wtf?

OK I know this is a terrible habit, but the way I use my computer is a very lazy one. Since it's a laptop, I tend to carry it around, even when I travel out of state. I never shut it down. I never even quit programs. I just leave things going constantly. I currently have two windows open in Firefox with over ten tabs in each, and they're not even sorted by subject, they're just random. Then I usually have two word-processing programs (Word and Textwrangler, which I switch back and forth between constantly-- initial composition in TW, then I paste into Word and copy line by line back into TW when editing or redrafting, two windows side by side), and more often than not iPhoto, iTunes, and maybe Photoshop open too. That last one's a terrible idea because I have the old version of PS that isn't *really* compatible with the Intel-chip Macs like the one I have.

And I just never restart, or shut down, or even quit out of programs. I'm an awful custodian. I know it's screwing things up.

My battery is starting to go. It lasts a couple hours, but then instead of warning me, or going to sleep, it just shuts the computer down without warning. Z fixed it by putting it in his computer and running it all the way down several times, since I also have the terrible habit of, while carrying my laptop aimlessly around, plugging it in whenever I'm near a plug regardless of the battery charge status.
Well, apparently that confuses the power management software. So I've been making a real effort to, when it's unplugged, run it all the way down before plugging it in again.

But I'm not Z, and it doesn't fear me. Yesterday it popped up a warning once, which is good. But then the second time I ran the battery all the way down, it just pooped out on me.

I figured while the computer was off, I'd restart and install the software updates I've been sitting on for like, oh, two months.
And I did.
And Firefox updated itself.
And I restarted, and lo! Firefox restored my session! Yay, now I don't have to find the 23 pages I had open in tabs again!

But it won't load Gmail.

So, not really amused. It does the "loading" page, then flashes to the header of my inbox, but then goes back to the "loading" page... Hmph. Really, really, really not amused.

Don't make me start up Safari, Firefox. Really now. I mean, really. I dumped Safari because it didn't work with Gmail Chat, but they've fixed that since, I hear. I know there's a new Firefox but you know, that was my semiannual software update, don't ask me for more maintenance than that.

Hmph.


In other completely unrelated news I got my sewing machine working. It was the tension. I just needed somewhere to set it up where I could see clearly.
I have now completely boned a double layer of muslin with jute cording and am going to attempt today to join the three pieces into a pair of bodies, a la fifteenth-century Florentine fashion. We shall see whether this yields anything wearable. I'm just torn over either binding it in linen and leaving it as an undergarment, or putting a layer of the blue cotton fabric over it and making it the supportive bodice of the blue dress.
Exciting.

blood

Last night I got really hammered and, instead of passing out early like Z did, I decided I was going to finish putting the cording into the pair of bodies I'm making.
I decided to experiment with using hemp cord as the supportive boning material in a pseudo-corset for Pennsic. It sounded like it would be comfortable. It has been described as being sports-bra-like. Sure, I thought, why not?
I was going to just build the support into the bodice of one of the dresses I'm making, but then I realized, if I do all of that work, and simply don't sew it to the dress, I can then wear it under several dresses. Ohhh. Brainwave.

So I got the sewing machine working, and went to town sewing lacing channels. I drafted a pattern by tracing an old Renn Faire corset that sort-of fits and adding on some bits here and there, and shortening that bit and lengthening this bit. Etcetera.

Once I was good and drunk, the work went much faster. To add amusement value, instead of winding white thread onto bobbins, I just went ahead and used whatever was on the dozen or so bobbins that I'd found in the sewing machine case. So the lacing channels are sewn in white from the top, and from the bottom, it's either white, teal green, bright pink, yellow, or scarlet. To add amusement, I flipped the fabric every time, so every other seam is sewn from below. Then I did the back all in scarlet on one side and white on the other.
I'm sewing it all down to an outer layer of twill-like-textured linen, but I'm going to leave the boning channels showing on the inside, because I don't need yet another layer in there. (I think I'll be wearing this over a shift anyway.)

I have the back finished, and the two front pieces pinned to the outer layer. I need straps, though, and to get off my ass and figure out whether the front closure absolutely must be straight or if I can curve it a little. I think it's nearly impossible to lace two curved surfaces together, but I don't know. My surface curves kind of a lot, if you know what I mean.

But I took a semi-break this afternoon, and went outside to sit in the hammock with my hair down to dry in the sun from this morning's shower (it had been up in a bun). I brought my things, and spent an hour and a half sitting in the afternoon's last sunbeams, hand-sewing the eyelets down one side of the back. (I've decided to make the thing lace closed in three places just in case the thing doesn't fit-- more places to adjust it = more adjustability, right? I moved the side laces toward the back, though, so they're not right down the sides.) And while I sewed the eyeles, Chita frolicked around underneath me and around me. She treats the back yard as though it were a room we'd set up for her. She doesn't try to go outside of it. And she was absurdly pleased that I was there to talk to her while she played. She kept coming over and head-bumping my butt through the hammock mesh.

I do have one bit of advice for anyone who's considering making a hemp-boned pair of bodies. Make it in a darker color. I have pricked the everloving hell out of my fingers, and the damn thing is unbleached-muslin-colored, which means that now it has visible bloodstains on it.
OW.