The Littlest Penguin

Steam-powered birthday

Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 | birthdays, costumes, friends, fun stuff, pictures, steampunk | 2 Comments

It is 1896 in the Year of Our Lord. It has been seventy-four years since Charles Babbage has developed the Difference Engine – a clockwork device capable of making advanced calculations in the blink of an eye. Since that time, the Difference Engine has shrunk from a clockwork tool that filled an entire room to Desktop Counters and Hand-Held Butlers.

It is a world driven by steam and iron. Zeppelins sail the skies. Machines of all manners and sorts are propelled by the power of the piston and pneumatics. It is a world where the Information Revolution took place in the year 1822, instead of the year 1946.

You all are former graduates from Bethlehem University, meeting on the eve of your 10th graduation anniversary. The invitation reads as follows:

Dear Friends,

It has been too long since I have seen all of you. You may not know that dear old Uncle Henry passed on last March. Though his passage from this world has proved untimely, I find that his magnanimity find me even now, after his absence. He has bequeathed to me the estate of Misty Island.

I am most eager to see each of you and discover what great adventures you have undertaken since our departure from University. Can you believe that we have reached the ten year mark? Just a scant decade ago, I watched you all grow into your own and become some of the finest students I have ever known. Though I have no children of my own, I need not say that I see you as my own kin and have such fondness for you that surely only a mother could know.

After the settling all affairs of estate, I found an annuity of sufficient funds that provides me to become a Gentlewoman of Leisure. I have been here at the island since August of last year. I shall count it an honor and privilege if you found it in your hearts to arrange your holidays this year and spend them with me on Misty Island. Should you find it convenient, the week of June 23rd shall be an excellent time in which to convene and reflect upon our fortunes – the very week your graduated from the esteemed Bethlehem University.

Since I am the only one on this three-mile isle, you will need to take the dirigible which arrives twice a week. I suggest taking the one from Vancouver B.C. Be sure to arrive early enough to get to Pier 6 at 8:30 in the morning on the 23rd.

I have a full-fledged staff of caretakers on the island as well, so you need not fret with bringing your own manservants, nannies, or chaperones.

I’ll be expecting all of you.

Eagerly Yours,

Gertrud “Mother” Hesseldorf

Ladies and gentlemen, this was the invitation to my 29th birthday party, the awesomeness of which may never be surpassed. I mean, really. How could I not be impressed that my friends dressed up in steampunk gear and acted as players in a murder mystery for me? And to top it off, they managed to keep the whole thing secret until two days before the party. And even then I was only told what was going on so I could choose what character I was assigned and get a costume ready. And aren’t their costumes wonderful?! Jared’s pictures are online here, and many of mine can be viewed here.

Among the presents they gave me were a steampunk style necklace (watch gears artfully repurposed), Nerf guns, a new camera bag, and an iPod interface for my ancient car. But my favorite gift by far was the goat my dad bought in my name for a family in Africa. William visited me for a long weekend, and Kevin for a short one. Ah, and for the curious . . . William (Choryt in the comments section) and I are dating. *glow*

My birthday party is this weekend. . .

Monday, November 10th, 2008 | friends | 1 Comment

. . . And what you guys have planned is so freaking cool!!!

Hey look! A blog post!

Thursday, November 6th, 2008 | costumes, family, friends, fun stuff, pictures | 2 Comments

Oh, um, hello. What’s that? You say I should blog? Right then.

Wow, has it really been three weeks since I blogged? I’m boring. But also maybe unsure of what to blog about. On October 17 I was the dinner guest of the college’s Navy V-12 alumni reunion. I was one of the youngest people there if you count the college’s Heritage singing team and someone’s 12-year-old grandson. It reminded me a lot of when Grandpa used to take Amy and I to the Shriners’ dinners and show us off to his friends. But the V-12 men and their wives are very nice folks and were really glad to tell me about their time on campus in the 1940’s. Being as familiar with the campus during that period made me able to join in the conversations easily. They even made me get in their group photo. I received a copy in the mail the other day. Really nice people.

Mom’s birthday was the day after the dinner. I called her to say Happy Birthday and caught them setting up beach chairs and fetching cold beers so they could watch the sun set over the water outside their hotel at Myrtle Beach. The next day they went for an airboat in the Everglades. Sounds like they had a great time. But a few days later dad went into the hospital after a stress test. They found some significant blockage in his blood vessels. The doctors put in four stints and had to repair some damage they did to one of his vessels before he was allowed to go home. He’s in some pain still, but he’s doing better now.That was a weird week for me. On the one hand I had dad going in the hospital after a stress test they didn’t tell me he was having, and on the other I had a really unexpected, happy development that kept my mind occupied.

This past Saturday, McKenna had a costume party for her birthday. I went in a little bit of steampunk, which was fun. Jared pulled together a pretty rockin’ Vash the Stampede getup, and Tony went as Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer, from Girl Genius. William came to visit me for a long weekend, so he came, too. But he didn’t play Rock Band because I was too nice to tell the others he can sing. Next time, Gadget. You have been warned. More pics here and I’ll post some of my own photos soon.

I came down with a cold on Sunday and spent the rest of the weekend playing video games and watching movies with William. Which was nice, but would have been nicer if I had been able to breathe. Feeling better, but still recovering. Oh well. If that was my one cold for the season I’ll take it.

Edit 11/8/2008: My photos are posted here.

A surprisingly work-related post.

Thursday, October 16th, 2008 | work | 2 Comments

While Trog may be new to the wonderful world of RSS feeds, I’ve been using them for a while now. I have my subscriptions neatly organized to differentiate between stuff I want to read for work, for play, and for keeping up with my friends online. Many of my “play” and friends sites are also linked here, but my work sites . . . well, they’re work sites. And they’re a mixed bag when it comes to quality. The Library of Congress, for example, maintains what may be one of the most engaging and most frequently updated federal blogs. Librarianship is changing, and the LoC seems to very clearly understand that other librarians look to the LoC to lead the way.  Conversely, the U.S. Copyright Office blogs (there are two, one for news and one for legislation) are dry, full of jargon, and lacking details or personality. Whoever started those blogs clearly had no mandate or interest in making commentary on happenings within the Copyright Office, but only wanted to relay quick and dirty news clips. While a layperson could learn something interesting about librarianship or archives at the Library of Congress’ blog, you’d have to be a dedicated copyright professional to care enough to slog through the Copyright Office’s blogs. Which I am not. I get the vast majority of my copyright updates from BoingBoing, not because they offer exhaustive coverage of copyright evolution, but because they have pros on board that make engaging and intelligent commentary about the implications of changes to copyright laws, of legal rulings, and of “copy left” and “copyfight” developments.

There are also a number of feeds from professional organizations and various publishing houses and book sellers that fall squarely into the “medicore quality” category. Though I guess it is good and necessary to know when/if your library’s book supplier is going to merge and turn the ordering system you’re used to on its head.

coolest yet

Sunday, October 12th, 2008 | archives, costumes, fun stuff, research | 7 Comments

Photo by Travis Hightower

Last week I received probably the coolest request for archives information I’ve heard yet. A forensics investigator working with some police department in Virginia called me to see if I could help him identify a skeleton discovered in the bed of a dried up lake. The investigator said that they guess the man died sometime in the middle or late 1920s. The body indicates that the man was in his early 40s and may have been the victim of foul play, possibly even a mob murder. The body had a monogrammed pocket watch (or was it a cigarette case?) and a college ring on it, but the ring didn’t have the school name inscribed, just a graduation year and school initials. This guy is calling all colleges he can find with those initials and asking their archives or alumni offices to see if anyone in our 1904 graduating classes matches the initials on the monogrammed pocket watch / cigarette case. I wasn’t able to find anything that would help, but how cool is that? I mean, I get some weird and interesting requests, and I have to tromp around some odd places in the course of my work, but I think this one wins. (And it for sure beats traipsing around the campus cemetery with a note pad or climbing over the library’s HVAC ducts in the attic.)

Also, I’ve been working on pulling together something for McKenna’s birthday costume party. I don’t have a terriffic steampunk ensemble yet, but it’ll be passable I think. I already have a skirt and blouse that can pass for Victorian, and I called mom yesterday to see if she would mail me her cameo pendant to use. I have tall high-heeled boots that’ll pass for button-up boots if you don’t look close, Llama said he’d buy me steampunk goggles for my birthday, and I bought a corset. I need some little gear-laden trinket things and I’ll be set. Oh, and a hair cut. I’m starting to look a little shaggy.

Trying to shake it.

Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 | choir, stress | 6 Comments

Phew. I have been absolutely exhausted lately. Friday night I managed to stay up til after 10 - I refused to go to bed early on a Friday out of principal. Instead I went to the coffee house and played an unusually long game of Apples to Apples with Jared, Sheri, Joe, and Nathaniel before going home and sleeping for 13 hours straight. I wish I knew what the problem was; I haven’t totally been myself since DragonCon. Part of it, I guess, is that I’ve felt on the edge of getting a cold for the last two weeks or more. Which sucks. Just let me get sick, take a day off work to nurse it, and then jump back into normality. None of this weeks of feeling borderline icky nonsense.

But I know that part of it is stress. Last month was pretty tight financially, and the pay periods fell in such a way that tomorrow’s payday is almost 3 weeks from the previous one. Ouch. October will be a little like that, too, but I think the number of days we’ll be paid for on that check will make it less of a pinch. Also, lots and lots of projects getting backlogged at work. I hate that, but there’s only so much I can do in a day, even with four very awesome student workers. (Dependable, detail-oriented, and fun! Holy cow!) Stuff going on with grandpa isn’t really effecting me directly, but I’m worried for dad. He’s got a lot on his plate even without having to find an assisted living apartment for stubborn grandpa. Oh, and birthdays and holidays coming up. How come we all had to be born in November and December around here? And why can’t airlines fly me to mom and dad’s for cheap?

On the fun side, Sunday was the choir’s talent show fundraiser. We converted the coffee house a bit to accommodate a small auditorium-style seating set-up and a good number of families from the congregation volunteered to do a small act or two. The choir sang a quickish montage of old Broadway songs, though none of them are from musicals I could recognize. Old Broadway, I think, from the 1940s and 50s. I barely escaped having to do a bit of Chorus Line dancing. We got a lot of compliments and raised a decent amount of money to put towards the house rental at the Montreat Music Conference next summer. Bob and Lois surprised everyone by announcing that they were going to match any money raised up to $500, which was really kind of them. They’ve been to several of the conferences and I think they wanted to show their support even though they can’t attend in 2009. I hope I can attend this one. I went twice, but haven’t been able to go since 2005. Sharing a house with my choir for a week is many types of crazy awesome, and Black Mountain can’t be beat for a location.

Oh, one last thing. Photos have been posted to the Party Like a Pirate entry below. Enjoy.

This one?

Sunday, September 28th, 2008 | site odds and ends | 16 Comments

I’ve cycled through a couple other themes without announcement, but this one is good enough to warrent a comment. I like it, and on my end it is the most customizable. What do the viewers at home think? (There’s one other to try; it is also mostly white.)

comments welcome

Friday, September 26th, 2008 | site odds and ends | 2 Comments

I’m trying to find a spiffy new theme for the site. Let me know which ones you like, ok?

party like a pirate

Sunday, September 21st, 2008 | friends | 5 Comments

Finn treats the beagles to chips

Man, yesterday was busy. Robb and Edie’s Talk Like a Pirate Day party had to be postponed, and McKenna and Rucht were having a deck-warming party. Whee! But it was all good. It was a great day to spend the afternoon out on the deck. Rucht and McKenna’s backyard looks phenomenal. Not that it wasn’t nice before, but they tripled the size of their deck, added some really nice furnature, and re-landscaped their whole back yard. There are stone steps going up the hill to a grassy area, lanterns, and a stone waterfall. And McKenna’s wind chimes are everywhere.

Some folks were trying to watch the University of Tennessee football game, but the first quarter went so poorly that they all left shame-faced before half-time. Which is when Rucht broke out the Rock Band. On a huge plasma screen tv that game is all kinds of awesome. I gave in and tried my hand at the guitar. Failed miserably my first couple of songs, but finally got the hang of it. Next time, I want to try the drums.

A quick trip home for a change of clothes and it was time for the Talk Like Pirate party. Yes, there were costumes. Yes, there are pictures. I’ll put some up as soon as Llama shares them with me. Edit 9/30/2008: Llama has posted his pictures to Photobucket, so now I can share some of the fun! Photos, ahoy!

The Dread Pirate Hippie sends another victim overboard.

Much fun was had at the Hippie Hut. Edie made fish for supper, there was a game of Curses and of Apples to Apples, and the sodas and rum flowed freely. Arr. I was one of the last to leave, even though I was dead tired. Got home a little after 1am, but it felt more like 3 or 4. What really sucked was that even though I was exhausted I couldn’t fall asleep, so today my whole sleep schedule is messed up. That’ll be huge fun tomorrow.

Tags: parties, Talk Like a Pirate Day

temporary dog person

Thursday, September 18th, 2008 | cat, friends, work | 9 Comments

Well, Ally and I are going to become better friends this week while Sheri and Jared are at her sister’s wedding. I practically got trampled by 20 pounds of ecstatic dog when I went by at lunchtime today. Allegro indeed. I think Llama is planning on spending the weekend at the house, so soon she’ll have someone to play with. (And to let her inside, where she’s used to being.)

Anselm went to the vet yesterday and acted so poorly that I heard them say they were “putting a star” on his file. I don’t know what that means, but it’s probably office code for “this cat raised so much Hell when we tried to give him his shot that we had to use leather gloves and a towel to constrain him.” Yes. Really.

Today we (two student officers and I, representing Phi Alpha Theta) did the Constitution Day shindig for Milligan. We handed out pocket-sized Constitutions and had a trivia quiz. Winner gets a gift card. We had 19 responses to the trivia quiz. Bleh. But honestly the response we got this year was better than any previous year, probably because we did something that was at least a little bit fun. Though we still didn’t get a single soul to volunteer to help us staff the table. On top of that, we’re 4 weeks behind getting initiates. Sigh. This faculty sponsor thing is gonna be rough. (I don’t know why he picked me to do this for him over his sabbatical. I’m not even salaried, much less faculty!)