READ: Robomancy: Technoccultist Joshua Madara on Arduino and the Future of Magick

Four hours of trudging through circuit diagrams and forum posts that read like Chinese toaster manuals, trying desperately to figure out what “Arduino” is.  I finally have a breakthrough realization: I may have reached the far end of my brain’s capacity to learn new things.

I am an idiot.  What a downer.

Luckily, I find a TED Talk by Massimo Banzi, an instructor at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea in Italy and co-creator of Arduino, an “open-source electronics prototyping platform,” which breaks it all down for me.  Through a haze of tears, I learn how a couple of nerds have managed to turn the world of interactive technology on its head while fooling around with toys and LED displays in their bedrooms.

(Read the rest here...)

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BEAUTIFY: Ain't Nobody Got TIME to Post!

Just in case anyone was wondering what I have been up to, the above photos just about sum up the most interesting parts of the last nine months I haven't written anything here!  Really though, it's been quite eventful lately and I wish I'd make more time to write, more often.  Maybe that can be a belated New Year's Resolution?

So I turned 30 this past year...  My mom wigged out that I was actually looking forward to it, haha!  It feels good to be out of my 20s, honestly- at times they seemed more annoying than my teenage years.  You think you've figured things out, everyone around you acts like you're a capable adult, but really you're still pretty naive about things.  Maybe it's just me.  

I'd like to think that I take every chance I get to grow and learn and play and love.  Lots of self-evaluation and listening to others helps me on this journey.  That's really been my focus lately, to be more self-perceptive and to listen better, to everything, everyone.  Seems simple, but really it's easy to miss a lot when you stop actively trying to do these things.  Love, friendship, health, family, creativity...  all these things need constant nurture.  Well duh!  But it's the "obviousness" of these things that makes us forget, makes us lazy.

I guess making time to write more would contribute to these aspirations.

Maybe tomorrow.

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READ: Dead Chickens and Santeria at the Romero Cemetery

The Albuquerque warehouse district is cold as hell at midnight.  And dark.  This little spot goes dead around 6 p.m. and refuses to drag its scraggly ass up until 5.  I’ve been sitting in the cold for two hours, cursing Matt Staggs and chain smoking.

A single tweet from Matt two week ago piqued my interest, beginning a chain reaction that ends with me on a wild chicken chase to find out who’s been leaving the corpses of black hens in a dusty family cemetery for two years.

A story that has been copypastaed ad nauseum around the internet for some reason, the last two weeks:

“KRQE-TV reports (http://goo.gl/XR9FZ8) that Michael Gabaldon, co-owner of Romero Cemetery, says for two years, dead chickens and chicken parts have been dropped off overnight.
He says the chickens have been left periodically from every day to every two weeks.  There also are bones or feathers scattered throughout the cemetery.
Gabaldon says he doesn’t know if the chickens are part of a religious ceremony, but he called the bizarre practice disgusting and creepy.
He says he hopes to put up a gate to keep cars out at night.”

(Read the rest here...)

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READ: Kill All Muggles

My wife had to explain to me that “muggle” is from Harry Potter. She claims she was reading it for the benefit of a friend. I’m not convinced. But don’t worry. The divorce papers have been filed.

It came up because my Facebook feed was filled with this video, last month. “Muggle” was being thrown around like whatever they throw around in that Harry Potter game. I know it as internet slang for those nerds who don’t know about magic. Christians and accountants, mostly.

The video is a short report from Colorado’s 9 NEWS, concerning the finding of an “occult altar” in a deceased man’s backyard shed. Amongst the paraphernalia was found human bones. Most likely, it was connected to Palo, a Cuban magical tradition.

(Read the rest here...)

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READ: The Miracle Staircase of Loretto Chapel

In the heart of Santa Fe, New Mexico, stands the Loretto Chapel, home of a famous spiral staircase said to have been built by a divine stranger who was passing through in 1878.  Unsolved Mysteries did a piece on it, and there’s even a 1998 made-for-TV film, The Staircase. According to the legend, the chapel, which was stationed at the end of the Santa Fe Trail, was completed without a set of stairs leading to the choir loft.  The Sisters of the Chapel were uncomfortable with their practice of climbing a ladder to the loft before mass, as it allowed any passerby the opportunity to look up their habits.  Plans to install a standard staircase were rejected, since the chapel was fairly small, and space was limited as it was.
To solve the problem, the nuns began a nine-day novena to St. Joseph, patron of carpenters, in the hopes that he would give them some sort of solution.  On the final day, out of nowhere, a man with a donkey and a box of tools appeared, looking for work.

(Read the rest here...)

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READ: Hundreds of mourners bid farewell to Walter White

The first hint that the service Saturday at Sunset Memorial Park wasn’t a typical funeral came when eulogist Michael Flowers got cheers when he spoke of the dearly departed.

Another giveaway came from the prominent bright colors, T-shirts, sandals and ubiquitous black pork pie hats that broke up the typical formal black.

The funeral for Walter White, the fictional chemistry teacher turned meth kingpin in AMC’s television drama “Breaking Bad,” drew about 200 mourners to the cemetery after a funeral procession that rolled 80 cars deep down Second Street in the North Valley.

Leading the procession were a few Bernalillo County Sheriff’s deputies, followed by a tan, beat-up RV made famous in the show, a hearse and then around 80 diehard fans. The procession shut down streets and took 10 minutes to pass.

(Read the rest here...)

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CRAFT: Electrical Tape is a Girl's Best Friend

        I used to think those people who bought duplicates of things were crazy.  Now I understand.  To say I get a little attached to my things is an understatement.  There's that one sweater that hangs just so, the pair of shoes that are stylish AND comfortable, the pants that make my ass look great... and now they're all wearing out!  ACK!!!

        Maybe I'm getting old, maybe it's because I'm broke, but DAMMIT!  Why can't I find anything affordable and cute when I go shopping?!  Something needed to be done, and fast.  Having just completed our giant move out of state, there are still boxes and tools laying around the apartment.  I happened to spy the electrical tape in the tool box and had a flash of creativity.  (My best ideas seem to be born from frustration.)  I realized I could totally fix my shoes with tape!  AWWW YEAH!

        I know, I know, I know.  I should just get new shoes.  But it's not that easy, I swear!  Let me reveal a not-so-secret, secret:  I have big honkin' feet.  My grandpa even used to call them gunboats.  This puts me at a disadvantage to finding cute shoes, not counting my limited funds.  I guess I'm also a bit picky, but whatever!

I dug out my favorite ankle boots that were starting to get pretty beat up and got to work.

        ***DISCLAIMER:  Please read through the entire tutorial before you begin!  I need to emphasis before we start that you need to be 100% confident in your skills with an x-acto knife or else you'll end up with uglier shoes than you had before!  This method may not work for your pair, i.e. shoes with heels/soles that are not solid.  If the material has any give to it, the tape will come off.  (I tried to fix the soles of some black flats I have, but they were made of rubber and it resulted in an ugly flapping tape mess after I wore them!)  Black electrical tape matches the faux leather shoes I own just right, but it might not look so good next to real leather or more textured material.  Use your best judgement and fashion sense.  ***

        First you need to make sure the material is clean so that the tape will stick properly.  Some water and a paper towel should fix this if the shoe is man-made materials, otherwise use a fabric-appropriate cleaner.  Next, line the tape up with the edge of the heel, leaving a tiny bit of overlap that will be pressed into the crease after you cut it to size.  IMPORTANT:  Make sure not to stretch the tape as you wrap it along the heel or else it will recede once you stop messing with it, causing strange lumps and making it flap off.  Just line the tape up and lay it flat, smoothing out any creases. 

        This is where your x-acto knife skills come into play.  Slice the tape along the edge of the heel, making sure you leave a little of an edge so you can tuck it neatly into the top of the heel where it meets the rest of the shoe.  Use the point of the knife to do this or even your fingernail if they're strong/long enough.  This give the heel a more finished look and helps prevent ragged edges of tape.

        Not so terrible, right?  Now repeat this process until you cover the entire heel of your shoe!  Keeping the tape straight and un-stretched is the key to success here.  Thankfully, electrical tape is pretty forgiving.  It won't leave a nasty residue if you need to take it off to reposition it again.  I tried to keep the strips of tape a uniform amount of space apart to create a "stacked heel" effect.  You can overlap the tape here as much or as little as you want, do what you think makes the shoe look best.
   

        When you get down to the area where the tape can start wrapping around the heel, make sure to cut your tape long enough to do so on both sides.  Mine ended up in a crisscross pattern due to the curve of the heel.  Wrapping the tape around will keep it from flapping!  (Have you noticed flapping things are the arch villain in this post?)  I made sure I didn't tape the bottom of the heel; I cut it along the edge of plastic so that the tape wouldn't make the heels slippery when I walked.

        And that's it!  Below I have the taped and un-taped heels side by side so you can see the difference!  Not bad, right?  Congrats!  You have just extended the life of your favorite shoes!  I suppose if you were feeling particularly industrious or possess advanced knowledge of repairing shoes, you could remove the material before you tape it to help reduce any lumps.  I didn't feel too sure about doing that, and with the tape method, if it turns out horrible, you can easily take it off right away.  (Wait more than a day though and the tape will become stickier, making it more difficult to remove, so you need to decide right away if you like your new kicks or not.)

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