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Children of Men"
Truth in fiction? With articles about decreased sperm count in men living in industrialized countries, hormone-laden food affecting our kids' development, and now inadvertent cocktails of every drug ever administered forming from human bodily waste that filters into our water supply... One figures that whatever eventually happens in reality will defy and exceed even the extreme speculation in movies like this one.
Really, really good movie. Nihilistic as hell (until the 'morrow at the end), but very accurate depictions of human reactions under stress.
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Ξ February 24th, 2007 | → Comments Off | ∇ General |
I was at a loss for where to get glass panes (or some substitute material) for my handforged lanterns. Looking online didn’t turn up much in the small-quantity department — it was all industrial orders.
Dropped by Binswanger Glass, and they quoted me something absurd for 4 5″x8″ panes.
Today, I swung by Home Depot to find some screen mesh for making a screen door to fit over my balcony’s French doors.
The doors and balcony sound swankier than the reality — the doors are each barely shoulder width, and so’s the balcony. Plus we’re a wimpy stone’s throw from BW 8, so anytime other than midnight to 5 a.m. is kinda obnoxious rather than relaxing. And boy howdy, when the cops and fire engines go by, it’s just like the movies. One night around 2 a.m., when I had the door cracked open, I heard a cop siren spin up and Doppler off into the distance. Before it had died, a second one spun up. And another. I lost count around 7, and it sounded like they were fading out quite rapidly. Sounds like maybe some hotshots were replaying The Fast and the Furious on the tollway.
So, the mesh. And in the doors and windows department, right next to the screen mesh were panes of polycarb, glass, and acrylic. Duh.
I picked up 2 8″x10″ panes of polycarb (the product label for which says it’s heat and yellowing resistant) in addition to my roll of mesh. Gonna practice cutting them in half without fracturing or crazing them. The material costs for a lantern just dropped to $8! Or $4 if I use glass.
And for those people who don’t read Xanga, wouldn’t want to leave you out…
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So I’ve mentioned Lily Allen to some folks. She’s a 21-year old pop hit in the UK, sort of a Bruegelian voluptuous lass with a sassy London tongue in her head. I can’t stand listening to her talk for long (esp. in the “Ldn” intro, which is intentionally ditzy). But she makes some good points about realistic female body image, among other things. I read that supposedly she was rich before she became a hit (haven’t bothered reading the pop pulp for research). Kind of a silver spoon, likeable UK cross between Britney Spears and Avril Lavigne.
I doubt she pushes any musical boundaries, but her stuff is just plain fun and catchy.
I went Googling for lyrics last night, and found some videos as a bonus…
The song that initially got my attention on KCRW (I think the video’s sorta cute, but distracts from the song):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3SRM6V30B4
Another nifty song, “Ldn” — the video and context of her looking forward to meeting someone after the phone call put the lyrics in a totally different light:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORosVxIg8Tg&NR
And “Littlest Things”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJfMIvx7FsQ
A funny MTV promo spot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-mp987uJ2w&NR
Gawd, I could see how easy it’d be to get addicted to YouTube.
Ξ February 13th, 2007 | → Comments Off | ∇ Metalworking |
Finally got around to taking some pics of stuff I’ve made in the past year, particularly in the past 3 months. Not all of it, but some of the better stuff.
Pretty happy with all of it. No, I’m *really* happy with all of it.
The second falchion pic and the first knife pic have pretty cool angles.
Ξ February 12th, 2007 | → Comments Off | ∇ Fitness / HEMA |
I’ve been studying the Lichtenauer tradition for six years now, and I still get the thrill of new discoveries every so often. Great feeling.
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A disclaimer: I’m not Christian, so I wonder how much of the following synthesis is mere sophistry and specious reasoning, and how much is true?
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Ξ February 9th, 2007 | → Comments Off | ∇ Current Events, SCA |
…Yes, yes they are.
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Ξ February 9th, 2007 | → Comments Off | ∇ General |
So a friend of mine induced me to finally open my flickr account.
It’s been 5 years since I got my camera, and about as long since I had a direct Int-arr-web connection (much less a high speed one) to my machine.
Needless to say, there’s a royal buttload of pics to go through. I figure the A-list will be wholly up by June or so.
What does Dawn of War have to do with the rise and fall of empires?
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Gauntlets — the bane of my design work.
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It’ll give you a head-splitting ache. Scratch that — it’ll just split your head.
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