Knittin' Crap: SFAC December 2014

This month, our surprise visitor was the avaricious Ferengi Quark.

Mission	Report
Diplomatic: Craft a gift to show good will to one of the negotiating parties.	Yellow lilies are thought by some to represent merriment and joy. As this Quark seems to be trying to get everyone to have “fun” by plying us all with what I strongly suspect is non-synthehol liquor and encouraging us play these games designed around gambling, I bio-replicated some yellow lilies to represent the mood.
Medical: Craft something that demonstrates the effects of a food or drug on different species taking part in the negotiations.	I took this bioluminescent vine from Alpha Beta Prime and genetically modified it to detect the presence of certain neuroactive substances, at which point that will light up. We can use it to decorate the chairs and tables where it will simply look like part of the decor. Note the following holographs which show the flowers lighting up when some otherwise undetected compound is present: While here it remains unlit in the presence of my totally-not-neuroactive invasive quadrupeds:
Tactical: Craft something to help keep up with the stream of information (an AI assistant, a discreet lie detector, etc.)	This basket was designed both to carry Starfleet PADDs and to automate the pre-processing and upload into Starfleet data banks of the information they carried. However, someone in the Starfleet Engineering Quartermaster’s office apparently decided to change the specifications of their Chroma Data Cables without telling us, so the basket failed to meet the specifications.

Knittin' Crap: SFAC October 2014

This tour opened with a promotion. I am now Captain of the USS Kitchener!

We apparently have a guest, the flamboyant Luxwana Troi, so most of our missions revolved around keeping her happy and out of trouble.

(Post delayed because the Medical Mission disappeared into a Temporal Rift and only just reappeared.)

Mission	Report
Command - Craft a head covering for Lwaxana.	This headband may not be, um, haute couture enough for Lwaxana, but I have no doubt she can work it better than Dip, who just looks annoyed at being a fashion model. Or Lwaxana can try to wear Dip on her head, but I doubt that would work out too well.
Engineering - Craft something to cover Lwaxana’s torso.	Not many people these days can pull off a cape, but Lwaxana is certainly one of them. Therefore, I made this, um, cape for her.
Medical - Craft something to keep Lwaxana’s hands steady and/or warm.	This basket was designed to provide multiple uses for Luxwana. She can use it as a receptacle to hold various items, she can even put her hands inside for additional warmth, and if she gets on Captain Picard’s nerves, the many straps can be used to, um, subdue her.
Tactical - Craft a fabulous accessory for Lwaxana to wear!	This, um, accessory can be worn in a variety of ways. On the arm, around the neck, over the hair. It can even be a meta-accessory, accessorizing a small quadruped species with which Lwaxana may accessorize herself, as seen below. (In this case, a not-that-small quadruped.)

Knittin' Crap: SFAC December 2013

Still fighting off the Borg this month!

Mission	Report
Command - Learn a new technique, try a new pattern, or use new information in some way to isolate, imprison or destroy the Borg Queen.	As the Borg mastery of technology outstrips our own and means we risk having our own technology turned against us, I decided we should go lower-tech. Using the genetic engineering lab, I modified a flying squirrel to allow it to be trained and coordinated for group attacks. Sending hundreds of these furry creatures zooming at the Borg queen will no doubt overwhelm her so the humanoids can rush in and take her down. I also added bioluminescent genes to the white fur, just because.
Engineering - Conduct your own down-and-dirty repair: Make something that takes less than a day’s work (8 hours), or fewer than 200 meters of yarn.	This small, finger-controlled robot can get into tight places for fine repairs. Unfortunately, he’s a bit of a daredevil, and while he made crucial repairs, he sustained his own injuries.
Medical - Create a hat or other headwear to help shield your mind, and cover implant removal scars.	This fastener can be used to deftly hold remaining hair in place to conceal healing or balded areas. The floral decoration serves as a further distraction from the reason such concealment is necessary.
Science - Replicate hull plates, or any of the component parts of the hull which might need to be replaced - in the form of flat things or things crafted in parts or multiples.	This piece of 4 times the thickness of normal fabrication methods would work well for a repair where extra strength is needed.
Tactical - Craft something in the bright colors of the explosion.	I managed to capture a very good holo-image of the explosion of the Borg Cube. And, even though it seems to go against the laws of physics, the explosion was also square-shaped. I will have to do additional calculations to try to figure that one out.
The Brig - Finish a UFO (note: this is actually my Brig report from November, but I forgot to put it in that post, and I didn't finish any UFOs in December anyway)	This prisoner was found colluding with the pictured invasive quadrupeds on a plot to take over early-21st century Earth. After four years in the Brig, it has finally given up the plot, especially after realizing the quadrupeds’ attention span was too short to take over much of anything other than a warm lap for more than 10 minutes.

Flying Squirrel pattern by Izumi Sasaki
Flower and crochet edging from Japanese book Best Crochet Motif Pattern 238
Totoro chart by brella
World Afghan pattern by Kay Niederlitz

Knittin' Crap: SFAC October 2013

October projects are a little late going up because many of them had "extended" deadlines. This tour started with a visit to a really cold planet. Or something.

Mission	Report
Command: Prove your own understanding of the concept of duality: Craft an item made up of two parts (a pair of gloves or socks, for example), or two separate items which mirror each other in some way.	My mission report on duality may come from a slightly unintended angle. I thought not of the split personalities in the physical copies created by the transporter malfunction on the Enterprise at Alpha 177, but of what they represented: two aspects, however highly contrasted, contained within a whole. Once Captain Kirk was re-integrated, he still contained the contrasting personalities. This report demonstrates that quality: each side is the opposite of the other, but they are indivisible, part of a complete whole and the complement can always be spied from the other angle. This is also demonstrated by this invasive quadruped. On the one hand, he’s in a comfortable warm lap, yet the total coward side of his personality still shines through. At least he looks handsome modeling the mission report!
Diplomatic: Finish up your UnFinished Objects!	This UFO had been sighted on an earlier tour, but it seemed unspaceworthy and when we tried to catch it in the tractor beam, it disintegrated into balls of yarn. (Strange, but true.) I began working to recreate it in a more stable form in August, and have finally completed the facsimile. Status at beginning of the month: Completed mission:
Engineering: Craft – in black (or another dark color) – something which might be of use to a member of a Landing Party.	This device not only provides a high-contrast background for the dangerous ore, but particles passing through the detector pores in the fabric will automatically be analyzed and set off an alarm if they pose a threat, either to equipment or personnel.
Science: Craft an otherwise plain design, then add embellishment.	The trims on this simple torso-covering is made of a special fabric with self-activated chameleon-derived color changing pigments. They will automatically identify and display a series of horizontal and vertical bars to communicate the wearer’s identity, rank, and other salient information. Children start learning the patterns and color meanings from an early age, starting first with their parents, until they finally can read the information even for people they never met before. In times of danger, they can force the trim to assume the same coloration as the background ice-storm camouflage fabric to remain unseen. (A favorite prank of juveniles is to reprogram their identification trims to appear to be figures of authority. Obviously this works better when they’ve chosen a senior of the same height and build.)
Tactical: Craft something to prevent or treat frostbite.	My self-tested experiments have found that sipping and holding a container of a warm beverage or food helps warm the fingers and raise the comfort level of warm-blooded humanoids in cold conditions. Therefore I have programmed the replicators to make some nabeyaki udon, a Japanese noodle soup with multiple toppings.
The Brig	This prisoner was just in pieces at the beginning of the month. I gave it a good pep talk and told it to pull itself together already! Finally, it did.

Fisherman's Rib Muffler pattern by Kotomi Hayashi
Seamless Pullover recipe by Elizabeth Zimmermann
Begonia shawl pattern by Carfield Ma
Mosaic V-Neck Pullover pattern by Makiko Okamoto
Nabeyaki Udon pattern by Mitsuki Hoshi
Diamond Jacket pattern by DROPS

News: Transport Tidbits

• WANT
  
• So true....
  
• Awesome
  

And because kitties need transport to:

Metro Journal: Welcome Aboard! Next Stop, Your Stop!

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. I did, however, move into my permanent (for now) apartment two weeks ago, and have been slowly settling in with the cats.

I've been commuting most mornings for the past week by taking a bus to the Sunnyvale Caltrain station, and then riding the train. For 5 minutes. To the next stop. Yes, it's slightly silly, but it's less irritating than driving, there's a shuttle from the station to the office, and a bus-only plan isn't very viable, because the VTA bus routes here make even less sense than they do for riders not going to downtown LA. Grid? Ha! Let's just pick two random endpoints, draw some squiggles on the map, and call it a bus route. The "most efficient" bus route to the office, which is less than 10 miles away in the car, is to take a bus west, overshooting the cross-street by a couple miles, then take the bus that I had actually taken while I was in temporary housing. The whole thing would take well over an hour with some waiting in between busses. *shrug* I think I will eventually get a bike, and then I can take the bus west to Stevens Creek Nature Trail and ride about 3 miles north to the office on a trail that has no cars on it (unless the driver has gotten terribly lost). I'll have to work myself up for that.

Anyway, back to Caltrain. It's the commuter heavy rail here in the Bay Area. The trains are pretty nice, everything has been efficient so far (a train will be 5 minutes late, but that is as bad as it's been). The Sunnyvale station is about 1.25 miles from my apartment, and since the bus schedule starts getting sparse before I make it back, I've been walking home most evenings. The weather here is so much cooler than it is around Glendale, so it's not too warm, even moving around, at that time.

News: Cat Wisdom

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News: Cats'R'Awesome

These are dedicated to my awesome kitties, who just went through the ordeal of moving 300+ miles with me!

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News: Even More Random Round-up

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  I can't even watch the History Channel anymore. The irony being it's more sci-fi than Syfy, but the quality is equally sucky.
• Bruce Schneier on writing-style analysis and how it can be used to track supposedly anonymous output. Now that everyone can analyze the hell out of everything to take supposedly anonymous data and track it back to an individual (whether it's your browser's User-agent or the specific type of websites you browse or links you click on)... it's time to escalate!
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• While this seems as much like a recipe for disaster as anything else, at the same time it seems oddly hypnotic... DIY USB-powered glowing potion
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News: Super Cats!

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• This is... mind-blowing. And I cringed more than once.
  
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Kitteh here doesn't return the sentiment... Ouch.

Spoonerisms: Part of the Furniture

Having been unemployed for the past two months and thus home most days, the cats went from happy to have me around more often to taking me for granted. I am pretty sure they see me now as above-room-temperature, interactive cat furniture.