Thing-a-day.com

This is really bad, but I could not resist. Plus it satisfies my ego of doing 29 things in Feb. Even if I lose by not doing one on Thursday.

Ok, I missed the 28th, fair and square. I lucked in a ticket to see the Magnetic Fields, and how could I pass that up? But it meant there was no time for doing between the concert and work. However, it did spark what I did today - well I will explain it later in an edit. I did it partway at work today, and partway waiting for buses for tonight’s Mountain Goats concert.

Edit: at The Magnetic Fields on Thursday Stephin Merritt bantered about Lefty Lucy being a William S. Burroughs character. Well this inspired me to draw her, and her brother, Righty Tighty (yeah it doesn’t work as well). So, here they are:

Lefty Lucy - “I am loose and limber”.

Lefty Lucy is loose and limber. This uses this, as well as her massive left hand to her advantage while stealing from suburban homes. She can slide down chimneys, between doors and jams, or simply smash the door down. If Lefty Lucy is afer your goods, give up - you’re done for!

‘

Righty Tighty - ‘I am rigid. I am Tight!’

Always on time, Righty Tighty is always the first to help a little old lady cross the street. But, do not get on his bad side. Righty Tighty has no place for rule breakers. If he and his sister ever meet again, there will be hell to pay!

Yes, this is awful. I should be disqualified for making it. Oh well.

Tonight I made scallops in herb butter and pan toasted asparagus for dinner. The recipe for the scallops is basically this: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/241746

However, they had no tarragon at the store, so I just used parsley, since it’s inoffensive.

Now, the aspragus I would normally cook under the broiler for about 5-7 minutes (coated in olive oil) then sprinkle with kosher salt. Well, still no oven, so I pan toasted them in a cast iron skilled for about 7 minutes, then sprinkled on the salt.

Here is my plate:

Both stega and I enjoyed it. And she did most of the dishes!

This is my friend’s dream from the other night:

<lb> I had two odd dreams last night
<lb> in one, I was inside a huge tall office building, near the top floor. And it became apparent to me that the floor and walls had huge holes in them where you could fall out to your death. Then it became apparent that the part of the building I was in was not even attached — it was under construction…
<lb> … and being held up by a huge construction device that was like a crane,but with two grasping points, like if godzilla picked a building up with his hands on either side… and at those two points, the building was intentionally rotated
<lb> so what was the floor for me could become walls or ceiling if the construction dictated “turn this 7-floor piece of building sideways/upside-down”

And the art it inspired:

My friend Erin has been very into making cards for the past month or so. You can see a gallery of many of her works here. I was over at here house today and she suggested that I make one. I thought I might as well. Well, I was not prepared for the amount of cardmaking supplies she has amassed. It took me a little while just to absorb the incredible choices available to me. I ended up making the following two cards:

The quote on the second one says “It’s the ones you can call up at 4:00 a.m. that matter.” I pretty much chose that quote because it fit on the card, after the fish and plant were in place.

This was a project I’ve been meaning to do since I moved in two months ago - reorganizing my shelves in the cupboard so it would be easier to find things. Put the less used stuff up top and back, and such. Here is the before:

During - everything taken out:

After - well it doesn’t look that much different, but it is.

All in all it took about 45 minutes.

I drew another robot, unit 10 today. I am a bit too drunk to take a picture and post it, so that will wait for tomorrow. Unit 10 is NOT your pal :(.

EDIT: new day, picture taken and uploaded:

So the following happened on irc today:

<Wohali> they just came by the street here with a huge auger-based machine, sucking up snow and spewing it into a dump truck
<drip-> s/auger/dong
<acroexp> <Wohali> they just came by the street here with a huge dong-based machine, sucking up snow and spewing it into a dump truck

And then after realizing I had drawn heavy machinery yesterday people thought I should have waited to deal with the above. Well, I did it anyway:

This is a doodle I made tonight after dinner. It also has a stort story. You probably can’t read the story - I can barely read it, so I will type it up:

The digdozer can dig. And it can doze. Not sleep. No - no. It dozes. Pushes, moves. OK, maybe it is really the digpusher - yes it is the digpusher! But digdozer sounds better!

So here it is, in all it glory:

edit: I forgot to hit post last night, so this went up today.

I’m not going to explain it, either you get it or you don’t.

I made a few airplanes at work today while waiting for a script to run. They were pretty basic, but I had this idea about a pretty good, easy, plane I made as a kid. I couldn’t recall how to make it, but tonight at home I found a site with a similar version to it, which I made via template. I also made a few more, some of them are decorated, including cockpits for the tiny pilots, aka the little people.

Yesterday I was at Safeway, and there were 3 packs of Ivory soap on sale for $1.29. I remembered carving Ivory as a kid and I though “well, I can do that!”. Hrm, it turns out that it is far more brittle than I remembered. Which works both ways - it is easy to cut stuff out of it, but it’s also really hard to do any sorts of fine details. Oh well. I present you an Ivory soap Bag of Dicks, so my commenter bag-of-dicks-a-day should be quite happy!

Inspire by evilmadscientist.com I had produced a half dozen edibly, googly eyes. Unfortunately the oven is out of commission so I cannot top any baked good with them, but still, it was a fun project.

I folded an origami balloon today at work. Actually I made two. The first was too small and I couldn’t get it to work right. The second was a bit better. I didn’t have square paper, I had to make my own. I took a picture of the second one, but I can’t upload it yet, so I will add it later. This thing was also known as a water bomb when I was younger - I guess it can hold water for 20 or 30 seconds…

This story isn’t very good. I had the idea but I just couldn’t quite make it work the way I wanted it to. Oh well, it’s a thing.

Summer Lights

It is summer, perhaps late June or early July. The exact date is immaterial, but the fact that it is still light after 9PM helps set the stage for the tale. It is just before twilight, and warm. Soon, but not yet, the fireflies will be out. Until then, we watch the children at play.

The children, all of them boys, are running around a large lawn. They are playing some sort of tag. There is a tree at one end of the lawn, and atop a small hill. Very small, probably about two feet of rise over 15 feet of turf. But this is land that was flattened by glaciers millenia ago, and more recently by developers bull dozers. This tree appears to be a safe zone, as the boys huddle around it at various times, until the one who appears to be it backs off, attempting to catch them away from their safety.

The sun is dipping in the sky. The few clouds in the sky get darker, and turn a reddish golden color as it faded behind the horizon. The boys are oblivious to this, more content with their game. The beauty of nature is not lost on them completely, but it is for now. The kinetics of the moment are more compelling.

It is getting darker, but the game continues. Another boy is now it. The others again huddle by the tree on the hill. The boy draws outward towards the end of the lawn. Eventually boys leave the safety of the tree and approach the one who is it. He chases them and catches one. The rest make it back to the tree. The boy who is it is forced to retreat and wait for them to leave the tree.

It is finally dark out. It is no longer day. The creatures of the night emerge from their hiding spots. This is the suburbs, so these creatures are small. And the one we care about is quite small indeed. But they are distinctive. The lights of the fireflies peek out in the newly descended darkness. One of the boys at the tree notices them first. He runs off to catch one, and soon the other boys follow. The game of tag is forgotten, as the boys seek out the strange wonders of nature that are fireflies.

Here you go:

Beyond Craft - what does that mean? I dunno, but I grant you the following:

I had these two styrofoam balls left over from my halloween costume. I thought “what can I do with them?” I also found a pair of 3d movie glasses. And a sharpie. The rest is history:

As you’ve heard from my last post, the oven is broken. We took a video documenting this, which I’ve edited today. And it is now on youtube for your viewing pleasure.

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