Posted in geekery, tagged art, comic, tudor on 07/12/2008| Leave a Comment »
And mostly gets the costume right:
Anne Boleyn, by Sarah Mensinga
Sarah Mensinga is a comic artist and character designer. She posts some of her work at her blog: http://sarahmensinga.blogspot.com/ It’s well worth sticking on an RSS feed. Last year I borrowed her images of elves as part of my christmas party costume. Fun, characterful (and joymongering) elves that make you smile. Might have to print them out again…
Posted in geekery, tagged lego, recycling, toys on 28/09/2008| 2 Comments »
I get some interesting things come across my desk at work. Like Lego’s Sustainability report. Which has real lego pieces as part of the cover.
On page 3 of the report is a picture of a recycling truck. So, what would be more natural than a recycling project officer and her friend, the waste education officer, ordering such an object from a reputable Lego dealer, having it delivered to work and then assembling during a lunch hour?
Yes, we thought it was a very important work-related exercise as well.
We had so much fun putting them together, like being 10 years old on Christmas day again:
“Where’s teh white piece!”
“Oooh! a broom!”
“I forgot the funny grey rotatey bit!”
“Don’t go too fast, I’m not on that page yet”
etc.
Finally it was completed:
And now lives on the shelf above my monitor:
Posted in geekery, tagged photo, self-promotion on 28/11/2007| 3 Comments »
I keep forgetting to put this up. One of my photos was recently invited to be part of the schmap guide for Bath. Since the conditions fit with the spirit of creative commons I had no real qualms with them using it.
Also, I was quite proud of this photo, mostly for the composition, (ignore the bluriness, I couldn’t use a flash). It felt nice that some unknown person appreciated that as well.
That’s another 10 points towards internet celebrity-dom!
Posted in geekery, tagged costuming, creating, Elizabethan, SCA on 06/06/2007| 4 Comments »
I finally finished the Gaudete Frock (pura lana virgine, Gaudete. Blame Mistress Bess Haddon of York). Took me 18 months, but it’s done. I blame the Masters degree, and KoL, and general distractions, and maybe a loss of the inspiration that comes from creating a beautiful object.
It is now done, and it’s pretty much exactly what I was after. The skirt drapes beautifully and is weighted properly, the front is flat and has a fantastic line on it. The partlet probably needs to be fixed, based on the photo linked above, or I need to check myself in a mirror before leaving the house, one of the two.
And now onto the next project!
Which I planned out last night. A 1560s- 1570s Elizabethan for Rowany 25th Anniversary, inspired by the portrait of “A Young Lady Aged 21” in the Tate Gallery (I get to actually see it in 4 weeks. yay!) and this portrait of Isabel de Valois, along with some other images from Janet Arnold’s “Queen Elizabeht’s Wardrobe Unlock’d” (of course!)
The initial sketch is below. I am now dreaming red and gold silks, velvets and satins, with appropriate, acheivable bling. Step one, check corset and farthingale, and perhaps plan how to make a smaller farthingale in the next two weeks. Also plan what small project I can take to the Uk with me. Maybe the couching on the gards?
It’s great to have the creative urge back again, I’d forgotten how much fun planning a frock is. Remind me of that in the weeks before 25th when I’ll be struggling with it?
Posted in geekery, tagged friends, games, pirates on 02/05/2007| 5 Comments »
Mouse, Tops and I sat down last Friday night to take the ships on their maiden voyages.
Round 1: Collect the treasure
Round 2: Carnage on the high seas, with tricksy moving fog banks.
Lessons learned in this game:
Posted in geekery, tagged games, pirates on 23/04/2007| 8 Comments »
Q: How many pirate ships does one girl need?
A: MORE!
But I cannot justify the purchase of more toys until these ones have actually played a game. So, who’s in? I have enough ships that we could just use my set, or you can bring your own!
Posted in geekery, tagged computers, IT, phail on 30/03/2007| 3 Comments »
I think it is time to run away with the dolphins and thank the human race for all the fish. Or perhaps to set up a deck chair on a beach somewhere and declare that the rest of humanity has gone mad. (I really must go back and re-read Douglas Adams)
We had a recent upgrade to MS Exchange and XP at work. Now, I knew that dealing with a state government department’s control on a computer system was going to be challenging after the freedoms and trust of working for an IT department at the University of Sydney. I have learnt to cope with the random server outages and warning messages for no reason except to increase or overall mouse usage and eventually “cost the tax payer” money in work related RSI injuries. I can even laugh when the printer tells me that it can’t print because of a “life warning” (Danger Will Robinson! Danger!)
But this! I lost it at this, and figured you all might get a laugh as well.
Below is a screen capture of the warning message that just flicked up when I tried to open a page in Google. Some programmer somewhere needs to be taken out and shown the real world and maybe given a few beers and some sunlight. This is complete madness. (click the image to get a copy you can read)
An addendum to yesterday’s post on Howard’s forest announcement. This column published today in the Herald is very amusing.
Posted in geekery, tagged affluenza, articles, Astronomy on 14/03/2007| 5 Comments »
Purdy:
I don’t know about you guys, but I was sick of the sight of myself whenever I started my browser (this blog is my home page) so here is something purdier to look at:
This is an transit of the moon across the sun as taken from two telescopes orbiting the sun between us and Mars. I’m not an astrophysicist, so if you want the actual details, including video of the transit go to the NASA site. This is courtesy of one of my colleagues who is also interested in astronomy and sends me these links and information as she comes across them.
Amusing:
This Short History of Stuff was published in yesterday’s Online Opinion. Is it very cleverly written, with a dry sense of humour that manages to poke fun at economists, our need to accumulate coupons, and society’s obsession with owning things.
Posted in geekery, tagged Kingdom of Loathing, Radio KoL on 15/02/2007| 13 Comments »
Our collective geek quotient has just gone up a few notches, not only to we have Australia’s World of Warcraft pin up couple (is that why they left us, they couldn’t cope with the geek paparazzi?), now we have “internet celebrity, DJ RisbyRoan”[1] 🙂
Many of you have probably heard me talk about “that internet radio station that I listen to”, namely Radio KoL. Recently they were looking for some people to fill a couple of vacant time slots. So I applied, which involved making two 3-minute recordings of the filler voice bit between songs. I was succesful, which is very excting! I have had the biggest grin on my face since I found out yesterday morning, and concentration on anything has been an optional extra. Essentially this means that I get control of a shoutcast streaming server for a couple of hours each week to broadcast my rants and observations on the world. Oh and some music in there somewhere. I’m going to regularly inflict The Cat Empire on my audiences. Along with lots of other good Australian music that no-one outside the country really knows about.
The radio station is attached to Kingdom of Loathing, so this will probably only intensify my addiction to KoLCrack (to quote Miss DV) but I’d like to point out the recent increase in WoW players in our midst, and feel vindicated by this. Also, I blame Mouse, she introduced me to the game.
[1]so not serious about the internet celebrity part. It’s a long running joke in this community; what is an interenet celebrity anyway? It’s a silly concept.
I pulled a small book from my bookshelf today, one that I had purchased years ago. The Mystic Medusa’s Surreal Field Guide: Virgo. The Mystic Medusa does amusing astrological readings, and doesn’t take herself too seriously, which is what I want in a prediction.
Randomly flicked through a few sections and here are some sections that made me laugh:
“It is astrologically impossible for a Virgo to be a der.”(that one is for you my dear derrbrain astrological twin)
“The astro motto is “I analyse”. Virgos don’t have a problem with the cliched ‘not being able to see the forest for the trees’ scenario. They see the forest, trees and early stages of leaf mould or little bug burrows in the undergrowth.”
From Dr Illich: “He aimed to analyse institutionalised structures of industrialised society, provide rigorous criticism and a set of alternative concepts” For why this one tickled my fancy read the saving the world section in this post.
“Yes, they are perfectionists. No, that does not mean that all Virgoans are up at dawn doing yoga stretches, extra-special toothcare and making sure they’re up with current affairs. But this is the curse of Virgo. The ones who aren’t doing that sort of thing are horribly aware that they should be.”
I just ran around Mystic Medusa’s site and found the oracles, which are fun. The results of the following questions amused me, and hit a chord.
“‘What Is Between Me & Success?’ – Lack of Initiative”
“‘Lovely Me: Am I Truly In Touch With My Emotions?’- Not really – you’re a bit numb but this is temporary.”
Of course these are generated from random numbers, but fun and thought-provoking.
That’s enough procrastination from house cleaning. Time to indulge that truly Virgo cleaning trait…
Enjoys taking time to drink coffee. Looks good in hats. Voracious reader. Sees the beauty in small details and in wide skies. Enjoys indepth conversations and rants, detests pointless small talk.
Is learning to drink more tea, walk on the right-hand side and speak with a more rounded accent.
 | Albion on Changing Gears |
 | Karinne on Changing Gears |
| Albion on Changing Gears |
| Karinne on Year of the Tiger. pt 1 |
| Karinne on Changing Gears |
Learning to Fly 
