It's a creature so cute, it shits marshmellows

One of the really awesome things about making crafts and not code is that I've got something real, something tangible to show for my efforts. The down side is that these little effort-proving results are, you know, real and take up more space then a pinch of area on some harddrive's surface. I've only been crafting a couple years and already my shelf is getting kinda' crowded with the results.

So, what to do? Well stopping isn't really an option... and as much as I think "golly wouldn't it be nice if I learned to cook" in order to transfer my creative efforts into a more ephemeral product, the idea just doesn't take. The solution that I've settled on is "get ride of them". Trashing them seems too wasteful... and there's only so many ugly monsters I can push off onto my friends.

Which leads me to my conclusion : selling them. It's a motivator to improve quality and it's perhaps a way to cover costs. I don't need the money, which means hopefully I can price them low enough to actually trick someone into buying them. This calls for an overall improvement in the quality of construction them I'm used to and probably an improvement in the quality of materials themselves-- no more rice or batteries to weigh down body parts...


Here is the first creature I made that I was mindful of the possibility of selling. Despite my best efforts finishing it proved to be too painful and so I rushed through the eyes and hair... but whatever. I don't care what anyone says- it's a fucking unicorn. Don't say a word about any of the miss-numbered components. I don't want to hear it. It's a unicorn.

I don't really remember when/where I got the obnoxious candy-colored yarn. Pinks and purples, how unlike me... but it was super soft! Put some lead weights in the hind legs to keep him level. Yes, definitely the male gender... He's about a hand an half in length. A little floppy around the neck, but able to stand upright.

Knowing I wanted to sell it meant I went for the most marketable thing I could think of- really fucking cute. So cute that it looks like it would shit marshmellows. May add more to it over time (more pink roving for the mane? fixing the GOD DAMN EYES?!?) but I got it to a point that I can actually call it done this weekend. Trying to figure out how much to price it for... am thinking somewhere between $20 and $30... not sure who would buy it though... but the world/Internet is full of crazy people...

Still have not figured out how to over-come the 'blob' like effect of crochetted monsters... tried size and color variation on this one and it still looks like a big pile of yarn- at least in the photos. I guess that's another thing the "Sell!" idea requires- improved photography skills. I think I'll have to pester Mel for help...

Generics Suck

Never before have I experienced such rage and failure with Java as I did this week at work. Blah.

Not only did I find finding documentation about it difficult but talking to someone about it proved almost too much. I suck more at knowing the vocabulary then I normally do.

I'm having difficulty articulating what exactly one of the problems was... It had to do with the fact that :
List<subclass> extends List<superclass>
doesn't really work, you need:
List<subclass> extends List<? extends superclass>

All my method and class signatures got super bloated and became obnoxious to read.

Also, while this didn't really factor into how I was fixing the problem, I was boggled to learn something new about the Java language. I may not be great at a lot of things, but to find something totally new after a couple years working with it is... surprising. And perhaps sad.

Anyway, did you know that you can pass type parameters to a method? Like:
fooObject.<X,Y>barMethod();
Woaaaah! Crazy! I'm used to only seeing instance variables and constructors use the <>s when declaring something...

In other news, in other areas where I suck less, I still haven't killed any of my bottled plants. In fact, several seem to be thriving.

Sadly the lettuce (not pictured) is getting rather wilty... so that'll probably be my second failure-- the first being that the catnip NEVER SPROUTED. Everything else I've grown from seed just fine, but the catnip refuses to wake up. Damn.

Ambitious projects

Other people have already thought of and created excellent Settlers of Catan quilts. I've thought of making my own off and on for several years but am finally buckling down to do it. The key goals of my quilt however are:

A: make it large enough that you can sit on it and play on it at the same time

B: make it an actually nice quilt to snuggle with since it will no doubt see more use as a quilt then a game board

C: make the tiles shuffle-able! I haven't seen any quilts that do this yet and the random-ness of the game is such an important part!

I'm excited about the colors I picked-- bright colors aren't normally my thing...

From top to bottom on the left it goes desert, forest, pasture (sheep), field (wheat), mountain (ore), and hills (brick). I've received negative feedback about my choice of field fabric-- people claim it should be more yellow. I'm taking it under consideration... it'll be quite a while till I have to settle on that.

Also picked up one of those rolly cutters for the first time- makes a *huge* difference with ease of cutting!! Washed and cut all the water pieces and started piecing them together.

My sewing skills are rather "rusty" if you're being nice- "shitty" if you're being honest. Pieced together the top half of the quilt and laid out the colors for the other half...


It's... simple work. Doesn't require constant thought or continuous creativity. Great for working on when watching TV...

So, yeah... I'm over here, worken' on that.

Makings the stuffs

I've no idea why I was so struck with the whole Portal thing. Don't get me wrong, I still really like turrets and all the variants there of... but my intense intrest caused a some project backup. The first of several has finally finished. I hope to get another 2 done this weekend...

Anyway- portal 2 turret embroidery project:

But no- it's not just some really mediocore piece! There's more!


I think the best thing about the turrets is the sad little things they say. I've also completely failed to find a good use till now for the RadioShack voice recorder thing I bought over a year ago. Solutions all around. Referenced from this photo. Not as good as some of the other turret embroidery out there either. Need to work on my detailing... and some other types of filler stitches...

Anyway, yeah, doing stuff... Still doing gardening-things. Haven't had a bottle-planted plant die yet so I keep putten' them seeds in there...
(Blogger was down last night when I wanted to write this post... so instead Adam and I played Little Big Planet for the first time... holy shit. Beautiful AND fun. New project ideas!)

Being too social...

A low level of lots of things has been going on for about a month now...

Adam aged and there was events related to it that took up time. We've been contemplating moving and viewing a number of places as part of that-- have since given up that idea for a while. Adam's mother was in town and then my sister was in town. We've been out hiking, there've been some parties and general GWS House gatherings involving food.

Overall most of my time has been diverted towards being social rather then crafty... which is fun but leaves me with little to show for it all... I've got a continuos low level urge to really buckle down and craft but keep failing to find a solid block of time... alas. Soon. I keep thinking soon...
I do have one thing to show for the social though... Had a company off-site last Friday... split into teams and built soap-box like cars. Our team was awesome and won, obviously. Not only was it the fastest (too fast as the video below shows) but it also went the furthest. We were team P.R.U.D.E-- Princes Rainbow Unicorn Dragon Elf. That's what happens when there's too many girls on the team... Our car was AWESOME. It had a masking tape unicorn skull on the front and a heavy metal chain you could hold hold. Our slogan was "Ride the Beast".

Below is a photo of me racing (or attempting to race) the car for the first time. It wasn't the first time I'd been in it while it was moving, but it was the first time going that fast and on that part of the hill... Obviously someone else on our team clocked the fastest time...

No one was hurt in the making or racing of the cars. We had ~4.5 hrs to make them. Only scraps/parts from our company's garage were allowed.

Sickness & Sanding

Alas. I've been sick all week, which hindered my attempt for regular blog posts... I should have stayed home longer on Tuesday because of it (my going into work this week has lead to my saddest, most incoherent series of SVN checkins ever). But because I forged (floundered) ahead through work on Tuesday I deemed myself healthy enough to attend the very first TechShop class I had ever signed up for.

I am now certified for the vacuum forming machine in the SF location. Woot. Now I just have to shell out the rediculous $$ required for a membership in order to get into the building (day passes are $50! Month passes are $125!) It was an interesting class, and fun. Pricey, but whatever. I was the only one who was A: a total noob B: a girl C: brought their own parts to test vacuum forming. I brought several of my clay and resin pieces from the Portal 2 project to mold- got to use 2 sheets and now I have just enough parts to assemble 1 Frankenturret from the plastic bits... need to paint & cut them out however... blah

My sickness-clouded brain really isn't up for anything complicated... but I have been able to attempt casting and sanding of results... so it's not like I've *just* been laying on the couch with a vacant gaze and drooling... although there has definitely been a lot of that. And tissues... I've gone through, like, 3 boxes of tissues...

The sanding never stops... it's starting to get at me. Blah. See, I made a mold of the full (collapsed) turret form and now I've got to cast it several times and cut the shapes out from the whole. Loooots of dremel work. Kicken' up a looot of dust. Maybe that's why I'm sick? Will probably pull together my Frankenturret v3 this weekend from the new molds. I've been thinking for some crazy reason that I want to turn it into a planter... I've yet to have anything die on me... I've got a Edamame seedling in a tiny bottle, so I guess that's a good test of how long it'll take to die... It's so cute! The bottle is maybe 3" high?

San Francisco & a Movie

A: Living in San Francisco is fucking awesome.

B: The movie Hobo with a Shotgun was fucking awesome.

Proofs as follows:

San Francisco is a great place to be. Exciting things can happen right on your door step! For example, SF Carnival could easily wind below one's window. Marvel at the delightful shots Adam and I were able to take from the comfort of our bay window.






This one wasn't from our house- it was from the parade down Mission St.

San Francisco also has crazy delicious food just about everywhere. It helps that some of the *most* crazy delicious food happens to be down the street from me. May I share with you my mouth watering lunch from this Saturday, curtisey of Coffee Bar.



Do you see that? That's a Cobb salad done right- none of that blue cheese shit, they put Fetta on there! Also featuring a Havanna Latte- the most delicious drink possible that fits in the coffee Ven Diagram. The up side of such tasty food is that some times you can convince people to come aaaaalll the way up to the city and hang out with you and sometimes the food works as bait. Or at least helps.

Topic B :

Andy and I saw Hobo with a Shotgun tonight. It was actually... really amazing. Originally just a trailer idea in the middle of the Grindhouse double feature this film exceeded expectations. Or at least fit them to a T? It went there. It delivered. It's not a film for everyone, that's for sure... Trailer here... if you dare. Rutger Hauer makes a really believable hobo. Well acted, no joke (at least the hobo and the hooker were well acted... everyone else was the appropriate level of over the top/cheesy). The soundtrack was flipping amazing. At times it reminded me of Funny Games, but didn't make me want to cry. Very much in the same vein as Planet Terror.



in other news, I've bought even more seeds and tried to clean up the planter in the back yard a bit for a garden... Only re-claimed a small portion from the weeds, will attempt more later stuff actually grows...