sporadic fulfilment

on crafts &/or culture

i've been informally apprenticed to an artist/papermaker/bookbinder for a bit over a year now, something i've never mentioned because it's not very exciting (i mean, i learn stuff & all that...) but today i found a box-full of votive/ceremonial paper money in a dumpster -- & added ripped up pieces of it to the pulp mixture i was already using. so now the paper has all these bits embedded in it that say "hell bank note" & some chinese guy with a weird hat who i suppose is the king of the underworld. so if some bad juju happens & my limbs fall off or something, you'll know why.

the library has many fun things other than the free air conditioning & fellow homeless types. the saddest story i've read &/or remember reading, 'the end of the world' by moyra robson, is in the anthology geeks, misfits and outlaws [edited by zoe whittall], i was gonna buy myself a copy when it first came out... but like nearly always, i got distracted by some shiny thing-or-person & forgot all about it. the library has as copy which i came across some weeks back ; i borrowed it, forgot about it, & finished reading it last night while i was supposed to be forcing myself to do more chemistry math problems. most of the geeks, misfits, & outlaws in the book seem to be either queer or children for some reason. today on the streetcar i saw a guy with an orange-&-yellow batman-symbol tattoo on his calf; he has a face like bill gates after a bad night. yesterday there was a topless guy with breasts twice the size of mine on the bus with his ass overflowing 2 seats: why can't i go about shirtless, huh?

one of the more messed up reasons why i can't focus enough on my chemistry is this: i 'see' moles (the animal) in my head whenever the word "mole" (the unit of measurement equalling 6.02 x 10 to the 23rd power) appears in the text. i think this is because i can't wrap my mind around such a huge number & my imagination is supplying this half-assed substitute.

beer bottle-cap buttons: i'm making a whole bunch of them to wear according to my mood. my current favourite is the one for black sheep ale -- it's got white, calligraphic lettering in a circle on a black background. all you need's a bottle cap that's not too bent, a couple of pennies (or dimes if you're rich), & a pin-thingie of the sort that gets glue-gunned to the backs of cheap medallions. & glue of course, something strong & manly like carpenter's glue or superglue. what you do is: 1.) rough up the inside part of the cap with something nice & pointy, this is to help the glue stick better. 2.) glue in your pennies (or dimes, you capitalist pig) one on top of another & let that dry. 3.) glue in the pin-thingie. let that dry, & ta daa! your very own less-than-stylish 'fashion' acessory: now you don't have to tell people you're an alcoholic...

posted by malachi trizec @ 7:28 p.m.