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COTTON THISTLE CLEARANCE
Random musings from the noggin' of Knolltrey
(Best viewed on a monitor running Mozilla Firefox, with a brain running on a case of Grolsh...)
Thursday, 15 November 2007
Whining about wine? Butter it up!
Mood:
 spacey
Topic: Pseudoscientific Musings
So I was drinking a particularly objectionable Merlot tonight, and even while Merlot wine ain't my usual cup of tea (and yes, I've hated it since BEFORE "Sideways" came out, thank you very much...) I discovered something very interesting in the process... Wine drinkin' is kinda an art: you can get a gem of a complex Cab that will treat you right as rain quite easily, but who can afford to shell out $25+ a pop for a casual bottle of drinkin' vino? Shane can't... I reserve the real goodies for fine meats and the like (I have a five-year-old bottle of Opus One squirrled away somewhere for the day I win the lottery, become a best-selling author, find Willy Wonka's golden ticket, get selected for Astronaut training, or some combination thereof...) and the rest of the time it's more modest fare. Anyway, back to this crappy Merlot (pronounced MUR-LOT, in my book ;)... I'm not a wine expert, not even close, but I am what I call a 'vinophile' (someone with limited expertise, but enthusiasm). Most reds, in my opinion, have a distinctly basic 'dirt' taste underneath the berries and tanins (I don't mean this in a bad way, but if it's uncontrolled... hoo-boy). And it was in this bottle: a Merlot without mellowness is like a Chauchat machine gun without bullets: sure, it's worthless even when loaded, but taking the rounds out just adds insult to injury... ...what I'm tryin' to say is that Merlot is crap, but it's claim to fame is that it is more 'mellow' and lighter than other varietals: this bottle was more tart than a rusty nail (if you're wondering whether I'm taking about the mixed drink or the literal nail itself, the answer is 'yes'...) Alright, here's the point: I was eating some peanut butter and celery earlier, and I still had the munchies, so I took a break from drinking and ate some more. When I came back to my glass I was surprised: the whole taste of the wine was altered (duh...), but it was decidedly for the better. I can't find much research on how PB affects the taste of wine, but clearly it has something to do with the lip-smacking film it leaves in the mouth after ingestion. That overpowering 'dirt' taste in my Merlot was subdued (more like put in a chokehold) and the actual berry flavors were, as far as I could tell, quite satisfactorily revealed. I guess that the moral of the story is that crappy red wine can be de-crapified depending on what else your mouth is currently swimming in. I've been told this before, but this is the first time I've witnessed it firsthand... or first-tongue, if you will. Still: PB and Merlot?.... You won't find this tip in 'Food and Wine' anytime soon...
Posted by shanekentknolltrey
at 11:16 PM MNT
So, the king told the boogie-men...
Mood:
 blue
Now Playing: (duh...)
Topic: Random Political Diatribe
It looks like the good ol' Persian Empire's gonna take another cyclical step backwards in its desperate march to join the modern world... Beware of the Warriors of Vice 'n Virtue... Whatever... yeah: you go ahead and beat the ladies with lipstick and the men with improper moustaches (awesome alliteration, no?). That should solve all the problems crippling your part of the world. Twits... I'd also encourage them to start slaughterin' the gays, too, but of course there ARE no gays in Iran (just like "there are no cats in America"!) (...uh, as a side note, I'm not equating gays with mouse-eatin' carnivores, but I'm just trying to complain about the f**king raghead autocrats-) ...nevermind. Kinda reminds me of the story (and I can't reference it, so please don't take my word for it) of the Saudi 'Vice' goons who forced women and young girls fleeing a burning dormitory back into the flames (and their deaths) because the mongrel sluts had the gall to go outside (read: flee for their lives) without their head coverings. Well, Mahmoud, how can I protest your autocratic crackdown on your own society?... How indeed... To everyone in Iran and countries like it, to oppressed people who truly value freedom and the tolerant expression of religion and the tenants of humanism: I hope you live free, someday.
Posted by shanekentknolltrey
at 2:08 AM MNT
Tuesday, 13 November 2007
GODDAMNIT!!!
Mood:
 don't ask
Topic: General
A... surprisingly observant soul pointed out that I rendered Chenine's Essene with a teddy bear in her hands in my recent pic, whereas I describe her as posessing a creepy-looking stuffed bunny doll in the last chapter...
 This isn't exactly an incredibly important point, mind you, but it is a small nitpicky detail, and I'm all about the small nitpicky details... symbolism in particular. My original intent, naturally, was to have Mehta tote around a creepy stuffed bunny doll a-la the Velveteen Rabbit... the symbolism there almost writes itself... I just screwed up with the image: substituting a teddy bear for a bunny, but I actually like the change-up. For one thing, the rabbit idea is godlessly predictable (and I DON'T enjoy beating people over the heads with the obvious, if I'm smart enough to avoid it...) and I've got enough rabbit analogies in the story as it is (I believe that TWO different characters in the story have nicknames lifted from Watership Down at this point: little "Pipkin" Piperel (the base doctor's daughter) and Justin "Fiver" Storm. I think that Mehta's bunny needs to be changed to a teddy. Symbolism's still in place: a teddy bear is a childhood comfort, ain't it? (and just the kind of thing a kid would cling to if she had a... well, 'emotionally distant' parent, isn't that right?) I've got a chapter brewing in my noggin already where I introduce a very short-lived Bydo Entity who posthumously receives the codename 'Velveteen' (on account of her/its own thesis). I think that's really enough rabbit allusions to go around. F**k, I don't even LIKE rabbits that much (I prefer them on my plate than on my lap, if you catch my drift...) Now I'm hungry........
Posted by shanekentknolltrey
at 4:15 AM MNT
Monday, 12 November 2007
The House of the Mouse! (...not THAT one...)
Mood:
 celebratory
Topic: Entertaining Insights
I have a gift coming in the mail soon: the first four seasons of the greatest cartoon show in the history of animation! I suppose that I'm just a big kid at heart, and alot of this is just nostalgia, but still: DangerMouse is inarguably the greatest thing to come out of Great Britain since the Beatles ("Cor!"). I remember like it was yesterday: sittin' on the shag rug after school in front of the massive, non-flat-screen TV, my face baked by the humming, tempermental cathode-ray-tube as a (then) brand-new eipsode of the mighty mouse (no relation...) hit the US airwaves on that gilded gem of a TV station: Nickelodeon (this was during the 'Golden Age' of that channel in the early 80's, before kids were treated as morons with 'Nick Jr.' etc... and before shows that appealed to adults as much as kiddies were eschewed for more... well... mundane fare... ...hmm... ...strange of me to criticize the Japanese animation scene, isn't it? Well, I'm generally a HUGE supporter, but like American TV, the Japs put out more than their fair share of mindless twittery. British shows... well... while less sleek and appealing overall, tend to be infused with a mesure of... I dunno: intelligence and quality that's admirable, at least in my book.
But there's no debating DM: the mouse is the man, and don't you forget it! Now, then: I'm off to stake out a spot near my mailbox...
Posted by shanekentknolltrey
at 1:20 AM MNT
Updated: Monday, 12 November 2007 12:53 PM MNT
Saturday, 10 November 2007
A farewell to arms?
Mood:
 d'oh
Topic: A Hello to Arms
Idiots... So, Cleveland has an unusual spate of gun-involved homicides for the year, and (one assumes) a bunch of ne'er-do-wells running amok. So, what to do? Let's give people gas cards for their handguns... *Sigh*... I suppose they don't know that the ONLY PEOPLE who would possibly take advantage of this program are the very people who DESERVE to have those guns... (..."honey, you know that I don't want a gun in this house with our kids around, so why not go turn that beastly thing in for a gas-card? That's a great idea...") Meanwhile across town, a drugged out junkie sits on his hardwood floor and thinks: "Gee, the price of gas is really high these days, and I WAS plannin' on using my gat here to break into a house and steal some s**t to finance my habit, but my Civic is nearly empty!"... As a result of this policy, then, both the junkie and family man turn in their weapons, hold hands together and dance under a rainbow sky with lollipop gumdrops raining down from heaven. (...lollipop gumdrops?) Anyway: no, that won't happen. More likely is that the now-defenseless family gets their asses handed to them by drugged-out junkie man who, despite his desire for cheap gas, would rather sell that urn with grandpa's ashes in it to a pawnshop to parlay himself a nickel of smack. (...nickle of smack?) Voluntary gun turn-in programs ONLY draw in law-abiding citizens: the people who SHOULD have their weapons in tow, while the CRIMINALS who actually use their weapons for no-good aren't gonna give up their livelihood for a gas-card and $50 certificate to the local Applebee's... ...it's more profitable to bring the gun TO the Applebee's, and then leave with the cash register. No need for good manners if no one else can resist 'cause they wanted cheap gas. Do you want 'politeness', then? An armed society is a polite society.
Posted by shanekentknolltrey
at 11:01 PM MNT
Final attempt to crash the page (or: "The Imageshacked")
Mood:
 quizzical
Alright: no more pictures forever after this (or at least for a hell of a long time). Well, here it is, and it sucks... Too bad, really... A bunch of things went wrong here, IMO (don't you hate that abbrv.? OMFG....) 
Of everything that went wrong, I'm most miffed that I can't make convincing 'jangles' for Ever's boots (whereupon, naturally, her Karat Spheres reside). The attempt to put in a leg iron on the reflection is somewhat laughable, too... Question one would be: why is the logo in Japanese (and, of course, what does it mean)? Well, if AltaVista's BabelFish served me right, it's a funny little pun (to me, at least) and as for the choice of Japanese... well... I wanted this image to stand out for SOMETHING, other than badness, and in addition Samantha will be revealed to be a practitioner of high-level iaido later on (and she even has her own genuine shinken, so there). She's a badass, after all, and while her speciality from her days as a SPAR Marine Commando is Krav, I wanted her to have a little swordplay in her repertoire as well. Why? Well, she and Chenine start training together (the latter with a spray-painted wooden sword, natch), and a significant plot point hinges upon the difference between Chenine's wooden training sword and Sam's lethally sharp katana (and the ability to tell that difference ON SIGHT...). *sigh*... anyway, this pic sucks. Well, I've got a GOOD picture to use to counter this li'l mess, and to satisfy my ego I'll go ahead and play that card now:  Stay away from him: he'll rip yo' lungs out, Jim! (But I don't think I'd like to meet his tailor...)
Posted by shanekentknolltrey
at 2:09 AM MNT
Thursday, 8 November 2007
In order to make the pageloads for this site as slow as possible (because... well, I care :) here's a li'l picture of Chenine and her Essene (that almost rhymes!)... 
And I might as well repost the Justin/Quint image for the hell of it, since last time I forgot to add Quint's necklace/collar to the image (I almost forgot Mehta's teddy-bear, but when I was coloring in her green eyes I remembered the importance of those li'l Karat Spheres... uh, if you haven't read any of TYPERS, then forget it...) 
Now all I need to do is the last one at some point: Samantha and 'Ever', sitting on top of one wing of her Raiden, Ever in Samantha's lap and a full-body reflection beneath them (...guess I'd need to render them both in Poser at the same time for the lap thing... shouldn't take more than two hours for my computer to process... ugh...) If there's any curiosity, the reason I didn't put Chenine's Raiden and a reflection into her pic is because I have no f***king idea how to put the Chaste Gazer into an image (and given its opal finish, it wouldn't reflect anything too well in any event, would it?). Again, if you haven't read any of TYPERS, never mind...
Posted by shanekentknolltrey
at 1:49 AM MNT
Updated: Thursday, 8 November 2007 2:00 AM MNT
Wednesday, 7 November 2007
"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon now TOUCH ME babe!..."
Mood:
 bright
Now Playing: (see title...)
For a variety of reasons, the 'robots' of today leave something to be desired. One of the problems, as I've said before, is that no robot comes standard with 'Turing Tires' yet, and one of the most important things a robot must do to be accepted by us flesh 'n bloods is hold it's own in a good conversation. But another requirement, it seems, is to have an appriciation of the sense of touch... Eh, makes sense, anyway. Touch is the second most important sense in humans (a distant second behind vision, which engineers still can't really nail 'cause the mammalian brain still kicks any computer's ass about a trillion times over in terms of raw processing power...) There's tons of ways to communicate, but I guess this study proves that a touch is worth a thousand words. Scientific Progress whips out its AT&T-based cell phone*... * (...you know, "reach out and touch someone"?... no?... nothing?... God, I'm dating myself...)
Posted by shanekentknolltrey
at 7:00 PM MNT
Tuesday, 6 November 2007
On the lamb
Mood:
 caffeinated
Topic: General
I've wanted to make an image like this for some time... The results... well... they're not terrible, but not too great... 
I'm kinda happy with it, all in all, but not overly pleased (I think the reflection works well, if nothing else...) 'Quint' is rendered as an out-of-the-box cutout of Poser's 'Ben' character, who, for shame, comes packaged with the software (I can barely customize an adult's face, as you can tell, and kids're harder...) The resulting kiddie is older than I'd like, but there's nothing I can do about it with my artistic limitations. And, yes: Quint isn't supposed to throw a shadow, and yes: Justin's 'Aegis' sawn-off shouldn't be visible in the reflection, and, yes: the lettering on the Platonic Love should look better, but I layered it into the composition too early and couldn't go back and de-crapify it... GODDAMNIT!: the logo on Justin's torso SHOULD be visible in the reflection, though. To hell with it: just assign whatever artistic and poetical ideals you want to it and forget that it's a product of laziness. It's kinda chilly out today: I'd better bundle up in my sheepskin jacket... aroooooooooooo!
Posted by shanekentknolltrey
at 2:11 PM MNT
Sunday, 4 November 2007
Legendary Delays...
Mood:
blue
...unbelievable as it may seem, I'm getting closer to finishing the next chapter of TYPERS (and it is unbelieveable, ain't it?). There's an early draft of the opening. The Bold-faced text before the first roman numeral are notes for my benefit (there's usually alot more, too). God willing, the chapter'll be significantly lower than 10,000 words (there's only one POV to write for: Justin's) and it'll give me an excuse to really beef-up the word count on the next chapter. That one's gonna be called Filial Affection. That one's gonna be bloody. And that one's gonna reveal the true power of those wonderful/horrible little cherubs/devils inside the RH units: the Essenes (who still haven't been given that name... eh: wait a few chapters for that development...) 
Posted by shanekentknolltrey
at 1:49 AM ADT
Updated: Sunday, 4 November 2007 1:54 AM ADT
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