In memory of Dan O'Bannon, who passed today.
For those people who remember "Dark Star"
and a reminder of what state science fiction was like in 1974.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5Og_YsaXt4

Good reader, if you are willing, please leave a phrase, a paragraph, a hook, an image, a challenge, or whatever else you might consider a writing prompt. I can't promise immediate response or what it will be, but I'm willing to give it a shot.

Thanks!

Here is an ebony knife handle that I've been carving on recently.
It is based on some Ivory ones I saw at the Bargello.

You never will.
I went for my run this morning and as I approached the intersection of err, something and somewhere, I noticed ( you'll never guess! )

I got my wife’s Christmas present and was wrapping it… I had it mostly wrapped when the boy came in. He was curious who it was for, and what it was. He asked if he could tell mommy some clues about it. I asked him if he knew what it was, and he said no. After I put it under the tree, he asked if he could give mommy hints. I said it was okay. He then proceeded to describe the item in unmistakable detail. Sorry dear.

………

Zachary was convinced to do his Ninja act for Brion, a little solo demonstration complete with chops, punches, kicks and bows… but was persuaded to do it for a dollar. Afterwards, he told me “daddy, next time you need to remind me to ask for more dollars”.

………

Zachary opens our Christmas cards and looks them over before we get to see them. A friend sent us a Christmas card that had a picture of her and her horse costumed as angels. Zachary remembered that he got to ride that horse once, and then looked closely at the picture and asked “Is she really an angel?”

Click through. I promise you want to.
http://jurgenzuvols.livejournal.com/52447.html

Sigh.

I was all excited about the new Sherlock Holmes film coming out soon until I saw a bus-side ad for it, and discovered that Jude Law is in it. That man has NEVER made a film I've enjoyed.* Every film I've seen him in as been overly long, tediously boring and a massive fun void. I haven't made it to the end of most of the films I've had the misfortune to see him in - I even walked out of the theater after about three or four hours** when I accidentally went to see the Mr. Ripley one. It was so boring I figured I'd have a better time flossing the cat or organizing the lint in my belly button.

Suck. Cathyn's all excited about it too. I am curious to hear if that other guy - Ironman - can counteract the Black Hole of Boredom that Jude Law carries with him.

*YMMV, obviously. Really, I shouldn't need to say this, but my journal, my opinion.
**Felt like it, anyway.

I have agreed to display some of my stuff at the arts display at 12th night.
The biggest problem with this, is that most of my stuff lives at other people's houses.

Artus, Marguerite could you bring those polycandelas?
Johanna, could you bring the reliquary?
Conal, could you bring that new chain?
Could someone get Brand to bring his axe with the runes?

I think there are other things out there that I don't come to my mind at the moment, so could you let me know, and bring some of the nicer stuff to 12th Night for me?

Please don't bring calligraphy... I have enough of that.

Thanx.

.( . )

Today is the first day since arriving at the confrence that I haven't been running about frantically trying to solve a crisis. Monday was the registration complications, Tuesday was the poster debacle, but today is quiet and mellow. (note, I've posted more geo-blogs than just those two since arriving at the confrence.) Sure, it was raining this morning, but I enjoyed the walk nonetheless, and I can happily report that my light weight winter dress coat in progress is very water resistant--46 minutes in the rain and the silk lining didn't get wet (nor did any parts of my body covered by the coat, which is most of me). I look forward to finishing it--pity that many of the presentations I wish to see are posters rather than talks--it is easier to stitch during talks than walking about looking at posters.

Since today is a quiet day in terms of what I want to learn at the confrence, with only posters on my schedule, I'm making it a social day. I'll be heading off to a free lunch for geobloggers in half an hour, followed by a desert date with the beautiful emma7926, and this evening I'm meeting my step-sister and her husband for dinner.

Yesterday I had planned a lunch date with inner_kitten, but had to cancel due to trying to get the poster back (see link above), so instead walked out to her office and met her as she got off of work. She didn't have much time to visit (she's in her final year of law school), but she drove me back to the home of j_i_m_r and tafelspitz, so we had a good 20 minutes to chat. She also gave me a couple of avocados from her boss's tree. Yum! In the evening I helped j_i_m_r make her holiday Rum Balls, whcih were quite fun to make, if a bit messy. Not something I'd enjoy eating because of the coco powder, but for those of you who like chocolate it would be a hit. As we rolled them I couldn't help but wonder if I could used these as an inspiration to make something similar but chocolate-free that I would enjoy.

Tomorrow I present my poster, and Friday morning early I fly out to Seattle, where I'll help my mother celebrate her birthday before heading on to Alaska for more holidays.

Now I'm turning the computer off in anticipation of lunch, which isn't actually on the schedule for another 40 minutes, but I can start making my way slowly over to the hotel nonetheless.

Picked up a new pair of Asics last night. Ahhh, it's like jogging on an angel's bottom.

I addressed a lot of them today, but I'm still missing a significant number of addresses. Please comment if you would like one from me & J! (comments will be screened to protect privacy, of course.)

First sentence from the first entry of each month in 2009... ( not much to see here. )

Here's how it works: Go to your LJ calendar. Find the first entry for each month. Copy-paste the first line from the entries next to the corresponding month. That's the year in review, in a nutshell.
************************************************************************

January- I predict a slow day at work today….

February- Last night my boy had a splinter in his hand.

March- Yesterday I went to an event down south.

April- Every year at this time the backyard sprouts with garlic-scented green onions.

May- I recently gave my boy some Lifesavers that I picked up at a gas-station in Monterey, and he liked them, really liked them….

June- My calligraphy project continues, the hand isn’t quite where I want it yet, so I keep tweaking it and looking for the bits and pieces gel at some point.

July- We drove up to the war after work on Thursday night, and pulled into the Gold Beach site about 2am.

August- I was convinced to go to my old High School’s annual all-class reunion that happens in a local park in my hometown.

September- Today I went to Pebble Beach to go to a memorial gathering for an old friend of my family.

October- Why is it that my son will eat so slowly?

November- I’m staying home for Halloween, just feeling a bit sick with a low grade cough still.

December- My computer is running extremely slow.

Your side, my side and the truth.

It seems like the truth always gets caught between two sides of any issue. The truth is never black and white. Trying to find that middle ground is very difficult. It is much easier to glom onto one side of an issue then it is to take a step back and look at the whole picture.

We need to remember that just because someone tells us something does not make it true. We are supposed to be a society built on principles of Courtesy and Chivalry. We need to give people the benefit of the doubt and check our facts. I do not see this happening

So I am challenging everyone to talk to people and find out both sides before you decided what the truth is. If you are not willing to do this then shut up. No one a right to say anything about anything until they have looked at all sides.

To be fair there are people who are reading who do look at all sides of issues before making up their minds. I applaud you.

Edited:

Apparently truth was not a good word to use. Perhaps I should replace it with understanding or with, as Leon suggests, facts. Either way there are two sides to every question and there is a middle. To find the middle you must understand the facts about the two sides. I have always found that the middle is where sanity lives but maybe I am just a little nuts.

Here's how it works: Go to your LJ calendar. Find the first entry for each month. Copy-paste the first line from the entries next to the corresponding month. That's the year in review, in a nutshell.

-Jan: First, let's just get this one out of the way: We're 8 years out from a space odyssey and I can't even get me a flying car?!
-Feb: Yay security! All schemas are safe and secure. From me.
-Mar: I saw a movie in the theater yesterday. I KNOW! I haven't gone to the theater to see a move since...maybe Ironman?
-Apr: Let me just get this out of the way: I don't know anything about what schools are like these days - I don't have any kids, but I was one and my comments here are based upon my recollections from being one.
-May: Having a lovely time, if somewhat sleep deprived. Saturday San Juan Islands and a twisted burlesque show, Sunday the Space Needle and massage/spa day.
-June: There was quite a kerfuffle in the Technical Delivery group status meeting this morning when the team for my Big Project was announced.
-July: Have I mentioned lately that Cathyn is the bomb?
-Aug: Today is all about preparing. Tomorrow we leave for Vegas.
-Sept: Today we set out good and early for the battlefield for that 1066 squabble.
-Oct: Yesterday we started the day with a ride to the top of Mt. Fløyen on the funicular railway.
-Nov: We appear to have a house solution.
-Dec: I've been so busy unpacking that I haven't really posted an update lately.

Lots of big changes and travel this year. Wow, just looking at the top of every month I've been in Seattle, Vegas, England and Norway, and bought a house. All that and it doesn't even include all the days in between. One year I did a "places I've slept this year" list - I couldn't possibly manage that for 2009, there were just too many. It didn't seem all that frenetic at the time, but in review I would say it's been the kind of year that you may have to do once in a while but you wouldn't want to make a habit of. Overall, I'm extremely happy with the changes I've made this year: the move, the travel and marrying Cathyn. Good year, extremely busy, full of forward-looking changes that were sometimes very stressful, but all went according to my Grand Plan.

Today there was some Christmas shopping. When you dedicate a day to that kind of thing, you sort of expect to buy something. Sigh. Salespeople this time of year seem to have been recruited yesterday.

The boy and I went to the grocery store afterwards. We picked up a few things including two tubes of ginger-bread cookie dough. Zachary holds them by his sides, and says they are his jet-packs… and starts zooming around the aisles with all the necessary whooshing sounds. Next we got a baguette, and that became a rocket launcher. That’s a sign for me to get us out of there fast.

Right now, I am working on carving a piece of ebony. In the Bargello (a few years ago) I took some pictures of a group of carving knives that had ivory animal heads. I can’t use ivory (unless I want to glue together a bunch of old dominos) and I didn’t want to put this effort into a block of plastic, so I looked to this hunk of ebony that I have. I was going to give it to Godric, so he can match one of his wonderful blades to it…I have no plans for what will happen to it after that. I should be bringing it to 12th Night, so ask me if you want to see it.

I have been fiddling with a fundraiser idea recently.
Details will be forthcoming at 12th night.

I went for a run before work this morning. A real one, right from my front door. I woke up at 6am without the help of the wicked alarm clock. As I lay there debating Cathyn said, "Whatcha thinking?" I said I was thinking of going for a run but I was too cozy curled up with him to do it. He said, "You should go for a run, I heartily endorse this plan." ( And then he got all supportive and helpful. )

So I went for a run before work, something I used to do three to four times a week the last time I was working and living in the Bay Area, but hadn't (prior to today) managed to accomplish even once since I've been back. It felt good - no pain at all from the injury I've been rehabbing for the last 6 weeks, however I was laughably slow. How slow? Well, I did 2.6 miles in almost 40 minutes. I did the math and that's a 15 minute mile. I might as well have walked BUT I DIDN'T! I'm rehabbing, kids! You can go as slow the hell as you want when you're rehabbing an injury! And here we are 9 hours later and still no pain.

I've decided that the contentment I feel from having gone for a run this morning can help to displace the despair I'm feeling over following the HMR Healthy Solutions plan and not seeing any results for almost 2 months now. If I run three times a week, do strength training twice a week,* and increase my performance steadily with each, I don't have to care what I weigh.

*This part of the plan is currently pending implementation. But now I HAVE A PLAN, and that's half the battle.

Haven't posted in a bit, a fair bit to talk about.

Still looking for work, but things are looking up. It might be more accurate to say I'm still looking for interviews. I see lots of jobs I qualify for, send tons of resumes and cover letters, and rarely hear back from the companies. The "looking up" part is where I see my network expanding and more nice people sign up to look for jobs for me each week.

Fighting again. I took a few weeks off because I mangled my hand. Of course, my first time back in armor everything feels wrong again, sword's too heavy, shield's *way* too heavy (in its defense, it is brand-new never been fought with before), and I perceive I have no endurance. In reality I spent 9+ hours in armor, most of that fighting, drilling, or moving around, so the endurance is still there, but not how I want. To complicate things, I was back just in time for the Duke Brannos Seminar at DeGrendelus Martial Arts Academy, sponsored by HRH Uther. To say I learned a great deal would be an understatement. To say I got my ass handed to me multiple times would also be an understatement, but really, where is the shame in losing every fight to the host, Sir Gemini; the instructor, Duke Brannos; and almost every fight to HRM Titus. Right now I'm considering myself to be the Kansas City Chiefs, a former champion in the midst of a rebuilding year, losing a lot but still able to make some plays and win a couple against heavily favored opponents. I'm hoping this is my Brett-Favre-of-the-Jets season, to be followed hard upon by a Brett-Favre-on-the-Vikings season.

The new home is coming along really well. The painting is done, save for minor touch-ups. Today will see the kitchen finished, and likely the very minor leak in the master shower repaired, as well as the garage move-in phase 2 (electric boogaloo) executed. Not too many projects left on the trestleboard, and none of a large nature, until the middle-distance future where the kitchen gets remodeled, but I don't think I'll be executing that alone, professionals will likely be engaged.

On the state of The Colossus, I am still deeply in love, getting healthier, hand is stepping back into line, post-honeymoon weight loss is nearly complete (222# on Sunday, 2# over my target), and I am quite happy here in California. The home nearing completion makes me feel good, like even though I am unemployed I am Getting Things Done(tm). Later this week there will be a trip to SJSU with Official Transcripts in hand to check in on trading in my hard-earned box-tops credits for something in a delicate sheepskin. There will also be some poking of the PMI webiste to see if I am still eligible to to test for the PMP.

With work areas being organized, I will soon be able to step it up on more projects I have in planning. There will be some lapidary. There will be some jewelry making. There will be some bronze casting. There will be some sewing of properly researched and constructed Saxon-era clothing, as well as some Italian, and most certainly Swedish garments emerging from the shop.

Right, then.

HAPPY! HEALTHY! BOLDLY LEAPING INTO ACTION! (a super-hero might say "Heigh ho, Silver!", "Up, up, and away!" or "Stay ACTION AWESOME!" here. The run-of-the-mill Colossus is content to leap into action, once he gets his shoes on...)