davefish @ 09:36 pm: I went over to Bilston a fortnight ago for the Dames of Darkness festival. If you like that sort of thing (Which I do) then it was a great day. Other people have written more verbose reviews, why not try here http://planetmosh.com/dames-of-darkness-11th-may-2013/ to find out what they were like.
greygirlbeast @ 12:56 pm: "Child, they're seeking weakness tonight." Cloudy here today. Cloudy and rainy and currently only 64˚F. The only upside is that Memorial Day weekend has been ruined for the tourists flooding into South County.
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Yesterday, I wrote 1,636 words and finished Alabaster: Boxcar Tales #13. Which finishes Alabaster: Boxcar Tales.
Spooky and I both got weepy, reading back over the last script.
Last week I spoke with my editor at Dark Horse and told him that it was time for me to step back from both Dancy and comics for the foreseeable future. That, after almost two years of pretty heavy involvement on this project, it was time to refocus my attention on my prose work. It felt a lot like I was tendering my resignation, like quitting a job, though it doesn't truly amount to quite that. It just means that, for the time being, I'm choosing to concentrate on other projects. In a lot of ways, working in comics is far more stressful than prose publishing, and, right now, I've got to decrease the stress in my life.
That said, working with Dark Horse has been a marvelous experience, and I thank everyone I've worked with – Rachel, Jemiah, Daniel, Shantel, Mike, Steve, Greg, Rachelle, Augie, and Spencer – for making Alabaster: Wolves and Alabaster: Boxcar Tales happen. I'm not an easy person to work with, and you've all shown admirable patience. I especially thank the many readers and reviewers who've believed in the books. Thank you. And if you are a fan, don't be sad.
There will be additional Dancy material from Dark Horse, but I'm not yet at liberty to announce what it will be or when it will be released. I'll make those announcements when I'm told that I can.
Into the Light of the Dark Black Night. Aunt Beast
One of the CDs I picked up in Banquet Records last weekend was Portasound's debut EP The Second Renaissance (you can listen to the whole thing online via that link - I recommend it).
I'd never heard of Portasound, but something about the note Banquet had stuck to it drew me in. Disappointingly, they returned the be-stickered copy to the shelves and sold me a crisp new one, and I can't now remember what the note said.
Anyway, what I seem to have bought is a four-track EP of instrumental, electronic music which is at once quite ambient and poundingly rhythmic. At under 4 minutes, Messerschmitt is the most bite-sized track on the EP, and probably the most consistent.
A review online describes them as being perfect for the soundtrack of a hypothetical movie of the animated Ulysses 31. I can't honestly say that's a concept which sprang readily to my mind, but now someone's mentioned it they're dead right.
Current Music: The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound
splodgenoodles @ 07:53 pm: Rightyho. I have crashed out and do not intend to move for a while, save for when I need a glass of water. Moving as little as possibly until Sunday.
Sore leg, thumping head and general CFS blah. Big Sis had to do a run to the chemist for me - I was out of painkillers and just missed my chance for today's delivery.
But as today was shopping day, I did the shopping and thus have eaten very well and will continue to do so for the next few days. Today was an iced coffee while I was there, then sushi when I got home, and then a Vietnamese pork roll for dinner. Oh and I might have bought some groceries too. Although what I really want now is a Sunnyboy. (Sunnyboy = orange cordial, frozen in a triangular tetra pack. It's a thing).
Am now veged out and tossing up between staying here on the couch and going to bed. It has been a helluva week, I think bed is calling.
A man crouched beside a green junction box, trying to match the diagram on his clipboard to the wires inside. He was wearing a bright yellow plastic headset, clamped over his black turban.
A man striding quickly up the road, a pink lunch bag in one hand and a huge carrier containing a Playmobil box in the other. A little girl in a pink anorak and a cream party dress ran to keep up with him.
A blonde girl on the train, asleep with her arm curled round her partner and a huge smile on her face.
An immensely cheerful man with gingery hair, fighting with the ticket barriers before declaring "Ah! It's the green arrow that it gives it away."
As I cycled up Whiteknights Road, the rain brought an unexpected waft of wild garlic with it. A police car with blacked-out windows passed me, ferocious barking coming from within.
Current Music: Esben and the Witch - Wash the Sins, Not Only the Face
elettaria @ 11:33 pm: Ethnicity and identity - sometimes the problems come more from within the community In the wake of the Woolwich murder, I've been reading a few people who are horrified and alarmed at the strongly racist response that's occurring, both in the media and amongst the general public. This IS my home, you racist swine is an article by a woman talking about her experiences of "'my difference' or to put it in correct terms 'other peoples' racism'". She's Asian British, and I've also been reading responses from people who are black British, or immigrants who are white British.
All this has made me think about racism, ethnicity and identity politics, and how they affect me. ( Read more...Collapse )
To return to the Woolwich situation, I also want to say that I too am absolutely horrified at the amount of racism coming out in response, and concerned about the safety of people of colour and Muslims. I'm thinking of you, and I hope you stay safe.
greygirlbeast @ 12:29 pm: "Shed these lung spires and breathe." We who revel in nature's diversity and feel instructed by every animal tend to brand Homo sapiens as the greatest catastrophe since the Cretaceous extinction. ~ Stephen Jay Gould
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I don't trust new houses.
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This morning I dreamt Kathryn and I were standing on the shore of one of the Great Lakes. I don't know which one. Foamy white waves were surging all around our feet, and I was telling her how those lakes were the remnants of an ancient sea. I was telling her they were exceptionally salty, the Great Lakes. A turkey fluttered past, settling on the beach not far away. It looked as if it had been molded from green milk glass, that precise color and opacity. There was also something oddly dragonfly-like about the bird, though I can't now say what. The sky was brilliant with noctilucent clouds, though it was the middle of the day. Earlier, I'd dreamt of finding the skull of a mosasaur*, but most of that dream has faded away.
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Yesterday, I wrote 1,432 words, which got me halfway through the thirteenth and final installment of Alabaster: Boxcar Tales. Only four pages to go, and I'll be glad to put this one behind me. Well, I'm always glad to put them – the novels, short stories, etc. – behind me, but sometimes I'm extra glad. I also had to proof the art for #9 and then send my editor at Dark Horse my notes. Oh, and script notes for #10. And there was some weirdness involving tax forms for foreign editions, blah, blah, blah, but Spooky and Writers House kindly dealt with that.
The weather here was so-so yesterday. A little worse than so-so today. I was spoiled by Tuesday. Presently 72˚F and cloudy here in Providence. More eighties, please.
Last night, Spooky and I finished watching Hemlock Grove. Lots of fun and surprisingly well done. The acting has odd moments of unevenness, but that hardly distracts. All in all, the performances and writing are very good. Famke Jensen is especially delightful as the villainous matriarch. Some of the best werewolf transformation SFX ever. So, yes. Hemlock Grove. Angela Carter does Dark Shadows. I know I've invoked the name of Angela Carter twice in as many days, but she is, after all, one of my patron wantons. Also, we're watching Season Seven of Dexter. I've cut way, way back on gaming. It's all become horribly boring again. Even for a recluse, there must be be more to life than this (to quote Freddy Mercury).
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An odd thing. I was complaining to Spooky about baffling online slang, and that led to a general discussion of slang as a phenomenon associated more with subcultures than with linguistic evolution, and to a discussion of slang that attended various times and scenes and geographical regions (the Jazz Age, hippies in the sixties, Cockney rhyming slang, surfer slang, etc.), and that led to a rather peculiar realization: As a child and teenager, I used very little – virtually none – of the slang that would be associated with the seventies and early eighties. Almost none. I began trying to list words. I came up with "cool" and "man" (before the ubiquitous "dude") and one two more. I used a tiny bit of older slang I got from my mother – "neat," for example. Hell, "cool" and "man" weren't truly of my generation. It's all became very confusing. Sure, I used Southern Appalachian/Alabama euphemisms and dialect, but there was very little that followed from pop culture/subcultures. I'm still racking my brain over this. I didn't even truly discover profanity – another facet of slang – until I was in my mid teens (which might seem odd, what with me now being such a connoisseur of dirty words and all).
But, this was long before the internet. I posit that the internet has forever changed the evolution, propagation, and longevity of slang. It's an interesting problem. One at which I'm sure a million graduate students with a million typewriters...well, computers...are banging away.
But...I have a script to finish. I have red velvet theatre curtains to close.
Uncool, Aunt Beast
* I have some variant of this dream at least once every two weeks.
j4 @ 11:20 pm: Checking up Img had her 2(ish)-year health visitor checkup on Monday, to make sure that her walking/talking/thinking etc is all basically on the right track for her age. I'd tried to explain what we were doing on the way there ("we're going to see some nurses who want to check if you can walk and talk and run around and kick a ball and things like that"), so when the health visitor started explaining to me that they wanted to check if she could walk, talk etc, Img chipped in with "and kick a ball!" which made it look rather as though I'd been coaching her for the test... On the other hand, it did usefully prove to them that she can do the requisite "put two words together" (I was hoping she'd say "Imi put two words together!" but as it was she just chattered away in her normal delightful manner, pointing out everything she could see on the toys and posters ("a cuckoo clock! a tulip and a butterfly! a book about I Want My Potty!") and narrating everything she was doing ("Imi running about! Imi running to her mummy again!") so they quickly got the idea that yes, tick, talking is just fine. (The form we had to fill in actually said "My child talks like other children of the same age" [yes/no] and I wanted to say "No, my child talks much better than most other children of the same age", but I knew that wasn't what they meant because NONE OF THE DAMN QUESTIONS SAY WHAT THEY MEAN so you have to fill it in as if you're a normal person who doesn't realise that words mean things.)
"When God Winks at You", by SQuire Rushnell. [sic - he spells "Squire" as "SQuire."] Thomas Nelson, publisher. Subtitle: 'How God speaks directly to you through the power of coincidence.' Back jacket: 'Through riveting accounts of everyday and famous people you will begin to recognize the 'godwinks' in your own life.' Blurb: 'When God winks, He is reaffirming there is absolutely nothing about us he does not know - our every hurt, our every desire. And that to me is very comforting." (self-blurbed by the author.)
"I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist", by Norman Geisler and Frank Turek. Crossway, publisher. No subtitle. Blurbs from many famous right-wing Christians. 'Atheism requires gobs of blind faith, while the path of logic and reason leads directly to the gospel of Jesus Christ.' - Phillip E. Johnson. This one purports to be an overview of the best arguments, adduced in Socratic form, in favor of the "jesus-centered worldview", in which not just atheism but Darwinism is false, and miracles are true. Turek got his degree from Geisler's school, which may be a new high in christian academic logrolling.
"The Secret of Happiness", by Billy Graham. Thomas Nelson, publisher. This one appeared after WWII and is a classic of evangelical apologetics. Anodyne quietism. I suspect it was a gift to my cousin from my equally crazy great uncle, because a card from him to my cousin is still inside the book. Re-gifted.
"The Real Kosher Jesus", by Michael L Brown, PhD. Front Line, publisher. Subtitle: 'Revealing the mysteries of the Hidden Messiah.' Well, he's hidden to the Jews, anyway - this is obviously intended to send me on the right path via Messianic Judaism, aka Jews for Jesus. Michael Brown is at least as famous in the wider world as a crazy, crazy homophobe.
"They Thought for Themselves", by Sid Roth. Destiny Image, publisher. Subtitle: 'Ten Amazing Jews.' Well, not anymore. The bio of the author on the back jacket: 'Sid Roth has investigated the supernatural for more than 30 years. His television program, "It's supernatural!", documents miracles and is viewed internationally.' 50% of this book is pull-quotes from itself - one or two per page, smacked on a big patch of grey blend.
"The 5 Love Languages", by Gary Chapman. Northfield, publisher. Subtitle: 'The secret to the love that lasts.' Depressing. Mix of common sense advice and that awful "submit to your husband" nonsense. I wonder if this one is why his marriage broke up.
"Holy Bible". New Century Version. Giant Print Edition. Deluxe leather edition. Someone taped a black-and-white photocopy of the famous Akiane Kramarik portrait of a blonde, blue-eyed Nordic Jesus in the frontspiece.
"Holy Bible". NKJV. Pink leather.
"Nelson's Complete Book of Bible Maps and Charts." The Charts are crazy dominionist nonsense. It'll be interesting looking up where they come from, in the US evangelical tradition.
"Where to Find it in the Bible, the ultiate A-Z resource, fully illutrated, over 3700 contemporary topics, for users of the NKJV, NCV, KJV, NIV, NRSV, and other popular translations." Ken Anderson.
Here's the oddest part. In addition to those ten books, and a letter I don't want to talk about yet because it's upsettingly CRAZY nuts, there was a bag containing two sacks of lentils and a sack of pearled barley.
2. Yes, I'm very sorry to hear that Christopher Eccleston will not be part of the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special. The Constant Reader will recall that Nine is MY Doctor. But to these people who are acting pissy about Eccleston's declining to take part in the special I say fuck off. To paraphrase Neil, Christopher Eccleston is not your bitch. So, get over it. Also, he's still the coolest Doctor ever (I give Ten second place, and Benedict Cumberbatch is the best Doctor Who Never Was).
3. On Monday, I wrote 1,594 words on Alabaster: Boxcar Tales #12 and finished it. Today, I begin the thirteenth and final installment of Boxcar Tales. I may actually try to write the whole eight pages today.
4. There have been a lot a movies and TV lately. I get into these "watching moods." I finally saw Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty (2012). It was sort of like being hit in the face with a brick. An astounding, unrelentingly brutal film. It has surely deserved every awards nomination it received. Jessica Chastain's performance was especially impressive (also, the parallels between Maya and Claire Danes' Carrie Mathison are somewhat eerie).
And as it happens, the night before we saw Zero Dark Thirty, we'd seen Andrés Muschietti's Mama (2013), which also features Jessica Chastain – though you can hardly recognize her, her appearance is so different in the two films. Mama is one of those very, very rare dark fantasy films that gets everything right. A faerie tale for adults (the film begins with "One Upon a Time..."). Angela Carter meets Guillermo del Toro (who was an executive producer on the film). I've seen a lot of kvetching about the ending, and all I can say is that many people don't actually understand that when one enters the realm of the faerie tale – even when it's dressed up as a ghost story – one must, generally, play by the rules of Faerie. I thought at once of Tolkien's "On Fairy-Stories" (1939, 1947), in which he wrote:
It is at any rate essential to a genuine fairy-story...that it should be presented as "true."...But since the fairy-story deals with "marvels," it cannot tolerate any frame or machinery suggesting that the whole framework in which they occur is a figment or illusion.
Now, true, Mama does not strictly adhere to this rule. It does begin with doubters. But the film opens with two children – the central characters – existing completely within the realm of the genuine fairy-story, and, before the story's done, the adults have followed them irrevocably down the same path. We are left in the end with no possible conclusion except that "the whole framework" of the film was, of course, true. Hence, the ending, with it's complete absence of the sort of "resolution" that would violate the rules. Here, the faerie tale is a transgressive force, chewing up the delusion of a world not subject to the laws of Faerie, and the only resolution is that of a ghostly, changeling reunion. What happens to those who are left behind is irrelevant. Okay, I could also get started on Bruno Bettelheim, but I have gone on far too long about this film. Just see it!
As I said, we saw Star Trek: Into Darkness. There's nothing about this film I didn't love. Even the gimmick shots that were obviously placed there for 3D didn't distract from my enjoyment, and I strongly recommend a 2D viewing. 3D not only destroys cinematography, it's also – especially – anathema to story and character. I'm going to avoid all spoilers (which is more than I can say for a lot of people online), but I will say that Zachary Quinto and Benedict Cumberbatch continue to amaze me and make me smile. Also, the continued exploration of events familiar to Star Trek fans is handled with aplomb, truly going where we haven't gone before. And....okay, little spoilers...KLINGONS! I grew up on Star Trek, even seeing the original series' in syndication only a year or two after its cancellation. And Star Trek: Into Darkness is true to the spirit, moreso than some of the non-Abrams films with the original cast and...okay, let's not even talk about the abominations that were Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise. Anyway, collectively, Spooky and I give it four thumbs up.
We continue to follow SyFy's Defiance, which is, honestly, like the Second Coming of Farscape. If you're not watching it, you're missing out. I'm especially impressed by its use of "old world" music (id est, music predating the post-apocalyptic events of the series). Also, Spooky saw the Netflix original series Hemlock Grove and convinced me to watch it. It's something else that I highly recommend. Another dark fantasy that gives "pararom" and "shifter" pr0n the middle finger (Brian McGreevy, who wrote the novel on which the series is based, and who is a co-writer, producer, and developer on the series, has said as much).
Finally, we've made it through Season Three of True Blood, and you won't believe what I have to say about the series. You may want to brace yourselves. But it's gonna have to wait for another entry. Time to write, says Das Schnabeltier. Oh, the weather finally got sort of warm in Providence (83˚F yesterday). There was a beautiful thunderstorm last night.
Watching, Aunt Beast
Note: I've just learned of a "racefail" (hate that phrase) controversy associated with the film. Not gonna go into spoiler specifics. But the people claiming racism in casting are...I'll be polite, and I'll just say they're wrongheaded.
Doesn't time fly! Quick post this time. Been a quiet fortnight mostly, but we've had visits from Lindsey and Uncle Pete, have been out for lunch with he NCT group and cake with Ed and Lucy, and we had another nice walk up to the Gogs and Wandlebury. Today was Matthew's first jabs - and he was very brave - but has been alternating sleeping and crying this afternoon poor lamb. Hopefully he'll feel better soon. And we did get a nice cuppa and cake in the deli this morning too.
For the future I'm hoping to pop into the beer festival for lunch tomorrow, and am looking forward to Steph, Dave and the kids visiting at the bank holiday weekend. I also have an appointment to have a coil fitted next Friday morning (the 31st) and if anyone would like to come and visit and keep baby company for 20 minutes for me in exchange for lunch in Shelford I'd be very grateful!
squirmelia @ 12:07 pm: Werewolf I forgot to post about this in February, so posting a few months later.
In February, to celebrate Horny Werewolf Day, I made a diorama for deathboy. If you put the stem of the flower in the werewolf's mouth, the flower lit up, and if you stroked the werewolf's knee, the werewolf's penis lit up.
It was made from a werewolf figurine that I painted, and used conductive thread, conductive paint and wires to make a circuit with the LEDs and batteries.
And then I forgot, and by the time I remembered, I was listening to 3 Colours Red (I know, I know, I'll be listening to Ocean Colour Scene before I know it). Anyway, I've queued up Floodland next.
I have no clue what one does for World Goth Day. One can download a free single, apparently[*].
I'm probably barred anyway because I've got a red jumper on.
[*] Edit Or you can stream it, and decide it isn't worth giving them your email address for ;)
We love asparagus, but we only eat it in May/June, when it is British grown – somehow imported stuff doesn’t taste the same. Well, it doesn’t taste of anything, really. So we tend to gorge a bit when the local stuff is in season.
I picked up two bunches from a roadside stall in Norfolk on Sunday, and we ate the first last night. While the pasta water was coming to the boil, I trimmed the asparagus spears, and put them in the steamer basket as 150g of fusilli was cooking. Made a rapid dressing of lemon juice and 30ml of olive oil, grated about 30g of parmesan, drained the pasta, and stirred it all together with lashings of freshly grated black pepper.
Took 15 minutes start to finish, and was lovely and summery. Approx 475 calories per serving.
docbrite @ 08:39 pm: Book Auctions It's been a while since I sold any signed books on eBay. Just listed five new auctions: WRONG THINGS by me and Caitlín R. Kiernan, TRIADS by me and Christa Faust, GUILTY BUT INSANE, and the chapbooks CON PARTY AT HOTEL CALIFORNIA and THE SEED OF LOST SOULS. As always, I'm happy to personalize the signatures.
venta @ 11:02 am: Abroad, for pleasure, as I was a-walking On Saturday afternoon ChrisC and I hopped on the 65 bus. It runs from Ealing Broadway down to Richmond; I use it reasonably often. However, on Saturday we elected to stay on it all the way to its terminus at Kingston-upon-Thames just to see what Kingston was like.
So, the All Tomorrow's Parties festivals will no longer be running at holiday camps after 2013. The last 2 are this winter.
We particularly want to go with M to Part 1, which is at Camber Sands on 22-24th November. The line-up looks excellent (Television! Godspeed! Les Savy Fav! Dinosaur Jr! etc) and they currently have
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<p>So, the All Tomorrow's Parties festivals will no longer be running at holiday camps after 2013. The last 2 are this winter.</p><p>We particularly want to go with M to Part 1, which is at Camber Sands on 22-24th November. The line-up looks excellent (Television! Godspeed! Les Savy Fav! Dinosaur Jr! etc) and they currently have <a href="http://"http://www.atpfestival.com/events/deerhunter/news/1304261021.php">4, 5, 6 & 7 berth chalets available.</a></p><p>So, who wants to go to a festival with us and a baby? I think it'll be LEGEN...DARY but obv I'm biased.</p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Posted via <a href="http://m.livejournal.com/ipad/link">LiveJournal app for iPad</a>.</i></span></p>
I have screwed up my left leg in an impressive manner. I keep stretching my legs while still mostly unconscious, and somehow OVERstretching my left leg and waking up screaming. My thigh has been numb for weeks and sometimes I have odd shooting sensations up and down my leg. The oddest thing is a kind of burning sensation, but like ice rather than fire. Fortunately, that doesn't happen very often.
Neither my GP nor physiotherapist can work out what exactly I've done. It's clearly some sort of nerve issue, and it's clearly not very serious since I have most of my sensation; but it's weird and unpleasant and I don't like it. Also, whenever my left leg is bad, I end up throwing my weight onto my right leg as I walk around the house, and then it gets damaged as well. Joy!
On Saturday, I randomly stretched my legs, managed to overstretch my left leg YET AGAIN, and this time it feels as though I've actually ripped something inside because not only is my thigh numb, it's all puffy just above my knee. It's better than it was, but still not good, and it's taking all my spoons to deal with it. ALL my spoons. My ability to injure myself in my sleep is prodigious, but I need to figure out what the hell I keep doing to injure it over and over.
Also, partly as a result of the above, my sleep patterns are fucked. Absolutely FUBAR. I seem to now be on a cycle of waking up between 7 and 10 pm, and falling asleep about 10 am. This is so very broken I can't even describe it. And the sleeping pills I've been given, which work splendidly for when I can't sleep because of stress, do nothing for when I can't sleep because I'm not tired enough because I basically didn't come installed with the software for functioning circadian rhythms. I can be ridiculously tired - falling over with physical tiredness - and my brain still isn't sleepy.
Oh yes! And another thing! I managed to lose my Disabled Railcard on Friday 10th May! It was in my pocket in UCL Library, then suddenly not in my pocket by the time I got to the bus stop 5 minutes away. And I spent 45 minutes looking and asked in all the security lodges and so on. Clearly, someone picked it up. Whether they are now going to spend 2.5 years claiming reduced-price travel to which they are not entitled is a question which has been bothering me greatly, because it has my name on it, but not a photo. I have paid the £10 administration fee and have been sent a new card, but there's no way to cancel the old card.
There are issues to do with College which I can't even be bothered to attempt to write about right now. The only reason this post exists is that I've edited my irc rants into semi-coherent English. Also there is other stuff which I am not posting in a public post. Like all of this, really, none of it is the sort of thing that people need to worry about: but it is a source of stress for me.
It's really been one damned thing after another. None of them very major in themselves, but together overwhelming my ability to cope. I want a bit of breathing space without anything else going wrong for a while :S
sesquipedality @ 01:52 am: Agnosticism, but not as we know it In recent years, I have discovered that my vestigial sense of (spiritual) faith has atrophied to the point where I can no longer be said to believe in any deity. I have always felt uncomfortable with the terms agnostic and atheist, and have therefore tended, when necessary, to self-describe as humanist. Today I had a conversation in which I kind of straightened out some thoughts I have about religion, and I thought they might be worth sharing.
springheel_jack @ 05:03 pm: what do YOU think The US State Department's annual "religious freedom report" (they produce one every year - result of a piece of genuinely goofball 1998 legislation) is out, and among the usual offenders Venezuela is getting a lot of press for anti-Semitism. It isn't my impression that Venezuela is particularly anti-Jewish or that the people of Venezuela especially hate Jews. Indeed, the relevant part of the Report looks to me, well, a little thin.
I see my last entry was made on the 17th. And this would be a longish one, but I'm pressed for time. I'm several days behind, and I very much need to finish Alabaster: Boxcar Tales #12 today. A bad headache all day yesterday. Two nights in a row I've gotten to sleep early and easy, but then a sudden roller coaster of nightmares that's left even me impressed, before awaking six hours later, cold and disoriented and unable to get back to sleep. None of this, obviously, is conducive to the tedious, painstaking task of making a movie at a measly five-seven frames-per-page. But there's actually a lot I want to put down. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe Wednesday. These are the maybes that just get me farther and farther behind.
Only six – or seven – days remaining until birthday -09. I say six or seven because I was born on a leap year. Technically, most years, my birthday isn't the 26th, but the 27th*. And I didn't figure that out until last year. Which is pretty weird. Anyway, if you are the sort who wants to send an aging curmudgeon a distraction on her birthday, I do have an Amazon wish list with nice distracting stuff. I was going to post this earlier, but I forgot. I forget a lot these days.
I haven't gamed/roleplayed in five days. Go me. I think the last time was Wednesday. It was time to unplug for a bit. Time to remind myself there's a real world out there, and that I'm neglecting it for a pixel simulacrum. To the people I have been rping with, apologies for the sudden absence (though I did leave stsisyphus with an ic notice). I'll likely be back, probably very soon.
My hair is now a rather wonderful steely grey. Three days ago, I'd had enough of the pale yellow mess the salon made of it a month ago, and I'd see a girl last Thursday on Thayer Street with wonderful steely grey hair. So, Spooky did research. And, behind the cut, is the result. Note that this is a temporary wash, because we wanted to see if I'd like it before committing. I do. So, next step, semi-permamnet. Note, in the photos, I was not really in a "look at my face" mood. I've lost too much weight this winter and cold spring, and I need sun...
Here are Spooky's instructions for how we got this color: We used Roux Fanci-full in True Steel. I got a couple of tubes of Ion Color Brilliance in Titanium, which is a similar shade of grey, if the sample is to be believed. It's a semi-permanent dye, like Manic Panic. That will be the next step. I would note that my hair had been bleached platinum blonde beforehand. This will not work over dark hair.
Grey, Aunt Beast
* My late Grandmother Ramey's birthday. She was not born on a leap year.
I went over to Bilston a fortnight ago for the Dames of Darkness festival. If you like that sort of thing (Which I do) then it was a great day. Other people have written more verbose reviews, why not try here 
tired
curious
thoughtful
frustrated
