Quantum Tea

Completed my Pyroclastic socks thanks to an hour's power outage at work. What else are you going to do when everything you need is on the computer? I love the colour of these socks, nothing outside is this green yet.

Pattern: Pyroclastic from Knitty
Yarn: Shelridge Farm Soft Touch Ultra in Green Apple
Needles: US1 circular, magic loop
Duration: 31st January to 4th March 2010
Ravelry link: Pyroclastic Apple socks

I modified these socks a lot from the pattern, starting with a hemmed top instead of ribbing. Tried and failed to get the arch shaping, so I skipped that and carried the cable pattern down to the toe. I prefer mirrored cables so sock #2 uses k2tog instead of ssk and I flipped the pattern over. Grafted both toes, I'm forcing myself to practice because it's a skill I'll need for the hem and cuffs of Eris.

The yarn had serious plying issues at two spots in the first skein and one in the second. Either one of the three plies broke and was missing for a few inches, or there was 8 inches of one ply to 2 inches of the other two. Cut the sections out and worked past them, but it's annoying.

• Ordering genuine Falklands wool top (chemical-free merino-cross) from Dunnose Head Farm outside Stanley, via craftynotions.com
• Do I continue with the knotted medallion scarf or make a longer tube, graft the ends, and be done?
• New phone, Motorola Devour. So confused...
• Slightly less confused by phone now, but still feel like caveman in computer store.
• Going to exchange phone for one smaller than a housebrick, with battery that last for more than 2 days.
• Droid Eris huge improvement on Moto Devour. Weighs less, keyboard not as horrid as I thought.
• Girl Scout cookies are piling up, both of us ordered them!
• I always forget what my face looks like when I've got contacts instead of glasses. Yay for new contacts! Now I can spar...
• I can haz weapons! Hubby gave me a pair of sai for my birthday! *evil laugh*
• Knitting needle restarted the locked file server after the power outage, stuck it through the case to hit the power button, key still AWOL

March 3rd was my birthday, and Hubby gave me the best present: a set of chrome Sai in a carrying case:

I'm learning how to use them. Full size sais are easier to manipulate than the kid size, but much heavier. There are no sharp edges and the point is blunt, but if you drop it on your foot, it can punch through a shoe. I've wanted to use sais since I first saw them in the changing room at the karate studio!

He also gave me a heavyweight karate uniform for the tournament on the 20th, a widget to stop my iPod headphones tangling all the time, and a five year diary. Dug out my fountain pen for the five year diary because it makes me write better.

This was the first birthday in several years I haven't taken a day off work for, and I do miss having a day without requirements. I'm saving that day for the Friday before the karate tournament, to go get my earrings replaced with retainers, and practise, practise, practise! Not that I'm not practising every day already...

We got new phones on Friday night, Hubby got a Droid Eris, I got the Motorola Devour. Sunday afternoon I exchanged the Devour for an Eris and I like it much better. This was what I didn't like with the Devour:

Weight and form factor
The Devour has an aluminium casing that weighs more than any phone I have ever encountered. The corners are sharp, and it's a blocky thing that just barely fit in the cell phone pocket of my handbag. It felt cumbersome, and the buttons outside the case felt flimsy.

Moto Blur
This application had definite potential, I liked that it could aggregate updates from Facebook and Twitter. But it has a huge drawback: it gives you updates from EVERYONE. You can't hide anyone on your contact list. It ignores the friends lists you set up in Facebook. I turned this off within an hour of getting the phone because it was too annoying to use. I got the effect I wanted by using a custom contacts list in the phone book. People have complained about this from when it first arrived in the Motorola Cliq, and nothing has been done to fix it.

Keyboard
I've never had a phone with a keyboard before, and I knew I didn't like soft keyboards. The Devour keyboard is a slide out affair and it felt stiff and difficult to use. It made my wrist hurt. It was bad enough I was willing to take the soft keyboard for the 2 years of our contract to get away from it, regardless of my hatred for soft keyboards.

Battery life
Maybe I had a bad battery, but I never expected the Devour to eat through a full charge in less than 24 hours. I'm used to charging my phone once a week or less. I understand smartphones use more juice than dumbphones, but that seemed excessive.

I did like the Devour's universal inbox that showed text messages, my Yahoo Mail account, Facebook mail messages, and my Gmail inbox. Having to associate all my Twitter contacts with the same people in Facebook was tedious, but getting all their status updates on the same page was nice. The construction of the thing was what really killed it for me.

With the Eris, I don't like that I had to do a factory reset to make it delete my Flickr account. And that the reset didn't work, it just logged me out. The soft keyboard is not as horrible as I thought, though you do have to watch its "helpful" corrections of your typing. I can't get it to connect to my Yahoo account, and it insisted on giving me weather for New York even after I deleted New York several times over. But even with all that, the Eris is a far better phone for me.

Also, the Eris is named after the Greek goddess of chaos and dischord, and the rather nice cardigan I'm so close to finishing.

Found a source for genuine Falklands wool! Crafty Notions in the UK gets the top from Dunnose Head Farm, outside Stanley on West Falkland. I've ordered some undyed white and some dyed red and brown. The wool is produced without fertilisers, dips, pesticides, or other chemicals, and the sheep is a merino crossbreed. Really looking forward to getting this to spin!

Got some chocolate Rambouillet roving from Ruth's aunt, she got several fleeces and shared the bounty! It looks like it's been washed, picked, and put through a drum carder. Feels soft like merino, it's clean of vegetable matter and neps, this would be a great squishy sport weight yarn. There's 4oz loose, and an unknown amount in a sleeping bag box.

I've spun a 2oz bobbin of rose grey alpaca, my favourite natural alpaca colour. Huacaya alpaca are gorgeous to look at, you just want to cuddle them. Except they could take offence and spit at you, and their spit stains green. The suri alpaca look like they have dreadlocks, they lose some of that adorable teddy bear look but the fibre is silky and shiny when spun up. There's another bobbin to spin, then it should make a good sport weight yarn. The fibre came from Prairieland Peruvian Alpacas a couple of years ago when I visited with a group from Knitty Couture. I'm hoping for enough sport weight to do a nice scarf.

Sometime soon I'll have a friend over to try a little spinning on one of the drop spindles. She's going to MD Sheep and Wool, but doesn't spin yet. I have some leftover training wool and a spare spindle, the gateway drug to spinning. Owning your own spinning wheel, multiple spindles, and enough fleece to insulate a house, then thinking about buying a small herd of sheep for the back yard comes later.

• Chevy Silverado quad cab has a turning circle the size of Belgium! But I can reach the pedals, and it's FUN.
• I recant my hard-line stance against driving vehicles 2ft taller than me, the truck is just WAY too much fun!
• Grocery run + HUGE Silverado truck + lead foot = Happy Ali! Went to the other grocery store so I could drive the highway home.
• 8 different kinds of cheese on one shelf in the fridge. Where did it all come from?
• Extensive testing confirms IE7 is a non-compliant piece of crap. IE8 is also non-compliant crap. Someone implement the whole standard!
• Woke up at 4am with first line of story in my head. In cold light of day it's a good start, now where's the rest of it?
• Software should be released, not break out in the middle of the night and slither away, leaving a trail of bodies in its wake.
• US "takes no position" on UK sovereignty of the Falkland Islands? Wow. Thanks for the support.

The Chevy Silverado truck was part of Paul's birthday present, and it was truly huge. Hubby liked it.

(Click for bigger)

I don't usually post about current events, but this one has me angry and disappointed.

Consider this: if Venezuela laid claim to Hawaii, passed laws saying it owned Hawaii, and petitioned the UN to get control of the islands, what would the US do? And how would America react if Britain refused to even acknowledge that Hawaii was part of the US? That's what America did to Britain this week.

The dispute between Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands seems to have been ignored in the US media. The UK Telegraph has been following the story over the last week:

• 17th Feb: Britain must defend the Falklands against Argentine aggression
• 22nd Feb: Hugo Chavez demands Queen return Falkland Islands to Argentina
• 24th Feb: Barack Obama must side with Britain over the Falklands
• 25th Feb: Et tu, Barack? America betrays Britain in her hour of need
• 25th Feb: Navy intercepts Argentinian warship near British waters
• 26th Feb: The Special Relationship is under fire: Barack Obama’s refusal to back Britain over the Falklands is a disgrace

The Falkland Islands are British. The people there consider themselves British. We fought a war with Argentina in 1982 for control of the Falklands, and Britain won. Argentina wants them, and in 1994, they changed their constitution to say it owns them:

The Argentine Nation ratifies its legitimate and inalienable sovereignty over the Malvinas [the Falkland Islands], South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands and the corresponding maritime and island spaces, being an integral part of national territory.

The recovery of these territories and the full exercise of sovereignty, respecting the way of life for its inhabitants and according to the principles of international law, constitute a permanent and unwavering goal of the Argentine people.

The statement from the US State department says this:

We are aware not only of the current situation but also of the history, but our position remains one of neutrality. The US recognises de facto UK administration of the islands but takes no position on the sovereignty claims of either party.

That's a sad thing to read. A country Britain thought was an ally isn't even going to acknowledge our sovereignty over a place we've had a colony on since 1765. This statement isn't going to make South America love the US, it just alienates Britain even further.

Working on a new short story for our post-NaNoWriMo group, the Fictional Authors. Reading Joe Hill for lessons on how to write creepy. I finished Heart-Shaped Box in one day and plan to devour 20th Century Ghosts next. Got the first line of it in the middle of the night and it was a decent start. It would have been even better if it arrived when I was awake, say about 4pm when I get home from work and the house is quiet and the cats are sleepy-warm, but I'll take it.

February's short story got done, but I don't like the ending much. It was about an orchid gardener, preying on single women at writing groups. Gmail kept giving me orchid care advertisements while I was emailing it to and fro with Paul, which was a little creepy. The ending is mostly dialogue and mine needs work. Maybe I should write a story in mostly dialogue for practice?

• I've got a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel.
• Going to a sweet romantic werewolf movie with my Valentine!
• "You'd have to have a heart of stone and a soul of custard to turn that down" - Hammond on Top Gear, love!
• Mentally rehearsing my kata in idle moments. Ben made us perform it at group class and kata class, I can do this tournament!
• It's getting lighter in the mornings! Spring is coming, I saw the sun two days running and the snow is melting. Spring!

It's been a busy week. Got sick, finished a sock, Hubby's birthday, and now the weekend. Have a good one!

I love you!

• Survived kata class, first full run-through of kata in public with judges, shaking by the end of it!
• Writing for post NaNoWriMo group, aiming for creepy horror story.
• Writing story about serial-killing orchid guy, and Gmail keeps giving me orchid care ads...
• I post ONE Google Buzz and two disparate people pop out of the woodwork with it. And my Evil Twin had Buzz before me? And didn't SAY?!
• Nice job Hyundai, I can't drive your Tucson with that lump of plastic in the way of my knee. Who needs to reach the pedals anyway?
• The inside of an Advil Liqui-Gel is clear sticky goo, the casing is the only green part. Photo
• Some music should be only played while driving at 5500RPM while wearing high heels, bronze lipstick, and an attitude.