February 29, 2008
~ new york bulge ~
Went to see the New York Dolls last night. Josh had somehow procured a number of tickets for free and a small group of us went for the beer and the ballyhoo. The opening band was We Are The Fury and while they were plenty entertaining and rocking, I was not particularly "into" them, though I did fancy the lead singer's jacket. I had a few rounds of Moose Drool, before the Dolls came out. When I switched to a lighter lager, the residue of the Moose Drool caused a rather interesting taste with the new beer. blech. So, yea. I spent a good majority of the concert wondering about the excessive bulge on the lead singer. When he first made his entrance, I was utterly convinced that he had stuffed his pants and I found myself intellectually curious about such a phenomenon. After all, I couldn't quite believe that he would purposefully induce an erection and then come out on stage in front of hundreds of people. A few songs later, while I was conducting my scientific analysis of the bulge situation, I realized that it had actually gotten smaller. This was, for me, FASCINATING! I was also quite fascinated by how one of the guitarists opted to grab the lead singer's package on at least two occasions. After all, since I am not in possession of the male genitalia at all times during the day, there tends to be a bit of mystery regarding male behavior vis-a-vis their packages. Fascinating. Josh and I have been watching a lot of nature programs that include a discussion about the seemingly bizarre mating rituals of other species, and after last night's prominent display of the bulge, it doesn't seem so strange that a Mongolian Camel would spank himself with his own tail to attract a female.
February 26, 2008
~ my merry way ~
I engaged in a substantial amount of knitting this weekend, finally completing an entire sleeve. Woo-wee! From this experience, I can assertively state that I am a novice sleeve knitter. I wish that I could spend a week experimenting with different types of sleeves to determine my preference. For the sleeve on my Neaty, I had a vision of knitting it in a certain way that I found difficult to reconcile in practice. I engaged in A LOT of research on sleeve construction and was not able to locate a method that corresponded to my vision. And so, I kept trying over, and over, and over. I'm quite please with what I've come up with, even though my shaping is extremely pronounced - - I think it looks good when worn over an actual shoulder. Below is a detail - - please note, I stuffed the shoulder with some socks, which does not accurately represent the shape or fit. More photos are available on my flickr page.
Regarding the yarn, I don't normally go for self-striping yarn, but the Berroco Jasper is simply glorious. The yarn, however, does not maintain a consistent thickness. According to Berroco, this adds a uniqueness to the knitted garment. I, however, feel that it makes some parts in my knitting appear to have mistakes. Am wondering if a good dose of blocking will settle it down. The ribbing, as I've mentioned, is Berroco Ultra Alpaca, and even though I don't excell at matching, I'm pleased at how much the yarns compliment each other.
In other news, I am ready for cycling season! Over the weekend, I brought my road bike over to Josh's place and we did some spinning on his trainers while watching crime shows. It was fun and all, but does nothing to compare to an actual ride. I've been keeping myself up at night fantasizing about all of the mountain biking I'll get to do on my new bike. Josh and I have been discussing possible vacations for this year and many of our discussions have centered around mountain bike-focused trips. I just keep thinking about my favorite road rides, my favorite trails, and all of the possibilities for discovering more biking adventures...it is very exciting!
February 19, 2008
~ gamey flamey ~
Lately, Josh and I have been enjoying the BBC Planet Earth series. I don't really have anything else to say about it, except "wow."
Mental health has been on the upswing due to an increased exposure to natural sunlight during my workday. Also, improved air circulation and presence of other human life form entities has been very nice.
This morning, I had my first dentist appointment since switching to an electric toothbrush. Before informing my dental hygenist that I had made the switch, she exclaimed about how my teeth have never before been so clean. The dentist himself was also impressed with my pearly whites.
I rode my cruiser bike to the dentist. When I got outside, I didn't realize how cold it actually was. I wasn't wearing a hat, and my ears became so cold that they were feeling very painful. Of course, then as I rode up the bit of the hill right before the dentist office, I became extremely overheated and arrived at the dentist sweating and needing a cup of water. I was early, but my hygenist seemed excited to have an early start to the day, so I sat in the dental chair without getting a sip of water, still with an elevated pulse. Once she started poking around in my mouth she asked if I would like some water...so I was a bit embarrased that maybe my mouth seemed dried out. During my cleaning, I was thinking about how dentists probably see a lot of disgusting mouths during the course of the day and I was glad that I (hopefully) was not one of those disgusting mouths.
In knitting knews, I'm working on the arms from the top-down on my Neaty. What an experiment! As I have not yet borrowed an Elizabeth Zimmerman book, ahem!, I'm winging it...knitting a bit, learning from mistakes, frogging, reknitting, frogging, and trying again with something new. My obvious statement about this experience is that picking up stitches is an ART. I've completed all of the ribbing (bottom, collar, and center w/ button holes), and picking up those stitches was a sinch. The arms, however, have been pesky buggers.
February 14, 2008
~ just because you CAN, doesn't mean you SHOULD ~
At this particular moment, I feel inclined to share my opinion on what I feel is a bit of a travesty - - when men opt to grow their facial hair in a manner akin to pubic hair. Now, as a woman, I have often thought about all of those things that I physically cannot do...such as grow facial hair. That particular aspect of my physiology I have frequently been bummed about. After all, I feel that I would look quite dashing with some sideburns and a handlebar moustache. At the same time, I am of the opinion that there are a number of men in this world who abuse the privilege of facial hair. For example, if you scroll to the bottom of this page, you will notice a male who has what appears to be a full bush growing out of his face. In fact, it reminds me of that episode of "Sex and the City" when Samatha decides to "grow it out" because "Smith likes a full bush" and she discovers a grey hair and decides to dye it blond. The hair piece that was designed specifically for that episode looks exactly like the thing growing on that guy's face. Not to judge or anything, but my own personal opinion is that men take way too many liberties with the "goatee" and perhaps the best advice would be to just avoid it all together. In fact, I would go so far as to assert that a general rule of thumb for facial hair would be to avoid anything that makes you look like you have a 'full bush' growing out of your face.
In other news, when I'm not knitting or doing school work, I've been reading Real Food. And it's pretty interesting. It contains a number of bodacius claims which I'm eating up (pun intended) like they were butter. Speaking of butter, eat it. Also, grass fed cows, eat those too. The author has a pretty interesting website as well.
In my world of knitting, there's been a change of plans for the cardigan that I'm working on. My new plan involves knitting it entirely without seams. I've been doing some reading about seamless knitting (particularly in the way of sleeves). This is new territory for me and it's quite exciting. It seems as though most of the techniques involve knitting a sweater from the top down, so this will likely be a bit of an experiment. At any rate, so far this project is going very well.
February 12, 2008
~ sulky slinky ~
Yesterday, I was eagerly anticipating the delivery of a large box of yarn to my front door, but it never came. I'm sure that there is something worse than one's yarn not being delivered on the scheduled date, but I'm pressed to think of what. This particular yarn delivery has seemed to take FOREVER, as I ordered it over a week ago. I'm sure that some of you could comiserate with me over this - - after all, during this week, I haven't been able to work on the project that currently excites me and have been FORCED to finish up other projects. Gar! For instance, I did manage to finish up the ridiculously green green sweater made from the cheapest yarn on the planet...and I'm surprisingly pleased with it. There's photos on my flickr dealie if you're interested.
Incidentally, the project that is currently exciting me is an improvised version of Neaty from Rowan, with the body knat in Berroco Jasper and the trim knat in Berroco Ultra Alpaca. My plan is to, instead of making it a cardigan with the buttons going up the center, make a panel with two rows of buttons going up either side of the center. Below is a rough visual for what I've got in mind...as I did this in PowerPoint, it clearly doesn't have any of the shaping or knitting details, but it should give you a general idea.
In other news, I believe that I only just started to complain about the winter-yness of the weather here in the Valley, when it turned into Springtime this weekend. I believe it was about a week ago when I was slipping on black ice walking along the crusty and icy sidewalks to work, irritated that I don't have proper winter boots to keep all things cold and wet away from my feet. And now! Most of that snow has melted, it's warm, sunny, and delightful. Below are some photos depicting the pleasant weather - - note, in the first, I am demonstrating how not cold it is by the removal of my coat.
Another highlight of the weekend was going to the Nell Shipman silent film festival at the Egyptian Theater featuring a live organ accompanist on the theater's antique organ. Now, I've never felt very enthused by silent films (what with the lack of sound), unless I can view them in an old theater with someone playing an antique organ. That is my silent film cup of tea. A few years ago, I saw Nosferatu in the theater with a live organ accompanist, and it was quite the experience. So anyway, we saw two Nell Shipman films, "White Water" and "The Grub Stake." The first was filmed entirely in Idaho and the second was a film that was believed to have been lost (it was apparently the ruin of Nell's career) and only recently found in London under a different title (that film was also filmed in the Pacific Northwest). I was very impressed with the films - - though, I was feeling a bit sleepy by the end of the second one.
February 6, 2008
~ super wednesday ~
Last night was rather exciting. I was smarter this time and arrived to the mass-attended event really early. I had to wait in line outside for about an hour, and it was COLD, but it was well worth the wait. A friend had saved me a seat on the first row and it was perfect. The caucus was held at the hockey arena, which seats 6,500 people. It filled up and a few thousand people didn't get in - - though, they were allowed to cast a vote, which was good. The organizers expected between 3,000-5,000 people, and they kept running out of ballots and had to run to the copy center to make more. I was sitting with some people I know on the Obama side. However, almost the entire arena ended up being the Obama side, as the Clinton and Edwards factions kept having to scoot over to make room.
The caucus, I found to be yet another odd political tradition, though not as bothersome as the electoral college political tradition. Essentially, when we entered the building, we cast an intial ballot for the Democratic nominee. We then sat in the section designated for our candidate and mingled. At 7pm-ish, the organizers closed the doors, and people gave speeches about why we should vote for a certain candidate. For example, Bethine Church spoke on behalf of Clinton and the mayor of Boise, Dave Bieter spoke on behalf of Obama. Meanwhile, somewhere in a backroom, many many volunteers were doing data entry on the ballots cast. Considering that there were so many people who cast ballots, this process took a number of hours. Sometime after 9:00, they announced the preliminary results. Now, this was the Ada COUNTY caucus, and there were two districts present. In order to win delegates, a candidate needed to win at least 15% of the vote within a district. The last photo above depicts the results from my district. When they announced the results, they said that over 8,200 ballots were cast, which is apparently a phenomenal number for a caucus. And out of both districts, Obama won over 80% of the votes, which means that all of the Ada County delegates go to him. So, that was the caucus and it was very exciting.
Afterwards, some of us went to get a beer someplace with a live television to watch the results from the rest of the states come in. I must say, planting myself in front of a TV with a beer, watching election results is one of the most exciting activities. Personally, this activity usually results in anxiety and disappointment for me, because the people for whom I vote hardly ever actually win. One of the nice aspects of this process, however, is that I've liked all of the democratic candidates. So, even though Obama had my vote, I like Clinton too. Clinton, however, does not excite me at all. The broader point, of course, is the fact that George W. Bush can't be president again. Even if all of the complete morons in this country would vote for him AGAIN, it's just not possible. Anyway, once it was evident that Clinton would take California, we decided to call it a night.
February 5, 2008
~ achey breaky body ~
As this day is Super Tuesday, I might as well begin the blog post by telling of my experience seeing Presidential Hopeful Barack Obama in Boise this past Saturday. For those who missed it, it's available here. Obama was not originally scheduled to speak in Idaho. Something about our mere 23 delegates and the heavy republicanness of the state may have compelled his campaign to go elsewhere. 'Elsewhere' was actually Utah, where the suddenly scheduled funeral of the Mormon President for the same day as Obama's pre-scheduled speech resulted in the campaign's reschedule to Idaho.
Obama was scheduled to speak at 8:30 a.m., with the doors to the stadium openning at 7:00. Logistically, it was difficult for me. The winter months have always proven to be particularly difficult for me in the way of getting out of bed. And on my days off, I really like sleeping in. While others I know got up at 5:00 a.m. to line up at the stadium, I remained in my comfy and cozy bed until the late hour of 6:45. I then trudged to the stadium in the snow and icy sidewalks, arriving around 7:20ish. Other people who go to a lot of mass-attended events have a better understanding that if one wants to attend an event that will be attended by a butt-load of people, that it is wise to show up really early. Personally, I'm not so enthused by these mass-attended events. So anyway, I arrived way late and the line was so incredibly long that there was little possibility that I could have gotten inside. Or, maybe I could have gotten inside, I have no idea. But, I do not particularly enjoy waiting in incredibly long lines, in the cold, when it is snowing, by myself. Not my idea of fun. And then I thought about the prospect of sitting in a swarm of 12,000 people in an enclosed space, and gave up on the event. Josh had his own little misadventure, and we met up and went to his place to watch the speech on live TV. Here are some blurry photos of the TV screen.
I must say that it was amazing when he came out and I realized that a presidential candidate was taking time in his schedule to come to little Boise, Idaho and speak to an overflowing stadium. Word on the street is that the stadium was at capacity (I think around 12,000 people) and that there were a lot of people who couldn't get in and stood outside during the event, and then plenty of other people, like me, who abandoned hope of getting inside and watched it on live television.
Later in the afternoon, Josh and I ventured up the mountain for some nordic skiing. As I have successfully indicated previously, Josh and I are novice skiers. When we arrived on the mountain, the wind was blowing fierce and threatened to ruin all skiing adventures. As a result, Josh and I had a conversation with the people at the lodge desk about what trails they would recommend. They advised us to go on the lower trails, particularly The Flush, to avoid the wind. And so we did. And it was a lot of fun. There were uphills and downhills, twists and turns. Josh and I both fell a number of times (at one point I fell rather hard and was concerned that I may have injured myself. But the snow was soft and all was fine. At several of the intersections of other trails, we were quite confused as to which direction we ought to travel, as the trail signs were not very meaningful. We later realized that we had gone way off track from where we were intending to ski and had skied the "most difficult" of the Lower Loop Trails. This would most likely explain some of my frustration at the steepness of some of the hills. I clearly need a skillz lesson, as I cannot grasp how one skies uphill without resorting to some rather awkward and clumsy movements. On one of the hills, I actually removed my skies and hiked up it. Below are some photos.
At some point nearing the end of our skiing adventure, the temperature dropped significantly, the clouds gathered overhead, and the wind picked up and caused the trees to sway and the snow upon them to crash to the ground. When we finished skiing, we returned to the lodge and sat for a while, eating some snacks. From the large window overlooking the parking lot, Josh and I noted that cars had formed a very long line to get back to Boise. We decided to wait a while for the traffic to dissipate. Fifteen minutes later, I realized that the bumper-to-bumper traffic had not moved. Everyone in the lodge speculated that there must be a crash on the road back to town. Incidentally, I am of the opinion that the one and only road leading between the mountain and Boise ought to be revised. As it is, in the winter it is quite dangerous, and the frequent car accidents cause significant traffic jams. After about 45 minutes of waiting, the cars seemed to be moving at a somewhat regular pace. It was, however, evident that everyone was trying to leave at the exact same time - - most likely as a result of the severe winter storm that had quickly picked up. I put my foot down and insisted that we leave, as I was hoping to avoid driving the road in the dark. I'm not super enthusiastic about driving dangerous icy mountain roads at night. So we get in the car and start heading down the mountain with the other hundreds and hundres of cars. Prior to the halfway mark, traffic stops. The wind was blowing hard, the snow was swirling around, and the roads were becoming ice-ified. We wait, and wait. We hypothesized that there must have been another car crash along the road, which wasn't surprising considering the road conditions. We waited about a half an hour before traffic moved about half a block, and then it stopped again for about 20 minutes, half a block later we waited for 15 minutes. The weather outside had become rather severe. It was completely dark. We could feel the car sway in the wind. The snow and the fog created a massive white out and it was impossible to see more than 10 feet ahead. When the traffic finally got to moving, the conditions outside were so terrible that I existed in a high level of anxiety for the duration of the drive into town. It took us over two hours to drive 16 miles. It was horrid. Horrid, horrid, horrid, and it made me feel reluctant about going up there ever again. Ick.
At present, my body feels like poop. In addition to being sore from the exertion of skiing a "most difficult" trail and falling on said "most difficult" trail, I am also in pain because yesterday while I was walking to work, I slipped on some black ice and landed with the full force of my body's weight onto my elbow and hip bone. I am longing for the summer.
February 1, 2008
~ pushup plush brush ~
I'm beginning to think that several of my long-time readers have implemented a new year's resolution to cease visiting my blog. Not that I've ever had much of a readership, but what little there was kinda kept me going for however many years it's been. And for months, I've become accustomed to the complete absence of comments, but now I'm faced, day after day, with a very dismal site visit number. As a result of this, there are a number of notions floating around my brain. ...
ONE.
On average, people seem less interested in the personal blog than they used to be. I have noted a general reduction in the frequency of postings on many of the blogs that I have a long term experience of reading. For example, Eurotrash (an old fave) used to post daily and receive several hundreds of comments...now seems to have an average posting frequency of twice a month. Ya'll may have noticed on this site that I don't post as much as I used to. Furthermore, while I can point the finger to all of YOU (not pointed at the three of you who will actually read this) about not being as dedicated to my craft as you used to be, I shall direct my finger self-wards and note that I also do not read personal blogs with the same regularity as I used to. For example, that blog I linked up there, I haven't visited in about a year until just this very moment to find the link and make my point. Blogs that I used to visit every single day, if I even go to them anymore, now receive a hit from me maybe weekly and maybe monthly, if they're lucky.
It's not as though I am less interested in the personal ramblings of other people. Indeed, I'm almost more interested because, for those blogs that I've read with some regularity for the past four or five years, I feel as though I've been following their lives. A good example is Dooce who I read about once a week. I remember there was a period of time in which I hadn't gone to her site in a number of months and when I checked back in I almost fell off my chair at realizing that her daughter (of whom I had followed the birth and infancy through toddler-dom) had grown up to be a KID. No longer a baby, no longer a toddler, but a KID.
TWO.
I acknowledge that the various topics of my postings are not exactly the sort of thing that is going to compell other people to read. For example, THIS post I feel is most likely not very entertaining for anyone other than me (and it is entertaining only because the writing of it is helping me to work though my thoughts on this matter). As I am sure you are all aware, I tend to articulate myself in an unnecessarily verbose manner. And I have noted that when one spends an excessivly long amount of time getting to one's point, that one quickly loses the interest of one's audience.
THREE.
This leads me to ponder the meaning of my personal weblog. Why do I have a blog? Do I have an interest in people reading my blog? If my blog is alone in the forest and no one is around to hear its screams, does it really make a sound?
It is evident that the overal tone and content of my blog has evolved over the years. If memory serves, my blog used to embody a much more snarky, sarcastic, and pretentious tone and the content was much more geared towards poking fun at the world around me. Granted, I continue to be plenty snarky and my ridicule of others is just as unsubstantive as ever - - but at one time I had resolved to infuse a bit of positivity and pleasantness into my writings, and the result was that I tend to now write about my little adventures in my spare time. And I don't think anyone is interested in reading a long post about what I did over the weekend, however, I like the less snarky space that I'm in now.
IN OTHER WORDS.
I've been thinking about discontinuing my blog. I feel as though the zeitgeist of personal blogs has come and gone. While I enjoy showing off my little weekend adventures, blogging into silence leaves me feeling lonely. Even my boyfriend doesn't make a point of seeing what amazing piece of writing I have posted.
ON THE OTHER HAND.
I may realize that I blog for the sake of blogging and that one day I might look back on my years of blogging and think how neat it is that I've got a catalogue of my weekend adventures and totally random drivel that spewed from my fingertips.
