5 Impossible Things I Would Like For My Birthday.

My birthday is coming up soon, and as usual, I can never decide what I'd like. I'm terrible about talking people out of buying me awesome stuff because I get all 'reasonable' and ask for something I need instead of something I want. So, in that vein, just in case anyone I know has suddenly developed magical wish-granting powers and has been holding out on me, there are five completely impossible (well, not IMPOSSIBLE, but very very unlikely and improbable) things I would love to see for my birthday:

1. Through some odd, previously unnoticed surveying error, it would turn out that my house is not actually part of the subdivision, and thus, not subject to the homeowners' association rules (or dues)

2. A trip to Paris to go to the Depeche Mode concert there the weekend of my birthday.

3. A lifetime supply of beer. Good beer. If someone tried to give me a lifetime supply of Bud Light or Coors, I think I'd punch them. (I say as though this is somehow more likely than anything else on this list)

4. My computer upgraded to the point that it might be in danger of being classified as a sentient being.

5. A way to get to my laundry room without having to go through the garage.

That last one seems a little out of place, I'll admit, but it really really bugs me, and I just can't figure out a way to do it without inventing a teleporter or losing a closet.

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Now playing: DeVotchKa - Ocean Of Lust
via FoxyTunes

Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow.

Went out roller skating for a friend's birthday Sunday night, and realized three very important things that I should have thought of earlier:

1. I cannot skate on regular roller skates, only on rollerblades.

This was quickly remedied, as the rink had rollerblades available at no extra charge as long as you left your shoes with them. Of course, the rental rollerblades were missing a wheel and had gum in one (prompting me to announce to my friends "and for my next trick, I shall order a piece of cherry pie with a pit in it!").

2. I have mostly skated on pavement, not wood.

Wood is a lot smoother. And faster.

3. I have mostly skated on hockey skates, leading to two sub-points:

a. Hockey rollerblades lace up, they don't have those weird bindings that always seem to work loose because I don't really know how to adjust them properly.

b. I used to skate WITH SAFETY PADS ON!!!!!

As I sit here on a heating pad, covered in Dragon Balm, I realise point 3(b) is really the one I should have remembered...

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Now playing: Duke Chapel Choir - 08 - Lacrymosa - Mozart Requiem
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Just a quick nerd check-in.

I finally managed to get to see the new Star Trek. I confess, I was sort of putting it off because I was certain it couldn't live up to my mental picture, but I was more than happy with it. I was actually tempted to go kill some time until the IMAX showing started at ten, but I have work tomorrow, so probably not the best idea... It combined three of my favorite things: Star Trek, Simon Pegg, and the possibility that Voyager never happened.

Seriously. I don't know where Voyager went wrong, but it did it fast, and it did it HARD.

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Now playing: Nena - 99 Luftballons - German
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Look on my scarf, ye Mighty, and despair... (part 6)

It's been slow going between various injuries, new pattern ideas, and generally a metric shitload of other stuff that I needed to work on, but the scarf is up to 26 inches. On the one hand, I want to see just how fast I can get this thing done (is there a record for fastest Dr. Who scarf ever knit?). On the other hand, since it's all garter stitch it makes a great breather from my more complex projects.

The Endpaper Mitts in particular require frequent breathers. The pattern isn't hard, but since I hold both colors and work the fairisle pattern in German and English style with one color in each hand, I can only work on them for about a half-hour at a time before my left arm starts killing me. (Granted, at the moment both arms are killing me from all the yardwork lately, but even so...)

Of course, I just got my partner assignment for the Venture Bros. swap on Craftster, so everything will be going on hold for a little bit while I get my craftin' on for that. I've got a full sheet of paper covered in ideas, I just need to go stalk my partner for a bit and get the list pared down.

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Now playing: Depeche Mode - The Sun & The Rainfall
via FoxyTunes

Hooray for Multitasking!

Taking a little break from the Scarf to do a few swatches for some other projects:



The tri-color one is just an actual gauge swatch so I can get some sizing into the mix, but the brown striped swatch is giving me fits. I'm not sure if the colors are quite right, and I know that the 3x1 rib pattern isn't what I need. I thought the two variegated browns would get the right feel to the piece, but I'm wondering now if solid colors will end up looking better in the end.

I...I may have officially played too much Psychonauts...

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Now playing: Rock Plaza Central - Anthem for the Already Defeated
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Look on my scarf, ye Mighty, and despair... (part 5)

I've re-started the scarf, this time in a mix of Wool-Ease and Signature (mostly because there was a KICK-ASS sale on it). I was originally going to make it about 3/4 the width the pattern calls for, because last time it seemed really wide, but in the better quality yarn, it's so much softer that it really does need to be that wide.

Just updated the laptop to Ubuntu, BTW - very very happy with it in general, but I haven't found a music player I really like for it yet. Just a matter of trial and error, I suppose. Grand scheme of things, I suppose it doesn't really matter, as the whole reason behind getting the laptop back up is so that I can watch TV and generally be sociable while I'm on the computer.

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Now playing: Depeche Mode - Never Let Me Down Again (2006 Remastered)
via FoxyTunes

Fresh Out of Armageddon...

Neil Gaiman asked the people following him on Twitter to tweet pics of ourselves with tea and armageddon, but all I've got is a stockpot full of tea:



Hopefully, someone has some leftover armageddon they'll be willing to share in exchange for the recipe:

2 cinnamon sticks, broken into pieces
1 heaping tablespoon of loose black tea
1 heaping tablespoon of whole cardamom pods
1/2 tablespoon whole cloves

Toss everything into a stockpot, fill with water, and bring to the boil. Keep it boiling for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat, strain and serve with milk and sugar. I like to keep the pot on the stove all day, just ladling it out straight through the strainer into the cups and adding more water to the pot as needed to keep the tea level up. The leftovers are also good cold.

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Now playing: Depeche Mode - Martyr
via FoxyTunes

Look on my scarf, ye Mighty, and despair... (part 4)

Well, the time may have come to start the scarf over. Turns out that what with having used up a fair amount of the cheap acrylic on other projects, there's probably not going to quite be enough for an entire second scarf. I suppose I could just make it narrower, but I'll be damned if I'm buying any more of this particular yarn (the best comparison I can think of is that it's the Coors Light of yarn). I do have most of the colors I need in Lamb's Pride, though. I did the math today, and realized that it would only take about $20 worth of yarn to make up the missing colors. Technically, the goal *was* to use up the stash acrylic so I could justify buying the yarn to make myself a nice version....

I suppose I could just use the acrylic to whip up some little plushies for Etsy, or hold it back for a stash-clearing swap...I was really hoping that this would be a fairly cheap project, though.

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Now playing: Depeche Mode - Miles Away / The Truth Is
via FoxyTunes

Apparently, I do not know how to use spray paint.....

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Note that there is little, if any, paint on the finger actually used to trigger the can. Was my hand in the way somehow, like an accidental photograph of a thumb? Was I using some odd technique that others would want pictures of to illustrate the 'don't' section of an informative "Spray Paint Dos and Don'ts" pamphlet? Was it a faulty nozzle that was leaking? (I lean towards this explanation, as the paint was dripping everywhere as well) Was the can itself leaking?

I do not think I will buying this brand of paint again, regardless of its dirt-cheapness. Whatever the price difference was, I think I used up enough soap and nail polish remover to make the pricier paint worth my while if it sprays better.

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Now playing: DeVotchKa - The Clockwise Witness
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Look on my scarf, ye Mighty, and despair... (part 3)

The soldering class this morning went fantastic, but I started to lose my voice about halfway through. I thought at the time it was just because I'd only brought a cup of tea that lasted barely a half hour into the 3-hour class, and I was talking pretty much the entire three hours straight, but it really didn't improve even after I got a soda. Then I went and got some more painting done, and the cool breeze picking up really didn't help. I'm thinking I may have caught a touch of the sore throat one of my co-workers had a week or so ago.

Regardless, feeling a bit out of it has slowed progress on the scarf a bit. I'm only up to 20 inches, though I think I can get it to a full 2 feet before bed. I was really hoping to be further in by now. At least this time I'm remembering to go through and sew in the ends as I change colors. Last scarf, I'm pretty sure it took me longer to sew all the ends in afterwards than it did to actually knit the thing.



I should get all my yarns together and print out another copy of the pattern so I can bring it along to work on during the traditional post-holiday dinner couch coma. I wonder what the record time for knitting a Dr. Who scarf is?

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Now playing: Alice Cooper - Clowns Will Eat Me
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Look on my scarf, ye Mighty, and despair... (part 2)

Huh...was scrounging around for the next color in the sequence for the Scarf, and discovered that apparantly I'd started another scarf some time ago. Long enough ago that I didn't remember having started it...or these two single socks...or this other scarf...or that hideous sweater out of Lion Brand Homespun...

It seems I need to keep a better eye on my stash/projects. This is where Ravelry comes in handy, I would've forgotten about half the projects I have going at the moment without it.

I've just reached the one foot mark...I think 20 feet finished length may have been underestimating a bit...

(no FoxyTunes sig today - iheartmusic.com has a preview of Sounds of the Universe up!)

Look on my scarf, ye Mighty, and despair... (part 1)

Well, I was browsing the yarn stash, trying to think of some way to clear some of it out, and I came across the leftover yarn from my Dr. Who scarf. And I looked at it, and I thought to myself 'huh - I probably have enough here for another one'. And so I am...

Not sure if I'll keep this one, or if it'll end up being another present. I suppose it really just depends on when it gets finished.

4 inches down, 19 feet, 8 inches to go.....

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Now playing: Jonathan Coulton (Portal) - Still Alive
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More random lists...

The five words that clear out most of my spam:

Replica
Oprah
Diet
Acai
Facebook

I'll take "Things That Can Go F*** Themselves" for $500, Alex.

Because I didn't have enough projects...

I realized recently that the 'play count' on iTunes isn't quite as useful as I'd like it to be in determining how much I actually like a song - a song that I've had on my playlist since January and have listed to 20 times isn't necessarily as popular as one that's been on there for three days and has 15 plays. What I need is an average plays/day count. Ideally, there would be something I could just plug into iTunes to accomplish this. I've found lots of iTunes add-ons, but none of them seem to do quite what I want (though the one to categorize your music by assigning colors to each song was interesting - a little synaesthetic, but interesting.). Thus, I go forth to fix up something in Excel to import my iTunes data into. In a perfect world, I'd have the time to write an actual plug-in (correction: in a perfect world, someone would have already written such a thing for me). And then I want to make some shiny little charts, and sift out little strange bits of data to play with. Because I'm just weird like that.

Also, we're now three days into Script Frenzy, and as you can see, I am busily coming up with anything and everything possible to distract me from actually writing something...

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Now playing: Marilyn Manson - Personal Jesus
via FoxyTunes

More teeny tiny painted things

Or more accurately, more paint on the teeny tiny things.

Fronts:


Backs:
Next time I buy a figure, I'm going to set something up so I can do time-lapse pictures of me painting it. Now if I could just get my hands on a Witchalok mini...

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Now playing: The Clash - London Calling
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Go Forth and bask in the Awesome

My article detailing the awesomeness of Dr. Strange is up:

http://www.gamingangels.com/2009/03/made-of-awesome-dr-strange/
Go forth, read, comment, go out and buy a few back issues, petition Marvel to hire me as a writer.

(Also, I think it says something about me that I already had 'Dr. Strange' as one of my tags...)

Edit:(link to article changed)

...sigh...

Why do I do this to myself? I despise pineapple, I dislike ham, and Im not really all that fond of cranberries. So why am I sitting down to eat a slice of ham on toast covered in pineapple, cranberry sauce, and melted cheese?



Okay, so I know perfectly well why. But I'm going to blame sleep deprivation and go work on tomorrow's comic.

Update: I have discovered why pineapples were placed upon this earth. I think I should use a straight cranberry relish next time though, rather than the cran-raspberry stuff I had on hand. Maybe a slice of the canned stuff? Regardless, canned pineapple now going on the grocery list as a standard feature.

Head Clearing

In the middle of trying to convey to others the awesomeness that is Dr. Strange. I need to take a step back and do something else to clear my head for a bit, so I thought I'd randomly share the current ten most listened-to songs on my iTunes playlist:

10. I'm Yours - Jason Mraz
9. Everywhere - Fleetwood Mac
8. The Oblivion - DeVotchKa
7. 500 Miles - Peter, Paul, and Mary
6. Ashanti's Letterbomb - Dean Grey
5. My Dear Acquaintance - Regina Spektor
4. Curbside Prophet - Jason Mraz
3. Leaving on a Jet Plane - Peter, Paul, and Mary
2. John the Revelator - Depeche Mode
1. At My Window Sad and Lonely - Wilco and Billy Bragg

Very surprised. I was expecting a much higher Depeche Mode/Peter, Paul, and Mary ratio...

General whatsits.

Went to check out a new game store today, and decided to splurge and get a couple of new minis to represent the cleric and warlord in our current D&D campaign. Got a good start on them tonight, here's a pic of all the in-progress minis:

Somehow, I managed to stumble upon the female mini showing the least amount of skin out of any sculpt Reaper makes. Seriously - the two bulky fighters behind her are more naked. Hell, the male cleric has more skin showing. Regardless, this makes our party look a bit more representative of the actual characters:
The Munchkin figure just seems awesomely appropriate for the halfling thief, so I've no plans to replace him. Ideally, though, I will eventually find a better figure for my dragonborn fighter, and will be able to stop using an Abe Sapien capsule figure...

I've also got a good start on my Endpaper Mitts. Finally. The first attempt had a few problems. The biggest one was that the grey marl yarn I'd chosen as the main color and the self-striping green that I originally wanted to show off with the mitts had absolutely no contrast. The fairisle pattern just faded together into a grey-green. Then, when I took it off the needles, it turned out that the large in the pattern was going to be a bit uncomfortably tight anyway, so I've started over with a hair thicker black yarn as my main color, going to just use the larger needles called for, and we'll see how the green self-striping looks now. Fingers crossed.

Spring Cleaning

Managed to get some projects finished this week - finally. Got mom's socks all done, got a few store samples ready to go, and I think I could make a granny square in my sleep now. I've been trying to go through my Ravelry notebook and get some old projects a bit farther along, as well as getting photos on everything.

The big thing has been getting good photos of all the projects I've done for work, since my boss gave me permission to start a store Ravelry group. Turns out I've made a lot more of the displays than I realized. Ended up getting her to finally sign up for Ravelry, as well.

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Now playing: Modest Mouse - Bury Me With It
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