Steampunk Worlds Fair, 2017

Steampunk Worlds Fair, 2017

What is Steampunk? 
Google offers this definition:

1. a genre of science fiction that has a historical setting and typically features steam-powered machinery rather than advanced technology.

   • a style of design and fashion that combines historical elements with anachronistic technological features inspired by science fiction.

     "the essence of steampunk is homage to vintage fashion with a modern, sassy twist"

Why do we go? 
         It's fun seeing the creativity of the costumes and devices.

We in our costumes.  In front of a Dr. Who Victorian Themed Police box.

And a Victorian themed Dalek. 

A Stilt Walker.

Costumes often have many accessories.  Common items are antique weapons, parasols, wings and science gear.

The man on the left has a wings that expand to about 7feet.  Two the right is a hat that is also a fully functioning weather station.  He is predicting rain, so his wife has an umbrella. 

Great costumes.  His vest is all gears, his pants keys.  The hat is a temperature gauge, barometer, and a solution that forms crystals when the weather is about to get nasty.  Her outfit is accessorized with a multitude of gears and keys.

No age limit here.

R2-D2 and friend.

An accessorized roadster.

Every car ad needs a beautiful girl.

Inspiration is found everywhere.  Ursula from "The Little Mermaid"?

Then a band walks through.

Most wings are deployed with hand pulls.  This one is totally automated.

Iron Man

A Vulcan

I am not sure who this is.  My first thought was Goldar from Power Ranges, but now I am not so sure.

A time-machine/tank.  With a comfy leather recliner inside. 

Ghost-busters!

It didn't come out here, but this outfit is squid themed. 

A mechanical spider hat.

Before James Bond had an Aston Martin, there was this.

Can go from zero to 60 in 12.4 seconds!

One of the three judges for the costume contest.

 I'll be interspersing audience shots in the costume show.  As there was no seating, the audience would ebb and flow, with new people to my left and right all the time. 

Shots of the audience.

Shots of the audience.

Here are photos of the costume contest.  These have been heavily cropped.  There was no seating, so the pictures have to be taken by holding the camera overhead.  Between that and the bright sun, I couldn't see how well the camera was aimed.

First round was for people new to Steampunk.

On the right is "Dark Steampunk Princess Lea".  Not very visible is her tights, on which is pictured gears and pulleys.

I don't recall these participants.  The girl on the right's dress was her first ever made by her.

The adventuring professor on the left.  Dark Lea in a full signature pose.

Shots of the audience.

Family group themed "Alice in Wonderland.

Full stage of the "New", but not the "First Time", Steampunkers.

Shots of the audience.

Shots of the audience.

These characters were introduced as "Yossarian 2" and "Yossarian B".  We were asked not to ask about "Yossarian 1" and "Yossarian A".  But it is a good idea to have spares :)  As I recall, they won this segment of the contest.

This character was introduced as someone recognizable to the crowd, but not me. 

Great costuming,  I think they made everything but his paints.

Like Penn and Teller, the big guy speaks, the lady was silent, lest she have to kill us all.

Another Alice in Wonderland family.  The Mad Hatter was over the top in his presentation.

A mermaid and her knight.

Princess Anna and Sven, Red Riding hood and a stuffed wolf, A Naval Officer, and Captain America.

Shots of the audience.  Great hat!

Shots of the audience.

Shots of the audience.  I really liked the purple and black ensemble. 

Ghost Busters.

Whirly-Bird Man.  Who won the overall "Best Device" award.

Wonder Woman in her signature pose.

First effort costume as well, 100% silk, down to the panteloons.

Butterfly's abound on this outfit.

Views of the audience.

Dalek Queen.  If you complemented her, she would give you a sticker stating "You will not be exterminated."

A family theme.  Everyone dressed alike except the teen age daughter.

Rick of "Rick and Morty"  One robot is "Butter Robot"  I am guessing the other is Lawn-Mower Dog. 

Three of the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse.  Famine, Pestilence, and War.

Rick (blue hair) was over the top in his presentation.  Came in 2nd.

Views of the audience.

Top 6.  3 for best costume, 3 for best devices.

If memory servers, Awards for best devices when to Whirly-Bird man, Deaths Scythe, and Lawn Mower dog.  Best costume went to Dalek Queen, War, and pestilence. 

An impromptu game of ring around the rosey?

Cherry Lane Motor Inn, A Gem of a Motel in Lancaster

Cherry Lane Motor Inn, 84 North Ronks Road Ronks, PA 17572, Ronks, PA 17572.  This motel is a great find.  It is two miles east of the Lancaster Outlets, and only a half a mile off of route 30.  It was obvious the place had serious renovations within the last few years and had a number of modern improvements.  LED lighting, motion sensors turning on lights in the darkened hallways, new TV's.  The rooms were spacious and very clean.  The paint was fresh, and the furniture showed signs of recent carpet cleaning.  Renovations seem to be continuing as there were new rolls of carpets in evidence.  

All this shows that the owners were interested in keeping the place in tip top shape.  

The front was eerily quiet.  No sounds of the hustle and bustle of the route 30 corridor. 

I usually travel with a head pillow, but it was unnecessary.  Each of these 8 pillows were perfect.  I was going to offer to buy one.

The bathroom was clean, and with an second sink, spacious.  During the day, the sunlight comes in from both the back and front windows.

The view from the back was a snowscaped Amish Farmstead.

 I paid $50 for a night in March.  And I can heartily recommend this motel and will stay there again.

Boars Head Feast of St. Peters Lutheran Church

Jan. 7, 2017

I just returned from attending the Boars Head Feast at St. Peters Lutheran Church at Lafayette Hill, PA.  

This was the most amazing show I have seen in a long time.  The majesty and pageantry rivals that of a royal wedding.  A description of what it is about can be found in this Wikipedia article.  Which claims the feast stems from the Roman times, and updated in old England.

The celebration starts with a description of the history of the feast, then the music starts and the Beefeaters take over the church.  This followed by a bagpipe and drum marching band.  Then the lord and lady of the house.  It continues with jesters, the kitchen staff, the presentations of the Boar's Head, followed by a Yule log.  

And it never stops presenting.  Mary and Joseph arrive, which starts the whole Christmas Pageant.  Each succession of characters are welcomed in with the full versions of Christmas Carols, beautifully sung by choir and soloists.  

An angel arrives, clad in white gossamer, wings waving gently, dances through the church.  Foolishly, I looked at my program for the next piece of music, and when I looked up, there was a multitude of angels.  Joanne assured me they descended from above.  It was glorious.

And the arrivals keep coming.  The Shepherds, the Kings, their pages.  This is a medium sized church, and I think everyone under 60 was in costume.  Easily over 200 performers.  

They do not allow photographs, but there are some videos on their church website.  

There are three performances tomorrow.  I recommend to any and all to try to attend!

An open letter to Citi Bank

To XXXXX Citi Card Services Best Buy

From Philip Gardocki, Card holder

Dear Sir,

                This is a letter of complaint on how an issue was handled by your company, Citi Cared Services supporting the My Best Buy Credit card.

                The short of this story is a bill payment went missing and your attempts to recover it.

                As we are still in the discovery process here, not all the details of the missing transaction are known yet.  Rest assured, the money I owe your company is forthcoming.

                As to how your company handles this problem has been horrible, and will certainly lead to a cancellation of my credit card once accounts are settled.  As this is my back up credit card, so you are not going to miss my business much.

                But I also maintain a blog on merry events like this, and this is a great opportunity to add a page of content.  For that I am appreciative.  And you will benefit as it can explain a problem manifesting itself with your company and you can have an opportunity to fix said problem.

                Down to the details.  On 12/6/2015, I made a purchase for $158.99 that was charged to the card.  Around the end of the month we received a bill for that amount.  On 1/22/2016 the bill was recorded as paid in full as a direct transfer from our bank account to you.

                 Around January 30^th or so, I started receiving robocalls from your company.  The caller ID was listed as “Unavailable”.  The calls start with “We are sorry we missed you, your time is important to us…”  Ok, I get this; you are trying to be nice.  HOWEVER, since I actually answered the call, I have no opportunity to interact with anyone.  And since it was a robocall, I hung up long before your message completed. 

                You see, I get these calls all the time.  From scam artists.  They all say it is important that I contact them.  And because you refuse to identify yourself on caller ID only puts you in the scam category.  I am not going to call the number on the message.  I am going to call the number on my credit card.  Which I did.  Not your specific card, because I did not think it was the issue.  My main credit card which is also run by Citi.  And they reported no problems.

                I am doing my due diligence here.  If you had the courtesy of a person calling me, or perhaps a letter.  This issue could have been resolved last week.  But no.  You have to…

                Robo call again and again.

                Did I mention this is for $150 dollars?  What is your problem, do you need gas money for the Lamborghini?

                Eventually, on 2/3/2016, I did call the number on the message, so you could say it worked, except that now I am royally pissed off.  I gave no information other than my phone number and let them work out what the problem is.  They say I have a bill past due, and I agreed to check up on it.  Because hey, I can make a mistake.

                So today, 2/4/2016, I found the bill, with the note on it stating it was paid on 1/22/2016, because my wife is really good with these things.  And I call your card member services again.  Obviously there is a disconnect somewhere, and we have to track it down.  But I am at least acknowledging there is a problem somewhere and it is recorded in you system.  It was mentioned that your payment remittance address was changed.  And that would keep the automatic bill payment from getting through.

                So now the disconnect has been identified.  Don’t you think you are over reacting?  You change your address, knowing it will break any direct payments.  I know you know it because it is written on the bill.  So my payment, which was made in good faith, goes awry and you have the unmitigated gall to sick the hounds on me?  WTF man!  The bill is 9 days late, caused by a situation you knowingly created, and then you charge me and every other direct payment people $35 for it.  How many millions in late fees did you bill?  How much of that have you had to refund?  You wasted my time, your time, you created needless angst, ALL BECAUSE YOU COULDN’T BOTHER TO ACTUALLY PAY SOMEONE TO MAKE A PHONE CALL OR SEND A LETTER?

                Have you checked my credit rating?  Actually you did, just last year.  I’ll wait while you look it up. 

.

..

…

I am not someone that lets bills slide.  You think you saved money by automating this process.  Your bean counters don’t count everything.  There is a cost for pissing off your clientele.  With me, it’s not much.  You are not going to miss me.  But this will be a blog entry, forever.  I am fairly proficient at Search Engine Optimization.  I can make pages bubble to the top with the right keywords.

Like these:

Citibank sucks.  Robocalls sucks, Unfriendly billing department.  Late payments.  

Caffeine by the Numbers

Like a lot of you, I have a love affair with coffee.  By monitoring my withdrawal symptoms, I know I was a caffeine addict as early as 19.   But it took about 10 years before I figured this out.

I have done cursory studies on the caffeine amount in coffee/tea/soda over the years, but was frustrated because the presented facts were always incomplete, and often contrary.  Does espresso have more caffeine, or less?  The studies said yes.  

 The coffee/tea comparison was always muddled.  How much coffee, how much tea?  It turns out that the standard cup of coffee is 5 oz, or maybe 7oz.   I don’t know about you, but my smallest coffee mug is 14oz.  Dark roast vs light?  It turns out that dark is actually lower in caffeine.

I heard an article on the subject the other day, on a “WhatYou Should Know” podcast, that did a pretty good job of explaining things, and brought to light a few things I wasn’t aware of, and has made me think on this again.  So here is Caffeine, by the Numbers.

There are a number of factors that will affect the caffeine content of coffee.   

They are:

     Bean type, Arabica or Robusta.

     Grind, from coarse to Turkish

     Extraction, perc, drip, press Turkish or espresso.

     Roast, from dark to light.

With four vectors it is almost impossible to actually make a statement of how much caffeine is in a cup, aside from actually testing that specific cup.  So all you can do is imply, less or more.

Beans Type:  There are two types of beans, Arabica and Robusta.  Arabica beans are smaller, more flavorful, but have half the caffeine as the Robusta bean.  Arabica is more expensive, Robusta beans tends to be in the discount store brands.  Most coffee shops use exclusively Arabica beans.

The Grind:  Coarser grinds yield less caffeine for a process.  All other vectors being even, Turkish will yield double the caffeine over a coarse grind.

The Extraction Process:  French press has the least.  Drip the next, followed by percolated, espresso then Turkish.

The Roast:  Dark roasts are, slightly lighter on caffeine then lighter roasts.  The roasting process changes the caffeine per weight ratio.  The net effect is if you measure your coffee grounds by volume, there is less caffeine, but if you measure by your grounds by weight, there is more caffeine.  Mostly we measure by volume so there as small drop in the caffeine content.