If you're like me, and I know I am, then you've used many candles in everyday life. If you're not like me, though, candles might be strange and threatening objects used only during emergencies, birthdays, or emergency birthdays. So, here is some advice to take some of the mystery out of safe candle use.

How to set up

Many people who use candles regularly, or who are fans of Clue, have a proper candlestick in which to set up a candle. If you don't, however, there are many ways to hack up a safe candle holder out of common household items.

Use something glass, ceramic, or metal. Avoid exposed wood for obvious reasons, and never use plastic as it can melt or burn with noxious and poisonous fumes. Be careful when using glass as well; too thin or cold and the glass could shatter from the candle's heat.

In addition to proper candlesticks I have a few old teacups, saucers, and other such things I bought at my local thrift shop for 10-25 cents a piece specifically for candle use; I don't drink or eat from them. Once you stick the candle to it it's really stable.

Be sure to use clean vessels, free of dust or other contaminants which could pose a hazard. Give your dusty old candle-holder a rinse and a wipe-down before putting fire in it.

Be careful with the vessel after you've got the candle going; the vessel will most likely become hot. Keep a potholder or rag nearby if you'll have to pick it up and move it.

How to stick a candle to it? After you light the candle, tilt it horizontally with the flame an inch or two above the center of a clean, dry vessel; the flame will melt off wax from the top of the candle. Drip a few drops of melted wax onto the surface, then immediately press the bottom of the candle onto the melted wax drops. The drops will harden in seconds, and the candle will be effectively glued to the base.

As the candle continues burning, drops of melted wax will run down to the base, harden, and reinforce the whole thing. Additionally, after you've burnt one candle down all the way, you'll be left with a remaining glob of melted and re-hardened wax with a hole in the middle about the width of your candle. When you want to burn another candle you can use its flame to melt that remaining wax a bit while dripping on your new glue drops, and then easily jam the candle into that hole, and be even more stable for the next burn.

Where to set up

One of my favorite places to set up candles is one which seems really obvious to me, but takes 90% of the people I tell it to entirely by surprise: put them in your sinks. Empty kitchen and bathroom sinks are probably the perfect place to set up candles when illumination in those rooms is needed. If you put them on a tabletop, countertop, or similar there is always the possibility they might fall or get knocked over, after which they can roll anywhere and light anything on fire, with fire. However, nobody has a flammable sink. If a candle falls over in your sink, at the very worst you have a little bit of sooty wax to clean off what is, by design, one of the most easy-to-clean surfaces in your home. Just be mindful of your surroundings; some kitchen sinks are under kitchen windows with frilly curtains; take all necessary precautions to get those out of the way and minimize the draft.

If a sink is not an option and you're on a countertop or table use a trivet (those things you put a hot pot or pan on when removing them from the stove) or a square of cardboard or some junk mail wrapped in foil, to avoid scorching the surface. I have a large ceramic tile from a hardware store specifically for this purpose.

Choosing your candles

There are a few candles I'd recommend you avoid.

Tealights can be tempting due to being inexpensive, but I find they aren't worth the trouble. They are small and fiddly, they don't throw off much light, they're generally not all that safe unless you have some sort of holder made specifically for them, and the holders tend to be novelty things which aren't all that safe in practice. Changing out the old tealight can be a pain, as well.

Glass-jar candles are available in a variety of shapes, sizes, and styles, and I think they are all rubbish. While glass jars can be tempting due to their transparency or implied stability and safety, it's just not that dependable a material to put frigging fire into. I have had so many different ones spontaneously shatter on me, from cheap dollar-store ones to really expensive and supposedly high-end ones; even ones which have been blown out can explode on you from the temperature change for several minutes afterward. Additionally, the design means that the melted wax, instead of running down the sides of a candle and away, will pool up and tend to drown out your flame. It's really not worth the trouble.

Scented candles are something else I avoid. It's mostly a matter of personal preference for me, as I don't like artificial or perfumey scents in general, but it's also a matter of chemistry; candles work the way they do because of how the wax behaves, and once you start mixing perfumes and stuff into it you've got less wax and a less dependable reaction. The candle can burn faster, dirtier, smokier, and when melted the adulterated wax has a tendency to pool and drown out the flame rather than burning away cleanly. The ones with actual chunks of potpourri flakes and things stirred into the wax are just insanity, I can't see choosing to light that stuff on actual fire.

Be very wary of cheaper candles like dollar-stores might have, goodness knows what sorts of crud the wax or vessels might contain. I like saving money, but not at the expense of reliability or safety, especially when there are comparably inexpensive options which are also dependable by design; read on.

My favorite candles to have around are called shabbat candles, or sabbath candles. If you're unfamiliar; they're used in certain Jewish ceremonies, and as such usually come packaged in boxes with Jewish iconography and Hebrew writing on the box. In addition to being available in religious supply shops which stock Jewish items, many standard supermarkets will have these stashed away in the Kosher foods section. Be sure to get the cylindrical ones about 4" tall, not the taller tapered ones.

It may seem weird to use these Jewish candles for your mundane candling purposes, especially if, like me, you aren't Jewish, but they are probably the best emergency candles any household can have stashed in a cabinet. They burn brightly without being overly dangerous, and they burn cleanly and efficiently with minimal smoke. They are made to high standards due to their intended applications, which means they are made of pure, simple candle wax without cloying scent chemicals or dyes. Being shorter and thicker than your standard tapers, they're much more stable and less likely to fall over while still lasting long enough to be worth using (usually around a few hours if left to burn down all the way on their own.) One alone will serve the purpose of letting you find your way in the dark without crashing into things, and two or three around a room will light up your surroundings quite comfortably. They burn cool and slowly enough for you to hold one in your hand if you really need to, so long as you're careful with the wax drippings; you can bring one around your house to light your way. They are also incredibly inexpensive as candles go; usually around $25 for a box of 72 in my area.

If you keep a boxful of these and a lighter stashed away for a blackout, when the time comes and your neighbors are struggling to find their way around with one stinky $13 jar candle from a mall gift shop before it drowns itself in waxy perfume, you'll have enough of these babies to stay illuminated throughout the entire blackout with some left over to share if you're so inclined. Used just for emergencies, one box could keep you prepared for years. Whatever sabbath-type situations you do or don't partake in, everyone should have a box of sabbath candles handy just in case.

Safety measures for safe burning safely

Don't burn candles without adequate ventilation. A couple of these won't really affect the volume of air in an entire house, but a small unventilated room with a closed door is another story. Always have a door or window open at least a couple of inches.

Keep your candles away from open windows, air vents, or drafty doorways. A draft could knock your candle over, or cause a flare-up or a spark which is particularly bad for those who don't like everything to be on fire.

There's an invisible cone of heat rising from that flame, extending further upward and outward than you might think. Don't put candles on bookshelves or wall shelves where they might burn the wall behind or the shelf above. Don't put candles on a surface high enough where they'd burn the ceiling.

Never leave a candle unattended for any reason. If you're stepping out of the room, even for a moment, either bring the candle with you or blow it out and relight it when you get back. It may seem like a hassle, but so is a burning building. Also, sleeping = unattended. If you're getting tired, blow out the damn candle and go to bed.

Don't store your matches or lighter near a burning candle.

Keep a clear radius of at least two candle-lengths around your candle, free of anything burnable.

You may find yourself needing to disable your smoke or fire alarms in order to use candles without being alarmed; I totally don't recommend this. If you choose to do so, however, at least put up a sticky note or something reminding yourself to restore the alarms afterward.

Be very careful using candles around children or household pets, especially if said creatures are not already used to candles. Be ready to give safety lessons to kids if you have any around. During the first big blackout my family ever had, when I was very young, my mom had a great way of demonstrating the danger of a candle flame to my little sister and I; she took a long strand of hair off her head, and quickly singed it in the flame. The display was suitably intimidating that us kids stayed well clear of the candles for the duration.

Prepare for the worst. Have some sort of emergency measure in place; if at all possible have a fire extinguisher handy.

He'll be missed.

Please note that Scrabble is a trademark of Hasbro or Mattel depending on where you live, its use here is unofficial, I'm not affiliated with either of them, and blah blah blah. Full credit to Gus for applying the term "Fog of War" to the concept.

How to play Fog of War Scrabble

The game requires a standard Scrabble set and compatible dictionary. The Fog of War rules are the official Scrabble rules, with the following modifications:

• In addition to the game's normal 2-4 players, there is an impartial non-playing position called the Observer.
• All tiles are flipped over and used on their blank sides. The actual letters printed on them are meaningless; tiles can be played as any letter, in the manner of the normal game's blanks.
• All played tiles score one point each, no matter which letter they are. Board modifiers (double/triple letter/word score squares) apply normally. There is no "bingo" bonus for using all seven of your tiles.
• When a word is played, the player announces what the word is and how it's spelled. The Observer has a paper representation of the Scrabble board (a 15x15 grid on graph paper would work) out of view of the other players; on this the Observer fills in the words as they are played. Thus, the Observer is the only one looking at the actual word game in progress while the players are looking at the blank tiles.
• Memory is key. In order to make a correct play, the player must remember what all the words laid out on the board are and play accordingly. Any failure along these lines - say, playing a word on a letter which is actually a different letter - is an immediate out. Once you complete your play, if the Observer tells you that your word is invalid due to a tile on the board being something other than what you thought it was your word is removed from the board. You are "lost in the fog," and eliminated from the game.
• The game can end in one of two ways. If all players but one get "lost in the fog," the scores are discarded and the last player remaining wins. If more than one player survives to the end of the tile supply and the natural end of the game, the scores are tabulated in the normal Scrabble manner.

I see a few ways this could put a really novel spin on the old Scrabble.

• Without the normally-limited letter supply, differently-scoring tiles, and bingo bonus, the strategy of saving up rare high-value letters to play on the modifiers is irrelevant. Go ahead and play "QUIZZICAL" on a triple word score, but it won't shift the game in your favor in one fell swoop anymore.

• Players can deliberately play words they think their opponents will have trouble remembering, in order to accomplish easier "outs."
• Players can decide whether to play lots of small words, or go all-out with larger words each round, without appreciable scoring difference. If you play to confuse your opponents and get them lost in the fog before you, the numerical scores are meaningless anyway. On the other hand, longer words and mod squares will get you more points if the other players do last. What wll your strategy be?
• When playing multiple games, the group can rotate everyone in by assigning the Observer role to either the winner or loser of the previous game.

What do you think? Would this actually be any fun?

Some people do mutable things like particular clothing, hairstyling, or makeup rituals. Some folks feel the need to go more drastic, permanent routes such as cosmetic surgery or other body modifications. Some transition to a different gender identity than that which had been given them. These can all be paths to the same goal; gaining the ability to go out into the world and feel like they are inhabiting and presenting a "self" they actually feel is their own.

I consider myself really fortunate along these lines because, compared to what many others have to endure to reach that point, what I needed to fully feel like my own self at all times was a simple, painless, one-time thing. I had a small bit of paperwork surgery, and brought my legal name in line with how I truly think of myself.

It didn't hurt a bit. In fact, it feels pretty great.

2012 was a roller coaster, so much so that I barely had time to get any blogging done. I spent the year working hard and living well. I helped throw a hacker conference, I talked to people on the airwaves about hacker stuff, I wrangled snarky adbusting puppets, I made things that make things and then made things with those things, I refocused on my artwork, and I did too much other stuff to begin to count. I moved to Inwood, a truly lovely chunk of Manhattan with a lot more than meets the eye about it. My apartment is lovely and the people are nice. My roomates are my wonderful girlfriend and one of my oldest, best friends. There is a reasonably good Internet connection. My favorite magnets fit on the fridge. One of my cats loves aggressively grooming my bald scalp.

I always suspected I'd be happiest in this wonderful city, working in situations where no two days are quite the same, surrounded by the best crowds anyone could ask for.

Now, to find time to blog more regularly...

So, what's been going on with me lately? All sorts of things. On the professional side, the day job at MakerBot is a neverending stream of cool stuff to do. No two days are alike, it's the one type of day job I could concievably have. Off the Hook is still groovy, I guest-hosted again this week when Emmanuel was trapped in a server closet. Work behind the scenes at HOPE has reached that fever pitch consistent with it being TWO WEEKS AWAY OMFG. On the personal side, my longtime friend, colleague, and collaborator Dr. Andrews and I levelled up our friendship and are now in a seriously awesome relationship. ♥

Random Internetty thought: Levar Burton's Reading Rainbow app is interesting, but costly and platform-exclusive. I wonder at the possibility of an open-source version, with people contributing recordings of themselves reading freely-licensed material aloud and building a library of good stuff for kids of all ages.

Round about last weekend, the 21st or so, I started to develop a cough. It got progressively worse over the next few days; finally on Wednesday I had to leave work midway through my shift, go home, and skip Off the Hook. Every breath that was anything more than extremely shallow ended in a most fascinating series of solids, liquids, and gases expelled from my lungs. One doctor's visit later and I've got myself a certified case of heavy bronchitis.

I now have pills, other pills, an inhaler, and a nebulizer which makes me feel like one o' them zany hookah-bar hipsters.

I've been taking it easy since, if by "taking it easy" you mean "painfully expectorating enough crud to fill a reservoir on an hourly basis."

When I was a small child, like clockwork, I used to get hit with a major case of bronchitis and/or pneumonia every Winter. Sometime in adolescence the routine began to fizzle, by my count I might have it down to about one bout per decade now. Perhaps that means after this round, I'll have my lungfuck quota filled untill the 2020s.

Do I have your confidence, Entire Internet?

This is very hush-hush, dear reader, so I need you to keep it strictly between you, me, and every other living soul on the planet with connectivity.

I've just started a really neat new full-time job. I'm now a workshop tech at MakerBot.

Today was my first day on the job, and it was brilliant. That's about all I have to share about the job just yet - I'm strictly a ham-fisted newbie for the moment - but what I can definitely say already is that it's completely unlike any company I've ever worked at before. I've been given a rare opportunity to use a huge list of my skills, passions, and interests in one place. My intense loves of tinkering, creative art, groundbreaking media, the free-content scene, friggin' robots, and more are all being indulged. You can learn more about MakerBot and the snazzy things they do at the press kit and the Wikipedia article.

I've never talked all that much about my specific employers, or identified them by name, in all my years of blogging. I feel comfortable breaking this rule of mine in this case because, frankly, the company is that brilliant. I'm not just suddenly singing MakerBot's praises because I work there now, mind. I've been quietly fanboying MakerBot ever since word started spreading about the cool stuff they do. I had lots of fun when co-founder and CEO Bre Pettis was a guest on the January 13, 2010 episode of Off the Hook. (Fun fact: Bre took the photo of us in the studio which illustrates the OTH page here on my site.) I dug the heck out of seeing MakerBot's work on display at events like Maker Faire NYC. And now I get to help!

I can't wait to see where things go at MakerBot in the future, and I'm thrilled to be a part of it.

Did I mention the robots?

Friggin' robots!!!

So, since I've suddenly lost all my taste for Miller's work, I decided to get rid of the Miller books I own in a constructive way: I've chucked them up on eBay, starting at a penny, and my proceeds from the sale will be spent entirely on supplies I shall bring to the Occupy Wall Street campers at Zuccotti Park.

May The Goddamn Batman have mercy on Frank's poor, misguided soul.

I shall be out of communications range for most of the day; not on birthday stuff, but on errands and assorted SRS BSNS.

Last Tuesday was a bit different for me: I spent that whole day working for the Government. Really! It was all very hush-hush stuff... I was an election inspector.

I took the gig because I was free that day, I was curious about what goes on behind-the-scenes at an election, and it was something I hadn't done before. It was a low-importance election as these things go, just some local judges, council members, and such rather than Congresscritters or President, but the gig turned out more enjoyable than I thought it'd be. I was lucky enough to get assigned to my own local polling place, that being the grade school I went to as a kid which is a short walk from my house. I got assigned to work with a group of easygoing and friendly folks who made interesting conversation. Most of my day involved marvelling over how much shorter everything had gotten since the early 1980s. I did this sketch of the place during bouts of downtime. And, ultimately, I learned some neat stuff about how that whole process works.