it's not a cage when it's for your own good

What a strange November it's been so far. My work on NaNoWriMo has suffered several setbacks; I'm not dead in the water, yet, but I'm fairly sure that while I'll finish with something, I won't win the challenge this year.

Along the way Desert Bus for Hope happened, and when that tied up...well, see for yourself:



Everyone was astounded; not only with how much was raised, but the fact that the bulk of that wasn't live auctions going into the stratosphere, but the prize giveaways. (That, and this is now the third year Desert Bus has gone over a million in a row.)



This started things off, and then went to a quilt:



followed by a Faerun/Magic the Gathering crossover box:



The first giveaway to really give us an idea of how amazing this year was going to be was a handmade wooden wall clock (click for larger version):



which went over twenty-one thousand dollars. And it just kept going from there, until the final giveaway of the night, which was another sword. Well. Not just any other sword. A replica Final Fantasy Buster sword:



which was sold for a stunning $110,173.



This is Erika Cole, their prize coordinator for this year (and the past several years) with the sword, which weighed upwards of fifty pounds. It was deeply impressive.

But fun was had, happy tears were shed, and at the end of it, we knew as a group that we had contributed to the happiness and distraction of children in shelters and hospitals, and at the end of the day, after all, that is the point. And an important one, besides.

In the meantime, enjoy the Web Archive of Art. I also found a National Fairground and Circus Archive--mostly photographs, all interesting. And if you have some free time, go play with another AI-based art site, this one that uses text descriptions to make artistic depictions. It's fascinating.

And that will be that for now, and I'll get back to coding up RP entries! Cheers!