To eBay Or Not To eBay [Jul. 24th, 2008|04:29 pm] docbrite I finally finished the possum-skull "voodoo" doll I've been working on for a couple of weeks now. It's the most detailed and, I think, nicest one I've ever made. However, maddeningly, it still isn't up for auction. While I like most things about my new all-in-one office machine (the Hewlett Packard OfficeJet 6310), its scanner leaves a lot to be desired. When I try to scan the drawings I do in copies of my books, the images often come out streaked with weird stripes of light that aren't present on the actual drawings. As for three-dimensional objects such as the doll, it cannot scan them at all. I know flatbed scanners aren't really meant to scan three-dimensional objects, but my old one did a pretty good job of it, e.g. this Little Blue Heron skull I found on our first post-K trip to the Mississippi Gulf Coast: Obviously, before I sell any more dolls or other hand-crafted items on eBay, I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and spring for a digital camera that can take decent closeups of small objects. My current antique -- a Vivitar Vivicam 3650 I bought in, I think, 2004 -- is remarkably forgiving of my poor photography skills when it comes to taking regular pictures, but its closeups are useless blurs. I know a few of you have been waiting to see this doll, and I apologize; I'll try to upgrade my equipment soon. I did manage to put up some regular book-type auctions: a copy of greygirlbeast's and my collection Wrong Things; a copy of the Gauntlet Press limited edition of The Lazarus Heart with an original ink drawing by me; a copy of the increasingly rare Con Party of Hotel California chapbook; and a copy of Plastic Jesus. As always, all items are signed and signatures can be personalized. I also added some inventory to my eBay store, including four copies of Alcool (the newly published French edition of Liquor). Please take a look and make a bid (or just buy a book) if you can -- thanks! Link

Bleah [Jul. 24th, 2008|05:12 pm] islenskr [ location | Corporate Translations, Inc. ] [ Current Mood | meh ] I'm really starting to hate this commuting thing. It seems like I'm exhausted nearly all the time and that certainly does me no favors here at work. Today I dealt with a customer complaint (very minor) and screwed it up, perhaps with really outrageous fixes to be done tomorrow. I've been trying to go to the gym. Going this evening. It's a toss-up most of the time, though: Gym? Or sleep? Read something enjoyable? Or sleep? Eat supper? Or sleep? Most of the time, the sleep category wins. That means that I go to bed about an hour or so after I get home (not that I fall asleep right away). Then, the next morning I scrape myself out of bed to make lunch, eat breakfast, maybe go to the gym if I have time, get showered and dressed and drive to work. The weekends have been chock full as well, mostly of fun things, but I do have to tackle laundry, tidy up the house, weed the garden, mow the lawn, etc... now and then. When I live closer to my job, I'm hoping I'll have more time. At least I won't have to do any yardwork, though I may have to schlepp stuff to the laundromat. On a better note, I have been 24 days without caffeine. My hair has stopped falling out in great chunks. I'm hoping it will grow back a bit so that my single braid is somewhat large than the diameter of my pinky finger. It's very hard to think of not having my tea. I love tea in every way. However, judging by my hair, tea does not love me. Off to the gym now. Tags: no caffeine, sleep, work Link Leave a comment

Wee paws.... [Jul. 24th, 2008|05:21 pm] scyllacat 16:57 SO annoyed at my doctors. Really, a lot. I can't get anything done. Squid, I left my earrings in your bathroom. # Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter Link Leave a comment

Work bitch [Jul. 24th, 2008|05:06 pm] scyllacat So much for "flexible scheduling." Stupid doctors. First they do stats in the afternoon, so I plan to work in the afternoon. Then they do stats in the morning, so I work in the morning AND the afternoon. Today, they dribbled stats in all the way along, including several in the midday (between 11 and 2). I had a one-hour appointment this afternoon, and I feel like I've been tied to this computer all day. Oh, right, I have been. Link Leave a comment

oops! [Jul. 24th, 2008|03:46 pm] rfrancis Got so busy yesterday I forgot to post here and mention this BIG DEAL FOR ME: PENDANT PRODUCTIONS PROUDLY PRESENTS: Cover art by Kristen Bays for Pendant Productions Wonder Woman: Champion of Themyscira is a serialized, full-cast audio adventure with one new episode every month! Available for FREE download as an mp3 or Podcast! Also available - a commentary with the writer, director and assistant director! iTunes link: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=207999057 Podcast link: http://www.pendantaudio.com/ww_podcast.xml Download link: http://www.pendantaudio.com/wonderwoman.php Issue 30, VINDICATUM part 6 - 'Corruption' Cassie and Tim try to hold off Kara while Natasha and Catwoman go for help. Wonder Woman finally gets her hands on Circe, and Lex and Ares meet on the field of battle... man to man. ( entire cast listing behind cut ) But in case you didn't follow the cut, let me repeat: Directed by R. Francis Smith Thanks to spiralsequin for her help on this one and her mentoring all along, and see y'all next month for another excited post when my first totally solo directing AND first acting gig turn up. :) http://www.pendantaudio.com http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pendant Thanks for listening! Link Leave a comment

I just got amusing LJ comment spam. [Jul. 24th, 2008|04:48 pm] r_ness [ Current Mood | amused ] In response to my post on jerk chicken, I got LJ comment spam advertising a site which sends e-greetings to jerks. You keep using that word. I do not think I mean what you think I mean. Their automated comment bot? Not so much with the nuance. Link 2 comments|Leave a comment

CSA Farm Share: Week 7 [Jul. 24th, 2008|03:48 pm] surrealestate Despite the continued lack of kitchen, I've gotten into a much better groove with the veggies and feel much better about it. Right now I am trying to minimize the amount of non-share food and so far it's been going really well. I still need to start thinking about longer-term storage on some of this, though -- I can feed myself most of the winter, too! 2 lbs (gorgeous) Potatoes 2 lbs Green Beans 1 lb Kentucky Wonder Beans 2 Zucchini 1 bunch Arugula 1 bunch Tatsoi 2 Summer Squash 4 (thick, uncut) Cucumbers 1 head Cabbage 1 bunch Spring Onions [Kitchen Update: by the end of the day, the kitchen sinks will be functioning, which will make a huge difference. Yay!] Tags: csa, food Link 6 comments|Leave a comment

Starman Omnibus [Jul. 24th, 2008|03:09 pm] bryant The Starman Omnibus is awesome. Probably less awesome if you’re not a fan. DC’s going to do six volumes, which are slated to include every issue of Starman plus all the related material (e.g., the Shade miniseries and so on). The art’s still gorgeous, if less surprising than it was at the time of publication. Beautiful art deco cityscapes, excellent use of shadow and darkness. Tony Harris was so good. It benefits from the high quality of the hardcover’s paper, too. And there’s nothing wrong with the story. James Robinson notes in the afterword that he was after the sort of weirdness/superhero fusion that early Vertigo had, before the editoral dictate to separate Vertigo from mainstream DC. He nailed it. The additional dollop of DC continuity fetish that he brought to the table probably wasn’t strictly speaking necessary, but I’m not sure it hurts. Five more volumes to come, at around 18-20 comic book issues per volume. Not too bad. I’m hearing DC is doing omnibus-style volumes for other books as well; good call. Originally published at Imaginary Vestibule. Tags: comics Link 6 comments|Leave a comment

Status report [Jul. 24th, 2008|01:42 pm] bigbigtruck - We're finally, finally getting some rain - I'm still juggling 3 jobs and scraping for cash, but hopefully it'll ease up soon - Less than a month till Matsuricon, 5 weeks till AFest. - Printed and sold out of the first wave of TJ & Amal 1" buttons, which was sweet. Making another batch soon, as well as (I hope) some stickers and a mini-book - Necessity of paying work has kept me away from the comic, which sucks sucks sucks. I'm so behind. - Am unreasonably bitter and downhearted about not being at SDCC this weekend. (My stupid brain says "hurr, if you were any good, you'd already be there, Comic Con's for real artists!" Shut up with your logical fallacies, brain.) - Had The Black Cauldron on while doing some Photoshop work. Had never seen it before... clearly I did not miss much. Egh. - Have started the resume dance again last week. Open to design work, clerical, and manual labor. No bites yet. - This is how we take the old to the new. Tags: life, mp3, tj&a Link 4 comments|Leave a comment

No hard feelings, eh Comcast? [Jul. 24th, 2008|01:34 pm] plaidsheep [ Current Mood | amused ] I guess they don't love me anymore since we got RCN at the new digs in Watertown. Effective immediately any email address for me ending in @comcast.net is no longer active. If you want to reach me via email try my firstname.lastname at gmail.com Will get another fun and fabulous RCN account as soon as I have time to log in and create one. Thanks Link Leave a comment

With all this rain we’ve been getting… [Jul. 24th, 2008|11:48 am] feoh Originally published at Blind, Not Dumb. You can comment here or there. Staring out the window just now at the torrential rains, I had a very vivid memory of a really pleasant day many years ago… ( Read the rest of this entry » ) Tags: personal Link Leave a comment

Lucy Liu, Mark Hamill Join Afro Samurai: Resurrection [Jul. 24th, 2008|11:29 am] animenews http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-07-24/lucy-liu-mark-hamill-join-afro-samurai-resurrection Samuel L. Jackson, Yuri Lowenthal also in Spike TV's January 2009 sequel Link Leave a comment

[Jul. 24th, 2008|09:21 am] freeasinbeer three times in the last month I've been passed on the bike trail as I head to work. Each time it's been by someone who was pedaling little or none. Electric-powered bicycles are clearly on the rise. I think I've seen one other in the last 5 years. Link Leave a comment

in which the majority of the people who share my genetics will never actually understand. [Jul. 24th, 2008|11:21 am] sirhc_warrior [ Current Mood | sad ] my brother came over to the house yesterday, probably to ask what was going on regarding our older brother's birthday tomorrow. when i came downstairs and realized he was there, and waved at him, he said "By the way, there's a dead bird on the lawn." -- mom and i had been watching a baby robin all day. he sat among the plants, or on our stoop, alone and confused and chirping for his parents. i finally went out to him in the afternoon, carrying some thawed blackberries and some hastily-dug worms, but he fled from me, flying strongly onto the tree, and then falling to the ground, and then flying again across the street... where i thought i saw a couple of adults approach him. -- i looked at mom and said "Oh no, not the baby robin!" and Joey answered "It didn't look like a robin." this raised my hopes until he added "It didn't have any color at all." because the babies are very light, only speckled red. my heart broke and i said "Oh, NOOOO-oooo." my brother, earning my semi-everlasting condemnation, echoed me in a taunting tone "Ohhh YE-eeSSSSssssss." i called him a bastard, and i went out to bury the baby robin. -- the anger left quickly, leaving that cold/betrayed feeling behind. before i went to bed, i tried to explain to mom why it had hurt, and how much i wished i'd grabbed the baby robin and taken it up to the wildlife rehab people in Pennelville. she held my hand, and said quite seriously "You take these things so hard. You can't save everything and everyone." -- btw, i invite anyone who was considering using "Comments" to lecture me on that topic, rather than send me a big mental hug, to go do something physically challenging to themselves. Link 9 comments|Leave a comment

Also Repressed: The Inevitability Of Senescence and Death [Jul. 24th, 2008|11:30 am] robin_d_laws There is some puzzlement, perhaps even consternation, in pundit land and the blogosphere that the poll numbers in the Presidential race haven't budged much since Obama became the presumptive Dem nominee. McCain has been sputtering from gaffe to gaffe. Obama’s Magical Mystery Tour continues to inspire rapturous coverage. Why doesn’t this change anything? The answer is one that any political junkie knows, but can’t bring himself to assimilate: anyone interested enough politics to be closely following the day-to-day coverage in July has already made up his or her mind. They’re committed to one of the two broad cultural proclivities we call political parties. (And if you’re in the tiny corps of people who belong to one tribe but are thinking of crossing over, you’re probably not going to ford that mental Rubicon until the very last moment.) Commentators, pros and ams alike, must repress this basic fact, because its corollary is that nothing they’re doing now matters. But barring a seismic event of the dead girl or live goat magnitude, you’re not going to see much movement until 1) the conventions (whose bumps are often temporary) and 2) the debates and 3) that fateful day in November when the curious gestalt entity called the American voter decides if, even with a 13% wrong track number, it can violate its deeply ingrained iconic values to vote for the smart guy over the fighter pilot. Tags: politics hut Link 9 comments|Leave a comment

Check out a copy of Socialist Worker? [Jul. 24th, 2008|10:47 am] nihilistic_kid Socialist Worker gave Under My Roof a rave, saying in part In real life, the years since 9/11 have seen not only utter insanity in what passes for mainstream political discourse, but also an increasing rejection of the worst elements of U.S. society--especially among young people. High school students around the country led walkouts for immigrant rights on May Day 2006; on the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, 250 students at Princeton High School walked out of classes in protest; and so-called Millennials, on college campuses, at work and in the military, are to the left of decades of prevailing social policy on issue after issue. It is young people like these, turning against the absurdity of American policies--within its borders and outside them--but often feeling alone in their critique, who I think will benefit the most from reading Under My Roof. Yeah, you may have noticed that, generally speaking, Socialist Worker reviews don't really review. My fave SW review is still the UK version's take on Independence Day — it went something like "This film is racist, sexist, jingoistic, rather juvenile, virtually totally nonsensical at any rate... and you must go see it immediately!" I don't know the author of my review, or at least don't remember anyone by that name. I wonder if she knows I was a comrade once upon a time... Link 2 comments|Leave a comment

Hetalia Axis Powers Web Manga Gets TV Anime [Jul. 24th, 2008|10:21 am] animenews http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-07-24/hetalia-axis-powers-web-manga-gets-tv-anime Hidekazu Himaruya's "cynical gag" story of Italy, other countries as bishōnen Link Leave a comment

Kitty scare [Jul. 24th, 2008|10:21 am] witchchild [ Current Mood | relieved ] Honey was giving Mom and I something of a scare yesterday evening. Normally her behavior is either sleep on a favorite spot or roll around and meow loudly until someone pets her. Yesterday she was restless but not keen on moving much, was in and out from the deck, moving like she was sore, and most notably NOT purring when petted. Her meows for attention were much more subdued but constant, and I was getting worried that she was having some sudden failure. She ended up perched on one of her sunning spots, on top of mom's dresser. An hour later I went in to pet her and she was alert and purring happily. Since then it's been like nothing happened. (She also had a vet visit last week and no medical issues were found.) At least she's fine now. Link 4 comments|Leave a comment

Holy Mackerel Night - Sunday July 27th [Jul. 24th, 2008|09:49 am] otakuden [ Current Mood | jubilant ] as a native Floridian, and even better, Vero Beach native to boot, i am all for Florida Beer Pride. ok, let me rectify that a bit - Good Florida Beer Pride. thankfully, good beer and Florida are growing ever more synonymous, and i couldn't be any happier for it. i remember what the beer scene in Florida was like just a few years ago. what it is now and what it can be in a few years has me all excited and giddy, like any good beer geek who is also a proud Floridan. Holy Mackerel Night at Hurricane Grill & Wings where: Hurricane Grill & Wings. Vero Beach, FL when: Sunday, July 27th time: 5pm - 9pm beer: Holy Mackerel Special Golden Ale and the NEW Mack In Black special guest: Bob Gordash, brewmaster and beer guru/founder of Holy Mackerel and Gordash Brewing. **swing by Hurricane Grill & Wings, try some Holy Mackerel Special Golden Ale and the BRAND NEW Mack in Black, Imperial Black Ale brewed with real Pomegranate. meet the man himself, Mr. Gordash, check out the Holy Mackerel merchandise, and partake of the good food. most of all, Have Fun ^_^ Link Leave a comment

Beer Tasting - Great Spirits - Saturday July 26th [Jul. 24th, 2008|09:27 am] otakuden [ Current Mood | hopeful ] i got in a ton of new beers at Great Spirits and that means lots of new beers to check out and taste. this week is a mix of craft and import, with a couple wines thrown in for variety. the beer tastings are also going to be a now weekly even every Saturday from 1pm-6pm. the time is an hour off from what it has been in the past, but this allows me to get everything ready before the beer tasting throwdown. they're fun, and i make sure the beers we taste, carry, get-in are good beers. they may not be to everyone's flavor profile, but they are good beers and there will be those who like them. the best way to expand your beer tasting palate is to taste before you buy, not to mention it is fun ^_^ Beer Tasting & Wine Blowout when: Saturday, July 26th where: Great Spirits. Vero Beach, FL time: 1pm - 6pm cost: FREE! beers: Zywiec Lager. Redpoint Amber Ale. Old No. 38 Stout. Delirium Nocturnum. wines: Goosecross Yountville Zinfandel. Mer Soleil Chardonnay Barrel Fermented 1999. **as with all our tastings, if you enjoy any of what you tried, Great Spirits will take 10% off the cost of the beer on the day of the tasting. for the two featured wines this Saturday, we will be taking at least 50% off MSRP as part of our Wine Blowout special. ***all clearance sales are final. Link Leave a comment

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