• I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can satisfy my curiosity.
• Update your journal with the answers to the questions.
• Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions.
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curgoth asked me:1. What is your favourite blue food or drink?
I would have to say it's this...
The Kool-Aid that was served to all of the new-hires at my first store meeting at Apple. Not kidding. *snerk*
2. Would you rather have a unicorn or a dragon as a pet/housemate?
Oh, definitely a dragon! I'm thinking of the Pern variety of course. Not only are they fabulous friends, they are extraordinarily handy for traversing great distances in an instant. Also, and this totally appeals to the nerdy, social-outcast kid in me, nobody messes with a dragonrider. >:-)
3. If you could travel through time and swipe one thing, what and why?
Ramoth's egg. Oh, wait, wrong universe. Um, wow, I don't know. There are lots of things I'd want to see or hear, but I can't think of anything I'd want to swipe.
After some thought there are a few things that I might consider lifting from the past. Literature that is lost in the present time such as Shakespeare's original manuscripts or as many scrolls from the library of Alexandria as I could cart away. Alternatively, I would consider taking something small and seemingly insignificant that would prevent a horrific event, such as the Holocaust. That would take considerable research though to determine what that small, insignificant item might be. "For want of a nail the kingdom was lost." I would have to find out what the nail was and make sure it was missing.
4. Name three TV shows that would be improved by the addition of unexpected laser beams.
Little House on the Prairie. I can totally picture laser beams coming out of Nellie Olson's eyes. Uh oh! Nellie's on a rampage again! Run for cover! ::pew, pew, pew::
Jeopardy would be so much more interesting if contestants got blasted with a laser when they lose. Wait, wasn't that an episode of Doctor Who?
The Martha Stewart Show. "Today we're going to learn how to create a simple home security system with our own homemade class 4 lasers. They're a good thing."
5. What is best in cookies?
Well, that's obvious. Love (and LOTS of chocolate, preferably dark chocolate).
- Location:home
- Mood:
disappointed
Your result for The Steampunk Style Test...
The Scientist
50% Elegant, 62% Technological, 40% Historical, 24% Adventurous and 29% Playful!
You are the Scientist, the embodiment of steampunk’s academic side. Where other technological styles might emphasize the gadgets of the genre, you realize there is more to science than doohickeys and gears. Your accessories are medical bags, test tubes, measuring instruments, and academic papers. You are more likely to carry a compass, quadrant, or ether-attuned spectrometer than a wrench or welding torch. You probably carry a timepiece, and your prolific reading gives you every right to wear spectacles. Perhaps the most distinctive feature of your style is that it combines the frock coats and bustle gowns of the 19th century with the trappings of Victorian science.
Try our other Steampunk test here.
Take The Steampunk Style Test at HelloQuizzy
- Location:Tracy's
- Music:Tracy and Jonathan playing RockBand
 | Horrible Remote CP3 Inc.  Release Date: Apr 03, 2009 Genre: Entertainment © CP3, Inc. |
- Location:goofing off at work
- Mood:
Squee!
suricattus's fault. If you don't know what GoodReads is, here's a blurb from their about page that sums it up nicely: "Goodreads is the largest social network for readers in the world. We have over 2,400,000 members who have added over 59,000,000 books to their shelves. A place for casual readers and bona-fide bookworms alike, Goodreads members recommend books, compare what they are reading, keep track of what they've read and would like to read, form book clubs and much more."Come on. You know you want to. ;-) Check out my books on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/profile/g33kboi
Actually, there's not much there yet, cuz, you know, not.enough.time. But come play with me anyway. :-)
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- Mood:
creative
My latest musical discovery is Po' Girl, a Canadian folk group that I think is currently based in Vancouver. They are opening for one of my favorite bands, Girlyman, on several of their US shows and Girlyman is opening for Po' Girl on several Canadian shows. Those are going to be some amazing shows!
Awful Library Books, A blog set up by two public spirited librarians from Detroit cataloguing the worst books on library shelves. via The Guardian (again)
Because I was looking for good places to play darts in Toronto, I found this extremely useful site, TorontoDarts.com.
More amusement from The Guardian and continuing with the zombie invasion thread, apparently The British Zombie Invasion, in which John, Paul and George are all zombies (Ringo is a ninja), is slated to be published in June of next year.
I've decided to read all of the World Fantasy Award Winners for Best Novel. Not all at once mind you, and not to the exclusion of everything else. Just bit by bit. There's no self-imposed deadline on this and I've already read many of them, like The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia McKillip, the first winner of this award. This idea came to me after reading, you guessed it, an article on The Guardian (via
cherylmmorgan) and thought this would be a great resource for picking the next good book to read.Now I'm off to the gym because I didn't go on Tuesday after all.
Now, off to the gym and then ruining it all by eating wings and drinking beer with a friend later tonight.
Here's some random stuff that entertained me today. Maybe it will amuse you too.
Encyclopedia Dramatica. Wikipedia with snark. From the ED's About page: "Encyclopedia Dramatica's purpose is to provide a central catalog for the e-public to view parody and satire of drama, memes, e-pals and other interesting happenings on the internets. The goal is to provide comprehensive, reference-style parody, to poke fun at everyone and everything on the internet."
Apparently Canadians are concerned about a zombie invasion. via
cherylmmorgan Spoken word artist Alix Olson interviews Rachel Maddow for Velvet Park, a queer online magazine. via Geek Porn Girl
Good Show Sir. The worst sci fi/fantasy book covers. via The Guardian
LEGO pr0n! Italianate rowhouses in Albany (just a couple of blocks from my office) recreated in LEGO blocks. via All Over Albany
Lightsaber Chopsticks! I totally want these, just because they are so utterly geeky.
You're still here? It's over! ...Go home.
- Location:work, but not for long
- Mood:
amused
- FUN!!!!!
- Mud! Lots and lots of mud. I think the money I paid for the cheap mud boots I bought before the festival is the best $18 I've ever spent.
- FUN!!!!!
- Sun! A surprising amount of it considering all of the rain and mud. Note to self: sunblock only works when properly applied. I'm now sporting a rather spectacular farmer's tan.
- FUN!!!!!
- Only one mosquito bite all weekend! Wow! That is unheard of.
- FUN!!!!!
- Volunteering for the first time. Worked at Gate Ticket Sales putting wrist bands on festival attendees. Great crew. Awesome people. Fantastic way to meet people and make new friends. Definitely volunteering again.
- FUN!!!!!
- Swing dancing for the first time at the Dance Stage. Awkward but fun! :-) Going to look for local queer friendly/gender free dancing in the area.
- Big! Scary! Storm! OMG! The Ticket Gate Sales crew gathered at the front gate tent, even some people that weren't working at the time, watched the storm roll in, listened to incoming weather reports on the walkie talkies and drank red wine that Pam our fearless leader brought for the occasion.
- FUN!!!!!
- Missed a quintessential Falcon Ridge moment when some of the performers who got rained out of the Song Swap on the Main Stage decided to play in the Volunteer Tent instead. Heard it was an amazing night. Missing that wasn't so fun, but I was helping a frightened, lonely friend get back to her camp site in the rain. Some things are even more important than music.
- FUN!!!!!
- Holy crap! That cheap, crappy tent I borrowed didn't leak!
- FUN!!!!!
- Music!!!!!!!! Lots and lots of fabulous music!!! Ahhh!! I feel completely rejuvenated and restored. Like my batteries have been recharged. Ember Swift says that music is her religion. Amen, sister! I feel like I just came back from a spiritual retreat.
- FUN!!!!!
- The Paul Simon Workshop. Susan Werner dancing like a maniac and inciting Nerissa and Katrina Nields to join her while other performers played. She was definitely in her happy place and it was completely infectious! :-)
- FUN!!!!!
- Lots of children, big and small, running and playing in the mud and not caring how dirty they were.
- FUN!!!!!
- Pierce Brothers Fogbuster Coffee! Oh, how I'll miss you. Parting is such sweet sorrow.
- FUN!!!!!
- Janis Ian recounting the tale of proposing to her spouse over IM (while they were both at home but in different rooms of the house). Janis to her partner: "Let's go to Toronto to get married. I have to be there for a science fiction convention anyway." Janis's partner: "How fitting." Hotel clerk in Toronto: "Are you here for the convention?" J: "No we're here to get married." Clerk: "Oh! Well then we'll give you the Bridal Suite." Cafe barista: "Are you here for the convention?" J: "No, we're here to get married." Barista: "Oh! You're lattes are on us." And so on all week. She said that they had been together for 15 years before they got married and that neither one of them were the sort to get sappy and teary eyed but they both cried once they were actually married. In retrospect, she said that it was because for the first time ever an entire country treated them like they were normal. Really, truly, I just love Canada. I really hope that the United States grows up to be just like it one day.
- FUN!!!!!
- Sunday Morning Gospel Wake Up Call. Girlyman singing the Girly Benediction followed by Son of a Preacher Man. Perfection! Spying Pam and Anne, fearless leaders of the Ticket Gate Sales crew dancing together behind Main Stage during the Gospel hour. Sweetness!
- FUN!!!!!
- Spent too much money on silly things like jewelry and a henna tattoo and I don't care.
- FUN!!!!!
- Hanging with Wendy on Sunday afternoon while Natalia played with the Nields on Main Stage.
- FUN!!!!!
- Post festival volunteer dinner at Four Brothers in Hillsdale. The traditional cutting of the bands. Pam wielding Ed's swiss army knife to cut everyone's volunteer bands off, thus releasing us from service until next year. Singing Happy Birthday to Dave Navarro's son Joseph who had just turned thirteen.
- FUN!!!!!
- Took a zillion photos. I'll post those as soon as I have to time to sift and sort.
- Did I mention that I had fun?
- Mood:
rejuvenated
( ...behind the cut to spare those who could care less about databases )
Moving on to happier, more vacationy thoughts. I have rain boots and sunscreen now for the festival. One wouldn't ordinarily think those two things would go together, but this is Falcon Ridge. It's always sweltering hot and it always rains. Still need bug repellent that won't give me cancer as soon as I touch the package. Going to go down to the festival grounds early-ish tomorrow to check in as a volunteer and sign up for shifts as well as pitch my tent, then it's back to Albany for work at job #2 and one last night of sleep in a clean, dry bed before music and mud. :-)
My must see events at the festival...
( ...also behind a cut to spare those who could care less about folk festivals. :-) )
- Mood: excited
- Barely post-pubescent co-worker, in reference to the paperback I was reading
- Mood: amused
( The gruesome details... )
In other, happier news, I finally got my volunteer confirmation from Falcon Ridge (Two days before the fest! Cutting it close much?). I am working on the gate ticket sales crew which I think will be pretty cush so I'm happy. I've got a tent and a bed and they're going to feed me most of the time so food is not a big issue. I mostly just need clothes, sunscreen and bug repellent. And rain boots. And an umbrella. Tomorrow night - shopping for missing items and packing.
- Location:avoiding responsibility at work
- Mood:
reflective - Music:"Pictures of You" - The Cure
via ThinkGeek
- Mood: amused
- Mood:
grateful
What do you think? Honest critiques appreciated. I'm not sure that I'm satisfied with the way the text fades in and out, but I think it's not too bad for my first effort. I'll probably play with it some more to refine it.- Mood:
accomplished
I don't remember how the original idea for the icon came to me. I may have just been looking at cool icons and thinking, I should try making one of those. I had just taken a zillion pictures (actually more like 1230, but who's counting?) of the Indigo Girls at a show last week in Northampton, so I think that imagery sort of coalesced with the whole icon idea along with the lyrics of one of their new songs, True Romantic (listen to it on Last.fm), which has been a recent favorite of mine.
( More details below the cut... )
Yet to be done...
I'm thinking of playing with the size and color of individual words to suggest the same emphasis that is present in the song. As far as animating it, I could keep it simple and just have one full phrase fade into the next, but what I really want to do is fade each word in and then out and, ideally, time the fades to the tempo of the phrases in the song.
If anyone has any suggestions for tweaking any of this, I'd be happy for the feedback. Also, if anyone knows of any really good, detailed tutorials for doing what I just described in GIMP with GAP, I would be eternally grateful for any linkage you might be able to provide.
Oh, one more thing. This is a work in progress. Please don't take any of the images. (The best pics from the show will eventually get posted on Flickr.) When the icon is done, I will gladly share as long as you credit me.
- Mood: creative
