Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Beth's LiveJournal:

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Friday, May 25th, 2012
8:17 pm	Just say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah I have commented on bad choices of wedding songs, but this is so good that it makes the badly-thought-out song good. That's good. I don't want to oversell this, so I'll just say that it's is pretty much the best thing ever. (1 made me think | make me think)
Thursday, May 24th, 2012
12:58 am	No, you can’t get these pants from shopping at Gap I find cosplay enervating; there's only so much creativity, and only so far you can deviate from the example. I admire people who can accurately create historical gowns, but it's not what I love to do. I also feel that the push to accurately re-create someone else's vision has, in some ways, hurt costuming. People are afraid to get it wrong. All that said, I'm glad to make my daughter happy. As requested, Catherine gave me more lead time for this year's Fanime plans. She let me know in March that she wanted to be Yami Bakura from Yu-Gi-Oh. OK. To Valencia Street! The coat was going to be hardest to find, and expensive, the grey pants and striped shirt should be easy. We found a Saturday in April completely free of obligations for both of us (My next free Saturday is this upcoming one, which is Fanime. I will be sleeping in, doing some errands and having some much-needed alone time, though I may be alone in public.) and I mapped out the six thrift stores we were going to hit.. I planned on Clothes Contact first, but when we got off the train, something moved me in Thriftown's direction. Coats. Better Clothing Coats. Within approximately 4 minutes, we had found the coat that we known would be impossible or expensive. Half-priced at $5.99. It was technically too small for Cat, as it is made to button closed, but but it hung perfectly (look at the linked pic again. That is a picture of the coat we found. and a look in the mirror had her screaming something in Japanese. OK, Otaku-chan, moving on! A pair of perfectly-fitting (that is to say, just loose enough to hide her girlish figure without being baggy) grey jeans came to us. We looked at shoes and shirts, rejected the idea of a striped sweater as being too hot for a con, and declared Victory. The Goodwill (which we only stopped at because it was on the way to Mission Thrift) gave us nothing except a lot of striped things that turned out to be sweaters and huge men's polo shirts when seen up close. Mission Thrift didn't have the right wigs, when I had KNOWN they would (darn it!). Lunch was at Dolores Park cafe, because the line to Bi-Rite bakery was its usual self. Both had looked intriguing when I was in the neighborhood on Easter Sunday. Overheard in line, a-by-all-evidence-gay, good-looking young man counting dollar bills from his waiter job elsewhere "Yeah, this woman asked if I were a stripper, and I said 'Honey, if I were stripping, they wouldn't be ones!'" I'd been meaning to try macarons, and our thrift fu called for celebratory dessert, despite the lack of wiggage. No, I don't mean macaroons. Macarons. Try one. Trader Joe's has 'em, and La Boulange, and also Dolores Park Cafe. They're as ubiquitous as Sacher Torte in the early 90's, but I don't have to have raspberry. Back to Valencia! Community Thrift, stripy mocking sweaters, and to Clothes Contact, full of fabulous beaded things that I felt too hot to try on, and finally to Idol Vintage, where a very nice young man with a blonde 70's white-boy 'fro, the like of which I haven't seen since I was younger than Catherine, hunted through the wigs in the back but couldn't find a long enough white one. (A few days later, idiots previewed the Occupy SF Rally by smashing some of Valencia Street, where there is not, to my knowledge, a single Evil Giant Corporation. I have no reason to believe that these people actually were part of Occupy!). Then, a BART ride to the mall near my work, where Superdry and several other stores only had striped t's besmirched by logos, and finally to H&M, where the elusive, good-enough t was. Wig ordered on eBay. Shoes found by Daddy. Millenium Ring materials attempted at General Bead in SF, a store which I would like to peruse at leisure, but which is frustratingly full of things-in-not-much-order when you're looking for something specific. Joann Fabric and Crafts yielded quickish-dry clay and shapable gold wire, and long, long chains, and I made a Millenium Ring from scratch (not unlike this example, though I made the jump ring of twisted metal and the chain is much thicker for that drawn look. Wig styled just last night. I had trouble making 3D hair-like stuff look like the 2D clumps of cool in the anime, but the idea is there, and I did better than a lot of cosplayer wigs I've seen online. Done is done. (5 made me think | make me think)
Sunday, May 20th, 2012
2:31 am	Lala-lala lalalala deedly deedly BUUM BUMM BUUM BUMM! I would so watch this: Johnny Depp IS Tim Burton in Tim Burton's Tim Burton. And may as well share THIS again. I am up because I had a long day, starting with news of a death and ending with a wedding attended by several charming babies (and many other people, mind), and my brain won't let me sleep quite yet. (make me think)
Wednesday, May 9th, 2012
10:07 pm	Don't ask me, I've been there A similar name that I came across today reminded me of the worst bully with whom I have ever contended. This story has triggers and language considered NSFW. It was 7th grade, particularly near the end. I was a strange kid, and it was my first (and only) year at that school, and I did give odd answers to questions. But I didn't deserve the threats and name calling. No-one does. I ended up with a black eye from a friend of hers, but that wasn't the worst. The height of her bullying was the time she stood between me and my gym locker as I was leaving the required shower. I just wanted to get my clothes. ("That happens in real life?" my daughter asked when I replied to her question about if I had ever been bullied. Yes, it does. It did.) "What if" this girl asked casually "I threw you outside and let the boys fuck you?" "I guess she'd have a baby!" smirked one of her claque. "You know she doesn't get her period yet." Now, I am almost impressed at what a fine job of bullying that was, at how she managed to find all my weak spots and fears and things that I didn't want to think about and just THREW them at me, leaving me much more naked that the towel I clutched around myself. But then, I wanted to scream. I remember just standing and looking past her shoulder at my locker, trying to figure out how many of them I could hurt if they did touch me, did try to throw me to the boys, a bunch of usually irritating harassers who had now become my possible worst nightmare. I didn't consider why they were her weapon of choice. A female gym teacher came through and everyone scattered like roaches. I've told this story on someone else's LJ, on a thread about bullying, and someone tried to console me by saying that she was probably fat and living in a trailer with four kids. Well, fat is far from the worst thing I can think of, and I have an LJ friend who lives in a trailer with four kids and is a nice, smart person with a fulfilling life. Back to today; that similar name made me realize that in the 33 years since that incident, the ability to check on people's lives has become a thing. Her first name was common, one of the most common for girls born when we were, her last name is Italian and I've never heard it anywhere else. But I'm not going to bully her by bringing it up, or by bringing up names and places that will make her easy to find without that name. I Googled. She has a facebook, yes, but her privacy settings are high. All I can see is a blurry pic (it looks enough like her mature-at-13 self to convince me that I've got the right one) and that she has 36 friends. She seems to own a hair salon (she did have lovely hair, dark and shiny and long and it always stayed where she put it) and that hair salon is also facebooked. Two people have liked it. Two. Also on Google, a mugshot. Battery, just under a year ago. It seems wrong that this should be so easily accessible just by knowing her name. Her hair looks about the same, her face is years older and decades more exhausted than mine. Her mother died a few months after that. She was married to a man with, and was using, a different last name than her daughter's. I don't know when her mother married, Googling her name doesn't bring up anything else.). A few years back, she cut hair at a charity event to benefit hurricane victims. 25 years ago, she testified at a trial. A seventeen-year old stripper (I cannot gather from the story whether laws in Florida were really lax, or what statues of limitations were if laws weren't lax) had committed suicide after allegedly being forced to strip by (and to give her pay over to) her mother. The then-21-year-old object of my search worked the same club, and testified that the seventeen-year-old was just a baby and really didn't seem to want to be there. The story includes an incredibly casual line about how Ms. [Redacted] had started work as a dancer when she left home at 15. "Left home." That's quite an innocuous phrase, one that implies strength and choices. I don't know what I could have done or even thought differently if I had guessed how bad her home life must have been, but now I am quoting Plato to my 13-year-old self: Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. The weight of my anger at her was small, but dense, like a lead sinker on my heart. It is gone now. (6 made me think | make me think)
Tuesday, May 8th, 2012
2:17 pm	“I cry a lot because I miss people. They die and I can't stop them. They leave me and I love them more.” --Maurice Sendak Thank you for reminding me of this, zia_narratora. As I said when the movie came out, Where the Wild Things reminds us that sometimes we can make one kind of mischief and another, and those who loved us will love us still "...And Max the king of all wild things was lonely and wanted to be where someone loved him best of all. Then all around from far away across the world he smelled good things to eat so he gave up being king of where the wild things are. But the wild things cried, "Oh please don't go- we'll eat you up- we love you so!" And Max said, "No!" The wild things roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws but Max stepped into his private boat and waved good-bye and sailed back over a year and in and out of weeks and through a day and into the night of his very own room where he found his supper waiting for him- and it was still hot." (make me think)
Sunday, April 15th, 2012
2:52 am	Article about how themes, rather than plot, are the selling points for blockbuster YA I read a very good online article about how there has been derivative YA fiction in the wake of the Harry Potter, Twilight and Hunger Games series. The upshot was that the newer books copied the basic plot points (boy wizards, vampires, teenagers in dystopian futures) but didn't capture the themes that were what truly resonated with their audience(respectively, fighting against fascism, the perils of female sexuality and economic disparity.). I have spent a few minutes googling nearly every time I've gone online for a week, but my Google-fu has failed, because there are so many articles about all these series. I thought it had been linked from cleolinda or diceytillerman, but I didn't find it on either of their recent Hunger Games movie reviews. Thank you all so much (x-posted to whatwasthatbook and whatwasthatone (make me think)
2:51 am	Article about how themes, rather than plot, are the selling points for blockbuster YA I read a very good online article about how there has been derivative YA fiction in the wake of the Harry Potter, Twilight and Hunger Games series. The upshot was that the newer books copied the basic plot points (boy wizards, vampires, teenagers in dystopian futures) but didn't capture the themes that were what truly resonated with their audience(respectively, fighting against fascism, the perils of female sexuality and economic disparity.). I have spent a few minutes googling nearly every time I've gone online for a week, but my Google-fu has failed, because there are so many articles about all these series. I thought it had been linked from cleolinda or diceytillerman, but I didn't find it on either of their recent Hunger Games movie reviews. Thank you all so much (x-posted to whatwasthatone (make me think)
Friday, April 6th, 2012
10:33 pm	I love to laugh, long and loud and clear. I got the best compliment ever just last night: "I never have these laughing fits, where I can't stop laughing until I can't BREATHE, with anyone but you." So said my beloved daughter. (make me think)
Friday, March 23rd, 2012
8:38 pm	Here is the place where I love you We are eating lamb stew with dried plums. (make me think)
Sunday, March 11th, 2012
3:35 pm	In sunlight, in sunlight I just read the words "Blame Jimmy Carter?" REALLY? During President Carter's administration, year-round Daylight Savings Time was enacted. In general, I'm FOR that, I detest going home in the dark, though year-round DST also means that a lot of us regular day-shifters will be GETTING UP in the dark, which is VERY bad for us, completely opposite to most people's rhythms. Most humans are diurnal; we like to be awake when the sun is out and get sleepy when it isn't. Be all THAT as it may, a version of DST was first proposed by Benjamin Franklin wau back in 1784, and was first enacted during World War I (same reasons as year-round under President Carter; to save fuel/electricity.) Every year, I find the whining about losing an hour of sleep MUCH more tiring than the "loss" of that hour. Try to get into bed earlier, or realize that, yeah, you're going to lose an hour of sleep until your body gets used to it. You'll either live with it or you'll start getting exhausted earlier because of lack of sleep, so your body will tell you that it's bedtime. Either way, you'll get used to it in a few weeks, at most. Don't take it out on those around you. It shouldn't have come as a surprise, and you're not special; EVERYONE around you is living with this not-actual-horror! Depending on how early you get up/leave the house, you may be a LITTLE off, because the sun doesn't rise until 7:30-ish (yes, this varies with your distance from the equator), so you may feel a bit off. We mostly-diurnal humans, in general, like to stay s'eepy-dodo when the sun is still down. But Mr. Sun will be up soon after most of you are, if not before. And, you'll get to go home at a time that, until you adjust, your body thinks is an hour earlier. I'll take that over mid-winter leaving and commuting in the dark AN-ee day! (5 made me think | make me think)
Tuesday, March 6th, 2012
11:33 pm	Tell me, tell me that your sweet love hasn't died Poll #1824673 Curious is wond'ring about, curious is finding out Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 31 Who's still reading this LiveJournal View Answers I am! I only come here when fb tells me to. 2 (6.5%) I am! I check facebook and livejournal on a regular basis! 25 (80.6%) I am! I don't do facebook. 4 (12.9%) (make me think)
Monday, March 5th, 2012
12:41 pm	Don't decoy, avoid, or make void the topic/Cuz that ain't gonna stop it. This last week's debatesbrought back bad memories. I wasn't sexually active (nor even on the Pill) throughout HS, but I studied human sexuality as a hobby (picked up an Ask Beth book in 7th grade and found it fascinating), and word got around that I knew stuff (someone overheard a convo I was having with a sexually active friend, about how I was a bit worried), so other girls would ask me for advice about sex, birth control, etc. I gave the best info I could. This conflated into "Beth must get around!" then "Beth, what a slut!"." I was shamed by girls and harrassed by boys and it was idiotic. Some years later, I WAS sexually active and figuring A)there was no shame in it and B)convenience and a discount were nice, bought condoms at my place of work, and my co-workers couldn't BELIEVE that I would DO that. Somehow, my monogamous, committed relationship, which had come out of a friendship based on mutual interests, became "OMG, what a slut! Girls don't buy condoms!" The more I see, the more I think that it's not that women aren't supposed to HAVE sex (because guys GOTTA have it, and no-one's really gay, amirite?), they're not supposed to ADMIT it, and they're certainly not supposed to PLAN around it. Not only was it NOT a good time for me to be pregnant, but it was San Francisco in the 1980's. AIDS was VERY MUCH a Thing. I knew my boyfriend, I'm 99.9% sure that we were monogamous at that point, but I didn't know every partner he'd had, or every partner they'd had, etc. etc. Yeah, I was still reading up on it, and still actually using the information!) How is it Family Values to think of babies as punishment for being a "slut?" (1 made me think | make me think)
Thursday, March 1st, 2012
12:06 pm	These apples are delicious!/As a matter of a fact they are! The web of the Web led me to to a Pop Pedestal review, and I watched the Two Fat Ladies of Clarissa making Quercian Apple Cake. Few of the entire meals I've made are this labour-intensive. But I realized that I am actually quite hungry, having only had coffee today, and something warm and appley sounded just right for the drizzly day, so I got up, peeled and cut up a Honeycrisp, threw a handful of golden raisins into the terracotta dish with it, slivered maybe a quarter-teaspoon of butter over the shebang and microwaved for 15 seconds. Then I stirred till the fruit was lightly coated, added a few pinches of flour, a bit of sugar (couldn't have been more than half-a-tablespoon of each) and a dollop of ginger paste, and microwaved for 10 more seconds and stirred again, then splashed about a drop of half-and-half over the whole shebang. Sweet enough to be dessert, filling and healthy enough to be lunch, and the house smells amazing. Three minutes, tops. (make me think)
Saturday, December 31st, 2011
12:38 pm	All in all, it hasn't been a bad year. My life has fallen into cycles, I've noticed, and that's OK. I try not to be superstitious, but I am about New Year's Eve turning into New Year's Day. I have always tried to have the house cleaned, to not take out garbage on New Year's Day (something about how that'll make the next year one of loss instead of gain), and the belief that you will spend the new year doing whatever you were doing on New Year's Day. Catherine went to a birthday sleepover on Thursday night, sweetly asking if we could get a birthday AND a Christmas present, because "It must suck to have your birthday so close to Chistmas!" (sweetness and the word "suck" are not mutually exclusive in my world!) Catherine's best friend was invited, but couldn't make it due to the remains of a cold. But yesterday, before I picked her up, Cat texted me saying "E's feeling better, can we have a sleepover tomorrow? Daddy says OK if it's OK with you and Grammy!" (It was one of Daddy's nights, but he and I had a dinner to attend, and if Grammy could be the Responsible Adult while I was feasting at Tonga, I would take over for "Time to get in your jammies to breakfast".) Grammy was asked, and I said "Yes, IF you'll help me get the extra Christmas out of the living room after we get back from T's." The tree is still trimmed, the wreath is still up, but "extra Christmas" meant all the wrapping paper (I declared a moratorium on wrapping paper buying until we used up most of it," and THINGS that go with Chrismtas, as well as finding a place for the still-boxed iPod dock to live, as well asand organizing the costume/stuff closet that holds wrapping paper and has reached critical mass. She and I did this with a great good will, and also tidied the bedroom and did a load of laundry. So, that laundry is put away, but there's enough for another load. I am not doing that, because I am heading to a Jeremy's cast/New Year's Eve party not long after E's Mom gets her. I will, horrors galore, start the New Year with laundry undone! Here's my point! Rather than thinking of it as a portent spending the entirety of 2012 with dirty laundry and horrifying behindness, I'm thinking of it as 2012 being the year of Letting Things Go, of not sweating the small stuff. Someone linked to this list of <Thirty Things to Stop Doing to Yourself, and I've been working on most of them already. A certain great philosopher summed up the list nicely when s/he said "What other people think of you is none of your business!" and also (ironically, considering that Oscar Wilde originally said it) "Be yourself: Everyone else is taken." So, in accordance with one of the superstitions of New Year's Eve, I am wearing a new shirt, but I am also wearing ancient and comfy pants, and plan to wear the oldest piece of jewelry I own, both in that I've owned it for over two decades and that it's an antique. I am ringing in the new, but keeping the good parts of the old. (1 made me think | make me think)
Tuesday, December 27th, 2011
2:48 pm	'Tis the season to be jolly My bestest Christmas presents were from me to the household: new showerhead (I am clean and my shoulders soothed) and new speakers for the computer (I have been glutting myself with YouTube and Nostalgia Chick). And I have the week off and so does my favorite person in the world, so Joyous Kwanzaa to me! (make me think)
Saturday, December 10th, 2011
7:45 am	All that you love/ All that you hate/ All you distrust/ All you save I know that a lot of you are oh-so-excited, and you're welcome to it, but I don't like eclipses. The first one I remember, I must have been in first or second grade, and we all went outside and watched it get dark through smoked glass. What good is a natural phenomenon at which you can't even look directly! It took a long, long time, it was chilly, and there was standing. I've mentioned to some of you, I hate standing. Sitting and lying down, any variation on those, I can make myself comfortable, I am in a spot for a while. But standing is either waiting for a seat or wait for the walking to start. Walking, I'm fine with walking. However, standing is waiting for something to happen. When I am playing Prue, my standing is kinetic, moving the upper half of my body in semi-circles, ready to go in any direction. In real life, I manage to stay still only by disciplining myself. If I find myself stuck behind someone who moves much more slowly than I, I will often march in place to kill time and to give my body something to do besides standing. I can sit quite still for hours, and I can lay still quite comfortably until I fall asleep. But standing is boring, and standing waiting for something to happen literally as slowly as the movement of shadows is doubly boring. I can't pace or move, because I'm distracting people from (not actually) looking at the eclipse. So, solar eclipses bring extreme discomfort to my belief that the Sun is life, is good, is right. Standing outside and waiting for our main source of light and heat to disappear feels like a cold spot right near my heart. For years, I felt as if I had to stay outside and feign enthusiasm, either because I was a child and adults were acting as if they had this huge treat to give us, or to give my daughter a proper Respect for Nature in All Her Glory. But, really, eclipses are about something that's supposed to be visible not being visible. Eclipses are like playing peek-a-boo with God. Peek-a-Boo is a wonderful game to play with babies, as long as they've hit that 6-to-8 month window where they're getting an understanding of object permanence. At that point, the idea that someone, particularly that fabulous Mommy person who makes so many great things happen, is "not there" and yet actually still there makes for boffo laffs. Where's mommy? THERE she is! Awesome. But if a baby is too young, their emotional resonse to "Where's Mommy?" is similar to "Good Lord, I don't KNOW! Mommy? Where IS Mommy? Why was Mommy just there and now I have no IDEA? MOMMEEEEEE!" Eclipses make me feel like an infant. I don't know where the sun is. I'm not as sure as I should be that it's coming back. As for lunar eclipses, it's all the annoyance (except we can look at the thing) combined with the coldness of nighttime and the fact that often, it's time for precious sleep. I'm missing s date with my darling Morpheus to watch it get dark(er). Yippee-skippy. I love being out at night, but that means having a place to go, a place with modern conveniences like light and heat. In summer, and our local fall heatwave, night means that we all get to cool down a bit, and the drowse of the day lets us sleep. In winter, night means bundling up and having a convenient light source at our finger tips. Why would I want to get up before 5AM just to go outside and watch the moon be obscured? Also, as with so many things, it means an uptick in suffering fools. I hear conversations all around me, questions like "Why is there an eclipse?" (didn't your teachers make you go outside and explain about the moon's shadow? Didn't they then explain about the Earth's shadow in lunar eclipse? Or were you just not paying attention?) I heard several people yesterday say "Wow, a eclipse of a full moon, that must be important, I wonder what's gonna happen." Eclipse and full are mutually inclusive, you can't have one without the other. Although I just admitted to never being a completely sure that the sun or the moon are coming back, I get REALLY irritated by people who still believe that full moons have an effect on people. Did you know that nearly all murders occur within two weeks of a full moon? In fact, nearly EVERYTHING occurs within two weeks of a full moon. Did I just blow your mind? I certainly hope not! For those of you who like that sort of thing, I'm sure it was spectacular, but I'm glad that the sun is risen again. (5 made me think | make me think)
Thursday, December 8th, 2011
12:47 pm	Well, here's a poke at you Let's not get into comparisons of Obama vacations vs. Bush (or the idea that Bush was ALWAYS working at Crawford, while "The King"/"The One"/"Barry Soetoro"/"insert slur-based idiocy" NEVER EVEN THINKS ABOUT HIS JOB EVER WHEN HE'S NOT IN THE ACTUAL WHITE HOUSE!). Let's just do a little math. At the end of the proposed 17-day vacation, President Obama would have been in office for over 35 months, and taken a total of 78 days. That's just over 2 days a month, and just under 27 days a year. Most people, if they're not working in the new economy that makes pre-repentance Scrooge look like Mr. Fezziwig, get two weeks vacation a year, plus several floating holidays, sick days, etc. They don't work weekends. Many get 4 weeks paid vacation plus the other stuff. Also, how many of you are going to ignore that HE CANCELLED his vacation? He actually LISTENED to criticism and stayed behind. Now, how many Republicans in congress will be on vacation? I'm guessing not QUITE as many as when THE ENTIRETY OF CONGRESS took a five-week summer holiday and everyone acted as if President Obama was the only one not making his fingers bleed from hard, hard work. Next up, whining that his wife and children are on vacation, and what kind of man would let them out of his sight? Also, this! Yeah! Oh, yeah! I want to high-five the President! Of course, the conserviverse will be calling him arrogant, as if this came out of nowhere. I'd be a bit arrogant myself if, under my administration, someone went down after being the #1 Most Wanted on the FBI's list for nearly 13 years (and Public Enemy Number One in the hearts and minds of just about everyone for over 9 years). It's SO boring, having these psychic powers. I mean, I must be psychic, because everyone else acts shocked, just shocked (with shocking film of angry people talking angrily) when things that I can see for miles and miles actually happen. I'll say it again, barring major scandal, it'll be Romney vs. Obama, and Obama will win. (Hint: "Major scandal" won't include "He's a Muslim socialist who wasn't born in this country. I said "scandal" not "batguano conspiracy dreams come true!") (make me think)
Friday, December 2nd, 2011
1:06 pm	You may put 'em on the list, you may put 'em on the list Make Banana Bread for Ha'penny feast Pack Banana Bread for Ha'penny feast as well as Cokes for Seven Dials Apples for Seven Dials Garbage Can for Seven Dials Garbage Bags for Seven Dials Belinda's dress Belinda's stockings Fan's jacket Lay Out Prue's stockings Prue's camisole Prue's knickers Prue's shoes Prue's corset Prue's blouse Prue's petticoat Prue's watch Hair ties Prue's bonnet Prue's gloves (Blimey, that's a lot of things, and I left my skirt, shawl and jacket at the Fair!) Reticule Pass ID Cash Debit card Phone Lippie Mascara Eyeliner Make sure contact lenses are clean and hydrated (make me think)
Thursday, December 1st, 2011
1:56 pm	So exciting, the audience will stamp and cheer! I do not have an exciting evening planned, but I am grateful for the small wonders of it. First, I need to go the San Francisco Library and drop off a book and pick up a hold. I LOVE the idea of holds. It's so simple and basic, but, as if a library as it was when I was a child, a place where THEY WILL LET YOU KEEP BOOKS FOR TWO WHOLE WEEKS FOR FREE!, wasn't amazing enough, it's even BETTER now. You can keep the books for THREE weeks. Or, if no-one else wants them right away, SIX! And if the book isn't there, you can go to a MAGIC machine and ask it if it will tell someone to put the book safe for you when the nice person who's reading it brings it back. Then a drop off at Alameda's library (of course I'll check the shelves, why would I NOT?) and a quick trip to Books, Inc. to see if the magazine that has been mocking me with its new cover on the webpage for a week, but not evident in Fog City News, is there. Next, some sewing. I already tightened most of the buttonholes on Prue's shirt (and sewed the heck out of poor sleeve. It is just as well that Costumes wants Jeremy's Girls in bodices next year, Prue's shirt wants to die, or at least rest.), and added the black thing to Prue's Bonnet of Don't Be Afraid. Now, I need to put a button on Belinda Cratchit's dress (I haven't decided if I should replace them all with new, matching ones, replace one to show that the Cratchits are barely clinging to the middle class, or alternate old and new in a pattern. Maybe a different, slightly more decorative one on top? Thoughts, O my costuming friends?) and a hook at the part in the skirt that needs a safety pin now. Also, I shall be covering Fan Scrooge's buttons. This will be a large "duh!" to some of you, but I've learned that Regency coats generally had self-covered buttons if they were any color but blue, but blue coats had gold buttons. I mentioned that to a co-worker, who pointed out that, even now, men's blue blazers tend to have gold, crested buttons, while other colors will have same-color, if not fabric-covered, buttons. Fashion fascinates. I have several episodes of The Daily Show not-yet-watched to keep me company as I sew. (3 made me think | make me think)
Wednesday, November 30th, 2011
8:52 pm	Looked around enough to know This lovely public service announcement may actually change a few minds, and a small percentage is all that's needed. (Safe for work, presuming work lets you watch videos!). (make me think)