Definitely (not) a mimic!

 This 100% innocent-looking treasure chest is a blind roll box, made based on the video and idea by DM Scotty of DM's Craft (If you're into making your own stuff, see the video below - he makes some cool stuff). I took his idea a bit farther and turned it into a mimic - reminding the players that this could come back to bite them.

Link here in case your browser has trouble here

I started out with a medium acrylic brown, mixed with a lot of water.

A. LOT. of water. 

(I just got a small set of acrylic paints, nothing fancy)

 Then I painted over the whole thing lightly with an even more watered-down darker brown, painting with the grain of the wood to make the texture pop. 

After that, I drew on an eye, snarling mouth and tongue in pencil, which I then painted over with more acrylic paint.

Then I cut a piece of felt so that a few pieces fit the bottom, sides and top of the inside of the box. I used a rotary, but scissors work just fine.

And now all that's left is to have a player put in their d20 or 2, have them shake it up, and take a look to see if they get away with their shenanigans.

Stare Down!

"Mom, what is this freak doing in my room!" They both said, equally baffled...

I wish I could explain the irony to them, that to each of them, the other is so vastly different that they can't understand this strange creature looking back at them.

(Magic is also waiting for her food to warm up and telling Kitana to leave her mouse alone, something like this happens pretty much every time I feed her - which means her tank is easier for Kitana to see into)

Tantalus Depths : my review

     Sooo I have a confession...

     I've had an advance copy of this book for a while now. I kept meaning and meaning to get around to it, and kept having other things demand my attention. Then I FINALLY (sorry, Evan) sat down with it last week, and once that finally happened I could not put it back down - tragically exempting work, sleep and food.

     Fast forward a couple of days. I hit the apex of the story. At almost 1am with about 5 chapters left to go, I grabbed a glass of wine, my pajamas and the book, and settled in to finish the adventure before I went to bed, white knuckling nearly as much as the heroine of the story.

     What is this story about? A mining crew are sent out to establish a colony on a planet, Tantalus 13, which will stake a claim on that area of the planet for their employers, Exotech Industries. An AI unit known as a SCARAB (Self-Constructing Autonomous Resource Acquisition Base) was sent ahead 2 years before to serve as a base for the crew and assist them in their mission. Once the crew reaches the planet however, Mary Ketch, the mission's pilot, starts noticing oddities about the planet and SCARAB. Soon the rest of the crew start picking up on oddities within the planet - and determine that they have to explore the new findings - and find out what is hidden within Tantalus 13. But in doing so they will find themselves in very deep over their heads, and SCARAB seems to be acting strange... which with an AI, is never a good sign. When patterns start to show up in the crews' data files and SCARAB's behavior, some disconcerting questions start to come up - but who can Mary voice them to, when SCARAB hears every word she speaks?

SCARAB drone

       Cleverly and vividly written, with elements from classic sci-fi, solid scientific footing, a touch of horror/thriller, and a strong female protagonist who would make Joss Whedon proud, Tantalus Depths will draw you in until you're as deep into the story as the characters exploring the unnatural world.

     Pre-orders and more information are available at https://www.inkshares.com/books/tantalus-depths, and you can find Tantalus Depths on facebook as well here.

Growing lettuce from roots

Take a whole head of lettuce with some roots still attached, and cut off the leaves to use for salad or sandwiches.

There should be 1-2 inches of green left above the roots

Find a nice spot of earth with plenty of sunlight, or put a pot of soil in the same area. Dig a hole deep enough to place the roots into comfortably.

Place the plant in the hole, and cover with the loose dirt from the hole. Leave some of the green sticking out of the hole.

Soak the ground around the roots, and I mean soak it, as the water helps the roots adjust and avoid shock. After the first couple of days just make sure the ground stays moist enough for the plant to grow well.

If the roots take well, after a couple of weeks your lettuce will have some lovely leaves sprouting off of its base. After a few weeks the plant will be ready for you to harvest a few leaves at a time to let the plant continue producing, or to harvest the whole head at once.

Garden day

I got to hang out with a friend and get some gardening done, both with her and at my place.


(The mom I was helping is the same person who makes these awesome soaps at Second Chance Beads)

We got some later plants into her beds (beans and peppers) and got some tomato plants moved to their new homes, then got to sit on the porch eating salads that were basically grown in the garden.

After that, she sent me home with some veggies and herbs...

Miles loved the catnip, which I've since moved outside to avoid having both of the cats get insanely stoned and wreck the apartment.

 

I separated the lettuce leaves from their bases, which I've replanted (I'll do a post later on replanting lettuce and other veggies from cuttings)

Soaking the leaves to get all the dirt off!

In single-serving mason jars to use for lunches - just add meat, dressing, etc

Some lettuce cuttings, planted near a tomato plant

I also got a few Roma tomato plants from her, since too many were growing for her to use up even with 8 mouths in the house.

Roma

There are also some other plants that I got in over the past week, including some flowers, and one very adorable little bug-eating guardian 

Some shade-loving annuals; this bed is under a tree

See the toad?

The little guard is sitting behind the flower here

Some oregano and sage in the window

Basil plant

Squash

Chives grown from cuttings, and a small lettuce started last week

 Today was great timing to plant, since there we got some rain this afternoon once we were done getting the plants in. Now I get to sit back and chill for a bit before heading out for a crazy party, and by crazy party I mean board games with some of the coolest nerds I know. Miles would rather just hang out here and watch Lord of the Rings though...

Exercise "assistants"

I got some "help" this week while doing some indoor exercises, so here are a few of the shenanigans...

We're just watching, gotta make sure you know what you're doing!

Wrestling match!

I didn't need the mat at all, go ahead and stay right there Kitana.

One-sided conversations

I have a friend who has helped me through a lot of hard times and decisions in my life, someone whom I tend to go to when I'm not sure what to do and need advice. I've listened to him, sometimes agreed sometimes disagreed, but I've always respected his thoughts on the matters he's willing to speak on. His opinions come through loud and clear, and he has a brilliant sense of humor. Yet no matter what I say to him, he never listens.

It's not his fault, he isn't being rude or uncaring - he died in 1969, 20 years before I was even born. His name is C.S. Lewis, and through his books and other writings I've had countless one-sided conversations with him.

It's amazing how much someone who wrote books over 40 years ago now can still affect lives today. I was one of many whose lives C.S. Lewis touched first through the stories in Narnia. In the first book I read, of children who found themselves embroiled in a war, in a land they didn't understand, yet they find themselves assigned the task of helping to bring the war to an end, he grabbed my attention. Yet to my astonishment, the children were not going to be the ones to finish the battle, it was the Lion who would come to the rescue when victory seemed impossible. My mom saw how much I adored this schoolbook, and after the school year ended she handed me a box set with all 7. I've been besotted with this magical world he created ever since, and in particular the character of Aslan, whose personality helped my child's mind (and now, even my adult mind) see different aspects of Jesus' personality.

In college I got into some of Lewis's more grown up works, starting with a book group that read The Great Divorce. I got another 7 book set from my mom of his - The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics. While I still haven't finished all 7 of these books (which I intend to do this year), the ones I have read have helped me to examine issues and questions in my own life, and the larger world,  from different angles than I had been able to on my own, or in discussions with friends. Mere Christianity and The Great Divorce in particular shaped how I view the afterlife, and living in this life to the fullest. Screwtape's letters were a mental exercise in the futility of trying to understand the perspective of pure evil, which is so amazing at being "consistently inconsistent" that my brain had to pause at various times, yet is so obvious and self-serving that you can't help but understand the viscous motives.

These are only some of his writing that has touched my own life, not even getting into the vast body of work he made that has gripped readers for decades, changing and shaping lives even after the author has left this world.

To everyone out there who's ever thought about writing but thought you had nothing worth writing, I ask you to keep this in mind - you never know who your writing may touch, nor how long after you write it someone may find it and find hope or advice in your writings. You have no idea how many one-sided conversations you will hold with people, conversations that can shed light on minds in places and times you may never reach otherwise. 

Short Caturday Blurb

This is what happens when I come home from a weekend trip:

"Nope, you can't touch this bag again. When you touch it you leave."

Sorry for the silence

I actually had to make a post with the same name a while ago, before I started using Blogger. Go figure. (Apologies ahead of time - this may get a little bit vent-y)

It's been a while since I made anything that wasn't a quick project either meant to be used right away (because I love to Macgyver everything), or just to give away quickly. Part of that was crazy busy times, especially while I was able to help out at Triple T for a while with the horses (that I miss like crazy), and part was high levels of stress from job- and roommate-related issues. I've gotten to work on and off on a few things, but mostly I'd get frustrated with them and frog them before I finished working on them.

*sigh* Such is life. I can't go back and make the time repeat itself more favorably, but I can pick up and dust myself off.

Once my roommate got herself evicted (this month) and I decided that for the time being I wasn't interested in having a new roommate, I converted the 2nd bedroom into a studio/guest room

So now I have a designated place for crafting

I needed a new dishtowel, so I went ahead and found a fun but simple pattern and made a small project that was nearly impossible to get too mad at before I finished it.

And I picked up a craft I haven't done in years for fun

Of course, I've also had some *help* remembering to have some fun once in a while too, and some help exercising.

     

I've also had to set up a schedule for working out, including running, which I've never liked before, 3x/week (Thank you Zombies, Run! I'm currently using the couch to 5k version, on week 5)

Right in my back yard, and the farthest I can be from traffic

So here's to picking up where I left off

Mere Christianity, Book 1 Part 1: C.S. Lewis, and Law of (human) Nature

"Whenever you find a man who says he does not believe in a real Right and Wrong, you will find the same man going back on this a moment later. He may break his promise to you, but if you try breaking one to him he will be complaining 'It's not fair'..." C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

*A note on the context of this book - Mere Christianity is based on 3 radio talks C.S. Lewis gave during the years in which World War II was taking place, and there are multiple allusions to the war and the Nazis as a frame of reference to the Law of Human nature, and how if no such law existed the actions of the 3rd Reich could not be considered to be evil, which as much as we look back on now with astonishment, imagine what it was like for those who found out about it while it was happening.*

In the very beginning of this book, Lewis discusses the difference between 2 different types of natural laws - physical laws, which compel obedience (the laws of physics, chemistry, etc) and the "law" of human nature - a common standard which can be, and frequently is, dismissed by individuals who would be expected to obey its commands. To this he attributes the human tendency to quarrel, pointing out that without a common standard people could certainly fight, but could not quarrel over fairness or rightness. This last part, the law of human nature, is what he bases the arguments he puts forth in this section of the book.

Lewis seeks at this point in this search, without looking at the Bible, or any form of religion or god just yet, to find some ground in human history for a common Right and Wrong, this law that, while may be adjusted off be some degrees in some societies, is still present in nearly all of known human history. He asks the reader to "Think of a country where people were admired for running away in battle, or where a man felt proud of double-crossing all the people who had been kindest to him." He finds it as astounding as finding a civilization where math worked entirely differently, and I'm inclined to agree with him. There are certainly civilizations that have praised the cleverness of a man who double crossed someone who had done him harm, but few would argue that doing so to an honest person was the right thing to do.

He then brings up the fact that, while most of us expect or demand that others follow the Law of Nature, we each fail miserably at it ourselves. Even more so, when we do so, we more often than not find a reason to excuse ourselves of the shortcoming, but we do know that we have broken it. We may blame it on another person, or outside circumstances, but when someone does the same to us we tend as human beings to hold them to the standard that we just fell short of ourselves.

He proceeds to point out that in the case of inanimate objects, if we call them "bad", what we mean is that they are not the way we would have them, not that they have actually done something wrong. Whereas when we consider a person "bad" (think of someone like a Hitler perhaps), we certainly DO mean that they have done something very wrong - they have killed people, or have stolen money, or committed another act that has caused us to decide that they are bad, there is a standard of Right and Wrong, and they have definitely fallen into the category we would call Wrong.

What could cause this fairly uniform standard? What force in the universe could give us a moral compass, without forcibly compelling us to obey its decree of "do this, but not that"? There must be something, which at this point Lewis refers to as "Something Behind." Next week I want to take a look at what he thinks we can guess at, from how we know human nature works, about this "Something Behind."



<<This came out a little later than I'd hoped; Thursday snuck up on me after a particularly nasty week of allergies. Next week I'll make sure I get things written before Thursday, and schedule the post. >>

Fetch!

When I say Miles is a dog... this is a huge part of why.

This is not a new video, but this is a constant occurrence. Whether he has a ball, a hair tie or an actual cat toy, this is his favorite thing to do.

Starting Mere Christianity next week

Starting on next Thursday, I'll be going through Mere Christianity. The book is broken into 4 parts, so I'll spend the first 2 weeks on the first part, then probably moving to part 2 for two weeks, and so on for 8 weeks. I will be doing more commentary than summary (I hope) on the writings, so it may be a bit confusing for anyone who hasn't read the section I'm currently talking about.

Coming soon - Book "club"

For a while now, I've wanted to start a reading group, but because my schedule is somewhat reversed to most peoples' schedules, it hasn't been practical. But the wonderful thing about doing things online is that they aren't always bound by time the same way as meeting in person; I can post at midnight on Thursday, or 3 am on Sunday, and another person can read it at 10 am the next morning, or in 2 weeks or years.

That being said, I would like to keep it on a regular schedule. I'm leaning toward a post weekly on Thursdays at the moment. I would love any and all input from anyone who would be interested in joining in a discussion of a book week by week, what sort of books would most interest people for an interactive group-read, that sort of thing.

Right now I'm leaning toward "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis for the first book, as he's my favorite author (I grew up a Narnian) and his writing is both direct and witty in my opinion, but I don't know yet if I would go by chapters, or do half of a section at a time - basically how best to break up the book without taking a year to dissect it, but taking enough time to allow for an open discussion of the various topics he brings up.

Another thing I want to point out - I'm just a person like anyone else who is reading this blog, and I don't pretend to know better than anyone else what C.S. Lewis, or any other writer, meant on any given point all the time, or to have a monopoly on understanding any text for that matter. There are a lot of points where he and I agree, a handful where we disagree, and a few that I haven't gotten to think about as hard as I'm sure he did. So comments completely disagreeing with anything I say are 100% ok and awesome. As I've pointed out to a few people who know me well, I don't even agree with myself 100% of the time, and listening to different viewpoints is a good practice. So if I say something that you don't agree with, please feel free to disagree openly, but only one rule - PLEASE keep it respectful to all parties concerned.

There are a lot of other books I would like to do in the future, and not all of them are based on Christian doctrines or beliefs. Some are novels like "Tuesdays with Morrie", "Dewey the Library Cat" or "The Fault in our Stars", others are more like "Mere Christianity" and "H is for Hawk," going more directly into real life rather than seeing it through a fictional lens. My own take on them will, in all likelihood, be flavored by my faith, as anyone's life should reflect their faith. This is an unavoidable side affect of any worldview; like wearing glasses it will affect the way one sees the world and everything in it. I will not, however, bash anyone else's beliefs, and all respectful opinions are more than welcome.

The reason I put the word "club" in quotation marks is that the word club has a tendency to give an exclusive impression, and I want the reading here to be inclusive.

One thing I don't plan on doing in this section of the blog is a full weekly summary of the reading; I would like to be able to comment on the writing, but I don't want to only paraphrase any writer's book, so don't expect this blog to be a version of "Cliff's notes".

I will give a quick summary on Thursday this week on what and when I plan to start, as I'd like to give anyone interested time enough to grab the book and start reading before I start the actual book club/commentary/thing, but right now I'm thinking I would start Thursday next week with the first section of the book. But for anyone interested, I greatly look forward to reading with you and speaking with you both in the blog and the comments. I'd also love to hear your thoughts on other books to read (and would be very excited to find titles I haven't read yet to look through)

Hopefully I'll be able to start posting pictures of my work again soon; alas, the projects that I've started up so far are Christmas presents that I don't want to put pictures of online yet, lest the surprise be spoiled. So while those particular projects will have to wait until late December to be posted, I'm hoping to start a couple to-sell projects later this week that I can share with you all.

1st Caturday - Getting a buddy for Miles

Late summer this year, my friend and roommate got the news she was waiting for - there was an opening for her to move closer to where her daughter lives, in her budget, and in a nice area. Which was awesome news - and meant time for me to find a new roommate for me, and one for Miles.

Miles is an awesome dog who happens to inhabit the body of a cat.

He is playful, snuggly, knows exactly when I need to be distracted from life... but I can't live alone with him. He needs someone here when I'm not, and I work full time. He and I lived alone for about 6 months, and he hated it, and whenever I was home I had him all over me 24/7. When we moved in with another friend who had a cat, he got a lot calmer and happier.

Fast forward to living with my last roommate, who has 2 cats and 2 dogs, Miles was in heaven. He always had someone to play with and was never lonely, though sometimes he would hide in my room - even extroverts need "me" time!

Knowing she and her pets were moving soon, I started screening people for roommate compatibility and found a match - but no pets.

While everything was going through, one day I looked out of the kitchen window while I was getting lunch ready for work, and saw my roommate standing in the driveway talking to a neighbor, with a very uncomfortable look on her face and a black tail with a white tip swishing in her arms.

I walked outside to ask her what was going on, and she turned toward me with a very small kitten wiggling in her hands, and told me "I was just explaining that I can't keep her..." and gave me a tentative look. The other lady couldn't keep her, and my roommate already had 4 animals who were going with her on her cross-country move. I couldn't resist the little black and white face staring at me, and asked to hold her.

Seriously, how do you say no to this face?.

She settled right down, though she was rooting in my hands for the food smell and had a very sore foot. I had my roommate bring out a piece of turkey for her, and decided that since I would have had to find a friend for Miles anyways, it may as well be this desperate creature looking for a home in my arms. I named her Kitana after watching her attack the food, and her vehement protests at anything that touched her hurt paw, including any animals that got too close for about a week. She spent most of that first week alone in my room healing before she was ready for the other animals.

Her namesake, from the Mortal Kombat game series

We initially thought the sore foot was broken, but on closer inspection there was a piece of kitten tooth embedded in the bottom, probably from playing with a litter mate. I pulled it out and coated the hole with triple antibiotic ointment. (Yes this is a fairly common problem, and yes it can turn serious, she went to the vet the day after the tooth came out to get stronger antibiotics and a checkup.)

While all of this was happening, the person who was supposed to become my roommate sent me a text on the day he was supposed to come look at the place - he'd found another place, for cheaper, and was moving in that same day. Annoyance and last-minute scramble aside, a neighbor had a cousin who needed a place on the same day I needed a new roommate, and who also happened to be laid-back and nerdy too, which is obviously pretty sweet. Ironically, she's not much of a cat person by her own admission, but Kitana and she have developed a pretty adorable friendship, and my new roommate thinks she's more of a dog than a cat. In fairness, so is her big brother.

Of course, he's already taught her the finer points of "helping" me while I'm making things with yarn.