Perhapse the Most Random Thing I have Ever Done

For those of you that know me that is really an incredible statement. Of all of the random things that I have done it is quite amazing to think that there is a most random thing that I have ever done.

In the last week I have communicated with two people. One in California and the other in New Zealand. We have decided to start a jrock band that will be called Pa-paru Panda. Pa-aparu means purple by the way. The name is nod to Mister Roger's Purple Panda.

Bellow are some of the version of this song that I have heard on the Youtube while thinking of all of this.

Chinese Food Attempt

I just made my first batch of Garlic Seasamy Noodles. I have not made very much Chinese food. Actually I have not made Chinese food. For some reason I only buy it. every other food that I like I can made. I have even been practicing sushi. Yet Chinese food i do not make.

Well I got some real Chinese noodle. Some garlic sauce and sauteed some mushroom. Actually making this dish is like saying a made ravioli by opening the can of Chef Boyardi. So this really is not making Chinese food. It is more like I bough three things and threw them together in the same pot.

Well actually it taste fairly good. When I started making Italian food years ago i started with a bow of pasta and a can of sauce. Now I can take actually tomatoes and turn it into sauce. I can even make the pasta. My Manigotti is to die for. My wife claims that she decided to marry me after I made her Manigotti. By the way that is a flat round pasta noodle with a cheese and mushroom stuffing rolled up inside. It is a pain in the neck to make though.

Well back to my noodles. I suppose I have to buy a wok or something. I suppose that is one of the things that you need to make Chinese food. I managed to make it this time in a sauce pan. I suppose that is alright to get started. From what I read you use the wok as something that has different cooking zones.

Well we will see how that goes. i am probably going to concentrate on the Sushi. I am not very good at it yet still I am trying.

Someone Should have Told me This

you know about once a week I come across an artist on this site that I think someone should have told me about. Of course I have musical taste that ranges the entire range of what music can me. The Music that I like goes from Kana to Charlie Zahm.




By the way for those that do not know Charlie Zahm is possibly the best Scottish folk singer roaming the world today. I know he probably does not get to Japan very much. Still Morning Musume does not get to Pittsburgh very much so we are even on that front.

Incidentally this post has nothing to with Kana or Chalie Zahm. That is just incase you are still reading this. Still I am probably the first person to put up a picture of Charlie on this site. Yes I know he does not have a Scottish name. His father is hungarian. He and I share that in common. Although I do have a Scottish name. So at least I have that going for me



Why and the bloody hell didn't someone tell me about Ami Suzuki. You see I am thinking about the British Isles now and am using words like bloody. Alright I am thinking about the wrong set of island. I need to thing more about Japan.



Buddha that is not Japan enough. Hmm I need to think of something that is more Japanese to get back on subject.



Well I have no idea what is going on here. For all I know it is a plan to raise the Japanese Empire Again. Still if this is the modern face of the Japanese Milkitary I like our chances.



Ah yes there it is. When I think of Japan I think of Alphaville. It was a a band from the 80's that sang a song called Big in Japan. Incidentally I think the song big in Japan should be allowed on the jpopasia web site.

Alright so there are not Japanese people in the song. And it looks as if the song was filmed in California. Still California has given us the California roll. Japan is like the United States. They are no longer their own thing.

There are people all over the world that wear blue jeans and shoot people for no good reason and listen to rock and roll. All of those things are so American that it hurts to think about them sometimes. Especially the shooting people for no good reason.

Well Japan has cultural influences that they no longer have control over. Like if you go to Mexico there are now Taco Bells. Does anyone in Mexico thing that is mexican food. Of course not. Still it is tasty and make people think of Mejico.

By the way I have wondered away from my point again.



Ah yes that is what I was rambling about. Someone should have told me about Ami Suzuki. I like her music and think someone should have told me that I would like her music.

Actually I could have just written that last paragraph and been done with this post.

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

Learning Japanese

I continue to seriously consider learning Japanese. I remember when I learned Spanish in school I was at a special school where we used Spanish a great deal. Thus I was emerged in the language and all of our teacher spoke Spanish. When I learned what little French I know I was dating someone that spoke the language. And she was insistent on me learning it. So i was well motivated there as well.

Pittsburgh PA is not exactly a major hub for Japanese culture. Nor do I have any Japanese friends. So the only way i can learn the language is through classes or an audio course. neither of these methods have worked well for me in the past. The thing that has worked best for me is being forced to learn the language because I need it.

With the exception of eating Sushi everyday at a local Sushi bar there is actually no where that i know of that I meet Japanese people everyday. In addition half the staff speaks Spanish as their first language. So that is good practice for that but not much help with the Japanese. In addition it would get expensive after a while.

Well i suppose I should sign up for a college class and see what happens. Being that i am married I can probably not date Japanese women. In addition I don't think anyone would want to start a relationship based on that reasoning anyway.

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

The Salvation Navy Series Problems

One of the fundamental tenants of the book is that several planets are populated with people that have been rescued by the Far Star Project. They are needed for their technical knowledge or their abilities. They are saved because The Far Star Project need to be able to staff a vast fleet that will fight the time war.

One of the problems that I am now having is where do I save all of the people from. One of the assumption is that the first round of people that are saved are saved by people that have very little foreknowledge of the future. Fleet Lord Stone lives on Earth for centuries before the time wars. He has advanced medical knowledge and he saved many Humans from the plague and other biologic disasters. He even used what few advanced ships he has to save people from ship wrecks and other things.

For reason that are apparent for the story Stone shifts his operation from Europe to America when what will become the United States is being colonized. That would mean that by the time the holocaust rolled around they would not be in a position to do anything about it. The Story mention Stone taking part in the second world war. He was in the Navy so he spent his war in the Pacific.

Would that constitute a plot hole is they do not rescue victims of the holocaust? Either way I am sure I can get out of it for the first book. Still if they did rescue Jews at what time would a flag officer in the United States Navy know the holocaust was happening. How many could they rescue? I suppose these are all question I will have to answer soon.

Can't Keep Away

I simply cannot keep away from writing in the book. I know that I need to give it time so that it can be edited properly. Never the less I have the constant urge to write stuff in. Today I wrote two chapter both of which may not go into the current book.. Still, it is clear to me that this will be the hardest book of the series. It is the one that I will have to do all alone. If no one buy the rest of the series will remain as scraps and out lines that do not have to dealt with. If someone buys it than I will have help with next one.

I suppose that is a strange way to look at it. Still, I am not one that will put the effort into it is no one cares. It is after all an attempt to tell a story. If no one wants to read the story there is no point to writing it.

Random Cat thing

Just some more randomness. My cat just dragged off one of my note books. The cat weighs three pounds and the note book weighs seven ounces. So that is a fairly heavy thing for a cat to drag off.

I am not sure what anyone would care about this. It is something that happened I thought I should share.

Still Working on the Book

Still working on the book. The thing continues to do well. I just wish I had thought of everything that had to go into the first book. There is a a possibility that I would have made it into two separate books.

I have bee writing the thing in these red composition books. Yesterday I finished off composition book number 9 and am moving onto book ten. I am not sure why I started writing the book like this. Even so when i type from the note books into the computer I get a great deal of editing done at that stage. So all and all it may be inefficient, still, it works for me.

I am not sure why anyone would care about this, it was something to post.

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

The Viking Game

This is a game that I have been playing around with for several years. No pun intended. Any way here are the rules.

Pieces

The King piece was called Hnefi ("King", Old English has Cyningstan "King-Stone"); the pieces Hunns ("knobs"), Tæflor ("table-men") or Tæfelstanas (Old English "table-men").

The Lapps call their Tablut pieces "Swedes" and "Muscovites" (they were very similar to modern stylized chessmen, the Swedish King resembling a King, the Swedish Hunns pawns and the Muscovites bent rooks). They sometimes had pegged bottoms that fit in holes drilled in the board. The King was bigger and more ornate.

With the larger boards (e.g. Alea Evangelii), the King's pieces were sometimes differentiated, with a small, elite "King's Guard" of uncapturable pieces.

There are many finds of board games and gaming pieces from Scandinavia and from the British Isles. Gaming pieces were often hemispherical and made of antler, amber, bone, clay, glass, horn, stone, jet, wood or even horses' teeth [10]. Finds of several light and several dark pieces together have been made sometimes with a single piece being a different shape, like a sea urchin, in the same area.

For 9x9 boards, sixteen dark pieces surrounded eight light pieces with an additional King. Boards with more squares typically had twelve light pieces and a King facing twenty-four dark pieces. The colors were often switched.

SET-UP

The King (large white piece) goes on the central square (Throne -Konakis in Finnish), surrounded by his men (other white pieces). The enemy (black) pieces are set up around the edges of the board. Black moves first -except in the case of Alea Evangelii, where White moves first.

PLAYING HNEFATAFL

Turns alternate between the players.

All pieces move in the same way, like modern rooks at Chess. That is, on his turn, a player may slide a single piece of his color any number of squares in either orthogonal direction (up-down or left-right, no diagonal moves) as long as it doesn't jump over another piece of either color. The Throne and the four corner squares are off-limits to all pieces except the King. With the smaller board variants, pieces of either color may pass over the Throne; with the larger board variants, only the King may do so.

The White player is trying to have his King escape his assailants by reaching a corner square. If the White player moves so that his King ends up with a clear path to any of the four corner squares, he must announce that he has an escape route open. The Lapps use the word Raichi ("Check") to announce a single route and Tuichi ("Checkmate") to announce a double route. On his next turn, if he can still do so, the King may be moved to a corner square and escape. White then wins.

If the Black player inadvertently opens an escape route for the King, the White player may take advantage of it immediately!

If the moved piece ends up sandwiching an opposing piece between itself and another piece of the moving color or a corner square, the sandwiched piece is removed from the board. This is called custodial capture. It is possible to capture several pieces in a single move.

White captures both black pieces

The King must be sandwiched along both axes to be captured. The Throne, corners and edges count as Black pieces for purposes of sandwiching the King, so Black needs only three pieces to capture the King on the edge of the board or if he is right beside his Throne, two if the King is right beside a corner square. When the King is in danger of being captured on Black's next move, he must announce "Watch your King" to the White player (this is reminiscent of Chess' prohibition against moving one's King into check). Black wins by capturing the King. The King can also be captured if he and no more than one defender are surrounded on all sides and incapable of moving.

In all cases Black captures the King and wins

A piece may safely move to place itself in sandwich between two opposing pieces (or a corner square).

White can safely move in between the black pieces

WINNER

The winner is the White player if he manages to reach a corner square with his King, the Black player if he manages to capture the King. Because the game is uneven, it is good etiquette to play two games, switching sides. Each player keeps track of how many pieces he lost or took from his opponent and this score is used to determine the ultimate winner.

I have just started making a new board. The old one that I have is worn and has been around too long. First though I am going to make a board for my minster's son. They are being moved and he has played this game with me from time to time while they have been here. So I want him to be able to take one of the these games with him.

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

Two New Chapter

I have written three more chapters for the book even though I didn't want to t write anything new. I was supposed to be letting the book alone. i just could not do it.

The new Chapter have to do with Admiral McRandal who is a more important character in the later books in the series. I suppose I have to put him in. He needs to be introduced early on so that he just does not appear out of nowhere.

that is the only problem with writing such a complicated book. Everything has to al least be alluded to up front.

Well I suppose in the grand scheme of thing this is not so bad.

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

A Random Game

I am on another site type thing wher ethey have a kind of blog. This is a set of question those folk sent me.


Here are some questions. What you have to do is the following questions with a twist...

1. Put your MP3 player, iTunes, Windows media player, etc. on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!!

Then, just tag at least 6 friends. Everyone tagged has to do the same thing. Have fun!


IF SOMEONE SAYS "ARE YOU OKAY" YOU SAY?
Sure – Blondie Maria

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
Funnyish – Johny Cash Fulsome County Blues

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Great – Edith Piaf Mi Lord

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
To be funny – Rolling Stones Anyone seen my Baby

WHAT'S YOUR MOTTO?
Illusi et Divinus – Smokey Robinson Tear of a Clown

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
I have no freinds – The Spinners Ruberband Man

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
They try not to – Loveholic Maria

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
My Book – Ah a Take on me

WHAT IS 2 + 2?
4 (I used a calculator) – 1812 Oveture

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Awesome dude – Louis Armstrong What a wonderful World

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Yet to be written – Ricky Martin I don’t know the title to this song

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Master Clown – Kana the title is in Kanji and I can’t write it here

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
writting – Charlie Zahn Loch Lomond

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?
bees – Emilie Simon Fleur de Season

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
I listen to Kana – Hikaru Utada song name is in Kanji again

WHAT DO YOU WANT RIGHT NOW?
Mach and Cheese and Spam – Jackie Chan I’ll make a man of you Maderin

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Very tolerant - Andy Steward Scotland the Brave

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Another stolen tagging thing- W Southpaw


6 people:
I have don’t feel right tagging people
I will tag lettus pocky though

New Devil Sticks

I know it has been a while. Still I have been working on the book and there has been little room for anything else.

Something interesting did happen on the clowning front today. Sergeant Wilson and Thurman have been playing around with the devil sticks. The problem is that they like everything else. So Walt and I decided to take a crack at making some.

I figured that it would take us many tries to get anything that is close to usable. So we gave it a shot.

Sergeant Wildon stopped by to help us work on the Devil stick. And they she is sanding the dowels that we made the sticks out of.

Our goal in life was to make some sloth stick, or slow spinning Devil Sticks. When we finished the first set and tried them out they spun like speed sticks. They we incredible fast and very maneuverable. The sloth sticks we were trying to make are usually very light. The sticks I prefer are the the s type the Dube company makes. They are quick but are harder to do some tricks with.

It would appear that over building them to make them tough for young people had created a fast tuning stick that has the easy trick attributed of the devil sticks that have the big end. So we appear to have created a new type of Devil stick. We decided to call them chopper sticks.

Well be safe out there and keep yousr stick on the ice. Thank you Sergeant Wilson and Walt

Something Random

Just something very Random

Random Musical Goodness

Production Monday

Monday Knitting that was once on the South Side is at out Corps. We also take the chance to work on some other projects during the group.

Something we have been messing about with is a trophy wall for the Brigade. This was the white shield that we have been working on before the meeting. By the way the White Shield is what we call our logo. Namely because it is a large white Shield with other stuff on it.

As you can see that red Army Shield is missing from the center at this point.

In the case of our white shield there is the black ship's wheel with the name of the Brigade and the year it was founded. In the center of that is The Salvation Army's red shield.

Over to the left in the second picture we see JC Thurman painting the red shield that will be placed in the blank white space on the ship's wheel.

The thing is made on half inch plywood so it is pain to paint inside all the letters. Miss Thurman is taking great care to get everything red on this piece. Sergeant Wilson also worked on their piece today. She put on the first coat.

This is one of the last things that we have to do in order to get the Clown Cave ready for the first Garabedian Academy.

To be honest when we first wanted to do this I wanted to just pain the thing on the wall. Walt said that he thought it should be cut out of wood and put on the wall like this. I did not think that it could be done very well. Walt proved me wrong and has done an excellent job.

Well have a good night everyone. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Missing Character

Today I realized there is an entire character missing. This mean there will have to be another couple chapters. The character is not really important in the first couple books. Still I cannot just have them show up out of no where.

On the up side I have settled on the title for the second book in The Salvation Navy Series. It will be The Eleven Doctrine. This is referring to the Eleven Doctrine of The Salvation Army. If you are in The Salvation Army that is a cool thing. The title of the third book in the series will have something to do with The President of The United States. The other four books in the series are still rough outlines.

While I am working on the book I have been listening to the music on Jpopasia.com and the yahoo radio. It has been interesting switching between the two.

On the down side of all this stuff I have missed the last two South Hills Knitting Cult meetings. WE have had Army happening on both evenings. JC Thurman has really wanted to go. Well sadly it could not be helped.

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

Random Stuff

Well the last few weeks have been strange. Every couple days I reread the book and decide it needs a new chapter here or there. Sometimes this is to fix a plot hole. Other times it is to support something in one of the other books in the series. For some reason it feels as if I will never finish this book.

To be honest until recently I have not felt very comfortable with this book. Around four hundred pages though I was beginning to get the feeling that it might turn out to be something that was not an entire waste of time. Now at over five hundred it almost is coherent to me. I suppose it should probably make seance. If no one can understand it no one will buy it.

On the up side I feel that with ever passing read I find more of gramatical and puntation flaws. I am sure there are spelling problems. Still the computer is fairly good at dealing with those.

Anyway Just checking in to vent about some of the random annoying stuff with the book. On the up side I will have it finished soon. Or it will sneak up on me and kill me in my sleep. So if you stop hearing from me you know the book won.

Something to Share

This is an article someone sent me so I thought I should share it with you all.

Environmentalist Loved Planet, Murdered Girlfriend

By MICHAEL P. TREMOGLIE, The Bulletin

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Today is Earth Day, a holiday created to honor the planet and to raise the consciousness of man’s effect on the environment. Philadelphia has a very strong tie to this day. One of its native sons, Ira Einhorn, was a co-founder of the environmentalist jubilee.

But Mr. Einhorn has another line on his resume. In addition to being a environmental guru, he is the Unicorn Killer.

While a student at the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Einhorn dated a Bryn Mawr College graduate by the name of Holly Maddux. When the affair ended in 1977, Mr. Einhorn went into a jealous rage and murdered her.

He concealed his crime for 18 months by stuffing Ms. Maddux’s body in a trunk that he kept in his apartment. The foul odor of the decomposing corpse coming from Mr. Einhorn’s Powelton Village apartment caused neighbors to complain. In 1979, police found the trunk stored in a closet in Mr. Einhorn’s apartment.

Ira Einhorn, member of the counterculture pantheon, one of the founders of the environmentalist movement, icon of the liberal intelligentsia, was charged with murder. But it was not just a simple murder, it was a gruesome case of domestic violence.

At the bail hearing, Mr. Einhorn was praised by a contingent of luminaries — all testifying to his character. There were Ivy League professors, an Episcopalian minister and corporate executives who worked with Mr. Einhorn raising funds. They all stated under oath that he was a man of the greatest integrity.

Arlen Specter, currently Pennsylvania’s senior United States Senator, was Mr. Einhorn’s attorney. He managed to get the bail set at the unheard of amount of $40,000 for the suspected murderer. Only 10 percent was needed to free him. Barbara Bronfman, heiress to the Seagram liquor fortune, paid it.

Proclaiming his innocence, Mr. Einhorn told all that he was framed. He said it was the CIA or the FBI who committed the murder and they were trying to frame him for it because of his political activities.

Some will note that another notorious Philadelphia murderer, Mumia Abu Jamal, used this defense a few years later. Like Mumia, Mr. Einhorn had no shortage of leftist followers.

Mr. Einhorn skipped bail and left Philadelphia in 1981. More than a decade passed when the DA's office tried Mr. Einhorn in absentia after being unable to locate him. He was convicted in 1993.

Several years after the absentia conviction, in 1997, Mr. Einhorn was located. He was living in France with a new girlfriend — a Swedish woman. The District Attorney’s office in Philadelphia immediately asked to have him extradited. However, the humane French refused to extradite Mr. Einhorn. French officals cited the use of capital punishment in Pennsylvania and the conviction in absentia as reasons for their refusal.

Mr. Einhorn was able to convince the French courts not to extradite him until he received the promise of a new trial. A Pennsylvania legislator, Dan O’Brien, introduced a bill in the Pennsylvania General Assembly that allowed granting Mr. Einhorn a new trial, if he asked for it, and if the French extradited him. The bill did not vacate the original verdict.

When France began extradition, Mr. Einhorn’s representatives requested the European Court of Human Rights to review the case. The request was denied.

He was extradited to Pennsylvania in July 2001. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to life in prison October 17, 2002.

But there is a little mentioned irony about the Einhorn saga.

Ira Einhorn was arrested for murder March 28, 1979, the day the Three Mile Island nuclear plant accident occurred. Ira Einhorn, environmentalist, was charged with murder during the same period as one of the greatest environmental accidents in United States history.

But the real irony is that more people died in the apartment of Ira Einhorn, co-founder of Earth Day than at Three Mile Island. The environmentalist killed more people than the so-called environmental disaster.

Just Checking IN

Over the last couple weeks I have added another hundred pages to the Book. So the gizmo is now around five hundred pages. Well I suppose no one can accuse me of writing a short story.

I have also join Jpopasia.com which is a great little site if you are into Jpop Music. I am also fairly certain I want to start a Jrock band name Purple Panda. That is another story though.

Here is a viedo from Greeeen I think they are a Jrap group. Anyway it is a neat vid.



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

One Liner One

Knowledge is power, and power corrupts. So study hard and be evil.

Fabric Fair Happiness

The Salvation Army has an interesting little fund raiser known as the Fabric Fair. This iswhen a bunch of donation of fabric and other craft related items are sold off.

The Clown Brigade picked up a sewing machine and 4 bolt of fabric.

One of the bolts of fabric will reupholster the couch in the Clown Cave. The other will be clown clothes and the like.

The read deal was the sewing machine. WE picked that up for five buck. it is a Kenmore machine that was probably pretty run of the mill back when it was made. By today's standards it is a great machine. It is next to indestructable and works like a champ. I really found it hard to believe that such a great machine was just sitting around.

In addition to being a great little machine it goes through everything that we have in our inventory including leather. I am really pleased with it.

The black fabric we picked up is a great lamay that will do nicely on the couch. The couch we currently have it bearly holding together as far as it's covering is going. WE were going to just make a couch cover. Now that we have the stuff we should do a proper job making it look nice. We made a cover for another couch in the corps and it does not look wonderful. This could look wonderful if we do it correctly.

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

Fund in the Clown Cave

Monday Night Knitting was all about making our room pretty. Here I am on stilts working on the banner with out name painted on the wall.

We have the white background painted on the wall for the White Shield Logo for the Brigade. Walt and I were talking about what to do with it.

His suggestion is to cut the main peices of the logo out of plywood to give it depth. It is a really good idea and we are going to do it.

The technical bit of this I sill leave up to him because he is better at all of this than I am .

The next thing that we have to look into is getting our stuff organized. Our equipment is in fairly good shape. Out office area it a bit messy. We currently do not have the furniture to get this dealt with at the moment.

Well we will see how all of this going. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Practice and Such

We had a good practice today. We went through a whole bunch of balloon and got a great deal of juggling done. My wife and Sergeant Arasen got all of the new Cadets up on their paper work.

Just for yucks here is an out take from the videos we take.



You can see the progress we are making on our decorating. We also have the first picture of two new Cadets.

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

I had to Kill Prince Rue

The thing I am doing most on the book these days is trying to close up the plot hole and making sure that everything is set up for the rest of the series.

To that end there was one nagging problem, Prince Rue. Prince Rue is a royal that was saved in the first book of the third series. This series actually begins after the first book in the third series for Mason and the crew of the Tojo Maru. Most of the rest of the character in the book this is the beginning of their part in the over all story arch of all the series.

It really does not make much sense to talk about it out of context. Still, in order for the first series to work out the focus has to be only the interaction between Mason, Yuin and their relationship with General Damon Booth {He is a future ficticous General of The Savlation Army}. If Prince Rue is there is make everything much to messy. In reality the story between these three character is not the main story in the first series. So I killed him today.

It was the easist way to deal with the issue that arise from him being aorund. Of course being sci fi you can always bring dead people bcak wehn you need them with some phoney balony story.

On the up side I did find the Jpop song Dr. my Nani Amuro. It is a song that Mason is listening to int he first book somewhere. At one point I wanted her to use the name from the Dr in the song as an assumed identity. The song is about a Dr. that is fixing the future by sending a super warrior into the past. It is not really like my story. Still there are people going into the past trying to fix the future. And really how many song are about that sort of thing.

As far as I can tell there are only three. And of the three I have found it is the only one with a mefale time lord type character. As far as I can tell the super warrior's main power is turning evil into clowers. So it is not a direct corelation. Still, it is closer than anyone else.

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

New Internet Discovery

For those that do not know I am a big Jpop and Kpop fan. This is the popular music of Japan. It started out several years ago with Morning Musume. I am not sure what it is about it. I don't understand the lyrics and have to find translation on line if I want to know what they are saying. Still, the tunes are upbeat and chipper.

I have been able to find some places to get a couple tunes here and there. Still my beloved launchcast station does not have Jpop. Well I came across www.jpopasia.com.

This site had every song that I could imagine. It can set up play lists and has other interesting stuff I do not understand. That is the way that I can tell if a site is well put together. The more a site has stuff I don't understand the cooler the site must be. The fact that i don't understand something means everything thinks it is cool

Trying to stay on the subject this is a really nice site. In addition fi you want to go with the premium service it is only five bucks. That is nice when it does not cost an arm and a leg. I suppose that the music is hosted by sites like youtubes and just linker there. Still, they have everything.

What few sites Ihave found thus far are fan site for an individual band. This has not served me well because my taste is all over the place on the Jpop front.

In Pittsburgh there are several store that sell Jpop CD. the only problem is not reading Japaneese I cannot decide what to buy. This makes like difficult. I suppose I do not know the names of the bands and such.

Still a couple month listening to music on this site and I should be able to fix my ignorance in this area.

On other front I am still working on the book of course. I have no idea how many pages this thing is going to be. I do think I am going to loose my mind writting this book. Still,, once this book is done the rest of the books in the series will be easier.

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

Iornside

This is great episode of Iornside with Ricardo Mantoban and Alan Alda dad who's name I forget.

Music Awesomeness

The new U2 song is great. I suppose it is a short at America's war mongering. We probably deserve it.



I also just discovered there is a music act out there named Rihanna. I supposed everyone else figured this out a couple years ago. Well I am slow.



I also figured out that Miley Cyrus is the Daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus. I was so happy to hear this. For a while I was thinking that she was dating a really creepy older guy. I suppose it is alright if it is her father.

Writting on the Walls

Today at Monday knitting we did a bit more decorating. Here is a picture of me writing on the walls. We are going to write the clown brigade name on the wall along with a large version of the brigade logo.

We are going to paint the banner on the wall. We picked up some letter from a craft store. We will paint them and glue them to the wall.

The Clown Cave had become an interesting thing at our Corps. The space was neglected for so many years. When my wife and I joined the corps the space was full of junk. The walls needed painted and it did not have any type of lighting in the main room. The storage room is still in need of spackling and painting. The storage room was once the kitchen of the Quarters at the Corps. Since them the counters and equipment have been removed.

Over the last couple years the junk has been removed. The Brigade painted the walls and I put in some lighting. Now we have a television and stero in the space. We are going to install an air conditioner and the ugliest space in the Corps is now one of the most desirable.

I suppose there is a parable in there somewhere. There was a bit of knitting done. JC Thurman is working on chemo caps. She is just about finished with her first one. Sergeant Wilson almost has her riffle shuffle down. It is really hard for someone with small hands to do magic. Still she is doing it.

Walt and I have been looking into building some stage effect. This should be a nice addition to the show. I will let you know what we pick when we do.

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

Still Typing

I am still typing stuff in the book. It is amazing that I keep finding plot holes that need. At this rate I should be finished some time right before I drop dead.

We are also looking to do some some more decorating in the clown cave. we would like to get it ready for our seminar in may. We have letter to put our name on the wall that should be fun. I will put up some pictures when i have them.

In brigade news we made Apprentice Wilson a Sergeant on the Brigaede Council. We also made JC Stewart and assistance ballon sergeant. That is interesting and impressive if you are into clowning. And if you are not well that is the third subject of this entry.

The Young Salvos website continued to do well. They are improving the layout and items that they have on the site. They have several things that I have no idea what they do. That means that they are popular and hip. I find that the less I understand something the more popular it is. That explains Hillary Duff and Larry the cable guy.

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

Chemo Cap - Pink

This may not be extremely original. Still, it is pink and it is what I have been working on. The kids in the knitting group are on their first scarves. Some have learned to purl and increase and decrease. So after their first scarves they will need another project. This one is probably a good candidate for a second project.

Anyway it is pink made of an acrylic yarn. It is a baby soft yarn and will make a nice summer chemo cap. It is being made on number 8 US circular needles.


Being that none of us need a chemo cap we do not have any of them laying around. So I needed to make one as an example.

Well there you go your basic Chemo cap. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Random Music Stuff - Well sort of

For those in the Army they know of the great musical tradition that we have. Well that music tradition is alive and not so well at the Steel Valley Corps. One of the thing sthat we have been working on is some kind of band for the Clown Brigade. What we have come up with is accordions. This is an old video clip that we have have not used. So here it is.

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

Knitting at the Cult Meeting & Another Clown Hat

Fun was had at the Friday Night Knitting Group at The Boarders in The South Hills. There was a of course knitting and some crochet. My wife and I have also decided to start taking a couple young people from the Clown Brigade every week.
This week we took Sergeant Prioleau and Sergeant Thurman. So The Brigade's ruling council was there except for two members. Perhaps, we should not have us all concentrated at one place in public at one time. Much in the same way you do not see the Vice President and the President at one time. Above is Sergeant Prioleau reading a book.

Sergeant Thurman is here working on a Chemo Cap.
This is a Clown Hat that I am working on. It is made of Red Heart Hokey Pokey. This hat feature two ruffle at the base of the hat.
Here is Sereant Thurman modeling the hat. The hat will have pom poms between the two ruffles. We will get to the pom poms at the next Brigade Knitting Practice on Monday



Well than you all for checking in. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Leatherman

Last Monday at our knitting group we were looking at some material other than yarn. Walt picked up a peice of leather to make seat for his motocycle. It is red and pretty.

On the leather front this is known as a full hide. That means that it is the better part of a cow hide. picture to the left is Walt with his new acquisition.

Currently his bike has pleather seats that have seen better days.

He just had the bike painted and this leather is a nice match for it.

It had bee a long time since I actually appolstered something. The neat this about this project is that it is a collection of relatively small pillows. So it is a great deal easier than doing a couch.

This is the piece of leather stretched out on a table. I will keep you posted. Be safe out there.

The Marley and other stuff

For those that just started following the blog we are still working on The Marley. the Marley will be a vitually indestructable one hundred foot long scarf. The only draw back as that we will have to turn hundred of skeins of yarn into icord.

Pictured is Apprentice Wilson who is making icord on an icord machine. As you can tell this is the most exciting thing that she has to do today. As I think about it this is the second or third picture that I have put up of her standing on a chair. Maybe I should not encourage children to stange on furniture. It is a very old chair. Still, it is not terribly respectful.

Well what can you do. It is the only way to make it. Apprentice Wilson has turned several skeins of yarn into icod thus far, She say that it the most entertaining thing about knitting.

On other knitting front my wife and I took Apprentie Wilson to her first knitting group outside the Clown Briagde. We took her to the cult meeting in the South Hills. By the way the Cult is a knittin cult ot a religous one. Altough there are somethat would say that knitting is in some ways ti's own religion. Come to think of it if the Knitting cult was a church I would probably join it. I have seen picture of Jesus' mother knitting. It only makes sence if you think about it. Or perhapse it only makes sence in my head.

The Book continued to plug along. For a good long while I have been debating where there first book should end and the second book beging. I have moved around the chapters I have a nd tweeked the story line. I am fairly sure I have figured out how thing should go.

On the up side that means that I have a good sence of where thing should be going with the book. For the last couple months I have had no clue what should go where and how everything should fall into place.

The editing is the killer thing. I am not a person who is any good at finding errors in a text. It is just narly difficult work. I figure if I work at for six hours a day it will take me a month to put the manuscript into something reletively readable. So we will see how that goes.

Well just wanted to check in Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Personal Clown Scarf &Kittens

Sergeant Kisielnicki is adding some trim to his triple clown scarf. I should probably tell him he needs to come up with a name for his pattern. He made up the design for the scarf himself. So he gets to name it. This is exciting stuff if you are a clown that knits

This is two of the kittens. A couple of the folks from the Corps wanted to see pictures of the kittens. Here are a couple pictures.

This one is mostly black and I think the cutest of the kitties

These are a couple of the kitties hiding behind their mother.

Here they are with their mom.

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

Busy Writing

I have been working on the book with every spare moment for the last couple weeks.
At this point I am reading the book over and over looking for plot holes and things that need filled in. Every time I read through the book I find a dozen new thing that need tweeked and delt with. On the last read through i figured that i should write four more chapters and I changed the ending.

In the original idea of the book the last chapter was te first chapter. Most of the event shtat were supposed to take place in this book have been put off the the third or second book in the series.

I did get a chance to go to the Cult Knitting group in the South Hills this week end. My wife and I have not been there since before Christmas. It was fun as always to see what people were working on.

We took Apprentice Wilson with us. She said she a good time.

There is also a new social networking site called youngsalvos.com . It is not an official Army site. Still, it is good to see something like it begining. It should have happened a long time ago.

More Clown Practice

pictured here are three of our brave clown reading through a script for an upcoming skit. All of the kid here are Brimages.

This was fun and we will see how it goes together.

On other fronts we had a session of monday knitting. tis Monday we went trough the Brigade's Yarn Stash. This was not as much fun as knitting, still, it was something that needed to be done.

On the book front the book continues to hover around 400 pages. I am going to go from here and work on the book some more as i do in all my spave time.

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

Knitting Stuff - The Marley

The Monday Night Knitting group continued to meet in Homestead. Walt continues to work on his knitting Proficiency. He is almost done with that. It awesome to give out a knitting proficiency. 

 

This is Apprentice Brimage working on the Marley. The Marley is a long scarf project that got put on the back burner for building our set and training a whole bunch of new clowns. On the up side of having a bunch of new clowns we should be able to work on the Marley some.

  

Sergeant Thurman is working on the Marley over the edge of our stair case. It is nice being somewhere that has a staircase. It makes this kind of odd knitting maneuver easier.  

Also on the clowning front we had some promotions in the last week. Apprentices Thurman and Stewart are now Junior Clowns. We also have a new Cadet, Cadet Gable. She is thrilled, really she is. 

Also promoted was Walt. This is the first time that we have trained a Standard Clown from the ground up in the Brigade. As a matter of fact my wife is a Standard Clown. She has been clowning for years and already knew a bunch of stuff when she joined.  This is special time for someone like me. It is not every day that some gets to these loft heights in clowning. It makes me proud to be a part of his training. He is keeping the old ways going. 

Well I have to go the cat is having kittens. Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

A Prayer Request

The Husband of one of our church people died this week. She is need of prayer.

Hmmmmmmmmm

How does one go from this to this. By the Way someone should have told Rick James what his hair really looked like. Still, next to flock of Sea gulls that is not that bad.