Friday, February 26, 2016

Another One Bites the Dust

Keeping with the general theme of Dan and I being too cheap to actually buy new appliances until one dies, we are getting a new refrigerator tomorrow!

Our current one has been making a lovely grinding noise for the past couple of weeks and last night it stopped maintaining temperature in the freezer. Basically, we have two decently cold refrigerator sides and no freezer side. So our new fridge will be delivered tomorrow and in the mean time, we know the closest place to get dry ice. Rock on!

Friday, February 19, 2016

More Kniting

This year I've challenged myself to knit some actual sock patterns instead of making mostly plain socks. Which is why I have yet to make a vanilla pair of socks this year. Pair four is no exception.

Zigzagular Socks

My mom mentioned needing another pair of socks so she gets these, putting her in a tie with my aunt for the most socks made for people that don't actually live with me. (That required number? Two (and a pair of slippers). Yeah, most of the socks I make are MINE! A few are Dan's.)

Next up, I'm working on (shockingly) two projects at once.

Mitered Square Placemats Flying Geese Socks

On the left, a set of placemats. The in process one pictured is actually completed now and looks lovely. I'm almost half way through a second one but since I want to do six, I've got a ways to go. (Sadly, I've already figured out the time each placemat takes to make. Ten hours. Gah.)

With the inevitable length of that project, I decided to see if I couldn't throw some socks in there too, so a couple of days ago I started the project on the right, which are going to be Flying Geese socks. (As in the quilt pattern, not the animal.) Dude, it's hard. So hard. I think I have it figured out but only maybe. I'm pretty sure that this pattern is going to drive me straight into the arms of a plain stockinette socks. But hopefully they'll look really cool!

Next up (when I eventually finish these): busy purple socks and some obnoxious pants. Oh yeah.

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Friday, February 12, 2016

They're In Space!

I didn't post about it, but last year I read Arthur C. Clarke's Space Odyssey series (2001: A Space Odyssey, 2010: Odyssey Two, 2061: Odyssey Three, and 3001: The Final Odyssey). I didn't love them (though they were interesting enough for me to read the whole series) so I didn't mention them. Plus, if I had said anything, it likely would have been weird quotations from the book, possibly with some irritated commentary added.
Space pods were not the most elegant means of transport devised by man, but they were absolutely essential for construction and maintenance work in vacuum. They were usually christened with feminine names, perhaps in recognition of the fact that their personalities were sometimes slightly unpredictable. Discovery's trio were Anna, Betty, and Clara.
Yeah, I could say a few things about that.

A post devoted to those books would have ending up being rather long. And, while I didn't hate the books, reading them just left me with a sense of lost potential and, well, irritation.
Just as 2010: Odyssey Two was not a direct sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey, so this book is not a linear sequel to 2010. They must all be considered as variations on the same theme, involving many of the same characters and situations, but not necessarily happening in the same universe.
Yes, the books weren't "linear sequels". A nice way of saying that the books contradicted each other.

But as awesome as contradictions in cannon is, there were bits that were even better!
[The students] had been helped - or hindered - by a team of four kongs, who Del Marco considered more trouble than they were worth. However, the students adored the genetically-enhanced gorillas, whom they treated like retarded but much-loved children. It was rumoured that the relationships were not always completely Platonic.
I... I just don't know what to say. I'm just going to leave that one there and slowly back away.

Anyway, while I did not love the books (and would be hard-pressed to say I even liked them) I did want to watch the movie version. Some movies are just classics, you know? So that's what I did yesterday.

Oh, I didn't watch the movie alone. I had company.

Movie Watching

Cocoa and I were equally unimpressed with the ten minute acid trip at the end of the film, but she really enjoyed the monkey-things at the beginning of the movie. I don't think either of us really needs to watch it again though.

Friday, February 5, 2016

One Day Late (But It Counts!)

It was slightly late (by a day) but Dan got his birthday socks!

Escalator Socks