The Bog of Lost Scholars

30 April 2007

Dear Google….

Filed under: Genealogy — Castiron @ 20:00

Dear Google:

In your quest for helping everyone find everything, please at some point consider putting your amazing search and digitization skills to genealogical records, including the U.S. census, state and county records that are over a hundred years old, etc. While I do not wish to denigrate the amazing job that Ancestry.com has done in digitizing materials, Ancestry also charges a yearly fee to view these materials — and recently, has started displaying ads by them. Annoying, moving ads that often try to open popup windows.

Google may be advertising supported as well, but Google’s ads don’t distract me when I’m trying to scan a long list. Alas, right now I have no choice; if I want to be able to search the U.S. census, it’s Ancestry or nobody.

So, Google, please make thousands of genealogists and family historians happy, as well as social historians and geographers and so forth, and give Ancestry some actual competition. Send those census microfilms and the probate and land records of a thousand counties to your Magic Digitization Sweatshop, and give us bits.

Sincerely,
An annoyed Ancestry.com subscriber

The Mikado

Filed under: Music — Castiron @ 00:37

One big hole in my music education: I’m almost totally unfamiliar with Gilbert and Sullivan.

Yes, I’ve read summaries of the stories. Yes, I’ve heard “I’ve Got a Little List” and “A Modern Major General”. Yes, I’m quite familiar with Anna Russell’s “How to Write Your Own Gilbert and Sullivan Opera”. But I’ve never actually seen one performed.

So I watched the DVD of The Mikado starring Eric Idle as Ko-Ko.

First: For the love of $DEITY, people, put fricking subtitles on the fricking DVDs! Especially with anything that involves singing! It’s not just helpful for the deaf or hearing-impaired, though that’s sufficient reason right there; it’s also helpful for anyone who doesn’t speak English as their first language, or in cases where the actor isn’t enunciating clearly, or when the DVD watcher has a sleeping kid in the next room and would really rather not turn the volume up that loud.

In spite of not being able to make out the words, I still found the performance enjoyable. I understood enough to be able to catch the plot, wacky and twisted as it was; I liked the sets and costumes; while Eric Idle’s voice was outclassed, he’s certainly got the expressions and the comic timing to make up for it. I’m pretty sure that the lyrics were updated in a couple places, though given the aforementioned lack of subtitles it’s a little hard to tell.

Overall, it was a decent introduction; it was fun to watch and does make me a little more interested in seeing more G&S opera. (And my, Anna Russell wasn’t exaggerating, was she?)

24 April 2007

Odd Neighbors

Filed under: Genealogy — Castiron @ 00:00

Found on the 1870 census while looking for someone else: J.S. Snape and family.

Further down the same page: A. M. Riddle and family.

Yes, folks, you didn’t have any idea that there was a wizarding community in Kentucky in 1870, did you?

(The citation: Year: 1870; Census Place: Poplar Grove, Owen, Kentucky; Roll: M593_493; Page: 291; Image: 582)

22 April 2007

Craft Update: Shawl Progress

Filed under: Crafts — Castiron @ 16:43

The good: I have finished the body of the Mesa Shawl and have started the border.

The bad: After getting about a third of the way through the border, I figured out that there won’t be enough yarn to finish it if I keep on with this border pattern, and the yarn color is no longer available.

The ugly: I had to rip out the entire border, without dropping any shawl body stitches in the process, and start over with a narrower border pattern.

Fortunately (?), because this project has a rapidly approaching deadline, I don’t have the option of tossing it in a corner and working on something else (like the newly started pair of socks in Regia Multi-Effekt 5384, Vesuvius).

17 April 2007

Recent Reading: Devil’s Cub

Filed under: The Castiron Reading Journal — Castiron @ 08:47

Georgette Heyer, Devil’s Cub. When a notorious gentleman runs off with the wrong Challoner sister –and discovers in the process that she’s much more suited to him — how can he convince her to let him save her from ruin? This was a very fun read; I can definitely see why Heyer’s so admired. The story is easy to follow, and I’m able to readily figure out unfamiliar terms from context, even though I’m not much of a Regency reader. The characters are not 20th century people dropped a couple hundred years into the past; they’re people of their time. And there’s a priceless scene where the heroine is telling her story to someone whose identity she doesn’t know but the reader does; that’s now high on my list of scenes I wish I’d written.

The only thing I really don’t care for about this book, alas, is the hero. I seem to be in the minority who may find rakish heroes interesting to read but don’t actually like them enough to root for their relationship, especially when I admire his love interest more. (See also: Crawford, Francis.) Vidal is fun to watch in action, but even though Mary loves him, I don’t root for him to succeed with her.

11 April 2007

Yummy Cabbage

Filed under: Food — Castiron @ 23:55

Well, that turned out to be surprisingly good.

  • In castiron pot, fry up a package of pan sausage from the farmer’s market.
  • When it’s browned, add half of a purple cabbage, chopped. (Could probably have done the whole cabbage without its being too much.)
  • While it’s cooking, remember the ton of garlic in the fridge. Peel the cloves from a small head of garlic, chop up, and throw in the pan.
  • Add a big glug of apple cider vinegar.
  • Let simmer a bit.
  • Look at clock, realize that boyfriend isn’t likely to arrive for at least another half hour, and turn off heat.
  • Serve when boyfriend arrives.

It was extremely tasty. I’ll have to remember the general recipe next time I have a cabbage in the house.

8 April 2007

Ugly Socks

Filed under: Crafts — Castiron @ 23:25

I was sad to see KnitPicks discontinue their sock yarn Dancing. It makes a very comfortable summer sock, and it’s generally pleasant to work with. But I do have to admit that they came up with some…interesting color combinations.

Mind you, some of them were great. I wish I’d bought another couple skeins of Tap, for example, because that was a wonderful color combo — blue, purple, green, and yellow, well-coordinated. And a lot of them look better on the sock than in the skein; I wasn’t very happy with Rumba on the skein, but when I knitted it up, I liked it much better.

Square Dance, however, is still ugly. If anything, it looks worse on the sock than on the skein.

The dark green is the problem color, I think. The dark blue, light turquoise, yellow, and orangey brown are fine colors and play well together. But the green is just the wrong shade; it looks like a dye error rather than a part of the pattern. If it were a bit brighter, perhaps it’d work better. As it is, I keep looking at these socks and thinking “bleah!”

Why am I still knitting them? Compulsion. Actually, I find them endearingly ugly rather than repulsively ugly. And I’m using them as a pair to try a couple experiments on; if it looks hideous, that’s okay because they already looked hideous.

Other craft progress:

  • Pink oven mitt: Done! I’ve actually used it a couple times; I think it worked better when it was still a little damp, but it seems functional enough for now.
  • Irina tank: I’ve paused to knit the neck and armholes before I finish the bottom; I figure, that way I can just knit until I run out of yarn.
  • Aran sweater: Both sleeves are now ripped and restarted.
  • Linen towel: Finished the starting rows of seed stitch and am now knitting the lace pattern. We’ll see how it turns out.

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