Pith and Vinegar

I love no name products. They recently introduced a line of carbonated drinks:

Amusingly enough, my mom bought a 12-pack of these by accident, somehow missing that they weren’t diet.

So I’m redesigning my friend Samantha’s website. I don’t know if I mentioned that.

First step is the logo; everything else flows from that. She’s obsessed with DC’s Harley Quinn. So…

My starting point:

Idea doodling (note the logo centre-top):

Sami said “lose the Blackmire [she's getting divorced], but otherwise, it’s perfect,” and “you, my darling, are my motherfucking hero. ”

(continue reading…)

Dad kindly provided me with a new power supply today, to replace the spark-shooty one. Old one was 500W, new one is 750W. It’s certainly quieter, all the wires are wrapped in black netting, and there are about twice as many as on my old PS.
So I’m back in business, catching up with the emails and such I’d left sitting. I can also now get moving on some projects, like Sam’s website redesign.

So last night, like most nights, I was preparing to go to bed around 2am. Finished up what I was working on, and was going to shut off my monitors (I leave my computer running).

The fan in my power supply started making an odd noise.

Just as I bent over to inspect it, it started throwing sparks out the back and onto the wall.

So…. yeah. Needs fixing, but I have no money. If I’m not around as much, that’s why. I’ll be around often enough to check and respond to emails and will try to fulfil my obligations, but don’t make any plans based on my presence.

Andrew Wright scuffed his feet nervously on the opulent rug underfoot. Motes of dust fluffed into the air, caught by the light of the setting sun streaming in through the tall window. He shifted self-consciously from side to side, just enough to relieve the minor aches caused by sitting in the same place for — he glanced at the grandfather clock at the end of the hall — just over an hour now.
The Magister in charge of London’s chapter of the Order of the Golden Dawn was not a man to be kept waiting, but apparently the same rule did not apply in reverse. Andrew had been with the Order for nearly two years now, and had been very dedicated. But somehow, he felt it might all be for nought. He felt empty, as though he were just playing at learning rather than delving into greater truths he instinctively knew were out there. He had no idea how Magister Hall would react, but expected the worst out of habit. Better to expect disappointment and be pleasantly surprised than to expect a reward and be disappointed.

(continue reading…)

Greetings, everyone, and welcome to Founding Utopia.

Utopia is typically defined as an ideal community or society, taken from a book by the same name written by Sir Thomas Moore in 1516. It sometimes carries the additional meaning of an unrealistic ideal which is impossible to achieve in a practical sense. Utopia comes from the Greek, meaning “no place.”

This story follows a Scientist inducted into a secret order of geniuses who develop Science beyond the abilities of the common people. Unbeknownst to either the order or our protagonist, they’re on the cusp of one of the defining moments in their shadow history.

Founding Utopia (FU if you’re nasty) has been planned out, in general terms, to cover a period of roughly five years in the closing days of the Victorian era. Our introduction begins in 1892, and our epilogue will take place in 1898. The meat of the story will be set between 1893 and 1897. So this will probably take a long time to complete.

Cliché, but I hope you enjoy reading the story as much as I enjoy writing it.

Testing to see if I can post to my blog from  semagic. And also if the LJ user plugin works.

Now this is a Twilight movie I’d watch.

So that was odd.

I had a short nap. I don’t remember most of it, but at the end was… well, a trailer for a Batman movie. Only the first 20 seconds or so before I woke up.

I woke up with the trailer’s music very strong in my head. I have no idea if I’ve heard it before or not, but I absolutely had to get it on paper.

You know when the last time I did that was? Never. You know when the last time I read music was? Music class in grade 8. Actually, in 7 and 8 I was playing drums, so it would probably be grade 6 where I last read real music.

But I had to get it out. I remembered the structure of a music bar and the placement of the notes okay, but then I needed (and found) a virtual piano in order to figure out which notes I needed to transcribe.

So I got it, or at least the short snippet I heard before I woke up. I don’t argue with my muse.

The stuff I wanted and the stuff I needed all fit nicely into my backpack.

Tomorrow is a new day.