Oooh, shiny!

So, on a sidenote before I start: About 30 seconds (give or take a couple days) after my homework-whining post, my teachers all decided to simultaneously heap homework upon my helpless senioritis-laden head, leading me to spend an ungodly number of hours this weekend working on sundry pointless things, and barely knitting at all. Sadness.

However, on to happiness.

I WANT one of these! My mom and I were fantasizing about just such a thing a few months ago and even contemplated attempting to design one. But this is way cooler than anything we’d have come up with. It’s not available yet, but I’m snatching it up the second it is! And $20, too! Hopefully that doesn’t mean it’s really cheaply made. I’d gladly pay at least $30 for it though, assuming it won’t fall apart.

In other news, I bought yarn for the first actual full-size version of the Secret Knitty Design. Hopefully it’ll come out well the first time and I’ll be done in time to submit it to the Spring issue. My mom volunteered to test knit it for me once I’ve actually written the pattern.

21 days

Three weeks. That’s how long I lasted doing Project 365 (ETA: for photography) before I forgot. I don’t think I’m going to continue. Partly because I’d know I hadn’t really done it, but mainly because it was getting a bit irritating anyway. Guess it’s just not my thing. Whatever.
On my phone right now, but might post some highlights of those weeks later…

I don’t WANT to do my homework!

So, the title has virtually nothing to do with why I’m actually writing this post, but is utterly true nonetheless. I’m on a total artisticky tear recently – really into my glass stuff at school, designing knits (working on two different patterns at the moment), and suddenly actually inspired to play violin. But completely uninspired academically. Which, fortunately, doesn’t matter too much because a) I force myself to do it anyway, even though it’s often quite half-assed, and b) IT’S THE SECOND HALF OF SENIOR YEAR, SO IT DOESN’T MATTER!

I think senioritis is manifesting itself in the form of total right-brain dominance. Oh well, I’ll embrace it!

Anyway, to the actual topic of the post.

I know it’s a bit of a fad recently, and I’m not generally into jumping on the bandwagon, but seriously:

~picture from Kate

Can you really resist that?

I don’t know what I’m making it of, but I kind of have to make this sweater.

Yes We Did

Huzzah! It’s finally happened!

Tomorrow possibly some pictures from my music trip and knitting from said trip. But I got four hours of sleep, so finding this cool picture is all I’m mustering for today. Over and out.

A VERY pleasant surprise

I’m a semifinalist! Huzzah!

And what I didn’t realize is, I get $1,000.

Pretty sweet day, besides for possibly bombing that math quiz. Ah, irony.

While we’re on the topic…

Or sort of, anyway. Since I’ve been obsessed with working on the Secret Design and therefore don’t have any pictures for you, I thought I’d continue the college/deadliney theme. I find out tomorrow if I’m a semifinalist in the Intel Science Talent Search. Statistically, I have about a 50% chance. My advisor from my project said I had a 60% chance, which I took as a compliment since he rarely miscalculates anything.

*crosses fingers*

How Strange…

So I had an interview scheduled for 10:00 today, and it was all very clear on location/time/etc., but I waited half an hour and he never showed up! …I was stood up by a college interviewer! Seriously, now…

On a different note, this is my first post ever from the WordPress for iPhone app, which is moderately nifty.

Well, that’s all for now, I guess. Lace scarf’s chugging along and I’ve been swatching like a madwoman for the previously mentioned secret design, so no interesting pics to share, although I haven’t missed a Project 365 day yet. Over and out!

P.S. While waiting at Starbucks for The Interview That Wasn’t, I did make the rather exciting discovery that I’m pretty sure I’ve memorized all sixteen rows of my lace chart…well, either exciting or a little sad, depending on how you look at it, I guess…

Noticed I really like ellipses…? ;)

Another FO sighting!

I test knit this pattern and finished the first one (blue stripe on back) awhile back, then finally got around to completing the pair. The only problem is I’m not really a ‘legwarmer person’ so I’ll have to find somebody to give them to…even though they fit me really well…and are rather comfy…maybe I’ll become a legwarmer person… ;)

Pattern: À Danser Legwarmers (Ravelry link)

Yarn: Koigu Merino, variegated and semisolids – 4 colors total, not-quite-whole skeins used

Needles: US1

Mods: added another square on each strip to make them long enough and added narrow strip up the back to make them big enough around (I accidentally followed the directions for too small a size)

P.S. Thanks to my wonderful little sis who was home sick from school today and is still coughing her brains out but was kind enough to come outside and help me take pictures while the sun was still out!

On Thinking

Note: Check out my awkwardly formatted but extant poll in the sidebar! Go vooote! :D

So I’m at the beginnings of designing another pattern, one which I hope to submit to Knitty. I’m really excited about this, but unfortunately, their policy prohibits me sharing anything from it with you, so you’ll have to live in suspense.

But ANYWAY. The real theme of this post stems from a story related to this pattern:

I was thinking about this pattern before I fell asleep yesterday, and it occurred to me that I do a LOT of awesome thinking at that time of day – that is, right at the end of it. For that reason, I keep a notepad and pencil on my nightstand and a lamp over my bed. I usually use it to jot down stuff I want to remember to do the next day, but it’s also frequently used for cool ideas, like the ones for my pattern or the idea for this post.

So, now to you: When/where do you do your best thinking? Do you have a special way to remember ideas? And anything even tangentially related to this topic. GO!

P.S. Yeah, those FO pics. I did F said O, but have no decent pics yet due to reluctant photographers and icky weather. Patience, please! :)

Random Musings of Late

Just some stuff I’ve been thinking about.

On emoticons…

I always get the vibe that people think emoticons are part of the domain of hyperactive illiterate preteen fangirls and have no place in the real world. However, I rather disagree. I mean, when you’re typing something, it’s wickedly hard to convey things that you normally would by tone of voice or facial expression. To my perception, emoticons make up for a little of that. For example, if I make a sarcastic comment, I might put a ‘;)’ after it to make sure I’m not taken seriously. It helps avoid misunderstandings. Thoughts?

And now, for something completely different:

On religion…

(DISCLAIMER: I may or may not hold some rather controversial opinions on this subject. If you disagree, please do so respectfully.)

Religion, to me, always seemed like a bit of a cop-out. If you think about it, most religions begin…wait, no, that’s not quite right. Most religions begin with some crazy guy hallucinating and getting lots of other people to believe in what he saw. But the purpose of most religions, at their core, is to justify things that people couldn’t explain otherwise. If you think about more primitive religions, they used angry gods or sneezing gods or happy gods to explain things like earthquakes or rain. Now, people scoff at that. “Come on, we know earthquakes are caused by tectonic plates and mountains are formed by accumulated bird droppings. What were THEY thinking?!”

But is using a god to explain volcanoes really that different from using a god to explain from whence consciousness arises, or how something arose from nothing when the Universe first began? It’s still something that has a logical explanation out there; we just haven’t found it yet. And since we don’t understand it right now, people turn to God or Allah or whatever you want and say that that’s how we were imbued with a ’soul’ or that’s how the world was created or whatever.

I hope that someday, we’ll have explained enough scientifically that people will finally view religion as nothing more than an interesting cultural artifact of the past. Because people actually believing that God chose them to be better or that God created man as he is right now is pretty dangerous, when you come right down to it.

Thoughts?

P.S. Another FO post probably coming soonishly.