His Lordship's Artificial Limb

New GhostCake Unbodied Episode: My robo roommate

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 04:02:00 +0000

Yes, here is the place for you to put questions or comments about the show. If you haven't listened to it yet, go here and download it. You can find the show on iTunes too by searching for ghost cake.

This episode is another story from The Unbodied, which is the radio theater incarnation of the show. I really enjoy doing these episodes because it's so much fun to get everyone together to record. It does, however, take a very long time to edit the show as well. I was spending an hour or two to edit about ten minutes. Most of that time was taken up by trying to find the right sounds from freesound.org. I'm trying to figure out a quicker way to edit everything so I can get more episodes out.

I've been trying to decide if I should split the show into two shows, one for my adventures around town and the other for the stories. It really depends on whether some people would only listen to one kind of show or the other. Speaking of which, I'm going to try to record another episode for next week. There's supposedly a really cool place in the Great Salt Lake that has all these random things in the water, so I need to check it out. I also need to explore the African Market and the Indoor Swap Meet.

Does anybody really care if I base most of the shows in Salt Lake City? I don't usually mention exactly where things take place, but when I do I like to say they are going on here. I guess if I lived in New York I'd probably set the stories there mostly.

I've realized too that most of the downloads are from people I don't know. I'd like to get a feel for what everyone thinks about the show, so if you want to give me feedback, please do.

Anchor-chief Handkerchief

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff) — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 23:57:00 +0000

I recently completed a set of handkerchiefs for some friends of mine who had birthdays. I had originally wanted to do a maze motif, but I liked the idea of doing an Anchor-chief: a handkerchief with an anchor on it. I wanted to try a project from a book I got for Christmas, Printing by Hand by Lena Corwin. I had a fiasco with printing before, but I was sure this time would be better. Some of the pictures are a little blurry, my apologies.

I had to make a design that would allow me to paint the negative space of the image. If you've ever made stencils, you know that the final design has to connect so that the pieces don't fall out. Not so with this design! I drew and cut out a design on freezer paper, which sticks to the cloth when ironed on.

I used acrylic fabric ink. I had to blot the brush so that the ink wouldn't bleed through to the other side. It took many coats to get the color saturation that I wanted.

Once the ink dried, I carefully peeled off the stencil.

Then I added initials in the left and right sides of the anchor.

Here's a close-up of the anchor.

I was very satisfied with my final result. I think next time I make a handkerchief I will do an even more complex design. It is harsh on the eyes to cut out minute details, but it looks good. My next printing project will be some cloth napkins. I'll be printing jellyfish on them with a handmade stamp. I also hope to print onto fabrics for curtains and sheets. Working with my hands is relaxing and so I'm going to do more of it!

Films

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:50:00 +0000

During my visit to my mom over Christmas I decided to go through a couple of boxes in her garage. Even though she moved into her house several years ago, she hasn't gone through all the stuff we initially piled in during the move. I thought I would help her out by taking a box or two and organizing it.

I mostly focused on boxes from my grandparent's house because they were the most interesting. They contained things I had never seen before. I never met my grandparents before they passed away (I met my grandmother, who married my grandfather after my maternal grandmother passed away) and so what they left is really all I have to know them by. In the box I found that day there were several smaller boxes of jewelry. They were my grandmother's. I had a friend who collects antique and costume jewelry look them over and she was surprised to find so many pieces in good condition.

Another box contained my grandpa's pins from WWII. He was a medic stationed in the Aleutian Islands for a while and the brass pins had images of the snake and staff as well as two flags my friend thought might be Masonic symbols.

The most intriguing item was a white roll of 8mm film. My mom's name was written on it, but that was it. A year or so ago I had bought a projector that could play the film, but when I had turned it on the light bulb hadn't worked. Last night I decided to play around with the projector just to see how the film would fit. To my surprise, when I pushed the switch to turn the bulb on, it actually turned on. I needed to have it in a certain position. It took Joey and me a while to figure out how to put the film in. It's funny to think that this procedure would have been commonplace at one time but is so rare now that few people can do it. We finally threaded the film through the projector and turned the machine on. We dimmed the lights and focused the image on a white piece of paper.

The film showed my mom running around with a chihuahua at the house she grew up in in Sugarhouse. I could see the small trees in the front lawn that would be tall by the time I visited my grandmother. There were also scenes of my grandfather and the grandmother I knew. He looked exactly like his pictures. He had on a suit and tie and she had on a white dress with buttons. They were walking around the front lawn. The projector would only work in slow motion so their movements were slow and gradual. This was the first time I had seen my grandfather actually moving. Because I had only seen him in photographs I thought of him as being quite static. When I saw him on the film for the first time moving and smiling, it seemed really natural to me. Even though I never met him in person I know I would recognize him in anything.

I really enjoyed watching it. I hope I can find more films of my grandparents because I feel like I know them better just by watching the films.

New Ghost Cake episode: Grocery Field Recording

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 01:46:00 +0000

Another amazing ghostcake episode. I've decided to take out the space between those two words, but I'll probably regret it later. In this episode I make a field recording of my trip to the grocery store. I'd like to do more field recordings in the future, ones in stranger places.

Leave any questions or comments here.

In other news, my apartment is warm again after being bitterly cold for several days. The boiler was on the fritz. The cold immobilized me. I'd like to get out more, but with work being so crazy for the end of the year and the cold, short days I haven't had much luck.

I'm also thinking that I should write more in here. With any luck I'll have more time to.

Ghost Cake on Wikipedia

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 17:38:00 +0000

I want to create a page for Ghost Cake on Wikipedia. Does anybody know how to do that? It looks easy but I want the page to look awesome.

Thank you!

Thanks George Putnam!

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 06:33:00 +0000

I fully support this video.

This is Where the Blah Sets In

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff) — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 04:23:00 +0000

I think I'm getting a little depressed. I don't feel like doing much when I have the free time. I have no ambition. I feel like lying around, staring at the walls. It might be because I've been so busy these last few months. School has been doubly hard because of my final Anthropology class. It is interesting but I have twice as much reading for that class as my others and it is all scientific papers about evolutionary ecology. I enjoy the material but it still takes so much of my time to get through. I'm probably feeling gloomy about having to work crazy hours in December too. I might have to work 60+ hours every week. I'm going to try to get two days off per week, but they might get bitchy and deny it. Even though it's only for a few weeks it feels like it's so much worse. My only substantial break between the semesters and I have to work my ass off during it.

I'm really getting tired of my daily routine. I need to break free somehow. The trouble is, I have to work to survive and I don't want to leave school when I've got so little left before graduation. I keep looking toward spring for hope but the time until then seems so vast. Maybe I'll shake up my schedule as much as I can. I'll try to find a time machine or something.

I know this feeling will pass, but in the mean time it is god awful.

Gimme Gimme New Guinea!

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:53:00 +0000

I just got done reading this article about this study done in New Guinea. The researchers were looking to see when agriculture first came to New Guinea, and they discovered that bananas were likely domesticated first here in 5000 BC (or 6950 BP, if you can translate that). For me, that number is amazing because it is difficult to imagine how you would transform a plant from a wild variety to a domesticated one without any modern technology. It would take several generations of people to get it all done too. It is also interesting that domestication occurred at all because the site that this was done at, Kuk, was not a dense montane forest like the surrounding area but a swampland and grassy area. What are the chances humans would go there and then domesticate something? Okay, they probably were attracted there for the variety of food they could get at that location. But imagine if bananas were never domesticated. What would you put on your cereal?

Actually, some prehistoric groups domesticated plants that are now either extinct or not in wide use. The group of people living in eastern United States 3000 years ago domesticated some plants, like chenopods and sumpweed, that aren't eaten much today. I don't even know what they would taste like. This group did, however, domesticate sunflowers. Probably. There still seems to be a little confusion over that.

Learning where foods were first domesticated makes me think about how amazing humans are. It is our ability to adapt to new environments and new situations that makes us such a dominant species. At the same time, the antiquity of domestication kind of debunks the push for "natural" foods. If you really wanted your food to be untouched by human hands, it would be nearly impossible. You'd have to give up all the foods you eat now and try to go out into the wilderness and collect wild specimens. Good luck with that.

Sita Sings the Blues

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:53:00 +0000

Here's a trailer for an amazing looking movie.

It's already gone to several film festivals. I hope it comes here to Utah. Seeing this makes me want to be an animator. You can find more information about the film here .

New Ghost Cake episode: Proposition 8 Protest

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 14:48:00 +0000

You can leave comments for the show here. If you haven't listened to the show, go to this link and do it!

When I got to the protest I felt much more secure. I was worried it would be about five queens shouting at the temple. There were around 2,000 people there. I hope some sort of change occurs because of this and other efforts.

Protest Tonight

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 23:06:00 +0000

I'm a little nervous about going to this protest tonight. It's going to be downtown and against the Mormon Church for supporting Proposition 8. I don't know how many people are actually going to go because it's kind of cold outside. I'm going to record some conversations with people. I just hope nothing crazy happens. I could imagine some redneck starting trouble with the group.

I am disheartened by the passage of the amendment in California. Religious people seem to think that if they don't invade and infect every part of everyone's lives they will somehow be deficient. The arguments against gay marriage are weak and totally based on some subjective ideology.

Many people are associating this ban with the ban on interracial marriage prior to the sixties. The interesting thing is that most Black people in California voted FOR the ban. I don't know if the parallel was really talked about, but I wonder if it would make a difference. Religion can make people do contradictory things. But, the experience of the Christian faith attempting to assert that a group of people ought to be slaves forever should be enough for anyone, Black, White or any ethnicity, to see how religion is entirely fabricated and the result of human fears. Religious beliefs should not be the basis of civil law.

Another peculiarity of the call for moralizing America is the strange marriage allowances now. I don't know if this is true still, but I thought in Utah a child could marry starting at the age of 13 or 14 if they had their parents' consent. So, a 56 year-old man marrying a 14 year-old is somehow beautiful and holy? That is disgusting. Is that what the Mormons are fighting for?

The protest starts in about an hour and a half. I want to go to show support for this. I don't want to say I'm for Gay Rights and then chicken out.

New Ghost Cake episode: Mummy Time

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 04:24:00 +0000

The latest episode of my show is a little bit about mummies, a little bit about the elections, a little bit about depression glass and a whole lotta fun. I talk about the Chinchorro mummies from Chile, which are the oldest known mummies in the world. They predate Egyptian mummies by almost two thousand years.

You can listen to the show by searching for it at iTunes: ghost cake. It'll pop up under podcasts. If you aren't of the iTunes persuasion you can find the show here Feel free to leave any comments or questions here. And, if you are a new listener to the show, let me know where you're listening to it, just for fun.

Lab Lull Rant

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:34:00 +0000

I have at most half an hour before my next subject comes into the lab so I thought I would rant. I read an article this morning that said 1 in 7 voters are still undecided about this presidential election. Seriously? What have these people been doing for the past year? Haven't they taken even a little bit of time to see what the candidates' positions on issues are? I am an Obama supporter, and I've already voted, but I respect the points of a McCain supporter as long as he/she has thought them through. The voters I hate are people who don't really pay any attention to the debates or the issues and just decide who they want to vote for in the booth. These are the jackasses who voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004 because he seemed like the moderate candidate.

I think that if you haven't made an intelligent decision about who you are going to vote for then you shouldn't vote at all. Our political system was not put in place so everyone would be forced to vote, whether they've made up their minds or not.

Another thing that pisses me off: the Proposition 8 in California. Why is it anybody's business if two gay people get married? I don't understand how anyone could oppose that except for prejudicial or religious grounds. Will gay marriage mean that honest, god fearing husbands will fag out and marry other men? Probably not. Will it lead to the destruction of our country because the birth rate will go down? With only 10% or so of the population likely to be gay, that's not going to happen.

Saying gay people should not be married because it would make someone feel uncomfortable is like saying two Black people shouldn't be married because Black people are weird.

And religious beliefs? Since when did this country become a theocracy? This is not going to deplete the numbers of blank-eyed religious swooners who pack the churches every Sunday. Damn christians think their religion is being attacked by this, but this is just another lame reactionary response from a group that is not under any threat.

So, don't be stupid. That's the lesson for today (because for some reason I've begun extolling people on virtue). And, happy Halloween.

New Ghost Cake episode: Spooky Stories

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 17:26:00 +0000

My latest show is up on iTunes: ghost cake. Or, you can find it on lordshipslimbs.blogspot.com

This episode is about local ghost stories. Most of them are about the pioneers, but there is one more recent story. I also conduct an EVP session. That stands for Electronic Voice Phenomenon and people say it is audio proof of ghosts. The ghosts supposedly say things that only a recorder can pick up. If you search for EVPs in Google you'll find some good ones. If you live in Utah you can look at the Utah Ghost Organization at Utahghost.org. They have all of the investigations on the site, with pictures, videos and EVPs. It's fun to look at.

Leave questions or comments here.

Hating on the Accent

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:33:00 +0000

I'm preparing the next story I want to produce for The Unbodied. I'm not done with it yet but I wanted to make one of the characters British or Australian, just for fun. I thought it would add another dimension to a show with only two or three actors. I wanted to practice an accent so I went on Youtube to see if there were any instructional videos. I watched several, including ones that had nothing to do with accents and one video made by a huge queen, and I noticed something interesting. Most of the comments were pretty disparaging ones left by British or Australian people. I will admit that most of the accents weren't too good, but the comments seemed pretty cruel.

I think maybe those leaving the comments were offended that Brits and Aussies would be stereotyped. I know there are several different accents in Britain alone, not to mention the rest of the anglophone world. It could also be that British people are sick of Americans thinking they can speak with an accent and just using a cockney one. It would be like assuming all Americans speak with a heavy Southern accent or something. I'm doing that in my head right now...

This is a video of a guy trying out an American accent. Like British or Australian accents, there are tons of instructional videos on how to speak American English. They mostly teach standard American, which sounds like a reporter or something. For the most part I found their information to be accurate, except for one video that claimed Americans never pronounce the t in nt words, like can't or tint.

It seems like Americans are much more interested in trying to do a British accent than the other way around. Most American commenters actually found accents sexy. In fact, I think most people watching the American videos are from non-English speaking countries who want to move here and don't want to feel like such a foreigner. I almost feel bad thinking about a person losing their accent, but it's not like it's a distinct language or something.

New Ghost Cake episode: The Unbodied Debut

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff) — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 00:29:00 +0000

Here's another episode I've put my heart and soul into (or, if I believed in souls it would be in there). For this episode I wrote and directed a radio play. A horror radio play. I was inspired by those old radio programs from the thirties and forties that would come out with scary stories every week, or sometimes every day. They would have a diverse array of stories. Sometimes they would be predictable but sometimes they would be so entirely weird and offbeat that it made up for the conventional ones. I think horror and science fiction was (and still is) an arena to develop offbeat ideas. It can often be a mirror, reflecting societal values in a different light.

I don't really deal with any flawed societal mores but I did have a great deal of fun making this show. I had to come up with actors and make sound effects. It was difficult to put together but I enjoyed it. I might do at least one show like this every month. I was also considering having a section of the show be devoted to bizarre and unique locations in Utah. I think most of the people who listen to the show are from Utah, but maybe others would be interested in that sort of thing.

Yeah, go take a listen to the show on iTunes by searching for ghost cake. If you don't have iTunes you can get it direct from this site: lordshipslimbs.podomatic.com.

Let me know what you think about it.

Fall Fell Too Soon

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:58:00 +0000

Indeed. This time last week it was beginning to get colder, and just yesterday it snowed. Not just a little bit either, enough to cover the ground. To make matters worse, the radiators have been very conservative in their doling out of heat. According to said radiators, it isn't necessary to be warm in the middle of the night. Or most of the day, for that matter. The thermostat is controlled by the people living downstairs, so I hope they decide to stop messing around with it so I don't have to wear a coat all the time in my apartment.

Fall has crumbled. It is way too early for the weather to be this cold. Leaves are still on the trees! At least this year I am ready for the change. I got my spiffy new coat a few weeks ago and the decrease in temperature has enabled me to test out the warmthness of it. Check. I picked up some new gloves at Savers, along with some sweaters, and they are warm. Check. I even have several scarves to use and hats. This year when I see old man winter doing his thing, I'm gonna kick his ass.

This is my favorite time of year. I like the changing of the colors. I think the oncoming of Fall would be much less dramatic in other places, especially big cities, because here the mountains burst with orange, red and yellow this time of year. It's like a ticker tape parade for the outgoing summer. I also like this time of year because the days get shorter and the light gets dimmer, perfect for a creepy Halloween. And layering clothes is always fun.

I don't know if this means the coming winter will be colder than usual or if it's just a freak storm that blew in, but I hope we have a few more crisp Autumn days before it gets really cold.

My Quiz from QuizYourFriends.com

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 00:07:00 +0000

A funny quiz, except I effed up the last question. The correct answer is the DI but I accidentally put Abercrombie and Fitch. I hate that store.

Get out of my dreams and into my car!
1) Where was I born?
		Midwest City, Oklahoma
		Salt Lake City, UT
		Mars
		Bangalore, India

Make A Quiz - Take This Quiz - View Scoreboard

Another Reason I Love Japan

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 02:40:00 +0000

These videos are pure gold. I guess they are intended to teach Japanese girls English. I don't know who picked the scenarios for the videos...

Working on a new show. Should be good.

Proficient

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 01:53:00 +0000

Or at least competent enough in the lab. I finished six sessions yesterday and had no real problems. By the end my voice was somewhat hoarse but that was the only side effect. I enjoyed keeping everything filed and running the subjects. I ran a total of 17 people which was more than all the other research assistants for the week.

I have a feeling running the experiment week after week will get boring but at least it's a small change from the rest of my schedule. Next semester I might get more involved in preparing the second phase of this study, which would be cool to experience.

In other news I got my coat in the mail today. It's grey (I'm spelling it that way because it came from Britain), wool and clasped with toggle buttons. It is supposed to be vintage too, whatever that means. Often someone will label clothing vintage even though it was recently manufactured. This coat smelled old though, so I'm going to risk saying that it is actually old. I bought it for about $180. It would have been less had I gotten it in England but what can you do about the economy...I think it looks adequately like a coat Doctor Who might wear to satisfy me. I'm going to start putting random things in the pockets soon.

My dream last night was really awesome. It was long, so I'll summarize it: after abandoning a friend's car on the road because it wouldn't make it up a hill, we get stuck on a dead end road. Someone's bull-dozed the road, making a big pit! They've left a note stating that we can drive over the logs made into a road, but I don't see how. As we walk around the logs we notice plenty of farms with rolling hills, run-down barns and open fields. I comment that I would like to live here, especially since it is so close to the city. Later on in the dream I go to a bar set underneath a rooftop parking garage. It was really open and must have been from the 1960's. It was awesome. I decided to take a panorama of it so I started walking home to get my camera. On the way back I ran across some things someone had dropped. I found an old camera, pins from World War Two and a cool leather case. I carried it all home.

I'm sure that dream was really only fascinating to me. Sometimes I wish I had the memory to remember plenty of details from my dreams because then I could potentially make that awesome bar. It would help if I had a ton of money to make it too. What I like the most is when I have a dream and it is so vivid that I can still see it after I wake up. I had a dream about furniture that was clear enough that I could draw the furniture later on. I can definitely understand how people get inspired by their dreams to make great things.

First Day Lab Jitters!

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 14:45:00 +0000

I'm about to start my first day of running subjects and I'm pretty nervous. I think it will go well because I've run through the protocol several times and I have everything written down, but until I go through at least one session I'm going to be nervous. I almost had a little snafu involving the key to get into the lab, but that was all taken care of. It would have been a disaster had I not been able to get in here at all!

I'll be in here until five, although I do have a two hour break in between sessions. Most of the people coming in should be freshmen, so they just want to get things done and leave. No questions. It's how I like it. The only thing I'm really worried about is getting the subject numbers mixed up. I think that as long as I stay calm I'll be fine.

I never thought I would be helping in a scientific study. It still kind of blows my mind. I'm not doing too much right now but maybe in the future I will have a bigger role. I don't know. I'll let you know how everything goes.

New Ghost Cake episode: Obama Rama!

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 03:36:00 +0000

The latest episode of the show should be coming onto iTunes shortly. If you want to get it from my podomatic page, then I think you go to lordshipslimbs.podomatic.com. Anyway, leave your comments or questions here.

I will hopefully have another regular episode of Ghost Cake on Thursday, but don't hold your breath. I had some difficulties getting it recorded. It makes me yearn for the day when I'll be out of school. This is my last year!

Also, I got a doggy on Sunday. He is cute. I'll talk about him later.

New Ghost Cake episode: Greek Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 02:41:00 +0000

In which you will hear my attempts to eavesdrop on people, eat gyros, win fish and eventually go searching for a Doctor Who style overcoat. I still haven't found one. If you haven't listened to my show yet I'd like to tell you to go to iTunes and type in Ghost Cake to find it. Or, you can find it at lordshipslimbs.podomatic.com.

If you want to post questions or comments, do it here! Thanks.

Rock-afire Explosion!

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 03:10:00 +0000

I nearly died laughing as I watched this movie.

If you ever went to Showbiz Pizza you know these fellas. They would perform every hour or so while everybody downed pizza. I was scared to death of them. I also loved them. I would try to get the courage to go touch one of them before the start of the show but I would inevitably take too long and they would start up right as I was near them.

When Showbiz Pizza got bought out by Chuck E. Cheese I think the performances got worse. Is that restaurant closed now? There's a documentary coming out soon about this guy in Alabama who has a working set of these robots in his backyard. I guess they've all been sitting in a warehouse in Florida.

I'm so happy I heard about this one.

I'd never eat a cake with a beard

noreply@blogger.com (Geoff) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:53:00 +0000

And neither should you. But take a look at this little movie, mmkay?

It's from archive.org. You can find all sorts of random things on that website. It's like a virtual library. They even have the movie Reefer Madness on it! I particularly like the old books with great illustrations and the cartoons.

Oh, I'm on twitter now! If you are on there, search for ghostcake (one word!) and you'll find me. I'll be updating constantly, I promise.

Time to go to Judo class.