VOTE.

Dear US friends, if you have not voted already, GO DO IT NOW. This is your right, your responsibility, and your duty to your fellow citizens.

Whomever you support,

PLEASE VOTE.

Time is Running Out

Here it comes.

Oh boy...

Have you voted yet? :3

Melts in Your Mouth, and Pretty Much Everywhere Else

I was going back through old things I had set up to post but didn't for some reason or another and I found this. Nikki sent me a most generous package earlier this summer, and I am still at a loss for how I can ever fulfill my debt of awesome and interesting things to her.

The Astounding Nikki, who I fear shall be an expat forever more, always sends me astounding things. Sometimes those astounding things are made of chocolate, a medium I hold in very high esteem. Delicious esteem, you might say. The local climate, however, is less... uh... respectful.

stock photo of the delicious and delightful "Happy Egg" of Great Britain that Nikki so thoughtfully sent me

aftermath of mailing a Happy Egg to the Arizona desert

I am pleased to report that in any physical format, Happy Eggs are delicious! Furthermore, their twee little faces, even when melted to the window of their packaging, remain perfectly adorable. The outcome of posting chocolate through the desert has never been more endearing (or more comedic) in my humble opinion.

For this and all other delights you send me, Astounding Nikki, please accept my sincere gratitude. I am without the means to thank you properly unless you should need a kidney someday. c:

The Fate of Birdy

M'lords and ladies, we have found our stoner cat.

I be.

That is, I remain extant. :D Yey.

Ku's most recent adventures include:

1. a foray into the world of stamp collecting (for reasons entirely aesthetic, a little compulsive, and not-at-all monetary)
2. experiments with paper glaze and similar dries-hard protective coatings
3. testing the patience of the St. Louis County library
4. owls
   
5. catnip, in that it has escaped the pot on the windowsill and is steadily conquering the backyard.

I have got a plan for that catnip, though... back shortly.

Japanese Festival 2008 (the aftermath thereof)

I am a goddamn Bon Odori dancer. Oh hell yes. d(>ω<)b

Ku is somewhere in this picture.

The Missouri Botanical Garden held it's annual Japanese Festival this past Labor Day weekend, and for the first time evar (EVAR~!) I got to participate. ^-^

My younger sister and I are first-year members of a local Tozan Ryu group (for dancing, not shakuhachi), and we were privileged to perform dances for the Obon festival along with the rest of the troupe and about 200 festival attendees who, bravely, accepted sensei's challenge to dance along with us.

Obon (お盆) is the big autumnal holiday in Japan. It's similar in intent to Dia de Los Muertos in Mexico, but different, of course, in style and execution. Obon comes with its own special music called ondo (音頭) and a collection of dances that are simply referred to as Bon odori (盆踊り), literally, "Obon dances." There are songs and correlating dances about all kinds of things, including (but not limited to) famous cities, coal miners, fireworks, traditional clothing, wishes for good fortune, and Pokemon.

Yes, Pokemon. And many other anime.

Besides dancing, there were lots of other lovely attractions as well:

Ikebana...

...and bonsai...

...and fans of kimono...

...and adorable Asian children...

...and a master of the deceptively difficult Japanese koma tops...

...and ♥origami♥...

...and a f*ck ton of Niki de Saint Phalle sculptures which are on loan to the gardens and have nothing to do with the Japanese festival, but were still photographically interesting...

...and more cosplayers than there should have been, so I didn't take pictures of them. XD

I hope you've all had an equally lovely weekend. If you should find yourself near St. Louis this autumn, please consider visiting the gardens; they're fantastic. 超すばらしい〜

The Best Website Ever, explained

Once upon a time, Ku went GISing around the 'net for some pictures of chickens, as she sometimes does, because she likes chickens.

All of a sudden, this appeared on the screen:

behold, "Ninjia Chicken" -- look closely, as there are manifold levels of incredibleness to be discovered

Naturally, Ku found this absolutely hilarious. She was soon on the homepage of Everyday Chicken, clicking about on all the awesomeness thereupon. For example, there was also:

...Skater Chicken...

...Architect* Chicken...

...and even this powerful reflection on chickenhood, one that speaks to our own existential quandaries.

Ku could not help but wonder, where did this site come from? Who drew the chickens? Why? Email did ensue.

FROM KU:
Dear Webmaster,

While looking for reference images for roosters, I did a GIS for "chicken gallery" and came up with your site.

AWESOME. Pure win. Seriously, this is hilarious. How long have you had this site up? Do you still update? (And how old were you when you started it?) I'd love to hear the story behind it... anyway, thanks for this little gem. Definitely worth the (tiny) bandwidth.

Your New Fan,
Ku

PS: I'd like to put in a request for a "pierat chicken" to go next to "ninjia chicken," please. XD


REPLY:

Sorry for the delayed email and thanks very much for sending me ideas for new chickens. It really is fun when someone sees my website and takes the time to send me an email requesting more. =) I have had this website up for a while (about four years) and have received two requests (including yours).

When I created the website I think I was ten but my dad did all of the programming stuff, I just provided the drawings!

The first request was for the super chicken, and now the second is for the 'pierat'! I unfortunately haven't updated it very recently partly because I haven't really had a motivation, but now I do because another person wants more chickens.

In fifth grade art class we were asked to draw a farm scene. I asked a friend of mine (Mike) to draw a chicken and it looked very funny - though it didn't look much like a chicken. We had fun later in the year drawing chickens for the holidays.

Anywho thanks again for sending me an email, because I might not have the chicken up soon because I'm on summer break so I put the picture in this email. =P

Hope you enjoy,
Robert L. Pringle (like the chip [but I'm not related =( ])

And that is the story of Everyday Chicken, the Best Website Ever.

~The End~

*I suspect this is in fact Archaeologist Chicken, or perhaps Architect Chicken is curious as to whom could have left bare footprints in the loose soil of his construction site, when health and safety standards clearly state that steel-toed boots must be worn at all times.

I will really, seriously get back on-topic soon. For certainly. Next post, I swear.

The Best Website Ever

Currently, I am convinced that it is this.

(Back on-topic with an update soon.)

Of French Knots

Well, back to life in Missouri.

Obama and McCain are somewhere in the vicinity, as are some angry cumulonimbi. Between dodging the heavier periods of rain and giving creative answers to the pollsters who call every hour ("I'm an abolitionist Whig who strongly supports the legalization of absinthe"), I have been fuffing about with string and things.

One thing I still like to do with string is make tiny little compositions entirely out of French knots (フランスノット).

French knots are a terrifically easy embroidery stitch that, when clustered together, make a cool, carpet-like texture. It's like pointillism with thread.

Red dogwood branch on a scrap of denim twill... well, it kind-of looks like dogwood. Just like pointillism, French knots don't allow for the sharpest detail.

Geometric flower on cotton shirting... or at least I think this is shirting. I don't know enough about fabric. As a base for French knots, just use a cheap, square-weave cotton fabric.

Even more fun than making figures, in my opinion, is just making little fields of French knots in different colors. It's good for using up all the little scraps of floss and yarn you might have left over from other crafts. You can stretch your finished abstracts over things, too, and make little bitty artworks.

A tiny pillow, about 3cm square, covered in some knots. It's fascinating, if completely useless.


A pattern of knots stretched over a pebble.

You can make French knots on any fabric with a moderately close weave that doesn't stretch. IE, gauzes, gossamer and knits are no good. (ガーゼ、ニットなどが使いにくいので、木綿を使った方がいいと思います.) Your knots will slip through to the wrong side of the fabric when you pull to tighten them, and you'll get frustrated and give up on French knots forever, and that'd be a damn shame. Use plain weave cotton instead. Beyond that, all you need is a needle (longer ones are easier to work with) and some bits of colorful string/yarn/thread/floss etc. (木綿以上、長い針と色々なきれいな糸しかいらない.)

The stitch, if you missed it, can be found here. Very simple.
(簡単ですので、フランスノットをやってみてください、ね。たのしみして！）

EDIT: Here's one more example.

Sources d'Quex

Pinks and greens, and eff yeah, I get to use a stock photo that I've wanted to use for so long. Damn. Feels good. やっとこのブログを変えたんだ。ウ・レ・シ〜〜〜。。。。っすが、このスタイルもちょっといやだね。-_-; まだまだ変えなきゃ。

When I'm not sleeping or making material stuff, I like to hunt around for stock images, brushes, textures, typographic elements, etc for the making of immaterial stuff, i.e, digital graphics. (Technically, that is what I should be doing first and foremost; sleep and material goods can come later.)

One delicious place to find said elements is Stock.Xchng. Lots of free stocks for student work or mock-ups. Also a good source for quality reference images (better than an open GIS, anyway).

楽しみしてね〜 ヾ(｡･w･｡)

... --- ...

Fact: Ku enjoys codes.

Fact: Today is the one-hundredth anniversary of the SOS.

Ergo: Ku is happy.

Morse was one of the first I ever learned, and it's still one of the easiest to cypher, excepting the fact that if one doesn't use it daily, one tends to forget it.

...which is exactly why we have the internet.

Image shamelessly stolen from NASA. Thanks, NASA.

PS: Also, a very happy 150th to Darwin's Theory of Evolution. ^3^

PPS: I'll get back to tutorials soon, I swear.

I hate cross stitch

...but I enjoy having a grid to work on. Cross stitch fabric is a good medium for exactly two things, as far as I am concerned:

1) pixel art
2) visual representations of code

Binary, for example.

This makes me a nerd. -_-;
And if you can read that, you're a nerd too. Let's be friends!

˙˙˙sıɥ⊥ pɐǝᴚ uɐↃ no⅄ ɟI

˙pɐǝɥ ɹnoʎ ɟo uoıʇɐʇuǝıɹo ǝɥʇ ɥʇıʍ ƃuoɹʍ ƃuıɥʇǝɯos ǝq ʇɥƃıɯ ǝɹǝɥʇ˙˙˙

XD ˙sʞɔıɹʇ ǝʇıɹoʌɐɟ ʎɯ ɟo ǝuo ɯoɹɟ 'ʎɐp s,ʃooℲ ʎddɐH

Small Amusements

If you, like me, are easily entertained, here is a game to play.

1) Turn on the radio.
2) Tune in to a news/sports station.
3) Turn off the radio, get a slip of paper and a pencil, and get ready.
4) Flick the radio on briefly: listen for the first sentence or complete phrase you hear, then jot it down.
5) Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you have gathered sufficient material.
6) Send a letter to someone composed entirely out of your new lines, or, if you have a friend handy, try to have a civil conversation with everything you've written down.

Please note that this game is particularly entertaining when played between the hours of 3 and 6 in the morning.

In other news, the house smells like apple pie, and I heartily approve.