This weekend was fun. We switched the computer room and the bedroom and it is awesome. I can fit all of my shoes in the bedroom closet now because it is not full of our dressers. It is a little cramped, but I like it that way. We need to move the Xmas lights from the bedroom ceiling to the computer room ceiling. And put a cloth or something on the bedroom ceiling because it is so echoy in there. Though now I have to keep my bathroom clean whereas before no one even knew it was there because it was in the bedroom. We moved my computer desk without taking anything off of it and I gave myself a big nasty bruise. Abe has his desk in front of the window, but that is fine because the sun only shines in there first thing in the morning. And there is a great tree with red leaves out there right now. I think the dogs even like it better. Their kennels are side by side and they don’t seem to mind. They spend a lot of time in there. And on the bed. We just need to finish cleaning. Though I have probably 85% of my clothes put away finally. Some still needs to be hung up and I ran out of room for t-shirts. Full drawer. So I started filling another drawer after scooting some stuff to the side. I have too many t-shirts. I think those guys (Stacy and Clinton) on What Not to Wear would throw up if they saw how many t-shirts I have. They are very anti-t-shirt. (You know, of all the shows I miss from having cable, that and Monk and Psych are the ones I miss the most.)
After we did that all day on Saturday, I watched the Tick and dyed yarn while Abe was at work. What a trooper.
Then I dyed it and washed it. I just used Tropical Punch Kool Aid.
So I have 8 oz of reddish yarn. Looks great. Here is half the roving dyed and braided.
I have spun up two of the chucks (I dyed it in 2 oz chunks) already spun up.
The second came out thicker than the first. And the last one I think is dyed the darkest red. I will spin it up and see.
Here it is plied (navajo).
I definitely like the stove top method over the microwave method. about 4 times faster. I am going to make a hat out of it that I saw Sheldon wearing on Big Bang Theory (in the episode where he is sick). I loved that hat. I think it is just a moss stitch with thick tassels on each earflap and on the top. I tried to spin a bulky single, but I failed. I think I got a thick enough three ply though.
I also started working on Versatility. Which is awesome. It just needs to be done by November so I can take it to Calgary.
Speaking of. I am having a dickens of a time getting a flight there. I can’t arrive any earlier than 1:17 and they said plan on arriving no later than 1:00 to get to the store on time for the Fun Bus. So either I can email them and see if that is close enough and will they wait if my plane is late or I need to get one it and buy a flight for the night before and get a hotel for a night. Blegh. I also need to get my photo to get a new passport because I can’t find mine. Anywhere. And we looked through all our boxes. I know it is somewhere. It has to be. I should look in my suitcase. I think Australia was the last place I went with my passport. I had a flight that got me there at 11:30 or so and they changed it to 1:17 arrival. I ended up having to get a refund because they wouldn’t let me change my flight to a different day!
Anyways, versatility will be great because I don’t want to pack more than one bag since every airline seems to be charging for every single bag. And this is so Versatile! Ha. I am making it without the bobbles though. It looks great. I am using a darker red than the pictured one. When it is done, I will take it out as a scarf (or in my bag if it is too hot) and get some matching buttons and ribbon. Though I will have to look. I might already have a ribbon that will work. Though I guess having more than one ribbon would make it just that much more versatile.
And last night I just got started on a new pattern for mittens. I think they will be really cute. Little cables and stuff. I am using a light wool yarn - Rowan Felted Tweed - in red. I think that is it on the page - Rage. Speaking of patterns, I put up a really bad PDF of the holey fingerless mitts, whose name has been changed to Gertrude. I got Framemaker 6.0 from work because they weren’t using it anymore. I have no idea how to use it, but it does mean I can make some cool documents for PDFs when I really do figure it out. Right now it is just black and white and some of the images are cut off, but the pattern is there and printable. I am working on the Bacon-Wrapped Ankle pattern. That should be up in a week or so. With a PDF. This flip-top mitten pattern will probably end up for sale on Etsy for about $4.50. So it will need to be test knit. I guess I will ask for test knitters on Ravelry.
And this Friday, Abe and I are going to Emerald Downs for the EDEN summer party. We each get $10 to spend in the place. And they are raffling off gift certificates, a navigation system, and a 8g iTouch. I would like to win any of those. I have never been to horse races though, so I have no idea what to expect.
I also got these socks in the mail for winning best kit for HSKS5. They don’t fit, but I may just take them to the wall. It is a bummer they don’t fit because the yarn is wonderfully soft.
And finally, here is some wonderful green and black yarn that I spun up and have now loast somewhere in the apartment. I have big dreams for this yarn and I need to find it so I can spin the other half of the roving.
This weeks jerk of the week award goes to an eq2 player I had dealings with on wednesday night. We started a group for a dungeon called Stormhold which is a 20s level area. It can be difficult to get a group together in that level range so I was very pleasantly surprised to have 5 people in our group within a few minutes of posting the first notice in 20-29 chat. This is when the drama started.
We have one spot open and the Tool wants us to invite his lvl 55 guardian buddy because “We don’t have a tank.” I explain that one of the people in our group is in fact a Brawler which IS a tank class. The Tool then says “Well we need a REAL tank.” The brawler says “I’m a tank. I can tank SH. I have good gear.” As far as the rest of the group is concerned it’s decided at this point but the Tool persists. “If you aren’t going to invite my friend to tank for us I’m going to leave.” He says. I’m thinking to myself this guys a fucking Tool! He doesn’t want a group he wants his friend to power level him. Some furious whispering happens between me and the people in the group that aren’t the Tool. “It’s pretty hard to get a whole group of level appropriate people together for a dungeon in the 20s. Leave if you want to but I’m happy with a bruiser for a tank.” I say in group chat.
The Tool drops from the group and immediately starts advertising for more people for his new SH group in 20-29 chat. We have a good chuckle about it and start to work our way in to the dungeon.
A few minutes later the Tool sends me a /tell asking me to join his group to heal! I tell him I’m happy with my group and he replies that “You can’t do SH without a plate tank.” I tell him I’d rather fail with a group that’s the right level than waltz through the place with a minor deity tanking for me. At this point he says to me “Fine enjoy dying you stupid bitch.”
I told my group about all this, reported the Tool for being a jerk and put him on ignore. About 20 minutes later we ran in to the Tool and his high level buddy struggling their way through the dungeon with no one to help them. I pointed at him and blew him a kiss
I made an interesting discovery this week. I HATE LCDs for gaming. Yes widescreen resolutions are nice. Yes text is incredibly clear and easy to read. But, if you are playing a FPS a CRT with a decent refresh rate is head and shoulders better than an LCD every day of the week. It’s hard to describe and basically can’t be caught in a movie or I would capture it and show you. Playing Quake 3 or UT 2004 on my CRT is like looking in to a 3d space vs watching a very fast slide show on the LCD.
I’ve rearranged my desk so my LCD is off to the side and my CRT is dead center in front of me. I can’t believe I ever bought in to the whole LCD thing and I’m fearing the day that my CRT dies because I might not be able to find a replacement.
Nisa is really doing well these days. She’s playful and happy in a way I just don’t remember her being in a really long time. Ernies lost about three pounds on his diet in the last few weeks too! I can’t wait for both of our dogs to be happy and healthy again.
Next week is finals week and I’m busy practicing the piano so my post isn’t going to be very long.
I’m struggling to set up my linux box for audio recording and midi work. After trying a bunch of specialized distros that just didn’t work that great I’ve gone back to mandriva because there is a community repository of packages for audio work. I’ll report back here on how that turns out in a few days.
So here’s some more lolcats to make you laugh this friday afternoon.
I was supposed to make a post yesterday but I forgot to do it. So here you go
My friend Phil has lured me back to eq2 to join his guild as they begin to build a raiding group. It’s only two days a week for a few hours and I love playing with Phil and Andi. The only issue is that the guild already has 30 wizards! So I may end up betraying Denaso and changing classes to a warlock.
So far everyone in the guild has been really friendly and welcoming. I’m looking forward to this quite a bit.
Of course I’m still playing wow too. Kobi is lvl 65 now. I’m doing at least one battle ground a day on him. My goal is to have enough honor when he reaches 70 to be able to pimp him out in some nice pvp healing gear.
School is going really well too. The piano is making more and more sense to me and I keep getting excellent scores on tests in my theory class.
This summer I would like to start playing with some other people again. If my tax rebate is enough I’m going to buy a fretted bass, mostly because I still don’t feel that confident about my intonation on the fretless but also because I miss the sound of a fretted bass.
I may be Mr. Computer but I’m actually not a very sophisticated user. Honestly my usage patterns haven’t really changed in the last 7 or 8 years.
Also I post from my cell phone a lot
I was reminded again this week just how much I enjoy http://www.achewood.com If you haven’t read it you really should go check it out and start from the beginning. Roast beef is my favorite character.
So I had my first quiz in music theory yesterday. I knew that I did well in it but I was a bit surprised this morning when I found out that I got every single question on the test correct including the one that the professor took off the test because everyone else got it wrong! Go me.
Then I went to piano class. I’m still struggling with the whole two-hands-doing-different-things routine and the music we’re supposed to be learning has us switching chords and the melody back and forth between both hands! After about twenty minutes of total confusion I discovered that the less I think about the mechanics of moving my fingers the better I am able to play.
I remember times when I was playing bass that I would look down at my hands and it would seem like they were two independent living things that were doing incomprehensible things. It was usually right about that time that I would trip or lose my place in the song.
So I guess the moral of the story is don;t look at your damn hands when you are playing an instrument! And, whatever you do, be sure not to think about what you’re doing while you’re doing it!
The guys in my classes are funny. Most of them do not play instruments. I can’t imagine trying to learn music theory without knowing the concrete aspects of playing an instrument first. But, it’s a brave new world. They all talk enthusiastically about their “beats” and endlesly compare and contrast various software recording, mixing, mastering and sequencing programs. They also all swear by apple products. Which is just funny as hell to me.
On a totally unrelated note, I moved my laptop to the latest release of Mandriva linux. It’s pretty damn sweet. It installed without a hitch, failing only to setup my wireless card. But it was a snap for me to configure the card after the fact. The package management tool is fast and easy to use. The default applications are well thought out and I like the control panel a lot.
Speaking of computers, I’m moving my opteron workstation to windows xp and am going to set it up for audio work. I’ve been struggling with trying to configure linux for this task on the machine but it hasn;t been going well. At this point I need to start actually making music more than I need to figure out the ins and outs of seting up a realtime linux kernel. So, windows xp it is. I’ll continue to do the research though and hopefully during my next break from school I’ll be able to conver the machine back to linux. There certainly is an amazing wealth of gpl software available for making music in linux.
I got a good laugh out of today’s Diesel Sweeties, being a bassist and all. So here it is for you.
Additionally,
I’ve been using the beta of Fedora 9 for the last two weeks on my laptop and it’s damn nice. It looks great, Installed easily and quickly, detected and configured all but my wireless card automagically and hibernate works!
My only real complaints are that flash is totally borked which breaks a lot of websites and multimedia support is similarly completely hosed. No mp3 playback, no mp4 playback, no divx, mpeg, etc without using a third party repository.
On the home server I swapped out Debian for FreeBSD 7. I’ve been a long time fan of FreeBSD but the last few releases just didn’t work on my hardware. Now that my hardware is fully supported I’m happy to be using it again.
FreeBSD seems to be much faster and more responsive on my hardware than Debian was. Network file transfers, especially of large files, are taking quite a bit less time than they previously did. Also I was very pleasantly surprised to find that codecs for all of my media file types were installed and functioning as a normal part of setting up my desktop. In comparison to linux, where it’s often third party unsupported files or no multimedia at all, this was a very nice surprise.
Anyway, I’m happy. I’d post screenshots but I’m fairly sure that no one is really interested.
