Welcome to my little chunk of the web. This journal has become mostly friends-only; apparently I'm getting reclusive in my advanced age. If you are interested in seeing more content, add me, and I'll generally add you back.

I also maintain a couple of filters. If you feel brave and daring and bold and would like to be included on those, please comment here and I will add you to the things you want to read.
Currently, I have these things filtered:

• KC Local - events in and around Kansas City, usually that I am exhorting people to attend.
  
• Discordianism - weird occurrences, surrealist activism, generalized Erisian activities.
  
• Fiction - lies, damned lies, and story-telling. These are the stories I write when I am awake, as opposed to the stories I write when I am asleep, which are on a different filter, and usually make less sense.
  
• Woo-woo - Spiritual and magical discussion and recording.
  
• Balderdash! - I run a game of Balderdash, modified for LJ, and for the really smart people on my friendslist. Seriously, have you ever tried to play regular Balderdash with really smart people? It's useless, they know all the words.
  
• Subconscious theater - dreams and other things that come to me while sleeping.

Thanks for dropping by!

Having heard that I liked trains, the universe (with the help of some of you!) has lovingly provided me with much train-based joy.

First, primitivepeople rode the very sexy High Speed One, and posted lovely pictures.

Then, greektoomey pointed me towards The Train Suite I: Viscous Oil & Persimmon Tea, which includes the lovely bit of Palimpsest I'm so in love with about the trains of heaven, and also some very nice train backing vocals.

And then! corwin00, over on his Facebook, shared this amazing paper city, with, oh yes my friends, a working paper train. I will be very disappointed in you if you don't click that, because if you don't, you will have willfully missed out on a thing of intricate and frankly fucking impressive beauty.

I'm home from the Northwest. I have lots of pictures. The best of the set are uploading as we speak. I should label and tag them all, but kids, I am tired. The trip was completely amazing. It was a little like this:


Tomorrow, I'll post more coherently. Right now, I'm going to bed.

Here is your daily dose of oh my god that's freaking amazing. Danny MacAskill does bicycle parkour, Edinburgh.

I was having a conversation with druidevo in which I was pointing out that I am easily the only pagan on the planet who doesn't have a totem animal. Oh, sure, I like birds and dogs and foxes and things, and if pressed, I can probably give you at least one way in which I am like any animal you care to name, but I don't have any special relationship with any of them. I can probably also give you at least one reason that I'm like any given car, or breakfast cereal, too. That doesn't really mean anything.

Now, druidevo was not buying this story. He says, "You do too have a totem. Hello, monster." And I thought, "Hrm. Is monster a totem? Monster's sort of, well, unnatural for a guiding nature spirit, isn't it? But hell, maybe that works. I don't know."

So I'm thinking about the whole business. The totem thing is rooted in identification, which is to say that the person who has the totem thinks of themselves as being like the totem in some significant ways, but also about guidance, which is to say that the person who has the totem feels that they are being taught important things by observation of the totem. I am certainly like a monster. That part's easy. But what, if anything does monster teach?

1. Not everything fits neatly into one of any given set of pigeonholes. Some things are built haphazardly from a motley collection of organs and systems. And really, isn't that more interesting and impressive?

2. Think long term and practice patience. When you can sleep beneath the vasty deeps for aeons uncounted, or survive for hundreds of years in remote arctic research facilities, before emerging again into the daylight of human consciousness, you understand that not everything has to happen right at this very moment.

3. Sometimes, you have to rampage in order to get what you need. Had Frankenstein's monster stayed quietly in the castle minding his own business, the doctor would never have needed to build him a Bride to placate him.

4. Looks can be deceiving. Gamera, despite his fearsome appearance, is a friend to children everywhere.

5. Never accept limitations. There's always something out there that you can use to rebuild, enhance, or mutate yourself into a more capable form.

6. Be adaptable. Really, where would The Blob have been if it could only engulf and eat a limited range of Earth substances?

And of course:

7. History shows again and again how Nature points up the folly of men. Godzilla!

So there you are, seven valuable lessons from monster. Now, you might also say that monster runs rampant all over everything, indiscriminately killing everything it encounters, and doing vast amounts of damage to perfectly innocent superstructures. You would, of course, be correct, but hey. Crows steal shiny things, wolves terrify the populace, and bears shit in the woods, but you don't hear anybody bringing that stuff up in totem discussions, do you?

Inexplicably good together: Murder Ballad Blackjack.

An old favorite: The Big Stupid Puzzle.

You know in your heart of hearts that you always wanted to see Freddie Mercury juggle. Or maybe that's just me.

Bonus Circus Goodness: Acrobat David O'Mer takes a bath.

1. Thai Spider-Man Saves Autistic Boy. Firefighter uses superhero costume to talk a scared boy off a ledge. Alleges that he keeps Spider-Man costume in his locker at work "to liven up school fire drills". We here at Featherynscale Industries are suspicious, but impressed. You go, cosplay guy!

2. "Sometimes the best news is that a story makes no news." Seventh-grade math teacher invites whole class to his commitment ceremony, nobody thinks it's that big a deal. Bonus points: 1. When asked "were you surprised to learn your teacher was gay?", seventh graders responded: “He’s not gay,” said Japhet Guzman, 12. “No,” agreed a lanky 13-year-old who walked with a bit of a tough-guy swagger, “he’s not gay. He’s bisexual. Why don’t you ask him?” 2. Bisexual math teacher is tremendously cute. Of course, he's a bisexual math teacher, so I may have some bias in that assessment.

In honor of Perceval le Galois, I present today's game. It is a simple game in concept, but might produce interesting results. Perceval stumbled upon the Grail Castle early in life, but, out of a fear of appearing ignorant, failed to ask several relevant questions of the Grail King. Perceval was cast out of the castle, and ended up spending most of the rest of his life looking for a second chance, and the Grail King and his lands remained wounded and in waste until the knight was able to return and ask.

So. Here's the deal. In this post, anonymous comments are accepted. If you have a stupid question that you've been avoiding asking, whether it's a question for me personally, or a general question, post it as an anonymous comment. I or someone else will attempt to answer it as best we can. If your question is directed to me, please indicate that. Otherwise, anybody can (and should) respond.

Any questions?

EDIT:
Open Questions:
What do you get out of tabletop gaming?

I have the plague. Expectations for today continue to be revised downwards.

Every morning at about 7:50 a.m., my printer produces a map to 1127 Belmont.

WHY???

Thanks,
featherynscale

After consuming all the fluids in the world, and a fair amount of hot-sauce-spiked cheese with garlic crackers, I am now feeling much more like a living human being. You probably still shouldn't kiss me, but that's because of the garlic crackers. My body temperature is still a bit higher than usual, but it's 98.3, compared to standard 97.9. Much better than the previous 99.8. Still don't know what the problem is/was. Not strep, despite having been exposed. Not pneumonia, despite feeling for the last few days as if I had iron bars wrapped around my chest. Probably something viral, said Dr. Younger-than-Me, rest, drink lots of fluids, have some chicken soup. Anyway. (I'm pretty sure Dr. Younger-than-Me is a med student. At least, she had to go talk to some other doctor before making any diagnoses or decisions. Still, neither x-rays nor strep cultures lie, so I'm pretty sure she's right about no strep or pneumonia.)

It's been nice to have a couple days of time off, even though I've spent most of it either napping or staring at the PC screen. I should be using it to prep EiR class. Maybe I'll get some of that in when I get done with this post, who knows?

I'm getting ready to post some new stuff to my Etsy shop. I figured I'd give you guys a chance to look at it first, that way I can save on listing fees and you can save on shipping if you find something you can't live without. (It also saves me the trouble of trying to write a compelling Etsy description.)

Take a look over here, and let me know if there's anything you're interested in, will you?

(Also note, the new camera does a much better job with macro shots than the old one ever did. I am pleased with this turn of events.)

RIP, orcjohn. May the next life be kinder than this.

Sooo.

triadruid left at the inhospitable hour of noon on New Year's Day (having been at agrnmn's poker, singing, and silly hats party the night before), on the road to Florida. We drove across Missouri to St. Louis, a trip that is interminable on the way out to anywhere, but somehow seems quick and refreshing on the way back. Southbound on I-55, we discovered Callahan's Place, and then headed into deepest, darkest Arkansas. In Arkansas, we were greeted by an amazing variety of small towns just off of 55, and made up stories about them to alleviate the sheer, butt-numbing boredom of the trip. We imagined a circus: Victoria Luxora, the high-wire artist, twirling a flaming baton while crossing the highway at the towering height of 100 feet; Keiser Wilson, the ringmaster who speaks only gibberish, communicating more clearly with gesture and the occasional shot from an incendiary flare pistol; Marie Lepanto, the delicate, harlequin-painted dog trainer, parading about with her fuzzy charges; and Joiner Tyronza, the strong man with a heart of iron. Thankfully, we soon passed into Tennessee, and then Mississippi, where we stopped for the night.
( More travel ahead! )

triadruid and I are home, shaking the dust of 8 states off our feet. Thanks to zylch, popefelix, ruisseau, and anyone else who kept the dogs fed, the plants watered, and der Fractalhaus from generally burning down while we were gone. Soon, there will be a post-trip post, and also pictures. Now, though, there is a warm bath and a bottle of good tequila calling my name.

(Also, I haven't read lj since early New Year's Eve; did I miss anything important, interesting, or fascinatingly explicit?)

...I slept in until 11. Huzzah! And it's 61° out. Heat wave!

Today, I'm going to:

• Finish the outline for this year's EiR class
  
• Get gifts for the rest of my family that I'll be visiting in FL
  
• Pick up groceries
  
• Write a story (maybe)
  
• Eat leftover pastry thingies
  
• Paint my toenails
  
• Make an appointment for the Toboggan to go in for tires and repairs
  
• Write an outline for my January class on ritual consciousness
  
• Think about hanging up some of this pile of art that I have sitting about the place unframed
  
• ...and other stuff, as I think of it.

Okay, maybe not so slacker today.

EDIT: In other news, Hedgehog Launch. Take that, productivity!

So. No gifts, no parties. No big dinner. No pants until at least 3 p.m.

Undoubtedly, the best christmas at my house ever. Seriously. I didn't get out of bed till 11. And then I took a nap at 2:30. We did basically nothing all day. For lunch/dinner/whatever meal one eats at 4 p.m., I made phyllo-wrapped beef and feta turnovers. These turned out to be extremely tasty, despite the fact that I more or less made up the recipe to use up stuff that was in the fridge. Called mom, she was like "What did you do today?". Nothing. And it was everything I hoped it would be.

Hope you all are having a happy holiday, too. :)

Poll #1320171 Forced-choice inventory!
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Which is worse?

Which is worse?

Which is worse?

Solstice comes and goes;
Ball was, yes, effing brilliant.
On to the next thing!