Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

The doctors gave us what sounds like aweful news today about our daughter’s health. I’m very worried. I didn’t get much done today… went to the post office and mailed all the pending orders (I’ve been getting things out really quickly, unlike when I ran BMEshop in the 90s and was completely terrible at timeliness), then finished off a commissioned ring, then got the horrible news… sat down for a while, looked at the big stack of things I’d intended to work on today not really feeling up to it and decided to tackle a new interpretation on my old Lil’ Acky ring. Even though my hands were shaking pretty badly from stress I managed to redo the interior engraving, and did four stone settings. I put a pair of green striped 8mm round malachite stones in the eyes, and also a pair of little cut gemstones in the amphibian ears — they’re different colors because they’re supposed to reflect that when he grows up he’ll fly starships, so it echoes the indicator lights on airplanes.

As always you’re just a click away from my Etsy shop.

I sold the moonstone “gross zombie eye ring” today, which was one of my favorite of the recent retoolings of older ring designs that I’ve done recently, applying new skills to old pieces. I’ve got one more in stock where I did this, the blue eye’d zombie ring, and I know whoever orders it will be very happy. It’s definitely one of the nicest “gross” rings I’ve done. I also placed an order for new stones today since I was running out — here is what I have on the way:

So if you like any of those stones, some of them I only have enough to make one or two items with, so you should speak up if you want me to make something for you. That said, I like making custom variations on request, and of course I can order anything someone wants so I suppose it doesn’t really matter much unless you are looking for instant gratification (and who in this modern world isn’t?)…

In more pleasant news I am reading a great new — new to me anyway — comic by Leo (who did the amazing Aldebaran/Betelguese/Antares series that I recommended a while back — learn more on the Wiki and then buy on Amazon) called Kenya that seems to be about discovering dinosaurs a la Mokele-mbembe somehow mixed in with UFOs (I’ve only just finished the first book of five). I don’t think it has yet been officially translated into English, although there are illicit “scanlations” available in the regular places, which I don’t have an ethical problem reading since I always buy the hardcopy as soon as it becomes available. More and more I feel inspired to create my own graphic novel — two actually, one biographical, and one science-fiction.

But I wanted to real briefly mention a couple of links, but I’ll start with a video:

What an ethereal creature!!! Now that there are a number of different personal submarines (my personal favorite probably being the Triton 36000/3, winning out over the “underwater sportscar” from Virgin/Hawkes) for the ultra wealthy that can explore the very deepest depths of the ocean — to say nothing of incredible 200+ foot long underwater yachts that can cross oceans and stay submerged for days and travel to a depth of 3000 feet that I’m absolutely salivating over, making me second-guess having gotten out of the internet casino game in the early nineties to follow my only slightly more reputable dreams in body modification — I’m sure that we will be making exponential discoveries underwater. Mentioning other links, as I was thinking about science-fiction writing, I found a great site about futurism in general and they have a nice section on oceanic habitats (a la The Abyss for example) that fill me with daydreams that don’t involve any illness other than the bends.

I’ve been sharing a lot of modification photos from friends on Facebook, and that includes Eaten Placenta‘s super-cool and truly bizarre rib augmenting implants. As I said there, it makes me giddy, I just love things that kick a hole in reality, something that makes you see that the world is not quite what you thought it was, that maybe there’s a very weird truth bubbling away under the surface just waiting to be discovered. I grew from a childhood watching the aliens on Star Trek and it makes me hope that we are creating at least the aesthetics of the future I hoped I’d live in.

But as I also mentioned, and as I say with some experience as an SSSS-member that is searched by the TSA at every opportunity, Arab boogeyman Mr. Al Qaeda is said to have his evil mad scientists working on implanted bombs. I don’t even want to think about what jackassery that will get the security goons doing. But I wonder how they will react when their horrible groping hands grab onto my future-creating kin’s anatomical optical illusions?

I read that they have come out with transparent aluminum. Well, as the article mentions, it’s been around for a long time, thirty years or so, but it’s really just maturing as a commercial technology now. Because it’s very expensive the initial market will be military, for things like bulletproof glass, but I have to wonder whether you could use it to build a luxury car. Ages ago it was very common for convention demonstration cars to be bodied with clear acrylic/polymer (also because these clear plastics were a new and exciting material back then). Wouldn’t it be amazing to build an entire car out of transparent aluminum? And I’m not just talking about the body of the car. Not even just the body and the chassis. What I’d really like to see is a transparent engine block!!! That would be incredible, a big glasslike hunk of engine running, with fire and explosions storming around inside it, all visible to the onlookers in awe of your massive wallet and tiny genitals!

Which reminds me, I remember a decade ago cruising around in my 44″ monster Jeep with the top down and the doors off, and a car full of excited girls drove past, and while I was used to people screaming adulation, I was not expecting a chorus of “small penis!” Hahaha.

But if I could really get myself a true dream vehicle — and one that I think wouldn’t break the bank as badly as a submarine or a spaceship or probably even a transparent aluminum supercar — is something the designer is calling a “stratocruiser”. Click the picture for more.

I’ve said it here before, but I really think that in a lot of ways an airship has the potential to be the ultimate yacht. It’s quite energy efficient — I suspect you could cover it in solar panels and have it run electrically for free — and its nature is that while it can’t carry as much weight as some other technologies, it doesn’t care how large its cargo is. So it’s very suited to large, spacious travel of the sort that’s ideal for a luxury yacht of some sort of neo-steampunk or futurist nature. It seems so serene, the idea of slowly drifting across the ocean or over rain forests or over the African Savannah or across Antarctica… And of course you could stay connected to communications grids via cell and satellite the whole time, so one could easily have a flying office. Surely this would cost a fraction of a big boat. I’ve never understood why the mega rich invest in some luxuries but not others.

Well… This is going to be a very stressful month or two I worry. There’s not much worse than having a potentially seriously ill child. I wish I could just look at cute pictures of sleeping dogs or something and relax but I am not like that.. But I do tend to work well under stress, and Rachel has suggested that I draw up a new BME shirt, my first in almost half a decade, to use as a fundraiser for the upcoming medical bills and I am letting that idea germinate for a bit, but I will probably do some drawing this weekend.