Been taking a little bit of a break this past week, with a brother from another mother crashing on the couch. The other night I did get a start on touching up the existing floor adjacent to the outside of the piece. I used Minwax Golden Oak 210B, which seems to be working fine. One thing I noticed (read: live and learn) is that some of the wood filler I applied to the crevices on the outside got soaked up by the freshly sanded oak, and subsequently doesn’t take the stain exactly the same way as the real wood. Semi-ugh, but I’ll just consider it one of those disclaimers they tag on wood or leather products declaring that “any imperfections enhance the beauty” of said product.

After this I’ll probably need to sand the edges of the whites, and then it’ll be time to break out the Varathane.

Along with approximately seventy-nine trillion other things, I’m part Wyandot Indian. The Anglofied spelling of our people is “Wyandotte”, with their motherland being smack dab in the middle of the United States in Kansas.

My maternal grandmother, Gran, is the person that gave me this heritage. I just received an informative email from her, and rather than explain, I figure I’ll just post it here:

Hi Jace:

I have been “googling” just now and…

Time out for a second. Gran’s in her nineties and she’s getting her Google on. Does she not rock or what? LOVE IT.

Sorry about the interruption. Anyway:

Hi Jace:

I have been “googling” just now and brought up “Jace Daniel Albao.” At the mention of Wyandot I suddenly noticed the paragraph about the Wyandot Cemetery in Kansas City, Kansas. It tells of 100 years struggle to maintain this land as a cemetery, with other tribes wanting to establish it for commercial gambling. My mother told me at one time that it had been considered a shrine.

My Indian family is buried there, including my grandmother and grandfather, which took place in my lifetime, plus several generations of family. It hurts me very much to recall my grandmother’s many futile efforts to regain the land that had once been ours (where the present airport exists today) and it was her prime interest for many years. She even went to Washington D.C. to study and research at the Congressional Library and later could talk for hours on the subject. And my greatest regret is she died before the decision to award to 400 Indians the $1600 that was rightfully theirs. My children were awarded the original $1600, as they were all at least 18 years of age. My grandchildren, except Heather, received their checks bearing interest accrued by the time each was 18 years old. You now know a little part of the story and should understand that’s how you were able to buy your first car, if I correctly recall.

Another thing I remember: the tribe was Catholic and in my mother’s family her mother (my grandmother) was one of three sisters all Catholic, but at an early age she became a Protestant. No doubt this caused some friction at times.

Just a bit of family history I’ve given you. Google does a good job of explaining the history of the Wyandots. I find as I grow OLD that reminiscing plays an important role in my life.

Take care and invite us to see your beautiful home once it’s finished.

Love,

Gran

Thanks Gran. Much love backatcha. I’ll have a bottle of scotch ready. How do you and Grandpa like your filet mignon?

“The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor.”
— Aristotle

Discovered in a barley field in Wiltshire, the most complex crop circle of all time is a coded representation of the first ten digits of pi: 3.141592654.

Bluh’ee ‘ell, tha’ is fucking cool. I’d like to by those blokes a round of Bass.

(via Telegraph.co.uk)

For additional perspective, some midwest drama shot in Chapman, KS. Run, Toto, run!

(via eby)

1 x 8 + 1 = 9
12 x 8 + 2 = 98
123 x 8 + 3 = 987
1234 x 8 + 4 = 9876
12345 x 8 + 5 = 98765
123456 x 8 + 6 = 987654
1234567 x 8 + 7 = 9876543
12345678 x 8 + 8 = 98765432
123456789 x 8 + 9 = 987654321

1 x 9 + 2 = 11
12 x 9 + 3 = 111
123 x 9 + 4 = 1111
1234 x 9 + 5 = 11111
12345 x 9 + 6 = 111111
123456 x 9 + 7 = 1111111
1234567 x 9 + 8 = 11111111
12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111
123456789 x 9 +10 = 1111111111

9 x 9 + 7 = 88
98 x 9 + 6 = 888
987 x 9 + 5 = 8888
9876 x 9 + 4 = 88888
98765 x 9 + 3 = 888888
987654 x 9 + 2 = 8888888
9876543 x 9 + 1 = 88888888
98765432 x 9 + 0 = 888888888

1 x 1 = 1
11 x 11 = 121
111 x 111 = 12321
1111 x 1111 = 1234321
11111 x 11111 = 123454321
111111 x 111111 = 12345654321
1111111 x 1111111 = 1234567654321
11111111 x 11111111 = 123456787654321
111111111 x 111111111 = 12345678987654321

(via Koko)

Snapped this morning on the bluff. The overgrown brush at the close of spring has become a canvas for the creative spiders of the night, with the entire ridge of White Point riddled with web after web after web. Beautiful stuff, particularly in the horizontal morning sunshine.

I tried taking a long view pic to capture dozens of ’em in one shot, but the cell isn’t capable of catching the detail. So, here are a couple close-ups of their masterpieces.

Holy shit, my eyes are watering. EPIC.

Love this one. This weekend I spent an evening with Paulie and his wife Gina, the Genius Disney Lighting Effects Queen. Back in their studio she had a clay gargoyle she sculpted.

I would’ve been all over this in the sixth grade. My own personal Middle Ages. I’d read Tolkien, I played Dungeons & Dragons. Some kids played Cowboys & Indians or Army; we’d play the backyard version of D&D, making medieval weapons like flails and maces out of broomsticks and boxing gloves. I even made a shield out of plywood and painted a griffin on it. And yeah, I did a research report on gargoyles, plagiarizing the hell out of the G volume of Encyclopedia Britannica.