Month: June 2005

And I shall call it, Mini Me.

Tom helped me make a Duct Tape Dress Dummy on Monday night. Now there’s a humbling experience. Essentially, what you do is put on an old t-shirt and then wrap your torso and upper arms in bands of duct tape to make a mold of your figure. Then cut it up the back and mount it on a pole/hanger arrangement and then stuff it with fiberfil. The result is an accurate model of your figure which can be mounted at your height. Very useful for tailoring, which is why I made it, but EMBARRASSING to see all the bumps and lumps. And you know how the camera adds 20 lbs, well not having a head or any limbs adds like 50 lbs. It’s kinda hard to look at. I’m going to start making a dress soon, just so it stops sitting there in the corner, naked and accusing.

Maybe “Maxi Me” is more appropriate *sigh*.

So it looks like they’re just going to close us and use our parking lot. That means we get a mini-break (hooray!) for one day.
It will be a relief not to have to fight the traffic at the gates tomorrow.
Guess who gets to sleep in tomorrow… *neener, neener, neener*
I am a bit put out that he’s going to be in the building next door and won’t come over to tour our library.
Insert snarky comment about President and books here. Insert snarky comment about security risk here.
It’s tough being the red-headed stepchild sometimes.

I’ll be going to the quintennial camp staff reunion for Camp Archbald (my old GS camp in PA) this summer and I’ve been thinking about the things I learned at camp.

1. I learned that being responsible for others can help you conquer fear.
2. I learned that you can really, really like someone and still want to kill them.
3. I learned that you can live through pain.
4. I learned too many silly songs to count.
5. I learned that you can’t always please yourself and be a good friend, too.
6. I learned that Thin Mint Cookies taste best frozen.
7. I learned that there is no place like Girl Scout camp.

My boss calls me and says “The President is coming to post on Tuesday, and he is going to be attending an event at the (Chaplain building) right next to your library, so don’t be surprised if some Secret Service guys come in to look around. They’re allowed to go anywhere they want.” Yeesh. Actually, the publicity on this has been pretty low key so far. It isn’t in the paper or on the website, but as the boss is pretty well informed I’m inclined to believe her. Also, the big boss just came though with some guys talking about using the building for something on Monday, so we may be closed.

That may explain the black helicopters flying around over the library when I got here this morning.

Boy do I have an interesting job.

I got quoted twice in Live Journal Daily Quiz.
Not bad for a newbie!
Thanks to deza for figuring out that I don’t have enough trivia in my life.

YAWN!

We had a nice time for most of MTT. We arrived at dark on Friday and set up the tents, than ran out to Walmart in Roxboro for yogurt and munchies and a flashlight. I didn’t sleep well at all on Friday night. My sleep apnea makes me feel like I’m drowning all night and I wake up every 20 minutes or so. But I was up bright and early Sat. morning, took a shower and had some breakfast. Tiernen slept like a rock and was still snoozing at 9:00 when we finally roused him. The site was pretty, with a lake and resident geese. We hiked over to the stables to catch some of the equestrian events. They were still signing in some visitors to the site and seemed to be having trouble getting the non-SCA people to understand why they had to sign the SCA waivers, so nothing much was going on. We then hiked back to watch the hounds coursing. That was pretty wonderful. There were four greyhounds who were amazing to watch as they tore around the roughly “L” shaped course. The lure was a plastic garbage bag on a cord stretched along the ground around some pulleys. The people at the end of the course were operating a little winch that pulled in the rope and the dogs followed about 10-20′ behind. The corners caused them to overshoot and make a big turn to correct which I think kept them from catching the lure. All the dogs were wearing muzzles which kept them from hurting themselves should they actually catch up to the lure.

After the coursing was the feast, very delicious and not the usual SCA “rain of food” as it was a midday thing. Then Tiernen went out to fence. I stayed to help wash dishes and then we moved into the kitchen to prepare our food fundraiser for the evening. I’m glad we did the pre-prep we did as the kitchen was pretty small and people were still coming and going. We did get done in time to start serving at 7:00. People were hungry and pretty generous, so I think we broke even. Many thanks to Kate and Jay, Danr and Isabel, and Kim and Don for all their help. And to Solveg for fixing the pig cooker and giving us his propane.

It was at this point that I wore out. My feet were killing me and I was feeling the definite effects of interrupted sleep the night before. Tiernen was my knight in fencing armor. He packed up the car and drove us both home, even though I kept snoozing the entire way home. We were in bed by three and very grateful to be there.

Yesterday I slept until 4:00, then got up, watched the Muppets and Frankenthumb, unpacked the car and went back to sleep.

Today, work! Still tired, though.

My little sister has declared her interest in attending Anthrocon 2005 in Philladelphia. This is the world’s largest “furry” con. Given the sheer number of wierd fandoms I am a part of, I know I should have no real objection to her going…but it still worries me. She’s not an established part of the fur suit community and it does appeal to her interest in animals. And I guess there will be artists and folks she knows there. I think I’d feel more comfortable about the whole thing if I had a better idea about what really goes on at these things.

It’s not the minute potential for wierd sex stuff that bothers me (although I know it would bother her), it’s the geekiness of the whole enterprise. And now I feel like a hypocrite. But honestly, what kind of panels do they have? I mean, what do you DO in a fur suit, provided you aren’t a team mascot or in a play or something? Dressing as a cartoon dog doesn’t seem to lead naturally to other activities, like gaming. There isn’t a research or scholarship component like in the SCA. It’s a lot like Star Trek fandom. I guess I like things with a more active participatory component. I like to feel like I’m doing something with my fandom. That way it can still seem productive.

You know what this reminds me of, The Mouse Problem.

Oh well, have a good time, Keed.

As further proof that all books are one book, in the metaphysical sense, I came across both a reference that could have inspired wizard chess for Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling AND a reference to H.P. Lovecraft’s planet of Yuggoth within three pages of each other in John Bellairs’ book finished by Brad Strickland, The Doom of the Haunted Opera. I love moments like that.