The Bog of Lost Scholars

25 June 2004

Unillustrated Craft Update

Filed under: Crafts — Castiron @ 18:00

Craft update:

Crochet: The purple doily is done. Pictures to come whenever I get around to loading them onto the Zip disk to bring in for uploading. Haven’t started any new projects yet, but I think I’m going to start the granny square sampler afghan from Better Homes & Gardens’ Big Book of Crafts that I’ve been wanting to do for the past sixteen years. That’ll use up a whole mess of scrap yarn, and then I can unload the rest with a clear conscience.

Knitting: I’m on the first sleeve of the sweater. I may have to go back and rip & reknit the yoke, but I’ll see how bad the lumps look when it’s done. (With the texture of the sweater, it might actually look intentional….) I’ve also started a scarf from a almost-unused skein of Lion Brand Homespun left over from another project. (Instructions: cast on 20 stitches, and knit until I run out of yarn. Good carry-along project, now that the sweater’s so huge.)

Sewing: My ex’s shirts only need the buttonholes and the buttons. Of course, that’s 44 buttonholes and buttons, and this isn’t my favorite part of making shirts, so it may yet take a while. I’m still too lazy to change the thread so I can sew the seams on the linen-blend shell and see how it fits, but maybe in the next few days, since I’ve got a skirt that needs mending too. Next project: probably another mega-cutting spree, the next time I have a Saturday without my boy or my boyfriend, in which I shall cut out shirts, skirts, and a dress for myself, shirts and shorts for my son, and probably a couple more shirts for my ex.

Counted work: A lot of progress on the crane; I’m not too far from the bottom edge on the left side. Minimal progress on the jay. Effectively no work on the harbor picture, the sunflowers, the pentacle, the Flanders map, or the Mucha picture. I’m forcing myself not to start any more counted work projects until I get at least one of these puppies done, and even then it’ll have to be a small one. (Though I might make an exception for a friend’s upcoming wedding, and my mom needs a new breadcloth to replace one that vanished, and I need to make a 2004 ornament for myself….)

24 June 2004

Today in History

Filed under: People, Culture, and Society — Castiron @ 00:00

Thirty-seven years ago today, a history teacher from upstate New York married an Army sergeant from Louisiana.

Occasionally their offspring have wondered how the heck they’ve gotten along all these years, given the surface differences in their background and interests. Perhaps it’s because they actually have more common interests than appears on the surface, or because their priorities mesh well, or because they work well together as a team, or because they have always treated each other with respect and consideration and generally made themselves a good example for their kids to test their own relationships against.

Whatever the reasons, we’re glad they’re still together. Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad!

23 June 2004

Early Summer Reading

Filed under: The Castiron Reading Journal — Castiron @ 18:32

Recent reading:

  • Kate Douglas Wiggin, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. Cheesy sweet story about a girl who goes to live with her crochety and sweet great-aunts.
  • Louisa May Alcott, An Old-Fashioned Girl. Cheesy sweet story about a girl from a poor family who goes to stay with a rich friend in the city and ends up transforming the family.
  • Maud Hart Lovelace, Carney’s House Party. Just sweet story about Carney Sibley, halfway through college in the 1910s, having friends stay with her for a month. Lovelace doesn’t set off any of my treacle alerts; I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been reading her since I was six or just that the characters are so down-to-earth and the authorial voice so absent.
  • J. R. R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion. Required reading for “Languages and Linguistics of Tolkien’s Middle-Earth”. Yeah, I had to reread this for a class, and still have to reread LOTR. I think I can handle it. (One of my classmates called the Silmarillion the Elvish phone book, which I found amusing.)
  • Don Aslett, Lose 200 Pounds This Weekend. I like Aslett’s dejunking books; this one’s his most recent, and while it really doesn’t say anything about the process of dejunking that the previous three didn’t, the different anecdotes are still fun reads, and the concept of “high standard of living” vs. “high standard of luxury” was thought-provoking.

16 June 2004

Random Weird Political View

Filed under: People, Culture, and Society — Castiron @ 19:16

So, since I’ve been talking way too much about diapers lately, let’s briefly digress into one of my political opinions.

The death penalty.

When it’s administered by the would-be victim or someone in the vicinity with the intent of preventing a violent crime, with the understanding that the “executioner” then has to go through some hefty inquiry by a court to verify that yes, a violent crime really was taking place and deadly force really was necessary (as opposed to “he looked at me funny, so I shot him”), then I’m for it.

When it’s administered by the government, I’m ambivalent. But if we’re going to have it, let’s make it blatantly clear that we consider killing another person to be a terrible thing: let’s have the executioner be a volunteer, who agrees to go to prison for the rest of their life after executing the criminal. Killing someone in self-defense is one thing, but killing a person in cold blood should be treated as a most horrible action that removes the killer’s right to participate in society, no matter how much the dead person deserved it.

15 June 2004

A Brief Verb Gripe

Filed under: Publishing and Writing — Castiron @ 17:24

I intensely dislike the use of “author” as a verb. “She authored numerous books on various topics” — why not just say “She wrote numerous books….”?

(Okay, I could perhaps see it if “authored” was used to mean “wrote books or articles that were actually published by a real publisher”, but that doesn’t seem to be how it’s used.)

10 June 2004

More Non-writing Progress

Filed under: Publishing and Writing — Castiron @ 00:00

I’m still not writing.

Never mind that I’ve made it through Chapter 14 of 18 for the Book 1 cleanup, in preparation for withdrawing it from Slushpile #1 where it’s languished for 3 years and sending it to Slushpile #2 where it’ll probably get a quicker reject.

Never mind that I actually posted a question about a problem I’m having with Book 4 to rec.arts.sf.composition, and actually got some good helpful ideas in response.

Never mind that I’ve written 400 words on another part of Book 4 in an effort to figure out What’s Going On.

I’m still not writing. Really.

9 June 2004

Wading through the Morass

Filed under: Random Ramblings — Castiron @ 18:10

Still alive; just coming out of the backlog from having sick kid.

Random unrelated thoughts:

  • This summer’s course: Languages and Linguistics of Tolkien’s Middle-Earth. Fun so far.
  • This fall’s course: First-year Ancient Greek. Should be interesting, to say the least.
  • I have spent far too much of the past several weeks thinking about my offspring’s bowel movements.
  • Angbanders Anonymous. Founding member. I have hacked the monster files to make White Icky Things drop ego weapons and artifacts; I’ve hacked the artifacts file to create the Main Gauche of Egregious Power (10d10, +10 to all stats and speed, slay everything) and the Small Metal Shield of Ridiculous Invulnerability (resist just about everything, + to stats and speed, free action, slow digestion, see invisible), and I still play to see what nifty items I can find and what nifty monsters I can slay and what might lie in the caverns. I’m way too hooked on this game.
  • You know, when all’s said and done, I really do enjoy my job, even though some elements can get tedious.

1 June 2004

Giardia Articles with Senses of Humor

Filed under: Random Ramblings — Castiron @ 18:32

Amusing article about one guy’s bout with Giardia.

Powered by WordPress