Etsy Buy Handmade HermeticDog

Had trouble settling down for the night, so I added some stuff I made. I'll be adding more later in the week. Please feel free to pass around, and if you order this week it'll arrive in time for the holidays.

I'm completely beat, today was busy at work, and I'm completely braindead. Crawling back into my hole, and trying to ignore the fact that the Ravens are actually getting their asses whipped by the Green Bay Packers. Sigh. How pathetic.

• 10:41 twitpic.com/s99gv - On the way to wheaton. #
• 12:25 twitpic.com/s9qhp - Kenyan sand boa #
• 12:27 twitpic.com/s9qq9 - Redtail boa #
• 14:48 twitpic.com/sag3c - Reindeer hand #

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Same way I do now, Looking forward to 2013. If the world does end, well, darn for me, I guess. (Also: Yay for Kep icon!)

• 10:13 twitpic.com/rz6x1 - Snow on the handrail. #

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Man controlled robotic hand with thoughts

Thanks Wickie.

• 10:07 Its one of those days where I cant stand being home but its too cold to be outside just for giggles. #
• 11:47 twitpic.com/rq55o - Mall train. #
• 12:26 twitpic.com/rqa7a - Grocery shopping. #

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I have things to write. Updates on life and crap.
I am too lazy to write them.
Woo!

• 08:22 Hrm. I seem to have broke my desk. Woops. #
• 08:23 @Spoosrule Does orange cotton candy taste any different from the others? #
• 22:32 twitpic.com/rjtyo - Laying in bed with jersey the bed hog. #

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Rather loose legacy (No real rules, and I cheated out the butt financially to build the houses, but no other cheats used.), but I'm uh giving it half a go at being organized. No nice photos because I lack anything besides MSpaint, so no teaser images.

( Introduction to 2 of our 3 families, as well as 79 images. Yikes... )

Etsy Buy Handmade HermeticDog

Also--and for a moment I forgot this thing existed, because I hardly use Twitter at all it seems--you can keep abreast of updates to my store site by subscribing to its Twitter account: TheRelicHound

Well the holidays are on their way, and I'm trying to drum up sales. All the money not going into art supplies and my favorite nonprofits will go to helping me offset costs for mailing packages to troops overseas. I'm involved in a group that volunteers time and money doing such things. Every little bit will help me send another box out. Please feel free to help me advertise by spreading around the link to my store on your blogs and other networking sites. It'll help me get sales, and money I can put to immediate use.

This holiday season is going to be frugal. Instead of participating in the consumerist orgy, I plan on either handmaking all of my gifts, or assisting private artists and craftspersons by purchasing their work.

Some people have asked what I'd like for the holidays. Truth be told, I would be greatly appreciative if you made a donation on my behalf to the following nonprofits (listed in no particular order of importance): Immigration Equality, Soldier's Angels, The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, The International Wolf Center, or Project Coyote. I am also a big sentimental sap for all kinds of handmade crafts and other items, even if it's just a card. It's so much more personal.

Thanks guys, and take care.

So yesterday, after feasting and festivities have winded down and people went to the couches in front of the television to digest, I walk downstairs carrying a greasy old wolf tooth. I stop in front of my dad, laying on the couch with my mom, and hold it up, presenting it to him in that unspoken signal I've used before to indicate that I will need to hijack his Dremel from his shop so I can drill it. What happened next went something like this, and is at the same time characteristic of the oddities that can go on in this household:

Dad: *swipes tooth out of my hand, jams it in his mouth*

Me: Uh, Dad. That tooth has body grease on it. I haven't given it a thorough cleaning yet.

Dad: Yeah, I know. Tastes delicious!

Mom: *shouts in horror and disgust*

Me: *deadpan, completely serious* Dad, that's not the point. *holds out hand to receive tooth back and waits*

Dad: *arranges tooth over top of one of his canine-teeth, allows it to poke out, then snarls at me, sounding a little too dog-like for his own good*

Me: *stands patiently and waits, while my mom just sits looking horrified*

Dad: *finally plucks tooth out of mouth and places it, warm and wet, into my hand*

Me: Gee thanks, Dad.

Ah, yes. Typical family hijinks in this household. Needless to say, I have oddly developed a personal attachment with that tooth, so instead of making it to purchase, I will be keeping it within the family, and gifting it to my dad when he goes back to Afghanistan. I told him this, and he was very happy to have it.

Today is the consumer hell that is Black Friday. In protest, and to save my sanity--and also the fact that, on top of already being ill, I pickled myself a bit last night and am now reaping the consequences in the form of a bad hangover--I am staying indoors and not purchasing anything. I'll take a page out of ignited_spark's book and participate in Buy Nothing Day, or I will purchase from independent sellers and artisans. For example, orthaevelve makes some truly stunning artwork with animal bone, stone and metal. jarandhel needs to set up a shop of his own, but do click onto his journal and check out his stunning wire-wrapped jewelry and inquire about sales and purchase.

I know there are many very talented artisans I have missed that are linked to this journal. Do please take the time to advertise your wares and services in the comments. It doesn't matter if you work with a physical or visual medium. Personally I am beginning to find more and more, that handmade items to be quite the best, and the most personal when it comes to gift-giving. This post will be made public for that purpose. Feel free to provide links to your shops, descriptions of your services, and anything else you might have to add. My only request is you link images instead of displaying them, for those with slow connections.

Anyway, going to go back offline to nurse my hangover, do some small chores around the house, read, and maybe go on a short walk to the ponds behind my house, assuming the power company hasn't made a fucking mess of the powerline trail again. I still feel like crap with this bug I've got on top of everything else, so there is quite a big chance I might not leave the house at all. Ugh. I just wish I'd stop coughing shit up and aching everywhere.

Oh well, complaining over, off I go.

( Click for two images )

Description: Two large wolf canines (roughly two inches long each, or a little over), drilled and strung on soft, supple hand-stretched (not by me!) deerskin thong, with a small black glass choker bead. This is a very basic design for a reason--I'm testing the waters, so to speak, for other designs.

Price: $34.00 each, price includes cost of shipping anywhere in the U.S. only. First come first served--then they will be up for sale on my store site. All proceeds from sale will go to The International Wolf Center, and to help me offset the costs of holiday mailings (snacks, treats, comfort items) to troops overseas.

These would be good for holiday gift-giving. I can make more technically (I have other teeth, scavenged from old and broken skulls, fossils, other things), but I need to take my time a bit with these, for various reasons.

This'll be my last post for the evening. I'm just not feeling up to anything else right now. People are welcome to pass this post around to interested parties--I'd be greatly appreciative. Every little bit helps.

Addendum to my previous post on totemism:

It's not that I don't think totemism isn't valid for those modern animists who aren't a member of an indigenous or tribal society, as it where. Hardly (I'd be a hypocrite obviously). It's just that I don't always agree with how it is applied. Then again, how it is applied may vary from society to society, so you can't pin it down to any one particular group of people. Even still--there are ways of going about this sort of thing that doesn't have to be shallow, careless, half-assed, and ego-serving.

Or, to put it another way, when one invokes "cultural appropriation". Strong words, and important ones, yes. But one must also remember that cultures, religions and related have been appropriating from each other since the dawn of time. This does not justify all forms of appropriation. When all you take out are the bits you find to be attractive to you and leave out the rest, you are not doing anyone or anything any sort of justice, and you certainly aren't helping yourself by doing so either.

Or, let me try to explain this again. The TL;DR Version: just remember to do your freaking homework. Haha.

And comments disabled, because I'm kind of tired of discussing the topic on LJ. Hit me up on email (cynanthroposATgmail) if you wish to discuss this further, or go to the previous post in question, though I may take a long while responding from here on in.

In other news, I am feeling hideously crappy, and something is definitely afoot in my system. I think I'll be laying low for awhile. And on top of family visiting and vice versa...yeah. Oh well, it's my dad's side of the family this year, so at least things should be interesting.