Among the many Rements Andrea sent me, there was an old [2004?] set from the theme of animals having a tea time. I’m not one for animals acting like humans, but this little, fuzzy, pearl-wearing swine, lightly blushed on its cheeks and holding its strawberry cream cake delicately in its forefoot, endears me to it. I could just be responding to the strawberry cream cake, for which I have a weakness, however.  Continue reading Pig uses fork.

I’m linking to this article on Teatime Brutality about the lack of a Dr. Who canon because I find its observations on the relative primacy of fictionalities very interesting. It’s the glorious refusal to define a canonicity that allows fan fiction and reinterpretation to flourish. No, I don’t have anything else intelligent to say on the subject right now.

All sorts of good stuff from my collection, including steak, dumplings, soup, lobster, tropical drinks, cotton candy, blueberry muffins, cake mix, pasta, pretzels, cake, ice trays, 1:6 mystery meat in foil…. Some Rements still sealed! If you want it, please comment or PM me. Continue reading 1:6 food for sale, Rement and Iwako [erasers], $12 shipped

Nicely enough, Andrea shipped her with a hoard of Rement so she wouldn’t get hungry and also some clothes so she could dress herself in clashing LHF style.
Continue reading N’Yenya is here!

Rement is coming out with a Candy Shop in September. Normally I become bored with Rement’s endless iterations of cakes, chocolates and other sweets, but these candies seem novel. I especially like the "Animal Pops," lollipops in the shape of animal heads. LHF can make room for animal-headed lollipops, right? Continue reading Sweet! Rement’s doing a Candy Shop!

Stuck at age 15 since 1973, Sydneyite Nina Harrison has no special powers as a vampire. In fact, she and her fellow support group members are weak, sickly individuals with extreme photosensitivity and an unfortunate propensity to drop dead from sunrise to sunset. They do not seduce, swoop or loom; instead they dither and bicker among themselves, activities that come to an end only when one of them is murdered. Only then do our crochety invalids come alive as they try to solve a murder mystery without involving themselves in violence or blood. Awkwardness results as the characters flail about, much in the way that real people might if they realized they were in a storybook whodunit. While the vampiric whininess gets tedious, Catherine Jinks compensates with non-stop action and plenty of twists and turns, all the while remaining true to her vision of vampirism as a combination of addiction and disability. Though Jinks does not have a sharp enough flair in her writing to pull off a biting satire [instead, it nips occasionally], her relentlessly realistic depiction of average people trying to be superheroic is consistently appealing.

Monsieur Z Fly Girl starts off with heavily made-up and spaced-out eyes, like this. Photo by cloudz. Having gotten one in a trade, Andrea repainted hers with a clean, crisp style that makes her look like a 1950s piece of clip art in the best way possible. Andrea calls her Wella, but her real name is N’Yenya Clippee

.

I have purchased a lot of Rement from Andrea [from one hoarder to another], 15 complete sets for $35, plus miscellaneous odds and ends [including Iwako utensils]. There’s a lot of stuff I can’t identify, but this is what I can pick out:

• microwave
• cleaning supplies!
• cookies, cookie dough, cookie tools
• a whole bunch of veggies!
• school supplies!
• fast food
• pub meal?
• pumpkin pie
• pine tree?
• way more eating tools than I need

Continue reading Big batch o’ Rements = mine!

Strapya, home of 1:6 blood bags, also sells other useful 1:6 accessories, such as these wooden toys, including colored wooden building blocks. I could stock an entire toy room with 1:6 toys, dolls, stuffed animals, vehicles, balls, robots, horses, pull toys, child-sized furniture, all sorts of enjoyable things for young kids!

In which Materyllis tells Will about her sad past.

Comments: Will has Materyllis pretty well pegged in this episode. I’m not sure she likes the feeling of being transparent. She’s used to being aloof and intimidating, not sympathetic!

Val gave me some obnoxiously neon kitchen and cleaning tools from a mysterious source ["The Excellence Designer! Special For You Of Children Design!"] for my dollses. You can see them between one of my Juku Girls and Anneka. As you may notice, they are closer to 1:8 than 1:6, but they’ll still work!  Continue reading Kitchen tools from Val

Because why should you pay for something when you can get it for free?

http://www.creativewritingprompts.com/ 329 prompts for creative writing, just like it says in the URL. Sample: "What story can you come up with that has this quick plot: cancer comes back after three years of remission?"

http://www.writersdigest.com/WritingPrompts/ 10 pages of prompts from Writer’s Digest. Sample: "You wake up in jail and have no memory of how you got there. As you pace around the cell, you find five items in your pocket from the night before. As you look at each piece, the night slowly comes back to you. Write about your night, why you have these five items and how you ended up in jail."

http://www.creativity-portal.com/prompts/imagination.prompt.html The Imagination Prompt Generator randomly generates writing prompts for personal non-fiction writing. Sample: "My 10 favorite movies."

http://www.creative-writing-solutions.com/creative-writing-prompts.html A page of creative writing prompts from Creative Writing Solutions. Sample: "A jewel-encrusted box is found in an ancient abandoned temple. Describe the box, what is in the box, and the temple. See where it takes you."

http://www.writingfix.com/right_brain.htm WritingFix’s collection of generators for prompts. Sample: "An intimidating snail was slipping past my ice cream."

http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/892558 51 prompts collected by a writer. Sample: "Read the following line and create a short story or poem using it as the opening line. And then she died. (Thanks to the Muse’s Alley for providing the line.)."

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2006/5/4wiencek.html 13 Suggestions from mcsweeneys.net. Sample: "Write a short scene set at a lake, with trees and shit. Throw some birds in there, too.."

http://www.fifteenminutesoffiction.com/prompts.asp Fifteen Minutes of Fiction’s index of weekly writing prompts. Sample: "Write the events or conversations you imagine might happen if two famous people from different centuries were able to meet."

I want to write fiction, doll-less short stories, novellas, maybe even novels. What do I do with my current projects, LHF and Mary’s diary? How do I do what I want?

Her included outfit makes her look about 2, instead of 4 or 5, like I want her to be, but, as soon as she gets her pants, she’ll be good.

To make VLA’s eyes look less droopy, I erased her default lower eyelashes and eyebrows, then placed new brows in a quizzical, semi-raised position further up on her forehead [covered up by bangs]. Such a cutie! I can’t wait for her to star in some LHF side plot. Continue reading Very Little Anneka has arrived!

In which we learn more about what Anneka saw in Thomas. 

Today I got 2 Jakks Pacific Juku Couture Girls at Target for $10.00 each. They are 9" high cuties with rooted hair, inset eyes and a high level of articulation. They compare favorably to the 23cm Obitsu bodies, only of cheaper materials, more robust build and slightly less articulation [no double joints]. Best of all, their mix-and-match outfits have a definite eye-bleeding LHF flavor to them. See?

All I did was swap bits of their clothes around and repaint their eyebrows, which were originally very high on their foreheads. They don’t have names yet, but I already like the redhead best, even though I originally wanted the brunette for her elaborate hairstyle. Continue reading Jakks Pacific Juku Couture Girls, lightly modified

I currently have a regular Anneka doll and a Little Anneka doll, portraying her somewhere between 12 and 15. In new developments, I’m getting another small BJD, a Serendipity Aga Fairy Candy, and repurposing it as a Very Little Anneka between 4 and 6. My Dollmore Banji, which never had a character in the first place, is leaving to make room for Very Little Anneka. I even have a side plot in mind for Very Little Anneka, about her first occasion of activism when her family goes to a restaurant that is not accessible to her dad. ^_^   ^_^

I like this piece of jewelry for a Halloween costume, although it does not fit with what I want to be for Halloween [a modern vampire dammit!].

In which Materyllis works her magic on Will. 

Comments: Despite Materyllis’ gruff, prickly exterior, I think she’s truly a kind and thoughtful person. She’s just really lonely. She appears to like Will because he matches her in sarcasm!

In which we learn more about Anneka’s history with Thomas.

I bought this doll on a whim because it was [comparatively] cheap and pretty cute. It had no assigned character and, for the longest time, no clothes. Then it finally got the motley outfit shown below, but it was still without form and void without hair and personality. Today I finally gave it some hair, which certain gives it some more personality, but I still have no idea of a character. I even have no idea whether it’s a person or a doll, although Anneka and Will seem unconvinced that it is a doll.

Wait…wait…it just informed me that its name is V

elo. That’s VAY low, French for "bike."  Continue reading It has been remarkably unforthcoming about itself (Dollmore Banji).

What fresh poop is this? [Answer: It’s actually stale poop.] Stephenie Meyer is writing an "official guide" to four books of whingeing and sparkling, complete with "genealogical charts," in case you haven’t already figured out that the books are the bastard children of the worst romance novels ever. My favorite comments on this book come from this Amazon.com customer discussion: "Cash cow says moo" and "I’m pretty sure it’s just Spackle for the plot holes."

I am interested to learn more about this movie, as it is about a set of female twins in their late 20s and one uses a wheelchair and one walks!

< triumphant>After mastering the arcanities of PivotTables, I think I just figured out how to display the information in the way I want it displayed with a PivotChart!< /triumphant> I deserve another medal!!!

In which Will finds his visit to the doctor’s a bit too hot to handle.

From left to right: Geordie (Orientdoll So Ye, 12cm), unassigned DollMore Banji (14.5cm), Waverley (Elfdoll Kai, 15cm), Submit (Elfdoll Kathlen, 20cm), Susie (NotDoll Lucy, 20cm), Little Will (NotDoll Miriam head/Elfdoll Kathlen body, 20cm). Not shown are Little Anneka (Soom Uyoo head/Planetdoll Mini Riz body) and Absinthe (Elfdoll Kathlen head/Soom Uyoo body).

Continue reading Little dudes: my LHF BJDs under 9″

Here’s Waverley, who arrived today! She’s an Elfdoll tiny Kai with default faceup, eyes and wig. Her shirt is from a mini Bratz boy. Her shorts are from a Tommy doll. I wired her legs with a pipe cleaner and her arms with half of an unwound pipe cleaner. [Pipe cleaners are made of two slender wires twined together with fuzz in between the twines. I used one slender wire from a pipe cleaner to wire her arms.]

During hot weather, most of us like to relax with a cool drink. Waverley’s beverage of choice is beer. Just a few sips! Continue reading Introducing Waverley Parker

 My Alvin Ailey Barbie arrived today. As you can see in the first picture, she was allowed to keep her leotard top, but Absinthe claimed her full, fluffy skirt. Absinthe always makes me think of flowers and lace, which is odd, given that she’s much more of an anise and wormwood girl.

The second picture shows how different two instances of the same headsculpt can look on different people. On the left, Shaniqua, a kind, cheerful, rather shy person who doesn’t really like talking about how thin she is because she’s naturally that way and she doesn’t think it looks that good. On the right, Velvette, the sterner, more cynical person who can wither bullshit in its tracks and who comes across as tough and self-deprecating rather than just nice.

I love the Mbili headsculpt.  Continue reading Shaniqua the skinny

Here are 1:6 versions of three-quarters of the characters in my head (left to right): Jareth, Jennifer and Frank. Doll of me not included because it doesn’t have a head. Interestingly enough, the dolls don’t really look like the characters, but they accurately capture their moods: Jareth serious and shy, Jennifer energetic and innocent, Frank playful and sex-obsessed.

Jennifer, who is a Momoko, came in today, so her arrival occasioned these portraits.Continue reading Three-quarters of the family

<heavenlychorus>…how to make a Pivot Table in Excel 2007 for sophisticated reporting purposes. Given that I was banging my head against obtuse tutorials yesterday afternoon, today’s small achievement shines like a beacon from heaven between the stormy clouds of frustration and ignorance.< /heavenlychorus>

<grimdetermination>Next…a pivot chart.< /grimdetermination>

Someone award me a medal!

Waverley [and some Rements] shipped today from Denver Doll Emporium. With any luck, she’ll be here on Saturday, and I can experiment by putting her head on the Banji body, which is sturdier, with delicately expressive hands.

One year after first seeing it and liking it and after 365 days of unsuccessfully convincing myself that I don’t want her, I have an unassigned Lola head coming in the mail to me for the relatively low price of $12.00. Yes, that is low for a plastic 1:6 head. Shush. Can’t resist the sarcastic expression.

In which Absinthe talks to Mark to discern if Will is truly as wretched as she thinks he is.  

Comments: Absinthe, as you may recall, pines for Will. Certain that she has ruined his life by making him a vampire, she was most recently inspired in the last episode by Margie’s daughter Maggie to fantasize about the family that she and Will could have had. Now, not wanting to approach Will directly, she seeks information about Will’s current state from Mark, who ought to know about these things.

who thinks, has always thought and will always think that Monday is the first day of the week?

Kinjou and I were talking about Labyrinth in a recent chat tonight and how the ending, in which Sarah parties with the Muppets while Jareth flies away in the form of an owl, seems like a foul misstep, thematically speaking.

Our reasons, in conversational form, below:

me: Har de har har!

Kinjou recommends using soap flakes for snow in a 1:6 context, but Ivory has not made soap flakes for over 15 years [since 1993]. This recipe provides an alternative.

Andrea’s lighting set up.

Best repaint of a Monsieur Z doll ever: Wella, who reminds me of a 1950s piece of clip art in the best way. Simple, effective lines.

Tonight I am going to make 1:6 grass out of a doormat, as previously discussed here. Need to get me a lot of green and yellow paint and a big brush at the art supply store.

In which Michaela rhapsodizes about the glories of love and Anneka tries to talk some sense into her.

Comments: Anneka is drinking some of the orange juice that Michaela had in 3.1. Michaela’s having a banana split, probably as some comfort food.

Absinthe, as she currently stands, was a person who was excavated after her death and whose heart was burned in an anti-tuberculosis ritual to keep her father from getting ill. She turned this ritual back on him and drew his vitality away so that he ended up dying and she ended up living as a vampire. She’s also an avid student of her maternal grandfather’s Abenaki stories and teachings, despite her father’s depiction of her grandfather as ignorant and "savage."

I just realized today that something has to give in her character. Her identity as a patricide and her identity as a Native American do not go together. If, as I have established, she is a respectful student of her maternal grandfather, an Abenaki who has maintained the lifeways and culture of his ancestors despite prejudice, then she at least knows and heeds the basic tenet of Abenaki spirituality: All beings are equally important and honorable, bound as everything is in a complex web of creation and sustenance made and nurtured by the creative spirits of the world. In such a case, killing non-human things for food is acceptable if proper reverence is given, but to kill another human being in murder is unacceptable. It is an act of wanton cruelty that messes with the natural order of things. For this reason, Absinthe, if a spiritually observant and practicing (if rather isolated and half-taught) Abenaki, would not murder her father and sustain herself on his vitality.

All right, so now Absinthe’s story has a gap in it. She was born around 1812. She attended the Charlestown Convent School in her youth as an attempt to educate her and "civilize" her, but she enjoyed rough-and-tumble play with the Brickbottom Boys instead, although she did like the French. She died of tuberculosis, exacerbated by her father’s abuse of her, when she was 13.

Absinthe hung around the convent school until it burned in 1834 (in which she played an unwitting role). After that, she lurked among various institutes of knowledge until she met up with Justine and Marquis.

Something happened in here to convert her from a ghost to a Colonial vampire, something that also corresponded with the beginning of her passive corruption by Justine and Marquis. Whatever this event was, it sure didn’t involve her killing her dad.

I’m glad I never formally codified the tuberculosis-related parts of Absinthe’s story in main or tangential storylines. It’s all written up in her backstory, but has yet to be published, so it is still malleable. Clearly I need to work on making a more convincing Native American character, and part of that realism means giving her a backstory and set of actions consonant with her Native beliefs.

For $125.00, excluding shipping. Good to know, especially if I want to use one of those extra Kathlen plates lying around and turn it into a full doll with a character.

She still needs a white collar thing, her headdress painted white, a white veil, a chastity belt and her weapons, but she’s on her way to being ass-kickingly and chastely awesome. Don’t mess with someone who has such a stern expression. I really like this action figure because the facial sculpt clearly communicates a feline nature, even without ears or whiskers. At the same time, you can see a lot of grit, determination and personality in the sculpt. Captain Thunderpussy is an unusual and beautiful figure! [Well, at least her head is. As I mentioned before, I find Character Options’ body disappointing.] Continue reading Captain Thunderpussy in progress

In which Will is sick, but is it from spending time in Mark’s bed?! 

Comments: Mark is attempting to seduce Will by reciting a Baudelaire poem, “L’Invitation Au Voyage.”

As I have mentioned a few times, I’m looking for some 1:6 costumes/fetish wear for use in reshooting LHF 2.1. Also I just think it’s hilarious to have fetish gear lying around in the background of Anneka and Will’s houses. Makes you wonder about their sex lives….

So these are the items mentioned in the original version:

• Horned gas mask
• Dancing girl outfit
• Head harness with ball gag
• Viking helmet
• Wig with ringlets
• Captain Thunderpussy, the kitty pirate nun: wimple, cat ears, cutlass.
• Tex the harem starlet cowboy: cowboy hat, harem girl veil, six-shooter.

Here are the items I have procured:

• Clown mask [from ZC Girls’ Carol the bank robber]
• Dancing girl outfit [from Ebay from a special version of Mikelman’s Candi]
• Head harness with ball gag [digitally rendered in DAZ]
• Viking helmet
• Thunderpussy’s wimple and cutlass
• Tex’s cowboy hat, veil and six-shooter

Still looking for a gas mask.

EDIT: Just got a gas mask, some horribly blocky glasses and 2 pairs of bloomers from War Toys, my favorite loose 1:6 stuff dealer. Now I have completed my quest for 1:6 fetishwear. Also Absinthe can have some appropriate underwear!

Popular serial turned agreeable time-passer, Dresden Files the TV show follows Chicago wizard Harry Dresden as he uses his for-hire services to solve crimes, occasionally in collaboration with a magic-unaware police detective Murphy. Available on Hulu and mildly entertaining, this one-season show of necessity strips out lots of the mythos and back story that apparently makes the novels by Jim Butcher, upon which the series is based, so interesting.

However, I discovered an interesting thing just now. Guess who does the audio book readings for the Dresden Files series? JAMES MARSTERS!!!!!!! That’s hot. Must track down one of these.

As I now have a job, Waverley is on her way to me, bringing with her from Denver Doll Emporium some crack cocaine Rement that I have long pined for, such as Eggs Etc. [eggs! bacon!] and Mexican dinner [tacos!]. Also on its way is a Dollmore Banji, bought secondhand so as not to support a cheatin’ doll company. The Banji was an impulse buy and, as such, it does not have a designated character. It may become Will’s cherished Bru doll. Then again, maybe not.

If Will has a somewhat intimidating, very playful Captain Thunderpussy for a muse, Anneka has Leonyssus, a finicky, rather crabby merdude who severely dislikes her control freak tendencies. I have a feeling he’s the sort of person who spends lots of time looking in the mirror and combing his hair just to piss her off. Then, when she least expects it, he blows his conch horn, calling her to work. Her constant labors on her mermaid story make him complain that he’s overworked, but, when she tries to leave him alone, he demands attention. He’s very high maintenance, which translates as Anneka’s drive and compulsion to constantly write.

Lest we think that he’s some whiny, annoying drama queen, I should state that he’s more imperious, arrogant, sarcastic and snotty than whiny. He constantly thinks that he’s awesome, and he’s always trying to teach Anneka lessons, which don’t really work because she is ultimately in control. He would call himself "arch and slantwise;" she’d call him "someone with a delicate constitution."

I know the perfect construction for Leonyssus. He is an Obitsu Slim Male top with a bottom from a Mattel Mermaidia doll. He has a generic Slim Male head with askance eyes, half-closed, long eyelashes, and a smirk. Ideally he should have long flowing green hair. In my dreams, it’s in a very complicated net of braids interspersed with pearls, but I don’t have the patience for that. He has an incredibly impractical amount of pearl jewelry, cuffs, earrings, necklaces. He has a golden mirror and a golden hairbrush. He uses the magic mirror for scrying ideas.

CLEARLY I need to write a season in which muses run amuck.

Remember Cindy? In anticipation of my forthcoming Captain Thunderpussy doll, I tried to get an idea of possible outfits for the good captain. Cindy is modeling her bloody duds with the Aoshima fetish nun vinyl wimple. [Vinyl keeps bloodstains off, doncha know? 😀 ]

In other news, I am gonna either have to preserve Cindy better or throw her out. Like a real zombie, she keeps falling apart. Her head detaches from her body and, every time I squash it back on, her face paint chips. The end result does make her look more aged, however. Continue reading Killer zombie nuns: more scared of you than you are of them

Season 6 kicks off with a reunion between Anneka and Michaela and a disturbing piece of news on Michaela’s part.

Comments: As you may recall from the flashbacks in season 5, Michaela played a pivotal role in Anneka’s death. She warned Anneka that Dom was out for her blood, and she taught Anneka how to protect herself from vampires. None of this ended up helping, of course, but Anneka and Michaela did become friends. The two haven’t seen each other for a few years, though. In that time, Michaela has been doing some stuff that shocks Anneka….

In LHF 2.1, "Homecoming Costumes," Anneka and Will consider what to wear. They have just heard that Anneka’s grandmother, Minerva, is on her deathbed, so they must hurry up to Vermont to attend her. Unfortunately, if direct sunlight hits them, they, being undead, will burn up. Thus they turn to their extensive collection of fetish wear to find suitable cover-ups.

As they sort through their dress-up box, they try to alleviate their tension by clowning around. Will pretends that he’s "Captain Thunderpussy, the kitty pirate nun!" Anneka says that his character is no match for "Tex the harem starlet cowboy!" Will’s Captain Thunderpussy costume is a wimple, cat ears, an eyepatch and a cutlass. Anneka’s Tex the harem starlet cowboy is a pair of bunny ears [lost in translation], a cowboy hat, a dancing girl veil, star-shaped sunglasses and a six-shooter.

CLEARLY I need a Captain Thunderpussy doll. Fortunately, there is a kitty nun doll who only needs piratization to complete her transformation into the character. Recently a 12" doll of a Dr. Who character, Novice Hame of the Sisters of Plenitude, was released. Novice Hame is a nun from a race of cat people, so, as you can see from this review, she looks like a bipedal humanoid cat in a wimple and full nun robes. She just needs an eyepatch, a cutlass and some more piratical flair to make her into Captain Thunderpussy.

The more I think about it, the more amusing it would be for Captain Thunderpussy to actually appear in LHF as an overbearing muse figure. Will obviously has a weird, pornographic, parodic imagination, but he keeps trying to write poetry. Maybe Thunderpussy ["That’s CAPTAIN Thunderpussy to you, ya swab!!"] can point him in the direction of his true calling.

No, my "print to action figure" button still ain’t working. The mask was rendered separately, then pasted in as a separate layer and merged with a photo. Close enough for government work! I still want a real one though.

Still, now I know I can paste simple Daz objects into real scenes. This is good to know. Continue reading Fetish mask test: Anneka holding it

Fortunately it won’t actually be worn, but it needs to be a prop. It’s a combination face mask/ball gag/blindfold, and YES, it does have narrative relevance in LHF. Pictures below. Anyone have ideas? Maybe I should just cut off a Barbie face and sculpt from that?? [The different colors in the pictures are just so the different parts can be seen, although I do think those crazy colors are kinda cool.]

Continue reading I need help making a 1:6 mask.

I hope to get an Elfdoll Tiny Kai soon, 14cm of awesomeness, to be Waverley Parker. An unplanned character in the LHF universe, she will become a regular main character because, like Absinthe, I like her so much!

Since I do not know when I will be able to afford her, I content myself with thinking about Waverley’s room. For most of my 1:6 sets, I arrange a selection of my furniture, backdrops and decor, but this won’t work in Waverley’s case. Waverley is 1:6 for a person with her form of achondroplastic dwarfism, which means that she’s more like 1:3 scale in 1:6 scale. In other words, she is the 1:6 equivalent of a 60cm BJD’s height. Anyway, that means that, in absolute scale, she is more like 1:8 or even 1:12, much smaller than my 1:6ers.

So almost everything in Waverley’s room needs to be on Waverley’s scale, 1:8 or 1:12, except for a few items for her guests. I imagine that she has a 1:6 chair and some pillows for guests, but, as in a traditional Japanese house, she spends much of her time sitting on the floor. Nevertheless, I have been thinking about existing pieces of mine that I could use in her set:

• I have pillows and blankets for seating on the floor.
• Chow and Baozha have a low table that could double as Waverley’s.
• My ring box could work as a small end table.
• My Rement lamp [from the yellow dresser] would be the perfect scale to go on the end table.
• I have that pink tricorder that I can use as her computer.
• I have a cell phone that she can use.
• She can watch the Merry Strawberry TV.
• I have a small necklace box that could be a bed for her. It just needs padding.
• I’m sure she would use the mushroom and puzzle mats as throw rugs to keep the floor warm.

Rement offers plenty of accessories on the smaller side for Waverley’s use:

• Flirty Pink #3 has a nice little dresser.
• Merry Strawberry #4 has a little dresser with mirror and hairbrush, while #8 has a low table and a mat.
• Mushroom Paradise #7 has a little chair, while #8 has a shelf and a clock.

In which Velvette delivers a smackdown!!

Comments: Over the course of Anneka’s epic tale of her own death, Velvette has become increasingly dissatisfied with her social life. Now she’s finally doing something about it.

As I mentioned earlier, Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan have started a vampire trilogy with The Strain, first of three books about vampire-as-virus infesting New York City and the Holocaust survivor and public health official who beat back the plague.

In two words: don’t bother. The thoroughly pedestrian prose takes way too long to get into the story. [Why NO, we don’t need 50 pages about the strange airplane full of exsanguinated dead people; just tell us that it was creepy, but they’re dead, exsanguinated, filled with white stuff instead of blood, and there was a weird coffin onboard that disappeared. You can do that in 20 pages, 15 even, and ramp up the tension even more.]

The cast is so large and fleshed out only so far as stereotypes allow that it’s impossible to give a flying fuck about any of them. Their voices aren’t very well differentiated, and, like I guessed earlier, there aren’t any female characters worth blowing one’s nose at.

Not even the innovative reinterpretation of vampirism as a cancerous sort of virus that is motivated by blood-hungry worms in one’s veins can compete with the crashing bore of this book. del Toro’s vivid, cinematic, disgusting and memorable imagination apparently doesn’t translate well out of the filmic genre, even with the help of a ghostwriter. Stick to movies, Guillermo.

Verdict: Don’t catch this disease.

It is an Orient Doll Ye. At 12cm high, it’s about as tall as a Kelly doll, but cuter. Its smile looks pleased, rather than the default toothy Kelly smile, which looks kinda vapid. I got a great deal on one with a partial trade. No character designated for it yet, but I’m looking forward to its cuteness.

Kinjou and I were talking about it last night on chat while I was watching the pilot. Our color commentary follows: Continue reading Merlin the TV show

In which Velvette reveals her true feelings.

Commentary: Upon winding up the story of her death, Anneka fiddles with one of Janet’s many robots. It is actually a wind-up toy, Noggin Bops, that dances by swinging its hips! Meanwhile, Velvette takes Anneka’s advice in a different way than she expected.

Make it go away by making an offer. Continue reading 60cm boy stuff I don’t want

Sold The Jareth Experiment last night. Frank’s next on the chopping block. Hopefully I’ll be able to remove his faceup. I really haven’t been into 1:3 for a while and, try as I might, I can’t rekindle my interests.

So I just caught the first ep of season 2 of True Blood, thanks to the fastest download ever. Most of the plots are continuing from the first season in that people keep dying; Sookie continues to break up and make up with Bill, who keeps looking wounded and red-eyed most of the time; Sam keeps crushing on Sookie; Tara keeps love/hating her mom and getting closer to that creepy "social worker" Maryann; Sookie’s dumb brother keeps pursuing the vamp-hating church; and Bill’s vampire spawn Jessica keeps being petulant. The only one who’s had a real change in status is Lafayette, who’s being kept in a dungeon by Sheriff Highlights Eric for dealing vampire blood.

I find the multi-layered stories interesting and the characters fascinating, except for Sheriff Highlights. He can die and be replaced by someone who can convincingly play an law enforcer. I don’t know where people get off thinking he’s sexy because he’s not.

Of course, after everything, I keep coming back for Stephen Moyer’s portrayal of Bill Compton. I especially appreciate how he builds his acting on stillness and silence, but is able to generate expressive looks without devolving into sad puppy dog eyes. He lurks around looking bloodshot, haggard and cheese-colored most of the time, which is how I imagine your average vampire to look. I appreciate that the costumes and makeup people give him a scraggly, loose comb-over, a pale complexion and other traits that downplay his attractiveness. I approve.

After doing some work on Jareth’s head with brown, black and peach, I stuck his eyes in his head, plopped him on Frank’s body and eyed the result. Continue reading The Jareth Experiment III: A superior smirk

My experiment, previously detailed here, continues apace. After spackling covering the Sculpey mods, the prior epoxy mods and the resin with enough paint to cover a sail boat or, alternatively, all the color inconsistencies in materials, I am now putting features on the head. That means I am drawing outlines of eyebrows and lips with pencil, then using them as guidelines for the actual application of colors. Shown here are lips and eyebrows done in Prismacolor. Still need to add eyeliner, bruise the eyelids, smudge color up toward the eyebrows and put a line between the lips. Faaaaaaaahbulous, daaaaahling, no? Look at the symmetry! The subtlety! The realism, luminosity and perfection!! 
Continue reading The Jareth Experiment II: Cakin’ on the facepaint

In which Absinthe and Will have kids.

Comments: When we previously looked in on Absinthe, she was reporting to her foster mother, Margie, about her trip up to see her former jailer/father substitute, Ethan Stuart of the Colonial clan up in Salem. Her visit to Ethan reminded Absinthe just how attached she had been to Will, and her old feelings toward him are now only growing. She has bittersweet memories of the plans for the future that she and Will used to share.

This ep introduces one of Margie’s daughters, Maggie. It’s the older one, Laurie, who’s pregnant, of course!

Absinthe and Will’s imaginary daughter is portrayed by Submit, who will appear later in the future. For now, all you need to know is that there’s definitely a family resemblance between her and Absinthe. Like Absinthe, she is an Elfdoll Fantasy Kathlen head; the difference is that Absinthe has closed eyes, while Submit’s eyes are open.

Absinthe has two new dresses! One is a burgundy velvet gown with a horrendously large lace collar. It is from the Sentimental Valentine Barbie. I scored the outfit alone for ~$12.00 including shipping.

The other outfit is a blue dress with white collar and underskirt and wretched red bow detailing. It is from the Colonial Barbie. It was not one of my first choices, but it is simple, conservative and appropriate for Absinthe. I couldn’t resist the price either: $8.60 including shipping.

I think the Pioneer Barbie outfit would be best for Absinthe, but the prices are currently a little steep. I’d like to get the whole package or just the outfit for <$15.00.

In other news, I have had no luck finding shoes for Junior, a Kelly-based doll. Kelly/Tommy shoes are difficult to find and to keep track of, which makes them disgustingly expensive on Ebay and also impossible to procure from my usual fellow doll-loving sources. I don’t feel like spending a lot of money on a minor character, no matter how charming he looks.

I keep encountering problems when searching for clothes for Absinthe. I imagine that she wears clothes from the Victorian era, but all the Tonner Victorianish clothes that I want are expensive. I am left with 3 options:

Absinthe’s white shift, which she came with. Good for a nightgown or running around in the house, but not formal wear.
Leonora’s burgundy velvet dress, from Victorian Lady Barbie. Good for winter and formal portraits, but not spring/summer.
Justine’s purple walking suit, from P.F. Albee Barbie. Good for spring/summer, but has been stretched to boobular proportions by Justine.

However, it is possible to find other Barbie-based Victorian fashions. For example, Barbie with Cedric Bear, a dressing gown and nightgown combo, can be purchased for ~$20.00, if one knows where to look on Ebay. Victorian Tea Barbie [the plastic one], a white summer outfit, can be purchased for between $20.00 and $30.00.  Same for Gibson Girl Barbie, a 1910s working woman’s outfit. The Disney Mary Poppins Barbie, a very stylized white 1910s outing dress, can go for <$20.00. Sentimental Valentine Barbie, a dress for winter formals, has an outfit from the 1830s, more properly the period of Absinthe’s adulthood, and she goes for well <$20.00. No one wants her.

In which Mark gets aggressive toward Will. 

Comments: Charles Baudelaire, Will and Mark’s favorite poet, manages to be morbid, gloomy and terribly romantic all at the same time, perfect for indulging a bad mood or inciting lust.

So Shakesville talked about a woman who was raving about her bracelet made out of pressed beet slices and copper. I therefore clicked over to Margaret Dorfman, who makes bowls and jewelry out of thin layers of dried fruits and vegetables, then presses them together to make delicate, translucent works of art. Look at the beet and starfruit bracelets! They are so vivid and yummy. They are making me hungry.

The modded Dollshe Hound head that Armeleia did work on several years ago may easily be made into my mental image of Jareth [shown in recent Daz work] with the addition of modeling compound to the shaded areas. Too bad I don’t have any modeling compound or energy to follow through with this project. Continue reading Needs work.

The Strain, written by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, imagines vampires as a virus and apparently contains no prominent female characters, which is pretty mind-boggling, considering that over half the threatened human populace is female. Nevertheless, I will read it and report back to my loyal follower about my thoughts.

In which Anneka reveals who exactly turned her into a vampire. [Hint: it wasn’t Will!]

Comments: Remember how Anneka said that Will’s vamping “didn’t work?” Now we learn why, with bonus commentary on the undead life from Bang-shi-fu, one of my favorite characters.
 

In which it’s the end of Anneka as we know her.

Comments: Anneka tells how Dom killed her. Velvette is unimpressed.

I made up a delicious drink yesterday. The ingredients are plain seltzer water, raspberry syrup and frozen mangoes, in whatever quantities you desire. You can also use any type of fruit syrup for the Italian soda base and any type of frozen fruit for the ice cubes.

Basically you make an Italian soda by combining seltzer and syrup. Then use some frozen fruit for ice cube substitutes. You can pour some more syrup directly on the fruit for an interesting flavor. As you drink your Bloody Sunset, the seltzer will partly melt the fruit, making it edible by the time your Bloody Sunset has sunk to the bottom of the glass.

It looks kind of like blood and is therefore favored by silly vampires who are sick of drinking things at 98.6. Continue reading Sunset, Bloody Sunset

I used to have a 14cm Elfdoll tiny BJD; she was the early form of Geordie. You can see her with Dom and some other dolls here. I sold her because I really didn’t like her and she wasn’t very posable. Now that everyone and their friend is joining the LHF universe, I want to add a 14cm Elfdoll tiny back into the cast, not as a young child, but as an adult with achondroplasia. This form of dwarfism, which Davry has, usually allows people to top out at about 3.5 to 4 feet [e.g., Davry]. However, in some cases, it results in very small people, such as Jyoti Amge, a teen in India who recently broke the record for world’s smallest person. At 58cm and 11 pounds, she is just about the size and weight of an average 1:3 BJD. If you look at photos of her, she’s also incredibly charming and beautiful. She appears to be extroverted, friendly and welcoming of attention.

Given the exemplar of Jyoti Amge, I have decided that I’d like another person with achondroplastic dwarfism to join the LHF cast: Waverley Parker. Continue reading Waverley Parker

Pay attention to the Clash City Rockers in case you need a little jump of electrical shockers:

You see the rate they come down the escalator
Now listen to the tube train accelerator
Then you realise that you got to have a purpose
Or this place is gonna knock you out sooner or later

So don’t complain about your useless employment
Jack it in forever tonight
Or shut your mouth and pretend you enjoy it
Think of all the money you’ve got

http://oddpla.net/lhf/?p=381

EDIT: Link now works.

In which Absinthe tells Margie how went her trip up to Salem. 

Comments: In the previous ep, Absinthe headed up to Salem to visit Ethan Stuart and Tituba Salem. She respects Ethan as a father figure, so she sought his advice about what to do with her thoughts about Will. Now she’s back.

Absinthe and Margie are hanging out in the room of Junior, Margie’s grandson. He’s between 2 and 3, so I created the impression of a toy-filled playroom with my small stock of 1:12 figs, small stuffed animals and small Rement storage units. Junior himself, who appears at the end of the ep, is a repainted Kelly doll with sculpted hair and pipe cleaners for upper arms to increase posability.

…Absinthe always rebelled with her tendencies both bluestocking and tomboyish.

In my search for appropriate clothing for Absinthe, I pillaged the Victorian Lady Barbie dress that originally was destined for Leonora. Even though it doesn’t close all the way in the back, Absinthe wears it better, I think, though clearly with an unladylike air. Continue reading Scornful of Victorian dictates of propriety…

Shirt from a Hi Glamm doll, pants poorly modified from a pair of My Scene guy’s boxer shorts. Dunno what to do for shoes yet. Hair made of the standard boiled Sculpey painted black. Continue reading Junior completed

From Strapya. I want several for LHF!

I will use the technique that I tested out on Junior to make an Elfdoll tiny [14cm Kai, my current lust object] more poseable. These little dolls are sweet, delicate and beautifully sculpted, but they have notoriously poor posing because their limbs like to fix in cock-eyed positions. Substituting pipe cleaners for an Elfdoll tiny’s upper arms would greatly improve the expressiveness and desirability of the doll.

In which the much-hated Sibley plays nice.

Comments: While Anneka is busy recounting the dramatic story of her death, what’s Will doing? He’s having dinner with Sibley, despite the fact that Sibley makes him queasy. Poor Sibley. No one likes him. Could it be because he abuses his sexbot Viktor? Or that he chases college boys? Or is it his nonexistent taste in modern art? Is it because he is way too enthusiastic about creepy-crawly things? Or could it be because he acts like the world revolves around him?

I have obtained a squirt bottle. That is all.  Continue reading *ffft fffft*

I’m poking around on www.cowasuck.org, reading past issues of the Aln8bak News, the band’s quarterly (?) newsletter. Each issue contains a column called "Say That in Abenaki." Here’s a few things that I’m picking up from the January 2008 issue about greetings and good wishes:

Haaw (haa-oh): A general greeting, equivalent to "hello."

Kwai (k-why-ee): A more informal greeting or recognition of people nearby, equivalent to "hi" or maybe even "hey there."

Pedgi mina (pit-gee mee-nuh): Equivalent to "return again," maybe even "goodbye."

And my favorite…

Paakwin8gwezian (paa-kwe-n8-gwe-zee-ann): Equivalent to "long time no see," a greeting specifically for people who haven’t been seen in a while.

The 8 is a nasal long o ["oh"] sound.

"Paakwin8gwezian" is what Absinthe says to Will after 100 years of separation. 😀 All things considered, such a greeting would probably come a bit more readily to her than "long time no see."

Over in the word search from the same issue, I find the following:

Yahi [yah hee]: An exclamation of joy, equivalent to "yahoo," "yay," "hooray," "yippee," etc.

There is a pronunciation guide in the October 2007 Aln8bak News.

I went to Downtown Crossing today and, yet again, coveted the selection of meretricious jewelry holders at the cheap jewelry stores there. For some reason, there’s been a fad for the past few years in which 1:6 accessories serve as places to store jewelry. There are 1:6 dress forms to drape necklaces across, 1:6 vanities to hold rings in between folds on their little counters and, best of all, 1:6 overstuffed chairs, fainting couches and love seats. Unfortunately the small vanities are $20.00, while the overstuffed chairs are $45.00, and there’s no way in poop that I’m going to pay that much for a doll chair unless it also converts into a bed, a toilet, an armoire and a Cadillac convertible.

I’m trying to find links to example pictures, but I’m not having much luck.

EDIT: This site has a whole selection of miniature furniture as jewelry displays, including a great work desk! The chairs are similar to those I saw downtown.

Also this site has another selection with tackier designs, including a leopard print mini armoire.

In which we meet, through flashback, a cross-loving vampire. 

Comments: Anneka continues her flashback to how she died, telling how she received help from Michaela, a sweet little Catholic vampire with a tendency to talk like the Bible. But she’s really a nice girl! Watch for Michaela in future plot lines.

Here’s a better view of the chair/end table thing that Kinjou sent me, as well as my newest lazy bookcase. No particular reason for the photo. I just like Anneka’s casual and interested stance here. She is watching Will [not shown] clowning around with a parasol. I also like her outfit. It mismatches well.  Continue reading Anneka hanging out

Kim Graham, sculptor, artist, inventor and creative genius, has invented digigrade stilts with spring-loaded hooves. Wow. Look at her other works as well, especially the large "silk mermaid," the process of which she details with a magical combination of good sense and maestro-like creativity.

• Out in the Mountains: "Pulp Fiction and Lesbian Rights." Published October, 2004.
• Tangent Online: The Fair Folk, edited by Marvin Kaye. Reviewed August 17, 2006.
• Trends: "Alternatives to Fossil Fuels." Published January, 2008.
• Sociological Images: "Teddy Bears Substitute for Emotional Work." Published December 18, 2008.

Kinjou, who, along with Andrea, is also God, sent me many wonderful 1:6 things, which I received today. Various LHFers immediately claimed some of the clothes. Here they are:

Will’s sweatshirt and skirt come from a Takara Jenny doll. Stupendously, he fit! Davry and Sarah both have goggles from a Takara Jenny friend doll. Gemini wears an overshirt from a My Scene Masquerade boxer outfit and My Scene male shoes. Sibley wears a nasty jacket from a My Scene Masquerade rock star outfit. Dom’s white shoulder sash is a scarf from a Takara Jenny friend. He also is wearing a strap on his leg [not shown] from some belt. Sarah is sitting on some sort of dresser/chair convertible plastic piece of furniture from a dollar store. Continue reading Goodies from Kinjou’s package!

Forthwith I present an example of my creative process.

Premise 1: I have already established that Justine, head of Will and Absinthe’s former clan, fled to Sunnyvale, California after the death of Will and his parents so she could avoid prosecution.

Premise 2: I have also already established that Gemini, Velvette’s girlfriend and the person who vamped Pippilotta, has a distorted view of herself and her sexuality wherein she sees herself as a fat, sloppy slut.

What if Gemini was on a diet in an attempt to make her body conform to her supposed ideal shape?

What if her diet’s mainstay was skim blood [on the same principle as skim milk]?

What if the skim blood originated in California, a state with known hotbeds of health fads and image obsession?

What if the skim blood had, as most diet drinks do, a sprightly, misleading name like Sunnyvale Lite?

What if Sunnyvale Lite was invented by my only Californian character, Justine?

What if Justine wanted to spread the success of Sunnyvale Lite from California to the East Coast?

What if she chose Boston as a new market because she wanted to prove to her old hometown that she had reformed and become a better, successful person?

What if she befriended Velvette and Gemini and witnessed Gemini abusing Sunnyvale Lite out of unhappiness?

What if Justine seriously questioned her status as a marketing guru who sells superficial fixes and preys on people’s insecurities?

What if she began to suspect that she was still ambitious, impulsive, manipulative, callous and not really that different at all?

I finally got around to taking a photo of the complete Little Will. Clearly he has not had a good night’s sleep, a solid 8 hours of exposure to sunlight or a happy time ever in his childhood.  Continue reading Unhappiest kidsy ever

I went to Foxwoods Money Toilet Casino this weekend. I was very close to the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Library, but did not go. I obviously need to investigate it further, as well as its blog. I wonder what resources the Pequot Museum has online. Absinthe is not a Pequot, but an Abenaki [Cowasuck], but I bet there’s a lot of information in the Pequot Museum and Library about tribes of the Northeast, including the Abenaki.

In which Anneka tells the story of how she died, despite sarcastic remarks from the peanut gallery Velvette. 

Comments: When we last peeked in on Anneka and Velvette, Anneka was trying to tell Velvette how she died, but Velvette kept butting in with a) tales of her own demise and b) smart interjections. Here Anneka finally makes some progress with her own tale as she narrates how a stupid grudge against Will caused her death.

This episode introduces two of my favorite LHF characters: Dom and Caveat. Though quite influential in Anneka and Will’s recent history, Dom and Caveat haven’t come up yet. They’ll rejoin our main story later on, but, for now, we learn of their effect on Anneka and Will solely through flashback. I particularly like the juxtaposition between Anneka’s bitter, flippant delivery and the obvious agony that Dom and Caveat are suffering.

Despite my earlier exhortations, it has come to my attention that everything is not copacetic.  If it helps, you may think of the following:

• Rement Pink Market
• Rement Pets
• 1:6 fireplace
• small shojo screens
• bamboo placemats
• foamcore in white and black
• velvet drapery tied back with sequins
• small netsuke shelves
• Kwanzaa Barbie
• Mixis

In any case, continue to hang in there. It is the best way to get stuff done.

Now back to work. Remember: short and sweet, but not dense. Also remember: polite and persistent.

• United Parenting Publications/parenthood.com: "A Sensational ‘Seussentennial!’" Published March, 2004.
• Out in the Mountains: "Pulp Fiction and Lesbian Rights." Published October, 2004.
• Tangent Online: The Fair Folk, edited by Marvin Kaye. Reviewed August 17, 2006.
• The Fix Online: "Petits Fours, Scrimshaw, and Training Bikes: Metaphors for Short Stories, An Interview with Ellen Klages." Published March 15, 2008.
• Trends: "Alternatives to Fossil Fuels." Published January, 2008.
• Sociological Images: "Teddy Bears Substitute for Emotional Work." Published December 18, 2008.
• hasbro shoezies: the definitive resource. Published February, 2010.

Will pay!

In which Absinthe goes up to Salem.

Comments: When we last left Absinthe, she was down in Franklin, Massachusetts, talking to her foster mother, Margie. Absinthe was reflecting on all the people in her life that she has lost, chief among those being Will. She feels that she betrayed Will and broke him by changing him into a vampire under duress and by contributing to the deaths of his parents. Over a century later, these events still weigh on Absinthe’s mind. For advice, Absinthe travels up to Salem to see Ethan Stuart and Tituba Salem.

The exterior of Ethan’s house is played by the Witch House, the only extant structure in Salem with ties to the witchcraft trials of 1692. It’s also a great example of 17th-century architecture, befitting the oldest and most powerful vampire in Massachusetts.

Side stories done and in progress

• Janet, Velvette and Viktor
• Absinthe [and Margie]

Side stories planned

• Susie
• Little Anneka
• Little Will

Side stories that would definitely be really interesting!

• Dom [and Geordie!]: how he got to Newton
• Zinnia Pascale: how she became a zombie
• Janet: how she got disgraced

In which Will looks for help, but doesn’t get nun. 

Comments: What has Will been doing since his breakup with Anneka? Well, as you can see from the chyron, he’s moved into his own apartment. And he’s still going to Rocky Horror in Harvard Square to keep his spirits up. He does face a few problems, however….

This ep is dedicated to D7ana, who supplied the fetish nun wear for my LHF characters’ use.

I just figured out that, in Manga Studio, it’s much easier to put in the word balloons FIRST to measure how much action can realistically fit on a page…THEN put in the panel cuts. With Comic Book Creator [good riddance to bad rubbish], I had to put panel cuts in before I could put in pictures or word balloons first. As a result, I always felt kind of squished with my layout. Now, thanks to the high-powered capabilities of Manga Studio, my true layout genius [?!] can reveal itself.

In which Anneka and Velvette are in bed together.

Comments: In the previous episode, Velvette reports the ambivalent news about her social life. She enjoys spending the weekends with girlfriend Gemini in Provincetown because of the freedom that it affords her.  But Gemini’s anxiety about her body and her sexuality piss the impatient Velvette off.  Concluding that all vampires are “idiots,” Velvette wonders how Anneka got mixed up in such a dysfunctional crowd.

I originally planned this season to be a flashback about how Anneka died, but Velvette insists that her past is equally important. Here she hijacks the story of Anneka’s death with the tale of her own demise. Oh yes…didn’t you know that Velvette died too? She tells part of the story here.

Originally I wanted a Notdoll Lucy for Little Anneka, but I don’t have the money to buy one right now. However, I do have an extra Elfdoll Kathlen awake plate and a sleeping plate. I decided to use Kathlen’s built-in smirk and create a mischievous younger version of Anneka on a cut-down Obitsu body. Here she is, waiting for her hair. Apparently, before she grew curves, Little Anneka was quite the androgynous little squirt! Tune in later when she gets a shock of spiky brown hair.  Continue reading The new and improved Little Anneka

Felix Doll’s Calix looks very much like Geordie’s current plastic form. Since it’s more accurate and cheaper than a Fairyland Pong Pong, I will probably go with Calix for her.

I got my Planet Doll Mini Riz today! I chopped a bit off the neck and narrowed it with the help of an Xacto knife. I also removed the disturbing cone-like breasts. Then I fit Absinthe’s head atop the body, which is much yellower, but I don’t care. She’s about 10.5" tall, and I think she’s beautiful! I may paint her neck and breast to blend with the pallor of her head, but, other than that, I wouldn’t change her. Now she just needs some clothes, since her Planet Doll body is much more robust than the Obitsu body. All she currently has is her nightgown.  Continue reading Absinthe has her resin body!

Associated Content

• Labyrinth Special Edition DVD: Worth $50? Published October 27, 2005.
• Film Adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ Narnia A Pleasant Surprise. Published December 8, 2005.
• Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls: Collecting These Dolls Is a Great Hobby. Published January 18, 2006.
  

Clarion Reviews

• Camille Claudel: A Novel, by Alta Brown. Reviewed winter, 2005.
• Past the Line, by E.T. Milligan. Reviewed winter, 2005.
• An Unchaste Life: Memoir of a Tudor Queen, by Anne Cato. Reviewed spring, 2006.

Curve Magazine

• Page Turners [various short book reviews]. Published April, 2007.
• Page Turners [various short book reviews]. Published, May, 2007.

Dollicieux

• Dolls With Souls: The Power of Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls, Part I. Published January, 2006.
• Dolls With Souls: The Power of Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls, Part II: Published February, 2006.
• Dolls With Souls: The Power of Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls, Part III. Published April, 2006.

The Fix Online 

• So Fey: Queer Fairy Fiction, edited by Steve Berman. Reviewed October 13, 2007.
• Heroes in Training, edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Jim C. Hines. Reviewed October 21, 2007.
• Inferno: New Tales of Terror and the Supernatural, edited by Ellen Datlow. Reviewed December 7, 2007.
• Petits Fours, Scrimshaw and Training Bikes: Metaphors for Fiction — An Interview with Ellen Klages. [Includes discussion of Portable Childhoods by Ellen Klages.] Published March 15, 2008.
• The Duke in His Castle, by Vera Nazarian. Reviewed June 15, 2008.

Out in the Mountains

• Spring Fire, by Vin Packer. Reviewed October, 2004.
• Girls Who Bite Back: Witches, Mutants, Slayers and Freaks, edited by Emily Pohl-Weary. Reviewed January, 2005.
• Light Before Day, by Christopher Rice. Reviewed April, 2005.

Sociological Images

• "Race, Class and Gender in the American Girl Empire." Published September 8, 2008.
• "Teddy Bears Substitute for Emotional Work." Published December 18, 2008.
• "Only Hearts Club Dolls: Alternatives to Barbie and Bratz." Published December 30, 2008.

Tangent Online

• Fantasy & Science Fiction, February 2006 issue. Reviewed December 29, 2005.
• Fantasy & Science Fiction, March 2006 issue. Reviewed January 30, 2006.
• Modern Magic: Tales of Fantasy and Horror, edited by W.H. Horner. Reviewed June 25, 2006.
• The Fair Folk, edited by Marvin Kaye. Reviewed August 17, 2006.
• Escape From Earth: New Adventures in Space, edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois. Reviewed November 15, 2006.
• North of Infinity II, edited by Mark Leslie. Reviewed November 15, 2006.

Trends

• "Alternatives to Fossil Fuels." Published winter, 2008.
•  "Guest Editorial: Will a $900 Million Shot in the Arm Make the Environment Any Cleaner?" [co-written with Kurt Herman] Published spring, 2009.

United Parenting Publications / parenthood.com

• "A Sensational ‘Seussentennial!’" Published March, 2004.
• "Mommy, I Want that SpongeBob Macaroni and Cheese!" Published December, 2004.
• "Family Fun When the Days Get Shorter." Published winter, 2005.

Reshot for my upcoming LHF book [BUYBUYBUY], it’s 1.1: Domestic Vampires, in which our fair protagonists get off to a rollicking sarcastic start. I think Anneka’s dildo is about as big as her bedside lamp.

I just figured out how to change the default font in Comic Life. For a program that is universally hailed as easy to use, it sure has obscure methods for doing important things like getting rid of the nasty default font. I hate the program a little less now…I think…

Requiem aeternam,
dona eis, Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Grant unto them
eternal rest, O Lord,
and may light perpetual shine upon them.

Michaela in a Lady’s Mission nun’s habit lent to me by D7ana.   Continue reading …Et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Terror is the abject, anticipatory dread you feel before something awful happens. Horror is the abject state of shock and disgust you feel after the awful thing occurs. Well, I’m glad we cleared that up.

He will help her lead a more independent life [she has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome], but she has trouble affording the cost of him and training and all, especially since her car needs a lot of repair. Story here with Paypal link.

Righty-o, so I’m reshooting all the eps of LHF that were done in digital renders because digital renders are ugly and impersonal compared to the warmth and flexibility of my dolls. I can approximate almost every digitally rendered ep without trouble, except for 2.1, "Homecoming Costumes." It’s basically a joke ep in which Anneka and Will wonder how to cover themselves up so they can drive to Vermont without sunlight hitting them and burning them. They consider options from their huge stash of kinky roleplaying stuff:  Continue reading Brainstorming sources for unusual 1:6 accessories

It is compact, portable and perfect for removal from my desk so I have more room to take pictures. Also it weighs less than a gallon of milk. Also it was disgustingly inexpensive, insofar as these things are quantifiable. It should be here by the end of this week!

Previously on LHF: Anneka explains to Will that the guy who felt her up in the Nightcrawler is her abusive ex, Thomas Fell. At first he seemed glamorous and sexy, but soon his nasty temper and manipulative behavior showed through. Even now, Anneka gets bad memories from his ill treatment of her. She goes out with Pippilotta, Rori, Davry and Andrew in an attempt to escape her flashbacks with karaoke, but she feels smothered by their insulting solicitude.

Meanwhile, Will consults Mark for advice. He tells his best friend that he’s worried about Anneka, but somehow the conversation gets derailed. Will ends up professing his love for Mark.

Anneka decides that she needs some space. Though Will offers himself for her to do whatever she wants with, Anneka declines. Instead she wants to head to her parents’ house in Vermont.

With Anneka gone, Will bemoans his "sorry relationship" with Velvette and Viktor. Each of the three friends has their own troubles. Velvette wants to move to Provincetown with girlfriend Gemini, but she feels tied to Cambridge by her obligations to take care of Janet. Viktor has been programmed to be Sibley’s sex slave, but Sibley has banished him, leaving Viktor unable to perform his duties. Will feels increasingly estranged from Anneka and knows that he should probably break up with her, but he’s wallowing in too much self-pity to do so. Velvette and Viktor give him a metaphorical swift kick in the butt and tell him to stop whining and do something constructive.

Up in Vermont, Anneka spends time with her family. Her grandmother Mamie interrogates her about her "queer" nocturnal habits, which Anneka excuses by saying that she has anemia. Anneka asks Mamie what she does, now that her wife has died; Mamie talks about staying busy managing the estate and photographing sunsets. Despite Mamie’s curt exterior, Anneka sees that Mamie is greatly devoted to both her and Minerva.

Anneka dreams that she and Minerva are in a fall cemetery. She does not want Minerva to leave, but Minerva says it is time for her to go. They sing Gaudeamus Igitur, a rather morbid song by which Minerva taught Anneka Latin. Anneka finds herself alone in her dream.

Anneka swaps stories about Minerva with her parents Alexandra and Max. She feels happy to share in-jokes with them, but Will, over the phone, worries that Anneka is spending too much time up during the day. Anneka argues that her time with her family is necessary and therapeutic, especially since Will can’t understand her grief the way that they can. Stung by her self-conscious separation between him and the rest of her family, Will says to Anneka that he thinks they should break up.

In which Velvette wonders how Anneka got so dumb.

Everybody slurs their stilted speech as if they’re all tranqed, at least until the last half-hour, when suddenly a chase occurs. The viewer realizes suddenly and irrevocably that no one has any talent in this movie except Billy Burke as Bella’s dad and Robert Pattinson as Edward. The viewer ceases to be intrigued by the murky, pretty colors of the depressing, pretty scenery and falls asleep, despite the pointless chase scenes trying to compensate pathetically for the complete lack of plot. Danger and death do provide a certain illicit thrill, a primal libidinal allure that we cannot distinguish from fear because, at base, all our emotions are a type of arousal, but viewers will certainly find no exploration of the allure of the deadly in this movie. The vampires are not deadly in this movie; boredom is.

I bought a Planetdoll Mini Riz off of DOAer tinybear. She will supply Absinthe’s body, with a few minor complications.

• First, the body is in normal skin [which has a peach undertone], and Absinthe is bleached white, so I’ll have to paint the neck or something.
• Second, the body’s neck is thicker than Absinthe’s neck hole, so I’ll have to aggressively sand down the neck.
• Third, the body has tiny, conical, disturbing breasts, which need to go the hell away. More sanding. I do not understand the presence of breasts on this doll. All other cues of proportion, body shape and fat placement suggest that Mini Riz represents a child or young teenager who has not yet pubesced. Why does she have breasts?!

Anyway, I got my Riz for $200, which includes dolly, eyes, wig, faceup, dress and insured shipping with tracking. That’s an unbeatable price. Ideally, I would have liked a white one to match Absinthe’s head, but I couldn’t resist the tinybear fur wig, which will be repurposed for Little Will. This Riz also comes with a charming, lightly done set of freckles that I really like. She also comes with this white shift that tinybear made, which will be very helpful as an interim outfit [and old-fashioned nightgown!] as I attempt to find out what clothes will fit Absinthe’s new body.

I’m eagerly looking forward to the Mini Riz body for Absinthe. From what I can tell, it will pose expressively, even without wiring. [Look — she’s touching her face!] I really hope so. As a bonus, the body comes with an adorable headsculpt full of character. The head is currently unassigned, but I am sure I can make good use of it…..

After the great success of its original and striking series of monthly dolls inspired by zodiacal symbols, Soom has now created a mythical world with different zones pertaining to different elements and different doll characters as representatives from each zone. In practice, this means more dolls with limited, androgynous headsculpts, weird, fetishy outfits and therianthropic parts.

March’s issue, Cuprit, illustrates Soom’s smart capitalization on the most popular aspects of their previous monthly dolls. The Ice Queen character has pointy ears, horns, wings and hooves. The only thing that could make her even more desirable would be vampire fangs.

Though I hear some people grumbling about yet another doll with hooves, the majority of people interested in Cuprit are gushing with enthusiasm, even though her therianthropic parts have appeared on previous issues. Bravo, Soom. You know what sells, and you’re making money while making a lot of doll owners very very excited. Continue reading Savvy Soom knows what sells.

Now I know why Will has his eyebrows painted into such exaggeratedly happy upward curves. He’s compensating for a childhood during which during which his eyebrows were exaggeratedly depressed downward curves.

I did the faceup with chalk pastels, sealed in matte and satin varnish. To prepare the surfaces I wanted to paint, I gave them some tooth by laying down an initial coat of matte varnish. I know that my results do not achieve the delicately applied, gauzy, symmetrical, subtle effect idealized by so many painters of Asian BJDs, but I don’t paint my dolls for perfection. I paint them for character, in all its asymmetrical, messy, uneven, unpredictable forms. My stylized paint job quickly communicates personality and expression, which is what I want it to do. Why should I waste time with meticulously presented layering if I can achieve my desired effect my way?

Little Will is my saddest doll ever.  Continue reading Little Will 3.0 with faceup

I got my Notdoll Miriam head in today. It was going to supply the head back for Little Will, but, on a whim, I put the whole Miriam head on his 20cm Elfdoll body. It looks much more suitable than the custom painted Kathlen head. While Kathlen has a large head with a smooth facial sculpt and a small smile, Miriam has a smaller head with a built-in pout and bags under her eyes. Miriam’s brow ridge is also slightly more prominent. She’s sculpted to be unhappy. Here’s the latest Little Will, a Notdoll Miriam head on a 20cm Elfdoll Kathlen body. Needs eyes, faceup and hair. DANG! Just when I thought I was finished with him….  Continue reading Little Will 3.0

My wife showed me this Jinx T-shirt, which is almost worthy of purchasing. I had a good laugh.

So I watched the first 30 minutes of Twilight last night before my copy crapped out. It was so boring. I liked the pretty colors on the screen, very gloomy, dense and rainy, but the stupid, empty script, combined with the endless staring, drove me up the wall. Kristen Stewart may be hot, but she apparently has Jennifer Connelly Syndrome: an inability to keep her mouth from hanging open. Rob Pattinson has a fascinatingly angular profile, and his acting is a damn sight better than Stewart’s, which, in this film of feeble performances, is not saying much. The movie Bella has all the personality of a piece of uncooked tofu, while the movie Edward is prickly, insulting, pissy and completely unattractive. I don’t know what these characters see in each other.

In which Anneka and her parents reminisce about old times, but are interrupted by Will on the phone.

Comments: Hooray, a reappearance of Anneka’s mom and dad! I don’t think Anneka gives Alexandra and Max enough credit.  I know she thinks of them as demanding, perpetually unimpressed and kind of condescending, but it’s very obvious to me that they love her very much and want her only to be happy.

It may be difficult to see, but Will has an array of food around him in the kitchen. There’s a fruit tart over to the right of him when he first appears. On the table he has potato chips, some sort of huge drink and meatloaf. Here we have more evidence that vampires eat food for nostalgic and comfort reasons.

LHFers as of 3/22/09, all 42 of ’em. Continue reading All my LHF dolls, 3/22/09

Geordie: 6 in., 15.24 cm.
Little Will: 7.8 in., 19.81 cm.
Susie: 7.8 in., 19.81 cm.
Little Anneka: 8 in., 20.32 cm.
Margie: 9.4 in., 23.88 cm.
Davry: 9.8 in., 24.89 cm.
Absinthe: 10.4 in., 26.42 cm.
Chow: 10.4 in., 26.42 cm.
Tituba: 11.3 in., 28.7 cm.
Continue reading Small dolls comparison…the short characters of LHF.

I have 3 Elfdoll Kathlen faceplates [no thanks to the USPS, which ATE my fourth >: ], but only 2 head backs. In my search for a third [for Little Will so that Submit can have hers back], I noted that DOAer misa1 was selling a Roxydoll Miriam head. The head back of the Miriam head resembles the head back of the Kathlen head, so I think that I can jam Little Will’s face plate and the Miriam head back together to create a better head that the squishy plastic head back I currently have for Little Will.

That leaves me with an unused Miriam face plate.

In other BJD news, Little Will still needs an appropriate wig, and Absinthe still needs an appropriate body.

In BJD wishes, I’d really like to get a Fairyland Puki Singing Piki faceplate for Geordie. Hell, I’d really like to replasticate her as an entirely resin BJD, Fairyland Puki Singing Piki…

…And, while I’m REALLY dreaming, I’d also like Elfdoll’s Doona Ryung just because she looks so mature and pissy.

I feel like I’m starting a Home for Unwanted 1:6 BJDs here. I started off with my 2 cut-rate Kathlens from Dolls and Friends’ going-out-of-business sale, then continued with a tanned Lucy who’d been on the DOA marketplace for a while. Now here comes the Miriam head, which is one of maybe 3 Miriams on DOA, and I was the only one who showed any interest in her.

After being commissioned about 2 months ago and having his open-eyed plate eaten by USPS 1 month ago, Little Will has finally gotten his free faceup from tiffanyjbt, and he has successfully returned to me. Hooray! The faceup is pretty much as I requested, and it does a great job of making this otherwise perky and cute headsculpt look weary and worried.

After 2 months of annoyance, Little Will is STILL not finished. As you can tell from the flyaway mess on his head now, he needs a real wig, one NOT made by me out of spare Barbie hair….probably a mohair one.

When Little Will gets his little hair, he will finally be done. Then I want him to earn his keep, so he’ll pay me back for all the cost and aggravation associated with his creation by getting his own side plot.

Speaking of side plots…

• Absinthe currently has one running, although, at the rate she’s causing me grief and money as I seek a resin body for her, she’s either gonna get ANOTHER side plot or be incorporated into the main cast a lot more quickly.
• Susie has a side plot coming eventually. I have its arc sketched out, but I haven’t written it yet.
• Little Will’s gonna get one.
• If Little Will gets one, then Little Anneka gets one for parity. Also I’ll take any excuse I can to use Alexandra, Max, Mamie and Minerva.

Wow, it’s BUSY in LHF land!!  Continue reading Little Will doll is back after much travail.

She might, according to DOAers. If that’s so, then that’s an even greater incentive to get such a body for Absinthe, since I really like the Agnes Dreary clothing.

• Minor Conundrum outfit [unfortunately comes with doll] has a bit of a fetish edge.
• Dreary Dinner Doldrums [unfortunately comes with doll as well] looks like it’s made out of spider webs spun from dried blood.
• Recess in the Cemetery is nice and serious and subdued, but I think that the lace collar and cuffs detract.
• Naughty or Nice [dammit — a doll] would be great formal wear.

While I’ve got an interest in Tonner 12-incher clothes, I might also note that Marley, Alice, Lyra, Dorothy and Gerda are the same size. Do they have anything interesting??

• Alice’s Victorian Stripes [unfortunately comes with doll] is just beautiful.
• Marley’s Upstate Weekend is good for climbing trees.
• Lyra’s Lyra at Oxford outfit is simple and practical.
• Lyra’s Svalbard outfit contains a glorious clash of patterns and textures, not to mention an awesome parka.
• Gerda’s outfit is simple and practical and subdued.

Well, somehow the French buyer for the Dollshe body argued her way out of paying customs fees on the full insured value, and she only ended up paying them on the postage and a nominal value. So, anyway, she’s happy because she got the body parts [and some extras] in perfect condition, and I’m happy that this needlessly complex transaction has completed…also that I have half a thousand dollars heading toward my furniture bill!

Sardonix’ Thaasa body is still up for sale, but no one wants it, so she’s staying. In yet another sure indicator of economic crap-out, the DOA marketplace has slowed considerably. In fact, I see on the DOA marketplace some interesting trends that show anecdotally how shittily we are in the economic shitter:

• I’ve seen a spike in the number of dolls on the block because people need the money for various reasons [job loss, mortgage payments, car payments].
• I’ve seen a slight increase in rare valuable dolls on the block, such as Dollshe Bermanns. In an illustration of this point and the previous one, my friend actually sold her Bermann late last year because she and her husband needed the $$$.
• Dolls remain unsold for longer periods.
• Many sellers are lowering prices. Some really want or need to sell their dolls so badly that they start dropping prices by $25 or $50 after a few days or a week of no responses. Others offer free insured shipping, usually only to locations in the same country where they live. I’ve also seen many people selling "regular" dolls [e.g., not limiteds or highly coveted ones) at a 15-25% loss.

All of these indicators prove advantageous to buyers, but there aren’t as many buyers these days as there are sellers.

…If you hang in there until the end of the second week of April, and everything’s copacetic after that, you will be rewarded with many beautiful things…such as, quite possibly, a 1:6 spray bottle [see bottom of the page] and a body for Absinthe [with bonus head!]. Now go back to work.

Support 2 great causes: AIDS advocacy/research AND foiling homophobic bigots!

Westboro Baptist Cult protesters are scheduled to protest for 50 minutes on March 20, from 11 AM – around noon, in Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA. Pledge a set amount for every minute that the WBC dingdongs hang around, and, after they leave, your pledge will be multiplied for the total number of minutes that they stayed, and the total will be donated to Cambridge Cares About AIDS, a local organization for AIDS education and advocacy for PWAs. Go to the CCA Web site to pledge. Then go here and enter your donation information so that the amount that you pledge will be added to the total tally of money that the dingdongs are raising.

Some people look really good in them! Obviously our good friends at ugly_crap are unimpressed, however.

Will, however, is VERY impressed.

In which Will tries not to feel sorry for himself.  http://oddpla.net/lhf/?p=323

Comments: Here’s the conclusion of the My Sorry Relationship show.  Watch out, Will. Velvette’s obviously sick of trying to teach you some sense.

Well, he sure gets points for consistency. I suspect he’s constantly baffled and frustrated by the failure of the world to live up to the gendered scripts running in his head. I mean, for God’s sake, HE’S following them! He attempts to be the dashing, noble, protective, dominant, aggressive, macho, sex-obsessed dude that he’s scripted to be, so why aren’t the women he’s interested in adhering to their proper submissive, passive, biddable scripts? Continue reading What the hell is up with Thomas Fell?

I used my magnifying glass and my macro setting on my camera to take a portrait of Absinthe. This is how she sits on my desk, her head bent, her voluminous hair obscuring her closed, inward-turned face and shy, thoughtful smile. She turned out exactly the way I wanted her to [except for her damn plastic body]. Continue reading Absinthe in my latest lazy lens experiment

In which Absinthe demonstrates to Margie that real life does not follow romance. http://oddpla.net/lhf/?p=316

Comments: Previously in our side plot, Dead Girl’s Diary, we were following the adventures of the person who vamped Will, his ex-girlfriend Absinthe. She was writing, with great sadness, about the pivotal events in her 200+-year life, especially how she loved her Native American grandfather and also Will.  Her “foster mom” Margie then interrupted her, announcing to Absinthe that she had mail. It was the Metro Moonlight, which Absinthe now reads.

…Obviously she’s reading the gossip section. Actually, I imagine the entire MeMo to be written in the same nosey, sensationalistic tone; it reinforces the concept I have of the vampire clans as citizens of a very invasive small town. :p

Franklin, Massachusetts, is on the coastline south of Boston called “the South Shore.” Salem, being north of Boston, is on “the North Shore.”

melopoeia advertised LHF in general on March 8th, saying:

D7ana and I have been talking about the magnifying glass "lazy lenses." On March 10th, she posted about her own experiments with magnifying glasses, but she started off addressing her entry to me:

Thanks, guys. 4.8 has been extremely well-received by all readers.

This Family Fun project could be adapted for use in 1:6.

Earlier I mentioned the possibility of using a magnifying glass as a cheap telephoto lens. In today’s ep of LHF, you can see the results of my experimentation. All close-ups of Anneka and her grandmother were taken with me holding the magnifying glass right in front of my lens with my camera on the autofocus for close range. The magnifying glass, which has 2x power, allows me to get a bit closer to my subjects and fill the frame with super close-ups. I’m pleased with the results. I just have to remember to angle the glass correctly so that it does not catch glare from the lights.

My shitty temporary one, a 27cm Obitsu with hacked legs, barely fits her old-fashioned bloomers. She looks fine with clothes on, but the poor quality of her plastic body underneath her clothes bothers me.

We went to Salem, ostensibly to take LHF photos and wander in cemeteries. We ended up capturing thrift horrors in Witch City Consignment and Thrift Store, displayed here for your delectation. Continue reading Horrors from Witch City Consignment and Thrift Store, Salem, MA

1. Joss Whedon. Just because he was behind a clever movie [BTVS], a generally awesome TV show [BTVS], two better-than-average TV shows [Angel and Firefly], an acceptable movie extension [Serenity] and an intermittently witty but mostly flaccid Web movie [Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog] does not mean that his latest outing, Dollhouse, is automatically wonderful.

• In point of fact #1, his quality has been going downhill ever since BTVS.
• In point of fact #2, Dollhouse so far is a silly TV show on par with Fringe in that both shows contain silly premises, unconvincing, murky universes and leads with all the acting ability of lukewarm tap water.
• In point of fact #3, Dollhouse so far is actually worse than Fringe because it lacks the emotional warmth and accessibility that major players John Noble and Joshua Jackson bring to Fringe.

2. Alan Moore [and Zack Snyder]. V for Vendetta is overrated; for a comic book, it has art equivalent to the poorly mimeographed ads in the back of my childhood Archie serials that wanted me to send $1.25 to a PO box in New York so I could get a box of "hilarious" practical joke devices. Watchmen is overrated; for a story about a whole world on the brink of collapse, it conveniently disregards the female population, except insofar as they are defined by sexually abusive relationships with wankers. And both Alan Moore and Zack Snyder are overrated; both of them are too busy staring at the magnificence of their own egos to register the fact that the world contains individuals besides tragic, conflicted, chisel-jawed men.

The people who need to be notified of these not-God individuals — namely, the Whedon wanks on Television Without Pity’s Dollhouse forums parsing every moment of dialog looking for "Jossian greatness" and the Moore/Snyder posse who seriously believes that the Watchmen movie is on par with The Godfather trilogy [seriously?!] — are not going to listen to me. However, if you happen to be of reasonable sanity and you wonder what all the spooge in a teacup is over these not-God individuals, rest assured that you are not missing anything in avoiding either Dollhouse or Watchmen. I’ll keep you updated on the off chance that Dollhouse improves. Anyone associated with #2, however, is a lost cause.

To conclude, the following people are God.

1. David Bowie…or, more precisely, his Area. That is all.

Because I am notorious for wanting the best results with the minimum amount of effort, I pass along this possibly intriguing tip, which D7ana alerted me to.  Apparently an easy way to increase the macro function on one’s cheap camcorder is to put a magnifying glass in front of the lens. See video by k6yarddotcom for proof. Because I do not feel like dropping huge amounts on extra super special lenses [and because I am too lazy to learn how to use them], I shall try this with my digicam and report on the results. I just need to find a magnifying glass….

Apparently good for sticking Rements in dolls’ hands or eyes in dolls’ heads WITHOUT leaving nasty residue or stains. Clearly, it is a Miracle Substance. Only $5.75 plus shipping and handling from Aftosa.

Round 1 was when she was an action fig head on a cut-down Toy Biz body. Round 2 was when she was an Elfdoll Kathlen head on an Obitsu 27cm torso with Obitsu 23cm legs. Since the large torso and the small legs didn’t fit together very well, I got her a whole new Obitsu 27cm body with the intent to cut down the legs to an appropriate length. After all, I have experience doing so in the form of Geordie.

I’m currently stumped, though, since the Obitsu 27cm, despite its appropriate scrawniness elsewhere, possesses comparatively thunderous thighs. But Absinthe, being 13 when she died, is not supposed to have any curves. There’s no way to get rid of the thunderous thighs unless I swap out her pelvis and legs for those from ANOTHER doll. Maybe a Volks EB Dollfie boy? Part of me just wants to get her a resin body, preferably Planetdoll Mini Riz’.

Right now she’s in pieces as I try to construct a body for her. I am unhappy that one of my favorite characters is in pieces. After the many frustrations I am going through to make her, I am making her a primary character, just to get back as much blood, sweat and tears as I put into her.

I now post LHF eps on this blog, on MWD, on FN, on OSAFB and, when I remember, on Facebook. Comments and praise have spiked recently, especially for Will’s My Sorry Relationship plotline, universally hailed as hilarious. People also really like Anneka’s plotline about going back up to Vermont and seeing her family; apparently this is sad, emotionally engaging and compelling.

As measured by sheer volume of comments, my most popular eps are:

• Meanwhile 7: When Zombies Attack! (16)
• Meanwhile 8: Zombie in the Diner!! (12)
• Meanwhile 9: Zombie in the Library (12)
• 4.5: My Sorry Relationship I (12)
• 4.6: Gift of Sunsets (12)
• Meanwhile 3: Yummy Summer (11)
• 3.9: The Revenant (10)
• Meanwhile 13: Materyllis’ Pesky Pussy (10)
• 1.1: Domestic Vampires (9)
• Meanwhile 4: The Vampire FAQ (9)
• Dead Girl’s Diary 1: Irredeemable Mind (9)

I’m not sure that I can draw a lot of conclusions from these, but I do see some interesting trends.

• Zinnia Pascale [directly responsible for the success of Meanwhiles 7, 8 and 9, as well as 3.9] is the most popular character I have ever created. There’s just something about a crochety, ass-kicking Fruits zombie….
• Light, humorous interstitials inevitably garner the most positive response.
• That said, the popularity of Irredeemable Mind and Gift of Sunsets shows that a majority of the audience appreciates introspective, emotionally charged eps full of character development.
• Most of the most popular eps are from recent seasons, suggesting that the dolls are much more liked than the 3-D models and also that LHF is gaining readers as it goes.

Go me!

This tutorial on how to make a late-Victorian pompadour, created for 1:12 dolls, looks perfectly adaptable to my method of gluing 1:6 hair on people’s heads, if only I can figure out what’s going on in the step where she turns the doll upside-down.

If this works, I can take that horrible bun off of Leonora’s head and replace it with something more realistic.

Aria, from the Dynamite Girls’ Electropop release, has pink hair and fabulously mismatched clothes. She’s almost LHF-worthy in her default state. I would be more impressed if I couldn’t cobble together a similar doll for much less from my existing hoard. I do like her, though, but I think there’s a distressing lack of neon in a series supposedly based on fashions of the 1980s.

The US does not charge customs charges on incoming international packages. Apparently, this is not standard practice; most countries do charge customs fees on incoming international packages. I just sent Jareth’s body to France, for example. The buyer wanted me to mark the package’s value at $75.00 so that she would have to pay only a small amount in customs fees [25-30% of marked value!].

However, I wanted to adequately insure the package in case it got eaten [as Little Will’s open head was], and the amount insured for had to equal the stated value. So I had to state $675.00 as a value and insure for $650.00 [the max allowed on international priority]. Now the buyer is distressed about having to pay customs fees.

Overseas shipping is just a huge, anxiety-producing, expensive hassle, even if the recipients aren’t trying to avoid high customs charges.

PBBBBBFFFT.

That package had better arrive promptly and in excellent condition. I am never going to sell dolls out of the US again.

She’s wearing hacked-down Only Hearts Club clothes. I was saving the hat to use on some of my pink-loving adult figs, but, once she had it on, she wouldn’t give it back. Sigh…

Note: Pink Squad now has 13 members!!   Continue reading Geordie is done, with hair and shoes! Pink Squad +1!

In which Viktor and Will compete on My Sorry Relationship. http://oddpla.net/lhf/?p=308

Comments: As you may recall, Will, Velvette and Viktor are bitching about their relationships: Velvette’s with her sister Janet, Viktor’s with his owner Sibley and Will’s with his girlfriend Anneka. Will thinks that the whole conversation sounds like a competition, so he’s imagining the three of them on a TV show of disastrous relationships, hosted by the current bane of his existence, Thomas, Anneka’s psycho ex. Since this whole game show scenario represents Will’s interpretation of events, we can gather that he has no patience or sympathy for anyone, including himself, as evidenced by the derisive words he puts in others’ mouths.

It is interesting to note that Thomas appears less perturbed by Velvette’s gun at his temple than by Viktor’s threat to disintegrate him. It is also interesting to note that Will pays no attention to this scene occurring behind him.

Here is Geordie in her current state with no shoes or hair. She is 5.5" tall! I ended up using a pelvis and legs from the same 21 [?] cm Obitsu doll. I took 2.5 cm out of the thighs and approximately the same amount out of the calves. I sacrificed ankle articulation, but the double-jointed knees and all thigh articulation remain functional. Oh yeah, I also hacked at least 1.5 cm out of her torso and fused the pieces so that her torso is not articulated at all. I’m sure that, if I had been neater, I could have retained at least all the articulation from her arms and legs, but, as she stands, she is good enough for me.

To finish, she just needs hair and shoes. I do not know where I will get shoes…  Continue reading Geordie needs shoes.

I had an extra Obitsu upper torso and arms from a 21cm [?] doll, so I tried to create a torso with more toddler-like proportions. The first photo shows what I started with: the default. The second photo shows what I ended up with. I don’t know what brand the head is, but I amputated 0.5" in height off the scalp and altered the paint job by Andrea. I removed the eyebrows, recolored the eyes green with black pupils and gave some more definition to the lower lip. I do not know how tall Geordie will end up being. 6" would be acceptable, but I would like to get in the 5" range, perhaps even 4". It all depends on the legs. I wonder where to get some.

Need to sand the chest.

EDIT: I should mention that, in order to get Geordie’s arms short enough, I had to sacrifice the upper arm swivel. Thus her elbows will always be pointing toward her back. But, since she still has all original shoulder and wrist articulation, I felt that this was an acceptable trade-off. I do, however, regret her loss of ability to put her arms akimbo, a characteristic pose for almost all of my characters.  Continue reading Geordie [toddler doll] in progress

Now that I have my Dom doll back in commission, I’d like to get a doll of Geordie, his niece. She was originally an Elfdoll 17cm Jin dal Rae, but she wasn’t very poseable, so I got rid of her. As much as I’d love to get a 1:6 toddler BJD, I don’t have the money for that right now, so I’m brainstorming alternatives.

Obitsu 21cm with reduced arms, legs and torso. This body would satisfy my need for articulation, but I’m looking for something about half this height, 5" at max.

Mattel Kelly/Tommy doll. These are the appropriate size, but their articulation is crap, and they all have disturbing smiles.

Sekiguchi Mame Momoko. These dolls are the right size, with minimal articulation like Kellys, but their clothes can be realistic [see the Street Kids Mame for example], and I find their simplified faces much more charming than Kellys’.

The last time I took pictures of Frank was in September, 2007. Since I’ve been thinking about my BJDs recently, I took out Frank, removed his eyelashes and changed the position of his eyes. Instead of looking sideways to the right, he’s looking diagonally upward to the right. While he used to look mischievous, now he looks downright evil. >:} Continue reading My bad-assery knows no bounds!

At 27cm, with a proportionate head, she is perfectly 1:6 for a prepubescent or barely pubescent girl. The sculpt is full of character and delightful details, such as the protuberant ears, the serious mouth, the swayback spine, the chubby legs and slightly oversize hands and feet. I wonder if Absinthe’s head would fit on that body?

That’s My Face constructs 3-D likenesses of people with the help of 2 photos [front and profile] and a bunch of data points about the boundaries of certain features. One use for the likenesses is that of 1:6 action fig heads. I’m not impressed for several reasons.

• The software best captures "neutral expressions," meaning that the resultant likenesses lack the recognizable expressions that give people so much of their personality.
• Because the likenesses are based only on front and side views, they completely neglect the width, depth and subtleties of the chin and jaw, not to mention the cranium.
• On a more personal note, the likenesses require entirely too much fiddling to establish boundaries and then wait for the effect of those boundaries on the finished sculpt. I would much prefer working directly with material that I can touch.

Computers might be very capable, but they are not as awesome as people think they are for capturing vivid, lively, nuanced likenesses.

Looks like I’m selling my BJD Jareth’s body at least for sure. Hooray! This will help to pay off my our new dresser, couch and chair! If this all works out, I’ll be able to use a bit of tax refund money on another tiny BJD myself!

In which Mamie, Anneka’s sort-of grandmother, finds out the truth behind her granddaughter’s “queer” behavior.

Comments: If you don’t remember, Mamie is Anneka’s grandmother’s widow. Minerva [Anneka’s grandmother] had two partners at the same time: her husband Isaac and Mamie. All three of them raised Max, Anneka’s dad. Mamie used to be headmistress of the Endless Lake Boarding School in the Adirondack Mountains of New York, but she has been a nature photographer for some time now. She lives in South Burlington, Vermont, which is near Maple Corners, where Anneka’s parents live.

I really enjoy writing Mamie’s dialog because, as brusque and uncomfortable with emotions as she is, she really does love her family.

Pink yarn wrapped around wire and jammed through two holes in her head. Scalp covered with Sculpey, dried with hair dryer, then painted orange with pink and white highlights. Continue reading Pink Squad +1: Pippilotta

Marabou, on the left, epitomizes fabulousness with hair newly painted pink, accented with white and purple Prismacolors. Dom, on the right, epitomizes silliness. Boxers with red race cars on them not shown! Nice pants, Dom. Do you have to wipe the crotch on the doormat before you go inside?  Continue reading Pink Squad +1, Loser Legion +1

Watched the premiere of Dollhouse just now. I’m very curious about the concept of programmable people, but, so far, the show itself is rather dull because the trite script allows no development for sympathetic characters and also because Eliza Dushku has even less acting talent than Anna Torv on Fringe, which I didn’t think was possible. [However, watching Anna Torv kick ass is ALWAYS entertaining.] Besides which, the show was much more interested in establishing that Eliza Dushku, in fact, does have boobs and less interested in delineating the rules and hierarchy of the programmable people project. As much as I think the backstory on Fringe is a steaming heap of vaguely crapped-out doo-doo, I find the characters’ personalities and pasts entertaining enough to watch the show so that I can learn more about them. I do not give two shits about anyone in Dollhouse yet.

This weekend, I removed ZaeZae’s original brownish hair and gave her a braid of purple and pink yarn attached to a new scalp of pink pulled-back hair. I also made her spectacles out of 20 gauge brass wire.

In other pink news, the pink count should eventually increase by 5:

• I still need to remove Pippilotta’s current hair and replace it with a sculpted scalp and wired yarn braids…pink, of course!
• Come to think of it, Marabou would look fabulous with a really deep magenta hair color similar to Andrew’s!!
• If I give Janet pink hair, then a majority of the core cast and most frequent secondaries will have pink hair. ^_^
• UberBarbie is making me a fabulous teen boy with pink hair.
• Susie was supposed to have pink hair, but I had such a fight with her current red wig that I have temporarily given up on changing her hair.

Pink Squad as of now.

Standing, back row, L to R: Davry, ZaeZae, Andrew, Anneka, Will, Rori, Sibley.

Sitting, second-to-front row, L to R: Baozha, Sarah.

Lying, front row, L to R: Zinnia Pascale.
Continue reading Pink Squad +2

Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan from Twilight. The usually round, foreshortened and bland Tonner default fem sculpt yields to the slightly long and bumpy lineaments of Stewart’s sexy features. So cute!

Anne Hathaway as Agent 99 from Get Smart. Again, the actor’s salient features — a long face and plushy lips — escape through Tonner’s regimented blandification. Looks like Frank.

Re-Imagination Star-Crossed. A Romeo doll. Needs a repaint and a rehair to become a Jareth doll!!

Eva Green as Serafina Pekkala from The Golden Compass. HOT…except for the painted toenails.

LHF is definitely an ensemble performance, so it’s hard to determine who the main characters are, beyond Anneka and Will, of course. There is, however, a core group who get most of the plots:

• Anneka
• Will
• Pippilotta
• Mark
• Velvette
• Janet
• Viktor

Outside of this group, there are secondaries who appear frequently, but don’t really drive the story:

• Rori
• Absinthe
• Sibley
• Davry
• Andrew
• Chow
• Materyllis
• Zinnia Pascale
• Anneka’s family
• Will’s family
• Thomas [boo hiss]

For sale: NS SA Dollshe Hound, modded by Armeleia. Make me an offer. [Keep in mind: Bought at end of 2005 for $650.00, paid ~$100.00 for modding. Now out of production. Also unique head.]   Continue reading For sale: NS SA Dollshe Hound, modded by Armeleia.

I sent Little Will’s face to tiffanyjbt on DOA to get him repainted. The mail ate him, even though he was priority. He should have taken only 3 days at max to go from MA to IN, but he still hain’t arrived yet, and it’s nearly Commercialized Hearts Day. >: I hate you USPS.

In progress

–Ethan [needs breeches, banyan and cap]
–Leonora [needs invalid chair]
–Susie [needs restringing]
–ZaeZae [needs haircut or new hair]

Out for work
–Little Will [needs new faceup]

Incoming
–Alicia
–Dom
–unknown UberBarbie club kid

Another trade with corsetkitten yields a bad-ass doll [photo by Mick Balte] done by Character Options with no designated character…although I suspect she will become Alicia, Janet and Velvette’s mom, an ex-feminist porn star turned evangelical Christian and writer of devotional poetry.

After college, Alicia and friends moved out West to start their feminist porn company. Alicia had her kids with some of her fellow start-up dudes in the business, then moved to her hometown area, Boston, to escape the volatile world of Californian porn in order to raise her daughters.

She has a long history of disappointment in her daughters because they appear to take after her own sexually adventurous tendencies. She kicked Velvette out of the house when Velvette started her fetish modeling and fashion designing. Velvette went to live with Janet, who was the exemplary, smart, overachieving, successful, sexually repressed daughter, until the sex scandal that brought her dismissal from MIT. Fearing their mom’s disapproving wrath, Janet and Velvette stayed far away in Cambridge, pissing each other off instead of dealing with Alicia.

Like I said, Alicia turned her considerable zeal into evangelical Christianity. She got saved and convicted. She may be an ex-masturbator.  Since both Janet and Velvette are queer, with heavily kinky associations [Janet with robo-sex, Velvette with BDSM], they both pretend that their mom doesn’t exist. It’s a protective measure because they are sure that she will condemn them. She keeps sending them books of her devotional poetry, which they keep ignoring. It’s obvious that the daughters still love their mom and the mom still loves her daughters, or at least they all WANT to love each other, but they stay apart because of painful history.

There are definite class tensions between Alicia and her daughters because Alicia was indoctrinated with the concepts of assimilating, overachieving and being an outstanding representative of her race. She not-so-secretly thinks that Velvette and Janet are not being a credit to her because their behavior reflects a reversion to the "black woman as oversexed slut" stereotype. "I wanted you to work hard and make something of yourselves, not sleep around and ruin it!" Clearly there’s an element of bitterness and possibly self-hatred here, since Alicia had kids, which interrupted her hard work on the porn co.

Clearly I’m not going to explore all these tensions in depth in one side story, but, if I can at least allude to them accurately to make a rich, believable portrayal of my favorite secondaries [who are also characters of color]. [I’ve been thinking a lot recently about, as a white writer, writing believable, convincing, non-stereotypical characters of color, which is hard.] Yay more plots for Velvette and Janet! …Especially Janet… I think everyone dumps on her, but she has a really interesting inner life and motivations and past [what was that scandal at MIT????] that she never divulges. It’s always the quiet ones….

Well, anyway, the Martha Jones doll obviously needs her hair painted grey and her face lined to show age.

One of my longish-termish goals is to sculpt a DECENT 1:6 head. While poking around to see whose friends lists I’m on, I found this page of eBooks on how to sculpt body parts with polymer clay. Could these be useful? Well, they’re unquestionably cheap!

In which we learn that drag queens aren’t on all the time.  http://oddpla.net/lhf/?p=277

Comments: After karaoke, the gang repairs to the Nightcrawler. Even when Anneka’s gone [she’s up in Vermont, as you may remember], the conversation is still entertaining. As a friend of Rori, who knows everyone in the universe apparently, Marabou the karaoke emcee joins ‘em. I like her. She’s sweet.

In which Will, Velvette and Viktor compete on a game show. 

Comments: As you may recall, in the Tale of Two Sisters side plot, Velvette was caring for her sister Janet, who suffers debilitating migraines. Despite Velvette’s best attempts at patience, Janet’s demanding, short-tempered behavior pissed her off, so Velvette sought comfort with her new girlfriend, the undead Gemini, creator of crocheted roadkill. At the same time, Viktor, an eternally frustrated sexbot created by Janet, was rejected by his owner Sibley. Viktor approached Janet for help, but she rebuffed him. This storyline now overlaps with our main storyline in this ep.

I just realized that we’ve never actually seen Janet working in her lab. Hmmmm…

Please note that all events in My Sorry Relationship are Will’s interpretation of events, not actually accurate representations of each character’s voice. That said, he does have a certain vulgar knack for getting to the root of others’ problems….

It’s hard to add healthy amounts of fruit into your diet when the fruit is actively out to get you. One of my favorite bits from Eddie Izzard.

…comes home after an extended sojourn in the UK, along with Caveat 1.0 and a pack of spare Obitsu hands for my body-hacking needs.

\m/ ^_^ \m/