blithesea

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Herzlichen Glueckwunsch zum Geburtstag, stinaschnegge! Ich hoffe, es hat ordentlich rote Rosen geregnet!

I can't really remember what year it was, but some New Year's this side of the millenium, I was in Berlin, planning to celebrate with my sister, and being girls and of able bodies and purses, we must have been shopping, because at some point she pointed out some red panties she was going to buy for me. Charmed but bewildered, I asked for the reason, and she told me that in Italy, women wear red panties on New Year's Eve for good luck in the New Year. Sweet, I thought, because they were cute and red and the other lingerie I owned was neither. She had already bought a pair for herself, too, so we arrived in the year of 20-whatever cheerfully decked out in red lacy stuff and ready to tackle the future. Ever since, I have celebrated the New Year wearing my little red underpants, for luck or just for the larks.

Yesterday when I got back from work I made a mental checklist of the stuff to do -- get lentil stew going, take down laundry, put on red underpants -- only to be thwarted by the exclusive black and white and forlorn grey in my underwear drawer. Red Panties were nowhere to be seen! I remembered I had flewn them with me to Germany the previous year so I could give them their one night out. That's where they still must be, right now, sitting smugly in my old wardrobe. Holland in Not! I thought, and fruitlessly dug around in my drawer for some underthing if not red, then at least slightly tangerine, but no such luck.

It must have been the steady trickle of Project Runway episodes I have been watching in the last weeks with Roo. Somehow the thought snuck into my head that if I could find an old red t-shirt or something of the kind, perhaps I could Make It Work. There was a tutorial I had seen online, and it didn't seem that hard for a little newbie to do. Gedacht, getan. In true Runway-esque fashion rather pressed for time, I marked, cut, sewed, and left a bloody mess for the aftermath to clean up.

I did end up with a pair of red panties, and I wore them through to the New Year. Whether there is anything in the lucky red myth, who knows? But every time I chanced to see a peek of them over the evening and saw the former old red t-shirt now freshly transformed into pantydom, I smiled. (as would anyone who gets to see those hideous seams up close...)

Happy New Year, my lovelies!



P.S. I took a picture of them but I can't find the stupid cable to connect the camera, and my card reader is at work. Ride over and get it? ... ... ... maybe later.

Did I say not a smidge of snow?

( Lies, all lies! )

Well, my plan to take some pictures of the Help Portrait event on Saturday fell flat - there just wasn't a smidge of time! I set out to pick up Lutz around 10:30, we took a cab to the school in the middle of nowhere, and there 4 teams of photographers set up in the classrooms. My team had four photographers, I took the memory cards and cropped and retouched the pictures a little and then sent them to the printer. We managed to photograph and print pictures for 16 families with our team, and that kept us busy until 5 in the afternoon.

It was great fun. :-) Especially watching the kids slowly open up before the cameras. They started out as
:-|
Then
:-)
And in the end, most of them were
:-D

Since I didn't really take any pictures myself, here are some impressions from the photographers (hanging around with a bunch of blokes with cameras does have its uses after all):

http://www.flickr.com/search/?ss=2&w=all&q=helpportrait+shanghai&m=tags

What is new? Not much, but I am still alive, so there's that. Tomorrow is the first of December, and with the advent calendars we share at work and the Christmas music running in circles from our speakers and the gleeful plans of Christmas holidays discussed around the water cooler, it's not really possible to blank out the upcoming season, but I am doing my best. Wake me up when it's February.

In other news, I have been playing with the sewing machine I bought in September. I use the word "playing" because I've never had any training in how to sew and there is neither sense nor plan behind what I am doing at the moment, but even just sewing straight lines is a joyous feeling. I've been trawling internet sewing sites and buying silk and velvet and denim and hideously pretty polyester and zippers and buckles and velcro and a dozen different pressure feet for my Singer, gleefully cackling to myself the whole time. I am not sure yet what to do with all that stuff yet. Probably bags. Or more straight lines. It'll be the most extravagant waste of time ever, I can't wait.

Because I am a sucky lazy twat with a snotty flu, this post has been horribly delayed. Also, I think there might only be about 2 people left on my friends list who haven't seen this yet... Anywho. Here is my contribution to the Ring*Con 2010 video contest:


My first and hopefully last Twilight vid with a twist.
Stream and download here.

I really have to give lots of thanks and smooches to Lutz, tinaskywalker, bunnysworld, Chad and Roo who beta'd the thing in various stages of production and patiently listened to me whine. A lot.

For those who are interested, I worked with After Effects CS3 to create the effects, and cut the whole vid in Sony Vegas 9. With the latter, newkidfan's tutorials and tips were a huge help. *snuggles*

As usual, I feel that with a bit more time (half a year would have sufficed), I could have tweaked it a bit better, but I am quite happy with the way it turned out, really. and by now I am so sick of working on the thing I never want to have to open the project files again

The Ring*Con blues still has me in its clutches, only now it has ganged up with the "I'm flying back to Shanghai on Friday" blues and invited the "my sister isn't coming to see me over Christmas and I'll most likely spend the holiday depressed or stone drunk or both" blues along for the ride, as well.

So we need something cheerful! And there is nothing better than my most ugly picture for that.

As I may have told you already, the picture I speak of was taken six years ago, at the 2004 RingCon. I don't know what exactly went wrong there, to this day. But suffice it to say, I very nearly cried after picking it up.

Still, now I am six years older and have moved on beyond the humiliation of having paid 20 EUR for this abominable piece of crap, so I got Craig and Mark to sign it for me this year. They both got a kick out of it, and I can put it away and get over it at last.

Picture of Doooooooom, rest in peace!



EDITED to add: When Craig was signing my picture, I asked him to take a pic with me and make an equally horrible face. But sadly, he's just too good-looking to get even close. :-P

( this is craig being sweet )

Saw Inception with Lutz on Tuesday, finally! And I enjoyed it tremendously, wanted to go again as soon as the credits rolled. And every other song on my ipod makes me want to vid the hell out of it! :-D

I was going to post about going to the EXPO on Saturday to hear Lucia's orchestra play Ecuadorian folk songs, but I am too lazy now.

Instead, here is a picture of me and Steffi's black kitten.