The birthday concert was awesome despite sound mixing by someone possessed of little clue. It was also in an awesome venue, the restored Fox Oakland movie palace (decor influenced by Hindu temples and Moorish palaces, with bits of art deco and other stuff; has to be seen to be believed).

Not much more rain since the big storm, but some windy days caused a lot of tree breakage. A sixteen-foot branch fell on the phone line, but did not damage the line, so The Phone Company said it wasn't their problem. I got up on a ladder with a saw and a broom handle (and goggles) and removed it successfully, despite being dubious about the prospect. Housemate Christine assisted and kept the ladder from falling over.

Housemate Linda is indeed commuting to work again. Also to various event committee meetings. Both of us worked as election officials in a local election, though in different precincts.

Studio sorting is getting to the visible stage at last. I've been making some minor jewelry items as I sort the bead section.

----------
Since *keight's comment has reminded me that my previous journal's title is not just a line from Edgar Allan Poe's poem Ulalume [link] but also the title of various books and stories, including one [link] by a favorite author of mine, Roger Zelazny, I decided to title this one the same as one of my favorite Zelazny stories [link] - which is a line from an A. E. Housman poem [link] (and which quotes from it). Ulalume is intended to be gloomy, but I tend to spoil the effect by singing it to the tune of Acres of Clams [link]) (I also sing Poe's poem The Raven to the tune of Men of Harlech [link] though most people I know prefer to sing it to Dvorkak's Humoresque No. 7 in G flat major [link]) ). [Those last two links will need to have a close parenthesis added, to get to the actual page; deviantART doesn't know how to make a proper link to a URL that ends in a parenthesis.]

CSS Journal Coded by =FleX177

It's my 71st birthday today. This evening there is a planned dinner and a concert (Gipsy Punk band Gogol Bordello [link] [link]) but as I write this it's the quiet time just after midnight, when I can sit and listen to the electrons bouncing in the wires and the air molecules bouncing in my ears.

Day before yesterday the big storm hit, after most of a year dry except for some light rain one day about a month back. Water was flowing over the gutters onto the sidewalks, and the tree outside my room was playing the roof with a branch, like a bow and cello; slow, deep throbbing notes, a music I rather like. A very wet squirrel found shelter on the outside ledge of the front window, cleaned water off its fur, and cast longing glances at the dry interior (the cat was in one of the other rooms). I was glad I had done the roof and gutter work. I love rain, and we certainly need it here, but I don't love water damage.

It's been an interesting couple of months, with various problems to be sorted out (computers and electronics, plumbing, other tedious stuff). Also, housemate Linda had to have her hip replacement replaced due to a bad reaction to the plastic portion, and this involved breaking the thighbone to get the old replacement out and bone grafting to replace damage from the plastic. Supplies were stocked up and work-at-home arrangements made, and (having been through all this before and having stratigised to heal at maximum speed) she should be back to commuting to work next week.

SiliCon was small but pleasant this year, and a new fantasy convention was being publicised there, SorcererCon (November 27-29, 2009 at the San Jose Doubletree Hotel) [link], and I plan to have a dealer table there. Since this is a new convention, to encourage attendance they are giving blocks of free memberships to people who reserve rooms at the hotel for the convention weekend.

Much office and studio sorting has been done, but things are still not to the stage where it looks like something has actually happened. Most of my art projects are in the intermediate stage and probably will be for a couple more weeks. But I should at least make occasional changes and journal entries to indicate things are happening....

CSS Journal Coded by =FleX177

Organizing my workshop turns out to be a 55-gallon drum of worms. I keep buying storage boxes and sorting things, but I haven't yet got to the point where it looks like work has been done (in my experience, that tends to be towards the end of the job). At the same time I'm going through my file cabinets, doing repairs, finishing up old projects, finishing commissions, and occasionally getting something new done.

But I've also been visiting parks and museums, taking long walks locally, going to parties, and researching odd items on the Net. On a visit to the Computer History Museum, I spotted a couple of computer mice that I helped build decades ago, which inspired me to dig out and upload to my gallery some items from those days.

The Computer History Museum had, on loan, one of the two complete Babbage Difference Engines ever built (and made to the original specifications and tolerances), one of the holy shrines of steampunk; they cranked it through a set of calculations during the lecture/demo. I'd seen a few small versions of the calculation columns of the engine, made with modern components, at Maker Faires, but the real thing is much more awesome (and louder).

CSS Journal Coded by =FleX177

I spent most of May away from home at conventions and festivals and shows, and most of the rest of May resting. I did get a number of items done to sell, and some were those last-minute ones that I didn't get photos of and no longer have, though the only one I really regret that of is a fox skull I did in somewhat the style of Bobcat X. But I've put up the major ones in my gallery, and put copies of the unsold ones in the Unsold Items folder there. And I did get more of the usual stuff done: more de-entropification of the studio and office, being poll clerk at the latest state election, shopping, some signage in the Pyrocumulon font for BayCon, work on my steampunk costuming and accessories, and so on. Some commissions done, more in progress.

I heard frogs down at the local creek, for the first time in years; at least three species, huge numbers of them making a racket....

UPDATE: Besides adding new for-sale works to the Unsold Items folder, I've added a new folder of Mystery Items, with a couple of new mysterious objects I'd like help identifying, and the previous solved and unsolved ones, too.

CSS Journal Coded by =FleX177