Every now and then, you just have to do something silly, like take a picture of yourself wearing goggles.
Actually, this is a terrible picture of me, so I don't know why I'm posting it. I suppose it does serve as a good illustration of how/why I am frequently mistaken for a teenager.
Anyway, that is me wearing the awesome goggles that I purchased at Comic Con from Brute Force Leather/Fallen Angel Fashions. They were my big splurge for the convention. Oh sure, I bought plenty of other things, but nothing that big/fancy/amazing. They're made of dark green leather and lots of brass, with interchangeable lenses -- I got a pair of green (as seen) and a pair of dark blue. The coolest part is that the straps are attached to the sides using brass hardware hinges.
If I'm going to actually wear them on my eyes, then I need to see if I can shorten the nose piece a tiny bit... But otherwise they look pretty nice perched on my head, or around my neck, and I'm sure they'd look great on a hat, if I were so inclined.
Not much to report today. I had some fun this afternoon hanging up more art. I need to go out and buy frames for all of my prints. Then by the time I get them all up on the walls, it will probably be time to take them down to paint the living room.
(Edited to provide proper link)
What did I spend my long weekend doing? Mostly playing Guild Wars, working on this huge multi-part quest to get a mini-pet. At this rate, I'll finish the quest right about in time for Guild Wars 2 to come out at the end of the year.
I also read my last issue of SteamPunk Magazine. I don't really agree with all of the viewpoints put forward in their articles, but I really enjoy the how-tos and most of the fiction -- especially the serials. I'm a sucker for serial fiction, I guess it comes from growing up with comic books. Issue #4 also had a great article on the interactions and overlapping between Gothic and Steampunk subcultures. Since I'm sort of Goth, and leaning towards Steampunk, it was very informative and thought-provoking for me. Anyway, now I'm sad because I read all the issues. Chris wants me to read some astrophysics book next. Do I have the only husband in the world who finds reading science nerd books sexy? Probably not, but I'm sure he's in a minority. A really tiny minority.
And another thing is that we finally watched The Mist. My reaction was a resounding "meh." I expected a little more tension, but I never felt suspenseful at all. I have a feeling that it functioned better as a novella (which I've never read, my Stephen King experience is pretty spotty, based on which of his books have been within reach when I've been bored and sick and had nothing else to read). I couldn't help but think, though, that the really large monster near the end moved and sounded a lot like the one in Cloverfield. Maybe they're related.
Tomorrow it's back to lots of packing and cleaning. I'm having a bit of trouble with Guild Wars on this machine, so Chris is going to give me his desktop (he does everything on his laptop now), but that means a lot of desk-rearranging and also transferring of files. Fun.
As planned, Chris and I had another movie date today, and we saw "The Orphanage." I'm happy to say that it did not suck, and in fact, was every bit as good as I heard that it was. It had a nice creepy, tense atmosphere, a lot of sadness, and a few scares. Much better than the "Oh no! Children are SCARY!" film that I expected from the trailers. If you're a fan of stories that inspire a lot of emotions, including fear and tears, without an overload of gore or jump scares (of which there was admittedly, just a little bit), you should definitely go see this film.
Before "The Orphanage" they played the trailer for "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" which I am still not tired of seeing. In fact, it only gets better. This time it was EVIL FAERIES on the big screen! I'm so excited! This is a good year to be a faerie lover, because of course, "The Spiderwick Chronicles" comes out on Valentine's Day. When I first saw that trailer, I dismissed it as a kid's movie, but it started to grow on me. Then I read that it was by Tony DiTerlizzi!* I really, really, really love the artwork that he did for the old D&D and Changeling books, so I really want to see his work on the big screen. I don't know if it will convince me to read the books -- I'm generally not too into kids' books -- but it may convince me to buy them for my niece when she'd old enough, which should be soon.
One other nerdy movie confession: I really love that Coke commercial. You know, the one about the weird little guys living in the Coke machine? With the willow tree with the steampunk-inspired mechanical arms? It is seriously the single coolest commercial I have ever seen, and it makes me wish that I liked cola so I could drink Coke. It played before both of the recent movies I saw. At the "Cloverfield" screening, at the same time I was telling Chris "This is the best commercial ever!" a woman two rows up was saying "I don't get it." I'm so sorry for you, ma'am. It must be sad to live in a world without wonder and imagination.
*I read this in Faerie Magazine, because I finally got my first issue yesterday. GLEE! There's an ad for a faerie event in Oregon that I desperately want to go to, but it's 1 week after Comic Con. Qntal is playing there. QNTAL!!!! And other cool bands! I think I've got to start going to these faerie festivals. They might be even better than Ren Faire.
I used some of my holiday money to buy a 3-part bat bead from Melanie this weekend. The bead just arrived today! He's really cute. I'm going to wear him to tonight's game, because last game, my character was invited to join the Bat Clan. I'm a nerd like that. My character probably won't join said Bat Clan, as much as she likes them, because she'd rather go study with the Ratlings and learn their name magic. My character is also a nerd like that. As a roleplayer, I find it's good to share a couple of traits with your character, so you can get into playing them a little better.
Oh, the other reason for not joining the Bat Clan is that it causes all of my friends (me included) to sing "Nananaanana BAT CLAN!" every time it's said, and that derails the game pretty quickly.
This is why I almost never talk about the details of my gaming life on this blog, by the way. It makes me look like a big geek!
I've done a whole bunch of nothing today, except for responding to a lot of BFAC e-mails. Oh yeah! The 2008 BFAC gallery will be live soon, so I will definitely post that here. I'm really proud of some of my awesome photographs. Not all of the photos are awesome, but none of them are bad, so I feel really good. I'm doing the 2009 photos, too, and it will be much easier now that I know what I'm doing.
I have to figure out what I'm going to bead during tonight's game. Probably something not-green, since this week's update was pretty green-heavy. But if that's the only color my muse wants to work in, that's what I'll have to go with.
I'm excited, because I'm going to San Diego Comic Con this year! As you may already know, I write a gaming column for the e-zine Collector Times. Our incredibly awesome editor wants a strong CT presence at the convention this year, and is generously covering the hotel rooms for her staffers. Comic Con is a lot of fun, and I believe that this past year, I posted here about how bummed I was at not going. So I'm very happy, because not only do I get to go this year, but it's very likely that I'll get to meet several people who I've only known on-line until now. Yay!
Oh yeah, and it's an excuse to wear COSTUMES! By then I might even be sewing my own!
Speaking of which, today I get to go to JoAnn's and pick up some fabric so I can try to learn how to sew. You know what is going to be fun? Cutting out patterns with my cats. Not only does Topher like to help me craft (remember this picture? and this one?), but he is a tissue paper fiend. Lira is a little more laid back about it, at least, and I can probably count on her preferring to sit in Chris's lap. Note to self: make sure to only cut out patterns while Chris is sitting at his desk.
Yesterday, during our Legend of the Five Rings game, I did a lot of kumihimo. I haven't measured, but my cord has to be about 30 inches, so I think I'm going to make it into a two-strand necklace, with the skull hanging from the bottom strand. I just need to decide on a bail design. Anyway, it's kind of cool. The yarns were all variegated colors, so the cord looks different every few inches. Plus it has a lot of texture due to the different types of yarn. It also reminded me about how fun kumihimo is for gaming, so I'm going to have to do more of it in the future.
Is "nerdery" even a word? Spell-check doesn't think so. I suppose "nerdiness" is more appropriate, but spell-check doesn't like that one either. I've always wondered... Is it a good or bad sign when you make up words? Does it show cleverness, or make you sound stupid, like you're not smart enough to know the real word? I suppose it depends on the context. Oh yes, and Marilee? Squaredelles. Yeesh.
Anyway, yesterday was nice and productive, mainly because I blew off doing my homework. I strung two great necklaces, including my own personal bat necklace. I was going to string a third, but the beads didn't quite work out, gotta come up with something else. I'll probably do that tomorrow. I also came up with another possible way to do the Nightmare Eyes bracelet, which I will work on tomorrow, too. I will not be defeated! Oh, the other necklace has the word Queen in its name, hence the Queens in the title (that and I've been watching Dr. Who, and I just saw an episode about the queen being coroneted, so there you go).
And the nerdery comes from me being a total nerd and spending $10 on a magazine about Guild Wars, my on-line game of choice. I basically spent that money to get the "free" miniature. I mean, sure, the concept art and articles are fun... but mini-pets! I love 'em! Nerdery also comes from reading more Gaiman. I wasn't too impressed by what I read last night. Other People might have been good if I hadn't figured out the central conceit one page into it. Ah well. I'm still holding out hope for more good stories later in the book.
I'm now going to go nerd it up in my video game!
Every now and then, you just have to do something silly, like take a picture of yourself wearing goggles.