This is the first jumper I've ever knitted. It took me about a month to do in my spare time. Maybe a little more. I'm very pleased with how it turned out, though it's a little, uh, roomy :) But better to be too big than too small, right? Right?

Things I learned from this jumper:
Knitting in the round
Using circular needles
Picking up stitches
Casting on stitches mid-work (for the underarms)
Raglan increases
Patience
That I suck at ribbed stitches :( How do I make these more regular? They're all over the place -- it seems when I bring the wool to the front to purl it makes it really loose or something.

Anyway I guess I have no excuse, I'll have to knit Nicholas' chain chomp hat now ;)

Just finished the first sleeve of my jumper, it took a little longer than I expected though! Hope to have the rest of it done by Thursday so I can wear it to Canberra :) Also, I had a haircut today, as you can see! It was quite hilarious, Nicholas and I went to this place in Chatswood and the girl who was cutting my hair started to trim it even after I asked her to cut it to shoulder length (it was below my shoulderblades), so I had to ask her again and she was all "awwww such lovely hair!" and went on to giggle nervously each time she had to chop another huge chunk of it off. Anyway I'm pretty pleased with the outcome (and Nicholas' hair turned out pretty well too, imo!).

This sounded just terrible when I first heard of it, but I watched the first part today and it was hilarious! Highly recommended, for fans of Joss Whedon (Buffy, Firefly, etc.) or not :)

Yes, that's the chick from series 7 of Buffy (she plays of the potential slayers) and she's also from The Guild ( http://www.watchtheguild.com/ ). And yes, that *is* who you think it is as the "nemesis". lol!

http://www.drhorrible.com/act_I.html

Some exciting things have been happening recently! I went to Melbourne for the Australasian Association of Philosophy Conference where I presented a paper (lots of fun)! When I came back, my jumper was getting quite big, I'm almost finished with the body of it now (as you can see!). Few more rows I think, then a base, and then I'll be done :)

Yesterday was Nicholas' mother's birthday, so we went into town to get some things (and pick up my fixed Macbook, which now has a new LCD inverter), and we found this awesome awesome shop that sells yummy yarns -- I bought some of the famous Noro silk garden wool, and some pure NZ hand-dyed merino wool.

Then today Nicholas and I went to the aquarium to find him some more fishies -- we got two platies named Galileo and Newton (Galileo is the red/black one in the photo) and some glowlight tetras, which have schooled happily with the neon tetras that have been there for a while. The tank is now a really nice community tank with lots of activity! Fish are cool.

Nicholas and I are addicted to this game.

My best score on Normal is 4122!

I highly recommend it.

Oh dear oh dear oh dear. Don't they realise that they CAN'T recreate Douglas Adams' awesomeness? He's gone guys, seriously, you'll just screw it up for everyone. This is the equivalent of going to his grave, jumping on it, doing little pirouettes, and singing hallelujahs. Please don't :(

The Unknown Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy Prequel You've Already Read [Douglas Adams]:

Seven years after his death, an unfulfilled idea of Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy creator Douglas Adams is about to come to fruition, as the BBC prepares to bring unlikely detective Dirk Gently into the Hitchhikers universe in a new radio series.

(Via io9.)

SMH it's not burglarised, it's BURGLED. OMG.

Also, wtf@Texas: http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/guns-burglary-and-racism-jury-clears-suspect/2008/07/01/1214677985973.html

The guy SHOT and KILLED two men, but he's okay, because he was looking after a neighbour's house? wtf? Since when is a house and property worth more than a human life?! GRRRRR

GOD THIS STORY MAKES ME SO ANGRY IN SO MANY WAYS

... you tend to check out who your "competition" is. Today the AAP timetable went up, and I find out that instead of the 30min timeslot that I wanted, I ended up with a 90 min timeslot. Against Big Names.



Whatever am I going to talk about for 90 mins to my audience of maybe 1? :)

I love it when Australian politicians sit down and watch a bit of TV and find out that people swear!

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/amp-ramsay-scores-80-in-40-mins/2008/06/19/1213770800781.html

I mean seriously, if you are watching this and you are offended by foul language or the way Ramsay treats his staff, TURN IT OFF.

I don't want to excuse Ramsay for his treatment of staff or anything, I think it's pretty awful, but I avoid it and don't contribute to his ratings by not watching the damn program.

THE SECRET IS TO BANG THE ROCKS TOGETHER, GUYS

This weekend was fricken awesome! I had such a great time. In fact, best weekend in a loooooong time. Yay!

I particularly wanted to share with you the latest purchase I am squeeing over, which is 2 500ish gram hanks of tea-dyed hand-spun perindale wool that I bought at the market yesterday.



I also bought 4 little hanks of wool from the Rainbow Wools people who were there -- two blue and a purple and an awesome bright orange. They were on sale for $5 each which made them just :D~

Here's a picture of them (plus the bright turquoise and pink and peach colours Cat bought to start her first knitting project with) after we spent an epic night rolling balls in front of the fire and a Jane Austen movie (you'll see some of the brown balls too from my first hank of tea wool, I learned how to roll centre-pull balls!):



Anyway, I'm going to make a Faux Fair Isle Raglan jumper with all that tea coloured wool -- there's a great pattern I was introduced to on Ravelry. Just need to go get some circular needles in the right sizes! The Lincraft near me is okay but a little short on the different length circulars (har har a little short, get it?).

BTW if you're on Ravelry, add me! I'm "liedra".

Well, I got salmoned today, after that last livejournal post! I ended up speaking to someone who had also been salmoned before so he explained it to me:

---------------------

razorthinsalmon 9:52

HOLY SHIT, RON PAUL'S CAMPAIGN IS OVER! LOOKS LIKE MCCAIN HAS FINALLY SECURED THE REPUBLICAN NOMINATION!

liedra 9:53

who on earth are you, lol

razorthinsalmon 9:53

Okay, am I talking to someone? Do you know how these salmon IMs work?

Gotcha.

A bot named UniversalSalmon fixed us up.

I'm a random person, just as you are to me.

I know about this because I've been salmoned before and I ended up researching them.

It's actually kind of cool...from what I understand, most of these salmon bots aren't malicious, and
I've met at least one nice person through them.

Are you nice?

liedra 9:56

sure, I'm nice, especially since I've now researched what this is :)

---------------------

So what it is, essentially, is a bot that picks two random people (triggered by recent lj updates) and acts as an intermediary to strike up conversation.

Cute, huh? Anyway, "razorthinsalmon" and I had a short conversation but I feel generally positive about the experience, if a little weirded out at first. This honestly stinks to me of something some xkcd fan would do.

Here is the community where salmonees congregate, you've now been warned! :)

"The competition watchdog has flagged its intention to scuttle a plan by online auctioneer eBay to force its Australian users on to a PayPal-only payments system.

Citing concerns about the "anti-competitive effect" of the proposal, the chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Graeme Samuel, has issued a statement calling on eBay to delay implementation of the plan, which was supposed to take effect from next Tuesday."

-- http://www.smh.com.au/news/biztech/accc-thwarts-ebay-paypal-plan/2008/06/12/1212863822348.html

Good news for all eBayers, not just Australians! This was going to be the testbed for an international rollout of the plan.

I was around 7 when this was first aired on TV, and it scared the living daylights out of me. Looking back on it now, I can see why! I wonder if any ads on TV nowadays scare kids in quite the same way, or if they've toned down the scariness factor?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U219eUIZ7Qo

Yes, I am crazy. Yes, I kinda have to be. But! I deliver this with the disclaimers: I know what I have to write, I've done all the reading, I know where my stuff is coming from, and I can write pretty quickly when I'm nose to the grindstone. All percentages are as of today. Can I do it? I hope so!!

Timeline for completion:

June: finish chapters 1 (literature review) and most of 2 (theory): chapter 1 approximately 85% complete, chapter 2 approximately 20% complete. Write paper and talk for presentation at CAPPE, Kioloa, and AAP conferences, submission to ECIS journal, approximately 75% complete.
Week 1: paper writing, scholarship renewal
Week 2: paper and talk writing, Kioloa trip
Week 3: chapter 2 writing
Week 4: chapter 1 & 2 writing, CAPPE presentation

July: finish chapter 2, work on chapters 3 (case studies, approximately 30% complete) and 4 (application of theory & further research, possibly being merged into other chapters, but currently approximately 10% complete). Present at AAP conference.
Week 1: chapter 2 writing
Week 2: chapter 2 & 3 writing
Week 3: AAP conference
Week 4: chapter 3 writing
Week 5: chapter 4 writing

August: finish up remaining chapters, work on introductory (10% complete) and concluding (0%) chapters. Full draft complete by end of August.
Week 1: chapter 4 writing
Week 2: Finish up chapters
Week 3: Introduction writing
Week 4: Conclusion writing

September - December: finishing, editing, and revising, with submission late December/early January.

IMDB keywords for the movie:

• Supernatural
  
• American Abroad
  
• Hat
  
• Journey Shown On Map
  
• Good Versus Evil
  
• Hero
  
• Sidekick
  
• Heroine
  
• Rescue
  
• Artifact
  
• Action Hero
  
• Jungle
  
• Humor
  
• Adventurer
  
• Professor
  
• Sequel
  
• Whip
  
• Cult Director
  
• Leather Jacket
  
• Sequel To Cult Favorite
  
• Fourth Part
  
• Archeologist
  
• Fedora
  
• Indiana Jones
  
• Pistol
  
• Revolver
  
• Character Name In Title
  

Yes that's right folks:

• Hat

• Hat

• Hat

If that doesn't make it worth seeing, then nothing does.

Dear Firefox:

I tried you out for a couple of months or so, but you're just far too unstable for me now (actually your previous beta permutation was much better than the most recent one!). Maybe it's the addons that I was using, I don't know, but honestly, I really like those addons so using you without them would make me upset. I'll come back when you're released, though, because you play youtube better than Safari and I like the delicious and NoScript addons. Til then, though, Safari it is. At least it doesn't crash every second window (yes I sent in crash reports!).

Sincerely yours, liedra.

Guitar & Keyboard combo with two guys singing terribly out of tune:

"This is the end of the road
This is the end of the road
This is the end of the road
And we're all dying"


Deep.


Mood: PISSED OFF

For all those wondering what I was making in my previous post, have a pic of the finished product!

( Read more... )

I'm very pleased!

I'm not sure if anyone on my friends list knits, but I am a little desperate for some help with a pattern I'm using.

I am doing a 1x1 rib and the shaping starts with a k2 row (k2 p1 k1 p1 etc) and I'm trying to work out why, because it seems that with the shaping, I'm "off by one" for the rib instruction. Here's the instructions:

rib 3 * sl1, k2tog, psso, rib 7, rep from * to end ... 99 sts

So I'm assuming that means "k1 p1" x3, * slip a stitch, knit two together, pass the slipped stitch over, (k1 p1)x7, repeat from * til end and I should have 99 stitches left.

What I actually end up doing is to keep the rib pattern in line:

k1 (k1 p1)x3 slip a stitch, knit two together, pass the slipped stitch over, then to keep the rib pattern consistent I have to p1 here, then (k1 p1)x7.

Is this what is meant by "rib 7"? keep the rib pattern going for 7 "ribs"? If I missed the first k1 at the beginning of the line I'd be in line properly but it very specifically says to finish the main section with a k1 p1 line which means to keep the rib going in line I'd need to start with a k2 row.

Also, from 123 stitches I find I have 111 left after doing this (my way), not 99. I can't see how you can actually get to 99 from that because each decrease only drops 2 stitches and 7 "ribs" apart only gets me 6 decreases.

And then even if I started the line off kilter for the rib I'd still probably only get 1 or 2 more decreases, which won't get me to 99.

Please help! :D

My paper was accepted into the AAP conference, to be held in Melbourne in July. Considering I whipped up the abstract in less than a day this is pretty good! Now I just have to write the paper, heh. Fortunately it's mostly on what my PhD is on so I can borrow a lot from that.

In other news, I had a blood test today and now my arm hurts, kinda as if I hit my funny bone on my elbow. And my little brother graduates tomorrow, so my parents are here for dinner tonight, yay :D Congrats to you Lockie!

Ummmmm in other news I received a lovely card from one of my FFXI friends (thanks Amanda!) which was just wonderful, complete with a whole family of paper cranes inside! Another FFXI friend is coming to Australia some time in the next couple of months from England, so I hope I'll be able to show him around a bit! Well, at least show him Real Beer.

Work on my PhD is sort of slow at the moment. It's a bit frustrating because all the ideas are in me, they're just taking their sweet time to come out. Had a conference here a couple of weeks ago that was very interesting, with some awesome people taking their time out to listen to me ramble about some ideas that I've had for what to do After I'm Done. Heh. Must admit, I'm kinda sick of being poor, heh :( Student scholarships really aren't that great, even though they're tax free.

Anyway that's my update for today, off to a seminar soon!