Public Transportation Hike : Pacifica

This post is not about coding or crafting. But an important part of coding is NOT coding. And one of the best best ways to not code is to hike.

Enjoyed another wonderful Public Transportation hike this weekend. We caught a BART down to the Daily City station and then caught the SamTrans 110 bus down to Pacifica. The connections went well there and back, but be aware the 110 runs once every 1.5 hours. But don't let that spook you. This hike was refreshing, interesting, and totally worth the time.

We started off by heading up the Sweeny Ridge Trail. Finding it from the bus stop was easy enough. The first 1.2 miles was some steady incline, but since we were in Pacifica we were blanketed in fog the entire time and never once got too warm. It's questionable if we ever were really warm at any point during the trip. There was definitely apprehension as we watched the fog out the bus windows during the approach. We've had some disastrous hikes in the past... thankfully Adam convinced me to wear not just a thermal top for the hike but also my thermal leggings under my skirt. It would have not hurt to have brought another layer... and a hat... and my own gloves (I wound up stealing Adam's)

Have you seen the movie Stalker? It's a terrible film, don't bother if you haven't, but there is some striking imagery in it of foggy landscapes. That's what this hike looked like. We were quickly swallowed up by fog and the world stopped existing beyond the small spot we occupied. The trail was a constant surprise because it twisted into trees or behind shrubs and then out of existence. Sounds were muted, everything was covered in dew, and Adam's hair and beard quickly got soaked. (My braid was too dense we think to hold the dew). At one point we were wearing sunglasses to keep the fog from our eyes and had to repeatedly take them off to wipe clean.

We eventually stumbled across a Nike missile site that had been abandoned.

The site was at the peak of the hill we think- there was wind there at least. But still fog. After that we started to decent and eventually could see the coast. A little. Here the trail gets a little iffy. In theory there's a much more leg-friendly trail down to the church by the freeway... but we got turned around and took the mountain biker path. Insanely steep trails, loose rock, poor footing. Luckily it didn't last too long.

Popping out onto Highway 1 again, next to the church, we were DELIGHTED to see Lovey's Tea Shoppe right there, across the road! That's not a typo-- while it is related to (and shares the exact same menu with) SF's Lovejoy's, its name is Lovey's. Adam and I were able to slip into the communal table no problem and had us a pair High Teas.

Given that the bus comes once every 1.5 hours we had "just" missed one by 15 minutes, and the Colma BART bound 112 wasn't any more convenient. That's fine, there was still the final portion of the hike-- Mori Point. It winds right along the coast cliff and was absolutely bursting with wildflowers. An excellent way to wind down a hike and aid in a little digestion.

After strolling along between the beach and a golf course, we reached the bus stop with a comfortable 10 minutes to spare. Our BART connection was another 8 minutes. And then we were home.

All in all, an excellent hike and an excellent lunch. GMap-Pedometer puts it at an easy 7.1 miles. Check out the link for the exact route taken. Google Maps doesn't quite let us capture it (it refuses to acknowledge the path down to the highway) so here's the first portion & the second portion.

Looking forward to trying it again (perhaps following Sweeny Ridge trail a bit further)

Winning and Gaming

Life goes on, like it does. Things continue to be reasonably well. I am sad that I failed to post something in March. We visited Hawaii, it was nice, hopefully photos will make their way online at some point.

I've had some minor successes here and there recently that please me. While camping at the start of the month I was Mistress of the Campfire and managed to start several fires (in the fire pit) with one match each. This makes me proud. In the last seven months I've managed to lose 10 pounds and am only about 3 away from my randomly-chosen target. In that same time frame I've gone off the pill, and despite initial fear/uncertainty stayed off of it. While I struggle with Feelings, less reliable biology, more Feelings, and whatnot I think being free of it has improved a lot of things in life. When I ask Adam if he's noticed any change his immediate response is "You want to draw all the time."

At work I've been more assertive and involved in more external facing stuff. On a recent call the folks on the other side of the line said something along the lines of my introduction being the best they've ever heard and they were happy/excited to work with me. I continue to "Make an Impression" on people. It helps that I finally feel like the non-engineers I'm working with respect me. While my hatred and loathing of Python blossoms by the day, I've been able to carve out work for myself in Java and it's a delight.

On the art side I've had several crafting successes that makes me extremely pleased with myself. The feeling of having an idea, executing on it, and having it not suck is incredibly delightful- and sadly still quite rare. My sketching is still sporadic- I've fallen off the "morning sketch" routine and ache to return to it- but at least I'm sketching sometimes. Tonight at Dr. Sketchy's I finally won again (2nd place) which always makes me happier than it should.

On the other hand, there's been some gaming. Definitely no winning there. Have been mostly having fun, but so not winning. Except for one game of Pandemic, which was won... but when I think back on it, I'm pretty sure we were cheating...

Extended 4th Terminus session was fun- there was a map and even some dice rolls! But sadly there was also NPC deaths and damage, despite all efforts. And the party is split. And who knows when we'll ever game together again. The end is nigh.

Played my first LARP character this weekend. Burying oneself in costuming does in fact help with nerves! Does not magically help you win however. Upon hearing my character's description, Adam asked if I was worried about being typecast, to which my response was simply :P

Game of Thrones is a horrible game. It may not displace Caylus as Worst Game (since Caylus has fundamentally broken gameplay in my opinion) but it displaces Power Grid for certain as Most Unpleasant To Play. Will I ever get to play Puerto Rico again? At least Adam and I played a couple hands of Race for the Galaxy and while he (as always) won the 2 of 3 set, I put up a solid fight each round.

Life goes on, like it does.

Thems Blogger Rules Changes

Just wanted to post that the upcoming Blogger changes are bullshit and will probably be enough to finally motivate me to find a different service. Blogger is free, so I guess I can't complain. You get what you pay for. But still, there's a lot of artists blogs out there I'm worried about. I don't think my content would get me in trouble, but with fuzzy lines like these, who knows?

Context: Google Changes Content Policy To Prohibit Adult Material On Blogger Platform Starting March 23 (official post here )

However, under the new policy Google will continue to allow some nudity, as long as it “offers a substantial public benefit, for example in artistic, educational, documentary, or scientific contexts.”

"Substantial" Oh good, we're going with an undefined individual's opinion here. That's some substantial bullshit right there.

In other news, patterns are hard. Photoshop makes them a bit easier with the fantastical Offset Filter, but technology can only help you so much. I think I lack some key "randomness" vibes... Also, I think I need to re-draft the pattern with an offset repeat rather than aligned up repeat.

And now to start poking around for other blogging options...

January is taking forever

How are we not yet in February? Ugh. I'm feeling pretty done with this month already...

It wasn't all bad though. Adam and I caught the Cirque show Kurious, which was delightful. I was distrustful when someone told me it had great clowning, but really, it has great clowning! Mesmerizing! Would recommend the show.

This was followed up by the Edwardian Ball. I swore last year I wouldn't go but there I was again, all dressed up two nights in a row, hauling my sketching supplies. This year's new reveal: LED tea lights! Solves the "can't see my sketch" problem! Would be nice if they were a pinch brighter, but the grip, size, and slightly fluctuating luminosity are great.

There was a sketch artist there, officially set up in the VIP balcony. I spent the entire second half of Saturday night camped out behind him, enjoying lovely dressed folks standing still for long periods of time with excellent lighting for them and my page. (Friday sketches posted over here) The artist was Ben Walker and his ability to knock out full body sketches of two people in such a brief period of time was impressive.

Most people ignored me sketching off to the side but there was one couple who made a point to come over before their pose, say hi, and request a sketch. Very nice, very friendly, pretty drunk people. I took a cell phone photo afterwards, comparing Mr. Walker's style to my own. It's a shocking reminder that I need to learn to draw FASTER. At the end of the night I tore the sketch out of my book and happily handed it over the the couple and-- I swear, for the first time ever-- someone tried to tip me. True, he was pretty drunk, but hey! It made me happy! I politely declined, but it's the thought that counts. Later he came back around again with a tarot deck he had purchased and was randomly handing out cards to folks he had talked with. Was a cute idea, I still have my Temperance that I drew propped up on the desk.

Bay Area Public Transportation Hike

I've never owned a car. Adam got rid of his car shortly after we moved to our current home. Luckily SF is an excellent city to be carless these days.

Just about the one and only major draw back to lacking a car is hiking. The Bay Area is wonderful for so may reasons, and one of the top o' the list reasons is the fabulous nature surrounding the cities here. Sure, there's Zipcar- and we've definitely used it for hiking- but driving 2 hours round trip for a 4 hour hike just seems... not great. Especially given that I almost always fall asleep right after a hike and leave poor Adam alone and bored behind the wheel. That's why it's always such a treat to find quality hikes entirely reachable via public transportation.

This week's find was a lovely hike up in the Oakland hills. Took the BART to Rockridge and then the 49B bus to Derby St & Claremont Blvd. There's an excellent collection of trails there.

The area is Claremont Canyon Regional Preserve is where we started and Strawberry Creek Canyon is where we ended. In particular we hiked the Stonewall Panoramic Trail & several fire trails.

As we were approaching the peak, we kept hearing these train noises. "Can we actually hear Amtrak from here?" we wondered. No, you can't. What you CAN hear is the super awesome Redwood Valley Railway which just so happened to be open for us on this weekday. For $3 a piece we hopped the train for a delightful ~12 min ride in the FREEZING COLD. We also forgot to stop Strava so when you check out the Strava results the flat ~2m portion in the middle is us hiking off the path, going around the train, and coming back.

Taking out the 2 miles and 30 minutes for the train trip, the hike was ~7.6 miles ~2hr 20min. Felt like a lot longer... because it was FREEZING COLD for most the hike. Be sure to check the weather and BELIEVE the reports before you head out on a hike, folks! End of the hike dropped us at the Berkeley BART.

Keeping busy

Been doing a lot of things these days. November feels like it breezed right past and we're about to trip over the middle of December any day now. Crazy, that...

Been keeping busy lately. More production, less consumption. A couple things in brief about consumption.

• Birdman was great. You should go see it
• True Detective rocked my world. You should watch it.
• Interstellar is lame. You should avoid it.
• Inherent Vice is great. You should go see it when it comes out, but don't expect to understand/catch half the dialog
• Big Hero 6 is incredibly predictable but very lovely and hilarious. I laughted out loud multiple times in the theater. Also seeing animated Japan!SF was fun.
• I think American Horror story this season is good... I bought a season pass but just can't seem to find the time to watch the last...4? episodes. I'll get to 'em... eventually.
• I'm stalled out in the middle of In The Woods and it's blocking me from starting anything new/better. >:-/

In terms of production, I've been drawing a lot. Haven't tackled many backgrounds, like I'd hoped to, but I'm working on some composition/layout stuff and "coloring" in monochrome. My True Detective fan art has been fun and gotten me the most "Likes" of anything I've posted on Tumblr. Been coding a bit in my spare time, which feels nice. I think it's because of all the rain we've been getting here this winter. So easy to stay inside and draw or code when it's so shitty out.

A nice union of drawing and coding not too long ago was a Blogger page with my 4th Terminus character lineup on it. Turns out there's too many dudes to nicely put in one static image... and I've handfuls of more characters that I should sketch! Going for just a basic silhouette and minimal character features is super easy and very fun! Check out my 4th Terminus page in general incase you'd like to know more about that game I keep talking about. And here's a picture of my character around the start of last session. Good times!

Am really looking forward to the long winter break. Adam and I are psyched to be just saying around town doing nothing, no joke.

Body casting & Halloween

Goodness gracious, casting with alginate is super fun and super easy (which I guess just adds to the fun-ness). I wanted to build a face prosthetic for Halloween this year but wound up pivoting midway through. In the end I won the "scary" contest at work and caused several children to gasp in fear upon my doorstep so I'd say this whole thing can be written down as a success.

Highlights of it all?

• A small frightened princess on my doorstep placed a hand to shield her eyes as she turned away from my visage.
• Suko standing above me and happily saying "It's like frosting a strange cake!" as she poured cold alginate over me. This caused my smirk to be captured, I believe, which Adam claims adds to the creepyness.
• At least three little ones silently shaking their head and attempting to back up as I descended the front steps.

Casting with alginate

To stress how easy this was, let me run through the process really quick.

Step 1. Acquire supplies, both of which are available on Amazon (Prime eligible). 1lb (454g) Alginate Molding Powder ($15) & Plaster Gauze (4"x15') ($7). The other ingredient is just plain old water. It helped that I had a food scale, but they include directions for mixing by volume as well.

I learned the phrase mise en place!

Step 2. Cut out a shield. Exacto knife + cardboard-- though technically this isn't required, it made things a lot easier. Use packing tape to create a lip/guard around the edge in case your alginate is runny.

Step 3. Mix. The package tells you 3.75 (water) : 1 (alginate) by weight and that works. (also says 1:1 by volume) Error perhaps for a pinch more water, I liked runnier over thicker mix.

Step 4. Pour! Don't wait till it's totally white (I did and that's why Suko's nose got screwed up). Mix till smooth and then pour even if still pink. Sets in about 3.5 minutes!

Step 5. Support! Dip the cut bandages in the water briefly and then apply to face. Takes 5-8 minutes, only needs about 2 layers (can be applied at the same time). Be aware the bandages will NEVER dry all the way. The alginate is too moist. Just let them set 8 minutes and be done. The whole thing will always be a bit delicate, so be careful.

YOU'RE DONE!

Bonus Round. Buy some plaster of pairs and pour into the molds (as soon as they come off your face). Be mindful, the plaster HEATS UP as it sets. Never pour plaster directly onto your hands to cast. People have lost fingers doing this.

Suko did a shallow cast of her face and I did a deep one (I wanted a lot of chin) and to fill them it took two full containers of PerfectCast ($10) which luckily is exactly what I had ordered.

Be aware that the alginate picked up lots of details but still had a couple air bubbles in it, which lead to bumpy casts. I think if we had worked in the thinner mixture, spreading it around with fingers or a brush rather than just pouring it on we could have worked out a number of the bubbles. Also, the thinner mixture had more but smaller bubbles.

Luckily an exacto knife proved perfect for cleaning up some of the bumps. The faces remained warm for quite some time, making it feel extra creepy under the finger tips as I worked my blade.

On a whim I thought it'd be interesting to try and make a latex mask with the face negative. I'd picked up some liquid latex ($20) a while ago from my local Tap Plastic and hadn't really successfully used it yet. In between building up the jaw device (which was eventually abandoned) I applied a coat. After 8 coats and a day of work I figured "what the hell" and pealed it off (I only let it sit 12 hours as opposed to the suggested 24).

The results really surprised me and I immediately re-thought my entire costume. And started laying down layers for a second mask. And then later cast both my left and right hand the following day (by myself!)

Notes about making a liquid latex mask

• For a mold the container says you need 8 - 20 layers. I found my mask to be great and it was (I think) only 10 layers? The hands were less, 8? which was reasonable but the left was only 6? and that I think was getting too thin. Somehow I failed to keep a reliable count for each of my 4 masks.
• It doesn't tell you how long it takes to dry, only that you need to let it dry fully between each layer. Online I saw a range listed as 15 min and 2 hrs. I found 15 min early on if it's thin enough, but later I was waiting up to 40 min or an hour. I'd test dryness by tapping the latex with my finger. If I left a finger print or I got some on my finger, then I needed to wait longer.
• If you wash the brush off right away with warm water you can get most the latex off but little gummies will build up over time no matter what. I managed to need only 2 cheap brushes for all 4 masks (both brushes winding up in the trash by the end)
• Dabbing the brush with a bit of water really helped. Thinning the latex with a little water (or just by using a damp brush) helped.
• I have the pint sized container of liquid latex. All four masks put a dent in it but I'd say it took less than half of what I had. (I'm apparently really bad at estimating volume)

• The alginate will start shrinking the moment it's cast. This meant that my second mask (started ~25+ hours after the initial casting) was noticeably (when worn) smaller! If you want a permanent mold, just invest in a latex one (but that sounds more complex and expensive)
• Using a pair of good scissors I could easily snip the latex for threading & ring addition. For the hands I used an upholstery needle. You can't just push the needle through, I had to use a pad of sticky notes and press the needle tip into that to puncture the mask (otherwise it just stretched). The thinner glove seemed to be harder to puncture for some reason (it just stretched and then some times tore open next to where I was trying to stitch)

So... yeah.... Good times. Multiple people informed me that I looked scary. At least three people tried on my second face mask. Learned a new craft. Won a prize. Have a face cast to build on for future projects. Am happy.