1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal...along with these instructions.

"Form a question mark at the end of each wire, using the tip of combination strippers (page 46) or longnose pliers."

from Wiring 1-2-3: Install, Upgrade, Repair, and Maintain Your Home's Electrical System

I do not feel this way about my own life in relation to those of others, and the fact that you do interests me.

It sweetens my evening to know that I've captured your interest even for a moment, lovely one. Read on for explication.


Anyhow, Luxcanon's individual liberty is a good cause, period. Whether or not people die for it does not diminish its goodness.

I proudly admit I gave no consideration to what is 'good' when I last posted. I am no altruist. And I highly doubt, dear reader, that you are. And I honestly don't think in terms of "preserving my individual liberty" which strikes me as luxurious idealism, but rather a proven enemy might come get me, I need every advantage I can get. Get your ass kicked by a bully with a stick and next time you visit the playground, you'll bring a bigger stick yourself. Or maybe you will stay away from the playground entirely? Not so easy to do if that's where you live. And if your principles inform you that sticks are bad because bullies use them to hurt people and therefore since you're "good" you'll have nothing to do with them then I can't help you, but life will teach you otherwise given time. Or perhaps you won't learn this lesson, and be gunned down by a SWAT team who thinks that hairbrush in your hand is a Glock. They are trained to shoot first, and taught that they are entitled to do so in self defense. And how often are they prosecuted and jailed for wrongful death? Not fucking very.

I am privileged to awaken each morning to the joy of fellowship with my lovely daughter. How many thousands do you think I would be willing to kill myself, with automatic weapons, or with my bare fucking hands, if it meant preserving her life? That's right: as many as show up at my door to harm her. And that's what the issue is: genetic imperative. Do I think my life, or my liberty, or my progeny, is "worth" more than that of thousands of others? I don't know, and I don't care, and the issue is semantically null as far as I'm concerned. What I think is that I'm ready and willing to do whatever it takes to protect her. And since I don't trust anyone else to be her Daddy, that means doing whatever it takes to protect my own life. And since I've read a little history, that means not trusting that an external authority won't abuse its weapons and power. And that means, if I get the chance to buy a couple of AK47s and 100k rounds and bury them in a cache against future totalitarianism, I'll take it.

I don't think keeping firearms in the same home as a toddler is very smart. And I don't see automatic weapons as particularly practical home defense. But I'll be damned if I don't take every advantage I can get against an overwhelmingly better equipped oppressor. I'm not a violent person. I plan on making it through my life without every pointing a gun at anyone, let alone firing one. But the difference between Boys and Men is usually Plan B. If I thought there was even an infinitesmal chance that the government would ever use nukes against me, why, I'd be in favor of legalizing civilian possession of those... because I'm not interested in entrusting the power of life and death to an external authority over me.

Well, now that I think about it, maybe if my liberty costs the lives of thousands then it would be "worth it"; I think luxcanon's liberty is only worth the lives of like ... 750 or so ... no more than ... uh ... 1200-ish.

All the market will bear, brother.

My argument against renewing the assault weapons ban is fairly simple:

One of my potential adversaries is legally allowed to carry them.

IE the agents of the United States federal government.

And no, I'm not an NRA member nor do I keep firearms in my household.

But lest we forget:



Don't quote statistics at me. It doesn't matter how many innocent people have been killed by automatic machine-guns. If my liberty costs the lives of thousands then they have died for a good cause.

Any pause is dirty.
Every lock,
cage, reason, bar--
shutter--
stutter--
stop.
It's this well-spoken zoo
that keeps the prints of peace
bored
bordered
enraged.

We visited again yesterday.

Someone complained "all
the exhibits are empty!
All the animals hiding or gone!"

Thrilled
I imagined animals escaped, alive,
conscious,
unseen.

"This is where they couldn't hold the beast,"
I told my daughter, proudly.

At home
we howled and crawled
on the floor
ignoring language
our paws strong
and loving
and filthy.

Crossposted to hot_glass


I brought some silver foil into the hot shop a couple weeks ago to experiment with. It was interesting. I can see lots of great uses for it.


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Crossposted to hot_glass
I love this piece, I think of it nearly every time I'm in the hotshop. It is so ephemeral and delicate yet useful, it is an inspiration to me.

Container in the shape of a dove first half of 1st century AD free-blown glass, 21cm long "The object is an elegant perfume vial, whose contents could only be extracted after breaking off the tail. It is thought to have been made by a glassworks in the Ticino Canton." ( Several large images behind cut. )

crossposted to hot_glass

I guess I spend about half my gaffer time working on bottles. I have this project that I call "72 bottles" that I'm working on, it's a physical component for a year-long evocation working.

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crossposted to hot_glass

James and I rent the hot shop every Monday, and we've chosen a guy from Glass I to be our assistant. That way James and I both do our own work at a gaffer bench, and Tim runs back and forth, giving air or making puntys or whatever is required. Tim's a good assistant, so when he's there, James and I really book, we totally fill up the box with glass by the end of the four hour session. Meaning, we're each producing 14 to 16 pieces per session, about one every 18 minutes or so.

Since we're sharing a glory hole, we are splitting the rental fee: $60 each. This means that we have reduced the average cost per piece to about $4. This does not figure in our additional material cost, such as colored glass or metal foils. Nor does it include any kind of accounting for the cost of my glass education to date, which is significant. If we were producing multiple instances of a specific design, we'd be able to tune our process and increase production quite a bit. We pay assistants with glassblowing time at the end of the session. The going rate is 15-30 minutes use of the studio, depending on who's helping. One good way to increase output is by designing a production process and using two or three assistants, dividing the steps among individuals who pass the glass off to the next person when they're done with their part.

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Crossposted to hot_glass

Some shots of the beads I made during the Leah Fairbanks class at Bullseye.

( Bandwidth warning, several largish photos. Aesthetic warning: my lampworking skills are nearly non-existant, because I've only spent a couple dozen hours at the torch to date. )

A few shots of Victory and some backyard macro photography.

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