cornerofmadness

It was an amusing start to the day. Well...didn't start amusing. I was woken up early than I wanted by noise. When I got to the Hamptons' comp breakfast I see that the room is filled. I sit down with my fresh made sweet potato waffle (with hot apple topping) with what has to be a pro/semi pro soccer team from Jamaica (since they all seemed to be later 20s early 30s, definitely NOT college aged) and they're watching soccer as they eat and shouting at the screen and each other like we're in a sports bar. Also I was the only one not on the team sitting there

I could not have asked for a better day. So cool and with a nice light breeze as I headed to Carillon Historical Park It's 65 acres of recreated (for the most part) village where all the buildings are little museums. The big welcome building had a stein collection of over 400 steins, history on several major innovators in Dayton including the Wright Brothers (naturally), Patterson (who did national cash registers) and Deeds (who was the one to donate the 57 bell carillon tower) There was bits about the brother's inventions (also there were animatronic 'innovators' telling their stories (those uncanny valley things freak me out).

There was 90 of those gorgeous antique cash registers, things of beauty as well as function (I rather miss that in the modern age). there were some old cars in there too and the world's most confusion carousel with just bizarre shit (though in a later picture of Wilbur I know understand the St Bernard style dog one), there was a cash register (had I gotten on I would have ridden that, it's the non moving bench one for grandma) cans of pop, chip bags, various animals.

From there I bought the 5 dollar train ride just to a) sit and enjoy the cool weather b) see the park and that was fun. From there I started investigating the offerings including (but not limited to) an antique fire truck car show (including two belgians and their fire carriage), Newcome tavern from 1796, a one room school house from the 1800s, the last surviving remnant of the Watervliet Shaker village, a horse barn (no horses), the hetzel summer kitchen and the really interesting stuff was:

Sugar Camp Waves cabin. I had no idea there were WAVES doing code breaking in Dayton in WWII
Gem City Letter press - which is an operational print shop (you can get a printed souvenier (I didn't))

The great 1913 flood exhibit. I had no idea Dayton was flooded up to 20 feet and horses were on the roofs because they swam there (more than a thousand drowned, poor things)

Dayton Cyclery that had some cool old bikes

The transportation center with some really cool old train cars and trolleys

The Wright Brothers national museum which included their No. 5 flyer which Orville felt was their best one. It was bigger than I imagined. Also I had no idea that Wilbur died so young (45 of typhoid fever)

The history on the hill interpretive center talking about the Hopewell people and the fact that this hill had been a small pox quarantine hospital (and after that for prostitutes with STDS)

I wish I remembered that Carillon Brewing had food and I'd have skipped the overpriced, underwhelming food trucks (I was still a little hungry and got a giant pretzel, nibbling on those leftovers now). They brew historical recipes and the one I got, coriander ale, was one of them, low abv, nice pale ale (not my usual choice) brewed with peppers and you could feel that.

From there I went to America’s Packard Museum I think the 20s-early 40s Packards were sexy cars. They were luxury, easily 3-5 times the price of an average car. The post WWII cars are less great (not a fan of the carribbean) they have one from the Godfather. They have one from a woman who wanted it kept for her when she returned from beyond the grave (the family kept it until 2015 when it came to the museum). The museum itself is from 1917 and was a Packard dealership.

I wanted to go next to Calvary Cemetery which I saw references to at the historical park. (this is not the cemetery I planned to go to) I put it in my new GPS (I can't use my phone. It's decided it doesn't know what the internet is) and it wants me to go to KY (that is not close). What I didn't know was that the Calvary in Moraine OH WAS the right one (that's a neighborhood, or sucked up suburb)

So I came home to the hotel for tea and relaxing and looking up the damn address. Here's the kick in the head. When I came out of the historical park I turned left on Patterson. If I had LOOKED right I would have seen the damn thing. It's right behind the park. Head desk (it's only like 7 miles so it's not a big deal). This is a CATHOLIC in all caps cemetery. Okay yes I've seen ones with more crucifixes but this had some truly interesting stuff.

What sucked it was the cloudless sky. SO many pictures are probably sun glared to death (I don't know. I haven't looked yet, you'll get pics another day). There were a few things I've rarely seen (btw do watch the video at the above link to know why I wanted to see it) lots of Mary statues by herself (one with cherubs at her feet which is unusual and another with her standing on the world crushing the serpent, much more familiar, how many times did I have to kiss that statue?) one family had stylized rosaries on their head stones. Some had historical markers (which was cool),found a whole mess of Nun graves, an entire section of baby graves (will use that picture the next time I bitch about Trump and RFK). There was even a brand new mausoleum. I swear to god I didn't know people were still making them!! (built about 20 years ago. They're still awaiting the fourth member or she choose to go elsewhere. She's my parents age so she could still be out there)

I went to dinner at Jimmie's Ladder 11 a bar/restaurant in an 1800s firehouse. It was good. I had their namesake sandwich (basically a reuben and a rachel in one sandwich) which was good. I wasn't going to drink but I decided I wanted the Grandma's Puddin' cocktail. Probably should have went with no drink. Don't get me wrong. It was tasty but a little small for the price. Putting it here for my own reference Giffard Banane du Brésil Liqueur, Five Farms Irish Cream, Oyo Honey Vanilla Bean Vodka, Cream

Now I'm in for the night (too tired to swim), off to the airforce stuff tomorrow.

I didn't get much sleep and that cough medicine really knocked me for a loop (or something did. I was dizzy all day) I dropped something on my toe and cut it open in less than 5 minutes of being awake which set the tone of the day.

That said it was good. I didn't hang out much in the vendors room and breakfast was me and another local Pittsburgh guy (he teaches at the host school U of Pitt) talking up all the cool things to do. The two talks I got to go to today were good especially the latter one (I did skip the long business meeting today I just wasn't up to it) The latter was about diversity and inclusivity but on a different wavelength than the talks usually go. It was more about the faculty setting the tone (and from what she was saying I've been doing a lot of things right) You know that old chestnut of look to your left, look to your right, two of them won't be here at the end of this class. She talked about how things like that reenforce negative self thought, especially in at risk students.

My syllabus for example states right in it that yes this is hard but instead of talking failure rates etc I say here are some tools to help. I have some quote or two in there but she was talking about Einstein and I was reminded of these two statements by him Failure is success in progress and A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new. and might put them in there somewhere. Even on an exam where a student has failed but wrote me a little note as to why, I write them back with encouragement. I've been the student who was told I'd never amount to anything (9th grade lit teacher) or that I didn't belong there (4-6th grade science teacher) That is never going to be me and how I handle class. Now I'm more determined to be fair

I did cut out a little early and walked across to the Fort Pitt museum and toured it. Never been there or to the block house next to it, the only part of the original fort from the 1700s left. I did not know that William Penn (for whom PA is name) was a Quaker (that part I knew) and thought it was part of his religion to live in peace with the indigenous people and share with them. Too bad the Quakers didn't hold out better.

Nor did I know some of the last vestiges of the local tribes lost their land near the PA/NY border to build the kinzua dam, that their homes were burned to the ground when the kids were in school and their parents at work, some 600 displaced families. TWO years before I was born. TWO! Jesus.

If nothing else i know how the seeds of two stories, though I did have one story published along the lines of the new idea, what if the Quakers held power. Imagine it, a group that believed in sharing, peaceful cohabitiation and in my sabbatical research it was almost always a Quaker supporting the women doctors because they believe in equality in education (though not, I think it true equality but certainly heads and shoulders above others in that time)

I also won plushie spinal column today at the raffle and today's door dash was siam thai, pad kee mow that was delicious (but late, ah Pittsburgh traffic especially on a game night)

I have friday's fannish recs here for fannish 50 (and then off to bed because OMG I have to be on the bus by 7 AM. Shoot me) Speaking of which I really need to get the name/email of the young prof from TN who knew the steam company I got my dress from and stopped me today when she saw my Huskerdust charm so we could coo about them and Helluva Boss (and she likes witchcore)


No Excuse Torchwood

Nary a Cause for Tears "Mr Rowl" - D. K. Broster

To: 61A Charrington Gardens Dial M for Murder

Initial Diagnosis Harry Potter

Toxic Torchwood

Just So The Murderbot Diaries

What the Bones Remember NCIS

I mean that's probably progress, right? The Murderbot Diaries


And Then You Kissed Me Real Steel

Loverboy The Murderbot Diaries

A Long Awaited Prize Stargate Atlantis

Remarkably, Irreversibly, and Cosmically Intertwined Hazbin Hotel

The Consultant 镇魂 | Guardian

Showtime Teen Wolf

Unexpected Renovations Stargate SG-1

The Offer 镇魂 | Guardian

For As Long As He Would Let Him Hazbin Hotel

A Brilliant Mind Torchwood

Turning a Page on the Calendar 911

More than a Birthday Celebration Stargate Atlantis

Your Turn Now Hazbin Hotel

Living in Interesting Times Teen Wolf

If you are ever in Pittsburgh, do check out all our museums. Today I went to Heinz History Museum The nice thing about it is the admission fee gets you in free into 3 other museums the next day. This is a museum of nearly 370000 square feet, seven stories (though the top two aren't display areas) So five floors of stuff.

I can't even tell you everything I saw. I went for two reasons (been here before) the two new exhibitions: Mr. Rogers Neighborhood and The Women who helped to make Pittsburgh. Mr. Rogers was less than I expected but the tree and the castle were there and some of the puppets and the clothes.

The women's history was amazing. It was a huge exhibit, intersectional and honest in the way I've been seeing lately addressing the bad with the good and asking reflective questions (like one of the leaders in women in journalism who was also an advocate for violently decimating the native americans) and addressing the rampant racism in women's suffrage that women of color had to have their own groups. It covered a lot of territory including breaking it down into careers (journalism, nursing, WWII factory work, science, arts, etc)

They also had one Slavery to Freedom including a map with known underground railroad sites marked and a bit about how anti-slavery Pittsburgh was in general (Slaveholders were warned not to go there because they would lose their slaves) and there was violence after the Fugitive Slave act (which made it illegal to help a slave to freedom) A nice display for Martin Delany a fascinating free man of color who did briefly get into Harvard (you can imagine how that worked out in 1850)

Heinz and their pickles had a whole wing of course (not mentioning they no longer produce squat in Pittsburgh) Ironically there's a Heinz commercial on right now with a Heinz heir proclaiming she can't be seen eating non-Heinz ketchup. Somehow Pittsburgh sees you as not a worthy heir after yinz closed all the factories.

There's a thing on the french and Indian war and another on the tragic accident in the civil war that killed about 80 women and young girls (ammunition factory where they think a horse shoe struck a spark and caught the black powder on the ground on fire and blew the place to hell).

I picked up a book on Luna Park, a short lived amusement park in Pittsburgh that I'm sure I can use as story inspiration after I got stranded in the gift shop soon before closing (they were having both a wedding reception and a celebration of life memorial inside the museum afterward) because it was STORMING. Like blinding hard rain. Luckily there was a break I could get outside but right then my knee started to hurt and still is. sigh. (at least the TENS unit took almost all the pain out of my shoulder in just three treatments)

And if you didn't see my bingo card (previous post) lyricaltitles is doing a bingo challenge this time and it looks like fun if you want to join in.

My GPS needs it. I went to the Frick art museum again with mom because they were having a 'once in a lifetime' art exhibit of Rembrandt's, Vermeer, Gainsborough, Hogarth's Monets and several others. It was once in a life time because it turns out that the Frick's kids' wills said the NY house art can't be at the PA house and vice versa.

I went there in March but this time the GPS took us a completely new way AND a completely new way back that including going straight into downtown Pittsburgh which is where no one wants to go because it's rough to get out of (actually not too bad tonight) and took us thru multiple old neighborhoods filled with beautiful old homes. It also took me across Homewood Cemetery filled with some of Pittsburgh's richest and most famous. Didn't even know it was there (I would have thought they would be in the Cemetery of the Alleghenies) So guess who has to go back now.

Frick was a coal robber baron with more money than Croesus and less scruples most likely given the robber barons of the 1800s (He had multiple homes including a 104 room one on Boston's north shore) He collected so much art he actually plastered over doors and windows with it all. He collected local artists at first but when the 'art snobs' didn't like that he started collecting the grand masters. One of the more interesting collections was Millet's even though it wasn't to my tastes. It was all pastels on paper and very fragile. The one I took a pic of sadly didn't come out.

The Rembrandt was a self portrait and portraits were a lot of what Frick collected. I do not care much for those (he also has a large permanent collection of religious art which is disturbing), his wife and daughter collected more landscapes which I prefer.

I was hoping for something more but I'm glad we went. How often do I get to see 36 old masters this close to home? We couldn't take the house tour because it was Sold Out (the exhibit nearly was too) I loved that they let me in as a teacher even though professor almost never counts (even though we make less than k-12 on average). Have a little taste of the exhibit.

My favorite in the whole exhibit. George Wetzel


Rembrandt's self portrait


My cousin who was going to come couldn't, having a bad numbness day in the legs. And that made me think of this post Covid buy all your tickets on line thing (this one you could do both thankfully) because of stuff like this. Everyone now wants no ticket agents, buy everything online. I ran into this multiple times, today could have been, in St. Louis, in Santa Fe. It's SO ableist. You have someone like me and many of my friends with chronic illnesses, this prebuying a ticket means a lot of lost money potentially. I don't mind for one time events like a concert but the zoo? A museum? I find it obnoxious.

I did end up doing little retail therapy to take my mind off things, I pulled the trigger on the Hazbin tarot (in spite of the HUGE international shipping fee). Her art is amazing

I had two Etsy gift cards for Christmas and the person I felt comfortable buying a steampunk/Victorian gown from was having a sale. I bought it. I don't want to share it yet just in case the quality is bad or it doesn't fit etc.


I did nothing of interest to anyone today but I DID see I accidentally erased Weird Al from my music round up so have two songs. I still want to see him in concert





So I've shared this animatic before but didn't realize the second comment down had something I wanted to talk about (I generally avoid the cess pit of comments). It called Sam Riegel every problem player you can have in TTRPG. (not inaccurate) but charming enough to pull it off. There is some discussion of this in the comment section if you want.




I did want to talk about problem players (or problem people in fandom) and the influence they can have on us. I don't want to take on the darkest part of this (like leaving a fandom over it) but wanted to talk about how we can have affects on others when we don't even know it.

I'm still not 100% sold on continuing with Critical Role due to the sheer amount of time it requires however I am watching it at the moment Campaign two at least and there are couple instants where you can see the problems cropping up here and there. In S2E33 Laura's character Jester is often chaotic which is part of the charm but in this episode it ended up much more serious sucking up time and nearly getting 2 characters in trouble. Laura apologized realizing this. Now to me, that's what you do. She didn't see it going that way but it did so she gave a mea culpa.

There was a much talked about break with the cast in the first campaign I don't want to rehash but it was the sort of thing, sucking up time (among other problem player issues) that the player didn't want to fix and it broke the team briefly. that is the issue with problem players.

And yes, sometimes Sam (and some of the others) can be issues like in S2E34 where you can SEE the tension in the cast because several of them are dicking around (and Travis and Liam trying to bring it back on point) Also in that episode there are other tensions where Taliesin's character nearly dies (Again) so you can see what these characters mean to them.

And to us. And it got me thinking about my own problem player. 40 years ago almost (sobs) I had a proper D&D group and we had a problem player. He left SUCH a big impression on me he's now in my 80s Slayer novel and there is so much of him in there too. This guy started out with wanting to be a centaur (and I don't think you could play them back then, you probably can now, there are So.Many. Races) for the obvious sexual reasons.

Here's where I say I was the only female in the group and he had already honed in on me at a school dance in my freshman year (they had a get to know you dance a week or two into my first semester) The DM said no. I think he was a half elf after that (because I was too) You can guess how this all went. Tons of inneundo I had to put up with that culiminated with the DM walking me back to my dorm most game nights so I couldn't be alone. but it wasn't just me who suffered. He also interuppted everyone's game play, the story was all about him and eventually he was kicked out of the group (he was the second player I've dealt with like that, one was from when I was a DM and he was a childhood friend)

Anyhow if you read the 80s novel (also open to alpha and beta readers) you'll see him in there.

I celebrated it wrong by driving all over BUT I had a very good day. It didn't start great. Hail woke me up at 3 in the morning and then I woke at 630 which was about 15 minutes before I had to get up so I was out the door nice and early and did well for the first 50 miles of the drive and then I am shocked I didn't fall asleep at the wheel and die. I had to get out, fuel up the car, try to walk and around. Stopped at Tim Horton's for my usual order which was double the original price (I'm like did it go up since last weekend?)

All my parking angst was for nothing. Both Cosi and the Metro library had UNDERGROUND parking. No wonder I couldn't see it on google earth. I haven't been to either since like 1997 so what do I remember? Cosi had a snare drum with a heart rate monitor which made the drum beat with your heart. Yes I played with that and the laser harp while waiting for my friends.

We really did have the best time at the King Tut exhibit. It was well conceived and reminded me of the Pompeii one at Pittsburgh's version of COSI (science institute) This is a ticketed event and it opens with you going thru a temple door with your lecture wands and that part wasn't that exciting to me as I know all about the Rosette stone, a fair amount about Carter and Carnarfon and much more about Tut. I was getting antsy and wondering why was I still standing here. Did I really want to see a little movie?

Turns out there was no choice (like in Pomepii) you had to sit through that and that ushered you into the main exhibit. In retrospect it was pretty cool (my impatience aside) How they did the coffin room was pretty cool. You could see the shadow of the coffins behind glass and on the glass was a little projection from Carter's journals. It made it look like he and his team were inside the tomb. The lights slowly came up to let us see the full thing bright and beautiful.

Now, let me be clear, these are all replicas but they are splendid ones. From there you're ushered into more where they had quite a bit of the first room's treasures and then from there into all four shrines, the sarcophagus, the famous mask and then SO much more, alabaster canopic jars, gold chariots and thrones, sandels, weapons, shabtis, instruments, a 3-D CT scan of Tut and it was easy to get carried away.

Now I've seen that gold throne before. What I haven't see was its foot stool and some of the found sandals both of which had art of Nubians and Asians so he could walk on them as they were conquered people. Yikes, my dude. Also something I have never heard of in all the many MANY Tut programs I've watched where a series of little sarcophagi found with him, filled with premature babies, most likely his daughters, and a miniature one that contained a lock of his grandmother's hair as a keepsake.

So I learned things, always a good day. Also there outside the exhibit was a wall of ancient Egyptian inspired art and one of the winning pieces was by someone formerly from my writers group so nice to see that.

We also peeked into some other things like the dinosaurs and an exhibit on extremophiles like my faves the tardigrades. I might also have bought a stuffed triceratops (I shouldn't be left unsupervised). The only negative here was the Atomic Cafe were I couldn't even figure out how to order. It said use touch screens but I didn't see any. Was I supposed to use my phone? I had no idea and there were too many to even bother with. I went and got a muffin from the coffee shop.

You MIGHT get pictures tomorrow or Monday. You couldn't use flash so my camera compensates by a slow shutter speed but that is very easy to blur. My nerve damaged hand shakes so I don't do well in low light photography. AND my camera's battery bit it so the rest are on my phone which never lets me access them to share. And it probably is blurred too. I'm too tired to even look.


When I left I was glad we went early because the garage was filled by the time we left. By sheer luck I found the alley to the parking garage for the library and I'm pretty sure I saw Morlocks lurking down where I had to park. No lie It was underground FOUR levels. I'm like damn dudes, how deep did you undermine?

This is the first time the Ohioana book festival was at this enormous library but I see why. I think it's also the first time back in person since Covid. It took up an entire floor of the library. About seven rows of authors. WOW. I should not have been allowed in by myself. I swore I'd only buy one or two. I knew I was lying but you know I thought, maybe?

I did get to see Leanne Renee Hieber (check out her books) plus several other authors I already know. I also impulse bought several books, including one historical mystery based on the first female sheriff in Ohio in the 1920s. I didn't even know we HAD those (I wanted this as much as a reminder to go look her up as I wanted more historical mysteries even though they are one of my faves). I also got a gothic cult horror which is like my third this year because apparently that's what I'm about in 2023. I also got a mystery with very interesting family dynamics because you know I love those (twins separated when one was adopted and the other aged out of the foster system) One fantasy author got me because her friend was so excited for her I had to check it out (also she had amazing nails, hair, loves anime and is a teacher).

I sat in the young adult writing panel. If there was one thing I thought they could do better is maybe they should actually have a bit of a planned talk about the subject and not just answering random questions. One thing I did get from it that I never thought about (and might forget if I hold it til tomorrow's writerly ways) one of them works through an overactive self-editor that keeps her from getting into the flow by making the text white so the only way she knows she's got words is the red misspelled underlines. If she can't see it, her self editor can't stop her until she's done for the night and converts it back to color.

You know now that I think about it, I didn't buy a book from a man I don't think. Huh.

I decided against going shopping since it was 330 and you couldn't go back south from where I was because the road was out. Luckily I k now this city and went around that. I didn't stop at the casino either because 330 was too early for dinner and I was still exhausted. I drove the 40 miles to Chillicothe to eat at 430. I thought Olive Garden, haven't been there in years but I'm too tired to think about food. I get there. 430 as I said. There were SO MANY people you couldn't even wait in the lobby. They were waiting outside the building.

Screw that. There is so much food in this town. I went for Mexican and then back to Tim Horton's for the SAME order as in the morning (as I was still trying to fall asleep) AND it was the same price as usual. So why the hell did Circleville's Timmy's charge me double? I don't know.

All in all a good day and if the Tut exhibit rolls into your town, it's worth the time.

Mom and I went to The Maridon Museum which is the only western PA museum dedicated to Japanese/Chinese culture. My BFF, S, met us there (as it's up near her house). I expected her to bring her daughter, but I forgot her son wants to minor in the Japanese language. Everyone had fun.

There was a lot of interesting things but at the same time was smaller than expected. It was a private collection by the wife of the owner of the huge gas station chain, Phillips. So for a private collection it's amazing, as a museum well it was tiny but nice. She also collected Meissen pottery as well.

Tomorrow I'll pack up and Saturday I'm leaving. I'm not ready. Mom doesn't want me to go. I can't believe we're almost half way thru August.

Today, Kanda thought he had a prayer of checking some prey (he was leashed) Tell me Kanda if you HAD captured one of these, what then?

click here for beautiful pics

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