Heather Dale and Ben Deschamps

I had the pleasure of seeing celtic/Arthurian/folk/etc. musician [Heather Dale] and her musical partner Ben Deschamps live for the second time last night.

What an amazing show! She does a great job of combining storytelling and music--very much a modern troubador who spend months out of the year on the road. I'm always blown away by their combination of art and spot-on technical skill both in music and vocals.

Anyway, I wanted to mention that she has a [completely free live album] called Perpetual Gift. I'm not usually much of a live album enthusiast, but this one is really good. The sound quality and execution is very much like their studio albums because they're such awesome, consistent, professional performers. It combines the energy and storytelling of her live shows with great recordings of some of her most popular songs. It's a perfect introduction to her music.

So go [download] it! Burn it! Put it on USB sticks!

She's also got (at the time of this post) fifteen more days on an IndieGoGo campaign to help launch her [Celtic Avalon] project. It's a touring musical/mixed performance art touring show of the King Arthur story. It will be combined with an educational component AND you can get a professionally produced concert DVD of the show!

illogiCon 2014 Panel Schedule

This is still a bit preliminary, but my [illogiCon panel/event schedule] is as follows:

Friday
3pm- LGBT Inclusion in Fandom
6pm - Breaking into Burlesque
9pm - Smutty Fanfiction
10pm - Open Filk

Saturday
10am - Romanticized Mars vs. Real Mars
Noon - Make-up for Costumers (I'll be doing a clown grease demo)
1pm - Ethics in SF
9pm - Nerd-Vana Variety Show
After - Open Filk

Sunday
10am - "Hard" vs. "Soft" SF
Noon - Women in Fan Culture
3pm - Running Table Top Games
6pm - Geek Arts and Crafts (hands-on!)

And don't forget to bring singles for the [Nerd-Vana] show on Saturday! 18 and up only and we'll have to card at the door. I'll be doing two songs and a little bird told me there would be a sexy Kirk...

Minta Durfee Shrug

My friend was in the middle of knitting this cute shrug pattern when the blog that was hosting it fell off the internet. I managed to get a snapshot from the Google cache and save the pattern into a .pdf. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to do this.

The shrug is a re-write of a 1912 pattern for modern knitters by Elizabeth F. It's knit flat with worsted weight yarn and then seamed under the arms.

[Pattern .pdf]

The [original Ravelry info] is still up.

Filk-lesque

Filk-lesque: one of those annoying blend portmanteaux that describes what I've been doing all year. I perform musical acts of an often nerdy bent at burlesque, variety, and cabaret-style shows in Raleigh, and the rest of the Triangle and Triad. I usually perform in clown-style full face makeup, but I've also appeared in my own skin and in drag!

Check out my [videos and music]!

There are also TONS of pictures on my performer Facebook page and a list of upcoming shows.


Photo by Patrick Kirby

Snuggles for Shelter Animals

I was browsing [Ravelry] and came across the [Snuggles Project].

The Snuggles Project encourages people to knit, crochet, sew, or otherwise fashion small, machine-washable blankets for animals in shelters and rescues. You take the Snuggles to your shelter/rescue of choice on your and then report it back to the site to say you participated in the project.

I've been working some cat-sized (14x14 inch to 24x24 inch) blankets for the often beleaguered Wake County Animal Shelter. If anyone would like to join me, let me know and I can drop off a bundle. I'm almost up to one square yard of Snuggles knit! It's a TERRIFIC stash-buster for all that bulk acrylic I have lying around. Since I'm still a fairly simple knitter, it's also been a great way to practice more complicated stitch patterns (and by complicated I mean more complex than a 1x1 rib :P). I'm starting on a fisherman's rib blanket and it's SQUISHY.

Scrap yarn Snuggle!

[Snuggles Patterns] has lots of plushy stitch patterns to try!

And finally, a spreadsheet of my [running Snuggle yardage].

Headband with I-cord Ties

Nothing fancy, but I LOVED the [Frog Tree Ewetopia] yarn I picked up at [Warm 'n Fuzzy] in Cary.



[Pattern .pdf]

Fingerless, Asymmetrical Skull Mittens

My first attempt at duplicate stitching! Because skulls are TOTALLY RAD!


[Pattern .pdf]

Pork and Sweetpotato Baked Wontons

Yum! I want to mix-and-match on the filling ingredients with some ground turkey and spinach.



Filling:
-1 lb. ground pork (I ground mine at home!)
-1 large sweetpotato, cut into slices or small chunks
-3 cloves garlic, chopped fine
-1/4 cup of onion, chopped fine
-2 Tbs. fresh sage, coarsely chopped
-1 Tbs. soy sauce
-1 Tbs. Korean barbecue sauce (or sriracha)
-1 egg
-coarse-ground pepper to taste

Skins:
-1 package wonton skins (50 skins)
-Mini-muffin tin
-A couple damp paper towels to protect wontons from drying
-Some kind of oil to brush on skins (sesame is really good but I used an olive oil spray because it was easier)

Mix the filling in a bowl with your hands or a spatula. Done!

Pre-heat oven to 450 F.
Oil both sides of the wonton skins. This helps prevent the corners from toasting too much. Tuck the skins into the muffin tin. As I prepare on side or one tray, I like to lay a moist paper towel over the stack or tray of wontons I'm not working with so they don't get too dry. Drop a small spoonful of filling into the cup and fold the corners in.

Back at 450 F for 8 minutes. Serve with a dipping sauce! I cheated and bought the Trader Joe's gyoza sauce.

It's really easy to make the filling the night before and stuff and bake the wontons right before serving, but you could cook them the day before and warm them or assemble and refrigerate (covered with moist paper towel and wrap) and bake right before.

So what if it wasn't for my car?

Today I went into an Advanced Auto Parts in Cary to buy some car wax.

A 50- or 60-something gentleman approached me amiably as I was picking out a wax and exclaimed, "A girl is going to do this?!?"

I didn't feel especially chatty so I just smiled and nodded, saying, "Sure!"

He then proceeded to mansplain to me what hard "elbow work" it was. I answered with something about it being good exercise and he told me I was pretty and already in shape. I kept trying to politely return to comparing waxes but finally just had to walk away.

I didn't even bother telling him that I was buying wax to restore some worn knitting needles because I was so tired of the conversation and didn't want to feed into his "Aw, isn't that cute? It's standing on its hind legs!" thing.

He wasn't being intentionally rude (and I didn't take it as such), and I could have cut the conversation short less politely when polite wasn't cutting it, but sheesh.

Here's a picture of my waxy needles!

Naughty Knitting

Pattern offered for free courtesy of [RattleFox]!

Go Wolfpack!

Rule 34: There are no exceptions.

[Rule 34]: if it exists, there is porn of it.

So the most interesting thing I learned all week is that there's a lesbian, D/s, puppy play porn based on the [A. R. Gurney play] Sylvia.

Sylvia (the play) is a story about a guy, Greg, who finds the titular dog in the park and brings her home to live with him and his wife, Kate. Hilarity and strife ensue. Sylvia is played by a human woman but is an actual dog in the world of the play.

Sylvia (the porn) is a story of a Kate and her lesbian partner and the adventures and sex they have with their puppy slave, Sylvia. Sylvia is played by a human pretending to be a dog but is actually a human. (If you're unfamiliar with puppy play, there you go.)

The porn was directed by my favorite feminist pornographer and sex-positive activist [Madison Young]. The fact she has a Sylvia porn makes her even more awesome. She did a very articulate [interview at The Rumpus] in May (link semi-NSFW).

Young's Sylvia DVD is on sale at her [online store] (link definitely NSFW).

Knitted Friend

I found an adorable ["Chubby Chirp"] pattern on [Ravelry] and went to using up some chunky scrap yarn. It's in 6 wpi yarn on size 10 needles.

The pattern is from Rebecca Danger of [The Big Book of Knitted Monsters] and she has several other free patterns available!



I only started knitting at the end of last year and I can't believe how fun it is. Now I can fit in with all the other knitter/crocheters at sci-fi cons!
[Find me] on Ravelry!

Cleaning Schedule!

Pinterest is super-fun and I want to follow your boards. Here's [mine].

I came across Becky's series of posts at Organizing Made Fun about [How to Have a {fake} Immaculate House]. She posted a copy of her cleaning schedule and said she spends about fifteen minutes a day on each task.

I made mine and put it on the fridge! It helps coordinate chores between me and Richard because we have easy goals for the day. Wednesdays? Someone should vacuum. Mondays? Someone should wipe down the guest bathrooms.

I hope I can stick to it! It's made things easier so far, and she emphasizes that it's TOTALLY FINE to skip something one week.
Anyway, thanks to Becky for the jump-start on actually writing down a plan.

Where the Hell is Matt? 2012

Matt travels around the world and dances with anyone who will let him film. Some of the earlier videos are amazing, but this one is still heart-warming!

He's also not a very good dancer and that makes it better.

Strawberry Peach Muffins

Peaches and strawberries are in season! This called for muffins.
Recipe is a slightly modified version of this one from [Modern Day Pirates].


Strawberry Peach Muffins
1 cup coarsely chopped peaches
1/2 cup coarsely chopped strawberries
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup oil
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400F.
Dump everything in a bowl together and combine. It's gonna be lumpy.
Fill a greased muffin tin or papers 2/3 full.
Bake at 400F for about 18 minutes, give or take.
Yields 14-ish muffins.

New plate!

The name of my first crush is now my license plate.

A Declaration; The Thirty-Five Words

Jefferson violin solo at 2:15.


See also [The 35 Words] project at [Thomas Jefferson Hour] for the 35 words in over forty languages and counting.

The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

• He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
• He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
• He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
• He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
• He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
• He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
• He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
• He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
• He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
• He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
• He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.
• He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.
• He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:
• For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
• For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:
• For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:
• For imposing taxes on us without our consent:
• For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:
• For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:
• For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:
• For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:
• For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
• He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.
• He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
• He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy of the head of a civilized nation.
• He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
• He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levey war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

My mom is so creative

My mom, Kim, and I have the same day-by-day art calendar and it's really fun to talk about ones we saw and liked.

My mom took it a step further when she saw this photo of a teapot. She painted one of her old drop-leaf tables to match!

It's so pretty and fun. Good job, mom!

Finally tracking down that song you heard one time on the radio

Sometime during my freshman year of college (I'm dating myself but this was 2003), I was home visiting my parents for a weekend and I heard part of a song on the radio. I think the station was WUIN ["The Penguin"] or a cultural predecessor to WUIN and it was before the time when you could easily find station playlists online.

Anyway, I hear this acoustic-type song with female vocals and the words "Oh, my baby". A few months later I emailed the station to see if they knew what I was talking about and they offered a song that fit the description but wasn't really what I was looking for.

That song was "Right in Time" by Lucinda Williams and she became one of my favorite artists ever.



So I still thought about that other song periodically but now it's the end of 2011. I share a lab with another woman, and we take turns picking out radio stations or podcasts to listen to at work. Sometimes we listen to the Yahoo! Radio coffee house mix. A couple weeks ago, I heard "Come to Jesus" by Mindy Smith playing and IT WAS THAT SONG.



I haven't really listened to commercial radio since high school except for that one summer where I worked in a greenhouse and I listened to [100.7 The River], so apparently I missed the moderate success of Mindy Smith.

But yeah, I've experienced a rare kind of resolution and I keep thinking about Little Pete and how he never found that band again.

Oxhorn Brand Media, you blits

Oxhorn, also known as [Brandon M. Dennis], is a machinima animator and musician and other stuff.

So if you play WoW at all, it's likely that you've seen this video:



But there's so much more! There's a main storyline that starts with "Inventing Swear Words". What I like about it is that is stars TAUREN. And LADY TAUREN.



There's much music. In one of the videos, a character proposes to another by asking her to "forever pwn those noobs" with him. So cute!

I had the extreme pleasure of going to a panel by Oxhorn at Dragon*Con this year.