Making ShoutingMan
February 3, 2008
OK, this one’s for Lynice, since she asked how ShoutingMan was made.
Ode to rhubarb glass
February 2, 2008
Castuary (that period of anxious waiting while your kiln processes your glass castings) was over last night, and I opened the molds to–as usual–a mix of Christmas and nightmare. Well, maybe not nightmare. Probably more like one of those twitchy, uneasy dreams where you step up to the podium to accept your award and things would be perfect if you’d just remembered to put on pants.
In this case, however, the no-pants moment was brief, and I was reasonably thrilled. And Bullseye Rhubarb Pink-Green Shift and Marzipan may be my new favorite colors.
It’s amazing how much the characteristics of a particular glass affect the outcome of a casting, and in this case the choice of glass (NOT just the choice of color, mind you) profoundly affects the piece. The marzipan did this kinda creamy, bread-at-the-point-of-becoming-toast thing that couldn’t have been more perfect for the effect I wanted if I’d made the glass myself.
But it’s the Rhubarb I’m really excited about. I’m trying different colors for ShoutingMan, who’ll eventually be an inclusion in a much larger piece.
Fan fare
February 2, 2008
How easy it is to delight a gadget freak. Just stick a ditsy little LED tschotske in front of him (or in this case her) and she’s grinning like a monkey. (Do monkeys grin? Must check)
This is a tradeshow giveaway, a personal fan, battery-operated, with two flexible plastic blades and a single foil strip with 5 red LEDs running down the center of one of ‘em. Turn it on, and after awhile (if you baby the blade into the right position), it displays the words “100% SATELLITE TRACKING,” one right after the other.
OK. I know theoretically what’s going on here, but my brain’s not really comprehending how 5 little LEDs are making it do this. Seems like those LEDs would have to be flashing pretty fast…
–happy sigh–
Wall of shame welcomes Verizon and Linksys
February 1, 2008
As much as I love geeking out over gadgets, there are days when I long for pencil, tin can and string. Days like today.
I’ve had Verizon FiOS, their high-speed fiberoptic network, for 14 months now. I know this because last night it died (or rather, the wireless router they supplied me with died) and Verizon said it was out of warranty. They said this after leading me through two hours of voicemail hell, so by the time someone actually answered the phone I was NOT in a good mood.
“It’s your router now–it became yours after 12 months–and the warranty’s expired,” shrugged the tech (well, his voice shrugged, since he was on the phone), “You need to go buy a new one. We don’t support it.”
Uhm…so you’re saying ‘too bad, so sad, not our problem, go away?’
“Ma’am, you never heard those words come out of my mouth. We gave you a router for free, which is more than Comcast does. You still have Internet access–it’s up to you to get it to more than one computer.”
Hmmmm. This may make me rethink getting FiOS TV. Also FiOS landline. And maybe my mobile phone. But for now, I needed the whole network online, so I stopped off tonight and bought a wireless router.