Thursday, November 3, 2011
I just got home a little while ago because I was out of town today bringing the Saab to a friend’s house for indoor winter storage. After a nice drive out to the country followed by a relaxing GO train ride back to town reading a sad graphic novel about canine cosmonaut Laika, I was walking home from the subway. At Bloor and Dundas when the light changed to “walk” I began crossing and a moment later, literally two feet in front of me, an SUV comes flying through the red light. Barely after entering the intersection it struck the front of the car that was driving past me on my left with a loud bang. The collision was close enough that if I’d reached out my arm I could have touched the point of impact from where I stood. A second later there was an even bigger bang when the SUV, continuing perpendicular across the flow of traffic, struck a second car in the other direction’s lane of traffic, hitting the car square in the driver’s side door. Then both the SUV and this second car smashed into the corner across from me, with the car also striking the telephone pole. The SUV driver stumbled out but I’m not sure how badly hurt the driver of the other car was — possibly quite badly.
If I was not walking slowly, walking with a cane, I might have been a few feet further into the crossing by the time the careless driver did his dirty work and almost certainly would have been struck at the SUV’s highest speed of the accident, crushing me between it and the first car it hit. Then maybe the fat lady who started crying with her mouth agape while watching it might have had something more obvious to power her sobs. Maybe I can add this to my short list of good things this disease has done for me along with my handicapped parking permit. But seriously universe, don’t you think I have enough brushes with death? At least life is interesting.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Ooops, I just forgot to tell my hosting company my new credit card number, so they’ve been trying to charge a stolen card and got sick of it while I was gone and pulled the plug on my sites while I was down south visiting Nefarious for Halloween. Which was lots of fun, although the actual trick or treating actually got rained out — not that the rain stopped any of us. Nefarious used her candy bag (traditional pillowcase) and dragged myself, Rachel, and Matt (her boyfriend) until we were soaked to the bone and most of her makeup was washed off. But the whole thing was lots of fun as was the visit — although the travel was odd so I wanted to mention it.
First of all, when I was at the airport on Friday I got bodychecked by one of Rob Ford’s entourage! Seriously, I’m walking to my gate, limping along with my cane as always, and I notice the Blob and his gang (recently anointed “World’s Worst Person” by Olbermann) heading toward me. He really is hard to miss because he is much sweatier and pinker than the piggish photos would make you assume. Remarkable. Anyway, since they were steamrollering right at me taking up most of the hallway I did my best to get out of the way but the guy on the cane didn’t move fast enough for them and the outer member of his entourage gave me a solid shouldercheck without slowing down or an excuse me. Should I have expected anything more?
On the way back, I discovered that I have had my flight status changed to “SSSS” — Secibdary Security Screening Selection, which is a sort of soft no-fly list or something like that. I asked everyone along the way whether this is a permanent thing, or if it’s a single-flight random thing, or something else, and no one was able to give me an answer — no one knew — which is not surprising since it seems to have all been set up behind closed and locked doors without oversight. I suppose I will try and make some more calls but I’m dubious as to finding anything out. I guess I will find out on my next flight (three weeks, although that one avoids US airspace so now that I think about it, those flights may not be affected) if I should expect “extra screening”. Today I was aggressively searched at every checkpoint — meaning hand searches of my luggage (which found nothing, and allowed my long sharp metal spikes that I use for carving clay to travel carry on — so I don’t think it’s related to any of my adventures traveling with dubious objects and testing those limits, which was the first thing that crossed my mind of course), full scans, and a full pat-down. The “yup, that’s my penis” sort of scan. That said, everyone was very nice and I didn’t feel abused or molested — mostly just annoyed and bored. But I would like to get to the bottom of it. I did have a nice chat with one of the guys feeling me up about the legal status of branding in Virgina after he asked about my white ink facial tattoo which he thought might have been a brand (a common misconception). I haven’t checked what he told me, but he was telling me that branding is not legal there although some shops are fighting the law, and that the law dates back to slavery-era laws stopping cruelty against slaves like branding them as cattle would be.
Other than that, I was hoping (perhaps on a long-shot) to get some audio player advice. I’m reading Nefarious books which I record to MP3 files and send to her. Right now the solution is just to email them, but I’m wondering if there is a stand-alone audio-player (she needs a desktop stereo solution anyway) that has some sort of a drop-box folder? Something that would like me send files to her stereo for her to listen to. oes anyone know if that exists? Obviously it could be done inexpensively with a low-end computer, but that’s not the solution I’m seeking.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Argh, I feel like I just got off an airplane and now I have to get back on one first thing in the morning… and I haven’t even begun to pack yet, ack, ack, aaaack. Hopefully my plane is on time because I’m making it into town just in time to do Nefarious’s Halloween makeup for some school event (this picture was from my last visit there at the amusement park). I feel like I have done almost nothing this week which is unfortunate because I had a lot to do. I haven’t even posted all my new creations but I think I have at least gotten one from each new design posted. I think I’m getting knocked over by one of my medications, making me feel like I’m getting run over by truck in my sleep. Sleep has got to be one of the most important factors in staying healthy. On one hand I’m very lucky and almost always sleep well, but I feel like sometimes one can sleep “too well” and wake up sore for not having moved. Like bed sores junior.
Anyway, I really must pack.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Caitlin pointed out to me a relevant article in the Toronto Star — “Unlimited Free Parking, Anywhere, Anytime” — about abuse of handicapped parking permits. I actually had no idea that parking was free in Toronto! While I appreciate it, I don’t get why my parking should be free… I just want a space close to where I’m going. Not looking for a handout. Just the ability to use the same services and businesses as everyone else.
But I’m generally happy that the Star is doing these “stings” and catching people who are perfectly capable movers. To get a permanent handicapped parking permit (like what I have), you are supposed to have significant difficulty walking and walk with an aid. You don’t get it for being fat or being old, yet it seems like almost everyone I see with these permits is abusing it. There are a lot of parking lots where there is never handicapped parking available, yet when I watch the spots, it’s a rarity to see the person having any difficulty walking let alone a cane or other walking aid. By every visible standard they are completely mobile. Yes, I get that there are people who fall through the cracks, but there are half a million of these permits in Ontario alone. The reality is that most family doctors are pushovers and sign off on these permits for everyone who asks, and unfortunately there are way too many old people who think that they deserve special rights just because they’re old. Really bothers me and I wish there was some accountability for this fraud. If I had to make a ballpark guess, I would go so far as to say that well over 80% of all permanent handicapped parking permits were obtained fraudulently.
Anyway… Here are a couple of the learning exercises I did today with using soldering to mount the gemstones in eye sockets. That is, building up the socket around the gem to hold it in place. Because pewter is a brittle metal it’s not as simple as just using a burnisher to bend a lip over the gem. I also did some enameling. The clown looks awesome — the photo doesn’t do it justice.
I’ve really got to get around to putting together a lightbox or something. My photos are really terrible.
Oh and I have been very negligent in not mentioning that I will be at the Zombie Walk on the 22nd — that’s this Saturday — and each of the big prizes for best zombie includes one of my zombie rings. I’ll bring a bunch along for winners to choose from but if anyone else wants to see them in person and buy one, just ask me. Click click for more:
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
I want to really quickly post a dirty montage of the jewelry that I finished making molds for today. This is only a portion of what I carved/sculpted while in the Cayman Islands. They are in a range of sizes but are on the smaller end this time. The biggest of this set are about a 9 or 10, and there are some quite small ones — size 3 perhaps even. So now there’s finally going to be some stuff for kids and people with tiny hands. This mask ring is one of the small ones:
So is this old man ring (Caitlin thinks it looks like an old elf):
And this snowman ring (surprisingly innocuous for a change, right?) is rounding out the tiny ones:
Don’t punch anyone wearing that one!
This evil clown ring is a little bigger but still very much on the small end:
The gross venous eyeball ring is bigger though:
As is this oldschool toy robot ring:
The last ring is this silly exercise in ego stroking. No, it’s not a crazy hobo serial killer.
And finally, I also made a zombie pendant (or keychain). It’s solid and quite heavy, at least in comparison to the rings above which are all thin-walled and very light in comparison to some of my earliest designs. You can click to zoom in on this last picture but not the others:
Tomorrow I’ll be catching up on all my shipping and order fulfillment, so depending on how my day goes I will endeavor to get these new designs officially measured and added to the shop. Maybe I will do some plating or enameling first, like the clown’s nose or hair perhaps…
