I've had my pretty firesteel knife for a few months now... and I'm still yet to pick a name for her. I know it's a she, but I still haven't figured out a good name for her. I am inclined towards a goddess involving Fire or a feminine name that means fire in some way, but I have no been able to find something that I like the sound of. Anyone have any suggestions?

For Christmas, I received a copy of Brave Men Run by Matthew Wayne Selznick. It was given to me late, and I started reading it earlier this week. Just finished it now. Interesting book, but a little slow and short by the standards I usually hold my reading to.

Reading the book was an odd experience for me. It was set in the 80s, an alternate 80s where super-humans (meta-humans, mutants, etc, fiction has a whole list of names for these sorts), called Sovereigns in this case, were outed in a big way and we get one kid's story for his involvement in this outing. The 80s cultural references left me mostly in the dark, given that I hardly remember a thing of the 80s, having been born in '83 and therefore wasn't old enough to remember much 'til the decade was all but over. Honestly, the first thing I distinctly remember from that time frame was the Loma Prieta earthquake.

What was odder about reading the book had nothing to do with the plot or characters, and had everything to do with the author's writing style. I have to admit that my reading tastes have been strongly influenced by the odd sorts of people I've taken to. I'm so used to people like Neal Stephenson who will seem like he's dicking around going nowhere for the first couple hundred pages, but given that his books are usually in the neighborhood of a thousand pages long, two-hundred in is only a fifth of the book and he still has lots of time to go there and back again, and usually does it in such a manner that once you're into the book, you're hard pressed to set it down again. So first of all, it was odd to me to actually read a book that was only a little over a couple hundred pages long.

Though what was weirder about reading this book was that it reminded me of all the things that drive me crazy in my own writing. I have this annoying tendency to put in all sorts of details. Things that don't actually do anything but add space and mundane fluff to my prose. And Selznick does this exact same thing, and doubly annoying was that it took me 'til I was two-thirds of the way through the book to realize just why this particular habit bothered me so.

All that said, it wasn't a bad read, and what's cooler about it is that Paul, my friend who gave it to me, kinda knows the guy who wrote it, so my copy has a note and author signature in it. The note says:

To Amy (last name)!

Because although the
80's were evil incarnate,
it was still a good time.
Paul also wants me to say that
this book was written because he was
such an inspiration to us all... but who are
we kidding??

Enjoy!

learn how to make a plasmoid so I can have BART and Shirt Woot on my desktop.

I'm seriously considering hennaing my hair. I've used synthetic dyes before to go red, and I kind of liked the results when they were fresh, but they annoyed me as they faded out over time. This led to me redying my hair more frequently than I probably should have using those synthetic dyes. I'd also experimented with purple a couple different times, and while fun, not something I'm interested in doing again because of how shitty the bleach is on my hair.

Family has always bitched at me when I've dyed my hair. "Oh, your hair's so pretty, why would you dye it!?" and "You know, there are some women who pay hundreds of dollars to get hair like yours". It's one of those things that people can get bored with over time, the more I looked at my brown hair with the sun streaks, the more tired I got with it. While part of the reason I'd stopped dying my hair red in the first place had been trying to cut back on my spending, it also annoyed the hell out of me the damage that was being done to my scalp. I've always had oily skin, so it's frustrating to me to have dyed so much that now my scalp is a little on the dry side.

When one can find henna that hasn't got weird shit mixed into it, the colors that result are pretty. Also, it's supposed to help some with the dry scalp that results from the excessive use of synthetic dyes. When I looked into using henna the first time, I was hoping to find somewhere that actually had pure henna in stock where I could buy it, but I couldn't find anything but the kits that had shit mixed into the henna. And what's the point of going henna if you're just going to get the damn synthetic shit mixed in too?

Anyhow, I am seriously considering the henna, but I need to decide what shade or tint I'd like to aim for, order the henna and figure out what sort of mix I want to use on my hair. I've been checking out Henna for Hair to try to figure out how I want to attack this. I'm inclined towards a deep red, but I might consider a brighter shade if I think my complexion won't fight it too badly. I seem to have been a little more red in the face lately than I've been for a while, so the brighter red might not work out. I'll ponder on it and see what I decide on.

Just a quick note to say, I finished my bio-hazard wife beater project. jrl3001 came over to hang out Thursday, after he got off work, and helped me with the cutting of the stencil. Well, he cut pretty much all of it for me, and declined offered bribery in thanks. I'll have to ponder what to do in return for him, even though he's insisting he doesn't want anything. At any rate, once the stencil was cut, the bleaching was pretty easy to do.

I found out the bleach pens are a lot diluted, as I actually let the bleach sit on the shirt pretty long, and it only bleached it out a little. The second application sat even longer, and it still didn't lighten anywhere near as much as I'd been planning on, but I like the end results none the less. It looks a little more distressed than I intended, the bleach having bled a bit around the edges due to two things I did (blotting the bleach off after the first application, and the shirt being damp during the second), but it looks right for the style that was intended, so I'm happy with it. I have things I'll likely do different if/when I do another one, but it came out pretty damn good for a prototype. ^_^

As for the armwarmer project, I've got one arm warmer done, and I just started the second arm this morning, so it shouldn't take me long to whip it out, now that I've gotten a feel for how to do it. If I am quick enough, I could possible whip up some sort of garter system that'll attach to my bra or shirt so that I can be certain the arm warmers will stay up. The thing I like most about making my own arm warmers is that I can adjust the length to come most of the way up my arms, where most commercially available arm warmers, I'm lucky if they'll make it past my elbow, since so many people are short and stubby, and thus have short stubby arms. Proper opera length black and white stripe arm warmers. Yay! Bonus points that the white glows in the dark. ^_^

I have pictures of the bio-hazard wife beater hanging on a hanger, but I need to unearth my camera dock to be able to share. I figure, if I finish whipping up the arm warmers, I'll wear 'em to the Babyland show on the 26th with the tank top, and get a picture of the whole assemble on my person to show off. Also, I relocated my black lace suspenders, so I could rock those with my pinstriped capris, and be a pretty happy person in the way of what I'll wear to the show. ^_^

I am thinking I need to work on my bad German accent and put together a jägermonster costumes for the halloween. 'Twould be delicious, and give me an excuse to deck myself out with weapon sort things for when I wear the costume to work. I always assume I'm working on halloween unless I specifically ask for the day off, as that tends to be how it works. I usually have the most open availability, so I usually get scheduled for holidays. I don't mind much, Halloween rocks when it involves costume wearing. :)

So, checklist if I'm going to dress as a Jägermonster:

• Bad German Accent
• some manner of skin and hair color modification
• a magnificent hat
• pseudo-militaristic clothing, preferably of bright colors
• fun weapons
• monster teeth
• pointy ears

I already own some good hats, as does my mother, so likely I will be able to pick something from the existing costuming collection within the house. That said, I'm not sure if I have anything that's pseudo-military enough to work right. Will have to ponder. The rest of the clothing will likely have to be modified, dyed surplus or expensive purchase.

The skin coloration, I want to do something with a light weight application, ideally airbrush, so that it'll photograph well. I see so many people attempt jägerkin with blotchy tube based makeup likely purchased from the drug store, and it makes me sad. I already own a couple sets of ear points, so that would just be a matter of coloring them to match my skin color. I'm leaning towards an orange or gold color, which would be more accenting my current skin color that having to out and out obscure it. The hair is likely to be easier, as I have hair gels that are colored and I could just style my hair somewhat practically for the costume, and just liberally apply the hair gel for subtle coloration.

I already own a couple sets of Vampire teeth, but I need to investigate ways to install them, since I've usually let them sit for too much time between purchase and attempted use for the agents included with them to be likely to work. That said, I haven't tried any of them, so maybe they'll still work. I'll investigate though, it would be nice to have relatively realistic fangs, instead of horribly fake crap which is what's easier to find.

I suspect, had megmca not moved away to Colorado, she would have happily been my partner in crime for the jägermonster costuming. Jägermonsters are always more fun in groups. Also, I have decided this coat would make a dashing jägermonster coat. Probably the black version so that I can wear it with other things later, and also so it'll mix with whatever colors I select for my jägermonster skin color and costume colors.