The face of the Earth

Find me the face of the earth, so I can fall off it.

Bye,
Mike, it, E

Spider Solitaire

Spider solitaire is one of the mindless tasks I have been pursuing while Poe's pendulum decides how many slices it will take to cut away the 2009 screw ups I created. Then again I did file for social security and if that works out I can clear up 2009. Lasting until June is... well, who knows.


Oh, spider solitaire, I finally turned over all the cards on the first deal: there's a high point for you.

"Noun: solitaire...

2. Extinct flightless bird related to the dodo"...

Bye,

Mike, bird brain, E

ditch your past...

... if it is your way, get rid of it. The image is a ninth grade woodworking project where nails were not allowed just screws, glue and wood dowels to cover the screws. This is out of here just like other periods of time where I ditched chunks of my past.

   Mike, school sucked anyway, E

Waiting for the 8th of December...

Been over a week since I have been in the "studio" let alone made anything. The 8th is looming and if I have to do 30 days... well, the gig will be up and the road ahead will be worn shoe leather until the end of time.


A way out:I will be 62 March 5th so I will file online for Social Security so the child support lawyer can extract the rest of their 2000 or less dollars. Even better if this works out I will have enough money to fix the problems I created in 2009. Gee I feel better all ready...
 
Bye,
Mike, for now, E

near future time lines

Really need to read the e-mail in the inbox, I won't, I am pretty sure they contain such as 'what the _____ are you up to and I am going to get you etc.'

I did come up with just enough money for my back child support, I hope. I will show up to the meeting with the states lawyer on the 8th of Dec. with my pockets empty and no belt in case I do not have enough dough to satisfy the state. Thirty days in jail will give me an opportunity to lose some weight I do not need. My backpack weighs 50 lbs. and is ready to go, so losing some weight will be a good idea when I hit the road after the jail thing.

Been off for four days, need to get back to the micro studio tomorrow.

The good news, I started making larger marbles the other day so I can start getting them in the mail and make them happy. The poor quality image is one of the marbles.

Someone remind me to ask the states lawyer how much I still owe. I think the amount is under a 1,000 bucks... did I ever mention that I do not read my 'paper 'mail.

When I was at the churches computer lab to get online I checked the social security Retirement Estimator, I swear it is broken, no matter what I plug in it comes up with the same number for quitting at 62. You give it your name, date born, mothers maiden name and SS# then you give it future income levels and you get back an amount for the various retirement ages. Since getting much past 62 in March is problematic I decided to quit then and if the Retirement Estimator is more or less accurate I will no longer be almost destitute, just poor but with enough income to finance the hot glass thing and clear up this years problems.

Bye,

Mike, there are other options, E
 

a sketchup project a chair

A chair with a few parts left over.

Bye,

Mike, wearing out the furniture, E

Dear readers,

All four of you, my posts may read like I am troubled and about to toss myself off the tallest building I come across. The problem. First figuring out what I may want to put across in my written word is not very clear even to me. I am pretty sure my thoughts get lost along the proper pathways to the end of my fingers. What seems like sharp three-dimensional thinking ends up as a two dimensional black and white mess on faux paper consisting of invisible ones and zeros. In real life, face-to-face, I, as far as I can tell, am not nearly as troubled sounding, as it seems in my written words. However I have always found that writing down my random thoughts brings some clarity to my thinking, at least for me.
   This bit of writing has used up almost two hours in the last two days.
   Bye
  Mike, 111001001000101, E.

lake superior agate

glass agate that is
 two views

Bye

 Mike, too lazy to go hunting agayes, E

A marble image I swiped off the internet

A marble image I swiped off the internet

Well, it is an example of a marble I have not made for a couple years. I called them solar flares. app. size 1"

  Bye,
Mike, has nothing in his pocket, E... really

Google Sketchup, A one legged table

This 'table' was to have four legs. When I copied and moved the first leg I did not leave enough room between the two legs when I created an array of four legs: the four legs ended up as one wide pedestal. So, I made a one legged table, not much leg room!

Bye,
   Mike, standing on one leg, E

no more leaky shoes

Should be back into the micro studio tomorrow morning, a good thing other than I have been without oxygen for a week and a half. Screw the economy, downtime just does not get me ahead very fast. Not very depressed anymore (the contraband happy pills) Not having e-bay et cetera causes a bit of a problem getting anything sold... so I can buy oxygen... so I can get myself out of self made mess's.


Closing on a positive note; I was able to ditch my really leaky shoes for a brand new pair from goodwill. Then again, when I took the trash can out I was slipping on the frosted grass. This is not a good sign for this winter when walking on icy sidewalks to the cold micro studio, do not need another fall. About the end of July a taller than usual curb sent me down, got to love gravity, I picked myself up, brushed myself off and found that all parts worked fine, well, until morning. When I got up my left shoulder was whacked and it took a full three months before it healed.

sketchup image - A glass top table

Bye,

Mike, getting ready to drop a brick on some glass, E

The baad box

Got the box. Did not open it for a couple days because it did not have a return address on it. Did not read the note. I figured it was about how I screwed things up and how the box sender was going to unscrew me and make it all better again. I used to maintain a mailing list that I sent out as a BCC Blind carbon copy. One day I screw up and sent it out with all the e-mail addy's showing. Not a good idea, the box sender used this against me by sending a threat to me and all the people on the list.


Keep in mind that this is a mess I got myself into.
   Bye,
      Mike

Doors in a church

Not pretty, just interesting... possibly a door to heaven...

Bye,

Mike, feeling safe behind a door, E

little rants

A week plus has passed since I have had a tank of oxygen. I may be getting a tank Tuesday evening with a little luck. A pile of glass is not to handy without oxygen. When I get back to the micro studio I need to start making my medium to complex marbles: need to satisfy some people.

Personal rules I follow; do not read certain e-mails, ignore phone calls, I generally answer the door... mostly and stay out of the way of other people. (I find that the people who are irritated with someone in there way are the very ones who could care less who they are holding up. As an example; The person who drives up to the banks drive up window and sits there while they fill out checks and sign checks etc.)

Someone sent some of my marbles back to me, did not read the note, next time they should consider the marbles as free or just toss them. I think my nervous system is wired the wrong way. I have always had a shake to my hands: pretty much why I switched to printing in high school, I could not read it let alone the teachers. The returned marbles are an example where my nerves get edgy. Even if I could work on glass stuff today I could not for a few hours until the shaking subsides. Even exercise or physical activity causes shaking. When I was in junior high we would play basketball in the gym during lunch. During the next class I really had the shakes.

I just quit working on marble box parts before I cut myself with the exacto knife, a knife that was waving all over the place.

What city has the best amenities for the homeless? Anyone? Just something that has been on my mind the last three or so months.

I have added WordWeb to my favorite freeware program list. A program I used to use until one of my previous computer went down. Highlight a word you may be a little bit sketchy about its meaning and click on the WordWeb icon in the tray just to make sure you are using the word in context.



Sketchup is a free cad program from google.

After a lot of head scratching I have figured out how to use some of the 'tools' and the following are my best 'pieces' so far. Within the sketchup program the chair and table can be rotated to view all angles.

Bye

Mike, I don't no tanle saw, E

A quick panorama to see if I can remember how.

Not my best work but it was on my way to...

I used XnView to resize the images and Microsoft Ice to stitch the four images together

It is always fun to rework an image using filters: in this case I used adobe photoshop 6.

Remember the various filters used on cameras or in the dark room to create cool effects!

Now we knock off this stuff with a click of a mouse. I try to restrain myself by resting the heel of my hand on the mouse's tail.

Day six...

Bye

Mike, broadening my horizons, E

just a haiku

Deep in soft spring loom

Tendrils of life reach skyward

Roots entwine my soul

Bye

  Mike, caught out without a hand basket, E

What am I up too

I have some downtime, out of oxygen again, so I have been working on box labels, boxes and sorting the working folder that contains all the box information, what a mess, at least I have this folder backed up all over the place. One of the projects was redesigning the 12 count tribute slag box label because I lost the first label and the marble images on the box. The marble images are the same for the new label but I had to copy them from the first sets label. See img.


I also started listing on MibAuctions.com. All marble stuff all the time but not many takers.

I listed a box of agates there.

With my next tank of oxygen I will continue to work on box marbles plus make at least one large marble per day to be sent off to where they need to go. The last marble I made last Thursday was a variation of the shadow and it is cool. You can see through it and when it is turned it has a lattice look to it. This marble is not signed, no place to put it.

Bye

Mike, rolling over a marble to see what is on the other... ,E

favorite, mostly, freeware programs I like

Other than solitaire city these programs are freeware, free versions and just free.
foxit reader PDF reader.
jarte......word processer free version if I had the money I would buy the full version, thats how much I like this program.
verse perfect....very cool
solitaire city - $22.00 try the trial version first
microsoft calculator plus
fraction calc
OpenGL extensions viewer
food file (calorie counter, more than you need to know.)
WIN image composite editor (panorama stitching program)
XnView (does lots of stuff, I use it for img batch processing)
arena 201 (chess program)
panda go (game of GO)
newton playground   sketchy physics type program
sketch up   free from google: a cool free CAD program
sketchy physics plugin for sketch up: build and animate just about anything.
everest home edition...."is a freeware system information, system diagnostic and benchmarking solution"
revo uninstaller... if you do not trust the windows uninstaller to find and uninstall all the bits and pieces related to the program you want gone, revo will find the regestry entries and hidden files and get ride of them if you want to.
cc cleaner  Registry cleaning utility. You can back up your Registry before removal.
avast home (firewall)
comodo... (firewall)
rising pc doctor
Alcohol 120% / 52% ... alcohol 52% free edition. mount one or more game disks etc.on your hard drive.
Ibreakout2... freeware, very nice multi level brick out game.
 
Bye
Mike, not so free, E

DAY FOUR without...

...and waiting...

in the meantime... a bit of nonsense;




The path forward done

Return steps a lot of fun

Fine day to be home

Bye
 Mike, lurking behind a shadow, E

Hard Times six pack marble set

OR

how to just get by

At thirty dollars for a box of these marbles I can get seven sets out of a tank of oxygen. That works out to be $175.00. $175 minus $35.00 for oxygen equals $140.00. And free shipping is $5.00 per package times 7 boxes equals $35.00. $140.00 minus shipping, $35.00, equals $105.00. Making approximately ten of these 7/8" marbles a day takes... Did I mention, I make the boxes too.
Hard times marble sets contain six app. 7/8" marbles of various types. These marbles make it into the hard times box instead of the numbered sets for various reasons as follows:
1. I am not fond of a particular marble... to critical I guess.

2. The size is a little too big or too small.

3. or the marble in a large number of cases is really cool and could have made the grade for the numbered sets.
The making of cardboard boxes for marble sets.
Making the prototype marble boxOR
the road to more work than I needed…First you drink a lot of beer. Cut the boxes up into flat usable pieces. Cut up brown paper sacks into flat paper, that the beer did not come in, I had something go right for once when I was given a box full of new 14" x 8 3/8" brown sacks, I am wearing one right now. Do some math and get the math wrong over and over. I finally got a really good usable prototype box done. Now if I had been smart enough, I would have used the brown side of the cardboard to hide the Bud label, with the next box I was a little Weiser and hid the label..... After way too many trials and errors I had forms and templates plus correct measurements for making the strips for the side of the 12 count box. Then I became really stupid... a condition I have suffered from this year... I decided to make a 6 count box, how hard would that be... just about as hard as the 12 count box, you do not cut dimensions in half!... The 6 count box is now known as the six pack.
The first boxes went through some tweaks thus increasing the complexity of the box, just what I needed.
Bye,
Mike, terminal velocity is a reality, E

it just gets better

Today is dull, cool, and the sidewalks are wet with the constant rain, thus my socks soaked up the inclement weather as I walked to the mini studio this morning and are wet.


  Used up the tank of oxygen and the propane is too low to use. Guess I will walk to Michelle's and wait for an oxygen tank to mysteriously appear.


Bye
  Mike, terminal velocity is a reality, E

level playing field

I finally figured out why the following three words spoken by people who seek to help their constituents, lobbyist and protect their own backside and those words are "level playing ground". The key words here are "playing field". I figure that if I am on the playing field I am there to win. I will play by the rules, politicians... hmm... Then there is the theoretical advantage of the home game versus the away game and who are the referees anyway. As you see there are some problems cropping up here. Ok you have a "level" playing field and what happens on these fields, why yes, games. What games are played on a 'field', hide and seek, basketball, soccer, tennis, checkers, kick the can etc. What do they have in common, a playing surface a 'field' and what drives a game, rules. Back to the level playing field: on this field there must be rules and who writes these rules and are the rules written on a level playing field, I think not. The rules are written by lobbyist in conjunction with a politicians staff. While the level field is being chalked out behind closed doors the politician is out on the front steps spouting the party line and soothing their constituents. Now as I look at the level playing field I realize the other side is not in view, could it be all those obstacles in the way?


Next chapter, the American people "believe".
 
Bye
 Mike

moving always moving

A contemporary marble in a state of GIF

By

Mike

any takers... anyone... time passes

The guinea's are made using a gather of hot glass that has been rolled in small pieces of colored glass: known as frit that I make by cutting off very hot pieces of colored glass into a small bowl of water where it fractures into small pieces of glass. skipping a few steps Then the gather is cased by hand using clear rods of glass. Finally the cased gather has both ends cut off and shaping it into a marble.

Just in case 125 buck with shipping! AND I made the box too!!

Bye

Mike

I am busy

When you are at the long drop all you can hope for is strong fingers: good way to stay busy.

always about oxygen...

Firsts day in app. 1 1/2 weeks that I felt the urge to go to the micro studio and work. May as well go ahead and use up the oxygen and then try to sell something to get more oxygen. I have been keeping track of how many 7/8" 'box' marbles I can get out of this tank of oxygen. With the information I can figure out how much I can sell a boxed set of marbles for so I can keep working and replacing supplies, mostly oxygen.
Bye
 Mike

Woke up to a chill in the air, frost in the grass and guys shooting winged things out of the air, a hint that I should locate my two pair of warn out jeans... time passes... so far I located two pair of jeans. The pair I am now wearing is quite new looking and now fits: I lost some weight. I have several pair of jeans from 33 to 42 waist and in various lengths and at any given time only two fit, more or less. Now to find the rest and figure out what two fit this year.

Bye
 Mike

wet feet

A cool rain along with water absorbing shoes has led to wet socks by the time I arrived to the micro studio, a good start today.

Bye
 Mike

ho hum

Have not worked in a week. Bought a tank of oxygen two weeks ago and started making more 7/8" marbles for the boxes. I was keeping track of how many 7/8" marbles I could squeeze out of an oxygen tank. When the tank got to half a tank I decided I will not be able to sell the marbles so can buy more oxygen so why bother. I need consistency in obtaining oxygen to continue and get some important objectives done. I may as well ditch the happy pills, there contraband anyway.


I was despondent enough a couple days ago that while walking to the library, to get online, I gave a 12 count box of marbles away just because the person said that they like marbles.

I am going to the micro studio today and in the next few days finish the tank and see how many 7/8" it will produce. Then when I get a new tank I want to continue the small marbles every day plus make two or three marbles that I used to get 40 to 125 bucks for, marbles that already have a home.

I assembled the rock and I now sleep on the hard place.



For a couple years I have been intending to get my affairs in order, not that I have much. I believe it is time to do so. They are not important but I would like to get them done. One of the two involves family history stuff such as images, papers/letters and probably the coolest would be mid the 1850's hair samples. I would like to photograph some of it and make notes for those who may care about the stuff later on.

The second is simply to send off stuff related to marbles to people who may be interested in such items and if they do not, there is always the trash man.



I am not a writer so any helpful criticism is welcomed about spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, and if you like, you may ditch the "helpful" and let me have it. I do use spell check but have found such use problematic between versions that I have used.
 
Bye
 Mike

God and the fly

GOD and the FLY


God, after creating the universe and finding it good then decided to create man as a sidekick. Since God could see into future time lines with all possible twists and turns God realized the creation of mankind was an iffy proposition. Because of this concern God picked a nice mostly stable planet on the outskirts of a small but mostly stable galaxy to put his/her grand idea into motion. First God needed to create a bunch of creatures so Mankind would have something to have dominion over. So over the next few days, universal time, God created all manner of creatures, creatures for water, air and land and for a couple days, U.T, God allowed natural selection to sort the winners and losers out before moving on to creating man. At one point God had hoped one of the lines of 'apes' would become the mankind that he had in mind but the creatures never got beyond picking bugs out of each others fur and pocking sticks into ant hills for a light snack. So God left their fate to zoo's where in a future time line mothers would hurry the children past the monkey cage to the gazelle enclosure hoping gazelle's did not have the habit of mocking humans.

The day, UT, came for God to straight up create man from scratch and place the man, now know as Adam, into the garden of Eden so Adam could get a start on the dominion job.

Adam set about, when he was not chatting up God, cataloging the creatures about him and jotting down a name or two. One day while Adam was chewing a pear, just down the path from the forbidden fruit tree, he began musing about his charges and realized there were differences between creatures such as the lions lazing about a few feet from the pear tree Adam was sitting under having a light snack. Then there was the curious problem of the little lions that grew up to be big lions with the same differences, differences that always lead to other lions and so it went.

God, while chatting up Adam one day, b.e.f.a: before everything fell apart, decided he would create a companion for Adam so that Adam would not be confused about the birds and bees anymore. This new companion was called Eve. Eve began showing Adam the ropes and running the show as only a woman can without giving away the fact that Adam was no longer in charge.

God apparently had a few helpers with at least one of them wanting a bit more respect. This helper decided to test Gods dominion over Adam and Eve who had dominion over the creatures around them.

One day while Eve was admiring the beauty of the forbidden tree the helper appeared as a snake and chatted up Eve. By the end of this conversation Eve was admiring the great flavor of the fruit from the forbidden tree, a fruit she now called an apple.

Eve and Adam did not respect Gods number one rule to not eat from the forbidden tree until God evicted them from the garden. Outside the garden Adam looked at Eve and was again confused, Eve assessed Adam in the same way but was not confused. Eve decided to find a Gap store and pick up some 100% cotton clothing to fix the nakedness problem. Not finding such an outlet Adam did the man thing and killed an unsuspecting lion with a club to make a couple stylish loin clothes. This is the point where dominion started becoming domination.

Adam beget a few children. One of these children decided that his brother needed dispatching. This was the beginning of war, all be it a little lopsided in this first war. Since the winners suddenly got to write the history books war became a dominate way to keep the other guy from writing the history books.

Now back to the humans who are struggling in a too cold or too hot world. A now hostile world where a lion just as soon eat you for lunch and the bees who will now just as soon die than let a human have a bit of honey to snack on. A world where a pleasant rain with a nice breeze can now become an f4 tornado. I think you get the point: the world was not quite as nice as the garden of Eden.

At story time Adam and Eve passed down to their children their version of what happen in the garden, the forbidden tree, the idyllic way of life and the friendly lions. The bit about the snake was hard to get out of mom and dad. However like all children around the world they pestered their parents to hear the end of the story thus the story passed into legend along with the snake. The snake as we know it now still has a habit of suddenly appearing from the grass, tree or water just to give a human a start and remind that particular person why they are in this predicament in the first place.

Back to the story. Adam's descendants did the cave thing for awhile. But caves had drawbacks such as being drafty, gloomy(despite the cave paintings), smoky and then there was the clutter such as rock tools, bones, arrow points and the occasional club modeled after Adam's original club. Legend now remembers the club as a convincing matrimonial tool.

Cave life just did not cut it. So these early humans began creating an amazing amount of different housing designs. Such creature comforts also increased the population. The increasing population forced humans to spread around the world and along the way humans continued to improve the comfort level of their homes and so on. Of course these improvements came at the expense of the resources around them, sources that were soon depleted thus causing another migration to new locations to plunder and so on.

Very early on God pondered a certain irritation and this irritation was one of God's former employs who tempted Adam and Eve that lead to Adam and Eve's eviction. The eviction from the garden lead to the first known letter date: b.e.f.a, before everything fell apart. Much later on there were a couple more important dates: b.c. and a. d.

Back to Gods irritation, an irritation also known as Satan, the devil and quite a few other alias's.

God also saw that mankind was beginning to get a little too comfortable in their cozy homes. Then there was a momentous decision made by God, a classic old testament 'wrath of God' thing. This wrath was not quite like the wrath depicted in the old testament where things eventually cooled down.

Since God had to put up with an irritation, God figured that mankind should have a continuing and annoying irritation. The plan was simple and was designed to stand the test of time. God created the housefly, a creature that can survive no matter what new invention man creates to eliminate the pesky housefly, a.k.a. pestilence.

The house fly has the following feature that makes it a perfect pest. After what looks like a good swat the fly will not be found under the swatter. Also like snakes a housefly can suddenly come out of nowhere: reminding man that the original mistake in the garden of Eden has lead to this minor but very annoying irritation, Gods housefly.

Bye

Mike

another attempt at a haiku

A fine purchase made


Possession is a fine thing

Longing begins again…
 
Bye
 Mike

Fake agates

What little I have was taken away with one stroke: my own writing used against me, becoming a permanent stain on what was and will be: thanks. Was the broadcast of the threat a penalty, discipline, punishment or just a bit of fun such as a twisted mind has when torturing their latest victim.

Enough of my paranoia.

The good news and that would be the revisiting of a marble that I have been trying to perfect. The marble in question is the agate. Agates were a passion in my youth when I used to hunt for them along the Buffalo creek North of Winthrop Iowa.

As a marble collector I used to look for the old hand ground agate marbles. Then as a marble maker: I tried my hand at a few imitations of agates in glass and my latest examples are the best yet. The shadow agate really looks good and if you are familiar with the shadow agate you know how cool they are.

box making images

The images are in no particular order: not unlike the way I run my life.

Bye

Mike

A path

destruction and death, only way to go

come, come walk down my path

the heart is restricted and cold,

seduction, it's behind me, let's go
 
Bye
 Mike

3 weeks

Three weeks without oxygen: is that long enough: is three weeks a good business plan: I think not!


Then there is the prospects of Winter following Fall, I think that is the right order, and it is going to be cold in the garage where my micro studio is located. I need new socks too. The socks will soak up the moisture from wet snow that will be finding an upward flow into my shoes via the holes in the soles. The good news... the "studio" is a mere three blocks away, how wet can one get anyway.

Finally got four packages in the mail for a small sum of 24 bucks and a bit of coinage.



Edit effort and successful... can not spell, even with a spell checker!

Bye
Mike

Perfection is not possible

Perfection is not possible, even for God, a case in point would be one of the creations of God and that would be the house fly. A creature that must have super powers when it comes to avoiding a deserved execution, an ability that only a god could bestow. However I asked myself why create a house fly, the bane of all people... but WAIT, if I act NOW I will and did realize that the 'house' fly was most likely around when we were proto humans and we did not concern ourselves with fly's except as a light snack, it was only when we developed housing and subverted the flies natural order in nature thus the fly became a pest to be dispatched to fly heaven, totally disregarding Gods original purpose for the fly.


So I still stick to my premise that even God is not perfect... God created humans...
 
Bye
 Mike

could it get worse...

...yes!  I have stuff to get done first...
   Should be able to get oxygen today.

Bye
 Mike

An old rant with an update

A funny thing happened at the library sale.


bait and switch?



First, there was an indication from the library staff that there was going to be all new computers at the new library and that the desk top computes in use by patrons at the old library would be sold. These were computers that were used by patrons to access the Internet etc. The laptops, being fairly new were going to the new library.

At the sale, where a lot of stuff from the old library was to be sold, there was a line of computers for sale, towers, monitors, keyboards etc.

To paraphrase the auctioneer; He said that the group of computers we were bidding on were in use at the old library and were unplugged at the library and are now for sale. The auctioneer also said that they were being sold as is... a common practice at an auction.

There were computers not in the group we were bidding on that had messages taped to them that they did not work for one reason or another.

The computers were being sold as choice, my buddy went with the first bid that was pretty good, we bought two computers, on HIS money.

We set them up... did not work... one gave a message that it needed a password so we checked at the new library... 'password, ER uh...' then... "we sold them as is"... We then learned that the computers that were being used by patrons at the old library were now at the new library and were being reworked for use there.

Bait and switch...?



Mike Edmondson

too poor to ignore this, what money I do make is via the Internet...



The above rant was written about a year ago. I do have an update that at least smooth's out part of my feelings about this issue, as perceived by me. Eventually I used spare parts from the library computers to bring an older computer up to a state where it could run programs that it could not run at the time. However the transaction has not paid off for my buddy... I still have a bit of sawdust in my shoulder that just may stay just to keep me cranky.
 
Bye
 Mike

Yes it is Friday

No oxygen yet: still fine tuning the marble box making operation. And organizing, as long as I have down time on my hands, my computer files and backing them up to various drives so that each drives files are named the same on all drives.

what is up with me and boxed marble sets

Been cutting parts for marble boxes and organizing the operation so when I get some oxygen I can get some marbles made to fill them.


The following is where I stand in the way of finished boxes:

Sets made

six pack guineas
  #1
  #2
  #3
  #4 June 15/09
  #5 June 24/09

six pack tribute slags
  #1
  #2
  #3
  #4

12 count fancy slags
  #1
  #2
  #3
  #4 September 7, 2009

Fancy slags six count
  #1

12 count W.B.C. Guineas
  #1
  #2
  #3
  #4
 #5


12 count tribute slags
  #1

Hard Times six pack (NOT NUMBERED) The boxes are signed inside the lid and inside the box.

one
note:
   I did add a (box #1) to the first box.

Bye,
   Mike

Just blubbering away

Been off for over a week: Some money may show up today, however Michelle may need it to for her car insurance... She just got the electric bill paid in time unlike when I gave her approximately 1/3 of my marble show money in June so she could get the lights turned back on. So I may go a few more days without oxygen thus not making glass stuff in my micro studio.

I have been busy getting more of my stuff in order at the apartment.

My marble box making operation is all set up and I am now cutting parts for future boxes... still need to get some work in the mail...

Got around to processing the following image of the building that used to be part of the old hospital here in Independence: the new library is on the left.

Bye

Mike, from the library

The Valley of Shadow and Magic

                        A journal: recounting my observations while exploring the valley.

  The valley is ringed with nearly impassable mountains and has no other borders other than bands of orcs' roaming between vast cave systems. Traveling across the mountains into the valley, though difficult and fraught with danger, one will, with luck, come into a land of beauty shrouded in a light haze, a haze only seen at the periphery of sight. The mountains at your back may have instilled a sense of fear; fear no more, you are now entering a land and place where magic rules and all inhabitants are under its sway, even you. Every person and creature has its share of magic from the Shadow dragon’s to simple villagers.


The magic originates from the deep roots of the mountain range circling the valley, a magic not seen on our side of the high peaks. All the magic in the valley is drawn into the valley by powerful forces. The only denizens of the valley that would be capable of dealing with such elemental magic would be dragons in that dragons are born of magic thus capable of using it as naturally as we use, without thinking, our heart to pump life forces to the rest of our bodies. The valleys magic is a shadow of the real power at the roots of the mountains thus making dragons the pivot point.

Long ages ago early man found their way into the valley and after many generations some of the people developed various abilities to be able to use magic some had more talent than others a talent that had to be taught but there were no teachers in the beginning.

The use of magic comes, as a birthright to dragons while the rest of the valleys denizens wielding magic have to have a talent for it. Early on there were people who knew they were different and were drawn to seek out dragons. Dragons can be dangerous and have to be approached with caution and the person pursuing contact better have honorable intentions, a shadow dragon will know. However the early adventurers who sought out a dragon did not do so at will but were drawn to the dragon by the dragon. When shadow dragons realized that there were people in the valley capable of wielding magic they decided that proper instruction in its use was necessary. They did not want people with ability inadvertently learning to wield magic without knowing what they were dealing with. Only the people with great innate talents were summoned even though they thought they were doing so on there own freewill. These talents came from villagers to people who had large land holdings. The subject beholding a dragon at close range for the first time did not so much as have lessons from the dragon but the dragon imbued the knowledge into the subject at hand. They also made certain that the student would leave with a distinct respect for the power they had been given. These students left as mages' who became teachers for other adepts, dragons are not that fond of human contact so had little interest in ‘teaching’ others of less ability. After the dragons sent enough mages back into there own lands to teach they went back to there own wild ways and left the humans to there own ways. The dragons do keep an eye on the balance of the shadow magic in the valley used by those adept at magic.

I have mentioned the haze and if you have not guessed, the haze at ones periphery is the shadow magic used by peoples of the valley. This magic flows from the dragons into the valley, a magic that maintains the mysteries of the valley. Dragons are the balance between the two degrees of magic.

The haze, the visual manifestation of shadow magic, gives existence to the valley and makes the land a mysterious place to live. A villager or merchant may travel a hundred miles to a week long fair to sell goods and in the course of his travels pass through a dark dense forest with overhanging branches blocking out the sun and upon his return along the same road, find the forest less dense with plenty of light slanting down through the branches. The roads do maintain a proper bearing for the traveler, this being possible due to wizards constantly maintaining the various routes. A job fit for wizards who are the real travelers. Roads may be accurate between destinations except in one aspect; the one hundred miles may be accurate but the time to travel the road tends to change as the haze shifts and swirls just out of sight. Such changes are taken in stride by seasoned travelers.

The size of the valley is not known: the roads traveled within the valley may be accurate between village a and town b but as one travels closer to the mountains the haze exerts greater influence as it gets closer to the powerful elemental magic contained deep within the mountains. The most accurate maps detail the center of the valley and even then if one gets off the main roads to follow trails, distances do change and only those with a gift of direction in all conditions do well. Someone who became a hunter would be such a person with a gift of direction; others would be wielders of magic.

Denizens of the valley

Dragons in control of the most powerful magic;

Shadow dragons…

Are born of magic and are as real as you and I in that they are flesh and bone; their life force is the elemental magic. Dragons are as intelligent as humans while retaining their wild natures; it is the wild side that makes them dangerous. Dragons are by nature solitary creatures.

Shadow queen dragon…

Queen dragon’s eyes will glow when one looks directly into the queen’s eyes.

Shadow baby dragon…

Shadow forest dragon…

Have a preference for living in forests

-Wielders of shadow magic;-

Shadow mages…

Spend most their lives in their towers studying and compiling information gathered by wizards. Talented boys are trained in calligraphy and bookbinding then sent off to mages who are in needing people to create books containing the compiled information.

Shadow wizards…

Travel and explore the valley gathering information plus they are renowned for there story telling

Shadow forest wizard…

Has preference for wandering the vast forests in the valley

Shadow seers…

Have abilities to find recently lost items, apply remedies for common ailments for villagers and livestock, alike plus for weather forecasts.

Shadow blind seer…

No pupil; interpreter of dreams

Shadow merchants…

Travel the valley offering their wares or services to anyone with enough gold, silver or some other goods to barter. A merchant has a colorful shadowy cloak as a symbol of there trade. They generally have minor talents in the art of magic such as sharpening knives so that the edge last longer.

Shadow orc chieftain…

Wields enough magic to keep his tribe in line

Wizards apprentice…

Adepts who study under a wizard’s tutelage.

Artifacts;

Night stone…

Showing the phases of the moon as seen from the valley

Moon glow stone…

A handy item to have when a little light is needed

Lighthouse lens…

Lights the way for sailors and is used by captains to look into the near future while sailing across the great lakes in the valley. Are hand held except for a few that are large and set atop of a tower.

Shadow evil eye…

White or milky white iris with tapering red toward the back of the eye used as a protection to ward off possible bad effects of magic.

Other items;

Towers…

Serving a duel purpose as watchtowers and a place where a wizard maintains a home when not on the road. You will generally find a wizards apprentice on duty.

Shadow towers…

Are few and far apart. A mage spends most his time living in these spectacular towers studying information gathered by wizards.

Magic mushrooms…

A delicacy that grows in the forest and is hard to find but if you are brave enough…a wizards apprentice is generally the one designated to search them out. Thought to be good for ones health and general well being. So far there are only two types I know of.

People of the valley;

Villagers…

There are other people such as town folk, landed gentry and those who are up to no good. Villagers are noted most often because they are closest to the land and tend to be the ones with the best chance to possess the raw ability to wield magic. I have mentioned that all the people have their share of magic but that does not mean that they can overtly use it.

A note here may be helpful;

The valley people using magic have attached shadow to their designation even though the shadow magic comes from shadow dragons; seers, wizards and mages, and others add shadow to their title as if magic was there birthright, even orc chieftains who have very little ability with magic add the ‘shadow’ designation. Exceptions are the apprentices to wizards.







The original idea of wild dragons came to me in a dream or at least I thought so, as it turns out the dream came about because of some observations while visiting the valley, it was the sort of observation that is fleeting and not always remembered. On a recent visit I sought out a shadow dragon I have become acquainted with and learned as much as I could about the wild dragons.

out of oxygen and stuff

Once I get to the micro studio, where there is a fantastic east light streaming through the window, I will fire up the torch and use up the K tank of oxygen in a couple hours and then sit down, stare into the light coming through the 18 by 18 INCH window and wonder about the near future until I get another oxygen tank.


Ah ha, make marble boxes until I have enough money for oxygen.

Did you know... that I make tweenty one pieces of paper and cardboard and then asemble the parts into a box.

The making of cardboard boxes for marble sets.

The prototype.

First you drink a lot of beer. Cut the boxes up into flat usable pieces. Cut up brown paper sacks into flat paper, that the beer did not come in, I had something go right for once when I was given a box full of new 14" x 8 3/8" brown sacks, I am wearing one right now. Do some math and get the math wrong over and over. I finally got a really good usable prototype box done. Now if I had been smart enough, I would have used the brown side of the cardboard to hide the Bud label, with the next box I was a little Weiser and hid the label...

... After way too many trials and errors I had forms and templates plus correct measurements for making the strips for the side of the 12 count box. Then I became really stupid... a condition I have suffered from this year... I decided to make a 6 count box, how hard would that be... just about as hard as the 12 count box, you do not cut dimensions in half!... The 6 count box is now known as the six pack.

The first boxes went through some tweaks thus increasing the complexity of the box, just what I needed.

Bye
Mike

I remember this day!

10/14/07 And I thought Saturday was… gray and gloomy; Sunday is gray, gloomy, dark, along with a cool drizzle, even the furnace duct work has developed a constant tap-tap-tap where cold rainwater has finally found its lowest level where it drips unon a tin sheet. The tapping is like the famous Chinese water torture, it is driving me to the lowest levels of despair. A positive alternative to staying cemented in my concrete studio is a cavern deep in the earth

one and two are easy...

Kicked out July 15, found a piece of paper that said so, my memory is not so good, never was.
Reorganized… better said; organized Michelle's apartment so that there was room for my stuff and as it turns out there is plenty of room. The hard part is getting Michelle to complete three easy steps; one, get it out, use it and put it away, the first two she is perfect at, number three is where she lets gravity take over and thus over the years the disorganization became a way of life.
Over thirteen years my desire was to help her put her life in some sense of order, it was always a flop, there was no mental stamina on my part to continue the struggle after a few days. My happy pills have muted my tendency toward defeat thus my current efforts are producing fruit. The push for 'change' is a bit slow, you can’t lead a ? to water but one can coax a ? to drink.
The road was slow getting my new space in order and getting used to a new routine and staying with it has been achieved…
Designed a new label for a box of marbles;
More on these marbles later...

Bye

Mike

I am OK, now

do not get bit

sharp snap of the wrist
the serpent wraps up my arm
as I shoot snake eyes

from the library but still here

For both of my readers I am still here, there and elsewhere but not where I should be and that would be at my micro studio. I made several small ribbon type corkscrew marbles last... ER uh well a couple Saturdays ago. Not sure why, There are projects that need doing before the end of the year! There is the no ebay/paypal problem and this problem, self inflicted though it is, leaves me with few options to keep going. I have a 'free' web-store that looks quite good, I have not used it yet, the restrictions on the free store are somewhat limiting. I do plan to start using the store ASAP thus with some luck start clearing up some of my problems despite my shifting moods. I am good for the next three months on my clandestine drug, that's good!
What to make and where to sell it? My current idea is to continue to make the boxed sets and five or so of my complex marbles per week. Some of the complex marbles will go into the store to satisfy PayPal if they sell; one of the restrictions of the free store is that I have to use PayPal fore customer payments. I can upgrade the store for I think, $15.00 a month I would then be able to have a lot more items listed and payment options. I do not have credit cards thus the only option to upgrade the store is PayPal...
I do have other possible sales avenues, however most are way down on the list of actual sales one has compared to eBay. Most have better packages but I still need a way to pay the fee!

raining on the light... at tunnels end

The first day in the new SPOT and what is the weather doing, continuous rain and thunder storms. Good thing I am not at a low ebb or this would have gotten me way down. The rain is supposed to let up around noon and as soon as possible I will make the hike to the micro studio and get started.
Images;
nothing like a gurney to get you to the light and it was very handy getting all my crap down the hallways to the back door.

The now empty old shop.

Mike, needs to find the umbrella, E

getting it done

My new studio is ready to use, that is if you can call a cleared spot among a bunch of machines, tools and other items too numerous to mention a studio. Saturday morning I will get three blocks of walking exercise when heading over to my new space. Unlock the door, fire up the huge kiln and get some glass sorted so I can try to remember how all this melting glass into something really works.

Stairway to...

or maybe it depends on the direction you are heading...
Mike, who is that shade, E

Backtracking a little

Since the Amana marble show in early June I used up one tank of oxygen making three sets of marbles, two 6 count sets and a 12 count set that was already paid for and that one still needs to get in the mail along with a few other marbles. Then I did not get anything done for a few days until I finally bought more oxygen... then came the eviction... I took back the nearly full oxy tank and started sorting and moving. A couple weeks earlier I was supposed to come up with 0ne hundred and fifty bucks for back child support, I owe a little under 1000 bucks yet, however I did not have it and found myself in contempt of court with less than two weeks to get the money. I finally came up with enough money by selling two sets that I hoped to send elsewhere. I have until December to do it again.
I should be in full swing in the new location by Friday with some work coming out of the kiln Saturday. Now all I have to do is finish some unfinished business and hope to have that cleared up by the end of the year.
Bye,
Mike, it is a really pretty rope, E

a tail of a squirrel

soon to be a major motion picture

Story Board The squirrel is being stalked...

The now alert squirrel...

Hum... fight or flight...

Flight...
...The end.
credits
writer - MikeE
director - MikeE
images by MikeE

cooperating actor _ squirrel
@MMIX

R or W a now and then Haiku

Trick of a good life.
Death a minor distraction.
Wast none of the time.

panarama photography

From my teens on I have had a bend for photography particularly available light in black and white and panoramas, mostly I shot AV light because panoramas were too hard to do and I did not have the type of camera that it took to make the job easier.

A couple years ago I was using Adobe Photoshop 6 and its panorama feature… it was a disappointment in that I was getting streaks across the image where the image was stitched together. Then I was able to use Adobe Photoshop Elements as a 30 day trial and the stitching program was great… the price, at an income of $3500.00 a year… Since then I have been looking for a freeware program that would work well but no, until the other day when I was at the churches ‘computer lab’ looking for freeware when I ran across this at Gizmo’s freeware site;

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-digital-image-stitcher.htm

There is a Ice forum here;

http://community.research.microsoft.com/forums/112.aspx

The following are quick examples with the vertical pan of the old Independence library being ‘artistry’ doctored in Adobe Photoshop.

Camera; Fujifilm FinePic S700

Mike,off to move some tools and glass to the new digs, E

vintage kids clothes

I do not know who wore these kids clothes however they were clothes that were among my grandmother, Charlotte Sparks Cocking's belongings.