Needs Enrichment

[lydamorehouse]

 
Image: 1960s-style Marvel characters on a quilt, interspersed with red, blue, green and brown squares. Some of the colored squares are checked or dotted to imply the stippling done with color and shading in early comic books. 

Least any of you are worried that I was so petulant about the Facebook comment that I have given up on quilting, never fear. I turned around and started this one almost the same day. Here is the nearly finished result. I'm currently waffling about the edging. I think I may want to expand it a bit more, which would require some detail work, but... what else have I got to do? (I am still awaiting copy edits and final comments from Shawn, so, really, I don't have a lot on at the moment.) 

Meanwhile, I continue my postcard project, despite a distinct lack of funds. This will be week... four (?) of random, strange homemade postcards for my recipients. No, I think I unearthed a postcard booklet of Yellowstone postcards a few postcards back, so maybe it's only been a couple of weeks of these. I found an amazing postcard on Redbubble that I'd love to send, but I'm going to have to wait for Christmas money to arrive. My very, very cheap source of postcards dried up sometime ago. I used to be able to order postcards from Deviant Art. But, I think the powers that be figured out that I was going in via an old entryway and have since disabled it. Like, I don't think I was doing anything wrong, I just think that the powers that be discovered that offering postcards like that was was a loss leader and I was buying a f*ck TON through them. Redbubble and Etsy are much wiser about their prices and so, given that I need about 25 of these things once a week or so, they've become a very rare purchasing option for me. 

This week, in the process of moving some chairs around the living room, I uncovered a basket full of odd cards--like birthday greeting cards. For a while, I was pseudo-collecting these at estate sales. Back when I was getting into pen palling, I found it kind of silly/fun to just send out old-fashioned or odd greeting cards along with my letters. Nowadays, I am down to ONE international pen friend, so they languished. 

What I did with the greeting cards was cut them up to 6 x 4 which is the standard postcards size and then used scraps of pretty paper to cover up obvious birthday wishes, etc. The result is a lot of flowers? Odd pictures of birds? I'm not sure how I'm going to spin this one into the story I'm half-telling, but it will be fine. I'm never entirely sure (except in a few rare cases where people have actually reached out now and again to tell me otherwise) that my strange efforts are appreciated, anyway.  

It's mostly a project for me. As Mason once told his Discord: "Ima needs enrichment."

I'm like an octopus in an aquarium, apparently. 

In other news, I am continuing my nightly rewatch of a single original Star Trek episode. I accidentally rewatched "The Enemy Within" last night, and I rather wish I'd skipped that one. I will say, however, that Sulu is quickly becoming a favorite character this time around. He gets a LOT of funny lines, and, no surprise these days, but George Takei has very good comedic timing and is handsome and charming in a way I think I missed the first time through, as I was far more focused on the Big Three: Spock, Kirk, and McCoy. One of you suggested "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky," as one I could randomly pick as part of this, and I think that will be tonight's episode. 

I am also using my time to bake cookies for the holidays. Yesterday, I made spritz. Today, I will be making sugar cookie cut outs, a recipe we call "Lizzy's sugar cookies," after Shawn's bestie from Kindergarten, with whom she is still in regular contact (and might still be a bestie?) 

Comments

[sabotabby]

That is so cool.

[lydamorehouse]

Thanks. And I think I have an idea for finishing it.

Also, your specialty fabrics arrived! I can now get back to work on your Star Trek quilt, as well.

[sabotabby]

EEee!

[kore]

AWW Natasha!

Those cards sound so creative. I would love to get one personally! Individually made gifts and cards are very cool.

[lydamorehouse]

If you send your snail mail to my Gmail address, I can add you to the list: lyda.morehouse@gmail.com. We are in mid-story, but it's just goofy stuff about my fictious travels. I'm currently, in the story, searching for a former colleague known only as The Tour Guide. But, following any of this is truly unnecessary to the enjoyment of getting postcards in the mail, I'd imagine. Rules are--you just get to enjoy them and then do with them whatever you want. No need to return anything, ever.

[kore]

Aww, that's really sweet! I wasn't fishing I swear -- only if it's not an added burden for you. It sounds like a lot of fun!

[xochiquetzl]

Aw, man, “The Enemy Within.” It’s been ages since I watched it, but the memories are… cringeworthy. I think it’s the episode that has aged the worst of all of them, even worse than the one where the violence monster makes Chekhov sexually assault a Klingon woman.

[Wait, I’m thinking of Turnaround Intruder, but Enemy Within isn’t great. So my worst list is probably Turnabout Intruder, Enemy Within, Day of the Dove.]

(They showed TOS as prime time on AFN—Armed Forces Network—when my father was stationed in Germany, so I was an Old Skool Trekkie at an early age.)

[lydamorehouse]

Like most people my age, I watched the original series when it returned to TV in syndication sometime in the mid-1970s, I think? I was fortunate that my mother was a big fan and owned a lot of the novelizations, too, so we all tuned in religiously.

Cool that you saw it on AFN.

And, yeah, "Turnabout Intruder" is cringe-worthy. It was one of the first ones I rewatched and... it reads differently now to me. When I was young and the idea of being in the wrong body resonated with me in very, very inarticulate ways, I had a lot of feelings about "Turnabout Intruder" that went beyond "Oh, jeez, Shatner really hams it up." Like, I still hated it, because Dr. Janice is painted as insane immediately and of course is shown as shrill and hysterical... but I was like, "Dude, she was denied being a starship captain and just needs the right body, how can you not be sympathetic to that??" I mean, like I said, now, I'm like... oh, whoa, this is so anti-trans and SEXIST as F*CK. Like, I knew it was at the time, but for me, back then, it was more... :Oh. What if I could find an ancient machine and switch bodies?"

[xochiquetzl]

Yeah, I lived on an army base in Germany in the mid-70s. 🤣 And my family had approximately zero interest even though my sister loved Star Wars.

Yeah, I know. Things that read differently to you as an adult. Like, maybe Dr. Janice Lester is insane because the patriarchy, and putting her in little boxes, and people condescending to her even though she’s obviously smart and competent?

(Most of my gender issues were from my “of course women are smart, but women have to pretend to not be smart because men are only interested in stupid women“ upbringing. I feel like all my friends my age got “women can’t be strong” and I got “women are in a global conspiracy to pretend to be stupid to protect men’s erections.” Way to make heterosexuality sound appealing! 😉)

Mine was “The Enterprise Incident.” I thought Spock actually liked and cared for her and sure, he’s not going to defect but I didn’t understand why they couldn’t, I don’t know, date? Why it had to end so badly for her if it was normal for her culture to have smart women leaders. As an adult… she’s kind of fetishizing him, and he’s betraying her so badly… and she makes a lot of awful decisions. I still love her on some level, though. She was my first woman captain/admiral, after all.

[lcohen]

i love getting the postcards but if you need to cut back to save money, i don't want it to be any kind of burden to send them to me.

the marvel quilt looks great! and lucky sabs--can't wait to see her quilt!

[lydamorehouse]

No, I will continue postcards but just wanted to complain, like you do.