• Home from Charlotte, safe and sound. I've decided to observe Lent this year by suspending my use of Twitter & Facebook. Cya after Easter. #

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Yeah, I’m on hiatus for Lent, but this one was so powerful that I decided to break in and share it anyway. Sue me.

via Dear god, < Killing the Buddha.

Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou, an impassioned UCC minister, potently shares his frustrations with God. The entire letter is long, but very worth reading. The bit that hit me most deeply is quoted below:

Dear god,

I have not written you in some time. I have been busy cleaning up your shit down here. I believe the last time I wrote you it was from New Orleans. Now, I write from a little further south—Haiti.

…

I know you like numbers because you dedicated an entire book to them in what is purported to be your word. So let me give you a few:

1.5 million homeless
30,000 died in Leogane
250,000 total dead
6,500 tent cities

Evidently you shared your version of the earthquake’s cause with your envoy, Pat Robertson. (By the way, a deal with the Devil for my freedom is a deal I am willing to make.) If the recent tone of my sermons and this letter have not made it clear, let me say in no uncertain terms—I am angry with you, god. If you did this, you did very, very wrong.

However, I will not give you the pleasure or satisfaction of me quitting. Haiti is not a test of my faith, or the faith of the people of Haiti, for that matter. Our faith is shaken but steady. We are rebuilding in the shit and filth, but you are hiding. Haiti is not a test of our faith but a test of your grace. Show yourself.

Sincerely,

Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou, Senior Minister
Lemuel Haynes Congregational Church
South Jamiaca Queens, NY

via Dear god, < Killing the Buddha.

It’s easy for me to say this from my comfy chair here in Louisville, but in a very real way I think God just did show Herself – through Rev. Sekou’s letter.

• I'm going to Origins for the 1st time to run DresdenFiles. But I need some folks to room with to share $. Anybody wanna sleep with a monkey? #
• New at Canon Puncture – Episode 86: Indie Games with Porn Stars! http://bit.ly/daap1a #
• It is just becoming real that I'm getting up early and flying to Charlotte tomorrow. I wonder what the weather in NC is supposed to be like? #
• And off I go to experience the TSA's newest tricks and humiliations first-hand. I'll be back online this afternoon from the Drury Northlake. #
• Charlotte is all sunshine & 48-degree temps. Pretty much a balmy paradise compared to the currently-frozen tundra of Louisville. #
• Did I remove my earrings to impress my clients, or because I really just felt like taking them out for a while? Think what you will, kiddos. #
• Burritos Without Borders at Northlake Mall makes a pretty good Cajun burrito. Yay them. #
• Hot Topic has the BEST Dropkick Murphys t-shirt but only 2XL in stock. I want a dark green XL with the skull-pirate hat face on a shamrock. #
• View the undeniable pirate-celtic-punk awesomeness of this bit of apparel, folks: http://bit.ly/bxdKn2 – All for a mere $15. #
• Okay, time to head to the lobby for my dinner date with a cadre of Christian ministers who like to talk shop but are still pretty cool. #
• Holy frijoles, this big giant hotel TV is an HD! I've never seen an HD picture except at Best Buy and such. Go Drury Inn! #
• Yeah, that snowboarder dude falling on his face in the halfpipe looks kinda cool in HD. #
• What is this shining golden orb suspended in a canopy of crystal blue? Is the sky not destined to be forever cast in grey? Magic is afoot. #
• Today, I went beyond my comfort zone and asked for respect from my biggest client. I now have a new contract worth some very respectable $. #
• Age differences, ideological diversity, client-designer issues … Whatevs … when it comes right to it I REALLY like these people. #
• A news blurb during a commercial break just announced there's a ZEBRA running loose on I-85 near Charlotte. This is a real party town! #
• Hey, is there a new Burn Notice on tonight? 'Cause I'd really love to watch Burn Notice in HD!! #
• Morning in Charlotte. Bright and sunny yet again. Another few hours of meeting, then back to the airport for the TSA Cavity-Search Festival. #
• Well, at least Charlotte Airport has free wi-fi. I've got two hours before boarding. Anything fun going on out there? #

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Daniel thought mashing up this with this might be cool. And I think he was right:

RESPECT.

I’ve spent most of my life
letting my demons convince me
I don’t deserve it.

So I’ve seldom expected it.
Rarely asked for it.
Never demanded it.

That must change.
And my first demand is
that I demand respect from

MYSELF.

• If corporations have the legal standing of individuals, we should be able to try them and convict them of crimes, right? Nah, too simple. #
• Prediction: Once the Dresden Files RPG goes into the wild, the concept of marginalia-as-text-enhancement will be forever changed. #
• The best thing about Super Bowl Sunday night: Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett in the Robin Hood teaser. #
• I think if Scott Lynch saw the DresdenFiles RPG text, he'd walk into Evil Hat's sanctum & demand the same for the Gentlemen Bastards rpg. #
• I've managed to avoid MMORPGs until now but the siren call of the Brickheads has proven too much. I've signed up for the LEGO Universe beta. #
• I really ought to post something on the Harping Monkey. But commenting on other peoples' blog posts is so much more enticing. #
• I should leave my Tweetdeck open more regularly & keep up with Twitter. I've got folks saying good things about me that I almost missed! #

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Here’s a progress report on the mask-making project that I first posted about a couple of weeks ago.

It ended up taking a while for me to get back to the project because, honestly, I think I might be trying to do too many different things at once with my creativity quest. But that’s another post for later. Back to the mask-making…

To summarize, I used an instant paper-mache product called Celluclay and formed it over a cheap plastic masquerade mask that I bought at Michael’s. I followed the instructions pretty rigorously, except that I went ahead and added the Celluclay right over the mask instead of putting a layer of cling-wrap over the plastic first. I did this on purpose because I intended to leave the clay on the plastic permanently. Well, Celluclay is supposed to dry in a day or two, but after a week of waiting, there were several parts of the mask that were not dry. I realized it was because 1. I put the Celluclay on really thick – too thick, and 2. I realized that Celluclay sitting up against solid plastic will take ridiculously long to dry because no air is getting to it. Oops.

What I decided to do was to try to get the Celluclay off the plastic form while keeping my mask as intact as possible, so that the non-dry parts could get air.

That was a mistake. Imagine if you will what happens when you try to rip something that is partially dry and partially wet off of a form that – when dry – it is designed to stick to. No matter how carefully you try to do it, what you get is something like this …

Yeah, oops.

But I’m sooo glad this happened. Best creative thing to happen all week. Because 1. screwing this up really taught me a lot about how to work with Celluclay, and 2. Frankly, in its own way, those broken shards of mask actually look pretty kick-ass. Imagine those pieces painted up to look like old distressed crimson-colored metal and partially buried in some rocky sand or dirt.

Do you see it? That’s a thematic provocation right there. It’s a story. I’ve accidentally gone from making a bit of wall decor to creating a visual story-hook for The Scarlet Masque. Maybe even the cover of the rpg, should it ever come to that.

So, this ‘failed’ first attempt is sitting on my work counter waiting to be further transformed into an accidental masterpiece.

Meanwhile, I’ve got a second (and currently intact) mask drying on the work counter, too. I’ll share more about that one in future posts. I’m also itching to try to make one out of leather, and I’ve got some cool ideas about decorating the cheap plastic mask as well.

See what I mean about working on too much stuff at once? If you’re counting, that’s FOUR mask projects at one time. And that’s just masks, it doesn’t count the paintings, mandalas, and digital work I’m trying to do as well. Clearly I’m taking too much on at once and not focusing properly on any of it. But like I wrote earlier, that really ought to be its own post.