Knitting: Project Overload

If you look at the column on the right of this entry (assuming you're reading at the actual blog site, not off my Facebook tie-in) you'll see a list of my current knitting projects and their current progress bars.  Yeah, I kinda went nuts.  I think the New Year's resolution is officially blown.

Part of the list, though, is the reason I made the resolution in the first place.  Unfinished objects, or UFOs in knitter's parlance.  I've started picking them back up, trying to get them finished off and usable... like the Moderne Log Cabin blanket.  It's the difference between one more bag of yarn taking up space, and another afghan... taking up space.

Got some new books this week.  My daughter gave the Socks a la Carte 2 an "awesome!" and "coolest book ever".  The little mix-and-match flippy section in the back is what did it.  Personally I would have been more impressed with the flippy section if the instructions were actually ON those pages, instead of just as a visualization aid, but it is somewhat handy the way it is.

I also got a book on knitting with the Brioche stitch... I actually have a UFO using the Knit one below method that I was trying to design on the fly, but the increases and decreases were making me crazy.  I was hoping the Brioche book would help me in that regard, and it does look like it will fit the bill provided I get five minutes of peace to actually concentrate.  It's been a gonzo-nuts kind of week, and next week won't be much better.

Monkey-pants has a school-related thing next week.  Yep.  It's insane how early in the year school stuff starts these days.  She has some kind of "back-to-band" assessment week.  Has she touched her flute at all this summer?  Heck no.  I'm thinking there will be tears, complaints, and "I hate band!" comments flying around.  I'll let her quit, if she wants... she stuck it out for a year... but when she *was* concentrating on it, she loved it.  That's my only concern. She's easily distracted, and being in the school band does take a minimum amount of commitment, especially if there are events out of town that you need to attend, such as playing at away games or parade-type events.  But it needs to be a continual commitment, not an "okay this month I feel like it" commitment.  I'm not sure if making her do it will teach her about committing to something, or just make her resentful.  Guh, now I feel like I need childhood development courses.

If you don't hear from me for a few days, assume I'm running around like a chicken, etc.

Gaming: Sometimes, gear is everything...

So last week we had a brief power outage... one of those just-long-enough-to-say-hey flickers before it comes back on again.  We had a casualty though... my Zboard keyboard.  It was a couple years old anyway, and I didn't like the way the drivers were set up... who ever heard of a USB keyboard that you HAVE to plug into the exact same USB port as when you installed the drivers or the system doesn't recognize it?  Plus, the games I really wanted keysets for, they never had them.

So despite the fact that I'm saving up my allowance for... something to be determined (either a four-shaft loom, a new HDMI capable receiver, or a house, lol) I bit the bullet and ordered a new keyboard.  I got the Logitech G15, a gamer's keyboard if ever there was one.   I *almost* got the fancier model, the Logitech G19, but for more than twice the price, you only get two additional features (color display panel and changeable color LED backlighting for the keys) so I restrained myself.

This is an excellent keyboard.  Not only does it have a three-bank set of programmable macro keys (perfect for MMORPGs) it's quiet and so far very reliable.  The small mono-chrome display is just an added bonus.

The only drawback?  Now my daughter wants one.  Sigh.

Food: Hobbit Breakfast for Dinner

One of our favorite things around here is to have breakfast for dinner.  Eggs, toast, hashbrowns, sausage or bacon... you know, the breakfast staples.  Sometimes waffles or pancakes, but there's always eggs.

Last night we continued this practice with what my daughter likes to call "The Hobbit Breakfast".  We do play LotRO together, so we all know what it means, but for those of you that don't it's the eggs, hashbrowns, and toast, but with nice, plump smoked sausage on the side.  She claims it looks just like the game icon.  They're a bit cartoonish, but I do see the resemblance.

Here's hoping she doesn't ask me to make Lembas bread, because for the life of me I don't think I could find banana leaves or something to wrap them in.

Television: Impatience Prevails

In what I'm sure is going to prove to be a serious mistake, the producers/writers of "The Gates" have decided to reveal the presence of one of the supernatural "factions" to the new chief of police.  I'm sure it's intended as a bonding moment between the two, but in fact I think they're moving down this road prematurely.  Am I the only one who remembers what a disaster it was for the show dynamic on "Roswell" when they revealed the alien presence to the sheriff?  And that was after a whole season.  I have the same feeling I had when I observed that  the first season of  "Moonlight" appeared to be the first five seasons of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" on fast-forward... like the writers are so anxious to explore the un-explored territories of the shows before them that they speed their way through major events to get to the "new" stuff. 

Nothing feels *earned*.

In the words of the music group "Survivor"... when there's magic in the music, it's the singer, not the song.  Same goes for television.  Just because the issues of vampirism, or being something alien stuck among normal humans, have been explored before, that doesn't mean you need to gloss over them to get your characters in the same context as other shows so you can explore new areas.  There are still stories to be told, you just have to have the confidence in your writing and in your acting team to create a new, fresh look at the old material.  Otherwise you're going to hit season 3 and discover that you've sped your way into the new territory, but now there's nowhere further to explore.

(I was going to insert some kind of MMORPG gaming metaphor in there, but... nah.)

In short, learn patience.  You have a great story idea for a vampire who's struggling with retaining his humanity, but has killed before, and needs an ally on the police force?  Save it for season two and get the character there more slowly.  Otherwise, you may not GET a season 2, because the audience has checked out.

Miscellaneous: Blu-Ray upgrades, healthy snacking, and the road to creativity

Amazon is having a sale on blu-ray releases of (to my daughter's generation) classic 80's films... $30 for the entire Terminator trilogy on blu-ray?  Pretty damn awesome.  No, I don't count the fourth one.  CGI Arnold doesn't cut it for me.

Planter's has this new snack line (well, maybe it's old, maybe it's new... I just noticed it and that's what counts) called NUT-rition, with snack mixes planned for various healthy options like heart health, energy, and a South Beach diet mix, which if you ask me sounds like it would have a limited customer base.  Adding dried fruits and nuts to your diet, provided they're not coated in tons of salt and artificial oils, is a good idea no matter how you slice it, and has to be better for you than living on home made sugar cookies.  Let's just say I made serious inroads on my last batch, all by my lonesome.  I really have to stop making them.

Do you know any creative geniuses?  I'm not talking about your aunt Joan, who knows how to turn a napkin into a swan, or create cute decorative items out of Popsicle sticks.  I'm talking artists, musicians, writers whose work inspires you.  I don't know any personally, but I've always wondered about some of the artists who inspire me... what are they like in their studios?  Is everything neatly organized?  Or do they thrive on a chaotic environment?  Sometimes I find that during the process of organizing my own chaos in my home, I have time to think about projects... get solutions to things that I'm stuck on.  Other times  I'm wishing the cleaning was over with so I could GET TO IT ALREADY.  I want to go, go, go.  It seems to be a balancing act, and I suppose it depends on whether I'm already full of inspiration, or am waiting on my muse.

Which are you... order or chaos?  Or a mixture of both?

Knitting: Stuff has looked better

Gave up on the Ms. Green I started and frogged it.  Apparently my gauge was way off, and I didn't feel like making a skort, thanks.

I've finished the back of my Tempest and started on the left front.  I've also given up on reading the chart for the KP Snowflake socks, and instead have decided to just carry the viney cables up the two sides, leaving the middle plain stockinette instead of that gawd-awful "snowflake" pattern.  Sorry, but when the horizontal bars of this supposed snowflake recede past the reverse-stockinette of the background, while the vertical bars of the snowflake pop out in front of the background, it no longer looks like a snowflake.  That, and there's some kind of writing error with the cluster stitches that was throwing off my stitch counts.  It looked like crap.

The multitude of $1 skeins of sport weight wool I ordered from Knit Pick's "oops, the factory screwed up" sale have arrived.  While I agree with them that they are more over-twisted than their sportweight usually is, it doesn't look that bad.  Of course, it has not been knitted into a swatch and washed yet... all kinds of weird and unusual things could happen then.

I ordered WAY MORE than I should have, but I do have plenty to make my daughter a felted cloak she requested "just like the one in Lord of the Rings Online".  I think she wants to sneak around the house with her hood up, pretending she's her burglar character.  Oy.  Personally I've always thought about making myself one, with a more generous cut to it, so that I can wear it down to wait with her for the bus.  It's like a blanket that doesn't fall off, yes?  Why not?  It's not like I'm a fashionista anyway, not with the crazy hand-knit socks I wear.  So I'll make a smaller version for her and see how it goes.  It's going to be a long-ass series of projects, so I want to clear the decks before I start them.  If only I could get a definitive answer as to how much shrinkage to expect, but there are too many variables.  I'm going to have to (gasp!) knit a swatch, felt it, and do some math.

Yes, gramma, I did need math for real life.  You win.  :D

Gaming: What, there are other games?

Still kicking it up in LotRO.  Monkey Pants has discovered... Role Play.  Apparently she has joined a band on the Landroval server, and last night at an event I watched her play an original composition.  I don't know whether to be proud or afraid.... very afraid.

I think I'm going with a little of both.

If you listened to my advice and got Dragon Age: Origins on Steam, yesterday they released a humongous patch fixing various minor items, and apparently paving the way for some new downloadable content coming soon.  There are also rumors of a DA:O 2 in the works.  I've not heard if any major roles are going to be reprised by the same amazing voice talent (Claudia Black, Tim Russ, and Kate Mulgrew, to name a few) but even if I'm not currently playing the game that doesn't mean I can't fall back under its spell any time soon.

I've had a copy of Dead Space for months now, waiting next to the Xbox 360.  Have I played it?  Heck no.  With as much yarn as I own, I feel like I'm being a lazy slug if I sit down in front of the TV without knitting something.  Same story with Gears of War 2, with the added slowdown of wanting to play through in buddy mode with the hubster.  We did that with the first one and it was a blast.  I might even let him play Fenix this time if I can get him to sit down for five minutes.