Hustle! Fun music! Fun dancing! Just an hour, with standing around for lecture and demo, but still...
Got my computer together, the OS running, and the intertubes working on my new work PC. Now the long grind of putting my applications and data onto it.
Reading the new Tesla books. Good stuff. Between them and other references I can put together a plan this weekend. I may go with some of their circuits as-is (I can buy the PCBs!) or I may try to make my own. We'll see.
Ah well, more reading, some Halvah, and then bed.
Last night I was fairly well zombified, so I didn't have the energy to move the ginger to secondary. Ah well, maybe tonight? We'll see. It sucks to not have limitless energy all the time.
When I moved the Sahara Cherry Cider to bottles the other day, I used a few neat toys borrowed from the Mattster. One was a vinometer, which uses the surface tension characteristics of the fluid, and an insanely small yet still calibrated capillary tube, to determine alcohol content (made less accurate by bubbles, sugars, etc in the fluid). Hard to read at first, subtle... but nifty.
My calculations going into secondary said I had 12%. When I hydrometerized the stuff going to bottles, it looked even LOWER than the 0.980 I got before (how is that even possible?) and the vine meter said 13%... matching expectations. Dang.
The bottling itself was aided by a bottling bucket -- a big plastic bucket with a spigot near the bottom. I think I want a bottling wand to attach still, though; the fat hose left too much head space, and I drained the hose on each bottle to control spillage and stuff, but then I had more air contact than I liked, restarting the flow from scratch each time.
The final toy, er, tool I borrowed was a sanitizer spritzer thingy, very nice, made it very easy to sanitize the insides of the bottles.
I broke a different toy last night -- the blade on my bandsaw. Dangit. Gonna swing by Harbor Fright tonight to buy a few more, this time with reasonable tooth sizes.
Can't do much construction tonight, Taiji classes. Sigh.
I want to build the fire pillar, darn it! Got some great ideas with Matt, an awesome plan in mind, and the hours just slip by.
Transferred the dry dry dry cherry-berry flavored cider to 24 Grolsch bottles that Tall Matt was kind enough to lend me. Hope they hold their seals tight, 'cause I added priming sugar to set about 4 volumes of CO2! Teh Fizzy!
Didn't get around to moving the ginger into secondary, though. Ran out of night-time.
Approaching the end-game of setting up my new PC at work. Just a note in case you haven't noticed yet: I hate MS Windows. Ugh. What a pain.
Oh, it looks like I neglected to mention I met one of the local singing tesla coil makers Sunday at the town hall! He's willing, as best I can tell so far, to help me out and share his knowledge! Nice guy, Oliver. Yup. He hasn't responded to my e-mail yet, but I'll pester him until he does!
My final Tesla reference should appear Wednesday. I'm looking forward to putting together my first design.
Another weekend by in a flash! Saturday morning welding class, Saturday afternoon talking to a friend about Tesla building, Saturday evening game playing and social time, thats the first day!
Sunday morning, ummm, I think I had a Sunday morning; Sunday afternoon Scare meeting, Sunday after Scare made some fittings with Matt for his gas cylinders and we put in the cat door! Sunday evening, the town hall for Maker Faire Austin 2008. Whoosh! Gone.
Today, I will probably bottle the berry cider that is sooooo dry and tidy. Then I'll try to make a sweet berry cider! I will also secondary the other ginger, and then dance lessons later.
At work, trying to get my new computer up and will be doing... stuff. Work stuff. Yeah.
Bought a ticket this weekend to fly to San Francisco Feb 14 to go to a Palo Alto workshop on Feb 15, then fly back to Austin that same day landing at 3 am. Whoosh! Launch tired into the weekend, but richer and in search of a better o-scope!
Oh yeah, the cherry/raspberry cider is POW! BAM! YOWZA! About 12% baby, using White Labs Sweet Mead Yeast after just a week in primary, a hint of fruity flavor, not sweet at all, and the alcohol skips past your stomach to go right for your head. A week maybe TOPS in the secondary and then priming sugar (4 ounces for a fizzy 3.5 liters of CO2) and bottling. Oh yeah. Fizzy fruity doom. Yum.
I _was_ hoping for a sweeter version, though. I was shocked, SHOCKED I say, when I saw the hydrometer sink well past the scale, sitting at maybe 0.980 by estimate. My starting gravity was 1.072 about (both measurements at 70ºF). Ninety points down!
This White Labs sweet mead yeast (WLP720) is good to 15% alcohol or so, but I expected it to stay sweeter. Ah well.
The ginger ciders are both ticking along at a much slower rate (the fruity cider ZOOMED through its sugars), and will be awesome, I'm sure, once they pass on to the next stages. I'll put the last one into secondary in a few days probably; it's slowing down.
On the work front, I started putting together a new computer (2.whatever GHz quadcore Intel, dual 300GB HD for RAID-1, new monitor, shiny this, fast that) to replace the marginal one I have now... which become my new test machine replacing the POS I have now. Just in time, because the Ethernet capture program, Wireshark, TOTALLY refuses to capture jack over shit on my EtherCAT project and I have a powerful need to see these packets right about now.
Next up: Putting together a toolbox for welding class tomorrow. Yay!
It bugs me how the explanation for electromagnetic (and other) fields and waves are so ... abstract. I _get_ electricity; electrons, protons, electron "holes" where electrons aren't. All very nice, very physical.
But what about the electrostatic field around the electron, that repels other electrons? The magnetic field density and flux lines and on and on, extending out to _infinity_, interacting with other electrons, shifting them. And let's not even talk about the close-range atomic forces, or the pseudo-particles that are illustrated squiggling out away from things as sub-atomic communication... wtf?
At least with gravity, the mass of the partical is proposed to distort "space time" causing "dents" in the very fabric of reality, causing other masses (and their dents) to drift closer (shifting to a lower energy point by "falling" down the "dent").
But flux lines? Electromagnetic waves? Equipotential surfaces? They don't even PRETEND to have any meaning, it's just book-keeping.
I want to know more. What exactly is a flux line? What is it acting in, transmitting through, represented by?
Madness, I say! Madness! Our physics with its pretty words and fancy maths is all well and good, but we really have no clue.
Or if we do, it's in a book I haven't read yet, and I've read a _lot_ of books.
Oh yeah, the flame thrower worked pretty good. Looks even better on video than in person!
Article:
http://originalalamo.blogspot.com/2008/01/rambo-is-coming-and-were-burning-babies.html
Video straight to YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSxLqcJMCNI
Well, now I've done it, I've supplied a propane-fed flamethrower to Lars. I'm sure this will end well.
It's actually a moderately "safe" device, for certain definitions of safe, and the flame isn't too huge (probably smaller than it could be last night, 'cause it was two goosebumps above a freeze out there, brrrr), and the thing looks pretty neat.
I never did get action shots of it, and now it's out of my hands. The Alamo peeps took video, so if I ever stumble across that I'll link it.
On the "dangerous project" front, hope to do some welding and maybe even TESTING on the pillar of flame soon, and I'll be starting up the actual planning on the tesla coil and high-voltage supplies this weekend too.
Yay! Danger!
Amazing. I even remembered confirming my appointment tonight at Alamo Village, I even could feel myself typing "Village". But no, Lars was not at Village, he was at South.
It turns out that yes, I was supposed to go to South tonight, and Village tomorrow, and I actually even confirmed South! My damned brain crossed wires completely. Very embarrassing.
On the bright side, Lars likes the flame thrower (wants a bigger flame, though, so I'll increase the nozzle size some), and will pay me extra to KEEP it. I'll even throw in a pressure valve for the tank and the quick-release hose. And I'll still make a profit!
Tomorrow, by end of work, I need to make a decision about my lungs. Ugh.
And, I can't get Lulu.com to !@#$% process my shopping cart, it refuses to transition out of step 2 (of 4). I talked to their live chat support guy for half an hour today, but I think he was stationed on Mars, what with the five minute round trip communication delay we seemed to be having. Completely useless.
I'll try again tomorrow.
Video of my ciders bubbling. The sound in the background is the dishwasher.
http://www.simreal.com/make_apps/bubbles.avi
It's in whatever horrid AVI format my camera uses, so good luck!
Dang, today went fast. I expected yesterday to go fast, but I had a lot of trouble finding the right parts today and that seemed to make it fly by way too quickly.
But first, a link to my famous eyeball scarf (knitted by Marla, eyeball yarn from insubordiknit.com):
http://www.simreal.com/make_apps/scarf.jpg
Yayy!
The result of all my running around is this flame thrower, which will be throwing flames on Tuesday if I can plug all of the leaks in it. By the way? Compression fittings on 1/4" copper? Leaky as all hell.
http://www.simreal.com/make_apps/flame_1.jpg
http://www.simreal.com/make_apps/flame_2.jpg
I'm using a combination of some random glue I have and epoxy putty to put the Seal of Doom on the three compression fittings. The rest of it seems to be tight enough for outdoor use.
This work, though, DOES lead to advances in both the dancing fire tube and in the pillar of flame (in progress, or would be in progress if I WOULD EVER WORK ON IT).
Next up on my ever-growing list of things to do: A cat door for Sparky in the garage door, so I can reduce the humidity in the shop. I'm still spraying everything with grease to reduce corrosion, but that's sub-optimal.
Also, buying two more books on modern tesla coil construction; the LAST two books, I think, on the subject that I don't own.
Finally, I'm tracking down humans in town who do tesla building, to get advice and to leach on their experiences. Hopefully.
Post-finally, all my cough meds of the afternoon have worn off and I haven't taken the night med yet. My lungs still feel icky. I've got just a day and a half to make significant progress (I don't think I've made "significant" progress yet) or it's lung x-ray time, so says my doctor.
Busy busy! Friday, yesterday, after work I went to the Dr and got some antibiotics for my cough, and some powerful meds to kill the symptoms while the germ killers did their business. Nice antibiotic, too; just 5 days of dosing.
While I'm removing the unwanted life from my lungs, I mixed up two more three-gallon cider batches (another ginger, and a cherry to replace the one that never took hold) and pitched yeast to those. Now I have the original ginger in secondary bubbling it's little heart out (I swapped bubblers today and found the cork was loose) and the two primaries glugging away happily.
Ahhhh, the pitter patter of little feet.
Oh, no, that's the cats fighting. Anyway.
This morning was day one (videos and lectures, freezing our butts off) of the 15-week art welding class. It will be fun! Though it only covers oxy-gas welding (I had hoped for a bit more exotic, but hey) it will give me a chance to play and relearn my fundamentals.
After that, a quick bite to eat (I was dying!) and then off to Richard's to play games. Primodial Soup (Urrsuppe, in the German) is FUN! fun fun fun. Well, I won, so I'm biased.
And now night.
Tomorrow -- Lowes and the Despot, metal plumbing parts, and I build a flamethrower and some fire pillars. Maybe.
The flamethrower, while a BAD IDEA, I'm sure, is for a show where he was going to try an even worse idea -- fire starter in a super soaker. Egads, YouTube is inspiring all the wrong ideas, I swear.
Propane has _got_ to be safer than that.
Went to dance class last night, first time in _ages_; it turns out that the Demand class most demanded was Hustle! Fun, hustle is a blast and the music is all kinds of cheerful. The '80s was a time of cheerful music, definitely. Disco was embarrassing in many ways, but you just can't beat it for perkiness.
I poked around my garage last night trying to find a flyback transformer that I know I should have, but it's gone. Must have vanished in the massive cleanup of '07.
I then fired up one of my Neon transformers; it makes a pleasant, quiet spark, and seems to arc and Jacob nicely even at 1/3 power in. I'm sure it will make a fine electrical effect, an improved spark wheel and/or Jacob's ladder.
I did some rough tests on a new effect I wanted to try, but no success yet. I still have options, though; however, I think the winning option will be "massive high voltage".
Still doing researching, learning about Tesla coils. Found a guy locally who wants to make one, and he has found OTHER guys locally who HAVE done builds, so it would be prudent for me to call him and work with that group.
There are conflicts in what I want in a device, so I may have to make several. An optimal Tesla coil is running at a specific frequency, at resonance, which is how it amplifies its output.
A musical Tesla has to vary its output, though, to make music; however, if resonance is high enough it won't contribute to the tone really, so then you just do modulation over the resonant frequency; that is, a slower musical waveform to gate the higher frequency driving signal.
Then again, different effects entirely can be had by changing the frequency and duty cycle of the driving signal, but then you aren't running in resonance -- so those effects are better done using a more standard high voltage transformer (e.g. the flyback I couldn't find).
So I'll have to build a variety of things.
I also want to play with electrifying fire, and the manipulating that with magnetism. This won't require Tesla, might even be do-able with just the Neons. We'll see.
Fun fun!
And speaking of which, this weekend I have an art welding class, a games night, work on the fire pillar, and I promised Alamo I'd make a flame thrower for them as well. Busy!
Still coughing. My intercostals hurt. Silona gave me some nifty cough drops from Australia, though, so that's nice. I sometimes take honey, too. Apparently honey is good for the lung cough, too, and not just throat (sorry M for doubting you). I should probably see a doctor, but I don't want to... it does seem to be getting microscopically better each day.
This is Employee Appreciation Week at work, and there have been things like breakfast tacos Monday morning (yum), and some career fair/seminar/talk thingies yesterday. There will be games and parties and whatnots through the week, all good stuff.
I'm working up test procedures in the test database, and working on documentation of the test process -- not thrilling, but necessary. However, it puts off even further my completing the cleanup of the communication protocol, and the module support work too.
Didn't do any project work last night 'cause I worked with Silona on a webcast video talking about the LoTV Illuminated Budget project. That went well, and we were even fairly efficient, getting done faster than she expected. Next up, Rob will edit it together (probably) and I'll post a link... someday.
This morning, the ginger cider was blooping in its neat little two-bubble airlock. Makes a GREAT sound. Bloop.
The cherry cider, not so much.
This friday/saturday I'll make a quality decision -- toss anything that isn't blooping (or hasn't changed gravity; sometimes they convert w/o bloop?), or if the ginger smells or tastes funny it goes too. I don't know if it's yeast yeasting, or ginger decaying in that tub.
Saturday, I remake and repitch anything that got tossed. I could repitch these existing batches, but I don't want to. It's embarassing enough that they didn't take very well, I don't want to beat a dead horse and get weird flavors; I can afford the hit.
Next time - no campden tablets, I'll just boil the honey and sugars and let the pasteurized juices stand on their own. I'll also be more careful about sanitizer residues, temperatures, yeast wake-up times, and so forth. Usually, even if you do a dozen things a little wrong (I pitched into 90ºF wort once, no problem) you still get LIFE. I've never had a dead batch before... so I blame campden.
Who needs sulfates anyway?
On the front of alive or dead, had the first private dance lesson of the year, went back over some Cha figures; it was nice to be dancing again! Also, got some actual work done at work yesterday, the brain is functioning again.
Yesterday I had a bit more energy so I got a bit more done -- in the morning, cleaned the garage a little bit before going to the SCARE business meeting (at which I became Secretary on the BoD during the transitional government; gotta enter my hand-written notes in today).
After that, more garage cleaning and then I realized I had to pitch (pour) the yeast into my ciders... I used a bubbler aerator to oxygenate the worts (new toy!) for 15 minutes each and then I stirred the yeast in with much splashing and foaming as well. I only let the yeast stabilize for about an hour out of the fridge, instead of doing the puff-up-the-smack-pack wait of three hours, mostly because I forgot about it until it was 6 and I didn't want to wait until 9.
Twelve hours later, no significant bubbler activity, I'm disappointed. Did my campden tablets not dissipate and instead killed my yeast? Was there too much cleanitizer residue? Did the pitch from 50ºF (guessing) to 70ºF shock the yeast too much? Am I just too impatient and this is a normal "waiting period" before it takes off? I seem to recall that almost all of my cider brews take a while before activity appears, but that may be wishful remembering too.
We'll see. I've had decent luck with brewing in the past, so I expect this will work too, though there are a few new things I've done in this batch.
I also made two cuts in the vortex fire pillar device, and I have a plan for the legs and assembly of it all. Two cuts takes a while, this is 4.5" steel pipe with a wall thickness of about a quarter inch. Hefty stuff.
Been spending a lot of my weekend time asleep these last few weeks, not getting started on my day until 10 or so. This really cuts into my projecting and/or housekeeping time! On the other hand, I've been healing my poor body... so I guess that's time well spent.
Yesterday I spent a few hours cooking up six gallons of cider (two recipes of three gallons each). Before that, did some kitchen cleaning. Then spent the evening at M's playing games and hanging out with friends which is always nice.
See, a quiet Saturday!
Today, some garage cleaning, some work on a project or two, a SCARE meeting at 2pm I think maybe, and then more of something or other. We'll see how it goes.
But not a day for Saturnalia I'm thinking, my head hurts... though coffee may fix that soon. The French press is steeping.
I made it through the WHOLE NIGHT last night without waking up in the middle to cough out a lung! And this morning, I only coughed out half a lung upon waking, and not a full two-lung emission. So, that's progress.
Yesterday at work I was useless; almost fell over from dizzyness once (well, off Bob's desk) and was just unable to focus. Yesterday at home I spent one of my happy shiny Border's gift cards, courtesy of my credit card company (the lube they offer me in return for the abuse they give me on my interest). Got the new Walking Dead, and a book on electromagnetism.
There are names for all manner of brewing concoctions, from fermented apple (cider), pear (perry), honey (mead), and all manner of bizarre mixes of the above have their own names too.
I blew through one of my new brewing books (good book) and hit some highlights on various websites, my old Papazian, this and that, and put together two recipes for ciders to try and brew this weekend.
Tried to get the accounting up to date, but Quicken was refusing to talk to my bank tonight. Very frustrating.
(Speaking of which, this cough is driving me mad)
Anyway, I have the recipe lists and equipment lists worked out. Tomorrow I'll get my brew equipment put back together (most of it at least) and this weekend I'll make a pair of 3-gallon brews! Yay!
I'm going for 3 gallons instead of the traditional 5 because I don't drink too much, I can get faster turnarounds on experiments, I can try more flavors, and so forth. Variety over quantity.
Today, I couldn't focus at work very well. I drank some extra coffee (nasty work stuff, yuck) but it didn't help much. I did some light paperwork. Thought about a few problems. Went to the bank and deposited a small check, and got a money order for Flipside. MUST get the flipside order in the mail and postmarked TOMORROW if it is to be accepted!
And now... some reading and sleep.
Tired this morning... completely forgot to blog last night, too.
Went to TaiChi last night, first time in over three months! It didn't hurt or suck as much as I feared it would. Still had a decent amount of flexibility and I didn't cramp up or anything though my legs did get a bit shaky (I always go low, can't resist). Legs are a bit wobbly today too.
The first-stripers are looking to start practicing for their second-strip test already... and some are looking to me to help lead that effort (since I'm a third year first striper; most of the rest of my class went on to second).
Maybe I'll propose blending some second-stripe practice with the push-hands in the park I've been wanting to join... we'll see.
I need to buy some equipment and supplies like NOW. I'm a tad frustrated, though; I have several thousand dollars on my credit card that I shouldn't have -- vacation, extra equipment I picked up, more gift buying than perhaps was wise, this and that, it adds up damned fast.
Argh. And stuff.
Anyway, I think I'm done with the base-level research on tesla coils and high voltage transformers and stuff and I'm ready to put together a trial design or three. So that's cool. But that also means I need to order some parts soon!
No no no, not what you think... more along the lines of "Research and more Research". Finished the Transformer book, didn't have a section on Flybacks but did talk about autotransformers and other interesting things. Nothing about resonance. Ah well.
I dragged the neon sign transformers into the house and poked and prodded on one of them a bit. Passed some modest 5 to 12-volt signals at various frequencies and shapes into it and looked at what came out. Fascinating! Running a sweep into it, I could definitely see how it was tuned for a particular frequency, and then another peak at the harmonic up the scale, and then tapering off to horrible efficiency.
In ordinary transformer mode, I was seeing about 3mA on the secondary (output), with 200 to 250 volts given a fairly tiny input. Nowhere near the rated step up I think, but I was just giving it a trickle of power.
Sine waves were fun, square waves were similar, but pulses were fascinating, giving completely different output characteristics. Then I wired it up with the primary and secondary having a common ground (like a flyback, more or less kinda) and pulsed it there -- and got HUGE spikes off the secondary. Where before there was barely a tingle, in this mode I got painful zaps.
Fascinating.
Can't wait to start pulsing higher voltages/currents through it.
Ahhh Monday, that archetypical solar period wherein we each transition from days of relaxation to days of busy effort.
A long Monday today, but I finished up that draft of the testing plan at work (all 32 pages of it, fortunately most of it machine generated swill), and I submitted my Vortex Cannon article (and invoice!) to Make. Yayy me!
Spent my evening... napping. Okay, only an hour nap, but I crashed hard. I'm recovering from this cold, but not recoverED. Yet.
Read about a third of the way through my book on Transformers. Who knew how many fascinating types of transformer there are? I surely did not!
Found several fascinating (I hope) reference websites on double-resonant tesla coils for research on that front.
Read around the Austin Homebrew site on tools and supplies. They sell a Sake kit! Koji mold! Yayyy!
Just a handful of months before flipside... ramping up the mighty Edwin Powerhouse, I'll engage the clutch soon and launch out into projects in a flurry of motion.
Right after this nap.
PS: Got my bite guard delivered at the Dentist a few days ago; I even mostly remember to wear it! Not a bad fit. Good dentist I have.
Ugh, still trying to ramp up my brain, but my energy has been low still mostly. Like trying to pass a high-frequency pulse through a big inductor...
Yeah, equating cycles of depression with, ummm, one of the three reactance parameters, activity levels with frequency, and umm, yeah no. Maybe mental health doesn't map to Ohm's law particularly well; no Thevanin equivalent. Though my ability to do work is definitely limited by my cycles of (albeit mild) depression and various nebulous other factors I've not entirely quantified.
So instead of leaping about finishing putting the house together, or sequestering myself performing arcane experiments on my shiny new high voltage transformers (what DOES happen when I take a feed-forward transform around what is certainly a laminar, gap-free core optimized for line frequency and run a 1kHz waveform through it, hmmm?), I've been studying my analog electronics some, writing my last contracted Make article (Vortex Cannon! See it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX4-lI0B3SE), and trying to get my strength back.
Still to plan/do (in four overlapping threads: Flipside, Haunt Workshops, Maker Faire, and the SCARE haunt)
* Write a show for Flipside (who wants to be in a 15-minute Mad Science melodrama surrounded by lethal special effects? Silona? Beuller?). Ooo, tickets go on sale tomorrow. My money supplies are weak, but schedule dicates...
* Study for and take tests to get, and apply, and GET, my flame effects operator license
* High voltage, flame, and audio experiments for Flipside and the show above mentioned. All of this to be repeated (at a higher level of refinement) at Maker Faire in October.
* Implement devices based on above experiments
* Design a micro-haunt and break out a number of effects/techniques used in it to parallel past Make articles and propose a few new Make articles to fill the gaps.
* Propose and re-propose a raft of Make articles
* Write Make articles
* Implement the micro haunt (and probably some articles). I'll have help.
* Prepare ideas and notes for workshops in haunt skills to do over this summer
* Write the lecture notes for the haunt workshops
* Perform the haunt workshops
* Work on LoTV technology and architecture, especially those aspects that tie in to Maker Brain
* Experiment in prosthetics for the Haunt. Do the haunt! Haunt haunt haunt. We will kick ectoplasmic butt!
* Get the dance steps online finally, and try to fill the dang things out so they are complete. I missed my goal of end of year on this
* And, of course, the day job that pays for it all, the Taiji that keeps me destressed and healthy, and the ballroom dancing that helps keep me and my sparky wife happy.
Ummmmmm....
Yeah.
Wish me luck.
Ooo it's tomorrow! But I haven't slept yet, so it's still "today", right?
It's stupid warm today, mid 70's and it's freaking January. Of course, it was 29 the other night, inspiring us to buy a heating pad for the spare (outdoor) cat. Lucky little guy.
Took it easy this morning, and my cough is sooooo going away. Mostly. Spent a few hours this afternoon poking at the Make Article (vortex cannon) and have the rough draft pretty much in the bag. I'll get to submit it Monday, more or less, so that's nice.
Spent the evening at M's having lovely food and desserts, and watching folks play the Wii (weeeeee!).
Will probably head home soon-ish. Tomorrow will be, ummm, stuff! Planning for future, starting projects. Oops, the network here is about to get cranky, gotta post!
Ahhh Friday. Was at work the last few days, but not "at work" -- a bit woozy from the lung crud still still. But, not coughing much, mostly conscious, did lots of decent paperwork at work, and went to Friday tonight. My favorite place, I think, and I so look forward to everyone there.
Tomorrow, party at M's! That is also good times.
Tomorrow begins the first weekend of the new year (of so few weekends in a year), and this will be a day to wrap up any loose ends (e.g. the vortex article) and launch the projects for Flipside.
Flipside tickets go on sale next week with a tiny short window -- and I MUST be there! I have plans, vast grand exciting plans, that involve fire, plasma, electricity, and drama. Ahhhh... but you will see, you will see for yourself soon enough.
There was a dance seminar last night that I really wanted to go to that Richard was teaching, but I was feeling kinda woozy from the lung crud and I didn't think I'd hold up for the duration.
Instead, we did spend a moment out about town, getting a heated bed for the outdoors cat so he won't freeze his bits off!
Then, I snuggled in to read Alan Moore et.al.'s "Promethea", which is quite a rich and varied work, the middle few issues of which are a lavish tour through the Kabala / Tree of Life, from an FPS perspective (as it were). Got wrapped up enough in it to have forgotten to post!
I especially liked his contrast of the beauty and _nobility_ of the higher spheres with the blind malice of the agents on Malkuth. That's a contrast I want to create in my Lilli story, when I finally get down to actually writing it.
The hard part about blog-per-day will not be CONTENT but TITLES. Ah well, I may devolve to "stardate" before long.
Went back to work today, first _real_ day back since before the Germany trip at December 10 (GERM-any). Didn't cough on too many people, this chest cold (or whatever) reserves the truly bold action for nighttime, when I'm trying to sleep. Whee.
Another New Year resolution is to keep my accounting up to date. I haven't split off my Quicken files since 2005, and haven't entered personal receipts since mid-November. Tonight I get a bunch of back-entry done and then I'll have to keep up moving forward.
Because I'd MUCH rather work on projects than do accounting, and it's always easier when it's small and frequent.
It's a new year, and this year I will blog _something_ every day.
Yup.
I expect it will be a busy year (last year certainly was, and I have even bigger plans for this year), but I'll try not to talk your ears (eyes?) off here.
Wish me luck with that.
I would put in a big chatter retrospective and looking forward post here, but frankly, I'm tired and I've had a cold for two weeks and I don't have much wit left in me.
See you tomorrow!