No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on June 12, 2013

It will be harder and harder to get simple incandescent bulbs. Now consumers have several types of the new bulbs to choose from. I have CFL (Compact Florescent Light) in one of my bathrooms and I really don’t like it. I have had a problem with florescent light my entire life. Once the bulb starts to go, it strobes and I get some rather bad headaches. I can see the strobe and I can also hear the ballast (power pack) when they start to go Plus they are considered hazardous materials because of the use of mercury in the bulbs. They can’t be used in fixtures that have rheostats. So CFL is not what I want in my house.

Now there are LED bulbs. And they are better than the CFLs but the quality of the light is different and I can’t say I like that either. The warm tones of the light are gone. There are other types of in the works but I don’t think any will replace the good old incandescent lightbulb.

It is cool enough this morning that I have the windows open to let the air through the house. It is not that humid right now but that will change as the day wears on. Tomorrow it is suppose to rain. Friday is Field Day but if it is raining, it will be cancelled this year. I am not doing a puppet show this year. First time since Caroline started school.

Ah the sounds of lawn mowers are sounding through the air. There is a village rule that there is mowing before 8:00 AM. There is another noise ordinance which states that bars have to keep it down after 11 pm (midnight on weekends). That one gets broken all the time but not by anyone here. The music drifts across the water from the towns next to us. The Karaoke Tiki Bar is the worst offender. I think it is fortunate that all we hear is the music.

I am trying to find this kind of stretch fabric in gold rather than the green one I have.

Green scaly spandex fabric

Anyone have any ideas? I haven’t explored the possibilities of the NYC fabric district yet but I don’t want to do that until I have all my ideas in place.

I do have too many ideas and now have to pare them down to something that will work for the table.

Still sorting out the puppetslam. I am really hoping that something strikes our fancy soon. Our one good idea was done so that one is not happening.

Going to the new location of our beloved Kung Fu school for our lesson today. I really like the new space. It has a good energy about it and feels warm and inviting.

Need that coffee to kick in before I start my next project.

Have I mentioned recently how much I love my husband? He does things that make my life easier because he wants to make my life easier. I know how lucky I am and how blessed I am to have such a great guy in my corner.

Caroline has 6 more days of school to go before summer vacation. We are making a list of what she wants to do with her summer. Learning to sew is pretty high on the list. Play at the pool is up there too. I want her to have a good summer. This morning I came down and she was playing with her Monster High dolls. Before breakfast she took the time to clean up after herself which I was so proud of her for doing without me having to ask. She is growing up so fast.

I was listening to NPR yesterday and they talked about how English classes seem to be dumbing it down to make sure the kids are reading. But they need to read more complicated books as they get older to continue their vocabulary skills and reading comprehension. The teachers say that they are happy the kids are just reading but that is all they are doing. They are reading but not challenged. Yes, I got frustrated in school by some of the books they had me read, but I think I am a better person for having gone all the way through Moby Ðìçk once.

Stephen King’s new book Joyland is out and can only be found as a paperback. It is a good read. I recommend it.

Peter has a new book coming out through Crazy 8 real soon now. It is called Fearless and it was written by Peter and Caroline. It is sort of a sequel to one of my favorite books of Peter’s entitled Tigerheard. JK Woodward did the cover for it and it is amazing. Once I can post it I will. This, like Tigerheart, is for both the adults and the kids.

I don’t have any ink yet but my guilty TV pleasure are the tattoo shows.

OK Coffee is kicking in and I have things to do. Have a good one folks.

I am grateful for things I can’t even express but find a way.

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Posted By Kathleen David on June 9, 2013

Yesterday we went up to Connecticut for my niece’s birthday party. We could see the evidence of the heavy rains as we went around from Long Island to Connecticut. We avoided the routes that we knew had a tendency to flood and were informed by 1010 that we were right.

We had a nice time visiting with our relatives. Caroline enjoyed the Birthday party. Ariel took point at riding herd on the kids so the adults could talk which I appreciate.

In other news, Ariel got a job at a JCC summer camp that starts the end of June. She is in charge of Arts and Crafts. She is looking for projects that can be done for kids K-6. So if you have any website suggestions, she would greatly appreciate it.

I have had an upset stomach for about three days now. I haven’t a clue why. I don’t feel ill just that I want to throw up and have a couple of times. That is the only symptom other than feeling like I am overheating but my temperature has remained within normal limits for me. Riding in the car yesterday was a bit more of an adventure for than I would like but I managed to keep everything down.

Having done a battery of tests, they are now working with Peter to get his shoulder back more to normal. He already has a greater range of motion than he did Friday. He can even move it to his side without too much discomfort. It is more that now it feels stiff. But he is being careful about not over stressing it.

Caroline has one and a half more weeks of school. She is looking forward to her summer vacation. She has all kinds of plans of various things she wants to do. We are going to sort out the calendar and figure out what she can and can’t do.

It is interesting to me how much our lives have returned to normal or what passes for normal around here and how much had changed. We have new routines and new things we have to look for but we have restored a lot of things back to what they were.

My focus needs more focus.

I am grateful for normality.

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Posted By Kathleen David on June 7, 2013

The following is my opinion and mine alone. I will respect your opinion and I ask for you to respect mine.

Recently there has been a series of news articles about the US government mining the data of its citizens along with being able to read the data. This including websites visited, message boards, and e-mails. All of the sudden there is outrage for something that has been going on honestly since 2001 if you follow the papertrail and probably longer than that but it didn’t become obvious until 2001.

Frankly I always figure anything I put out here on the Internet will be fair game for someone. Which is why I am very careful about what I say on the Internet and what I say in e-mails. I am assuming that this will all be read at some point. Either now or down the road when archeologists (or whatever they are called then) are trying to make sense of our civilization. What one puts out here will stay out here pretty much for all time or until an EMP takes out our magnetic data.

I more worry about my banking information and personal data (SS# etc.) than I do about what I have said electronically. I think part of that is whatever I have said electronically I would be willing to say to the person(s) face(s).

Do I have some embarrassing stuff floating out there? Yeah, but honestly these days who doesn’t? Have I visited some questionable websites? Probably however not on purpose. I once followed a link that started at the Smoking Gun that ended up on a real white power slime ball site, which I backed out of quickly.

I have gone into the Internet knowing that any and all “names” I have had out there could be traced back to me. I have never tried to create a new personality on the Internet. I have watched others try to re-invent themselves on the Internet with varying results. Mostly not in the good category.

So if the Government needs to read about what I am up to, I give them permission to do so. I can say with a clear conscious I have nothing to hide.

I am grateful for a sense of peace.

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Posted By Kathleen David on June 6, 2013

Vivid dreams last night mostly to do with going to conventions with Peter and Caroline. Most of the dreams were perfectly normal convention stuff with some really weird happenings that told me that it was a dream not a reality.

Got my list for today. Gonna start at the top and work my way down it.

Thinking about the ends of the season for several shows I watch. Most will be back next year but those that got canned left the whole thing on a good footing.

It shouldn’t amaze me how much what is said on the Internet influences what I see in entertainment. I think one of the pluses of the Internet is that fans of X can find other fans of X so X doesn’t every really “die” because people remember it. Between that and being able to buy TV shows so you can re-watch them, TV shows never really go away. In fact some are coming back due to the happenings on the Internet.

There is also a downside of all the complaining about what the creative teams did (or didn’t) do. Now the creators can chime in and add to the conversation. Not away the best thing to do. And there is a bunch of stuff they have to ignore especially all the complaining. Because if they do go the ways the fans want, the amount of complaining about that they pander to a small group of fans is twice as loud and vicious. Peter tends to stay away from conversations about stuff he is working on.

The other day I didn’t let the cats out before Caroline went to school. (We herd them into one room at night so we don’t end up with kitty mischief all over the house.) After I let them out, Fig went charging upstairs and started Meowing. I went up to see what she was up to and she was standing on her hind legs with her paws on Caroline’s doorknob. I said, “She’s not there Fig.” Fig looked at me and then went downstairs to the living room and went to the kitchen door and started meowing again. “She’s not there either.” I said. Fig looked at me again and went to the front screen door and looked outside for Caroline. She was not happy with me.

This morning I let the cats out and Fig bolted to Caroline and got her morning pets from Caroline. She hung close to Caroline until Caroline went to the bus. Now she is curled up on the cushion that Caroline was sitting on sound asleep. That cat is Caroline’s cat and she tolerates the rest of us.

We have good friends. I wanted to put that out there for the world.

I am grateful for the love and support we are being given.

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Posted By Kathleen David on June 4, 2013

And checking it twice (OK not really)

Dragon*Con is 87 days away and I have nothing done. But this is better than last year when it was 60 days away and I had nothing done.

This year is proving a little harder than others to get started. I have to cull all the ideas I have down to what I can do. Also there are a couple of other things I want to do for the convention including for the Puppetry Track.

I think I have my primary piece in place. Now I have to work from that.

I am debating about making hand puppets for various TV series and selling them as sets or maybe individually.

I am also itching to make some dolls but I am unsure if I should.

Actually I am unsure about a lot of things right now and that’s why I need to make that list and see what I think I can do or not do. I know I can create but right now I am trying to figure out what I should create.

Also Caroline wants me to make her a full face appliance. She wants to be a dragon princess. I am wondering if I can find someone in the NYC area that do face casts for Caroline and me. I have something I want to do for me but my life cast broke in the last firing.

So lots of things to think about and I guess I need to think about all this creatively.

I am grateful for too many ideas.

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