Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Witty T-shirts make me smile.

Stumbled across these gem's today:






Most awesome ever?

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Reading into the future.

I fell off the bandwagon for quite a while again. Oops.

So without further ado back into the randomness that is my brain:

In 2009 I decided that I wanted to read at least 1 book a week. For a while it was really easy. Then it got more difficult. I latched onto a boyfriend and gee-wiz all of my free time was gone.

But I still did it. Mostly because I got ahead of schedule early on and cheated by counting audio books (it's a very different experience but my primary goal was to acquire the knowledge of a story so it didn't matter through what means to me).

Currently I stand at 53 books. I anticipate finishing 2 more before the end of the year. Yay me.

But now as I stand on the cusp of the year looking into 2010 I'm having difficulties deciding what to read. For a normal person this would seem a very strange thing. But I am odd and here's my situation:

In November a new book was published that I have been waiting for years for. It's the first part of the last book of the Wheel of Time series. The whole story of the series is a long one so to try and be concise: Really long books, really long series, author died a few years ago (when I heard the news I actually yelled "no!" in desperation), series being completed by someone else.

I was thinking I would re-read the books before consuming the new awesomeness. However it's a huge undertaking: think over 10,000 pages. So that's why I didn't include it in the 2009 book a week deal (even I know 800 pages in a week is a bit much).

So in the meantime I've gotten very good about finding books that look interesting and adding them to my "to read" list on the website Goodreads. And well if I read through all of the Wheel of Time I don't get to read the other new stuff. As a general rule I don't re-read (or re-watch etc.). I always go for something new.

This is quite the conundrum. I'm thinking maybe I'll alternate. One WoT, one new book. I kinda doubt that I'll make it to the new book in a year (especially since the boy is still in the picture and well I kinda have a life - weird), but one can't have everything.

Plus it's entirely possible that if I'm too slow the next book (part 2 of "book 12" the final book) will be out. Or if I'm really really slow the 'final' (I kinda almost don't believe them) book will be released.

Choices...choices...

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

We just had to forgive ourselves.

In the past couple of years I’ve occasionally been hit with things that make me realize that I am growing up. At first they were more passive: friends being engaged, married even, myself buying ‘adult’ things like a bed, and generally paying for all of the things that one takes for granted as a youth.

Lately may things have been happening lately that make me realize much more actively that I myself am becoming an adult. I’ve found my own apartment, procured furniture (albeit mostly donated by the family), trying to budget my own utilities (it’ll be a while before I really know), and I’ve met a guy I could actually picture spending the rest of my life with (not to get ahead of anything however).

It’s crazy and hard to believe sometimes. But then in some ways it is also exciting I suppose.

"Growing up is never easy. You hold on to things that were. You wonder what's to come. But that night, I think we knew it was time to let go of what had been, and look ahead to what would be. Other days. New days. Days to come. The thing is, we didn't have to hate each other for getting older. We just had to forgive ourselves... for growing up."

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Open my closet.

So I am currently displaced. I have no home. It’s de-friggin-lightful.

On Saturday when I was packing my suitcase I put together 5 outfits for work. It’s a slightly tricky kind of year because it’s just now starting to get cold. But even knowing it wasn’t a very smart idea I went and put together mostly a selection of not so terribly warm outfits.

Inevitably one of the many many many downfalls of women’s fashion is that it does not work particularly well in conjunction with staying warm. As someone who is always cold, this stinks.

When I was packing I also did not realize that I’d left my fall-appropriate jacket at home at my parents house. Ouch. And so on Sunday I went back into my temporary storage facility (old neighbor’s garage) and pulled out another sweater and fleece.

This morning it was on the chilly side so I went with a nice layered (all-be-it ¾ length sleeved) outfit. I’m slightly concerned it’ll just get colder in the week and then I’ll wish I’d waited, but so it goes. Then I also put on my fleece as a jacket type thing.

When I arrived at work it was, as always, cold. So I just left the fleece on. And of course turned on my space heater.

Around 10:30 I went to the bathroom and realized the fleece was still on. So returning to my desk I removed the layer. Life was much more sad.

It’s amazing how much more comfy work would be if I could wear absolutely whatever I wanted.


“If they want to see me, here I am. If they want to see my clothes, open my closet and show them my suits.”

Too much of a good thing.

8/20: Send message in response to a guy’s online post.
8/21-8/30: Many long emails.
8/24: Exchange phone numbers.
8/24-present: Many text messages.
8/30(? ): First AIM conversation.
8/31-present: Many AIM conversations typically running quite late (who needs sleep?).
9/7ish: Schedule date for Hershey park on 9/12.
9/8: First brief phone call in-between house hunting.
9/8-9/9: Schedule date for 9/11.
9/11 afternoon: Scrap Hershey park for free tickets to the Baltimore Symphony opening night concert gala plus bus trip.
9/11 evening: 1st date. Appleby’s, Ice Cream, Bowling.
9/12: Free trip to Baltimore, dinner at Cheesecake Factory, hear Lang Lang. Best Date Ever.
9/17: Spontaneous “3rd Date”.
9/18: Made dinner at ‘home’ and Harry Potter in iMax.
9/19: Ridiculously gorgeous weather for Hershey Park.
9/26: Lunch and then he helped pack and move all of my stuff to the neighbor’s garage.
9/26 evening: Officially apply boyfriend/girlfriend titles.
9/27: Early evening walk in the park and dinner after.

"Too much of a good thing is never enough"

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Relief and deathly fear.

Yesterday in the comments of one of the blogs I read (Indexed) I found this gem:

"Is there a word for the mixture of smugness, relief and deathly fear of losing jobs that those of us who got into employment in 2007 feel?"


Oh heavens too true.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Anchors away my boys, Anchors away

Jo is joining the Navy.

This is 100% uncool.

Firstly: I need a new place to live. Gah

Secondly: She's my only friend in Harrisburg.

I hate change.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Starting Christmas Presents

I've started knitting my first Christmas present!

Yup, I intend to be prepared this year (finally). And so I've started this scarf using my very own handspun alpaca:

 
The problem is I have approximately 122 yards of the yarn. And I'm pretty sure that it's going to take over 700. *sigh* 
 
The color is not great but it's a view of the back side and my progress so far (about 5 days of occasional work).

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

By the glare of life.

I finally did another decent ride this past weekend. It’s quite sad but I’ve been suffering from severe lack of motivation and drive this summer. And cycling is one of those things that has been dramatically affected.

A good bit of it has to do with the fact that I’m completely on my own now really for any rides. Every time I ask Jo if she wants to do a ride, be it around town or a sponsored ride, it’s not worked out. Really quite a bummer.

However one of my father’s co-workers, who happens to be close to my own age, has taken up biking. And so she was kind enough to invite me to a ride earlier this summer and then to a second ride which was this weekend.

It was a metric century. So 100KM, or 62 miles. When I signed up for the ride I figured that I had plenty of time to go riding more and get back in shape. This never really happened. A week before the ride I was fairly desperate and pushed myself on two good rides totaling 50 miles. And then I started to feel more and more off. By Thursday I was downright sick. Go figure. Luckily really only hit me that one day and so despite large quantities of gunk in my head and trepidation about my ability to survive the course, I went anyways.

This ride is not a fundraising one in that I had to ask people for money, yay, but it is a fundraiser for the group because they get so many riders. It was rather crazy. Like traffic jam off of the highway to get to the event. That and I got up at like 5am to make it in time. And then waited for my riding buddies to show up.

We left the start at about 8:30. The weather was nice but promised to get hot. Which it did. It was ridiculously hot by the end. And the route is such that there’s barely any shade. It wasn’t particularly bad when we were moving. But when you stopped at a rest stop you felt completely encased in heat and could just feel the sweat building.

 
 This is actually from a previous ride, but same people and same area!


This was not so good for me with my complexion. I think because I pretty much never go outside during the day and especially not for long periods of time I half forgot how evil the sun is. Although I did have a little travel size one with me that I put some on my nose and back of neck and such at some rest stops. But I think the sun is just too evil because my nose is still a bit red. Then I also got burn in a few places where I either missed or didn't reapply enough like the side of my neck, thin bands on either side of my watch, and bands just below the shorts line. If I tanned I would most certainly have a distinct bike tan. Very annoying.

Stand out moments from the ride for me include: Sometime around mile 6 I think I must have zoned out going down a hill. But I was doing probably 20+ miles and I went off the road…oops. Somehow I managed to just continue down the hill on the field/rocks for probably 100 yards or so and then regained the hill. Whoa.

Also it is notable that I was mildly sick. Got some kind of a cold or allergies or something. It was at it's worst on Thursday when I actually left work early and slept. But I was blowing my nose through the ride. Maybe that's why my nose still burnt. And anyways I had just blown my nose (while riding, no easy feat) when I was informed that bee had flown into my pocket. This was a bit disconcerting because I didn’t want to be stung through my shirt (is that even possible). So after a bit of jiggling around I was informed that the bee was out of the pocket and then it proceeded to crawl around my back up near my shoulder then under my arm etc. And all of this narrated by my fellow bikers being as I have no way while riding of turning and seeing my own back. It was amusing.

It was 62 miles and I came in strong. I felt like I could have done more. And yet it's rather odd because I do still in my mind think it was a good ride, and yet when I think about it all of these painful things come to mind...ah well.


“He, in his developed manhood, stood, a little sunburnt by the glare of life.”

Friday, August 7, 2009

Don't count your owls.

Occasionally I go blog hunting. I’ll pull up a search engine and try to find keywords for things that interest me. Quite a while back while hunting for “Scherenschnitte” I found Cindy’s blog which is appropriately named Scherenschnitte. Quickly I became a dedicated lurker.

As a paper cutter who fails at designing my own things I am absolutely amazed by her delightful designs.

Things got even more exciting when in February she introduced “Template Tuesday’s” with this amazing Queen of Hearts design. Firstly the design is awesome. Secondly I have personal ties to anything that can be Alice in Wonderland related.

I told myself a million times that I would cut one of her designs, but I just never got around to it….until now.

In tribute to the release of the most recent Harry Potter movie Cindy posted a H.P. themed paper cut. And I finally took the initiative and did up this quick easy and fun paper cut:

Thursday, August 6, 2009

A string quartet without violins.

My garden this year is pretty awesome. In my humble opinion of course. Yesterday using homegrown tomatoes I made homemade tomato sauce.

Whoa.

The non-cooking type person that I am, and having grown up with busy parents who had to suffer from having two picky little girls to feed, I view tomato sauce as something which comes from a jar. Homemade is just much too advanced.

Last year however I helped J (former roommate, still landlord, friend, person whose description is as convoluted as everything else that I describe in my life) make ginormouse (that’s giant and enormous as one word) batches of tomato sauce from an old family recipe. So there was that. But I still didn’t view it as something that one does for any old meal.

Then I had a bunch of tomatoes from my garden and was determined to consume them somehow. First I used one in a recipe for avocado chicken salad (quite good but definitely scale back the scallions) that I found on Cheap Healthy Good. This left me with 5 tomatoes.


My entirely non-creative thought was, obviously, tomato sauce. I turned to Alton Brown because his show Good Eats with all of the sciency stuff involved is great. Then I did more or less whatever I wanted anyway using the recipe as a rough guide.



Really it was quite simple. I chopped the tomatoes, put a bunch of stuff on them, roasted them for like 2 hours, hunted down my foley mill, ran the tomatoes through, and voila I had tomato sauce!


w00t

"A world without tomatoes is like a string quartet without violins."

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit.


Sometime last week or maybe this past weekend I finally finished the scarf I’ve been knitting. Seems like I’ve been working on it for just about ever, but looking at the calendar it was begun sometime mid-April. Ok, not forever, but still quite rather slow.

Here’s the finished product:





And here’s the scarf’s story:

One of my close h.s. friends’ families (well its all because of her mom specifically) has alpacas. Facts about alpacas: They, by necessity, are sheared every year. Alpaca fiber is considered an exotic fiber and is quite expensive.

Now these alpacas are pets and so their fiber isn’t necessary of the best quality or anything like that. But for Mrs. D it has particularly sentimental value. And so she’s kept all of the shearings from each year while on and off searching for something to be done with it.

At some point she somehow connected with someone the result of which was three skeins of yarn. This is progress, but no one in the D household is much of crafters. And then someone recalled little ‘ol crafty me.

I happily accepted the task, excited to use quality yarn (my normal is the cheapest non-yucky yarn I can find). And I set about trying to figure out what Mrs. D would like for me to make for her. At first the answer was “whatever”, but after a bit she picked out the scarf pattern.

Given the weight of the yarn (quite thin) my thought had been something lacey. The flaw was that I’ve never knit lace before. So when Mrs. D liked the cable pattern, I’ve cabled often before, I went for it.

I neglected to consider the relative volume of cabling involved in this pattern. And it wasn’t so simple that I ever managed to have it memorized. So I’ll blame that for my slowness. Although the associated revelation of spinning my own yarn plus everything else I’m doing lately ought to be included.

Now I have my eye on dozens of other knitting projects, so quick and easy to pick out awesome things, yet so slow to actually realize. Ah well. I’ve already started a glove (my first glove ever!), the intent being to at some point make a pair of gloves to match the scarf.

I think I must be a glutton for punishment.

“Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit, either.”

Monday, August 3, 2009

Grocery Shopping: It's fun.

Way back when....I started to blog, it was my intent to have a personal finance blog. This stems from my obsession with personal finance. Then I pretty much ignored this premesis and wrote about whatever I wanted, well at least when I wrote at all.

But with that in mind I wanted to post about my grocery trip yesterday. When J moved out probably a month or two ago now I was rather excited with regards to food. You see I was completely spoiled in that she did all of the shopping and cooking really. It was kind of ridiculous. But it was also no where near as frugal as I am with myself. Also probably not necessarily as healthy.

And so with that in mind I give you yesterday's groceries:


Cucumber: .50 - Easy to eat vegetable. Sold per cucumber so I looked for a good sized one.
2 Ears of White Corn: .50 - Half vegetable half starch. I was looking for medium sized ones because if they're too big they don't fit in my pot but they were all pretty large. I leave the husks on because I won't get to eating them for a few days.
Green Pepper: .46 - So I got this more or less because it was on sale and recipes keep calling for peppers. We'll see how long it lasts and if I use it or not.
Asparagus: 1.61 - A particularly tasty vegetable I've recently discovered.
Eggplant: 1.08 - This was an experiment. I've never really eaten egg plant but it was on sale so I went for it. I'd forgotten from my produce day's how huge the suckers are. Tonight I cut off two good slices. Gave them a bit of olive oil and salt then grilled them. Put a bit of parmesean cheese on after grilling and it was half decent. Now we'll see how the rest of the thing keeps now that it's cut.
2 Bartlett Pears: 1.71 - Fruit of the week it seems. Too bad these suckers weigh a good bit. Relatively expensive which is sad.
Orange Juice: 1.50 - Not quite sure how this will be as it's non name-brand. But for the price I'm sure I'll drink it anyways.
Pretzels: 2.50 - I take a calculator with me and I could see that I was doing quite well and I knew that I'd pretty much run out of snacks in the house so I splurged on these puppies.
Wheat Bread: .99 - Generally I don't get bread. It's difficult for one person to eat a whole loaf before it goes bad and I'm not a fan of the freezer/fridge idea. But I wanted bread for lunches this week and this turned out quite cheaper than budgeted. Yay. Maybe I'll freeze some anyways just because recently I'd think of something to eat and then realize I have bread. I did this for like so many different things. Kinda lame.
2 Powerades: 2.00 - For after biking purposes only. It seems that either these or gatorades (my norms) are always on sale 10/$10.
Tomato Soup: .97 - One of two items that was not on sale. But since I was under budget I figured this shall work well for when I can't figure out what to eat.
Pea Soup Mix: 1.00 - A complete random find. But I love pea soup and so far I've been too lazy to make it. If this turns out well the company has all kinds of different types of soups. I'm not quite sure when I'll make it however being as normally soup is a lunch thing for me and I'd already planned for chicken salad sandwitches all week. Ah well. It also happened to be on sale - w00t.
Brown Sugar: 1.39  - The second and final non-sale item. Randomly useful and I only have like 1/4 cup left.
Macaroni and Cheese: 1.25 - This was in fact a planned item. Mostly with the reasoning being that last week I kinda sucked at meals so I kept being at a loss for what to eat and this type of thing is useful in such situations. And in fact I already made it tonight. I also tried a random brand that had a nicer looking picture than most (yay marketing). It happened to be organic - weird. The result was mediocre at best.
Apple Juice: 1.25 - Being as I don't like water, I drink juice. Specifically this shall be for my lunches. Really it would be so much easier if I would just drink water. Ah well.
The grand total: 10.70
Just about everything was on sale. That's how I generate my shopping list, browsing the sales circular. The "bonuscard savings" on this trip were 7.14.
I go shopping basically once a week. With the only exception really being milk. The problem with the milk is that I seem to vary from week to week with my consumption so I can't figure if a gallon or half gallon is appropriate.
It's ridiculous, and it's awesome.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

The sweet, gracious discourses.

Way back when this year started I believe I was feeling a bit at odds. I do believe I must have had way too much free time back then because for whatever reason I decided it would be a good idea to read at least a book a week for 2009.

For a time this was easy. But by mid-spring things were rather busy and it was becoming difficult. I have allowed myself a bit of cheating by counting any audio books that I consume. Realistically they take significantly longer to get through the book, but I can get in ‘reading’ hours while driving or when I’ve not finished the book after the drive I’ll listen and do crafts.


This is the 30th week of 2009. I’ve more or less been tracking what I read through www.goodreads.com but it’s been a while since I actually calculated how I was doing. And so here is an exhaustive, hopefully, list of books which I have consumed:

Across the Nightingale Floor - Hearn, Lian
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Haddon, Mark
Children of Dune - Herbert, Frank
Dancing On My Grave - Kirkland, Gelsey
The Kite Runner - Hosseini, Khaled
Holding on to the air: An Autobiography - Farrell, Suzanne
Shaman’s Crossing - Hobb, Robin
The Friday Night Knitting Club - Jacobs, Kate
All the King’s Men - Warren, Robert Penn
My Sister’s Keeper - Picoult Jodi
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia - Gilbert, Elizabeth
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - See, Lisa
Animal Farm - Orwell, George
Brisingr - Paolini, Christopher
Anansi Boys - Gaiman, Neil
A Thousand Splendid Suns - Hosseini, Khaled
Artemis Fowl - Colfer, Eoin
Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident - Colfer, Eoin
The Children of Hurin - Tolkien, J.R.R.
The Secret Life Of CeeCee Wilkes - Chamberlain, Diane
Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code - Colfer, Eoin
Fellowship of the Ring - Tolkien, J.R.R.
Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception - Colfer, Eoin
Invisible Man - Ellison, Ralph
The Fellowship of the Ring - Tolkien, J.R.R.
Dragonflight - McCaffrey, Anne
Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony - Colfer, Eoin
God Emperor of Dune - Herbert, Frank
Dragonquest - McCaffrey, Anne
New Spring - Jordan, Robert
The World According to Garp - Irving, John
The History of Love - Krauss, Nicole
Odd Hours - Koontz, Dean
The White Dragon - McCaffrey, Anne

And the grand total is: 34!

Yay I’m actually a bit ahead.

“Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourses of my book friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness.”

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Hydrant Hysteria: Part II

On May 20th the fates changed in my favor. I was going through the mail at the office I noticed something from the Downtown Improvement District (sponsors of this whole shebang). I immediately opened it and then ran to my co-worker/partner in design’s office to show her the good news. We then proceeded to inform every other staff member of our success.

She recommended going home to see if I’d heard about my other designs. But I come to work at 8:30 and leave at 4:30, none of this in between crap. So by the time I left for home I’d pretty much forgotten about it. And then remembering, soon found myself delighted to be have had ALL 3 of my designs selected! Whoa.

Unfortunately Jo supposedly sent in a design of her own that was not selected (she never showed it to me). So I felt a bit bad being so excited about mine. But all 3….wow that’s crazy.

There was a reception for all of the artists on June 3rd. I tried to find someone to go with me, but to no avail. I steeled myself for the awkwardness that is me at socializing type events.

This also meant that I had to drive downtown. As a general rule I don’t go downtown. The exception being for concerts. So I have my well established route down to the Forum and back home. I also occastional go to one other performing arts venue, but I park in the parking garage (and lose my car) every time.

Downtown I went. And I even found street parking! It was pretty spectacular. I procured my materials including the locations of my hydrants. One of my former co-workers was there so I stood around awkwardly for a while hoping he would finish the conversation he was in then I could talk to him. It was to avail and after a bit I determined that I’d had enough and went to leave. However he had seen me and so quickly caught up with me and we chatted a bit before I returned home.

The materials I received there gave me the locations of the hydrants.

They seemed good. I was excited.

[to be continued.....this is a long story]

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Hydrant Hysteria

Sometime in April I came across some publicity that my city was having what they called “Hydrant Hysteria”. There were 58 hydrants in the downtown district that would be available to be painted. Artists and community members were invited to submit design proposals for the hydrants.

I thought it would be the most awesome thing ever to paint something, in the public, that is more or less permanent. And so my idea was to make as many designs as possible and submit them thereby giving us (I sucked Jo in) a better chance of being selected.

However as a good many of my plans go, this one fell to the wayside. The deadline (May 1) approached and designs had not been made. Then in a rather last ditch effort I spent an evening making two designs.

The first was my original idea: a penguin. I have a mild obsession with penguins, but as a card carrying member of the Secret Society of Penguins, I feel this is perfectly acceptable. Also it should be noted that “we were penguins before it was cool”. This was the result:

SSO Penguin (see how I snuck in my SSOP reference)
A bit lame but it’s mostly just an inside joke with me and my h.s. friends.

Then I worked on my awesome idea that had suddenly struck me that day or the day before. I had been trying to think of something that would tie into the city itself somehow. And I noticed this picture:

Supreme Court Dome
My city is the state capitol and that is the Supreme Court Dome in the capitol building. I’m a big fan of slightly abstract repetitive patterns and so I went for it:


Supreme Cournt Dome

I loved it.

Now I was torn as to what I should submit. The penguin had significantly more personal value to me, but the dome was just a lot better looking and I liked it as well. So I decided that decisions were no fun and submitted both a day or two before the deadline.

A few weeks prior to the deadline I had mentioned to one of my co-workers about the whole thing. She had heard about it from another co-worker and the concensus was that the Symphony should submit a design. However spring is a ridiculously busy time here and so nothing ever became of it….until April 30.

That evening I once again stayed up late with my random drawing supplies and used the ideas that she and I had bounced back and forth to create a 3rd design:

Symphony Under the Stars

It turned out well. And I mailed it the next day.

All in all I was nervous. I couldn’t decide if I thought that no one would hear about it and I’d have a really good chance of being chosen or if my hurried attempts at being an artist would be in vain. Although I did have high hopes for the Symphony as the design turned out well and frankly we are a fairly major institution in this town.

Anxiously I waited for the listed May 15th deadline of when artists would be informed of success. The 15th came and went and I heard nothing. In fact that weekend I was downtown working the last concert of the season. There was a primed hydrant right outside of the venue that just sat there taunting me. I was sad.

[to be continued]

Monday, June 8, 2009

Re-invigorate

I have decided to once again attempt to revitalize this blog.

Recent things I want to post on:
Hydrant Hysteria
Biking
Food
Spinning

Wish me luck.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Each of us knows all.

I just got back from seeing the movie Angels and Demons. It was a good movie, but rather than talk about the movie I was more amused with my relationship with the story.

At some point between approximately 2003 and now I read the book. In thinking on it I believe that my father may have gotten the book from the library and with it being around the house I then decided to read it. However that particular instance could also have been the book The Da Vinici Code and then because I liked the Code so much I went and got Angels and Demons on my own. I'm not sure. But I do definitely recall that my father had read the book and so he knew how it ended and I did not.

So in theory the movie could be good, but I knew how it ended. Except that my mind is at times rather equivalent to a sieve. I went in knowing that while I remembered a few things, for the most part I didn't remember what happened.

In the theater the credits started rolling and I turned and said to TRM (who has also read the book of course), "well that stuck to the book rather well". Her responce "kinda, except for the missing big plot lines at the end." "Oh really?"

It was pretty awesome how I really don't remember. And it amuses me. And it most likely pointless to everyone else.

Ah well your loss.

"Each of us is a god. Each of us knows all. We need only to open our minds to hear our own wisdom."

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Things fall apart.

My life has been depressing me lately.

It started with me doing nothing but working. We had two concerts in a row and so for those of us who didn't take any days off (turns out only being 2 of us) we worked 19 days in a row with no days off. That includes 3 days that ran somewhere around 12 hours between time left house for work and time returned from work to go to bed. It's freaking crazy.

So that really made me feel like my life was pretty pathetic. Then to add to the stress of the situation I've hardly seen TRM. She was nearly living over at her boyfriends house. And being as she is the only friend that I have within a 30 minute drive, and only friend that I ever hung out with like ever recently - it was kinda sad that she wasn't around so much.

Then she took the cats over there too. And like didn't bring them back like she had done before. No friends in the house for me at all. Therefore for the few hours that I actually was home I was pathetically alone. *sigh*

This Tuesday the bomb was dropped. I talk to her on googles chat thing during the work day. We like to complain to each other. It helps us from not killing our respective patrons/customers and or co-workers. She wanted to know if it would be ok if we no longer did the 'the house spilts the cost of groceries' thing anymore. Before now she did all of the shopping and cooking - it was kind of insane but as far as I can figure she enjoyed it, so I wasn't going to argue. It makes sense because she was buying, paying a portion of, and preparing stuff and then wasn't around to eat it. I'd just been going along with it and not questioning it. Plus really I think that her non-aroundness wasn't nearly so intense as it became in the last 2 weeks. So anyways I said that would be ok because fair things are only logical to me.

But it started me on the path of 'holy crap' this is the beginning of a progression of events that very much changes how I've been living the past two years. I asked if she was planning on moving out "yes". Now thats all well in good except that she owns this freaking house. "Planning on selling the house?" Well not anytime soon, but eventually. *double sigh*

I also asked her if she was going to marry him. Because well sometimes I'm subtle like that, and hey it's how I think.

me: indeedi was going to say 'are you gonna marry him?'
TRM: I think so me: holy crap
TRM: no guarantees
but
me: damn all of you peoples
Seriously I'm quite familar with the idea that I need to be happy for her. But gosh darn it it bothers me whenever I see friends/people my age actually like getting married and all that jazz. I totally can't come to terms with it yet.

There are actually at least a dozen topics that roll through my mind as "ought to be explained further" as I write this. But I suppose it works for a readers digest type version.

Things, they are a'changing. Now if only I can convince myself that change is not bad...


"Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold"

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Complaining

Last weekend was a concert weekend and it’s finally the new weekend. Normally this means I get this sudden rush of productivity and I accomplish long lists of stuffs that I didn’t have the time or energy to accomplish in the previous week.

But not this weekend, nope. Instead there is another freaking concert. So I am at work, again. And I’m bitter about it. Plus I have this itch to be doing the things I would be doing at home. Namely cleaning, crafts, gardening, biking, etc. Plus when I left to come into my windowless hell hole it was shaping up to be another ridiculously georgeous day.

Last weekend we had ridiculously crazy downright hot weather (hit the 90’s). Most people around here bemoaned it as being “too hot”. Myself, being a warm weather creature, loved it. And I missed it because I was working.

Here we go again.

Really this is getting ridiculous.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Hydrant Hysteria - part II

The deadline for submission of sketches is May 1. So obviously I came up with a great idea just yesterday, and then proceeded to stay up way to late last night working on it (think 2am bedtime). It was rather reminiscent of college, or better yet high school....college was too easy. But I digress.

My design is based on a design that is on my little desk calendar for May. It's also from my city and being as this whole thing is part of some kind of city beautification project my hope is that my subject matter will add an extra edge to the design.

Original stained glass dome (use the link to see a much larger picture:

And this is my translation onto a Fire Hydrant:

I'm quite convinced that I am not a particularly good artist (at least for drawing and similar type arts). But I am quite the copyist.






I also made a penguin, because that's how I roll:



I'm going to title it "SSO Penguin". Which actually stands for Secret Society of Penguins, but I figure SSO is much safer. :-)


Sorry about this formatting - it is fighting back and I can't be bothered fixing it.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Hydrant Hysteria

I want to paint a Fire Hydrant.

It all started sometime earlier this week. My city has some funny little organization that send around a Things to Do list. And I think they also run some kind of downtown revitalization program maybe. But the first thing listed in the email was "Hydrant Hysteria".

They are having a thing where there are 48 fire hydrants around downtown to be painted. They are asking for submissions with designs and they will choose people to paint each of the hydrants.

I have always wanted to do something like this.

Does that make me a huge dork?

Every smallest stroke.

That to be continued was significantly longer than I had intended. But at least I'm finally continuing now.

I arrived back at my house around 5 o'clock on Sunday with my treasure. I unloaded the car, pretty much just dumping everything in piles in appropriate rooms. And then determined that the next appropriate course of action was to gather spinning supplies. Unfourtionately I don't have many spinning supplies and my learn to spin kit hadn't even arrived yet :-(

So I gathered supplies to make my own spindle:
The wooden dowel was too long, and we use it to keep the window open so I figured shortening it was not a good idea. The knitting needle seemed to be missing it's mate anyway, plus I rarely ever use needles above size 6 lately, and it was the right length. I wanted to add some weight to the spindle without using tons of CD's so I taped some pennies to the CD's, used duct tape to attach the CD/penny sandwich onto the needle, and then duct taped a bent paper clip onto the tip to form a nice hook. Voila:


After that I went ahead and based on the dozens of 'how to spin using a drop spindle' sites that I've read and or videos watched online I spun out some yearn. It was rather crazy - mostly owing to me putting way too much twist in the yarn I do believe. Then unable to find very helpful instructions I created my own method of plying.

I divided up what was on my spindle into two by wrapping each bunch around a spontaneously chosen object: the points of my detachable circular needles. And then I again used the spindle and some brute force to ply them into one "yarn" that ended up being between 2 and 3 yards long and looks more like rope than yarn. But I'm still quite proud of it.

:-)





“We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, and never to be undone. Every smallest stroke of virtue or of vice leaves its never-so-little scar.”

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

We are spinning our own fates.

Hi, my name is Carlin. I’m 23 years old and I’m already a spinster.

As referenced before I had the idea in my head that I was going to learn to spin yarn. I journeyed back home for the weekend to visit with relatives who were visiting from NH. That in and of itself is a separate blog worthy event, but for now I digress. On the route back home (as in the house that I live in on a daily basis these days) I had arranged to stop in and visit Mrs. D. She is my friends, Bananas, mother. She has five pet alpacas.

She is also crazy. Having visited and having listened to stories a number of times during our high school years and even a few times during college I knew she was crazy. But sometimes time makes one forget things, like how odd some people are. Not to knock her or anything. She’s an exceptionally nice and kind individual. Just happens to also be crazy.

I pulled into the driveway and Mr. D happened to be out in the yard and went to go and get her. Laid out in the garage (they have a big garage) were, oh probably 40-50 medium size plastic garbage bags of alpaca fleece. Holy crap how much did she think I was going to take.

She eventually came out and so began the chatting. We were rather focused around alpacas and hand crafts. But at least at one point we dabbled very briefly on personal spirituality. All in all I barely got a word in edge wise.

To begin with I was feeling a bit iffy about just taking all of her fleece. The stuff really does actually have value, but no worries there anymore. She just wants to see something done with it. From Banana she had heard that I’m considering going back to school. And somehow she suggested that I could sell the fleece and use the money for school. The naivety of the idea makes me laugh. Yet it does show the point. She had also given thought to the prospects of us starting a business together. Both of our names have good C sounds so she was combining that with some form of Create. Actually rather catchy. Tempting, maybe someday, I can always hope.

I left her house with a bag of fleece for each Alpaca. And big dreams.

At home I weighed my new treasure: approximately 15 lbs. For comparison sake, one will typically sell fiber by the ounce. 15 lbs at 16 oz to 1 lb = 240 ounces. A slightly researched conservative estimate of $2.50 per ounce from an individual alpaca farm = $600.

*Reaches down to pick jaw up from the floor*

That is ridiculous, even if you reduce the number in speculation that one would receive a bulk discount.

My goodness.


This story of my transition into spinsterhood to be continued…



“We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, and never to be undone. Every smallest stroke of virtue or of vice leaves its never-so-little scar.”

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Every once in a while.

One of my good friends families has a small herd of alpacas as pets. They keep all of the wool from shearing and at some point found someone to spin the first years fleece into yarn. Her mom really wanted to have something made from the yarn but doesn't knit and it didn't occur to anyone that I knit until recently it seems. So I have been working on a scarf for her. It's currently at about 8 inches. The pattern she choose is rather small so I'm hoping to make it extra long.

More importantly this exercise has instilled within me a desire to learn to spin yarn. Supposedly they have each years shearing up in their attic. And have I ever been able to resist a new craft?

If only crafts were less expensive I would be much more happy.

From e-bay I procured a set of carders that I'm really just hoping will work. And after much research and holding off I finally actually put in the order for this drop spindle kit. I can't wait for it to come so that I can actually stop the drooling over online video and instructions and actually try it for myself.

Let us just hope I don't fail spectacularly. That would be sad.

In other news I am working diligently towards a way to make popcorn in the microwave. The hitch being that this is not those silly microwave bags. Now you may be saying "put the kernals in a paper bag, close it, and microwave. But you see I have no paper bags. Improvisation was required.

Attempt one:
Idea:Kernels in one of our Tupperware containers with the lid not fully attached so as to serve as a vent.
Observation: somewhat soggy popcorn and over cooked popcorn, and when I got to the bottom of the bowl I discovered some unpopped kernels imbedded in the plastic, there were also some melt holes. Oops.
Result: Failure.

Attempt two:
Idea: Kernels in a glass bowl with a paper towel rubber banded on top.
Research: Are rubberbands microwave safe? Do they give off anything toxic? Findings were inconclusive.
Observation: Popcorn seemed overcooked and yet some kernels still unpopped.
Result: Failure of less epic proportions. Oh and I don't seem to be dead from any toxic fumes or anything either. Although I think my applesauce at lunch today (homemade and canned) may have given me a bit of food poisoning. I suppose that is another story.


Lastly today at band (which is still driving me completely nuts with its awfulness yet I still go nevertheless) some new kid showed up like 20 minutes into rehearsal. Normally this would not merit comment however he bore remarkable resemblance to my first boyfriend. Although not quite a tall and lanky he could have been A squashed down a bit so as to be a bit more plump and also seemed a bit less socially awkward (no offense intended, I have nothing against you [finally - yea I know I'm pathetic], but it is true at least from when I knew you well).


"Every once in a while, someone will mail me a single popcorn kernel that didn't pop. I'll get out a fresh kernel, tape it to a piece of paper and mail it back to them."

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

The trick is not to get frightened.

For any number of reasons this evening I am in quite a 'lonely' mood. And while it is, as one might typically imagine bothersome, I'm actually rather at peace with it.



"No matter how lonely you get or how many birth announcements you receive, the trick is not to get frightened. There's nothing wrong with being alone."

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Marshmallow Peeps

Today, spontaneously, in the office, my coworkers put two marshmallow peeps in the microwave to see how large they would get. Upon taking it out and allowing it to cool they then ate it like a delicacy.

These people are all how much older than I am?

In other work related news last week I lost it at 4:15 on Wednesday. A co-worker came because she’s like my friend in the office and she’d heard the un-pleasant phone call which was the straw that broke the camels back. Trying to talk to her made me break down sobbing. Then our boss showed up looking for her. The hysterics continued. De-lightful. He didn’t know what to do and recommended taking days off. I have no time for days off.

Two nights ago I had a bad dream/nightmare about printing off and brining the wrong tickets to the concert.

Conclusion: this job is slowly killing me.


Oh and I have another first date tonight. *sigh*

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

A sense of belonging.

In the 3 months of 2009 I feel like I have accomplished quite a few crafts. And since I like to show them off:



My hat with cables. The first time I've ever knit in the round. It came out too long, but w/e it's an awesome hat with cables.

I found an amazing craft website with tons of projects with instructions. This was one of them that I couldn't help but doing. And it turned out wonderfully! I recently gave them to a friend whom I thought could use some cheering up.

Around my birthday time TRM and I played with fondant and made these mini cakes. this is the one which I am most proud of. Although really I wasn't much good at the actual fondant covering part.

This, obviously, is not an actual craft. But I love it! You see I accidentally wore my green sweater on the day before St. Patty's day, so I had to improvise. And this is what I came up with. Basically I have ridiculous amounts of hair and am kind of ridiculous myself. I wore it with light tan pants, a white sweater shirt/v-neck with just a bit of a green tank top peaking out. I am way too proud of myself.

For some reason I have a bit of an obsession with Raphael's Cherubs. So I just had to make them into a paper cut. And it came out rather well I think.





"Crafts make us feel rooted, give us a sense of belonging and connect us with our history. Our ancestors used to create these crafts out of necessity, and now we do them for fun, to make money and to express ourselves."

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Learned ones make efforts.

I had an idea yesterday. Or maybe today. I'm not sure. Concert days blend together.

So I seem to be paying off student loan #1 quite quickly. Right now I think I'll be done with it by July. Possibly sooner if I keep throwing dollars at it randomly. Then I was trying to figure out what I would do with my extra dollars once the loan was done.

I considered many things: pay off more student loans, plump the emergency fund, add to the vacation fund, take more lessons, invest, save for a house.

My current idea is that I can save for a house. But I can just keep it in either a CD or plain old in a savings account. Then if bad things happened and I needed to use my emergency fund I could raid it and it wouldn't do any harm.

Yay.


"During emergencies learned ones make efforts using their intelligence."

Saturday, March 28, 2009

For a moment, nothing happened.

So I have very obviously been a complete slacker about posting here. And in fact I'm feeling quite a bit like I've been a complete slacker about quite many things in my life recently. But I'm afraid work is completely overwhelming me and beating down my psyche into mush.

Rather unpleasant.

Plus it's always to get started on something again I find because I never know where to start. It's a problem. So here goes nothing.

I've missed a few bike rides this month (still too chilly to get out very often):

3/5:
DST: 7.795
AVS: 11.4
TM: 41:05

3/7:
DST: 27.503
AVS: 11.9
TM: 21:18:35

Something is wrong here, I was not out for 21 hours, more like 3 or 4 max. Although it was a gorgeous day and TRM plotted a route that was new and I quite enjoyed. Well at least enjoyed until we turned around and were going uphill with a head wind - that was annoying. This may become the new 'long trip' route I'm thinking.

3/17:
DST: 13.431
AVS: 11.6
TM: 1:09:36

3/27:
DST: 12.939
AVS: 12.5
TM: 1:02:15

That was yesterday. I was kind of upset with myself because after 4 miles I started feeling really really crappy. And I was trying to push myself so that I can become not so slow, but I still felt slow. Although now that I compare them I think I'm just out of shape because I've not been in the 12's for a while. That and next time I won't eat a bowl of frosted mini-wheats and some orange juice before I go out.

Now I shall attempt to go and update my sidebar thingy's. If I can remember how that is.

I've also been dumping quite a bit of money into my student loan. It's pretty awesome. I got a ridiculous tax refund, $1200, which normally would be a bad sign, but actually it's not so bad of me. You see last year when the economic stimulus cash thing hit I had still been declared a minor on my parent's tax return being as I was in school the first half of the year. So I didn't get any of that money. But apparently they're still giving it out and this time I qualified!

Well that is a start. Hopefully I'll be back soon.



"For a moment, nothing happened. Then, after a second or so, nothing continued to happen."

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Popous joy.

On March 1 there was a big snow storm. Out here we really didn't get hit by much of it at all. Around an inch or so I think that didn't stick around very far.

This weekend it is in the 60's. Maybe even 70's. I love it.

First TRM and went out for the first 'real' ride of the year. It was a very good ride. I felt quite strong and was very happy.

So then we got back and I decided that I really needed to continue to enjoy the gloriousness. Enter in the magic of the laptop and wireless internet (that and I also took out my book and knitting).

But my amazing awesome plan has been foiled. I'm sitting here squinting at the screen and mostly just seeing my reflection.

Damn modern technology and the awesome screen that is so crisp and great but also acts as mirror. Nuts.


"March is the month of expectation,
The things we do not know,
The Persons of Prognostication
Are coming now.
We try to sham becoming firmness,
But pompous joy
Betrays us, as his first betrothal
Betrays a boy."

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Knitted socks.

It's been a while. I apologize to you, my one faithful reader.

Alas work is stressing me out like whoa. And well I don't really have much of anything worth much of a life outside of work/personal life. So when one puts the two together it means I'm trying to deal with lots of stress but I don't actually have much that can function in a way to properly enable my life to balance itself into a happy medium. And so I find myself falling further and further into my own pity party.

Ah well. So it goes.

Some random highlights which follow no logical order or purpose:

Our end of row neighbor randomly asked me to cat-sit. She has 3 cats and they're all crazy in their own way. My favorite is Gigi. Shes a smaller long haired cat. It was impossible to figure her out because she would be skittish and then beg for attention. In 5 second variances. Like seriously I should have made a video of her. It is the most bizarre thing when a cat comes over looking for attention and then the next moment looks up at you like you're an ax murderer. I have a theory however. One day I noticed, as I was petting her which was having the results that I couldn't figure out of pain/disdain or pleasure, but anyways I noticed that she seemed to have a good bit of static owing to her long fur. So my figuring is that basically she's more or less constantly receiving static shocks, kinda like mild electo therapy, constantly. This is what has caused her to be completely off her rocker. Good times.

I seem to have developed a mild e-bay addition over the past 2 days. In the past I have been known to randomly start tracking a million things on ebay to see what the average and low prices one can score. For some reason on this most recent wave I was focused on bike gear. Specifically pedals. Next thing I know I'm the proud highest bidder of a new (well new to me) pair of SPD's. $13.50. Rock on. Now the ultimate test will be if they go on my bike (really not much of a concern), if they are compadible with the shoes I got when I purchased the bike (questionable, all research indicates they should, but for some reason the instructions with the shoes [yea my shoes have instructions] has some crazy line about not working with spd pedals, i don't get it), and most importantly but the thing I've thought least about is me actually learning and liking clipless. Ah well 13.50 is what a good many people might spend on lunch. Alas that logic is flawed because I'm not other people and never will be so its practically pointless to say. The whole train of thought is much more indepth as to why this is flawed but I digress. Today on ebay I scored 2 pairs of shorts for ballet for $9.75. I've been eyeing up all kinds of various dance-wear for quite a while now but can never justify the expense. Seriously I'm becoming like a spend-a-holic in my depression. I'm quite tempted by a number of other things currently. Most notibly being a pair of bike shorts that are not tight so would make me look less silly commuting or what not. And an orange/floral bike seat which would (in theory) match my orange bike but the listing has no brand so I know I really shouldn't waste $25 on a decorative idem. But it's pretty!

I bought a bed a few weeks ago. It was an adventure and a half getting the thing home. But we made it and did not loose it along side the highway - yay. I went from a twin to a queen in one fell swoop. I love having bed space!

I made some pretty awesome paper flowers based on instructions I found online. I ought to take a picture and post it. Seriously they're adorable.

I read a book that tied knitting into the story. It made me want to knit amazing awesome stuffs. Then mother randomly brought me this random sock knitting catalouge that seems to have been sent to father. Luckily I don't ask questions. Instead I went to JoAnn's yesterday and now I am knitting a crazy bright blue sock. I question what a hand knitted sock shall come out looking like, but can't hurt to try. The best part is how amazing it is to work with this crazy tiny yarn and crazy tiny needles. Why do I seem to love small things so much?

Tomorrow at work I really really really need to go and talk/call out my boss on something. It's scary but doing it should help me learn to stick up for myself and help point out the fact that he is clueless about management. Poor guy.




"It was such a lovely day I thought it a pity to get up."

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Blargh.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Work of fiction.

In today’s thinking and poking around the thought struck me: how cool would it be to write a book. Like a for real at least 200 page novel. It would be awesome.

Unfortunately I feel utterly incapable of conceptualizing a whole plot/story/world. Just much too difficult and my ideas are so rarely original.

Keeping this in mind I’ve struck upon two more abstract ideas:

First as I was eating my two clementines with my lunch I was reminded of JM’s short story for a creative writing class. I don’t recall if it was about an orange or if there was just somehow an orange that was prominent within the story. But I considered stealing and writing a story about being an orange. However I then realized that the difficulty of the orange being consumed could be avoided by instead writing a story about being an inanimate object. One of those could stick around for much longer. Or maybe what about writing a story about being a cat. Oh! It could be a story with a twist! If one managed to write about the life and times of this non-human in a very human way would it may be possible to basically ‘trick’ people and create this very interesting slightly-off feeling.

I had a second and then even a third idea but I got excited about idea one there and forgot the others. Blast.

Do what you can.

I have a three day weekend beginning at 4:30PM today. This makes me very happy.

During my time not at work I am feeling like I really really want to accomplish something good. Some kind of awesome craft comes most to mind. So I’m trying to plan for this.

Unfortunately I have absolutely no motivation and nothing sounds like I actually want to go through with it.

Uncool.



Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

62 and sunny - or not

Supposedly it is gorgeous here today. The whole idea of it makes me very bitter. Not that that is very difficult to do or anything.

63 and sunny says weather.com. And people who come in keep informing me about the amazingness. Or as a fun alternative one coworker said I should leave early because it was so freaking nice.

But instead I am choosing to remain ignorant. I knew it was going to be amazing but I'm pretending it's normal. And being as I have no windows or outside doors this is easy enough to do.

I suppose I could (have) left early, but for some reason I felt the need to actually work my 8 hours. This makes particularly little sense being as I'm on day 10 in a row right now. Maybe I'm just staying to be 'hardcore.' Or maybe that post I wrote yesterday got to me. Difficult to say.

If it stayed light past 6 I could still make at least half an effort at still getting out and enjoying the unseasonable awesomeness.

Instead I am an office-potato slacker.


When spring hits for real I am so going to try bike commuting. [I may die crossing the roads but I've said this before].

Monday, February 9, 2009

Demoralized slaves.

I was reading an article over at The Brazen Careerist. She was actually posting a letter by a 20-something investment banker that was his response to Obama’s proposed salary caps for companies that receive bail out dollars. The letter was kind of stupid the main premise being ‘why not cap hours worked?’ It went on to talk about the French system and generally wasn’t well done or written at all.

But it did get me thinking.

Particularly there was a comment left by someone in the medical profession about how resident doctors were being limited to 30 hour shifts and 80 hours max and that some said this was too low. Wow.

The normal work week, my own included, is 40 hours. Some weeks, concerts, I’ll hit around 60. But doing 80 seemed impossibly large.

So I broke out the calculator:

-24 hours in a day 7 days in a week and holy-moly there are 168 hours in a week. Whoa now my 40 seems like nothing.

Well maybe it’s because so much of it is lost sleeping?

-24 hours in a day less 8 hours of sleep still 7 days. Still 112 usable hours in a week.

Ok so I’m generally not at all very productive right after I wake up, it takes time to attack the week. And things like eating can take time.

- 24 hours in a day less 8 hours of sleep less an hour in the morning less an hour and a half for other mundane things times 7 days. 94.5 hours left to occupy.

I suppose I shouldn’t complain about working my 40 or 60 hours so much.


If the workers do not fight for higher wages, if they do not fight for a shorter workday, if they do not fight for, let us say it in a provocative way, day-to-day economic issues, they become demoralized slaves.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

23

I am now 23. In fact I have been so for a few days even. But I did have a good birthday.

Although realistically there were some downer thoughts. However I think I decided that for some reason just the idea of it being my birthday puts me in a positive mindset and so it's just going to be a good day no matter what. I recall the same sense of feeling from other years. I'm just a good bit more happy mellow on my birthday.

There were however some definite random occurrences that definitely added to the awesomeness of my birthday:

First and foremost sometime early but not to early that morning I'm sitting at my desk at work when P walks in. She's a middle aged woman (one child in college other in h.s.) who does quite a bit for the Symphony. I know she's quite involved in the symphony society and their functions plus she does quite a bit with the education committee and she often comes out when we ask for volunteers to help with random office tasks (generally large mailings). And she's really just a very nice person. But she had been in helping with a mailing the day prior but today she says "I just was in the area and wanted to stop by and give you this *hands me a card* and these *hands me flowers*".

!

Like holy crap where'd that come from? It was amazing. I have no idea how she knew it was my birthday. I figure one of my co-workers must have said something (we celebrate birthdays with cake in the office). But the georgeous flowers (purple iris' and smallish white roses) were so random and just so awesome. I could totally actually enjoy these (verses the last flowers I recieved if you recall).

And then the whole day there were lots of 'happy birthdays' and it was a fairly busy day so people were in and out that aren't all normal staff then most all of them would somehow hear it was my birthday and many gave me compliments. Or it was always fun to see jaws drop when I told them I was 23.

One awesome quote from my boss. "So how old are you now? 24, 25, 26?" Seriously I seem to have them trained to forget how young I am anymore. It's good stuff.

Overall the impression the day left on me was that I really can't imagine how I deserve such nice things. Particularly the flowers. Seriously people you're too good to me.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Purest of all experiences.

Yesterday I had a bit of a profound moment. I am now seriously considering contemplating and researching the possibility of attaining a Masters in Library Science and embarking upon a new career path.

All in all it's pretty crazy and makes me very unsure of myself.



"Believers and doers are what we need -- faithful librarians who are humble in the presence of books.... To be in a library is one of the purest of all experiences. This awareness of library's unique, even sacred nature, is what should be instilled in our neophites."

Monday, February 2, 2009

When it snows.

Yesterday the temperature made it up to the 40's so off I went. The weather was great and it was sunny, and there was snow on the ground.

Down the road I went and when I got to the start of my normal trail it was completely covered in snow. Well that's a no go. So I reconsidered my options and went back out to the main road and up a good hill. I figured that I could take that road out to where it eventually meets up with my normal trail across a college campus. Except that plan involves getting across 6 lanes or so of a busy road. There's a traffic light so in theory it's entirely doable, but not exactly ideal.

So instead I decided to try something that I thought might work. A time or two ago when I was out it seemed like normal traffic was moving along what looks like not much more than a service road but it would work. So off I went and instead of my path I took this road instead. I'd always known of the road but didn't think through that it connected out to the road. It was an exciting find. But I knew that the road ended at a bit of a field/park before the underpass that gets me across the busy road.

I got there and my path was covered in snow with one other bike track and some foot prints. Being hardcore as I am onto the snow I went. My bike is not made for snow. You see I have a street bike. It's not an overly serious racing bike so my tires aren't completely bare. But they don't really have much tread either. I figure the picture I found is a decent approximation of them.

I made it approximately 30 feet I figure before I gave up. It went something like this. I'd petal move forward crunch down through the snow (it was a layer of powder with a crust on top) then have to regain my balance as I almost fall over. Repeat. Every movement was the same. It was torture. In someways it reminded me of the mountain biking when I felt like I was off balance so often. But this time I was not even moving because given the lack of tread each push was getting me nowhere. So I walked a bit then the snow was softer so I got back on and it was much nicer. I continued out to my normal turn around point with only minor modifications.

On the way back I decided that I really didn't want to go back over the snow. But I speculated that there may be a way around. You see the service road that I took is a part of a big old complex. It's called the "state hospital" it used to be a big old insane person facility. Now the state government uses it for some kind of offices I think. I'd seen bits of it once or twice. But the place is freaking huge!

Half randomly guessing I wound around all of these buildings and miraculously enough I made it back out where I wanted. It was exciting.

Distance: 13.071 miles
Average Speed: 11.2 mph
Time Moving: 1 hour 10 minutes 8 seconds




"When it snows, you have two choices: shovel or make snow angels."

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Rock Paper Scissors

Today in the mail I received my newest pair of scissors. Here is my collection. I am immensely proud of it:



1. This is my newest pair (the ones I just received today). They are Gingher 8 inch dress making shears. Pretty much awesome indestructible amazingness. Mother had a pair when we were growing up (and still does) they are the best for any kind of fabric cutting.

2. Random walmart scissors. They work.

3. 2nd pair of random walmart scissors because I frequently misplace or leave my sissors in many different places.

4. In theory these could be paper cutting scissors but I recieved them second hand from someone and already had better pairs. I use them for thread cutting and what not in random crafting.

5. For a while these were my premier paper cutting scissors. They work well enough but sadly they're not exactly true, as you can see in the picture they don't close fully without pressure because the blades are curved towards each other somehow, so they're most certainly not perfect. I think they were also second hand along with the embroidery scissors.

6. These beauties are my treasure. Hoffer gold's from Switzerland (via paper cutting by Alison), my parents gave them to me for Christmas a few years ago. And now I am a compete scissor snob. Nothing else will do. No one is allowed to touch these scissors and they are only for paper cutting only on mid to light weigh paper - and even the midweight can be questionable (I'd not be so keen on using regular computer paper).

7. Here we have my first pair of scissors. Well first specifically personally owned ones. My father got them from the gift shop at his library/museum along with a Scherenschnitte book and thats what started me off on my scissor obsession. Now I can't believe that I ever used those brutes for much of anything. So it goes.


[Not pictured: A pair of 2 inch emroidery scissors matching 4. Last seen in with my cross stitch project. Current location: unknown.]

Rock on
Paper Cutting
Scissors

The quietest and most constant of friends.

I am behind on my book reviews. And I’ve been doing quite a bit of reading. I’ve fallen into a very nice pattern of going to the library every two weeks (that’s the length of their check out period with no renewals) where I pick up 2 books and 4 or 5 CD’s. It’s pretty sweet. And now I’m wondering if I might be able to keep up this book a week trend all year. It would make me feel accomplished.

Library trip 1 (most likely on December 29)
The curious incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – While it’s accuracy has been called into question the story is told from such an interesting perspective/mind set that I’d definitely recommend the book.

Across the Nightingale Floor (Tales of the Otori, Book 1) – A fairly new fantasy series set in an asian world/mentality. Amusing but nothing special.

Dvorak: Symphony #9, Serenade for Winds: Eugene Ormandy; London Symphony Orchestra – Recently I’ve begun collecting Dvorak 9 (its quite possibly my favorite) and while the recording quality left me wanting more at first I soon got over it and realized how amazingly balanced this recording was. Spectacular.

Bernstein Symphony No. 3, Chichester Psalms – I’m a big Berstein fan but just didn’t take the time to really listen to this one. The whole choir/symphony thing makes me a bit standoffish.

Under The Corkwood Tree: Fall Out Boy – They’re just a fun group. I didn’t realize this album contained so many singles.

Library trip 2, 1/12
Children of Dune (interlibrary loan) – I have now completed the full original Dune trilogy – yay! CoD was definitely back to the amazingly amazing quality of the first. The second is definitely the weak link.

Dancing on my Grave, an autobiography of Gelsey Kirkland – If you’re not at least familiar with dance/ballet I would not recommend this book. However if you are and have an interest I definitely recommend it. Her story is crazy and it’s fascinating to be able to see ‘behind the scenes’.
Harry Potter And The Order of the Phoenix: Nicholas Hooper – Quite different than the other Harry Potter movie music. It’s not nearly as catchy which I easily attribute to the heavily lesser use of themes and motifs. But most certainly some great music. Also interesting to note is that the tracks are not arranged chronologically based on the movie (as most movie score music is) but rather arranged to form its own cohesive album.

Mahler Symphony # 6 – I totally was aiming for 3 or 4. How did I end up with 6? I’ve not listened to it yet.

Why Should the Fire Die?: Nickel Creek – This is my newest and best recent music find. Its this awesome folky but not just folk music. The harmonies are rich and complex. No two songs are so alike, yet they still have an overall sound. Multiple vocalists are featured and there are also instrumental tracks. A definite must listen.


Library trip 3, 1/26
Kite Runner – A poinent and phenomenal story of love loss and honor in a society we have heard about but rarely comprehend. Chances are you’ve heard it recommended else where or have already read it. There’s a reason for this I now see.

Holding onto the Air: Suzanne Farrell autobiography – TBA (I’m on page 20 or something).
Schindler’s List: Itzhak Perlman, John Williams – One of my new most favorite movie scores. I already knew the main theme but seeing how that is carried through the whole score is amazing. John Williams is less one sided than some of his other block busters indicate. And Perlman shows you why he is a classical music superstar and other musicians are mere mortals.

Superman: The Movie: John Williams – We played one of the songs in marching band. I am a marching band geek. Rock on.

Rutter: Gloria: Choir of King’s College – We sang Rutter’s Gloria in college choir. This choir does it a million times better. *oh that’s what it’s supposed to sound like*. And the treble parts are sung by boys. Unfair.


“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.”

Sunday, January 25, 2009

An adult on a bicycle.

The weather here has been cold recently. I do not like it. But on Friday we had a day of respite as temperatures made it up to the 40's. Also recently I'd been noting that it's stayed light a bit later in the evening (all the way to 5:30). Putting these factors together and I wanted to get out on my bike again. So, with a bit of encouragement from a co-worker, i left work early, around 3:15, and went home to go out for a nice ride.

Temperature wise it was quite amazing. I was acclimated before I headed off even. Although it was still quite cool whenever there was a breeze (like every downhill). And there's one part of the trail that is down in the valley of a stream and mostly in shade. That part was definitely cooler than the rest. Plus there were even some patches of snow/slush there. I was slightly concerned that that could be detrimental to my health. The first danger being sudden lost of traction and fall off bikeage the second being tire spray and getting wet. But I survived the perils without notice. I did almost spill one time but that was owing to cinders that had built up on the side of the road. Fun fun.

Here are my stats:

Distance: 12.958 miles
Average Speed: 11.7 mph
Time Moving: 1:06:22


Rock on.


"When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race."

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

A bed may show of human bliss to human woe.

On Wednesday I received an email from my Mother. It's opening text was pretty standard in it's "hey it's been a while and I figured I ought to check that you were still alive." This is not a direct quote but rather an inferred summation. Me and my parental units are cool like that. She then proceeded to inform me of various random things about some assorted family members. Then she mentioned that my birthday was coming up and instead of my prior plan of bringing out my old bed from home sometime someday I should just buy myself a new bed and they'd reimburse me.

I. Freaked. Out.

Like seriously? Me, buy a bed? For serious?

A few months ago I bought myself a pillow and it made me feel like all grown up. A bed might kill me.

I have no idea how to go about buying a bed. What the heck am I supposed to look for?

Well it's expensive. I'm quite bad at expensive things. Even if it's not my money I have a hard time spending it without hours and hours and hours of thinking and planning.

And since it's not a trivial expense one needs to get something good and decent that will last a while. But I don't even know where I'm going to be in a very short while with my life. So how will I figure out what kind/type of bed to purchase.

Obviously I have issues. My mother comes up with a very good and beneficial idea that is quite quite generous of her and I can't help but wonder why she couldn't be more mundane and send a CD, or a book, or a tent, or a gift certificate, or a check?

Alas I am crazy.

But sometime within the next few weeks maybe I'll be a crazy person with a new bed.




"In bed we laugh, in bed we cry, and born in bed, in bed we die; the near approach a bed may show of human bliss to human woe"

Any fool can.

Today was the first rehearsal of the year for my new Community Band. It's great to be playing again. Although I really was not playing well. Firstly I kept having notes not sound, which is just odd. I attribute it to being way out of shape. And secondly I'm reading way too many ledger lines in thirds. Non-ideal.

Unfortunately the group really really sucks. The worst is probably the conductor. I have no idea how she ended up directing this group. Possibly something to do with living in the area forever and having no other respectable jobs. Their music choices are incredibly lame. It's bad seriously bad. Quite a bit of the stuff I played in high school. And really my high school band was not good at all. And judging by what I saw today it looks like the band may not buy new music. Ouch. Lastly the players are mostly bad. There are a few mediocre ones, but they are easily drowned out by the bad ones. And seriously there ought to be someone in some section that I'd be impressed by. But no (oh well maybe the bassoons stand a chance actually). Most dreadfully for me is the fact that all of the first flute players are bad. Again I exaggerate I think two of them may have the potential to be decent. But none have impressed me at all.

And it just makes me sad because I know nothing will ever improve. And within my own section there is little to no chance that I'll ever move from my last stand position except for the possibility of other players leaving (or more likely dying).


"Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain - and most fools do."

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

My reactions

My thoughts during the inauguration:

The internet here at work was not-cooperating. But right around 11:30 I managed to get an audio stream from NPR. It’s incredibly exciting.

It’s true that our system is special in the easy and smooth peaceful transfer of power. We are so lucky.

I had to answer a phone call, wrong number, during the opening prayer.

With this whole deal I don’t like the emphasis on the fact that he’s African American. Why should that matter? Or maybe I’m saying that as one who never had/has to suffer under the struggle of prejudices.

Aretha Franklin – the choice is incredibly intriguing to me. I support the “integration” of the various ethnic backgrounds here. OMG WHY AM I THE ONLY ONE ANSWERING PHONES. Ok I wasn’t a huge fan of her version at first but I’ve warmed up to it. Now if only they’d do the Jimi Hendrick’s National Anthem. Still I liked it, gotta love soul music.

I like how someone introduced someone who introduced someone else.

Itzhak Perlman and YoYo Ma!!!!!! And by John Williams. OMG. And it’s unheard. I need to look up the name of this again. I love Simple Gifts. Ever since my first hearing of Copeland’s. It’s hard to hear it now without thinking of Appalachian spring. I need to get a copy of this music. It is gorgeous and those two string players are incredible. To use a song like this that everyone knows a certain set of words to (gift to be simple, gift to be free) it’s quite an interesting statement both on hopes for our nation and hopes for our new leader. “Air on Simple Gifts” I caught the name now.

Did he just mess up the words? He’s human too!

He makes it sound too easy, it’s not. “All our free, All deserve a chance” are we back to race again?

“The doers the makers” – makes me think of Ayn Rand.

Ooo I’ve been called out as a naysayer. Ok, point to you President Obama.

Ok so the national anthem at the end was rather anticlimactic. They weren’t bad, but it was absolutely not compelling. I suppose people would freak out if they did any kind of an arrangement (such things happened once to my H.S. band – it was interesting).

Stars and Stripes! Oh how it’s been much too long since I played that blasted piece. But the Marine Band is awesome.