squeequeg | (no subject)

Arisia was again fun, and just what the geek side of me needed. I went to a few panels, talked with many people I liked, saw people whacking each other with sticks in the correct manner, made and suffered several really bad puns, and saw many many shiny objects. The masquerade seemed a little lackluster this year, though I don't know whether that was just my limited experience with masquerades. Maybe I just miss last year's Gimli. I also managed to do one Really Stupid Thing (i.e., Something Which Now Makes Me Cringe With Embarrassment But Which No One Else Probably Even Thought Twice About) each day. Go me?

Things I learned at Arisia:
- Eating one really good meal out can make up for Au Bon Pain most of the rest of the time.
- Bonfire's churrasco is probably the best steak I have ever had.
- Their sangria isn't bad either. And potent.
- It is indeed just a jump to the left.
- If you're talking about Hamlet just before Rocky Horror and you have a legitimate reason to do so because of what's happening on stage, then you're way too fucking erudite for your own good.
- Watching a bunch of little kids playing D&D for the first time ever is a very heartwarming sight.
- Misdirection is key.
- Do not mention the wiggly dance in company, even sober, or you will have to do the wiggly dance.
- Three hours of sleep one night plus seven hours of sleep the next does not average out to five hours of sleep a night.
- Giving blood at Arisia gets you a little pin designed by Heinlein. It's also nice to have that little badge of honor.
- Geek culture is defined by a Wittgensteinian family of characteristics. Or not. I can't remember the actual terms

osirusbrisbane used, but they seemed to fit.
- If a mad scientist creates something that will later get loose and destroy the world, he will not consider himself culpable for a) creating the thing in the first place, b) leaving it alone while it grows to the size of a chair, c) not dumping acid or gasoline on it when it's only the size of a table, or d) fleeing in terror, thus leaving it unmolested to grow to the size of the entire building. He will only consider the authorities at fault for failing to follow his advice. Frigging mad scientists.
- Foley artists are cool. As are people who can pull off the perfect mad scientist voice.
- Waiting till Sunday to spend money is difficult, but sometimes worthwhile.
- The people who make shinies will occasionally make a shiny to order.
- Charlie is most likely Gilligan. I'm still convinced that Sayid maps onto the Professor.
- Zat was Zen. Zis is now.
Specifically regarding corsetry:
- Leather, while it makes one look exceedingly hot, is much less forgiving than brocade. My armor class went up by two points, but my Dex and Con went down by at least a point each.
- Eat first, then change into the corset. Especially if you have to go outside the hotel to eat.
- It is possible to bruise one's sides just from tight lacing.
- Such a corset can immediately procure one an invitation to the Church of Skank party.
- I make good arm candy, as long as I have

thomascantor to humor me.

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The people who make shinies will occasionally make a shiny to order.

Oooh, what did you get?

Ear cuff with dangly gold chains and tourmaline. Sparkly!

lemme guess -- angela?

i love angela. she's daaaaaaaaangerous.

Angelwear? Yup. Pretty. She said she'd have it either in the next few weeks or not for several months due to shows.

Because I'm too lazy to write an explanation, I googled one if you're interested: http://users.rcn.com/rathbone/lw65-69c.htm

Foley artists are cool. As are people who can pull off the perfect mad scientist voice.

We pretty much spent our first rehearsal laughing our asses off at Spatch's vocal rendition. Thankfully, we got it out of our systems by the time we hit rehearsal three or four. Although in every rehearsal, half of the women (myself included) would gesticulate wildly and mouth along to the "doomed!" lines. Dude, how could we resist?

Doomed! Doomy doom doom...uh...no, I can't see how you could have resisted.

re: church of skank.... i don't think you saw my outfit saturday night, but i was wearing something which got me forcibly DRAGGED into the party. which is almost a compliment in its insulting sort of way.

pandemonium didn't have the magazine with your story. sad :(

Yeah. I'm a little irked with the distributor. I'm starting to feel really sorry for Pandemonium for siccing everyone on them.

I didn't see your outfit, but congratulations! Personally, I don't think "skank" was the effect of mine so much as "velvet+leather+unforeseenboobies," but the two are similar.

Unforeseen boobies?

NOBODY EXPECTS THE BOOBIE INQUISITION!

Hey, I keep meaning to ask (um, one of those annoying, undefined questions), there was a new fantasy novel I picked up off your table when I visited you last summer... a sort of detective squad of other races on patrol... would you recognize that description enough to remember what it was, so I can go find it again? :-)

Glad you had a good weekend and are safe home with someone who admires you in your corset as you deserve to be admired!

Um...can you be more specific? Setting, urban fantasy, high fantasy, science fiction? I'm kind of at a loss.

Sorry to be vague... Hmmm. Urban fantasy, coastal, maybe San Fransisco? One of the main characters has to be near water to divine or connect with her magical source. I think someone gets attacked by a team of weredogs early on, maybe the motorcyclist on an enchanted version of speed, and there are alchemists. Oh wait — the main alchemist visits hospitals at night, taking pain from people; he has a scene in the burn ward. Premise of the whole thing is that there's a magical otherworld around or under the world most people see, and there's a threat to it this magic patrol is trying to uncover. You'd gotten it as a gift for Sen no Ogaku.

Does that mishmash help any?
Thanks hon.

That's Stephan Zielinski's _Bad Magic_.

Ffoeg

ffoeg is right. Bad Magic, which I recommend. If only for the recipe for Thin Dog.

don't hurt yourself with tightlacing! Ease into it. I hear the better the corset is made, the less likely you are to hurt yourself :/

Then again, I am not the corset expert but I know you have a sister who knows a lot...

You're so right about the tightlacing!
The corset in question is leather, and fairly rigid, which makes things a little tougher, and certainly less comfy. No give, you see...sigh.

My thought would be, then, to set this corset aside and wear one slightly larger and work on tightlacing that one until you can wear this one...

I'm a bit confused though about the term "tightlacing". It's my understanding that it's not technically tightlacing unless you're wearing a corset pretty much all the time as tight as you can possibly go, yes?

Also, would conditioning the leather harm the corset?