however, I have noticed a change in our youngest overlord and master, who deigns to answer to title of Cuddles. Cuddles, has come to the conclusion that her servants are apparently especially soft in the head as they continue this foolhardy practice. She has decided that she will not simply sit idly by but has taken an active interest in trying to teach her slow-witted servants.

It begins by staring at the water which has been started in the shower, alternately staring at yours truly, and back to the water with a look of confusion. This is meant to indicate that causing water to free fall in the house is a mediocre idea at best. However, when I then attempt to enter said shower, I am met by paws and claws grabbing at any available appendage, be it arms, legs, feet etc. When I still manage to stubbornly get into the shower she resumes guard duty in a huff.

Will the stubborn stupidity of the servant win out of the overlords generous attempts at re-education? History says we servants are incapable of higher learning and she will eventually give up.

I'm afraid there is not much to tell so far. Some people have asked if there are any leads and such but regrettably there has been no word. I do still truly want to thank you all for you concern. I managed to make a new piece as a replacement and get it to the museum on time for opening. The Oxford Steampunk Exhibit has been incredibly  successful and I hope all of you get a chance to see it.
http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/steampunk/


Kind Regards,
Lord A. Featherstone
( and his secretary Thomas Willeford)<input ... ></input><input ... >

I moderate a community called bygone_dogs and I thought some of you in this community might enjoy this photograph from there.

I put together a logo, which I am going to turn into an appliqué to put onto the back of a pair of coveralls. I think I have the Latin text right, but was wondering if anyone could double check for me.

Thanks in advance!

Hello All,

This isn't quite steampunk era, but it is a vintage fashion question, and I figured this was the place to ask advice. My friend has requested I make him a 1910-ish style bathing suit along these lines (man on left):

Or for other inspiration, the bathing suit Johnny Depp wears in Sweeney Todd. I'm wondering if anyone might know where I could find a pattern for such a suit? It shouldn't be too hard to make, but I'm an intermediate seamstress, so I like to follow a pattern.He wanted it to be a usable suit, but I've been having a world of trouble finding striped bathing suit material or even a cotton of this stripe. Any suggestions?

Got this from a friend. It's a point-by-point smackdown of all the 2012 foolishness in a handy graphic form, with 2012 mythology on one side, and real scientific & archaeological data on the other: Information is beautiful: 2012, skeptics vs believers.

I think my favorite section is the first one where they point out that the Maya actually have several different Long Count calendars, and that the only reference to 2012 ever found is on a stele from an area that used a 20 baktun cycle rather than the 13 baktun cycle the doomsday theorists tout. This is why primary sources are your friend. &hearts

Why does this bug me so much? Well, a lot of reasons. The main one is because I work with Maya and Aztec art at the museum (that's the Ceramic ID Project y'all have heard me babble about in the past), so I've done a fair bit of reading on the subject. I am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I hatehatehate seeing these cultures misrepresented by charlatans out to make a fast buck by exploiting both the general public's fear of the unknown and their ignorance of Mayan beliefs. It offends me, both as a scholar and a skeptic. My job is to educate the public with historical facts, and these idiots make it really hard to do my job by spreading all this BS misinformation.

You know, I think I'm going to suggest to my boss that we do a 2012 Fact vs Fiction display to put up in Ethnography along with various Mayan artifacts from our collection.

Twenty-Four hours worth of Microblogging

Good news for stressed chocolate lovers! bit.ly/36CwQn

Africa's Newest Plague Big Tobacco RT @sciam Out of Africa: The Tobacco War's New Battleground bit.ly/1UEBpg

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U-Con starts tomorrow, setup is tonight! I am in Ann Arbor for the duration.

In addition to serving as Ops and Reg, I made the program book this year. Here it is as a web-ready PDF (1.22MB), and a re-paginated PDF (1.19MB) that you can print, fold, and staple into your own booklet.