August 27th, 2008 Abe
This comic made me laugh for a solid ten minutes.
Check out Eunika’s new sword. Pretty cool looking huh?
Over the wekend I got in a group that killed a bunch of 50s and 60s range Epic bosses. Here’s a shot of us getting Rahotep for a heritage quest.
And here’s a shot of a dragon that we killed in some KoS zone who’s name I can’t remember.
You can see Dennika getting prepared for the pull there in the chat log.
I also made a bunch of bread today. A normal white loaf, a white loaf with kosher salt on the outside and a special creation.
It’s normal bread with sliced apple, cut up dried apricots and stilton cheese mixed in. I baked it in the tray we usually make peach cobbler in and I but a mixture of butter and brown sugar on top. It’s delicious.
Abe
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July 24th, 2008 angela
…would be 111 today if she is still around somewhere…hiding, laying in wait. Lovely.
Anyways, the Sims 2. I love it. I hadn’t played in so long because I couldn’t knit and do it. I was always having to come to someone’s rescue. Now that my brain won’t knit any more (which isn’t entirely true), I have more time to play the Sims and I love it, love it, love it!!! I started with a new family and they are doing very well. One of the daughters and the younger son are both doing well in school and the faimly is doing great because they haven’t been burgled (which would be weird since the mother is a criminal herself) and no one has caught the kitchen on fire. I have only had one death due to fire. Well, two, but the Grim Reaper brought one back to life. Not the one I wanted, but who’s counting.
Since my brainin won’t knit, I am going back to basics. I sent Allison the written instructions on how to knit, which is much longer than I thought it would be. I need to get pictures this weekend to send to her if Abe is feeling better. I can’t really get the pictures without help. And I carry a little crochet project with me that is so simple I could almost do it in my sleep except I suck at crochet so I have to look at every stitch. I also started a little headband using Cascade Fixations yarn. I did not like the yarn in the ball (which was covered in plastic), but once I got it out, I loved it. less then 2% elastic and it is amazingly stretchy. And it knits up beautifully. It is a loverly texture like pebbles. I am doing the granite stitch (so simple and looks nice). I have another ball for a baby hat. I am wondeirng if I can get more than one hat out of that ball because I know I will have a ton left over from this headband. (alice band, not like the 80s.)
Last night I posted the radish knitting needles. Those are some of the funniest needles I think I have. Though if I ever get around to slices of pie and clouds on a light blue background, those might take the cake, shall we say. (Those would be pie in the sky….)
Actually, I got so excited just thinking of that alice band (I got the pattern from Wild Fibers during the LYS Tour), that I forgot everything else I was going to say. And I think I thought of something really cool.
Also, I will try to get a pic done. My brain has felt dead and uninspired for a while now, which I think is why I can’t finish a knitting project or draw.
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June 26th, 2008 Abe
So Angela’s a *huge* Harry Potter fan and she is involved in all sorts of Harry Potter themed knitting and crafting groups on line. One of them, does an internet scavenger hunt every once in a while and we hosted the snitch for the last one. It’s on this page. I spent a good 30 minutes making that page and finding cool videos about cake decorating. It was kinda fun.
I’m getting burned out on mmo’s I think. I haven’t played EQ2 since this past weekend. It just hasn’t interested me. When I think about playing, it feels like thinking about going to a second job that I pay for the privelege of working.
I started replaying Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines last night. I made a Brujah. I’m having a blast so far. My character is a melee machine. She just tears through enemies. In the past I played a Malkavian and I focused on ranged weapons and seduction. My brujah is focused on melee, sneaking and breaking-and-entering. The game is really engrossing. I meant to play for just an hour or so last night and ended up playing for over two hours before I even realized it.
Yesterday I discovered how awesome the myspace music pages are. I spent about an hour and a half browsing and listening to peoples music yesterday and I spent about an hour this mornign doing that. There is an amazing variety of music on there.
And here are a few funny cats to brighten your day.
more cat pictures
Abe
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June 20th, 2008 Abe
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.
And here’s some funny animal pictures.
more cat pictures
I was going to take a movie of the dogs to put up but the batteries in the camera are dead so look forward to that for next week!
Abe
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June 17th, 2008 Abe
Yep it’s tuesday. Not a lot happening. I did a bunch of laundry today. And I washed the dishes.
Nisa is returning to her normal self as she starts to feel better. In fact I think she has been feeling crappy for a while because she seems like a different dog in a lot of ways. She’s making different facial expressions and her ears are pointing out at the top rather than straight up. She’s also only peeing like three or four times a day which is TOTALLY awesome. I was getting tired of running up and down the stairs 15 times a day.
Jeez, I probably need to start some kind of exercise now that I’m off the Nisa’s bladder plan.
I don’t have my grades yet but I’m sure that I did very well.
I’ve been playing eq2 lately and I really enjoy it for the most part but it seems like there are fewer people playing it now than I’ve ever seen. Most nights on my server there are only 10-20 people playing that are in the 20-30 level range. I haven’t been able to get a group together for anything at all since I came back two weeks ago. It’s pretty depressing.
I am also getting original EQ for free until august and I started playing that last night. It was amazing how many people were running around in tha game in the lowbie areas let alone how many were talking in chat. I saw more players in 30 minutes in EQ than I’ve seen in the last week in EQ2. That’s just sad.
I’m downloading the 14 day free trial of Dark Age of Camelot because I suspect that I’m just burned out on Norrath. Basically I just need a change of environment. I can’t afford to buy the game if I do like it though. Ah being poor blows.
I was going to say something about Blooms Day but I don’t really have anything. I’ve started to read Ulysses three or four times and I’ve never made it more than about half way through. I really like Joyce’s earlier writing, in Dubliners especially, but Ulysses and Finnegans Wake pretty much just leave me cold.
I much prefer Celine to Joyce. He writes about retards and whores. My kind of guy. Except for the whole Nazi collaboration thing.
Abe
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June 16th, 2008 angela
I think Abe will be better able to write about Bloomsday than me, but I thought I would mention it. It is a day in Dublin, Ireland (June 16th) to celebrate the life of James Joyce and in particular Ulysses. The events of Ulysses (which takes place all in one day) are relived. Sounds like a grand time. Maybe someday we will be able to be in Dublin on the 16th of June.
Anyways, this was a great weekend. Saturday was World Wide Knit in Public Day, so we went out to Greenlake where the Seattle Knitter’s Guild was holding a gathering. It was fun. Abe and I went and passed out some business cards. Though I was an idiot and only brought a single pair of needles. Doh. We ate egg salad sandwiches and basked in the sun. I knit and listened to the knitters and Abe read. I am not sure what he was reading. It was a great day for it. The sun would come out for just long enough that I was getting too hot and then it would go behind a cloud where it would remain until I had to put my coat on. They are holding a men’s knitting fashion show in November, so I hope to join the guild and have Abe wear something I knit. And maybeIsaac can come down for it and wear something he knit for himself! He started a free-form scarf with some yarn I gave him already. Anyways, then we went home and played EQ2 for the rest of the night. I played my Kerra Monk, Enile Katsu. We played until 1:30 in the morning! Easily distracted from our goal of going to sleep. I got her her first 10 levels of crafting. She will be making cloth and leather armor.
Then on Sunday, I went out with my friend Rijl and her family. I have known her family forever (literally since I was born) so I didn’t feel like I was butting in and I don’t think they felt that way either. We met at the Fremont Market. Very cute! I got this great felted thing for my hair since I can’t dye my hair blue while I work at EDEN. The lady who makes them is really nice, though I didn’t get her name or a card becauseI am dumb. I should have brought my camera, but oh well. I am going to knit a little lace bun cover to put over my short pony tail with the felted thing around it to hold it on. I also talked to Margaret Theirry who is a dyer, knitter, weaver. She dyes beautiful colors. I told her about arachknits and Etsy, so she might be starting there, sometime. She also recommended I go the Urban Craft Fair this December. I think it is a really good idea, so I will try to go armed with plenty of Xmas needles and other needles. Stephanie, Rijl’s mom, got us to get our cards read. I told her about arachknits, so it was all about how I need to go witjthis and jump in with both feet and it will complete my soul. That it will take me on travels, though not necessarily just travels around the world (though it will probably do that). Then we went to the Cold Stone Creamery for ice cream, which was good, but their small is larger than any of us wanted, though all of us finished. From there, we walked up to the troll under the bridge, since we had Tiernan, Rijl’sson, with us. Tiernan was pretty cute running around it, getting scared when he got up too high.
Then we went to the Olympic Structures Park downtown, which though nice, didn’t have as much stuff was I was expecting. My favorite was the silver tree. Stephanie and Harley, Rijl’s dad, laughed that we didn’t know what a typewriter eraser looked like. At least we know what a typewriter is, though! (There is a structure that is a giant typewriter eraser.) From there, we walked all the way over to Pike Place to go to the Steelhead Diner and they closed at 3 and we got there at 3:04. Bummer. So we walked all the way back (I was wearing ballet flats, so this was getting pretty hard on my feet at this point) and went to The Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. Not bad price and huge servings. I at maybe a quarter of my lasagna and Abe ate the rest. They put about a gallon of dressing on my salad and they don’t have ranch. He suggested some pesto garbage instead. (I hate pesto. I think it is the pine nuts.) Then they drove me home. It was a really fun day. But I only put light sun block (SPF 15) on my face and non anywhere else, so my chest and neck got burnt. And a little on the end of my nose. It is funny. It looks like I was standing with one side to the sun all day, but I realized on my drive to work today, with the sun beating on my one side through the window, that it is my passenger side. The side facing out when I drive didn’t get burnt hardly at all. The other side looks like a lobster! Haha. I was also wearing a necklace, so there is a little square where the pendant was that didn’t get burnt. I look ridiculous.
In other news, I am having Isaac over on the weekend of the 4th to watch the Harry Potter movies, so I think I am going to do some cool stuff like make pumpkin pasties and maybe have butter beer. Decorate with owls. Make us wands. Maybe make us some capes to wear. We will need some curtains for the windows so we can see the screen. I am going to make some muggle-proof invitations (not really, just write with milk so he can iron it and it will show up). I think it will be a grand old time.
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June 10th, 2008 Abe
So for the last few days Nisa hasn’t been eating much of her food, she’s been shaking a lot and she’s had to go out for bathroom breaks like every 90 minutes. Yesterday it got so bad that I took her to the vet. After an hour and some pretty expensive tests we really don’t know what’s wrong with her. They took some blood and urine samples and the vet is calling me back today to tell me if there were any bacteria in her urine.
The vet gave her a prescription of pain drugs and antibiotics. So she’s doped up.
He’s worried that she might have diabetes insipidus. But he was careful to warn us that at this point it could be any number of things.
Finals week is this week. I have my theory final tomorrow and my piano final on Friday.
Angela and I played EQ2 together last weekend for the first time in a few months. We had SO much fun. We have very similar play styles and enjoy the same parts of the game so we really have a blast when we play together. We made new characters. I made an Ogre inquisitor named Dennika and she made an Iksar necromancer named Stierska.
I’m doing something different with Dennika. One of my goals is to make as much of her gear myself as I can. Right now she’s a level 21 weaponsmith and is only a level 13 adventurer. I’m also trying to do as many quests as I can and to that end I’ve turned off combat experience so she only gains experience points from turning in quests and discovery of new areas.
I’m really enjoying playing this way. Dennika has some totally awesome gear and has almost as many AA points as she has adventure levels. She looks awesome too Angela gave me the rare ingredient that I used to make the armor pieces.
And her’s a lolcats for you. This one made me laugh out loud.
more cat pictures
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May 13th, 2008 angela
You would think for my birthday, Abe would have written something nice about me. Oh well.
On Saturday we did all the mother visiting. Breakfast at the B and O on Capital Hill with Sindy, Nate, and Molly. Very nice. The place is adorable. Food is pretty good too. My eggs benedict were missing something. Perhaps salt. Molly suggested cumin. But my mocha was amazing. We got Sindy a cd player and speakers and rechargable batteries so she can listen to music. She loves it. I am glad.
Then Nate came over and he played Resistance with Abe for a couple hours. That game is pretty darn fun. The story is good. It is a little hard to learn because there is no tutorial, but you can eventually figure it out. I guess Abe and I should finish our save game of that. (As cool as their game is, their website sucks. Too heavy. Websites, imho, should be light (as in size) so they load nice and fast, get to the content quickly.)
Then we went up to my mom’s for dinner where she had made us delicious Stroganoff. Yummy. I love Stroganoff. We have a nice Fuexganoff recipe (ground beef, fried onions, and mushrooms in cream of mushroom (we use Healthy Request by Campbell) on brown rice). Very yummy also. She used delicious pot roast or something beef that melts in your mouth. I gave her some socks. No pictures yet, but I will have to remind her to send me pics. I designed the pattern. Ripple Rib. They are done. I need to make another pair and see which increate style I like better. Not sure what yarn to use. I might rip back the Lorna’s lace socks (again) and do those because I don’t like the pattern I am doing now (my own sl st pattern). But then we went to the Temple Bar in bellingham, which is nice. The band that played was mostly pretty darn good. I liked a lot of it. They sound a bit like Devotchka, great band.
My mom got me a big beautiful serving bowl. I can’t wait to use it. We want to have Nate and Molly over for dinner, so hopefully we can make something that will use it then. I will get a pic when we find the camera. Abe got me (on Friday) some great sock yarn, the front one in this picture. I am going to make the Jaywalker socks. (Note that the link is to google images because the pattern is only available, as far as I can tell, as a Ravelry download now that Magknits had to shut down.)
Then I took yesterday off work and knit and had a grand old time by myself in the morning. I watched the three original Star Wars (well, the remastered ones). I knit on the Pomatomus socks. I also knit on the One Skein Wonder shrug written by another Fall Fibre Arts Retreat instructor, Stefanie Japel. When Abe got home, he gave me some of my presents (the rest are shared given to me with Nate and Molly, I think), a beautiful skein of light green lace weight yarn (Baruffa Cashwool), a ball winder, and an almost full punch card at my favorite LYS (local yarn shop). He is not very subtle (I sat in the car as he went inside to buy the gifts), but he is very sweet. These are great presents. I already wound one ball on the ball winder. Turns out that skein of yarn was smaller than I thought (but I have three more and they were on clearance and are alpaca or angora, I can’t remember). But I have at least 5 more to go and one of those is the 1350 m skein of lace weight. I would give you a link, but I seriously cannot find any good links to it.)
Tonight we are going out for dinner with Abe’s family for my birthday and this weekend, at the end of a long day of getting the car tuned up and visiting no less than 8 yarn shops, we will have dinner with my brother and maybe my friend Rijl. This coming weekend is the Destination: Yarn tour and we are getting a brake inspection, 2 new tires (would be 4 but I already replaced 2 that went flat because of nails), and an oil change. I am so glad that the Kia dealership is now open on Saturdays for this!! And Thursday I have my second oral surgery consultation with a dude in Lynnwood. Then I might be able to get my wisdom teeth out as early as the next Thursday!! Whoa.
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May 2nd, 2008 Abe
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.
Abe
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April 28th, 2008 Abe
I am only rarely able to come up with a snappy title for my posts. “Stuff and things” is something that a guy I worked with at Dick’s used to say to people when they were being vague in their descriptions of something. He’d look at ‘em and be like “Oh and stuff and things?” and his tone of voice was high test liquid dismissal. It was awesome.
Angela asked me to post a link to this for her. I’m not going to explain it to you before you clink on the link though. It’s best experienced first hand as it were.
In the World of Warcraft front (I know you were all dying for an update on this topic) Kobifora is coming along nicely. Thanks to my brother and our awesome guild mates I went from level 62 to level 64 and a half this weekend. I also got my +healing bonus from around 260 to 544 from gear upgrades.
School is going well too. My piano teacher tells me that she can tell that I’ve been practicing and she gives me pointers on how to do things better but hasn’t had to correct me for doing anything wrong yet. I’m really starting to get a feel for the instrument too. It doesn’t feel as alien as it did even three weeks ago.
After we saw I am legend we went to the book store and bought a copy of the book. I just finished it this afternoon on my bus ride to work. And I’ve got to tell you that this book really confused the hell out of me.
We have the promotional version with Will Smith on the cover. I didn’t realize until I got to the end of the entire book that “I am legend” is only one of many short stories in the book. Nowhere on the book do the words “short story” appear yet the book is in fact a collection of them and “I am legend” is merely the first and longest of them. Here on the Amazon listing for the version we own you can see that it isn’t mentioned that the book is a collection of short stories either. Thought I was losing my mind there!
As is usual with these things, the story is better in written form than in movie form. In fact the movie barely resembles the story in the book at all. Sure the general outline is there but nearly all of the details have been changed, most for the sake of “Hollywoodizing” the story. The dog is a minor character in the book that appears for only a few pages. The woman is, well, you should read it for yourself.
No pictures from me. Angela’s the multimedia lady.
Abe
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