ewephoria

Ohio Impromptu

2008-03-01T15:10:00.003-05:00

I recommend you take thirty minutes and do this.

Watch Ohio Impromptu, a playlet written by Samuel Beckett in 1980.

Then read the Wikipedia article on it.

At that point I wanted to watch it again.

To read:

2007-11-26T00:31:00.000-05:00

(More of a personal list than an actual blog, and in no particular order.)

Of Mice and Men
American Psycho
Stiff : The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Marry Shelley's Frankenstein
Sovereign Stone Trilogy
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets
Smilla's Sense of Snow
Slaughterhouse Five

I love my MacBook.

2007-05-20T11:17:00.000-05:00

But, um, not that much.

(via)

Tornado.

2007-05-06T16:49:00.000-05:00

Here are some amazing aerial photos of the destruction left behind by the Greensburg Tornado.

(via)

random ant facts

2007-04-29T23:51:00.000-05:00

In the ant kingdom some ants are soldiers, or army ants. These soldier ants are so genetically designed to fight, pinch, clamp and sting that their giant pincher's prevent them from feeding themselves. They must rely on other ants to feed them.

The common Black Ants and Wood Ants have no sting, but they can squirt a spray of formic acid. Some birds put ants in their feathers because the ants squirt formic acid which gets rid of the parasites.

Ant brains are largest amongst insects. It has been estimated that an ant's brain may have the same processing power as a Macintosh II computer.

There are 100,000,000,000,000,000 ants in the world (or around 340 ants per leaf).

Ants don't sleep.

The tongue of the anteater is over 2 feet long. (Not an ant fact, but close!)

sheep...ish

2007-04-26T12:46:00.000-05:00

Did you know that in Japan there is a company who is selling "poodles" who are actually sheep? They think two thousand people have been fooled.
(Update: article was a scam, but it still makes me laugh imagining that)

Also, this photographer collaborates with bees to produce photographs.

(Both links via.)

Statistics.

2007-04-10T13:02:00.000-05:00

From my schools student web site:

"According to regulations published by the Department of Education based on the Student Right-to-Know Act, he graduation/completion rate for first-time, full-time students who entered school in Fall 1997 and who graduated/completed within 150% of the normal time to complete the program is 39%."

A few bits of random.

2007-04-08T20:47:00.000-05:00

I don't think Napoleon Dynamite is funny at all.

Yesterday I bought a shirt that has a sheep on it and underneath says "Baaad".

Black Pepper Jack Doritos are so good they should be illegal.

Ben and Jerry's "Pistachio Pistachio" ice cream is not (as Alton would say) good eats.

I find this hilarious, which means I spend way too much time online. If you find it funny, you spend way too much time online too. (Do I feel ashamed of myself? Definitely. Am I doing satans work? Yes.)

Anyone seen the web documentary "Hometown Baghdad"? It's good, you should watch it.

I used to have a Speak and Spell and I loved it.

I will marry whomever did this.

In honor of the holiday, I leave you with the infamous pancake bunny.

Happy Easter!

V for Vendetta

2007-04-05T23:05:00.000-05:00

This is one of the best movies I've ever seen. Matter of opinion, but I think it's amazing. I'm going to watch it for the 4th or 5th time (in the last couple days). It's amazing on so many different levels.

Hot dog heaven.

2007-04-02T11:11:00.000-05:00

Since I missed my orientation on Friday I figured I should get to school early today to find out what I missed. Apparently I didn't miss much because it only took me about ten minutes to get everything I needed. Combined with not hitting any traffic on my drive over (which is a first) I am here in Pittsburgh two hours before class.

I had read about a hot dog place online that supposedly had really good hot dogs (and free wi-fi) so I decided to go check it out. Let me just say that I am currently eating the best hot dog of my life. No lie. I originally ordered a regular hot dog with ketchup, but that was so damn good I had to order a second. This time I opted for "The Italian": fresh mozzarella, roasted red peppers, garlic, olive oil & basil. BEST HOT DOG EVER. I wasn't even all that hungry before I got here either. The name of the place is Franktuary and it appears to be located in a church (hence the name). From the parking lot, to here, and then back to the school is about a mile. It might not be much exercise, but it's more than I normally get (although eating yummy hot dogs probably defeats the purpose). I can see this becoming a regular event.

YAW yaw yaw yaw.

2007-04-01T20:54:00.000-05:00

This is my favorite commercial on tv right now.

I have a confession to make.

2007-04-01T01:36:00.000-05:00

My name is Wendy and I am a bag addict. I love them. I have more than I will basically ever use (and some I've bought and used once or twice), but since I'm starting school on Monday I should get a new one for that, right?

Stock photo (obviously, I just ordered it).

It goes great with the bag I bought a couple weeks ago.

Stock photo (I have the bag, just no pictures of it).

It was a tough decision. I need a messenger bag for school and had it narrowed down to two bags. Both the same label- one large enough for everything I'll need including my laptop. The other, much cuter but smaller. Probably not big enough for my laptop. But cuter. You can guess which one I went with. Women are nothing if not illogical when it comes to fashion (I don't wear heels cause they're comfortable, that's for damn sure). Hell, even if my handbag (bottom image) doesn't match the messenger (top picture) it's small enough to fit inside. You can see I've thought out this purchase extensively.

On a side note, am I the only person who hadn't heard of Zappos.com? That's the best web site I've ever ordered from. Ordered my handbag at 9pm, it arrived at 12:30 pm the next day. With free shipping. Amazing.

As far as school, I skipped my orientation on Friday. Oops. That's obviously off to a great start.

Turtle soup.

2007-03-28T03:46:00.000-05:00

I took a drive over to Swickley today. Swickley is a quaint little town in Pennsylvania, with quaint shops and quaint restaurants. I mean, if you can ignore the un-quaintness of the Starbucks, but don't most places have a Starbucks anymore? Anyway, I digress. I had dinner at the Hotel Swickley. You can read an amusing review of the restaurant here. I'm not sure why it's called the "Hotel" Swickley, since it's not a hotel. I thought it was a tad overpriced, but overall a pretty good meal. I have, however, decided I will never again order ahi tuna. Not until I'm back in good old Florida, at least. I have been beyond disappointed every time (numerous times) I've ordered it in Ohio and Pennsylvania, no matter how expensive or nice a restaurant. The fact that they serve Yuengling made up for the disappointment in the tuna, since it is my favorite beer and Ohio doesn't serve it, but I'll leave that rant for another time.

The tuna was an appetizer. For my meal I spotted something on the menu I just couldn't pass up. Something I've never had the opportunity to try. (Alicia and Nick, let me apologize in advance.) Turtle soup. Not just any turtle soup, but Cajun turtle soup. Let me tell you, it was some of the best damn soup I've ever tasted. It had such a unique flavor, and a really good kick. I was fine until I was halfway done with the bowl, and we started discussing the process of killing and cleaning a turtle. Then I pictured one. And started to get a little queasy. It's a turtle. I've had them as pets before. It's a turtle. It was probably minding its own business until someone came along and lopped off its head.

Go ahead, everyone say aawwwwwwww. Go ahead and think I'm a terrible person. It was damn good (even if I did have to quickly shovel down the last few bites before I lost my appetite altogether). If I ever have it again I'll do a better job and not think about what I'm eating.

Human sheep?

2007-03-27T02:20:00.000-05:00

Via boingboing: By injecting human cells into the fetus of a sheep, scientists have created a sheep that's 15% human. The sheep have 15 per cent human cells and 85 per cent animal cells - and their evolution brings the prospect of animal organs being transplanted into humans one step closer. That's officially the strangest thing I've read all day.

So, yesterday I talked about my love for squid. I also have a soft spot in my heart for Nessie. Guess what I bought today? The best shirt ever.

I like squid.

2007-03-26T03:27:00.000-05:00

Giant squid, to be exact. I can't quite explain it, they fascinate me. The Discovery Channel has had a few programs about them and they're amazing. Here are some giant squid facts for you:

They estimate the giant squid can reach 40-50 feet in length (although some sources will claim larger, it hasn't been proven).
The first images of a giant squid were taken on September 30, 2004 and the first video on December 4, 2006.
They have eight arms and two longer tentacles, which they dangle in the ocean and use to catch food.
They posses the largest eyes of any living creature- over a foot in diameter.
Each sucker has a ring of saw-like teeth which helps them to capture prey.
They are prey to giant sperm whales- eventually scientists figured out they should look for the whales in order to find the squid.
Squid have beaks.
The mantle (top part) can measure over seven feet long.

They are damn cool creatures. I was so excited when they actually got one on video. We've only explored less than five percent of our planets oceans, just imagine what other amazing creatures exist in there that we've never even seen before! And we live on a planet where seventy percent is covered by ocean. Let the enormity of that sink in for a moment.

Anyway, while testing out my new wireless internet today I came across the Squid Blog. They have a ton of squid links. How about Adopt a Squid? I wish I would have never seen that, I would love one but can't justify spending $400 and up (but they are handmade). I am also in love with this painting of a squid and sperm whale. And what about the shirt of a squid being flashed by a chick in a bikini? I would buy that one in a heartbeat, too bad they're sold out.

Of course, we can't forget the knit squid hat.

I should come up with some sort of squid theme for some of my photos for school. I bet I'd be the only person with a squid theme.

I have to drive over to the school this coming Thursday, then I should be ready to start classes on April 2nd. I'm actually pretty excited about it. Who would have guessed, me actually going back to school, let alone following what I love and being an art student (although I'll fit in with my eyebrow ring and MacBook, heh).

In other news, if you haven't already figured it out, this is being typed on my new MacBook Pro. I am in love. Lots of changes for me recently. Between going back to school, becoming a Mac convert- at this rate I'll be lucky to recognize myself in a year.

changes

2007-03-21T15:54:00.000-05:00

"I promise I'll be around more from now on!" (See last post.)

That was obviously not true. I've had a lot of changes taking place in my life in the last month, and they're all for the better. There hasn't been a whole lot of knitting going on (more like, none). It's been a combination of these things that brought me to the decision that I'm going to change this from a knitting blog to a, well, general blog. I'll still post updates on the knitting when it happens of course, although I don't know how often that will be.

Basically I've decided to go back to school. I start on the 2nd. I also just bought a new laptop (and am waiting impatiently for it to arrive)... but more on that later.

we had a casualty

2007-02-01T00:09:00.000-05:00

I have bad news.

We had a casualty in the last batch of sheep stitch markers. I don't know what happened, maybe I left them in too long. Don't worry, I'll keep him. Dead sheep need love too.

I've been MIA recently. I apologize, I've had some stuff going on. I promise I'll be around more from now on!

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

2007-01-19T23:30:00.000-05:00

I took these photos a few days ago while it was snowing. Isn't it pretty?

I took this shot out my front door.

My doggy covered in snow.

As beautiful as the snow is, being from Florida I am terrified to drive in it. Luckily my guests tomorrow have offered to drive me to the store for the liquor/beer run (for the guests, you know). I, on the other hand, will survive on wine until then. Not that I'm complaining, mind you.

There's some knitting going on, as well as dyeing. I successfully dyed with wine. That post will be coming up sometime soon. Isn't wine dyeing exciting?

camel-camel-bo-bamel

2007-01-10T23:59:00.000-05:00

...banana-fana-fo-famel-mi-my-mo-mamel... CAMEL! Guess what came in the mail today? My camel yarn!

Let me tell you, it is so soft it's unbelievable. I had planned to make an Irish Hiking Scarf but at the last minute changed my mind. The yarn changed my mind. It told me it wanted to become a reversible cable scarf. Who am I to argue? I cast on the reversible cable scarf from the Lion brand web site. I haven't made a whole lot of progress but here's how it looks so far.

The seed stitch border is my favorite. Did I mention how soft this yarn is?

Guess what also came in the mail? I can only handle so much yarny goodness in one day. I need to space these purchases out next time so I have a constant supply of yarn p0rn instead of getting so much wonderfulness in one day.

My blank yarn for the dye-along! It's the first -along we're holding at get stitchy! I have been watching the others get such amazing results and can't wait to try it myself. Tomorrow there will be much purchasing of the Kool-Aid. See the bottom skein- it's sock yarn. I'm going to try to make self-striping yarn. How exciting!

I've been slacking on the knitting for the last couple days but now that some new yarn has arrived I'm back on the sticks. Want to know something else exciting? I have a new iPod video so I can listen to audio books while I knit! It's wonderful. It'll also be great for when I go visit those other knitters sometime in the near future. Long drives are always better with an iPod.

camel love

2007-01-04T02:07:00.000-05:00

If you could have seen me for the last couple hours you would have seen me bouncing around the house in some sort of "yarn happy dance". You see, I've fallen in love with camel yarn. I think the idea that they can take camel fiber and spin it is the coolest thing ever. I also happen to really like camels themselves. Not as much as I like sheep mind you, but camels are up there. This love of camels has blossomed slowly over my lifetime (it helps that camels seem to love me too, if I do say so myself). I had the privilege to ride one outside the Great Pyramids when I was younger- that was amazing, although a little scary at the time (camel rides are bumpy). There's a camel rescue farm located a couple miles from here where one of the camels loved me so much he kissed me. He was a really sweet and cool looking camel.

How 'bout some camel love?

I've fed a camel. His lips startled me, hence the shocked look on my face. Most of the feed ended up on the ground but I made sure to give him more.

Different camel, different local camel rescue.

Look at me getting off subject- back to the yarn. I'd been meaning to knit an Irish Hiking Scarf for a while now and I can't think of anything better than making it out of camel yarn. I like long scarves, so I did a little estimating and figured I'd need 6 skeins. At $13 a skein that's $78, a little more than I'd want to spend. Enter: yarn deal of the week! I found it on eBay Express for $6.50! They only had a selection of three different colors, but how beautiful is this:

Photo from auction.

Mmmmmmm, so pretty! I'm going to have a blue camel scarf! I'm so excited! I can't wait for it to come in the mail. I ordered some other yarn today as well but you'll have to wait to hear about that one. Let's just say I got the idea for that project from somewhere.

What's that you say? You haven't been over to get stitchy! yet? Well, what are you waiting for?

bad yarn! bad yarn!

2007-01-03T23:58:00.000-05:00

Random skeins of yarn I can't figure out what to do with have been gathering around here lately, hiding under the desk and bed and in the closet. I think they're afraid I'm going to find them and punish them for being bad, bad yarn. I went around today and tossed them all in a bin.

See all that Red Heart and Simply Soft? I told you they were bad yarn. Yeah I know what you're thinking, so why keep it? Although I never use it when I knit something for myself, I sometimes use it for other people. Now, don't look at me like that. I use it for people who wouldn't know the difference anyway, don't care about yarn quality and want something durable. I never buy it, almost all of that was given to me and I just try to use up what I already have. I have an issue with throwing perfectly good (although bad at the same time) yarn away- everything has it's purpose and will get used for something eventually. I'll never use it when I know it will make the recipient love the item any less. For example, I used some of that Red Heart to knit a Nautie- I was happy with the way it turned out and the recipient claims to love it.

I've been trying to come up with something where I can use the rest of it up and until yesterday have been drawing a blank. I might have finally come up with a solution- it involves the purchase of an inexpensive knitting machine and intarsia scarves. You'll have to wait for more on this one too. On a side note, if anyone has any experience with a Bond Ultimate Sweater Machine I'd appreciate some input. I'm not expecting it to be awesome, just work.

I haven't forgotten about the Noni bag. I still need to knit the handle and the flaps which attach to the rings that hold the handle (that was confusing, huh). The flaps were giving me issues so I have set it down for a few days. When I get around to it this blog will be the first to know.

half done bag body

2006-12-31T01:07:00.001-05:00

I just finished round 30 of the Adventure bag, so that means I'm half done with the body. *happy dance* There's nothing much exciting to see at the moment since it looks like a green blob, but you get a photo anyway.

See that little black sheep stitch marker? I get excited every time I get to him because he marks the beginning of a round and I get to put another slash down on my post-it note. In retrospect, I should really look into getting a row counter. Here's a closer photo of him, along with his gray friend (there are two other gray friends you can't see).

They are some of the sheep stitch counters I just began making. I'm trying out a couple different rings- I didn't want to use jump rings or split rings since they would get snagged on the yarn and these toggle clasps seem to be working well, but they're not the most economical choice. That and I only end up using the circle part of the toggle clasp, so I'm looking for another solution. That reminds me, I have two people who are waiting for sets. I better get on that. If anyone else is interested, shoot me an email and we'll work something out. ewephoriacreations at gmail dot com When I get my act together I'll get more information about them on the site.

Remember how I was grumbling about picking up those stitches? Well, it didn't turn out as badly as I thought. It should look seamless when it's felted.

If you look closely, you can see the stockinette stitches look slightly different between the bottom and the side. That's because I purl using the combined method, but I knit the standard way. When I was working back and forth it wasn't noticeable but when I started working in the round on the circular (thus knitting every round) you can see the difference. Oh well. It will be felted so it's our secret. I also noticed an errant stitch yesterday. Luckily it's on the inside. I stuck a pen through it so it would be easier to see.

It's more like an errant half stitch. Since the bag is being knit with two strands held together I must have only wrapped one of the strands for that stitch. You know what? It's staying that way. I didn't notice it until I was a decent amount of rows past it and I'm not about to frog. Something else that will be our little secret. I sure hope you're trustworthy.

I almost forgot. I added an Easter egg to the blog. Can you find it? There's the intended way of finding it and the cheaters way. I'm sure you can figure out the cheaters way if you try.
(Hint- when you click the right spot it takes you to a page that's a post.)

adventure bag bottom

2006-12-29T15:25:00.001-05:00

I just finished the bottom of the Adventure bag. So far it hasn't been much of an adventure, but the next step is picking up stitches. *grumbles*

I forgot to mention, see my new Addi Turbo circular? It's the first one I've ever had the pleasure of working with. I am in love. I better be, after paying $20 for it!. I've only been knitting back and forth on it so far but after I pick up the stitches I'll finally be working in the round. I love the fact that the cord doesn't have a "memory" and I don't have to spend so much time straightening it out (or attempting to, all the plastic cords on the other circulars were annoying).

I am loving this color more and more. I can't wait to finish it.

I emailed the company who produces this pattern to inquire about the sterling silver bag rings they have pictured on two of the bags in the pattern. They are so beautiful! I received a reply and they said they can be ordered for $73 each. Wow. That's a little, how should I say it, out of my price range, so I'll have to keep looking for something else. I just can't find anything online that seems to cut it. I'll have to get creative.

Well, wish me luck on the endeavor to pick up the stitches!

snow scarf

2006-12-28T23:41:00.001-05:00

Since I recently gave away my favorite (and only) scarf I knit for me, I knit another one up tonight. I used the same stitch (my current favorite, the "mock brioche rib") and color, but I used different yarn. I don't care how much I've been wanting to use up that Red Heart my cousin gave me, NO MORE RED HEART. It sucks. I really tried to like it, too. I knit it with two strands of Encore in color #146, which is 25% wool and 75% acrylic, so it's machine washable (I'm all about the easy care instructions). Unfortunately, I knit until I ran out... and it's still just too short. I already cast off but I'll probably end up buying a 3rd skein and making it longer. Here's how it looks for the time being:

If you look carefully at the bottom corner you can see I cheated and haven't woven my ends in yet (I mean, if I plan on adding more length I'll just wait). I really like how the stripes run vertically so it squishes around your neck. Since it's knit on such big needles it doesn't take long at all. Here's the (really simple) pattern in case anyone wants it (for reference, my scarf is approx. 5" wide):

US #15's
2 (or 3, if you prefer it longer) skeins Encore (or any worsted weight yarn- 400-600 yards total)

With two strands held together, cast on 19 stitches (add or subtract stitches in multiples of 4).

[k3, p1] to last 3 stitches, k3
k1, [p1, k3] to last 2 stitches, p1, k1

Repeat these two rows for pattern until scarf is the length you desire.

I knit it while sitting on my bed watching tv. Shortly after I started my cat jumped up on my lap (like usual). Before I knew it her purring had ceased and she was fast asleep. A while later I looked and saw she was in such a deep sleep her tongue was sticking out. I happened to have my camera next to me so I couldn't resist:

When the flash went off she opened her eyes briefly and glared at me. I couldn't resist taking one more:

She promptly got up, stretched, and repositioned.

Cats. What can I say.

I cast on the Noni bag yesterday but haven't gotten any farther. I'll probably work on it a bit tonight. I was so excited to get it, but for some reason it's off to a slow start.

(Oh, and I added some photos to the Texas Crunch recipe I posted. I was going to make another batch tonight but ended up eating some of the chocolate chips out of the bag instead.)

day-after-christmas fun

2006-12-26T23:09:00.000-05:00

I received a call today informing me that the Noni bag pattern I ordered arrived. I drove over to pick it up (along with some yarn, of course). I got Cascade 220 Wool in color #4011.

Here is the photo of the color from Cascades web site, but I don't think even it represents the color well. The true color is a gray-green, maybe a little more gray than those photos show. I chose it because it should go well with both gray and brown tones.

I've already completed the traditional petting and squishing of the wool so I'll probably cast on tonight. The only thing that really concerns me in the process is adding the zipper. Oh, and picking up stitches. I hate picking up stitches. This is what the finished bag should look like.

I'm going to do the medium-sized bag.

I'm very boring at the moment, so move along... nothing interesting to read here. Sorry folks.

(Edit: I just went to cast on and realized the circular needle I bought a while ago for this project is a size 13, NOT the size 11 I need. $&^% it all. I guess I have to wait until tomorrow when I can get the correct size. *sad face*)