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Text of the page (random words):
nt perhaps the hardest part of not going to asylum is reading the posts of all those excited people on welcome to the asylum who are preparing to attend however on the plus side this does at least hold out the promise of some wonderful photograph albums to peruse in september there are so many events i can t attend like wild west con and the steampunk world s fair but whose photos provide pleasure and inspiration this year the asylum will be another of them one of the pleasures of the asylum is watching civilians walking through the markets and gradually becoming steampunked that s the first step for some hopefully it leads on to crafting one s own steampunk creations events like the asylum are a huge boost for one s steampunk soul but life has to go on and so does one s steampunkery perhaps the true power of steampunk is not that it can bring thousands of steampunks together on the castle green during asylum but that it can provide them with pleasure and purpose throughout the other three hundred and sixty days of the year i won t be at asylum this year but i won t suffer the asylum blues my life steams on regardless however to those who are going may i wish you all a wonderful time and good weather if it rains there s usually cover somewhere last year as a shower came in i found myself in a tent full of corsets feeling like a character from father ted i hope you have fun and make new discoveries take time to appreciate the organisers the victorian steampunk society and volunteers too they do a terrific job oh and please post lots of photos to the welcome to the asylum page we d all love to see what you get up to 1 comment hara hara february 22 2017 18 18 filed under uncategorized i have a stinking cold i am in bed and i have no intention of getting out of it my brain is foggy and i ache all over however i have looked at my facebook on my phone not up to turning on the computer one of my friends has posted a beautiful picture of a state of the hindu god shiva which lifted my spirits a little to be honest i m not sure there is a point in my house from which i can t see a picture of shiva but i wasn t looking my friend s posting reminded me that this saturday will be mahashivratri as well as my wife neelam s birthday the date of shivratri is set by the position of the moon and neelam was also born on shivratri so it s a special day in many ways i had hoped to mark this year with a full shivratri fast but i doubt i m well enough i did it once before and it s the toughest fast i ve ever done but worth it for the sense of accomplishment at the end probably totally the wrong reason theologically for doing it the form of saivism i follow is fiercely non dualist it has no personal god not object of worship everything is shiva and shiva is our consciousness our personal gods like everything else in creation are creations of our own mind in the siva sutras what most people would consider organs for receiving information eye nose skin ear are all organs of generation creating the world we experience the world and our experience of it and of our individuality is entirely made up which means damn it so is my experience of being ill when i m feeling miserable i find comfort in the creation of a personal god but it s just a symptom of losing touch with the oneness this is all made up and so is the reality that the picture of shiva by my bedroom door is laughing at me trust me he really does change expression according to my mood i think i ll get up i am feeling much better and the picture of shiva is looking unbearably smug hara hara mahadev leave a comment the glasses for it february 5 2017 22 16 filed under asperger s syndrome autism health personal development social media steampunk technology travel writing tags asylumsteampunk shawhands2017 steampunkhands airship ambassador glasgow ubiquitous e steampunk society making life better music city steampunk consortium shaw 2017 february is steampunk hands around the world month hosted by the airship ambassador the theme this year is making life better i have chosen the category personal issues because steampunk has added so much to my personal enjoyment of life you should come along you ve got the glasses for it said my friend brian as he informed me that the glasgow ubiquitous e steampunk society was going to participate in the glasgow scotland style mile winter parade i hadn t heard of the style mile and the existence of steampunk as a thing had escaped me a little explanation left me wondering how it had escaped me i had the glasses i also had a long association with waistcoats cravats bow ties hats and other sartorial eccentricities i was at school when william hartnell and patrick troughton were the doctor my school reading tended to be hg wells kipling h rider haggard and michael moorcock as well as the eagle and the rover and wizard i loved the cartoons of charles addams and heath robinson the school film club brought us films like the time machine 2000 leagues under the sea and journey to the centre of the earth however steampunk had never impinged upon my consciousness i had accidentally retired early when i was made redundant at the age of sixty i had time on my hands and so i wrapped a top hat in holly put on my naval greatcoat picked up my carved indian walking stick and joined guess on the parade i was unprepared for just how much fun i would have and how much entertainment we would give the public just by walking among them i was easily persuaded to attend raicon a few weeks later i had never considered going to a comic con previously and i had a marvellous time cosplay is another concept that had largely escaped my notice but what a lovely welcoming group of young well compared to me people they are and they seemed delighted to have a bunch of steampunks wandering around the con the society s annual general meeting came around and inevitably i went along and left at its end the chief engineer club secretary of the glasgow ubiquitous e steampunk society no longer just a pensioner but a pensioner with a purpose besides my writing that is as a representative of steampunkery and of the society i threw myself into steampunk i had been up until that point an e bay virgin but building a steampunk wardrobe for every occasion can prove costly and i was on a small pension i not only learned to use e bay but became a frequenter of charity shops and antique shops i was forced to become creative and gradually more adventurous i began by camouflaging with cogs burn holes in a used morning coat it was not too long before i had sewn myself a leather coachman s hat from a bag of scraps bought online i learned as i went round charity shops to look at things differently i learned to see things not as they were but as what they could be sometimes i bought things merely because they looked as if they could become something amazing even if i could not yet see it i have even been on a workshop to learn how to use a sewing machine i went online seeking ideas and inspiration on you tube facebook and google plus there are so many of us in cyberspace steampunks are very helpful and encouraging and some i call my friends even though we may not yet have met and some i have i was amazed to discover how large a community we are and how widely dispersed around the world i was delighted to discover that many are ̶ like myself ̶ on the autism spectrum finding in steampunk an ideal outlet for their imaginations i find steampunk is a wonderful vehicle for communicating with the world and building a web of relationships i now edit a quarterly ish online newsletter for the glasgow ubiquitous e steampunk society from the last issue we have started to produce it in association with the music city steampunk consortium of nashville tennessee and hope to have increased participation from them as time goes on there is something magical and inspiring about the internationalism of steampunk i went alone to the asylum steampunk festival in lincoln last year and had no problem communicating with complete strangers from all around the world those who understand aspergers will appreciate how important that is however i did not feel as if i were among strangers i felt very much at home in the evenings i was staying with my brother outside lincoln which probably helped too there is so much to discover in steampunk culture fashion art music literature amazing events my days are never dull despite retirement also it opens the door to so many other new interests in glasgow we have the britannia panopticon music hall the world s oldest operating music hall and i have become a volunteer in its struggle to preserve a unique cultural institution i used to study medieval history when i was younger now i find myself looking at the history of the georgians victorians and edwardians to inform my steampunkery and of late i ve been looking at the american west in the nineteenth century in a way i never did before bass reeves wow here i am in my sixties on the spectrum with a whole new and exciting life open to me i had expected once the work dried up to spend my time at home reading and writing and growing old now i m like a child in some sort of brass and copper built disneyland with a new wonder around every corner a new adventure over the brow of every hill someday i may die by chronological inevitability but i doubt if i shall ever grow old 1 comment steampunkery and politics january 26 2017 20 12 filed under asperger s syndrome justice personal development politics religion scotland steampunk technology tags brexit glasgow ubiquitous e steampunk society guess mcsc music city steampunk consortium ness north east steampunk society trump steampunk superhero s cosplay i think it is fair to say we live in strange and troubling times what with the decision by the english to turn their back on europe and drag their neighbours also into a new parochial rejection of the outside world and the election of donald trump as president of the usa who appears also to want to turn his back on the world whilst at the same time plundering its resources i accept this is somewhat of an over simplification but the political details are not really my concern here but rather how people respond to them i think it is fair to say that that feelings are running high not only in the usa and the uk but in europe and throughout the middle east look further afield to africa asia and russia and it looks as if the whole world is on the edge of some sort of emotional cataclysm so what if anything has any of this got to do with steampunk i know that steampunks like other folk hold political opinions some are guided by political and religious beliefs so why when countries are bitterly divided within themselves and from their neighbours are steampunks from all around the world still bumbling along together cheerfully the answer is not gin at least not entirely i would like to postulate that there are several reasons steampunk is not dragged into the political morass in which the world now wallows i have to confess at this point that my reasoning is based upon my observations of british steampunk it may be that some countries steampunk differently however i suspect that what is true for a british steampunk is as true for others around the world those who know my personal political beliefs to be extremely socialist republican and nationalist may find it strange to see me including scottish steampunks in the umbrella term british steampunk the truth is that apart from some details of expression there is little to distinguish the attitudes of scottish steampunks from their southern neighbours when in steampunk mode and i think that is my first point steampunk as a way of thinking occupies a place that is meta to ordinary political thinking some steampunks live in a permanent attitude of steampunkery for others steampunk is more of a cosplay that they put on and off however as i have said when in steampunk mode steampunks relate to the world differently from other people i remember being startled when i realised that in a whole weekend at the asylum in lincoln i had heard not one swearword nor a raised voice there is something about being a steampunk that induces courteous behaviour a steampunk uses politeness like a shield to parry the unpleasantness of the world and wit the blade to return the blow i will not pretend for one moment that steampunks do not insult each other but we do so with wit and humour perhaps some buffoonery so that there is almost as much enjoyment of defeat as pleasure in victory when the other side scores a try or a six we applaud and enjoy the moment for its own intrinsic artistry what is saddening about politics at the moment is the depths to which people have sunk in their interactions with each other people have become nastier xenphobia homophobia and other forms of discrimination and abuse have become commonplace people have no embarrassment at being caught in a lie respect for the rights and opinions of others is no longer considered important or even desirable there is no place for old fashioned courtesy except in steampunkery where old fashioned courtesy lies at its heart we do like old fashioned or even an old fashioned one might expect a strong conservative streak in steampunk because of its embrace of old fashioned courtesy and dress however steampunk cherry picks what it takes from any era and so while embracing the virtues of the past it rejects its vices strong women are very evident in steampunk circles frequently armed to the teeth with customised nerf guns and they re not afraid to use them steampunk is undoubtedly trans cultural as can be seen in its facebook groups but also at major steampunk gatherings that attract attendees from all over the world our glasgow ubiquitous e steampunk society is not only associated with the music city steampunk consortium of nashville tennessee but has scheduled a jolly day out with the north east steampunk society from england now that is true internationalism i haven t noticed religion entering the steampunk conversation except as a costume we have steampunk monks with goggles and victorian bishops with gaiters at one end and goggles at the other given the international nature of steampunk i assume that it contains folk of all faiths but they don t let it come between them or get in the way of the fun conservatives may not be very evident in steampunk but conservation is steampunks have a respect for history especially as the name suggests for its technology nothing sets the steampunk blood racing more assuredly than polished brass well oiled pistons smoothly turning gears and the ecstatic call of a locomotive whistle ah but i hear you say steam engines run on fossil fuels and pump carbon into the air don t expect a clever argument from me although i would argue for balance and responsibility however the steampunk embrace of steam should be interpreted rather as an embrace of the best ...