anotheranon: (busy)
I've not posted in almost a month, so here's the quick and dirty version of what's been up:


  • Health: The "bunion" turned out to be just bursitis, and now I have custom orthotics to keep it from getting worse.

    Fun tip: stick-on velcro in the sole works well for holding orthotics in place.

  • Media: have been sucked into Sleepy Hollow (makes free and loose with the history, but the characters have good chemistry) and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (a couple of strong episodes but still finding it's feet).

    Saw Thor 2; thought the world/main characters were better than in the first one plus more Loki and Darcy = yay. Saw Ender's Game; I enjoyed it but never read the book so I didn't have nostalgia/expectations going in (yes, I know. I rationalize because D. loved the book as a kid before we all knew what a 'phobe Orson Scott Card is).

    Watched "Goonies" and "Beetlejuice" for the first times since…high school? [livejournal.com profile] jlsjlsjls: Beetlejuice may have showcased the first documented pair of swants (scroll down), and Delia's other costumes definitely pioneered Japanese designers.

  • Sewing: bwahaha! Writing has eaten my sewing time.

  • Writing: still consumes me though I did not do NaNoWriMo; had good writing days both alone and with [livejournal.com profile] dustdaughter.

    Teaching myself Scrivener because I'm rapidly losing track of multiple Word files.

  • Reading: mostly crunchy academic tomes for the book sprinkled with occasional fiction so my brain doesn't explode. See: Hollow City, Ooomph: A Little Super Goes a Long Way, Halo Effect.

  • Thanksgiving: we spent with [livejournal.com profile] kiya and [livejournal.com profile] lady_masque and friends with tons of food.

    Played Arkham Horror for the first time and am staggered at the complexity of the game play.

    Turned everyone on to Alton Brown's cocoa brownies (which I've linked to before but are so good it's worth doing again).

  • Cats: routine vaccination updates turned into clearing up an aggressive ear infection for Spice; she is deaf now, though we don't know whether this is because of infection or treatment :( Due to the stress of repeated vet visits she didn't eat for a week and we're now plying her with tuna and canned food to bulk her back up.

  • Fencing: competed a couple of weeks ago and am proud I was only defeated 10-6 by a scary B rated vet in my final direct elimination.

    Arrogantly(?) think I stand a chance of getting my D this season if I can keep my head on straight.

  • Holiday: only thing planned so far is D.'s office party which is 1) 1920s themed and 2) in CA. So costume and slightly warmer weather = win.

  • Whisky: hoo boy yeah!


I'm very slowly catching up with y'all. I probably won't comment much but know I AM reading.
anotheranon: (busy)
I've been non-communicative (surprise!) and reclusive lately. Not winter weather ('cos we've not really had any) but just a lot of small things constantly going on.

In addition to my usual going and doing, I've made a dent in the pile 'o books, though "pile" is a misnomer as I'm still so enthralled at having thousands of pages in one slim volume that almost everything has been on my Kindle. Mike Carey's Felix Castor series = unputdownable, and I highly recommend it to Dresden Files fans who are itching for something new.

For online reading let me direct you towards Neptune's Fool. It's the travel blog of a friend of mine who is about to run away to sea aboard a tall ship for a year. Though boats are not my thing and I will miss her much, I wish I had the sheer nerve and tenacity to boldly live a dream, and look forward to reading more of her exploits.

[livejournal.com profile] sealwhiskers is pointing me towards Anno 1790, a Swedish crime drama set in the 18th century that isn't on my local PBS (yet?) but might be on yours. I love me some history and I've never read much about Sweden's so there's not only the story and costumes but the new to look forward to.

I'm also editing down a few hours of fencing footage into bout-sized clips. Once I stop cringing at my mistakes and marveling at how closely I resemble a beer can on legs, I actually get some useful feedback from it in terms of form (good or bad), what works, and some sense of my mental bell curve (do well at beginning, stupid in middle, some recovery at end. Sometimes).

Aaaand I'm still working on the never-ending vest - hand sewing of any kind makes the most "instant gratification" of projects not so instant :P I'd like to finish it sometime this year month so I can work on. ..something else. A robe for D. or a 1910s Downton Abbey dress, or accessories for the Regency (hell, get the Regency photographed) or....

Speaking of D., a lot of the hard work he's done over the past few months is paying off all at once, but he's worked himself into a cold and is spending recupe time watching all the movies in the Marvel 'verse (Spiderman, Iron Man, Captain America, etc.). So I've been watching movies too.

Back to laundry/editing...
anotheranon: (busy)
I took advantage of the energy conferred by Saturday's unseasonably, unreasonably warm weather (70F?! In January? And today it's snowing) to do some much needed clutter reduction: put away and organized the Christmas decorations, took out a ton of recycling and cleared some junk out of the basement. My house may never be ready for its' Better Homes and Gardens closeup, but I can walk all the way around the dining room table, and that's something.

D. spent much of the weekend Sith-stomping, so I had the teevee to myself and started last year's "Pillars of the Earth" miniseries. I've not read the book, but I'm impressed with the screen adaptation, if only the way the characters' stories rapidly twist together. It's about a time period I'm not overly familiar with (The Anarchy of the 12th century) so there's the element of discovery as well.

Progress on the vest crawls along. Despite all my careful fitting, I still got the back waist too short, so I'm going to attempt to attach the peplum with a 1/4" seam allowance. For maximum control of the seam (and the rounded edges of the peplum) I've again been using the Elizabethan seam. Eats time but satisfies my control freakiness.

Over the holidays my step-father-in-law tipped me off that many carcinogens/endocrine disruptors/other bad stuff in cosmetics aren't regulated by the FDA; not news but I didn't know quite how bad it could get until I poked around the Cosmetics Database. Happily only a couple of things I use were in the dangerous red zone, but hey - any excuse to play with new lotions and creams :P I'm giving this a whirl to see if it keeps me moisturized without making me break out.

Fencing lesson this week included V.'s grand experiment to take video for all of us. I took some before the holidays, but haven't analyzed the results as carefully as I could. It's fair to say I now have plenty of footage to make me flinch review.

Badger and I are doing a week of quickie "fashion blogging" over on Facebook. Of course my alarm failed to go off this morning so my first entry is rather lackluster, but I'm plotting blockbusters for the rest of the week!

Last bits: I've not caught up on the latest season of PBS' Sherlock, but [livejournal.com profile] faunblade posted this compelling shot; I don't think Cumberbatch is all that, but it got my attention. Found this [YouTube] via [livejournal.com profile] yuki_onna which she (accurately?) describes as "what I think that mask scene in Eyes Wide Shut might have been if that movie weren’t mainly about white people not feeling things".

It's too cold down here. I'm going to put on my alpaca socks.
anotheranon: (Default)
..was an eventful one:

I had my last fencing lesson of the year this morning, with an exciting new twist - working on my lunge. As in, lunging and then shifting my weight back and forth between my back and front legs. While doing bladework. And keeping my back upright, legs stable, and no bobbing up and down. This is necessary for reach, stability, and injury avoidance.

Con: besides being technically difficult it hurts like a mother_)*(!_! Coach mentioned an ideal of being able to do splits(!) at which I laughed because I couldn't even do those as a child! Pro: this is something I can do while I'm at home/traveling without equipment. And I'll force myself to do it, because I won't be on a fencing strip again until January.

D. and I went to see "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" in the afternoon. Wow.. it is good, but so subtle, all of the acting is in the facial expressions so it takes careful viewing. I had some difficulty keeping track of characters and following the plot and I suspect it's easier to follow if you've read the book (I picked it up on the way home). ObCostume: The costumes and sets were straight from the seventies. I noticed no obvious shortcuts (like bad wigs) or anachronisms; the latter admittedly may have been easier because most of the actors were older men who are presumably less hung up on adding Hollywood style glamour where none is wanted. Go see it, but read the book first if you can!

Off to finish up Boardwalk Empire. And laundry.
anotheranon: (nankitty)
Paging Captain Subtext - you are needed on the white courtesy phone.
anotheranon: (neat)
Gay men on one side, straight on the other, all eager to hash out the rules of gender, what it really means to be “masculine” or “feminine,” and the roles that these words play in our lives and style in 2011. Ranges far beyond a discussion of gender in fashion, the video is about 12 minutes (why I don't link to it directly) and illuminating for me. From Stylelikeu, source of all kinds of fashion inspiration.

Fashion-able: Hacktivism and engaged fashion design - I'm late to the party because von Busch published his thesis (PDF) back in 2009, and while I've not had time to read all of it yet I love the ideas he's playing with - designer as facilitator of DIY, fashion as a collaborative process instead of dictated from on high, and how DIY relates to hacking, fan fiction, etc. Courtesy Outsapop Trashion, fine purveyor of all manner of DIY tutorials and ideas.

Ending with a silly - does anyone else remember the Brady Bunch parody movies that came out ~10 years ago? If not, they are delightfully wrong entertainment if you're familiar with the TV show:
anotheranon: (busy)
I did stuff other than sew this weekend:

  • After much (well, some) indecision I finally shelled out for Seventeenth Century Women's Dress Patterns and am so glad I did! I would even offer that the authors do Janet Arnold one better: the garments are x-rayed, the photos are in blistering high-res color, and in addition to the patterns, instructions (including painstaking hand-stitching how to photos) are included! The book is so densely packed that I'm reading it slowly, a couple of pages at a time and then breaking to "digest".

  • 20 lunges before and after fencing practice, plus another 20 after a 45 minute lesson. My knees and arches are cranky but I'm not in agony, nor do I feel like I've been hit by a truck. I'm taking that as evidence that my endurance is improving.

  • Catching up on cheezy teevee: the second best part of watching the WTF-ery of True Blood is io9's Pro vs. Con recaps (spoilers abound). Have not seen Torchwood "Miracle Day" yet, but I am patient.

  • Little blue cat is on a timed feeding schedule because she is not quite so little as once she was :P Mostly she's adapted, but on weekends still dances around singing the "Food Now? Food Now!" song every time we approach the bowl. I'd feel worse, but this is the most active she's been in months! Running around all day also means she's too tired at night to play her favorite new game, "boop" (in which she sticks her paws in my nose and mouth in order to wake me up - eeeew!)

  • Turned in a groupon for an upper body massage and my first ever facial. The former was VERY good, though she couldn't quite work out the marble-like knots in my shoulders, they're looser than they were. The facial left my face soft and moisturized and quite relaxed (scalp massage!) but I'm not sure it did much to shrink my pores, but then one can't have everything.
anotheranon: (writing)
anotheranon: (Default)
First 4 courtesy D., who is fantastic at enabling my costume nrrd:

  • Femme de Lascaux: costume, art, and other oddities. Some morbid, some NSFW, all fabulous. Favorite so far: I am no bro.

  • Morbid Fashion - what it says on the tin: gothicky fashion both high and low.

  • Ornamented Being - currently on a mad tiara jag. Go for the shiny!

  • Costume and Construction - the creator seems to have started with her wedding dress and gone from there. Lots of Regency, which is great timing as I'm seeking inspiration for accessorizing my own.


Found my own self:
anotheranon: (busy)

  • I've found that the cross-training sneaks I use for fencing lose their "squish" after ~6 months. Replacing them has done a LOT to avert the back/knee pain I've had over the past couple of weeks.

  • Cotton batiste is easier to gather than any other fabric I've worked with: stiff enough to hold itself in place for sewing without a million pins but fine enough that the gathers don't have to be PERFECTLY even.

  • POTC 4 does not suffer the lack of Orlando Bloom/Keira Knightley - Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush chew enough scenery for everyone combined.

  • I need a pirate coat. But then again, who doesn't?

  • Either I've acclimated or the A/C about isn't cranking as hard as it used to, because for the first time in years I can wear sandals indoors without my feet going numb. Huh.

  • Angel rewatch: just got through the abysmal Connor storyline. Up next: season of Spike and wee little puppet man.
anotheranon: (Default)


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anotheranon: (Default)
In Praise of Helena Bonham Carter, fashion tragedy - do check the links. I may not love every outfit, but I LOVE that she wears what she damn well pleases, instead of being another overpolished Hollywood glamour girl. She's a Westwood fan, and it suits her.

StyleLikeU, unrepentant fashion eccentrics each and every one. I can only aspire to be this elegantly cool - they have more time than me, and likely less fussy feet.

Cats adore, manipulate women - and men! Won't someone think of the crazy cat men, and the cats who love them (like my little grey girl who seems to prefer men over women hands er, paws down)? Consolation: evidently our pet cats do like us for something other than working the can opener. They just don't hesitate to throw down the cute when it suits their purposes.

Showtime turns their attention from the Tudors to the Borgias. With Jeremy Irons as Pope Alexander. As with the Tudors, the history is colorful enough that they won't need to sex/gore it up, so I hope they don't.
anotheranon: (Default)

  • 12:42:52: RT @opheliacat: RT @hudsonette

    RT @faraway67: 'Downton Abbey' site Highclere Castle: Victorian arch. fantasy in stone http://wapo.st/ ...
  • 16:03:20: RT @racheline_m: I wish people would stop encouraging women to be afraid as a disguise for their treating the women in their lives like ...
  • 19:46:09: Anyone else going to #govwebcon on 3/17?

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anotheranon: (strangelytroublesome)
This weekend I had every great and good intention of renewing my driver's license, getting my hair cut, and embarking on an epic sewing binge that would finish the Regency and even allow time leftover to cut out something new.

Two of these three happened.

I did finish the Regency sleeves (but not the gown) while indulging in bad/cheesy tv and movies.

I finally watched "Inglourious Basterds" in its entirety. It works better as a series of vignettes written in the same alternative history than as a whole; indeed, the titular Basterds' storyline is only about half of the movie. I'm sure much could be said about Tarantino making a movie about movies, IB as a parody of propaganda etc. but I'm not that well versed in film criticism. I will say that as guilt-free revenge fantasy goes, it's hard to improve on "killin' nat-zees" with all the attendant gore and violence (the side of arm porn ain't bad either). And surprisingly(?) the costumes (at least the women's) are really good.

Also indulged in some Deadliest Warrior, which counts as "guilty" for me not for the violence (the final showdown takes place as a computer simulation) but for the likely historical incompleteness/inaccuracies: I can't believe they portrayed William Wallace as blue-painted and kilt-clad (yes, THIS is what bothers me, not the fact that his his opponent was Shaka Zulu), and maybe it's just me but IRA vs. Taliban is just, too soon. But: swords! Axes! Messy destruction of pig carcasses and ballistic gel dummies! Snarky team rivalries! And some totally improbable pairings make it curiously compelling visual junk food.
anotheranon: (Default)

  • 09:48:25: RT @Alltop: "Love me, please": Cat versus computer http://om.ly/BGMYm
  • 12:56:42: RT @librarianbyday: The Four Most Valuable Lessons I Learned in 2010 http://t.co/SnkOkRQ
  • 16:51:18: RT @mactavish: RT @jamesmalach: Today I learned that Gary Numan is 13 days older than Gary Oldman - which makes Numan the Oldman and Old ...
  • 21:54:36: It's jarring how much I remember from #twinpeaks - enough to "get" the #psych tribute episode tho I never watched regularly (?!)

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  • 09:10:25: Early and cold and windy...again. Getting tired of this!
  • 09:10:54: RT @dustdaughter: No offense, but I REALLY hope you're wrong. Wasn't last winter bad enough? RT @Roqulere: Shit this is going to be a h ...
  • 10:31:41: RT @KnightLAT: Good story on the conservative activist who 'manufactured the outrage' against the Smithsonian show "Hide/Seek" http://bi ...
  • 10:33:22: RT @lili_bird: Fencing is certainly one of the more elegant sports, stands to reason why @TimMorehouse understands decorum & appropriate ...
  • 10:36:43: RT @amhistorymuseum: Portrait of Stephen Colbert will go back on view at the museum starting December 26, 2010. http://ow.ly/3mixk Welc ...
  • 11:58:57: RT @geekfeminism: Laurian’s Living the Impostor Syndrome: One of the many awesome women I met at Grace Hopper posted this experien... ht ...
  • 11:59:20: RT @danphilpott: I think I'd buy a GPS device just to get Brian Blessed's voice doing autonav directions: http://bit.ly/ii2w6I
  • 12:04:12: These are FANTASTIC: http://www.littlehottieswarmers.com/ . Not a paid endorsement, just a satisfied customer.
  • 13:05:42: RT @mightymur: RT @Tabz: Firefly Between the Lines Auditions end on the 18th! Get yours in! http://fireflybetweenthelines.com/
  • 15:11:49: RT @io9: Dec. Books Bring Guerrilla Tailoring, Alchemy, and Plenty of Zombies http://io9.com/5708818/ - guerilla #tailor ! #fashion #costume
  • 17:30:12: RT @dcwomenkicknass: My thoughts on Paul Levitz saying superhero stories are "more appealing to boys" http://tumblr.com/xwyzmr2kt

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miscellanea

Dec. 7th, 2010 06:02 pm
anotheranon: (Default)

  • Queering SFF: Best of 2010 - I've not had time to read any of these, but perhaps some of you have or would like to. Agree? Disagree? Additions/subtractions? In the comments...

  • WikiLeaks and the Long Haul: "...[Shirky's] personal view is that there is too much secrecy in the current system, and that a corrective towards transparency is a good idea. I don’t, however, believe in total transparency, and even more importantly, I don’t think that independent actors who are subject to no checks or balances is a good idea in the long haul." Disclaimer: I've not kept up on this story as I'd like, but I have noticed the discussion about it has become, as many are, polarized into good/bad, either/or. This is a little more nuanced.

  • A Nude Awakening: The TSA and Privacy. Conveys what I've been saying elsewhen in less coherent ways, namely, that the current TSA policy is invasive and often humiliating while doing little that will actually make air traffic more secure. I was scanned on the way to Vegas and while I was irritated at the x-ray I pitied the TSA staff more - despite the handwringing over potential perving, I doubt they like the scan/pat any more than travelers do.

  • What's behind the American fascination with British royalty? Seriously, what? I was a royal watcher as a kid but in my defense I was 8 when Charles and Di got married and remember most of the coverage as oohing and ahing over the dress, the church, the carriage, the fairytale. I can see the appeal in a sense of continuity between the generations, a kind of "national family" to see born, grow up, get married, etc. but Hollywood offers just as much glitz and drama, without the old-fashioned snobbiness (maybe that's it?)

  • Steve Buscemi's controlled gangster: (Spoiler alert) D. and I have become overnight fans of Boardwalk Empire for it's quality writing and shades-of-grey characters. This is an examination of how skinny fish-faced Buscemi sells the Nucky Thompson lead.


anotheranon: (fasthardfandom)
I'm enjoying True Blood more than I ought.

I've only read a couple of the books and last season didn't quite "grab" me, but this season scratches the same "silly-sexy-gory-scary-ohmygodtheydidn't" itch that Lexx used to. It's camp and horror but not quite either, perhaps because it's so firmly planted in the real world (let's face it, if vampires did exist, there would totally be ads like this cluttering up our screen margins. The viral marketing for this show has been fantastic).

For example, the King of Mississippi manages to be both menacing and hilarious during his scene-stealing speechifying (how does a 3,000 year old vampire have a Cajun accent? Who knows? Who cares?):



I know some of y'all watch ;) Please share your criticisms, witticisms, fan art/fic/whatever, more aca-fannery in the comments, 'cos I'm sure I'm missing something.
anotheranon: (writing)
I caught up with some tv while folding 2 weeks of laundry:

Leverage: how I love Timothy Hutton and his ensemble casts! "I'm having....feelings....about pretzels". Nathan needs to stop hitting the sauce though, and Archie Goodwin should give him a comb.

True Blood: am I the only person on Team Alcide? I've not read the books with him in it but HBO's version seems like a nice guy in a bad situation. Reminds me a little of Jayne, with more brains and less grumpiness (and lamentably less chest hair - can't a bear er, were, just be a were?)

Speaking of Firefly Warehouse 13's co-stars pushed all my geeky buttons this week :) Plus, H. G. Wells!

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