I worked in the sewing room today. I'm making this 1970s McCall which really does not look like much on the envelope. The layout and cutting was a pain because it's a maxi, cut on an angle from the selvedge and I had a directional print. I ended up cutting the four main head-to-toe pattern pieces one at a time and could not even pretend to pattern-match.

I did not make a test which was probably foolish. Hopefully, the fit will be good enough. I picked this pattern after watching Caitlin Doughty's brief YouTube on shrouds. I'd like to make myself a burial garment and I think this one, if adapted to open along the front center seam, would be nice. I have a particularly lovely black floral voile which would suit the purpose.

I don't have many wishes, honestly. We've got no kids, and though many of my cousins are 20 or 30 years younger than I am, I don't really expect many mourners, should I die in 30 years of old age (rather than shortly, of the pandemic or fascism or failures of American health care or society in general). Still, while I'm alive, I like to think someone will care for me when I'm dead, if only long enough to put me in the burial dress I made for myself before cremating me.

Read an essay about how usage of the term "LatinX" can lead to erasure of Chicano/Chicana activist history which I saw in a tweet from an historian. Learned some stuff about Mexican history and was introduced to a new perspective about terms for groups of people.

I listened to some Coil and some Skinny Puppy. I fretted about putting my literal house into literal order. I avoided the internet. The world is horrifying and I did not want to face it.

I am not facing today with equanimity.

We're selling the rental. When I called the recommended painter, he asked me to text him the details, so he could send a quote and a schedule. He never replied to my text, so when I followed up, asking for a quote and a schedule his reply was "Sounds good" so I don't know where we are with that. He can't get into the building to work without all sorts of bullshit with the management office. But fuck the management office, honestly. They're a huge reason why we're selling.

I'm also having trouble getting information about a furniture delivery--with a phone tree that kicks you out for any option other than cancel  and an online information system which only accepts inquiries to cancel and an FAQ that does not say anything about how you'll know when your actual delivery is scheduled--just that if you have a freight delivery (I do), it will be contracted with a moving company and per COVID, they won't come inside, even with face coverings (great /sarcasm).  I've hired moving companies many many times in my life--often with half-truck and smaller loads. I know the logistics are complicated. I also know that you should get confirmation sooner than 48 hours out. So I am assuming this means I don't have a delivery coming? But I don't know and can't find out. There is a date on the order, but there's no confirmation and it's a Sunday, so I think it might just be a auto-generated estimate. Don't know--can't find out.

My boss also booked me into a meeting (during a time I already had a meeting scheduled) without giving me documents or a log in or anything that would allow me to actually participate in the meeting. I have meetings today for 7 hours, with brief moments in between. The neighbors, also, have workmen directly under my window. 

Thus, today is . . .  not great. I know that everything is impossible for everyone right now. I'm trying to extend lots of patience and accept that no-one is working at their best quality right now. But it's hard to extend that patience when I have so little reserves.

I took this day off from work. Spouse did not. He got up; made coffee; went to his work desk in the basement. I got up. Ate left-over biscuits and (veggie sausage) gravy, played video games. Watched The Assistant--which was brilliant.

Finished a test-run of Vogue 7759. Looking forward to running it up in the chosen fabric but mostly I was glad I was able finish something in less than 12 times the amount of time it should take. The test is a completely terrible fabric, but the pattern is good and I made the right adjustments to fit it properly. I'm hopeful.

Mostly, I put the sewing room in order. I am supposed to get office furniture from Ikea this weekend, but I've not gotten an actual delivery confirmation, so I'm skeptical. I plan to turn the corner of the room into a work space because I've working in the dressing room, which annoys spouse, because I get grumpy working at the sewing table and I don't want to work in the dining room. 

I should probably work in the dining room. There's lots of room. There's not any more street noise there than there is in the back by the alley. I could even finally do something nice on the front porch and taking meetings out there. I don't know why I'm being stubborn about it. But I am. I think if I got rid of my sister's piano, I'd be more interested in using that corner of the front room, but I'm not sure I'm ready to go there.

It was neither a good day, nor a bad one. We're privileged and our lives have been minimally disrupted, not only by the pandemic, but also by the U.S.'s unchecked slide into tyranny and corruption. I don't know how much longer both will remain true. 

I've decided to expand my creative frontiers. Being practical, I figured I'd start small. I'd recently acquired a sewing machine to repair jeans. Since I don't believe in buyinng cheap tools that need replacing, I of course, bought a Singer made in 1950 without plastic gears. 

When I decided to try my hand at small leather goods, I hit the internet to see if my sewing machine would sew leather. It will, but it is not recommended for a steady diet. Or thicker leathers in any quantity. But I did find a recommendation for an affordable machine that will sew any leather that will fit under the presser foot.

As purchased for a whopping $60.

It's a Singer 127, made in 1923. I spent 3 1/2 hours bathing it in mineral oil to remove the accumulated petroleum oil (Bad owner! Bad! No cookie! Sewing machines are oiled with mineral oil, only)  I was pulling dust bunny mummies out of the insides. Bits of lint that had soaked in the oil and then hardened into nightmarish tar balls.

Have you ever wondered where your industry got its start? Since a lot of us are in IT, I bet you're thinking WW2 and the codebreakers at Bletchley Park, Alan Turing and all the rest.

Would you be surprised if I told you it was the loom? Or even further back, the water wheel?

In the 1970's the BBC produced an absolutely brilliant documentary series call Connections, hosted by James Burke. It had a wonderful way of showing technology advancing, not by a solitary inventor, but by taking the work of someone else, often in a completely different field and applying it to the problem they were working on. It's absolutely mind blowing.

Fortunately the internet archive has all three series available to stream, for free. Each episode is about 45 minutes long. There's a lot of anachronisms, the World Trade Center towers make a frequent appearance, for those touched by the events of 9-11, be warned. But, if you have the time, I promise that it will not be wasted.

https://archive.org/details/ConnectionsByJamesBurke/Connections/

And if you want to see the origin of IT.

https://archive.org/details/ConnectionsByJamesBurke/Connections/Season+1/Connections+S01E04+-+Faith+in+Numbers.mp4

...the virtual kind.

So I've had DragonBones.Net since 20200928. After a blank page with just simple hypertext in the center which read 'dragonbone.net' and you had to click to enter, you came to a page which looked like this according to the WayBackMachine.org:

That seems about right, though I can't remember any reason for making you click on a link once you had arrived at the site in order to enter the site. It's not like it was a gateway guarded with a password or anything. If I remember correctly, the text was even grey on black, so it wasn't super easy to see.

I'm guessing I thought it was stylistically cool or something. Functionally annoying in hindsight, but hey - I was new to website building (more or less) and I probably stole the idea from other site I thought was cool at the time.

Those frames may have even been frames - remember those?! Maybe it was a table. Not concerned enough to really check.

Anyway, it wasn't too long until I added some more content, including some art, and (probably) an animated gif or seven of flaming torches in sconces because c'mon... DRAGONBONES.

Also, the size of that graphic demonstrates just how drastically the resolution of our monitors has changed over the years. That 'frame' pretty much filled my screen at the time.

Just a few short months later, and the WayBack has another capture. This one mid December of the same year, and I'd done some significant work on the site.

A lot more art, and that menu at the top was... *chef's kiss*. I mean, I was really proud of it. Why? Well...

1. Each of those skulls was based on an actual dragon illustration from the current Monster Manuals for D&D with the exception of the center skull - one of my own design and still the site logo today. If I recall correctly, two were evil dragons and two were good - with 'my' dragon in the center. Don't think I ever told anyone that. It was just interesting symbolism for me to think about when I opened the site.
2. Each skull was an animated GIF triggered by a mousover event. That took... a lot to the n00b that I was. I was using a pirated copy of Dreamweaver at the time to help me over the humps that I couldn't bash my way through when it came to code. I was completely ignorant of anything past rudimentary HTML, so that was a significant amount.
   1. The page displayed a default static image (as you see in the screen cap).
   2. Thanks to some 'onMouseOver' code from Dreamweaver, I figured out how to go from that static image to an animated GIF  that went from that same static image to a shaded / rendered / sorta 3D version of the same skull at the same size with a color tint and highlighted text over the image which said where the link would take you (same as the labels under the graphics - just in case the graphics didn't show for any reason).
      
   3. The image would return to a static image once you moved the mouse away from the image. Each graphic only changed once, so it created a feel like 'you changed the icon' by mousing over it to something 'more real'.
      
   4. I remember getting the sizing just exactly right so there was no 'flexing' of the table it all sat in took me 4-ev-ah.
   5. How did I get the animated GIFs of each skull? Well, I used some kind of 'morphing software' which took one image and morphed it into something else. Usually, this was done with faces. Think of the tail end of Michael Jackson's "Black or White" video. (Side note: do yourself a favor and watch that if you haven't in a while.) Anyway - I did two versions of each skull - one 'flat' and one 'rendered' with a tint' and fed them into the software as 'start' and 'end'. If either image was off by a single pixel? It would 'flex' the table holding the menu. That took some time.
   6. I managed to crunch those menu graphics down small enough that the load time was... reasonable. Back then, that was FAR more worrisome than it is these days thanks to X baud modems.

And look at that news feed! If I remember correctly, that was an RSS feed from my LJ account. I think. It miiiight have even been for only 'public' posts which I treated as a new feed for my site so folks could get the info in either place.

Lastly, I have no idea when I actually started drawing digitally, but I was definitely doing so by this point. St. Nick there as well as the aforementioned menu items were all done digitally. In 2003. That feels a little like having a cell phone when most folks didn't have a wireless land line in their house.

20080505 - It looks like I finally found out about this funky thing called 'WordPress' and switched over to GoDaddy.

In related news - holy hell with the dbn logo/crest. Calm down, dude. I'll say that it was a sign of the times and NOT my lack of good design skillz. For srsly.

20090303 - Some changes to layout (though that's almost meaningless with WP) and mention of 1100. There was one previous episode, but this is the first instance that the WayBackMachine caught.

20130602 - Thanks to Jill "xtingu" Knapp 's better sense of style, this is the first appearance of the billyBoldHand font (in the logo). I like it so much that it's become a staple and gets used in most everything I do if I can manage it.

20141217 - Pinterest style 'brick' theme. While the site has undergone some minor changes since this point, it's more or less stayed like this - a 'brick' theme (like Pinterest) so that I can show off more art thumbnails directly on the front page. This seems the most sensible layout for the most part, so it's stuck for years.

So why am I telling you all this?

I'm thinking about pulling the plug on Ye Olde Bones of the Dragon as well as a number of other sites I own / host. It's doing nothing for me other than being a vanity site at this point.

No one gives one rat's ass that the site exists. They certainly don't go to it.

According to Google's Analytics for the last 9 months:

It seldom goes above single digits and they're almost entirely 'new visitors' which makes me think that most of those are web crawlers, bots, and the like.

The site's been taken over more than once, and I'm not even certain that it's 100% clean now (which would help to explain some of the low stats since the Almighty Google would likely not rank a 'dirty' site highly).

You've Made It This Far, So Here's the Honest Truth

I put a lot of hopes and dreams into this site, and it's gone no where in all these years.

The analogy that keeps popping into my head is the lame horse that you deeply love, and don't want to see suffer anymore.

Well That Escalated Quickly

Yup. I can't imagine that you've made it this far down my meandering along Memory Lane, so it's time to just get to the fucking monkey.

She won't die completely. I'll likely keep the url and point it to a subset of posts or a page on mrlich.com.

Hell, I'll probably do that with most (all?) of my other sites - rideoffintothesunset.com, libriexmachina.com, lightinthewoods.com, matt-works.com, etc.

Same reasons. No one gives a shit, and I'm spending... well, not a lot per year, but over time...

Have you somehow managed to make it all the way down here? Well shit, you must have some kind of opinion on the subject - please tell me. I'm all ears.

In honor of Independence Day we watched a mockbuster and played an American history trivia game.  Due to a fluke of randomness almost every correct answer was...

Google sends you a monthly map of everyplace you've been the previous month. If you're like me, and based on experience, you're probably not, this has always struck me as a little big-brother-ish. Hmm, thinks I. Can I add navigation to my truck? Sure enough, there's ways. Now usually when I'm adding a factory option that didn't come with my vehicle I will ply one of my favorite you-pull-it salvage yards. But it seems that Ford used a module that is coded for the VIN of your particular vehicle. And to get a used module re-coded, requires you to bring a large valise full of money to a dealer. Or just getting a Ford dealer to install a new module requires a foot locker full of money.

TO THE INTERNET!

Yes, as it turns out, there are a multiple companies who sell the module, cutom coded to your VIN. Although you have to do the installation, it lands somewhere between a valise and a footlocker. Call it a large suitcase full of money.

What ho, let's check Ebay. And again, there are plenty of people selling the module. Some as low as $100. But excluding anybody not in the US (easier to wrangle a refund if the part is bogus) The lowest price was still above walking around money, but about one third of the price that Ford would want to install their component. After receiving a windfall from the department of unclaimed property, I pulled the trigger, bought the part and sent the seller my VIN.

The part arrived in five days. I had taken the time to review the installation procedure. Fairly easy, no special tools required. One heartening sign, when I opened the box the seller had included a printed out copy of my truck's build sheet. Obviously the seller has an in with Ford technical support. The process was supposed to take an hour, I had it installed in half that time. Nav works great. I didn't even lose my radio or satellite presets. All I had to do was re-pair my phone to the truck and join my home wifi.

I am sure my descendants will be Morlocks, maintaining machines and popping up to the surface to have the Eloi descendants of politicians, phone sanitizers and marketing wonks down for dinner.

Been a while since I did any Patch images, and I got the proverbial itch tonight, so...

<since I'm now home all the time, I started playing DnD again after all these years. Stephalorus is my current character, a young fighter. This is a letter to her older sister, who is also a fighter out adventuring somewhere in the other half of the world.>

Dearest Candalorus,

I hope this letter finds you well. I don’t know what adventures you’ve gotten yourself into or where you are just now, so I’m sending this to Da. I hope he can forward it to you, and that this finds you in good health.

As you know, I have been traveling in Vilhon and was in the city of Northbridge as of late. Few weeks ago I fell in with a group of other travelers (ok, we were newly met drinking buddies) and we got ourselves hired as caravan protection heading to Redport. Haha, yes, I know. Me, a caravan guard just like you were! Following in your footsteps, sis! 

I was expecting it to be a dull trek escorting the esteemed Lord Grahm Weylan and entourage to the capital Redport, but it has been anything but. Yeah, that Weylan, the brother to Lord Tomin Weylan, new ruler of the Duchey of Storm Coast! If Da hadn’t dragged us along as kids all those times to see every minor nobility that came to town, I would be cowed by His Greatness. Instead, I just try to keep my own council and let the more charming members of our group do the talking. Mostly.

Word is, if we are judged exceptional over the course of this journey, we may be able to find employment with House Weylan. Then at least you’ll know where to send my care packages!

Apparently Lord Tomin is traveling by ship to the capital as we escort Lord Grahm overland. Lord Grahm is also checking out the local leadership and securing support as he goes, and driving out hostiles (both man and beast) along the way. And things are not as peaceful as they once were. As you know, the succession was initially contested and there is lingering unrest. 

My crew consists of a young priestess of the light (i.e. Goddess Ann Barros) named Keydove, a small fledgling wizard Mertly (who has a pet cat! A very useful pet cat! I never knew pets could be so helpful!), and a spry sneaky roguish sort Drago who is surprisingly good in a fight. We had another woodsman join us for a while, but he got pretty roughed up and has decided being caravan muscle isn’t for him. We’re trying to come up with a crew name. We are using TEAM RIGHTEOUS, but that’s not exactly a fit. Still hoping to come up with something better.

Anyway, we are tasked with scouting ahead, and we weren’t more than a few days into the trek when we came upon a looted farmstead with defiled slaughtered sheep outside. We took a look, and sadly found bodies of the farmers, some funds and notes, and surprisingly a trapped great mountain cat of sorts. A cougar maybe? Anyway, right after we dispatched the vicious cat to kitty heaven, we were attacked by some goblins. I know, goblins, right! Just like you always said, those pesky vermin are always popping up and causing headaches. We kept one alive for questioning. So yes dear Canda, I did listen to your advice of not killing all the vermin, in case one can prove useful.

Back at camp with the main force the goblin was questioned, and it became clear that there was a *great* goblin shaman Scragnar who had a band followers harassing and pillaging the countryside. They were holed up in ruins nearby. So we went in and cleared that place out, killed Shaman Scraggy, and rescued a captured noble Lord Daren Delvo. It’s great to have the gratitude of a Lord, and he saw to it that our gear was upgraded nicely afterwards. And we got some cool loot - including a potion of Enlargement, haha. Oh, and it turns out that these goblins were not random vermin, but encouraged by some nefarious party. We’re still trying to sort that out. Regrettably, this is also where our woodsman friend took some grievous wounds, and decided to give up the dangerous fighting life.

Oh, when we got back to the main caravan, there was an attempt on Lord Gramln’s life - they even got into his lordships private pavilion before they were stopped. We helped defend him, and subsequently learned that not everyone is happy with the current power structure. And that his brother is also threatened. Nothing really we can do from here except hustle on to Redport.

And man, that goblin escapade seems like a walk in the park compared to what has transpired since. And it seems so long ago, even if it was only a few weeks past. After bringing Delvo back and foiling the assassination attempt, we headed on again as advance guard. The next stop was supposed to be the village of Highmeadow. But as we got to the area, we instead found a lake. Apparently there had been a natural dam break that flooded the entire town. Highmeadow was completely submerged. While we were still trying to figure out what had happened, we found some woeful miners camped out in the hills.

The miners told us a strange tale of bizarre happenings in their mine. They had broken through to a lower, more ancient level and to their horror they released a necromancer. Or at least an evil dude with a staff that is raising the dead. Yikes. OF COURSE we decided to deal with that issue. 

So we went, met some faeries on the way, killed a boar and ate oh so well that day, cleared out the undead filled mine with help of a friendly ghost (I killed an undead skeletal Owlbear! I kept its skull as a helmet/trophy. It looks ridiculous. I love it.),  and got some good weaponry from a tomb. Yes, sis, I know. Tomb looting is bad. But we needed the stuff to fight the bigger bad aka undead raising Hekros worshiping staff wielding evil ancient halfling necromancer Tervous Mep. We’ll figure out a way to rebuild the tomb later. Then we killed a Redcap (I HAVE A REDCAP TOOTH NOW!!! I’m gonna mount it on the Owlbear helm.), and we made it back to the lake formerly known as Highmeadow without dying! Even the horses all made it! Well, horses and a dog. Our diminutive wizard Mertly rides a dog. My horse is named Mable. She’s sweet.

I’m writing this from New Highmeadow. They have started rebuilding Highmeadow on higher ground. Maybe they should call it Highermeadow? We just contributed to New Highmeadow’s new temple’s building fund and will have a stone engraved with our names placed there. Tomorrow we’re off to the abandoned Seven Cliffs Monastery, to take care of Necro Mep. I figure if I don’t make it back from attacking this necromancer, at least our names will be remembered in stone. Something to show the grandkids! I mean, assuming. . .

I hope you are well, and hope you are enjoying whatever crazy you’ve gotten yourself into these days. I don’t know when I’ll be in your part of the world again, but I look forward to our reunion someday. I’m sure we’ll both have great tales to share by then. 

You loving sister,

Stephalorus