Cookie - DESTROYER OF WORLDS

Now that we've been living with Cookie longer, the statistically less likely and less desirable things have happened on the carpet, which makes her more a member of the family.

I forget, though, that the behavior she bestows on people who are previously introduced is different than the way she treats every other living thing. Trees she tolerates as part of the landscape. Grass she nips at, but with a lazy futility, it being alternately too broad and too crispy for her to decimate. Things larger than her (like people or cats) she will bark at.

It is those things smaller, no matter how much, that are in true danger.

She snaps at flies. She storms after birds. Squirrels don't dare stir when she's about. And if any of these things are just a little bit slow, she'll maim and kill.

A far more fearsome opponent than either a spider or a cat for an Incredibly Shrinking Person would be Cookie. Relentless in the extreme, the only hope would be to climb higher than three feet up.

Sewing

Well, I've been sewing. It's been a constant learning experience (perhaps that's redundant).

It started sometime this spring when Becky and Leslie proposed going to Dragon*Con, a sci-fi/fantasy convention held Labor Day weekend in Atlanta. I was up for it. They were planning on making costumes (Leslie will be an Autumn Fairy, very suiting for her), and there's been this one juggling through my mind for a while from a video game.

Dyne. He's an adventurer winging it as he goes along, until he meets up with three others and becomes a Dragonmaster to save the world from the Vile Tribe, a group of monsters in the Frontier who want their long banishment to end. Afterward he disappears, relinquishing his power so that the Goddess Althena can take human form and grow up amongst people. He then keeps an eye on them between adventures, and that's about where the game starts.

So what does he look like?

A small likeness.

And what does the costume look like?

(He's not a major character actually, hence why both images are disparate; there aren't many more than this.)

So far I've done the belt, the yellow/red sleeves, half the bandolier, the cloak, and the red trim on the shirt. Any ideas on where to get a beret? (I'm thinking military surplus.) Otherwise, I'm trying to figure out how to do the knee-high cuffs and the blue on the shirt. As for a sword... I'm not sure what I'll do. Any ideas there? I could just cut some wood to the shape of a scabbard, cover with cloth, and fenangle a hilt? I'm also not sure how it's secured to the the rest of the body. Artists don't have to think about that. ;)

But sewing's fun. Tough, especially when you make stupid mistakes or can't figure something out. (An example: I'd been trying to figure out why I'd sometimes get seams coming apart immediately the first few days. Then mom told me to adjust the tension and everything was well again.) I'm not near Leslie's skill level, as she's been making pants and such all summer, and is making an entire dress, where I'm adding on to a shirt I already have, which has gone from Zorro to Dread Pirate Roberts to this. But I can generally go in a pretty straight line. And I'm able to hide some of the seams. (I'm especially proud of the sleeves, where they're hidden entirely; much better than the red trim, where there's a erratic dancing red line all around.) One person in particular I knew had exorbitant standards for this sort of thing (think Project Runway), but as long as the costume doesn't fall apart while wearing it, it'll be worth it.

Now, I feel I should explain the large image of Donald Sutherland from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Yersterday, Scott and I were at Mamaw's. In a bored stupor, we played this card deck of Truth or Dare, which was like vanilla extract poured directly into your eye. You feel like you can taste it, but not really. Anyway, Scott had to name celebrity look-a-likes for us both. He couldn't think of one for me. (I would've accepted anyone.) Anyway, later on in the evening, a whim led me to search for pictures of Donald Sutherland, which had mom curious. But the whim was, didn't his facial hair look like mine? I'm going to shave as soon as I get to Wal-mart, but I'm always interested in seeing what kind of facial hair I have, as it isn't the generic poofy everywhere one that women get when they have a recessive allelle too many.

Needless to say, if I were to grow it out to its full length, I would look like Donald Sutherland. In other words, like this:

A shame I don't have anything to adjust the lighting.

...

http://www.theleafchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070724/NEWS01/70724002

Damn.

She was one of my favorite teachers. She taught me AP Biology. She gave the best compliment a teacher can give a student, "You're the reason that teachers teach." I was surprised to hear she was going to Kenwood, but she was definitely upward-mobile and forward-looking.

I also had her ex-husband as a teacher in Economics. It doesn't seem like him.

Damn.

A Test and a Brief Jumbled Editorial

It's been a month. I haven't posted. I've been on vacation, visited Leslie, and so on. So what better way to get back into the swing of things than a test of questionable accuracy from Leslie!



No. This is actually fairly good. In taking Myers-Briggs tests in the fast, I can sometimes switch in between INTJ and INTP, and on two occasions I've also gotten ENTJ. (I tend to get a higher Extravert score when the test allows for more leeway between seeking social events and staying home; I like to do both some of the time.)

Reading a general description of INTJ is fairly prescriptive, though once it goes into any particulars, it's bound to miss, get things wrong, and not get the whole picture. Which is fine; if everyone was one of sixteen carbon copies, I couldn't imagine how I'd find conversation remotely interesting. So it's nice as a fuzzy snapshot, and you can vaguely tell from it I'm a bear (or whatever).

I went to the library yesterday. I had this ambitious plan of reading, oh, two or three books and then checking out a couple of more. My attention span wasn't that solid for what I ended up reading half of (Faulkner), so I took a lot of time looking around. During my wanderings in the nonfiction stacks upstairs, I hit upon an interesting book. Feminism: Opposing Viewpoints.

I was intrigued enough to read a little bit into it. Meant for young adults, it was a series of collections that provide "both sides" of an issue. So I started reading, scoffing at some of the arguments, mentally storing away the others, and analyzing the center of two opposing viewpoints, which often hid several other viewpoints that weren't merely intermediaries, but were askew. Women undeniably have problems of inequal treatment in this world. So do men. But one can't say that women need help on one side only to have it countered with descriptions of men needing help on the other. It can't be that one side always has it perfectly and another always requires aid. Could it be that both ail at once, and that both are the cause of maligned gender roles? They never did explain that mainstream feminism does seek to enable women, but it doesn't mean that they'll oppose helping men. (Sometimes certain radicals will take the stance, but really that's no different than having certain Christians oppose helping Muslims. And we shouldn't judge a movement on its radical fringes or everyone would be damned.)

Anyway, after that I got a few books.

Monstrous Regiment, Terry Pratchett. (I was influenced by an easily accessible dust jacket flap.)
Fragile Things, Neil Gaiman. (I can't get enough of him.)
The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner. (I abandoned this book halfway through last year due to a time crunch.)
Male/Female Roles: Opposing Viewpoints. (I was sufficiently entertained.)