Big Nebraska Sky
I’m not really one of those people that gets inspired by nature very often. Nature and I are typically only notice each other when its either very cold, very rainy or very nice outside. Lately, its been nice, but I’m still not one of those people who gets all swoony about different colors that appear outside.
That changed, just a little bit. I spin from a chair in my living room, and, unless its super yukky outside, I typically see something like this:
Nebraska Blue Sky
In February, after a horrible time with a sweater that will not be named, I decided to get around to using my Christmas present, and started handcarding and spinning some white merino with some white/brown angora. Spun that up and started knitting it into a shawl, the whole time, looking at that sky. I remembered some light blue roving I had stuck in a bag in the closet, so I pulled it out.
Handcarded Blue & White
I spun it up, getting these neat variations in color – some parts would be deep blue, others light blue, and others mostly white. While I was working I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it – I wanted to use it to band the shawl with a running pattern….what running pattern I didn’t know, but I saw waves.
Nifty singles.
I plied three bobbins together and started adding it to the shawl, and realized that old trusty – feather and fan. This is the result:
Finished Shawl
I feel really proud of myself – a few hats and socks aside, this is the first project I’ve done that I’ve ever:
- Had inspiration from something I see every day,
- Spun intentionally to get a specific look of the yarn, and
- Mixed color, and
- Figured out the increases for a shawl pattern by myself.
It’s not the most complicated thing, nor is it probably the most lovely, but its mine.
Read MoreAn exercise in pastel: Citron
I am not a pastel person, so I’m not sure what I was thinking when I purchase the pink, purple, blue, green and brown roving a Stitches Midwest in 2008. The only rationalization I have is that I was about to be pregnant, with my current son, AJ. Unfortunately, I wasn’t YET pregnant with him, only about 6 weeks away from it, so crazy pregnant lady hormones aren’t really an excuse.
But at some point in our lives, we all have to admit mistakes, and my mistake was that I purchased wool to make yarn that had two colors – hot pink and neon purple – that I last loved in 1982.*
Crafters have something we call stash, and its a thing that guilts us to use it every once in a while**. Faced with with some big purchases I’d made, I felt like I had to spin it to make room. I spun it. The yarn was fine – really nice blend of silk and wool – but the colors made my brain hurt. I gave two balls – the aforementioned hot pink and purple – to a friend to make something for her young nieces with. I kept the non-neon stuff for myself, and I made Citron.
The kind-of smirk I’ve got on my face is just because I am not a pastel person. I don’t “do” pastel. It’s a pretty shawl and Citron is a delight to knit. It’s one of those things that, if you don’t knit, or if you’ve just started, you’d think I was a GEEENIUS for doing it, but its easy and fun. I just don’t like lighty, pinky and purpley colors.
So here’s the deal: You want it? It’s yours. Email me here and if you get me first, you get it.
*I actually had a hot pink and “hot purple” half shirt, that I wore (because it was 1982) without realizing how horrible it was. Basically, I think part of this fiber got me because deep down, I still have an 8 year girl stuck inside me.
**Nerds: It’s like buying five videogames when you know you only have enough time to really play through 2 right now, but you totally plan to play through all five at some point before your system dies.
Read MoreStar Trek: TNG Season 5 Rewatch (The Crying Game)
Star Trek Season 5 made me take a pregnancy test.
Specifically, it was “The Inner Light” that did it. I watched Patrick Stewart kill it in what might be the best episode of Star Trek ever, and I found myself, standing at my desk, crying before it even got to the end.
Who has two thumbs, a flute, and makes Corrie cry? This guy.
While I have been known to cry at genre shos on occasion *, and the fact that I was crying while watching an episode I’d seen multiple times before, in the middle of the day at the stand-up desk in my office AND doing work, made me think something was up.
However, I wasn’t pregnant. Patrick Stewart really had just killed it in what might be one of the best episodes of Star Trek ever.** IT WAS THAT GOOD. Seriously. If you haven’t watched it yet, go do it. NOW.
And the rest of Season 5 was pretty good, despite the introduction of my least favorite TNG character: Ro Laren. I didn’t like Ro Laren when she first appeared on TNG. I had a theory in later years that they added Laren to the cast to appeal to rebellious young people following that rebellious young people grunge/punk music (she wasn’t a punk but she did turn out to be a rebel). However, when I look at the dates, Smells Like Teen Spirit was released in September of 1991, and her first episode was October of 1991 – far too short a time span to have her introduced. I hated her as a teenager and thought she was a snot, but watching as an adult, she’s kind of grown on me. This could be that I now have very different feelings on the Maquis than I did on the first watch, but I’ll talk about that in Season 7.
As per usual, I’ve found I really like the episodes that deal with “issues” – and a lot of those issues are, funnily enough, still relevant:
- I, Borg – Love how this was both a way to make them feel better about sending the Borg back, but also, ultimately a failed plot that backfires on the Enterprise later in the show’s run.
- Unification I & II - YAY Spock!
- The Outcast – I was actually going to stick this in my “dislike list” since it a Riker love story (and I HATE the TND love stories) it was an interesting look at sexual attraction – especially when you think it ran in 1992. It dealt with issues that you’d expect to see now, rather than 20 years ago.
- The First Duty – I rarely like Wesley Crusher episodes (see me not mentioning “The Game”) but I found myself liking this one. There’s a trend – starting in Season 5 and moving through DS9 – of showing the not-so-great underbelly of Starfleet. Really like that this shows that not all academy undergrads spend time working being perfectly perfect and making friends with teachers/groundskeepers.
In terms of episodes I’d care to leave behind: The Game (lax security, that one!), Power Play (Troi had crazy eyes the entire time) and Time’s Arrow (Samuel Clemens? Ugh. Just another excuse to get the crew into fancy dress – without them going on the holodeck).
* I will cry at anything remotely “end of the road-y”: Buffy dies, the Buffy finale, the Angel finale, the Stargate finale, the finale of Ab Fab, when Hurley became Jacob, and at the 10 hundred endings of Battlestar Galactica. Give me a swelling soundtrack and tell me I might not see the characters again, and I’m putty in the hands of showrunners. However, the above episode is not really one of those times.
**I say this trumps “City on the Edge of Forever” but that’s just me.
Read More
Alloy of Law Review
I wonder if half the books I like and stick with me do so because I read them at a particularly happy time. I got Brandon Sanderson’s new book, Alloy of Law, the day it came out on Audible, but couldn’t find time to sit down and listen to it until the holiday break. When I think on it, a lot of how I feel about it is mixed in with how I felt about our winter holiday*, and I wonder if that made me predisposed to like it more than I should.
Or it’s my relentless Sanderson cheerleading that makes me like it. I first heard an interview with him on The Dragon Page in 2005 when he was doing the tour for his first book, Elantris. It sounded up my alley, so I got it and loved it. Brandon was part of a quintet of writers who came out roughly around the same time, including Patrick Rothfuss, Scott Lynch and Daniel Abraham, who were incredibly stellar and talented.**When he put out the Mistborn trilogy, I was delighted and when he was then tapped to finish Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, I felt that he was the one person who might do it right. So I love him.
On the surface, Alloy of Law is a hard sell. While the book is set roughly 300 years after the events in the final Mistborn book, its designed to have a low barrier of entry for new readers. The events might color everything in the setting, but if you don’t know anything about the Mistborn trilogy, it should just look like regular genre novel setup. The time period roughly equates with the Wild West, and there are definite Steampunk elements to the whole thing.
I like Steampunk as a look, what with the Victoriana and the gears and the clocks and stuff, but I’ve never been able to get into Steampunk fiction. Put it in a video game or some artwork, and I’m all over it, but books? Not so much. However, I was a little leery of “Mistborn with trains and guns,” which is why I dragged my feet on listening to it.***
However, I really enjoyed it. It was a little more Holmsian than I thought it would be, as this is a mystery book at its heart – similar to how the first Mistborn book had the heist movie at its center. It was a nice change too – no end of the world stuff here, just a mystery, guns, and acrobatics. Without spoilers, I’ll just say that for the most part, I didn’t spend a lot of time worrying that someone I liked would die at the end of the book. There wasn’t a gripping sense of doom that permeates a lot of really good fantasy right now. There’s something to be said for a book that’s just a lot of fun.
If you do go in having read the original trilogy first, its a lot of fun to see how characters you know and love in that trilogy became legends in this story. It was the book equivalent of the “Here’s what happened to _____” you see at the end of movies. I only have two gripes:
1 – I know this is supposed to be a standalone, but the epilogue kind of kills it. Brandon’s dedication to his overarching Cosmere story sometimes makes him include items that extend the story beyond the scope of that one book. That’s fine – in Elantris, Warbreaker, and the first two Mistborn books, it was very subtle and the fact that you needed (or wanted) more information didn’t hit you in the face. In Alloy of Law, it did. The parts at the end could have easily been left out for a sequel, but as they were, they kept the narrative going after the ends had been tied up. Once I got there I got grumpy that I’d invested a bunch of listening hours into a book….and will probably have to wait until my kid is in junior high to get another installment.
2 – This isn’t a book thing, but more an Audible thing, but when you get an audio book, the “encyclopedia” at the end is often left off. The Wheel of Time books never have the “encyclopedia” at the end, and Alloy is missing the “Ars Arcanum” at the end. As a genre fan, this is the kind of stuff I love, so I hate missing it, and is usually why I get both an audio copy and a regular copy.
Despite this, Alloy made me happy. It’s actually gone on a list of books that I plan to listen to again, which doesn’t happy very often. If you’ve read Mistborn, and weren’t sure of Alloy, I say get it. If you haven’t read Mistborn, but you like what I tend to like, just go ahead and read them already and then read Alloy. If you read Alloy first, you’ll be fine, but you’ll miss out on half the fun.
*Which was fabulous, but came to an end, which was rotten. You’ll see how that applies by reading on.
**One of the most promising, Scott Lynch, appears to have burned out but Rothfuss and Abraham are going strongly, if not as prolifically, as Sanderson.
***However, I can’t wait for “Mistborn in space” which is the third of three planned trilogies.
Read MoreChristmas Time
We took the Christmas trees down today. The only thing left up is a string of lights over the living room window, which I plan on keeping up for as long as I can. There is something about twinkly lights that make early winter nights a little bit shinier.
Our Christmas Tree, before it got bombarded with presents
Every year, I get a little bit down right around the end of the holiday season – I’ve done it ever since I was a little kid. Growing up, my mom had this amazing ability to make the holidays special. From putting up decorations, getting little gifts on St. Nicolas Day on the 5th, right up through January 1st, there was always something that she did that made it seem like a magical season. She instilled in me such a love of the holiday season that I would wish Christmas would come at odd times of the year, and saw me missing it when it was finally over.
Playing with Toys
The best part about having kids (around the holidays, anyway) is that I no longer feel odd for anticipating the holidays. As an adult, you’re supposed to look forward to holiday bonuses, work parties, New Year’s Eve and the occasional present. I remember feeling like a total doofus for making cookies for my friends or designing my own wrapping paper for presents. With a kid, however, you can take part in the full holiday experience without looking like a total weirdo. This year we did everything – from the advent calendar to saying thank you to the Christmas trees when we took them outside. It was a fabulous holiday, and I can’t wait to do it again this year.
At our house Santa gets a beer, cookies and chocolate.
What do you want to share with your kid?
Back when we had the littlest member of the family, my husband and I had long discussions regarding what we wanted to share with him, book, television and movie wise. Or rather, I spent hours telling him what I wanted to share with Baby Whateveritwas and he nodded and smiled as if I wasn’t crazy.*
My husband is somewhat of a music geek – and he likes sports. I fall along the lines of a classical geek, what with the Star Trek and the sci fi & fantasy books. It actually worked out nicely, because when I actually shut up long enough for him to share what was important to introduce to Baby Whateveritwas, he had covered sports and music, while I had pretty much covered genre television, classic genre television, movies and books. We both pretty much agreed on the Star Wars**tactics, and the only time we differ is when we want to share our nuggets of goodness.
I have fond memories watching the original Star Trek at about 3 and 4 with my parents when it was in syndication, so I say, unless its scarey, let’s introduce it to him as soon as possible. Mr. Linus Hates Me felt that was a little young, but I showed the littlest member of our household a few episodes of TNG and he loves it and calls it “Rocketship.”
So I thought I’d share my list with you – not all four hundred items, because that’s tedious – but a few. My top ten as it were:
1. Star Trek (Original, TNG, TAS*** and the movies)
2. Star Wars (see **)
3. The Hobbit. If he wants to move on to LOTR when he’s older, he can be my guest. However, as he’s young, I’m limiting it to the original.
4. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Gene Wilder version). I also enjoyed the books, so he is welcome to them.
5. The Little Princes (book) – yes, I KNOW he is a boy, but I loved this book with a passion as a child, so he’s going to get it read to him no matter what.
6. Connections, by James Burke. I have fond, fond memories of how much this show made me want to learn more about science history, or science and history.
7. The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe (books & cartoon) and maybe, while we’re at it, the Magician’s Nephew.
8. The Muppet Christmas Carol – Not from when I was a kid, but I really don’t care.
9. Nightmare before Christmas (Despite an ongoing discussion with Mr. LHM regarding whether or not it is a “Christmas” or “Halloween” book)****
10. The Borrowers (Probably one of my favorite kids series EVER)
I have a lot of other things I want to share when he gets older, but these are the (slightly) age appropriate stuffs. What about you?
*I was CRAZY. I made a friend of ours CRY. A grown man. Cry. Me. It was scarey.
**Original Trilogy only. If asked about the prequels, pretend to be deaf.
***I have REALLY fond memories of the Animated Series, so shut it.
****Halloween
Read MoreMy name is: A defense of the handle
Mrr. Sephy. Leia. Diva. Lowshot. Massimo. Miser. Carlac. Preacher. Krager. Aliengirl. Nailess. Redhead. Fresh. TheNewStatesmen.
These are just a few names of people who I know – some I met back in the 90s, some just recently. All, however, are people who I met first with their online handle and only secondly (for some) with their real name. I dated one of them. Another knows more about me than my therapist. Another? I used to call my fake little brother. I interacted with them daily. I went to their weddings. I might have signed their card with my handle.
When Google announced that Google Plus would support pseudonyms, someone on my professional Twitter account commented that they “Can see why some people would need it, but didn’t know how I feel interacting with a pseudonym/fake person.”
This seems to be a popular sentiment for some - for people who seem giddily happy to connect with real friends on Facebook and “network” with people via LinkedIn or Twitter. One would think that I feel the same way, as online marketing is my profession and social media my current milieu.
Except I don’t.
Oh, I have a Facebook page*, and I even have a Twitter account and a Google Plus account that I use primarily for work-related items with my real name on it. I use my real nickname on this very blog** and several (most) people who read this blog are people who know my real FULL name in real life, and who I ported over from my work Twitter account because I thought they’d be interested in the knitting, or the sci fi, or some amalgamation of both***, rather than the work stuff I post on my regular Twitter account. I’m fine with that.
However, I don’t think that everything one does online needs to be shared with everyone else you know, or attached to your real name. A lot of this has to do with Facebook, wanting to collate everything you to online and attach it to your profile. To that, I say “Hell to the No.”
The argument that seems to appeal most to people who want you to stick your name on everything you do online is that some people – those who have suffered domestic abuse, authors who write under a pseudonym or political activists – may sometimes need to “hide” behind a different name.
I think everyone deserves to use whatever name they chose online, otherwise you take away the spirit of what made the internet awesome in the first place. Having the freedom to call yourself Drackmore the Magnificent and roleplay in Twilight fanfiction forums when you’re a 45 year old lawyer is awesome. Wanting to learn more about a different subculture and ask questions about it without your friends and family eventually learning you wanted to learn about Live Action Roleplaying and then having to explain to your mother over Thanksgiving dinner its NOT the dirty kind of role playing? Totally fine. Wanting support when you’re going through a tough time and not let everyone get up in your business? Acceptable, my friend!
I don’t merge this stuff with my work stuff because I want to hide. I don’t do it because I don’t want people to know what I really think. I decided to keep Linus Hates Me and my LHM twitter account, and have decided to not post about it on my Facebook, work Twitter or Google Plus accounts because I have clients, people I used to work with and people I currently work with (i.e., PR type people) who follow me via Twitter, Facebook and on my work website. They don’t connect with me to hear about yarn and my problems with how Star Trek presents relationships. I deserve to separate my personal interests form my professional ones, and write about stuff that interests me without worrying whether or not I’m boring or offending someone (though how someone could be offended by my love of yarn, I just don’t know) and they deserve to not be presented with stuff that they didn’t originally sign up for.
When I started writing Linus Hates Me, I wrote the following:
I don’t enjoy the internet like I used to. Back when I did (approximately 1993 – 2006) I:
…connected with other people
…learned
…contributed
I felt participatory. And now, well, I don’t feel that way at all.
I realize now that part of that lack of enjoyment comes from everything going out under my work name. My professional name. The name my mother can Google. The name your mother can Google. A lot of the whole “real name” thing being pushed by Facebook and other social networks (LinkedIn, etc) isn’t being driven because they want everyone to open about everything they think and do – its being driven by advertising.
If you want to learn more about choosing your own name, and why it can be a good thing, visit My Name is Me and read up one what some (far more eloquent) people have to say about utilizing pseudonyms and why its important on the internet.
*I wouldn’t, if I didn’t have to do work on there and if my various aunts/uncles/cousins didn’t all post pictures there.
**I am actually considering changing that, so if you see a pseudonym instead of “Corrie” at some point, don’t grasp your pearls in shock.
***There’s really just one person who likes both, and I’m ok with that. You know who you are.
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