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livingdebToday we fought feeling housebound by going out for brunch. We met R's best friend J and J's friend W who we'd never met before. The mysterious W who we hear all about but who J has been assuring us is not imaginary.
Too much gentlemanly crap. We couldn't just go through doors in random order; I always had to go first. But the conversation was good.
We discussed several important issues such as whether it's better to have your college courses be short (like 5 weeks long in the summer) so you can concentrate on them, be motived to keep up with the work (because you always have something due the next day) and still remember things from the beginning during the final or whether it's better to have them long (like 16 weeks) so you have time to let all that information sink in and so that when your brain just won't accept any more of one subject, you can switch to another subject. I was the only one in the latter camp.
Then we went to the thrift shop near my house that's open on Sundays and learned that they now having dressing rooms. Only two, and they're not that great, but now I can actually get clothes there. Today I tried on lots of stuff, but only one thing fit well enough, so I got some pants for $4.
**
It's freezing outside, but it's still 65 degrees (18C) inside. That's good because that sealant doesn't look any drier than it did the day after the installation.
**
I didn't do any exercise today. Or yesterday--except for 15 minutes of strength training yesterday.
**
But I did start knitting. Some co-workers are knitting seven-inch-square, um, squares, to put together into a blanket to give away.
This means I'm having to deal with that whole issue of gauge. I've been avoiding that issue all this time by knitting and crocheting only things where you can just eyeball the size. But to knit a seven-inch square, I have to know how many stitches make seven inches. The wrapper on my skein of yarn explains that using that yarn, with #8 needles, you need 4.5 stitches per inch. So I cast 30 stitches onto my #8 needles and did a few rows. Too short. By just over an inch.
So I pulled the needle out and remeasured and it wasn't quite as much too short.
So I unraveled it all. I hate unraveling stuff, but it's not like I can knit anything very fast even if I only have to do the whole thing once, so that attitude doesn't make much sense. Then I cast on 35 inches. I've now done about ten rows, knitting through the entire movie "Office Space" (except when I was distracted). Now it looks like I did two stitches too many. I'm just going to go with it this time.
**
I also finally looked at my recording of the Blue Lapis performance I got. I was afraid the filmmaker would ruin it by focusing on the faces or being way too far away or something. The shots were sometimes a little too close in to see everyone when focusing on one person didn't help. And they were sometimes too far away and you couldn't see well at all. And sometimes the shots switched between three camera angles when really a single one of them would have been the right one throughout an entire section. On the other hand, well over half the time the best view was shown, and several times double-exposure was used to good effect. Overall, it was not ruined, and someone can watch this and see just how cool it was. In fact, watching this might be as good as seeing it in person, although watching this several times would not be as good as seeing it several times in person because you keep missing the same things!
So now I'm going to subject various people to it. Heh heh.
Not only that, unlike normal commercial DVDs, there's no crap. There's some titles, a performance, and credits, and then it plays again. I decided it's a perfect thing to have going on the TV during parties. ("Koyaanisquatsi" is another such movie that is more readily available.)
Site of the day - Mother Jones: This Guy Can Get 59 MPG in a Plain Old Accord from The Simple Dollar. I learned there are people called hypermilers who are really into getting the best gas mileage possible from their cars. They don't change their cars so much (inflating tires, removing luggage racks and junk from the trunk) as they change their behavior. Some of the things I'm not going to do like driving too closely behind a big truck or driving at very different speeds than the cars around me because I think they're dangerous and/or rude. In fact, I'm probably not going to change my driving at all. Still, it's amazing to know what's possible.
Too much gentlemanly crap. We couldn't just go through doors in random order; I always had to go first. But the conversation was good.
We discussed several important issues such as whether it's better to have your college courses be short (like 5 weeks long in the summer) so you can concentrate on them, be motived to keep up with the work (because you always have something due the next day) and still remember things from the beginning during the final or whether it's better to have them long (like 16 weeks) so you have time to let all that information sink in and so that when your brain just won't accept any more of one subject, you can switch to another subject. I was the only one in the latter camp.
Then we went to the thrift shop near my house that's open on Sundays and learned that they now having dressing rooms. Only two, and they're not that great, but now I can actually get clothes there. Today I tried on lots of stuff, but only one thing fit well enough, so I got some pants for $4.
**
It's freezing outside, but it's still 65 degrees (18C) inside. That's good because that sealant doesn't look any drier than it did the day after the installation.
**
I didn't do any exercise today. Or yesterday--except for 15 minutes of strength training yesterday.
**
But I did start knitting. Some co-workers are knitting seven-inch-square, um, squares, to put together into a blanket to give away.
This means I'm having to deal with that whole issue of gauge. I've been avoiding that issue all this time by knitting and crocheting only things where you can just eyeball the size. But to knit a seven-inch square, I have to know how many stitches make seven inches. The wrapper on my skein of yarn explains that using that yarn, with #8 needles, you need 4.5 stitches per inch. So I cast 30 stitches onto my #8 needles and did a few rows. Too short. By just over an inch.
So I pulled the needle out and remeasured and it wasn't quite as much too short.
So I unraveled it all. I hate unraveling stuff, but it's not like I can knit anything very fast even if I only have to do the whole thing once, so that attitude doesn't make much sense. Then I cast on 35 inches. I've now done about ten rows, knitting through the entire movie "Office Space" (except when I was distracted). Now it looks like I did two stitches too many. I'm just going to go with it this time.
**
I also finally looked at my recording of the Blue Lapis performance I got. I was afraid the filmmaker would ruin it by focusing on the faces or being way too far away or something. The shots were sometimes a little too close in to see everyone when focusing on one person didn't help. And they were sometimes too far away and you couldn't see well at all. And sometimes the shots switched between three camera angles when really a single one of them would have been the right one throughout an entire section. On the other hand, well over half the time the best view was shown, and several times double-exposure was used to good effect. Overall, it was not ruined, and someone can watch this and see just how cool it was. In fact, watching this might be as good as seeing it in person, although watching this several times would not be as good as seeing it several times in person because you keep missing the same things!
So now I'm going to subject various people to it. Heh heh.
Not only that, unlike normal commercial DVDs, there's no crap. There's some titles, a performance, and credits, and then it plays again. I decided it's a perfect thing to have going on the TV during parties. ("Koyaanisquatsi" is another such movie that is more readily available.)
Site of the day - Mother Jones: This Guy Can Get 59 MPG in a Plain Old Accord from The Simple Dollar. I learned there are people called hypermilers who are really into getting the best gas mileage possible from their cars. They don't change their cars so much (inflating tires, removing luggage racks and junk from the trunk) as they change their behavior. Some of the things I'm not going to do like driving too closely behind a big truck or driving at very different speeds than the cars around me because I think they're dangerous and/or rude. In fact, I'm probably not going to change my driving at all. Still, it's amazing to know what's possible.