Monday, October 31, 2005
One caul, completed
The construction of the caul has now been completed.
I finished it last night while watching CSI:NY. I admit to cheating and using the sewing machine to make and attach the headband. It fits pretty well, although I'm either going to have to braid or bun my hair to stop the weight pulling it down or, alternatively, attach combs to hold it in place at the top.
It's definitely cheap and cheerful, mainly because the individual patterns were all hand drawn so they're not uniform in size. Never mind - I might do one with more style and finesse one day, but this will do for now. After all, it's not like I'm ever going to need anything stunning for a coronation or the like, is it?
The kirtle is also coming along. The bodice and lining are now complete and pinned together ready to be sewn tomorrow. Once that's done I'll cut the metal boning for the front and insert it, which will only leave the skirt to be attached. I'm considering putting a slight train into the skirt but haven't decided yet.
The only other problem then are the eyelets. I haven't seen small enough eyelets over here, so I may have to do that on the Thursday when I get home. I suppose I could just hand sew the eyelets, but I'm a bit concerned about strength. Mind you, if I place them right I suppose any stress will be taken by the boning, not the fabric. In the meantime though, I can lucet up a cord for lacing.
0 comments
I finished it last night while watching CSI:NY. I admit to cheating and using the sewing machine to make and attach the headband. It fits pretty well, although I'm either going to have to braid or bun my hair to stop the weight pulling it down or, alternatively, attach combs to hold it in place at the top.
It's definitely cheap and cheerful, mainly because the individual patterns were all hand drawn so they're not uniform in size. Never mind - I might do one with more style and finesse one day, but this will do for now. After all, it's not like I'm ever going to need anything stunning for a coronation or the like, is it?
The kirtle is also coming along. The bodice and lining are now complete and pinned together ready to be sewn tomorrow. Once that's done I'll cut the metal boning for the front and insert it, which will only leave the skirt to be attached. I'm considering putting a slight train into the skirt but haven't decided yet.
The only other problem then are the eyelets. I haven't seen small enough eyelets over here, so I may have to do that on the Thursday when I get home. I suppose I could just hand sew the eyelets, but I'm a bit concerned about strength. Mind you, if I place them right I suppose any stress will be taken by the boning, not the fabric. In the meantime though, I can lucet up a cord for lacing.
0 comments
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Some progress
At last I've started the kirtle.
That's started as in 'cut out the bodice sections'. I would have done more but I picked up the blue fabric I was going to use for the lining I realised that it was the stuff I plan to use to make the sleeves for my fencing ropa. Which means, of course, that I now have to go shopping tomorrow for lining fabric. Still, at least it means that I can pick up lining for my sleeves at the same time.
Not a lot else today. A bit of reading (David Drake and Eric Flint's Rats, Bats and Vats) and a bit of embroidery (a picture of Speke Hall as a birthday gift for an old friend). Oh yes, and I framed the Shipping Forecast blackwork I did a couple of years ago. My flat now has something decorative other than SCA banners.
Tonight I'll do the construction of the caul. Hopefully there'll be pictures tomorrow.
0 comments
That's started as in 'cut out the bodice sections'. I would have done more but I picked up the blue fabric I was going to use for the lining I realised that it was the stuff I plan to use to make the sleeves for my fencing ropa. Which means, of course, that I now have to go shopping tomorrow for lining fabric. Still, at least it means that I can pick up lining for my sleeves at the same time.
Not a lot else today. A bit of reading (David Drake and Eric Flint's Rats, Bats and Vats) and a bit of embroidery (a picture of Speke Hall as a birthday gift for an old friend). Oh yes, and I framed the Shipping Forecast blackwork I did a couple of years ago. My flat now has something decorative other than SCA banners.
Tonight I'll do the construction of the caul. Hopefully there'll be pictures tomorrow.
0 comments
Saturday, October 29, 2005
A large G&T
Is, occasionally, just what is needed at the end of the day.
It hasn't been a particularly stressful day, just a day when I've done too much thinking. The G&T became possible on Friday when I realised that the supermarket had tonic a couple of places along the shelf from Egils Mix. It's Bombay Sapphire gin too, so it's a very pleasant drink.
Over the last couple of days I've had my hopes raised and dashed in the search for news coverage. It turns out that in Reykjavík you can get the BBC World Service on 94.3 FM. No such luck here in the north. I'm still having no success getting the World Service on short wave either - if there was still a short wave broadcast to North America then I might be able to pick it up, but unfortunately there's nothing pointing in this direction any longer so any signal I can pick up is weak and has bounced around quite a bit.
The remaining 1500 sequins arrived yesterday. Unfortunately it turns out that I need 5mm rather than 6mm sequins and, while the white iris cup sequins were tricky to find in 6mm they're even less common in 5mm. Nevertheless, I eventually found some and will be collecting them when I go back to the UK in November. Mum can take the tree skirt back to the UK when the family come over to visit at the end of the month.
I've finished the embroidery on the caul. It's now washed and drying, ready to be made up tomorrow. I've also done some tidying ready to hoover tomorrow so I can cut out my dress without the fabric getting messy. Hopefully.
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It hasn't been a particularly stressful day, just a day when I've done too much thinking. The G&T became possible on Friday when I realised that the supermarket had tonic a couple of places along the shelf from Egils Mix. It's Bombay Sapphire gin too, so it's a very pleasant drink.
Over the last couple of days I've had my hopes raised and dashed in the search for news coverage. It turns out that in Reykjavík you can get the BBC World Service on 94.3 FM. No such luck here in the north. I'm still having no success getting the World Service on short wave either - if there was still a short wave broadcast to North America then I might be able to pick it up, but unfortunately there's nothing pointing in this direction any longer so any signal I can pick up is weak and has bounced around quite a bit.
The remaining 1500 sequins arrived yesterday. Unfortunately it turns out that I need 5mm rather than 6mm sequins and, while the white iris cup sequins were tricky to find in 6mm they're even less common in 5mm. Nevertheless, I eventually found some and will be collecting them when I go back to the UK in November. Mum can take the tree skirt back to the UK when the family come over to visit at the end of the month.
I've finished the embroidery on the caul. It's now washed and drying, ready to be made up tomorrow. I've also done some tidying ready to hoover tomorrow so I can cut out my dress without the fabric getting messy. Hopefully.
0 comments
Friday, October 28, 2005
The pre-Hallowe'en pre-party party
I'm back from the departmental party.
After yesterday's big question of what to wear I ended up going into the fabric shop and buying a cheap and cheerful damask tablecloth to make an obi to go with my kimono. No problem there - I made something that would look ok. Then I tried it on.
Slight problem there - it's incredibly difficult to sit down wearing an obi. No wonder Japanese women kneel - when kneeling you don't have to bend in the middle anywhere near as much as when sitting. And driving a car is right out. So I ended up wearing the gown I made for the first Viceroy tournament two years ago.
The party was fun. There were more people there than I had expected, and I spent most of the evening in the kitchen talking to Wendy and Lynda (the wives of two of my colleagues), Martha and Karly (our two female students) and a couple of the partners of our male students... whose names I never did discover. Next party, perhaps.
The fancy dress went very well, and was won by Lynda (as Clint Eastwood in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly mode), Martha (as a very Bride of Frankenstein vampire) and young Samuel (as Neo from The Matrix). Wendy took plenty of photos, which I look forward to seeing. There may even be a reasonable one of me.
0 comments
After yesterday's big question of what to wear I ended up going into the fabric shop and buying a cheap and cheerful damask tablecloth to make an obi to go with my kimono. No problem there - I made something that would look ok. Then I tried it on.
Slight problem there - it's incredibly difficult to sit down wearing an obi. No wonder Japanese women kneel - when kneeling you don't have to bend in the middle anywhere near as much as when sitting. And driving a car is right out. So I ended up wearing the gown I made for the first Viceroy tournament two years ago.
The party was fun. There were more people there than I had expected, and I spent most of the evening in the kitchen talking to Wendy and Lynda (the wives of two of my colleagues), Martha and Karly (our two female students) and a couple of the partners of our male students... whose names I never did discover. Next party, perhaps.
The fancy dress went very well, and was won by Lynda (as Clint Eastwood in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly mode), Martha (as a very Bride of Frankenstein vampire) and young Samuel (as Neo from The Matrix). Wendy took plenty of photos, which I look forward to seeing. There may even be a reasonable one of me.
0 comments
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Shopping list
Things I bought today:
Two tubes of gouache paint
One large baking sheet
One pair of heavy-duy wire cutters
1.2m of 32mm plastic tubing
And in a strange way they're all related.
Tomorrow is the university Hallowe'en party and we, like the other faculties, are having our own pre-party party. There will be prizes for the best costumes in the adult, student and child categories, and at lunchtime I was asked to do the certificates for these as the organiser saw the photos I posted in my blog of the scrolls I did recently.
Not a problem, but I did need some more gouache to do them tonight. So I went off to the craft shop to pick them up, did a bit of grocery shopping and then found myself in the general area of Húsasmiðjan, the big hardware store. I've needed a decent baking sheet for a while so I picked one of those up while I was there.
The other two items were also acquired there. As the party is a costume party, I need something to wear. Now I could spend the rest of this evening having a frantic dash to get the kirtle made, as I have metal cutters to cut the boning it's going to need at the front. Or I could pop into the fabric store and get sufficient blue fabric to do a Musketeer's tabard... which would really require me to finally make a scabbard for one of my rapiers, hence the tubing.
My third option is to go into the fabric store tomorrow to get a length of something floral to turn into a long strip (or maybe something with a bit more structure) as although I have my kimono with me I don't have my obi.
Decisions, decisions...
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Two tubes of gouache paint
One large baking sheet
One pair of heavy-duy wire cutters
1.2m of 32mm plastic tubing
And in a strange way they're all related.
Tomorrow is the university Hallowe'en party and we, like the other faculties, are having our own pre-party party. There will be prizes for the best costumes in the adult, student and child categories, and at lunchtime I was asked to do the certificates for these as the organiser saw the photos I posted in my blog of the scrolls I did recently.
Not a problem, but I did need some more gouache to do them tonight. So I went off to the craft shop to pick them up, did a bit of grocery shopping and then found myself in the general area of Húsasmiðjan, the big hardware store. I've needed a decent baking sheet for a while so I picked one of those up while I was there.
The other two items were also acquired there. As the party is a costume party, I need something to wear. Now I could spend the rest of this evening having a frantic dash to get the kirtle made, as I have metal cutters to cut the boning it's going to need at the front. Or I could pop into the fabric store and get sufficient blue fabric to do a Musketeer's tabard... which would really require me to finally make a scabbard for one of my rapiers, hence the tubing.
My third option is to go into the fabric store tomorrow to get a length of something floral to turn into a long strip (or maybe something with a bit more structure) as although I have my kimono with me I don't have my obi.
Decisions, decisions...
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Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Cultured and sophisticated
Two words not normally applied to my taste in movies.
Tonight, however, I am embroidering to the accompaniment of not one, but two Luc Besson movies. Admittedly they are The Fifth Element and Leon, but they're Besson films all the same. Natalie Portman was so much better in Leon than she was in the recent Star Wars movies.
This entirely at odds with me wandering around the university being a hoodlum. Literally. :) The nice dark grey fleece hood that I got at Coronation has really come into its own. I tried wearing my fedora to keep my head ward but the wind makes it difficult. My silly wooly hat just looks too silly with a wrap. The hood, however, keeps me warm and stops the wind on my face all at once.
Who cares if I get the occasional strange look; maybe I'll start a new fashion.
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Tonight, however, I am embroidering to the accompaniment of not one, but two Luc Besson movies. Admittedly they are The Fifth Element and Leon, but they're Besson films all the same. Natalie Portman was so much better in Leon than she was in the recent Star Wars movies.
This entirely at odds with me wandering around the university being a hoodlum. Literally. :) The nice dark grey fleece hood that I got at Coronation has really come into its own. I tried wearing my fedora to keep my head ward but the wind makes it difficult. My silly wooly hat just looks too silly with a wrap. The hood, however, keeps me warm and stops the wind on my face all at once.
Who cares if I get the occasional strange look; maybe I'll start a new fashion.
0 comments
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Return of the welliettes
It's been a chilly day.
The snow is back in force, which has persuaded me to wear my wonderful red welliettes again. I have been forcibly reminded that rubber is not a great thermal insulator, as wearing the welliettes definitely requires thermal socks to go with them.
And I sincerely mean chilly. The current temperature is -5° Celsius with a further -12° of windchill - a little cooler than when I left the office to -3° and -10°, but believe me, the gentle force 4 wind really did make a difference. It's definitely wooly sweater weather outside.
The vertical snow isn't really a problem, it's the horizontal snow that's causing difficulties. It's sufficiently light that it lifts in the wind like sand off a dune. Very pretty, but not very pleasant on the skin.
Just now, while I was washing the dishes, the whole fire and ice thing returned to me in a slightly different way. There I was, looking out at the snow while my hands were in water that was definitely a little too hot. Too energetic. And the energy in the water hadn't been put there by burning gas or oil, but rather it's the natural energy of the decay of radioisotopes within the planetary crust. The energy for my bowl of washing up water - and my central heating - had been trapped in the proverbial bowels of the earth until I needed it to do the dishes.
Four and a half billion years. Isn't geothermal energy wonderful?
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The snow is back in force, which has persuaded me to wear my wonderful red welliettes again. I have been forcibly reminded that rubber is not a great thermal insulator, as wearing the welliettes definitely requires thermal socks to go with them.
And I sincerely mean chilly. The current temperature is -5° Celsius with a further -12° of windchill - a little cooler than when I left the office to -3° and -10°, but believe me, the gentle force 4 wind really did make a difference. It's definitely wooly sweater weather outside.
The vertical snow isn't really a problem, it's the horizontal snow that's causing difficulties. It's sufficiently light that it lifts in the wind like sand off a dune. Very pretty, but not very pleasant on the skin.
Just now, while I was washing the dishes, the whole fire and ice thing returned to me in a slightly different way. There I was, looking out at the snow while my hands were in water that was definitely a little too hot. Too energetic. And the energy in the water hadn't been put there by burning gas or oil, but rather it's the natural energy of the decay of radioisotopes within the planetary crust. The energy for my bowl of washing up water - and my central heating - had been trapped in the proverbial bowels of the earth until I needed it to do the dishes.
Four and a half billion years. Isn't geothermal energy wonderful?
0 comments
Monday, October 24, 2005
Icelandic Women's Day
It is thirty years since the first Icelandic Women's March.
In 1975 the average Icelandic woman's pay was 60% that of the average Icelandic man's. There was a large protest march in Reykjavik where women (and children) banded pots and pans in to bring the government's attention to this. Seemingly as a direct consequence of this, Vigdís Finnbogasdóttir was inspired to go into politics and was elected President (head of state) in 1980.
In the past thirty years things have improved - a little. The average Icelandic woman's pay is now 64% that of the average Icelandic man's. So to celebrate the anniversary of the original march there was today a mass walk-out of women from the workplace at 14:08, 64% through the working day.
I went shopping. I decided that I'm not political enough to join my Icelandic sisters in a mass rally in a foreign language so instead I went shopping for an iron and ironing board for dressmaking purposes and also came back with a loaf tin and an electric mixer. I can now bake fruitcake again!
Interestingly enough, while the academics and secretarial staff walked out, I noticed that the cleaning staff (all female, as far as I know) and a lot of the checkout staff in the shops (mostly female) were still at work. Clearly those women at the bottom end of the pay scale couldn't afford to make political statements like leaving work early.
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In 1975 the average Icelandic woman's pay was 60% that of the average Icelandic man's. There was a large protest march in Reykjavik where women (and children) banded pots and pans in to bring the government's attention to this. Seemingly as a direct consequence of this, Vigdís Finnbogasdóttir was inspired to go into politics and was elected President (head of state) in 1980.
In the past thirty years things have improved - a little. The average Icelandic woman's pay is now 64% that of the average Icelandic man's. So to celebrate the anniversary of the original march there was today a mass walk-out of women from the workplace at 14:08, 64% through the working day.
I went shopping. I decided that I'm not political enough to join my Icelandic sisters in a mass rally in a foreign language so instead I went shopping for an iron and ironing board for dressmaking purposes and also came back with a loaf tin and an electric mixer. I can now bake fruitcake again!
Interestingly enough, while the academics and secretarial staff walked out, I noticed that the cleaning staff (all female, as far as I know) and a lot of the checkout staff in the shops (mostly female) were still at work. Clearly those women at the bottom end of the pay scale couldn't afford to make political statements like leaving work early.
0 comments
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Four things I did today
Accomplishments of the day...
1) Completed the pattern for my kirtle and drew it out on heavy brown paper ready to cut out the kirtle tomorrow. Once you take the darts out the front is a very strange shape, but it's properly fitted (which is a rarity with any of my clothing). Tomorrow I shall have to go out and buy an ironing board and iron ready to start making the kirtle. Normally I try to avoid clothing that requires ironing as it's not a chore I enjoy. Unfortunately dressmaking requires it.
2) Made an apple pie. I couldn't get any baking apples so I used the sixteenth century recipe we used for the Klakavirki feast. Except for the pasty - I couldn't get shortcrust so I used puff pastry instead. I know, making pastry isn't a big thing but I'd have to buy a rolling pin too. And I used white sugar rather than brown sugar. So I suppose you could say that I made an apple pie in a manner inspired by a sixteenth century recipe. Tastes fairly ok though.
3) Started making a quick and dirty blackwork caul. Well, if I'm going to have this new kirtle I'm going to need some sort of headware to go with it. Inspired by the blackwork caul done by Jane at The Needle's Excellency I decided that a caul would be appropriate. I'm doing a quick bit of blackwork on it - roses and crosses - which shouldn't take more than about twenty hours. I just needed to do something for me.
Other than that my day has been hijacked by a book - David Drake's With The Lightnings. I don't know why, but at present I feel a bit guilty about taking time out to read. It just feels wrong. It feels as if I should be doing something useful.
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1) Completed the pattern for my kirtle and drew it out on heavy brown paper ready to cut out the kirtle tomorrow. Once you take the darts out the front is a very strange shape, but it's properly fitted (which is a rarity with any of my clothing). Tomorrow I shall have to go out and buy an ironing board and iron ready to start making the kirtle. Normally I try to avoid clothing that requires ironing as it's not a chore I enjoy. Unfortunately dressmaking requires it.
2) Made an apple pie. I couldn't get any baking apples so I used the sixteenth century recipe we used for the Klakavirki feast. Except for the pasty - I couldn't get shortcrust so I used puff pastry instead. I know, making pastry isn't a big thing but I'd have to buy a rolling pin too. And I used white sugar rather than brown sugar. So I suppose you could say that I made an apple pie in a manner inspired by a sixteenth century recipe. Tastes fairly ok though.
3) Started making a quick and dirty blackwork caul. Well, if I'm going to have this new kirtle I'm going to need some sort of headware to go with it. Inspired by the blackwork caul done by Jane at The Needle's Excellency I decided that a caul would be appropriate. I'm doing a quick bit of blackwork on it - roses and crosses - which shouldn't take more than about twenty hours. I just needed to do something for me.
Other than that my day has been hijacked by a book - David Drake's With The Lightnings. I don't know why, but at present I feel a bit guilty about taking time out to read. It just feels wrong. It feels as if I should be doing something useful.
0 comments
Saturday, October 22, 2005
Shock and insomnia
Never be tempted to sit up ICQing until 2am. Especially if the music channel also shows local news.
I did last night. I blame it on RUV for deciding to show a Murder, She Wrote at midnight, just after Battlestar Galactica on Skjál Einn. So I stayed up to watch it while doing a bit of news surfing. Then I noticed that was online, so I fired up Adium and we chatted for a while.
Murder, She Wrote finished and I hopped over to Aksjon, the music channel. I had no idea that they had a local news bulletin at a quarter past the hour through the night. So there we were, chatting away at 02:15 when the news comes on and I ignore it, wishing that it would return to being a music channel. Until I heard my name being mentioned.
Hearing your name in a news item when you're in a foreign country and don't understand a word of what the item is about, is not a pleasant experience. The adrenaline started pumping and any plans I had to go to bed went out of the window. I tried the news section on the station's website, but it was two days out of date.
Eventually I waited for the 03:15 bulletin and finally worked out that all they were doing was announcing the make-up of a university committee I'm on - although my contributions are minimal because it's all in Icelandic. The faculty wanted to send someone who actually spoke Icelandic but the committee wanted more women on board. Political correctness occurs even here.
I thought it might have been the announcement of the cognitive science workshops we're holding in February as part of the ERASMUS program. I'm getting very involved in that, which is earning me ten days in Compiegne, just north of Paris, in January to give a cog sci paper on usability and help run the first half of the event. The second half will be here in Akureyri ten days later. That's far more newsworthy, and I suspect that come February we'll have the press turning up to cover it.
I hear that Compiegne is relatively close to Parc Asterix. I wonder if I can get away for a day? I've never particularly wanted to go to EuroDisney, but I have always fancied visiting Parc Asterix.
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I did last night. I blame it on RUV for deciding to show a Murder, She Wrote at midnight, just after Battlestar Galactica on Skjál Einn. So I stayed up to watch it while doing a bit of news surfing. Then I noticed that
Murder, She Wrote finished and I hopped over to Aksjon, the music channel. I had no idea that they had a local news bulletin at a quarter past the hour through the night. So there we were, chatting away at 02:15 when the news comes on and I ignore it, wishing that it would return to being a music channel. Until I heard my name being mentioned.
Hearing your name in a news item when you're in a foreign country and don't understand a word of what the item is about, is not a pleasant experience. The adrenaline started pumping and any plans I had to go to bed went out of the window. I tried the news section on the station's website, but it was two days out of date.
Eventually I waited for the 03:15 bulletin and finally worked out that all they were doing was announcing the make-up of a university committee I'm on - although my contributions are minimal because it's all in Icelandic. The faculty wanted to send someone who actually spoke Icelandic but the committee wanted more women on board. Political correctness occurs even here.
I thought it might have been the announcement of the cognitive science workshops we're holding in February as part of the ERASMUS program. I'm getting very involved in that, which is earning me ten days in Compiegne, just north of Paris, in January to give a cog sci paper on usability and help run the first half of the event. The second half will be here in Akureyri ten days later. That's far more newsworthy, and I suspect that come February we'll have the press turning up to cover it.
I hear that Compiegne is relatively close to Parc Asterix. I wonder if I can get away for a day? I've never particularly wanted to go to EuroDisney, but I have always fancied visiting Parc Asterix.
0 comments
Friday, October 21, 2005
Fun with dressmaking patterns
Waistlines are a problem.
Well... mine is, anyway. And not in the way you might imagine.
Thanks to my cunning plan to replace the pliug on my sewing machine with an Icelandic one, I now have a sewing machine again. This has allowed me to continue making the toile for my new kirtle.
Making the toile has proved to be an interesting, if sometimes frustrating experience (the most frustrating being when the sewing machine gave up, of course). Actually getting the cotton version to fit me has involved putting the thing on, a lot of pink felt tip pen marks, taking the thing off and matching up the marks, sewing along various bits and then starting again.
The main work has been not so much in fitting the bust (I don't care if mediaeval gowns don't have bust darts - I'm not entering this for an A&S competition) but more the fitting the waist afterwards. I do actually have a waist, and it's quite a lot narrower than my bust and hip measurements would imply. So I've had to do quite a lot of messing about trying to shape the pattern in such a way to allow for it.
Still, I think I've got it now, so this weekend I can try to get the kirtle made. I may have a new gown for Kingdom University after all.
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Well... mine is, anyway. And not in the way you might imagine.
Thanks to my cunning plan to replace the pliug on my sewing machine with an Icelandic one, I now have a sewing machine again. This has allowed me to continue making the toile for my new kirtle.
Making the toile has proved to be an interesting, if sometimes frustrating experience (the most frustrating being when the sewing machine gave up, of course). Actually getting the cotton version to fit me has involved putting the thing on, a lot of pink felt tip pen marks, taking the thing off and matching up the marks, sewing along various bits and then starting again.
The main work has been not so much in fitting the bust (I don't care if mediaeval gowns don't have bust darts - I'm not entering this for an A&S competition) but more the fitting the waist afterwards. I do actually have a waist, and it's quite a lot narrower than my bust and hip measurements would imply. So I've had to do quite a lot of messing about trying to shape the pattern in such a way to allow for it.
Still, I think I've got it now, so this weekend I can try to get the kirtle made. I may have a new gown for Kingdom University after all.
0 comments
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Boom!
Well, not quite. In space, no-one can hear you go boom.
This morning I went into the office and did the early morning round of websites for news and amusement. I came across an article at SpaceDaily about a recent infra-red image of the Andromeda galaxy. It shows the aftereffects of the dwarf galaxy M32 passing through M31's disc, which is still disrupted millions of years later.
Our own galaxy is due to collide with M31 in roughly three billion years time, and the two will then spend another billion years forming a giant elliptical galaxy. This got me thinking... the sun isn't due to enter it's red giant phase for at least four billion year. Which means that the solar system will still be in its current form when this happens.
Imagine the night sky in three billion years time. Not only will we have the bright band of the Milky Way but also, set at an angle to it, a second river of stars across the heavens. It will look incredible.
A shame I'm going to miss it.
0 comments
This morning I went into the office and did the early morning round of websites for news and amusement. I came across an article at SpaceDaily about a recent infra-red image of the Andromeda galaxy. It shows the aftereffects of the dwarf galaxy M32 passing through M31's disc, which is still disrupted millions of years later.
Our own galaxy is due to collide with M31 in roughly three billion years time, and the two will then spend another billion years forming a giant elliptical galaxy. This got me thinking... the sun isn't due to enter it's red giant phase for at least four billion year. Which means that the solar system will still be in its current form when this happens.
Imagine the night sky in three billion years time. Not only will we have the bright band of the Milky Way but also, set at an angle to it, a second river of stars across the heavens. It will look incredible.
A shame I'm going to miss it.
0 comments
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
The joy of ostaslaufa
Allow me introduce you to ostaslaufa.
Ostaslaufa - literally 'cheese loaf' is a wonderful soft Icelandic bread filled with cheese and then sprinkled with sesame and poppy seeds before baking. The bread is slightly firmer than pylsur (hot dog) rolls but much softer than the normal bread.
It's one of three variations on a theme - you can also get pizzasnitzel ('pizza slice'), which has pizza sauce in the middle, and pepperónisnitzel ('pepperoni slice'), which contains pizza sauce and pepperoni. The slices are OK, but the ostaslaufa is definitely the best of the three.
While I was out shopping for ostaslaufa I also bought a vaccuum cleaner. There's just no joy in buying something like a vaccuum cleaner. At least there's joy in ostaslaufa.
0 comments
Ostaslaufa - literally 'cheese loaf' is a wonderful soft Icelandic bread filled with cheese and then sprinkled with sesame and poppy seeds before baking. The bread is slightly firmer than pylsur (hot dog) rolls but much softer than the normal bread.
It's one of three variations on a theme - you can also get pizzasnitzel ('pizza slice'), which has pizza sauce in the middle, and pepperónisnitzel ('pepperoni slice'), which contains pizza sauce and pepperoni. The slices are OK, but the ostaslaufa is definitely the best of the three.
While I was out shopping for ostaslaufa I also bought a vaccuum cleaner. There's just no joy in buying something like a vaccuum cleaner. At least there's joy in ostaslaufa.
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Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Broadband is back
The connection seems to be working again.
I left it turned off overnight and now I have connectivity once more. Ho hum... let's see how long it lasts.
I've been totally uninspired today, so I'm just going to make a quick comment about the weather. It's wonderful! We have fog, rain and a comfortable 8-10 degrees Celcius. It took only 36 hours over the weekend to go from four inches of snow to no snow to be seen. Even the mountain is looking brown again in places.
It's probably upsetting the cross-country skiers, as last week I could see the piste lighting up on the cross-country trail. I doubt it's possible to ski up there now. Very strange, this rapid transition thing.
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I left it turned off overnight and now I have connectivity once more. Ho hum... let's see how long it lasts.
I've been totally uninspired today, so I'm just going to make a quick comment about the weather. It's wonderful! We have fog, rain and a comfortable 8-10 degrees Celcius. It took only 36 hours over the weekend to go from four inches of snow to no snow to be seen. Even the mountain is looking brown again in places.
It's probably upsetting the cross-country skiers, as last week I could see the piste lighting up on the cross-country trail. I doubt it's possible to ski up there now. Very strange, this rapid transition thing.
0 comments
New problem
OK, so first the connection works, then it doesn't.
I've just come home from work to see if broadband is working again - which it was. So I post yesterday's LJ entry, copy and paste it into Blogger for the mirror site, then suddenly I have no connection again. I hope I'm not about to start having the intermittent problem I had at the other house, because that was incredibly frustrating.
My plans for yesterday went rather awry when the sewing maching failed. In spite of this, nay, almost certainly because of this, I not only completed the hardanger ornament I need for my embroidery class, but also a scissor keep from the same basic pattern.
This now leaves me with a bit of a dilemma: do I base the class on the ornament or the scissor keep? Factors influencing this decision are
Here are photos of the two completed pieces:
Your suggestions please - ornament or scissor keep? Suggestions from anyone planning to attend the class would be particularly welcome.
0 comments
I've just come home from work to see if broadband is working again - which it was. So I post yesterday's LJ entry, copy and paste it into Blogger for the mirror site, then suddenly I have no connection again. I hope I'm not about to start having the intermittent problem I had at the other house, because that was incredibly frustrating.
My plans for yesterday went rather awry when the sewing maching failed. In spite of this, nay, almost certainly because of this, I not only completed the hardanger ornament I need for my embroidery class, but also a scissor keep from the same basic pattern.
This now leaves me with a bit of a dilemma: do I base the class on the ornament or the scissor keep? Factors influencing this decision are
- I've never been fond of hardanger tree ornaments - they're too angular for my liking - and I think that the scissor keep looks much better.
- They are, however, just the right size to try out a new technique.
- The scissor keep involves twice as much work as the motif needs to be repeated and then the item made up.
- I've dropped one of the stitches because I don't like it (I like my holes as holes, not filled with dove's eye stitch) but the scissor keep could be done with the extra stitch.
- It is quite possible to do one motif in the two hours set aside for the class, but not two.
Here are photos of the two completed pieces:
Your suggestions please - ornament or scissor keep? Suggestions from anyone planning to attend the class would be particularly welcome.
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Sunday, October 16, 2005
Oh drat...
The plug on my sewing machine has just died.
That's died as in crumbled beyond repair. Which is a problem, as it's a three-pin fused plug on a three-core cable, while plugs over here are two-pin and unfused. I think I'm going to be without a sewing machine until I come back to the UK in November when I can get a replacement plug. Given that the plug is as old as the machine - getting on for forty years - I suppose it's had a good innings.
Drat.
Double drat.
So much for making a new gown for Kingdom University, as there's no way I'm hand-stitching a gown. Authenticity is laudable, but I'm a great fan of machine stitching for long seams. As it was, I'd downgraded my plans from a florentine gown to a straightforward kirtle on the grounds that I can fit a kirtle myself, but the process for the gamurra definitely needs two people. I have downloaded an excellent set of instructions from A Festive Attire for how to do it - this was the site that inspired me to do a gamurra and a giornea in the first place - and I do plan to do it eventually.
Now I'm stuck without a sewing machine AND my broadband has just gone down. I'll turn it off for a few hours and see what happens. It worked last time.
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That's died as in crumbled beyond repair. Which is a problem, as it's a three-pin fused plug on a three-core cable, while plugs over here are two-pin and unfused. I think I'm going to be without a sewing machine until I come back to the UK in November when I can get a replacement plug. Given that the plug is as old as the machine - getting on for forty years - I suppose it's had a good innings.
Drat.
Double drat.
So much for making a new gown for Kingdom University, as there's no way I'm hand-stitching a gown. Authenticity is laudable, but I'm a great fan of machine stitching for long seams. As it was, I'd downgraded my plans from a florentine gown to a straightforward kirtle on the grounds that I can fit a kirtle myself, but the process for the gamurra definitely needs two people. I have downloaded an excellent set of instructions from A Festive Attire for how to do it - this was the site that inspired me to do a gamurra and a giornea in the first place - and I do plan to do it eventually.
Now I'm stuck without a sewing machine AND my broadband has just gone down. I'll turn it off for a few hours and see what happens. It worked last time.
0 comments
Saturday, October 15, 2005
4400 or so down, 600 to go
I've done all of the tree skirt that I can until I get some more sequins.
I've worked it out and I've done nearly four and a half thousand sequins before running out. I've got a final star, some swirly bits and some mini snowflakes to do and it'll be finished.
There are, I believe, another fifteen hundred sequins awaiting me in Liverpool and, as I'd really like to get this finished, I'm tempted to ask Mum to post them in a couple of zip-lock bags in a normal envelope. I always hesitate to have anything sent from the UK due to the duty that gets charged on almost everything. In this case I don't really fancy having to pay a £15 customs fee plus about £3 in duty for three bags of sequins.
This means, though, that I can do something else in the meantime. Hurrah! Tomorrow I plan to watch the Chinese Grand Prix while doing the hardanger ornament. I should be able to get it done in that time.
So I have an evening free... I think I'm going to put in a little time on my Teresa Wentzler Lady of Shalott - I haven't touched that for nearly a year. So excuse me... cross stitch is calling...
0 comments
I've worked it out and I've done nearly four and a half thousand sequins before running out. I've got a final star, some swirly bits and some mini snowflakes to do and it'll be finished.
There are, I believe, another fifteen hundred sequins awaiting me in Liverpool and, as I'd really like to get this finished, I'm tempted to ask Mum to post them in a couple of zip-lock bags in a normal envelope. I always hesitate to have anything sent from the UK due to the duty that gets charged on almost everything. In this case I don't really fancy having to pay a £15 customs fee plus about £3 in duty for three bags of sequins.
This means, though, that I can do something else in the meantime. Hurrah! Tomorrow I plan to watch the Chinese Grand Prix while doing the hardanger ornament. I should be able to get it done in that time.
So I have an evening free... I think I'm going to put in a little time on my Teresa Wentzler Lady of Shalott - I haven't touched that for nearly a year. So excuse me... cross stitch is calling...
0 comments
Friday, October 14, 2005
Two new crafts
Today I took my first steps in two unfamiliar crafts.
The first is spirali, the art of wrapping thread around a piece of scallop-edged card. It's rather like spirograph (remember that?) with thread rather than paper. Or those terribly seventies pin and thread pictures. It's terribly mathematical and looks very pretty. Certainly pretty enough to decorate a birthday card.
The second, and by far the more daring of the two, is patchwork. I went into the patchwork shop and bought a pattern for a throw. The design is one they've got made up in the shop, and I knew the first time I saw it that I wanted one.
It looks terribly complicated, but once I opened the pack and looked at the instructions I was amazed at how simple it is. I'm very pleased at that, because quilting is something I've avoided because it looks terribly fiddly. This one can be sewn by machine though, which is a great help.
The reason for the quilt is not for warmth, but for decoration. Currently the decoration in my flat consists of an Insulae Draconis banner in the living room and a Drachenwald banner in the bedroom. I think I need something slightly more subtle.
Buying a quilt pattern seems to have raised my status in the shop to acceptable customer. Certainly the older assistant was much more friendly than usual when I asked for the various threads for hardanger. As a result I now have the stuff I need to do the initial piece of hardanger to photograph for the kits for my class in November.
Still no sign of faceted mother-of-pearl sequins though, so I should be able to finish what I can of the tree skirt this weekend and get on with the hardanger.
0 comments
The first is spirali, the art of wrapping thread around a piece of scallop-edged card. It's rather like spirograph (remember that?) with thread rather than paper. Or those terribly seventies pin and thread pictures. It's terribly mathematical and looks very pretty. Certainly pretty enough to decorate a birthday card.
The second, and by far the more daring of the two, is patchwork. I went into the patchwork shop and bought a pattern for a throw. The design is one they've got made up in the shop, and I knew the first time I saw it that I wanted one.
It looks terribly complicated, but once I opened the pack and looked at the instructions I was amazed at how simple it is. I'm very pleased at that, because quilting is something I've avoided because it looks terribly fiddly. This one can be sewn by machine though, which is a great help.
The reason for the quilt is not for warmth, but for decoration. Currently the decoration in my flat consists of an Insulae Draconis banner in the living room and a Drachenwald banner in the bedroom. I think I need something slightly more subtle.
Buying a quilt pattern seems to have raised my status in the shop to acceptable customer. Certainly the older assistant was much more friendly than usual when I asked for the various threads for hardanger. As a result I now have the stuff I need to do the initial piece of hardanger to photograph for the kits for my class in November.
Still no sign of faceted mother-of-pearl sequins though, so I should be able to finish what I can of the tree skirt this weekend and get on with the hardanger.
0 comments
Thursday, October 13, 2005
A big disappointment
I do not like the Director's Edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
It's not the added/removed scenes that annoy me, it's the music. They've reworked the music to the nasty, thin, allegro ST:TNG version. No doubt this is to do with the popularity of the series and the familiarity of the theme, but I much, much prefer the original version. The original ST:TMP version was much slower and grander, a rich and majestic theme that conveyed the vastness of space and the marvels of space travel.
One side effect of this is that all of those long beautiful shots showing you the new Enterprise are now shorter. They've got rid of the turning on the running lights to show the phaser ports sequence entirely. This is annoying, because I happen to really enjoy those bits. Pah!
Hmm... I must see if I can find a copy of the real version on DVD. I found the new music so intrusive that I almost gave up watching the DVD entirely. More than once.
0 comments
It's not the added/removed scenes that annoy me, it's the music. They've reworked the music to the nasty, thin, allegro ST:TNG version. No doubt this is to do with the popularity of the series and the familiarity of the theme, but I much, much prefer the original version. The original ST:TMP version was much slower and grander, a rich and majestic theme that conveyed the vastness of space and the marvels of space travel.
One side effect of this is that all of those long beautiful shots showing you the new Enterprise are now shorter. They've got rid of the turning on the running lights to show the phaser ports sequence entirely. This is annoying, because I happen to really enjoy those bits. Pah!
Hmm... I must see if I can find a copy of the real version on DVD. I found the new music so intrusive that I almost gave up watching the DVD entirely. More than once.
0 comments
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Nuke the site from orbit
It's the only way to be sure.
Last night I watched Aliens for the first time in a couple of years. It turned out to be an incredibly nostalgic experience, as I'd forgotten just how many good memories are attached to that film.
To start with, it was the first 18-rated movie I ever saw at the cinema. That's just because I'm weird and didn't do the cinema thing too much in my first year at university. A group of us went to see it in Manchester preceded by lunch at the Dutch Pancake House.
When term began soon after I went to see it again with Fred, who hadn't seen it yet. He must have jumped at least a foot out of his seat when the alien in the large specimen jar in MedLab twitched.
After that we had a number of video viewings, but the most amusing was not long after Christmas, before I'd taken the decorations down from around my room in David Russell Hall. They chose to fall on the shoulders of Martin and Brian at the precise moment the aliens dropped onto the shoulders of one of the marines in sub-level 3. There was a quarter-hour break while they recovered from the shock and the rest of us recovered from the outbreak of hysterical laughter that followed.
Then there were all of the roleplaying references. After this movie, whenever we came across a locked door there was a chorus of 'Hudson, run a bypass'. And, of course, there was the glorious 18-hour Traveller session where we came up against the acid-blooded beasties. Highlights of this included the wild chase sequence with the APC barrelling (literally, after one particularly good roll) across the plain at 60 kph followed by my character (the original Sharikkamur) at 80 kph and an alien at 100 kph, and the climactic battle between the alien queen and Paddy and Jean in their combat walkers.
The queen alien was killed, but the two combat walkers were destroyed in the process - fortunately the video cameras still worked, so when the Jean later walked into the offices of the manufacturers and announced 'this is a piece of shit' they gave her the latest version for free and royalties for use of the video footage in their adverts.
It wasn't just roleplaying though - I spent some very late nights playing the Aliens computer game on Paddy's Commodore 360. It was considered unsporting if you didn't take the hit in points by killing Newt.
I was sufficiently annoyed that James Horner's soundtrack for Aliens was too similar to his soundtrack for Star Trek III that I gave a talk about plagiarism in soundtracks to the university SF&F Soc. Then at one of the society quiz nights James and I did the 'let me introduce you to a close personal friend of mine' scene (with me as Hicks and him as Ripley) during the 'source that dialogue' round.
All in all, it's one of my favourite movies and has been for a long time, and it's one I used to watch quite a lot. Now, though I think that like Star Wars, it's going to have to go on the 'don't play too often' list just to maintain its potency.
0 comments
Last night I watched Aliens for the first time in a couple of years. It turned out to be an incredibly nostalgic experience, as I'd forgotten just how many good memories are attached to that film.
To start with, it was the first 18-rated movie I ever saw at the cinema. That's just because I'm weird and didn't do the cinema thing too much in my first year at university. A group of us went to see it in Manchester preceded by lunch at the Dutch Pancake House.
When term began soon after I went to see it again with Fred, who hadn't seen it yet. He must have jumped at least a foot out of his seat when the alien in the large specimen jar in MedLab twitched.
After that we had a number of video viewings, but the most amusing was not long after Christmas, before I'd taken the decorations down from around my room in David Russell Hall. They chose to fall on the shoulders of Martin and Brian at the precise moment the aliens dropped onto the shoulders of one of the marines in sub-level 3. There was a quarter-hour break while they recovered from the shock and the rest of us recovered from the outbreak of hysterical laughter that followed.
Then there were all of the roleplaying references. After this movie, whenever we came across a locked door there was a chorus of 'Hudson, run a bypass'. And, of course, there was the glorious 18-hour Traveller session where we came up against the acid-blooded beasties. Highlights of this included the wild chase sequence with the APC barrelling (literally, after one particularly good roll) across the plain at 60 kph followed by my character (the original Sharikkamur) at 80 kph and an alien at 100 kph, and the climactic battle between the alien queen and Paddy and Jean in their combat walkers.
The queen alien was killed, but the two combat walkers were destroyed in the process - fortunately the video cameras still worked, so when the Jean later walked into the offices of the manufacturers and announced 'this is a piece of shit' they gave her the latest version for free and royalties for use of the video footage in their adverts.
It wasn't just roleplaying though - I spent some very late nights playing the Aliens computer game on Paddy's Commodore 360. It was considered unsporting if you didn't take the hit in points by killing Newt.
I was sufficiently annoyed that James Horner's soundtrack for Aliens was too similar to his soundtrack for Star Trek III that I gave a talk about plagiarism in soundtracks to the university SF&F Soc. Then at one of the society quiz nights James and I did the 'let me introduce you to a close personal friend of mine' scene (with me as Hicks and him as Ripley) during the 'source that dialogue' round.
All in all, it's one of my favourite movies and has been for a long time, and it's one I used to watch quite a lot. Now, though I think that like Star Wars, it's going to have to go on the 'don't play too often' list just to maintain its potency.
0 comments
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
So much for mania
Today it's back to panic attacks again. Sigh...
Still, I've completed the second exam paper and written the two remaining labs. All I have to do now is run through them on the lab machines and make sure that everything still works.
Other than that, not a lot. It's not only time for the studded tyres to return, but also time to break out the removable crampons for my shoes. The ice-water slush in the car parks is becoming unpleasant again.
Bónus was out of about two thirds of the stuff I went in for - simple things like milk and tomato puree - but I did come out with Star Trek III and four 20%-off chicken breasts. Then I got back to the flat to find that in spite of the notice on my mailbox saying 'No Frettablaðið thanks' my mailbox was full of a Frettablaðið.
So tonight I shall attempt to escape into another snowflake. It's about half complete so I might even manage to complete it and get it sewn onto the skirt. And then tomorrow is a whole new day...
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Still, I've completed the second exam paper and written the two remaining labs. All I have to do now is run through them on the lab machines and make sure that everything still works.
Other than that, not a lot. It's not only time for the studded tyres to return, but also time to break out the removable crampons for my shoes. The ice-water slush in the car parks is becoming unpleasant again.
Bónus was out of about two thirds of the stuff I went in for - simple things like milk and tomato puree - but I did come out with Star Trek III and four 20%-off chicken breasts. Then I got back to the flat to find that in spite of the notice on my mailbox saying 'No Frettablaðið thanks' my mailbox was full of a Frettablaðið.
So tonight I shall attempt to escape into another snowflake. It's about half complete so I might even manage to complete it and get it sewn onto the skirt. And then tomorrow is a whole new day...
0 comments
Monday, October 10, 2005
Wheee! Skid!
I think it's time to break out the studded tyres again.
The snow isn't deep yet, and a lot of it is melting during the day. That which doesn't melt, though, freezes overnight to produce a rather treacherous layer of ice beneath the fresh fall. As I've now skidded a couple of times on my way to or from work, I think it's definitely time to change the tyres.
Today has been astoundingly productive - not only did I finish the database exam paper solutions, but I also wrote the HCI paper and have completed 80% of the solutions. On top of this I've finally put away all of my calligraphy stuff and got out the dressmaking stuff AND been motivated enough to make a pan of pasta sauce large enough to sink the Bismark.
The big question is: will it continue?
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The snow isn't deep yet, and a lot of it is melting during the day. That which doesn't melt, though, freezes overnight to produce a rather treacherous layer of ice beneath the fresh fall. As I've now skidded a couple of times on my way to or from work, I think it's definitely time to change the tyres.
Today has been astoundingly productive - not only did I finish the database exam paper solutions, but I also wrote the HCI paper and have completed 80% of the solutions. On top of this I've finally put away all of my calligraphy stuff and got out the dressmaking stuff AND been motivated enough to make a pan of pasta sauce large enough to sink the Bismark.
The big question is: will it continue?
0 comments
Sunday, October 09, 2005
More SCA thoughts
Is it really worth the effort?
I have come to seriously despair the state of the SCA in ID. The deadline for entries to Viceroy Tourney passed and, after a message on the mailing list announced two days before the deadline that there were no entries registered, four worthy couples have stepped forward to prevent the entire event becoming a complete shambles. Good for them.
I've just read on the mailing list a long message explaining the requirement for one menber of the couple to produce an A&S entry and to have served in some official capacity, so as to show that the couple embodies not only the concept of chivalry, but also that of service and of artisanship. It all sounded quite reasonable to me... but then I always thought it was crazy to have dropped the requirement earlier.
The next message I read on the list was from one of the senior fighters in ID, who effectively said that the A&S requirement was preventing the senior fighters from taking part. And indeed, the four contenders who have entered would not stand a chance against many of these senior fighters.
Seemingly there are a lot of fighters who couldn't take part because they haven't been in ID for long enough yet. I won't even start on my thoughts about people who come into a region and who think 'Ooh... an easy way to get a title.' Let's just say that I am not impressed with the number of times that's happened.
So now I have to ask myself if I really want to continue with this. Right now I'm an ID officer, by dint of there being no-one else qualified to take on the job when the previous incumbent moved out of ID and that ID needs a full set of officers if it wants to stand any chance of becoming a full principality. The more I see things progress the less I feel inclined to be involved. The more I find myself leaning towards the idea of just going along to particular events occasionally where I know that they're going to be fun rather than riddled with politics.
I'm willing to accept that this may partly be depression and isolation talking, but I'm certainly not really enjoying myself any more.
0 comments
I have come to seriously despair the state of the SCA in ID. The deadline for entries to Viceroy Tourney passed and, after a message on the mailing list announced two days before the deadline that there were no entries registered, four worthy couples have stepped forward to prevent the entire event becoming a complete shambles. Good for them.
I've just read on the mailing list a long message explaining the requirement for one menber of the couple to produce an A&S entry and to have served in some official capacity, so as to show that the couple embodies not only the concept of chivalry, but also that of service and of artisanship. It all sounded quite reasonable to me... but then I always thought it was crazy to have dropped the requirement earlier.
The next message I read on the list was from one of the senior fighters in ID, who effectively said that the A&S requirement was preventing the senior fighters from taking part. And indeed, the four contenders who have entered would not stand a chance against many of these senior fighters.
Seemingly there are a lot of fighters who couldn't take part because they haven't been in ID for long enough yet. I won't even start on my thoughts about people who come into a region and who think 'Ooh... an easy way to get a title.' Let's just say that I am not impressed with the number of times that's happened.
So now I have to ask myself if I really want to continue with this. Right now I'm an ID officer, by dint of there being no-one else qualified to take on the job when the previous incumbent moved out of ID and that ID needs a full set of officers if it wants to stand any chance of becoming a full principality. The more I see things progress the less I feel inclined to be involved. The more I find myself leaning towards the idea of just going along to particular events occasionally where I know that they're going to be fun rather than riddled with politics.
I'm willing to accept that this may partly be depression and isolation talking, but I'm certainly not really enjoying myself any more.
0 comments
Saturday, October 08, 2005
Sequins and more sequins
I'm being driven mad by sequins.
The snowflake tree skirt I'm working on is now well over half finished. I've now done eight of the eleven snowflakes and most of the swirly silver and white bits. And I'm really looking forward to completing it, because the sequins are driving me barmy.
The big plan was to get it done in time to take it home when I return to the UK for Kingdom University in November. Unfortunately I don't think that I've got enough mother-of-pearl sequins to finish it. I've checked the assorted craft shops here and none of them have the faceted sequins I need. I suspect I'm going to have to either order them over the internet and pick them up when I get back to the UK or, failing that, go into George Henry Lee's (the Liverpool John Lewis Partnership shop) in town on the Thursday. On the plus side though, that'll leave me with plenty of spare sequins to make some snowflakes as gifts.
The stars themselves aren't too bad, it's the stitching the stars onto the skirt then beading them that's a pain. The sworly line of sequins are also a pain, and in all of these cases it's the fact that I have to manipulate the whole four feet diameter of fabric without spilling sequins all over the floor. Again.
0 comments
The snowflake tree skirt I'm working on is now well over half finished. I've now done eight of the eleven snowflakes and most of the swirly silver and white bits. And I'm really looking forward to completing it, because the sequins are driving me barmy.
The big plan was to get it done in time to take it home when I return to the UK for Kingdom University in November. Unfortunately I don't think that I've got enough mother-of-pearl sequins to finish it. I've checked the assorted craft shops here and none of them have the faceted sequins I need. I suspect I'm going to have to either order them over the internet and pick them up when I get back to the UK or, failing that, go into George Henry Lee's (the Liverpool John Lewis Partnership shop) in town on the Thursday. On the plus side though, that'll leave me with plenty of spare sequins to make some snowflakes as gifts.
The stars themselves aren't too bad, it's the stitching the stars onto the skirt then beading them that's a pain. The sworly line of sequins are also a pain, and in all of these cases it's the fact that I have to manipulate the whole four feet diameter of fabric without spilling sequins all over the floor. Again.
0 comments
Friday, October 07, 2005
Random jottings
Although whether I'm a Hinge or a Bracket I'm not certain. My grandmother used to love Hinge and Bracket. Always claimed that there were terribly nice ladies. I'm fairly certain she meant it.
This time yesterday I had half of an exam paper written. Today I finished it and have done over half of the specimen answers too. I had to extend one question because it didn't have enough detail, but the rest are fine. There's an interesting theory in the writing of exam papers that says that you shouldn't actually be able to pass the exam by regurgitating bookwork. Most of the marks should come instead from problem-solving.
I'm happy enough that that's the case with this one, although it's relatively easy to do that with a course like database systems as there are lots of sections of the course which lend themselves to problem-solving. Unlike HCI, which is a much trickier exam to write well.
The highlight of the day, though, must be wandering into Bónus and discovering that they had a sale of DVDs including all of the early Star Trek movies. I caved in immediately and bought ST:TMP and ST:TWOK as they're my favourites. Yes, I know I'm the only person on the planet to like ST:TMP but I don't care.
I may well watch one of them over the coming weekend. It should be a quiet weekend, and there's a faint chance that I might get some garb made, seeing that I have the fabric and a weekend free. As I suspect that I'm always going to be a Freydis rather than a Ximene, I've decided that I'm just going to wear whatever garb takes my fancy and to hell with the whole fixed persona thing. This gives me an excuse to make a Florentine gown because it looks relatively simple but elegant. Then, when I get some really nice brocade I can do the over-thingy to go with it.
But that's getting way ahead of myself. Let's just see if I can actually get anything made this weekend first.
0 comments
This time yesterday I had half of an exam paper written. Today I finished it and have done over half of the specimen answers too. I had to extend one question because it didn't have enough detail, but the rest are fine. There's an interesting theory in the writing of exam papers that says that you shouldn't actually be able to pass the exam by regurgitating bookwork. Most of the marks should come instead from problem-solving.
I'm happy enough that that's the case with this one, although it's relatively easy to do that with a course like database systems as there are lots of sections of the course which lend themselves to problem-solving. Unlike HCI, which is a much trickier exam to write well.
The highlight of the day, though, must be wandering into Bónus and discovering that they had a sale of DVDs including all of the early Star Trek movies. I caved in immediately and bought ST:TMP and ST:TWOK as they're my favourites. Yes, I know I'm the only person on the planet to like ST:TMP but I don't care.
I may well watch one of them over the coming weekend. It should be a quiet weekend, and there's a faint chance that I might get some garb made, seeing that I have the fabric and a weekend free. As I suspect that I'm always going to be a Freydis rather than a Ximene, I've decided that I'm just going to wear whatever garb takes my fancy and to hell with the whole fixed persona thing. This gives me an excuse to make a Florentine gown because it looks relatively simple but elegant. Then, when I get some really nice brocade I can do the over-thingy to go with it.
But that's getting way ahead of myself. Let's just see if I can actually get anything made this weekend first.
0 comments
Thursday, October 06, 2005
A late breakfast - sort of
Some days what you need when you come home from work is a big bowl of cereal. Today was one of those days.
And the cereal in question was Rice Crispies. I haven't had them for a while - normally I get the relatively cheap and cheerful giant boxes of Kellogs corn flakes from Bonus, but as I was shopping in Hagkaup the other day I thought well, you in the expensive supermarket anyway, let's push the boat out and have Rice Crispies instead.
Strange, the thoughts that come to you when you're shopping.
I had fun and games with a lab this morning. With the computers being down I had to move the lab to another classroom. Then, when I got to the new room I found it was already occupied. It seems that one of the other faculties had organised a lecture but hadn't actually updated the booking database. As the chap had driven an hour to get here and there were no other classrooms free he eventually got priority, leaving me to open up the closed computing lab instead. Fortunately toady it was the server that was being worked upon, not the machines in the lab themselves.
Other than that I got half of the database systems exam paper written - the question paper, not the answers - and started planning the lectures for next semester's data visualisation course. Vaguely useful, I suppose.
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And the cereal in question was Rice Crispies. I haven't had them for a while - normally I get the relatively cheap and cheerful giant boxes of Kellogs corn flakes from Bonus, but as I was shopping in Hagkaup the other day I thought well, you in the expensive supermarket anyway, let's push the boat out and have Rice Crispies instead.
Strange, the thoughts that come to you when you're shopping.
I had fun and games with a lab this morning. With the computers being down I had to move the lab to another classroom. Then, when I got to the new room I found it was already occupied. It seems that one of the other faculties had organised a lecture but hadn't actually updated the booking database. As the chap had driven an hour to get here and there were no other classrooms free he eventually got priority, leaving me to open up the closed computing lab instead. Fortunately toady it was the server that was being worked upon, not the machines in the lab themselves.
Other than that I got half of the database systems exam paper written - the question paper, not the answers - and started planning the lectures for next semester's data visualisation course. Vaguely useful, I suppose.
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Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Slides and scrolls
I finished the final lecture of the database module today.
Next on the never-ending list of things to do are the slides for next semester's data visualisaton module. I wonder how many of them I can get done before the semester starts? Unfortunately I've got twice the number to do as I can't really do labs with this one, given that there's not a lot of useful data visualisations software for Linux. Hmm... maybe I can get the labs transferred into the other building where the rest of the university still uses Windows.
Actually, they're not precisely next - I do yet have to write the exam papers for this semester's exams so I suppose it would make sense to do them now.
As threatened, here are the pictures of the scrolls I did for last weekend's event. I'm a bit disappointed at the third picture, but for some reason the camera refused to focus properly.
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Next on the never-ending list of things to do are the slides for next semester's data visualisaton module. I wonder how many of them I can get done before the semester starts? Unfortunately I've got twice the number to do as I can't really do labs with this one, given that there's not a lot of useful data visualisations software for Linux. Hmm... maybe I can get the labs transferred into the other building where the rest of the university still uses Windows.
Actually, they're not precisely next - I do yet have to write the exam papers for this semester's exams so I suppose it would make sense to do them now.
As threatened, here are the pictures of the scrolls I did for last weekend's event. I'm a bit disappointed at the third picture, but for some reason the camera refused to focus properly.
 | Farewell scroll 1 A farewell scroll for Sofie de Beauvais, leaving Klakavirki for Trimaris. Inspired by geometric borders from the Book of Kells. |
 | Farewell scroll 2 A farewell scroll for Lucien de Beauvais, leaving Klakavirki for Trimaris. Inspired by geometric borders fromt he Book of Kells. |
 | Trollhunter General Scroll A scroll presented to the winner of the competitions at Troll Hunt, AS XXXX Sadly not a particularly good photo. |
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Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Pod racing?
So Formula 1 is boring, huh?
Well, not as boring as last year, I must admit. I must also admit that it might actually be very exciting this year but I, bereft of understandable commentary, have missed all the fun.
What might prove more fun next year is the new Rocket Racing League created by Peter Diamandic, the chap behind the X-Prize. It is my hope that they'll have lots of exhilarating footage and very good parachutes, because everyone knows that most people watch car racing for the crashes. RRL will be the same, so they'd better make the ejection systems effective.
This shows you how interesting a day I've had. The student lab has had a gloriously extensive crash and will take at least four days and an external contractor to bring it back up again. I've given a lecture on database normalisation and written about half a lecture on database recovery techniques.
How thrilling!
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Well, not as boring as last year, I must admit. I must also admit that it might actually be very exciting this year but I, bereft of understandable commentary, have missed all the fun.
What might prove more fun next year is the new Rocket Racing League created by Peter Diamandic, the chap behind the X-Prize. It is my hope that they'll have lots of exhilarating footage and very good parachutes, because everyone knows that most people watch car racing for the crashes. RRL will be the same, so they'd better make the ejection systems effective.
This shows you how interesting a day I've had. The student lab has had a gloriously extensive crash and will take at least four days and an external contractor to bring it back up again. I've given a lecture on database normalisation and written about half a lecture on database recovery techniques.
How thrilling!
0 comments
Monday, October 03, 2005
Pondering planets
This morning there was a partial/annular eclipse of the sun.
It started about five minutes after dawn here but unfortunately the sky was the familiar grey mass of clouds that we've had for the last couple of weeks. Clear sky wouldn't have helped though - it takes quite a while to get above the mountains and being this far north it would have been a very small bite out of the sun.
This whole eclipse business has lead me to ponder a highly important question: Do werewolves return to normal during lunar eclipses? Or does the blood moon incite an even greater blood lust?
And thinking of moons, it appears that the recently discovered '10th planet' has its own moon. Well, it's own satelite, to be more precise. The IAU really ought to get their act together and give that planet a name or it's forever going to be known as Xena, together with its moon Gabrielle.
Of course it would make it so much easier if everyone would just accept that Pluto isn't really a planet at all and demote it to the role of large Kuiper Belt Object. Then they wouldn't have to change Xena and Gabrielle's names at all.
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It started about five minutes after dawn here but unfortunately the sky was the familiar grey mass of clouds that we've had for the last couple of weeks. Clear sky wouldn't have helped though - it takes quite a while to get above the mountains and being this far north it would have been a very small bite out of the sun.
This whole eclipse business has lead me to ponder a highly important question: Do werewolves return to normal during lunar eclipses? Or does the blood moon incite an even greater blood lust?
And thinking of moons, it appears that the recently discovered '10th planet' has its own moon. Well, it's own satelite, to be more precise. The IAU really ought to get their act together and give that planet a name or it's forever going to be known as Xena, together with its moon Gabrielle.
Of course it would make it so much easier if everyone would just accept that Pluto isn't really a planet at all and demote it to the role of large Kuiper Belt Object. Then they wouldn't have to change Xena and Gabrielle's names at all.
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Sunday, October 02, 2005
Post-event thoughts
It's not looking good for Klakavirki.
In the last six weeks we've had fully two thirds of the active shire members on the base at Keflavík rotated back to the US as part of their normal duty assignments. Two less-active members, including our Icelander, have said that they don't really have the time at present to come to meetings any more. That leaves two active members, plus one new person and me.
Unfortunately the other two active members are being reassigned to Naples in March. Doubly unfortunately, as NAS Keflaví is about to become a USAF base rather than a naval base, the three fencers who were due to be coming out here will no longer be so doing. In March, therefore, we're almost certain to drop below the three members required to be even a stronghold.
Yesterday's event hasn't given any of us the motivation to try to do a big membership drive to solve the problem - there's a possibility that we'll do something in Akureyri in February, but even then I can't see it generating paying memberships. After all, what do you get for a paying membership out here? Dragon's Tale, a magazine telling you about all of the events it's too expensive to get to, and the right to be on the committee and therefore worry about organising events and trying to get other people to send cash to the US for little return.
If the UK and Ireland can muster 120 members out of a population of 60+ million, then that's one person for every half a million of population. Right now Iceland's doing pretty well with three members for under half a million people. I can't see the SCA becoming established in Iceland at all; any presence it has there is going to be entirely dependant upon having members posted to the base at Keflavík.
I'm very glad that there was an SCA presense in Iceland when I arrived here. I've made some very good friends through the society and I'm going to miss them - and am missing some of them already - when they're posted elsewhere. Knowing that there are like-minded souls to whom I can escape occasionally has been really helpful... even if they are 270 miles away.
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In the last six weeks we've had fully two thirds of the active shire members on the base at Keflavík rotated back to the US as part of their normal duty assignments. Two less-active members, including our Icelander, have said that they don't really have the time at present to come to meetings any more. That leaves two active members, plus one new person and me.
Unfortunately the other two active members are being reassigned to Naples in March. Doubly unfortunately, as NAS Keflaví is about to become a USAF base rather than a naval base, the three fencers who were due to be coming out here will no longer be so doing. In March, therefore, we're almost certain to drop below the three members required to be even a stronghold.
Yesterday's event hasn't given any of us the motivation to try to do a big membership drive to solve the problem - there's a possibility that we'll do something in Akureyri in February, but even then I can't see it generating paying memberships. After all, what do you get for a paying membership out here? Dragon's Tale, a magazine telling you about all of the events it's too expensive to get to, and the right to be on the committee and therefore worry about organising events and trying to get other people to send cash to the US for little return.
If the UK and Ireland can muster 120 members out of a population of 60+ million, then that's one person for every half a million of population. Right now Iceland's doing pretty well with three members for under half a million people. I can't see the SCA becoming established in Iceland at all; any presence it has there is going to be entirely dependant upon having members posted to the base at Keflavík.
I'm very glad that there was an SCA presense in Iceland when I arrived here. I've made some very good friends through the society and I'm going to miss them - and am missing some of them already - when they're posted elsewhere. Knowing that there are like-minded souls to whom I can escape occasionally has been really helpful... even if they are 270 miles away.
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Saturday, October 01, 2005
Bad day, good night
Even re-organised feasts can be fun.
Today was Troll Hunt, the Stronghold of Klakavirki's unofficial full day event and feast. The day was to include a calligraphy class, a mask-making class, games and a three-remove feast along the lines of
First remove
Rustic soup
Lentil Moussaka
Meat pies
Second remove
Spaghetti in Green Sauce
A Dauce Egre
Perys in Confyte
Third remove
Frumenty yn Lentyn
Pumpes
Apple Pie
Nothing too adventurous for our first real feast, but enough to do things properly. We - Rebecca, Matt, Lucas and I - spent last night cutting up vegetables, making apple pies and cooking meat ready for today so that we didn't actually have to start the formal cooking until 17:00.
The event was due to start at 11:00. When by 15:00 no-one had shown up, we got both paranoid and pissed off and started phoning around to make sure that people were still coming to the feast. We knew that a couple of them couldn't make it during the day but would be there later, but the complete absence of folks during the day was rather disheartening. And we didn't want to start cooking a feast for twenty if we were only going to end up with ten people.
Which was exactly how many we got in the end. Fortunately the afternoon phone calls alerted us to this and we decided to cut out the entire second remove and the frumenty as they hadn't needed to be prepared in advance and, even at five dishes instead of nine we still had plenty for ten people.
Once people started arriving for the feast things perked up a lot though. The food we had cooked went down very well, and it was great to see Ray and Jen one last time before they PCS back to the US. We presented them with embroidered pouches (the ones I finished last month) and scrolls as keepsakes of their time here - Ray's pouch will be entering service as a dice bag while Jen's thinking of using hers as a jewellery bag, which is nice. I'm definitely going to miss them, as their friendship has been one of the highlights of moving to Iceland.
The third scroll and the big jewelled brooch I'd found went to Lucas as our newly-appointed Trollhunter General. If we have any problems with trolls around here this winter he's the chap responsible to dealing with them. :)
Once we'd finished feasting we carried on nattering (and drinking Sonya's delicious port) for a few hours before finally caving long after midnight. So although the day was pretty miserable at times the evening was good fun.
0 comments
Today was Troll Hunt, the Stronghold of Klakavirki's unofficial full day event and feast. The day was to include a calligraphy class, a mask-making class, games and a three-remove feast along the lines of
First remove
Rustic soup
Lentil Moussaka
Meat pies
Second remove
Spaghetti in Green Sauce
A Dauce Egre
Perys in Confyte
Third remove
Frumenty yn Lentyn
Pumpes
Apple Pie
Nothing too adventurous for our first real feast, but enough to do things properly. We - Rebecca, Matt, Lucas and I - spent last night cutting up vegetables, making apple pies and cooking meat ready for today so that we didn't actually have to start the formal cooking until 17:00.
The event was due to start at 11:00. When by 15:00 no-one had shown up, we got both paranoid and pissed off and started phoning around to make sure that people were still coming to the feast. We knew that a couple of them couldn't make it during the day but would be there later, but the complete absence of folks during the day was rather disheartening. And we didn't want to start cooking a feast for twenty if we were only going to end up with ten people.
Which was exactly how many we got in the end. Fortunately the afternoon phone calls alerted us to this and we decided to cut out the entire second remove and the frumenty as they hadn't needed to be prepared in advance and, even at five dishes instead of nine we still had plenty for ten people.
Once people started arriving for the feast things perked up a lot though. The food we had cooked went down very well, and it was great to see Ray and Jen one last time before they PCS back to the US. We presented them with embroidered pouches (the ones I finished last month) and scrolls as keepsakes of their time here - Ray's pouch will be entering service as a dice bag while Jen's thinking of using hers as a jewellery bag, which is nice. I'm definitely going to miss them, as their friendship has been one of the highlights of moving to Iceland.
The third scroll and the big jewelled brooch I'd found went to Lucas as our newly-appointed Trollhunter General. If we have any problems with trolls around here this winter he's the chap responsible to dealing with them. :)
Once we'd finished feasting we carried on nattering (and drinking Sonya's delicious port) for a few hours before finally caving long after midnight. So although the day was pretty miserable at times the evening was good fun.
0 comments