Wondrous Apparitions, Provided by Magicians.

I finished up my captivity eeg last night, and the tech came and took the equipment away so they can read the tape. I am left with a ring of surface burns around my forehead, and probably more on my scalp. I look like a plague victim, but I'm not contagious, honest, it's just that me and electricity have a very intense relationship. Fortunately, of all my vanity, little of it is reserved for my face. So that works out. And it will heal eventually, as long as I can keep from picking at it, which so far has been a moderately successful venture.

I don't think I had any seizures while they were watching, but I did have some dizzy spells, so we will see if that is worth anything from a diagnostic perspective. Otherwise, it will be like when you take your car into the mechanic because it's making a noise, and the shop keeps it for three days but can't get it to make the noise, so it's a lot of trouble and not a lot of use. But who knows? Maybe I have interesting neurological events in my sleep.

While awake, I mostly ended up watching television during the study, which is fine, because exposure to flashing lights and colors is one of the things they want to look at. I am now caught up on Sherlock, for example. And 98% of Henry IV part 1, except that my DVD player choked and died immediately after Hal killed Hotspur. I don't think that much happens thereafter except for reconciliations and wrap=ups, but still. Annoying. The DVD player on the laptop either is completely useless or is not very good and reading home-burned discs. I'm going to have to watch the end of the play on the real television, I guess. Which is fine. It's in a different room from the one I've been seeing too much of this week.

As far as useful things go, I did not have much hope of accomplishing any, once I grasped that I was only allowed to be in the living room for the bulk of the time. I did start a batch of cocoa brandy for the holidays, got the Longest Night Ball tickets page up and running, and worked on my gleeman's cloak a bit (that being the go-to project for pretty much any time I have with nothing pressing to do). But that was about it. Didn't even get to make my pie, after all that. I guess I will do that tomorrow. Something to look forward to. :)

Corsetry. I popped open the pattern for the corset I'm allegedly going to make, and feel like I'm hitting a snag already. The corset front is about 12 3/4" long. My *underbust* corset is about 11 3/4" long. I'm not at all clear how that extra inch is going to cover my nipples. I'm guessing it isn't. So, mockup it is. Can you lengthen a corset pattern? I don't know. If you did, how much more length can you get out of it without using longer boning? This is a critically important question in my world right now, since I've already bought all the bones I was supposed to need. *sigh* Maybe I could make the corset as it is, and then add a little ruffle to the top. Or wear pasties. Actually, pasties are probably a good idea anyway.

Also, spiral steel boning - how can those things possibly be sturdy enough to make serious corsetry happen? Spiral bones aren't that much more stable than cable ties. Granted, I'm not looking for huge reduction, the character I'm doing is described variously as "plump" and "fleshy", but still, I'd like to be a tad less lumpy going into the experience. *more sigh*

Super-discouraged/intimidated, and I haven't even cut the pattern pieces yet.

Does anyone have any of this stuff just lying about, with a willingness to barter it off or give it away? I need:

- Fiberoptic toys (ideally with exposed cables, like this, working or not

- Fiberoptic christmas tree (working or not)

- Rock Band or Guitar Hero guitar controllers (working or not)

Thanks!

I have some new shiny things in my Etsy shop. Also, after years of using etsy, I've recently realized that they have a little flash widget that shows off your stuff on other sites. So, here's a preview:

Etsy gnomeworks

Finally got all my pictures from this year's convention uploaded. Here are some highlights:

A Viking, Biking


Some folks you might recognize


The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster


A Surprise Marching Band


It was like the strangest dream.


But now, it's over, and time to go back to work. *sigh*

You can view my entire set of D*C pictures here, if you are so inclined.

As they say on the internet, LOLWUT?

I'm uncertain if this represents all my tawdry cinematic dreams coming true, or the greatest disappointment my world has ever known.

If you're on FB or the Gaia mailing list, you'll see this again, but I figured I'd post it here as I know some of you are planning to attend the Longest Night Ball and might not otherwise catch the news:

With the event only two weeks away, we learned today that a dispute between the City of Kansas City and the El Torreon Ballroom will mean that we are not able to hold Longest Night Ball at El Torreon as scheduled.

However, that doesn't mean the party is off. We have initiated Emergency Backup Plan D, and will instead be holding 2009's Longest Night Ball at SMUUCh. This will mean a couple of changes in the event, as follows:

1) Since we will no longer be counting exorbitant space fees among our expenses, ticket prices will be reduced to $15 in advance, $20 at the door. If you have already paid for your tickets, the difference in price will be refunded to you.

2) We are now full up on vendors for the event.

3) Um... as far as we know, that's it for now. It's still going to be a lot of fun, and I hope you'll come out and join us from 9p-1a on Dec 18th!

There may be a few more small changes upcoming, but I am still in process of confirming those. I will post again to let you know as soon as I know!

I cooked a turkey. It was tasty. Nobody died. I'm still in shock.

Since I'm home with the sickness, I figured I'd do something useful with my day. I updated my Etsy shop with the new shinies. Anybody want to buy shinies? I'll wipe them down with sanitizer before I send them to you. :)