Zeeppo's Knitting Blog

Sewing Stuff

2012-02-01T21:05:00.000-05:00

Something that is odd with a new Apparatus Bag is the fact that you have to break in the handle. Once you have worn it a while the handle is just where it needs to be. My new bag is not broken in yet. So occasionally it slides off my shoulder. It is a bit annoying.

All of the clown folk in my life have complimented the new bag. Even though it is virtually identical to the old one not having holes in it is attractive.

Also on the sewing front is the making of new juggling balls. Actually they are cubes but we call them balls. Young Apprentice Brimage wants all black juggling balls. So I am in the middle of making those. He has done such a great job at the juggling he deserves to have practice balls just the way he likes them. I am also making a batch of blue denim balls for the COAI. They are having an auction at the next meeting. Last year a couple of the items that we made were the top earners at this event. So I want to make sure we have a good rang of juggling equipment at this one. They have started having a regular juggling practice at the monthly meetings. So things are really looking up on this front.

I will post pictures when I get around to it now that I have figured out the camera in the phone thing. Granted the balls are not that exciting. Still they are what they are.

Well once again thank all five of you for tuning in. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice

Sewing and other things

2012-01-28T02:24:00.000-05:00

Another lovely day of sewing and other odd tasks. I know that I needed another bag. The one that I have is about to fall apart. There was no way around this. The other rub is that the young kids that joined this Brigade are now older and can do more stuff. And the cadet bags most of them are using are not big enough for the equipment they now must use. On the up side it does mean they are all progressing. On the down side it is work I have to do.

I picked up the canvas webbing and buckles that are needed for the bags. I am still very short on snaps. So that means a trip to the lovely Parker Button Company in the morning. The ladies there are nice and very tolerant of my odd sewing needs. Frankly the folk at Jo Ann’s are getting up my nose. There is one lady who is stunned every time I go in that I can sew. I mean come on. She does not have to remember me personally, still, she could pretend I am not a Martian when she sees me.

I should take a picture of my bag and load it on this thing. It looks just like the ones from before. I am fairly proud of the bags we are using. In the last couple years the only think that had changed is the handle so they are more comfortable on the shoulder.

I have taken on another project now that I have complete a few. I am the President of my Choir this year. It is an administrative position and I have no creative control over the choir. So there is not chance I will destroy it. I have decided to keep a blog about the choir. I am messing around with the format of it. I will put a link up to it when I like it.

On the creative end of the choir thing I am learning a nice and simple song that I might be the lead on. It is entitle God is my Everything. You can Google it. I am not sure if I am going to put up my performance of the song. We do record the services but for the interweb I would have to have someone take a video of what I am doing. Well maybe one of the sempi could do that during the service. I will have to think about that.

Back to the choir blog. I have been writing out the entries one day and going over them the next. The hope is that they will be more coherent than my entries here. Well that is the hope anyway. Also I will be putting up the songs we are going to sing and a vid from youtube if there is one. I am also sure there will be some of my ramblings on about Gospel Music.

Hmmmmmmmm I am sure there is something that I am forgetting. I will have to ramble about that at a later time. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

2012-01-26T21:37:00.001-05:00

On bus surrounded by college girls,too much perfume. Smell will improve when i puke on them

More Book Stuff

2012-01-25T11:03:00.001-05:00

The Last Great General is plugging along. In this book there are basically five main characters. And four of them interact with each other.

There is Evangeline Booth who is 12 at this point. She as been joined with a highly advanced war ship and is wicked smart and has extra human abilities. He best friend is Yamato Yukawa who is the computer for another powerful war ships. She has a physical android bady that makes her look like a teen age girl. There is also Commissioner Samuel Logan Brengle who was a real person. He was a Prophet in The Salvation Army. And much of what the Salvos are today is thanks to his writings. He and the two girls are thrown into the future where they have to solve a temporal problem. The other character in this group is Admiral McRandal who is about to be installed as the President of a new United States. It is his history that disappears.

Added to this mix is Catherine Mason a Salvation Army officer from the future who commanded on the salvo’s ships that can travel through time. She started off the story with Evangeline, Yamato and Brengle. When they get thrown into the future she is separated from them. In the first book her companion is the hologram from her ship. I have written about Mason and the relationship she has with her hologram. So I am having no trouble with that.

The problem that I am having is with Brengle and the girls. Brengle is much older than Evangeline but his life was lived in the past. He is the one that gives us perspective on what is happening in the future. on a personal level I think he would try and be some kind of father to Evangeline. Also I would think that a man from the past would have a problem with her only friend being a computer. He is never fully comfortable with Mason who is not entirely Human. So how would he feel about a super smart kid in charge of a powerful warship?

On the up side I have given myself a break on the accents. Evangeline, Brengle and McRnadal are Americans. Yamato is a computer that speaks perfect English. The only dialect I have to deal with is Mason and I am fairly certain I have her down.

Well it is something that I will have to slog through. be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

No Magic in Pittsburgh

2012-01-25T10:58:00.000-05:00

There is no magic in Pittsburgh. I remember lamenting last year that there was no real juggling group in the city. And then after looking around we found the rather nice group at CMU. There are basically two groups that have magic clubs. There is the International Brotherhood of Magician (IBM) and Society of American Magicians (SAM). Neither group appear to have a strong club in Pittsburgh. One did have a club that met and then their meeting place fell apart. I do not know if they are meeting anymore. The other I went to a meeting in the fall that was advertised and no one showed up. So either that club fell apart or they skipped a meeting and did not retract their internet ads. Either way it does not look good for either one of them

On top of that I am certain that neither have any young membership. We had this fight with the COAI last year and I do not look forward to having it with the SAMs or IBM. So what are we supposed to do. I know none of the colleges have anything. Historically this is not something that is done by college kids. It looks like this may be something that we will have to pull together ourselves.

Maybe we could do something with the COAI. We could try and do a monthly meeting. The only draw back is that I do not know how many of them are into magic. I know the President is but he is the only one that I know of.

On the knitting front I am working on a stocking cap just so that I have something to knit. It has been a month or so and I just needed to knit something outside the knitting classes. I may do some truly ugly fair isle just to have something hard to do in the hat. I am sure that what ever this turns out o be there will be a truly ugly pom pom on top of it.

Well that is it from Pittsburgh for the moment. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Random Stuff

2012-01-24T23:21:00.001-05:00

Today I had the pleasure of working on a French Door. It is nearly a hundred years old and made of nice wood. It was water damaged once upon a time and had to be restained. The good folks at Miller Hardware in Mt. Oliver helped me out with the color and it came out rather nice. Now it matches the rest of the room that has it’s original wood work.

On other fronts I am still working on the clown bags. I have a couple full size apparatus bags and a couple apprentice bags that need made. The shoulder straps on these things are a killer to make. They are heavily padded and have a couple pockets and a tie down for rings. One end of the handle also has to be anchored into the Juggling Baton Pocket. So it is a tricky bit of sewing with the machine. Still, it is really worth it. We are looking at a new apparatus bag that is just a scaled up version of the Apprentice bag. It is easier to make and does not have a separate juggling baton pocket. Some of our folks think it has a neater look.

Myself I am still partial to the ones like mine. Frankly if I were not the one making them I think we would have switched to the newer kind of bag. I do hope that people in my troupe are not sticking with the old style bag just to keep me happy. Walk will be the first person in our group with the new style Apparatus Bag. I know that he would not carry a bag that he did not like to spare my feelings and yearning for tradition. Either way I have probably all ready put too much thought into this.

The juggling at CMU has started up again. It looks as if their weekly meeting is going to go to Tuesdays. We will have to miss this one because it will conflict with our practice at Second Baptist. On the up side they are still having Sunday at 3:00 PM that fits nicely into our schedule. Over the fall and early winter this became a nice fellowship for the jugglers in our Brigade. I am also certain that it is behind the new interest in juggling with in our group. I knew that seeing people who could really juggle would spark interest. Now if only we could find a functioning magic group in the area.

2012-01-22T17:36:00.001-05:00

Bored on the bus. Thought I would share the boredom

2012-01-19T21:59:00.001-05:00

Working my way home from chior. Snow little Bus slow

2012-01-19T21:56:00.003-05:00

A r e y o u i n P i t t s b u r g h

2012-01-19T21:56:00.001-05:00

@ m o o n k a n a : i t i s s n o w i n g . .&e . ( y u k i d a . .&e . ) i t i s s n o w i n g h e r e a s .

2012-01-19T17:10:00.001-05:00

It's snowin in Pittsburgh. This is a mes 4 people in Florida

2012-01-19T17:01:00.003-05:00

ass half empty

2012-01-19T17:01:00.001-05:00

@neiltyson: In 5-billion yrs the Sun will expand & engulf our orbit as the charred ember that was once Earth vaporizes. Have a nice day. - astrophysts gl

2012-01-19T16:58:00.001-05:00

@shadownights99: Tell Congress: Don't censor the web! http://t.co/eqfkL7tX

People Who Think I am Weird or Everyone Besides Me.

2012-01-18T22:06:00.001-05:00

It is odd how people view you. Something that you are doing that is perfectly rational to you appears very weird to people that are looking at you. For those that do not know me personally I have what some might thing are some strange habits.

For one I am working on a series of books that it looks like I will never write or publish. I have spent years researching the plots and developing the characters. I stated doing this when I was a kid. Those books were centered around a Character McRandal and they were written in blue composition books. There are about thirty of those composition books and they are locked away in storage. Everything that is in them is not on my computer. Actually this is the seventh computer that that data that started off on five and quarter inch floppy disks no resides. It is also on a data card that is smaller than a dime. Somewhere with the blue composition books is a shoe box full of those floppy disks. Actually it is two shoe boxes duct taped together so they are large enough for those disks. I am sure those disks are no longer any good. Well they might be but I do not have a computer that can read them.

Anyway for the last ten years I have been concentrating on some character that were secondary character in the McRandal stories. I have come to find them more interesting for many reasons. Their stories are in red composition books. They are not locked away because I have not entered all their data into this computer. In fact if any of those stories are going to be published it will probably be from the red notebooks.

Well that is not the thing that had to do with public perceptions. Someone on the bus noticed that I was writing in one of these composition books. They complained about my hand writing. They went on to say that they could not read it. I told them it is in a secret code so that no one could read what I was writing. In reality since my right hand was operated on my lousy hand writing has been even worse. And since I communicate via email I have not really taken the time to try and improve it.

This person then went on to state that I was writing on top of a computer. Why wasn’t I typing it into the computer since my hand writing is so bad. I told them it is top secret and that someone would have to kill them if I told them the reason.

I then put in my ear buds and started listening to music because I did not want to continue the conversation. Also I did not want to have to be rude to some that was being really rude already. Still, it is odd what people think of when they look at you.

I am also not really one for new year’s resolutions. If I think of something I have to change I usually try and change it while I am thinking of it. Well over Christmas I was thinking that I use a great deal of paper. I have shelves of red notebooks scraps of ideas for the clown text book and many other things. Well I decided to start using less paper. The note book computer that I am now using is light enough that I can carry it around every where. Also I have found one that I can adjust the screen to a brightness that does not annoy me over many long hours of editing stuff. So I should not longer have to print out the books to edit them. The only thing that I have not been able to give up the red note books. So I am on the bus using a computer as a table top to write something in a book with terrible and writing. Well this computer does have a full sized keyboard and is wider than my last couple note books. So it is just the right size to be used as a table top for a composition book.

On an unrelate3d subject I was just tweeted that Kevin Pollak’s chat show will be on hulu now. I will have to check that out. I always have to down load it. So it might be nice to see it on the hulu.

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

2012-01-16T18:06:00.001-05:00

Eating Chinese Food with a clown from the troupe

2012-01-16T14:46:00.001-05:00

Going to practise stilts in Homestead....rain rain go away

Little Tech Support

2012-01-16T14:15:00.000-05:00

I am having trouble with my phone. It is a great phone and it does everything that I need it to do and then some. The issue is that I do not know how to do all the function. The instruction are written in a tiny font that you need a microscope to read. In the past when I do not know how to do something I would simply read the instructions and find out. Saldy this thing has it's detailed instruction online in some kind of ap that I cannot work. I have taken it in to the store and they do not know how to fix it.

Shortly after I got this thing one of the young people in the clown troupe showed me how to use the camera on it. Frankly I did not know half the features and cold not read them in the tiny text. So I just did not usethe camera. Now after fifteen minutes of a kid explaining it to me I can get the thing to work rather well. Or at least what I think passes for rather well.

Now I have been tweeting. I have figured out how to get the messages sent to my phone. There are a couple things I have learned through this. Paul Rudd , the Ozzy Foreign Minister, is the chattiest person I follow on twitter. Samuel Jackson does not swear half as much as I would think he does. Well there are other things but they are even less important that the swearing habits of a person I will never meet.

Actually one thing I do like to follow is the news feed from various organization, NYT, BBC and so on. Heck I do not even watch the news any more. I just read about though links on the phone. It is like having a phone that is always up to date. Great stuff.

The only draw back is that the think beeps every time a messag comes in. I have not figured out how to keep it from beeping. If i put it on silent then my phone does not ring. And the gizmo that vibrated in it does not work when it is in my coat pocket. Actually it does work. I just cannot feel it.
So I suppose I need to swallow my pride and go back to the kid in my group that taught me how to use my phone. Well you cannot have everything.

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

Pointless Drivel

2012-01-14T22:30:00.000-05:00

On one of the local broadcast channals they show several episodes of futurama on the week end. I was looking it up on the wikipedia. Apparently this show was canceled a couple of times. Then it came back on fox a couple of times not it is on the comedy channel. In this episode they have Henry Kissewnger's head in a jar. There is nothing like the K man in a jar.

It does make me wonder what the future will actually be like. WEll I suppose the computer will be better and we will all have robots one day. Homefgully they will ot be alcohol jerks that steal from us. But really how is that any different from the uncles and cousins that we invite to thanksgiving against out wills.

I would like to think that in the future there will be feweer criminals. That would be nice. Maybe the criminals could be put into a vitual world where they steal from each other. The muderes could murder and murder over and over again. They would be happy and content in their woh little lawless world. We would call this magical land Cleveland.

Oh sorry there is already such a place. Well this Cleveland would not have the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Why and the heck is that there anyway. I cannot think of a single famous rock and roller from Cleveland. Heck the only song I can think of about cleveland is about how horrible it is that their river caught on fire. Really it was once so polluted that it caught on fire. And I am from Pitsburgh. WE know about poluting rivers. WEll oddly we have clened up out river and now they are safe to swim in and eat the fish from. I do not know if the same can be said about the Cayahoga River. Well I don't know what the point of any of that way.

Have fun out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Snow

2012-01-14T00:43:00.001-05:00

It snowed today in Pittsburgh. There has not been much snow thus far. Today was the first day that we really got enough to cover the ground. It was little more than an inch. It did not even fully cover the grass. Even so it was the closest thing to snow that we have had in a while.

I was waiting for the bud today and there was a snow covered sandwich board sigh. After a few minutes someone came from inside the show and dusted off the sign. It was a sign for iced fruit drinks. If you cannot read your sign because of the snow you might not be selling that many frozen drinks on that day.

Anyway it was a nice brisk day. It was also nice to have an excuse to wear the really scarf. It had been hanging lonely on a hook near my door. Occasionally the cats would try and climb it but that was all of the action that it got.

I continue to work on the books. I have been feverishly working on the first one. I may have the first chapter ready soon. I think I may post it on line or something.

Well that is it for the moment. Be safe out there and keep you stick on the ice.

Blogging

2012-01-12T16:12:00.000-05:00

As a younger person one of my great aspiration was to write the great American Novel. Now I do not care so much for that goal. It is not that it would not be nice. It is just that even if one does write it they are often not recognised until after they are dead. So my new goal is to write something that people will read. Namely something that people will buy., Thus I can mke a living doing something that is not that hard. And if enough people like it then I can afford to entertain myself most of the time.

For many years now I have ben trying to figure out what should be in that book. Now I think I know. It is simply a matter of writting it. Still, I am not sure that I am a good enough writter to create something that a bunch of people are going to read. So I think I should make a concerted effort to post on my blog every day. I am not making this a new years resolution. For one it is the 12 and I have only posted once on my blog. So that goal would be out the window. I am looking at it like juggling. I juggle most days. That way I keep up my skills. Do I juggle everyday? Of course not there are days that I am busy or have a lot of stuff to do.

So for the long time readers of my blog there may be more rambling about random stuff than there has been the last couple years. Frankly if you are here reading this then you have already stated you are willing to waste time. So please to continue to waste away, you time that is.

For those that are here looking for someing uplifting or wonderful. You probably should have figured that is not going to happen anytime soon.

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

High People

2012-01-11T22:27:00.000-05:00

Once again I am at the bus stop. I am in the Oakland part of the city so there is wifi to be had. So I am on the internet blogging. I am such a technocrat. Well actually I am pretty far behind the times. I imagine that there are people who jhave been bloggin in public places for years at this point.
Anyway there are two guys not wearing enough clothing for the cold weather screaming about how high they are and various things that they claim they are going to do to woman. I have a feeling that neither of them are going to get close enough to a woman to carry out their threats.
They are also both asking to see me juggle because it is cold out. They are not paying attention or they would see that i am on my computer typing rude things about them on the internet. Actually I am not really typing aything rude here. I am just saying what is happening as they make fools of themselves.
Well what can you do? Ohh one of them just fell over. The other one is giggling at him. The one on the ground is annoyed at the one giggling at him. Apparently falling down is not part of the plan to meet women this evening. Well maybe if they keep it up they can meet a nice police woman.
Just checking in and letting you know what is going on in my world
Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice

2011-12-25T08:51:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas all five of you that are reading this.

AWOL Kitty

2011-12-23T12:22:00.001-05:00

So I go looking around the outside of the house seeing if she was hiding under the steps or something. She was no where to be found. Oh by the way for those who have not read every post I have ever written Cookie is one of my black cats. She is five kinds of adorable. She was brought to me by some of the neighborhood kids. By the way they named her Cookie.

Any way I really have been half worried out of my mind. She is she a little cat. She is probably still technically a kitten. Actually I am not really sure when a kitten become a cat. I will have to look that up.

Anyway Maya was really darting from place to place in the house looking for Cookie. She was really bothered by the loss of Cookie. Well anyway she finally showed up hours later. The two cats are curled up together at the foot of the bed. So I suppose all is well that ends well.

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

Drunk People

2011-12-23T12:20:00.000-05:00

It is another overcast and rainy day in the mighty city of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh where the men are men and the women can drink them under the table. Well at least some of the women can drink the men under the table. I was sitting on the bus listening to Morning Musume and thinking happy thought about kawaii bunnies and kitty cats. I am serious if you listen to enough Momu you beginning think of cute cartoon animals. Anyway, I sitting here rocking out to girly music and this woman smack the daylights out of some guy. The guy cusses at her and she punches him even harder. She then proceeded to beat the ever loving day lights out of this guy. After several passengers and the driver wrestled her off of him it was clear that they were both drunk. Yet in his intoxicated state the man was no longer able to defend himself. Or he liked being beat up by women in public. Since I was listening to happy music this whole time the entire scene had a very strange sound track. In addition I have not idea what the fight was about. Still, the entire incident was made better by jpop.

It is hard to use the wifi on the bus so I will e posting this later. We are approaching Squirrel Hill. This is a great neighborhood for finding something to eat. For those not familiar with Pittsburgh it is also a Jewish neighborhood so the bagels are great as well. There is this thing going on now where folk have giant electric menorahs strapped to the tops of their cars. They then drive through the streets with the appropriate number of lights on. It is not going on at this moment. Still the caravan will be coming through here at any time. It is quite a sight. It is something I have only seen in Pittsburgh. For what ever reason I have not witnessed Canadians Jewish folks taking their giant Menorahs for a drive. Maybe it is because it is colder up their they do not want to get their giant Menorahs cold. Maybe it is just another one of those neat things that only happens in Pittsburgh.

On an entirely unrelated front I found a camera memory card on the floor of our church. It stuck it in my computer in an effort to figure out where it came from. There are pictures of a family I do not recognize. Maybe they were just in for the Christmas play and were not regular members of the church. Either way I have done my best to identify the folks on it. So it will get chucked into the lost and found with the hope that someone will get their memory card back.

Well that is it for now. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice. And if you are driving around in Pittsburgh, remember, water freezes when it gets cold.

Missing Cookie

2011-12-20T00:19:00.000-05:00

I lost my Cookie today. I woke up this morning and Maya was yelling at me. Actually she was meowing at me very loudly. She was also poking me in the face. She somehow got out of the house and was no where to be found.

So I go looking around the outside of the house seeing if she was hiding under the steps or something. She was no where to be found. Oh by the way for those who have not read every post I have ever written Cookie is one of my black cats. She is five kinds of adorable. She was brought to me by some of the neighborhood kids. By the way they named her Cookie.

Any way I really have been half worried out of my mind. She is she a little cat. She is probably still technically a kitten. Actually I am not really sure when a kitten become a cat. I will have to look that up.

Anyway Maya was really darting from place to place in the house looking for Cookie. She was really bothered by the loss of Cookie. Well anyway she finally showed up hours later. The two cats are curled up together at the foot of the bed. So I suppose all is well that ends well.

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

Drawing

2011-12-19T14:37:00.001-05:00

My drawing is not coming along very well. I have been toying with drawing some of the clown in my Brigade as well as Cuddles. I can do an OK job drawing them head on. Drawing people in profile or on any other angle has been an incredible challenge for me. On some level drawing clowns is easier than real people. When it gets to coloring them you do not have to worry about flesh tones especially on the white faces.

Shadownights appears to be able to draw her people in any angle that she wants. Apparently talent does figure into drawing in a major way. I bought a book on drawing manga. It has several suggestion for dealing with my problem. They suggest drawing these guidelines that help you keep the proportion. I have just started trying it. It is going slowly but I think I am seeing some kind of improvement. Maybe some more practice will yield the results I am looking for.

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

2011-12-18T16:14:00.001-05:00

Twitting at Christmas Play. Jesus would be proud.

2011-12-17T18:46:00.001-05:00

Accident near glenwood bridge. Folk forget water freezes in Pittsburgh.

2011-12-17T15:04:00.001-05:00

Just bought another s gomez mp3 i'm such a girl. Going to buy we will rock you toshore up my manlyness.

2011-12-17T13:12:00.001-05:00

Working on sermon 4 Sunday. Don't like my illiatration trying to find another one

Parlimantary Procedure

2011-12-15T23:24:00.001-05:00

I have been in a parliamentary mode for the last couple months. It has been very interesting. I suppose it really started off with my own clown troupe when we had to start considering how to incorporate ourselves. That was pretty easy all things considered. It was simply a long and drawn out process.

After that was the local COAI Chapter. For what ever reason that was a great deal of bickering over how things should be done. It is not as if the rules were unclear. They were just not being followed. There was some fighting and gnashing of teeth that made everything very exciting. We rewrote a couple of them and got everyone operating on the same set of rules and everything has been much smoother since then.

At the moment we are looking at my church’s bylaws. They are just a wee bit dated and don’t have anything really wrong with them. They just need tweaked a bit. This will probably be a bit anti-climactic. Still, it is important to look over one’s bylaws every so often. Not only does it keep them up to date but it reminds people what they are.

Tonight is the Trinity Choir’s Christmas Party. I have always had fun at this event. The food is good and the fellowship is better than the food. So this will be a good time.

If I think of it I may check in later. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

2011-12-15T21:48:00.001-05:00

Christmas Party was great. Ate too much. Only place you get swedish meatball and collar greens

2011-12-14T23:05:00.001-05:00

A follower complained that I am not a grupy clown. They were following me to see me swear. @&!=*#+ &=@#@& happy now?

2011-12-13T17:34:00.001-05:00

Waiting for practice to start. This is the third most exciting part of my day

2011-12-11T14:55:00.001-05:00

The word express does not really apply to thos place. It should be the Orient Siesta.

2011-12-11T14:53:00.001-05:00

Waiting for chinese at Orient Xp in Oakland. I have it is edible. It's decor look lik a cheesy Mexican Place

2011-12-11T12:28:00.001-05:00

Kid 3 pews up making funy faces @ me. I should hav been mature enough not to start making faces

What is with the Drugs?

2011-12-10T21:26:00.002-05:00

I have been going through the spam filter on the old blog and there are adds for three different kinds of erectile disfunction drugs in there. There are also two adds for drugs that I think cure ailments that only women get.

I am amazed that people keep sending this stuff out. If I ever need any of those drugs I am going to make sure I use the ones that have not been spammming me.

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

2011-12-10T18:31:00.001-05:00

Odd I am having an ok time working in public. Odd for my ADD riddled self.

2011-12-10T16:45:00.001-05:00

Working on the first book. Wish I was better at spelling grammer and typing

2011-12-09T21:25:00.001-05:00

Why hasn't anyone written a clown text book? Must I do everything myself? There have been thousands of clowns before me someone should have by now.

2011-12-09T20:17:00.001-05:00

I am missing the picture for the swan balloon. I need Smokey to sing me a song

2011-12-09T19:41:00.001-05:00

I had a dream that Bob Newhart repaired my central air. The odd thing is I do not have central air

2011-12-09T19:34:00.001-05:00

Watching MASH. So sad about Harry Morgan.

2011-12-09T14:09:00.001-05:00

Just bought first song on internet. Naturally by S Gomez. I am such a girl.

2011-12-09T10:30:00.001-05:00

Still working on balloon text. Please shoot me. Really shoot me the back door on the house is open and police responce time is slow

The Port Authority Wants You Dead

2011-12-08T23:30:00.003-05:00

This is is going to sound mental. I was on a bus today. On buses there are the upright bars that you hold onto while standing up. I was on a bus that was missing two of the uprights. The upright in the picture was not connected at the bottom. I noticed this when someone grabbed the bar and nearly killed themselves.

The sharp edge of the bottom of the bar was taped off at the bottom so one did not cut themselves. So someone that works for the Port Authority saw this and figured they should duct tape it. By the way the guy sitting in front of the bar was nearly smacked in the head with a metal pipe. When someone complained to the drive he moved the pipe slightly and claimed it was not his problem.

Now these upright bars look like they are holding up the horizontal bar at the top of the vertical bars. I wonder what happens to the horizontal bar when only one of the four vertical bars is attached at both ends.

Well the Port Authority claims that they cannot pay their people and they cannot run all their routes. Still they can afford expensive down town office space and to leave themselves open to obvious law suits.

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

2011-12-08T19:07:00.001-05:00

I should take video of me on the phone and post it to the blog. I wonder how one does that.

2011-12-08T19:05:00.001-05:00

Heading to chior. Pray fpe gospel music.

pointless stuff

2011-12-08T18:12:00.005-05:00

I have noticed that every time I start to follow a famous person in the twitter a couple more people follow me. If that holds true I could have a million followers if I follow all the famous people assuming there are 500 thousand famous people on the twitter. I just started following tom Hanks to see if I get any new followers. I know it is a pointless thing. Still, I am getting the feeling that the whole point of the twitter is to be pointless.

Speaking of pointless. I am working on the balloon section of the basic clowning proficciency for the Brigade. Balloons are the most time consuming thing that we have to explain in our text. And frankly I have been doing everything else except for the balloons. There are so many pictured that need to be taken and resized and then you have to do the text to go with them. And if you find you need for description you have to go back and look at the text and take more pictures and so on. This is a real pain to put into the new smaller format books that we are using. Still that is the way that it had to be. We are using half the trees and it is better and cheaper in the long run for various reasons. Getting to that point has been a real pain though.

Learning balloon animals is one of the most time consuming things that we have to do in our group. It is also the only basic skill the has consumable materials. Thus it ends up being the most expensive skill over the long term. Well what can one do? It must be done.

The first book in the series is going rather well. It is odd it looks like it is going to be rather short compared to some of the later ones. I suppose there is so much that I cannot talk about in the first book it keeps me from rambling on. The rate things are going I may have the first chapter reasdy to put up on this blog by the end of the month. By the spring I could be deciding if I need to go looking for a publisher. I do not know how I feel about trying to publish something that i have been working on for so long.

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

2011-12-08T14:38:00.001-05:00

Working on balloon section of ciriculum. More boring than cleaning elephag with toothbrush. Need some jpop

Not Coffee

2011-12-07T11:03:00.003-05:00

I am not a fan of the Starbucks. IT is not because they are some evil corperation trying to take over the world. Granted I am not ruling that out. I had a cup of tea in one of their shops five years ago and it was not what I ordered. I wanted a cup of Earl Gray and it did not taste like it should.

When I told the person behind the counter that it was not earl gray they informed me that it was. They went on to suggest that maybe my palette was not refined enough to enjoy their special blend. Now I do not know if they had some special blend or what. Still Earl Gray has a certain taste and everyone should be in the ball park. Anyway, I have not bought anything in Starbucks since that day, until today. It is a rainy day in Pittsburgh and I am standing around waiting for someone. There is a Starbucks nearby. I figure I will go in and check my email and maybe the jpopasia.com. I figure I can get a hot chocolate. Well I am sitting here with my hot chocolate and it is bitter. I have added a jar of sugar to the thing and it is bearable. Still for three and half bucks I want wonderful and not bearable.

I can get two boxes of Swiss miss and be happier. I am debating if I should complain. I am sure if I do I will find out it is a special dark chocolate that is imported one ounce at a time on the back a specially trained sparrows.

Maybe I should just not go to Starbucks.

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

I am a freak

2011-12-06T14:35:00.002-05:00

I cannot find my keys half the time. Today I left the house once and had to return because I forgot the keys to the building that i was going to. Then I had to return because I forgot the lease for the new tenant to sign. Fortunatly I had been planning a stop so I had time to return to thr house twice.

Anyway I am sitting on the bus and someone is listening to the song Jesse's Girl without headphones. They were debating who was Jess's Girl. Right off the top of my head I told them that her name was Patty. They grumped at me because the song does not actually say that her name is Patty. Well I matched it on the youtube and there is a point where Jesse write who his girl is on a brick wall and she is inded Patty. I do not remeber the last time that I saw that video and somehoe I remember that.

I would go onto a quiz show and try and win some money. Sadly i am certain the catagory would be football and I would loose on a question like what is the home city of the Raiders. For some reason I think they are in Michgan but I am almost certain i am wrong. If I were on millionaire I would have to use my l lifeline on that question. I bet my brother knows what city the Raiders are in.

Well I am heading off to clown practice here eventually. So be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

2011-12-06T12:21:00.001-05:00

I wonder of i can use this phone to fins wifi???

2011-12-06T11:45:00.001-05:00

Knitting on bus. Some guy keeps staring at me. He must be in love.

2011-12-05T19:46:00.001-05:00

One of the yutes from my clwn troupe is texting from my phone You know who you are

2011-12-05T19:42:00.001-05:00

I want to win Kevin Spacy short vid con. Sadly i have no good ideas

Twitter, Vid Casts

2011-12-03T21:01:00.007-05:00

I am at Tom's on the south side wondering about twitter. Well actually the place is now called Penny's. The name of the place has nothing to do with anything. Anyone from the area will know where I am talking about. And if you are not from the area you will not care about what I am talking about.

I have not figured out how people find out who to follow on the twitter. I figure that I could pick celebrities who interest me. Then I realised I do not really care what any famous people are doing. The only celebrity I am following if Neil Degrass Tyson. I think this of course make me a huge nerd. Well at least I am not following Willian Shatner. Oh and I am following John Cleese. Either way I hope they post funny stuff. Oh and I am going to follow Samuel L. Jackson just to see if he uses the f word on the twitter.

The next thing is the goal to have a lot of people following you? If it is I am up to three. I would tell you who the three of them are but they may not want the public know they are following some clown. If that is what you are supposed to do how are you supposed to get the people to follow you. Are you supposed to tell other people about the interesting people that you have found to follow?

On a side note. If you are reading this and you want me to ramble in shorter chunks of texts you can follow me on the twitter. I am Zeeppo on the twitter just like I am every where else.

I have to get one of those cords to get the pictures off my phone. Oh that reminds me. The Clown Brigade is thinking of starting up the vidcasts again. We would of course like to have the Yarn N'at vidcast going. That was a great and entertaining thing. Walt and I had a lot of fun doing that. We may have a couple of the young one from the Brigade as cohosts on that thing.

We also have to really rework Army Clowns. Being that we are no longer part of the The Salvation Army we should probably come up with a new name at least. We still have all the Salvo tradition just not the blue suits.

So if you have have any idea for the Title of a Clown Vidcast let me know. I would like to hear your ideas.

Well that is all i can ramble about. Keep your stick on the ice and be safe out there.

2011-12-01T18:48:00.001-05:00

No one killed stilting off to chior

2011-12-01T14:24:00.001-05:00

Off to practie stilting.

Blogging Failures

2011-11-30T11:59:00.003-05:00

Well I posted something with the phone. Apparently you can only send so much at one time with the text messages. I am sure this is something that every six year old knows. Even so it was a wonderful learning experince for me. Also I wonder how you do spell checking with the text message.

As some research I looked up text messageing on the internet. Apparently people use abbreviations so that they can put longer test into a smaller space. This is a fascinating thing. Apprently OMG mean Oh My God. that is an interesting thing. I am sure that everyone else on the planet already knew this stuff. Still it is something new to me.

Well I will be doing some research on the texting nomenclature. Perhapse I can find a book on all the abbreviations.

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

2011-11-29T22:32:00.003-05:00

onies worth then.

2011-11-29T22:32:00.001-05:00

This is my first text on blogger. Iam heading home from practice. We had 4 people on stilts. I wonder of I am charged by the character? I should get my m

Random Stuff

2011-11-28T14:03:00.003-05:00

The struggle to learn Japanese continues. Apparently I stink at learning languages. Well it is something to keep things interesting.

We had a great day at the CMU Juggling yesterday. All of our folks were on the stilts and even one of the CMU students praved the aluminium legs. I have some pictures on my phone that I cano get off at the moment. I will have to have one of the young people in the group get them off for me.

On the subject of the young people they are off from school today as well. I will probably be heading over to Homestead if the weather hold to give some stilting lessons. They are really doing exceedingly well. We are thinking of having a stilter in our routine for the Christmas pagent at the church. I am not exactly sure if it is a pagent. It sound more like some kind of variety show. Which is better that is something that is right up out alley even we are a Brigade and not and Alley. The clown folk out there know what I mean.

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

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T17:05:00.004-05:00

As is tradition turkey day is being celebrated at a Chinese Resteraunt in my house hold. Being a proud descendant of Stephen & Elizabeth Hopkins the wife and I had a tradition Tanksgiving with the Mayflower Society. This was at the always lovely Oakmont Country Club where they apparently hate cranberries ecause they did not serve any with out turkey and stuffing. Still other than that it was a wonder afternoon.

Well anyway that is one the reason we have our actual Thanksgiving at the Chinese Resteraunt. It is easy and there is no clean up. Also it is the only place that I can get Sushi and not bother those that are not into the eating of the fishy yuminess. This place also has the wifi so I can do the mobile blogging. Actually I can do the mobil blogging with the gizmo I bought from t mobile that does the internet. It is odd that the wireless internet is faster than the verizon at the house. Maybe that is why verizon tried to buy t-mobile recently, but I digress.

All of this does not have much to do with Thanksgiving though. My ancestors were of course thankful that they all didn't starve to death or the Natives didn't kill them for stealing from them. My thankfulness is more centered around my wife who has had a tough road the last couple years. She is past the cancer but still dealing with the bad heart. So I am thankful that she is still with us. I am also thankful for the prayers of all of those that have been praying for her. I am sure that has helped a great deal. Also on another note the hospital food locally has improved some over the last couple years. So sitting around in a hospital is not so bad if there is something to eat. Granted I am not the one being operated on so my wife might feel differently about it.

I hope that those who are reading this have something to be thankful for this year. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Nearing the End

2011-11-18T08:42:00.003-05:00

I am just about finished with the Long Scarf that i have been working on for the last week or so. It is a good strong one that will be able to stand up to the rigors of a good clown routine.

I am also considering making a flower stick for the grab bag thing at the COAI. i have some material that is not the colors that we usually use. So it might be nice to encourage juggling there with a juggling present.

On other knitting fronts i am trying to find a cable knit sweater pattern that i like. It has been a long time since i knit a sweater. It strikes me that i should knit one every once and while just so that i can keep up on them. I know there are folks out there that just love to knit sweaters. They scare me just a little.

On the sewing front it is time to make a new Apparatus bag. The current design is doing rather well except for the holes and the fading. There are also a couple folks in the Clown Brigade that are starting to juggle more items. So they are going to need bags as well.

Well that is it for now. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

A Title Before

2011-11-16T15:39:00.003-05:00

For those close to me they have had the please of my disorganized and messy writing. Literally there are hundreds of note book around my house. I just put up a set of three shelves to contain the note books that i am using at the moment. they are all filled.

Anyway the only published stuff that i have done is some clown text book type things. The only ting that I have not done is publish a work of fiction. It has been a long held aspiration of mine. Everything else I have wanted to do in life I have had the opportunity to do on one level or another.

Well anyway usually I start with a blank note book and write several chapters. As i mentioned a couple of entries ago I have been working on a series of books in a story arc that goes over a couple thousand years. Anyway the first book in the series revolved around James Booth's parents. His father is the General of The Salvation Army. I would say more but it really messes up the story if you know more. The major plot elements of this story all get mentioned by James as he recalls his young life in latter stories. So I have not done much with this story, actually nothing.

Then it comes to me that the book should be named The Last Great General. I have never had a good title for something before i have spent a couple month working on it. In fact I have several things that are simply numbered and do not have a title at all. Heck i don't even have a name for James Booth's father. Since he was talking about him he always called him Dad or Father.

Well for some reason that was all very impressive to me. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Various Random Things

2011-11-16T15:10:00.006-05:00

For the first time since I started this blog I am bothered that someone might be reading it.It is odd because I have been sure that there are not very many people reading it. Anyway I am knitting stuff but I cannot post it because it is going to be a gift. I looked over the stats for this thing and the two of the top ten referring sites to this one are frequented by clowns. So I do not know if the clown that might get the thing is the person reading this page. At least one of the potential people is fairly computer savvy. Well I suppose I should not post any picture that would ruin the surprise.

On another note a long time absent person has popped up in a comment on the blog. I am pleased to hear from them. Jamie was a nice lady that knit with Walt and I back when we meeting at a local bookstore before it went under. The brigade an Church have been taking up a lot of my time so i have not had time to hang out in knitting groups. Sadly the only groups that I truly felt a part of were the ones that I started. bee Hive Knitting was great before the Bee Hive became a bar. And knitting at the Jo Beth's was also nice before it bit the dust. I have even considered starting a new knitting group here on the South Side. the only rub is coming up with a place to meet. the South Side has some nice restaurants but there are no longer any coffee shops other than the chain that does not need me to mention it's name for you to know who they are. Sadly I think that the chain that shall remain nameless is part of the reason there is not a coffee shop on the South Side. There is a Caribou Coffee maybe I will call them about starting a knitting group. the other sad thing is that Walt will probably not have the time to come to the knitting group. He was always great fun at the knitting groups.

Well on the clown front we have been working on stilts recently. This is also thanks to Walt because he acquired the stilts. This is Cadet Miller up on a set with Apprentice Brimage keeping an eye on her. In her first go she was able to stay up for 22 minutes before she got tired and she was able to walk on her own.

In another odd turn of events I was elected the President of our Church Choir. Granted I was the third choice, the other two refused. Still, I hope my keen sense of parlimentary procedure will carry the day. You would not think it so but I do have a way with rules and order. So that will be an interesting little adventure for 2012.

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

Bad Blogger Struggles

2011-11-15T10:55:00.004-05:00

I continued to struggle with being a bad blogger. maybe it is because i am not of the generation that is good with the blogging. Or perhaps i am simply not a chatter person.

Anyway The knitting of a long scarf and the continued Adventure of the Booth and Jefferson Family have been occupying my time.

I will not go to much into the long scarf because it is going to be in the present swap at the COAI meeting. So I cannot go into color or pattern. I can say that it will e loved by the clown that ends up with it.

I am getting very close to finishing the book that I have been working on. It is early in the story arc for the series. I am even not horrified by my crummy grammer and spelling. I do have to admit that the computer is finally getting to the point where it can deal with my lousy spelling. it is even marginally helpful on the grammer front. And heck ebooks have come to the point where it might be an option to deal my obsesive need to keep all control over what i am writing.

The story is set around the young Evangeline Booth. She is ten years old in the story and had what looks like magical control over technology. She of course is a time traveler who has been altered by powerful alien technology. Her family and future Husband are fresh off their adventure with the ancient race. Her future husband has been the target of evil time traveler so her adult self has been protecting him. Her future husband has become enchanted by his future wife even though he is a nineteen at the time. Evangeline has always loved John, her future husband, this is complicated by their ages in the story.

In the story they must save a planet full of former slaves that have been hiding out from their former master. They are of course the modern descendant of the ancient race that the Booths and the Jefferson had lived among. the antient race has given the Booth and Jefferson and Booth families the military hardware to end the crimes against their future selves.

This is complicated by the fact that they cannot radically alter the time line because they are also fighting with the evil time travelers. James Booth , Evangeline's father, is the Chaplain on the Uss The Sullivans. The Sullivans senior staff is killed in battle leaving Booth the Captain of the ship. Booth has to get to save the alien colony. If he can he use the as a cover to aid in the abolitionist movement that is starting to gain traction.

If he can hold the colony for two weeks a relief fleet will be able to push the pirates and slave traders completely off the planet. Of course Evangeline does some rash things.

I very pleased with the story arc that I have laid out. I figure it will take around thirty books to write the multi generational tale. The issue is that i have not been very happy with any of the individual parts I have written thus far. This books is four or five books in and i am happy with it.

As I ponder the story arc I am reminded that I have never actually tried to write the first book in the series. Well there is a kettle of fish I probably do not want to kick over.

The continued warping of my cultural preferences continues. the young people in the group have got me listening to Selena Gomez. She can sing an there are no two ways about it.

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

Knitting and Other Relevant Things

2011-08-29T22:15:00.004-05:00

Anyway as the title of this blog might suggest there is some knitting in my life from time to time. Something that long time readers of this blog will know is that knitting is a useful skill for clowning. You can make all kinds of things with a couple sticks and some yarn. Well this is one of those things. This is a lap blankest made from some red caron acrylic yarn. At least I think it is Caron. the label has been lost to the sands of time from our various moves over the last decade. There was enough of it to make a nice little lap blanket. There really isn't a pattern. I made it until I ran out of the yarn that I had.

The actual pattern it out of one of the Vogue Knitting Books. The knitters out there will know the ones that i am talking about. they might even know what book I am talking about. As I type this I looked across the room to see a pile of knitting books. They have been displaced by a reorganization of my library that is incomplete. So I am a bit too lazy to go through them and figure out which book it came from. I know that a good knitting blogger would have the pattern on had to share it. Still, I never claimed to be a good knitting blogger.

On other fronts the strange growing pattern of the Brigade continues. With the Brigade office half way put together we have around six cadet clowns here on the South Side Slopes and several more interested. They are mostly young people but it is a wider age range than the last couple time we had a membership jump. We have a couple seven year old a couple teens a a couple in between. There might even be a parent or two in there.

On another odd twist over everything I am starting to like Justine Beiber and Miranda Cosgrove. At least I think hat is how their names are spelled. The computer does not agree with me. In addition there are some Japanese band that Miss McBride from the internet has suggested. So not only do I have the musical tastes of a teenage girl they are the tastes of a Japanese teen age girl. Yep that is normal for a man of my age. I blame being exposed to Bob Dylan at a young age for my musical mental issues.

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

Juggling Clubs in Pittsburgh

2011-08-20T00:42:00.004-05:00

When you look for a juggling club in Pittsburgh five clubs come up. All of them are no longer meeting. Some have not met for several years. The other thing that come up is the Cuckoo 's Nest which is the local magic show that also sells juggling equipment. Towns have the size of Pittsburgh have had juggling clubs that have been meeting for years. It boggles my mind that we are unable to put something together in this city.

It has gotten to the point that i am looking into starting a juggling club.

I have spent a couple days randomly looking for some kind of internet juggling network. Sadly i have found a couple websites that appear to be ignored by the people who made them. Apparently jugglers are the only people that do not like to talk to one another on the internet.

I will keep you posted if anything interesting happens. Don't hold your breath though.

Making Juggling Batons & Number 10

2011-08-18T00:56:00.004-05:00

It is two in the morning and I am cutting out pieces of vinyl to make a juggling baton. At Tuesday practice Apprentice Brimage {There are five Brimages at this point} used a juggling baton for what I think was his first time. He did rather well so I am making him one for him to practice with.

On an interesting note his favorite type was the kind that I use. This is the one that Walt and made three years ago. This has become the most popular stick that we have been making for ourselves. This will be the fourth or fifth one we have made for a member of the Brigade. I have also made a couple for people outside the Brigade.

The particular stick is your basic two foot long flower stick. Apprentice Brimage has requested that it be red and black. I think that it is going to be an attractive stick. The nice thing about making the same kind of stick is that you can be sure of the balance. One of the people in the Brigade wanted a rather special stick that was longer and had head that we had never used on a juggling baton before. The sad thing was that it took me three attempts to get something that had the right balance.

On another subject an interesting question as possed to me. If you could choose a handful of people to make immortal who would they be? I am pondering a list of ten people. For a place to start I think I am going to choose the Emperor Charlemagne.

He was an enlightened leader who believed in education in a time when the average King was a brutal dictator by modern standards. I think we would be living in a more enlightened and interesting world if the Holy Roman Empire had not fallen apart.

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

Slacking Off Again

2011-07-06T00:05:00.002-05:00

As has become my habit of late I have been slacking off on the old blog. I am not really convinced that anyone is actually reading this. Still even if they are not I must do my part to pollute cyber space.

Recently I have been trying to resurrect some part of my fire juggling act. Frankly I have had no need of it for the last five years. There is a group of folks that do various forms of fire performing in Frick Park Thursday Evening after dark. The last couple weeks i have been hopping on the bus right after choir practice and going over there.

I did notice that someone was taking pictures with a camera. this is video from one of my attempts with a fire stick that I just built. It is incredibly heavy and i am not in love with it yet. Still it is a thing and I have been giving it a shot.

Clowen Happening

2011-05-27T20:43:00.000-05:00

Well there is not a lot going on here at the old Clown Cave. We are getting ready for some events which is always nice. We have a parade and a visit to a hospital that we have not visited before. That is always an interesting thing for me. I am not sure why I enjoy visiting a new hospital so much. Maybe they are like trophies for Humor Therapy.

I was doing the math and I figured that I have visited 97 Hospitals, Nursing Homes or rehab institutions as a clown. This new one will be the VA in Aspiwal which is just outside Pittsburgh to the north if you are keeping track. It is a nice hospital that is much larger than I thought it was. On Monday after the parade we are taking more than half the Brigade out to go and visit the folks there. Actually I think I will be the most clowns that we have had in face in a long while. We have mostly been doing small institution where we only need two or three clowns to cover the place.

Also on the up side of this show is that it will be the first show for two of the members of the brigade. this is an important first step for any clown. Also a Parade is a great first show for an inexperienced clown. You just walk around and wave at people. Also it gives you a good feel for having a large crowd watch. It is also one of the few kind of shows where you can interact with the public in a completely controlled way. People do not chase you around or demands balloons. So it is a nice low stress thing.

I have continued to work on the instructional booklettes for the clown brigade. I know that it needs done. Still it is a slow and painful thing. There is so much work that needs to be done. And it is going to take years to do. And being at the start of that endeavor is a daunting thing. Well it is something that needs done.

I am thinking of taking a few hours over the weekend and going on another musical safari on the Jpopasia site. Basically I start with one song and after I have listened to it I go to one of the recommended songs at the bottom of the page. A year or two ago I would spend hours a week going from one song to another. Well it is something t do.

Well just checking in You all have a good evening. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Some more Randomness

2011-05-11T13:07:00.000-05:00

I have been watching a bunch of movies this weekend. I started off with Run Silent Run Deep a Cary Grant Movie. I then watched most of the Die Hard Movies. I really happen to like the new one where they are running all over the place to trying to stop a cyber terrorist. It is high implausible still it is entertaining to watch a bunch of stuff blow up. I think I am going to finish up by watching some of the Yamato Movies. They are on the internet so it should not be that hard to find them.

On other front I am still working on my singing. My Choir Director has told me that I have to work on my Phalsetto voice. I have been singing X Japan songs to practice this. My biggest problem is that I have a hard time changing back and fourth. It seams to be easier to go up rather than down. And apparently if you want to be half way decent at singing you have to be able to go up and down. Well it is a process. So the fat that I am incredibly bad at it right now might actually be a good thing.

The kittens are a week old and still squirming about. A couple of them are just starting to open their eyes. They mother is very protective of them and does not like letting us play with them. It is a wee bit annoying because they are incredibly cute at this stage in life. My other cat Maya is not liking the kitten very much. She is a runt and has been the baby in the house for the better part of the last year. Also Maya is my cat and the mama cat is my wife’s cat. So there is a strange bit of tension there.

I am still working on the basic booklets. I am expecting that will take the better part of six months to get them all into some kind of shape. On the up side of that I am ahead of most of the clowns in the Brigade on making these learning materials. So if I get these done that will give the more seniors clowns in the Brigade something to work on for a while. The nice thing about some of the more advanced proficiencies is that there is a lot off stuff that has been written on magic. So I am not reinventing the wheel here. I am just putting a few things together.

I think I also need to spend some time cleaning my desk. I had organized a couple weeks ago and it is full of junk again. Actually it would be easy if it was full of junk. I could just throw away the stuff that I did not need. It is full of all the stuff that I need to do these various projects. After the cleaning I am going to take a picture of my desk. There is a thread in the Forum of Jpopasia about what your desk top looks like. I think they are talking about something on the computer. I think It would be sarcastic and funny to go analog on them with a picture of my actual desk top.

Well everyone have fun out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Lydia and her Kittens

2011-04-26T22:55:00.001-05:00

This is Lydia and her five kittens. I had to turn up the flash so that you could see them all. Without the flash it looks like a really angry Russian hat.

Random Stuff

2011-04-26T22:45:00.000-05:00

This evening we are having a Master Class here at Clown HQ. This is when we work on advanced skills such as walking on Stilts, unicycling or really hard balloons. Tonight we are going to working on Balloons and possibly the script for our next stage show. These are always fun and I enjoy them. Since it has not started yet i do not have pictures of the class. Maybe i will edit this thing and put them in latter.

On the Musical front i am stiff having my adventures with my church choir. I found a nice on line radio station that has been helping me out. http://www.live365.com/index.live It is mostly contemporary gospel music like our choir is doing.

This is a picture of my cat Maya. She is a adorable and always trying to type on the keyboard when am typing. She is not doing it right now. Still she usually does.

Also on the up side. the last installment of Monroe is on the internet. It is a British Medical Drama that i have been watching. That is one of the best things about the internet is that youcan watch television from other countries with out having to go there. I am not sure that i would go to another nation just to watch television. Still it is nice to know that i do not have to.

And of course the best British show is coming back Dr. Who. I cannot tell you how much i have enjoyed the restarted Doctor. I loved Sylvester McCoy and Tom Baker. i was always sad to see them go. But now the new series actually has money to do stuff. The writing is still good. Only now you do not have to imagine what the monster was supposed to look like. it is rather nice.

Well I have probably rambled on enough or now. If you love the Doctor Post.

Hmmmmmm

2011-04-26T14:11:00.002-05:00

I would just like to tell everyone outside the United States that only the news Media thinks Donald Trump has a chance.

More Who

2011-04-07T01:09:00.002-05:00

I cannot express how excited I am that the Doctor will be back on the tele soon. So here is a we bit of the Doctor Who Goodness.

The New Show

2011-03-26T02:26:00.004-05:00

Once again it is time to work on the script for the Clown brigades next show. We are working tirelessly to bring the script together so that we can start rehearsing.

This year we have vowed that we will use on sixty percent recycled jokes. We have also vowed that we will make up at least three new jokes for this show.

Pictured to the left is our Brigades newest member Dave Jefferson taking a shot at making sense of the script that I have written. There was much groaning and he only broken down in tears once at how bad it is. Never the less any progress is good progress. Oliver the computer Squirrel even helped with a couple jokes. For those keeping track Oliver is the Squirrel that lives in my Tandy Color Computer Three. He runs on a little wheel that powers the computer instead of electricity because i could not find a new power supply to replace the old one when it burned out.

By the way bellow is some random Bagpipe rock and roll awesomeness

New Yamato Movie

2011-02-09T15:56:00.000-05:00

This is the title song from the new Space Battleship Yamato Movie. I am still looking for a subtitle version of the movie. Sadly there is probably some goffy issue with the people that made thade the American version of the Animated series.

Movie Time

2011-01-05T19:23:00.000-05:00

This made me very happy to find this little gem on line. This is an updated version of one of the Battle Ship yamato movies. It is really great. Sadly the goof ball that own the rights to this series in America will not dub this movie. And frankly if they did they would probably ruin it anyway

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

Rambling on

2011-01-03T12:00:00.004-05:00

I am still working on several knitting projects. I have a run of the mill long scarf that is being made in red heart varigated. I am not sure what it is going to be used for. Still you can never have enough long scarves sitting around. I also have a purple baby blanket that is in the making. The folks that are getting it do not kow they are getting it. On the other hand they are neither of the people that read this blog so they will not know. I will throw up a picture of it when it is finished. It is about half way done now. So there is still some work to go.

I am also hoping that the first 2011 Apparatus Bags will be done some time this week. The up side with them is that a smaller version of them has been tested with the younger members of our group. And since it has survived with them the larger version will be sound. I am hoping that this is the bag that we can all get in the next year or so. It would really be great if we all had the same bag.

Well this may not be exciting to you all. Still I am happy about it. Be safe out thee and keep your atick on the ice.

Hmmmmmm

2011-01-01T22:12:00.003-05:00

For the third time in the last half hour I have walked to a different floor in my house to get a book. When i get there I have retreiveed something other than the book.

I knew you all would be intererested in this so I had to share.

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

True Grit

2011-01-01T22:01:00.002-05:00

I just watched True Grit Today. It has Jeff Bridges instead of John Wayne. I am going to have to rent the John Wayne version to remeber all of the details of that movie. This one struck me as fairly different. It was darker and more violent. i suppose more violence was only to be exspected.

John Wayne's Cogburn was also lovable on some level. Maybe it is just bcause John Wayne never really played a bad guy. Even when he played the anti hero it was still like he was the hero.

Jeff Bridges played the anti hero in this one. There were times that you began to wonder if he was worse than the criminals he was chasing. I do not preffer a remake to the original very often. This may be one of those rare occassions though.

Juggling Clubs

2011-01-01T12:09:00.004-05:00

I am getting truely annoyed with the Juggling clubs of Pittsburgh. For some reason by the time they advertise where and when they will they break up. Someone just emailed me about a club that pactices in Oakland. I went to the place and time they were supposed to meet and there was no one there. When I Yahoo. juggling Pittsburgh half he links are back to this blog or the Brigade's blog. I find it hard to beleive that there is not a single group of people that are juggling in Pittsburgh.

I did read about something in the Post Gazette in Sewikly. I read about that the week end that it happened. I emailed the person who was supposedly running that and they never got back to me. There is also some kind of club that appears to be an after school activity in the middle school. So even if I wanted to trek out there strangers would probably not be welcome. It is little wonder that i cannot get some of the clown that i know to think that juggling is important. The juggling world does not appear to think that it is important.

On other front i have sent another email to the Internation Jugglers' Association. They usually do not reply to me. Well this will be the thid person that I have contacted. Well we will see how that goes.

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

2011 Type Apparatus Bag

2010-12-22T07:22:00.003-05:00

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

2010-12-22T07:17:00.002-05:00

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

2010-12-19T22:59:00.002-05:00

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

2010-12-11T04:04:00.006-05:00

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

2010-12-11T03:51:00.002-05:00

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.

2010-11-23T00:14:00.004-05:00

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

2010-11-22T12:12:00.005-05:00

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

2010-11-22T00:27:00.003-05:00

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

2010-11-18T17:01:00.002-05:00

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

2010-11-15T23:26:00.003-05:00

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

2010-11-05T13:28:00.002-05:00

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

2010-11-01T14:31:00.004-05:00

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

2010-10-17T23:35:00.000-05:00

Today was a good day.