Cody

I’m building a forge!!!  I don’t know how it happened but that last entry actually sort of, kinda, almost ended with a moral or point to the story.  This happens to me all the time, I go on these wild rants and end up actually making sense in the end.  But yeah, probably won’t on this one, if I do that’s amazing.  So anyways, I had said that there was a whole bunch of stuff I wanted to cram into the last entry, and definitely did not do so, forgot most of them before I even got to it.  By now you’re probably thinking “what in the world did that first sentence have to do with ANYTHING?” and the answer is absolutely nothing, and absolutely everything!  See I’ve been up for a while… well that’s a lie I actually just woke up, but when I wrote my last entry I had been up for about 32 hours more or less… went to bed shortly after that and layed in bed staring at my ceiling with thoughts of a forge or a new sword… For those of you who don’t know me I have troubles sleeping, so I layed there for a good 2 hours before starting to drift off to sleep, at which point Jordan called me and bugged me for a few minutes then says “Oh it’s ok, I understand the lack of sleep thing if you’d rather go back to sleep you don’t have to get up and play CoH with me.”  WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM!!!! He knows I have troubles sleeping… with me there is a small window of sleep every 8 hours I can go to sleep once every 8 hours and if I miss that window you may as well forget it because I’m up.  He kept me awake during that window and well… forget it.  So I got up and played CoH with him for a while and then went back to sleep.  Only slept two hours and now here I am again up, and ready to go!!!!!

Thing is I’m actually pretty excited about building a forge.  I figure that I can take the $400 that I was going to spend to finish up making Xandra (a chainmail shirt similar to the one I was wearing for my senior pictures that I use as my default picture for just about everything, but Xandra is long sleeved) and use it to build a small 8′ x 6′ shelter area and forge.  Then I’ll use the $800 I was going to spend on a new sword to buy an Anvil, blacksmiths charcoal, scrap metal, etcetera.  Then I’ll make my own swords and it’ll be freaking awesome!

Despite what you may be thinking, I am not telling the truth whatsoever.  Yes I do plan on building a forge, and yes one of my favorite things in life is planning.  I write business reports for fun, like honest to goodness business reports 50 pages long, researched and planned out perfectly for all sorts of businesses.  Planning truly is what I love to do… weird I know.  It’s one of the major reasons why my computers are always so good.  I don’t use the best components, nor do I have the money to if I wanted to, but my computers compete and often even beat a lot of peoples who have tons of cash to just throw around and buy the biggest baddest everything.  The reason is that I spend MONTHS building my computers, I research, plan, document, read reviews, and finally pick and choose the best components that work together and integrate nearly flawlessly.   I love planning building and designing… but when all is said and done I’m bored.  Heck often times when it comes to actually building I’m bored :-P  That’s why I’m having so much fun with the forge idea right now… With the sword there was a little planning and reading reviews but that’s all over now I’ve already decided that there is only one choice when it comes to buying a sword and that is Albion.  The forge on the other hand has ENDLESS possibilities only limited by my imagination… and believe me I’ve got enough of that.

The planning and designing is still not anything though.  I’m still lying to you.  Everything that I have said thus far is 100% true to my own knowledge, but that doesn’t mean I’m telling the truth.   I was on facebook the other da, which is a rarity because I see no advantage in Facebook.  It’s true, even with the fact that MySpace has destroyed almost all link quality by doing the stupid msplinks crap it is still possible to squeeze link quality of of MySpace by blogging on there… yes the blogs have yet to be infected with the msplinks plague.  However if we’re talking valuable social networking sites, there is really only one that deserves any mention and that is StumbleUpon!  Never seen anything so powerful, and you probably won’t for some time, especially with how strong the SU community has become.  Uh…. so none of this has ANYTHING to do with what I’m saying.  Anyways I was on Facebook and saw something that gave me a little hope for it and I thought that it might, just maybe be evolving into a usable site!  It was a lie.  In the time that I spent on the site I did get why people like to use it… or… well females, it truly is a female oriented site.  So much about it is targeted for females.  Facebook has plugins, extensions, and add-ons which is cool!  It’s kind of like open source… just not.  Open source still owns facebook but hey, at least they’re trying right?  I love plug-ins and extensions, why do you think I use firefox?  Sure the new IE7 is almost as good as firefox because they have tabs!  yeah… whatever you got tabs but can you actually utilize those tabs?  I thought not.  I also use Wordpress (if you don’t know what that is, it’s the blogging tool that I’m using right now, what this site is based off of the #1 blogging tool in the world for the simple reason that it is awesome!) mostly because it has a huge support group, and the plug-ins, extensions, and themes are endless for Wordpress.  So for those  of you that use Facebook I get it now… kind of, I still don’t get why you don’t get your own website and use Wordpress because you can use all the same kinds of extensions and add-ons but just in a much more powerful manor… but hey to each their own.  While on Facebook I got an idea though… one that may never be carried out, because I’m gutless.  And that is the truth of the matter, the one that I’ve been lying about this whole time.  If you refer back to my article “lies and deception” you will have a little better understanding of things.  Basically after considering it for some time it wouldn’t be bad to have a girlfriend… in fact I kinda like the idea :-P  not that I’ve ever really not liked the idea.  Now we get back to the planning thing, did I ever tell you that I love planning stuff?  Because I do.  On Facebook I found April’s profile, but even though I invited her as a friend I can’t even bring myself to say “Hi” dude, it’s a two letter word, two letters… two letters that could eventually spawn the whole relationship thing… but I can’t do it.  I don’t know why either… I mean there is a lot about me that is peculiar, and most people can’t or don’t want to deal with, I know what kinds of people those are and I stay away from them most of the time.  Like most people don’t understand my need for solitude and just annoy the crap out of me.  Most people don’t understand my obsession with Medieval times… I don’t know April well enough to what she is like, or how we’d be together… all it takes is two letters to find out… but I can’t do it.  In fact I already know that April is into Celtic dancing, and some other stuff that is totally awesome (because have I ever said that beyond just being obsessed with Medieval times I’m even more so passionate about my Celtic heritage?  Because I am.)

yup, so definitely don’t know how it happens but all of my posts always end up being about one thing.  I’ve got about 20 things that I want to talk about, the forge (which I’ve mentioned several times), April (just got that out, yay! lulz), uh… now I can’t even remember everything else that was supposed to be crammed into this, and the last entry… but later today, or tomorrow when I remember I’ll write another random entry that contains EVERYTHING that really contains nothing, and only is about one thing.

<disclaimer> Warning, reading this entry may cause loss of attention, dyslexia, or other more serious syndromes commonly associated to rants by Kodie that have no moral, point, or concluding thought… in fact I’m not sure if this one even has a common theme.  You have been forewarned. </disclaimer>

Every man’s art

“A man can be an artist at anything. It just depends upon how good he is at it. Creasy’s art is death, and he’s about to paint his masterpiece, just stay out of his way.” I absolutely love that line…. It’s so true though isn’t it?  I could sit here and give you some word perfect definition of what an artist is, but what’s the point?  Who could really define an artist anyways?  If there ever was an artist I most certainly am one and most certainly could not define for you what one is.  Art is not solely based upon how good someone is at something, as Creasy’s friend put it in the movie Man on Fire (which by the way is an awesome movie).  No art goes much deeper than just some measurable value of how “good” someone is at something… of course that is a big factor, but art has a much deeper emotional, almost spiritual aspect to it.  Which is in part why it is so hard to define what an artist is.  There has to be an attitude about it as well.  Creasy most definitely was an artist… an artist of death at that too.  How would you like for that to be the way you are remembered?  That would be freaking awesome!  To be known as the guy who was so good at death, yes death that single handedly sent a shock wave through the community of criminals in Latin America.  When I die I don’t care how much money I’ve made throughout my life, or care what my accomplishments were… I just want the words on my gravestone “He made an impact” don’t even put my name just that line, but only if it is true.

A circle of job security

Most of you guys know that I’ve been working for  Viacom as of late… which at first I did something, and actually helped them to make a couple of websites not only more secure, but more fun for the participants.  In fact I deserved every penny that I earned if not more because they surely made it back in advertising cost.  However my job with them has simply become what my cousin described as a circle of job security.  My job any more is to give third party “expert” reports that give another guy a job to present these reports to a board of directors and eventually gives another guy a job to do programming on the websites… the programmers however are making sure to keep their jobs by purposely not taking all of my suggestions or ignoring them on later website projects so that I might review that website give the SAME kinds of report and begin the cycle all over again.  Things aren’t all bad with it since this circle has reached a major apex it looks like I’ll have some money to pursue some of my passions, which leads into my next section (since I do make more money than both my parents when I’m working full time).

Forging a passion

When I say that I’ve got a lot of money from this cycle of job security I really do mean it.  There is a lot on the list of what needs to be done with the money however… being that I might be moving out here shortly means we need monies for rent, food, etc.  There has been another option presented though, if my mom marries Scott which has been a serious discussion here lately then they’re looking at moving into Scott’s place and I’ll be taking over the house (including the house payment).  So I’ve got to keep a good reserve of cash for numerous reasons of those being that this cycle can’t last forever, someone is bound to either catch on, or the new sites will end eventually.  Although I need a cash backup there are a few things that are on the list of being purchased one major thing is some stainless steel rings for Xandra (yes Tiana Xandra will be finished but since I can no longer find the black I’m going to have to go with a purty stainless steel option instead, which isn’t too much of a heart wrench since the blackened mild steel is dirty, and it must be oiled to keep from rusting so wearing it is just bad.).  The other thing that crossed my mind with the expendable funds was to get a sword *insert ominous smile here* Now there’s a few things that go into me wanting a sword… first off it must be from a time period that I know a good deal about and has to be something that fits my fighting style.  For me the most obvious choice was a Katana they fast moving single/two handed slashing swords, which is a great fit for the way I like to fight with a sword.  The problem with Katana’s is that I don’t really want to cut into my cash reserve and spend over $800 on a sword… and in fact would like to spend less, but I know that with swords you don’t really get less than $800 and being an artist who does not compromise on the price of my jewelry I understand and would never be so rude as to ask them to go lower.  Mediocre Katana’s start at $1,200 and go up to $1,700 for one that you can actually go out and play with… which was another huge requirement for me, I need to be able to use whatever sword I get… I don’t do SLO’s (Sword Like Objects) a big reason why I don’t own any of the swords from the LOTR movies because they’re just not swords they’re 100% overpriced SLO’s and couldn’t be used for a sword if you wanted.  I then started looking for European swords, especially either Celtic, or Roman short swords (the Celts invented the sword style used by the Romans and the Romans improved upon it with brutal efficiency and made it the most feared weapon of it’s day).  In this search I found a company by the name of Generation 2 which is based in the Philippines and makes great functional swords of high quality steel.  They make swords in the sub $300 range that will hold up to a lot of punishment with a quality constructed hilt (often the hilt is the weakest point in any sword no matter how good it is made).  The problem with Gen2 is that they make UGLY swords.  No kidding, all of their swords come with a mirror finished blade, and often black VERY shinny accent pieces.  They’re also often times a little heavier than swords of the time period as well… which I’ve heard they’ve improved upon.  All of this kept bringing me back to a company that I’ve lusted for one of their swords for a long time Albion.  If you know anything about swords you know Albion, and in turn brings us back to art.  Albion has made sword making into an art, and they are unmatched in beauty, historical accuracy, and quality of construction.  There are two styles of sword that I would go with either a Roman short sword, or an Oakeshott XII I could go with an Oakeshott XV possibly… but XII is really where I like to stay because they still retain their slashing ability.  The further up the Oakeshott scale you go the closer to a rapier you get and to be honest yes, most the time when I go to kill you I’m going to stab you, but I want to be able to cut your heard off when the mood strikes… and lets be honest you’re not going to cut someones head off with a rapier, I mean you could if you sat and sawed on it for a while… but that’s getting into the realm of sadistic.  That’s why I like the Oakeshott XII it’s not like the Oakeshott X where it’s like the viking swords and really just a big metal club… type X’s are clumbsy and you really need to keep them in motion and just crush your enemy with the first couple of blows… which is fine for people like Chris who like to fight like that, but for me I want a nimble sword that I can also stab with.

After weeks of invested time into “where should I get a sword from” and “is it really worth it to pay double the money for an Albion when I could get a sturdy sword for less?” another solution came to mind.  One that is not new either and that is “Buildeth me an army worthy of Mordor.”  oh wait… NO!  that’s not the thought that came to mind… jeez, what’s wrong with you, get out of my head, you are hence forth banned from taking over my body to type your random movie quotes.  Begone demon!  The thought that actually crossed my mind was to build my own forge and make my own swords :-D  Problem here is that it’s a good 3 years down the road before I start pulling out quality stuff and probably 4 before I can really make swords… I can do blacksmithing here pretty easily, but need more equipment for full fledged swords.  What I was going to do was get a cast iron anvil from this tool company that I buy a lot of cheap crap from, build my own forge, and build a small concrete covered patio section in my back yard since I’ll be taking over responsibility of the house here pretty soon anyways.  Problem is that everyone I’ve talked to online or read articles about beginning blacksmithing says absolutely do not get a cast iron anvil… which is fine, a quality Peddinghaus (<– the best) anvil will only cost me $600 shipped.  Problem with that is after paying that then I don’t have the money to build a shelter area… which kind of ruins the whole forge idea… so unless the cycle of job security continues then I think I’m just going to get an Albion… which may make me sad in the long run that I can’t make my own… but if I got a Peddinghaus and had nowhere to work at then I’d be just as sad…

Moral

Moral of the story is “Don’t be like me. Don’t you be like me!” *shakes dog* for those of you who have seen As Good as it Gets and could relate to the movie as much as me
Oh, and I really wanted to put a bit in at the top about how even in Creasy’s sin God still used him as an instrument of his wrath.  In the Bible God say’s “Judgment and vengeance is mine”   But sometimes God uses men to play out his vengeance.  Much like Samson who pulled down a temple to pagan gods onto himself destroying many evil people in the process Creasy pulled down a temple of corrupt money driven men onto himself destroying the hostage machine in Mexico City, and sent fear though all those in Latin America doing the same things.  Just like Samson it was Creasy’s sin that got him in the situation he was, but once there God used him as a mighty weapon to pour out judgment upon an evil peoples.

I think Saturday that I am going to have a sort of kick off for the trip. Since I’ll be gone for a number of weeks, and then when I return will be moving in With Jordan and Zach. Figured it would be good to get together with some peeps before I go. So the plan is Saturday 8/11/07 there will be some IHOP time to hang out with my peeps.

I would love to see everybody on my list here show up… but I also know that’s probably not gonna happen since people have lives, and jobs, and responsibilities. Thinking Midnightish to 4am I’ll be sitting around at IHOP since Tiana gets off work at 3am, and I would like to see the Bourne Ultimatum before I go. I’m going to the movie at who knows what time, don’t know if anyone wants to go with me or not, but if it gets one more person that wouldn’t of been able to go otherwise then by all means movie then IHOP!
That’s the plan, if you care to see me before I depart there you have it. Of course now having my own place you all are most welcome to come by any time (if you don’t mind the 20mile drive to Bonner Springs, KS)

I finally got my head cut off.  Generally do for summer anyways, but it’s been something ridiculous like 8 months since I’ve had a “haircut” now that’s not to say I haven’t had a few inches here and there trimmed off but uh… well take a look.

Oh and as a special bonus both pictures contain my newest creation, a necklace with an AMD Athlon XP 3200+ worked in as the centerpiece… I like to call it Nerd Bling.  You guys are the first to see it and if I can get a line on a large supply of old processors I plan on actually making a whole jewelry line of Nerd Bling and possibly nerdbling.com or something started to sell it Problem is the only ideas I have thus far are the CPU necklaces, RAM Bracelets, and possibly some necklaces/charm anklets with old keyboard keys spelling out peoples names and what not… just gotta get TONS of old keyboards for that part.

Then after I lost 6 inches of hair… kinda odd since it’s been so long with long hair, but showers are much faster, and it’s so much cooler

Although cash donations are accepted that’s not what I’m talking about. As some of you know I’ve been working desperately to get search engine terms for my site ArchmailleDesigns.com (in hopes of sales). Unfortunately I can’t compete with the top people, it is just not possible on my own… even with help from Jordan it’s not possible.

Here’s the problem. The number one website that comes up for the term “sterling silver jewelry” is evesaddiction.com a site that has held that spot for quite some time. This company makes major bank… and I suspect they do most of their business online. Not only do they have the number one spot for both Yahoo and Google for the term “Sterling Silver Jewelry” they also pay $1 per click to be number one for googles AdWords. This website has 6,637 backlinks according to Yahoo… granted Yahoo keeps better track of backlinks than anyone else that’s not everything that links to them, some smaller unknown sites aren’t even registered. They also have 2,645 pages to their website… which does give them a lot of their backlinks but it is still only a small portion. My site ArchmailleDesigns.com has 326 backlinks registered with Yahoo and 88 pages… In order to make sales I need to compete, I need to get to having at least half of that, or something. One major difference as to why I am able to compete with them is that 100% of my incoming links are quality links and only about 1% of theirs are so my site has a PR4 as does theirs (hoping to push that up to a PR5 by the end of the month).

Which brings me to what I’m accepting donations for I need links to my site. Don’t bother with MySpace if you don’t already have one they have put msplinks into place and all MySpace links are 1,000% worthless… well all new ones are anyways, I have a link in my profile that is still a direct link but I can never update my profile again because it would then convert it to a msplinks link which would ruin whatever good it is doing. If you would be so kind as to help me out here are some suggestions of what is always welcomed and good practices for link building.

First off I need the links to go to http://www.archmailledesigns.com/ <– the trailing “/” is VERY important, Google gives a huge amount of weight to that little “/” for who knows what reason, but they do. The link should say either “handmade jewelry” “Sterling Silver Jewelry” or “Handmade Silver Jewelry” both Sterling silver jewelry and Handmade jewelry get about 20,000 searches a month on Yahoo possibly double that on Google so they’re going to be the big ones, Handmade Silver Jewelry only gets 500 searches a month on Yahoo and I’m very close to having it anyways so it is appreciated but not necessary, although having a variety is good too and even handmade silver jewelry does help for both of the other terms.

Places to link from:
Forums <– oh if you would be so kind as to put my link in your signature I would love you forever, it is easy to get up to 500 posts on a forum that you are active with and that would give me nearly 100 extra incoming links (by the end of the month I will have about 900 as I just added the link to the bottom of my site kclanparty.org with a little more push I’ll be hitting 1,000 links )

Blogs <– blogs are awesome! If you own the blog and put me in your blogroll that’s spectacular, once again blogroll = much loving forever!!! If you use other blogs such as Blogger.com, blurty.com, whatever Yahoo’s blogs are, a WordPress blog, xanga.com or any other that you don’t own a simple link will do and will help a good amount.

Social Bookmarking sites <– Backflip, Bibsonomy, Blinklist, Blogmemes, Blue Dot, de.lirio.us, del.icio.us, Diigo, Furl, Looklater, ma.gnolia, Rawsugar, Shadows, Simpy, Spurl, Wink  Any of them are good, and add links to the site!  If you use a program called “OnlyWire” which can be found at onlywire.com and sign up for all of these bookmarking sites and bookmark all the main pages of my site (or if you’re feeling really good all of the pages) I will have to come and find you to give you a great big huggles and what the heck I’ll probably kiss ya too (you probably couldn’t stop me from doing both if you truly use onlywire for me).

StumbleUpon <– most of the pages of my site have already been submitted by me, all you got to do is install the toolbar go to my site go around to the pages and hit “I like it”

Play4Traffic.com <– it’s a stupid game, but the links work out

Guest Books <– if you know of any sites that have guest books and allow links go for it, every little bit is a help.

any time you are asked to put in “your site” during registration of a site it is a good thing.

This is total crap! page viewed in Opera = Beautiful! Page viewed in Firefox = FREAKING BEAUTIFUL!!!! Page viewed in Safari = Gorgeous! Page viewed in Internet Explorer = smash keyboard over Bill Gates freaking face!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I finally found a fix for the “problem” which really isn’t a problem because l;gskdjnd l;ghu weanopti rgowh hii;hjm;.xk,jm dckjm fdcjm cdcm x,czfdglhklgfkdjlkjmg45gf47509456lgfkdhjl;dhmv ;xxfk,cgjioyer;o;xdifghjb l;kcvj

Unfortunately the “fix” doesn’t do crap! You know why it doesn’t do crap? BECAUSE RETARDS ARE STILL USING INTERNET EXPLORER TO VIEW MY PAGES!!!!!!!!!! If you are using IE you are hereby bannished from EVER going to any of my websites again!! You make my life hell!!!!!

Another thing, if you’re using Internet Explorer to view this right now you had better get together with all of your other little “IE Buddies” and buy me a new keyboard because you’ve just about got this one broken (and no I will accept nothing less or other than another Logitech G15) Highly considering smashing my keyboard into my monitor for stress relief which means you’ll have to buy me another $400 monitor (might be a little less now it’s a Samsung SyncMaster 226bw the 22″ model with 2ms refresh rates and absolutely flawless color definition)

What is the problem? Huh you piece of crap excuse for an internet browser? How is it different? What did I do differently? NOTHING YOU JACKASS PIECE OF CRAP BROWSER!!!!!! NOTHING!!!!! NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING!!! Did you get that? I did NOTHING differently!!!! The only difference is the name of the movie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What is your problem!?!?!?!?!?! Render the flash file like you should or I will murder your children!!!!!

So what I’ve found is that IE got sued a while ago for how they were rendering flash files… so they had to change the activex controls. I’ve seen this before, if a flash file has any sort of interaction such as hover overs or fun stuff like that you must first click the file before the HoverOver will actually work. That’s fine, I really could care less about that, I don’t mind making the retards who visit my website using IE click some stuff before it’s as cool as it should be. Thing is, IE isn’t showing my flash files at all!!!! Well some they are, some they aren’t. If you look at http://www.codysortore.com/blog/ the flash file for that shows up in all browser windows, it’s gorgeous, fun, and something that I spent a LOT of time on. Another flash file I created for http://www.codysortore.com however is not showing up. The difference? none, that’s right, none. Both are inserted onto the page using a >embeded< tag, both have the exact same tags and ID’s the only difference is the name on the sourced flash file. I later found this out after showing my cousin the new flash banner for ArchmailleDesigns.com because I’m trying to get some good SERP’s and found that Google can now read flash files (possibly the others can as well but I don’t know for sure) so why would I want an image on the page that only serves as being pretty when I could have a flash file that adds extra text to the page? Obviously when you’re pushing for every last inch that you can obtain the object that contains text is much more valuable than an image that has no text what so ever (or at least no text that is readable by the SE’s). I sent Jordan to The Site I was working on and he say’s “did you get everything uploaded?” my response “yup, and it’s actually working beautifully even though it took me forever to find the correct source file” (the source navigation for the PHP shopping cart that I used for that site is hellishly complex) “Well all I see is a white box” responds Jordan… “Dude I’m looking at it now, it works flawlessly, what do you mean white box?” “yeah dude there’s just a white box at the top of the page.” confused as could be I refreshed the page… still showed up perfectly fine. I then questioned again “did you refresh the page?” still confused because even if he did he shouldn’t be getting a white box since the image was there, which I removed for the flash file… no other changes were made, and there was a 0 downtime transition time. “yup still white” he says back. I finally remembered that the loser started using IE when he got his new computer because he liked IE7 just as much as FF. Low and behold when I opened the page in IE there was a white box showing, so I checked all my other pages that had flash, some worked, some didn’t even though they ALL use the same damn code. The flash files all use the same kinds of controls (HoverOvers if anything) and I’ve searched everywhere for a fix, tried everything, the only thing that seems semi promising is a javascript work around… which will NOT be going onto my pages because javascript is absolutely the most worthless code ever developed for the internet and I absolutely refuse to use it. I’m considering developing a PHP script like I’ve seen on some websites that will send you to a holding page if you try to view it in IE and all that it does is say that you cannot view the page until you visit it using a sensible browser with some sort of link to FF

haha!!!!! So the theme for last week is “derailed” despite some minor hiccups and little things during the week that started this concept for me, the full realization that this was not a mere coincidence but rather a weekly theme came crashing in on Friday.  After the first week of the Ren. Faire I was pretty gun hoe for getting everything ready that I physically could.  I was to have more space, and be alone this time so I wouldn’t have the problem of being confused for the shotty craftsmanship of the others that I was sharing the booth with last time.   I spent most of the week frantically running around to get everything done that I possibly could, including placing orders for clasps and other things necessary to finish off some of the smaller pieces and get a full line of earrings ready.  About mid week I got thrown a curve ball that sort of got me off track with working, making it to where instead of loving the idea of getting everything ready possible and not sleeping to work (cux who needs sleep?) but instead staying up late and not really wanting to even go to Ren. Faire.  I was going anyways because it is a good opportunity and I wasn’t about to throw out anything for my business just because of a stupid notion or whim of mine.  Then Friday comes… I spent the morning going over my checklist of what I need, or might need for the faire as I packed clothing and other small items that I had waited to the last minute to have ready.  Then I waited around for my mom to come home from work since her car was ready from the body shop and every day she kept the rental car she was being charged for now that the car was ready the insurance company wasn’t paying for the rental any more (Brook had a little wreck with my mom’s car for those of you  who didn’t know).  She came home I went with her to drop off the renal, then pick up her car then going over to Tiana’s to head off to St. Louis.  Leaving early was nice, but it wasn’t fun leaving the city as I-70 over by the stadium the traffic was stop and go… mostly in stop mode.  Whatever was causing the backup, probably just rush hour traffic finally got the idea to move though, traffic picked up to about 30mph which was good, and I decided that it would be good to get rid of the sauce I was holding for the cheese sticks that were consumed.  I looked down at the dash to make sure it was clear, and looked up to see that the SUV in front of me was at a dead stop… It didn’t take any time for me to react, or consider if there was enough room to stop, I saw the vehicle and knew that there wasn’t enough room and nothing was going to get me out of harms way since there were cars on the other side.  The only thought that went through my head was that they were going to move, because this could not be happening… uh… they didn’t move, luckily because I did see it and tried to stop I only barely hit them… enough to mess up my hood a little and cause some slight troubles, but nothing too terrible, we’d still make it to St. Louis… that is until the guy behind me hit me at who knows what speed.  He hit fairly hard being that he wedged the front end of my car under the Ford Explorer in front of me, and put my rear bumper into the back seat… needless to say destroying the tent, and a variety of tools I had in the trunk… luckily no one was hurt, and we did make it to St. Louis with all of my jewelry stock.  We called ahead and told them that we had been in an accident and everything, also explaining that the tent was destroyed which posed a bit of a problem… but they said that we’d figure things out when we got there.  When we did get there however they had a gorgeous tent setup with some awesome hand painted backdrops and it was truly much better than I could of even done on my own.  I’m glad that I went, and glad I got to meet the people I did… truly awesome people, and it was great to have such a supportive group of people who could take care of us when we couldn’t do things ourselves.

Most of you know that I was working at the St. Louis Renaissance Faire this weekend selling my wares. I love Faire, it’s truly one of those things that so very few people get to experience. I tell people all the time about how great faire is, and their usual response is of “oh yeah, the Renaissance Festival is so much fun.” and most of the time I then have to explain to them that they’ve never been to faire… and they like to say “yeah I have, I go all the time.” no… that’s not what I mean, you’ve never BEEN to faire before: 12 hour days, dressing up, night parties, sleeping on site, BEEN to faire. This year we were staying with Tiana’s family in their booth Tiana and Chris slept upstairs and I was downstairs… which meant I got a new sleeping partner, that’s fine I don’t mind sleeping with someone else, but when there is limited room you’ve got to have some sort of bed manors.

Don’t get me wrong, when sleeping with Snickers she could be awfully rude, but she usually waited until I left before taking up the whole bed rarely did she steal my room if I were in bed with her… although on occasion she did, for a little kitten she knew how to work her way to owning the whole bed. The girl I was sleeping with this weekend was horrible though, never stayed still, always licking my cheeks, and at one point put her feet on the chest beside the bed and puuuussshed until I was nearly falling from the bed… being an air mattress and me being heavier than her I sunk in my side and hers raised up so then she gets no extra room anyways, she’s now basically on top of me. I love Taboo and all, but she’s a very rude bed partner… not to mention the whole getting up at 3am to walk her thing… which yes the first night would of been no matter what since she was too excited about the new places to go potty the whole trip, and the second night was more along the lines of “wow I’m an insomniac and even though I’ve been working all day I still can’t sleep a full 8 hours straight” kind of thing.

More to come next week when I have breathing time, and possibly pictures if I remember… but working the whole time most of the pictures I’ve had the opportunity to take would of been before/after hours since I can’t be pulling out my camera when in costume, else they may believe me to be a wizard of sorts.

I have returned, but I am not home yet. I am so disgusted with the computer here that it’s going to take me nearly two weeks to get it back in “working” order or at least what I would consider so. But none of that really matters so much… those are only comfort things, what I need before I am home is a Tiana, and a Brenna… Didn’t even realize how much I missed my Brenna until I got on MySpace and saw some of her comments counting down to when I return, and about her dream… but yeah, that’s what I need, unfortunately I’m so tired right now I just want to curl up next to someone and take a nap, after which I will post many of my 150+ pictures from the Island later this week to gather images from several of the other people and post some of their pictures too.