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This blog shall remain silent for the next week and a half as I journey westward to Shiprock, New Mexico with a group of volunteers to help repair some houses on the Navajo Reservation.
I have all kinds of things to say about how crazy this is and how excited and a bit nervous I am, but I'm too sleepy right now. I've been tired since yesterday, and as luck would have it, I had a heapload of work to finish before escaping today.
Thermal (unfinished, drat!) is coming with me, as are Rebecca's gloves. She'll wear those dang things out this year if I have to bind off as she sets out to her first Halloween party.
Now may the gods of packing smile upon me tonight so I can get some sleep!
Friday, October 12, 2007
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
And the writing, too.
I have recently faced a few professional setbacks. Well, "setbacks" isn't the right word, so much as "non-events." When one is an artist, a non-event indicates a lack of income. It also resembles the mouth of a very hungry black bear about three inches from your face.
In that light, I choose now to brag a little. It will cheer me up, remind me that I do in fact keep busy with something other than yarn, and perhaps attract other moths to the bug zapper.
I have been invited to become one of the Austin Chronicle's reviewers of the performing arts. I had previously felt uneasy with being a critic since I was still looking to work as an actor, but I've found that the prospect of this regular writing work has become very attractive to me. Those who look might start seeing my reviews as early as November.
I have finished draft one of a new project, currently titled the Audio Project because that's what it is at present. It might just wind up being a stellar, stooperific collaboration with the about-to-go-boom Beats Broke record label. It will blow your miiiind.
Houstonites need to get on down and check out the Alley Theatre's production of Arsenic and Old Lace. Once they've done that (or before), grab a copy of the 4,000-word study guide, by Yours Truly.
Read me again in the upcoming issue of Dramatics, where I tell all about actors and theater artists in the video game industry.
And the novel has resumed work. It got confused and had to be put to bed for a few weeks, but it's finally feeling well enough to start walking around again. The author (that is, me) is foolish enough to still dream of a Dec 31 first-draft deadline.
So you see? I am productive, creative, reliable - and very, very pretty.
In that light, I choose now to brag a little. It will cheer me up, remind me that I do in fact keep busy with something other than yarn, and perhaps attract other moths to the bug zapper.
I have been invited to become one of the Austin Chronicle's reviewers of the performing arts. I had previously felt uneasy with being a critic since I was still looking to work as an actor, but I've found that the prospect of this regular writing work has become very attractive to me. Those who look might start seeing my reviews as early as November.
I have finished draft one of a new project, currently titled the Audio Project because that's what it is at present. It might just wind up being a stellar, stooperific collaboration with the about-to-go-boom Beats Broke record label. It will blow your miiiind.
Houstonites need to get on down and check out the Alley Theatre's production of Arsenic and Old Lace. Once they've done that (or before), grab a copy of the 4,000-word study guide, by Yours Truly.
Read me again in the upcoming issue of Dramatics, where I tell all about actors and theater artists in the video game industry.
And the novel has resumed work. It got confused and had to be put to bed for a few weeks, but it's finally feeling well enough to start walking around again. The author (that is, me) is foolish enough to still dream of a Dec 31 first-draft deadline.
So you see? I am productive, creative, reliable - and very, very pretty.
More on the Crawl
I was both tired and brief in my last post, so allow me to expound.
The yarn crawl really was fun. It was also a lot of female energy for one day, but I survived intact.
The busload of ladies generally agreed that Hill Country Weavers really is the best yarn store around. They have both variety and quality, and the prices are fair. My second-favorite on the tour was San Antonio's Yarnivore, whose owners included some eco-friendly fibers like maize, soy, and my very favorite, bamboo. Everything they had was interesting and of good quality.
Everything on the left is a freebie. I know what to do with precisely none of it, particularly the two gray-blue tribbles on top.
Thermal is taking a nap, and Rebecca, if you read this far, I have started your Halloween gloves. You saucy minx: the busload of ladies eyed the beginnings of glove one and said, "Those look a little sexy!" Which I think is Boomer for "Do you like it rough?"
I shall leave the question fully unanswered.
The yarn crawl really was fun. It was also a lot of female energy for one day, but I survived intact.
The busload of ladies generally agreed that Hill Country Weavers really is the best yarn store around. They have both variety and quality, and the prices are fair. My second-favorite on the tour was San Antonio's Yarnivore, whose owners included some eco-friendly fibers like maize, soy, and my very favorite, bamboo. Everything they had was interesting and of good quality.
Below is my loot:
Everything on the left is a freebie. I know what to do with precisely none of it, particularly the two gray-blue tribbles on top.
Thermal is taking a nap, and Rebecca, if you read this far, I have started your Halloween gloves. You saucy minx: the busload of ladies eyed the beginnings of glove one and said, "Those look a little sexy!" Which I think is Boomer for "Do you like it rough?"
I shall leave the question fully unanswered.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
My First Yarn Crawl
Today, my mother and I joined the first annual Hill Country Yarn Crawl, touring five LYS (little yarn stores) in one day.
It was a long day.
And I took no pictures. I just sort of forgot, y'know?
Here's what I have to say about it:
1. I freakin' love bamboo yarn.
2. I came in just under budget: around $46. This is unlike most women on that bus, who were toting packs large enough to hold three small children by the end of the day.
3. My mom's neat. We had fun chillin'.
4. There's this awesome bakery in Boerne, TX that serves a killer tomato and avocado soup. Darned if I already forgot the name. Near River Road?
5. I have to stop knitting for a while.
As to #5... Yeah, I was going hard core on Thermal (7 inches of sleeve one!) all week, and then I got to today, and I sort of want to stop for a while.
My self-imposed deadline was October 15. That's the day my volunteer team and I arrive in Shiprock, New Mexico, for a week of home repair on the Navajo Reservation. I planned to wear Thermal at night in the cool desert evenings.
Don't think that will happen. Oy!
By the way... Thanks to the people who urged perseverence with the fluffy shawl. To those who did not respond, I appreciate your tact. :)
Monday, October 1, 2007
"Is that supposed to be art?"
On Friday, at 8:24 p.m., I received an email from a talented actor in Austin: "My dear potential slow movers, We are having a very informal session on the lamar pedestrian bridge this Sunday @ 6pm. Could you make it?"
I moved to Austin in part so that I could receive strange emails like this. So I attended last night's meeting on the rather well-trafficked Lamar Pedestrian Bridge, and, with about eight other people and one dude playing with a synthesizer and some amps, moved slowly.
As we were warming up (or slowing down, really), one jogger yelled as he passed by, "Is that supposed to be performance art?" I thought of many responses in the seven and a half minutes it took to walk from the rail to the bench.
At one point, a police officer arrived to take notes on the recently spray-painted swastikas that lay directly in my path. He began working, and he was done before I had completed my ninety degree turn to avoid walking across his evidence.
After doing whatever it was for two hours, the leader said we'd have a final performance on November 10. She said it will involve swans in a post-apocalyptic landscape. And other stuff.
Part of me is the high school nerd who will do just about anything because I was specially invited. And the other part says, "While you're young." Okay!
I moved to Austin in part so that I could receive strange emails like this. So I attended last night's meeting on the rather well-trafficked Lamar Pedestrian Bridge, and, with about eight other people and one dude playing with a synthesizer and some amps, moved slowly.
As we were warming up (or slowing down, really), one jogger yelled as he passed by, "Is that supposed to be performance art?" I thought of many responses in the seven and a half minutes it took to walk from the rail to the bench.
At one point, a police officer arrived to take notes on the recently spray-painted swastikas that lay directly in my path. He began working, and he was done before I had completed my ninety degree turn to avoid walking across his evidence.
After doing whatever it was for two hours, the leader said we'd have a final performance on November 10. She said it will involve swans in a post-apocalyptic landscape. And other stuff.
Part of me is the high school nerd who will do just about anything because I was specially invited. And the other part says, "While you're young." Okay!
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Hmm...
.
My fellah is so sweet. I think he sees all this knitting stuff as just a bit eccentric, to say the least. Yet, to his credit, he bought me a book last Christmas, Speed Knitting by Kris Percival. It's full of easy and fast patterns.*
Thermal has been creeping along, so I turned to a project from Speed Knitting. It's busting some novelty yarn from the stash, using up some frogged mystery yarn from my very first (and quite ugly) scarf, and providing me with an excellent excuse to knit with bamboo yarn for the first time, and can I tell you how in love I am with bamboo?
This is the Sea Foam Shawl:
I'm almost halfway there. And I'm kind of hmmmm about it. I want to believe! I want to have faith. And still.
Help me out with the poll at left, will you?
*Truth be told, the directions could be better; gauge is always stated as "about x stitches per inch," and the yarn used in the pictures isn't given until the very end.
My fellah is so sweet. I think he sees all this knitting stuff as just a bit eccentric, to say the least. Yet, to his credit, he bought me a book last Christmas, Speed Knitting by Kris Percival. It's full of easy and fast patterns.*
Thermal has been creeping along, so I turned to a project from Speed Knitting. It's busting some novelty yarn from the stash, using up some frogged mystery yarn from my very first (and quite ugly) scarf, and providing me with an excellent excuse to knit with bamboo yarn for the first time, and can I tell you how in love I am with bamboo?
This is the Sea Foam Shawl:
photo (c) Sheri Giblin
And here's what I've got so far:
I'm almost halfway there. And I'm kind of hmmmm about it. I want to believe! I want to have faith. And still.
Help me out with the poll at left, will you?
*Truth be told, the directions could be better; gauge is always stated as "about x stitches per inch," and the yarn used in the pictures isn't given until the very end.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
About an apostrophe
Last night after coming home exhausted from the second of two jobs (and I'm straining myself with the effort of not discussing either of them here), I finished off the last few pages of Bridget Jones's Diary before falling asleep.
So many women adore that book, including some of my friends, who say, "She's just like me!" or, "I'm just like her!" or, "I do exactly the same things!"
Everyone's neurotic, sure, but that's Bridget's only real characteristic. I'd like to take this opportunity to tell my friends that whether they do or do not obsessively, illogically, and inaccurately count calories, they are each of them more interesting than Bridget Jones. They are interested in things like literature, baseball, football, nerd conventions, astronomy, politics, charitable activities, and so on. My former roommate (confirmed bipolar and possibly borderline sociopath) is like Bridget Jones.
But that's not what this post is about. You see, it's about the title: Bridget Jones's Diary.
1. It's italicized, not in quotes. You place the titles of longer works in italics and of shorter works (like a song or a TV episode) in quotes.
2. The apostrophe is correct as written. Jones's. I see far too often that people flinch in the face of singular possessive with a noun ending in an -s. Stop being so gunshy, people! It is not "Jones'." That construction would never happen. If there were more than one Jones, it would be "Joneses'." Our singular (or singleton) Jones gets an apostrophe-s at the end of her name.
In short, I am going to borrow Hans's motorbike, put a hook through the bass's mouth, and remember the lovely caress's feel.
True, language changes. I don't mind that. But let it change as it needs to: adopt new phrases, welcome new vocabulary, and entertain new constructions. Language should evolve because we use it to describe a changing world and changing circumstances.
It should not change because people are too lazy or, dare I say it, dumb to understand an extremely basic rule of grammar.
Grammar rules are there because good writing is polite. Good punctuation is a courtesy, making it easy for me to understand what on earth you're trying to say. If you can learn which fork to use first at the table (it's the one on the outside, folks), then you can fix that silliness with the apostrophes.
Disclaimer: This post was written by the former assistant editor of a national magazine, someone who enjoyed full lunch breaks of shared rants about the proper uses of a comma with her colleagues. She's become necessarily passionate about these things.
So many women adore that book, including some of my friends, who say, "She's just like me!" or, "I'm just like her!" or, "I do exactly the same things!"
Everyone's neurotic, sure, but that's Bridget's only real characteristic. I'd like to take this opportunity to tell my friends that whether they do or do not obsessively, illogically, and inaccurately count calories, they are each of them more interesting than Bridget Jones. They are interested in things like literature, baseball, football, nerd conventions, astronomy, politics, charitable activities, and so on. My former roommate (confirmed bipolar and possibly borderline sociopath) is like Bridget Jones.
But that's not what this post is about. You see, it's about the title: Bridget Jones's Diary.
1. It's italicized, not in quotes. You place the titles of longer works in italics and of shorter works (like a song or a TV episode) in quotes.
2. The apostrophe is correct as written. Jones's. I see far too often that people flinch in the face of singular possessive with a noun ending in an -s. Stop being so gunshy, people! It is not "Jones'." That construction would never happen. If there were more than one Jones, it would be "Joneses'." Our singular (or singleton) Jones gets an apostrophe-s at the end of her name.
In short, I am going to borrow Hans's motorbike, put a hook through the bass's mouth, and remember the lovely caress's feel.
True, language changes. I don't mind that. But let it change as it needs to: adopt new phrases, welcome new vocabulary, and entertain new constructions. Language should evolve because we use it to describe a changing world and changing circumstances.
It should not change because people are too lazy or, dare I say it, dumb to understand an extremely basic rule of grammar.
Grammar rules are there because good writing is polite. Good punctuation is a courtesy, making it easy for me to understand what on earth you're trying to say. If you can learn which fork to use first at the table (it's the one on the outside, folks), then you can fix that silliness with the apostrophes.
Disclaimer: This post was written by the former assistant editor of a national magazine, someone who enjoyed full lunch breaks of shared rants about the proper uses of a comma with her colleagues. She's become necessarily passionate about these things.
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