… all the tentacles complete — but no, the front one is not right! Some surgery required. Out comes the hacksaw, but only to the wire armature so the arm can be shaped into the correct curves. Then like Dr. Frankenstein I fasten it back together with staples and recover with more resin putty.
And now is time to sand …
and sand and sand and sand until it is time for the little sucker cups … M2, M2.5, M3, M4, M5, M6, M8, M10, M12 white nylon washers
I pulled out my collection of plastic seals and off we went for days of cupping —15 days spent modeling the contours of each of the 663 suction cups
The Blessed Virgin had to be sanded very delicately to give it back some of its immaculateness.
The happiness of some is the dust of others.
Take advantage of this white octopus, it seems that it is very rare to come across one. Shortly after I did my little experiments with paintings —
A few days to finish the color, but because it will have to go through a few coats of a special glossy glossy varnish, which makes the viscosity so good… mmm yum. Given the size of the room I could not apply it in one go. The drying takes between 24 and 48 hours, so it will probably take me a week to complete the application of this varnish-resin.
If your head is spinning too much, don’t look at this indecent image.
Soasig Chamaillard (French, b.1977)
Notre dame du poulpe(Our Lady of the Octopus) - recovery statue with illegible signature, aluminum wire frame, plaster strip, polystyrene, resin
(epoxy putty), plumbing seals (plastic washers), acrylic paint, resin varnish
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47 cm high x 70 cm wide - 12 kg - work-in-progress March 20 to May 31, 2015
“I grew up in a Christian Western society. My perspective on life has been a result of my environment and background. The playful interaction of society’s many icons, physical transformations, and the resulting improbable combinations, have culminated in my vision of a woman’s role and place in our society. This inner questioning of a woman’s role, has led me to use one of the most sacred icons in my work, namely, the Virgin Mary. Initially, I begin with damaged statues, either donated or discovered in garage sales, which I then restore and transform. I surely do not mean to shock those who believe but rather to move those who see.” —
Soasig Chamaillard
today is great day to create something, to fill the void with a piece of yourself that wasnt there before and to push back against the darkness. you can create a song or painting or sandwich or a walk in the park or even a MOMENT. use this mighty power to defy the cosmic nothing
Of all the struggles humanity has shared across the many ages, I think the most endearing is the struggle to draw a horse. For instance, medieval manuscripts highlight the pertinent questions of “what is a horse” and “which way do horse parts go?”
Maybe not that way.
Plus interpretations drawn by a guy who has seen maybe one animal in his life. Potentially a soulfully distressed dog.
“teeth?? these mfers have teeth?”
And, of course, my all time favorite,
Round.
Bonus: But also? What else is there but this.
peace and love on planet horse.
I also love that the Round Hormse’s bridle kinda looks like it’s got wee lil arms and he’s just like tucking his hands under his chin in despair or something
So do I just like….follow…anyone? Like real people? Like the actual people and not the subject matter? That isn’t like following someone to their doorstep? Why does this seem so personal???
Think of it as, you are a stray cat, and every evening I put out my garbage and you come and eat it
Dreamed that there was a mundane-setting TTRPG I’m going to call “Greg and Maureen” where the players are visiting a non-player character couple their characters are friends with. But the couple is going through a rough spot! The objective was to investigate their relationship and either to help their marriage or hasten their divorce. It’s always small town and you’re always staying at their house. Players could add a little flavor of how they knew Greg and Maureen and even choose some minor traits for them before the game.
I’d played the game with another group before, but I didn’t know there were multiple paths. There’s a note Greg writes confessing to something, but depending on the dice roll it’s a different note. The content of a major plot point depended on a 2d6 dice roll.
In the dream, I’d previously played a version where he confessed to cheating on Maureen with another woman, so I thought Maureen should see the note, but in the game we were playing, my friend Celia found the note, which actually said that Greg was dishonorably discharged from the army for a gay relationship (he’s bisexual) before he met Maureen, and that he had lied about having had an honorable discharge. So for a while I came off as an asshole because I kept saying that Maureen needed to know the contents of the note so that she could confront him about what he did to her, and my friend seemed to me to be unusually blasé about what I thought was an affair.
There were other possible notes. In other timelines he had never had an affair, never been in the army, never even loved her, etc. There was another possible note where you learned he’d lied to her that he was good at track in high school (imagine an impressive mile time, which my dream mind supplied as 6:40, though that won’t even get you into varsity level) when he was actually bad at track in high school (14 minute mile). This was a lie he’d told, like, once, and he and Maureen almost never talked about running or high school sports.
In every possible timeline, Greg was Utterly Wracked with guilt about his secret. Yes, even the high school track universe.
Also, if players had decided that Greg was white before the game, you could unlock a timeline where his secret was that his distant ancestors had been in league with THE Devil from Christianity between like 1830s and 1910s. (The devil was just their accountant. He was ashamed of them for non-devil reasons.) In this timeline, you could actually meet the devil.
You didn’t find a note in every timeline, so sometimes you had to work off other evidence. I had only ever played mainly investigating Greg, but you could also focus on investigating Maureen. I think the other players and I just suspected him of hiding something every time, due to our biases. Sorry Greg! Guess we weren’t real gregheads.
While the CDC has given up on providing any guidance on risk control measures for covid, The People’s CDC is filling the gap and continuing to track and update guidance as the situation evolves. Here’s where you can download their Safer In-person Gatherings Toolkit:
Here’s an extremely detailed guide on what to do if you have covid that includes how long to isolate for, how to set up your house with hepa filters and ventilation, what supplies to have on hand, when to go to the hospital, and guidelines on how to pace from the MEAction Network in the event you end up with long covid:
The work these guys are doing is amazing. They’re still tracking wastewater data too so you can still figure out transmission levels in your area and not just the hospitalization levels. Check them out!
idk what traumatized or mentally ill person needs to hear this but dreams (especially the really disturbing ones you dont want to talk about to anybody) arent some deep peek into your psyche or a sign of your True Desires or whatever theyre quite literally your brain making fruit salad with whatever it can find on the shelf. just putting all that shit in a blender and hitting obliterate. its fine, youre fine, youre not a weirdo for it
Actually forget what I said. This dream is more important than anything
It is wild what kind of shit people will report to you in a security uniform. “Hey, that guy in the wheelchair? He doesn’t need it, he was walking outside earlier” like ??? Okay?? First off you don’t know his medical status, second what the fuck am I supposed to do with that information? Take it away from him?? It’s still his fucking wheelchair, he brought it from home
like I don’t have any physical disabilities that I’m aware of so stop me if I’m not in my lane but I feel like even if a dude is fully able-bodied, if he owns a mobility aid and he wants to use it then unless he’s swinging it around wracking toddlers with it then it’s really none of my damn business
Also?? “Hey there’s a junkie in the bathroom” ??? First off I saw them go in and I know for a fact that person has cerebral palsy, and also, are they actively using drugs?? Are they in medical distress?? No?? Then let them pissoh my God would you rather they shit on the street
and actually, another thing, because fuck it, but did you know?? “Security” means “safety”?? If nobody is using drugs inside the building and nobody is hurt or being hurt or bothering anyone or fucking in the lobby ar yodeling into the intercom or fucking, I don’t know, supergluing the toilet seats up and running off with the furniture, then what precisely are you expecting me to do about it? I’m not not the goddamn Social Norm Enforcer. If you’re wearing clothes and leaving people alone and you aren’t stroking out or freebasing coke with your non-service animal then I honestly do not give a fuck. “There’s a man in a dress in the women’s room” Okay and are they watching you poop? “I don’t think that’s a real service dog” is it humping someone? “That girl smells like weed can you get her out of here” Weed’s been legal for like five years get with the goddamn program. She probably works here. Do what you came here for and go hoooooome
I see people talking about the Brave browser in the whole Firefox vs chrome debate, and while people rightly point out that it’s just chromium and that they do shady cryptocurrency shit, I never see anyone point out that Brave’s founder and CEO is Brandan Eich.
He founded Brave after massive protests against him becoming CEO of Mozilla, resigning after 11 days. And the reason for those protests? He donated a lot of money to the Prop 8 campaign to ban gay marriage.
So just remember: it’s not just another chromium fork, it’s not just a browser with cryptocurrency bullshit, it’s also the browser founded by a homophobe because he got kicked out of his former organization for being a homophobe.
Also, he invented Javascript. I’m willing to believe that maybe he has grown on the gay marriage issue, and made amends for his former mistakes. But Javascript cannot be forgiven.
Notice: not only do your friends actually like you, they secretly like you twice as much as they let on
An experience that made me feel much more assured in my friendships was at college, a friend and myself were talking about a third friend of ours and how cool and knowledgeable and smart she is and how we feel like we could never be that cool. The next day I was working with a professor on some paper presentations we were about to have and when I came out of the staff room I was informed that these two aforementioned friends were having the same discussion about me. And it turns out we spent a lot of time thinking about our friends who aren’t currently in the room and gushing over how cool and smart and talented they are without being able to say all of it to their face.
Your friends secretly love you a lot more than they already express, just like you love them so intensely that saying it all to their faces would sound clumsy to your own ears. It’s true though
