maevwyn

[maevwyn]

These are fascinating and I have no idea what to do with them, but they need to find their way into something.

[maevwyn]

So I decided that I should switch from a notebook to a binder for my fiction writing, on the theory that it suits my rather chaotic writing process better. While I was out yesterday with "binder" and "paper" on my shopping list, it occurred to me that I have a binder that I used for exactly this purpose about 30 years ago. I found it and pulled out the notes (which do, in fact, date back to 1996). But - the plastic covering on it was in fairly bad shape, so I'm going to rebuild it.

The actual ring mechanism is riveted onto the spine, so I'm not messing with that, and I'm going to have to dive into the sewing room to figure out what I'm covering it with: the covers are 10.125" x 11" and the spine is another 1.125" wide, so it's going to take a fairly large piece of something. I don't think I have any leather big enough, but I'll look. I might do different material on the inside and outside with some decorative stitching along the edges.

First, though, I'm going to grab some scrap fabric and make a hinge to hold the covers and spine together.

[maevwyn]

The one redeeming feature of this time of year that saves it from being nothing but an inferno is the produce.

[maevwyn]

This is fascinating to me. Having been raised Methodist - my father's a minister - the scripture readings every Sunday were:

Old Testament reading

Reading from one of the Gospels

Reading from somewhere else in the New Testament

The Old Testament was very much part of the Bible, and in the Christian (more or less non-denominational; it originated in the merger of an Episcopalian school and a Catholic one) school I went to, 9th grade religion was Bible study, and I distinctly remember reading the Old Testament - including reading about David and Solomon - in that.

Admittedly, I have a much better religious education than most Christians for various reasons, due to my father being a scholar and the school I went to, but I'm baffled by the idea that the Old Testament *isn't* part of the Christian scripture.

Then again, I talk to friends who were raised Evangelical and am surprised when they've never heard of Advent, too.

As a Jew, I honestly stopped believing in the idea of "Judeo-Christian" and "we all worship the same God and have the same Bible" when my ex-Catholic husband asked me who King David was.

Like. Tell me you worship the same God as me but then don't know who DAVID is??? No. Absolutely not. You are on some Other Shit.

[maevwyn]

I'm generally of the opinion that trying to resurrect prematurely cancelled shows is like necromancy—odds are they'll come back wrong.

Except for Galavant. Any Galavant revivial will be funnier the longer it stayed cancelled.

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Swords!

look. look at this beautiful sword meme. i’m going to cry

[maevwyn]

Stupid project of the moment: making a wall target for fencing drill, only fancy. Stopped for now due to not having the colours I want for the rest of it.

[maevwyn]

"Mammals internalize everything"

“X bodily fluid is just filtered blood!” buddy I hate to break it to you but ALL of the fluids in your body are filtered blood. Your circulatory system is how water gets around your body. It all comes out of the blood (or lymph, which is just filtered blood).

[maevwyn]

This is amazingly cool. It's such an amazing shape, and the amount of work required is astounding.

Flint dagger, Denmark, 8000 - 2000 BC

from The Princeton University Art Museum

[maevwyn]

Zoozve returns !

Zoozve, my beloved

[maevwyn]

I understand why a lot of fantasy settings with Ambiguously Catholic organised religions go the old "the Church officially forbids magic while practising it in secret in order to monopolise its power" route, but it's almost a shame because the reality of the situation was much funnier.

Like, yes, a lot of Catholic clergy during the Middle Ages did practice magic in secret, but they weren't keeping it secret as some sort of sinister top-down conspiracy to deny magic to the Common People: they were mostly keeping it secret from their own superiors. It wasn't one of those "well, it's okay when we do it" deals: the Church very much did not want its local priests doing wizard shit. We have official records of local priests being disciplined for getting caught doing wizard shit. And the preponderance of evidence is that most of them would take their lumps, promise to stop doing wizard shit, then go right back to doing wizard shit.

It turns out that if you give a bunch of dudes education, literacy, and a lot of time on their hands, some non-zero percentage of them are going to decide to be wizards, no matter how hard you try to stop them from being wizards.

[maevwyn]

THIS!

I'm becoming convinced that there are two kinds of people in the world - those who appreciate process and those who just want results.

I've had this argument a couple times with different people. The process *is* the point. The point isn't to have a piece of art in the end, it's to make a thing that didn't exist before, and to have the experience of making it.

I'm a fibre artist and a writer. I will absolutely rip out tens of hours of work and start over, or write and rewrite the same scene a dozen times. The point is not to end up with a finished pair of socks or a finished book, it's to understand why this yarn and these techniques will get the right result, to see how the stitches work together to make the pattern. It's to get to know and understand the characters and ideas I'm working with, to live with them until I understand what they're trying to say.

To make art is to respect the process, to gain the skill, to wrestle with the techniques and master them. Finished art is the byproduct.

So many people who love generative AI don't have a creative bone in their body and can't imagine anyone actually enjoying the time and effort it takes to write something or draw something.

[maevwyn]

) <- super parenthesis. reblog to close all parentheticals you opened and forgot to close in your life and return to equilibrium

[maevwyn]

when i say i like hiking, i don’t mean “eight mile backpacking trip with special gear and an emergency beacon” sort of hiking, i mean a three mile loop to go look at pretty things and then a huge brunch after.