A Shocking Discovery

You will be astounded to learn (Well, maybe you'll be astounded. Maybe not. I was astounded. I can tell you that.) that my kids don't remember all the cool things I did with them when they were younger.

Let me say that T & I didn't want them to be raised by others, so I was a stay-at-home mom the whole time, up until they both were in school full time. So I was there all day, every day. I read to them every day. Not one story. At least one for each. I created science experiments for them--we grew sugar crystals and bean sprouts and watched food coloring be drawn up a flower's stem. We had art projects and building projects. I sang to them and with them. I played games with them. We walked to the park almost every day. And I watched a crap ton of cartoons with them.

And they don't remember any of this.

Worse, they remember this being T doing all of this with them. (It wasn't. I stayed at home with the kids, remember? We were living on his salary. He was working a lot of overtime.) Let me clarify that this is not bad that they have such fond memories of growing up with their dad, but that they don't remember me doing any of this.

I'm astounded. It's almost like a sort of Schroedinger's Childhood. If we did all this cool stuff when they were kids, but they don't remember it, then did it actually happen?

Don't misunderstand. It's not like I'm looking for credit of some kind. That's not it at all. What I really wanted was to create some sort of lasting memory--a legacy--for my kids. So that maybe when they have their kids they would make pancakes with Ninja Turtles drawn on them because they remembered how I did that for them. Or that when they read to their children they'll warmly think of their own childhood.

I don't even know what to say.

Test Knitting

I've started a test knit on a hat that looks very interesting. This pattern's not available yet, so I don't want to say much about it right now, except that it is really clever. It's got a rather unique construction and a lot of character and it just appealed to me right off the bat.

It should be a pretty quick knit, too, since it is basically just knit and purl stitches. Of course, my problem is going to be finding the time to do any knitting at all.

I told myself that this would be a present. That way I could justify knitting it when I have so many things waiting to be knit for Christmas presents.

But, who am I kidding? This baby's gonna be mine.

Naked And Afraid

Have you seen this show? Naked And Afraid on Discovery Channel? I confess, I've only watched a piece of it. (Want to know how to get me to watch a show? Put the word "naked" in the title.)

Basically, a man and a woman are set loose in some wilderness with no clothes or anything and they have to survive for 21 days. They might get sick. They might get injured. They might become malnourished. (I guess most of them do.) They have to learn to work together to survive.

Sure, this is basically Survivor Man, except with a naked couple. And less actual survival experience to start with, I guess. But it's a very interesting concept. Making them naked adds a layer of emotional vulnerability to the already vulnerable physical reality of survival.

And, as I've mentioned, it makes people watch the show.

Sharkasaurus

So I was watching this documentary--or, I guess, part of a documentary--on one of the science-y channels late at night. It was about Megalodon. I didn't watch the beginning or the end of it, so I can only guess it wasn't a real documentary. I'm thinking it was a "mockumentary" like the one on Mermaids a couple of years ago or the one on Dragons before that.

But, fake or not, it was pretty interesting. Food for thought at least. Like, the oceans are so vast and deep, how are we really to know what's in there? Megaladon, submerged alien spaceship, giant squid, Namor, Prince of the Sea... We can't really know until we've mapped it all. And we've really only explored a fraction of the world's oceans.

This is the kind of thing I was talking about the other day. This unseen world. If you are on a cruise ship in the ocean, discoing the night away on the Lido Deck, you probably aren't thinking of the vicious prehistoric predator swimming in the water just below you, which may or may not choose that moment to reveal itself as hey, not extinct after all, now get in my belly! But that creature might very well be there.

That's why, I guess, the ocean is such a scary place to me. Be on the water and you never know what's under you. Be in the water, and you still won't see it coming.

What Happened To All My Earrings?

It occurred to me today that I haven't worn earrings in a very long time. Maybe not since I stopped working in an office. What's up with that?

I mean, I really enjoy wearing earrings. When I was younger, and all my friends were getting their ears pierced, my mom adamantly forbid me from getting mine pierced. And when my mom said no, you didn't go against her. She said no. Discussion over.

That might just be the main difference between my generation and this one. Not that my kids were rebels or anything. Far from it. But it's like I was telling R just the other day, there was never anything that he could be punished for. Whenever he wanted to do something, he weighed all the possible outcomes, including the punishment if he were caught, and then he decided whether the punishment was worth the crime. So, if he did it and got in trouble for it, he was very resigned to whatever the punishment would be.

My mom would not have spared the rod.

Anyway, I was so excited when I turned 18 because the first thing I did was go get my ears pierced. That's how much I love wearing earrings.

But I haven't been wearing them lately. Further evidence of my devolution, I'm afraid.

When Will I Get Time To Knit?!

Yep. Probably not then, either.

I may have to change the title of this blog to "Patwoman Talks About Everything But Knitting On Her Knitting Blog."

I Heart Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards

We haven't done this in a while. But I've been looking at a lot of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards lately for work and I thought I'd share some with you.

Goblindbergh. It's a goblin in a biplane. It's Goblin Lindbergh. Goblindbergh. Haha!

Too soon?

How about this one? How'd you like to run into this guy in a dark alley some night?

I know he's supposed to be some sort of mutated shark mouth monster (Hey, I just created the title of the next Made-for-Syfy-Movie! You're welcome, Syfy. I'll stop doing this when you change your name back to SciFi, like it's supposed to be.) but I'm wondering about his locomotion.

Like, he's a shark-thing, but he doesn't have the shark fins and tail he would need for swimming. Instead, he's definitely bipedal (given the way he is standing) and he has functioning arms. And, while I don't think mouth-hands are entirely practical, I think he could get by on them. But check out that right foot! The mouth is open--wide--against the ground. So basically it's Step--pppfffhhht!--Step--Step--pppfffhhht!--Step--Step--pppfffhhht!

Yeah, I know. You're amazed at the logic. I should've been a forensic scientist of some sort.

Sometimes Yu-Gi-Oh! fails at their task, though. Like this Nightmare Penguin.

While that is creepy, it's not particularly scary. Unless you're a fish. Or you thought it was Casual Friday.

Scary Things

Have you seen the new trailer for Insidious 2? Cheesy Crackers, that's effin scary!

Now you know I love horror movies and I've seen just about every one that's ever been made. They don't usually stick with me (with a few rare exceptions) but this one...

This one...

I'll tell you the part that gets me, too. It's the part where the medium says "He says 'He's got your baby'." And then you can see the entity standing right in front of him (but he can't see him) saying "He's got your baby. He's got your baby. He's got your baby."

Shudder.

That whole unseen world really freaks me out. My grandma used to say "There's nothing in the dark that isn't there in the light."

That's about the scariest thing I've ever heard.

I'm De-evolving

I think you can guess by my posts that I'm just really busy these days. As a consequence, I try to save time in as many ways as I possibly can. Like, I prep as much as I can, at home and at work, so it takes less time to clean up or to get the day started.

That's a good thing.

However, I have started to notice that some of my time-saving methods are--how shall we say?--less than good.

For example, I no longer wear socks. It started out several years ago, when I worked in an office, as 'I no longer wear pantyhose." Sure, that's nothing new. Lots of people don't wear pantyhose. But the way I was raised, if you were over the age of twelve or so and you wore a skirt or a dress, you wore pantyhose. It's old-fashioned, sure. But it's just the way it was. Then, later, as a journalist and later still as an HR Business Partner, it was pretty much mandatory.

But then, I moved into the world of corporate recruiting. And the dress code became so much more casual. Not only was it okay to ditch the pantyhose, but so many other previously not-done things were suddenly okay to do. Like wear open toed shoes. Or sleeveless blouses. Or--gasp--hair accessories. The freedom was astounding.

But I digress. The point is that it's kind of a natural progression for me to not wear socks anymore. Okay, yeah. I know. That's not a good thing. But socks=laundry. And it's summer anyway. And socks are hot. My feet look at socks and say "Nope." And besides. So far, no one has noticed.

I also no longer use most tableware.

Of course, I don't mean to imply that I eat my food from a trough or take nourishment intravenously. (Though, that would save time.) No. I simply don't eat a lot of home-prepared meals any more. I eat takeout, mostly, these days. Straight from the wrapper.

And my Dr. Peppers? I drink them straight from the bottle.

It occurs to me that I am gradually giving up all the accoutrements of civilized society. I am devolving.

I'll Bet Pinterest Misses Me

Yeah. 'Cause I used to get on Pinterest every day and Pin a million things in a row. I haven't been on in, like, forever. I'll bet Pinterest is getting a little worried that something may have happened to me. (Pinterest tends to over-react like that.)

I really have not perused any Pins in such a long time. I just haven't had any time to do it.

But I need to get on and look at some stuff that I pinned a while back. Stuff that I thought might be cool to make for Christmas presents and such. (I've got to get on that, too.) Pinterest is really cool for finding neat jewelry projects, candies, cookies, cakes, and handmade soaps and the like for gifts.

The one thing that really does bug me about Pinterest, though, are all the pallet projects. Now, don't get me wrong. Those are some cool projects. Really nice looking things that, for the most part, you would love to have in your house. The problem I have with it is... Where the hell are these people getting those nice looking pallets?

I have never in all my years of receiving retail product from various and sundry warehouses, ever seen pallets as good-looking as those these people are using to build their projects with. Hell, I doubt they look that good when they are freshly made off the pallet construction line.

Let me show you what a real pallet looks like, folks.

Effin Pinterest.

Can Summer Be Over Already?

The kids around here are all back to school now. That seems like a very short summer. Yeah, I know most of them are on a year-round schedule now, but still. It seems like a very short summer.

Maybe it's like that when you get older? I remember when I was a kid, summers seemed to go on forever. And when it was finally time to go back to school, that world seemed like such a distant memory that the first day of school was always such a novelty. Even the summers in college were long. (I worked and took summer classes during those summers, but they still seemed long to me.)

I just find that time speeds by so quickly these days. Like all my time is running downhill now, so it's picked up momentum or something. The days go so quickly that I barely make a dent in my to do list each day. And the months are flying by.

It's the middle of August. Where did the time go?

Another FO

Finished off the second back scrubber. This one is for R, in a Denim SugarN' Cream.

This is nice, mindless knitting for those times when you just want to watch your shows but your hands don't want to be still. It's garter, garter, garter. Can't get any easier than that, people.

I don't enjoy knitting with cotton yarn very much, but I didn't really mind this, for some reason. Maybe cotton yarn is getting softer. Or maybe my fingers are desensitized due to lack of sleep.

I have a little of the dark and light blue cotton left over. I might try and do something with them.

Monday, Monday

When I worked in the real world, I would always take off the Monday after Gencon, just to recover. And that was before we had a booth there!

There's no rest for the weary, I'm afraid. This Monday I am playing catch-up.

I realized, too, that I had forgotten to send my brother a birthday card at the beginning of the month. Let me tell you what a terrible sister I am. He always sends me a card. Always. And not just a card. A letter, telling me about how things are going.

I feel really bad.

I did get him something at Gencon, though. A little quartz bear. This is funny because we called him "bear" as we were growing up. Ha!

Now I have to write him a letter to go with it.

Last Day of the Con

Stepped away from the booth for a couple of hours today so I could stop by and see some of the people I try not to miss at GenCon. Oh, and buy artwork. Seriously. Our booth was two booths away from the jewelry guys I always buy jewelry from and the art show. How was I not going to buy stuff?

I bought a bunch of art. Some for the store, but the Larry Elmore print is for me. (I hope I didn't worry him by waiting until the last hours of the con to come buy something!)

I also checked in with Ken Whitman. You may know him as Russ from The Brothers Barbarian web series. (Check it out. It's hi-lar-i-ous.) We talked about giving back to the gaming community, actors, and positivity. He also told me that The Brothers Barbarian is taking a more serious turn in Season Two. Can't wait to see that.

My friend Nicole stopped by the booth to say hi. Here she is in her Tardis dress.

Nicole tells me that, if she could choose her mom, she'd choose me. Which is a very nice compliment, but I told her "Please don't say that in front of your mom. It would really hurt her feelings."

In other Doctor/GenCon-related news, I did pick up a pretty sweet T-shirt, which I will post a picture of (pretty soon). It says: The Past, Present, and Future Mrs. The Doctor.

Ha!

GenCon Crafting

One of our GenCon traditions is to do a couple of Craft Classes. (They call them SPA events. That's Spouse/Partner Activities, I think.) Anyway, with us doing a booth this year, and M at Police Academy, our time is pretty limited. But we did break away to do this Glass Stringer Class.

Basically, glass stringers (If you don't know. I didn't, until this class.) are long, thin strings of glass. You lay those strings on a piece of clear glass and cover it up with another piece of clear glass. Then the whole thing gets melted together. It's a pretty cool process. This class made Christmas trees--one big and one small.

As always, when working with glass, the rule is Safety First.

Of course, I can't see the damn stringers or the clear glass without my reading glasses, so I just wore those.

It's easy to see what these will look like when they're done. There's a lot less taking it on faith than there is in the dichroic pendants class we did last year. Here's some in progress pics.

And here are my two trees, all ready to send off to be fired.

Yeah, I know. But what I lack in creativity, I make up for with symmetry.

M was thinking outside the box, though. After I was done, I looked over at hers and wanted to smack my own forehead. Diagonal strings... multiple colors in the same row... Why didn't I think of that?


I can't wait to see how these turn out, after they're all melted together. I love my dichroic pendants and my glass frit pendants and bracelet that we've done in past years.

But, you know, the best thing about taking time to do this class is the company you keep during class. I had M and Bre.

Cupcakes

I've been eating cupcakes like it was cool or something. God damn those cupcake trucks to hell. Why do they tempt me so?

Here is the Zombie Bride Cupcake:

Supposed to be Almond flavored wedding cake and Almond flavored frosting. Was more like vanilla cake and sugar flavored frosting. Not complaining though. I ate it all. In about 5 seconds flat.

Here is the Luke, I Am Your Father Cupcake:

This is red velvet cake and vanilla frosting. Pretty good.

I also have eaten a Salted Caramel/Chocolate cupcake and a Strawberry Cupcake. I've got my eye on a Lemon Cupcake, too.

Taking A Page From M's Book

M told me a while back that she had started taking a picture of the sky every day. That's kind of a cool thing, I think. Like you could go back and look at what the day was like at some future point.

I took a picture of the sky on our wedding day. I almost didn't remember doing it. I found the picture in the photo album (from back when I actually had time to put picture in photo albums) and thought "What? Did I drop the camera or something?" Then I remembered that I had done it so I would remember what the day was like. (It was a nice blue-sky day.)

Today I was sitting on the concrete, leaning against a building while T was getting food for us at one of the many food trucks stationed outside GenCon. And let me just say here that I actually like food trucks. You know what a huge connoisseur of truck-vended food I am. So, vegetarian nachos or deep fried ravioli or pizza slices--I'm okay with that. I'm a little hinky about a $4 cupcake, but whatever. It's GenCon.

So, anyway. I'm sitting there and looking up at the sky and thinking about how M takes a picture every day and I realized "Hey. I've got my camera right here on my phone."

This was the sky today:

Gen Con Is Here!

Holy crap! I've missed Gen Con! This year is especially exciting because we will be exhibiting! Whoo-hoo! If you are at Gencon, come by booth 942 and say hi to me.

T and I set up our retail space in the Exhibitor Hall today and I have to say, it was kind of a shock for me. Yeah, I knew what the hall looked like without Gencon in it. I knew that it would be a big empty space with nothing really special going on. I knew all that logically.

But logic doesn't really help when you walk in and it's all bare floors and boxes on pallets and carpets in rolls. I felt the illusion--the magic--of the dealer room evaporating away with every glance at an unskirted table or a disassembled display rack.

Still, we were able to get set up nicely before the hall closed up for the night.

When we were almost ready to go, I spotted something unusual. In the distance, over the top of the booths, I saw a giant mecha-robot moving down the aisle!

Yeah. It was just a forklift with two rolls of carpet. But keep in mind I desperately need glasses. There was a moment when I was illogically afraid.

WIP: Another Scrubber

I liked that back scrubber so much I decided to do another one.

Here is #2. This one will be for R. Again, I used #5 needles and Lily Sugar'N Cream. This time, in Denim.

Zombies Are Crap At Knitting

R was on vacation in Georgia last week. But he was thinking of Dear Old Mom when he saw this in a shop:

Ha! It's a refrigerator magnet. I love it because it's so true!

Can't Remember Where I Saw This...

I recently came across a--I guess you might call it a poncho?--somewhere online. It was not the usual triangle. It was more like two rectangles with a neck hole. It had cables and some other pattern on the front, maybe seed stitch.

When I saw it, I thought This is a poncho I would wear.

Not that there's anything wrong with wearing ponchos. I'm just not that fashionable. It doesn't work on me. Now, R's gf Bre can wear a poncho. I've seen her in them and she looks very sharp. And M can wear a poncho like nobody's business. But me... Not so much. Maybe you just have to be young to wear them?

I don't know. But this one... This one was just my style. There's only one problem.

I can't remember where I saw the pattern.

Not Knitting... Experimentation

I found this package of beads at Dollar Tree the other day. For a dollar, I'll see if I can do something with them.

I had this idea in mind. You know those beaded cord bracelets you see people making on Pinterest all the time? It's basically the same thing you did as a kid in summer camp. (I didn't go to summer camp, but I've heard other people talk about it.) Only, I decided to use jewelry wire instead of a leather cord.

So, I made a loop at the end, where I'll eventually attach a clasp. Then I started threading. I really thought this would be cool with only the bugle beads, but A) I'm pretty sure there aren't enough bugle beads in this pack and B) It would take for-freaking-ever. So I thought I might alternate the round beads with the bugle beads.

It still takes a long time to do. Here's what I did in about ten minutes.

I started out thinking I was going to do a bracelet. But now, I'm leaning toward ring.

I'm not sure I will finish this. I'm not unhappy with the results. But it's also not what I had in mind when I started. I think there are a couple of lessons here:

1) Beads should be roughly the same size. Even if I'd done this all in bugle beads or all in round beads, these beads are not uniform. In the case of the bugle beads, there is quite a bit of difference in length sometimes.

2) I should have clamped the end to hold it, instead of trying to do it loose and floppy. I think having the end secure would help a lot.

3) Don't use bugle beads at all. They're a pain in the ass to use and they break. Just use regular beads.

4) Since the wire shows, I'm thinking of using a colored wire as an accent.

My House Is Out Of Control

I used to watch those Life After People shows and just be so skeptical. How could things fall apart so quickly? You would think that there would be some period of time where everything was just going along, before it started to decay, right?

Lately we have been working so much that we've done almost nothing in the yard. Like, if we didn't pay someone to come and cut the grass our house would look like we were on vacation. (Ha. But anyone who knows anything about us knows that we don't know the meaning of that word.) I haven't weeded the garden. I haven't trimmed down the bushes. I haven't even deadheaded the roses.

By I, of course, I mean T.

Anyway, I understand now how the entire world would just be overrun by plant life inside of a week if all the people on the planet disappeared. Good work, Discovery Channel. You were right on the money.

Nightmare Spiders

True story:

Once upon a time last night, T and I were coming home from work. I was standing on the porch while T fumbled around with the house key unlocked the door and I noticed something hovering in the air about two feet away from me.

This is what I saw:

Now, keep in mind that it was dark. My porch light is yellow (to keep bugs away) so it wasn't much help. Add to that, my near-blindness these days.

I thought to myself "Hm. That's strange. Strange that a hummingbird would be out this late at night." And all the while, this "hummingbird" was hovering there, kind of moving back and forth a little.

Then, something clicked in my brain. Something like "Hummingbirds don't come out at night. And what would a hummingbird be doing, just hovering there, where there was no earthly reason for it to be?" And I took half a step closer so I could see it better.

It was a ginormous spider. Like mwah-ha-ha-you'll-never-wake-up-from-this-nightmare giant spider. My mind just went "Nope...Nope. Nope. Nope." And I calmly asked T to kill the spider.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

It's beginning to look something like Christmas, at least. At Michaels.

I was here today, hoping they still had the correct dye lot since I didn't get enough yarn the first time picking up a skein of yarn and saw this. This is where they are about to set their Christmas ornament DIY display.

One of them, at least. This will be where the empty glass ornaments, blank ceramic ornaments, unpainted wood ornaments, and beaded ornament kits will live.

Yay!

I Saw A Coyote

...in my neighborhood!

We were coming home from work late last night and we saw something running along the street. T hit the brights on the headlights and we saw it running. (A coyote doesn't run like a dog, btw. It has a much different gait. I can't describe it, but you know when you see it that it's no kind of dog.) I'm guessing it was running along the creek that runs through our neighborhood.

It's strange to see one here because this is really a suburban neighborhood. But I guess there is some open woods not far from here. You just don't think about a wild animal like a coyote being in such a populated area.

Although, now that I'm thinking about it, T and R saw one just a few months ago. And one ran through the yard this winter. I might have posted about that, too.

I was worried about Gengen going outside (which she needed to, because we were gone all day) and made T go stand beside her so no coyote could get her. I worried also about Odysseus and all of the many strays that are now coming to my house to be fed. (I have seen everyone since then, btw, so they are all fine.)

I told M about it and she said I should have reported it to Animal Control. I totally didn't even think about it. But I think I will call them tomorrow and just give them a heads up. Maybe they can watch the area.

FO: Back Scrubber

Here's is another garter stitch/Breaking Bad project. It's a Cotton Back Scrubber.

This is made from Lily Sugar'n Cream in Indigo. I knit it on #5 needles. In the dark. Hey, it's okay. It's basically a wash cloth with a huge buttonhole on either end.

Now I know what you're thinking. You're thinking WTF Patwoman? A cotton wash cloth? You don't knit wash cloths and you damn sure don't knit with cotton.

And, you know, you'd be right most of the time. But this is a back scrubber for T. He will really enjoy and appreciate it. (Because he's always saying, "Come on, baby. Just take off your clothes and get in the shower with me. I'll let you wash my back.") The garter stitch is perfect for a cloth like this.

Look how pretty my garter stitch is.

This is a quick, dirt-easy knit that only took two episodes of Breaking Bad to finish. It's a good gift for a guy, too. I mean, I could give M a million scarves. She would understand that certain scarves go with certain coats, certain occasions, etc. Most guys think one scarf is enough. (I know. I don't understand it either.) This back scrubber gives me another knitted option.

This particular one is going to be a Christmas gift for T. But I think I will get some more cotton and make one for R, too.

And yes, I know I need to weave in those ends. I jumped the gun with taking pictures.

Making Do

I was thinking about the trend toward frugality these days. It's kind of a fashion, isn't it? Like, things that are okay to do now would not have been okay before.

For instance, when I was growing up, I got a lot of my clothes from garage sales. And it wasn't cool or trendy back then. Back then, if I'd gone to school wearing one of the popular girls' hand-me-downs... Well, it would've been bad. You know how high school girls are.

Luckily for me, when I was in high school I was the size of a fifth-grader, so there was never any danger of being seen in one of their outfits. Maybe one of their little sister's, but luckily high school girls are so self-centered they wouldn't have noticed.

The new clothing I got came from outlet stores, which were also not cool back then. People go crazy for these place now.

I frequent Goodwill now. (Well not in a while. I haven't had any time to. But I want to.) I find all kinds of stuff there. So do a lot of other people, judging from how crowded those stores always are.

Gardening and preserving food is also something that was not a cool thing to do back when I was growing up. We did it. But most people didn't. Nowadays, people grow all kinds of stuff in their home gardens, from the pedestrian to the exotic. (I think popcorn in a backyard garden is exotic.)

I will admit, I'm not always vigilant about spending money on stuff. Sometimes, it's just a time thing. Like cutting the grass. It's worth the money to not have to spend two hours cutting the grass.

Of course, yarn is a different story. Someone asked me if I saved a lot of money by knitting Christmas gifts. Obviously, this person has never bought yarn. Knitting is not a frugal craft.

Work Ethic

It's been a while since I've bitched about people's work ethic. I guess since I stopped being an employment recruiter. But, I'm going to do it now.

What is wrong with people these days?

For example, I've noticed this about several representatives of several businesses from all over the country on several occasions (I'm saying all this so you know it's not just one person or one business or one area), but people have such poor communication skills.

I'm not talking about sending a badly worded email. Although that happens often enough. I'm not talking about spelling or grammar errors. I'm talking about the act of communication. For example, you provide me with a service and I ask you a question about a problem I'm having with that service. What do you do?

A) Answer me with the information you have. And if you don't have the information tell me you don't know and then find out.

B) Don't answer me at all.

Too often, B happens. B is the wrong answer, folks. Likewise, if you're a service provider of mine and I ask about a problem that I'm waiting on you to fix, do you:

A) Ignore the problem.

B) Fix it, but don't tell me it's fixed so I'm just waiting forever until I check to see if it's fixed and think How the hell long has this been working?!

C) Fix it and let me know it's working fine now.

I can tell you C has never happened with any service provider I've ever worked with. Even the ones for whom I represent a sizable chunk of their business.

And what's with the phone etiquette? Everybody always says "How are you?" before they even tell you who's calling. But nobody says "goodbye" any more. They finish talking or find out what they want to know and hang up.

I hate to sound like an old person here, but seriously. Manners, people.

At Last! Something I'm Good At Can Benefit Mankind!

Check this out. Discovery News did a little bit (ha!) on surprising uses for urine. I have to say, I was a little surprised at one.

Scientist in China have found a way to take the cells that are flushed out in urine and create brain cells out of them. These brain cells can be programmed (theoretically) to repair damaged portions of the brain and eventually provide treatment for diseases like Alzheimer's disease. Now that's interesting.

And a little scary. Think about this. What if you take human pee, make human cells, and use them in a chimpanzee? Or vice versa? What if you mix human pee with chimp pee and make cells from that? What if you take a big pee bucket full of two different animal's pee and you make cells to implant in a human brain?

What if you implanted the pee-brain cells of one person into another person and that person started having memories of committing horrible crimes until it was driving him--literally--crazy? (That's a Syfy Movie in the making, right there. Are you listening, The Asylum? You're welcome.)

I'm just messing with you. I don't know if any of that is even possible. It seems like the kind of cells you would get in pee would be specific to that species, at least. And they certainly wouldn't carry donor memories any more than, say, a blood donation would.

But what do I know? I got my science degree from... Oh wait a minute. I didn't get a science degree! So, as far as I know, this is all completely plausible!

It's August!

And August means Gencon. And you know how I love Gencon.

I will be working at Gencon this year. Of course, I always work--playtesting games, meeting with vendors, etc. But this time I will be at a booth. I'll be at booth 942. We are Bushiroad's Official Gencon Retailer and we've partnered with them for a booth.

So if you go to Gencon, make sure to stop by and see your friend Patwoman.

I'm excited. I've been going to Gencon for many, many years now and it's always so exciting to go. I literally look forward to this all year. I'm not sure how many activities I will get to do, beyond testing/buying products and meetings, but there are a couple I'm looking forward to.

I'll most likely be stopping to the craft area for a bit in the late evenings, too. So maybe I'll see you there.