Post-DragonCon update

I had a blast at DragonCon again this year. This time, Ben and I made armor for the first time so we could cosplay as Sasha and Aleksis Kaidanovsky from Pacific Rim. We didn't quite finish everything in time, and we discovered a few things that will need to be adjusted/fixed for future conventions, but for a first armor done in about a month (less, actually), I think we did pretty well.

Us and Comrade Jellyfish (Comrade Squid was unavailable)

Sadly, shortly before DragonCon, one of our cats died. She had (probably) a rare and untreatable cancer, so we had to let her go. Mylene was a sweet, friendly orange bundle of love, and the 11 years we had her weren't enough.

Mylene, 2003-August 2014

Right before DragonCon, I interviewed for an opening to teach German at a local language school, and I have my first class this afternoon. It's a private lesson. I have a regular class starting in early October. And suddenly I have to prep a lot of lessons...

The next convention I'm going to will be World Fantasy Con, where I'll see some of my VP17 peeps and maybe some instructors, as well as friends Carrie, Don, and JoSelle. And probably a lot of other people. Maybe some of you!

Next year's convention schedule will be IllogiCon (January), Shatterdome ATL (June), ReaderCon (July, hopefully), and DragonCon (Labor Day).

Carolina Snow Day

We got some snow last night. It's really pretty. Everything's closed, of course.

On the way to bed last night

This morning. You might be able to see the deer tracks in the driveway.

Sunny out back.

Photo Friday

My 15-year college reunion was fun. I got to see my friends and the new things on campus. The leaves were turning, so the mountains were really pretty.

I'd forgotten just how beautiful and how depressing central Pennsylvania is. Driving on the highway in the mountains and seeing clouds casting shadows on the ground below, or on the next ridge over. The comforting feeling of being in a valley. The isolation and loneliness of rural life.

I grew up in Frederick, MD, back when it was an army base, a college, and a bedroom community for Bethesda. It's grown a lot since then, and badly. There's only so far you can widen roads, especially when public transit isn't on the table. My route north took me through there, and I hadn't been back in a few years, since my mom moved away.

The Blue Ridge Mountains were always part of my life. They were always just off to the west a bit, on the horizon. Where I live now, I'm nowhere near close enough to see them. The Piedmont is an hour or two west, the Blue Ridge another hour beyond that. I miss that.

I was hit with a wave of unexpected nostalgia when I went to campus to pick up my registration materials, so I took a walk. I always loved wandering campus at night.

Ellis Hall, the student union and cafeteria

The Justus von Liebig Center for Science (this didn't exist when I was a student!)

The von Liebig theater, attached to the old theater (this is also new)

A look from central campus toward the northern residence halls

Founders Hall, expanded and renovated since I graduated

I took a drive out to the expanded field station, on land leased from the Army Corps of Engineers at Raystown Lake (which the ACE built). I'd never gone as a student, so I took this opportunity. Biology students can live out here for a semester, take classes, and do research. The new lodges and the main building are LEED certified, and they have composting toilets. Very eco-friendly.

Friday!

I'm back from DragonCon, though I still haven't caught up on sleep. I had a lot of fun, though I only made it to a couple panels. I saw a lot of costumes, hung out with friends, and bought a Pacific Rim poster signed by Guillermo del Toro. (That was my top accomplishment of the con.) My costume was successful, and I only got mistaken twice: once for Daenarys (or however you spell it; I'm not a Game of Thrones fan), which was utterly mindboggling, and once for Starbuck from new BSG (which actually made *sense*).

I have a bunch of photos up on my tumblr. Disney set, anime set, superheroes set, miscellaneous, and *punk.

And here's a picture of me and another person cosplaying Sasha Kaidonovsky, from the Pacific Rim photoshoot. I'm on the right. The coat got really warm really fast.

On a topic not related to DragonCon, once again/as usual people are attempting to gatekeep science fiction. Paul Cook wrote an essay on the Amazing Stories blog about how women can't write real SF because they put in things like feeling and descriptions of clothes, and also women are destroying SF with their writing about stupid girly things. Foz Meadows has an excellent deconstruction of his garbage.

Lightspeed Magazine has announced a special Women Destroying SF issue for next year.

Friday miscellany

I've made a list of the anime I want to recommend, both from looking at my shelves and asking Ben what good recent shows I've missed. At one post a week, it'll last me into next year. And that doesn't include occasional posts on things that are currently airing. But I've also hit a snag: some of the things I want to recommend are out of print or tied up in license limbo forever (hi, Macross). There are ... ways ... to get around that, but I'm not willing to discuss them here.

I've taken the posts wherein I've recommended anime and turned them into a page, which I will update weekly(ish).

And these are blooming outside my house right now. They smell amazing.

Monday Miscellany

I haven't finished the book I'm reading still (Spice: The History of a Temptation), because it's incredibly dry. I don't know when I'll get around to finishing it, possibly on the train to DC Friday, though I'd planned to start plowing through the Hugo nominee packet on my 12-hour round trip.

I've had a couple ideas for future writing projects, so I made notes about them in a notebook so I don't forget what I wanted to write about, and also to give my brain something to work on while I'm doing other things. The current WIP is in progress. I've gotten to the point in the outline where I was kind of fuzzy, so this means I need to decide a few things. And I don't wanna, so it's rough going.

Mystery Brewing has been having a grand opening for their taproom/public house all weekend, and I've been every day. They debuted a different beer each day, so I had to go try them. Of course! I'll be going over later today, after they open at noon. Maybe not right at noon. Not sure.

I don't think I've posted cat pictures in a long time (or ever?), so here are my cats.


Claire likes to sit by me when I'm working.


Mylene is photogenic.


Luna disapproves.


Meyrin likes ladders.

Caffeine free.

Neurologist's orders. Apparently, I have several types of migraine all mixed up together, and caffeine contributes to one of them. So I had to quit cold turkey. My neurologist hath a blog, and he wrote about the link between caffeine and headaches, if you're interested.

But, on the plus side, once I've detoxed completely and I no longer have the sinusy headaches, I can have all the caffeine I can drink two days a week. Good thing, because I have a ton of black and green teas in my cupboard that need to go.

I've been drinking herbal tea in the mornings of late, going through Christmas tea dated 2008 and 2009. Celestial Seasonings Gingerbread Spice is AWESOME. Most likely I was hoarding it for future drinking, which explains why I drank maybe half the box. You can only buy it 3 months of the year! I have a box of Sugar Plum Spice (dated 2009) still in its shrink wrap in the cupboard, which will be the next to go. Maybe tomorrow I'll have some of that.

In related news, I crocheted a cozy for my teapot. I improvised, which means it took me 5 tries before finding a method that worked. My teapot is a non-standard size, not round, but more UFO-shaped (an older model of this one, I think), so the half dozen patterns I saw on Ravelry wouldn't quite work.

Pattern for a tea cozy:
ca 100 g worsted weight, size H hook

Ch 6, sl st to form ring.
DC 12 in ring. sl st to close. ch2
2dc in each dc (ch2 counts as 1dc) sl st to join. ch 2.
*dc 2 2dc in next dc* around ring. sl st to join. ch 2.
*dc 3 2dc in next dc* around ring. sl st to join. ch 2.
*dc 4 2dc in next dc* around ring. sl st to join. ch 2.
*dc 5 2dc in next dc* around ring. DO NOT JOIN. This is the spout. ch 2.
*dc 6 2dc in next dc* to approximate midpoint (leave space for handle). ch 2, turn.
*dc 5 dc2tog* to split. ch 2, turn.
*dc 4 dc2tog* to handle space. ch 2, turn.
*dc 3 dc2tog* to split. ch 2, turn.
*dc 2 dc2tog* to handle. ch 2, turn.
*dc 1 dc2tog* to split. Fasten off.
Tie on at opposite side of split. *dc 6 2dc in next dc* to handle space. ch 2, turn.
*dc 5 dc2tog* to split. ch 10. (this will be the strap) ch2, turn.
dc 10 in chain. *dc 4 dc2tog* to handle. ch 2, turn.
*dc 3 dc2tog* to strap, dc 10. ch 2, turn.
dc 2, ch 1 skip next dc, dc 7 (to make buttonhole). *dc 2 dc2tog* to handle. ch 2, turn.
*dc 1 dc2tog* to strap (may dc first 2 stitches tog for aesthetics), dc to end. ch 1, turn.
sc in each dc. at handle, ch 2 (or number of stitches left open for the handle) continue around.
Crochet (or purchase) a button and fasten it in the appropriate position.
Wash, block dry on teapot.

It should look something like this (handle shot) when you're finished.

It's cherry blossom time!

Maybe not up north, but it is down here. My Yoshino cherry started out 8 years ago in a 5-gallon tub from Lowe's, I think. Now it's about 20 feet tall. The first couple years, it was kinda straggly and had sparse blossoms, but in the last year or two, it's had a ton of healthy pink blooms. They come out so slowly, though, and later than most of the other Yoshinos in the area. But they're about 90% out now, and it's looking pretty. I think if we had a couple more big trees, it would be prettier, but there's not really any good places to put them.

It's snowing!

One of those rare events here in the South, so we all get excited a bit and go in late to work, if at all, and swear at the morons driving 80 mph in their SUVs.

My employer is opening at 10:30, which is pretty awesome. Though the roads are still kind of bad.

I wonder if they'll put the Inauguration on the TV in the waiting room, or if I'll be able to watch a live video feed on CNN or hulu or something.

Bathroom remodel: finally done.

Take a look!

Animazement 08

I had fun, despite the seething mass of unwashed bodies and overenthusiastic teenagers.

I tried selling some rectangles of quilted fabric for folks to pin their nerd paraphernalia to, but they weren't moving. I sold enough to cover materials and make 15 bucks, though, so it's not a total loss.

I finished my costume in time, except for the cravat. So I borrowed Ben's, though it isn't exactly accurate. I'll have time to finish everything up later, as well as fix my wig. I need to move the top vest button as well as the eye and button on the pants. Won't take long.

Here are some photos I took. The first few are costumes I liked, and the rest are of me with other characters from the Phoenix Wright games.

I didn't buy much, since I'm going to Japan in a few weeks, though I did pick up a Gundam model kit, because those come in huuuuuuge boxes, which are inconvenient to stuff in your suitcase. I paid a bit more than $22 for it, however. Convenience fee, I suppose. And no shipping. I guess I'll add it to the stack of Gundam kits that I still need to paint and build. -__- Drat costuming. It takes time from my other hobbies!