Red-Handed Jill

Most of us out-of-town pirates will be there the first weekend, so why don't we make it the first weekend? Ransom, Oderless Eye and Jacky Tar will be there then, as well as Iron Bess, Patt and myself (in the Tales encampment.)

Ooooh.... That is gorgeous! I did a bit more poking around - they've got some really nice armaments on that site.

From what I've observed, some people have the wherewithal to do this, but a real capacity for introspection is needed and that's the pervue of introverts. For example, I know a few people - all extroverts - who are always in the middle of some drama or another. And when things are going well, they will create some needless drama, because it just doesn't "feel" right if things are going smoothly. They always bemoan the fact that stuff always happens to THEM, never stopping to wonder why. It's always someone else or the universe or fate sticking it to them. If they were more introspective, they'd be looking within for the answer and then they'd be able to address it. In contrast, my life was rather stressful for awhile when I was young and I took steps to make it run more smoothly. When I had accomplished this, I found myself having the most horrific dreams where stuff kept going horribly wrong. I realised that my subconscious was too used to being in "stress mode" and I had to do something about that. So I worked through it and it hasn't been an issue for some time. I have a couple of friends who have gone through similar things and worked through them. Surprise, surprise - we are all introverts. We were able to recognise that the real issues lay within and we were able to change our own realities. I don't think it's impossible for extroverts to change their reality, but I think they need a lot more help to do so.

How about at noon? The public will be at the food vendor's booths, so it should be a bit less crowded.

But isn't that the nature of being human? Don't we all choose our own realities and live within them? (And create God in our own image? Okay - that's a whole other issue...) And with regards to pressure on the brain, if you mean physically, that makes a lot of sense. When I have migraines, all sorts of things happen, such as olfactory hallucinations or very blurry or grey peripheral vision. The blood vessels in the brain expand beyond what they should and press on certain parts. The pain is from the vessels and the side effects from the pressure. Some people say they see halos during migraines, which would explain A LOT of religious experiences. BTW - tigre del mar.

Why don't we all meet at the Tales camp, then? It's fairly centrally located and would make a good backdrop for the pictures.

A few years back, I found an onion bottle circa 1699 in fairly good condition and picked it up as a present for Jack. We've since gotten some reproductions and they definitely look different. Much lighter and the glass seems to have a different, I don't know - texture, for lack of a better word. I'm not sure you could truly reproduce a bottle to make it look like the genuine article from 300 years ago. But... we take the reproductions with us to reinactments because we don't want to risk the original.

Sleepy. Jack had to get up VERY early to catch a flight to San Diego this morning (as in 3:15...) And I'm not the sort of person who can just get right back to sleep. So after Jack left I tossed and turned for over an hour and then dozed off. I had a dream where I thought I heard someone in the house so I got up and fumbled for the sharpened machete I keep under the bed and when I opened the bedroom door, Jack was there and I was surprised to see him still at home. Then I woke up. The thing is, this dream was so vivid I really thought I was awake. It really threw me off that I had been dreaming. Then I was awake for awhile and eventually got to sleep for another half hour or so before having to get up for work.

^ Vancouver, BC - but that's a LONG weekend. < For just a regular weekend, Fort Bragg, California. V Pass the question

Thanks! Since I was looking to make a table for our encampment and not our dining room, it wasn't too difficult. I wouldn't recommend it for someone who has never used power tools before, but it wouldn't be a stretch for someone with decent carpentry skills. I've been trying to take pictures of my kitty but he constantly moves around. So many potentially great shots turned into blurs...

It looked like it might rain here, but that passed us by and now it's sunny. Just now finished the map table I was building for our encampment. I wanted it to be portable, look rustic and be relatively light. So, I went with pine, which unfortunately tends to warp. But... that makes the table look more rustic. It's tough to tell from the picture, but the top is stained in red mahogany and the frame and legs are black. And yes, that front leg is crooked - I threw them on quickly to take the pic; they are straight when tightened up properly.

Editing a development spec document. My company has discovered that I'm also a tech writer, so every document that leaves this company now goes through me...

Heh. Many years ago, a friend of mine was driving when his car conked out on him. He pulled over as far as he could, figured out was wrong and started working on it (apparently, it was something he could deal with right there.) He went to his trunk to grab his tools and an older man in a big boxy car drove right up to him and started honking and yelling at him. My friend indicated that his car had broken down and if the gent wouldn't mind, to just go around him (as there was no impediment to do so.) The guy threw a tantrum and kept demanding that my friend move his car NOW. After a couple of minutes of this, the guy suddenly moved his car forward so that my friend was pinned in between the two cars and this a$$hole started to laugh and make threats. My friend - who is extremely strong - cupped his hands together and brought them down on the guy's hood, creating a HUGE dent. The guy screamed that he would sue. My friend replied, "What - that your car was dented while you were trying to crush my legs? Good luck with that." The guy finally saw some sense and moved on.

I wish it worked that way... The thing is, more and more I feel as though I'm the only rational person on the road. The closest I get to road rage is saying something sarcastic to myself when another driver has done something really stupid. And then doing my best to put some distance between me and them. Although... if I had the power to move metal (like that Magneto guy in X-Men) I can't promise that I wouldn't lift and move an incompetent moron's vehicle to get it out of the way so that they don't impede other drivers with their stupidity.

I've been wondering why there are so many morons on the road lately. I thought it was because with school out, there are a lot more inexperienced drivers and distracted parents on the road and perhaps that's it, but a lot of what I've experienced lately hasn't fallen into either of those categories (except for that boy this morning who was all over the road.) This all happened in one day this week (there were actually several incidents that day - these are only the highlights): I was driving back to the office after a lunchtime errand and some idiot in an oversized tow truck was in the second-to-right lane. I was in the right lane. He suddenly realised that he had to exit pretty soon and he pulled ahead of me, but not enough to pass me. There was no way he could have missed the large white van that was three feet from my bumper (before the tow truck appeared I was trying to get away from that van.) The guy in the truck kept trying to move into my lane, but wouldn't speed up enough to clear my car - and I couldn't slow down because of the van. I pumped my brakes a few times and prayed that I wouldn't get rear-ended and eventually the guy in the truck sped up a bit and moved over to the exit. He had the gall to look over at me with a dirty look. I gave him my thousand yard stare and mouthed "MORON" at him. He recoiled a bit and moved on and I was able to get away from the other idiot in the van. Then, I made it back to my office complex and in the parking lot was this woman walking. However, she didn't appear to be going anywhere. She was walking diagonally, maximizing her ability to be in the way and then she turned to look at my car, slowed down and changed her angle so that she would be even more in the way. It's as if she wanted to be hit. I turned way over to the right and gave her a really wide berth, just in case she decided to run in front of my car. She turned and gave me a dirty look and continued to stare at me as I parked my car. I puzzled over this for awhile and then it occurred to me that there was a mental health hospital a couple of miles away and she was an escapee. By the time I realised this and found their phone number, she had disappeared. I hope they found her... On my commute home, I encountered several more idiots but managed to make it across the bridge in one piece. Then, I got on the connector to northbound 101 with the attendent metering lights. A woman in an SUV who had so far been driving like a rational person suddenly decided that she NEEDED to be in the left entrance lane, which was a carpool lane (yes, she was the only one in her vehicle.) She tried to side-swipe me, but I dodged her and then she did the same to another vehicle and managed to jam her way through the two lanes with other cars swerving out of her way. Then she sped right through the light. The thing is, when she was in her lane, she was one car away from the freeway - if she had stayed put, she would have made it onto the freeway faster. So I can't begin to guess why she did this. So then I made it to my exit and breathed a sigh of relief. Too soon, though. Two lanes of traffic made their way down Redwood Shores Parkway and passed through a green light (I was in the left lane.) Suddenly, a guy in a BMW waiting in the cross traffic felt that he had waited long enough and that red light didn't apply to HIM. So he turned right - directly into the traffic. He almost hit a minivan, but the driver miraculously was able to get out of the way. Then this jerk cut off someone else to move into the left lane. I was never so relieved to pull into my garage in my life!

I've been following this item and it's passed outside of what I'd pay for an axe - and the reserve hasn't been met. Drat! Sure is a nice axe, though...

Very high heels = not for me. Life is too damn short to risk the health of my feet, ankles, knees, back, etc. And I like my tendons the length they are, thank you very much. A woman I know wears heels all the time. Although in her stocking feet she is shorter than me, she insists that she is 5' 6" tall. I'm 5' 4", so how a person shorter than me be 5' 6" is a mystery; I must admit that she is rather delusional about many things, though. She's been wearing heels so long she can't wear flats any more; it's too painful due to her shortened tendons. And she'll be 50 this year, so there's probably no stretching them back again. A pity, but no one forced her to do this to herself.

^On our sail back from the NorCal Pirate Faire in Vallejo. We hit a storm in the middle of the San Francisco Bay and almost didn't live through the experience. When we made it past the Bay Bridge it suddenly got sunny and calm. Weirdest weather shift I ever saw. < Also like watching thunderstorms - best ones I saw were in Jamaica. V Favorite weather conditions?

Just read this post - you mean the mutual fund company? Their funds are the best (says the former financial advisor.) Mark - any time you want to visit you'll be most welcome. We'll come up with more adventures for you!

Ooooh... that is a gorgeous axe. I may give it a try - wish me luck!

I am SOOOO jealous! I'm re-writing our software's user guide.

As I waited for my flight home from Seattle, I walked past a sports bar in the airport. There was a big, burly guy in a hard hat - with a neon pink tie, suspenders and belt. And he had a stuffed tiger on a neon pink leash. Best guess I could come up with was he lost a bet.

Another thing I've been observing at this conference is the number of purely decorative folk companies have sent to represent them. Pretty, slightly scruffy-looking young guys and thin young women, overly made-up and wearing spike heels. I've never seen them actually interact with anyone, so I'm guessing they are there as window dressing. Or maybe they are interns, there to watch and learn. I am struck by the foolishness of these girls with their spiked heels. We're all standing on concrete for eight hours and at the end of the day, my feet hurt - and I'm not wearing heels. And I've seen most of the other women who are there to actually work are wearing the same type of shoes as I am. There are a few other women wearing heels, but I can tell by their strides that they are not used to wearing this kind of footwear. The decorative girls, however, walk as though they never wear any other type of shoe. And I've occasionally seen them look haughtily at the women wearing flats as though wearing immensely inconvenient shoes meant that they had won some sort of contest. (Yeah, guys - I realise that high heels make the calves look good and all, but there's a time and place and a trade show is not it.) The thing is, if you told any of these girls about how the Chinese used to bind women's feet, the ones who could comprehend what they heard would probably be quite upset about it, never realising that they were doing something very similar to themselves voluntarily. Yeah - keep shortening those tendons, foolish girls...

There have been some inquiries as to the next local black powder Rendezvous. There's one scheduled for October 5th through the 7th at the same location as before - Railroad Flats, which is northeast of Stockton (kinda in-between Stockton and Sacramento.) A few more folks will be joining us and it's going to be a heck of a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to getting a lot of use out of the knife Patt made for me. So if anyone is interested in joining us... I'll post more information as I get it.

Having grown up in a neighborhood with three street gangs, I can tell you that they tend to be territorial (certain parts of the neighborhoods "belonging" to them, so to speak) and they spend a lot of time and effort fighting each other. I remember in the early 70's there was a HUGE gang war in my neighborhood; all three gangs were involved, although two of them had banded together to fight the third gang who was trying to invade their territory.