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You are viewing the most recent 20 entries November 14th, 200908:04 pm: It's a great big Universe....
Today I had a great time at the Academy of Sciences in SF. I had been several times in the evening this year for their Night Life events, but had never been able to go into the planetarium or the living rain forest. So this time, as we went during the day for my friend's birthday, we got in!! I took lots of photos and will post them as I can. One of the things I witnessed in the living rain forest was nature, red in tooth and claw (and beak.) A beautiful yellow butterfly, the only one I saw in the rain forest exhibit, was fluttering around, and one of their exotic Burmese or some such birds was chasing it around. After several feints and diverted chases, it GOT IT and NOM ate it all up. And that was probably why there were no other yellow butterflies in there. :/ We watched the special Whoopie Goldberg-narrated planetarium show, that talked about the beginning of the universe and the end of our solar system and how tiny the Earth really is. Thoughts THAT inspired: There must be life out there because there is so much diversity in the universe, it's just more possible that it exists than that it doesn't. We are so tiny and our lives so short on the cosmic scale of things that it doesn't seem like it should matter what we do, whether it be environmentally, theologically, inactively, etc. But actually, I believe that BECAUSE our lives are so brief, our impact on the universe SO small, what we do in this life to pursue our heart's desire and get along with other people and make what we have around us WORK as best we can is what matters. Because our own lives and the lives of other beings are what're important to us, now, and the rest of the universe and even the planet will take care of themselves. And the Sun will eat up Earth in five billion years anyways. So just do your best for yourself, and love and grow and help others enjoy their brief lives here because anything else is a waste of this tiny precious time. (But give yourself time to enjoy it and relax, too!) I suppose everyone has to look at the Certainty of the End (Death, Time's passage, the End of the Universe) at some point and decide whether that means everything sucks or everything's more precious. Unless you believe in reincarnation. Then you may still have a crisis of faith, but once you get through it you know you'll be okay in the long run. ;) Another thought I had from the planetarium and the diversity of life in the exhibits and the visitors at the Academy of Sciences today? God sure is amazing. Just wow. But I think that pretty much every day, so there you go. :) Current Mood:  calm October 18th, 200908:44 am: Kryptonite on the new planet
HOMG I am a geek in my dreams, too. So last night I dreamt that we were a bunch of immigrants to a new planet that had just been terraformed for the air content so that we could breathe it. There were a bunch of old Tibetan ruins there on the side of a cliff overlooking a 600-foot drop to the ocean. (But no people on the planet before we got there except for other ships from our group!!) We settled in the ruins, fitting the windows with glass and plastering the insides of the walls to make it all better insulated and more livable. One night after a long day's work, we were sitting on the balconies overlooking the ocean, the full moon shining down and lighting everything, making the ocean shine. We saw some shooting stars, looked up and saw a meteor shower. We oohed and ahhed, but then it became a bit of a bombardment, as the meteorites did not burn up in the atmosphere, but crashed down into parts of the countryside. We were mostly unscathed, and only a few came anywhere close to our settlement. But when I went to my bedroom, two big slabs of green rock had slid through my window by a few inches and broken it. I thought they were really cool, and they pulsated with green light, so I kept them a secret. One of my friends was inexplicably sick. We all kind of knew she had cancer, but she was religious, and believed in prayer and holistic medicines. I went to her one day with a small chunk of this meteor rock in my pocket. We were talking and I was noticing how sickly she was looking, and I looked down in her hand, and she was clutching four pieces of amethyst. I said, "Oh, you believe in the healing power of stones? Let me give you this AWESOME stone that will do wonders for you!" She was reluctant, since I didn't have a NAME for the rock, she didn't know what properties it was supposed to have. I promised her it would help her feel better, but she shrugged that off and so when she wasn't looking, I left it under her bed. As I left I could imagine something happening, anything, I mean, she could turn into an evil mutant who sent beams of green light out at people. But at least she'd heal up against the cancer. I wanted her to have hope and to live healthily, even if assisted by mutant powers. <3! Current Mood: calm October 17th, 200910:34 am: BACK ONLINE!! BOOYAH!!
FRAPTIOUS JOY! My internet is fixed and I can go online, OMG EVERY DAY!!?? It turns out that my Papa had manually set the DNS# to his and Mom's house, so that it stopped getting the number automatically at my own house. Well he FINALLY came over and figured out that was what was wrong and set it aright, and thank goodness, because it has been driving me nuts for MONTHS.(Since the end of MAY!!!SRSLY!)Now I have no excuse for being nuts except that it comes so naturally. ;D At least I know that I am in good company!! EXPECT MORE ONLINE PRESENCE NOW!!!! Have scanner: will artz!! Current Mood:  excited , life
September 29th, 200906:46 pm: In Love
And it feels so fine! So fine! Current Mood:  loved September 10th, 200905:58 pm: Dream: Giant Troll in the Hallway of the Con, Now, with special effects!!!
This is my dream, I don't generally LJ cut them because it's more for me and you'll only have to scroll past it today. Sorry if eet is annoying! WARNING, though, there is a bit of gore, so pass it by if you can't stand a little fake-even-in-the-dream blood. HOMG! So last night I dreamt that I was at a costuming/Live-Action-Roleplaying/fantas y/sci-fi convention with a friend. We each had our own hotel room inside of the massive, cruise-ship/convention center/hotel building that housed the event. The place was awesome, except very large and you had to walk ages to get anywheres, but all of the hallways sort of went through hidden libraries or semi-deserted dining rooms or past lecture rooms, usually with only two or three people in them until the events they were hosting commenced. (I think I have dreamed this place before and back then, there were TONS of people lining the sides of the halls when it came time for the costume contest and vending parts of the event, but at the time of this dream, it was late afternoon/early evening and not a lot was going on until later.) So my friend and I were trying to decide what to do with our evening, and we were meandering through the halls. We got to a little dining room with a few anime cosplayers sitting and talking at the small cafeteria-like tables and were making our way through the aisles to the next set of two double doors when a large group of costumed people started coming through the door at a sedate walk, some twirling slowly like the death-dancers at RenFaires. Except for the brightly-dressed rotund man in his fifties leading them, they were all wearing coordinated black outfits ornamented with silk rose-petals, covering every inch of them head to toe. They had shirts and veils and robes and bracers and even breastplates, all made up of these little soft-looking curls of black fabric. The colorfully-dressed rotund person led about ten black-clad dancing people towards us through one of the sets of double doors with a baton, and my friend and I went over to see down the hallway past the doors, where we wanted to go, but obviously these people were putting on a performance and it would be worth watching. Beyond the double-doors, eight VERY tall men in more black dressed sort of like the witchking from LOTR except with less spikes and more black-rose-petal curls were carrying this palanquin with a gigantic ornamental fortress-box on it. The box was scrawled with decorations like piles of worms squirming across every inch of its surface in gold and bronze, with black/dirty wormy indentations. It was about 5 feet wide, and looked like a 5'x5'x5' cube except for the addition of a front piece that had a rough-cut trough in it, That piece was about a foot and a half tall and a foot and a half across. IN the trough was a giant troll baby (perhaps a puppet?) It had a squinched face that was about a foot across, and was about two feet long, only its face showing out of its swaddling and it squinched and unsquinched its face. The round colorful man with his florid face leading the crew struck a gong, and announced that it was time for a constitutional. The eight armored-types set down the palanquin very carefully on the other side of the two sets of double doors and walked fairly quickly over through the doors, silent except for the rustling of their armor leather and fabric petals. They had swords in black leather scabbards. When they got to the near side of the doors they sort of stood in a line in front of them. The man struck the gong again and we saw dry-ice smoke POURING out of the wormy palanquin, and the hallway near it flashed with fake lightning from strobes and shook us with recorded thunder(good bass!). The troll baby started swelling up, growing in age and size like a sped-up film of a growing plant, yowling loudly, its voice deepening as it grew until his head was ten feet tall and his hands, ten feet wide! He wore green and brown clothes that looked like foot-wide leather-tooled leaves interlaced together and burnished to a shine. The surface of his milky-veiny skin on his face and hands looked like it had been rubber-stamped all over with foot-wide rose-leaf patterns in gold- and red-glitter ink, overlapping. The rotund man volunteered us and the other people there to seal off the two sets of double doors with planks, and we gladly did so. I was massively curious about this performance and wondered if we were going to have our characters killed off in this encounter. (That would be a bummer, but it would make for a good story) The giant/troll started looking around the hall and then started POUNDING on the doors, punching one set and then the other. Five of the witch-king dudes were holding the door on the left and three were helping us with the set on the right. "He shall not slumber until he is appeased! We must feed him! We need a sacrifice!" said the rotund guy, and the guys in black on the other door suddenly all ran off like it was too much for them. The crowd of dancers had changed into "regular villager" clothes, white shawls and tunics and such. The troll leaned down and punched the doors on the left, snapping the planks. He reached through with one big ten-foot hand and tried to grab people, but he was a special effect, a puppet, and the mechanism wasn't fantastically coordinated nor could the puppeteer exactly see what he was grabbing at. So one of the "villager" dressed people, a young lady in a long white tunic, "fell" into his grasp with a graceful swirl, screaming half-heartedly. The hand closed around her spongily and pulled her back through the doors, and there was a moment when it changed to really good view of the giant biting (a dummy that looked like her) her head off and "blood" going everywhere in the hallway, which I thought was really gross but cool. (I wondered if they had cleared this with the convention staff, obviously they had TONS of money to put on small hall shows like this, and I also wondered what they had used for fake blood that could be gotten out of hallway carpets.) At this point, I went over to the other double doors and with my character as a chaotic good something or other, used my roleplay option. "We must seal off these doors!" I cried, "Come help me!" The rotund guy looked a little bemused, I guess he'd planned on more carnage before the monster was "stopped" and those knights in black were mostly gone, though two or three of them were still holding the other door along with my friend. More lightning and thunder happened on the other side of the door and I looked to my right, as some flashing lights caught my eyes. The front of the double doors was now nestled under some gorgeous oak banisters that swept down from above either set of doors to the ground in the middle, just beautiful round polished banisters, so that from the front it looked sort of like an Aries symbol, with the "trunk" of it being about two feet wide and standing out from the wall about three feet. In this little space between the wall and the wood was a control room for the special effects. I could see the mixing panel for the sounds and the flashing screen that controlled the "lightning" and CGI and video feeds of the performers in the giant/troll/palanquin portion of the show. I went over to the two Anime cosplayers who were still at the cafeteria table behind me, writing or drawing and talking, and asked in a melodramatic voice if they could please help fight against the evil scourge, and that they'd get bonuses and experience if they did. They were actually from an Eastern/Asian country, and didn't understand much English. This was their first role-playing convention, and they were thrilled to help when they figured out what it was I was asking. So they came over in their Anime costumes and held the door with me, yelping when the door was battered by one of the giant's big fists and smilingly exclaiming to each other in another language. The rotund man, a little crestfallen that his play hadn't gone on for very long before thwarted by the forces of Good, called in the rest of the people in the group and went on a bit about how the giant must be put back to sleep, and that he would be subdued easily now that he'd had a bit to eat. (He was a growing monster, after all). So they all pulled out these four-foot-long trumpets made out of some sort of reed or big hay-like grass and blew on them. (They sort of looked like a herald's trumpet except for very little flare, if any, on the end.) The sound was very soothing, like many people going "wooooooo..." on one long Aum note in a very singing, soothing, calming way. The giant started fussing and fighting the sound and then, like he was being wrapped up in strands of spiderweb, he rotated slowly, shrinking as he fought it, growing sleepier and sleepier and less and less fussy. He shrank until he was back to baby-giant-sized, wrapped in swaddling, and curled up fast asleep back in the trough of the palanquin. We all applauded and grinned, the performers and the rotund man bowed and announced who they were and that they'd be there all weekend and to look for some of their other pieces. The knights all showed up again in costume and picked up the handles of the palanquin and started coming through one set of double doors. Obviously they were strolling to another similar layout in the convention center so they could put on their performance again. My friend and I decided we wanted to go do different things. So he went back to his room and I wandered on down the hallway, past the double sets of doors, I'm sure to have more adventures. The end! Yay, dreams! blah blah blah copyright Tessa Thornberry 2009, even though I didn't really make it up. I hope you enjoyed it, but it's also for my own recollection so I can draw it in future! Current Mood: amused August 27th, 200906:49 pm: S00j and Betsy of Tricky Pixie coming to SF Bay Area Labor Day Weekend!!
*below information shamelessly ganked from sjtucker.com*: Friday September 04, 2009 — 7:00pm Seanan McGuire's South Bay Rosemary & Rue Book Release Party Illusive Comics 2725 El Camino Real Suite 105 Santa Clara, CA 95051 408 985 7481 Seanan says "we're confirmed for cake, snacks, and an awesome good time." This is Seanan's first confirmed South Bay appearance, so we're going to ROCK THE HOUSE. with author Seanan McGuire Saturday September 05, 2009 — 5:00pm Seanan McGuire's San Francisco Rosemary & Rue Book Release Party Borderlands Books 866 Valencia Street San Francisco CA 94110 415 824-8203 Seanan says "we're confirmed for an in-store raffle of fabulous prizes, including special pendants from Chimera Fancies, event-specific art cards, and potentially even more." with author Seanan McGuire Sunday September 06, 2009 — 2:00pm Seanan McGuire's Berkeley Rosemary & Rue Book Release Party Other Change of Hobbit 2020 Shattuck Avenue Berkeley, CA 94704-1117 510-848-0413 Seanan says "we'll be rocking the house in a genteel, friendly, exhausted manner. Come and meet the cats and be surprised by how much awesome we can fit into a relatively small amount of space. It'll be great!" with author Seanan McGuire" ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) s00j, I LOVES YOU! Everyone, you should see them while they are in town!! They have GREAT energy, put on an awesome show, and their songs are clever and inspiring! Current Mood: excited August 12th, 200908:48 pm: Moar Faeriewords pics!
The album, all described and suchly:  There were dragons and goatboys and fairies, of course, and goblins and redcaps and MUSICIANS AND ARTISTS. They are most elusive of all! Current Mood: amused August 3rd, 200907:46 pm: Fantastic time at Faerieworlds!
Faerieworlds was very very fun, though it was very hot, weather-wise. I met SO many lovely people I am so full of love! What a treat! I will post some pictures and sketches later! Current Mood: cheerful July 19th, 200909:36 pm: Got some stuff done! 7 of 13 new masks all painted, pretty much!
All in all, about 7 hours of work averages out to about 1 hour for painting each one. Doing these in an assembly-line fashion and not adding too many doodads has helped bring the time-per-mask down, and only causes the quality to suffer a little bit so far, from the deluxe models I had made a few years back. (Things like smoothness, density of acrylic and layers of paper used, etc.) I am very pleased so far! :D My rule was "Paint them so you wouldn't mind having them around if no one wants them" meaning I choose the colors I like, not what I think other people would like so much, less trying to pick imaginary peoples' brains and more about experimenting,which is FUN, if tiring! So come see the slideshow:  And I am COVERED with paint! Even on my face and midriff! <3!! (yeah, I know...I was wearing a short top while I painted because it was SO HOT today. Got some in my hair yesterday, even. I love painting. *happy sigh!*) Current Mood:  artistic , faerieworlds, masks, painting
July 12th, 200908:48 pm: Faerieworld homework done this weekend
One 10' x 10' Swiss Gear canopy bought and received. three 50-ticket sales books stamped with custom stamp from AssPocket Productions260+ new wing ornaments cut out of leather (90 done already for sale) 12 (!!!) new bird/dragon masks formed and paper mache'd. some costume pieces accumulated, like hoof shoes and thrift store shirts that are pretty and flowy. and I know I did more, but that's what I remember. I also had HELLA COOL DREAMS with manticores and pennies and coffins and government agencies and posh malls. And dragons!! With treasure! And flying around trying to avoid most of the above! I also did iFly with my friend, Rae, which he got for our birthday presents, and I saw my cousins for a BBQ. All in all, a very full, very productive weekend. Now I am going to go soak in the tub and try to scrape this acrylic off of my forearms. Current Mood: accomplished , faerieworlds, life
July 4th, 200903:38 pm: Is it Better to.... (ALSO: MY FIRST OFFICIAL POLL! WOW!!)
Is it better to use a crappy product(in this case, a screened gazebo) you ALREADY HAVE that doesn't quite suit(wrong color/poor manufacturing) and may collapse on you at a dire moment, or is it better to buy a new one for $120 that has GREAT reviews, good workmanship and should totally suit? Keep in mind I have SAID I won't vend after this event, but if I buy it, I'll use the awesome canopy again regardless. Poll #1425134 A Canopy in the hand is worth...
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 12 If I had a poorly made, ugly canopy already, and also could afford a $120 GREAT, attractive canopy, I would... Current Mood:  busy , faerieworlds, life, money
July 1st, 200911:04 pm: More art for Faerieworlds
 For another custom stamp for my ticket pads and to add to peoples smiles. By the way, I am getting my stamps custom made at Asspocket Productions on Etsy. Stacey is a darling whom is easy to work with and whose work is affordably priced. I'll show you the stamp impressions when I get them, she says she works fast! Current Mood: accomplished , faerieworlds
June 28th, 200908:54 pm: Painted wings and Fairy me
I worked on an image for a custom rubber-stamp this weekend, as well as painting about 110 leather fairy-wing tags. So here they are!    Current Mood: artistic , faerieworlds
May 31st, 200906:46 pm: Pictures from the cruise
There are TONS of pictures of art, food, and some foreign animals! Please enjoy and holler if you can't see them! -Tessa  Current Mood: accomplished , travel
May 16th, 200910:04 pm: Romin in Roma!
So, after some almost teary goodbyes, we managed to make it through the almost interminable wait at the Venice Airport(the boat let us off at 9 AM, we arrived at the bus station at 10:00 and at the airport at 11:00, but our flight wasn't until 6:55PM!) We finally flew out and here we are at the Alessandro Palace Hostel in Rome! Itàs about 10:00PM here right now and internet rates are MUCH more friggin' reasonable. Also, the keyboard has all sorts of funny keys, like ù § à ° ò ç è é £ and € to name a few. Right now, the people I met on the staff of that ship are all helping the new guests get settled in. I am a bit jealous!! I really liked some of those people! Mucho mucho!! I want to see them again! Tomorrow, we'll hit the Spanish steps and the Trevia(sp?) fountain, maybe do some other things, including mailing out the postcards we've written. Then the next day, we fly out to Barcelona, and then back home! Jiggity jig! I am thrilled, a little sad, but also look forward to being in my own little bed again, though after the comfort of the beds I have been sleeping on, I may get a soft topper for it once I can afford it. Speaking of beds, tonight and tomorrow night in the hostel, I get to sleep on a top bunk! Rawk! Yours, -Tessa Current Mood: cheerful May 12th, 200902:04 am: Cruising along!
Hi, All! I am having a great time with Mom! It's proven almost impossible to mail anything from here. I've bought tons of postcards but getting them in the mail is unbelievably difficult. E-mail from the ship is slow, but I sucked it up and bought the time to journal, because you are the people who are important to me! Mom and I have had tons of adventures. We have some familiarity now of navigating through Barcelona. A gypsy lady tried to pickpocket Mom, but Mom was too savvy. The metro stations have almost no escalators nor elevators, and that was a nightmare I may have to illustrate, climbing up and down all those stairs with our luggage our first day here! (Though there were a number of nice men who helped her with her luggage) We look forward to taking a taxi to the airport on the way home! Monte Carlo is all undeer construction, getting ready for the Grand Prix, so navigating there was a bit difficult, but we did manage to make our way to the Cafe Du Paris, where we had a giant ice cream sundae to celebrate Mom's birthday, watching the cars of the wealthy go by. We didn't get off the ship in Livorno, since I love Florence too much to just go there for a few hours, say hi, and leave again. Relaxing was a good restorative, and the ship has a resistance pool where I can easlily enjoy swimming for an hour (and not going anywhere! ;) ) Rome was great! We walked quite a bit and had some of those pre-recorded tours, which workled alright, but the next day, we had a GREAT time, we hiked up Mt. Vesuvias and also took a tour of Pompeii, which I saw more of and a different part than I saw those years ago when I went with some friends from the school semester in Florence.(Did that sentence make any sense? Sorry, I am rushing because I don't have a lot of time here on the computer) Then we went to Mykonos, Greece, which was by far the most tourist-friendy little town I had visited thus far. very charming! And then we had a relaxing day at sea, where we all dressed up in the evening. I wore a backless dress (Well, you know, it started again at my waist. :D) Then, yesterday, we went into Istanbul, which is SO much more forward and modern than I thought,and I felt very safe (and beautiful/unusual, which is different from my sometimes awkward/unusual I feel in the states) the people were extrememly friendly, and we had the best guide, beyond what we could have wished for, through travelocity. Her name was Lucit! Today we are on our way to Ephesus, which Lucit says is even nicer/more amiable than Istabul. I am glad and excited, and looking forward to every minute! I think I am getting whiplash from the sights and from gawking at the very nice looking young men everywhere. Srsly. I am taking tons of pictures (Not so much of the men, but of the sights) I'll write more later if I have minutes! :D <3! -Tessa Current Mood: Great!
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