No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on December 16, 2017

I do this on occasion where it is more my brain dump to clear some room for the other things I need to be thinking about.

I finally completed a commission that had been bought about three years ago. The commissioner never pushed me on completing their project and knew I was working on other things while I was working on their project. It joined the jumble of bodies on my worktable and I would pick it up and work with it for a bit then go onto the next thing I needed to do. The puppet itself was reworked a number of times because I learned more and it wasn’t quite sitting right with me.

The puppet was a version of Peter’s Aquaman. I made two outfits for the puppet both the classic outfit and Peter’s harpooned version. Because it had taken so long for me to get this puppet together, I had to chance to add something rather unique. We went to the Ace Comic-Con last weekend and Jason Mamoa was kind enough to sign the puppet. So the new owner has a puppet signed by the current actor playing Aquaman. That I hope was worth the wait.

Peter has pinched not one nerve but several in his back due to the fall he took on Black Friday this year. He is in a lot of pain and, so far, all that we have been able to do is getting the pain down to a dull roar where he can function but barely. Everything is a struggle to do. To add to the fun, the neurologist he is seeing is part of a practice that currently has no phone system since it is tied into their computer system which is down for the count now going on 4 days. So we cannot make the appointments with the people we have been told to make appointments with so we can start treating Peter to get better rather than try to keep him from passing out every time he stands up and walks.

This has made our world full of Doctors visits and the like. Caroline has been a trooper. This weekend she is participating in the second leg of the model UN she is part of. She is having a lot of fun sorting out the problems of the world and coming up with solutions for some of the world’s problems. She is still grooving on meeting Gal Godot last weekend.

We had snow and it made driving interesting yesterday especially since I had to pick Caroline up in a snowstorm from the high school. The main roads are clear and the side roads are sand and salted so if you are careful, you can get around with little problem. I will be salting the walk tomorrow to get rid of the last of the ice.

I am doing OK. I am behind on things I don’t want to be behind on but I am cutting myself some slack because I have been dealing with so much else around me. I have a few projects with looming deadlines that I am working out what I am going to do when. One of these is I just need to start, write, and finish the story.

I do find myself forgiving myself for not being able to be superwoman right now. I know my current limitations and am trying to work within them. I know I am under a bit of stress right now and don’t have the usual tools to cope with it due to circumstance and health (both his and mine). I have a support system that has been there for me when I have needed them and I am most grateful for that. I don’t have to deal with all this alone which I know other caretakers do and I sympathize a lot.

We are a little up in the air as to what Christmas will be. We have several different scenarios for how this will go down. It will be one or another depending on what happens this week. And I am at peace with that.

I am going to go into the city on Monday and see the Downton Abbey exhibit and get together with some friends so that will be a little bit of a break. I went to the Magnolia Pictures Christmas Party which is always fun last week. Next Saturday we head for Atlanta and Christmas at my parents.

The cats have been taking turns with me. I find one of the three either tucked up against my hip and purring or on my lap and purring. They are offering comfort in their strange furry way.

I am alive and moving forward both I consider good things.

I am grateful for my support system.

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Posted By Kathleen David on December 5, 2017

<i>Who shares a birthday with Walt Disney and Martin VanBuren</i>

Dear Caroline,

This morning I came down stairs to you all ready for high school. A friend, who gets a ride with her sister who is a senior at the high school, gave you a ride to school that you loved because you find the bus rather noisy. You gave me a hug and thanked me for making your lunch.

15 years which seemed to pass in the blink of an eye but also it feels like you have always been around. Neither is true really.

I receive a lot of compliments as to how polite you are and well mannered to boot. I taught you the basics, but you have grown into a young lady who cares about the world around her and other people’s feelings. That’s you in a nutshell.

I love looking at you sitting somewhere and just drawing. You have a look of concentration on your face as you move the pencil to make what is in your head come out on paper. You know that you are lucky since you have access to people who’s art work you have admired and can ask them questions. You have made good use of those resources.

Another typical look for you is with a book in your hand. You like solid books not e-books unless that is the only way you can read a story. You love to read. You love manga. You love comic books. You love the well-written story. Reading is as normal as breathing to you.

You are developing your own tastes in your choices for entertainment. Your friends and you talk about Riverdale and Voltron and Hamilton and whatever else you have discovered and want to share with each other. Y’all do text a lot and group chat about all kinds of subjects. I am betting if I had the same technology, I would have done that too.

You are learning how to use power-tools safely as you make robot parts for the high school robotics team. You are learning how to sew and have all kinds of ideas for things you want to sew. Your next step that you want to take is learning how to build weapons and armor out of EVA foam. And I am betting you will be brilliant with that as well.

You are growing up so fast. I am enjoying watching you develop into the adult you will become.

I love you so much.

Love Mamamamamamamamamamamamama

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Posted By Kathleen David on December 1, 2017

This is not one I was expecting to write. I expected that now Bob had retired that we were going to find that darn time when I got down to Atlanta to see Bob and Anita and catch up since they would have a little more free time from running Georgia Ensemble Theater. He was going to have more time with his grandchildren and his daughters.

Bob Farley was a theater person through and through. He loved the theater and lived the theater. He gave many of my friends’ opportunities that they might not have otherwise. He gave me a job at his theater that I really did love most of the time. He helped not only actors but directors, writers, designers, and the tech crew to become the best at their art form.

Bob came onto my radar when he took over as Artist Director at the Alliance Theater having established the Alaska Rep Theater. We ended up working together at Theatre Emory on a new Frank Manley play. We had a common experience that came from the Alliance that we would joke about over the years. He invited me to become his stage manager for this new theater he was starting called Georgia Ensemble Theater that was to be both a theater and an academy. His idea was to establish a place where when actors were not working on a show, they could be earning a paycheck teaching so they would have some consistent money coming in.

I spent four seasons as a member of Georgia Ensemble Theater. I was the stage manager on some truly wonderful work from the classics to new plays. I also taught puppetry in the conservatory. It was after the fourth season that Peter and I started dating and I moved up to New York and at the time long distance stage managing wasn’t a thing.

Through Bob I met his family. His wife Anita was the general manager of the theater. We became friends. I also met his two daughters Laurel and Heather. Both were involved one way or another with the theater. I taught both in the summer conservatory. I watched them mature into the lovely ladies that they are today.

And that is, as they will tell you, unusual in theater. We became a conservatory and big weird family at the same time. We had our in jokes and our own superstitions including the crew writing a phrase on every one the sets and I had to find it before the show closed. Our swear was the nonsensical phrase Sudder Fusty which came out of my bad handwriting.

I remember once Bob and I were butting heads over something and he stopped and said to me, “You know why I push you so hard? Because even if you don’t, I know you can do this job better than anyone.” That stopped the argument cold and gave me something to think about.

I remember during rehearsal for Servant of Two Masters, the actors were having a hëll of a time getting the choreography for a bit with the precise timing of opening and closing doors along with entrances and exits. I had what we did all written down as you do as a stage manager. I said following my lead and then pointed to people as they had to enter and exit. We finally got the monster up to speed and it was brilliant. We finished it and there was applause from the onlookers. Bob came over and put his hand on my shoulder and said quietly, “I knew you were good at this. This is why I hired you.”

And that was Bob. Always there encouraging or cajoling to get the performance he knew was there. He could be hard and he could be brusque but he knew what he wanted to see.

I know there are a lot of people who are processing today that there is now a Bob sized hole in our universe. I am still processing it.

Someone once asked me who was the first puppet I made of a person that I gave to the person. That would be Bob Farley and then I went and made a puppet of each of the family on their birthdays for a year. I remember when I gave it to him and he figured out that it was him. He gave me such a hug and thanked me for it. He was amazed that I had made it for him.

(For the VI: This is a photo of the Farley Family and their puppets. From left to right Bob Farley wearing a white baseball cap holding his puppet. He has the right hand of the puppet up like it is waving. Next is Heather with her puppet. Both have glasses. Next is Anita hiding behind her puppet. Next is Laurel smiling with her puppet. She has the arms set under the puppets chin)

Rest In Peace Bob. You were one of the good ones. I figure about this point you and Frank Manly have a new play half way up and running in heaven.

I am grateful that I could call Bob a friend.

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Posted By Kathleen David on November 28, 2017

On December 14^th 2017 five people hold your ability to do what you want and see what you want on the Internet in their hands.

Think about that. I don’t care what your political leans are, this is bad for you like really bad as in you will be paying more to do what you do now on the Internet and I am not talking nickels and dimes but dollars and as many dollars as your Internet Provider can squeeze out of you.

Think of your cable bill and how all you want it that one channel but it is part of a package of 10 channels that you end up play $30.00 more a month to watch that one channel. That system could be coming to the Internet and sooner than you would like.

A number of years ago it was declared that the Internet was a utility service like power, water, telephone, and gas. Everyone gets charged the same amount for the use of that utility and has equal access to that resource. That in a nutshell is net neutrality. You can go onto the web and go to your favorite websites without being slowed down or ‘choked’ for the data that the site uses.

If that goes away the pay to play come in and you will find that you can’t get to that cute cat website anymore or if you can it will load like molasses. Heck you might have a hard time reading my web log or Peter’s.

Love Netflix? Right now the telecom companies cannot deny you the bandwidth to watch Netflix, Hulu, Amazon or any of the streaming services. Remove net neutrality and you will find yourself paying twice for the privilege. Once to the streaming service and once to your Internet provider. So budget for double or triple what you pay now for any of those services if Net Neutrality goes away.

Do you or your children like playing Worlds of Warcraft or any other MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game)? Welcome to new fees and slower load times for your games. Again it will be pay to play. And if your provider has a stake in any game, which a number of telecoms do, that is the game that will get the easiest access to the bandwidth and your favorite game just doesn’t work anymore of some ‘mysterious’ reason (hint choking).

Tumblr and Pintrest are also platforms that take up bandwidth due to the amount of data being streamed. And Facebook is the granddaddy of that. Want to keep up with family and friends? Pay for the privilege. It doesn’t matter if your plan has unlimited data, your Internet provider wants the ability to decided how their bandwidth is being used by the consumers and that including choking or blocking things that cost them money or that they don’t like.

I won’t even go into what will happen with anyone’s p-rn collections.

So if you are reading this, it does effect you and could effect you in the pocketbook.

How can you help? Funny you should ask.

This is from a friend’s Facebook page and gives you the consumer how you can keep your net your way rather than how the telecom think you should see it.

Here’s what you can do!! (& then see below for some phone #s)

1. Go to GoFCCYourself.com (The address is cute, and it bounces you directly to the FCC’s official page for this regulation.)
2. Then click EXPRESS (at upper right side of page)
3. Enter your name (IMPORTANT: Must hit enter for it to register. Don’t tab or use arrow keys) and all required info.
4. Write: “I strongly support net neutrality backed by Title 2 oversight of ISPs,” plus any other message about freedom, access to information, and an informed populace as the basis of a strong democracy that you want to add.

Q: WTF IS “NET NEUTRALITY”?

A: The cheap and openly accessible Internet you have now.

Q: WHAT IS THE FCC PLANNING TO DO?

A: Turn this into cable – a handful of giant telecom corporations (ex: COMCAST) control what you get and at what speed – and you end up paying a boatload just for the privilege of using it at all.

Q: WHOSE INTEREST IS THIS IN?

A: Exactly only those companies. The FCC Chair is an ex Verizon exec. Apple, Facebook, Google, Netflix, and all of Silicon Valley oppose this.

Q: HOW CAN I STOP THIS?

A: 1. Call and e-mail the three members of the 5-person FCC planning to vote for it along party lines:

Main #: 1-888-225-5322

Chairman Pai: Ajit.Pai@fcc.gov

Commmissioner Rielly: Mike.O’Rielly@fcc.gov

Commissioner Carr: Brendan.Carr@fcc.gov

I am grateful for Net Neutrality.

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Posted By Kathleen David on November 27, 2017

My mind is a bit of a mush these days. I was not posting for various reasons including a lack of energy towards writing that I can trace to about a year ago. So that’s one year that has seen me write every little. Doesn’t help me finish any of the projects I have started. There have been some outside factors that haven’t helped at all. So having spent sometime sorting things out, I think writing here is probably going to help me more than not writing here.

Doesn’t mean that I plan a lengthy essay each day. I am not giving myself a word count to reach. But I need to do something to shake things loose at the beginning of the day and this space is probably one of the best places for it being mine and mine alone.)

So welcome or welcome back to that random word generator that is my brain.

I still haven’t found a good way to post photos since Photobucket decided to start charging me a lot of money to post things on the Internet. I know that within the programs I can add photos and the like but I like typing this once and posting it in the various places that I post.

I also need to work out a place to post my puppetry photos and start that up. I had a tumblr but it became too unwieldy for me to handle and it is not the best platform for this sort of thing. Any ideas?

Today I am cleaning and working on Aquaman for Martin which is waaaaay overdue and he will get his puppet before the new year. I keep fiddling with it trying to make it better and at some point I have to let the work speak for itself and give it to him.

Tomorrow I will hold myself accountable for today.

I am grateful for when I can follow through on a good idea.

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