the Lair of the BookWyrm: Click-It

Showing posts with label Click-It. Show all posts

Showing posts with label Click-It. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Crossing Guard

Ooops. As Sian reminded me, I do have a Blogger blog. I've been posting on my WordPress one, but forgetting to cross-post. So. Here is a post on both WP and Blogger...

So, Sian tagged me for the book MEME. The rules are as follows:

Go to the current book you are reading, on page 161, and copy down the 5th sentence:

"Very dead. Asphyxiated."

From Curse The Dark by Laura Anne Gilman. (And I cheated, since the 5th sentence was only one word. That's the 4th and 5th sentence on the page.)

And I guess you're supposed to tag people. I'm going to pull from all over:

Amanda, Tez, Jess, Anois, and Ginger or Wiggley.

~*~

Also, I'm in the moos for another MEME. This one I was not tagged for, and therefore will not be doing any tagging, but I nicked it from Tez:

A. List seven habits/quirks/facts about yourself.
B. Tag seven people to do the same.
C. Do not tag the person who tagged you or say that you tag "whoever wants to do it".

Since I was not tagged, I am ignoring B & C. Plus, I like snubbing directions of that kind. Chain letters, too.

1. I skipped kindergarten. (Was reading in preschool, so I guess it made sense.)

2. As a result, I didn't get my driver's license until I was 18. By the time I was 16, getting your license was no longer "the thing to do," so I had no incentive.

3. Also (partly) as a result, I've always dated guys older than me. This ranges from 2 months to 15 1/2 years.

4. Regardless of #3, a large percentage of the guys I find/have found attractive are younger than me.

5. I don't believe in horoscopes. Yet I read them regularly anyway. (They amuse me. Greatly.)

6. I almost never watch a movie (at home) without doing something else at the same time. This could be knitting, scrapbooking, cross stitch, etc.

7. One of my favorite holiday treats has "rat tail" as a part of the instructions for making it. =D I'm going to let you guess what it is. However, the holiday in question is fast approaching, so I'll try to post pictures and instructions soon.

~*~

Have a great Tuesday!

Friday, November 2, 2007

For PBW Again

Since PBW (aka Lynn Viehl aka SL Viehl, aka Paperback Writer, and so on and so forth) still hasn’t returned to the blog-o-sphere, here is another Shakespearean knock-off in her honor. It goes with the Romeo & Juliet one I posted at Joely’s urging not long ago…

(ETA: Yes, I have heard that she is probably just really busy and doesn't have time to blog. These are still fun to do.)

~*~

If we mortals have offended,
Think but this and all is mended,
That we have but lurk-ed here
While your blog posts did appear.
And the trolls and spammers seem
But amusing, as a dream.
Lady, do not stay away:
We would cheer you, if we may.
And, as I’m an honest Joe,
If you have unearned woe
Now to hear again your song,
Our prayers will make you well ere long;
Else the Blog abandoned call -
Then, goodbye unto us all.
Give us a word, if you be well,
And all our foreboding dispel.

~*~

Happy Friday, everyone!

In the meantime, here’s a Halloween-themed Friday Fiver:

1. Did you celebrate Halloween? Sort-of.

2. Do you like to dress in costume? Yes. But only if I have time to plan it out.

3. Favorite chocolate? Resees Peanut Butter Cups or York Peppermint Patties.

4. Best scary movie? None. They’re all icky. (Though the original movie The Haunting - based off the book The Haunting of Hill House - is downright creepy.)

5. Friday fill-in: The pain of dying (but not death itself) scares me.

Friday, October 5, 2007

Forgive My Inanity

That was just too cute. And it makes sense. I say silly, inane things. I am often near a cat. Like this one, who is now learning how to help me sew.

Please excuse the lack of much content today. The piece you see pinned out and being cut in the above picture is for a Ren Faire costume. We are going to Faire this weekend. Saturday, to be precise. Which means I don’t have much more time to sew. As in, whatever I can get done tonight. AFTER a dinner out with M’s dad. Yipes.

(Yipes isn’t at the dinner. It’s at the time left…)

My own fault. I didn’t start sewing until Wednesday night. But then, he never did tell me what he wanted me to make him. So I finally gave up and just started throwing fabric at patterns to see what would fit.

Today, to fill the space, we also have a Friday Fiver:

You bet your life it is

1. What’s your favorite cereal? ~dunno… Honey Bunches of Oats is a good one.

2. What is too gross to eat in the morning? ~steak. Seriously. That’s a dinner food, lunch at the absolute earliest.

3. What time do you go to bed? ~way too late, usually. I should be going to bed at 10:30 (or earlier) to get enough sleep before work. But it’s been more like 11:30… midnight….12:30…. um. Yeah.

4. Where do you put your keys? ~in my pocket. Or on my dresser. Or in my purse. Depends. When are we talking about?

5. What vegetables do you love? ~many of them. Especially cooked carrots and corn on the cob. And boiled veggies that go with corned beef & cabbage (including the cabbage). Yum. Oh, and salads are good too. And perfectly steamed broccoli or green beans or squash. Better to ask what vegetables I don’t like: brussel sprouts and eggplant. Ick. Keep them away from me.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Lit Up

Well, I promised pictures, and so here are pictures. (Actually, I’ll spread them out a little, to make the post seem more balanced. Even though I’m only going to talk about the pictures up here at the top.) Also, Jess has a nice post on recognizing depression, and especially how depression affects writers. Go check it out.

This is my current sock-in-progress, the Mangotini (Wendy’s Cabletini pattern). I thought it was cute, and to go with the name I managed to find a martini glass. (Okay, so it has a candle in it. So sue me. Just be glad the candle wasn’t lit… Hmmm. Seems like some candle maker has a punny sense of humor.) This first sock is up past the heel, and fits me lovely. So I guess I get to keep the socks, after all! (I had worried while knitting it up… cable patterns always make a sock scrunch in and look funny.)

Anyway. On to the writing content.

It is the first Wednesday of a new month, so that means writing goals! Here is what I would like to get done during September:

Finish critiquing AD for Phoenix.
Do a minimum of two (2) crits for my OWG group.
Post my own chapter to the OWG for critiquing.
Get most of the preliminary worldbuilding done for CP. (”How much is that?” Well, enough so that I can do #5.)
Write line-for-scene index cards for 50 scenes (for CP) and put them in an approximate outline.

Now, I realize that is more writing work than I have done all year. However, I need to get this outline done before I can write the novel, and I need to write the novel before I can polish it, which needs to be done before I submit it for the contest… Etc. And I do fully realize that numbers 4 and 5 might get carried over into October’s goals. But my goal for November is already set: to complete as much of the first draft of CP (which needs to be 80-90,000 words) as possible, with a minimum acceptable level of 50,000 (to “win” NaNo).

I am hoping that I can easily get back into the swing of things. Though with as much going on in life as there is currently, it will take quite a bit of determination and will power. I know I am capable of it. Let’s see how dedicated I decide to be.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Evasion

Where we have strong emotions, we’re liable to fool ourselves.
- Carl Sagan

~*~

There has been progress on the first Mangotini sock, but sadly it eluded the camera all weekend and so there are no new pictures of it. There has also been progress on the Swan Lake Stole (formerly the Mystery Stole 3), which also eluded the camera. The sock is past the heel (barely) and the stole is some few rows past the beginning of Clue #3.

It’s progress-central around my house, actually, because I’ve been getting work done on CP also. Not as much as I would like, but enough to satisfy for the moment. I’m doing a combo world-build and outline for this one. I know the basic idea for the story quite well: spaceship crashes on uncharted planet due to sabotage, sole survivor falls in love with one of the natives, HEA. And I know some of the twists and turns that the story will take to make the relatively standard basic plot more interesting. The fun part for the early stages of this project, for me, has been building the world as I discover what’s needed.

I think that Holly Lisle said that she’s lately taken to only building her world as she discovers the world’s needs, and that seems to work for me (at least in this instance). In the past I’ve gotten way bogged down with building anything that could possibly be needed for the story, and then was bored enough with the world that I still haven’t finished (or started, in one case) the actual writing. This way I have some room for exploration left as I learn more about the characters.

Also, I’ve been using a program that was pointed out to me by Diane Duane, called TiddlyWiki. It’s kind of like your very own Wikipedia for your project. And since you save it on your hard drive (or jump drive, or - if you still have one - floppy drive) it’s still secure. (Or, at least, as secure as anything else on your computer.) It’s neat, though, because you can reference different things within your notes with hot links, just like Wiki does. (Or blogs do, for that matter.) It seems to be a great way to organize a digital journal for a project, because you don’t have to hunt everywhere for where you wrote about that little detail - you just link to it so you can click on it later. Seems to be working great for me.

Anyway, that’s it for today I think. Sorry for the lack of pictures. Maybe I’ll sprinkle some in tomorrow (if the knits consent to pose for photographs). This week Jess over at Tudor’s Desk is having a series of posts on writing and depression, so if you suffer from either of those (depression or the writing bug) you may want to head over to her site and check it out.

Have a great short work week!

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Randomosity

The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it’s unfamiliar territory.
- Paul Fix

~*~

(My Thursday Thirteen is over here...)

So, it seems that I have joind a cult. This greatly amuses me. I would tell you more about it, but since the (two) founders have dubbed it the “Ambiguities,” I doubt there is much I can say to explain it.

~*~

In more a definable line of thought, Paperback Writer (aka Lynn Viehl, aka S.L. Viehl, et al) has written up a post on Cast Balancing. More good ideas from PBW. My thoughts, as posted in the comments, are:

Very good ideas, all, and since I’m plotting out a new story this will be very helpful. (Of course, a large number of the cast will die in the first chapter or three, but they might as well be a balanced cast before they die, eh?)

So, more work for me to do for CP. Not that I didn’t already plan on doing more work - but this is at least work with a purpose.

~*~

~*~

I have been working on the Mystery Stole (which is no longer a mystery, but is the Swan Lake stole) and have finally finished Clue #2. I still love the pattern, and love the yarn, and the beading, and will be knitting on it more. But hopefully I will be writing a lot more too, and so the stole won’t get finished as quickly as it otherwise might.

At the moment, I only have two knitting projects on the needles (which is odd given that I have had more than that going for a long time now). (Oh - and not counting the project or so that I have abandoned. Like the worsted-weight socks. Not a smart idea in coastal California. Maybe if I lived in the Sierras, or something, but… no. They will probably be ripped back eventually. Maybe the yarn will be made into a hat.)

~*~

I’m not sure what other randomness I can get into at the moment. So I’ll leave you with some cuteness:

… a picture of some of the front-yard kittens. These aren’t the bittiest ones, but they’re still young. And adorable! And in need of spaying/neutering so that we don’t find ourselves up to our ears in kitties.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Beading Knits 101

Well, let's see. I was actually asked to show pictures of how, exactly, I beaded my Icarus shawl. Well, since I'm not one to let a challenge go by, I pulled out the beads and the shawl last night and tried to take pictures of how I did it. (This was made slightly more difficult by trying to take the pictures and hold the knitting all by my lonesome, because I was too silly or stubborn to ask for help. And the cat didn't help. She hindered.)

But, silliness and stubbornness aside, here is a pictorial view of how I beaded the outside edge of Icarus...

(Click on the pictures to make them bigger. I don't want to take up too much space with huge photos.)

First, thread the bead onto a small crochet hook. (I used a size 12 steel hook.) If you don't have a teeny enough hook, you can use a small piece of wire, such as a twist-tie that has the paper removed, or a piece of fishing line folded in half instead. I am going to go with the assumption that you are using a crochet hook; for the fishing line idea, you can read the instructions Miriam herself posted on how to bead Icarus.

Knit up to the stitch to be beaded. Hook the stitch to be beaded with the crochet hook. (You put the bead on the stitch before you knit it.)

Gently pull the stitch off of the needle with the crochet hook. I tend to keep the stitch between the thumb and index fingers of my left hand so that I know I will not drop the stitch and lose it in the lace pattern, causing me to cry bitterly. (I am not doing that in this picture because I had to hold the camera. I was nervous, but the stitch behaved very nicely for me in this case.)

Pull the yarn through the bead. This can be either very easy or very hard, depending on the stickiness of your yarn and the size of the hole in your beads. I would recommend using beads that fit nicely. Not too loose, but not too snug either.

Put the stitch back onto the left-hand needle. Try to put it on the needle facing the same direction it came off. If you don't, you will likely end up with a twisted stitch. (In some cases, this doesn't matter much. The beads I used in my shawl, for instance, are big enough that it is very unlikely that anyone will be able to tell if I twisted a stitch. I still try not to, however.)

Knit the stitch, as directed by the pattern. (I do not recommend trying to put a bead in a pattern where you do anything except knit the newly-beaded stitch. Maybe you can purl it. But do not try to bead a k2tog, for instance. That just gets messy.)

The bead will now sit nicely below the row of stitches you just made. Depending on the size of your bead, knitting the next row is sometimes a little tighter (because the bead is pushing the stitches around) than usual, but blocking should sort the slight difference out.

Now, I am not (by far) the first knitter to have up a beading tutorial. I doubt I am the best, either. For some other examples, you can either look at Miriam's link above, or try the following.

Fluffy Knitter Deb has perhaps the best tutorial on beaded knitting that I have read. (This is where I first learned to bead my knitting.)
Melanie at Pink Lemon Twist has a nice discussion of how to add beads to a design that doesn't have them.
Annalea at The Passionate Mind posted a video clip of adding beads to knitting.
Silvia Harding wrote a beading tutorial for Knitty.com.

I think that's probably enough links to get you started. Hope that helps, and happy (beaded) knitting!

Honored

Wow! I feel very special. L^2 at Dog's Eye View has given me a Nice Blogger Award.

"This award is for those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world. Once you've been awarded please pass it on to 7 others who you feel are deserving of this award."

What can I say? She said that it's because I (we - counting the others she gave the award to as well) leave nice comments. Well, gee... thanks. :)

And who should I pass it on to? Hmmm.

Lara at Ain't Nothin' Like the Real Thing
Kait at Struggle and Emerge
Ginger and Wiggley at Ponders of Two Guinea Pigs
Tamara at Spincerely Yours,
Imbrium at Nerd Knits
Brigitte at Wrapped Around My Finger
Tiennie at Tiennie Knits

All of these ladies (and guinea pigs) have a variety of things going for them. They are nice, say nice things, have nice looking sites, etc. Go, visit and spread the love.

And happy Tuesday.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Rock This!

If you can't find a reason to dislike me that's more pointed than my skin tone--or my entire phenotype, I suppose--you're suffering from a huge lack of imagination.
~avangyline

For some reason, I totally forgot to mention that Jess nominated me for a Rockin' Girl Blogger award. I have no idea why I neglected to thank her, or to share the news. But I did. And I will do it now instead.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

And in keeping with tradition, I will also nominate some of my favorite bloggers for the award as well. It seems that there is a set of MEME-like rules for it as well:

The Rockin’ Girl Blogger idea came from Roberta Ferguson. And the deal is that you; 1) give her credit, 2) put up the badge and 3) add 5 other rockin girl bloggers to the list.

So, here are my five nominees for the Rockin' Girl Blogger Award (in no particular order):

avangyline, aka annatheunknown, who writes cool things;
LesleyW, who jumped into blogging with an awesome book review site;
Hannah, who posts super neat things, especially on Fridays;
Amanda, who gets great photos of her knitting to share; and
Melanie, who is my new knitting designer hero.

If you have the time, go visit their sites and say hi! (Though I can't say for sure if avangyline's LiveJournal will let you in if you're not her friend already. But as you can tell from the quote at the top of this post, it's well worth finding out if she has her site friends-locked.)

So now those of you who are astute will be wondering, "where is the writing content? It's Wednesday; there's supposed to be writing stuff!"

Well, I don't have anything yet. I'm working on my list of things to do, but I don't have any progress worth mentioning. (Except I bought a new pen... there's nothing like stationary products as a gift for a writer!) So, there will be a writing post next Weds - progress or not. But there isn't one today. Sorry! I hope you guys are having a great hump day!

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Vitamins As Illegal Drugs? Or Not?

The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don’t have to waste your time voting.
- Charles Bukowski

I am currently reading Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, so this is a timely matter for me.

It seems that the FDA wants to classify all alternative medicine as actual medicine. So things like vitamins and herbal supplements would be considered drugs. And as drugs, must either be dispensed by a medical professional, or be illegal.

Here is some information about the FDA’s desire to make vitamins and other health supplements a “drug,” which must then be administered only by a licensed medical professional. AKA your local vitamin/natural remedies store? Will close, since the owners are not physicians.

And here is a link to send comments about the issue - supposedly the deadline has been extended to May 29.

This worries me. Oryx & Crake deals with a nasty look at the future which is (while probably sensationalistic) something that sounds plausible enough to be really scary. It’s similar to the way Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury) and Brave New World (Huxley) are scary because they are sci-fi which may one day not be sci-fi. None of the three are futures I want to live in.

I do not know if regulation might be good for the industry. It might be. It might not. But I currently have a very cynical take on government regulations and the added prices that come with that regulation. It may have a good intention, eliminating some of the “increased confusion” that come with the supplements. And - this is the part that I think might be good in execution rather than just in intention - they might regulate the supplements being shipped here from other countries.

But I write sci-fi fantasy. And I see in this real event many, many sci-fi plots. And fantasy plots. And soft-horror plots. And they all have disastrous (or nearly so) results for the average citizen.

I think that some happy medium might be best. Something in between what is being proposed and what currently is status quo. Something to safeguard us from being affected by a human-type version of the pet food scare, yet not something quite so Big Brother-ish as this is being publicized to sound. Yet in my experience, humanity is a lot better at overreacting than at moderation.

And so I worry. Do you?

No. I don’t worry. Come pet me, and then you won’t worry about anything, either.

Thursday, May 3, 2007

Around the Blog ~*~ 5/3/07

Come back to me later, Mom. I’m hunting.

Since Suzy’s busy, we’ll take a look at the blog-o-sphere.

Charlie’s going voting. Grumperina wants to be prodded. Molecular Knitting is having a blog-moving contest, Spincerely has over 1000 comments, and Mari’s seeing shadows in places where I don’t.

Wendy has posted a new sock knitting pattern. The Harlot is done with the big pink thing (but no pictures yet), Naomi goes urban, and PBW discusses reading preferences. Nerd Knits is giving me an error message. (Waah!) Gandalf is cozy at home and the P-Man sleeps on yarn.

That’s enough links for today, I think. Now let’s check on Suzy’s hunting prowess.

Mmrph. I’m a good hunter, Mom. Watch me kill this toy mouse. -Suzy

Better the mouse than my foot, Suz. -me

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Writing Wednesdays & Posting Schedule

So, I have been posting about knitting fairly often lately. And I have been posting about cats often too. But I have not been posting so often about my writing.

This could in part be because my work is taking up more of my time than it had been. Or because I am a slacker. Or because it’s That Time Of Month when everything productive that doesn’t involve house-cleaning (aka Nesting) gets set aside due to minor depressions. Or something else.

But for whatever reason, I have not been posting about writing as often as I should.

So.

To rectify that, I am going to (try to) start up a posting schedule. For ease of remembering, I will be posting writing stuff on Wednesdays. Yay alliteration! I will likely be updating the 52 weeks of books stuff on Tuesdays, though that’s very flexible. Monday is probably for cat pictures, since I’ll have had all weekend to take them. Though that is flexible, too. Fridays are for the Friday Fiver. And that’s as organized as I’m getting for the moment.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Current progress and goals:

RS is in process of being plotted. I am currently working through Holly Lisle’s Create A Plot Clinic with it when I can take the time from work. Once I get an outline plotted up, I will post a progress bar in my sidebar and start writing.

My OWG post is not yet up, but I plan to do that by Friday.

I have not yet started my OWG critiques, but I will do those soon too.

I am still working on the crit of AD I’ve promised Phoenix (who is still sadly absent from her blog). I’m doing it on paper, and have mailed the first few chapters to her, redlined, so I feel that I’m making some progress. Hopefully she’ll get the packet soon and be able to tell me if the format I’m using works for her.

And this month I need to re-read all of the “Naked Project” posts in the OWG (must be a member of Kelley’s OWG to follow the link, sorry) and then write a conclusion to it. Yay me! I get to tie up all of the loose ends. I just hope the other writers didn’t throw too much at me at once, or I’ll have to write a super-long chapter to finish it.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

I’ll close with a cute kitty pic…

Save the best for last. Good idea, Mom.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Note To Self

Paperback Writer: Sub Ops

Just so that when I'm ready to submit stories again, I have the links all nice and fresh. If you are also an aspiring published author (or just need new markets) go check out the links she mentions.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Belated Thanks

So, a while ago I mentioned that I won yarn. And then the yarn arrived. And I said nothing, because I was discovering allergies.

But. Thanks are long overdue, and will finally be mentioned.

The wonderful Barbara sent me not only the yarn I won, but a book too! Here is a picture of the lovely things:

I’m looking forward to both the book and the yarn. I’ve not knit with yarn like this before. It’s springier than I’m used to, and should be a lot of fun.

Anyway. Yay! And thanks, Barbara! Much belated though they are.

Friday, April 6, 2007

Quickie

Go here. Read this. And LOVE the picture of the guy’s t-shirt as much as I do.

Heh.

You’ll never look at ribbing the same way again…

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Tax Time

Paperback Writer: March: Expenses

I know I've seen tax tips for writers before, but PWB puts it as clearly as anyone else I've seen. Plus, this way I know I have the info when I need it.

Program Envy

Literature and Latte - Scrivener

I want this. Badly. I really really want this.

There's just one problem.

It's for Mac. And I have a PC.

But... I WANT a Mac. And yet... I CAN'T AFFORD a Mac.

Waaah!

(FYI - it's writing software. And it looks awesome.)

Monday, March 5, 2007

Gender Check

I was surfing around a bit, trying to stay awake (not a restful night's sleep last night) and found this:

Girl In a Man Suit

It's a post PBW wrote in 2005 for Romancing the Blog, and it's good. Funny in classic PBW style, plus it's a good reminder with helpful tips. But now I'm stressing out.

Did I write guys who act enough like guys??

Great. Now I'll have to go double-check.

Friday, March 2, 2007

Sloganisms

Paperback Writer: Authors and Slogans

Very, very amusing. Published authors do advertising slogans.

And because I can't resist, here is my probable favorite:

Laurell K. Hamilton for G.E.: We bring dead things to life.

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