I LOVE this! I just wasted a lot of time being mesmerized.

Through the looking glass, alright then!

Play with the controls in the bottom left corner for more pretty/trippy/adorableness.

I got a direct from Edward Droste. Ha. Thanks, Lori. I like liking indie bands. They actually talk back to you. Now if I can eventually find something interesting to say to Owen Pallet and get a response I think my little heart will swell with happy.

All stemmed from an utterly random, unimportant discussion about how just after noon on July 8th we will have 12:34:56 7/8/9 on the clock. Happens only once over the course of history. No, wait, century, no, wait, decade, no WAIT hipgnosis6, Ed's right, century. I think. I wasn't going to argue with him anymore. ;P

Discuss, if you care to.

Also to discuss. Torchwood's Children of Earth series is starting and I'm debating waiting two weeks to watch it on BBC America in the comfy living room or downloading it and having to watch it uncomfortably on the computer. (Gah! I miss Sioned's lap top!) To consider: Hot Jack/Ianto snog.

I have to say that I rather enjoyed the first episode of Torchwood: Children of Earth. The Times preview suggests that having started at a canter, it picks up into a real sprint over the next four nights.

I see that it's written by Rusty. I hope that doesn't mean he's written himself into a corner and needs a "with a single bound, Jack was free" ending.

I fear it, but I remain hopeful.

Expect Jack to have heartburn.

After fighting it for some time, I have finally reached into my pocket and actually paid for some apps for my iPod Touch (instead of just scavving the free ones). I have bought an iLCARS and a PADD; the first is more interactive and pleasing, but the second provides actual information which may be potentially useful at some point. However, they both ensure my iPod is chock full of widdlywee at all times.

We are living in the future!

Caused by the Upheaval, Others are time anomalies; rather like independently functioning rips in time/space. They are not creatures or living beings, but are driven by, and act like, an electrical field in very slow motion. They can pass through anything except metal or metal-rich soils, and will "time" it – literally shaking it loose of the time/space barrier; the affected area will briefly exist in all times. This is harmful to anything living and devastating to anything sentient. It also tends to be very destructive to anything non-living as well - causing wood to rot and turn to ash, stone and cements to crumble, etc.

For a mental visual reference, think about slow motion lightning - slow enough that you can see each tendril extending and retracting. Most humans are completely incapable of seeing them, with tremendously rare exceptions (and because generally those who can see them are told they are "imagining things" from the time they are a child, no one who could see them would advertise the fact). Snow Unicorn riders can all see them. This is a function of two things: genetics, and the diet of Snow unicorn milk.

Metal causes an undesirable reaction with it, disrupting the energy field and essentially killing it. The Others have a very basic stimuli-reaction to it, and avoid it in a completely non-sentient kind of way.

A metal weapon will sever those tendrils, killing/dissolving everything "downstream" on the tendril. The Northerners often use slings armed with metal balls to pierce the base of large tendrils that come close to earth, destroying them. Metal being very rare in the north, shots are taken with extreme care and precision to avoid waste, and it is usually worth the effort to try to retrieve the shot afterwards, though not always possible. A shot through the source 'rip' of an Other will destroy the entire thing, though usually, only tendrils can be shaved off, as they are not often that close to the ground.

A person who has been touched by an Other, even brushed by the barest edge of a tendril, will have the affected area turned to ash (aged incredibly), and they will go completely, irreversibly, violently mad. Sometimes called "timed," "seeing time," "time-touched," or "time madness."

(The Empire's technical term for it is "dimensia" - based off the word dimension in reference to the 4th dimension of time which causes the madness, not dementia, though the sound is the same.)

They are surprisingly gorgeous - glowing and even colorful. They are somewhat similar to northern lights - these also exist here, this world has a similar magnetic shield, but would be completely overshadowed by a good Others show, which would be brighter and more sky-encompassing. They are common in the North, and even in the South, high up in the sky usually, out of dangerous range or possible contact, but still visible. (The idea of this will shock and cause fear in many of the Southerners; their massively powerful invisible enemy is just floating around up there all the time...)

The movement of the Others is usually slow, and affected by undetectable currents that act much like weather - storms, gentle breezes, complete stillness in not-quite random patterns. These currents are completely undetectable by humans - Northern or Southern - and can only be observed by watching the movement of Others. This is one reason, along with the deadliness of their climate, that the Northerners study weather so closely, and keep records of it in their history so that trends can be observed - so that they can try to predict the movement of the Others and know when they will be close to the ground and dangerous. Their observations have shown a lot of similarities to regular weather, and they will discover that metal concentrations greatly affect Otherwind patterns, much like mountains and oceans affect real weather patterns.

It is because of these "Otherweather" patterns of the world that the Others are common nearer to the ground north of the mountain ranges and not so common South of them - there are no less in the South, but they don't usually have such violent or frequent Otherweather, which drives the Others down to a level where they are dangerous to humans. This weather is generally extremely bad over ice fields to the north of the snow-unicorn riders, and many of their observations and conclusions have come from study of this area.

Their movements are also dictated by concentration. They have a lazy dislike for touching or being close to each other, and as the concentration of Others increases, they are more likely to get down into the levels where they are dangerous to humans and other lifeforms.

The presence of Others has limited the pursuit of flight technology on Torn World, and has also made high-flying birds and high-altitude animals very rare.

(There is more information about others on our contributors-only wiki. This post will be filtered to registered contributors after today. Find out more about Torn World at our website. Follow us at twitter.)

So, I dressed up nice on Saturday, and did my hair (now purple, in honor of Mollie Sugden), and did I even take a single picture of it? Of course not. So, instead, you get a crafting update!

I finished my Hufflepuff scarf! Hooray! I will be able to wear it to the movie! I'm excited. I actually finished it a couple of weeks ago, but I'm including it so I'll have a picture to show :)

Currently on the knitting front, I'm test knitting an *awesome* sock pattern. I am one inch into the cuff, so I should be done with it soon. I think there's a second pattern for the second sock... I'm not sure if I'll be allowed to test knit that, too, or if I'll have to wait until it comes out. I'll tell you more about it when it's available, since it's probably mean to talk about something you can't get to, yet (nyah!)

I also am plugging away at the pegasus shawl! The pattern and I had reached an impasse, but a message to the pattern designer got me figured out! Hooray for Ravelry! So, I'm moving forward on that, again. And to replace the mindless stockinette of the HP scarf, I've started a Gathered Pullover for Nancy. It starts out with > 200 stitches per row, straight stockinette for 10". Should keep me occupied for a while!

On the sewing front, I have one skirt mostly laid out and ready to sew (I measured and measured, and then the ruffles were too short. Solution: an extra row of ruffles!). I have the fabric for another two skirts (one is for a gift, the other is for me. But everyone else is making new skirts for this weekend! I want a new skirt, too! *whine*)

So, that's what's keeping me busy! (once again, I'm just hoping that writing it all out will get me motivated! :)

http://io9.com/5053881/zombie-feminism

Hey - I think it would be fun to watch and discuss a couple of these movies - I'm thinking Deadgirl and Fido (sorry, but I can't make myself watch Zombie Strippers. I can't get past the title- and Jenna Jameson). Would anybody be interested in doing that? I think it would be kind of interesting.

I had an important realization the other day, and have been working through the various implications since then.

I realized that I miss the feeling of being cherished, of being an important priority to someone else, of having someone else take delight in simply being around me and making choices to be with me and share with me rather than doing other things.

This realization is rooted in processing I've been doing around romantic relationships, but I gradually realized that it had implications beyond that. I've experienced it most vividly in romance, but it's also a quality of close, active friendships.

I don't have many close, active friendships these days.
I don't have any old friends whom I see regularly.
I have only a couple of friends who I feel I can call up any time, for any reason or no reason at all -- and they are all long distance.

This situation is very much my own responsibility.

I’ve been very indrawn over the past couple of years due to my grief. I haven’t had much energy for cherishing anyone else, and I certainly can’t blame others for not investing energy and emotion in me if I haven’t been in a position to reciprocate. Black holes are not fun to hang out with, and they're emotionally exhausting.**

The only way to change that is to start cultivating my old friendships again and building new ones -- and making sure that I'm more focused on giving and being available than I have been.

I do know that I have friends who sincerely care about me.
I am not boo-hooing that "nobody cares".
This is about having let the ties that bind go slack from my side and wanting to change my behavior.


I'm never going to be someone who spends a lot of time "out and about."
I'm still an introvert with limited social energy.
I don't know what the best balance of "me" time and "friends" time will be.
But I do know that if I keep hoarding my emotional resources the way I have been I'm going to end up with very few friends at all.


I'm really hoping that is not coming across like a whine, nor as if I'm fishing for reassurances that people care about me. I do know people care. This is about me taking responsibility for feeling lonely, and deciding to do something to change that.


** oakmouse deserves several dozen gold medals for hanging on with me through the worst time of my life.

Most overblown sentence ever:

And at this blistering time and in this combustible place, he will find the most elusive weapon of all is the truth.

let's see who was born on this fine day
Jon Pertwee - Dr who fame..he was one of the doctors
Jim Gaffigan- he's actually kinda funny!
Jessica Hahn- took down jim baker
Shelley Duvall- loved her in The Shining (original version0

Oh yeah and Charles!- Most Excellent friend and now I hear able to collect Social Security! Ha ha ha!
Happy Birthday good sir!

Some friends of mine are becoming Festival Promoters...

I know what you are thinking; some of you are thinking "Oh no, I've got no more money for Festivals __next__ year, let alone this" and the rest are thinking "What's the attraction of camping with teenagers and getting everything I own soaked in order to see my heros the size of matchsticks whilst surrounded by aforementioned teenagers making me feel old?". Okay there may be some of you thinking "Woohoo!" but I reckon that most of you are in column a or b and nowhere near column c.

Anyway, this festival is:

a) Free

b) Indoors

and for good measure

c) For charity.

So what do you need to do?

It's easy really, head on over to:

The Invisible Festival (although the "Essential Festival Organiser's Guide" is not quite available yet it will be in the next couple of days)

and / or

Download the early press-release here

and then of course you can follow them on Twitter:

@InvisibleFest

They are __about__ to announce a bunch of really cool stuff, and frankly this is a really cool idea that is going to raise money for Cancer Research UK and give you fun at the same time, so why not give it a waggle?

(apologies to those who subscribe to my WP blog as you are about to get this again when I X-Post; I do try to keep these things that crossover to a minimum)

Am at work this Saturday, will not be in Birmingham.

Friends,
Put in application for Russian visa...Big event today
will be dentist having lost a bit of dental work when I
finally learned how to floss on Saturday. Well I expect
it will be nothing but I mean big as in temporary horizon
of day,as it were.
I took a photograph of a lake beside the road, part of the
New York water system likely, one of the series of lakes
around Croton and Kensico. Anyway thinking of what attracted
me to the little lake, I felt it was the upper right corner
where there are fallen branches and also the suggestion of
dark woods, so I cut the image down. The result suggests to
me something like a painting, if you will here it is in
larger size.( Read more... )
But if it were like a painting, like a painting by who?
I thought of Frederic Church and Thomas Cole and while doodling
around find a Thomas Cole painting I have not thought about
--perhaps even have not seen. Likely you have or perhaps not
but anyway it is The Titan's Goblet and it gives a
fantastic and romantic image of a world withing a world which
is not easy or perhaps even possible to explain in a simple
way. Here it is.( Read more... )
I used the expression Rimworld in the subject head... That
is a title of a concept used by Larry Niven the science
fiction writer, Ringworld and Ringworld Engineers, which is
quite a different concept--an artificial ring structure(like
a dyson sphere's section) around a star, with civilizations and
forests and oceans larger than earth. Those who live there have
forgotten that it is an artifact ... rather as we expect the
residents of Cole's rim have.

Niven's Ringworld is a strip a million miles across and
600 million miles in circumferance.
1000 mile high walls retain the atmosphere. its mass is
equivalent to the total planetrary mass of our atmosphere so
likely the builders used up the planets of a system in
making it. For a discussion of the engineering involved
http://www.orbitalvector.com/Megastructures/Ringworlds/RINGWORLDS.htm
scroll down to the surface image of a Ringworld ocean and
then the following.

I have added an artist's conception of Ringworld

As always welcome all your response to photo or to Cole
or for that matter Niven or to whatever you are thinking about
today,yours
+Seraphim
.
A slightly different crop of the photo larger
within the post.

Ellen Million Graphics

It took all day Sunday, but artistpay is entirely calculated, all recorded, and all statements have been mailed. I wait two weeks now for stragglers to make up their minds, and send out the actual payments.

I've been rather cheerful about the task - I keep thinking to myself: "I probably only have to do this once more! Horrah!" (Though the truth is, I have a lot of overstock, so I may do a little into next year, too...)

Everyone has been really supportive of the choice, and I'm happier and happier with it the further in that I go.

Still need to get through orders, that's for this evening. I did do all the invoicing, as part of the whole artistpay exercise, and I've collected all the supplies from the connex box.

The Torn World post today will be on Others.

Art and Authoring

Not a lot to report for the weekend - I took Saturday completely off of everything (we went to Star Trek in the theater!) but did a little sketching.

This is Emeroma, a Torn World scientist.



Health and home

My cough would be more gone, I suspect, if it hadn't been so smokey lately. It lingers. Not bad, and it no longer keeps me awake, but still a little nagging.

And, as promised, photos of my new car:



Her name is Platina Valentina, in honor of Platina of the Metal Men comics (I wanted a sexy, shiny cyborg name) and Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space. Valentina comes from a Latin word meaning 'healthy and strong.' We'll probably call her Tina for short. She is pictured next to Gwen, the car we traded in, whom I loved dearly and served us very well indeed.

In housier news, only one phone in the house works, due to the installation of the new window. The wiring ran right under the window, and we took a (wrong) gamble that the line we were cutting was to a box we had abandoned. We have a solution, but it will take a little wiring by yours truly, and I need some parts for it. In the meantime, no message machine. I hardly ever check it anyway, and rarely answer the phone, so... ah well.

Plans

Work! I'm up a little early to see Jake off to the airport for a 2-day Barrow trip, and I'm going to go into work early to get reports out. I have an eye appointment at 1:45, and if I can get everything done by then, so much the better. (Though I honestly doubt it...)

Orders in the evening. Torn World post in a bit.

I realise that people think that everything I write about the office is made up or exaggerated, but most of it is true, if embellished for entertainment.

See here my brand new Wombat Box:

My grotty coffee mug provides scale. I wonder just how endangered the tree in question is? I could print off more notes and drop them into the box several times a day if that would help....

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Edited to add: Before anyone takes the piss, the cutesy picture of the bear was given to me by my niece when she was about 8 and I have kept it since, OK? OK.

I'm only answering this because it's funny. Now quit asking me who Patrick Wolf is. He's impossible to describe and I've collected enough new fans for him to earn me a kick-back already.

;)

But I do love that this means non-lj people are still keeping up with my journal regularly. I forget I have a bit of a readership until I get an email or run into someone in person and they start talking about things I've written here. It's a little unnerving. But flattering. :)

Patrick's name for his cat is almost as ridiculous as the one for his fish. http://twitpic.com/9g9yi

Too damn adorable.

Went to a great [filtered content] workshop this afternoon, had fun, learned some things about the topic and some things about myself. All good.

My body is tired. In addition to the 10 miles of walking in the past three days, I've also been doing PT for my knee and strength training. I am deep tired.

Tomorrow night is a women's group dinner.
Tuesday night is Soldier's Heart book group.
Wednesday afternoon I'm going to Earth Sanctuary to water trees -- my way of giving back after all the good I've experienced there. I'm also getting a free annual pass as their way of saying thanks, but I would have done it without the pass.

I still need to create the brochure for my SD practice. Will do that tomorrow.

But I don't think I'll walk tomorrow.

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/piratecruise.asp

Is a Russian company ioffering luxury yacht cruises along the Somali coast which provide passengers with the opportunity to shoot pirates?