Achievement Unlocked

I've never been a big video game person, I can't really sit for hours at a time playing, not even when I was a kid and anyone who was anyone had Nintendo related repetitive stress injuries. Mostly because I'm not very good at them and am easily frustrated.

Though when I broke my arm in third grade I did spend enough time with Super Mario World that I got a really heinous blister from my cast rubbing the join between my thumb and hand. Totally worth it though.

The big exception was The Legend of Zelda and related games. And it wasn't just me, my dad and sister would stay up to the crack of dawn chasing down Triforce pieces and trying to defeat Ganon. I distinctly remember because not hanging out with people in college because I needed to go home and play Wind Waker. Priorities. Clearly I was super cool.

I bring this up because I seem to have imprinted on the sound effects of the game.

Mater bought some dish towel embroidery kits and, despite a long history of not really jumping on board the embroidery band wagon I decided to give one a go. See, I like the look of embroidery, and I know I've made half hearted attempts to learn before but never really made it very far for no real reason. Besides laziness, obviously.

Since the pattern was mostly satin stitch - the one thing I sorta know how to do- I went ahead a stitched away, thinking I'd ignore the rest of the directions and just satin it up. Except then I didn't. Looking at the not terribly detailed stitch guide that came with the kit I had a sort of a-ha moment and the next thing I knew I'd done a lazy daisy.

And I swear to jeebus, I heard this in my head:



I managed the stem stitch next and while neither are very impressive for their breed, it's more than just constant satin stitch.

And now I have an embroidered dish towel.


ITEM RECIEVED!

Latent Hipsterism

My iPhone is pretty much my primary camera since it's just about always nearby and for a phone the camera is actually pretty good. The problem is that there are a million apps that encourage my awkward love of filters. I resisted for so long because slapping a 'vintage' filter onto a mediocre photo doesn't do as much to improve it as I think it does.  But I love it so much.

I finally gave up the fight against hipster aesthetics (am I subverting the hipster paradigm if I love filters unironically?) and downloaded a million of them and have been entertaining myself by taking a million pictures non stop for the last few days.

Unsurprisingly, the first handy victims were the kittens:

Sally looking less than amused at my prodding

Sleepy babies.

We went out to The Boyfriend's parents' place this weekend and I took full advantage of the pretty scenery and his mom's flowers:

Drought's hitting the lake pretty hard this year.

The Monkey lined up her collection of Angry Birds plushies next to her and wanted to take a group photo. So, of course, I was only encouraged.

Apparently the holding out her feet/hands is a think now.

Making a picture I took this morning look faded, beat up and a million years old makes no sense, but I can't stop.

Oh, who's that at the door? Flowers? FILTER!

Thanks, Boyfriend!

I wonder if it's genetic, as Pater loves to antique things when dyeing leather, as is evidenced by this super awesome journal cover he made me for Christmas.

I didn't edit this at all and it was hard, let me tell you

Between this and my determination to sign up for every social networking site and then never use them, I think I may need to check myself into rehab for abusing technological time wasters. In semi-related news, google+? Eight and a half million times better than facebook. As soon as I have more than two friends on it I'm totally quitting facebook with their creepy privacy policies and sketchy views on intellectual property rights forever. I for one welcome our google overlords.

Catch Up

It seems like lately all of my entries (when there are entries) seem to begin with something along the lines of 'I am for sure this time not dead, blog friends.'. So, yes. For sure this time not dead.

Just incredibly boring! I figure if there's nothing of note in my paper journal since the last time I posted then really. Not exactly a whole lot going on.

I suppose I could keep you posted on all the mini-series I've been watching on Netflix, but that somehow seems even sadder than radio silence.

But some things have happened, or will be happening that I will gladly prattle on about.

First being, I got awesome new toys from Mater and Pater for my birfday. An iPhone 4, with which I've been taking lots and lots of five second videos of the cats being cats. Also, using FaceTime to talk to Pater because I don't think we'll ever get over finally having a tv phone. Now, on to the jetpacks!

And Mater indulged me in my nail art semi obsession by giving me a Konad set. Nail art is one of those things I feel vaguely ashamed about because it is just such a preteen girl thing to do. I rationalize it by telling myself that if people didn't have real jobs where they had to be professional looking it would be more common.

I'm sure that's not true, but please don't burst my bubble of rationalization.

But! If you have been hankering for some DIY nail art I really can't recommend stamping enough. I mean, there's a bit of a learning curve, but nothing compared to sitting down with tiny brushes and free handing it. This is my second go at using it:


Obviously there are still some problems I need to work out (like centering the image) but I mean. Second go and it doesn't look completely stupid.

Assuming you don't think any form of nail art is stupid looking. Which, not exactly unreasonable.

The other thing which is happening hasn't actually started happening yet. It is nerdy and silly but one of those things I'd like to try just to see if my nerdy/silly skills are up to it: the 24 hour Read-A-Thon.

Based on the advice of past participants I figured my best bet is to have a heap of brain candy type books all set to dig through. You'd think with my out of control book collection this wouldn't be too hard, but I'm feeling a distinct lack of inspiration. So, if anyone has recommendations for light and fluffy reads that won't ask me to think too hard I'd appreciate it.

To wrap things up on to kittens. Some how, some how we still have Penny and Bianca, two fosters we've had since August. I just don't get it. And now we're coming up on the beginning of kitten season so it looks like these old ladies will be hanging around for quite a while.

For comparison, Penny is the brown tabby in the middle of this kitten pile:



And here she is now, decidedly less tiny:



The only upside is that for some reason Fat Bill actually likes these two kittens, so there's a little less drama on the cat side of the household. So, I suppose if there were kittens that were ideal for hanging around forever Penny and Bianca are them.

Anyone want a cat?

Everything Must Go to my book shelf

Borders is apparently filing for bankruptcy. Part of this includes (unsurprisingly) closing a ton of stores. As a selfish creature, the ones I'm concerned about are all of the Austin locations. Sad face.

And while this makes me sad for the obvious reasons - people need jobs, I dislike leaving the house so having a book store nearby is obviously better, it's a book store, even if it is a large chain, and any book store closing is a small tragedy. Because books.

The small upside is the oh crap, we're closing sale. Oh yes. Because I need to have even more books if I'm to realize my plan of eventually building bookshelves out of books. I understand that's a stupid plan, but it's really the only storage solution for my obsessive book hoarding that I can come up with. Bookshelves are expensive, yo.

My spending spree wasn't at all helped by the fact that I hadn't been to buy books in a while and so had quite the list. Seeing me attempt to self edit choices was probably at once pathetic and terribly amusing. There was much put upon sighing and weighing options in my hands and looking at the fluorescents as if they had any sort of opinion.

And what resulted is most certainly on the wrong side of nutty. But I'm rather proud of myself because it wasn't as nutty as I wanted it to be. Way to tone down the crazy, self!




I know. I know. It's still the definition of a ridiculous stack.

Just in case anyone's curious, here's a more readable list:

First Lord's Fury - Jim Butcher
Cold Magic - Kate Elliot
13, rue Therese - Elena Mauli Shapiro
A Short History of Everything - Bill Bryson
Machine of Death - edited by North, Bennardo and Malki !
The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear - Walter Moers
Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
The Years of Rice and Salt - Kim Stanley Robinson
Ghost Stories - edited by Peter Washington
The Best of Wodehouse
Blackout - Connie Willis
All Clear - Connie Willis

I hardly know where to start first. So many favorites! So many new things!

Also, you get a hint of this from the ridiculous stack photo, but here's how awful the cover for Rebecca is:




Hahahaha! I'm not usually one to quibble about cover design - for the most part I'm more interested in, you know, the actual book.* But man, what design team decided that a classic Harlequin cover minus the Fabio was the way to go? I can't believe that anyone involved had read a synopsis, let alone the actual book. Too funny.

I did notice something during my excess of materialism though. I used to be one of those people that would head off happily to the book store or library with nothing in particular in mind and pick up some randomness. Where now that I'm an internet addict I primarily have lists of recommended books. I still occasionally grab something random (and have found some real winners) which makes me think I ought to try that more, as even with all the careful reading of reviews from a plethora of sources I've ended up with some real stinkers.

In other words, why go through the trouble of researching if I have as much success with the 'well that looks fun' method? And because I'm nosy, how do you pick books?

* To be fair, I will always love a good cover, tired platitudes aside. It's the mediocre or just plain bad ones that usually slip beneath the radar. I like pretty pictures, ok?

Science, A Word Please.

I love living in the future, don't get me wrong.  But not gonna lie, there have been some disappointments.  I mean, jet packs aren't widely available nor are flying cars.  I may be able to have a Roomba to vacuum for me, but I'd rather have Rosie from the Jetsons.  This is only marginally assuaged by being able to carry the internet in my pocket and rarely getting lost because the car knows where it's going (for the most part) now.

But I think I've come up with a way for Science to make it up to me that I'm not currently writing this from Moon Base 37.

Penny and Bianca, two of our fosters, are in the full swing of the 3 AM crazies.  Every night.  Every night they entertain themselves by thundering around the bedroom and are really making way too much noise given their actual mass.  I compared them to tiny elephants.  And then it struck me: tiny elephants!

I want a tiny elephant. If we can make goats that produce spider silk in their milk and if I could manage to make glow in the dark bacteria in my 'Biology for Non-Science Majors' course when I was 19 surely we can get on making exotic pocket pets.

I rather imagine it would go something like this:

Walks are very important for your elephant's health.

Once you start thinking about tiny exotic animals your mind will reel at the possibilities.  Can you imagine having a whale small enough to keep in a fish tank?  Sign me up for that, please.

You can already buy brine shrimp at the pet store.

When telling Pater of my cunning plan he said that he'd rather have saber tooth house cats.  I can see the appeal, and it would probably be more feasible than my dream tiny elephant.

Tuxedo markings - the classiest cat coloring.

So just a heads up, Science.  You're on notice.  Start making my dreams come true.

Klingons and Kittens.

I'll actually brush my hair on the day.

 Finally finished the costume.  I seriously think it was cursed.  I present the evidence bullet point style (never mind that the so called evidence is really just me not being very good at this sewing business):

• Massive failure at reading directions had me not placing a piece on the center fold that really needed to be there.
• Of course the fabric shop had only just enough yardage of the original material for the pattern, so emergency trip back to pick out a new one fabric and buy plenty.
• Actually get to turn on sewing machine go to start and I manage to epically botch up first bust dart.  Stitching refuses to be picked out.  Try for a while, Mater tries for a while then informs me that she's only succeeded in making a hole.
• Mater entirely takes it over at this point and when I came back the next evening she presents me with a mostly constructed dress.
• That, despite my measurements firmly placing me in a size 14, is decidedly sack-like.
• Mater takes it in an ungodly amount.

At that point, while I know more things went wrong-ish someone who actually knew what they were doing was now totally in control.  Which is why I have a costume at all.  I went and bought a huge red t-shirt with the idea that if I couldn't get it together and make the dress I could do a little t-shirt surgery and have a (ridiculously short) back up costume. 

I think when Mater saw what I had in mind she decided that she had to do everything in her power to save my dignity.

She insists that she was enjoying herself and that it really was no problem that, despite how gung ho I was about making the dress myself, she was in fact doing it for me.  No one was exactly shocked that once again Mater came to my rescue when my ineptitude got the better of me but this time I honestly did try.

Here's what I managed to do all by myself:

Oh yeah.

 Yes, I successfully cut out a bit of felt and glued on some glitter.  It's like I'm some sort of wizard, I know.

And now the question is, what shoes do I wear?  I have two options: flat leather boots courtesy of Kate, or traditional go-go boots inherited from a drag queen after her last performance of Proud Mary.  I think the flats look better, but they've not got a lot of traction and what if I have to run away from unfriendly aliens?  Or, more accurately, disgruntled comic shop staff trying to get me to stop drooling on the Absolute Sandman display case.

Oh did I not mention?  The party I'm going to, it's at my local comic shop.  And is a midnight write-in for NaNoWriMo.

Yeah.

At any rate, shoes.  Option one:

After years of wearing heels flats feel unnatural.

Option two:

Go-Go-tastic

And now, kittens.  This is Charlie, the tiniest, loudest, most pathetic of kittens.  I kind of love him, even if he won't shut up ever.  And is in the middle of the gross kitten phase, where he makes an absolute mess of himself eating but doesn't know how to bathe himself yet.

Food-y Face!

He's really needy, so we see this a lot.  He's seriously undersized for his age so he sort of has this little big head thing going on and his face is all ears and eyes.  I think he's the best.

In other kitten news, Penny and Bianca are still hanging around.  Really hope they get adopted soon, because the older they get the less interest they'll have.  Which is sad because they are some of the sweetest, most loving kittens we've had.

Snuggling at the adoption event.

I mean, look at them.  How could someone not want to take one of these ladies home?  Bah.  I'm surprised they're still with us, their brother went the same week he was up for adoption.  Hopefully the adoption event tomorrow will go better than they have been.  Why does no one love kittens this month?

To Boldy Go

I've decided to fulfill a life long dream.  But before I can tell you what it is I have to make a confession that will startle few people: I'm a giant nerd.  No, really.  I'm co-hermitating with an engineer and yet I routinely out-geek him.  As long as it doesn't involve physics (unless normal force is referred to as 'gremlin force', then I might be able to get somewhere) I am a trivia knowing, comic book reading, fandom bouncing dork queen who talks in internet memes.

My idea of a good party is when no one looks at me funny when I start ranting about the way Star Wars follows the archetypal hero's journey as laid out by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces and how the prequels fell flat because Lucas moved away from the monomyth after I've had a few glasses of wine.

I should probably try to get out more.

But back to that life long dream thing.  Since it's become obvious that I probably won't live to see the formation of the United Federation of Planets let alone get to join Starfleet the next best thing is Halloween.

7 year old resa is crushed.  CRUSHED

 

And so, this year will see my debut as the original series' Lt. Uhura.  YES.  I am determined.  Even if the Boyfriend is now nervous that someone we know will find out about this since I'm letting the internet know that not only am I a Trekkie but I'm that sort of Trekkie.  Thanks for the support, jackass.*

It seems that this costume is going to take a certain amount of determination.  Because while I could go buy a licensed  Star Trek uniform that seems silly.  It would be expensive, made out of awful material and I'd like a little more fabric between my butt and the world.  I want to be just like Uhura in a lot of ways, but having to wear matching underpants because they would inevitably be shown is too much.

So, I've been on a quest.  To find a long sleeved a-line dress pattern.  That had the right sort of silhouette.  And could be made out of a lightweight material because Texas = Mercury.  And would be within my still beginner sewing abilities.  It's been harder than I expected.  I found a few candidates, though they may not meet the 'within my abilities' stipulation.  I foresee several evenings of Mater patiently pushing me out of the way and recommending I go watch TV with Pater after having to see me flap about because 'this is hard and I'm awful and I'm going to ruin it forever and then kill myself in a tragic sewing machine accident because wharrgarrbl.'  Sometimes I don't know how she puts up with me.

I also went and got a new hair cut.  I told my stylist that I've been on a mod kick lately, which is true, but didn't tell her that Star Trek's what's kicked off the renewed interest.

Silly photos are silly.

It's not straight up mod, I decided that since it'd be a pretty drastic change from my usual 'it looks kinda good even if it is sticking up' cut and I needed to ease into it if I were to be expected to style it.  By which I mean brush it.  Ever.  And hey, I've got actual bangs for the first time ever.  Wheeee.



*He wants to point out since I'm airing our business that he's a funny jackass, not a mean jackass.  I tend to agree.