Pixar had done it again

Cold this morning. I woke up and wondered if the heat was working. It is in the rest of the house which tells me that I need to bleed the radiator in the master bedroom again. Fortunately Caroline’s room was fine and she was toasty warm. The living room is fine for her to play in. The kitchen is a bit cold but I can solve that by running the dish washer.

In the cool used book category: Thanks to an individual on one of the many lists I am on, I am now the proud owner of the Brian Froud Goblin Pop-up book. It is a British edition which I never knew existed until this person told us about it. I went to Abe.com to search the used book section and found one at a very reasonable price (cover price). I had seen it once on E-bay going for absurd money at the time but I didn’t really know what it was at the time so I didn’t bid on it. I have made it a habit for any book I see on E-bay that I am interested in to check abe.com for a range of what the book is going for. Sometime (most really) I can find it on the used book website for less than it is going for on E-bay. Other times I find things about the same price but in better condition. A few times I have done better on E-bay than on Abe.com. But that at least gives me some idea what the book is worth on the open market.

My Doll Swap partner contacted me and her doll is off to her so that is another thing done on my big list of Things To Do. I want to try that doll pattern again since it can be adapted for other forms rather easily. But before that I have 2 projects I want to finish before the end of the month.

Art by the inch: Still working on that large project.

Novel: 1200 words yesterday. It is starting to roll and I am making some serious time for it.

Behind the cut is my review for “The Incredibles” which is slightly spoilerish
( ”Incredible” )

I am grateful for used book dealers.

New things up on the web

I have got to focus better. Yesterday was a day of random projects done in pieces one right after the other with no apparent rhyme or reason. I did get a lot done. The front yard is raked which really needed to be done rather than waiting for the last leaves to fall. I got another art project done. This was the August project which I will talk about more after it gets to the person I intended it for. I cooked a nice meal for my family. I got the downstairs clean which hasn’t really made much of a difference this morning. It amazes me how fast disorganization starts even when people are trying NOT to be disorganized. Well changing habits doesn’t change over night so I am hoping that this will be getting better over time.

For those of you are interested in my story I am writing for the Novel in a Month challenge, I am going to ask you to be a little more proactive than usual. I have posted the first piece on a live journal account but you (the reader) need to e-mail me (the author) and I will tell you where it is. The e-mail address for me currently is puppetmaker (at) gmail.com. I put (at) rather than @ because it keeps spam bots down from harvesting this off my blog as a potential viable e-mail address. I have to buckle down and blast out more than I have been per day. I do know where it is going.

I have Halloween pictures up on my website along with some dolls I did for various swaps. Homepage.mac.com/kathodavid is the address and it is the last two entries. Which means when my parents get back from their jaunt down under they will have some current pictures to look at. The first picture in the Halloween set is from about the same time last year of Caroline who had gotten the hang of walking and was enjoying the mobility. She now runs everywhere she can with her hair bouncing along with her.

Novel Challenge : 20 words
Art by the inch: 720 (plus 525) so I am at 1245 total which puts me a little less than 1/2 way to the bronze and 1/4 to the silver. This is turning out to be the easier of the two challenges for me. I thought it would be the other one.

I am grateful for rakes.

PMS Ranting

Sometimes I really wonder why I even bother writing this bloody thing.
( ”RantingPMS” )

I am grateful for Caroline’s smiles.

Fine Function

The function was fine. I had a nice dinner with friends before hand and a lot of fun catching up with people at the function. A group of us who are old friends grabbed one of the tables and a bunch of chairs and rotated ourselves in and out of the chairs while the conversation goes all over the map as it usually does. I am glad I went. I did get a lot written on the train going to the city and a lot less on my way back since I was so tired from a rather long day which started with the cats trapped in Caroline’s room and ended with the cats under the bed in our room.

Today I take Caroline to her playgroup. She enjoys all the toys but is not as good for circle time. Then she is not quite 2 and her teacher understands that. Which is why I followed this teacher to her next position rather than stay at the facility where they were enforcing structure on kids not even a year old.

So I haven’t got a word count but it was a lot
Inches of art 30 inches

I am grateful that I went to the party last night.

Various

Sports:
Is it me or do the games in the NBA seem to have lower scores this year? I haven’t looked to see if there are rule changes that would affect play but I am betting there is something that is different this year. I still find College Basketball more exciting than the NBA.

I see that Steinbrenner is trying to buy himself another ring by going for Randy Johnson. Don't do it Randy! You don't need the grief. I could see Jaret Wright or Al Leiter going to the Yankees. Not that I would be happy about that.

The Giants are looking into the wrong end of a loaded gun right now with all the injuries they have sustained. I don’t think they are out of the race for the Super Bowl but I think they are very hamper now. The Jets have to get their stuff together and show up for game day ready to play. Sloppy is an understatement for last weeks defense. The offense was not doing much better. Out of the two New York teams, I see more potential not being lived up to in the Jets than I do in the Giants.

Caroline
I had a long talk with her teacher yesterday about Caroline and circle time. She assured me that Caroline will participate in time but right now we should be happy when she does join the group. All the kids are older than her but she is bigger than most of them so her size makes her “look” older than she is. I will say she did drift in and out of circle more this week than last and she solidly participated in the last 15 minutes with the other kids. She also made a conscious choice to sit with the other kids rather than by herself like she had done before. Progress is always in little steps with sudden unexpected leaps with her. She does do what is known as focus play when she wants to. I gave her paper and crayons the other day and she was drawing on the papers for almost an hour. She will spend long periods of time playing with her Magna Doodle.

Controlling Chaos
Peter and I managed this week to get through all the stacks of paper around various parts of the living room and sort out what can be recycled since this was paper week. We received a flyer with yet more new policies for recycling like the papers can no longer be in plastic bags (grocery sacks) but either tied or in paper sacks. The plastic bags are apparently gumming up the works at the recycling plant. They won’t take the plastic sacks with the plastic/glass/metal recycling. They suggest you return those bags to the grocery store and get cloth bags to reuse rather than use plastic grocery sacks. I am all for recycling and am willing to separate the various types of things that can be recycled but I don’t like when I have any options except turning something that should be on the recycling list into landfill. We have instituted a new magazine policy to try to keep the number of magazines in the house at any one time down to something manageable. Also so we can read some of the time sensitive periodicals while the information is still relevant to what we do.

I should have another chunk of the NaNo up later today. Still don’t have a word count but such is life. No art yesterday either unless you count dinner. I caught up on some sleep and helped my husband with a couple of projects.

I am grateful for Caroline’s teachers which includes her family.

Veterans’ Day 2004

I have a number of uncles who fought in various wars. A couple in World War II and a few in the Korean Conflict. They have told me a little of what happened to them during that time. They all expressed a gladness that they came home in one piece considering how some of their comrades returned.

My father was too young for both WWII and the Korean Conflict having been born during the depression. By the time the Vietnam War draft started, my father was working on his graduate degree in physics so he had a college deferment, as I understand it. He was also over the draft age by that point I believe but I am a bit fuzzy on the whole thing.

I barely remember the Vietnam War on the news when I was small. I do remember the pull out for some strange reason. I also remember in the late 70s and early 80s when the Vietnam War was reexamined and the soldiers were given a better welcome home than they received when they first came home.

The Gulf War was more of a blink for me. I can remember friends and loved ones of friends having to go. Just as suddenly they were back but not all of them. For the current situation I have a number of friends who have children in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unlike the Vietnam War were letters could take a while to travel back, the news from the front is more instant with blogs and e-mails from the front.

I support our troops. I support the men and women who are fighting the war. I don’t support the reasons for the war but I can be very supportive of the people who have been told to do a job by their government.

Today is Veterans Day. Today we remember all those who did come back from defending their country or from situations where their government asked them to serve. If you know a vet, say thank you. And to any vets reading this, I say “Thank you. Thank you for your service for this country.”

I am grateful to all the men and women who have fought in War and served in Peace.

Some questions about costuming

This is from a list I am on about costuming. The writer was inquiring about costuming for kids 6 to 16. These are my answers and I would be interested in what other people thought on the matter.

1. What were some of the considerations you had to take into account when designing and constructing the costume?
( Ex. finances, room to grow, etc)

For younger children a biggie is where is this costume going to be worn? Is this going to be used every day by the child? Sometimes the costume becomes their lets-pretend-clothing.

Can they go to the bathroom easily or will they need help?

I don’t worry about room to grow because if need be I can make another a size up. Usually about the time they size up, they have other ideas about what they want to wear.

Finances I don’t worry about because I tend to work with cheap and washable materials for kids. I also don’t tend to detail kids costumes since they are going to be worn by kids

Safety I do worry about
I consider the age of the child and whether there is even a change of part of the costume could be hazardous. Cloaks are attached with Velcro so if the child’s cape is caught the cloak will give before the child’s neck.

Halloween vs. Play cloths vs. science fiction convention costume call.
Halloween-I live in the NE so I tend to make the costumes warm. This way they don’t have to wear coats over the costumes.
Play cloths-I try to have some basics for them to use to create their own ensembles
Costume Call-These are usually worn indoors and for a long period of time. If they are a recreation then they have to look closer to the real thing so I have fewer short cuts than I do for the other two. Also these tend to be one shot uses so they don’t need the durability that play clothes need.

2. How did you adapt to meet those challenges? I wrapped this into question one

3. What do you wish you would have known before you started the process that would have made the experience easier? (If only I would have known.....it would have made this whole thing go so much easier)

It is easier to sew Velcro into a costume if it is not sticky backed Velcro and there are plenty of quick ways of temporarily holding something in place so you can stitch it.

4. Was the child involved in the design process or construction phase?
If so how? And how much?

No. Not much at all. It tends to be that the kids will come up with the idea for the costume and then come to me for the costumes themselves. They can make requests but all finally decisions are mine. They know I will do a good job and make it look right. I will also make it as comfortable as I can given what they want to do.

If they want to learn how to make them on their own, I am willing to teach them. Then they can try whatever they want to do. For the older kids, there is a great book by Readers Digest on Sewing which breaks it down to simple components but the newer version dropped the chapters on tailoring which were helpful to me.

5. If you are a caregiver of a child with special needs as I am. (I am a parent of a three year old little girl with down syndrome) How have you adapted costumes around mobility devices and assistive equipment?

I would tend to make the costume fit the person rather than the person to fit the costume. This had been my philosophy since I started costuming for myself.

One of the best Star Trek recreation costumes I ever saw was a woman who was in a wheelchair and she recreated Captain Pike with the help of her friends. It looked great and they built the rig for her chair.

I am grateful for my knowledge of the fiber arts.

Kiss of Snow

I thought we might get a little snow last night. It was raining and the temperature kept dropping. This morning there is a kiss of snow on the ground with the promise of more in the future. I am sure that once the temperature moves up a degree or two the snow will melt and very few will have seen it. The wind is vicious right now. I can feel the cold radiating off the windows. The cats have strategically placed themselves over the heaters and fallen asleep.

Got a few errands run yesterday including a trip to the DMV which took less than half an hour much to my surprise. I think I am fighting a cold or something that is sucking the energy out of my body. I keep sniffing and sneezing. Some other stuff happened in “the could be good or could be nothing” category.

Caroline has started to play with her little people and make up “stories”. She makes the various sounds that the animals make and moves them around. The people tend to babble her baby babble but there is some kind of structure to what she is doing. Last night she took a rubber dinosaur (roar or as she says Rhaaarrr) and had it duke it out with Mr. Incredible in an epic struggle of man vs. dinosaur. Wish I had been faster and gotten it on tape.

Peter also noticed a lot of imitative behavior on her part when she was with me in the kitchen. I was cooking dinner and she had a spoon, a bowl, and a plastic bottle of onion powder. When I was spicing the meal, she was shaking the bottle over the bowl and then stirring with the spoon. She wants to do what Mommy does. Which I find really cute.

The cosmic meltdown are becoming bigger and with more volume as she rapidly approaches the age of two. She also gets this furrowed brow right before the explosion which expresses her unhappiness with the situation at hand. We are going to a birthday party of a friend today and I am hoping she is going to behave herself today. Tomorrow I will have another go at my novel. I also have an idea for some artwork but that will be for another day.

I am grateful for snow.

FLOOD!

I agreed the night before to get up with the baby since she can be an early riser. At about 7:15 she made her wishes known that she wanted to get up. I brought her downstairs and placed her in her corral. I went into the kitchen to get the morning bottle for her. I heard what sounded like a hissing sound coming from the bathroom off the kitchen. I went in and water was spraying everywhere. The floor was rapidly flooding. I pulled various things out from next to the toilet and dove for the valve which was imbedded in the floor. The hose had separated from the tank. The valve was STUCK! My mind went blank as I couldn’t remember where the cut off valve was in the basement. I ran upstairs and woke Peter who ran down stairs with me. I suddenly remembered where the valve was and turned the water off to the house.

By that time the bathroom, the kitchen, part of the dining room and a bit of the living room was covered in water. Along with the problems upstairs, the laundry room downstairs was being flooded as well as the furnace room. We quickly worked on getting the water out the back door. The water froze as it hit the deck since it was about 20 degrees outside. Once we had stopped the water from dripping into parts of the house that it shouldn’t, we looked at the value on the toilet which was stuck. Not a little stuck but frozen in place. Peter WD-40d it and tried to get the valve to turn. No luck. He went off to call a plumber and I had a go. I got a wrench attached to the handle and turned it while holding the pipe up so I could get to the valve. I ended up propping the can of WD-40 in such a way to keep the handle off the floor. Finally the oil worked its magic and the handle turned. I turned it as far as I could and then we turned the water back on.

We are down one toilet which is fine since we have another working one. The floor in the kitchen hasn’t looked this good in a while. I think I went through my adrenaline for the day and possibly the week. The cats are hiding right now. I have dried off except for the knees of my pants. All in all it was an adventure I don’t want to repeat.

I am grateful for WD-40

Real Authentic Copies

I can remember looking at some artwork at a convention and realizing what I was looking at was a computer print out of the artwork. Since then Art Shows have expanded and changed the rules for this sort of artwork. The rules for the World Con Art show are very specific as to what is an original or how it is to be labled.

From the World Con Art Show Rules:

All entries must be the artist's own original work on a science fiction, fantasy, or fannish theme.

The following items may not be entered into the Art Show but are eligible for print shop.

* Commercial multi-lithographic copies,
* photoprints or photocopies of any kind
* hand colored and remarked prints,

Commercial ceramic molds, painted commercially cast pieces and kits of any kind will NOT be accepted for the Art Show or Print Shop. Items using patterns or designs by others must credit the second party.

FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY & COMPUTER GENERATED ART will be accepted only with the specific permission of the Art Show Directors. Both must fit within the following guidelines and be labeled accordingly:

* Unique Image---Data Files Erased/Negative Destroyed

* Limited Edition Print---Data Files Erased/ Negative Destroyed, or

* Unique Image---Data Files/Negative Archived.

Each image must be accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity that clearly indicates the print/image type and the disposition of the negative or data file.

TRUE LIMITED EDITIONS (MULTIPLE ORIGINAL CATEGORY) All hand pulled prints—serigraphs, photographs (silk-screens), etchings, lithographs, woodblocks must have the following clearly visible information in pencil on the print itself.

1. Artist's signature,
2. Title,
3. Date,
4. print of/print run, and must be a run of less than 100.

Then there are those things called Originals. Like the original oil painting or charcoal sketch or sculpture. I understand the artist trying to maximize their profits from their labor. I have noticed that a lot of doll artists use the words OOAK (One of a Kind) to signify that this is a one off. I don’t have a problem with artists doing this at all if they clearly label the work as a limited series for the consumer. In fact it allows others to own work that they might not be able to otherwise.

That being said, I was surfing E-bay looking for some Christmas/Hanukkah for various people I am getting presents for. I ended up, through a round about way, running across autograph pictures of various famous people. Some of the prices seemed a little low especially for the people who were dead and had been for sometime. I looked through the description and found something really disturbing. These were pictures of the autographs not the original autographs but they came with certificated of authenticity that these were copies from an original photo with a real autograph on it. Photoprints is what some of them were called. A number were a bit deceptive until you read the WHOLE description to find out you were buying a copy of the original autograph.

I found this phenomenon first when I was looking for Labyrinth stuff as I occasionally do or Froud work that is out of print. They were selling a script with the signature of Jim Henson, David Bowie, Brian Froud, and Jennifer Connelly. If you read through the description you found out that you were buying a color Xerox of the autographs attached to a Xerox of the script.

I don’t have a problem if the seller is up front with exactly what they are selling. I do have a problem with the numbers of sellers that buried the fact that these are copies and not originals. Especially when the description at the top says “Insert name of actor” signed 8X10 photo. It is not signed. It’s a frelling copy of a signature. If I buy a signed photo then I expect a signature on the photo not a picture of the signature. What good is a certificate of authenticity for a copy of a signature? Why even give it? My favorite was the certificate that was given to the photo to let anyone the bearer care to show that they original was in the hands of the person who made the prints. What is to stop anyone from buying a copy and making more copies with more certificates? Makes it kind of hard for those who do have the real autographs that they stood in long lines for that they want to sell now. I am even really suspicious now of any dealer selling signatures with a few exceptions where I have known the dealer for years and know that they are not going to rip me off.

So from now on, with very few exceptions, I plan to get any autographs from the people I want the signatures from. That way I know that what I got is authentic and mine. And if anyone wants my signature for any of my work, I suggest you find me at a convention because I don’t think it is going to show up on Ebay anytime soon.

I am grateful for the autographs I have gotten over the years especially from my friends.