Kratzen vom Rathaus

Ohlone College Resident

Ok, this crappy heepy photo is of a rather unfazed ground squirrel about two feet from me. I like Ohlone, not just for the mandatory eight and a half story climb to my class (208 stairs FTW) which yields a beautiful view and a nice pretense at doing something healthy, but for the rodentia. CSM had crows, Ohlone has ground squirrels. It makes me wonder what they have at Chabot.

Real World Physics Lesson

This weekend, Tony and I learned about light and gravity. Specifically that all those lights hanging way above the floor are freaking heavy! We had to use numerous tricks to get the old light down and the new one up since we don't own a scaffolding, not to mention that wedging that painters ladder between one of our steps and the sloped ceiling was our only means of access. It took some doing, but I finally got rid of our eighties glass and brass chandelier and that's all that matters. Except to Tony, who didn't really care but decided hanging from a decidedly non-OSHA ladder installation was an easy way to make me happy.

The old fixture was nothing horrid, just nothing I wanted in my house. But it was twelve feet off the floor so it stayed. Until last week, when I got this one online in a random fit of irritation at the old one. Tony's full reaction was to nod at the box and say; "Did you order a lamp?"
I squeed and hugged the box so he'd know both that I did and that he wasn't getting out of the install. Poor guy. Like I always say, the more people get to know me, the more they're impressed by my husband....

Do The Right Thing

Awwww, my lil city makes me so proud sometimes:

Hayward Weighs in on Gay Marriage

If my rural corner of the bay area can come in out of the fields just to make the point, so can you. Get out there and vote in November, it's important. Now I'm not going to tell you how to vote- wait, scratch that, yes I am.
This propositions sucks rocks. Vote it down.

After

Whoops, forgot to post this yesterday. Same frame, less cloying
application.

Before

Isn't this frame atrocious? I took the picture to illustrate a point.
Shadowboxes in the 8x11 size are about 15 bucks. Horrid frames from the
scary stores are 4. I'm cheap. It only takes some glue, paper and a
little rattlecan action to surpass the look of the real shadowbox and
you're still saving over two thirds...

Solder Necklaces

I have been making a lot of these lately because they're kind of fun.
This is one of many Wonderland/Looking Glass ones I've got now because-
well because I found some good source material for them. The other side
of this one is classic Alice, but you know me and furry critters, so
white rabbit it is.

Dinner Reservations

"Hi there. Set us down for reservations please. I'm up front playing
cards. :)"

I'm such a geek. This was an email I sent back to Tony while I was on the PAXtrain. I was playing flux and the time limit card had been popped when dinner reservations were announced. Not wanting to miss getting one, I wanted Tony to do it since he was back there reading anyway. (Sleeper cars get first dibs on dinner times) But I hit the wrong autofill address and the note ended up coming here instead of to him. We still got reservations, but I decided to keep this anyway because it amused me.

I Think There's A Venue For That at PAX

In the first Q&A panel, Jerry (Tycho) kept saying that in response to
questions about possible additions to PAX. After the first few, it
became kind of a running joke because of the repetition, but I think
that's part of why I love PAX above all the other events. Part of the
makeup of the demographic is to be genuinely interested in others or at
least a lack of malice. Most whining and nastiness is generally
curtailed through sheer peer pressure to be nice. My guess is too many
of us have memories of unpleasant teenage years too thoroughly imprinted
on our psyches to allow trash talk and the like to creep into our
domain. But other than a general intolerance of hostility it's pretty
much anything goes. There's no pressure to conform. You want to wear
that top hat or bring an ocharina, do it. Chances are, someone will be
unexpectedly pleased by it. A lot of people wear costumes, but because
quality costumes are generally enthusiastically received they are
generally very high calibur jobs. It's the whole creativity + commitment
thing that marks the rest of the show. I guess I'm going to keep coming
back to that. As we roll away down the tracks from the show, I always
get a little sad about it being over, not necessarily for the panels or
shows or cool vendors, but for the crowds of people who mostly seemed as
interested in other people and their creativity as I am. It's rather
meta to be in a crowd of other people watchers, kind of like standing in
the middle of the hall of mirrors in Versailles. Then suddenly, after three days of concentrated crowd, everyone
disperses into the rest of societal mix and I'm back to being the
observer looking in from the outside again. It's always a little bizarre
to make that changeover even though I spend 99% of my life that way.
Then I find my footing again and get back to it. But for three days I
belong and identify with an actual community instead of just mucking
around on the fringes so I can learn the skills without the accompanying
worldview, the way I did with motorcycles, or hockey, or even writing. Anyway, it's a long ride south today and I've loads of time to
acclimatize myself to not being a part of anything larger. It's just
always a little sad to lose the sense of community.