2011 Type Apparatus Bag

Last year we redesigned the Apparatus bag that we use in the Brigade. We did some rather nice things reorganising the club pouches into one pouch. We also added room for holding Holsters and the like. All and all it was a great improvement over the bags that we had been using.

The other thing that we redid was the Apprentice bag. The first generation of them was too small for our purposed. Also we started letting the apprentices use juggling sticks. So was had to put a juggling stick pouch on the new bags. because the bags were smaller we made the stick pouch part of the bag. In the past it had been a seperate pouch that was attached later.

Making these all parts of the bag has worked out very well. So i am going to give it a shot on the apparatus bag. At this point we have five folks that should be or are juggling clubs. So this means we have to get a bunch of these bags.

I know this all sounds like jibberish. Still rambling about things in the wee hours of the morning is an important part of the process. Eventually i will throw up some pictures. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

New Tron

I just saw the new Tron movie. It waseverything that everyone said that it was supposed to be. There was not very much Tron in it though. Well you can't have everything. Anyway i will not go into details incase one of my two readers has not watched this movie yet. Never the less it is worth the money to go and see it.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

I have not felt Chatty

I have not fel very chatty recently. I have been knitting this and that. From the last entry you can see one of the long scarves that I am working on. It is the same basic thirty foot pattern that I have made a bunch of scarves. I have also gone back and checked in at Ravelry from time to time.

Frankly there has been a lot of the samestuff that I have been doing for the last couple months. We will have having Christmas parties this week so there will be pictures from that. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

New Knitting Group

Knitting has returned to the Clown Brigade and I could not be happier. I have always loved the knitting groups that clowns have. There is no one slamming Red Heart you do not have to explain why your scarf is thirty feet long. Everything is cool just as it is.

By the way there are a couple of the projects that we were working on pictures to the right. The two top projects are long scarves that have just been started. The purple thing bellow is a baby blanket that is half way done.

These pictures were taken from our second meeting. Thus far we have Sergeants Kisielnicki, Thurman and Wilson Attending. there is myself and our newest member Mr. Jefferson {currently Junior Clown}.

We are meeting at the Chic Fil A in the Waterfront. Our group appear to need to have food at our meeting or shortly there after. This group was meeting at a book store. The food in the cafe was over priced and the staff that was once welcoming is not so much anymore.

The Chic Fil A appears to be one of the Favorite Restaurants of the Brigade. Of course they are the top of my list for fast food. So it all works out nicely. Frankly I was surprised that they are letting us meet there. When Kisielnicki suggested meeting there I thought there was no way. As it turned out it has been the friendliest place that we have had Clown knitting at since we started having a group.

Well just checking. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Smart President

I am incredibly happy to have a President that is not ashamed of being smart. In a recent episode of Mythbuster the President gave the guys a challenge to resurect a Greek Death Ray. The simple fact that the President would admit to liking a science based show is a great step up in my book.

The old Joe Six Pack folk would have you think that reading a books makes you part of an intellectual cultural elite. It scares the hell out of me when a leader says that being too smart is a bad thing for the President. Mr. Obama's recent stiches aside it scares me when the leader of my nation cannot say simple words.

When the Legacy of this President is recalled the economic problems we are currently facing will be a foot note. In addition they will probably be blames on Bush anyway. What people will remeber is how he deals with internation relations and universal healthcare.

I recently had a conversation with someone about President Nixon. All we talked about was hishistoric trip to China and the creation of the EPA and Earth Day. I don't even Watergate got a mention during the conversation.

Well I know I don't normally go on about Polotics. Still, this something special to me and I though it needed mentioned.

Be safe out there ad keep your stick on the ice.

We had a rather good scout meeting this evening. We did not have very many kids. Still we had more than enough adults. I don't recall starting a Pack when we had enough adults. So this thing should come along nicely. We only need to have some meeting and the kids will show up. Build it and they will come and that sort of thing.

I am also happy about the new knitting group. I have to knit something for the COAI Christmas thing. Knitting with some of the Brigad mebers will be good inspiration for that.

I have also been working on updating the definitions section of this blog. I never did finish it. I figure that if i put in a couple definitions a day i will have it finished in a year or two.

Well just checking in be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Purple Baby Blanket

I am working on a Purple baby blanket. It is one of those situation where i do not know if it is boy or girl. So purple is the color for such times. I feels like i have made a bunch of baby blankets recently. They are alright not much a challenge though. I would make sweater but they do not last very long. If you make a blanket big enough you can use it much longer with a baby.

Since we are going to have a knitting group this week I will take some pictures. For some reason I rarely take pictures of my knitting unless i am at a knitting group. I am not sure why that is. i am sure it has something to do with being social.

It has been months since I have gone to a knitting group. There was one point in time when i would got to three or four a week. I suppose I have been busy with the Brigade. Well it will be nice to do some knitting in a group. Walkt has gotten rather good over the last year. he has made a sweater and if currently working on a stocking cap.

On the up side it is going to be a good week for knitting.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Kesha Likes my Beard - Chicken Knitting

There is a song by someone named Kesha that has been playingon the radio for some time. Anyway this artist is one of those folks that sometimes talks during their songs. When ever i am alone listening to music and someon starts talking a start talking back to them. Well this song has several of these places. So for the entire song i am saying sarcastic and snarky things to the person to the woman singing the song. At the end of the songs she saysthat she likes my beard. So i spend this time being mean to someon and tey compliment my beard.

i kids in our church grabbed my beard today. they said this it was springy. She wanted to know if i put hair gel in my beard to make it srpingy. I do not put anything in my beard. She also wanted to know why white people have beard that do not match their hair. I told her that i didnot know. i came home and did a picture seach of people with beard. And she is right black folks beard match their hair. And frequently that is not the case with white folks.

Well that is just another one of those things that i have not thought of before. So there you go.

Also the brigade is starting a new knitting group this week. We are going to knit at the Chik fil ay. I have no idea how to spell it. It is the place the sells chicken in the water front. If i were really paying attention i could google it or something. Anyway there should be four or five of us knitting at the water front Chicky place this wednesday at 5:30. there will be knitting fun for all. More importntly we can get a platter of chicken strips for 2o bucks. Any with our groupp food appears to be the most important thing.

Well just checking in. Besafe safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

My Cat

My new cat is far too attached to me. As I get older I have found that i am developing an alergy to pet dander and dust. Mya {the cat} like to sit on my face when i am sleeping. As you might imagine this is not very good for the sleepping. It is also not good for the cat when i suddenly wake up and catapult her across the room from my action of jumping up suddenly. Of course she lands on her feet jumps back on the bed and curls up in my lap.

She also follow me around everywhere. Taking a shower this morning she jumped in thetub. We also found out that she is not a water cat. instead of running away she just tried to stay out of th water stream. I also found out that i am uncomfortable having a cat watch me shower.

WEll that is probably too much information. So i am glad you tunes in today. You might regret it. Anyway be safe out tehre and keep your stick on the ice.

My Cat is a Pig

I have a midget cat named Mya. She is the cutuest little thing. Today i had a couple slider from White Caste. i love them they are really great. Anyway I had my litle bugers sitting on a plat. I get up to get a soda and when i get back one of them is missing.

At first i thought i ate one of them. Then over in the corner I see Mya eating the burger. She ate the entire thing bun and all. i never had a cat that eat bread. The little piggy ate the whole thing. She didn't leave a crumb.

Well be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Pack 60

It look like the number of Second Baptist's Caub Scout Pack is going to be 60. Well it make me happy. that was the number of my Boy Scout Troop when I was a kid.

The thing that I find exciting about this is the start of a complete scouting program. For some reason the last couple place that I have done scouts has only wanted girl or boys ans not both. I personally found this very odd.

So it will be interesting to see how this goes.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Can't Post - - - Even Though I am Posting

There is something every day that keep[s me from getting to this blog and psoting something. For the last couple days I have been working on the Clown Cave. For those that are just joinging us the Clown Cave is the room in my house that serves as an office for the Steel City Clown Brigade. This space works as a meeting room, sewing room and office. Up and till now is has just been a place where a couple of us get together for this and that. Now that there are four Standard Clowns in the Brigade it is also going to have to be the place where we have our master classes.

I personally think it is very exciting that we are going to be doing some of the more advanced things that we have not been able to get to yet. Several of the folks are juggling like they have not been able to before. Others are honing more specific skills like knitting and the like. We are even going to have to get back to haveing a knitting group on a regular basis.

So I have had to took a good long lok at a room that has become cluttered with all sorts of things. We have all the items that we need for shows that have been piled up as well as sewing items. I have mounted a couple bolts of fabric we use all the time on the wall. I have use brrom hanger to hang up clubs and torches. I just finished stickin up some hooks that are strong enough to hang an Apparatus Bag from.

This may not sound likje much. Still organising the shelves and rearranging things to get this point was quite a chore.

Well be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Today

Today was a good day.

two Something funnies and a Jpop

In an effort to do regular stuff again this is two funny videos anda jpop.

The first is from the good people at fail blog



This is a random Brittish Funny Guy



And here is you Jpop for this installment.



Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

This and That

I have continued to work on this and that. I have been messing around with the script for the next clown show. I think I should have a completed version for our tuesday meeting. We will see what the folk think of that.

I have also be revising our membership information sheet. The one that we have been using for a while is a wee bit lacking. Also I was able to throw the photographic release thing in with the information sheet. It saved us a sheet of paper per person. I know that sound terribly exciting.

I am also reconsidering the net program that we once did. It was a nice little thing when we did it. The Brigade is once again fairly stable. Maybe it is time to resurect that. I will throw it out there at this weeks meeting and see where it goes.

We be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Two Somethings Funny and a Jpop

A long time ago who this blog was new I did some reagular things on it. I had some cartoon and other regular features. Frankly the cartoons I ran out of and I am generally disorganised.

Well here is new feature. Two funny video and a Jpop Video. Yes they have nothing to do with each other. Still that is the way that my mind works. And as always thank you to the good people of Youtube.



By the way I am told this is her actually singing.



There is nothing better than the lighter side of bigotry.



And to round out this new thing. is Mini. She is new jpopper and I beleive this is her first song. At least it is the first song of her's I have sceen

TV is Bad really.......

Today I have discovered there is a TV show about people from New Jersey. I am sure there are good people in New Jersey. I am in Pennsylvania so I do not like to think there is a state full of morons next to mine. It is bad enough Ohio cannot hold an election. Now I know there are people who are trying to fry themselves with sun tanning lotion. Now I am judgin this entire series from a single heavily bleeped clip from a half naked person called Snookie. I think she is female. Even if she is not he is attempting to be female I would think.

Also I discovered the the Housewives of Orange County are in New Jersey. I think I was hoping it was another Orange County.

Well I do not know. I do know I will not watch either. I hope that if enough people do not watch them then someone will write a scripted show to replace them with. Maybe they could hire Paulie Shore as an illiterate librarian. Well it would be scripted at least.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

The Golden Rule Show

I am realy starting to like the interplay between the younger memebers of the Brigade in this new script. I especially like how Sergeatn thurman's part is shaping up. More than half of her part is the original narrator's part. Still as the Sergeant Major she is the one that must see that everything is going the way that it should. And of course in a clown church that is not the way things go. So there is an exaserbated quality to her part.

Sergeant thurman has a real talent for chaos. Some people might think that is a bad thing to say about someone. In her case she can work in this medium like and old master. It is a really interesting thing to watch. I think this is going to be a great part for her. It is just the sort of thing that a grotesque white face clown would be into.

This is going to be a great little show for us.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Still tinkering

I am still tinkering with the script for the Golden Rule Show.

In the original version of the show the piano player was also the annoucer. To divide up the work more fairly i am making the Sergeant Major the announcer in this show. I am thinking that Sergeatn Thurman will play the part of the Sergeant Major. He clown persona is very commanding so i think it will be a good fit for her.

Sergeant Wilson and the Brimage that is not in the puppet stage will play the parts of the clowns that are fighting with each other. We did get away with a fair amount of violence in the first go round for this show. I might throw in a couple extra things in that area. This particular group is fairly good at the physical violence. So I would like to give them something to do.

I am only going to give it anout half hour. I have to be up early for church.
Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Christmas Presents

I have started knitting some thing to give away to some of the folks that I know this Christmas. So on the up side there should at least be some knitting stuff to show on the knitting blog soon. I have been spending so much time on my juggling and rewrites.

The odd thing that has been bothering me the most if my hand writting. My handwritting has never been that good. And since the hand surgery a couple years ago it has been even worse. i have taken to practicing my penmanship in note book to try and improve it. Frankly I have not noticed any improvemnt.

It is odd that my typing and knitting have return to their usual good form and the penmanship has not. Well perhapse making a half dozen scarves will work it out.

be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

The Golden Rule Show Revisted

It is two in the morning and i am looking over some red composition book and a four year old scrip[t for a clown show. The two have nothing to do with each other. The composition books are from a very old story that I have not touched for seven years until recently. The script is the first stage show that the Steel City Clown Brigade did. In fact it was being written before the Clown Brigade even had the name that it does now.

A couple of churches have asked if we would be willing to do a show for them in the future. For the last year we have been more involved in skills building than doing stage shows. We have been in a few variety type shows and have made a good showing for ourselves at them all. We have even done a couple revivals which was a new experience for us. All and all it has been a great crowing experience for us. Now it appear that it is time for us to get back to what we were doing when we founded the Brigade a few years ago. We need to do a stage show.

Six months ago we had a grand plan. We wanted to deep six the conservative music that we have been using and switch to Gospel Music. Since Walt and I have joined the choir at Second Baptist I do admit we have become enamored with it. Frankly i have always loved to listen to Mahalia Jackson. The bottom line is that we do not know enough yet. And it is also a small miracle that I was able to spell her name correctly. I am terrible with names.

We also wanted a show that would be a showcase for our new skills. This grand new show is something that I think we could do if we put our minds to it eventually. Sadly I think it would take us too much time to put it together. It might be another year of us messing around with it. During that time we will not be out there evangelising.

Something else that worries me is that I think the younger clowns of our group are ready to be out there performing. They loved doing the mustard seed show. Unfortunately it we very prop heavy and we did not get our props back. the Golden rule show was much simpler and had almost no props. We need to drag it out and dust it off. It never really had it's time. We only performed it three times before we moved onto a bigger and better show.

I must admit that i very conflicted about this decision. I want to make the right decisions. This show was first done with all adult with the exception of one show were JC Stewart.

Among the changes that will have to me will be the fact that there will only be two older people in the cast. The Sergeant Major part will be played by Sergeant Thurman. The physical comedy of the Corps' soldiers will be done by Sergeant Wilson and the JCs Brimage. When this show was first done they were all probably too young to get in front of group and speak. Now they are going to carry the entire show just a couple years later. It is odd but I do not have the slightest reservation about them carrying the show. In fact I don't have a single doubt that we will be able to pull this show together in short order.

It is odd how we sometimes end up just where we started with an entirely new perspective.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

The Lost Empires

The last couple months i have been kicking around a short story that i never really finished a few years ago. As mentioned before there is an arch of stories that are all intertwined. the first of these stories deals with the first time travelers to the distant past.

In this distant past is a benevolent empire that learns that many of it's citizen become enslaved in the future. One of the species that makes up this empire become enslaved and are the subjects of various genetic experiments. Among the time travelers is one of these beings that has been experimented on. This all happens when he is a child. He is latter adopted by a Japanese Family, hence the name Hero Yukawa.

Hero eventually does well for himself and takes over the family business empire. Which is one of the things that puts him in the position to get involved with these time travelers in the first place. I have been having a very hard time trying to figure out what the long term damage of such a childhood would be. I know that there are people that have experience unspeakable things as children and go onto do great things.

Hero was created as a soldier and is rather good at killing people. to deal with this he has refused to fight directly. He used his superior intellect to design weapons and eventually defeat those that had once enslaved him.

Still through all of this he never knew where he came from. This adventure when his is much older. He had some idea that his people originated in this mythical Empire. Even so it has been gone so long that there are bearly ruins of it in his time. I do not think I am doing a very good job with him. He should be a very complex character and he is not coming off that way in this story. I have written about him when he was young. It was so much easier when his anguish was fresh. I know that he has never come to terms with his personal demons. He never marries and his only progeny is adopted.

I just don't know where he is supposed to be.

Well thank you for letting me ramble. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Various Randomness

Working on several project at once at the moment. The one that has been consuming a great deal of time is juggling batons. The rub with these things is that it appears that the size of the stick in some way helps or hinders the person that is using it. And our group has people of several different sizes making it hard to pick the right size for each person.

To add to the complication of this we have come up with several styles for the heads. This mean that the size had to be right and then the ends of the thing also have to be right. Juggling balls are a lot simpler. they come in three sizes and you just pick one. Juggling clubs primarily come in one size so you are just stuck with what ever you have.

Today I was making a stick for one of the shorter members of our group. So it a shorted stick with a smaller diameter. the heads on this stick are also smaller. I am a bit worried that we might not have any idea what we are doing. the companies that make these thing make them all at around two feet in length. If you are under four feet tall you spen all of you time hitting yourselvf in the head. This of course turns off most people.

In the end I suppose what we are making is better than what we can buy. The down side is that we are experiimenting on inexperince jugglers. Thus it is hard to tell if it is the skill or the stick.

Well I will let you all know how it is going.

The four armed stick is coming along very slowly. I have had more sucess with rolling trick rather than flipping tricks. The thing that it the most difficult is that my control stick always are in the way. I am simply going to have to be better at this before I know if it is a lost cause or not. As soon as i stop hitting myself in the head I might take some video. If I think about it i will post it.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

The Anti Christ

frequent reader of this blog, both of them. Will know that occasionally a strange experiment started with an odd idea from one of our clowns. this weeks strange idea came from Walt.

there is a juggling implement called a juggling baton, flower stick or devil stick. As best I can figure most of what our Brigade uses falls into the category of flower sticks if you ignore the fact that it is nor made from recycled materials. It is not that we hate the planet. We simply have not found a good source for recycled materials at this time. It is a shame but that is what it is.

Anyway the juggling batons that we use are a shaft with a flowery head on each end made from vinyl. They are good looking and have proven durable for the most part.

For what we are doing they have been working great. This is when the strangeness comes in. Walt suggested that we make and x shaped juggling baton. At one time I recall someone duct taping two devil sticks together. And by Devil sticks I mean that poplar bare sticks that Dube makes that do not have soft plushy heads on the end. I have head some jugglers call these pain sticks. At you might imagine the reason for this is because when they hit you they hurt. Well this experiment went horribly wrong for the people involved. As I recall the person tried and tried and only managed to get a black eye.

Well we have been using PVC pipe and the nice soft heads that i have been talking about. So despite all the evidence it looked as if it might be worth a try. We built one of these things. Thus far it has proven unwieldy and I have not been able to make much of it. I honestly do not know if I am ever going to be able to do something useful with it.

to be honest when we want to learn a new trick with the juggling baton we simply look it us on line or read a book. We have found no evidence that such a thing has been created before. So there is no one out there with saged advice. I will throw up some picture and maybe a video if I can do anything but hit myself with it.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Clock Ramblings

I was waiting around for the bus and felt compelled to purchase a steno pad. It is not a real one with the wire binding. It is one of those that is glues together with the peice of cardstock on the back.

For some reason I forget the composition book that I was working on. It may be a good thing. These stories need a rest one and w hile. We had a good practice and every went well on that front.

My current aparatus bag is falling apart. It was the prototype for the others that we are currently using. So it is not surprising that has not lasted long. What we thought was tough material does not hold up in the wash as well as we would like. It has been very useful in working out the design for this bag. I counted and there are sixteen minor difference. Nine of these have been patched or repaired on my bag.

In Wilson and Thurman's ap bags all of these thing were done differently. So it looks as if the minor changes were a good thing. In a year or so we will know if they are actually improvements.

On otherfronts our one eyes pirate cat Abby has had seven kittens. there are adorable as kittens should be. Six are black and one is tiger striped. If you are looking for kittens they should be ready in a couple months. Her last batch was very freindly and social. As an added bonus Sally the dog is helping to raise the kittens. So they will be very comfortable around dogs. I have not caught her trying to get them to nurse on her. Still, I am sure this is a coming atraction.

I've had a really lousy time with the allergies the last few weeks. I have just not had a desire to do much of anything.

Near where I live is arather large clock on the side of a building. the building was a brewery at one time. Now I think it is some kind of housing for artists. At&t is curretnly leasing the clock for advertising.

The thing that I am wondering is if people still built large clocks.. I wonder if they are a product of a time when personal time peices were lesss acurate. In an age when your iphone can be corrected to the nuclear clock at Annapolis are these relics of a bygone era? Perhapse they are. I sill find them interesting though. There is a reletively new one on the Jewish Community Center n Squirell Hill. It is part of a modern building complete with Hebrew Characters.

i suppose if it was jus about elling time there would be digital clocks everywhere. Tall buildings would have the time in neon numeral ten feet tall. The fact that many new clocks still have hands must mean tere is something belonging to tradition with these time peices.

I am not sure why anyone would think my thoughts are relevant on this subject. Hack this is a world were people have a website dedicated to cats that look like Hitlar. If that is relevant then perhapse these ramblings are as well.

By the way cats that look like Hitlar are called kitlars. If I think about it I will throw in the link.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Facebook

I have broken down and signed up for a facebook acount. It is under the name Zeeppo the-clown.

For a while I have had an account on the myspace. I am only visited by the some insaine clown posse fans who think it is funny to leave me rude messages. I suppose it is only a matter of time before any website become run down and infiltrated by an unsavory element. That is one of the reason that I like the blogger here. If someone leaves a message it never has to appear on my page if I do not want it to.

Well I am just checking in. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Keyboard

It is early in the morning again and I am working on this and that. I am missing my old keyboard. Apparently i type too hard. I go through a couple of them a year. The one that I liked is no longer made. I bought this one and it still does not feel right. That caps buttong is larger and I frequently hit it when I only want to hit the shift key.

I remeber this old typewritter that I had. With the exception of the space bar all the keys were round. They were the same size. For some reason I really liked that old Underwood keyboard. I wonder how hard it would be to build my own computer keyboard like that. I don't suppose that I can hook a typewriter up to such a thing.

I have an ergonomic keyboard that i was never able to get used to. It is in stroage somewhere. I had had expensive one and keyboard with all sorts of extra features. the only extra feature that I use are the volume buttons. And I only use them when I am getting a phone call and I am doing something on the computer.

Still no matter how it is improved upon I still miss that typewritter with thr round metal keys. It was indestructable. I could never hard it. I couple type too fast and get the litting hammer tangled up. Even then it was the worst that I could to to it. Maybe it is my own personal insanity. Still in my mind it was at the perfect angle for me to type. And no matter how I prop up one of these plastice things I am not able to get it just the way that i like. Perhapse I have figure out how to make things out of cast iron and make my own keyboard.

Well everyone have a good morning or night. And be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Randomness

Clown Sewing Never Ends

This is a picture from the upper incline station. We were coming home from the COIA Meeting on monday. Here you can see Sergeants Thurman and Wilson with the Ap. Bags. Soon to be Junior Clown Brimage has an Apprentice Bag. It is also called an Ap Bag for short. The Appretice bag has fewer pockets. The other Brimage in a yellow shirt still has one of our first generation Aprentice Bags. Some of people found it to be to small. Still they served us for a year or so.

Someone sent me a message on one of te other posts asking me why I call the kids Aprentice and Sergeant. Those are teir clown ranks in the Brigade. Also t is a securit thing. If someone come up to them in the street and does not know their first name then they know something is wrong. Althouh i feel srry for ayone that tries to take any of these girls. Tey are alwas togather and ca proably take any adult that tried to mess with them.

Sergeant Thurman's Ap Bag

She is really happier about her new bag than she looks. My bad photography made all the pictures with her smiling blurry. This is the best one with her holding the bag.

As stated earlier this bag has a better Ledgerdmain pockets and a more tailored club pouch. The shoulder strap is also attached lower on the baton pocket so that it fits shorter people better.

The first design of this bag hung well bellow the knees of the younger members of the Brigade. This design wears a little better and people under five feet tall.

Well be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

More Sewing

Several Hours this evening have been dedicated to working on Ap Bags. A bag for a Senior Clown is a complicated ing. You have to have a place for everything from clubs to ball and deck of cards and scarves. This to put it mildly translates in a pain in the neck for sewing.

The current version of this overly complex thing is a actually simplified from the type that I have carried for many years. It has one single club pouch and has be streamline with more internal pockets rather than a bunch of external ones that are indivdually swen on by hand. This has ade sewing most of it a great deal simpler. The one place where the complicated still hangs on is the shoulder strap. This thing has to be padded and comfy. Tis is also the place where the juggling rings and most magical aparatus are stored. this includes on strap for the rings and two pouced that stick out like much all the pockets used to stick out in the bag. ecause the shoulder strap is so bulky there three things have to be sewn on by hand. This are also the last hing that get's sewn on the completed bag other than some insignia.

Well tis is the stage that Sergeant thurman's bag is at. So se will be al to try it out at the practice tuesday evening. Fun Fun.

Well be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

More Sewing and the Flu or Something

Besides the sweing there is not much going on around here. My wife and have been under the weather for the ast few days. It is very odd. She appears to get sick and then she gives me what ever she has. Se likes to share like that. Unless there is ice cream involved. There is no sharing with ice cream involved.

I am running low on number 10 snaps. If it were not for the snaps I should be able to finish two Ap Bags. So I suppose I a going to go out into the muggy weather to find some snaps.

Well on the up side I am feeling a little better from the flu like alergy what ever thing that has been dogging me for the last week.

Perhapse I will have some pictures of young people wth their new Ap Bags soon.

There is not much going on other wise. Oliver says hello. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Some Sewing

First off is Sergeant Thurmans new Apparatus bag. As se learned new stuff to juggle se need a new bag. She is also on the verge of becoming a standard clown. This in itself is a wonderful thing.

We have decided that each of the new Ap Bag will have a personalised type symbol on th Juggling Baton pouch. Sergeant thurman has opted for a heart shaped peace sign.

I was also working on an ap bag for Sergeant Wilson. She is also doing quite well at juggling. The symbol that she wated was a wee bit more complicated. Still it was fun to make a kitty cat applique. At 1:30 this morning i ran out of black thread so her bag is still in peices. Sadly there is ot a 24 hour sewing store on the South Side of Pittsburgh. I personally think that tere should be. Still that is just my opinion.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice

Middle of the Night

Edit number five hundred is underway. I am just posting to state that I have the comma.

If I had my way I would removed it from the English language.

Just thought you should all know

New Chapters

I am still working on Ballington booth's Legacy. Just when I thought it was getting close to to done i decided to add a bunch of new stuff to it to make stuff that happens later make more sense.

Today I have been working on several new chapters that have to do with the Yukawa Family. the father is in the earlier series so I figure I need him some more in this one to add some continuity. Also it give him some time to interact with his son.

One thing that this has been keeping me away from is knitting. I have had very little time to knit between this and everything else that is happening. I am thinking of doing a sweater or perhapse some socks.

Well I am just checking in. I have to get back to editing stuff and adding and cutting and all the other goofyness involved with what I am doing.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice

Thisiis a Random MoMu Video

There are days

Long time readers will know that i have been working on a book for some time. The book is part of several story arcs that will be dealt with in several books. I( am sure that professional writers accomplish this with complex tables and plot outlines. Me I am writing six books at once. At least I think it is six books. heck by the time I am done it might be nine or ten.

Anyway if I have an important plot element i write the chapter for this plot element through several books so that I am sure that it works out. There is some kind of device that i using in the Chapter title that I hope will make all of this work out. We will see how it goes.

Well I was working on the chapters for the schisim in the church for the third or fourth book. It made me realize that this was a more important plot element than I have been giving it credit for. So that mean that I has to work it's way into the first book. the first book that was already jammed packed with all kind of stuff. So that mean there are going to be several more chapters to the first book.

Well we will see how it goes. Just checking. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Nigerian Prince

We have all heard about the Nigerian Prince that is randomly email people looking for help to get money moved from one place to another. Well apparently these scammer are so popular that they have a song a music video. It is a catchy little tune.



Be safe out there and don't give anyone money from the Internet.

next Mystery Science Theater 3000

I wonder what the next show that will make fun of B Movies will be. I vaguely remember mad movies. For some reason this is something that I really want to watch these days. I even watched something called BOO! It was apparently some guys on the internet that made fun of movies. They made fun of the Original Godzilla movie which I like on multiple levels. It was not that good. Still it was something that I enjoyed.


Watch BOO! "Godzilla" in Entertainment  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

By the Way this is BOO! making noises during one of my favorite Movies.

GrEEEEN

Musica

Powers Boothe

I just looked him up on the internet. Well i already looked him up on the internet when i was wondering about the spelling his name. I was looking up his family and his parents do not have a final e on the end of their names.

Yep this is what I do in the middle of night while the rest of your are sleeping. The insane mussing of someone that should probably sleep more than they do.

be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Three in the Mornig Again

I wonder where Powers Boothe got his name from. I am not sure where that came from. I am working on the book which has several character named Booth. It made me wonder why Powers Boothe has an e on the end of his name. I think the first thing I saw him in was the movie where he portrayed Jim Jones.

Well I am not sure why that is important. Although his is the only person i know with a final e on the name Boothe. Maybe there are other people with their name spelled like that. i could simply be misspelling their names. Maybe it an actor thing. there could have been another guy name Powers Booth and he had to have a different name to join the Screen Actors Guild.

Well onto some other randomness. i wonder why there are people saying rude things about Justin Beiber on the Youtube. It is not as if he sings about mass murder or abusing small animals. Well I suppose I just do not get it.



Be safe out there and keep your stick ont he ice.

Some Musical Awesomeness

This is a guy named Bad News Brown. I am guessing that he is out of Cleveland because of the Indians hat.

Three Thirty

It is three thirty in the morning and I am in my Temple of Solitude. Which of course is an over dramatic way to refer to my basement office where many offenses have been launched against he English Language. And here is the latest one.

Oliver has been working overtime on this the sixth edit of the first Book in The Salvation NAvy series. Well after two years of working on it I finally do not hate it with every fiber of my being. I am not sure why I cannot get this thing to a place that I life. Several of the other stories are somewhere that I like them. For some reason I cannot get this one n a good place. The sad thing is that the series should probably start with this one. So I have to get it right.

Well wish me luck on the sixth edit. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Kilt Stuff

For those that have been keeping track. We are still looking at some of the tradition of the Clown Brigade. There is always some kind of uniformity amoung a clown troop. Some just have patches others like us have some kind of uniform.

This is Sergeant Kisielnicki stabbing Sergeant Arasin with a sword. there is a story that goes with it but it is silly. Anyway both are wearing some version of our uniform and Kisielnicki is in a kilt which is something thtta we have been doing for more formal occassions.

They are also sitting on the front Stair well at Second Baptist Church where we have been meeting for church over the last year. By the way the folk there have been incredibly tolerant of us considering stuff like this happens on a regular basis.

Well be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Godzilla

To Sergeant Arasin this is the link for Godzilla Final Wars. If you are into Godzilla this is a must. It has one of the best Godzilla suits and the most random plot any of the movies. Cracle will not let me imbed it so here if the link enjoy.

http://www.crackle.com/c/Godzilla_Final_Wars/Godzilla_Final_Wars/2448577/

Theme Song Evangeline Booth

The young daughter of the Both family also has a song that jumped out at me.

Theme Songs Yamato Yukawa - JS YAMATO

As a random excise I have been thinking about what type of music best represents a character that I am working on. This is Japanese song that I think fits the Chracter Yamato Yukawa very well.

Randomness Part 5,692

My various adventures in this and that continue.

We had a fairly good practice yesterday. Our juggler are still moving along. Much Sergeant Thurman's chagrin she was teaching people to juggle. For someone that pretends to be so grumpy much of the time she is fairly good at giving people instruction. So that is promising as always.

The drawing cartooon thing is coming along a great deal better than I thought it would. Frankly I though I would be incredibly bad at it. So it is nice that something nice is happening in that way. I will stick up some more pictures when I scan them in.

I have been having a very hard time With Katherine Mason. I suppose she is the character that I have worked on the most. Perhapse I have such an image of her in my mind that I cannot place it on paper in a way that satisfies me. Well I will have to keep at it.

This was also the last sign language class in this section. Well I was just checking in. I think I need to hit the hay.

Be Safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Commodore Yamato Yukawa

I have really noticed that coloring these things with pencils is not the way to go. Granted I am using a childcare's set of colored pencils. they are not professional style ones. I did break down and a couple of good pens to do the black lines with. Still I am doing stuff with childcare's implements. Even so it does reflect where I am in this process.

Well anyway this is Commodore Yamto Yukawa. She is of course Japanese and not exactly Humans. She is the Android Avatar for the battle ship Yamato. Being that she is self awware she has been adopted by Dr. Yukawa.

She is fun character because she chooses to stay in a child like body. There are several reasons for this including the fact that you don't think she is threat until she wants you to think that she is a threat. She is a character that I have been playing around with for years. I am not sure how many of the short stories about her and plot outlines are actually going to part of who she is in these stories. Of all the character she is the one that has the least set about her. I know what is going to happen to everyone else. Her I am not sure yet.

She an Evangeline have a very special relationship in this series. Because the Yamato chooses to stay at this age physically she has more in common with Evangeline. Her past times are solitary and in some ways a bit juvenile. She likes to draw and prefers to read. She also like her father has to come to term with her abilities that are far more than the average Humans.

Well just checking in. Have a good morning everyone. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Evangeline Booth

This is the first picture that I have attempted. It is Evangeline Booth who is one of the main characters. As it goes I am not entirely sure what it should look like. Well i suppose I know what Evangeline should look like.

Well it is the first attempt at a picture from the Pennsylvania Faction

If any one has suggestions I am open to them

A Strange Adventure

One of thing that I have always been convinced that i cannot do is draw. I never had much luck in art classes so I just figured that it was not one of my talents.

For some strange reason I got it in my head that I should have the first set of short stories turned into some kind of Anime. They have a bizzar enemy and the entire thing is stuck in a world caused by a horrible temporal shift. So it is the kind of thing that would make a great cartoon type thing if you are into it.

Actually the idea came from a couple of the Elves. I will get back to the Elves later.

It was also a series that I have thought was a bit silly. So I never did anything with it. It was just the back story to the more important Salvation Navy and Ignored Calling arc of stories.

Anyway, the elves are a group of people who have read part or heard of the various plot lines. Some of the Elves are people that I know in the real world. Other elves are people that I know on line and i have never met in real life. In the last year or so there have been several people from Japan who have been commenting on the various things that I have been rambling about. A couple of these elves have read chunks of Ballington Booth's Legacy. They noted that the Character Major General James Booth had time traveled before but there is no mention of details in the story. There was someone with a rather bigoted view of the world. Booth commented that he had faught and defeated people like them before.

The Japanese Elves asked who Booth had faught. I replied in an email to an Elf that he had faught the NAzis when an alien race helped them win the second world war. Since the entire plot was preposterous I never really did much with it other than write the short stories in high school and throw them in a drawer. This particular elf continued to ask questions and I sent them the only chucnk of the story that was typed into an electronic media. they thought it was wonderful and would make a terrific anime type comic thing.

I floated the idea of illustrating the sory with a couple folk who do the drawing kind of thing and they thought it was neat but were too busy to do it themselves. The Elf then suggested that i attempt to do it referring the the picture of ships that I have drawn that occasionally appear on this blog type thing that i ramble through from time to time. I told them I couldn't and they suggested that i give it a shot. So i bought a book and followed the directions.

In a strange sort of thing it was not entirely bad. I am not sure if this is something that I can practice and do or not. So I suppose I am going to give this foolishness a shot. Perhpse I might even finish something for a change.

Scribling Stuff Here There and on the Internet

Still trying to get back into the swing of blogging. When I started this thing I was adding a post everyday. Now I am luck if I do it once a week.

It might have something to do with the amount of writing that I am doing on other fronts. I am still slugging away at the science fiction series. I am very please with how that is going. Chopping up the first round of stories into short stories has been an interesting thing. It will not work for the later stoies. They ar simply too complicated. Still it is an interesting thing.

Of course I am still slowly chipping away at the clown ubertext. i do think that I am going to die with that unfinished. I suppose that is why I am training new clowns. i will need a new master to take my place when i shuffle off this mortal coil.

The Clown brigade has decided to put together an entirely new show. This show will be based on the parable of the rich man. This is fun scripture that has all kinds of stuff that clowns can do with it. I am frankly surprised that we had not used it yet.

One of the more interesting things with this show if that we are going to write some of the music that is going into the show. The truely rough part is trying to write church music on an accordion. I think that there is a special place in Hell for people that perform the kind of music we are doing on the accordion.

Also two of the younger clowns are writing bits for the show. One of the young ladies that is writing stuff for the show is dangerously close to getting a writing proficiency. I think that will put her within one proficiency of getting the Standard Clown Rank. It will be like the old times. Someone that is not even a teenager earning such a lofty clown rank. Good Times

be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Juggling Progress

Two of our Jr Clowns and an Apprentice are working on rings and scarves. With out my asking them they have begun team juggling. This is great. We have been having issued with juggling. Frankly I can understand why someone would hate juggling. I was not very good at it while I was learning. And even though i can do it now I am still not that good at it. I suppose I am better than some still, there are a slew of people that are better than me.

Anyway today i am heading out to pick up a new batch of juggling equipment. It does a heart good to see progress in such things.

Out ad in the paper started yesterday looking for new clowns. This add will also help us figure out where our advertising dollars should best be spent for a Clown for Hire type business.

Well just checking in. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Radio 1

I has been a kind of Radio 1 day.It is odd because yesterday was definitely a radio 6 day.

Anyway I have been working on this and that today nothing terribly focused. Anyway I have been listening to the punk show on Radio 1. it is the sort of music that you cannot get on the radio around this.

Yester was waiting for the new Who to appear on the web. So of course the was the Craig Charles Funk Show on BBC 6. Perhpase I have a Brittish reader or two that will relate to some of this.

Anyway I am really behind on my knitting. i did not even finish my winter knitting for this year and Easter has come and gone. I suppose that doing a bunch of sewing has killed by knitting. Still you cannot take the machine on the bus so that has been some knitting getting done just not much.

Well I am just checkin in for some random sillyness. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

There are Days

There are days when i know that I am a huge nerd. This happens to be one of those days.

Today was the premire of the fifth Dr. Who of the reincarnation with Matt Smith as the Doctor. Like everyone with a new Dr. you wonder if he is going to be good. I remeber when Colin Baker back the Dr. i was not impressed. Sylvester McCoy was better but he was no Tom Baker.

No matter how you cut it was a great episode. I will not go into detail because it has not aired in the states. Still great on multiple levels. I will say that he did not work with the Tardis and he did everything with out his normal tech. It was wonderful.

Also I found a store in the Strip that sells the economy size Pocky. There are ni9ne packets for four dollars. That is awesome on multiple levels. The Brigade is going to be seriously happy with my new find. There is Pocky for everyone just in time for Easter. And frankly i was willing to blow 20 bucks to get Pocky for everyone. Nice to know that I do not have to.

Gozilla

I have been scouring the internet looking for information on the new Godzilla Movie. All I have found thus far is several refferences to something the Legendary Pictures is going to do. There are no detail just that they have aquired the right from Toho. Which of course the last American version was terrible. I suppose the effect were alright but I personally did not like the monster nor was it very well written.

Well I suppose I still like the whole idea of a man in a suit terrorssing a tiny little Tokyo. There are a couple youtube video of something that they claim is a new trailer for the next Godzilla movie. The moster is different but still not the igona looking thing that Mathew Broderick has to fight. If I am not mistaken the monster is gray instead of it greenish. Still it lookes much like Godzilla should look.

The only thing I am worried about is anAmerican company making a bad Godzilla movie with the real monster. That might really hurt their comeback. Still the Zilla monster did get Toho to make a new batch. So maybe American failure will be Japanese success.

Well be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Musical Stuff

Long time readers of this blog will know that I do not have much of an attention span. I tend to bounce around from subject to subject. That sad thing is that this tends to be how things go in my life

The things that I have been rattling around with for the last couple month is music. Everything from Jpop to bagpise music are on my MP3 player. Recently I have been adding gospel music to the mix. I have my player plugged into the computer and on the random setting these are the songs that it has played

Flower of Scotland on the bagpipes
Battlefield by Norman Hutchins
Wo Wa by Namie Amuro
Barney Miller Theme Song
Spring by Vivaldi
Go Down Moses by George Shaw
Llevame by Soroya
Bloody Sunday by U2
All About the Girls by MiChi
Kiko by Los Lobos

I am not sure what this has to do with anything. I knew and old man that said that one could judge someone by the kind of music that they listen. I do wonder what kind of opinion one would draw from this kind of musical selections.

Well anyway just checking in. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Summer Time Shows

When we first started to Clown brigade we never thought that we would be doing birthday parties. Our goal in life was to visit people in hospitals and do church shows. Over the last couple months more and more people ave been asking us to do their kids birthday party. I am not exactly sure why this is.

Perhaps since we have left the Army we have been wearing our own uniform and shirts and it is more apparent that we are clowns. Maybe the community that surrounds Second baptist Church is more supportive of their members than the Army was. What ever the reason the Brigade is talking about doing shows for profit.

The general consensus appears to be that a portion of what ever we make should go into the Brigade to fund our nonprofit work. At this moment it is still in debate. So we will see how it goes.

Well just checking in . Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Musical Randomness

I have been watching a lot of Godzilla recently. As of now I have officially watched every Godzilla movie at least three times except for the American one. I saw that American one in the theaters and was not impressed. i mean enough stuff blew up. It was just not the real Godzilla.

Anyway, I still think the good people at TOHO should attack an American City. A man in a Suit going through LA would entertain me to no end. Granted LA is not as entertaining at New York being destroyed.

Anyway the one thing that i have been looking for is a good version of the Gozilla March. i have not been able to find it. there are a couple version on the youtube. Still I have not found the song itself anywhere. i wonder if there is music to it out there. I am not sure why it is important to me.

Actually music has been a preoccupation of mine for some time. Granted there are few people out that that should probably stay away from music more than me. There are just so many horrible things that I have done to music. Frankly my accodion playing is unforgivable. Perhapse if i could find someone to teach me I would be better. Unfortunately there is no one in the city of Pittsburgh that is giving accordion lessons. It is really a shame. So I have been trying to learn that on my own.

The other unspeakable thing that i am doing to music at the moment is singing in the church Choir. Extemporaneous music is something that i am truly not prepared for. Our Choir Director has been very patient with me. Sadly i do not appear to be getting it. I suppose more practive is order.

As usual this has been pointless and has been brought to you by the letter W for Waste of time. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

A while Away

It has been a while. The last couple week we have had internet issues around here. And when the internet was working I used the time to do research for what ever I was working on at that moment.

So with everything working I have more time to spend on the things that do not really accomplish that much. Long time readers of this blog will have to admit that very little is acomplished in these pages.

Well onto other things. There is something rather strange about the stories that I have been working on that I have not dealt with over the last few years. There is some kind of horrible secret that bonds the Booth Family to the Jefferson Family. Evangeline Booth/Jefferson has a strange relationship with her husband where the two of them have been visiting each other over the entirety of their lives.

Well frankly I have never really bothered to come up with what that secret is. It is just something that is always there. It is the five hundred pound elephant in the room. I figured out what would bind them all together.

Granted I am not going to say what it is. I will have to write it in at some point. Still this is something that I have been considering for a very long time. It is also something that gives the character James Booth the perfect exit. I am looking forward to playing around with this.


Good night Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Meatloaf Does Funk

I just heard this meatloaf track from the early seventies. He apparently did Who is the Leader of the People. If is awesome. It was released ten years after he recorded it because he had some kind of argument with mo town records. Meatloaf and mo town records wow those words in the same sentence. I suppose there has always been something just a bit funky about Meatloaf.


Well this is another song that i owe to Craig Charles and his Funk show on BBC 6. It just does not get better than this. If you have not listened to this show is is better than a bucket of cotton candy with a cherry cola. That is good by the way.

I do think my tastes are beging to shift again. Once upon a time I would listen to BBC 2 almost all the time. The BBC 1 started creeping in there. Then there was the jpop thing. Now I am onto BBC 1 and BBC 6 this is crazy stuff folks. I imagine the Brits that read this might understand why that is strange. Still it is a shift none the less.

Something that i have always thought about is a soundtrack for various things. My own personal sound track is messed up to say the least.

With the Brigade now on it's own I have been thinking about what kind of soundtrack they should have. We are going to have to retool the show. I must say my time at second Baptist has given me a new love of Gospel. Even so I am not sure Gospel is quite right for the way that things are with the show. I am thinking about writing a new show. That would leave it open for what ever kind of music we want to do. Still it is something that we really need to think about. With the Army there was a certain type of music. It felt right and it was always there. If anyone has some ideas I am open to them.

Something else that I am wondering about is the soundtrack of the various character in my books. Various Character already have a soundtrack.

Brigadier Mason is mix Speed Metal and British Rock. Even thogh she is one of the good guys you get the feeling that she is capible of unspeakable evil if the situation requires it.

The newer Character Yamato Yukawa is easy she is jpop and jrock. She is a Versailles and Gackt fan with some Morning Musume and Namie Amuro thrown in there. She is adorable but also you get the feeling that she does not understand the necessity for morality.

This has led me to ponder some characters that I had not thought about.

There is Evangeline Jefferson. Now she is a time traveler who is a baseball fan. She is a huge Roberto Clemente Fan. the time that she specialised in was the late 20th century. So she is an eighties pop fan. There is a point in the story when she is listening to Curel Summer from bannanaramma.

There is her father James Booth. I am all over the place on him. I have his character wlell defined. I am just having some trouble where he should be. At the moment I have him listening to Jazz. He is also a time traveler that one used hi abilities to see BB King in a crummy hole in the wall club before he was BB King. So I know there is Jazz.

He is an uncomprimising man that has unblemished character. he and Mason are often going round and round about tactics. He is the jimminy cricket of the book on occasion. So there is that one that end. I would like to fill out his musical background. Also being a Salvation Army Officer he must play and instrument. I have established that he cannot sing. i am not sure what he should play,

The takes me to John Jefferson. I have not a clue on him. He is a black man that was raised in the US Navy by a father that was into mo town. i do have him liking Ray Charles. Still there is something wrong with you if you do not like at leaste three Ray Charles Songs. i am serious if you do not like that many Ray Charles Songs you have a character defect. By the way Mason only like two Ray Charles Songs.

He has lost his faith in the church but not God. I am thinking that he likes funk and maybe some rock and roll. I am not sure about him. In most of the stories I have been working on he is a background character. In the current story he is a young man of nineteen and and older man.

Well if you have any ideas I am up for them. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Scottish People Can Cook

I am not much of a cook. I am certainly not trained in any way. i have never even taken a class at a community center for fun. There is a certain cultural bias that states that Scottish People cannot cook. Well It is a nation that has spend a great deal of it's history on the verge of starvation. that sort of heritage does not lend itself to being wonderful with food.

Something else that i do not get is cooking shows. My wife loves them. I have watched a couple of them if I know they are making something that I might want to make. I have had an interest in Asian food recently. So I have been watch clips from Yang can Cook on the youtube. I think I watched Jeff Smith make shepard's pie before he was pulled off the air. That is about the extent of it.

My wife can watch these shows all day. i cannot get it. It is like she is watching Law & Order.

Anyway i was watching BBC America while typing on the computer. I was not paying very much attention when the show went off. I heard that there was a guy named Gordon Ramsey that was going to tell people how to run a resteraunt. It sounded like Ghingus Kahn was going to give therapeutic advice to Sigmund Freud. So I watch the first few minutes of the show expecting some kind of train wreck. And certainly there was a train wreck.

The thing that i was not exspecting was that I was going to find the show interesting. i mean I have no desire or care about cooking in the way these people appear to. Still there is a fascinating amount of drama and passion that goes into.

i suppose I always had the idea it was some kind of art. Certainly i can tell that a steak is better from a five star resteraunt than from a Waffle house. The things you learn when you are stumbling through.

Be safe out there and keep your stick onthe ice.

There are Days

I sepnt a couple hour working on section 1 of the clown handbook. being that it is the basic clowning section i think i am obsessing over it. it is also the material we will be teaching in the march training session. So I would really like to have it perfect. In going through it today i found a couple picture in the balloon portion of the text that i do not like. I mean for crimeny sake I thought I was done with them. You just want to cry sometimes.

Anyway I hope that Walt and I will have some time to take some pictures on tuesday. It would really be nice to make some progress on this bad boy at some point.

that leads us to some confusion on the juggling section tough. We are debating to some extent what should be the first thing that is juggled. My opinion is that it should always be balls. Sadly I think this opinion may be overshadowing what other people's ideas might be. a couple of the young sergeant have made a case for scarves. When they first suggested it I thought they were wrong. Still the more that i talk to other people there are many out there that like scarves. And to make it even more confusing there are those that say it should be rings.

To experiment with the ring thing I have tried team juggling rings with Sergeant Thurman. even though she had never team juggled before she almost has ring. Number one this completely shakes my faith in starting team juggling with clubs. It also give a strong argument for learning on rings. Yep I suppose this will have to seriously examined.

Well If anyone jugglers out there want to weigh in I am listening.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Snow

A couple of feet of snow fell on the city of Pittsburgh today. Today was mostly occupied with shoveling snow. The way that my yard is set up caused the snow to drift. So in my yard the snow was nearly waist deep. This was great fun for Sally who had never seen that much snow before.

The fall out from this much snow is that church has been consoled and the buses were not really running today. Also I lost power at my house. Well there is not much more to say about snow.

So be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

The New Flying Apparatus Bag

The Flying Apparatus bag continues to be the center of aggravation for my Universe. Sgt. Arrasin has an incredibly great idea for the Apparatus bag. Instead of having three seperate club pouches there should be one large single one. This of course required the complete redesign of the bag. It also meant that the handle had to connect with the bag at a place not on the outside edge of the bag.

On the old bag the bit of webbing that held the handle in place was simply sewn into the outside seam of the bag. This made it very strong. In the new design the handle is attached to the side wall of the interior ball pouch. With out going into diagrams in the old design all this part has to do was to keep the balls from getting into the main pocket. In the new design it has to hold half the weight of a rather heavy bag. So to make sure this worked out i doubled up the material on this price. If figured that would be enough. As you might imagine since I am writing about it I was wrong.


One bag has been made thus far to test the design. The new doubled up piece has held together alright. Sadly it is tearing away from the front and back of the bag. On the prototype bag this means that it had to be dramatically reinforced. currently I have attached a two inch ring of material around the outside of the ball pouch and another around the inside of the ball pouch. In the production models a piece of webbing will have to be sewn around this area to have the same effect without the less than elegant repair that i have made.

Well that is all the sewing related rambling that I have for the moment

On the knitting front I have been playing around with cables. Cables are something that I enjoy doing some of the time. If i have to do them for a project I find that i loose interest. I am making a green scarf for one of the church ladies. I will post a pciture when I am finished.

Well be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Demise of the Music

The Yahoo music people have been bought or taken over by someone else. In doing this they destroyed the personal radio stations that a person could set up. This has saddened my greatly.

For anyone that listened to my radio station they may have noted that I have very strange musical tastes. Actually my musical tastes are all over the place. Everything from bag rock to jpop to classica and American Rock and Roll. Heck I even like Grand Master Flash and Norman de la Joya. I bet you never thought you would see those two names in the same sentence.

And I am with the Israel Symphony in the belief that Wagner has no place in music. I mean good greif the ring operas are seventeen hour or something like that. In addition to that he kills all the characters in the first hour and they have to come back as ghosts to haunt a new batch of character. I think it was symbolic of his audiences that off themselves before the first intermission.

Well anyway I am looking for a place when I can select songs and create a new personal radio station. If anyone know of such a place please let me know. Perhaps that is something that i need to set up. If I had a mission dollars I would set up such a web site for myself. Actually I should probably buy a building for the Church that the Clown Brigade is starting. Well anyway that is another subject.

Anywho to fill the gap at the loss of my radio station I am listening to half a dozen or so other radio stations. Replacing the link to my radio station are the links to the radio stations and shows that i am listening to at the moment. I do apologies a couple of them are a bit on the glitchy side.

One of the Links is to the Charles Graig Radio show on BBC Radio. this is a great little radio show. For the sci fi junkies out there Charles Craig was Dave Lister on Red Dwarf. In his character he is a no talent hack that has no taste in music. On the BBC he has great taste in music. The other great think about his show is that he is ahead of the curve on much of the music that he plays. Some of the music that he plays never even gets a listen in the US. Well it is wonderful stuff.

Speaking of wonderful stuff there is of course BBC 1 the perennial pop music favorite. A I recall they were among the first to have online radio service. As with Charles Craig they are ahead of the curve in the new music area. Of course they also have the inside track on British rock and roll.

I have had less luck finding jpop and jrock radio stations. There was a hardcore jrock radio station that i used to listen to. They are now J1 which claims to be pure jpop music, what ever that is. Well I added them and will be giving them a listen in the next couple weeks. I have the on at the moment and I like what I am hearing thus far. If anyone know of a real jrock station let me know.

Well if anyone knows of a place that i can start a radio station like they used to had on the Yahoo Music let me know. In the mean time I will continued my search for the perfect online radio station for me.