This morning, some history:

The article with all the links and some other interesting bits is on Making Light, which jazzfish (my current top source for interesting links) recommended to my attention a week or two back. But, I also offer you the better of their linked articles: The Guardian, on the Staffordshire Anglo-Saxon gold find already considered the largest one ever, and they still haven't finished cracking the dirt off of the small stuff, so nobody knows yet how much of what all is in there. And there's a Flicker with the photos so far, professional quality artifact photos, before curation or even a full cleaning. Pretty fascinating.

Meanwhile, the Atlantian costumers' list is taunting me with all the classes I would love to take at the KWAR/costumers' symposium in Philly the weekend after next, if I weren't going to the wedding of one of grauwulf's high school friends. I trust they will all be posting handouts online. Meanwhile, I should be pestering grauwulf to find out what the happy couple have for household colors, or whether they have a registry I can stalk. And possibly figuring out what is the appropriate dress code for the, er, wife of the officiant...

Today I have 1.5k left to write to meet my month word goal, which is completely manageable, and I seem to have been setting myself up to write a couple of kids drawing Crowley-inspired summoning diagrams in sidewalk chalk in the driveway. We'll see.

At very least, I shall be cursing the coffee-obsessed world and attempting not to order (as I mistakenly did on Monday) innocuous sounding beverages like "chai tea latte" which live next to hot chocolate on the menu and do not once mention coffee in their descriptions, except in the implied but unspoken half of "caffé latte." I managed to drink a third of the vile beverage (over three hours) before throwing it out, but it confirmed by dislike of coffee by making me vaguely ill, even at such a low dosage. Also, I need to cultivate a better "Hi, I'm busy" face, as apparently the world is filled with people who, upon seeing someone typing, feel impelled to ask if there's internet, or try to draw one into long conversations about Mac laptops. I have no idea if there's internet here; I'm busy, so I turned it off, and did I mention I'm busy? Go talk to someone else. Bah.

Tomorrow is October, and while I expect I will still be writing (on and off, at least) I shall also make it a priority to play with dolls. Pictures are likely to ensue.

I brew my tea in a platonic solid

So, a poll:

A couple of ten-year-olds are trying to summon a ghost, using a pentagram done in sidewalk chalk on the driveway, filled with symbols taken from a chapter at the back of a library book on occultism that talked about Aleister Crowley and some other stuff from earlier in the same book. They're not allowed to light candles, so they've got an assortment of flashlights, a battery-powered candle, and a solar garden light on the points of the star, and one of them (the one who read the library book) cobbled together a summoning charm. Also, they keep getting interrupted by inconsiderate adults to do things like eat dinner, or have cookies.

Does it work?

**ETA-- they're using the full name of the particular ghost they want, so I think the odds of getting something else by mistake are slim to none.

October, undefined

(with emphasis on the "bur" this morning, although I am still at the point where a bit of cold is lovely, and I get to wear sweaters that I haven't seen all summer.)

I seem to have been fairly successful in keeping up with last month's goals. This month promises to be somewhat more complicated. I do wish to continue posting stuff on etsy, but I think I'll be dropping back to a minimum of two items per week, and looking into proper bookkeeping and advertising a little better. At very least, finishing the post I started but never actually made with the doll chokers I've been making on DOA. And possibly I should avoid making any more before I find out if anybody wants them...

I think 10k was a fairly good word goal, but in this case I'm going to say I'd like to have it done by the 20th, so that I have some slack time before NaNo starts up. And I need to decide what I'm doing for NaNo, anyway.

And then, I have a swap package to go out at the end of the month (and am sort of considering the secret santa/mini-stalker-swap, because I'm evil like that...) and a hallowe'en costume to put together (not to mention decide on) and various other things that are little not exactly month-long goals. So, "do stuff" which I do anyway.

However, the other large goal for the month is to do some more stuff with those dolls, who've gotten somewhat lost in the shuffle of moving and all that other nonsense. Lady is part-way through acquiring a new outfit that I've been meaning to make her for ages. Puck is stuck with some poor and rather pitiful wings, while I have the materials to start working on a far better pair. Miss Beryl thinks she needs a hallowe'en costume. Waif needs a better face-up, and Flopsy needs to be re-sueded and re-strung. And if it keeps being so cold, the poor newcomer is going to need a shirt.