Happy Friday - Happy Days

It's hard to remain positive when so many negatives abound around us that we run into every day, but I'm determined to try for a really positive post for everyone today.

My PT Cruiser has vanity plates and added chrome on the
grillwork and door handles, but she's beautiful and so is this pic.
I love my car!

1) My car is repaired and ready to go to Milwaukee in a bit more than a week. I have headlights that almost look like new, my oil has been changed and everything tightened and checked, and best of all, the total bill was less than $150. SCORE! What a relief!

It's always nice to have a review. Have you left one
for a story lately?

2) I got two reviews on short little stories that were old stories. It's really quite nice to know that some of my older work is still being read, even though my writing skills have improved since then and I would, more than likely, be writing them differently. But the stories they reviewed were ones I was happy with and getting the reviews at all was a real day brightener.

Shruti is on the right, I'm on the left. We were in Chicago for
the 2011 Metal Clay World Conference. I can't wait to
introduce her to Bead & Button Show, she'll LOVE it.

3) I'm looking forward to Bead & Button Show a lot. Not necessarily because of the classes (which will be awesomely fun) but because I'll have the chance to see my friend Shruti again. The past two years I've roomed solo and I've enjoyed going back to a room where I had solitude and rest. But Shruti and I have roomed together twice before at conferences and we've always had a fantastic time. She'll be flying in from New Dehli, India within a few days and I can hardly wait to see her and her amazing art again. She's never been to this show before so this will be overload for her. It's all good.

The Milwaukee Art Museum is lakeside. The wide wings of the museum
open and close once a day. This time-lapse shows how they more. The
photo below shows the building with them open. It's a great building!

This is a side view of the whole building. It's supposed to be
an architectural nod to the ships that are often on Lake Michigan just in
front of the museum. I love the building.

4) I'll be in Milwaukee for the show and that's where Zhie lives with her husband and assorted furry and feathered friends. I've managed to get together with them for meals and talk the previous two years and I hope that I can manage it in this year's schedule again. If not, well that's OK too, but it's always a plus to be able to meet with a fellow fan-fiction writer.

Another great building in Milwaukee, and one that I'll visit for a ball game
and a brat one of these days, is Miller Stadium. This baseball stadium
has a roof that retracts when the weather is nice, and closes when it
is stormy or snowing. I love the look of the ballpark and drive directly by it
on my way in and out of the town each year. Play Ball!

5) I keep focusing on losing weight and am down another pound this week. Call me happy. I'm not quite as low as I wanted to be before the Show yet, but I'm getting there and I'm feeling good. Don't think that I'm anywhere close to my end goal - I have many more pounds to lose before I am at the weight I want to be, but I'm actually succeeding and I'm really pleased about that.

I love my friends and am very fortunate to have them. Thanks to each
of you for being my friend!

6) Finally, I have this amazing circle of people who inspire me, influence me, and help keep me sane and away from the depths of despair (so easy to slip in to and hard to climb out of). So if you're reading this in any of the numerous places that I post it every day - THANK YOU! You're very important to me and my life is enriched by you.

Bravo Boy Scouts of America!

7) And one final thought. A rousing YES! going out to the Boy Scouts of America who voted resoundingly to allow gay scouts. They still won't allow gay leaders, but it's one very important step in equal rights for LGBT people. WTG BSA!

Car Appointment and Thoughts on Amazon's Kindle Worlds for Authors

I take my car in to the car doctors today. Not that there's anything majorly wrong with Grape. Indeed she is running pretty darned good for an old lady with 110,000 miles on her. But I will be driving out to Milwaukee to attend Bead & Button Show in early June and I want my car to survive the trip there and back with happiness, not with issues. So I want to have the engine fully checked out, the tires rotated, and I want my headlights reglazed because I'm not getting a lot of light through them anymore. This last is something I could do myself and save $100 or so, but frankly, I'd rather spend my "free" time working on my art or my writing instead of stripping and refinishing my headlights.

My headlights are dingy and unsafe. I'm looking forward to
getting them refinished so that they cast light again.

Later this week I'll take a look through my supply lists, etc to be sure that I'm packing the right things for the four classes I'll be taking, and I suppose I should pull my suitcases out of the closet too...air suitcases just don't hold a lot of stuff. I know we'll be hitting Target over the weekend and I should see if I need stupid things (toothpaste, deodorant, etc) so that I don't have to add things to next Wednesday's schedule.

Well, my shirt is black, my hair is platinum blonde, but the
expression of disgust? Yeah - that's ALL me.

Here's a segue for you...I just noticed that my newly washed shirt has stains down the front *sigh*. That means it didn't get clean in the laundry. Call me frustrated, and also call me wondering how horribly bad it would be if I just kept wearing the shirt.

Hmmm....what to wear? What to wear...?

Undecided...

Finally, Amazon apparently announced a new facet to their empire yesterday called Kindle Worlds for Authors. Here's their own splash page for it. In essence, fanfiction written for three specific fandoms can now be submitted to Amazon and if they pass vetting and follow their guidelines they will be published for profit. The author will retain copyright to their piece, BUT (and it's an important but)

• (the contract gives)..."the World Licensor a license to use your new elements and incorporate them into other works without further compensation to you." (bold typeface added by me).

WTF? This is SO NOT OK. Not only are the fandoms massively restricted (only 'Gossip Girl, by Cecily von Ziegesar; Pretty Little Liars, by Sara Shepard; and Vampire Diaries, by L.J. Smith'), but the authors receive 35% royalty payments on their one story and then, if they have introduced a character or angle to the story that the Licensor likes enough to put into future plot lines, the author will receive nothing, nada, not one penny. 

It's only three fandoms right now, but it's the contract
and the lack of future compensation that has me upset.
Follow the links I give and become informed.

This has some of the writing groups I range through frothing at the mouth, and it makes those who write within accepted worlds for pay quite upset because they may be looking at the future of fictional publishing. For a different, and excellent analysis of the issue and its ramifications for authors, read John Scalzi's comments here. He is the current President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He has read through the announcement and the contracts offered by Amazon and his words are well worth the read. 

It just makes me wonder if we're going to be living in a world where we are boxed in with Amazon on one side and Wal-Mart on the other. A waking nightmare in my opinion. 

Beaches - I'm Cold Today So Here's Some Warm Thoughts

It's my day off today and my list of errands is long *sigh*. It's cold so I'm going to concentrate on warm things today. One quick note - the death toll in the Oklahoma tornado keeps going down and down - the BEST NEWS EVER! Nothing could make me happier than to have those numbers keep reducing. The National Guard was in the area very soon afterward with infrared and heat-seeking technology and the word is that they feel quite confident that everyone has been found. Now for the clean-up, something that Moore, and anywhere in Tornado Alley, is well used to doing.  So...warm things...

Awwww...does he serve drinks too?
Just look at the size of the paws on that little
fuzzy tiger cub - too cute!

There is something wonderful about a relaxing beach, a fancy drink (with the little umbrella, thank you) and maybe even a nice cabana boy to look at. After all...I might be getting older, but I'm not dead yet! I know that some people aren't fond of beaches, but I haven't been at a lot of them over my life and when I have been, I've been fascinated by the ocean.

Hot sun and cool waves in quiet surf. Yeah - this one works for me.

The ocean has times when it frightens me. I understand the mountains - I grew up in them and feel comfortable with vertical walls of rock, rushing cold streams and forested slopes. But the ocean is another huge world, larger than the land mass of earth. It features animals that are unfamiliar to me - creatures that are odd and amazing. There are fish and jellyfish, whales and dolphins, seaweed and corals and so many, many fish. I love going into the ocean but I love coming back onto land again - I belong on the land.

This pic isn't from a beach, but what a lovely sight. Land Ho!

There are few sights more beautiful than sunrise or sunset over a perfect beach. Maybe some day I'll travel to Hawaii once. I hear that the beaches there are amazingly beautiful. I've seen the Atlantic while in Florida and the Pacific when I visited Acapulco and Mazatlan, Mexico, but I've never been to Hawaii. Hmmm...well, it's a possibility. But if it comes down to a choice between Hawaii or Florence...

Florence, Italy. What a magical place. I'm sure it's warm in the summer, right?

Florence wins for me. Yeah. I want to see this view in person, wander the museums, and stand mesmerized in front of David. Cold marble can take the place of a warm cabana boy - LOL.

Something Beautiful After a Day of Horror

I needed something really exceptional and beautiful before diving into a post about the Oklahoma City tornado, so put aside some time and look at this video of the 2013 Earth and Sky Photo Contest. When nature turns on us it is always a bane to my soul to remind myself of how much I love her and how stunning she can truly be.

Give yourself a treat and look at these exceptional photos.

The storm that hits the US most frequently is the tornado and we have a lot of them - more than any other land mass in the world. Yesterday a big one hit just south of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and it's been devastating for the people who were caught up in it or who are dealing with the aftermath. This is only the beginning of the tornado season for us - it goes until November. I send prayers and White Light to those who are injured or who lost loved ones in this storm. The possessions - no matter how dear or how rare - can be replaced, but the people are unique and irreplaceable.

Although this picture was taken within the past day, I don't
know for sure if this was the specific tornado that hit Moore, OK.

Moore, Oklahoma, a southern suburb of Oklahoma City has been hit by tornadoes in the past - at least two prior times since the late 1990's, but this one really hurt. There is a high death toll - at least 91 confirmed dead, with at least 20 of those being children. Now, I know that in the scope of world tragedies this is not at the top, but in this country it is significant. We don't live in a war zone, we aren't experiencing extreme famine or water shortages, we don't have revolutions in our streets (at least not yet), so a death toll like this from a severe storm is of great moment to us.

I have lived in Tornado Alley for most of my life, but the National Weather
Service is expanding the borders of the alley toward the east. Driving through
the alley in the summer months we always kept the radio on local channels to
hear any weather advisories coming through and try to avoid the problem areas.

I am of the belief that every death should be mourned and remembered. Every child should be mourned by a mother, every parent should be remembered with fondness by a child, every person should be missed and remembered by someone else. I know that's an ideal - there are bad parents who abuse or torture their children. There are bad children who abuse others, or kill them, or who destroy themselves through drug use or crime. And then there are the forgotten ones - the ones who have successfully dropped out of sight and memory, living in the grey zones - under the bridges, sleeping under cardboard over grates for heat in the winters.

This tornado actually hit the bottom section, just below Oklahoma City. For those
who are unfamiliar with the US, looking at this photo and the previous one
may help you get a handle on where this happened and how it relates to other
places you may know better.

But do we, as human beings, have the right to pick-and-choose our prayers for others? Aren't these - the ones we would condemn or overlook - as deserving of our thoughts and prayers? That's the dilemma of those who "pray for others". I've carried a sacred pipe in the tradition of the Red Road for almost twenty years now. Each prayer ends with 'Mitakuye Oyasin - We Are All Related", a prayer for "All My Relations". That means everyone without exception - worldwide. So when something horrific happens, like the Oklahoma City tornado, my heart bleeds because those injured were also my parents and also my children. That is my personal meaning of faith - good or bad. Mitakuye oyasin.

Sunday Was Fun...and Wet

Sunday was a fun day for DH and me, as well as a wet one. We started the day out with breakfast at McDonald's - Egg White McMuffin for me - YUMMY! If you haven't tried this one yet and don't stay away from Mickey-D's on principle, I recommend it. Very tasty.

One of the things at the props exhibit were
these varied ID cards used in different films.

Then we were off to Comic-Con. The Spring Comic-Con took over the Grandstand at the State Fairgrounds with a multitude of artists, vendors of comics, costumed attendees and one guy with movie props that I couldn't resist taking photos of. So...these are the photos I'm sharing today - props used in Indiana Jones and in Star Wars - they were really wonderful to look at up-close and personal.

Facing me are props from Indiana Jones, behind them facing the
other way are props from Star Wars. I think I fell in love with
this table and exhibit.

We looked at a lot of the artwork, as well as watching the techniques of many artists who were sketching and inking while we were walking by. After spending a couple of hours there we left, walking across the Fairgrounds to the Art building where there was a watercolor exhibition and sale. After a while we felt we had looked at too many flowers and landscapes, so we escaped. To be fair, there were a couple of artists doing marvelous work but most of it was *yawn*.

A selection of props from Indiana Jones including weapons, Dr Jones' diary,
a sword, the mummified head and the goblet from The Last Crusade.

We then decided to go to The Source, our favorite store for gaming, minis and comics. Since we had been at Comic-Con and had our wristbands on we would get 20% off any purchase, so we went shopping. We've known many of the guys working there for years, so it's always like coming into a place with a lot of friends. They moved to a new location last year and it is huge and packed with stuff. We had fun looking at everything and each walked out with comics in hand. Yippee! Yes...I am a Geek!

I loved Indy's whip. The maker actually made several for the movies, but
this was typical. It's really a lovely thing and the passport on the
right was rather fun too...

Coming out of the store, the weather was starting to look threatening, but we still had to fix the toilet. So we went home to tear the toilet apart and take the part we needed to the hardware store. We managed to get the part out and headed to Hardware Store #1. They didn't have what we needed (and their employees are not the greatest with actually helping people) so...

Moving on to Star Wars, these two are Darth Vadar light sabers. I assume they
are from different times in the Lord's career. They looked like they had some
serious weight, but it was a no-touch exhibit so I couldn't tell for sure.

This light saber belongs to Luke Skywalker. I loved the differences
between the weapons.  

We went on to Hardware Store #2. I really like this store because the employees are super nice and friendly and usually know what they are talking about. But our toilet is more than 50 years old and toilet technology has improved since ours was made. We did end up with something that we thought we could make work, and then went across the street to ... Wet Paint - one of my favorite local art supply stores.

There was a proportional mock-up of the Cantina scene from Episode 4.
I couldn't resist taking a photo - it's always been one of my favorite
parts of that movie along with the sand people...

I needed some specific pens that I use and they are one of the few stores who carry that brand in the Cities. I also knew that they had a pen and marker sale going on until the end of the month. I had penciled a trip here ontp my Wednesday schedule, but here we were - so close. It didn't take a lot of effort to talk DH into spending a bit of time looking at art supplies - LOL. I was good, though, and only walked out with the pens that I needed. Yeah Me!

There was a wonderful model of Boba Fett, everyone's
favorite bounty hunter. The detailing was exquisite - everything
looked appropriately worn and well used. He stood about 18 inches tall.
Very nice.

Then back home through pounding rain and flooded roads to deal with the toilet which also sprayed us with water while we tried to get things to work. Nothing like getting wet and wet and more wet. After an hour or so we finally have a toilet that works - kindof. The handle has to be held down because the flapper isn't retracting fully unless we do, but everything else works somewhat. At least it functions. And that's the point, yes? We'll continue working on this, though. Eventually we will probably have to replace more parts, but at least it is working for now. So, all in all, it was a good, if very wet, day.

An Unusual Look at the Anatomy of a Toilet

So my DH and I have determined that we will need to pull and replace the plunger on the toilet that won't stop running. So far I've replaced two other parts on this toilet and we're still having problems so we're narrowing things down. We'll add this to our Sunday which is already busy with attending Comic Con and a watercolors art show. No rest for the weary - LOL. So, with no further ado, here is a humorous look at the anatomy of a toilet.

In the realm of tank swimsuits this one isn't too bad...

Tanks come in many varieties - multiple treads with very large guns, containers for gasoline mounted underneath cars, and a variety of clothing including sleeveless stretch tops for women and a type of bathing suit. I think the bathing suit seems much more fun...don't you?

A day out on the town with your girlfriends. Fun!

Earlier this week I changed the flapper valve. Hmmm....flappers? That reminds me of the Roaring 20's, right?

This floating ball seems to be heading to the right place. Sun, sand,
surf - maybe a nice cabana boy who won't mind an older lady...dreams - LOL.

I have also replaced the floater ball. That's what trips the filler valve when the water gets to a certain level. The ball floats on top of the water, raising an arm that shuts off the water inlet when the ball has floated up to a certain level. It's this mechanism that's not working quite right yet.

Oh, the Perils of Pauline. This small silent movie has become
immortalized in American culture down the years with cartoons like
Dudley Doright vs Snidley Whiplash and modern-day silent film
festivals.

Now it's looking like it will be a repair and replacement of the plunger mechanism *sigh*. I'm hoping this will be easy, but usually things with DH tend to be a bit drama filled. By the end of the day I may feel like I have participated in the "Perils of Pauline" myself.

Clusterf**k - Experiences of a Member of Cluster #9

There is a term used called clusterf**k (fill in the ** - I think you can figure it out). Urban Dictionary defines it as:

 Military term for an operation in which multiple things have gone wrong. Related to "SNAFU" (Situation Normal, All Fucked Up") and "FUBAR" (Fucked Up Beyond All Repair).  

with a secondary definition of:  

Traditionally/originally of military origin.  Today, however, "clusterfuck" is commonly used to descriptively generalize any situation with a large scale of disarray. 

That's basically what seems to have happened to Live Journal yesterday and that's what will cause double-posting for me today (posting both Thursday's and Friday's blog). 

Apparently LJ has their population assorted into various clusters - thirteen of them to be precise. At some point Wednesday problems came into being for clusters #7 and #9 making it difficult (if not impossible) for people and groups in those clusters to access the service or post anything. Cluster #7 was fixed early Thursday morning and it was speculated that another hour would bring Cluster #9 back on-line. WRONG!

This piece of wonderful colorful art is called Clusterfuck and
is by wojtekww on deviantart.

When I finally gave up on Cluster #9's functionality, it was more than twelve hours after the initial "another hour" had been posted and the admins had posted an apology for the length of time it was taking. Now...I'm NOT a computer programmer - I'm much more of a computer programming idiot. I am a computer user who couldn't use one of my major groups yesterday because I happen to be a member of Cluster #9. 

Doesn't life seem like this sometimes? This great pic is
by Jessica Jass.

But...today all is well again. No more Clusterf**k and I can post again. So I can wish a friend a happy birthday, post yesterday's blog, and in a few minutes I can post today's. 

So I wonder...what will go wrong today?