Water Warrior

You can check out Facebook's compression of my vid - it probably looks better.

This is Penny Dreadful, signing off. Goodnight, sweet ART590.

Last Minute Final Update

I worked since 5am every day this week (and last week I think) and I pulled it all together at the last second. My water bottle armor was pretty much what I wanted it to be. One of the most intricate pieces was this helmet.

I had to heat the plastic economy sized cranberry juice bottle (recylable number 1 plastic) with a hair dryer to get it to form to my head. Don't worry I put a towel over my head before I started melting plastic to it.

The next adornoment I created was from the bottle labels. It was a long, tall banner/flag like a Samurai would wear on his back into battle. The framing object that the banner hung between was parts of a portable aluminum shelving unit which I wasn't using yet.

And here is a detail image. You can't see the packing but one of the labels reads "Ethos Water, helping children get clean water." Number 1 plastic. Woot.

I couldn't affix the banner to my costume and since I wasn't fighting anyone in particular so I just held it for the video. The metal made a really sturdy frame though.

Costume Progress Report - Eye Protection

 Working on my mask. It features extra protection for the eyes with quick release screw caps to pour off those troublesome tears during battle.

But when your shields are negotiated, all your weapons are destroyed, and your defenses are down, the mask is quickly and easily movable for more effective hand-to-hand combat.

Plastic Cyborg Samurai Arm Guard

So far, I have made my forearm protection and am in the midst of making my facial gear... I am afraid this art costume is only going to be somewhat referential to the look and feel of the 16th century Samurai warrior, as it's got a bit of a sci-fi feel to it now, but that doesn't bother me. In fact, I really like where it's going. I'm planning on a helmet, shoulder gear, shin guards to match the arm guards and possibly some type of transparent open shoe. I have a lot of work ahead of me, but I think it will be neat.

My philosophical thoughts on this idea reference the elemental connotations of water among the other of the natural elements, fire, earth and air. In astrology the 4 elements are symbolic of personality traits in people born under that sign. Water is deep, nurturing, life-giving, and associated with emotional motivation. While placid and serene on a sunny day, it can get stirred up in a storm, rushing violently until it finds it's level. It can become frozen and hardened, nigh unmeltable. It can douse and even drown those who get caught up in it's torrents. But like the earth element, it's predictable in many ways. You can always expect water to confine to the laws of gravity.

Being born under this sign, I would like to use the water bottle to explore how we armor our sensitive and fluid compositions, how we canteen our nurturing natures to aid the war-weary, and how we sometimes bottle a torrential flood until the pressure makes us swell and even sometimes burst.

Digital Self-sustainability

The defining feature of most any religion deals with the facet of death. Humans like all animals, face the inevitability of their own mortality throughout the course of their lives. The death factor motivates all sorts of personal and evolutionary decisions from career and production to love and reproduction. Science and technology have worked over the entirety of human history to sustain the individual and collective human life. While facebook's answer is not quite reanimation following cryogenic suspension, it's a nice gesture. 

Facebook received complaints from a grieving family when one of it's members died, leaving his Facebook account active and open to posts. Since this event Facebook now offers a memorializing feature when one of it's users passes on from this life. Friends and family have the option to visit and engage in private supportive contact through the page of the deceased, but the activities will not go to the news feed and the account will not be deleted unless the family specifies. 

The KnowMore Extension in Action on Apple and Microsoft

It works!

I've been considering purchasing an Apple laptop for quite some time now, and I've wavered on the issue consistently for years mostly because a laptop, especially an Apple, is such an immense purchase. I got a flag from KnowMore while browsing in Firefox and learned that Apple lags behind all other computer brands in  workers rights, human rights, politics, environmentalism, and business ethics.

Here are some blurbs from KnowMore's findings

A Greener Apple! According to Greenpeace, Apple products made with toxic chemicals (such as flame retardants and polyvinyl chloride) are being sold worldwide. When discarded, they typically end up in the hands of children in China, India and other developing countries. They dismantle the products for parts and are exposed to dangerous toxins that threatens their health and the environment. Take action now to get Apple to go green.

Computer TakeBack Campaign More than 70 environmental groups have signed a letter to former Vice President Al Gore, who sits on the board of Apple, asking him to push the company to become more sustainable. Environmentalists express surprise that as America’s best-known environmental advocate, Gore would oppose shareholder resolutions—which Apple claims were unanimously voted against—asking Apple to become greener.

Here is the letter to the CEO of The Consumer Electronics Association signed by officials of 18 states (of which Kentucky was not among them) calling for laws to force companies like Apple and other electronics producers to be responsible for taking back and recycling their expensive products when they so quickly become obsolete.

But lets look at their arch nemesis, Microsoft as well. These two like to duke it out in a really ugly perpetual smear campaign wherever they can advertise.


Although they're not doing well in the arenas of business ethics and politics, and have been accused of making shitty unstable products, there is no information on Microsoft that would state that the company's environmental practices are not sound. As of 2006, Microsoft has joined a large group of companies no longer using the environmentally hazardous material polyvinyl chloride plastic (PVC) in their products. [39]
They have mixed reviews from their employees on worker's rights, as many have complained they used the H-1B bill to hire immigrant workers for $12/hr instead of paying big bucks to American developers who want to live in mansions too.

The smear campaign will assuredly continue, but I for one have never taken a side in the issue and that's because both corporations got some serious 'splainin' to do.

An interesting Firefox Add-On

 I came across this little buddy as I was researching - it's an add-on for Firefox from an organization called KnowMore that informs you of various corporations, brands or products' impact on the environment as you browse the web.  This organization does significant work to inform the public about the products they buy and the vendors they support with those purchases. Above are the founders of the company B. Dolan and Sage Francis.

Here's how the add-on works:

In search engines such as Google --KnowMore's intuitive issue specific icons will show up next to the relevant company's URL in search results.The icons represent: Worker Rights, Human Rights, Political Influence, Environmental Impact, & Business Ethics. If the corresponding icon is red, this means there are significant areas of concern, if it is yellow this means the company is neutral, if green the company has been given a positive rating. It updates every 24 hours.

If you want to download the add-on you can do it here.