There's nothing that's more rubbish than something that purports to test your gender, but it's nice to see that all these quizes produce the same kind of results no matter who writes them.

Your Brain is 33% Female, 67% Male

You have a total boy brain Logical and detailed, you tend to look at the facts And while your emotions do sway you sometimes... You never like to get feelings too involved

You can answer as little or as much as you want - I want as many answers as possible, so I'd rather you did some than none! Please answer within the next day if possible, as I am a bit behind due to not understanding the assignment, again. (But even if you see this a week from now, please answer anyway if you can as I am interested in the answers)

( Survey here )


Thank you!!

( Short Dad bit )

One thing I have been "working on" in the last few months, which is not related to this situation, is "mindfulness" and awareness of ... well, stuff. Everything. Experiences. So many things can be a positive experience, and there is so much wonder to be found everywhere. Part of why this situation is confusing is because there are so many mundane but wonderful things that happen or that I see, but how do I reconcile that with the horribleness of the situation? What do I feel? Happy or sad? If I choose to feel sad, that sucks and is not good for me and I cannot do things I need to do, but if I choose to feel happy, is that a kind of betrayal, or is it denial, or some other bad/negative thing? (note: choosing is not always possible, sometimes sad wins irrespective of desire)
Over the last few weeks however, I have tried to note the positive things more, I think because Dad said something about living in the moment; he probably did as that's the kind of thing he says. Even just attempting to live more "in the moment" makes a week take a damn long time (although maybe it is the situation that is causing this, not my efforts). Each day seems like a week. If I see Dad every day, it seems like a lot of time has passed between each visit, and I have not been often enough.

Very depressing; don't read if you're not in a suitable mental state - a lot of people I know online have problems with depression, etc, so if you're fragile today, maybe you should read this later.

( Very depressing stuff under the cut )

A couple of years ago, I set up a search on Trade Me (like ebay) for the corset books that were generally regarded as pretty good, so that it would email me if someone was selling them. The likelihood that someone would first buy and then actually sell on TradeMe one of these books was low, but I was patient, and recently "Waisted Efforts" came up and I got it at a fraction of the price (like a half or a third) that it would cost to buy it from overseas, thus making it a price that I would reasonably pay for a book here if I really wanted it. Woohoo!
It arrived today and it is thicker (fairly chunky), slightly bigger (about landscape A4), and a lot more readable than I thought it would be. I was sort of thinking of it more like a reference book only, but it looks like you could read through it rather than just flick to relevant pages. This is good, because I like reading.
For some reason I thought it was written by a woman, and read through the overview and preface with this in mind, before seeing that the preface was signed "Robert" and which thus seemed rather odd.
I'm not sure I'm really happy with it's mix of "authentic" with "useful for theatre" but we'll see how it goes.

Traci - you need to do this :D

Since I prefer posting on my blog than on LJ, I thought I'd post there and then each week or whenever provide links here to the posts. Then you can read them or not, as interest you.

"my creative space" post
NZers in movies - accent observation
Belated xmas post 3 - presenty stuff
Belated xmas post 2 - fair trade shopping bags

And that's all this year so far.
I thought each time I did the creative space post, I could do links at the same time. We'll see.

PS - blogger allows comments but I can't reply - it's not threaded and stuff like LJ, so if you want me to be able to reply to a comment, leave it here instead!

So this is what I made from the first pattern and the mock-up I posted recently.
( Read more... )

This is quite long, and maybe quite boring. You have been warned. I haven't started a mockup yet and will probably wait until tomorrow, so I have time to implement suggestions if I don't change my plans.

( Very long, some photos )

Does anyone know of any other patterns of stays - I have:
the one in Costume Close-up
Leloir stays from costumes.org
The pattern in the Kyoto "Fashion" book (the very large 2-volume thing)
the kohler ones someone posted a link to last time
the confusing Diderot drawings which seem to be 2-piece ones (pages 20 and 22 apparently)

3 little sewing machines, all in a row.



The centre one is my good sewing machine, the Bernina 840 which was unfortunately not going properly so the sewing machine man is coming tomorrow, and hopefully he only needs to clean it or something... :( It's good. I hope it gets better.
The one on the left is Mum's Globe which I am using instead of the Bernina, and which I borrowed before I got the Bernina. It's pretty good. It's quite heavy - that's how you can tell it's good. If I've got my companies right, then it is actually a copy of a Bernina.
The one on the right is my first one and is the worst sewing machine ever, which is why I eventually borrowed Mum's. Not only is it terrible, but you actually feel insulted when you use it. It was the cheapest one available though, but I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone as unless they are very enthusiastic it will not help them to enjoy or improve at sewing. I use it to do button holes as I don't know how to do them on the other 2. It's a Brother BM-2600. Don't buy one. It's all plastic, and not heavy, so you know it's bad.

The title is pretty much all I have to say on this - saying more necessitates saying everything, which is a lot. I find it interesting though to record these interests and look back on them.

This is cool.
You have to arrange these little squares in order of colour and it gives you a score.
http://www.xrite.com/custom_page.aspx?PageID=77

(two_cheese_please needs to do this before she makes any more spectrum/colour wheel quilts, scarves, bags or other accessories!)

I got 7, best score is 0. The ones I got wrong were right in the centre of the spectrum they used, in the blue-green area; it was interesting that they weren't scattered around.

I found it really hard to really "see" the colours and squares - the lines keep bending, the colours moved about and there are "light" and "dark" lines running through the screen*. This generally happens when I try and look at things (computer screens, the outdoors, etc) where there is high contrast (I think that is the problem), and it is a cloudy afternoon here**, with the computer screens a fair amount brighter than the surrounding light level, and it is hard to see what's on them clearly. Luckily I don't need to analyse the exact position of lines nor exact colours, so this isn't a problem to work, etc, it's just annoying. Mostly I don't notice it much as I'm focusing on reading, not on seeing. It's actually really annoying; it feels like I can't see properly, even though I can see perfectly well, and it seems like I should be able to just look "better" or look "around" the annoyingness, and be able to see properly, but I can't. If anyone knows what this weirdness is, tell me, otherwise just do the colour test!!

*They're not actually light and dark, they're not actually even there, I don't think, that's just the best/easiest way to describe them.
**Actually, cloudy but bright skies seem to cause the problem the most, but I'm not sure what that means in terms of the light.

Also - why is this "undead journal" now instead of livejournal? I don't think this has been adequately explained, or explained at all. I spent a fair amount of time checking the URL for hidden/special characters and making sure I hadn't been redirected to some kind of "fishing" site, or other sneaky nefarious internet scheme. Internet safety folks - it's important to check out any differences in familiar sites, especially ones that require passwords, as there are dozens of ways you can think you're going somewhere and you actually end up somewhere completely different and they "steal" any information you type in, like passwords and bank details. Anyway, I'm confused.

Over the next week, I need to make my brother a cloak for his birthday. By 16 November, I also have to have made some 1890's combinations (like drawers, but like a jumpsuit, so all one garment), corset, blouse, bloomers, jacket and gaiters, as well as finding some shoes and a hat. So, I have to make...7 things in 5 weeks. Hmmmm.... Also, I will of course be writing a NOVEL during 2 of those weeks. I am thinking of trying the novel idea of actually using a PATTERN this time rather than just making it all up, but I actually only have potential patterns for the cloak, blouse, combinations and half a jacket (it's a bolero jacket and I want a long one). I have actually made the combinations, which is why Ihave a pattern already, but the fabric is too scratchy so I need to get some more from somewhere, which means it won't be linen, and the only plain cotton available is poor quality poplin, so it's not looking good. I don't know what fabric we do have here taking up all the room in the shops as it's not possible to get so many things I need - like a plain white cotton, linen of any sort, or wool that is actually a *colour* (ie, not black or grey).

I'm not sure that this is possible!

Edit: I forgot to say that the underwear stuff does not necessarily need to be made; I guess I should do it last if I have time and skip it otherwise, but it will be a shame not to have a complete and proper outfit!

I signed up for NaNoWriMo, so that means in November I have to write a novel, ha ha.
Point 3 in the confirmation email they send out says,
"3) Tell everyone you know that you're writing a novel in November. This will pay big dividends in Week Two, when the only thing keeping you from quitting is the fear of looking pathetic in front of all the people who've had to hear about your novel for the past month. Seriously. Email them now about your awesome new book. The looming specter of personal humiliation is a very reliable muse."

So anyway, I thought I should do as I was told and tell people. Should be fun.

I came back from my holiday, yay. Now I just need to read about everything that happened to everybody.
Maybe I'll post pictures, or links to pictures, or something. I took 365.

Starting tomorrow, I'm going to be on holiday in Australia for 12 days, and not online much. See you when I get back :D