Taken June 18, 2007.
Posted on June 27, 2007 in Photography
Posted on June 26, 2007 in Books
Houghton Miffllin publishes annual installments to this series and other ones on genre writing such as mystery, poetry, short stories, science and nature, and others (complete list). The travel writing series began in 2000, and I started reading them a couple years later. I’ve read every single book in this series, and there are always a few gems. Since I do not have the chance to buy and read periodicals and magazines, I find the anthology refreshing. I have read a fair amount of travel writing, and the series always brings out the reasons why I like the stories. There are adventures, food, history, trivia, and most of all, stories and articles about people and characters. In this 2006 edition, I read about a Ukrainian giant, opulent Dubai, Hawaiian water parks and resorts, quiet bourgeois Zurich, and Ian Frazier’s coming of age road trip across America.
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I also finished The Road by Cormac McCarthy yesterday. It’s one of those rare books that I don’t really know how to approach with a review or commentary unless I reread and study it in depth.
Posted on June 24, 2007 in Books
Posted on June 23, 2007 in Books
On my weekly trip to the library yesterday, I saw and bought this bag which goes to the public library foundation. It’s one of those Bring Your Own Bag iniatives that encourage the use of recyclable and reusable bags in place of plastic bags. I’m really glad to have bought it since the money goes directly to the library and up to this point, I’ve been using one of my purses or a plastic bags (namely the ones I have from the LCBO; the government-controlled alcohol chain in Ontario) to carry my books to and fro every week. I often carry a lot of items from the library and normal plastic bags are ineffective any way.
I love my public library; I spent summers there as a child, and I have been going every week for years. I often take out way more than I can handle which is sad and rather addictive. Right now, I’m on a particularly lending streak as I have 36 items separated into four piles in my house. The pile above on the right is all twelve of the books for the Book Awards Challenge, some of them are the library’s, a couple are mine and a couple are a friend’s.
My reading was severely neglected last week because I was reading fanfiction. Sometimes, it comes over me especially now that I’m rereading Harry Potter. Speaking of which, the pile on the left has Books 3 and 4. I’m listening to the audiobook for 3 now, but I’ll mostly read it after I do some knitting and patterns browsing.
Lots of books must be read this week especially since I start summer school next week.
Link: Hot Library Smut – Completely and utterly work safe.
Posted on June 22, 2007 in Misc & Site
Appetizer – Name a funny habit you have.
I like to keep my hands warm and close to my body, so I often have one of my hands resting on my stomach for no reason.
Soup – If you could instantly know how to play a musical instrument, which one would you pick?
The two instruments I have tried and failed: the piano and the violin. Since I have the latter, it gets priority.
Salad – How long is your hair?
Half way down my back.
Main Course – When was the last time you forgave someone, and who was it?
I find that I sometimes need to forgive myself. I have to forgive my parents once in awhile.
Dessert – What is your favorite kitchen appliance?
Don’t make me choose. I guess the fridge and the oven don’t count? I like the microwave. If I had a stand mixer, I would love it very much.
From fridaysfeast.com
Posted on June 21, 2007 in Knitting & Crafting
Wool Hat for Dad, started June 17th, 2007, finished June 20th, 2007
Pattern: New York: A Guy’s Wool Hat
Yarn: Patons Classic Merino Wool in Navy 0026 – less than one skein
Needles: US#6/4.0mm 16″ circulars and DPNs
Cost of Project: $6 for circ + $6 yarn = $12
Pattern Notes and Comments: My father has wanted me to knit him a hat since I started knitting a year ago. This is my third attempt at making a winter hat for him. The first was too big and not really serious effort. The second was a bulky hat from Stitch and Bitch which was way too big for some reason even though I used the recommended needles. Just in case, I swatched for this hat and found my tension was perfect. I knit a lot of this on the road on Monday. It’s very easy since it’s a lot of stockinette and some ribbing. There is nothing difficult about this hat. It’s a great beginner project, and I was attracted to it because I wanted something simple and warm for Dad. This fit him even if he said it could have been tighter (see how persnickety my parents are?). The hat fits me as well because I have a bigger than average female head so one could modify it easily to be tighter or shorter for anyone. All in all, Dad gets his wish as a late Father’s Day present.
Would I knit it again? Yes. It’s simple, quick, stretchy, modifable and looks nice. I would probably use an alpaca mix if I get the chance since I’m not quite convinced this would be warm enough for longer periods of time.
Posted on June 21, 2007 in Books
Since school is out for the summer (in most places, at least), here’s a school-themed question for the week:
1. Do you have any old school books? Did you keep yours from college? Old textbooks from garage sales? Old workbooks from classes gone by?
2. How about your old notes, exams, papers? Do you save them? Or have they long since gone to the great Locker-in-the-sky? – Booking Through Thursday
I am in school so I have a lot of my textbooks around. Also, some of my textbooks from previous years are not sold yet. I also have a lot coursepacks. I have intentionally kept some philosophy books from my first year of university. Other than that, I don’t really want most of my textbooks. I have almost all my old notes from my current program, but I usually throw out old exams and papers or I don’t pick them up. Once I graduate, I dump all the notes though just as I did when I was in high school unless the notes are truly exceptional or interesting. This is rare thing indeed. I also rarely take notes now because I’ve reached that point where some of my classes are rehashes of what I’ve done previously.
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This would have been up much earlier, but my domain was down for a few hours.
Posted on June 20, 2007 in Photography
Posted on June 19, 2007 in Movies
Brilliant. Having liked Shaun of the Dead, I was looking forward to this and had notions that it would be good. Stylistically, I love the writing, humor, and the mix of comedy and drama that Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright showcase in these two movies. Respectively, I find Pegg smart, funny, and everyman attractive on screen presence. I like Wright’s choices in rapid fire editing and almost surreal storytelling. The film is homage with spoofish qualities to action and cop movies. I’ve watched and enjoyed a number of action blockbuster movies myself. Parts of the movie, especially the editing and reminded me of CSI. The cast was fabulous. Having mentioned Pegg, his chemistry with Nick Frost is as good as ever. I always like Bill Nighy, Jim Broadbent, and I adore Timothy Dalton. It’s really great to see him in mainstream films again, especially in a funny action movie. As with all action/cop movies, they are guy and buddy movies, but this film is damn funny that just as with SotD, girls will enjoy it if they get the sense of humor. I am one of these girls, and I also like a gun filled action movie once in awhile. Definitely going to the feel-good rewatch collection.
Posted on June 19, 2007 in Knitting & Crafting
Rose’s Wrist Warmers, started 1 June 2007, finished 17 June 2007
Pattern: Rose’s Wrist Warmers (PDF File) by Christina
Yarn: Wendy Merino DK in Plum #3045 (100% wool) – almost two skeins
Needles: US#4/3.5mm DPNs (Boyle plastic)
Cost of Project: $8 for yarn.
Pattern Notes and Comments: These wrist warmers are from a pattern designed to look like the ones Rose Tyler wears in the season/series two finale of BBC’s Doctor Who. I remember watching the episode and actually liking the look of them. They looked really good on her, and the purple was just a nice colour to complement her black jacket. Afterwards, I stumbled upon the pattern couple months later. It was meant to be. I have this proclivity to knit wrist warmers / fingerless gloves; these are my second pair in less than a year. I like warm hands I guess, and I’m scared of knitting actual gloves. My first pair of mittens sorta sucked, but I did well with Knitty’s fingerless Fetching gloves and these are nice wrist warmers. There is not much of a climate in this part of Canada to wear wrist warmers. It’s either too warm for them or too cold. The diamond pattern is very nice with the moss stitch centres; I also really like that she wrote in a thumb gusset because a lot of patterns for mittens and fingerless gloves seems to forgo on that. It’s oddly appropriate this yarn is from Wendy/Peter Pan because the Doctor/Rose relationship was always reminscient of that. I really look forward to wearing these this autumn. They are already very warm, but then again, it’s high twenties celsius these days. It’s 31C today without the humidex.
Would I knit it again? Unsure. I like the cabling enough, but I had ladder issues due to the cables no matter how hard I tried to avoid them. If I do ever knit these again, I would make them longer, maybe another diamond repeat before the gusset and a couple of rows more after the thumb.
Posted on June 17, 2007 in Knitting & Crafting, Musings
Some blog business first off: I’ve installed a WordPress plugin to allow people to edit comments. In addition to the other comment plugin of subscribing to posts which is useful if you want to know my reply to your comment which happens fairly often. I also have a nifty new archives plugin that is flashy. If anyone wants to contact me, the contact form still exists as do the comments. I also have all the major IM programs, but I have no excuse to really use them anymore. I prefer long or fascinating emails really.
Updates were fewer at the end of the previous week because I was working. I’m working four three days next week plus the following Sunday. This past weekend, I’ve been knitting and listened to the audiobook for Harry Potter book two. I finished the Rose’s Wrist Warmers today too; I’ll blog about that on Tuesday. I also added another item to my knitting project queue this week. I will need a pair of decent pair of mittens this winter. I bought the needles for the Swallowtail Shawl so I’ll start that after the socks. Right now, I am casting on the wool hat for Dad. This would be a late Father’s Day present, but it’s probably going to be an early birthday present since his day is in August. He’s been asking for a winter hat since I started knitting. The first one was a bit of a failure.
The hat will be good knitting for tomorrow because I’ll doing a one day roadtrip with the family tomorrow. Must be up at 5AM, back home before midnight. No posts tomorrow, but I will be back to blogging and reading on Tuesday. Maybe I will have some pretty photos of the highway to put on flickr.