Are you down with PFT?

You guys should love Paul F Tompkins, because he is great. LOVE! LOVE HIM NOW!

YEuro going away?

My Uncle is going to Germany for a while, maybe up to a year. So I made a pretty quick and dirty money clip as a going-away present.

at first I was miffed because I don't have a torch set up right now, but it is actually a good thing because if I had soldered on the euro symbol it would have annealed the brass and the clip wouldn't have been as useful.

It got me to thinking that I could probably be making lots of these out of different metals, including silver.

so many possibilities for the designs on top also.

pretty fun to think about!

Saddle up for DISAPPOINTMENT!

Went and did me a Garage/Craft sale, emphasis on the GARAGE! It was in Racine WI, it was in Festival Hall, it had wonderful parking, it was horrible.

The place was nice and my stuff looked great, but the people were not interested in buying much of ANYTHING, I'm sure the people selling clothes and tupperware did better than I did, but they still didn't get the kind of selling action you expect from a highly advertised event.

Part of the problem was that this was the first time they tried this, so there wasn't an audience that regularly goes to the sale, the other problem was, as it seems to me, they really wanted it to be more of a craft sale which is indicated to me by the flyer for the next one in October where they put CRAFT first in big fancy letters.

My Friend Libby and I did a great job keeping ourselves entertained, we ended up having a fair amount of fun despite the fact that at least some of the time spent sitting around at a sale is meant to be eaten up by actually selling shit.

Sliv (my Gramma) showed up though! Probably the highlight, she is super great, and invited us over to her house afterward for hash, which is not marijuana but that thing where you have like ground up meat fried with potatoes and peppers and such.

When I talked to my Dad about the sale later he was pretty upset, not because we didn't do well, but because we had tried to attract customers by marking certain items down to $1.00. His indignation was pretty adorable, he kept telling me that the stuff I make isn't garbage and I shouldn't be throwing it away, isn't that CUTE! Maybe you wouldn't know how cute that is because you don't know my Dad and that he rarely has opinions about anything, let alone arty crafty things.

Ultimately because that sale was such a bust I am really anxious to do another one, not a flea market or anything, but an actual art and craft sale.

So saddle up for ADVENTURE!

welcome back

Back in the burbs with mom and dad, maybe we will play Catan tonight!

The Greater Good

I turned 27 yesterday, and in two weeks I will have to move back in with my parents. I spent 8 years in higher education and all I got was a $65,000.00 debt and an inferiority complex.

Good thing I've been watching plenty of television to keep my skills sharp.

The Mentalist:

This show is basically a vehicle for watching Simon Baker move and talk. He is a former fake psychic who has super good powers of observation that allow him to help solve crimes. Its the same kind of situation as Sherlock Holmes, and Dr.House MD, except in those scenarios the tragic genius is usually right 70% and wrong 30% and in the Mentalist Simon Baker is right like 90% of the time. He is supposed to be a consultant so I guess he doesn't necessarily have to answer to anybody but the rest of the characters all seem to be under his thumb in a weird way that I don't find believable.

The reason the show has survived into its 4th and ordered 5th season is because ladies love to see sad puppy Simon Baker be all charming and tortured. Its hard for me to believe that anyone cares about any of the other characters as they are pretty flat and undeveloped. Don't get me wrong, I'm not made of stone, I like that sad puppy shit as much as the next lady but it couldn't hurt to insert some snappy dialogue and develop the characters more, because a lot of the mystery/police procedural shows are rehashing the same kinds of crimes and criminals, so in order to keep an audience I think its a good idea to have us become invested in the characters.