Thursday, July 13, 2006

Sabatical

I've decided to put this blog on sleep mode for a while. I have various reasons:
  1. I'm taking a summer math class which is using up the vast majority of my time and is, unfortunately, completely necessary if I wanna transfer in the spring (which I do).
  2. I need to concentrate on finishing up my remaining classes and transferring, and being all studious severely cuts into my time for anything fun or interesting, meaning...
  3. I haven't done much in the way of knittin' or craftin' lately, and I feel it's a waste to post nothing but silly rants and game reviews and other such fillers.
Not sure when this place will be active again, but I hope that when it is, y'all will come back to read my rambles. :)
Take care and have a happy summer!

Friday, May 12, 2006

Arrrr!

Recently discovered that Sid Meier has put out an updated version of his classic Pirates! computer games: Sid Meier's Pirates! Living the Life. So of course it had to be bought.
Now I am addicted to this game. Finals are looming, and all I want to do is sit at this computer and pretend to be a pirate.
I remember playing Pirates! Gold back in the day (although it was my brother's game; I didn't get much play time) and it was grand. This version has been kicked up, graphics-wise, and seems easier to navigate. The music is swashbuckling, and the action is quick and fun.
One of the biggest drawbacks, however, is the repetitive cutscenes. They're almost exactly the same, over and over and over again. Same with the dancing and, sadly, the sword fighting - they get to be a chore pretty quickly.
Another complaint is that it's a bit on the childish side - corny and cartoony. That's okay, but wouldn't it be nice to play a grittier, adult-oriented (don't think dirty) game? The actual life of your pirate is not too realistic in this game - I mean, c'mon, pirates had to deal with guns, swords, cannons, soldiers of angry nations, disease, and bad hygiene. Life may have been swashbuckling but I'd wager it wasn't very pretty. And this game doesn't even show BLOOD.

Bottomline: full of piratey goodness and pretty damn fun at first, but sure to get boring quicker than it should.

Monday, May 08, 2006

Xmas in May

How does this pattern grab ya? The snowman is almost cute, but Santa looks like he's waiting for you to turn your back so he can suck your soul out through your left nostril. Just the thought of this thing lurking in the dark living room would chase away dreams of dancing sugarplums and invoke visions of fire and brimstone.

More creepy cuteness can be found here.

Friday, March 31, 2006

Nothing to post

Meh, I got nothing. But here's some randomness (hopefully entertaining).

Go look at this. Yup, it's a beerbot. How much beer must one swill to earn a beerbot? A lot.

Dare to battle me? Beware, I have two of the best super powers EVER.

Nemo

is a Giant Dragon that has a Swirly Hypnotic Gaze, can Leap Great Distances, and is Wreathed with Flames.

Strength: 7 Agility: 10 Intelligence: 9



To see if your Giant Battle Monster can
defeat Nemo, enter your name and choose an attack:

fights Nemo using


A Stupid Story.

I had an incident a couple months ago when I had to get up (too) early on a Saturday to go to work. I'm not very alert before, say, noon, but as I headed out my bedroom, I heard someone walking on the roof, and saw a big man-sized shadow through my blinds. I figured that my dad was fiddling around with the gutters or something, and left for work.

It took me until an hour after arriving at work to realized that dad had been asleep in his bed when I left the house.

This meant:
a) Someone had been on the roof. Right outside my window.

or,
b) I had finally lost my mind completely and irrevocably.


We never found any evidence that any creepo had actually been on the roof, so instead of ringing the loony bin, we all chose to pretend it never happened.
Until about two weeks later.
I was woken up around dawn by loud person-walking-on-the-roof noises and of course thought, "oh crap, the imaginary rooftop pervert is back!" This time, however, my blinds were partially open, and I was able to see more than his big creepy shadow.
It was a squirrel. A fucking squirrel. Not even perverted peeking toms are interested in harassing me. I get small wildlife.
I now know that the sound of a fat ugly squirrel clawing his way up my window screen for no apparent reason is the same sound as a full-grown man walking around on roof shingles. I kid you not. SAME SOUND.
And my furry little tormentor didn't stop there. He kept coming back, diabolically timing his harassments for moments when I was asleep, changing clothes, or otherwise completely unprepared for a counterattack.
But yesterday, I had my revenge.
I was studying in my room, with the window open, when I detected the noises of my enemy sneaking up to my window for another surprise attack. Now, if my cat were still living, I would have simply let her out on the roof, and she would have eaten him. I had to settle for lying in wait until he started his climb, then suddenly leaping at him, scratching the screen and barking, scaring the little shit so bad he fell off the screen and scuttled away in such a panic he probably left a trail of urine behind him. He hasn't come back to visit since.
I told you it was a stupid story.

Friday, February 24, 2006

I'm an Olympian, albeit a lazy one.

Okay, Baby Kady, your fetching new outfit is done and ready to ship. See? It's going in the box.



Alright, so it's nothing impressive. But it comes with a matching hat.



Please overlook the questionable quality of the crochet borders. Auntie did the best she could, but she's not a very good hooker yet (give her a few drinks first). She's just relieved she made the Knitting Olympics deadline, meaning she's not an utter failure, just bad at time management.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Happy flippin' Valentine's Day.

Or, as Kristen calls it, Single Awareness Day.
I'm broke, so no gifts this year, but I still wanted in on the festivities. Hence, this little guy:



I got the idea from the Bad Juju Knit Along. I wanted to participate in that, but couldn't justify spending the time on something so useless (but so cute). Then, ding-dong! Pincushion, moron. And a project to practice da sewing skillz. Consider him a Valentine's gift to you all.
Isn't he oh-so-cute and happy? He also comes with great accessories: Love Hurts Needles and Goodbye Cruel World Noose.



I'm naming him Buddy, because he is so helpful with my sewing projects.
There has been a bit of Knitting Olympics progress around here. Along with the sleeves, finished the back of the baby sweater:


I do admit to feeling like a cop-out in this event. It's only a baby outfit; fer cryin' out loud, it's in garter stitch. But I'm still having issues fitting it in my schedule. Oh well; it's not a creative challenge, but at least I will finish by the deadline.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

FINALLY!

One weekend, I said "enough is enough, it's time to finish this thing!" And I did. And it's done. It's DONE! This is the Furuba bag that was originally conceived as the "Punk Rock Backpack" in Stitch 'n' Bitch. Long ago, I knit all the separate pieces and was just beginning to join them together before I remembered that I really don't like backpack purses. 'So I'll turn it into a shoulder bag,' I thought, 'easy!' And it would have been, if I hadn't kept changing the dumb design. I probably redesigned it four or five times, and the poor thing has spent the vast majority of nearly two years as an "on hold" project, because I kept getting angry and throwing it in the corner. But I sure learned a whole lot from this project: intarsia, duplicate stitch, picking up stitches, backstitch, buttonholes, and extending. I also relearned how to make and sew in a fabric liner. Whew. The picture doesn't show it, but the bag closes with a flap in the back that buttons. If I could do it again, I think I'd have it close in front for convenience's sake.


You can see that it's pretty floppy, but since the yarn is just cheap acrylic, it doesn't block very well. Whatever. I'm just happy that it's finally done and I can use it.
I keep thinking, though: how old is too old to wear this type of stuff? When we're young, we can get away with almost anything, but at a certain point it just starts to look ridiculous. Someone please tell me when I reach that point.

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Killed by...

Zetta sent me this one. Get some cheap thrills by googling "[your name] was killed by", and seeing what wacky (or depressing) stuff pops up. My favorites:
1) Lainey was killed in the siege of school no. 1.
Sounds exciting.
2) Lainey was killed in a car accident involving an eighteen wheeler.
Gee, I wonder whose car was more damaged?
3) Lainey was killed by another of Liams' hired assassins in order to get to Henry.
Damn you, Henry!
4) Lainey was killed by NutraSweet.
That's just pathetic.
5) The baby survived, but Lainey was killed by the intense cold her baby produced. Even the delivery doctor had frostbite on his fingers after the delivery.
One more reason not to have children.

Friday, January 06, 2006

whoa.

Wow, I just remembered that I have a blog, and it's been about three months since I updated it.
Don't worry, readers, you haven't missed much.
It was school, school, work, and school for awhile there, and I had no energy for anything else. I'm on winter break now, and catching up on my zzzz's and the rest of my life. Right now I'm busy with new year's cleaning (out with the old dust bunnies and junk mail, in with the new).
I vaguely remember having some resolutions last year, so let's see how well I kept 'em:
1) Learn to crochet.
I made it under the wire for this one. I figured out how to do a crochet border on a knitted piece a day or two before the deadline.
2) Finish all abandoned knitting projects (I have at least 5 going right now).
I think I'm down to two abandoned ones, and one I'm starting up again soon.
3) Drink more water, and cut back further on soda.
Done and done. I'm down to about one soda a month.
4) Start experimenting with dying yarn at home.
er, forgot about this one.
5) Work on my sewing skills (they're really pathetic as of now, so this one won't be too difficult).
I took a crappy summer class, which I dropped out of, but at least I leaned how to operate the dang machine. I'm continuing my education by experience.
6) Eat more fruits and veggies (obligatory health-related resolution).
Failure.
7) Acquire permanent job.
Sweet success. The cherry on top is being named employee of the quarter. Woot!

Results? 4 1/2 victories and 2 1/2 sunk ships. Yes!!! 2005 was not a total failure!!!!
To cap off the year, I became an 'auntie.' Baby Kady made it safely into the world almost a month ago. Big congrats and kisses to Daddy Steve and Momma Linds! Only eighteen more years to go, guys! And Auntie has picked up the needles again to make lots of cute baby-type garments, so expect knitting updates fairly soon.
Farewell, 2005.
2006, we hope you'll be good to us.