No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on October 2, 2011

And I have a lot of repair work to do before then to coats and Dragons. I also have to redo the webbing for the X-men jacket that got fubared at DragonCon. Remember kids always wear your costume BEFORE the convention so you can figure out what is going to go wrong. I also have to redo a cuff. Lockheed got beaten up at the Ren Fair so he needs some TLC and a lot of thread before he goes back to a convention.

Shana has 6 days to get the funding for her project.

Here again is the link to spread far and wide

http://www.ulule.com/5pointstheatre/

Now a little housecleaning for the new folks. This came up after something on Facebook but I thought I would put it here especially since NYCC is coming up. If I say that I have met someone then I have met them under whatever circumstances. I remember them for whatever reason but they might not remember me. If I say someone is an acquaintance I mean that they know who I am and they know who I am. If I call someone a professional acquaintance, then we know each other and worked on a project or two together in which ever profession I was doing at the time. If I call someone a friend, then they are someone who I have known for a while and I trust as a friend.

Yes, I saw Doctor Who and will be writing about it tomorrow. So no spoilers in the comments please but you can say whether or not you like it. Overall I think Moffat played fair with the season and I am OK with it as a whole just have some individual problems with certain episodes.

Baseball is still going on. I swear the TV bigwigs must be having some nightmares about a Tigers/Brewers World Series. I’d watch but many won’t.

The College Rankings are going to get a bit of a shake-up come Monday. The teams I wanted to win, won so I am happy.

NFL is plodding along. Honestly it’s anybody’s game at this point. The short prep time really shows how the NFL managed to beat equality into the teams so everyone can compete not just a couple of big markets. Who would have thought that the Lions, Bills, and Bucs would be doing this well three weeks into the season?

Basketball, I hope Europe enjoys bigger seasons than they have seen in a while due to all the new players they picked up.

I have an idea for a critter that I might do for NYCC. I am thinking about it and may have to execute it.

Caroline decided her Halloween Costume for this year. Not the easiest of costumes but after Astrid, it will be a cakewalk. I figured I’ll get started on that after NYCC. I did inform her that after I get started on this project, that will be her costume. We aren’t playing musical costumes this year.

Her new favorite thing is Monster High. Mattel has another hit with girls her age there. Most of her little friends are majorly into it as well. She likes the Werecats.

Crisp Fall like Day which feels very nice. No clouds which I hope holds up since we are going into the city today to see Zarkana.

I can feel the coffee working and there are a couple of things I have to do before we go so I am going to sign off.

I am grateful for lovely weather that makes me feel good to be alive.

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Posted By Kathleen David on October 1, 2011

Shana is Peter’s eldest daughter. She and her husband have a dream to run a movie theater with a restaurant attached. It is a good dream.

They need money to get this dream from pie in the sky to reality. And they have been working hard to get this into reality.

They are about half way through their funding needs and this is the last week of the drive to get the money to see their dream happen.

I have known Shana more than half her life. I am very proud of all she has accomplished. I love her very much.

Here is where I need YOUR HELP. Yeah, money towards the funding would be great if you can do it but we keep hearing about social networking and helping the little guy get a leg up over those greedy corporations.

So I am ask you to put your mad social networking skillz and contacts to help us get her to that goal. We hear about other people who succeed at this because of the kindness of others and I would love for this to be another one of those stories.

Here is the link to the fund raising site. Please spread it far and wide.

http://www.ulule.com/5pointstheatre/

Here is Shana’s latest letter on the subject

Happy Friday!
If you’re reading this email it’s because you have kindly allowed yourself to be hassled about a project that is much needed in Riverside, the takeover, rebranding, and renovation of the 5 Points Theatre. Through your support and that of other residents and businesses Tim and I have raised over $46,000 on our crowdsourcing site at ulule. That’s pretty impressive, except that our goal is more than twice that and we only have a week to pull this off. As of this writing we have 142 “supporters,” and I know at least one of those is my grandma. Consider that Riverside and Avondale have what, 25,000 people and when you add Downtown, Springfield, West Jax, and Ortega you’re at 250,000. Dangit, I just don’t think that Jacksonville’s representing the way it oughta.
For the sake of our hood, please spread the word far and wide. Remind people this restoration likely will not happen if we can’t raise the funds. Let them know this ain’t a donation, you can buy two tickets and a tub of popcorn for only $25, lifetime movies or a year’s worth of onscreen ads for $1000, or have the best company Christmas party ever for a cool $10k, with lots of great incentives in between.
To break it down:
If 2000 people drop that 25 bucks we’re set. 500 people could buy a card that gets them into 10 movies and we’d be there. Or 50 people at $1000. We don’t have a second shot at this. The kind folks at Ulule gave us this rare opportunity to extend our campaign so let’s all get on the Facebook, the Tweeting, and the guilt tripping because next Friday it’s all over.
Power to the people!
Shana

I think if we can get this done for her, it would be amazing. We talk about young people having no drive well here are two that are putting it all out there for all to see.

So short version:
Money good. Social Network blast really good.

Let’s prove the urban myth true.

I am grateful for everyone who helps us with this.

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Posted By Kathleen David on September 29, 2011

Today is Rosh Hashanah. Shana Tovah U’metukah to those who celebrate it.

Today Caroline is home from school because of the holiday and tomorrow as well.

So what are my great plans? Organize the DVDs in the house so we have a better idea of what we have where. I did this a couple of years ago but it is time to do it again. Caroline is interested in helping and she is good at organizing. The other thing we are going to do it cull the DVDs that are way too young for her. I know other families in the area that have children the right age for them.

The weather outdoors is very iffy right now but if the ground dries out, Caroline wants to earn some money and agreed to go pick up sticks in the yard. I have to plug in lawn mower to charge and the bushes in the front of the house need a trim before we put out the Halloween decorations.

So no playoffs tonight. I am sure that the Braves Fans and the BoSox fans are commiserating right now. Both teams had it and just couldn’t finish it off.

Speaking of baseball, Peter and I went to see MoneyBall yesterday. When did Brad Pitt turn into Robert Redford? Overall not a bad film. It just kind of ends but that’s how life really is. Nothing that makes it a must see on a big screen but a nice diversion movie.

Not much in the theaters that I want to see. I missed Fright Night so now have to wait for it to get to other media before I see it.

Thinking about New York Comic Con which is soon. I will be at Peter’s table but we are still sorting out when. Part of it depends on Caroline who will be there selling drawings so save your pocket change now. I am thinking about bringing a puppet or two with us and some dolls but not entirely sure. I do know that we are next to JK which is always fun. Peter’s table number is U1. Does anyone know if they finished the construction in the Javits Center?

Then we have Halloween, Thanksgiving, Caroline’s birthday, Hannukah, and Christmas. The end of the year goes pretty fast around here.

Off to start the great DVD project.

I am grateful for getting everything in one place.

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Posted By Kathleen David on September 28, 2011

Can’t call it Random Thoughts before the Coffee Kicks in since I am half way through my second cup of coffee.

Weather is making indoor projects look more appealing than outdoor projects. I do need to start figuring out the Halloween decorations for next month.

Kind of at a crossroads on a number of things. I am probably going to go radio silent in November so I can write.

Caroline is enjoying school but we keep having the same argument every morning about her water bottle. Her teacher asked to have the children bring in a water bottle so they can have water at their desk when they want it. Also there are 6 classes using one water fountain in the hall so you can imagine the line at times.

Settling into the rhythm of school and activities.

My big project for the day is sorting out our Dvds so I can find things again. It sort of got randomized there for a bit. Next is getting a room back into shape after the big build and then I am working on Halloween costumes and repairing costumes for Halloween.

So the Wild Card Baseball races aren’t over. They could end tonight or they could go to another game on Thursday for all the marbles. No matter what, those 4 teams have their fate in their hands.

NFL has been interesting. Teams are doing well that everyone had written off for this year and others that were on the will win list are finding themselves with more loses than wins. Honestly this year it is anybody’s game.

College is doing about what you expect. I am expecting some more “scandals” to break shortly.

Basketball? No? OK.

I am grateful for motivation that is not fear based.

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Posted By Kathleen David on September 27, 2011

I was talking to someone at Dragon*Con about the dolls that I make. I told them that I had taken several classes over the years from Wendy Froud and my dolls were basically structured the way that Wendy does it. I told her that Wendy was one heck of a teacher and if she got a chance to take a Froud class to do so. Many of these classes include Toby with an occasional appearance from Brian. I have learned a lot about doll making and art from the Family Froud.

There was some comment made about how nice the hands were on the doll. I laughed and said, you should have seen my first set of hands that I did for Wendy’s class. They were a total disaster. Hands have always been hard for me but Wendy some how managed to impart the knowledge in my brain and I practiced a lot. I can’t tell you how many hands I have done and destroyed.

And I have to thank Wendy for pushing me to be better. I did a set of hands and she looked at them and told me to do them over since she knew I could do better. I thought she was crazy but she was the teacher so I did them again and she was right. The more I took her class, the less she would let slide and made me the doll maker I made today.

Puppet building has always been easier for me. It just makes sense but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a box of parts that just didn’t work. I have sewn entire pieces only to find out that I had my geometry wrong or made too much or too little (bigger problem) seam allowance. Clothing that has gone horribly wrong. Necks and heads too small for adult size hands or rather my size hands. But I continue to make and remake until I have it right. The X-men First Class Jackets for Charles and Erik were a much longer project than I thought they were going to be. I am a detail person when it comes to costumes but I have learned to figure out what HAS to be there and what is a detail I am only going to see. I have made so many pieces of clothing for my puppets, that I can eyeball things and make patterns right on the cloth.

I continue to learn and explore what I can do as an artist. I know that practice makes me a better artist. Natural talent can only get you so far before the practical steps in and shows what you know and you don’t know. And there will always be something that just never seems to work right no matter how many times that you do it.

Practice might not make perfect but it sure as heck can make it better.

I am grateful that Wendy did push me to be better and not just rest on what I could do.

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