I remember when the drug companies were first allowed to advertise directly to the consumer rather than just to the medical community. We were told that a more informed public is a good thing and that doctors had been not tell patients all their options because another drug company had given them money or gifts. At the time I though it was a bad idea and I have, over the years, not changed my mind on the subject. Of course I knew about a lot of these drugs because I read my mother's nursing magazines. My favorite articles were about how to deal with doctors who thought they were g-d on earth. I still call my mom to have her look up the drugs we are given to take and find out if there is something I need to know in addition to the little pamphlet they give you with your medications these days.
Today I see an article in the paper about two drugs that have been very heavily advertised on television Vytorin and Zetia which are suppose to help with the lowering of high cholesterol and help the heart in the long term. Well apparently these are suppose to be last resort drugs after other cholesterol lowering means have not worked for the patient. According to the article, a two-year clinical trial that showed that the drugs failed to slow, and might have even sped up, the growth of fatty plaques in the arteries. Growth of those plaques is closely correlated with heart attacks and strokes. Of course the drug companies are saying lets not be too hasty here but then their profits are linked to these drugs right now. But there are now a lot of questions about how the drug trials that the companies did were analyzed and the length of the trials before the FDA approved the drug.
A couple of Doctors have said that the heavy advertising of these drugs led to the over prescription of them. And it is not the first case I have read in recent times that a drug that was heavily advertised did not perform when put into a longer trial period with more controls put in place. In fact there are a number of drugs that now you only hear their names in ads from lawyers looking for clients to sue drug companies because there were problems with the drug.
I am not saying that drug companies should not be able to advertise to the public, but I think there needs to be a serious look at this sort of advertisement. Or maybe we need to take a serious look at how these trials are performed before approval is given. Or there needs to be a period of time between the drugs approval and the all out ad blitz these expensive drugs get. I think there needs to be something done before the next drug switched from ads by the drug company to ads by the law firms.
I am grateful that I have access to good information about various forms of medications.
Now if the temperature was just a bit warmer.
Today is going to be pretty quiet. Ariel has her teaching assistant job this morning but the rest of the day is not scheduled. Peter will be getting back from the Virginia Festival of books later today. And the U.S. Open will be broadcast on ESPN at 2 pm this afternoon.
I'm looking forward to tomorrow and the beginning of the baseball season. Then there will be something to watch when there is nothing to watch. But with the writers strike, there will be more new stuff this spring than we have seen in a while.
We did turn out the lights for an hour which got a call from a neighbor who wanted to make sure everything was OK since the house was dark and both cars were in the driveway and she saw us outside earlier in the day. I explained what we were doing for Earth Hour which took a bit more explaining that I thought it would. So that is how I spent 20 minutes of our lights being off.
I will have everything done and ready to ship tomorrow. The paint job turned out pretty well. I think I am going to Sharpie it to give it a very cartoon feel and complete the look. Then I have to get ready for Icon. Then I have a puppet project I want to complete before NYCC for the amusement of one of the guest. Then I have some time to get that doll done for Wendy's class.
I am grateful for the ability to amuse people.
In the policy handbook of many companies today, there are a couple of clauses about Internet usage both on the job and off the job. Most are set up so that if they decide to fire you, they can use your internet usage as just cause since you signed a piece of paper saying that you would abide by the rules of the company. If you share company secrets on your blog or information that they deem proprietary for whatever reason, it is grounds for dismissal. Some go so far as to say that if you bad mouth the company in your web log, it is grounds for dismissal.
What I think some people forget is that many larger companies have tracking software on their mainframes and your keystrokes are being monitored. I was well aware of that the entire time I worked for Randomhouse just because I am very IT aware. But the sites I surfed at work were relevant to my job as an editor gave me a heads up early in my job. Somewhere they probably still have a record of my web usage at RH. I never bad mouthed the company online and I will never do so. Overall I had a very good experience with my time at RH and would be more than willing to work there again.
I think that sharing proprietary information on or off the job is bad form. They are trusting you with the information to do your job. The exception is if something dangerous is going on that could harm people. I remember one case of a drug company that was trying to hide some bad reactions so they could get FDA approval for the drug and someone who worked online and had tried to go through the normal channels to report the problem finally went to the internet to get the word out about the possible harm that could be done.
I take my NDAs very seriously. But what I know would not bring harm to anyone, it is just kind of cool to know before everyone else. The entertainment industry is full of these sorts of things and occasionally someone will mysterious come out of the woodwork with information that the fans goes batty over. Even more so if they are proven right and then they are paid more attention to. Some online bloggers keep their sources very close to the vest so they can get "the scoop". Harry Knowls has made a living at it as had Rich Johnston.
But I have some concerns about the rules about not showing the company in a negative light on the Internet and if you do, they can use that against you to terminate for just cause. This is not on their time at all but your own in your own web log. If you can't complain about the idiots that you work with to your friends, then who can you tell? And the Internet is a place to go talk to your friends. I have noticed that any Disney employee who wants to complain against the Mouse chooses the where and how very carefully so they don't get canned. I haven't heard of anyone getting fired from a com that complains about their job but most couch what they are saying so it is not a direct slam on a particular company so it would be harder to make it stand up in court but I bet it has happened.
So just a friendly warning out there from me to you about something that you might not know that you even did when you signed those papers for HR agreeing to abide by company policy.
I am grateful that my boss lets me complain if I want to.
Peter is off to the Virgina Book Festival this weekend. Ariel has various functions she needs to attend this weekend but many are walking distance from the house. I have a couple of projects I need to complete before Monday so I can ship them off.
Next weekend is I-Con where I am doing a workshop or two on puppetry for the kids track. Other than that, I plan to hang out with friends and catch up on things. Then two weeks after that is New York Comic Con which should be fun because again there will be a bunch of friends there I have not seen in a while.
Then I am going full bore on the costumes for Shoreleave because they are going to take a while to complete. I still have to go fabric shopping for one of the coats in the city. I might combine that with a luncheon with some friends.
So what do you have planned for the weekend?
I am grateful for robins bouncing across the lawn.
Considering what happened down in Atlanta the past couple of years, I shouldn't complain but we have about another inch of rain heading our direction. I emptied a trash can that had a substantial amount of water in it yesterday onto the flowers that are now blooming.
I have my work cut out for me this weekend. Next weekend is Icon and then we have NYCC. I did get my form in for DragonCon and am listed on the website. Next to deal with is the Art Shows I want to be in for the rest of the year. And the doll I need to make by the end of May for Wendy Froud's class.
Tonight is the Eli Stone episode with George Michelle really being there so I encourage you to watch it. It is a really good series.
Doctor Who starts April 4th in the UK and later in April on SciFi. Sort of the way that Torchwood played on BBC America. My inner fan girl is geeking out right now.
Stalin is pretty much back to normal. He did let us squirt stuff in his ear without too much trouble yesterday.
Off to get something done today before the rain.
I am grateful for conventions that I have fun at.
For the past couple of days I noticed that Stalin had been cocking his head and he had his left ear down. When I would pet him, he would shake his head if I touched the left side of his face. I pointed this out to Peter who picked up Stalin and agreed that something was not right. My further evidence was that Stalin went into the cat carrier with no protest what so ever. He is usually the hard one of the three to load for the vet. Somewhere in his little brain he knew we were trying to help him.
The vet examined him. No fever which is a good sign with cats. The vet looked in the left ear and proclaimed that Stalin had a funky ear infection. He cleaned the ear out much to Stalin's fury. Stalin is a master of the swipe and escape when he doesn't want to be somewhere but the vet's assistant held him as the Vet got all the crap out of his ear. Staling also got a shot of antibiotics and cortisone to help with the inflammation in the ear cannel which was apparently very painful. We now have an ointment to squirt into his ears for the next two weeks and then he gets a recheck. Fortunately this is not something that is going to spread from cat to cat.
We brought him home and let him out of the car carrier. He spent a good part of the evening curled up on the sofa behind me with his chin on my shoulder. Good defensive position for him to be in. He would occasionally nuzzle my neck and purr, which I think was his way of saying Thank you.
This morning both ears are up and his head is level again. He came by for his morning head scratch and then went off to one of his favorite sunny spots and is currently watching the world out the window. Things are pretty much back to kitty normal.
I am grateful that we have such a good vet that could help Stalin.
Peter got up with Caroline because I didn't really get any sleep until 2:30 and then it was in little bits and pieces. I pretty much know what was causing the problem and, with any luck, it won't be a problem much longer.
We did the egg hunt yesterday. Caroline has gotten really good at both spotting and grabbing eggs. Ariel didn't hold back so the two of them tore through the back yard looking for the colorful plastic eggs I hid. In the finally count, Caroline came out slightly ahead of Ariel for total eggs found. She has also discovered the fun that is Silly Putty. I put the egg hunt down to a success.
I am glad that the various flames have died down in various groups and the drama llamas have been stabled for now. It is much easier to read things when you don't want to reach through the screen and throttle someone to your point of view.
I have the Muppet puppet patterns that McCalls put out in the 80s. Now I have to put a couple together to see what I can see about the pattern. It is fun to learn new ways of putting things together. Some of the monster patterns have given me ideas for some other stuff.
Last night I made chili using the Magic Castle spice packet that Peter got when he was out in LA. The night before I made a beef roast, potatoes, and asparagus with hollandaise. I am so proud that I got every thing for dinner to finish up about the same time and my hollandaise tasted like my mom's. Tonight is going to be chicken something or leftover land since we have plenty of those.
Off to the rest of my day.
I am grateful for puppet patterns and new ways of making puppets.
Because the kids didn't use any of their snow days, they get to burn one off today. There are 3 others scattered through the next couple of months just in case. Ariel is home and is cleaning her room today since we gave her the weekend "off". She spent most of it at the PBA with her father. Peter was visible yesterday if you knew where he was seated during the broadcast. Those were some pretty exciting matches.
Today I have a couple of errands to run but it is going to be interesting because there are so many kids out from school today. I figure my usual quiet haunts are going to be pretty lively today. I do need to get light bulbs of various sizes and types since we are about to be sitting here in the dark in a number of rooms (which also means we need to get extra when the bulbs that are currently working blow shortly).
Shout out to Chris Walsh. We got the package. Thank you very much. I enjoyed the puppet article. The bowling alley article was fascinating. Mike has too many toys but we can't really say anything because we are just as bad *grin*. And I checked out the website. The gun cozy for the Glock reminded me of Pushing Daisies.
I hope everyone had a good weekend. I'm still sorting out my week.
I am grateful for bowling alleys.
[Lefou:] A dangerous pastime
[Gaston:] I know
I've been doing a lot of thinking recently about a number of subjects that either affect my family or me. Some of it is artistic and some of it practical. I'm thinking about not reading the paper for a week because the news recently has either infuriated me or sadden me. There are some uplifting stories but for the most part it is rather depressing. And one more article about the sex lives of our public officials is going to put me over the edge.
The artistic thinking has come from several discussions I have been either following or participating in on the Internet. On the doll board came the question about creating one's artistic statement. I have to say honestly I have not done that in years or even thought about creating one. It might be time for me to sit down and sort out what I am trying to do with my art if for no other reason than to sort it out in my own head.
Another board has erupted with a discussion that started tongue in cheek and is now turning into a flame war about religion. Again I think people forget that it is hard to show emotion on the Internet and not everyone gets your emoticons especially if it is one that you created. But it is interesting to see where the limits are or rather what limits people are comfortable with discussing with each other concerning art and religion which are very much tied together through out history. I am figuring the moderator is going to keep an eye on this and when the personal attacks start to fly, she'll shut it down. We are almost there.
Since I am starting to feel human again, my motivation is returning to get stuff done which includes some stuff that is due at the end of the month. I am done with this run of antibiotics so now we see if they worked and if not, I will have another go at the nasty germs inside me. Now I just need to sit down and make a plan.
Happy Easter to all who celebrate it today.
I am grateful for starting to feel more like my old self.
Well sort of. Peter and Ariel are bowling in the Pro-Am this evening so think good thoughts for them. Other than that, we had most of our usual things we do on Saturday.
Right now we are sitting down as a family and watching "Strictly Ballroom" which is a wonderful film that we all love. The music is great and it is interesting seeing early Baz Luhrmann.
I've got a couple of things to do before the 1st. I have most of what I need. I do have an errand or two to run but I think it can wait until Monday. I am taking it easy this weekend.
The Yuck has me in its grip again. I am hoping that this is the last rally of the infection that has been hanging around for a while. I had a hard time sleeping last night and then got up with a perky Miss Caroline about quarter to 7:00. Peter took over so I could get some more sleep so I feel awake now but unsettled.
I am grateful for family moments.
Because of the number of symptoms I was having last night, I took some Nyquil which knocked me out and for a loop all at the same time. I had some wacky dreams that I need to write down because there is a good idea for a short story in more than one of them or a video game. So I am finally feeling a little more conscious and can put words together in the right order sort of.
Yesterday was "Won't you wear a sweater day" to commemorate what would have been Fred Roger's 80th birthday. I did wear a sweater. Fred Rogers meant a lot of me as a preschooler. I always loved and followed the adventures of everyone in the land of Make-believe. And he addressed a lot of subjects with his kind quiet way that kids could relate too. I could never think of Mr. Rogers raising his voice. It just didn't seem in his nature. Of course this is one of my first examples of puppetry. I will always remember the episode where he showed the children how the Land of Make-believe works and the puppets and sets that they used. I found that totally facinating.
Yesterday was also the first day of Spring so Happy (fill in the blank) for those who celebrate it. We had high winds that were blowing small animals down the block. But the crocuses are up as are the Daffodils so I am expecting a snowstorm any day now. Today is more wind but it does seem to be warming up a bit.
Today is Good Friday which is the beginning of the holiest weekend in a number of Christian religions. I wish a Happy Easter season who all who celebrate that this weekend.
Ariel has off from school until next Tuesday then I believe she also getting Passover off (which is during New York Comic Con). Usually Passover and Easter are pretty much on top of each other but not this year.
This weekend is also the Pro-Am which Peter and Ariel are going to participate in. Peter will be at the TV show on Sunday for the final. Due to a number of factors we decided that Peter should go to the taping.
Last night Peter and I went to the WGA party. It was fine but we were in Soho and hadn't had dinner so we found a nice little Bistro called Diva and had an excellent meal. It was nice spending some time as adults who aren't worried about our children breaking something as we ate dinner.
I am grateful that I got some peaceful time with Peter.
Both men were writers. Sir Arthur, as he insisted on being called, was considered one of the giants in science fiction (or speculative fiction if you prefer). Anthony Minghella was an award-winning writer of film, stage and television along with being a director and a producer.
I met Sir Arthur once at a convention and I honestly can't remember which one it was but it was a long time ago. I got to tell him that his short story "the Nine Billion Names of G-d" was one of my all time favorites for that format. I still love the end of that story.
I met Anthony Minghella briefly when he was at Random House. A fellow assistant introduced me to him as a puppeteer among other things. I got to tell him how much I enjoyed the Storyteller he wrote for Jim Henson. We talked briefly about how cool Jim was. Nice guy.
My best Arthur C Clarke story happened back when I was in high school and is behind a cut for spoilers for "Childhood's End" so there will be spoilers for that story in the comments too.
I am grateful that I have this great story to tell. There is a part two to it when we took the Overlord to our favorite pizza place. Somewhere I have pictures of that trip.
We went to this convention at the Omni Hotel and the convention center called the Atlanta Fantasy Fair. One of the best parts of the show was the Masquerade which was considered the best in the south-east at the time. I had participated in a number of costumes but this year I didn't have anything in the hopper so I agreed to help some friends backstage as needed.
That year along with Atlanta Fantasy Fair, the convention center was hosting a Southern Baptist convention. We had been prayer for all weekend long and given lots of strange looks by the other group. We giggled about it and there were a lot of warnings not to freak out the mundanes anymore than we had to. We had gotten use to the rolling of the eyes as we walked by.
One of my friends was doing an Overlord from Childhood's End. If you remember the story, when the Overlords finally appear they look like the Devil incarnate. And he had done it to the hilt. He had built stilts to make himself tall. He had the horns and the wings. He had part of the armor and covered what was exposed with red body paint. He looked fabulous. He asked me with another friend to walk over with him to the Masquerade so he could use us to steady him as needed. I had on my imperial officer outfit so I was all in black with that rather distinctive hat.
We were walking into the lobby of the conference hall and we heard to our left the sound of a revival meeting going in full swing. The doors were open and they were singing hymns to the Lord at the top of their lungs. As the Overlord starts to walk by we hear a gasp from the group and it starts to get quiet in the revival. So my friend the Overlord swung towards the door and stooped menacingly and flared his wings. He grinning and gestured to the audience in the room. There was silence for a second and then the praying and singing was even louder and more emphatic. The Overlord walked away and off to the Masquerade and I think he won. I will never forget that room full of people who saw the devil himself walk past their tent meeting. I think they probably remember it too.
But before that, I have found yet another medication that is on my do not take list. My dentist gave me some great painkillers for the toothache but I found out last night that, for whatever reason, my stomach didn't like them and I spent a good part of the evening in the bathroom over the porcelain bowl reliving everything I had eaten in the past 24 to 48 hours. Peter stayed up with me until I was able to finally fall into a rather fitful sleep but each time I woke up, my stomach felt a little better. This morning I almost feel normal.
LunaCon was a lot of fun for everyone. Ariel went to panels and got to spend sometime with her cousin who she doesn't see that often. Caroline discovered that childcare at LunaCon involves all sorts of fun things for her to do including really neat crafts so she was good for the weekend. And I had 12 panels that I was on and got together with various friends for at least hello's.
I didn't sell anything in the art show, but I did amuse people so I feel that is a good thing. I have an idea what I want to put in there next year because I didn't see anyone do it this year and I think it would sell to this crowd. I met an Internet friend's mother who works the art show every year. The art show was really good but I think that is one of the better ones on the East Coast. I am always amazed at the amount of original art that I see. This year there was a lot more watercolors than I had seen before and the delicacy of some of the work was just amazing. The 3-D was diverse which is nice when there are not 20 tables of jewelry or boxes or statues to look at. It was a good mix and there was something for everyone taste up to PG-13.
I like the mix of panels I had over the weekend. They covered a number of subjects that I know well. There were only two that I had a problem or two with and that was more for one panelist or audience member than the topic at hand. I must have looked like a zombie on Saturday since I had that allergy attack and was barely functioning until Sunday morning. I even sent Ariel in to do one of the anime panels because it was a topic she knew and I needed some time to recover.
I did some behind the scenes last minute costuming for a group of friends. It was exciting to say the least. We are probably going to resurrect it later this year. It was nice getting to talk to people that I see probably about once a year at LunaCon. There was the usual gang to hang with in the bar. And there was a touching tribute to Rabbi Dave since LunaCon last year was his last convention.
I am grateful that I went to LunaCon this year.
I got to visit with my dentist around noon. We have a super dentist. He couldn't touch the tooth without me jumping out the chair. After a couple shots of Novocain, he managed to numb it down to winces rather than jumps and he can work with winces.
I have a fractured tooth. I even know when it happened which was a couple of months ago when Caroline's head connected with my mouth in a bone chilling crunch. I though everything was OK since all my teeth were still there. Apparently there was a crack and now the tendon that holds the tooth in place is inflamed and I have an infection in my upper jaw. He got most of the infection out and put a drain in to let the rest seep out. He has me on a number of medicines to kick the infection before he can fix the tooth.
All this may explain why my energy has been in the bottom of the barrel. I knew I was running a low fever off and on for a while now but I put it down to allergies and the like. Last night was really the first decent night sleep I have gotten in a while. So we'll see what happen.
Today is figuring out what needs to be done to restock the larder and a few other household chores to get the house back on a even keel after a convention.
I am grateful for my dentist.
I have a lot to write about the weekend but I can't focus on anything due to a toothache that has taken over my life. I plan to see the dentist later today and see what is what. It could be the tooth or it could be what it was last time which was a sinus infection that caused my teeth to hurt which means a trip to the Doctor. Whatever it is, I would like it solved today so my face will stop hurting.
I am grateful that we have a dentist we can call.
(EDIT: I have an appointment for noon. Cross your fingers for me)
The drive up was not bad until the last two miles on the interstate where things slowed to a crawl which added some time to the trip.
We checked in. I got the badges, set up my table in the art show, fed the kids dinner, did 3 panels in a row, went to a reception in the art show and fell into bed after midnight,
Caroline was a good girl through out this all. We thought we had lost one of her stuffed puppies but the front desk had it so there was much happiness in Caroline land. The staff here has been wonderful.
Today I have 5 panels and I promised to take Caroline swimming. That will be most of my day. I have a feeling I am not going to be as late tonight.
I am grateful for fannish friends.
Someone told me that the Catholic church decided that St. Patrick's Day would be on the 15th rather than the 17th because Palm Sunday is the 16th and that would put the party during Holy Week. Did anyone else get the memo on this?
Today is 3.14, anyone else going to have pi(e)?
I have my schedule for LunaCon but it may not be the final one. If you want to find me, try my panels or the art show. I should be at the art show reception which I believe is this evening except when I will be making tribbles.
Peter has a very busy schedule at Wizard World LA but he will be at his table when he is not on panels. Be sure you say Hi if you are going there.
We are looking forward to this weekend.
I am grateful for conventions.
We leave for LunaCon tomorrow. The we consists of Ariel, Caroline, and me since Peter is in LA for Wizard World this weekend. My oldest (longest not age) friend is joining us. I have a table in the art show on which I need to put art.
So today is all about the prep needed for going to the convention. Clothes need to be washed and packed. Medicine needs to be checked to make sure I have the various things we might need over the weekend. Our cat sitter (sister of out first cat sitter) will be coming by to get the keys and information she needs to care for the house since she will be staying here while we are gone. She did a good job last time.
There is stuff that I need to get together to keep Caroline happy during the weekend. There is a pool at the hotel so Caroline will get to swim at some point so I need to remember to pack swimsuits which is not something I usually think about doing in the winter.
There is the stuff that I need to bring for various programs I am participating in. There is also the food I am going to pack since the green room guru has stepped down. I can't blame her in fact I am firmly in her corner since the way that the con committee treated her was so shabbily it is ridiculous. She deserved much better.
So I am going to finish this up and post it. Then sit down and make up a list of what need to be done before we leave tomorrow then start down the list.
I am grateful that for some strange reason Caroline thinks the word "underwear" is the funniest word on the planet.
Today Peter and I are registering Caroline for Kindergarten starting this September. We had a lot of forms to fill out and a series of pieces of paper we need to present to prove that we live in the house in the district that we are signing up in and that she belongs to us. Peter said it was much easier 10 or so years ago when they signed up Ariel for school.
Caroline is alternating between being excited that she is starting school and decided that she doesn't need to go to school. She is so ready for it too. Recently she has been having us write out words for her and then she has been copying them. Then there is the math game I talked about a while back. She is a sponge for information. She still needs to learn discipline because she tends to put her fingers in her ears when she hears something she doesn't want to listen to especially if she is informed that she is incorrect about something. She is pretty good at taking turns but she could be better about it. The sharing thing is pretty much hit or miss.
(Back from registration)
Well that went well. They did a vision test and then we did the rest of the paperwork. She played with the other kids waiting for their turn to go in and watch their parents sign things. She spent some time in the library and is very excited by being in kindergarten. The librarian is a fellow puppeteer so there is fun connection.
They are doing placement testing later in May so that will determine which class she will be in. I'm hoping that she ends up with some of the other kids she met today since they all got along great.
I am grateful that Caroline had so much fun while waiting to apply for kindergarten.
Well 10 years give or take a couple of days really. I think it was the 7th but I would have to go back and find the journal I was writing in at the time.
What happened? I moved from Atlanta to New York to be with my boyfriend and see if I could find some steady work up here since all my theater jobs in Atlanta were at a serious lull and the comic book store wasn't just cutting it anymore. The person who employed me at the Center for Puppetry Arts had moved onto another job and the new person was nervous about having me around because, as she told someone else, I knew too much and, if I had the right degree, I could do her job standing on my head. That was one of three times that my job got yanked from under me because someone was worried I would take their job. One of my best friends who was my theatrical big brother died rather suddenly after we had completed a show. My maternal grandmother passed. I had a falling out with some people I thought had my back but it turns out that they had their own interests at heart. All in all, it was a pretty sucky year.
The bright spot was Peter and that almost didn't happen. I have written about that previously. Short version is that he told me that he and his wife were divorcing and he wanted to get to know me better, we talked on AOL and got to know each other better and he offered to give me a place to crash if I wanted to see if New York was better than Atlanta for work. So I took a rather large leap of faith and put most of my life in storage. I packed up my little truck and came up to New York.
Since then a lot has happened in my life both good and bad. My boyfriend became my husband. I had a child. I worked some theater and started a new career as a book editor. I started producing more puppets and dolls. I got back into costuming. There is really too much to write here about all that has happened. The online blog is now 4 years old so the last 4 years is pretty much out there for all to read.
It has been a pretty good 10 years. Here's to another 10 and more.
I am grateful for all the time I have spent with Peter in my life.
I had forgotten that March is national crafts month. I was reminded by the various flyers I got from the various craft and cloth stores in the area. I like looking at these to try to see the trends of what is going to be the next hot area in crafts. I can say that knitting is pretty much saturated right now and is, in fact, shrinking on the bookshelves in the bookstores.
I foresee the next trend will be these goofy plush critters that are very popular in Japan and becoming very popular here among teens. Example of this sort of thing are Plush You and Aranzi Aronzo . I saw this trend coming a couple of years ago when I went into FAO Schwartz and saw these really ugly stuffed toys that were selling like hot cakes to boys, girls, teens of both gender, and adults. This is great for me since this sort of thing is right in my wheelhouse.
One of the better magazines I have found for the more cutting edge of craft which appeals to the young because they are being edgy is Craft Magazine. It came out of another magazine that I dearly love called Make Magazine which a friend who is a scientist brought to my attention. I love their Halloween ideas.
Crafting does have elements that are never going to go away. Go to any craft fair and see what I am talking about. I bet you see things you saw as a kid still being sold. But there are always new materials to play with and figure out what you can do with them. People come up with new things that become popular for a while and then fade. Other things, like scrapbooking, aren't going away anytime soon.
What I find a little sad is that doll making books seem to have vanished off the shelves. I use to be able to find at least a small sampling of those sorts of books and now I am lucky to find Susan Oroyan book there. The nice thing for me is that there are all kinds of very lively doll making groups on-line. But for someone who just wants to start making dolls or doll clothes the pickings are pretty slim if they can't get online these days.
I am grateful for crafts that I can do and do well.
Last night was a family night. Really around here most nights are family night but this is one that we did a little more than usual.
We started by watching the new Futurama Movie called "Bender's Big Score". Caroline has always liked Futurama and the Simpsons. Over all it is a pretty good animated film if you like that sort of animation which I do. They had tons of in jokes for those of us who are long term Futurama Fans and enough information for those who are picking it up for the first time. For us old fans, the first five minutes was worth the price of the DVD. I'm going to asks that if you talk about this film in the comments that you don't spoil it for those who are going to see it on Comedy Central in the near future.
Then we tried Disney's Scene It with Caroline. We went for the short game because we were not sure how she was going to do with it but she won on her own with little to no help from us. Her die rolls were high and she answered her questions correctly including her final trivia question. She wanted to play the long game, but we informed her that we would do that at another time. She did very well waiting for her turn and playing by the rules. I was very proud of her.
While we were playing the game, a clip came up from "Hercules" which Caroline hadn't seen and I had only seen bits and pieces of. We had the DVD so we put that on and settled in to watch the movie. Caroline made it about half way when she fell asleep which is about what we expected after her busy Caroline day.
We finished up the movie and Ariel went to bed since we were losing an hour's sleep (stupid DST but that is a rant for another day. How many clocks did you have to reset?) Peter and I were checking the doors and making sure that the cats had plenty of food and water since they tend to come scratching on the door at sun-up if we don't. Peter asked me if I knew were Ariel's large Pegasus was. This is a stuffed animal the size of a small pony. I had vague memories of it being in the attic. After a couple minutes of checking, we found it buried under a bunch of old coats and something that we think was dead sea bath salts which had gotten all over him. We brought him down and clean him up. I sewed up a couple of holes along the seams that needed some repair. Peter finished cleaning him up and set him up in the living room.
Caroline came knocking at our door about a quarter to eight. We let her in and she jumped up on the bed for her morning hugs and greetings. Peter asked her if she remembered falling to sleep watching "Hercules". She nodded and gave us the short version of what she remembered of the film. Peter asked her if she heard the storm outside? She nodded and said there was a big wind. Peter asked her if she heard the flapping of wings last night but he thought he did. I agreed with Peter that I had heard them too. Caroline agreed with us that she had heard them. We took her downstairs and she stopped on the bottom stair in total surprise as she saw Pegasus sitting in the living room with one of the cats sitting next to him. She ran to him and looked him over carefully. She turned to Peter and informed him that this was the best present ever. She hugged and petted Pegasus and introduced him to the cats who had come over for their morning head scritches.
She has been playing with him all morning. Introducing him to her various stuffed animals and giving him plenty of hugs and attention. I think we have a hit.
I am grateful for watching my child use her imagination.
We had a little sunshine yesterday morning but that gave away to cloud cover and a lot of rain. This morning we had fog and mist that makes you feel like you are walking through a cloud which is probably what we are doing.
I have this dent in my wrist that I couldn't figure out how I was getting it until this morning and I realized it is where I prop my wrist on the laptop so I can type comfortably.
More of the same for today. I got a lot done yesterday and hope to continue the trend. I have a couple of errands that need to be run but mostly going to stay home.
I am grateful for the little bit of sunshine we had yesterday.
There is an episode of Family Guy in which Peter Griffin gets a job as an obnoxious ombudsman on the local TV station for slightly hilarious high-jinx ensue. His spot on the show is called "Grinds My Gears". Which has been sticking in my head as things have been happening either to me or around me so here is the first edition of what grinds my gears.
You know what grinds my gears, drivers who think that turn signals are optional. I so want to get a bumper sticker that says "Turn Signals; Not just a Good Idea but THE LAW". Then there are the yahoos who think signaling after the fact makes up for their lack of informing me beforehand that they are moving into my lane. I guess they are hoping that if I hit them, the cops will see that they had their turn signal on so it MUST BE my fault for not yielding.
You know what else grinds my gears? People who go onto other people's web sites just to either bash or troll them and never add to the conversation because it makes them feel better about themselves. Heck, I'll expand that to people I have met that do the same thing in fandom. There is a difference between constructive criticisms and just plain being mean criticisms. The problem is that most of these people don't recognize what they are doing even if presented with tons of evidence that they are. It just doesn't register in their version of the world.
You know what....well by now you know the rest of the line. That the minute I was getting my resume back in order so I could find a job in at least one of my chosen professions, we slip into more job cuts and loss than we have seen in 5 years. And what happened 5 years ago? I got downsized at my dream job (well honestly one of my dream jobs). So my chances of going back into the field at about as good as a camel going through the eye of a needle (the original meaning of it). I have been putting feelers out there and come up with less than nothing which annoys the ever loving *beeeeep* out of me since I am a good worker and an asset to any company I work for.
So what grinds your gears? I am honestly interested.
I am grateful for everyone who uses a turn signal correctly.
Caroline came up with a new game that we have been playing for a couple of days now. She has a stack of poker chips that she found and she uses these "coins" to "buy" her stuffed animals. Part of the game is that after she buys them, you have to run them over the pretend scanner and say "beep" or "boop" or another appropriate noise that a scanner makes. So I have been using this game to work on her math skills. She can count well so we are now working on addition and subtraction. The only slight glitch in her counting is sometimes she says six, eleven rather than six, seven but if I make her stop and think about it, she comes up with six, seven.
She is also copying letters. She made a birthday card for her grandma and asked me to write out Happy Birthday for her so she could put it on the card. She did a pretty good job of it. She has had me or Peter write out other words for her to copy.
All this just points out to me how ready for school she is. Her brain is a little sponge that is seeking the water of knowledge.
Her drawing skills took another leap recently. She is now making her shapes more distinctive and her people have aspects of the people she is trying to draw for example, Peter, Ariel, and my mother all wear glasses but I don't so she draws glasses on them but not me unless she has been reading a book because I have glasses to read with. She also has been drawing puppies and kittens which look very different from each other. I might have to take some pictures of the drawings and put them up on my picture site.
She is a clever little girl who just keeps amazing me with what she knows.
I am grateful for games that teach that don't seem like they are teaching games.
My mother is a fine example of the American Dream. She is the child of immigrants who worked hard to give her a better life in America. She worked hard and got a good education. She went into nursing because, at the time, it was one of the few jobs that would allow women to have a career. She has worked very hard for the success that she has in her career. Nobody handed anything to her. It is very much a by your own bootstraps story. And she and my father insured that I had a better life and more options than she did. I am very proud of her for than among many other things that she has done.
She has taught me a lot of things along the way. (I think that the mad organizational skills are genetic and I am hoping that Caroline picked that gene up too.) She taught me how to pack for a trip. She taught me about how to buy fruits and vegetables. I still consult her on occasion for those veggies I don't buy that often. She taught me a lot about cooking although that was for a long time against my will but I am glad that she made me do it.
She taught me how to sew. When I was a kid she made me the neatest one-piece sun suits (I think that is what they were called). I would pick the fabric and she would sew them for me. I loved watching her cut out a pattern and then make a garment or something for the house. Caroline does the same thing now when I sew things. I have her sewing machine and my grandmother's sewing machine. We use Singer sewing machines.
She gave me mysteries to read. She introduced me to Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie long with P.D. James and Martha Grimes. She would read comic strip compilations of her favorite series. I still buy her the new "For Better; For Worse" when they come out. Both of my parents taught me that reading was important by example since they are both avid readers.
She made sure that her four kids were healthy, clean, and happy. I had a really good childhood and for that I will always be grateful. My mother has been an excellent parent to me and my brothers and sister. She is the example that I strive for in my raising of Caroline.
I love you Mom. Happy Birthday. I hope you like the present and the card that Caroline made. She wrote the Happy Birthday all by herself.
I am grateful that my Mom is my Mom.
I found out through a friend that Ernest Gary Gygax had lost his saving throw verse death (2nd edition rule of course). This news stunned me. I knew through the grapevine that he had been in poor health for a while now. He had some serious medical problems that he seemed to be dealing with for the most part but still considering the number of medical problems that he had been having, it surprises me that I am not writing this sooner.
This is not really about Gary Gygax. I met him a couple of times over the years. I was inarticulate the first time because he was fri'king Gary Gygax. I was better subsequent times that our paths crossed. He loved the fans and listened to so many tales told of things that happened in people's campaigns and to their characters. I admired his patience with people even when you could tell he was really tired.
This is about what Gary Gygax did for me. The first game I played that he created was Chainmail which was the precursor to D&D. I was introduced to Dungeons and Dragons through my high school science fiction club and a party that we threw that some gamers came to by invitation and we all arranged to get together and game. They brought the box set of D&D and ran us through the basic rules. My first character was a pretty generic fighter that got killed about half way through the dungeon. But I had a lot of fun. We agreed to get back together in two weeks and try it again. And we started gaming about every two weeks.
I remember the excitement when we found out about Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. We went to the "Sword of the Phoenix" when the books were released and got a set. Which put a gamer back a pretty penny but the system was a beautiful thing. We passed the books around and learned the new rules and got out our dice to try it. That was the real beginning of my love for role-playing games.
Gaming became a touchstone for me. I can't tell you how many friends I have made over the table. I can't tell you how many games or campaigns I have been a part of. Gaming became a part of me and still is.
One of the longer campaigns that I played, I had a ranger who was pretty kicking stats-wise. But he had no luck what so ever or rather my dice hated me for a time. He ended up with a dragon shaped scar on his face and left arm which was critical for an adventure but really knocked the hit points down. Then there was the night that we were talking about homosexuality because of some stuff that had happened on campus that week. So we figured out the statistical probability of being gay and rolled for each of our characters. And all of the sudden I was running a gay ranger. I still have a fondness for that character. Heck, I probably still have his sheets. But that is D&D, you create and play in the world of your creation with the rules as set down in the rule books.
Yes, I made the dice bag that my original dice are still housed in. I branched out from D&D and did some play testing over the years for GuRPs and the original Vampire; The Masquerade way back in the late 80s and early 90s. I have played a lot of different role playing games in my day but it all comes back to D&D for me. That was my first love.
My sympathies are with Gary's family and extended family.
I got to thank him for giving me such a wonderful creative outlet and for that I am grateful. I think I'm going to see if I know where my dice bag is and, if my brother hasn't already taken them, get my books from my parent's house which included the Deities and DemiGods that was recalled along with the original box set and a very old copy of Chainmail. He created something very special that will live on far into the future.
Game On!
I know I rarely talk about religion here. But I read an article in the Times Magazine about Americans and Religion that was kind of interesting. The article was titled American's Unfaithful Faithful and can be read if you click the link.
Apparently Americans are not only very willing to move or change jobs or spouses but they are also very willing to change religions. Sometimes it is another form of the same religion for example being raised form of Christian religion and changing it for another. The example they gave were the number of former Catholics who now say they are Baptists or leaving one religion for another religion entirely and embracing the tenets of that religion with fervor. Then there are those who sample various religions like a Chinese buffet and drift from one set of beliefs to another. I think it is great that we have these sorts of options in our society. In a number of other countries they have official religions and if you don't adhere to that set of beliefs, you can find yourself in trouble.
To my mind there is a difference between religion and spirituality. Religion engages spirituality but one can be spiritual without being religious. I believe that some of what is happening with this religious dance is that people are searching for their personal spirituality or beliefs. I know a lot of people who have gone through a crises of faith or a search for spirituality. Most of them end up better for it. Either stronger in the faith of their childhood or much more comfortable about themselves as spiritual beings. Again this is my own opinion and your mileage might vary greatly.
Another thing I find interesting that even though people are changing their religious beliefs, the religions themselves are pretty much staying at the same statistical level as the last survey for many reasons. So no religion is really gaining or losing members at a rapid rate. It seems more an adjustment. The only group that has shown a gain is "unaffiliated" which, given the rest of the data, makes sense.
A majority of us believe in something be it a higher power or a flying spaghetti monster or even Bob. How we come to our beliefs is very personal in my opinion. But it seems that as a group we are still seeking/striving for something even though we might not be able to define what that is. And I think that this is going to continue as long as we are allowed the ability to question our beliefs and grow in them or find something that works for us.
I am grateful for religious freedom.
Because our dishwasher is being fixed. The water pump blew which is the second pump to go last week since the fuel pump to the furnace went last Wednesday. I have kept up with the dishes this weekend but I am amazed at the number of dishes and glasses that four people can produce.
I have some errands to run today outside the house and then the rest of the day is devoted to the house. I might even be able to open some windows tomorrow since it is going up to the mid 50s. Fresh air is important to the house and me. We have been sealed up to keep the house warm with a couple of exceptions this winter and the movement of air through a house makes it more "alive" to me. No clue why, it just does.
With the opening of the Windows comes my need to clean which has been pricking at the back of my head for about a week now. I have no idea if the need to clean at season changing is biological or psychological but it is pretty ingrained in me.
I think I am going to redress the Goblin Boy and put him in the Art Show unless I get too fond of him. I keep the dolls I make at Wendy's workshops because they are my learning dolls and Wendy or Toby worked on them too. But the Goblin Boy is the first I made outside of the class that I have a want to keep him. Something about his face makes me smile.
Caroline has been working on an art project that she keeps redoing because it just is not quite right to her eye. I promised to help her with it today so that is next on my docket.
I am grateful for expanding number of art materials available for projects.
It is warm enough that Peter took Caroline to the playground to run off some of her 5 year-old energy which she really needed since she was starting to bounce off the walls. As she gets bigger, she need more room to move than she did even a year ago.
I am putting some music into my iTunes to put on the iPod. It is a mix of soundtracks that I have bought over the years that I have been meaning to put into the machine but hadn't gotten around to it until now.
I have not gotten around to a number of things that I wanted to do recently. I am trying to figure out what I need to do to get myself moving in the direction I need to go. Some of it is so simple to just do but I can't find the motivation to do it. (For those who know the story; Yes, I do hear Geoffrey's voice in my ear yelling "Your Bloody F'ing paycheck , just close the door." To those who don't know the story, I have chronicled it already in this web log. Just don't ask me where.)
I have LunaCon in two weeks which means I need to work on revamping some stuff I want to take to sell in the Art Show. I'm debating about the other Goblin boy since I sold one at Farpoint. I am attending Wendy's advanced workshop in May. Part of that is bringing a finished body to work with since we all know how to do that part. I might do a couple and have some stuff to experiment on.
I have an idea for some monsters that I think I am going to debut at LunaCon. But they are still sorting through the design process in my head.
I am grateful for a little peace in my life.
When I was a kid one of my favorite animated series was George of the Jungle which was created by Jay Ward and Bill Scott of Rocky and Bullwinkle fame. Out of the three shorts which were George of the Jungle, Tom Slick, and Super Chicken, my favorite was Super Chicken. I think it was the family favorite too. Such phrases as "You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred" and "What about your Super vision?" were pretty common in our household.
Recently we got the entire series of George of the Jungle on DVD and sat down with the girls to introduce them to one of our favorite childhood favorites. Ariel thought it was funny enough. Caroline was enchanted by it and her favorite of the three shorts was Super Chicken. Like mother like daughter *Grin*.
So I was taking a short nap when Peter came into the bedroom with Caroline bouncing right behind them. They were both smiling ear to ear and I knew they were up to something. And Peter started to sing
When you find yourself in danger,
When you're threatened by a stranger,
When it looks like you will take a lickin',
Caroline cheerfully chimes in "Buck, buck, buck, buck"
There is someone waiting,
Who will hurry up and rescue you,
just Call for Super Chicken!
Caroline declares "Buck, ack!"
Fred, if you're afraid you'll have to overlook it,
Besides you knew the job was dang'rous when you took it
Caroline is bouncing up and down singing "Buck, ack!"
He will drink his super sauce
And throw the bad guys for a loss
And he will bring them in alive and kickin'
Caroline runs around the bed saying "Buck, buck, buck, buck"
There is one thing you should learn
When there is no one else to turn to
Call for Super Chicken!
Caroline clucks along, "Buck, buck, buck, buck"
Call for Super Chicken!
And as loud as she can be, Caroline screams "Buck, ack!"
I was laughing so hard. Caroline was so proud of herself that she made Peter sing it again just so she could cluck for me again.
It is something that I am going to treasure always.
She now insists at clucking to the song each time she watched it and I can't believe how loud she can be with that last Buck ack, but then I knew the job was dangerous when I took it.
I am grateful that we have a third generation Super Chicken Fan.