Approaching the finish line!

I've knitted all the squares for my Afghan! I just have to finish weaving in the ends and then block them to get them the same size. Then I plan to crochet an edge round each one, then crochet them all together. Click on them to see enlarged pictures.






I've also got clearer pictures up of some of the older squares I'd done. You can see all the squares on my Afghan page.

more Interview meme.

It's been a while since my last post - I've been on the busy side.

Anyway Paul H requested an interview, so here are his questions.

1) What is the one portable techy thing you have that you would be lost without?
2) Which anniversary do you expect (hope?) the never ending sweater will be complete by?
3) What blog do you read that people who read your blog would be surprised by?
4) What was the most difficult decision you've ever had to make, what was your decision, and did the outcome validate your decision?
5) If you had done the interview meme first and I had responded to you, what is one of the questions you would have asked me?

That last question I asked all my interviewees and I got replies back:

Mo asked: I would have enquired as to why you go by ‘Timothy’ instead of ‘Tim’, because nicknames are coool!

Timothy is from the Greek Timotheos, which means “honouring God” - theos, meaning “of God” is the most important part of the name, so I want to keep it in the Anglicised version of the name.

Alison asked: Why did you take up knitting?

Last summer my in-laws were visiting. My father-in-law has a bad back, so he was lying on the floor. My wife was knitting, my mother-in-law, Marie, was knitting. I didn't want to be rude and hide in the office at the computer. So I asked Marie to teach me to knit, which she did. I seemed to catch on quickly and enjoyed it, and found some library books that taught me some more. I found I liked it, and it's something "arty" that I'm competent at. I can't draw for toffee, but I seem to be able to create nice things with knitting. There's also something mathematical and computery about knitting - I think of a pattern almost as a computer program. I guess it is, really. So it seems to go well with my geek side.

Tim asked: What would you say are the most surprising similarities and differences of living in the U.K. and St. Charles County, Missouri?

Wow, that gets hard, now that I've been living in the Saint Louis area for 4 years. The weather is certainly more extreme here. Yes, we get cold and snow and storms in England, but nothing like here. For example, where I grew up, temperatures of 28°F would be considered extremely cold. It's just a whole lot more temperate in the UK, largely because of it being an island. Driving on the other side of the road took some getting used to, but more than that, my sense of distance is distorted. Again, growing up, going to the nearest town to go shopping was a fairly big deal, and you'd expect to go in the morning and make the whole day of it. It was about 10 miles away. Here, I'd think very little of going 20 or 30 miles just for the evening (as, indeed, I'm doing tonight, to go the the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra). The other thing that certainly surprises people here is when I tell them that the church I went to when I was growing up was built in the 12th Century. As I often say, the difference between England and America is that in England, 100 miles is a long way, whereas in America, 100 years is a long time.

For one lucky reader, if you're interested, there's one space left if you'd like to be interviewed.

Sock Yarn Giveaway

I know that I'd like it... but in the interest of fairness, I'll let you know about it too. Quantum Tea is giving away some sock yarn. Go check this post for details.

More games

Last Thursday at Rob's we played two games. First up was The Really Nasty Horse Racing Game. It is, as the name suggests, a horse racing game, but one where you can bet on the horses, and throw the race if you're about to come in first and the horse you bet on is just behind you... Causing horses to fall at fences, to slip on the flats, or veer in can cause much amusement, depending on who has bet on that horse. It can indeed be really nasty. It came down to the last race. I had about £3,000,000, Rob had about £9,000,000. Unfortunately, the odds were such that he couldn't guarentee a win by limiting his bet. However, his horse was at 2:1, so what he could try was to win, because then, even if I had bet on his horse, I couldn't beat him. And that's exactly what he managed to do. The only real complaint about the game was that it's a little long, given how light it is.

Then we tried Risk -- Star Wars: The Clone Wars Edition, which is of course, Yet Another Risk Variant. This is played strictly in teams. And it gets confusing with some of the terminology, so you need to make sure that a card says what you think it says. The cards are divided up for the two sides, and each card has multiple uses. Determining the best use for a card can be hard. In this game, the Separatists (ultimately the bad guys), played by Rob and me, pretty much thought we'd lost. I was close to being wiped out and Darth Sidious came close to being killed. However, that attack on Sidious made Mark a little too weak, and Rob pushed back, managing to take and retain control of a number of Star Systems (continents) for bonus people. Judicious use of a wonderful card, allowing him to double the System bonus meant he then got lots of people, with an inevitable defeat for Mark and Brad, so they resigned. It's an OK game, and one that I could be encouraged to play again, but not that frequently. And the noises of disgust from Rob suggested he doesn't think much of my Risk game strategy. :)

The Interview Meme - questions.

OK, here we go. Don't forget the the rules. We all look forward to reading your answers on your blogs.

Ali:

1) What one misconception about depressive illness in Christians annoys you the most and how would you educate someone with such a misconception?

2) What tools do you use for blogging and why do you think they are better than other tools available to do the job?

3) When are you going to finish the never-ending sweater? Do you have any pictures of current progress?

4) What one blog do you read on a regular basis that people who read your blog might be surprised about?

5) If you had done the interview meme before me and I had responded, what would have been one of your five questions?

Mo:

1) What does the name of your blog mean and why the 0 (zero) in your name?

2) What tools do you use for blogging and why do you think they are better than other tools available to do the job?

3) Have you read "Down Under" (published in the US as "In a Sunburned Country") by Bill Bryson? What do you think of his perceptions of Australia?

4) What one blog do you read on a regular basis that people who read your blog might be surprised about?

5) If you had done the interview meme before me and I had responded, what would have been one of your five questions?

Timothy:

1) When and how did you become a Christian?

2) What tools do you use for blogging and why do you think they are better than other tools available to do the job?

3) What hobbies do you have that have not yet made an appearance in your blog?

4) What one blog do you read on a regular basis that people who read your blog might be surprised about?

5) If I had responded last time you did the Interview meme, what would have been one of your five questions?

Interview meme update

Mo, Ali, and Timothy, I'm getting your questions done. There are still 2 more interviewee-ships available if anyone wants them. See my previous entry on the topic for information.

Favourite Poem

My Best Friend

Jeremy Lloyd

Save for the humming of the bees
And raindrops falling through the trees
The wood was silent as a grave
Whilst shafts of sunlight made a brave
Attempt to pierce the velvet gloom
As lonely as an empty room

Alone was I but not afraid
The friend I'd been with must have strayed
For though I called no answer came
And so I called and called again
Still no answer came

And so I played a splendid game
In the bracken wet and thick
With my favourite walking stick

And then a voice called out quite near
"So there you are, old chap, come here"
And sitting there upon a log
Was my best friend, who said: "Good Dog"

---

This has been an entry in the St Louis Bloggers Favourite Poem Contest.

It's Tax Season...

It's tax season... which means I've been putting sorting out all the tax paperwork off. I've also had a period of unemployment. The result, is over the last few weeks, I've been knitting up a storm, and have thirteen(!) new afghan squares to tell you about!
Click on the thumbnails to see larger pictures. And remember, these are as yet unblocked, so things don't look their best, yet (especially the lace).







The end is in sight! See all the completed squares on my Afghan page.

Surprise Baby Jacket

In my effort to catch up with stuff for my blog, I wanted to let you know that adding an i-cord tie to fasten it, I can now present to you the completed Surprise Baby Jacket. I'm in good company it appears, as the Yarn Harlot has recently completed one too

It's a fun pattern.

This jacket will be donated to charity, via the Greater Saint Louis Knitters' Guild.

Boardgamey update

It's been a while since I posted about boardgames, and I've had several gaming sessions, so I've quite a lot to catch up on. Hope I can remember everything. Maybe Rob or Mark can help me out with what I played at Rob's.

Firstly, at Rob's we played Schnaeppchen Jagd ("Bargain Hunt"), an interesting little card game where you are collecting things and trying to avoid collecting junk. You can start collecting something else from your junk pile at the end of a round as well. Hard to describe, but quite fun and challenging to play. Then was Lunatix Loop, a trabant racing game, where you're deliberately bumping into other cars, dropping oil, tacks, and glue to annoy those behind you. Then we playtested a new game that may appear in the future from Dustbunny Games.

At Rob's again, we played: Too Many Cooks, a trick taking card game where once again, you're trying to collect a certain kind of card (an ingredient appropriate for your soup), while avoiding the nasties, like chili (or bouillon, if you're trying to make chili), Railroad Dice, a train game, using dice (no!) but it seemed somewhat broken - indeed, the way we played was, because the official English rules that come with the game had a mistranslation. Perhaps we'll play again correctly next time. Then came Circus Imperium, a crazy chariot racing game, whose appearance this week was inspired by the previous week's Lunatix Loop. Don't get eaten by the beasts.


At Mark's, Easter Day, we played: Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers, a Carcassonne variant, with some interesting little subtleties. It's hard to haev a real grasp on who's winning. Then came Blokus (twice), which is a great abstract game with some nice pieces too. The rules are simple. Place your first piece in your corner. Subsequently, you must play your pieces (which have 1 through 5 squares) so that they touch an existing piece of yours by the corner, but not by the edge, and it must not overlap any other piece, or go off the edge of the board. Keep playing until no-one can play, then the person with the fewest number of squares left unplayed wins. It's simple to learn to play, but not so easy to master. Lastly came Streetcar, where you're building a streetcar track to go to the stops you need in the shortest time. Again, fairly easy to understand the rules, but hard to master. I like games like these.

At home, my wife and I played Cribbage, the classic card game, and Cartegena, an interesting little card game where you try to get your pirates out of the dungeon and onto the sloop, but sometimes you have to go backwards to be able to go forwards.

At our recent Boardgame meetup, where we had nearly 30 people, I personally played Cartegena again, Formula De, a car racing game where the special dice signify the different gears, Squint where you make pictures but only using the limited set of lines and shapes on the squares provided, and Topple, where you score points by stacking your pieces on the balanced board without letting it, you guessed it, topple.

So, that's my recent gaming, and more gaming this Thursday. I hope not to wait so long before posting this time though.

And I've now updated my 2005 games played list on my Boardgames page.

Audioblog test

Super Secret Knitting Project

My Super Secret Knitting Project is complete. All I have to do now is take some pictures of it, type up the pattern, and submit it to the publisher. They already said they like the idea in principle, so...

And it seems no one cares to be interviewed. Ya boring lot you!

The Interview Meme

I'm not big on memes. Really. But this one seemed rather interesting.

The Interview Meme: how to play
1. Leave me a comment saying "interview me." The first five commenters will be the participants.
2. I will respond by asking you five questions.
3. You will update your blog/site with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions. (Write your own questions or borrow some.)

5 Questions from Mizuna (who was the recipient of my Sockapalooza socks).

1. The title of your blog? I think it has something to do with Perl and purling.

Well, first off I'm a computer geek. Have been for years. When I was at the University of Surrey I learnt a computer programming language called Perl, which I've used a lot since, in my professional career. Perl has something called Regular Expressions which is basically a very powerful way of searching text for all sorts of different things. The title to my blog is written in perl regular expression format. The slash / at the beginning and end say "hey, lookee here - this thing between the slashes is a regular expression!". The parentheses () group things together (more on that later). The square brackets [] are a character class, which means "if the character in this position matches anything in this character class, then we have a match for that position". So if we were to have "perls of wisdom" in our text, or "purls of wisdom", either would be considered a match. Obviously, "perls" is referring to the programming language, and "purls" is referring to knitting. The phonetic link to "pearls of wisdom" should be obvious. The question mark ? says "match the previous thing 0 or 1 times". Since, in this case, the previous thing is a close parenthesis, that is referring to everything from the matching open parenthesis to that close parenthesis. It is, I suppose, my little joke, meaning "You may or may not find pearls of wisdom in this blog".

2. What are some of the intersections between your interests/occupations (computers, candles, knitting, boardgames, etc.)?

Well, obviously, anything I blog about will intersect with computers, more so if I set up special pages. I write my web pages in text editors, mostly, rather than using a graphical tool to do the layout. I've discovered a number of people who are into both knitting and boardgames, which is quite interesting.

3. What have you got in your pockets?

Keys, an ATM card, my drivers license, a couple of bucks, some decongestant pills, my cellphone, a lenscloth, and a couple of pens. And when I was kneading the bread dough on Saturday, I also had my wedding ring. My preciousssss.

4. If my electric kettle broke, I’d freak out, despite the fact that I am capable of boiling water in a pot on the stove. Do you have a gadget or other item that would cause you distress to lose even if you’d still be able to perform the same function with a minimum of inconvenience?

I too have an electric automatic kettle. I find it so hard to believe that these aren't very popular in the US. It was hard to find when I moved here, but I managed to get one. However, I think the gadget I like most is my Leatherman Micra. Very useful.

5. Do you have a favorite DVD film commentary, or a preferred style of DVD commentary and special features?

Hard to say. I've not really got into the commentaries before Lord of the Rings, and I've been watchnig those because LotR is such an iconic piece of literature. The special features, showing the technical aspects of how the movies were created (such as forced perspective in motion, or Andy Sirkis' motion capture for Gollum) have been very interesting. Hearing the commentaries has been very interesting, so far, because I've learnt a lot about some of the creative and directorial decisions made for the movies. Also, learning of some of the in jokes and cameos is entertaining.

A couple of minor nit picks I have with the editing of the commentaries though, is that it's clear that (apart from the Director/writers), the commentators were not all together when their commentaries were recorded. That shows because in the same commentary, often two or three people will make the same point. It's not overly distracting, but it almost feels that after editing, no-one actually sat down and watched it through in order to see how it hangs together. In one particularly bad instance, the same piece of audio was edited into the commentary in two different places, so it seemed that the same person made the exact same comment about something, with just a few minutes between.

However, that aside, I've been enjoying the commentaries a lot for these movies. Once I've finished those, there'll be the home computer bonus material to check out as well.



Now you've learnt a little about me, be one of the first five to comment and I'll ask you 5 questions.

April Fool

This story from NPR has to have been the funniest April Fool I saw/heard this year.