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I have made the Black Pearl and she is mine.

There are these kits made by a company called Metal Works, and this little beauty started out as four sheets of laser-cut metal that I then punched out of the sheets, bent, and put together according to the directions. My near-sightedness made it so that I had to just take my glasses off and do it. I suspect I wouldn't have even tried it if I were still wearing contact lenses.

There are times when it's good to know that I'm getting old.

Today was a gorgeous Colorado fall day, the foliage all the colors of flame, and the wind stiff and solid enough to lean against. A raven glided (the way I knew it was a raven, as crows can't glide), stock still, above my head. It cocked one beady black eye at me, cawed at me, and then floated off backwards. I got another thousand words toward a short story, answered a query about usage of a photograph of one of my paintings on Flickr, and several hundred more words on the blog about Oakland, but I want to get back in the habit of writing blog entries every day. Even if it's just a list of the things I've Done. After hearing Cory Doctrow on the subject, I gained a better understanding of the synthesis I do in my entries.

I've also voted today and am suitably proud of myself for voting for Jon Singer, though not the one with the lovely research bent, but another local one that is running for office. Yes, I know the difference, but it was fun.
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