Le Cafe des Muses

 I want my hair to be down to my knees by the time I'm 30. Starting now, I'm going to be tracking everything I do to my hair and how long it is, until I reach my goal.

Today, I should probably wash it, seeing as I used a crap ton of product yesterday. I'm using the CWC method recommended on LHC and sometime before I go to NOLA, I'll probably need to do a whole home spa day, with a mayonnaise pack on my hair. With any luck, I'll at least have very healthy, shiny hair by Christmas.

Hmm... Maybe I need a Rapunzel icon now. With dark auburn hair...

 At some point before next Friday:

--Spend 15 minutes picking shite up in bedroom.
--Do a load of dishes.
--Scrub bathroom.
--Finish "Americana" quilt.
--Begin pinning "Delirium or Delight?" quilt.
--Cut out "Garden of Isis", "Garden of Athena", and "Rivendell" quilts.

Most Important Things:
--Take pill.
--Change sheets. 
--Do something quilt-related.
--Listen to at least one other iTunes U class, besides the Romantic Lit lectures.
--Make an effort on a walk.
--Post "Fairest of Them All" meta-plotting post.
--Work on Lamya/Quartz for EIAE.
--Work on Roxana/Saturn for GesMa.
--Respond to Eclipsed Moon questions.
--Finish Sapphire's sheet.
--Write up Danica's sheet.
--Send in Fancy's sheet.
--Respond to "Touch of Purity"
--Take care of litter box.
--Get on AIM to chat with modly types.
--Do laundry.

 Every time I think, case closed, mystery solved, I'm at peace and so is he, I'm proven wrong.

Last night, I found out that the Corps or, at least, NCIS, is still investigating JD's death. Another Marine on his base just died, under similar circumstances as JD. They can't tell us anything about what happened yet. 

Fuck. And no matter how loud I say that word, it doesn't make it stop hurting.

How fucking DARE they?

JD's parents are trying to keep Chris and Kacy, who have been his god-damn family for years, from going to his funeral.

Monsters. God-damn monsters, the pack of them.

 It was suicide. Wednesday night. Shit.

I was looking at dolls. He was talking about retiring his vampire PC and so I wanted dolls that looked like our married vampire couple. I found one Wednesday night.

Shit.

--Finish prototype doll quilt
--Pin together at least two more quilts or use up all available pins on quilt
--Cut out more quilt squares, as many as is possible (save the 3/4 chunk in box for backings)
--Get in touch with Ashley, figure out Bawlmer trip and dinner with Mama Bambi
--Finish Laundry
--Round up dirty dishes
--Scrub bathroom
--Walk before Sundown

( WARNING: SPIRITUAL SHITE AHEAD! )

 --Cell phone pocket
--iPod pocket (big one in case I upgrade to an iPod touch)
--Loop for "chatelaine" (probably wind up being a carabiner, like Coyote's)
--Hammer loop

Chatelaine should hold scissors, key ring with copies of shed, car, house and other vital keys, pen, sharpie, and possibly a pin cushion

 My first ever panel did okay. I will try to pass on my notes to the Arcadian crowd. Wound up at the Steampunk Sock Hop and danced my ass off, while discussing the finer point of "The Man from UNCLE" with this year's GoH, Elizabeth Bear.

Yup, Elizabeth Bear. She can twist and bunny hop and hand-jive like a fiend, even though she insists that she's better at doing the pogo to Billy Idol (woman after my own heart). Oh, lord, I have no knees left. Kol, I think Pacificon needs to have as their Saturday night dance, a Steampunk Sock Hop theme (even if most of the music isn't very '50s).

I'm doing a panel at a con. I volunteered it. I came up with the concept.

Okay, what I did was say, "Oh, you're the Steampunk Track Coord? Awesome! You need people for next year? Y'know, it'd be truly awesome if there was a panel on not constantly doing Steampunk as 1870-1900, Western Europe and North America. I could do that."

Me and my big, fat, ambitious mouth. Plus, we grew up together, I'm honor bound to help her out.

Here's the link: DarkoverCon Steampunk Schedule

That's me at 16:00 (4:00 PM) on Friday. I have to figure out what to discuss for an hour that will cover this topic. I have no access to overhead projectors or any of that fancy stuff, nor the money to crank out example costumes. I have no idea how many people will be there or how big the room is, so handouts are right out. And it's been years since I took a Speech class. 

So, yes, it's official. I'm an idiot.

It'd be cool if I could throw in references to my own work, but part of my talk mentions "show, don't tell" and there wouldn't be time. My friend, Amber (the one I'm doing this for) did send me this, which helps a little. But I need other cultures. I need to figure out how to express that, hey, guys, the Ancient Greeks had the knowledge for steam power, what if they never lost it? What if these cultures or societies over here figured it out? What if we all lost the ability to run current tech tomorrow, what would life be like for us?

Y'know, that's not a bad idea. Give them a few hypothetical scenarios, and expound upon that. That could work. 

What if the Greeks and the Egyptians were still the dominant cultures of the Western world (implying that they also abolished slavery, which is apparently one reason steam power never took off)?

What if Japan, right after Perry came, were magically sealed off from the world?

What if the Tsars never fell, but digital technology did?

What if a small Caribbean island discovered steam and clock tech before the rest of the world?

So, yeah, I'm still nervous. Heinously nervous. But, maybe I actually have a plan now.