Congratulations AFP

Photo Credit goes to the ever-cool Mr. Kyle Cassidy.

Amanda Fucking Palmer has made history. Her Kickstarter is bringing just over $1,150,000 in roughly 30 days. Money that will go towards her new album, touring, costumes, commissions for an art book, personal concerts, and so much, much more. This woman does not do anything half-assed; she is going for superb quality and something beautiful that will stand the test of time. Or survive the approaching zombie apocalypse (Thanks Florida!).

I admire her drive and her “I’m going to live a creative fucking life!!” Tonight is her Block Party countdown. It’s livestreaming at partyontheinternet.com. And sitting in a plastic bubble is Amanda and her band, ripping pages out of phone books that have every single name of those who contributed and placing them up for all to see. Over 24,000 people contributed so far. Personally, I think she can reach 25,000 before time runs out. I giggled when I saw my name. Although I’m on the other side of the country, I feel like I’m a part of something pretty fucking wonderful.

 

Yarn Store Pillaging

Spring is a fun time of year for me.  It brings my birthday, a high pollen count, and my Knitting Guild’s Annual Shop Hop.  Saturday morning all the year’s participants rendezvoused at 8:15am. While some waited for the arrival of the rented tourist bus, the rest signed in and grabbed their bag of swag.  The straw bag courtesy of Lantern Moon was filled with patterns, a bottle of water, knitting needles, advertisements, copy of our tour schedule, coupons, and even a granola bar to tide us until lunch.

This event is serious business for some.  Many women stock up their savings all year so they can buy what yarn they need for big projects.  The 20% store discount doesn’t hurt either, nor does the awesomeness of NOT HAVING TO DRIVE AND WORRY ABOUT PARKING.

I personally get a kick out of it.  When else can I geek out with fellow Fiber Freaks?

For those of you who don’t get this, whose eyes have glazed over while your head lolls to one side in confusion, allow me to offer this tip:  replace “yarn” with “whatever gives you a geek-hard on”.  If that’s comics, video games, gardening, beer brewing, or even competitive llama yodeling, good on you.  Now envision you and sixty other like-minded geeks touring all the stores that carry what you need to make that hobby happen.

Are you drooling now?

Good.  You’ve got it.

We had five stores on the tour and they all treated us like royalty:

Wool ‘n’ Wares
Angelika’s
Happy Knits
A Close Knit
Twisted

With my wallet and margarita in hand, I embraced my inner-pirate and pillaged to my knitter’s delight.

BEHOLD MY PLUNDER!!

Pretty Instagram photo is pretty but it doesn’t do the colours justice or the option to zoom in.  However, what you can make out is what I won during the raffle.  Raffle??  There was a raffle??  Ah yes.  One of the coolest things about Shop Hop is even if you don’t purchase anything you do not go home empty handed.  You get the gift bag/basket and you also get a raffle prize.  This year I was lucky enough not to win pink yarn and instead skipped merrily home with two bags from Della Q.  One “Paws off my knitting” project bag and one foldable interchangeable needle case.  In brown.  So that appeases my steampunk geek nicely.

Alrighty, going clockwise, first up is some Eucalan wash and 100g of Pur (Wools ‘n’ Wares).   One hundred percent merino virgin wool.  Pur indeed.  The red, black, gray, and white throw-back to the 80′s colour scheme is a beautiful skein of “Lady MacBeth” from Abstract Fiber (Twisted).  Next is a double-shot glass from Bread and Badger with a laser etched design of yarn and knitting needles (Twisted).  PERFECT for when I want to sip my Patron tequila while working on my latest sock pattern.  On your six are two sets of no.1 and no. 2 nickel plated needles from Knit Picks (Happy Knits).  Finally, a pair of really cute knee high socks for knitters (Twisted).  I know, I know….if I can knit my own why in the hell did I buy socks?  Because it would take me forever and then some before I got around to knitting knee highs.  Onward!

Continuing clockwise we have a vibrant green skein of hand dyed yarn from Little Red Bicycle called…..wait for it…..”Cthulhu”. I had to get it for the name alone. Okay, not just the name, but I laughed pretty good. One guild member asked me what was so funny and when I told her, I heard crickets. Oh. I suppose not everyone is up to speed on H.P. Lovecraft. Next to that is a pretty skein from Perfection by Kraemer Yarns in “Autumn Drift” that was in my gift basket. The last skein is from Lorna’s Laces (Angelika’s has TONS) and it is my favourite colourway by far, “Zombie BBQ”. I’m currently knitting a pair of zombie socks (pattern found on Ravelry.com, ‘natch) from this. Don’t believe me? See below.

The photo is over a year old and I haven’t even gotten to the gusset yet.  Yes, I am a distracted knitter.  But see how frakin’ cool that looks?!  Of course you do.  Which is why you completely understand and support my decision to get some in worsted weight so I can make a matching hat!

Lastly, I took a photo from this angle so one can marvel at how truly MASSIVE this Lantern Moon gift basket is.  I swear, if Lantern Moon wasn’t using their awesome powers for good, I would think this was a soul sucking cauldron of doom. Or…something a bit more witty.

That concludes my regaling tale of adventure, travel, and pillaging. It also reminded me that plundering is hard.

 

Testing….testing….

Don’t mind me.  I am giving the WP Android app a test run to see if it’s a shiny I want to utilize.  So far so good.

 

Workers are hard working

Someone left these doll heads around the office like easter eggs. One was in a cupboard, the other in the freezer, and one in the microwave. I grabbed the redhead and drew her an eye patch. Coworker just gave her an earring made from a paperclip. Oh yeah. We are serious folks around here.

 

2012: Staple This To My Forehead

A wonderful reminder from Mr. Neil Gaiman.

“A decade ago, I wrote:

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.

And almost half a decade ago I said,

…I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you’ll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you’ll make something that didn’t exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind.

And for this year, my wish for each of us is small and very simple.

And it’s this.

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.

So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.”

Link to Mr. Gaiman’s original post: http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2011/12/my-new-year-wish.html

 

NaNo Not-Winner

I tried.  I 12,000 words tried, but alas winning will not happen this year.

All November long I did my best to psyche myself up to go 6 for 6 (6 novels, 6 wins).  ”Don’t break your winning streak!”  ”You’ve been looking forward to this all year!”  ”K would not want his death to interfere with something you love to do!”

I even attended two write-ins to help motivate my heavy heart to a lighter place.  The Muses would be kind to me, right?  Ironically, my NaNo novel is about Muses and my inspiration this year was so lackluster it was a puddle of inky goo.  Apparently the Muses felt I should focus on something else this November.

Turns out they were right.  Thanksgiving weekend, the weekend all NaNo’ers use to cram as many words into four days and between turkey and stuffing as possible, was something completely different.  I had my Giving Thanks meal, surrounded by friends, but thanks to a penny-pinching ex-landlord, I was hooked into cleaning up my dead roommate’s apartment.  An apartment where my 30 Day Notice was accepted and I was no longer living in for six weeks.

Yes, ex-landlord strong-armed me into taking care of something that was legally not my responsibility, but my overwhelming sense of duty, of making sure my best friend’s belongings were taken care of, overrode my desire to rip the ex-landlord a new one.  So for three days, myself, a few friends, and a few of his family members decluttered the mess, donated to Goodwill, divvied up some belongings to his daughters, and then cleaned the place to the best of our abilities.

Three days.

We were all exhausted, stressed, and overwhelmed.  But it’s done.  I’m sure the ex-landlord will find something to complain about and threaten to send me the bill.  Honestly, our deposit was around $3,200.  If the ex-landlord cannot fix the place up back into rental condition for under that amount, he needs to find a new career.

So, last night, after unloading my car and showering, I realized a month’s worth of death and loss was finally at a close.  And I was still only at 12,000 words.

I relent.  This NaNo has beaten me, but I do plan on finishing my Muse story, just not in November.  A few weeks ago I purchased the WINNER 2011 tee-shirt because I figured it would motivate me to finish as I would not want to wear a lie.  Well, there will be no 50,000 word finish line, but I guess from another perspective, I was a Winner this month in regards to what Life dealt.

 

State of the Mutant

I know I’ve been embarrassingly absent from this blog, but I have a good excuse. Life has decided to write me a note to excuse my absence because it feels responsible; it decided to get in my way for the past two months.

Due to circumstances beyond my control (isn’t that always the case?), I had to focus on what I COULD control in my life and take action. This meant finding a new place to live, plunking down a hefty deposit (I cried a bit when the money went bye-bye), packing all the things, and then moving all the things.

Please make note: my friends are AWESOME. Now I’m sure you have awesome friends too. Probably rockin’ ones at that. But allow me to gush and praise and brag that my friends are awesomely-awesome. On DAY THAT ALL THINGS MOVED, we were able to load the truck, drive the truck, and unload the truck in under 3 hours. I had estimated twice that long and when the announcement was made that “The truck is empty!”, I was bestowing gratitude-filled beers and burgers at 11AM.

Moving is a stressful, time-sucking, energy-depleting event in one’s Life.

You know what else is?

Death.

Two weeks after moving back into a place of my own, my very dear, very best friend and roommate died. It was unexpected and harrowing. How unexpected? I was the one who found his body on a chilly Halloween afternoon.

Needless to say it has taken a lot out of me, but I’m still standing. I reiterate again how awesome my friends, family, and even co-workers are. So much love, support, and offers of distraction flooded my emails and texts. I am filled with undiluted blessings and I have no idea how I got to be so fucking lucky.

As Life is very particular about maintaining balance, shortly after I returned to work from a week of mourning and trying to deal with my friend’s estate, I was rewarded with a promotion and a much needed (and deserved, if I do say so myself) raise. It’s not to the point where I can run out and get a shiny new MacBook Air, but it will definitely take the financial edge off.

Time has been non-existent. Fluid and speedy. Without even knowing it, it’s all of a sudden November and for the past five years that has meant….

I am going for my sixth NaNoWriMo and sixth win. Suffice to say it has been difficult. Technically I should be over 20,000 words right now and I am at 2K. Motivation and inspiration are lacking this year, but I know my friend would not want his death to be the cause of breaking my winning streak. He always supported my writing; this year will be no different. He’d want me to persevere, not wallow.

So, no wallowing.

In the past I would write every other day and finish in a total of two weeks. I’m not worried, I have time. Today I’ll be meeting with my writing group to where we shall WRITE ALL THE WORDS. They are spectacular cheerleaders and I will cross that finish line.

Write now.

 

Pottermore Entry for Beta Testers

From a Tumblr friend of mine:

According to hypable (a fairly reliable source run by the same people who run mugglenet)

“Though it was taken down shortly after being posted, the blog stated that those who successfully signed up for the beta would receive their welcome e-mail sometime between August 7th and September 30th.

It did not say in what order – if any – successful registrants would get access.

That unfortunately means you may have to wait as long as eight weeks. A major bummer! On the other hand, if the start of the beta opening goes smooth we imagine they’ll let 100% of the registrants in sooner than September 30th.”

http://www.hypable.com/harry-potter/2011/08/05/pottermore-welcome-email/

Wow. Well, it is what it is. I will just make it a daily habit to not only check my email, but my Spam folder as well, just in case.

 

I’m in Pottermore!

After days of trying to figure out what time the challenges would be open, thanks to wonky Britain Standard Time, I finally got in today at 6AM.

You should’ve seen me at work, I was such a spaz.

I’m an officially registered beta tester with a cool username — PatronusDraconis185. Now all I have to do is wait for the Owl to send me my official welcome letter.

*boing-boing-boing*

 

Progress Report

Six months ago when I went to the doctors my blood pressure was this: 139/82

Resting heart rate: 114

Yesterday during my check-up and nine weeks into working out, my blood pressure is now:

124 / 72

Resting heart rate: 64

BOO-YAH BABY!

In other numeric news I am now on level 4 of the elliptical (more resistance) and my best time on that level is 3 miles in 19:21.