This week in my brain

*Manic pixie dream girls. See also this. I have totally been guilty of this in the past, though I quickly turn out to be too emotionally complicated to perpetuate the illusion. Here is one analysis of why it's so damn irritating. Of course, whether someone comes across as "interesting" or "exotic" is completely subjective.

*This ties into thoughts I've been having about makers and gender and how most creative activities seem to be somehow gendered based on historical trends. Furthermore, the associated internet communities are pretty uniformly segregated along gender lines. You can even tell by the colors. Observe:

Man communities: Make Projects, Instructables

Girly communities: Craftster, this LilyPad/soft circuit community

Edited to add: I'm being a bit fair to Instructables here, as it's really the best of the bunch (and the original mitigating comment I'd put in seems to have been deleted when I added the HTML. bugger). A better example might be the project pages on popular mechanics or one of those sorts of things. But this does tie into a larger rant about how the SF bay area maker communities that think they're all egalitarian and stuff are still sometimes really guilty of egregious stereotyping that NO ONE THINKS IS GOING ON. And man does it bother me.

Also of interest is the phenomenon whereby soft circuit projects seem to be almost exclusively by women and kids. Not that there aren't guys that do this, but rather that they don't self-label the same way. Really this all deserves its own post.

* I still owe the internet pictures of everything for the last several months. They're coming.

*Morley played this for me. It's now stuck in my head.

* I've started reading several blogs about San Francisco and the Mission. I feel much more invested in the place when I know more about what's going on. I'll be a lot more informed about local politics this November than the last time I voted here. Which is definitely a good thing.

* Apparently H. R. Giger was involved in the production design for a never-released version of Dune. Interesting, though the sketches are too small.

* Deep wedding planning ambivalence. Tom and I had a discussion the other day that pretty much amounted to "the more I find out about weddings the less I want to have one". It does not help that we know lots of couples having various relationship drama around their weddings. Lots of perfectly happy people too, but definitely a couple of cautionary tales.

* Maybe we will go see Wagner's Ring Cycle next summer?

* My life needs more dadaism.

This Week in My Brain

1. I've been really, really busy. Like, multiple commitments every night since Burning Man busy. Mostly, this is good. But it needs to stop soon. The bedroom (which I haven't spent any time in in about three weeks) is getting disastrous, and I'll have to finish unpacking some day.

2. A while ago, I mentioned to my father that I was interested in Vietnam-era folk music and protest songs. Last week, on my birthday, a box showed up containing a number of CDs. Tom and I brought it along when we drove to Yosemite last weekend. So now my head is full of Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Phil Ochs, , Judy Collins, and so on.

I've had the Draft Dodger Rag stuck in my head for days


And was reminded of this, which my dad sung to me as a lullaby:


3. This summer was a big stretch of time with no nature in it. Then I went and played on the playa, then Yosemite, and now Sedona, which looks like this (thanks, random flickr user!).

4. It's impossible to do something like Syzygryd and not be possessed by the urge to Keep Making. So far this has mostly meant food (delicious tabouleh ), but I have grand plans. For my birthday (and after I talked his ear off with ideas) Tom got me some conductive thread and circuit components to play with. I am plotting and spending too much time trolling the internet for ideas. I have many links and pictures and things, but I'm too tired to dig them up right now.

5. I need to rethink my Personal Fashion Concept. Part of me wishes we could all dress like this:



but really no one can wear that much lycra. Good for inspiration, I supposed. Before leaving for the playa I acquired a number of books on pattern drafting and a dress form (which I'd been lusting after for YEARS). Time to MAKE THINGS.

6. Speaking of Things, it is time to own less of them. Or get a storage unit. Our apartment has a serious lack of closets, and we have a serious amount of burning man gear. We can get rid of things to a point, but more than half of what I own is either books or raw materials for something or other. And you can't take either one away from me.

Coming up:
Burning Man Pictures!
Career!
What I Am Doing With My Life!
Moving (Eventually)!
And Much Much More!

The man, the moon, a syzygryd

The man, the moon, a syzygryd, originally uploaded by Focal Intent.

This has been my project for the past couple of months. Along with 60+ other people (many of whom are crazy hardcore!), I wrote software, drilled, countersunk, soldered, sawed, lifted and soldered some more. I bounced up and down for a looong time when I first saw it up and running. Holy shit guys, it is such an amazing feeling.