Karen Blogs

Knittin' Crap: My First Mission Report

2012-02-09T22:23:00.000-08:00

Last month I reported that I had joined the Starfleet Fiber Arts Corp on Ravelry. Today I turned in my first mission report. This month's Culture Mission was the report to Mr Spock on an historical Earth form of entertainment. My report follows:

Ensign Fuzzykaren from the USS Kitchener reporting in on her very first mission to Mr Spock!

My research into early 21st century Earth showed a strange and rather barbaric fascination with vengeful birds of various species attacking green pigs¹. The phenomenon seems to have begun in the Arctic nation formerly called Finland. People were so fascinated by the behavior that a simulation was made for the electronic leashes known as "smartphones" and it soon spread throughout the world, sucking untold hours from the human race.

This is one of the discombobulated avians:

¹These seem to be extinct now, but I must wonder if they were the source of the green ham referred to in the pictorial histories of the (also mononymous) Seuss, PhD.

News: Awesome Arts'n'Crafts

2012-02-08T00:49:00.000-08:00

I should be asleep, but I'm not, so I'm posting instead. Here are some artsy and crafty creations!

An amazing Huichol beaded VW Bug.
Airagami -- the art of balloon-sculpting
And what would happen if someone tried to draw famous tweets. No, seriously.
Best Sleeping Bag Ever:

see more epicfails

And it's not News without a (topically unrelated but mind-blowingly cute) lolcat:

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

Whiteboard Jungle: Shit My Coworkers Say

2012-02-07T10:15:00.002-08:00

The guy a few cubicle rows over, who sounds like (and probably is) middle management, on a conference call from his desk: "You'll have to learn JavaScript, which is like an in-browser version of Java."

So wrong for so many reasons.

News: Random Stuff

2012-02-06T12:40:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted a news montage in well over a month now, so here's a quick list of stuff:

Public transit stuff:

see more epicfails
So true, sick of dorks on the bus listening to music over their phone's tinny speaker (dude, it's optimized for speech, not your low-end thumpin' bass or your high-end whiny break-up music. Get earbuds, dumbass!
And this is from last year, from the now (sadly) defunct Infrastructurist website (although their old content is still available): Are We Drastically Underestimating the ‘Social Cost’ of Carbon Emissions?
Stupid criminal ON public transit: Man without fare punches bus driver and causes accident. And gets arrested. And since he probably wasn't trying to get to the city jail, also does not reach his intended destination.

Science-ish stuff:

see more epicfails
see more epicfails
And a really useful (and serious) PDF about How to Debunk a Myth is linked in this article.

Oh, and so this post won't be lacking a lolcat:

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

Minecraft: Best Doorbell Ever

2012-01-23T23:01:00.000-08:00

Now they just need to let us pimp our minecarts.

Minecraft: FreeBSD

2012-01-17T18:24:00.000-08:00

I've been running a Minecraft SMP server on FreeBSD for the better part of a year now, initially on FreeBSD 8.2 and, for the past several weeks, on a custom build of FreeBSD 9-RC3 (named 9-FUZZYKERNEL), with only two process crashes. Getting the Minecraft client to run consistently on FreeBSD can be another story, though.

Now, Java on FreeBSD is a wonky thing. It was never officially supported by Sun and/or Oracle. There are two native ports, but neither works 100% of the time, and the official Linux JDK/JRE can be run in compat mode, but it's also problematic. Now, I seem to recall that when I started playing well over a year ago, I could play on my old FreeBSD 8.x desktop, even though it was graphically unpleasant, but I could be wrong. The client now won't work with either the diablo-jdk1.6, diablo-jre1.6, or jdk1.6 Java ports. The launcher will start, but after logging in, the window shows the error "Failed to launch / Fatal error occurred (2): null" and nothing further happens. (Someone running PC-BSD 9 has the same issue, so it's not just me and not just vanilla FreeBSD.) I don't know enough about Java to know if that's a bug on the FreeBSD JDK1.6 end or on the Minecraft end, but either way, there's no game-playing joy.

Now, I don't really care, since I mostly play Minecraft on my linux craptop, but that academic curiosity kicked in. There's still the Linux JDK, which is a bigger pain in the ass to set up, but I finally got around to it, and it seems to work.¹

How to Run the Minecraft Client on FreeBSD

(This should also work on PC-BSD 9, although (a) I haven't tested it, but (b) you will need to take additional steps to set up the traditional FreeBSD ports tree.)

Install the following ports. (Make sure you /usr/ports tree is up to date! You've run cvsup with a good ports config, right!?²) I'm hardcore and eschew installing the pre-compiled packages in general, but since Sun's Java has specific licensing terms, you can't install it as a package anyway, so just bite the bullet, set up the ports tree, and have at it.
- linux_base-f10
- linux-f10-dri -- May be optional in some environments, I'm not sure, but install it if you get libGL not found errors
- linux-sun-jdk1.6.0
Make sure the linux kernel module is loaded. As root: "kldload linux"
Make sure the linux proc filesystem is mounted. As root: "mount -t linprocfs linprocfs /compat/linux/proc"
Since you need to set up a couple environmental variables that you won't normally want set, I suggest making a dinky startup script:
$ cat runmc
#!/bin/sh
export JAVA_HOME=/usr/local/linux-sun-jdk1.6.0
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/compat/linux/lib:/compat/linux/usr/lib:/usr/local/linux-sun-jdk1.6.0/jre/lib/i386
java -cp minecraft.jar net.minecraft.LauncherFrame
Get the Linux minecraft client jar file from minecraft.net and then have at it.

P.S. The game does seem to crash whenever I quit (at least the timing is convenient), but it freezes instead of dying. It likes to leave around a lot of java processes, too, so you may want to check and kill them as necessary.

¹When I tried to run the client on my FreeBSD 9 desk top, which I had logged into over ssh with X11 forwarding on from my linux laptop, the client started, but after I logged in (the point where it starts the game launcher), I'd get the error "org.lwjgl.LWJGLException: Could not choose GLX13 config" However, if I try to play Minecraft on the FreeBSD box's local display, it works, and since I can also run Minecraft locally on the linux craptop, I assume it's some issue with X11 forwarding. Since I don't plan on playing remotely normally, it's not an issue for me.
²This is the ports-supfile I use, sans comments:

*default host=cvsup6.FreeBSD.org
*default base=/var/db
*default prefix=/usr
*default release=cvs tag=.
*default delete use-rel-suffix
*default compress
ports-all

News: January 18 Will Be National We R St00p1d Day

2012-01-17T12:44:00.000-08:00

Don't ask me any questions outside of my normal expertise tomorrow, because Wikipedia is going to black out its English-language sites to protest the SOPA/PIPA bills working their way through Congress right now.

SOPA and PIPA (one is going through the House and the other through the Senate; if each passed their house they would have to be reconciled and then signed by President Obama, who has said he would not veto, to become law) would, according to pretty much all of the major Internet technology experts, break the Internet as we know it, requiring Internet service providers to blacklist websites accused (not legally convicted) of copyright infringement, and it could easily be abused beyond its prima facie purpose of restricting copyright infringement. The laws are technologically, constitutionally, commercially, and fundamentally dangerous and flawed, and could break the Internet not just philosophically, but technically.

Look, I respect copyright holders' rights. However, the main bill sponsors are the big media companies who still haven't figured out a way to deliver the content consumers want and, in the vast majority of cases, are willing to pay for if it could be delivered in a technically user-friendly, reliable, and affordable way. And the movie studios and music companies haven't figured out how to do that. These companies are literally acting like Luddites; trying to smash the technology they can't control, which they blame (in this case, wrongly) for lost revenues, by trying to stifle innovation since they can't find a business model that keeps up.

Plus, to me, the proposed government-maintained blacklist smacks of hypocrisy. We've seen revolutions in places like Egypt where the government responded by trying to block the Internet, and where our government said, and I'm quoting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton here, "For the United States, the choice is clear. On the spectrum of internet freedom, we place ourselves on the side of openness." It becomes much more difficult to condemn the Great Firewall of China when our own country starts altering basic Internet addressing and routing to block sites.

Now is a good time for Americans who are concerned about protecting the innovation and freedom of the Internet as we know it to let your elected officials know that you are concerned about SOPA and PIPA. An easy way to do so is by using the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Action Center.

I will now get off my non-partisan political soapbox and return this blog to its regularly-scheduled barrage of lolcats and bad knitting puns.

Spoonerisms: Spooner-Man

2012-01-14T23:02:00.000-08:00

To the theme of the 60s Spider-Man cartoon series:

Spooner-Man! Spooner-Man!
Doing the things a Spooner can!
Spoons a lot! He's so sweet
He's got chubby kitty feet
Look out! Here comes a Spooner-Man!

I came down with a head cold yesterday, and I'm somewhat sleep-deprived since it wouldn't let me get much sleep last night, so I'm a little loopy.

P.S. I've been singing that song to Spoon for years.

Knittin' Crap: To Boldly Go Where I Probably Shouldn't

2012-01-05T12:50:00.000-08:00

I just ~~signed up for~~ enlisted in the Starfleet Fiber Arts Corp on Ravelry. I'm probably opening myself up for a world of hurt, but at least I picked the gold uniform!

What is this madness, you say? I'm not sure, either. But according to the group page:

Welcome to the 24th century! As members of Starfleet, all players will begin the game as ensigns and be assigned to a starship. Complete monthly missions, advance in rank, earn medals and commendations and more!

Where, of course, missions involve making yarny stuff.

If you don't hear from me, you may need to check the casualty rosters for my name.

Other: Merry Freakin' Christmas!

2011-12-25T00:02:00.000-08:00

No, I haven't finished making my presents this year, let alone giving them out, so until it's safe to post the round-up, I'll leave you with these:

see more There I Fixed It

With bonus stupid criminal, holiday edition:

see more epicfails

News: 301 Moved Permanently

2011-12-16T13:59:00.001-08:00

When I mentioned the HTTP Status Codes illustrated by cats in my last post, I lamented that 301 "Moved Permanently" was absent. That situation has been rectified:

News: Geeky Kittehs

2011-12-14T20:51:00.001-08:00

Another feline FreeBSD user!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!
Best Bug Report Ever! Note the photo link!
see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!
Click on pic for more awesome kitteh starships!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!
HTTP status codes illustrated by cats! Except they're missing 301 redirects, which is the bane of my existence. Maybe I'll have to make my own...
see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

Minecraft: Perler Bead Sheep

2011-12-11T21:49:00.001-08:00

I've posted the charts for my perler bead sheep pattern.

News: The Alcoholic Edition

2011-12-09T23:33:00.001-08:00

see more Monday Through Friday
see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!
see more epicfails
see more epicfails
see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

And finally, this is totally me:

see more epicfails

Knittin' Crap: Where No Man Has Gone Before

2011-12-05T10:21:00.001-08:00

In this episode, Captain Kirk is exploring an oddly fuzzy planet, when he realizes... it's alive!

Spoonerisms: Gift Ideas for Your Cats!

2011-12-03T18:35:00.001-08:00

For the cat who has everything, make him a Roly Poly Kitty chin rest!

Spoon was only supposed to be modeling this one and got cranky when I took it away.

News: It's Funny 'Cause It's True

2011-11-27T09:45:00.001-08:00

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!
see more Monday Through Friday
see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

Minecraft: The Spoon Biome

2011-11-26T21:58:00.001-08:00

After a few prototypes, I finally have a 3-D perler bead sheep that is pretty accurate to the proportions and is structurally stable.

I'm not sure why Spoon is so worried. Maybe he's afraid he's going to morph from chunky into blocky.

Minecraft: Kids React

2011-11-25T18:47:00.001-08:00

These are cute and funny.

I <3 Morgan. "Oh my god! How did you make the farting cat?" She's a major drama queen, but the bit in the second video where she's wondering if she'll need to build a roof to her shelter... that's how a Minecrafter thinks :)

Minecraft: MineCon!

2011-11-20T19:05:00.001-08:00

One of the myriad munchkins in attendance at the only event where wearing a cardboard box on one's head makes sense.

I just arrived back from MineCon in Vegas!

I will admit, I didn't go to many of the special events. Relaxing/recovering from work was primary, while waiting in lots of lines with a surprisingly large number of hyperactive adolescents was not high on my list of priorities.

And there were a lot of kids, although overall the attendee demographics definitely favored males in their teens and 20s. Geeky males. Most of the women my age were accompanying an adolescent son (although that doesn't mean the mother doesn't play, too; the game apparently has a large family fan-base.)

There I was, minding my own business, when I suddenly heard a SSssssss sound coming from right behind me!

MineCon marks the full release of Minecraft 1.0.0. After Notch pulled the lever and zillions of kids raced to... where, exactly? I strolled up to my room and met all kinds of glorious creatures like Magma Cubes and Blazes and... yeah, that was about it. I'm too wimpy to visit The End yet.

I also partook of some other typical Vegas pursuits, although in relative moderation: some slots, the buffet, Bloody Marys for brunch... The last night, I was at the sushi bar in Mandalay Bay, having a discussion with the man sitting next to me. He said that there were about 5000 people around attending a conference for a video game. I said I was one of them. He seemed grateful that there was an adult there who could try to explain the game and its appeal with a vocabulary that consisted of more than Star Trek references spliced together with "like." (I can apparently "pass" for "normal" if I'm careful.) Another group of adults had stopped me earlier, seeing my badge, and asked me the same thing.

Me knitting at the Curse Minecraft Forums photo booth!

Anyway, it was a nice trip, a generally pleasant crowd. Mandalay Bay was an interesting place to stay, as I had never done the big resort thing before.

News: Stupid and Punishment

2011-11-19T21:36:00.001-08:00

Yup, we're talking Florida here:

see more epicfails
I bet this cat is also from Florida:

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Amazingly, not Florida, but close; Georgia:

see more epicfails
...And some more classic Southern stupidity:

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But this is from Canada!

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An infographic on the punishment of various crimes in societies throughout history
People who get computer malware are also more likely to get mugged in "meatspace."

Other: Buh-bye, Shared Items

2011-11-19T21:09:00.001-08:00

Since Google now wants you to share stories via Google+ instead of the "shared items" system I'd been using in Google Reader, I can't add new stuff to my shared Reader list anymore. So, I'm retiring the widget on the side of the blog. Here's the link to stuff I had "shared" before the change.

Air Journal: Duct Tape and Glitter Glue

2011-11-17T09:28:00.001-08:00

I finally got a replacement for the carry-on size suitcase I'd had for the better part of two decades. I just didn't feel safe putting my stuff in something being held together by duct tape and glitter glue:

The glitter glue has mostly rubbed off, but it used to be much brighter. I will always smile when I think of the first time I flew out to visit my parents after I applied it. My mother was appalled. “Mom, you’ve never tried to find a black suitcase in LAX baggage claim. Deal with it.”

Good times.

Buh-bye, old suitcase!

Minecraft: Young Frankencreeper

2011-11-07T19:26:00.001-08:00

Minecraft: Look Behind You, Dip!

2011-11-04T16:09:00.001-07:00

Minecraft: Perler Bead Madness!

2011-11-03T19:39:00.000-07:00

I have a new craft addiction: perler beads.

I missed perler bead fun when I was a kid, but when I saw these instructions for making a 3-D perler bead creeper, I had to try. I finished one today!

And because I have a bunch of other colors since I bought one of those buckets, I'm figuring out how to make a Minecraft sheep:

Spoonerisms: How I Know Autumn Has Arrived

2011-11-03T12:36:00.000-07:00

1. I wake up wedged in by cats.

2. Feline geopolitical tensions are escalating because both sides have re-entered the DMZ¹.

3. Dipity has started napping in the electric lap again.

¹ My bed, which makes me the 38th parallel.

News: Compucrap... with Cats!

2011-10-19T09:43:00.000-07:00

see more funny videos, and check out our Yo Dawg lols!
see more Monday Through Friday
The Canadian Prime Minister is using Google+ for its most transcendent purpose: posting pictures of his kittens.
see more Monday Through Friday

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

Spoon can't even fit on a 17" MacBook anymore, but he was trying pretty hard yesterday:

Minecraft: Super Blinky Light Tower!

2011-10-08T19:17:00.001-07:00

Minecraft: Super Blinky Lights!

2011-10-02T16:36:00.001-07:00

Minecraft: Misadventure Update

2011-09-24T11:12:00.000-07:00

There are buttloads of commentaries on the Minecraft 1.8 "Adventure Update" out there, but not mine... until now!

In a nutshell: thumbs down. The hunger/food-no-longer-heals-directly thing is annoying. (There's a mod that reverts back to the old method, and it will probably find its way onto RavWorld.) The additional time it takes to eat and to pull the bow are also annoying. Experience orbs are killing performance for a lot of people; that's more of an implementation catastrophe than a broken feature.

What really gets me, though, is the people who bash on people who don't like the changes. They forget that one of the reasons Minecraft has been so popular among so many different people, from hardcore gamers to people who are usually meh about video games, is that different people enjoy different aspects of the game. Some people like exploring, some people like killing monsters, some people like building grand structures, some people like building mechanisms, and some people like different combinations of the above. So here's my solution to people who don't want to read forums posts from people saying they don't like the changes: don't read the forums. And maybe realize that just because someone else doesn't play the game the way you do doesn't mean their way is less valid, dumbass. As far as they're concerned, someone broke their favorite game.

Other than the hunger thing, most of the changes are cosmetic: new biomes and other landscape features and terrain-generation improvements, plus abandoned mineshafts and strongholds. The things I like are actually small and silly, maybe because they don't break anything else: giant 'shrooms, the "so-and-so died in such-and-such-a-way" messages, and some of the attractive caverns created by the new terrain generation methods.

Spoonerisms: Prepare for Cute Overload

2011-09-21T23:38:00.000-07:00

I would totally watch that show.

Spooning²:

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I would totally buy one of their phones.

Other: Date of My Last Tetanus Shot

2011-09-21T21:05:00.000-07:00

Sept. 21, 2011

So, Monday morning I was walking to the bus stop and this ninja tree root just came out of nowhere and tripped me and I went flying. I was in the dirt when my bus went by. But after taking inventory, I realized my right knee was butt-ugly, my left elbow was a little scraped, my left palm had taken some impact, but other all parts seemed to be attached and I managed to get to my feet and walk the block home moderately normally. I washed everything out with soap and water, liberally applied Bactine, and logged back into work.

Yesterday my right knee was stiff and bruised but didn't look like it was about to fall off. This morning, though, it didn't look any better, and since I was also pretty sure I hadn't had a tetanus booster in this millennium, I made an appointment with the urgent care center and went this afternoon.

The bad news:

Yup, it's infected. The doc gave me a prescription for antibiotics, both oral and topical, in addition to a tetanus booster.

The good news:

I didn't faint after the tetanus booster, or even come close, even though the other nurse was scrubbing my tender knee at the same time. (My last few episodes with medical needles had not ended so well.)
I was out of there in an hour. That's pretty efficient.
I took the bus to the pharmacy that's about a mile from home, got my prescriptions, and walked home, stopping at Zankou for a tarna wrap...
Where they were having a falafel special. Mmmm, their falafels are yummy.

Spoonerisms: Happy 5th Spooniversary!

2011-09-13T10:37:00.000-07:00

5 years ago today, Spoon moved in!

Then:

Today (well, yesterday):

News: Geek-O-Rama

2011-09-07T22:05:00.000-07:00

This was very much how Spoon was behaving yesterday when I was trying to WFH:

The geekiest keychain rack ever (but very clever. May even keep the cats from hiding my keys every night.)
see more Monday Through Friday
see more Monday Through Friday

** I swear I've never done that. It's not my fault I have a girl's name!
The Troubadour was the first place I saw Throwing Muses play, back in, I think, '94. Anyway.
see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!
see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

Minecraft: One Woman's Addict Is Another's, Um, Aficianado

2011-08-31T00:27:00.000-07:00

Only 60%? Wow. My 18-pound paperweight cat is more likely to kill me!

I do take issue with the "You start Minecraft by..." question. It's skewed toward GUI OSes. I just type !java in my shell because the command line is in my history.

Minecraft: And Friends

2011-08-30T22:35:00.000-07:00

see more Memebase and check out our Troll Face lols!

My MONSTER Monster Smasher!

Also:

PLUS: I'm going to MineCon in November! Whee! My only trepidation is fear of excess creeper cosplay. And being in a hotel room next to creeper cosplayers having loud creeper cosplay sex. HHhhhh.

Spoonerisms: Boss Kittehs

2011-08-23T20:00:00.000-07:00

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

A company is now selling wall-mounted cat toys that are controlled over the web. A few shelters have installations, but their kittens are plumb worn-out from all the attention, plus you need the oogy Microsoft Silverlight browser plug-in, so only enlightened people on unenlightened OSes can play.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

see more Monday Through Friday

Just yesterday, Spoon somehow "convinced" me to clear off what used to be Pandora's spot next to the monitor. It had grown cluttered and disused in her absence. I was a little spooked because he was extremely subtle yet effective.

Metro Journal: Aug 19 That's So Pants!

2011-08-20T11:55:00.000-07:00

On the way home, I picked up some beer from the Target at the Glendale Galleria and then caught the 180. The YMD^* sitting next to my beer had his pants belted around the tops of his thighs. He was busy taking pictures of all his pals with his camera phone, so hey, I took a picture of his attire.

^*Young Male Dumbass. I should probably just go ahead and make a tag for that.

Word of the Day

2011-08-19T22:09:00.000-07:00

I was inspired to coin a new word today.

somnambusudo (v) To execute commands as root while asleep.

Example: After getting woken up way too early by a work emergency, I spent the rest of the day at work somnambusudoing.

Spoonerisms: Butt-Crawl Moratorium

2011-08-17T00:07:00.000-07:00

It's been a little over a week since Dipity's first dose of the de-worming medication, and she doesn't get the second half for several days, but I realized I haven't seen her do the butt-crawl^* in several days.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

^*A Brad-ism.

Spoonerisms: Memento For Cats

2011-08-09T11:45:00.001-07:00

Last night I had to give Dipity the first dose of her de-worming medication. It's two doses of 1.5 pills 2 weeks apart. She is a majorly wiggly kitty, but I managed to wrap her in a towel and get her to swallow both pieces. (I shook everything out and checked the area under the chair she ran to afterward to make sure she hadn't spit anything out.)

Five minutes later I sat down on the couch, and she came right up and sprawled across my lap for some loving. No memory at all. Good thing I never watched Memento with her.

Minecraft: Ms Frog's Crazy Drive Now Open!

2011-08-06T15:07:00.000-07:00

And here's the circuit room in action:

Spoonerisms/Knittin' Crap: Double-teaming Photo Hogs!

2011-08-05T16:58:00.000-07:00

One picture, two cats, one sweater which I finished last night and won't be able to wear for two months without melting. sigh

Spoonerisms: Happy Dippy Anniversary!

2011-08-04T11:37:00.000-07:00

Two years ago today, Dipity walked up to me and introduced herself.

Minecraft: Coming Soon! Ms Frog's Crazy Drive!

2011-08-02T09:31:00.000-07:00

I've started working on a theme park ride in my backyard on the Ravelry server. Here's the progress so far:

Knittin' Crap: Wipeout!

2011-07-25T22:45:00.000-07:00

Well, I totally didn't come anywhere near close to the damned Champs-Élysées. I did get more than halfway through a long-sleeved pullover (women's medium) knitted at an absurdly small gauge, though, so I still feel like I accomplished something. Here it is (the body, knit in the round (like a tube), with the back finished to the shoulder edge and starting on the front past the armhole division):

You know you're a total geek when...

2011-07-19T08:37:00.000-07:00

You sing the 1982 Flash Gordon theme, by Queen, to your cat with the following lyrics: "Spoon, ahhh-ahhh, Savior of the Spooniverse!"

News: Bus Person Car

2011-07-18T21:25:00.000-07:00

IRL:

see more That Will Buff Out

Bus wins!

Problem Drivers Are Problem People.
Amazing Rail Lines That Were Never Built. Love the Transatlantic!
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A stitch in time saves nine applies to road repairs, too.
High gas prices have more of an effect on public transit ridership than lowering fares. Of course, if your transit options suck ass, like they often do in Los Angeles, you're screwed either way.
Those jay-walking deer!

see more funny videos, and check out our Yo Dawg lols!
5 Myths About Americans and Cars
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You know you're a total geek when...

2011-07-18T13:51:00.000-07:00

... you have a cat sitting on either side of you and you put a hand on each one and say, "I'm completing the cuteness circuit!"

Minecraft: Data Mining

2011-07-15T22:19:00.001-07:00

see more Funny Graphs

Except I live alone so I don't even have to waste time dying.
The only thing that would make me nuttier than when a creeper blows me up when I'm carrying diamonds is sewing all those hundreds of little squares together in this creeper plushie pattern.
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Um, ew. Those don't look all that appetizing.

And what happens when kitty doesn't see the creeper coming!

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You Know You're a Total Geek When...

2011-07-15T22:15:00.000-07:00

... you see "Protect IP" and wonder who the hell is trying to mess with the Internet Protocol? (My first guess is always Microsoft. They generally have some proprietary standard they want to foist on us.)

Knittin' Crap: La rainure de fil est revenue

2011-07-11T13:13:00.000-07:00

While I have pretty much no hope of completing the pullover before the end of the Tour de France, I persevere. The yarn groove on the back of my left finger, which I use to tension the yarn, has also reappeared.

Spoonerisms: More of Me To Love, Baby

2011-07-11T12:12:00.000-07:00

Spoon has been sneezing intermittently, so I took his fat ass to the vet Friday. When the assistant put him on the scale, I was in for the shock: he now tops the scales at over 18 pounds. He'd been hovering south of 17 pounds last time he'd been there. I didn't realize he'd... grown... so much.

He is now on a diet. Right now we're trying the "get the skinny cat to dine at the all-you-can-eat buffet on top of the fridge" method, but Dipity isn't taking to that too well. I have to pick her up and put her up there, and then she'll generally look to jump down before eating anything unless the downstairs food dish has been empty long enough. I even moved their ceramic dish, which makes a satisfying noise when you put the food in, up there, but maybe I'll have to start putting surprises in there, like kid's cereal.

Anyway... now I know why the fat Spoon mushes the sofa cushions...

P.S. The vet said the sneezing may be due to allergies. I forgot to ask if cats can get seasonal hay fever the way humans can.

Spoonerisms: Prime Real Estate

2011-07-07T22:00:00.000-07:00

Apparently I created the new cool place to be, just by folding up the squares blanket and draping across the back of the sofa.

Dipity was the first one to hang out there. Note how she can just drape over it. Of course, partly because he's always loved the blanket and partly because Dipity thought it was cool, Spoon had to start hanging out there, too. He even managed to steal the spot from Dipity. Just by sitting down in her personal space.

Spoon, instead of draping elegantly, mashes the hell out of the cushion. Ah, well.

Metro Journal: NextBus

2011-07-07T10:01:00.000-07:00

The LA County MTA has finally added its bus system to NextBus, the online service which gives real-time bus arrival times based on the GPS locations of the buses. Unfortunately, I've found that "real-time" can be +/- 5 minutes, usually 5 minutes behind the actual arrival time, which means it's still possible to miss the bus. Also, there's no separate Android app for it, and the web interface is rather annoying. Still when taking a line that isn't always punctual or when trying to decide which of multiple viable lines looks like the better option, it's nice to have.

They've started putting up these signs with the NextBus stop number and occasionally qor codes to make it easier to use the service. Sometimes the sign placement is more sensible than at others. At one of the stops I take near work, the sign is 7' up the pole. I had to look for it. Dude, I can barely see it, and I'm not super-short.

Knittin' Crap: Je Suis Absolument Folle

2011-07-03T11:51:00.000-07:00

It's Tour de France time again, and like a total nutcase, I decided to go for the yellow jersey, the big challenge, the... long-sleeved pullover in fingering-weight yarn.

I am seriously nuts. And if I'm not already, this seed stitch bottom band which is taking me forever to work will certainement finish the job.

Spoonerisms: Left-handed Kitty

2011-06-25T15:28:00.001-07:00

Dipity is left-handed. I don't mean she favors her south paw. I mean she favors mine.

Every morning when I start waking up and she wants her morning head-scratching, she comes and lies against my left side. If Spoon already happens to be there, we have issues. She refuses to get comfortable on the right side (which is the side closest to the door, which may be a factor.) She stares at Spoon until he sort of gets the hint and circles around, and then she can have her spot. She stretches out against my side with her head facing toward my feet. I am then expected to scratch her head, which she often places out of reach of my hand, manipulating me to twist around, and to scratch her hindquarters.

Now it's spread to the couch. She wouldn't spend much time on the couch for the first year or so, perceiving it as Spoon's territory, as he's often on there if I am. But she's gotten more comfortable there, and she prefers to stretch out on, surprise, my left side, head facing away from me. (Hmmm, wonder if I should start wearing a bag over my head.)

News: Morning Funnies

2011-06-23T08:37:00.000-07:00

Need to steel yourself against another day slaving away? Yeah, so do I. So here are some funnies:

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see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

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Knittin' Crap: More Camera Hoggin'

2011-06-16T20:24:00.000-07:00

It's been almost 2 years since I posted a gallery of Spoon's camera hogginess, and he certainly hasn't let up in that time, so here goes, from oldest to newest.

Note that the last one, which I took yesterday, was the only picture of that cardigan I took in the fading sunlight that was even vaguely in focus. And it was the one he stuck his head in. He is master picture thief!

Dipity occasionally strolls into a picture, but she just can't hijack one quite like Spoon.

Knittin' Crap: Rescue Nests

2011-06-13T10:00:00.001-07:00

Last fall I sent a dozen of these rescue nests to Valley Wildlife Care in the San Fernando Valley. They take in injured and ill wild animals and nurse them to health with the hopes of releasing them back into the wild. I found the pattern on Ravelry and hoped VWC could get some use out of them. Additionally, since big box acrylic is ideal for the nests both for its durability and washability, I could use up a lot of the stuff I had and hate to death.

I guess they're getting a lot of use of the things, too, because they've asked me for more. I started working on them again, because I still have plenty of that despised acrylic, except I had forgotten how slow-going they are to make. The gauge needs to be really tight so little legs don't poke through and get stuck, and cheap acrylic is painful enough to begin with. Ouch. As long as I break it up into short sessions, though, I can get them done. And it's for the little baby animals!

Anyway, for those who also have acrylic yarn they'd like to use up and to help a good cause (there are plenty of these rescue groups all over; you can find one near you, too), Laurie Bailty has posted the pattern here, free for non-profit use, for both crocheted and knitted versions.

News: Random Round-up

2011-06-05T22:55:00.000-07:00

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Epic infographic on the science of traffic jams. Although it doesn't reduce it to the actual root cause of traffic jams: the science of human stupidity.
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Some pylons for electrical power lines in Iceland have been changed to look humanoid. When the human race is gone and the aliens come and excavate our planet, what are they going to think when they dig up those? "Their religion centered on giant metal men connected by cables, signifying the inter-connectedness of the individual."
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I'm just wondering if they made a separate version with the women removed so it could be printed in that Orthodox Jewish, Brooklyn-based newspaper which photoshopped the women present out of the photograph they printed....

Metro Journal: May 24 Crosswalk Rage, Part n

2011-06-05T22:45:00.000-07:00

(where n is very large)

I came thisclose to getting mowed down in the crosswalk with the crossing light. I got off my bus in the morning. The stop is one crosswalk + ½ a block to the office. How much can go wrong? I hit the crossing light, the light came on, and as I was crossing, this asshole making a left turn onto the street I was crossing almost hit me, having to slam on his brakes, stopping less than a yard from me. His car even stalled. I turned, gave him the "WTF IS YOUR FUCKING PROBLEM, DUMBASS?" look and gesture and he gave me a very sheepish look and tried to start his car while I just walked to the office. I was already cranky (it had already been a long week and this was... Tuesday!) and in fact, this was not the most annoying part of my day.

A week later, another asshole making a left turn almost hit me in the exact same crosswalk. He stopped further out, but seriously, WTF? In the previous year, I'd crossed that street 100 times without almost getting mowed over.

Minecraft: RavWorld L-Train

2011-05-30T15:32:00.000-07:00

I have now combined my obsessions with public transportation, Minecraft, and yarn into one! This holiday weekend I made an elevated train for the Ravelry Minecraft group server.

Here's the loop, counterclockwise:

The loop, clockwise, at night:

And the first RavWorld L-Train multi-player accident, caught on film!

News: More Fakebook Follies

2011-05-25T20:44:00.000-07:00

Since craigslist banned "adult services" ads, prostitutes have been flocking to Facebook.
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(We are all going to assume that the cat has a thyroid issue, ok?)
According to this, I am apparently much cooler now than I was "then."
Because of yet another bug, Facebook has been exposing the supposedly-private information of millions of users for years.
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You wanna bet "Dan" doesn't get invited to any more family reunions?

And not Facebook, but we all know I hate Apple just as much:

I've been saying Apple is a cult of nutjobs for years now, but brain imaging research has proven me right.

Spoonerisms: Kitties are Scientists, too!

2011-05-23T23:37:00.001-07:00

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Well, this one is more of a philosopher:

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Minecraft: Lo-res Public Transit, or, How I Spent My Weekend...

2011-05-23T19:49:00.000-07:00

...or, rather, how I spent my weekend until the network at work crapped out and I had to stay logged on and keep telling them that, no, still slow, no, still way too slow, no, taking 6 minutes to transfer a 900kb file is not normal, kthxnbai.

But, before that, I started a public transportation system on the private server I play on (does that make it an oxymoron?) using the recently-introduced powered rails. Here's a video of the ride so far:

News: Cool Stuff

2011-05-21T17:17:00.000-07:00

"The Wire" considered as a Victorian social novel... instead of one of the most amazing shows ever made for television.
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I make no apologies for thinking this is cool. Ask Brad about the Kirk Mutant Ninja Turtle I gave him all those years ago...
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I had to hide this site from my cats, because they're not getting anything that fancy. Except maybe the beer tower.
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A ukulele-playing Japanese band consisting of... amigurumi
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News: WTF Round-up

2011-05-18T20:23:00.000-07:00

A suitably whacked-looking man, in Florida, of course, spent 3 days in his motorized mobility chair chasing around a woman. Presumably the woman spent 3 days not calling the police.
An impressive WTF:

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Ummmm.....
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Ooooh, I can return them without hassle? Why didn't someone tell me? I might have tried having one.
Infamous Chinese iPhone manufacturing ~~sweat-shop~~ sterling employer Foxconn now requires its workers to sign a pact not to commit suicide.
A NY Orthodox Jewish newspaper photoshopped out the women present in the now-famous Bin Laden take-down situation room photo, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Dude, WTF?
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Just... facepalm...
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I'm giving that thing about a month before it gets banned on city buses everywhere after multiple impalement-of-other-riders-when-the-driver-has-to-slam-on-the-brakes incidents. Seriously, folks, someone's going to get an eye poked out!
And finally...

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News: Who's The Boss?

2011-05-18T19:46:00.000-07:00

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Except I always end up in the meeting where I'm either getting grilled about something or it's with that asshole who is always blathering on about absolutely nothing so he can feel important and (fail to) impress his colleagues and waste my time in general and isn't even the boss. And did I mention no one even brings us donuts?
Well, the obvious answer is the cat is the boss:

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Totally doing this, and maybe not even waiting until next April Fools day.
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Instructions on making a yarn swift from an office swivel chair. Finally, a chance to do something truly productive at work.
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A report shows that workers will destroy their own computers to get an upgrade. I know mine is going to commit suicide by jumping in front of an oncoming bus any day now unless my next upgrade request gets approved...
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Funny, that's also how cat owners tend to spend their tax refund...
And finally, leaving you with this inspiring thought:

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Minecraft: Artsy-Fartsy

2011-05-13T11:51:00.000-07:00

I've cut out all the pieces from this awesome Mine(Paper)craft project, but they're sitting in my desk drawer at work, waiting for my next nervous breakdown for assembly.
Share and try out seeds for the coolest Minecraft worlds.
Minecraft as a teaching tool.
The Smithsonian's American Art Museum will host an exhibition next year of "The Art of Video Games." Included on the list are my great love, Fallout; my great disappointment, Fallout 3 (Fallout 2 is missing); and... Minecraft! And a bunch of games, most of which I never heard of or gave a crap about, because before Minecraft I was too busy playing Fallout 1 & 2 over and over. Or something.
I would totally get one of these if it came in diamond. But these magnets are pretty cool, too.

Air Journal: Bird- and Creeper-Watching

2011-05-13T09:58:00.000-07:00

I went to Virginia for several days this past week to visit my aunt and uncle before the oppressive summer heat and humidity kicked in. Trip highlights:

Because I refuse to pay money to check a bag unless absolutely necessary, I didn't check a bag. No one blinked at the metal knitting needles in my suitcase.
Because no one wants to pay $25 to check a friggin' bag, the overhead bins fill beyond capacity on most flights these days. While we were boarding, they were again announcing the bit about putting your smaller carry-on item under the seat in front of you, etc., but certain rows didn't have that option, so they would have to put it in the overheads. The guy walking in front of me put both his suitcase and his backpack in the overhead bin. I was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, like maybe he was seated in one of the mentioned rows, but no, he was just a dick who is Special and Above the Rules. Asshole. Good thing I'm not a flight attendant or I would have taken the thing out of the bin and shoved it under his seat with a very brutal smile.
I almost didn't recognize my aunt Mary at the airport. Her hair had turned completely white. She was still short, though.
I was her enabler for visiting yarn shops. On Cary St. in the artsy-fartsy area, we were walking from a yarn shop to a Thai restaurant (she had never had Thai food before), when I saw this chalk drawing on one of the ubiquitous brick walls in Richmond:
We drove out to my grandmother's farm near Charlottesville, where everyone and their Beltway brother is now building their ugly "farm-house style" McMansion where there used to be real, working farmhouses. Outside, I dodged a dragonfly trying to divebomb me. Geez, I hate those things! I forgot how many, well, insects there are there. Here's a view of the Blue Ridge Mountains from the farm:
My aunt and uncle keep bird feeders in their backyard. While the hummingbirds have been absent this year, perhaps victims of the severe winter, there were still more birds than I see here in artificially-green desert. While the red-headed woodpecker we saw last time didn't show (its tree died and was taken out), we did see:
- House finches -- by far the most common
- Cowbirds
- At least two pairs of cardinals
- Grackles, with their striking light-colored eyes and brilliant iridescence
- English (house) sparrows
- A male red-bellied woodpecker, which actually has no red on its belly, but does have a striking neon-orange stripe on its head, which makes it look like a punk rocker
- I think the other woodpecker was the downy woodpecker, but we only saw a female and only once or twice.
- Starlings
- Doves
- The ubiquitous robin, which I miss out here. They also love splashing around in the birdbath.
I somehow managed to avoid smacking my head getting into my seat until the last connecting flight home. I have a nice lump on my forehead.
I was sitting next to a young woman who could not be not touching her MacBook, and what appeared to be her grandfather. As we were landing, she turned to the elderly man and told him she didn't think it would be a problem at the car rental place, but she just remembered both of them have expired drivers licenses. "But we're still licensed drivers." Um, no, you're not. Hence the "expired" bit. I was sorely tempted to follow them to the car rental place and laugh, but instead...
I went to catch the Flyaway bus to Union Station (I flew out of BUR but flew into LAX for price and scheduling reasons). $7. Free (well, included in my monthly pass) bus ride from Union Station home. Ok, it took about 2 hours, but it would have taken a little less if I hadn't been waiting at the wrong corner for the connecting bus. And it has often taken that long with a shuttle, because you wait 20 minutes for them to come around, then you wait another 30 minutes while they keep circling the damn airport, then you're inevitably the last one off and all the people getting dropped off first all live 15 miles from the freeway, so it takes at least 2 hours to get home anyway. So I feel smug now :P
Kitties were happy to see me! Yay! They quickly got over the smell of my aunt's two dogs. Or they're plotting their revenge for later, when it is a dish best served cold...

News: Dumbass Round-up

2011-05-03T21:35:00.000-07:00

I am super mega-cranky today, so here are a bunch of dumbasses for your, um, enjoyment.

Apparently craploads of people are asking "Who is Osama bin Laden?" on Yahoo! Answers, and they're almost all dumbass teenagers who, while yes, are too young to remember 9/11, have apparently not visited anything other than the Entertainment news section of a web site in the past decade. WTF?
This teenage dumbass experiences instant karma. Well, 1-hour karma.

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This dumbass decided to rob a convenience store while wearing pants so baggy, they had to be held up with one hand at all times. Unfortunately for the dumbass, both his hands were full.

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Dressing your cat in a pink tutu? Man, you deserve anything you get for that.

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After this sign went up, McDonalds was shocked to see a 20% drop in cheezburger sales.
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Not sure who the bigger dumbass is here, the suspect carrying a chair out the door or the police who didn't notice some dude was walking out of the building cuffed to a chair.

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The United States Postal Service managed to issue a Statue of Liberty stamp featuring a stock picture not of the actual Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island, but of the not-totally-accurate replica in Las Vegas. Morons.

After all this amalgamated stupidity, I am down with this cat:

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Other: Fun With Phonetics

2011-05-03T19:59:00.000-07:00

I was driving out to the PetSmart after work because (a) by the time I got my butt motivated to leave this morning, the buses became annoyingly sparse, which mean that (b) I needed to justify driving to work and buying 30 pounds of cat litter will do it and (c) I got totally fed up with the local Petco because I never seemed to spend less than 15 minutes in line, so I refuse to go there anymore. The closest PetSmart is in Tujunga, and even though I'd been there before, I can never remember how to get there. I was using the Google voice navigation on my phone, and among other "quirks," it came up with some interesting pronunciations of street names.

Tujunga Canyon Rd. Ok, although there are many, many streets here with Spanish names, they never get pronounced correctly; they've been, um, anglified. "Tujunga" is an exception or at least close to one, as the 'j' is pronounced like an 'h'. Except the Google lady was using a hard 'j'. "Tuh-jun-ga Canyon Rd." Ok, so eventually I turn onto Foothill. That's a real English word, right? "Fooh-thill." Double fail. Well, I did get there, but still.

Knittin' Crap: Spoon Invades Photo, Gets Forked, News at 11

2011-05-02T13:21:00.000-07:00

The Camera Hog struck again, but this time he got a little freaked out by my latest FO:

That's Beastie, the FreeBSD daemon.

News: More Backlog

2011-04-30T10:56:00.000-07:00

Some more of the old, saved items I have:

Work-related:

No, really, I want to know if this is a real building, because I'm pretty sure I used to work there...

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The 6 Crappiest Interview Questions. Man, I really hate some of those.
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Actually, with Spoon on my bed, there's barely enough room for me.

Miscellany:

Thinking ahead... it is a difficult concept...

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A, yes, very cool info-graphic showing which country would be where on the map if population correlated to landmass size.
Cool crayon wrappers replacing Crayola's imprecise names with the chemicals used to formulate the colors. Now I'm getting a crayon craving. (No, I never ate them.)

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Word of the Day

2011-04-27T21:42:00.000-07:00

dwab (n): acronym for Dog With A Bone; applied to a person who will not let go of an idea or conspiracy theory no matter how moronic it is. And the breed in question is generally one of those useless, small, annoying yip yip dogs, like my neighbor's Pomeranian, which spends all day barking at absolutely nothing.

Example: Donald Trump is a total dwab with his Obama birther theories, and he looks like a total dumbass at this point.

Knittin' Crap: Spoon Levels Up

2011-04-22T13:52:00.000-07:00

While Steve and I were watching South Park last night, I felted the final wizard hat prototype in his washing machine, which, yes, I managed to unbalance even though the ounce of wool was the only thing in there.

Spoon, now a full-fledged fur-conjuring mage (it is summer-shedding season, after all), models reluctantly:

Actually, come to think of it, he did manage to come back from the dead. At least, he looked pretty dead the other day:

News: Closeouts

2011-04-22T11:40:00.000-07:00

I love yarn closeouts. I get high-quality yarn cheap. And then I realize 2 years later I don't have enough for my sweater so I scramble to find more of it. Crap.

Some of these have been sitting in my starred items folder for awhile, so I'm clearing it out.

Geeky:

Someone built a replica of a Fallout plasma rifle. Maybe I'll crochet one for Brad for Xmas. Or not.
It's been several months since I first read this piece on some dumb-ass AMD executive who is furthering gender and geek stereotypes, and I still want to bitchslap the woman.
Word.

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Just plain mind-bogglingly wacky:

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Awesome! All my friends and I could crash for one low price!
These photos that Life magazine apparently printed in 1942 look like something out of a bad 60s low-budget horror movie, but apparently the venerable magazine saw fit to report on voodoo hex parties that took place during WWII aimed at killing Hitler with the power of the occult. Or something. Yes, humans have always been nuts.

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Spoonerisms: That Darned Cat! Redux

2011-04-13T22:16:00.001-07:00

Today was a Very Long Day. Crap broke at work, so I effectively worked 11 hours straight, yes, counting the time on the bus both ways where I was either online or IMing about work from my phone or on a conference call. So the last thing I need when I finally walk in the door is Dipity going the other way. So of course that's what happened.

I went and checked on her a couple times over the first hour and a half, but didn't push it too hard since it was still relatively early and the fact that she hadn't been fed before her escape and that it was getting very chilly out would only work in my favor. I was not, however, prepared to hear her making pathetic noises outside my front door. She has never in the half dozen or more times she has escaped in the 1½ years since she showed up come back to my apartment on her own. And, actually, when I opened the door, she wasn't there. But I heard the pathetic mews from downstairs and I called her up and she came! And she came in on her own! And after she ate, she got on my lap and gave me some loving.

So, in the end, this dark cloud had a silver lining. And some enormous blue eyes.

Knittin' Crap: Spoon the Saggy-cious

2011-04-06T22:37:00.000-07:00

Spoon in the lap + mini wizard hat + camera phone =>

His only real magic power is the ability to conjure a layer of white cat hair onto everything I own.

Meanwhile, you can see how much the yarn in the hats felted in this side-by-side comparison of one of the original two prototypes with the third, not-yet-felted hat:

Spoonerisms: That Darned Cat! Coda

2011-03-30T17:01:00.001-07:00

Shortly after my previous post, I went back out to check on the ready-to-come-inside status. Dipity was against a wall but not behind a bush. I slowly approached, got just close enough so she could sniff my hand... but after a quick whiff, she showed no interest. Then she did a meow-that-turns-into-a-yawn, so I took my chance and grabbed her. Awkwardly. I got her by the scruff of her side (hey, the skin is loose), she let out a blood-curdling howl and nearly removed one of my fingers, but I managed to wrestle her into a secure hold and we went upstairs. (For some reason, she shut up as soon as I had a firm grip, even though she clearly wasn't happy.)

She jumped out of my arms once we were in and visited the food dish. I sat down to untie my shoes. Before I could stand up, she was in my lap. "ZOMG, I was stuck outside and there was this strange woman stalking me and she sounded kind of like you but I know that was just a coincidence and then she grabbed me and I was so scared! I missed you!" Gee, I missed you, too, stupid cat. Then she got down about 30 seconds later for more food and I got up. I ambled to bed and she was snuggling me within a couple minutes.

Hard to stay mad when she makes those big blue goo-goo eyes at me.

Spoonerisms: That Darned Cat!

2011-03-30T01:16:00.000-07:00

It's 1:20AM, I am soooooooooooooo tired, and I just want to sleep, dammit! But Dipity escaped earlier and now acts like she doesn't know me from Adam, so I can't get near her to catch her. So while I wait for her to get cold and hungry enough that she'll remember me, I'm going to try to remind myself how much I love kitties! Even though I'm soooooooooooo tired and that little blue-eyed vixen is torturing me! Love da kitties!

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Kitteh going to kick their asses!

Kitty anatomy with the scientific terms devised by cat lovers:

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Kitty anatomy using the language of freaked-out ailurophobes:

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Spoon must have gone through the same tail factory. His is the right color but looks like it's about 4 sizes too small.

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I don't know why, and I don't want to know why, but that picture reminds me of the 80s cheezfest song "Total Eclipse of the Heart."

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And last week, Dipity and Spoon were... almost buddies:

Knittin' Crap: Wizard Pasties!

2011-03-23T12:02:00.000-07:00

Well, not really. They're mini-prototypes for a sorcerer's hat I got sucked into making. They'd been sitting around unfelted for months, but last night I finally got to commandeer Steve's washing machine, which gets unbalanced if I even look at it wrong, and they felted up nicely. I'm using Valley Yarns Berkshire, which is a soft wool/alpaca blend.

Measurements for the pointier hat (on the left):

	Before felting	After felting
Height	4"	2.875"
Brim diameter	7.75"	6.875"
Opening diameter	4.5"	2.5"

I'm going to make one more prototype, with a slightly more pronounced cone, and then move on to the full-sized hat.

News: Kittens are Crack

2011-03-18T09:30:00.000-07:00

It's been a very long week at work, so I'm just going to post cute and funny things that make me smile or laugh or go, "AAAaaaawwwwwwwwww!!!!!.

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AAaaawwwwwwww!

This embed isn't working, but it's a really cute video of a sloth!

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AAaaawwwwwwww!

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AAaaawwwwwwww! Tee hee!

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Have I mentioned how many bajillion times I've seen Star Trek II? Can't resist a bad pun using it!

* Charlie Sheen rant as enacted by lolcats!

Totoro and kitteh in one place!

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And finally, my week in review:

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There may shortly be a part 2 to this post, because I have a lot of cuteness stockpiled, and did I mention it's been a really long week?

Knittin' Crap: Octoscarf

2011-03-08T13:27:00.000-08:00

Over on Puzzle Pirates, Tilinka organized an Octoscarf Knit/Crochet-a-long Challenge. I cannot generally resist such a challenge, especially when there are prizes! As I'd recently discovered crochet Bruges lace, which is often worked with a central winding ribbon, the undulating of octopus tentacles made me think of it. I didn't work it in a traditional fashion but used it as a starting point. Here's what I came up with:

The competition is pretty fierce, though, and there's still a week to enter.

Metro Journal: Mar 7 Highlights and Low-lifes

2011-03-08T00:08:00.000-08:00

Highlights of my morning bus ride:

Me, with the laptop open, tethered to my phone, because I was running late and, yeah, had to start yet another CMR.
The dude audibly snoring.
The guy sitting in right behind the driver in that blind spot, holding an open container. And I don't mean an open container of, say, a latte. Unless he had mixed milk in his beer can.
The guy who got on the bus without pausing his cell phone conversation. The driver had to tell him to step behind the line. Then he lost his connection (it was downtown Burbank and I know my reception gets spotty there), so then he told the driver he needs to get off at San Fernando "Avenue or Street." The driver tried to explain that the bus doesn't intersect with San Fernando (Road, thank you very much), but actually turns onto it for several miles, then gets off it for several miles, then gets back on, etc. The guy had no idea what his cross street was and went back to fiddling with the phone. I went back to fiddling with my CMR, so I can't report on his fate.

Knittin' Crap: Seriously Belated Xmas Roundup

2011-03-04T12:02:00.000-08:00

I don't know why I didn't get around to this earlier (although, yes, I do have my suspicions), but here's the Xmas gift round-up for 2010:

Who	What	Why
Brad	Tom Servo from Mystery Science Theater 3000	Because of all those hours we spent watching MST3k...
Caden	Pattern by Cheezombie	What little boy doesn't like dinosaurs?
Fabrice	Pattern from Japanese Lucky Cat amigurumi book	To bring some good luck
Mary	Pattern from Japanese book Amigurumi Collection 2	She likes small, high-strung, yippy dogs. At least this one is quiet.
Steve		Who doesn't need a zip-it voodoo doll?

Air Journal: Heather'n'Dave'n'Noelle-a-thon

2011-03-03T19:03:00.001-08:00

A month ago, I took a very long weekend to visit Heather'n'Dave in the Seattle area. Here's a rundown of the visit:

I took the bus to the airport. I cut the schedule a little close, and then my first bus was a little late, so I missed the connecting bus. I got there with plenty of time to check in, but apparently my bag didn't. When I got to SeaTac, my bag didn't. Plus, there was additional confusion because there were big snowstorms throughout the Midwest, down into Texas. It was the day American canceled something like 600 flights, and while I wasn't flying American, the delays were affecting all the airlines. So, they didn't know exactly where my bag was or when it would get to the dreary Pacific Northwest.
I took a bus to Bellevue. Whee! (Some people may be thinking it was about time I ended up in Bellevue, but that's the wrong one.)
I warned Heather I was really braindead. Because work is perennially crazy these days, and, well, I was braindead.
I had not quite managed to finish my baby shower gift for H'n'D before getting there, but I managed to finish about an hour after sitting down on their couch:
I officially presented it to them the next day (like they didn't know what was coming), along with a gift for their first-grader, Noelle:

Later I had to impersonate a jellyfish, because apparently that's what sea turtles eat.
Noelle really liked watching me play Minecraft. She especially liked watching sheep get dyed various colors.
The second evening, we went to the International District. Heather and Dave and found a promising Chinese restaurant on-line called the Red Lantern. We parked a few blocks away and when we got to the street it was on, Dave said, "There are red lanterns in that restaurant. That must be the place." Then I pointed out that there were also red lanterns in the place two doors down from that one. Turns out that neither one was The Red Lantern, which was on the next block.
Afterwards, we went to Daiso, which is kind of a Japanese dollar store. I had heard of them before, but there aren't any near LA, so I'd never been. It was awesome. They had yarn, plus cool pill boxes which are great notions carriers, and these adorable little 3"-long pound cake tins.
I now can't walk over a zebra-striped crossing without going, "White line! White line!"
We reminisced about Pandora, who had delivered herself to H'n'D all those years ago in Glendora so she could then take over my life. I miss that cat.
They have a big tuxedo cat named Marmaduke. He's about the same temperament as Spoon and about the same weight, but somehow he looks bigger. I think it's because Duke has a big paunch which makes him look like he swallowed a cantelope whole, whereas Spoon's avoir dupois is more evenly distributed along his body.
It rained a lot.
Dave showed me their backyard, which is on a hill, so they're having it terraced. Right now, it's mostly a big pile of dirt. Basically, they're playing Minecraft in their backyard.
I got to hear all about Bellevue infrastructure politics. It sounds dirtier than Dave's backyard.
Monday morning, I took the bus back to SeaTac.
At the security checkpoint, the person in front of me and the person behind me were sent through the pornoscanner, but I got waved through the regular X-ray machine. Score!
When I got to BUR, my bag was once again not at the claim. Ugh. Apparently several people from my flight had the same issue. Lucky for me, my bag had actually beaten me this time and was waiting for me. The others were not so lucky.
Dipity was insanely happy to see me. Spoon was confused because Dipity was insanely happy to see me and that's usually his job.

All in all, I had an excellent time. It may not have been exciting, but I didn't need excitement. I needed Minecraft spectators and Japanese dollar stores and the like.

And congratulations to Heather and Dave, who welcomed their daughter Lily on Monday.

News: There Will Be Cake!

2011-02-26T12:04:00.000-08:00

Transportation stuff:

A dumbass who (allegedly) killed a man because she just had to update her Facebook page while she was driving (I'd love to see that update) is being sued by the victim's family. The defendant is arguing that she posted the update a few minutes earlier but server lag kept it from getting posted immediately. Seriously, though, the source of truth would be her phone carrier, which knows when the phone is in use. Techno-ignorant lawyers and journalists not asking the right questions once again make me want to smack them.
Yes, this totally qualifies as transportation. A baby elephant becomes a pedestrian! It's amazing how all the adults are swarming around, helping support the baby.
This one leaves me speechless:

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I guess there was nothing in the original Oregon Trail game about getting hit by someone (allegedly) updating their Facebook page while driving, so dysentery will have to do!

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A 2-year-old bus-loving Seattle-area boy got this awesome cake for his birthday:

Lolcat break:

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Stupid criminals:

This dumbass (from Florida, of course), kept calling 911 to check up on local deputies. The 16th of these phone calls, when he got drunk and dialed 911 to tell the police to arrest "the media," got him arrested for making false 911 calls. The very same day, a woman in the same county was also arrested for making false 911 calls after she got into a scuffle with her nail technician and kept calling even after a deputy had arrived.
This moron in Maryland was stealing jewelry from a home when the owner arrived. The burglar fled, but forgot his phone, which he had left plugged into the wall because his own house had lost power in the severe snow storms a month ago.
YMD (Young Male Dumbass) burglars in the Chicago area killed 3 goldfish because they "didn't want to leave any witnesses."

Those morons could all take a lesson from this cat:

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Minecraft: Build Mania

2011-02-26T11:39:00.000-08:00

I started playing on another server associated with Ravelry a couple weeks ago. I've built a glass McMansion, complete with greenhouse wing, petting zoo wing, and giant weird water-and-lava globe:

Yesterday, thanks to this sudden sore throat which left me without enough energy to leave the couch, I finished my giant gumball machine:

In other minecraft news;

This awesome live-action Minecraft short:
Minecraft has hit the big time! It's had its own xkcd strip!
I am totally adding Minecraft to my resume:

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Metro Journal/Whiteboard Jungle/Other: Highlights of My Day

2011-02-16T18:58:00.000-08:00

It started raining during the night. Walking to the bus stop this morning, I forgot about this spot on the sidewalk which always aspires to be the Marianas Trench. Forgot about it until I stepped in it, I mean.
A guy sleeping on the bus apparently woke up after his stop and started yelling at the driver to stop immediately.
There was a woman on the bus with two young, loud daughters. At some point I heard the mother say, "How can you be afraid of something you've never seen?" Somehow, this sounded profound. The one girl starts saying, "I'll punch the alien! I'll punch the alien!" Then the other daughter said, "I'll kick the alien! I'll kick the alien!" "I'll punch the alien AND kick the alien!" And so on.
Because of the rain, my bus was running late, and I had another 10AM deployment. I had to take care of some stuff first, so I pulled out my craptop, turned on wi-fi tethering on my phone, and logged in over the VPN. Further proof that I am an Über Cool Nerd Goddess.
I actually got all the approvals I needed a whole 12 minutes before the scheduled start time! A miracle!
So, of course, the deployment craps out and we had to roll back.
Someone at work sent me the following IM: "I have the dry runs!"
During the weekly projects meeting, I got asked when I would get a project done. "After they add another day to the week." Today I didn't even have time to eat lunch.
On the bus home, a guy sitting in the very back was snoring.
I just saw a recipe for gin-and-tonic cupcakes, but considering that all the gin is in the icing, and even gin-less icing is the best part, I see no reason to make the cake part.

Metro Journal: Feb 15 One of Those Mornings

2011-02-15T19:09:00.000-08:00

I was supposed to be at work by 10, well, before then, because I was lead on a deployment. My first bus was fine, but of course, the 94, which is rarely more than 5 minutes late, was 10 minutes late. And full. And proceeded to stop at Every Single Stop, and there are a lot of them. For instance, it stopped at that stop just north of the 134, where it never stops. So I managed to snap this picture of the Verdugo Canyon Wash, close to where it empties into the Los Angeles Drainage Ditch.

With all the stops, I started getting worried. We were getting later and later. I would have gotten there 25 minutes before 10, but my buffer was shrinking. When we were finally getting close to my stop, I noticed this ad: Um, if the best the gnomes can do is to get me to work what ended up being 15 minutes late, gnome power is extremely underwhelming. Which generally means that Congress will decide to subsidize it.

Spoonerisms: Self-Tinting Dipity

2011-02-10T19:23:00.000-08:00

This morning, I was looking at Dipity lolling around in one of her bizarre positions in the electric lap, and I started wondering. As happens with all cats with the Siamese phenotype, she has been getting progressively darker, particularly on her back, as she's gotten a little older. The Siamese "point" pattern is caused by a mutation in the gene for tyrosinase, causing it to break down at higher body temperatures and thus preventing the proper manufacture of the melanin pigment. So, now I'm wondering if she likes to lie on her back in the electric lap because she's trying to lighten her fur....

... Or maybe she just has a cold back, which is why the fur is getting so dark in the first place.

Asshole du Jour: Composting on the Bus

2011-02-10T09:30:00.000-08:00

Last night on the Metro 780, I came upon the only empty pair of seats not all the way in the back, and found out why they were empty:

Asshole du Jour: Intro

2011-02-09T19:43:00.001-08:00

This section will be dedicated to those, well, impossible-to-overlook assholes. Our first asshole du jour: the person who works in my business park who thought it would be cute to put his (playing the odds here, people) cigarette butt out in a flower:

And, while I certainly personally know too many assholes, I'm not going to make these posts about people I know. At least not intentionally. Or until I change my mind.

Minecraft: My Doorbell

2011-02-04T08:33:00.001-08:00

Knittin' Crap: My First Animated Gif!

2011-02-02T07:43:00.000-08:00

WEEEEEEEwooooooooWEEEEEEEEEwooooooooo!

Whiteboard Jungle: Incident Severities Explained

2011-01-24T19:55:00.000-08:00

Sev 4: face->palm
Sev 3: head->desk
Sev 2: time to open that 2nd (3rd?) beer
Sev 1: plskillmenaokthxnbai

Or, in terms of animal encounters:

Sev 4: The neighbor's annoying Pomeranian which never stops barking
Sev 3: That pigeon waiting to dive bomb you and take a crap on your new shirt
Sev 2: That chimpanzee throwing its shit at you
Sev 1: The lion which is so close to biting your head off, its breath is fogging up your glasses

Other: More Minecraft Madness

2011-01-23T14:51:00.000-08:00