Wondrous Apparitions, Provided by Magicians.

The First Occasional Stupid Cupid Flaunt went off on Saturday with very little doom. What doom there was, was mostly a result of the weather. Someday, I shall remember that most Flaunt costuming does not go well with cold. Or, alternately, we'll all move somewhere warm, and we won't have to worry about it. I don't have any pictures of the Flaunt, because I was Slacking Badly and forgot my camera. We had a lot of fun, handing out condoms and awful valentines to folks in the restaurants and on the street. Lawrence is a very friendly sort of place for a Flaunt, in that most people seemed to think we were as funny and well-meaning as we thought ourselves. So it's on the list to do again, when it's warmer. Another note to selves: Flaunts work better with give-aways. That gives the whole thing more of a TAZ feel, and gets us to interact with other people more. Without giveaways, the Flaunt is more like a bunch of people on the way to a costume party, and doesn't really 'come together'. Games are good too, but it was too cold for much of that.

Also, I seem to have overestimated on the number of condoms we would be able to distribute, so if you are local, and feel that you would benefit from a benevolent gift of condoms, drop a note, and we'll pass them to you. There are some that are the usual size, and some that are larger, if that makes a difference to you. (Our household opted for what seemed like the simplest method of birth control for our configuration -- triadruid got a vasectomy. So it's not like we're going to use them. Somebody else might as well.)

While we were out on the Flaunt, we worked out a mechanism for the merit badge thing. It could work like this: we make a community, and every week, we post a new merit badge with a name, a shiny little picture, and a description of how one might earn the badge. If someone in the community meets the requirements, they post a comment telling why and how (with pictures if applicable), and then they download the picture and can do whatever they like with it. Old badges would be linked to the profile page, so that if you joined somewhere along the way, you could go back to the older stuff and get those too. Badge pictures would probably be posted in a 100x100 format so they could be icons, and in a larger format for other uses (I am not sure what those would be, but I am sure that a lot of people are a lot more clever than me and would be able to come up with something).

[Poll #921821]

Badges suggested so far:( Read more... )

I forgot, too, that I learned a clever and efficient way of making beaded drop earrings this weekend. I usually shy away from making earrings for a number of reasons. I don't wear different earrings with different outfits, (I have pretty much a single pair that I wear all the time), and so I don't usually think about making any. Also they require a lot more patience and precision than the other things that I do make. Of course, they also require less materials than my other stuff, but generally I have more materials than I have patience and precision, so you can see how that goes.

But I sorted out how to make them out of the same flexible wire I prefer for making other stuff out of, and suddenly, they're pretty easy. I made three pairs, in fact, which actually go with some of my other pieces. People always ask for the damned things, I might as well make it so that I can have some to sell to them.

So that's another merit badge. :) I've been all about the merit badge of late, for which I credit ebonypearl. Her woodspirits group talks about a proposal for a group for adults which serves some of the same purposes as scouting for kids: getting together, having a good time doing things, learning new skills, service work, and so on. It would have an awards system based on "Pearls": as I understand it, each group (or individual) would sort out what colors of beads or other small shiny things would represent what type of experience or acheivement, and then you'd have a banner or a sash or something that you would sew a Pearl on every time you did something. I think that's pretty damned nifty.

( The Good )

( The Surprising )

( The Not So Much With The Good )

( The Exciting (but not in the happy fun way) )

So, how was your weekend?