sadness or euphoria

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

I loved paper dolls when I was a kid. I know it’s rooted in my obsession with paper, so it’s not really a surprise that any craft that involves cutting, folding and gluing paper is going to rock my paper socks.

Back in the day, paper dolls were hard to come by. When you could find them, they were printed and usually produced so you could punch them out–no cutting involved. You got cutesie girl dolls with sailor outfits and tiny black schnauzers to sit by their side. I had loads of fun with them when I was a kid but hadn’t thought of them until a couple of years ago when my sister-in-law sent me a link to The Toymaker. I had the most fun printing things out and making them for Eli. He played with his sunbox until it fell apart.

So it was a big surprise to me this week when I was browsing my seemingly 948 craft blogs that I found out paper dolls have gone all hard core. Boxpunx was a revelation. From there I got to Papercraft X. Toypaper has a really lovely message. Eli wanted to know why Derek the toast ninja was so mad. I told him that that was a ninja’s job. We also got a kick out of looking at Monkey Design USA and are sad that there’s no retailer near us or a way to download their designs.

All these are fun to browse through with your kid and to make if you have the desire. Who knows? You might just spark a love of paper that lasts a lifetime.

Calendar page updated.

Yeargh.  Soooo, Chris was late seriously late for work this morning on account of either a) him misreading the schedule (which he swears isn't what happened) or b) the schedule changing unannounced (which is believable, especially this week).  Either way it was cause for much frustration, running about and cursing in what was otherwise a calm morning.

He called his mother on the way to work.  Unfortunately, I don't think he actually managed to extract a plan from her.  He also did not secure an answer to the all important question "Does she expect to come here?"  This is important so that I know what I need to clean.  My response to this non-answer was "Well she won't be coming here then!  I'm not darn well going to run myself ragged cleaning this blasted house and fussing about what to feed her and whether or not she'll think my choices are appropriate.  So if she wants to see me we can damn well go to a restaurant somewhere. 

Now, I am spending part of my evening fixing Chris' computer.  He's had several obnoxious, recurring pop-up windows recently that finally annoyed me enough (we share his computer for gaming) that I felt I needed to deal with them.  I've uninstalled the expired trial versions of a whole bunch of things and downloaded McAfee from our ISP (it's "free" with our internet service).  McAfee has been churning away for nearly an hour now and discovering all manner of vile, dangerous and otherwise unpleasant things hidden away in his computer.  It never fails to amaze me that someone who is so adept at the guts of computers can be so inept at noticing suspicious websites, pop-ups and such symptoms of computer illness.

I think that while this churns away I'll go downstairs and make myself some supper - probably macaroni and cheese made with cream of mushroom soup.  I'm still doing the cram-in-as-many-calories-as-possible dance...  I may also walk up to the grocery store and get some butter so that I can make a blueberry pound cake with the blueberries I bought yesterday. 

I am NOT a man.

I am NOT a munchkin.

I am NOT a bean.

I am NOT a partner.

I am NOT a dude.

I am NOT a buddy.

I am NOT a policeman.

I am NOT a pie.

I am NOT a kiddo.

I am NOT a pumpkin.



I am just a Dante.

If you happen to be Kevin from Gary, In. or Natalie who went to school in Bloomington, this is Angela from the train. Contact me!

Of course, this journal is set to not come up on search engines (like they'd be searching for themselves like that anyway), so nevermind. :-D

Had an enjoyable 4th. Spent far too much of the day in a steaming hot kitchen, watched a lot of movies and ate together with just the fam--or rather, just the immediate fam. My cousin Lori, who'd moved up from Miss a while back was not looking forward to an evening home alone; brother G, who is usually reliable for a party at such times, was working. So she came over for desert and talk before we took the T in for the fireworks.

X so didn't want to go, but I convinced him it was his fatherly duty. Besides, we were going last minute, so we'd miss all the crowds on the way in. Oops. We had the last car to ourselves until twenty drunken 20-somethings got on with us. I was amused--I generally consider people doing such remarkably obnoxious things in public to be a free show. He wasn't happy. Nor was the toddler who appreciated neither the ridiculous noise nor the fact that I shielded her from some of their antics. I don't even want to know what the teen ager throught.

Near the end of the trip, another young couple got on. We'd have gotten off before getting the chance to talk to them, but the drunken crowd decided to leave at Park, and even I'd had about enough of them. Staying on one more stop would just have us view the fireworks from a different part of the river.

Once silence reigned--as much as possible on an idling redline train--the female half of the young couple, who'd been talking to Lori, made her way over to me with a map. They'd gotten an alterative suggestion for where to see the fireworks which sounded great. All of my life, minus various years of roving, spent in the area, and I'd never tried watching from the Cambridge side of the river. And, they're engaged and his company is likely to move him here in six months, so they wanted to know about places to life. Finding out where they were from, I announced that my friends from Bloomington loved Davis Square.

Anyhoo, it was nice meeting them, but we got split up before we could exchange info.

Lovely fireworks, though I was dragged away before the big finish to beat the press of 100,000 people.

And that was the Boo-man's last night. He's on a plane now, heading back to Texas.

Some bit of my car gave up on Thursday morning.  This had the unfortunate combined effects of making me late for my dentist appointment, having to spend an extra 5 hours at work while I waited for Chris to get off work so I could go home and preventing me from traveling to my parents' house for the Fourth of July.  Car will go to the shop on Monday morning (fortunately it's still under warranty...) and hopefully I'll be back in business shortly after that.

Having to abruptly replan the Fourth of July, Chris an I went to the grocery store yesterday morning.  I was pleasantly surprised by how cheaply I was able to get us in and out of that endeavour.  Hurrah for the coupon book and the sale circular.  We grilled hotdogs and veggie burgers (they're now officially cheaper than ground beef...) and made corn on the cob and baked beans.  Finished off the night with ice cream.  We watched "The Capitol Fourth" on the PBS station rather than going out somewhere to battle the masses and try to watch fireworks.  It was an interesting blend of music and tributes and then a very nice fireworks display.  I was disappointed that they didn't sing "The Salute to the Armed Forces" but I guess I can't have it all.

Chris is working today, tomorrow and Monday.  Then he's (supposedly) off until Thursday.  Her MIMS arrives on Sunday and has yet to actually bother to tell us any of what she has planned and/or is hoping to do while she's here.  I'm a) unsurprised and b) going to give her exactly what she's given us as far as advanced warning about this trip, which is zippo.  I work all of next week so once again the lack of "Gee, I'd like to come visit and spend time with you guys.  When would be convenient?"  will result in her getting to sit in her hotel room or wander around downtown Staunton on her own since both of us will be working  (and Tuesday Chris will spend most of the day sleeping, since he's working a 16 hour shift on Monday IF they let him out on time, which neither one of us expects.).  I utterly fail to understand how you invite yourself to visit someone without asking if it would be OK, welcome and/or convenient.

I'm nearly finished the pair of socks I started at the state track meet.  The Amy sister has claimed these so once I get them done I'll be shipping them off up there.  They're working out quite nicely.  The next pair of adult sized socks I make, however, is for ME and they are going to be as plain as I can make them because I need some nice, mindless knitting.  Lace is great but my concentration on that is shot.

I pulled the pea plants yesterday (they weren't producing anymore) and transplanted the mystery squash into that pot.  The squash plants are looking swell so we'll see what sort of fruit I get from them.  There's a really good chance that it will be gourds from Mom's compost pile but I may get lucky and score a few zucchinni from what I planted last year.  I also filled in the cut flower garden with some calendula seeds.

I had an interesting Fourth of July, in that I spent it online.

Marianne McCann (mmccann) hosts fireworks shows in SL. Virtual fireworks are scripted particle displays -- nothing too realistic, but in a way, that's what makes them awesome, because they can do blams and sprays and effects you can't get in real life. So, since she's known for her pyrotechnic prowess, what's a girl to do on a holiday devoted to blowing things up..? That's right, a massive, thirty minute display of awesome!

Thanks to the miracle of the interwebs and interbutt 2.0, you can now view this extravaganza on the social photomarking tool networking webtersode known as Flickr!

Gaze in wonder, ye mortals, and despair.

Rest of my weekend? We're poking a bit at an arcade project, but I anticipate it's not gonna be a quickie, since we need to make a bunch of custom avatars and animations for it. More to come. Also, COH tomorrow, D&D sunday -- finally, I get to PLAY D&D for the first time in 26 years instead of just GMing it or designing it! Let the good times roll.

ATTENTION: THIS JOURNAL HAS NOW BEEN RENAMED FROM lowlands_girl TO alexandramuses. PLEASE MAKE NOTE.

Two days of Anime Expo... I have a handful of pictures that I'll post later when my desk is actually clear enough for me to put the camera down someplace it won't fall. Biggest events so far have been the "Fansubs: the Death of Anime" panel, which was fascinating and informative and irritating as hell (because the US distribution companies, it turns out, go out of their way to avoid contact with their consumers, for fear that the rabid fans will send them 20,000 emails a day), and the "Anime and Manga in Academia" panel, which felt like a waste of time, except that I now feel my work will definitely have an audience, and it was good to know that other smart people out there are also interested in this stuff.

I'll write more later, especially about the various shows I saw, dubbing vs. subtitling, cosplay, exhibit halls and artist alley, getting signatures, etc., etc.

But for now I think I just want to sit and do nothing, except perhaps read the three volumes of Love Hina I bought for $5 each. :D

For his third birthday, Dante received a puzzle map of the USA, with one piece per state (except for some of the smaller northeastern states, which group together on a few pieces.) I got some video of the second time he'd put it together. Sorry for the shaky-cam bits. This video was long enough that it needed to be split up into two parts:


Part 1


Part 2

Tallahassee is a very long word!

Watching him put this map together made me realize that the states and their capitals are just brimming with unintuitive pronunciations. Really, take a look:

Arkansas
Connecticut
Hawaii
Juneau
Phoenix
Boise
Des Moines
Baton Rouge
Lincoln
Raleigh
Pierre
Montpelier
Cheyenne

Yet the ones that give him trouble are "Florida" and "Augusta." Go figure.

Landed early, customs took a little while, but we have arrived and are/were hanging out in our room (for quite a while now because the image above and others didn't want to upload right away, pesky things) at INDEXG B&B. Free wi-fi, and my phone won't be on/working because I didn't realize I had to talk to someone for them to turn on "WorldClass Service"... obviously no one is working at T-Mobile due to the holiday, so comments to journal entries and emails will be the best way to get in touch with me. (They also have pancakes and waffles for breakfast! ^_^ And we don't have to wake up super early for said breakfast. I love this place already.)

Heading done to Queen St. soon to find food and booze... also going to the liquor store.

Later on... around 8... Ciro's.

Happy 4th to those back home. Have a great party carriemonster and whippingboy!

Peace,
geek. ^_^

I was doing my usual website trolling around the medal dealers' sites last night.  And on the DMD site, I noticed a very familiar medal.  Specifically, the Richard Wawbezee War of 1812 medal with Fort Detroit clasp is once again for sale.   ...  I sent out immediate e-mails to both the Bruce County Museum & the National Aboriginal Veterans, wondering what had gone wrong.

Replies came back rather quickly today.  Apparently the native band couldn't connect anyone to Wawbezee and they really didn't have any interest in spending nearly 11,000 dollars to have 'just a medal' that didn't mean anything to them.   Which I can't blame them for.

The museum itself is still interested in receiving & displaying it, but they have no acquisition budget and can't do anything on their own either. 

Bloody hell.   Well, The Natives were my first choice, really, figuring that if anyone should have right of first refusal, it was them.

I'm going to have to think of something else now. 

And from what the museum tells me, Dave Thomson got notified of this.  Looks like I'll have to talk to him. 

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

Did you know that, on this day in 1776, “the Declaration of Independence was approved by the Continental Congress, setting the 13 colonies on the road to freedom as a sovereign nation”? Furthermore, “this most American of holidays will be marked by parades, fireworks and backyard barbecues across the country”? Thanks, US Census Bureau! Of more interest is the 3 in 4 chance that any fresh tomatoes eaten on hamburgers¹ comes from Florida or California. No word from the FDA about what your chance of catching Salmonella from those tomatoes is.

For my American friends, happy Fourth of July. For my non-American friends, enjoy an Internet whose tubes are less clogged with Americans.

¹ The US Census Bureau actually talks about fresh tomatoes eaten in salad. Really, US Census Bureau? Salad?

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

If you’re a packaging engineer, I imagine you have to put up with a certain amount of skepticism about having the word “engineer” in your title. After enough of that, you might want to prove that, dammit, you are too a real engineer.

I imagine that’s what led to this statement on a Domino’s pizza box.

While “CORRU-SKELETAL TECHNOLOGY” is great, even better is how it protects the pizza from “crushing forces”. Unanswered is how well it withstands shear stress, or if it has the tensile strength necessary to hold together during normal handling while still allowing pepperoni-craving fiends to rip the top right off of the box.

The IF community has what emshort has referred to as (I quote from memory) 'a culture of authorial modesty'. I could spend all day writing about the reasons for this, and why and how IF differs in this respect from other styles of independent freeware games; the short and quick version, I suppose, is that it has a lot to do with the community's antipathy (occasionally verging on paranoia) to authorial arrogance, which probably has a lot to do with the ratio of authors to audience.

But the upshot of this is, there is a very strong expectation of secrecy and silence before a game's release. Most games will be released in a basically complete version - and, apart from a few betatesters, that will usually be the first clue anybody has about its existence. There are specific and very good reasons for this, some to do with the structural elements of conventional IF and some to do with the nature of the community (and particularly the newsgroups); in fact, many of these reasons are key underpinnings of the whole authorial-modesty thing. What it boils down to is that, over the years, so many self-aggrandising blowhards have waxed lyrical about the awesomeness of their forthcoming game, and so many people have announced forthcoming games that never got finished, that if you talk very much about your forthcoming game it is swiftly assumed that a) you are a self-aggrandising blowhard, and b) your game will never be finished.

I can make no claims about either a) or b), but I am working on a (complicated, overambitious, includes heavy random elements) game and I am finding myself doing a lot of thinking out loud about it, and this thinking out loud is producing a lot of writing about IF and simulation and game design and writing in general, and I thought about putting it all on a private filter so that I'd have some kind of sequential record of what I was thinking about, and it occurred to me that maybe some people might be interested.

So if you want in, comment. Screening on.

[edit: and of course, with my usual brilliant sense of timing, I had to post this late at night on July 3rd. Enh; I have got into thinking of LJ as a Serious Blog that Must be Consistently Entertaining or Insightful, rather than a diary that people can look at if they want to, and this is really a way of trying to get back to the latter; so it really doesn't matter a whole lot one way or the other.]

http://xkcd.com/445/

It had been a couple years since the last one, so I decided that the time had come again to make a CD from my Launchcast station. Here, for your enjoyment, is another lyrics quiz to go along with it. There were 19 tracks on the CD -- I've excerpted a lyric from each. The songs this time are, I think, a bit better known on the whole than the last batch. Guess as many as you like.

1. Smiling faces I can see / But not for me
2. Her good looks could've sailed a ship / But her will alone could've sunk it
3. When words mean nothing, I'll be here singing
4. Spread the facts on the floor like a fan / Throw away the ones that make you feel bad
5. Everything under the sun is in tune / But the sun is eclipsed by the moon (jackbishop)
6. Baby you could never look me in the eye / Yeah you buckle with the weight of the words
7. Like a pillar of cloud, the smoke lingers high in the air / In fascination, with the eyes of the world, we stare
8. You saw me and you shut the door / And it only made me love you more
9. It must be the curse of the age/ What's taken is never renewed
10. Took my sweet time when I was bitter
11. I know the difference between wrong and right / Don't make no difference in the middle of the night
12. I'm gonna turn that whiskey into rain (joenotcharles. Well, his wife, really. :))
13. I go to church on a Sunday / The vows that I make / I break them on Monday
14. A corner of your lips / Is the orbit of your hips
15. I stepped out of Mississippi when I was ten years old / With a suit cut sharp as a razor, and a heart made of gold
16. We may not know how or when / But don't you wanna know why?
17. I had a brother at Khe Sanh / Fighting off the Viet Cong / They're still there, he's all gone
18. Would your eyes, like midnight fireflies / Light up the trenches where my heart lies?
19. We got to close our eyes / Cut up our losses into doable doses / Ration our tears and sighs

As I am trying to get a few weekendy things out of the way right now (laundry, clean pet cage/litter boxes, etc.) so that I can pack for and enjoy Toronto... I am reminded of a couple neat links a few LJ friends posted lately.

kumimonster found Dopplr -- if you travel a lot, or just want to know where I am, sign up and add me. :D

Also, this site -- Flightstats.com -- rules, thanks pahana!

Off to more productive things...

Edited to add... Oh, quick edit. Anyone in Toronto who wants to meet up -- we'll be hanging out at Ciro's House of Imported Bier around 8pm (on Friday) for beer and food. Join us if ye like! :D

Peace,
geek. ^_^

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

Click the picture for more photos.

Up on io9: Where is my silicon-based life?

Short version? You're soaking in it.

Calendar page updated.