Stupid musings
Well, since LJ no longer allows the use of the "old" interface, this post will be somewhat different than my past entries. Gone are the days of coding in Bold or Italics or other typefaces, so this is all just plain old whatever font. Gone is the ease of linking to pictures or other images, so there won't be any of those either. I suppose I can talk about things in the shop, but they can't be shown any more, at least not just with the click of a mouse, and I'm not going to take the hours necessary to figure out some way to do what LJ no longer wants users to do easily.
In any case, there's just a few thoughts I thought I'd mention in passing, none of which are terribly significant. In no particular order....
If this were a traditional year, I'd be writing this from Germany. Of course, that tradition is now gone, so I'm just sitting at home in the usual chair. I've actually thought about digging out the trilogy again and filling in the remaining holes. I think about that a lot. From time to time I even mentally work on some of the holes, considering the things to include, the history that is important as opposed to simply interesting, the things the characters would know...or discover...and the things that weren't known until much later. I shut out the outside world and return to the sights myself, remembering walking into a very cold Zionskirche where there are still holes in the shell from WWII damage, or walking into the otherwise vacant crematorium at Buchenwald and discovering that the spirits of those who were burned there have never really left. Maybe I relive the dark spring night when I re-traced the steps of Gerhardt as he escape from the Flakturm at the zoo and dodged both German patrols and Russians on his way back to his home, threading through the streets of a destroyed Berlin, watching at every step for men prepared to hang him as a traitor or kill him as an enemy. I can trace my steps down Bernauer Strasse, looking up at the windows of buildings long gone to watch as people jump to escape the East German regime. All those things are easy to relive.
In less than a month I'm heading to Minnesota to watch my daughter get married. I was thinking it would be a typical spring wedding, but it seems more likely it will be a middle of winter wedding. I can't say I've ever worn a kilt in winter. Should be an interesting experience. Hopefully TSA won't go ballistic about my carrying a sporan. It's just a man's purse, but they get excited when the magical X-ray machine shows the chains that hold it around the waist. I'm not really sure why that is, because a woman's bag that had chains as a part of the style of the carry strap aren't all that exciting. Oh well.
Congress has done so many idiotic things lately that I don't think I'll even mention them. The list is too long. Depressing.
For what it's worth (not much) the backlog in the shop is starting to clear out. The four-panel Japanese print is done, and although I have now been through at least two ideas for the frame, I think plan C will actually work. I'll know more about that tomorrow. The original plan...bloodwood...just didn't work. Plan B was also bloodwood, but during my trip out today I discovered there is none to be had locally, so I decided upon wenge instead. That likely would have worked visually, but the piece I picked up (not cheap either) has so much tension in it that I'll never be able to pull the pieces straight enough to use. You can never tell about that until you start cutting. Oh well. So, plan C will be some leopardwood that I already have. It's generally pretty straight and untense (not sure about that word)...however, it is a complete bitch to machine. Every cut chips out chunks and then the sanding takes forever. I'll just have to see how that works out. Visually it's not as striking, but at this point I just want it to work.
The great TARDIS project is getting nearer completion too. I have a couple modules to finish up (X10 units) and then it's on to assembly. Despite these being a "production run" each one will require a fair bit of handwork to finish, but I think I've finally identified all the problems, and dealt with almost all of them. I'll be back working on them again tomorrow, cutting and installing the fixed back panels and trying to figure out how to hold on the removeable back panels. Then it's on to the final design of the electronics.
The Spring Garden Overpass ver 2.0 is making good progress, although I'm not really concentrating on it. I'll add a bit more tomorrow, and that will likely take it to about 30% or so. It's not difficult work, just takes time. I cleaned off the workbench from airbrushing fog, so I have a bit more space now, and that's dedicated to the spring collection.
In the meantime, I'm back working now and then on the last holes in the Opera libretto. It's really about time to sit down at the keyboard and start seriously composing, taking all the scribbled notes and turning them into actual "music." I've also tossed around another idea for the final section of the Requiem, not that I'm actually working on it much. It's just an idea that I kinda like, and since the blend of two tunes has worked well, I'm thinking of adding yet another. Might make it really interesting...or just a disaster. Dunno.
Well, that's enough data dump for now.
In any case, there's just a few thoughts I thought I'd mention in passing, none of which are terribly significant. In no particular order....
If this were a traditional year, I'd be writing this from Germany. Of course, that tradition is now gone, so I'm just sitting at home in the usual chair. I've actually thought about digging out the trilogy again and filling in the remaining holes. I think about that a lot. From time to time I even mentally work on some of the holes, considering the things to include, the history that is important as opposed to simply interesting, the things the characters would know...or discover...and the things that weren't known until much later. I shut out the outside world and return to the sights myself, remembering walking into a very cold Zionskirche where there are still holes in the shell from WWII damage, or walking into the otherwise vacant crematorium at Buchenwald and discovering that the spirits of those who were burned there have never really left. Maybe I relive the dark spring night when I re-traced the steps of Gerhardt as he escape from the Flakturm at the zoo and dodged both German patrols and Russians on his way back to his home, threading through the streets of a destroyed Berlin, watching at every step for men prepared to hang him as a traitor or kill him as an enemy. I can trace my steps down Bernauer Strasse, looking up at the windows of buildings long gone to watch as people jump to escape the East German regime. All those things are easy to relive.
In less than a month I'm heading to Minnesota to watch my daughter get married. I was thinking it would be a typical spring wedding, but it seems more likely it will be a middle of winter wedding. I can't say I've ever worn a kilt in winter. Should be an interesting experience. Hopefully TSA won't go ballistic about my carrying a sporan. It's just a man's purse, but they get excited when the magical X-ray machine shows the chains that hold it around the waist. I'm not really sure why that is, because a woman's bag that had chains as a part of the style of the carry strap aren't all that exciting. Oh well.
Congress has done so many idiotic things lately that I don't think I'll even mention them. The list is too long. Depressing.
For what it's worth (not much) the backlog in the shop is starting to clear out. The four-panel Japanese print is done, and although I have now been through at least two ideas for the frame, I think plan C will actually work. I'll know more about that tomorrow. The original plan...bloodwood...just didn't work. Plan B was also bloodwood, but during my trip out today I discovered there is none to be had locally, so I decided upon wenge instead. That likely would have worked visually, but the piece I picked up (not cheap either) has so much tension in it that I'll never be able to pull the pieces straight enough to use. You can never tell about that until you start cutting. Oh well. So, plan C will be some leopardwood that I already have. It's generally pretty straight and untense (not sure about that word)...however, it is a complete bitch to machine. Every cut chips out chunks and then the sanding takes forever. I'll just have to see how that works out. Visually it's not as striking, but at this point I just want it to work.
The great TARDIS project is getting nearer completion too. I have a couple modules to finish up (X10 units) and then it's on to assembly. Despite these being a "production run" each one will require a fair bit of handwork to finish, but I think I've finally identified all the problems, and dealt with almost all of them. I'll be back working on them again tomorrow, cutting and installing the fixed back panels and trying to figure out how to hold on the removeable back panels. Then it's on to the final design of the electronics.
The Spring Garden Overpass ver 2.0 is making good progress, although I'm not really concentrating on it. I'll add a bit more tomorrow, and that will likely take it to about 30% or so. It's not difficult work, just takes time. I cleaned off the workbench from airbrushing fog, so I have a bit more space now, and that's dedicated to the spring collection.
In the meantime, I'm back working now and then on the last holes in the Opera libretto. It's really about time to sit down at the keyboard and start seriously composing, taking all the scribbled notes and turning them into actual "music." I've also tossed around another idea for the final section of the Requiem, not that I'm actually working on it much. It's just an idea that I kinda like, and since the blend of two tunes has worked well, I'm thinking of adding yet another. Might make it really interesting...or just a disaster. Dunno.
Well, that's enough data dump for now.