Knittin' Crap: Stunt Knitting!

As I mentioned previously, I'd been doing some prop knitting for my friend's upcoming DIY steampunk movie. First I made a nice, Victorian-looking shawl... then I thought I should make a stunt double. So I did.


I don't know if Steve will want to use the stunt double in his movie, but it was certainly a challenge knitting something that looked like it was falling apart without actually being in close danger of falling apart. I even threw in some tea-staining! (A little too subtle to make out in the photo, but you can see it in person, where my lack of photographic skills doesn't obscure it.)

(Unmangled shawl pattern by Dodile.)

Pandora's Litter Box

Pandora's been gone a year and a day now. I thought about her a lot yesterday, but then again, I think about her every day.

I miss my girl.

Knittin' Crap: Adventures in Tour de France KAL

As a tie-in with the Tour de France, a group on Ravelry had a knit-a-long tie-in. I don't actually watch, well, any sports, at least not on purpose, but I enjoyed the Ravelympics challenge, and even though I have far less time for such pursuits, I got a spot on Team HTC-Columbia. (I really like my HTC phone.)

I had also told my friend Steve that I would make some things for his steampunk film Adventures in Science.

So... I decided combining the two would be a good plan. I found a shawl pattern that could both pass for Victorian and also satisfied the whole Tour-de-French theme, as it was originally written in French! (Fortunately someone had done an English translation, as while I took 5 years of French in school, I haven't really used it since then and I don't know French knitting terminology.)

And, with two days to spare, I finished!



ETA: I seemed to be quite mistaken about when the Tour ends. Not until the 25th.

Other: A Couple Headscratchers

• Driving to work Tuesday, I saw a tractor-trailer braking excessively given the relatively light traffic. A car had gotten in front of it with maybe 2 car lengths between them. The car's bumper sported "Student Driver." Yeah, no shit. What moron teacher would get their student to merge in front that close to the truck without speeding up to increase the distance, and, here's the thing, not even exit at the next exit (or even the next two exits!) I didn't get the driving school's name, but, uh, I wouldn't recommend them.
• Why I drove to work Tuesday: I was cleaning out the litterboxes in the morning and, since it's not exactly either a mentally-stimulating or a terribly enjoyable task, my mind had wandered off. Then I spilled a bunch of used litter on the carpet. Ew. So I get the vacuum out of the closet, which, of course, sent Spoon straight for the bed. I plug it in, the ready light comes on, I push the switch, and... nothing. Ready light goes off. I cleaned up as much as I could with the hand vac, went on-line, and found a repair shop between home and work, and stuck the upright vac in the trunk. I got there after work right before they closed. The guy fixed it right on site, too, just a busted power switch, fortunately. Still, what a way to start the day. I bet Spoon threw a party when he saw me take it out the door. I'd suspect sabotage, but really, the not-too-bright thing is not an act.
• I have learned that our backup system at work has a black hole at the center. Maybe I should let Stephen Hawking know about it, because it would put the information paradox to rest. "Uh, that data you wanted restored, yeah, apparently it passed the event horizon..." That stuff is gone!
• We're trying to figure out if another tape drive would help data escape The Black Hole's event horizon. We could try to fill out requisition forms and get the money that way, but I'm thinking a bake sale would be easier. (My brain was a little mushy from the heat of waiting at bus stops this morning.)

Metro Journel: July 14 Happy Freakin' Hot Bastille Day

It was hot today. Like around 100F. Yes, I realize we have had a very springlike summer so far, and that the east coast has been baking under a record heat wave, but... waaah.

Anyway, I took the "it is too freakin' hot to walk ½ mile even though I could use the exercise" bus to the 180/780 stop. There was a temporary stop change sign taped to the bus sign post. Our stop had been moved to Verdugo/Broadway. Except that's where we already were. It didn't bother telling us which corner of Verdugo/Broadway. The only thing I can surmise from the sign is that they probably mean some other corner, but that still leaves three. Then a man walked by and said the bus stop is on an opposite corner, pointing it out. The other people at the stop and I oozed across the street and tried to find as much shade as possible. Fortunately, we only had to wait a couple minutes for the next bus.

I'm too tired to type in the story of the annoying person on the crowded 94 who got on in front of me with her friend, and then just stopped dead smack dab in the middle of the aisle when her friend sat down and there was no seat nearby. And the woman was not a narrow woman, and it was rather difficult to maneuver around her to get to the several seats clearly still vacant near the back.


I needed some knitting needles, so I took the 222 down Hollywood Way to Unwind after work. Afterward I got on the 183. Two painfully hip young people with acoustic guitars (sans cases or even gig bags, hello, on the bus?) were sitting in the very front, behind the driver. And were loud. You know, because they had to make sure everyone could hear their being painfully hip. No, that's all right, you don't need to sing for us. We wouldn't want you to lose your voice before you get where you're going.

(Yeah, heat makes me really cranky. But people are the hammer to that molten nail.)

They got off in downtown Burbank. Yay! A few blocks later, the bus driver stopped the bus, opened the door, and started carrying on a loud conversation with the white van next to us. From what I gather, they wanted to know how to get to the Glendale train station. The 183's head sign read "Glendale Station" so they'd been following him through Burbank. He told them how to get there, because the 183 takes a very circuitous route through lots of residential neighborhoods. Still, an interesting alternative to asking for directions. Not necessarily a very bright one, though.

News: Just Stuff

Geeky stuff:

• Engineering: like math, but louder.
• It's time for a ROAD TRIP TO PORTLAND!!!!

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I can't decide if knowing that now makes me feel better or worse. Stupid catnip shampoo.




Traffic:

• Wow, there's actually a "commuter pain index." Organized by city, Los Angeles is tops in the U.S. but only 14th in the world!
• This cat knows how to deal with that!
  
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Misc:

• "In 2010, the biggest problem will not be invading aliens, authoritarian supercomputers, or rebellious talking apes... It will be a broken pipe." Hey, there are still almost 6 months left in the year! You never know...
• Who needs to hire a private investigator to see if your spouse is cheating when there's Facebook and no way to know what the privacy controls do and do not do? The site has become the best friend of divorce lawyers. And while Facebook is apparently the source of 66% of online evidence in cases, even World of Warcraft gets a mention.
• McDonalds poisons Americans more than Brits with each McNugget eaten. Ew...

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Coco, the stray Siamese who showed up when I was a kid, got about 6 feet up a pine tree once and then realized he had no idea how to get down because claws don't work so well in reverse. After he was manually extracted, he stuck to bushy plants.

News: Kristin Hersh'n'Stuff

I've mentioned my favorite musician, Kristin Hersh, in the past. Well, she has a new album, Crooked, coming out (already out in the UK, but as a book(!)) and an autobiography of sorts. I'm too lazy to link. Go to Amazon and look! Anyway, as a "Strange Angel," i.e., a subscriber/underwriter/whatever on her CA$H Music site, I got my copy of the CD in the mail 2 weeks ago, and, yes, I like it, although they always take awhile to sink in. You can (freely and legally) download what is probably my favorite track, at least for now, called "Coals." It has a bit of a country sound. I can almost hear Johnny Cash performing it. Almost.

Kristin has also released a lot of her recent work under a Creative Commons license, as have an increasing number of musicians and artists who want people to be able to build off their work as long as they themselves get due credit. So when ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) sent out a fundraising letter to its members saying that Creative Commons and other groups (like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, hello?) were trying to get rid of copyrights, Creative Commons posted their own response, which Kristin endorsed.

Metro Journal: Still All Travelin'

In my third post ever, over two years ago, I talked about a garage/mini-junker yard near the Glendale train station which had International Harvester Travelalls in the yard. Last week, I took the Metrolink (I had a pass for free rides that I wanted to use before it expired) and walking to the San Fernando Road 780 stop several blocks away, I passed by the same garage. They'd rearranged the junkers, er, "vintage" vehicles parked there, but I could still see two Travelalls. One was too obscured to get a good picture (I think that's the older one that I show in my earlier post), but the other was parked right by the fence.