Shiny . . .things . . . everywhere . . . must concentrate! Gahhh!

I've been thinking a lot about the things people make. Handmade, lovingly crafted, interesting and fascinating things . . . and once again I've been spending too much time enviously ogling other's productivity and not being very productive myself.

I think that's all about to change. With the exception of the exceptionally hot days we've been having, I intend to work a little bit on at least one project per day (more on the weekends). Already I feel my motivation rising with the approach of Fall and, specifically, Halloween. Before the season really begins I'll have time to practice my sewing, costume designing, needleworking, adhesive using, jerryrigging, character makeup applying and anything else I left out.

Because the only thing I've finished in the last few months has been my bag and it is a simple thing.


I'm also working on a test embroidery piece to get back into the swing of working thread. I don't really like the evenweave I'm using, but so far it's a cute design.


Now, the list of projects I will hopefully be finishing by winter:

Halloween Costumes
- Martian from 'Santa Claus Conquers the Martians'
- Miss Argentina from 'Beetle Juice'
- Undead Girl Scout from Isabella's imagination

Embroidery
- Demon vs. Possessed Starfish (see above)
- An original design by Igor (hopefully)

Bookbinding
- Finsh up a couple coverless textblocks I have lying around
- Make Coptic bound book
- Exchange bookbinding lesson for message (I really need a message)

To Much? Did I mention I also want to take Dutch lessons and start to try and get one of my stories published? Well, I figure if I make my list huge I might actually get half of it done.

And finally, some internets offerings I've been wasting time on lately:
Crappy Taxidermy
Awkward Family Photos
Engrish
WTF Costumes

Carnesky Might Just Be My New Personal Hero

From the British Council site:
"Olivier Award winning show woman Marisa Carnesky's work explores themes of cultural identity, sexuality and war through the lens of magic, illusion, fairground, urban legends, conspiracy theories and burlesque. She has been making inter-disciplinary performance work for over a decade. . ."

Plus she put together this: Carnesky's Ghost Train


Finally, I will always be a sucker for an odd circus.

I Love Free Plays

Just saw APIS at Imago theater, it was oddly wonderful and I'm appreciating it the more I think about it.

There were no words, not even really dance, just movement and the idea of what people might be like if (like bees) our only goals in life were work, sex and money (for bees the last one should read 'honey').

What's that? You say that those are the main goals of a majority of people in the world? Well, I don't know about that, but I do know if people were bees, we would make some fucked up bees.

The whole thing was nicely choreographed and was smart enough to have some humor to keep it from getting too drab or depressing. I saw the dress rehearsal for free, but if you think that human's as bees in a prison in a beehive acting out a story set to epic music sounds interesting at all it's worth your while to spend the ten bucks to go see it when it opens.

This Just In . . .

I love Dr. Horrible!

If you have not seen this modern masterpiece (and I never use that term lightly - usually only once a month), then see it NOW!

That is all.

P.S. If you are a complete and utter nerd (as always, Chrispy, I mean that in the best way possible) then you should also check out The Guild. Even if you aren't an online gamer - which, for the record, I am not - it's hilarious.

2009 (add appropriate number of exclamations)

Happy New Year!

I feel it, this is the year!

For what?

For . . . well . . . you know, the . . .

Oh, bugger off.

Long-time No-post

As usual and no-shit.

This is nothing new if you'll refer to the start of my last post "2 Months Gone: Not bad - considering how long I sometimes go without posting." Yeah, this time it's been closer to 6 months.

I've come to the conclusion that I spend *way* too much time looking at other people's creativity and not enough time being creative myself. With the amount of time I spend reading, cruising posts on Etsy and DeviantArt (the list actually goes on and on including BoingBoing, Craftster, Make, Instructables and has now expanded to include gawking at others' failed creativity through sites like Cakewrecks - Ooo I haven't looked at that for a while I go take a look - damn you Toby!), and watching good shows online, I should really be dedicating more time to my own writing and crafts.

Yet if you will take a moment to examine the preceding paragraph and do a surface analysis of its structural and grammatical makeup, you will see displayed the type of state my mind is in these days. Hell, just reread that last sentence and it should tell you something.

In short, I am all over the place. I want to write, I want to book bind, I want to embroider and cross stitch and learn crewel, I want to make costumes, I want to rollerskate and bike ride, I want to write a comic, I want to read comics endlessly, I want to finish my crappy fantasy series I inadvertently started reading and start reading about the sociology of crime. I want to do nothing but play video games and I want to get serious about learning Dutch. I can hardly decide to do one thing when I feel what I actually want to do is something else.

I also have tons of pics to post and I will post them at some point, but first I need to go in medias res (in a way) with some projects and finish them off. What I might also do is repost The Adventures of R in this very blog. I wrote this short series of very short stories about three years ago, starting during the time when I was living in the Bay Area. The main character is R and the stories are oddly sappy little snippets of things I felt, but never saw, during a misplaced time in my life.

'Course, by the time I get around to writing my next entry, things may have changed. We'll see.

2 Months Gone

Not bad - considering how long I sometimes go without posting.

Igor is off in Amsterdam for a month. He's only been gone for a week and already I have finished four books (plan to have a fifth done by the end of this weekend), started a new job, finished up the fourth season of doctor who and written more on melancholia than I have in the last three months combined. Besides work and bike rides and the occasional drink, I have spent very little time outside my house.

This all leads me to the conclusion that I am a hermit and when I have someone else to be a hermit with I am a very unproductive hermit, but as an actual solitary hermit I am quite a little dynamo.

It also means I am not seeing my friends as much as I should, which I apologize for profusely. Just because I don't call or seem to want to hang out does not mean I don't like you anymore - it just means I am probably at home engaged in something geeky beyond words and I've assumed no one else could handle the level of geekiness of the activity.

On that note, may I just say, that the new Doctor Who series is brilliant and I hope it never ever ends or gets crappy.

I intend to do a catch up post with pictures of zombies and camping and attacking interdimensional silver dolphins very soon. Until then, it is past my bed time - or really just time to read some more 'til I fall asleep.