Steampunk hairstyle: "the figure eight"

If you're searching for a hairstyle for your next Steampunk outing, look no further.  I love experimenting with my hair, and coming up with simple, no-hassle ways to do my hair somewhat like they do in the movies.  This hairstyle is simple and elegant and looks good on everyone. It is really quite easy to do: just a regular figure eight with an extra curl. The figure eight does have to be rather tight to make sure it stays in place more than 10 minutes.  Caroline Bingley wears something like it in "Pride and Prejudice." It works perfectly with a fascinator or small top hat, and less well with a full sized hat or bonnet.  To add some oomph (which won't work with a hat or fascinator), pin up some hair in a half-back first to give yourself some loft above the forehead.

Flowers cover up any bobby-pinning mistakes. These flowers are clips from Claire's Icing (great hair accessory and earring source!) that were extremely cheap and look really cute. I recommend taking a trip to that store soon. It is in almost every mall.

Caio!
The Lonely Alchemst

Poetry Tuesday: "Bluebird" by Charles Bukowski

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I'm not going
to let anybody see
you.
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pour whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the ****s and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he's
in there.

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody's asleep.
I say, I know that you're there,
so don't be
sad.
then I put him back,
but he's singing a little
in there, I haven't quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it's nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don't
weep, do
you?

Word Wednesday: "Abderian"

Today's unusual and possibly defunct word is abderian.  Abderian means "given to incessant or idiotic laughter.  It comes from the city of Abdera in ancient Thrace, the home of Democritus, the "laughing plilosopher." 

I am heartily glad I do not know any abderian people.

Ciao!
The Lonely Alchemist

Happy St. Patty's Day!

May your blessings outnumber
The shamrocks that grow,
And may trouble avoid you
Wherever you go.
~Irish Blessing

Ciao!

The Lonely Alchemist

Selection from "The Ghost Pirates" by William Hodgson

1

The Figure Out of the Sea

He began without any circumlocution.

I joined the Mortzestus in 'Frisco. I heard before I signed on, that there were some funny yarns floating round about her; but I was pretty nearly on the beach, and too jolly anxious to get away, to worry about trifles. Besides, by all accounts, she was right enough so far as grub and treatment went. When I asked fellows to give it a name, they generally could not. All they could tell me, was that she was unlucky, and made thundering long passages, and had no more than a fair share of dirty weather. Also, that she had twice had the sticks blown out of her, and her cargo shifted. Besides all these, a heap of other things that might happen to any packet, and would not be comfortable to run into. Still, they were the ordinary things, and I was willing enough to risk them, to get home. All the same, if I had been given the chance,

Poetry Tuesday: "Le génie" by Jules Verne

Le génie

Comme un pur stalactite, oeuvre de la nature,
Le génie incompris apparaît à nos yeux.
Il est là, dans l'endroit où l'ont placé les Cieux,
Et d'eux seuls, il reçoit sa vie et sa structure.

Jamais la main de l'homme assez audacieuse
Ne le pourra créer, car son essence est pure,
Et le Dieu tout-puissant le fit à sa figure ;
Le mortel pauvre et laid, pourrait-il faire mieux ?

Il ne se taille pas, ce diamant byzarre,

If you love Jane Austen, read on...

Have you ever wanted, even briefly, to live in a Jane Austen novel?  I'm assuming you have.  If it's not the adorable manners, it's the clothes, or the dances, or the lazy upper class lifestyle.  It's just all too lovely!  Well you can't live in a Jane Austen novel.  I'm sorry.  Deal with it and get back to the real world.  But at this adorable site, you can get close, kind of...

Which Austen woman will you be?

Caio!
The Lonely Alchemist