As some of you are probably aware, I've decided to be a participant in the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) event this year. Things have been going smoothly since I began on the first, unfortunately, I've run headlong into a brick wall that I'm very familiar with.

( Wham! )

I may try to find a way to put this on Facebook or MySpace. For now, it will be just here.



._._.

I keep forgetting to post the few pictures I've got from this year's bonfire. All in all it was a good time. Unfortunately, the rain delayed the lighting of the fire until around 2AM/1AM.

I went as a Victorian Ghost Hunter. Yeah, it looks very similar to my costume last year, but honestly, I didn't know what I was going to be until I put it on.

The best part (in my opinion) was creating a 'working' Ectoplasmic Manifestation and Fluctuation Detector (EMF Detector for short). An old brass wall lamp forms the majority of the device, parts of a brass desk lamp, a bulb and partial reflector from a flashlight, as well as its switch, and viola! The leather pouch was made by my father many, many years ago, possibly even before I was born. It was used to conceal the 6-volt battery powering the device.

( Here's the pics that you may or may not have seen. )

Well, even though I only barely got the recommended daily dosage of words, it was much harder today than last night. The entire thing doesn't feel right, at least it's something, though. Resisting the urge to go back and edit, but that's for later.

I'm going to put what I've got now up for your reading pleasure. If you've got any thoughts, please don't hesitate to chime in, please.

Today's Total Goal: 3,333 words
Today's Actual: 3,481 words

._._.

It's been forever since I put anything up here. Only just having the desire to write anything at all come back to me.

I've decided to move the majority of my fiction work over to a new blog. It's going to be just fiction, no journaling, or anything like that. If you're interested, fell free to check it out: Beginnings & Endings. (I don't know why the formatting has been removed on the most recent entry. I'll have to correct that soon.) Currently, the only things posted are things you've probably seen here at some point in time. That will change soon enough, though.

I'm also participating in National Novel Writing Month (I really hope that link works.) It seems a bit daunting right now, I mean 50,000 words sounds like quite a bit. I'd encourage anyone who likes to write to try it out.

The (possibly 13th) Annual Martin Samhain Bonfire went better than expected. It rained in the morning for quite a bit. Then it stopped for a while to let the trick-or-treaters make their runs. Then the rain came back with a vengeance. We had hoped to have an early start to the fire, but the weather didn't cooperate until around 2AM.

I didn't really know for sure what my costume was going to be until I actually put it on. I think I finally decided that I was a Victorian Ghost Hunter. I even built my own (somewhat) working Ectoplasmic Manifestation & Fluctuation Detector, out of a couple of vintage-y lamps. It looks pretty cool, and the fact that I built it in about three hours, and it worked (meaning the light I rigged up in it actually lit up and was hooked to a switch) was really cool.

I'll get some pictures up as soon as I can. I didn't take any pictures of the fire this year, or any photos on Hallowe'en at all for that manner. I hope that Tuckey got some good shots, though. At one point the fire was taller than a two story building. Awesome!

I did put up some photos from Devil's Night/Day over on Facebook, and I'll get them up to Deviant Art tomorrow, hopefully.

So, I guess that's it for now. Hope everyone's doing well.

Oh, also, about the fiction and NaNoWriMo, I'm not going to be posting any of it over on the WordPress blog, but you should be able to see parts of it here as it develops. Still wondering who these people are. I've only met one of them before. Going to be interesting to see how this goes.

._._.

So, as of a quarter of an hour ago, I've been alive for 30 and some even years now. This has been causing a bit of emotional distress.

It used to be that I would anxiously look forward to the event. A cake made by my mother specifically for me. Lots of presents. A party. A get together of friends. Mass consumption of alcohol. Joviality all around. Just for me.

Unfortunately, the year finds me not in an emergency room (that's fortunate, but hear me out). Only some slight physical problems that really need to be taken cared of later on this/tomorrow morning.

Normally, being the consummate Virgo that I am, I would make lists of things that I would like for my birthday. Something that I now consider to be a very selfish act. Lists, upon lists, upon lists. Being a huge Star Wars fan, items of that nature would tend to inevitably end up on the list. However, since most others don't share the same level of fandom about Star Wars, I would make the lists more and more detailed. How much an item cost. Where to find said item. Finally coming to a point where I would tell Ma and Tuckey that if you get me something Star Wars I'd be happy.

Oddly enough, after saying this, I would end up getting two of the same thing. Or even get something for my birthday, and then the same item at Christmas. So, while yes, the thought counts much more than the item, part of me would always become frustrated with it.

While I still create lists (like I said, I'm a Virgo... Virgoans love lists), it would get to a point where I felt like it was getting out of control. I'd say right now there are over 500 items on my wishlist at Amazon.com. I figured the more that was on the list, the easier it would be to get something from the list. This ended up being not always the case.

Over the past few years, it seems as if I would also start having my episodic gut problems, just before, during and for a little after my birthday. There's part of me that seems to want to tie the timing of my attacks with the changing of the seasons. Since my birthday tends to fall on the first day of Fall, that counts as seasonal change.

So to combat this, the physical problems, as well as being disappointed over the gifts that I received (another frustratingly childish and selfish behavior), I've changed my outlook on the whole thing this year. I don't think that I will have birthdays any more.

The fact that I have to get something myself for my birthday to feel good about having a birthday... Well, that just feels wrong, too.

Times have been tough this year. I knew a couple of months back that I wouldn't be getting anything for my birthday. I've convinced myself that this is no big deal. I can't even think of a meal that I would want for my birthday. Yes, a steak, medium-rare, with an oven baked potato sounds wonderful, my current level of depression has convinced me that I don't care if there's a special meal or not. That if no one comes over, I don't care (it is on a Tuesday, after all). If I get nothing more than cards, I don't care. I just don't care what happens tomorrow.

I love the Fall. It's my favorite season, and always has been. Hence, it was always nice to have my birthday tied to my favorite month. In many years past, there would always be a hurricane off the coast that would bring rain to the region. As far as I can remember there's been rain on my birthday more times than not. I love a good day-long drizzle, so this was always a good thing.

So here it is, the day before the big day, and I'm getting pumped with questions about what I want to do tomorrow. What I want to eat. If we wanted to try to have a party (the dwindling supply of local friends tends to make for a poor party compared to parties of the past.

Unfortunately, it hasn't worked. Even though I keep saying I don't want anything, or that I don't care what happens tomorrow, I do. I'd really like to have an enjoyable day. I'd love to get a ton of friends over (okay, at this point, pounds of friends will do). I'd love to have a stack of wrapped gifts to tear into with delight. I'd love to have a cookout with some incredibly good cuts of beef. I'd really like to be able to drink. To do anything I wanted to simply because it's my birthday.

I just don't see it happening. This leads me to doing everything I can to not think about my birthday. To stop thinking of what made the great birthdays of the past so great. Stopped thinking of getting a lot of gifts from my Amazon wishlist. To stop thinking that I could eat a wonderful meal and not have my stomach revolt on me and ruin the day altogether.

So here's hoping for a good day tomorrow. Not a good birthday, just a good day.

And as far as birthday wishes go... Yup, you guessed it. I wish for something that's not going to happen. That's not being pessimistic, it's simply being realistic about it.

I'd really love to have someone special in my life for my birthday. A girlfriend. A soulmate, someone that is not related to me want to help me have a good day. Especially after five and a half years of being alone now... That just really sucks. Especially when the last two relationships I've had ended badly. At least I learned my lesson about dating married women. Especially women who claim that their husbands, physically or emotionally or even both abuse them.

In closing, I'd like to say... I don't know what to say. It's just not a good time in my life right now. I'm tired of being alone. I do enjoy throwing good birthday parties that are close to me. Making a Darth Vader cake for a girlfriend who loved Star Wars and had never really had any birthday parties to speak of.

But as the saying goes, there comes a time to put away childish things. Apparently, I feel that what I want is childish, and I need to grow up. Get over it and move on. If you stop celebrating your birthday, then all those bad things that tend to happen around it shouldn't happen because you're not having a birthday. Besides, it normally people that have had too many birthdays are the ones that end up getting sick, dieing, growing older and loosing touch with reality.

Maybe no birthday is a good thing, even if I don't fully believe it at this point. I'm sure I'll come around.

._._.

Right then. My brother is helping a family friend out while she's out of town. He's been doing yard work, putting together a swing, etc. Well, the past couple of night's he's been working on removing the floor in her kitchen.

I'm not sure that I have the details exactly right, but I think what he's removing is vinyl on top of something else which is then on the subfloor. At any rate he's basically been using a ripper bar and a hammer to get the stuff up.

I was tasked to look on DIY, HGTV, etc., etc. for a possible easy way to complete this process. All that I was able to locate was the use of a power scraper. Apparently, you can rent them by the hour if needed. However, I have no idea how much that would cost, nor how long it would take him to complete the task.

However, after looking at some power scrapers inspiration struck. Kinda'. What if we made our own power scraper? My original thought was to use the power sander that we have. It's not a belt sander, but it about the size of one. Two hands are needed to operate it, and the surface that does the sanding moves in a roughly side to side motion. (Actually, it could be more of an ellipse, but the basic back and forth motion is there.)

A quick Google image search showed about three main varieties of these critters. The smallest option being something resembling a reciprecating saw, but with a chisel-like head instead of a saw blade. We've got a reciprecating saw, but honestly, I don't think it would have enough power on it, nor enough stability if we jury-rigged something to it.

However, in my opinion, the sander is a better option. It should have the power needed, and the way it's designed should allow for better stability. The question is now what to put on it, and how to secure it without permanently ruining the sander from its intended purpose.

I'm thinking of something along the lines of a chisel and some zip ties (zip strips, whatever you want to call them). Attaching the chisel to the side of the sander's head instead of on the bottom of that flat surface. There's got to be a better way to secure something like that, though.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

._._.

I'm pretty sure that I've mentioned it here before, but my journal is becoming more akin to an artist's sketch book. Normally, at least it's normal for me, when sketching, I don't know what the final outcome will be. Sure, I've normally got a general idea in mind of what I'm wanting, but usually there will be details that are spawned full-formed from something else in the sketch. Sometimes, the finished sketch won't really resemble anything like where I was heading in the first place.

( Let me give you an example. There's something about the smell of burning flesh. )

Thirteen days since I've written anything here. Hmm... Hard to believe.

I'm looking for help here (there might be a general update later on, nothing new). I'm looking for a good, traditional, authentic recipe for bangers and mash. I'm about convinced that I'm just going to end up creating my own dish in the end.

I've never been to a British pub, but from my research, that seems to be one place to consistently find bangers and mash. In its own way, it's like British comfort food, or at least so it would seem.

For those that don't know, and are still interested, bangers and mash is a dish comprised of sausages, onions, gravy and mashed potatoes. Sounds simple, and it really should be simple, however, just like meatloaf, everyone's mother made it differently (or as in my case, not at all).

Here's what I've got in mind for ingredients.

• sausage (I've got regular smoked beef sausage this time, however, I've made it with Italian sausage, as well as a hickory smoked pork sausage. Breakfast sausage is right out.)


• onion (Cut into rings. I've used only yellow at this point.)


• apples (Cored and chunked. I've not tried it with apples just yet.)


• apple juice/cider (To replace the whole apples, and used to help form the gravy.)


• brown gravy mix (The cheap, easy way out.)


• a spot of brown mustard


• a dash of oregano


• maybe some Worcestershire sauce


• maybe some garlic


• maybe some red wine


• mashed potatoes (I've made it both with instant and real)

The gist of it, as far as I can tell is that you cook your sausages first in a skillet. Once they're nice and brown and slightly crispy, remove from heat, and add the onions to the skillet. Here's where things start to get vague.

The onions are cooked until done. You would also add the apples here if you were using them. I would think that the garlic would go here as well. Depending on how you want to make your gravy, things can go quite a number of ways. You could add some flour and make a roux with the onions. Add the wine to do a bit of deglazing and scrape the fond off the bottom.

Once that cooks down, add the mustard and the Worcestershire. Heat through and serve. Mashed potatoes form the base, the sausage in the middle and the onions and gravy over all.

So, if anyone has actually had this before, or even better had them in Britain, please let me know. I like what I've made in the past, but I'd really like to try the real deal. Granted, from what I can tell, I'm not going to be able to get the real deal since we don't have a local butcher shop that makes sausage (as far as I know), and the Brits have many different types of sausage that make the little breakfast links we have here pale in comparison.

I think I can see why I've not written in thirteen days. I'm babbling. Coherent, decent writing, this is not. Even when I'm just asking for a recipe. Oh well.

Thanks!
._._.

Well after a week or so of multiple daily attacks, and then thinking I was out of the woods when I didn't have any yesterday, I ended up having to ask Tuckey to take me to the ER. (Thank you again, Tuckey!)

Three X-ray films, a piss test and three or four attempts to draw blood, I was informed that I had... wait for it... another UTI. Yeah for me!

Luckily I got an IM shot of Phenergan and 2mg of Dilaudid. Apparently, in this new section of the ER (which the nurse called the band-aid station), they are not allowed to give IVs. Bizzare. Throw in the fact that the hospital is having to crack down again on med seekers, I consider myself lucky to get what I did.

So, the pain is almost completely gone. I've got a script for Luvonox (I'm pretty sure that's what it is). They originally wanted to give me a script for Cipro, but given my past interactions with it, I asked for anything else. Luckily I remembered that I've had Luvonox in an IV when admitted to the hospital in the past.

So, tomorrow I go to pick up the script. I'm going to call the pain clinic as well to see about getting another script for Dilaudid tablets since the ones I was given during and ER trip last year actually have helped me keep the attacks managable.

I need to do some more research on UTIs, but this is seeming utterly ridiculous. Three UTIs in less than five months? That's excessive even for a woman, isn't it?

Well, I need to wrap this up, because I'm sure I'm babbling.

Hopefully this will be the last time for a while.

:crosses fingers & knocks on wood:
._._.

Got a call from my main doctor's office this (Friday) afternoon. Ends up the results for the blood cultures (looking for an internal/intestinal yeast infection, or other fungus) were negative.

So, there goes my wonderful attempt at a 'House' theory.

So, we're back to square two. Waiting for insurance to approve the trial basis neurostim device, and then praying for an attack. An attack that can't be moderated by the scalding bath method.

Been having multiple daily attacks for the past few days now. It's getting hard to keep up with what day it is.

Right. No one likes a whiny ass bitch. So, those are the facts. One day it will get figured out.

._._.

Well, I got a letter today from the Department of Social Security. Ends up that even though I'm on Disability, I'll be getting a one time payment of $250 from the government. That's $250 more than I got under Bush's reign.

So the question is, if this is a check to help stimulate the economy, what would be the best use of it? Hiding it under the mattress wouldn't help anyone (and would be kinda' hard since I'm not getting a physical check), and would do the least amount of good.

The first thing that came to mind was use it all at garage sales. The government wouldn't be getting any of it through taxes. It would be going directly into the local economy. Even if I picked up a Sony Walkman that was made in China, the money would still be right here in the area.

I keep thinking that I've heard this same idea before, or something similar. Some way to keep the stimulus money local, and let it do what's it's supposed to do.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to do this? Other thoughts or ideas (local flea market, farmer's market, etc.)? Please feel free to share.

._._.

I've mentioned Mr. von Slatt's Steampunk Workshop here in the past. I've also passed along information from the good Doctor Steel. To have them both together? Shiny!

So, without further ado, and a simple click of your pointing device, I shall whisk you away to an intriguing post from the æther-tubes.

Dr. Steel speaks truth.

._._.

If I were to ever make a Werewolf Movie I would have to include elements of parkour. There's no way around it. Now, first off, when I'm saying Werewolf Movie, I'm not talking The Wolfman or Wolf or even The Howling (the first movie to show a Garou in its Crinos form). I'm talking about something similar to, or even based off the mythos of the game Werewolf: The Apocalypse.

The Underworld movies came very close to it. So much in fact, that White Wolf Games tried to place an injunction against showing the first movie. While Underworld got a lot right, it wasn't a Werewolf Movie.

To follow my line of thought on this, at least why I'm thinking of Garou (that's what they called the werewolves in the game) and parkour in the same breath, you would see this...

There was a post on an Xbox 360 site about a first-person parkour video in the style of the video game, Mirror's Edge. Which got me looking into other parkour videos. Which led me to the one below (or maybe it was another one), but seeing multiple parkour runners leap over their urban landscape, something just stuck in my head. I don't care what form they're in (human or man-wolf form) this is how Garou would move. There's some incredible shots below. See if you see it the same way I do.



._._.

For those of you that have an Xbox Live account, you're well aware of the contests that they're continuously running. Since it's so easy to enter them (normally involves just downloading a Gamer Pic), I've entered all of them that I see. Just like all the other sweepstakes and all that that I've entered over the years, I never expected to see anything from them.

Well, it's turning out to be my lucky year. First there was the $50 Amazon.com gift card from Marlboro. Then today I get a package in a plain manila mailing bag. There's a printed note on a strip of paper wrapped around a 12 month plus 1 month Xbox Live Gold membership. From what I can tell from the note, and the little that I remember, it's a prize from the "The Spirit - Download and Win Sweepstakes".

So that's another $50 prize that I've won from a random contest this year. I'm excited to see what's going to come next. Who knows, it could be (in that announcer guy from The Price Is Right voice) A Brand New Caaaaar! But then, I really like my car, so I may have to give that one away. ;^)

._._.

A couple of years back, Ma had us plant some plants in the front bed other than just impatiens. A hydrangea, a fern, and what she thought at the time was a bleeding heart. During the past two years, when watering, neither the hydrangea nor the bleeding heart bloomed. No worries, it takes time for them to get to a point where they'll bloom annually.

Well, this Spring, the bleeding heart put on its first blossom. The only problem was that there was only one blossom and it was growing in the wrong direction (up instead of down). Well, when I went to check the mail today, I was pleasantly surprised to find a fully formed and open flower. The problem? It's not a bleeding heart. We have no idea what it actually is.

So if anyone recognizes it, please let me know. The leaves are very distinctive, and are all tri-lobal. You can see a bit of them in the picture below. Thanks for any help!



._._.

ETA: Finally found what this plant is. It's a tree peony. If Ma hadn't just said the name off the top of her head, I'd probably still be looking for it.

I ordered some doohickeys yesterday, so hopefully, you'll be seeing more of these.



I hooked the laptop up to the LCD monitor the other day, and used the Wacom Bamboo tablet that I picked up from Circuit City before they closed (50% off, hells yeah!). It was nice to work like this again. Even though I wasn't using two monitors simultaneously, it was cool to have Photoshop on its own screen.

The aforementioned doohickeys will allow me to have the laptop hooked up to the monitor, as well as running an RGB component connection from the 360 to it. All I'll have to do is simply make one menu change on the monitor from analog to digital and I can switch back and forth.

I'm not terribly happy with the 'painting', but it's a start. And besides, I've never been that good with water colors. :^)

._._.

Rising Beltane - Moon Day 22

I've not touched the Steampunk Clock project in a while now. I've been feeling rather bleh here lately. (Also the chair is very uncomfortable after about ten minutes.) Some ideas are slowly gathering steam, though.



I've found a new source of materials to draw from, but honestly, I don't know how it's going to affect the style of the project. From my closet I've pulled out a serial printer cable (could be too big for the size of the clock, but we'll see), a processor with cooling fan attached, a complete (but burnt out) motherboard, and a 3.5" floppy drive.

The floppy drive is giving me some ideas, since it's more mechanical in nature than the motherboard. There's also a nice little green LED in it. I'm wanting movement in the clock, more than just the hands of the clock moving. So, there are parts of the floppy drive that could be cannibalized and still kept moving. The fan moves, and I know it only needs a 9v battery. I don't know what a 9v would do for the mounting ring of the floppy, though.

I've got a feeling that I'll be getting back to work on it very soon. Look for more updates.
._._.

Saturday, March 28, 2009 – 0948

Passing Ostara, Moon Day 02

It would appear as if forces are conspiring against me in regards to writing. As soon as I tried to open Word to begin, at least 35 windows all opened up. I had to reboot the machine.

I’m running off of less sleep than normal again, but that’s okay. I’ve missed having a quiet house to myself. I went to bed around 0500, and woke around 0800. While I still feel the vestiges of sleep, it’s still nice to be up this early. What better way to celebrated than getting back on the ol’ writing horse.

Prior to everything blowing up, I had been working on creating Pagan holidays and timeframes in Outlook. I wonder how hard it would be to create a Gadget for that (hence the Passing Ostara above).

Random Nakiel Notes:

• Saáblings are given their True Name on their 33rd birthday. This is much like a mitzvah. Also, a tattoo appears on them. Normally, it’s easy to conceal, sometimes, however, it can be found in plain view. This tattoo is a sigil of their Name. Much disinformation has been spread about this topic.



• I would like to take a look at some of the major military conflicts throughout history and create an animated version showing progression of forces, etc.



• I ran across an older sketch. The item in question appeared to be two Hurnblades attached at the hilts making it a double-ended weapon. There were also notes hinting at a subsector of the Iesak Jedai known only as “The Teeth of the Iesak.”



• Another sketch idea was that the Silver Falcons have the image of a swooping falcon on their helmets (wings outspread and feet extended as if going in for a kill). This morphed into possible functionality of the wings on the helmet, where that each wing is a blade and the talon makes up the hilt. I definitely like this idea better than the Falcons wearing a simple head scarf or bandana.



• A recurring thought I’ve had about my work on Nakiel recently has been creating character sketches. Nothing too detailed at first, but they should definitely evolve. This comes from watching too much of the CSI shows, as well as Battlestar Galactica. We know that Grissom likes bugs, Warrick used to have a gambling problem, Saul Tigh lost his eye for refusing to cooperate with the Cylon occupation of New Caprica, and he also *SPOILER* (Highlight to read) poisoned his wife after finding out that she had been a Cylon sympathizer. *END SPOILER*



• In another sketch, I’ve drawn either a Warlocke, or an Iesak Jedai. The main change and one that I really do like is that the hood on the person is made from leather. There can be patches on it of differing color and the color of the hood need not always match the cloak. However, the color (if indeed we go this route) of the hood would always show which branch the Warlocke follows (white, gray or black).
  The hood assembly is removable while not being attached to the cloak. It is almost like a tent, or some kind of shelter where the frame for it is made of branches on the inside of the hood. The sketch looks rather well; however, it’s currently a little difficult for me to convey what it looks like. Hopefully there will be a scan soon.



• Speaking of dress, a thought just came to mind of residents of Matæ should have on their person at all times a set of goggles. Something along the line of the mask that the Tusken Raiders wear, or the Ashlanders of Morrowind.



• Since the primary population of Matæ are humanoid (namely orcs, goblins, etc.) there could be some distinction between the races in the eyewear that they create. Also, it would make more sense that those from Matæ would have either breathing apparatuses or a cloth across the nose and mouth. This would remove such an idea from the Iesak Jedi or the Cloakes as they’ve sometimes been portrayed in the past.

Okay, while it’s not been exactly thirty minutes, it has been over a page long. I’m giving it a rest for now. Here’s hoping that tomorrow will follow in the same footsteps.
._._. – 1012