The hell I do all day?

I completed two steampunk craft projects today (Distressed Cogs handbag and Steam-Bling Parasol (finally used the peel-and-stick copper foil)), got my repaired shoe back from Fluevog, practiced mandolin, hit Dressew for some sequins and some reflective piping, & had many people on E Hastings try to sell me smokes.  It was 18 months ago today I quit smoking, I fervently hope for the last time. Oh, and I saw the Brian Jonestown Massacre/Dandy Warhol doc(ew-drama), Dig.  Courtenay Taylor makes my widdy heart sing.

Happy 4th of July to my American readers

All three of you!

Kaitlin’s memorial service was yesterday, 300 attended.  Keith said it was all very appropriate.  I am very glad he was there; he made a lot of personal and financial sacrifices to be there and to do the right thing, and was loving and supportive to the folks who needed it.

Today I go collect my repaired kicks, go to Dressew, and wander around downtown in the sunshine getting some exercise which I desperately need.

I can hear Jeff working out downstairs; he’s a lot happier since he started exercising again.

Keith is going to come over before work today, but I’ll probably be gone.

I am going nuts trying to notate the theme for my imaginary TV show (not that one, the other one).  It’s very annoying. I think my problem is that I don’t understand what key to notate it in as my usual cheat for determining it doesn’t seem to be working.

Off I go now…

roundup

Mohenjo Daro one of the (in my view) current wonders of the world, is dying, disappearing, thanks in part to the poverty and incompetence of the government in charge of it.

A great collection of reaction gifs, some not safe for work.

If you want to find out what an ultra-thin and flexible BRDF [bidirectional reflectance distribution function] is, follow this link.   safe for work

This is no way to greet the dawning future, except that it is true.  safe for work.

I spoke to Lois, Kaitlin’s mother, last night (thank you Keith for arranging that).  She is doing about as well as can be expected. I don’t have much more to say.  I mostly listened.  I am very thankful that she has the support of so many family members and friends right now.

 

Roundup

Anderson Cooper has finally come out as gay.  We can now go back to our normally scheduled, completely unwarranted and entirely jejune speculations about the sexuality of other people we don’t know.

South Vancouver Island has something called a (link removed for security) Permablitz.

Slap me on my ass and send me to Mars.

And there was a silence in the internet …. darned leap second.

Wow, a guide for moving back home.

Apes with Apps.

 

The Maid of Tarth Lyrics rev 1.

Oh the Maid of Tarth she went a riding x 2
For her honor and king, for the minstrels to sing
Branded traitor and fled into hiding

Swearing fealty to Lady Catelyn x 2
Put her sword at her feet, promised vengeance so sweet
Little reckoning what she’d be battling.

Lady Catelyn was missing her daughters x 2
To trade Lannister’s life, on the edge of a knife
Never minding their lies and their slaughters

“Take the Kingslayer back to King’s Landing X2
With your guile and your might, staying well out of sight
It’s his miserable life you’re defending.”

He fought but he still could not best her x 2
He’d have drowned like a rat were it not for the trap
Brave Companions had now set to test her

The Companions took Lannister’s sword hand x 2
Put the hand on a string, between them to swing
As in fetters they rode through the wasteland.

Said the Maid, “My lord, live for your vengeance X2
Serve the future instead, you’re no use to us dead
And so plan your revenge with all patience.”

Said the Kingslayer “you are no beautyX2
But your heart knows the right, and you know how to fight
with all justice and fierceness and duty”

Knowing this he defended her virtue X2
Spoke of jewels and wealth, kept her whole and in health
as the Kingslayer worked for her rescue

In King’s Landing he gave her Oathkeeper x2
“Save Starks with Stark steel! it is fitting, I feel;
As their captors sowed death, be the reaper!”

So the Maid rode away from King’s Landing x2
and of her no word comes, not with ravens or drums
But she lives still to my understanding.

A few remarks about migraines

I didn’t have my first migraine until I was expecting Keith; normally migraines start earlier than that.  In that, however, I have been very very consistent; the neurologist says I get atypical migraines.  Like a bucket of memes, I just never know what I’m gonna get!

When I get a flash, or a weird sensation, or a heavy lowering feeling, I never know what to think.  Is it “Ermagerd, I’m having a small stroke?” (link removed for safety)  Is it, “Bloody weather!”.  Is it, “Oh great, now I can’t trust my emotions, since a migraine made me think I needed to end it all when I er, actually had no basis for such a belief!!?”  (Actually, on sober second consideration, when CAN one trust one’s emotions? Apart from the Gift of Fear?)

Then there’s the bizarre range of physical sensations, previously catalogued, and visual disturbances (which in the last five years have occasionally been mesmerizingly beautiful, like the time my entire visual field briefly filled (transparently, I hasten to add, so if I had been driving I still would have been able to see) with coruscating rainbow fishscales about two inches wide at arms length.  SO PRETTY HOW I GET SOME.  EAT UM!

About five years ago my relationship with migraines changed.  I realized that since migraines are brain chemistry foulups, pure and simple, I had the power to change my brain chemistry.  If I think happy thoughts, I can make scintillating scotomas go away.  At first I did not want to believe that I could do that, but I have enough evidence to satisfy myself that, yup, I can do that.  If I sit, breathe, think about the days I gave birth to my children, and saw Hole at Thunderbird Stadium, and went to Hot Springs Cove, and watched mOm and pOp put up the geodesic greenhouse in the back yard in Ottawa, and saw mammatus clouds IRL, and saw a UFO shaped lenticular cloud, and flew to Vancouver in an Otter about 15 meters off the deck the whole way…. I can make that brain chemistry break up like morning fog.

So I dunno, Ms. Migraine, whether you think you’re going to land on me today, but I don’t want you around, so I gotta cheer up.

Lemming’s Twofer and News of the Sun

Why the hell is the surface of the sun hotter than the interior?  It’s a theory.

Step up folks you know you can’t go wrong
Got a back catalog about five miles long
if he gets bored he’ll write another song
step up step up Lemming’s twofer
A fas cinating miscellany of
all the subjects that he really hates and loves
And I’ll stand with him when push comes to shove
comes to his opinions I’ll be his minion

Step up folks and do not be perplexed
If you can’t guess which instrument he’s playing next
turn off the phone, he hates it when you text
step up step up Lemming’s twofer
Step up folks and get some bile on wry
While the gun-totin’ smokers get it in the eye
If he was wine, he would be very dry
step up step up Lemming’s twofer
Idio syncratic entertainment
delivered in eyepopping Hawaiian raiment
devoid of refinement or containment
Step up step up Lemming’s twofer
Brain abraded with a loofa
Step up step up Lemming’s twofer
Filker parodist and spoofer
Step up step up Lemming’s twofer now!

Lemming’s Twofer update

I have fired off an email to Lem asking him to review the lyrics, as although I don’t think he’ll take offence I suresheck don’t wan’t to give it.  Once I know he’s okay with them I’ll post them, because I worked hard on them (over seared scallops and tomato boccancini salad yesterday at Borgo Antico, which is so upscale it doesn’t have a website, and comped me San Pellegrino when they didn’t have near beer. )