Author: foxtongue

I’ll have internet while I’m gone

Book about photobooths.

I haven’t gone camping in so long that I’m certain I’ve forgotten to pack some obvious essential more useful even than a toothbrush but smaller than a sleeping bag. It doesn’t help that between this trip and my last, I’ve already lost my duffel bag by “putting it in a safe place”, leaving me to borrow David’s much tinier one, that will not fit either my tripod or bed-roll. If I don’t watch out, I’m going to get stuck with an uncomfortable, awkwardly packed backpack.

In other news, Amy’s moving out, which means there’s going to be a two-bedroom apartment in my building available December 1st for $950/month. Third floor near Commercial Dr, between Venables and Hastings, better views than my apartment, laundry in the basement for a dollar, bike rack in the bottom floor vestibule. Pets aren’t allowed, but we all have them anyway. Landlord is pleasantly neglectful, and tends to only come by for rent.

Man splendidly decorates basement with $10 worth of Sharpie.

We who are about to sqelch vapidly through squamous tunes where no sanity remains salute you!

Cthulhupalooza, Saturday December 6, the Rio Theatre in Vancouver BC Canada.
Facebook event link

A pulpy, tentacled, and maddening Lovecraft Rockband fundraiser hosted by two brilliant yet malignant modern men of science, my friends Toren and Jay, with partial proceeds to Child’s Play charity, Cthulhupalooza features:

  • A very special performance by the Lovecraftian rock band The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets.
  • A Rock Band Competition with prizes from many sponsors including Harmonix and Jones Soda, as well as a chance to sing the exclusive Rock Band track “Shhh….” with The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets.
  • A screening of the silent film adaptation of the classic weird tale “The Call of Cthulhu” as produced by the HP Lovecraft Historical Society, along with other short films to be announced!

    $16 tickets for Cthulhupalooza are now available in Vancouver at: The Rio Theatre, Red Cat Records, Zulu Records, Scratch Records, Scrape Records, Neptoon Records, RX Comics, Elfsar Collection, Strategies Games, High Life, Pulp Fiction.

    Also – starting right now and valid until 11:59pm on Wednesday November 26th, Toren’s offering an unlucky $13 ticket price for Cthulhupalooza if you order through PayPal. PayPal to thickets@uniserve.com with your name and preferred contact info (this can be email or phone) and a ticket will be held for you at the Rio Theatre until you arrive!

    If you haven’t picked up your tickets yet, you should act fast, as they’re going quick! And remember, DON’T FORGET to register your band by emailing cthulhupalooza@gmail.com

    Cthulhupalooza.com!

    • Verstehen Sie?

    MAKE Magazine: How to make a 1934 USB web cam.

    A while ago I converted a 1934 folding camera into a USB web cam. I brought it with me to Maker Faire Austin 2008 and a lot of people seemed to like it. In fact, a lot of people wanted to know how I made one. I promised them I would do a how-to on the blog, and I always keep my promises, so let’s get started.


    Yes, those are webcams. Yes, I’m seriously considering doing this to my broken antique Speedex. I think it’s the niftiest DIY I’ve seen in months. The problem that I have with a lot of oh-so-stylish DIY is that the end result isn’t generally useful. It looks neat, but it’s a dead object, art for the sake of art, like the Steampunk Space Helmet. Because these both work and look damned good they are therefore, in my estimation, about a millionty-thousand times more awesome. Yes. Now to get a webcamera. And, like, a soldering iron. And heat-shrink tubing. And a… Rosin core solder?

    understated

    I love that I can say either I’m borrowing a bedroll from a CSI novelist to go camping in the middle of a five-star desert dreamscape with an award winning photographer and a star-shiveringly good musician or that I’m borrowing a floppy foamy bed-thing out of Don’s garage so I can go camping in the middle of an ecological disaster with one of the most filthy minded friends I have and a wee skinny girl I don’t know as well as I should, and both statements are equally accurate and entirely true.

    That said, I’m oddly terrified about my upcoming trip, and I sincerely do not know why.

    facing away from the desert

    Southern California is Burning Again.

    Yesterday someone replied to the Craigslist ad I put up regarding our old catboxes, (the cats have taken over the bunny-igloo litter-spaceship David brought over and will never give it back), and I replied, “Sure! Come on over.” while sending David a note, “were they bleached or were we overwhelmed by other things?” The message back, “overwhelmed.” So while I’m at work, feeling guilty for having David scrub the catboxes, as it was my chore to do, I decide to rectify matters I must fetch him delicious treats and chocolate while getting groceries on the way home.

    (It’s fully dark by the time I leave work. The only benefit to this: Keith and I watch the result of the four p.m. sun set from our seventh floor office window as the tips of ordinary architecture are suddenly beautiful, bathed in melted girl-music gold, while everything at street level is already a heavy blue day-crunched dark.)

    Fast-forward to arriving home. I stumble in, ready to drop, heavy with bags of vegetables and canned soup, and then I stop, stunned. The apartment I left in the morning is gone, replaced by an entirely new portion of space. Everything unsorted that was haunting our living space, (minus the bathroom and the bedroom, untidy disasters both), has been shifted into neat piles in the spare room library. There are no more boxes to step over. The floors are clear, flat surfaces have resurfaced, it’s a miracle. The apartment has been organized.

    Summary: There is Not Enough Chocolate In The World.

    artpost: some inventions are more obvious than others

    via Brass Goggles.


    Steampunk Space Helmet, by Herr Döktor, entitled Vacuum Survival System
    Build Progress Forum Thread

    Recently recovered from the archive at Castle d’Arrogance, details of Herr Döktor’s Vacuum Survival System, or ‘Space Helmet’, have just recently come to light; this object was produced at some, as yet, undetermined time (due to the peculiar and labyrinthine method of personal dating) as a means for ‘personal safety while travelling the Ætheral Void between the Spheres, and for safe and comfortable promenading upon the Airless Planets of the Solar System’

    Apparently it started as a large acrylic Victorian cloche-style garden propagator and a large polypropylene planter. Fantastic! (More pictures at Brass Goggles).

    on a scale of one to ten I’m terrified

    It’s confirmed. I’m going to California next week. Work gave me the alright, and Lung bought the ticket to Vegas today. (Where he and Natasha pick me up, then bring me to the Salton Sea). My flight leaves Seattle first thing Monday morning. Today after work I’m hopefully picking up a wee foam mattress from Don, getting laundry done, and packing as best I can. After that, it’s a matter of working as many hours as I can until Friday evening, when David and I are catching a ride with my mother down to Seattle for Robin’s Saturday house-party.

    Rent will be tight this month, as will everything else, but the chance is too good to pass up. I swore, awhile ago, that I will never again say no to free travel, no matter what, and this is it, this is exactly the sort of thing I promised myself I would do, no matter how risky or fiscally chancy, because if the offer is solid, then the correct answer is always Yes.