Monday, March 30, 2009
Lecherous electrons
The problem with spellcheckers that they don't tend to include technical terms.
Take Powerpoint, for instance. This afternoon I found myself writing an introductory lecture on quantum computing. Having taught the students huge amounts on classical computers over the last few years, and given that quantum computers are likely to become quite influential during my students' working lives, I thought it would be a good idea to give them a brief introduction to the field, and thus I started to write a powerpoint presentation on the topic.
Oh dear. To start with - although I can't blame Microsoft for this one - the Icelandic keyboard is not ideally laid-out to do anything in ket notation, as | and > are on the same key but require different control keys to access them. Writing things like |ψ> = α|0> + β|1> is something of a faff. Okay, I'm used to that. The Icelandic keyboard is designed for novellists, not for scientists, engineers or programmers.
But then the red squiggly lines started appearing. No sign of qubit, so I realised that there was no hope for qutrit or qudit. My personal favourite was that it offered me lecherous instead of decoherence. I can just imagine it - two electrons meet in a bar and the first one says to the other 'ello - fancy getting a bit entangled later?. Possibly voiced by the late Sid James.
0 comments
Take Powerpoint, for instance. This afternoon I found myself writing an introductory lecture on quantum computing. Having taught the students huge amounts on classical computers over the last few years, and given that quantum computers are likely to become quite influential during my students' working lives, I thought it would be a good idea to give them a brief introduction to the field, and thus I started to write a powerpoint presentation on the topic.
Oh dear. To start with - although I can't blame Microsoft for this one - the Icelandic keyboard is not ideally laid-out to do anything in ket notation, as | and > are on the same key but require different control keys to access them. Writing things like |ψ> = α|0> + β|1> is something of a faff. Okay, I'm used to that. The Icelandic keyboard is designed for novellists, not for scientists, engineers or programmers.
But then the red squiggly lines started appearing. No sign of qubit, so I realised that there was no hope for qutrit or qudit. My personal favourite was that it offered me lecherous instead of decoherence. I can just imagine it - two electrons meet in a bar and the first one says to the other 'ello - fancy getting a bit entangled later?. Possibly voiced by the late Sid James.
0 comments
Saturday, March 28, 2009
A short breather
This weekend is going to be a short breather between houseguests.
I'm just back from taking J to the bus in Akureyri. It has turned out that after a couple of days of pretty lousy weather this morning is clear, bright and sunny, which will provide her with some spectacular scenic views on her journey south. As we drove into town the temperature astounded her by falling to -19 C as we dropped down to river level; outside the town the snow glittered in the sunlight until we reached the fjord where we were shrouded in the mist rising off the water. Terribly picturesque.
It's been quite fun having J around - it turned out that we have a lot of philosophies in common, which has led to some very interesting discussions over the dinner table (both with and without the aid of wine). I've now got a couple of days before C arrives.
This weekend, though, I plan to do more crafty stuff. I;m finalling hoping to try my hand at gilding and to make a start on some glass engraving. And a bit of embroidery , almost certainly during the Grand Prix tomorrow. I have managed, over the last week, to steal a few moments here and there to finish the final of this set of backlog scrolls. They went in the post yesterday, and this morning is the first chance I've had to upload the final photos:
I'm quite pleased with this pair, the main structure of the border for which comes from an illustration I found in one of my calligraphy books (Latin MS 136, fol 148; France, early 15th century - John Rylands Library, Manchester).
0 comments
I'm just back from taking J to the bus in Akureyri. It has turned out that after a couple of days of pretty lousy weather this morning is clear, bright and sunny, which will provide her with some spectacular scenic views on her journey south. As we drove into town the temperature astounded her by falling to -19 C as we dropped down to river level; outside the town the snow glittered in the sunlight until we reached the fjord where we were shrouded in the mist rising off the water. Terribly picturesque.
It's been quite fun having J around - it turned out that we have a lot of philosophies in common, which has led to some very interesting discussions over the dinner table (both with and without the aid of wine). I've now got a couple of days before C arrives.
This weekend, though, I plan to do more crafty stuff. I;m finalling hoping to try my hand at gilding and to make a start on some glass engraving. And a bit of embroidery , almost certainly during the Grand Prix tomorrow. I have managed, over the last week, to steal a few moments here and there to finish the final of this set of backlog scrolls. They went in the post yesterday, and this morning is the first chance I've had to upload the final photos:
I'm quite pleased with this pair, the main structure of the border for which comes from an illustration I found in one of my calligraphy books (Latin MS 136, fol 148; France, early 15th century - John Rylands Library, Manchester).
0 comments
Friday, March 27, 2009
Sploosh!
Today we went back to Þelamörk swimming pool.
Well, I went back; J was visiting it for the first time. She'd done her visiting lecturer lab this morning and the plan was for us to pop into town to have lunch then potter around and head out to the pool when it opened at 17:00. Unfortunately I ended up haveing to Do Management Stuff until 14:00, by which time lunch in town was a bit of a non-starter so we opted for Icelandic bready delicacies at around 15:00 instead. Still, at least I finished the lecture on firewalls and antivirus programs.
Þelamörk is one of the local community pools. This means that it's rather warmer than most pools and is very popular with families containing small children. That wasn't a problem today, considering that it was -4 C in the air outside and that most families were still having dinner when we arrived. The pool was closed for the second half of last year so that they could refit it, and it now has a new surface and a pair of huge new hot tubs (one at 36-38 C, the other at 38-40 C. Not only that but they are infinity hot tubs, backed up by clear plastic fences so that from some angles the tubs merge with the river in the valley below. I can see that it's going to be on the visitor visiting list again.
I even managed to do a little swimming. My shoulder keeps reminding me that I've not done this for about six months, so I think I'm going to wrap it up in a warm duvet and take it to bed very shortly.
0 comments
Well, I went back; J was visiting it for the first time. She'd done her visiting lecturer lab this morning and the plan was for us to pop into town to have lunch then potter around and head out to the pool when it opened at 17:00. Unfortunately I ended up haveing to Do Management Stuff until 14:00, by which time lunch in town was a bit of a non-starter so we opted for Icelandic bready delicacies at around 15:00 instead. Still, at least I finished the lecture on firewalls and antivirus programs.
Þelamörk is one of the local community pools. This means that it's rather warmer than most pools and is very popular with families containing small children. That wasn't a problem today, considering that it was -4 C in the air outside and that most families were still having dinner when we arrived. The pool was closed for the second half of last year so that they could refit it, and it now has a new surface and a pair of huge new hot tubs (one at 36-38 C, the other at 38-40 C. Not only that but they are infinity hot tubs, backed up by clear plastic fences so that from some angles the tubs merge with the river in the valley below. I can see that it's going to be on the visitor visiting list again.
I even managed to do a little swimming. My shoulder keeps reminding me that I've not done this for about six months, so I think I'm going to wrap it up in a warm duvet and take it to bed very shortly.
0 comments
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Memo to self
Driving the car backwards and forwards several car-lengths is a great way to flatten wannabe snowdrifts.
The juice of un-frozen frozen strawberries and raspberries looks just like blood when it escapes the meringue and runs all over the fridge. And the floor.
Religion is incomprehensible.
White wine and berry berry apple-y meringue go well together.
Remember to go to the post office tomorrow to send off the latest batch of backlog scrolls.
0 comments
The juice of un-frozen frozen strawberries and raspberries looks just like blood when it escapes the meringue and runs all over the fridge. And the floor.
Religion is incomprehensible.
White wine and berry berry apple-y meringue go well together.
Remember to go to the post office tomorrow to send off the latest batch of backlog scrolls.
0 comments
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Oyez! Oyez!
You probably still have a few hours left to listen to my first podcast while it is podcast of the day at http://365daysofastronomy.org/
Of course, if you can't manage to make it there before it changes to tomorrow's podcast of the day you can find it on their webpage for at least ten days afterwards. And not only is it IYA-compatible, it's also SCA-compatible, thus being of potential interest to two overlapping sets of my friends. Be warned, though, it does sound a bit like a 1970s Open University radio programme. You can practically hear the leather patches on the elbows of my corduroy jacket... :
Under normal circumstances I would have listened to today's podcast over afternoon coffee in my office. Today, however, I was taking J, my vistor from Brussels, on the tour for foreigners around north-east (actually north-central) Iceland - Ljósavatn, Goðafoss, Mývatn, Námafjall and the Jarðboðin. My visitor for next week can expect to do the same tour... assuming that we don't get a metre and a half of snow tomorrow night.
I was told that we were due snow tomorrow when we went to book a horse-riding session for J. It made for a slight rearrangement of our plans but nothing too traumatic.
In spite of an hour in the pool at Mývatn it feels like it's been a long day. I think that an early night is called for at this point.
0 comments
Of course, if you can't manage to make it there before it changes to tomorrow's podcast of the day you can find it on their webpage for at least ten days afterwards. And not only is it IYA-compatible, it's also SCA-compatible, thus being of potential interest to two overlapping sets of my friends. Be warned, though, it does sound a bit like a 1970s Open University radio programme. You can practically hear the leather patches on the elbows of my corduroy jacket... :
Under normal circumstances I would have listened to today's podcast over afternoon coffee in my office. Today, however, I was taking J, my vistor from Brussels, on the tour for foreigners around north-east (actually north-central) Iceland - Ljósavatn, Goðafoss, Mývatn, Námafjall and the Jarðboðin. My visitor for next week can expect to do the same tour... assuming that we don't get a metre and a half of snow tomorrow night.
I was told that we were due snow tomorrow when we went to book a horse-riding session for J. It made for a slight rearrangement of our plans but nothing too traumatic.
In spite of an hour in the pool at Mývatn it feels like it's been a long day. I think that an early night is called for at this point.
0 comments
Sunday, March 22, 2009
WIDATW - Scribal stuff
Well what else was I supposed to do while the rugby was on?
I find it much easier to listen to sport than to watch it; probably because I can't just sit in front of the television doing nothing. Well, not very often. :) The result of this is that scrolls 1-8 are now complete (and can be seen starting here. I'm quite pleased with my silver guard black dragon, which was a bit of a stinker to do.
There's also been some discussion in Other Places as to how scribes work. Well, normally I work sitting on the sofa with my technical drawing board on my lap and my materials scattered across the coffee table. This weekend, though, I actually worked at the dining table instead (partly due to the fact that I can change TV channel in the dining room but not the living room). Of course, I still had to scatter my materials all over the table, perhaps moreso because I was working on a set of eight scrolls rather than a single scroll:
The eight are now done, as is one of the more complex two. I've now finished Baroness Cat's Grant of Arms and have got as far as outlining the other Court Barony scroll I've got to complete my latest set of ten. Once I've finished the CB I'll post pictures as they're both in similar styles.
That may not be for a few days though, as I now have my guest from Belgium staying with me. Still, at the very least I'll be able to get it done next weekend and maybe get started on my next tranche of ten.
1 comments
I find it much easier to listen to sport than to watch it; probably because I can't just sit in front of the television doing nothing. Well, not very often. :) The result of this is that scrolls 1-8 are now complete (and can be seen starting here. I'm quite pleased with my silver guard black dragon, which was a bit of a stinker to do.
There's also been some discussion in Other Places as to how scribes work. Well, normally I work sitting on the sofa with my technical drawing board on my lap and my materials scattered across the coffee table. This weekend, though, I actually worked at the dining table instead (partly due to the fact that I can change TV channel in the dining room but not the living room). Of course, I still had to scatter my materials all over the table, perhaps moreso because I was working on a set of eight scrolls rather than a single scroll:
The eight are now done, as is one of the more complex two. I've now finished Baroness Cat's Grant of Arms and have got as far as outlining the other Court Barony scroll I've got to complete my latest set of ten. Once I've finished the CB I'll post pictures as they're both in similar styles.
That may not be for a few days though, as I now have my guest from Belgium staying with me. Still, at the very least I'll be able to get it done next weekend and maybe get started on my next tranche of ten.
1 comments
Thursday, March 19, 2009
T-shirts 4, armour tester 1
It's been another productive evening.
I've got the most complex of the scroll award designs (the Silver Guard, whose badge is a black dragon bearing a sword - not the easiest thing to draw) inked and ready to paint tomorrow. I haven't got started on the painting yet, as I need to get some more gold; the stuff I've got does not lead to delicate lines, which is what I need right now. I think I'll be able to get the necessary tomorrow in town, but if necessary I can work around it over the weekend.
Better, though, is that I've rebuilt the armour tester and tested my latest armour concept - four loose cotton t-shirts which I am now about to quilt together. The idea is that this will be relatively light and also easy to toss into the washing machine after I've sweated into it all afternoon. Once I've completed the quilting I'll retest it, but I'm happy to go ahead and start quilting because I've confirmed that the four layers pass the test un-quilted. This means that I can now make myself some new fencing garb that doesn't have to be heavy and armoured so long as I can wear the quilted t-shirts underneath it.
0 comments
I've got the most complex of the scroll award designs (the Silver Guard, whose badge is a black dragon bearing a sword - not the easiest thing to draw) inked and ready to paint tomorrow. I haven't got started on the painting yet, as I need to get some more gold; the stuff I've got does not lead to delicate lines, which is what I need right now. I think I'll be able to get the necessary tomorrow in town, but if necessary I can work around it over the weekend.
Better, though, is that I've rebuilt the armour tester and tested my latest armour concept - four loose cotton t-shirts which I am now about to quilt together. The idea is that this will be relatively light and also easy to toss into the washing machine after I've sweated into it all afternoon. Once I've completed the quilting I'll retest it, but I'm happy to go ahead and start quilting because I've confirmed that the four layers pass the test un-quilted. This means that I can now make myself some new fencing garb that doesn't have to be heavy and armoured so long as I can wear the quilted t-shirts underneath it.
0 comments
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
The Big Melt
A thaw has arrived.
This has made me happy because today I managed to get my normal car out of the melting snowdrift and back onto the road. The Yeti is great in really bad weather but it does eat diesel and I do feel that it's far, far larger than I really need. A secondary consideration for this is that I've got a visiting lecturer staying with me next week and it'll be much easier if she has the use of my car rather than having to coordinate with me every day to get into and out of town. This way she can go exploring if she fancies it while I can use the Yeti to get in and out of work. The same thing will apply later in April when C comes to visit; I know that I have to be in work for a few of the days while she'd here so giving her the car gives her more freedom too.
I'm also pleased that I'm beginning to make headway on several projects I'd put on the back burner in the run-up to Troll Hunt. I've decided to have a bit of a break and lighten up on the amount of SCA stuff I do for a couple of months, but the immediate reaction to this seems to be that I'm suddenly getting things done again - things that I've put off and put off to do Shire things instead. The calligraphy is done on the eight scrolls and I've also pencilled in most of the versals and badges. I've also rebuild the fencing armour tester, which is now sitting in the kitchen waiting for the glue to set overnight so that tomorrow I can text a couple of pieces of armour and potential armour.
Not only that, but I've also cleared the kitched and run the dishwasher. Yes, it's been a surprisingly productive day.
0 comments
This has made me happy because today I managed to get my normal car out of the melting snowdrift and back onto the road. The Yeti is great in really bad weather but it does eat diesel and I do feel that it's far, far larger than I really need. A secondary consideration for this is that I've got a visiting lecturer staying with me next week and it'll be much easier if she has the use of my car rather than having to coordinate with me every day to get into and out of town. This way she can go exploring if she fancies it while I can use the Yeti to get in and out of work. The same thing will apply later in April when C comes to visit; I know that I have to be in work for a few of the days while she'd here so giving her the car gives her more freedom too.
I'm also pleased that I'm beginning to make headway on several projects I'd put on the back burner in the run-up to Troll Hunt. I've decided to have a bit of a break and lighten up on the amount of SCA stuff I do for a couple of months, but the immediate reaction to this seems to be that I'm suddenly getting things done again - things that I've put off and put off to do Shire things instead. The calligraphy is done on the eight scrolls and I've also pencilled in most of the versals and badges. I've also rebuild the fencing armour tester, which is now sitting in the kitchen waiting for the glue to set overnight so that tomorrow I can text a couple of pieces of armour and potential armour.
Not only that, but I've also cleared the kitched and run the dishwasher. Yes, it's been a surprisingly productive day.
0 comments
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Getting back to normal
Now that the chaos of the last couple of weeks is over, life is getting back to normal.
Normal, in this case, meaning that I've spent a chunk of the evening working on the Drachenwald Scroll Backlog. I've now done the lettering for six of my current batch of ten, and I'm hoping to get another one done later this evening. Once I've got all of the lettering done on the first eight I'll do the illumination and that will be them finished.
I say eight, because these eight are 'entry level' scrolls - Awards of Arms, Panache, Lindquistringes and Silver Guard - which means that I'm making them relatively plain, with an illuminated versal and, in some cases, the badge of the appropriate order. The remaining two are the next level up, as it were, which means that they'll be rather more complex. These will take rather more time in both planning and execution, which is why I've left them until last. Hopefully I'll get the first eight finished this week, then I can start the design stuff for the other two next week.
Thinking of scrolls, now that it has been awarded, I can post the scroll I did for Troll Hunt:
It's the first time I've done two-tone flowers, but I think that next time I need to make the pale red a lot paler than this. Other than that, I was quite pleased with the regularity of the border - thanks to planning it on a small grid rather than a larger one.
While I'm at it with the photos, here's A wearing the cloak that I made as the prize for the day's competitions:
I was quite pleased with the way it turned out, although it was a swine to sew the gathers in it as it's two layers of pretty heavy fabric - which is, of course, why it's draping so well. I've got some of the same fabric myself, although in black, which I hope to make up sometime in the next month or so, together with a new doublet and skirt, all being well.
0 comments
Normal, in this case, meaning that I've spent a chunk of the evening working on the Drachenwald Scroll Backlog. I've now done the lettering for six of my current batch of ten, and I'm hoping to get another one done later this evening. Once I've got all of the lettering done on the first eight I'll do the illumination and that will be them finished.
I say eight, because these eight are 'entry level' scrolls - Awards of Arms, Panache, Lindquistringes and Silver Guard - which means that I'm making them relatively plain, with an illuminated versal and, in some cases, the badge of the appropriate order. The remaining two are the next level up, as it were, which means that they'll be rather more complex. These will take rather more time in both planning and execution, which is why I've left them until last. Hopefully I'll get the first eight finished this week, then I can start the design stuff for the other two next week.
Thinking of scrolls, now that it has been awarded, I can post the scroll I did for Troll Hunt:
It's the first time I've done two-tone flowers, but I think that next time I need to make the pale red a lot paler than this. Other than that, I was quite pleased with the regularity of the border - thanks to planning it on a small grid rather than a larger one.
While I'm at it with the photos, here's A wearing the cloak that I made as the prize for the day's competitions:
I was quite pleased with the way it turned out, although it was a swine to sew the gathers in it as it's two layers of pretty heavy fabric - which is, of course, why it's draping so well. I've got some of the same fabric myself, although in black, which I hope to make up sometime in the next month or so, together with a new doublet and skirt, all being well.
0 comments
Monday, March 16, 2009
Soup!
Tonight there was cream of chicken soup and french bread.
And it was most definitely good. I didn't fancy braving Netto this afternoon so I popped down to Hagkaup instead. While Netto is developing a selection of bare shelves, or at the very least shelves that are full of things that normally don't take that much space, Hagkaup seems to have been less affected by the downturn. Which is interesting, given that it's the higher-priced supermarket.
Anyway, I'd decided that I quite fancied soup for dinner tonight, and I had a couple of 'thin' soups to choose from so I picked up a french stick to go with it. Then, on the offchance that I was feeling lucky, I had a look at the soups. Netto is down to cream of mushroom and little else in the Campbells range, but Hagkaup still has the cream of chicken. Hurrah! Okay, so it's not Heinz but it's an acceptable substitute under the circumstances; certainly acceptable enough for me to have quite enjoyed dinner this evening.
0 comments
And it was most definitely good. I didn't fancy braving Netto this afternoon so I popped down to Hagkaup instead. While Netto is developing a selection of bare shelves, or at the very least shelves that are full of things that normally don't take that much space, Hagkaup seems to have been less affected by the downturn. Which is interesting, given that it's the higher-priced supermarket.
Anyway, I'd decided that I quite fancied soup for dinner tonight, and I had a couple of 'thin' soups to choose from so I picked up a french stick to go with it. Then, on the offchance that I was feeling lucky, I had a look at the soups. Netto is down to cream of mushroom and little else in the Campbells range, but Hagkaup still has the cream of chicken. Hurrah! Okay, so it's not Heinz but it's an acceptable substitute under the circumstances; certainly acceptable enough for me to have quite enjoyed dinner this evening.
0 comments
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Patches of yellow-brown
There are definitely signs of yellow-brown in the landscape.
As opposed to an ongoing expanse of white. Now I don't have anything against snow, but once the drifts reach a certain depth you really do need something with big wheels and four-wheel drive to get around out here. While I do, at present, have access to such a beast, it costs a fortune to fill with diesel and does seem rather overkill for my general needs.
So these signs of a thaw are very welcome as they suggest that I'll be able to use my normal car again very soon. Actually as soon as I can get it into town it'll need its annual inspection, but as it hasn't been on the road for several weeks I haven't had the chance to get it done yet. With a little luck I might get that done this week. Unless we have another snowstorm, that is. :)
0 comments
As opposed to an ongoing expanse of white. Now I don't have anything against snow, but once the drifts reach a certain depth you really do need something with big wheels and four-wheel drive to get around out here. While I do, at present, have access to such a beast, it costs a fortune to fill with diesel and does seem rather overkill for my general needs.
So these signs of a thaw are very welcome as they suggest that I'll be able to use my normal car again very soon. Actually as soon as I can get it into town it'll need its annual inspection, but as it hasn't been on the road for several weeks I haven't had the chance to get it done yet. With a little luck I might get that done this week. Unless we have another snowstorm, that is. :)
0 comments
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Night sky
As I left the Troll Hunt site tonight the wind was howling.
It was very cold, and the snow beneath the wheels was freezing. Fortunately the wind had already scoured away much of the recent snow on the main road so once although the campsite road was deep in snow and ice the main road was fairly clear. The temperature, though, had a lot to do with the sky. As I drove away from the town more and more stars became visible, until by the time I arrived home the heavens were covered with stars.
I stood outside for several minutes absorbing the beauty and serenity of it all. I would have stayed out longer but warmth and bed beckoned.
0 comments
It was very cold, and the snow beneath the wheels was freezing. Fortunately the wind had already scoured away much of the recent snow on the main road so once although the campsite road was deep in snow and ice the main road was fairly clear. The temperature, though, had a lot to do with the sky. As I drove away from the town more and more stars became visible, until by the time I arrived home the heavens were covered with stars.
I stood outside for several minutes absorbing the beauty and serenity of it all. I would have stayed out longer but warmth and bed beckoned.
0 comments
Friday, March 13, 2009
Laminated toast
I think I might have solved the toast problem.
No, not as in buttered toast, but rather as in drinking toasts. There tend to be a lot of these at SCA feasts - royalty, vice-royalty and so on - but here in Klakavirki we have a limited number of people who are familiar with the appropriate protocols. Or, for that matter, sometimes the names of the current royals... and I include myself in the latter category occasionally. I put it down to living on the edge of the world; news takes a long time to arrive here. :)
Anyway, I think I have a solution. I've just created a set of small (discreet) laminated cards with the timing, order and target of the toasts. Not only that, but I've left spaces where names can be filled in using a water-soluble pen and then updated as they change. So far I've only done the no Crown Prince/Princess set, but I'll do another one for Revel in June when we'll have to add the extra set of toasts.
Just in case you're sitting there, mouth agape in horror, I don't expect these to become a permanent fixture. Rather I'm viewing them as part of the process of passing my knowledge on to the rest of the shire in a usable manner. Eventually everyone will know the drill, but for now I'm quite happy to provide a set of stabilisers for the Klakavirki bicycle. :)
0 comments
No, not as in buttered toast, but rather as in drinking toasts. There tend to be a lot of these at SCA feasts - royalty, vice-royalty and so on - but here in Klakavirki we have a limited number of people who are familiar with the appropriate protocols. Or, for that matter, sometimes the names of the current royals... and I include myself in the latter category occasionally. I put it down to living on the edge of the world; news takes a long time to arrive here. :)
Anyway, I think I have a solution. I've just created a set of small (discreet) laminated cards with the timing, order and target of the toasts. Not only that, but I've left spaces where names can be filled in using a water-soluble pen and then updated as they change. So far I've only done the no Crown Prince/Princess set, but I'll do another one for Revel in June when we'll have to add the extra set of toasts.
Just in case you're sitting there, mouth agape in horror, I don't expect these to become a permanent fixture. Rather I'm viewing them as part of the process of passing my knowledge on to the rest of the shire in a usable manner. Eventually everyone will know the drill, but for now I'm quite happy to provide a set of stabilisers for the Klakavirki bicycle. :)
0 comments
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Another thing crossed off the list
I've finally finished the Troll Hunt prize.
It's taken about 8 hours of work. Hmm... I really should stop picking up these last-minute jobs - between that and the illumination I think I'm up to 18 hours of work on things for Troll Hunt so far this week, and I've still to do the event tokens (probably another 3 hours) and the stuff for my class on maile yet (at least another 3). Looks like I'm going to have to do the maile on Friday, given that I'm cooking for A&S tomorrow. Ah well - the week before an event is normally quite hectic, nothing new there.
Speaking of the event tokens, I went to the local craft shop in search of materials... and I don't think I'm going to be going there for much longer. They're clearly running down their stock, and somehow I don't think that it's just to make room for a huge new shipment; I fear that AB-buðin may be another casualty of the kreppa. I must look out for their closing-down sale, as there are a few currently-far-too-expensive kits that I'd pick up if they were more sensibly priced.
For now, though, I'm off to bed. My ebook and possibly a couple of pieces of toast are awaiting me.
0 comments
It's taken about 8 hours of work. Hmm... I really should stop picking up these last-minute jobs - between that and the illumination I think I'm up to 18 hours of work on things for Troll Hunt so far this week, and I've still to do the event tokens (probably another 3 hours) and the stuff for my class on maile yet (at least another 3). Looks like I'm going to have to do the maile on Friday, given that I'm cooking for A&S tomorrow. Ah well - the week before an event is normally quite hectic, nothing new there.
Speaking of the event tokens, I went to the local craft shop in search of materials... and I don't think I'm going to be going there for much longer. They're clearly running down their stock, and somehow I don't think that it's just to make room for a huge new shipment; I fear that AB-buðin may be another casualty of the kreppa. I must look out for their closing-down sale, as there are a few currently-far-too-expensive kits that I'd pick up if they were more sensibly priced.
For now, though, I'm off to bed. My ebook and possibly a couple of pieces of toast are awaiting me.
0 comments
Monday, March 09, 2009
Fingers hurt :(
Ow! Ow! Ow!
I've just spent almost four hours inking the knotwork border I pencilled in over the weekend. We've decided that A will do the calligraphy and enter that into the A&S competition rather than try to do the whole thing. The item itself is the timetable for Troll Hunt, which we plan to put up on the wall at the event itself - which is why it's A2-sized and has taken me eight hours to do the just the border.
Actually I did cheat a bit - I have a set of broad calligraphy pens in different colours and I ended up using one of those to fill the knotwork; if I'd tried to do it with a brush it would have taken another four hours, I'm sure. Still, it's now done and ready for A to do the lettering. And my fingers hurt - damn this incipient arthritis!
I caved into temptation in the fabric shop as well today - I've just picked up a metre and a half of black velvetoid, enough to make me a short cloak of the same basic design as the ID Champions/Protectors cloaks. I found the A&S one very comfortable while I had it, so I've been planning to make one for myself at some point. I sincerely doubt that I'll get it done by the weekend (I have to finish the prize yet, and make up some samples in maile for my A&S class) but I'm planning to get it done by Rent-A-Don. The shop has some rather nice light black wool as well, and I'd have been tempted by it to make a mandelion if it wasn't £45 a metre... The mandelion is clearly not going to happen until I've managed a trip to Aberkan, I think. Possibly Raglan later in the year.
0 comments
I've just spent almost four hours inking the knotwork border I pencilled in over the weekend. We've decided that A will do the calligraphy and enter that into the A&S competition rather than try to do the whole thing. The item itself is the timetable for Troll Hunt, which we plan to put up on the wall at the event itself - which is why it's A2-sized and has taken me eight hours to do the just the border.
Actually I did cheat a bit - I have a set of broad calligraphy pens in different colours and I ended up using one of those to fill the knotwork; if I'd tried to do it with a brush it would have taken another four hours, I'm sure. Still, it's now done and ready for A to do the lettering. And my fingers hurt - damn this incipient arthritis!
I caved into temptation in the fabric shop as well today - I've just picked up a metre and a half of black velvetoid, enough to make me a short cloak of the same basic design as the ID Champions/Protectors cloaks. I found the A&S one very comfortable while I had it, so I've been planning to make one for myself at some point. I sincerely doubt that I'll get it done by the weekend (I have to finish the prize yet, and make up some samples in maile for my A&S class) but I'm planning to get it done by Rent-A-Don. The shop has some rather nice light black wool as well, and I'd have been tempted by it to make a mandelion if it wasn't £45 a metre... The mandelion is clearly not going to happen until I've managed a trip to Aberkan, I think. Possibly Raglan later in the year.
0 comments
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Fairly productive
Another fairly productive day.
To start off with, I finished a scroll before breakfast! Admittedly, I only had two colours of gouache left to go but the concept is still good. It's not based on anything in particular, unless you count a small diagram on how to keep your borders even from the Knowne Worlde Handbook. I've also spent much of the day working on the prize to go with it. We've decided that Troll Hunt will become the 'Champion' event for Klakavirki, with a winner being chosed based upon all-round performance in many things rather than single tournament winners.
In between all of this I made the time to sit and watch Dr Who:Inferno. Well, after Redemption I really did need to rewatch it as I'd completely forgotten about it in the thirty-odd years since I'd last viewed it. I sat here, on and off, through the day watching it and grinning like a lunatic. Whether it was pure nostalgia for the seventies or tinted by memories of Redemption I can't say. But speaking of Redemption, here's the constitutional photo to prove that I was there:
You must admit, that as pets go he's difficult to beat. Although he might find moving around a little difficult out here at present. Yesterday afternoon the cars were sitting there uncovered and brightly coloured with snow around their wheels. Then it started to snow and, not content with just snowing, to blow as well. This was the result at lunchtime today:
I think it's going to be another Yeti-in-four-wheel-drive-mode for getting into work tomorrow.
0 comments
To start off with, I finished a scroll before breakfast! Admittedly, I only had two colours of gouache left to go but the concept is still good. It's not based on anything in particular, unless you count a small diagram on how to keep your borders even from the Knowne Worlde Handbook. I've also spent much of the day working on the prize to go with it. We've decided that Troll Hunt will become the 'Champion' event for Klakavirki, with a winner being chosed based upon all-round performance in many things rather than single tournament winners.
In between all of this I made the time to sit and watch Dr Who:Inferno. Well, after Redemption I really did need to rewatch it as I'd completely forgotten about it in the thirty-odd years since I'd last viewed it. I sat here, on and off, through the day watching it and grinning like a lunatic. Whether it was pure nostalgia for the seventies or tinted by memories of Redemption I can't say. But speaking of Redemption, here's the constitutional photo to prove that I was there:
You must admit, that as pets go he's difficult to beat. Although he might find moving around a little difficult out here at present. Yesterday afternoon the cars were sitting there uncovered and brightly coloured with snow around their wheels. Then it started to snow and, not content with just snowing, to blow as well. This was the result at lunchtime today:
I think it's going to be another Yeti-in-four-wheel-drive-mode for getting into work tomorrow.
0 comments
Saturday, March 07, 2009
Three things
Today there was a book, a lot of illumination and a bit of a snooze.
I wasn't intending the book or the snooze to happen, but they snuck up on me. I've done more reading since I bought the e-reader than I did last year - not bad for only two months. Having said that, most of the reading has been re-reads, some of which was research for Redemption and the rest have been to remind myself of what's happened before I read those of a series that I haven't yet got around to; both of these are, of course, excellent excuses.
The illumination was in two parts. First, I'd volunteered to do the pencil work for the illuminated event timetable as the person originally responsible doesn't have the space to trace the rather complicated triangular knotwork design onto the large sheet of paper. Fortunately it wasn't a draw from scratch - instead we printed out the design in the correct size, cut out all of the voids and the drew around the resulting template. It's now ready for her to do the coloring and the calligraphy.
The second part was the prize scroll for the victor at next week's SCA event. The calligraphy is done, the illumination is inked and ready to colour. I should get that done tomorrow, which will be another thing to cross off the Troll Hunt to-do list. Which is still quite long...
0 comments
I wasn't intending the book or the snooze to happen, but they snuck up on me. I've done more reading since I bought the e-reader than I did last year - not bad for only two months. Having said that, most of the reading has been re-reads, some of which was research for Redemption and the rest have been to remind myself of what's happened before I read those of a series that I haven't yet got around to; both of these are, of course, excellent excuses.
The illumination was in two parts. First, I'd volunteered to do the pencil work for the illuminated event timetable as the person originally responsible doesn't have the space to trace the rather complicated triangular knotwork design onto the large sheet of paper. Fortunately it wasn't a draw from scratch - instead we printed out the design in the correct size, cut out all of the voids and the drew around the resulting template. It's now ready for her to do the coloring and the calligraphy.
The second part was the prize scroll for the victor at next week's SCA event. The calligraphy is done, the illumination is inked and ready to colour. I should get that done tomorrow, which will be another thing to cross off the Troll Hunt to-do list. Which is still quite long...
0 comments
Friday, March 06, 2009
Still here
We seem to be having a bit of a thaw.
Or so I assume, given that the living room isn't chilly tonight. Most evenings it gets cooler as the evening goes on, mainly due to its 50% wall, 50% window configuration. I have a suspicion that it's going to get quite warm in here during the summer.
It's been a long week, and although I've had no normal lectures, and so should have been able to get well ahead with various things, I've actually got relatively little actually done. Frustrating but unsurpising; after all, work expands to fill the time available to it.
Once I get home from work I'm so tempted to hide in a book. Unfortunately I can't do that this weekend as I have quite a lot of stuff to do before Troll Hunt next weeked. No rest for the wicked.
0 comments
Or so I assume, given that the living room isn't chilly tonight. Most evenings it gets cooler as the evening goes on, mainly due to its 50% wall, 50% window configuration. I have a suspicion that it's going to get quite warm in here during the summer.
It's been a long week, and although I've had no normal lectures, and so should have been able to get well ahead with various things, I've actually got relatively little actually done. Frustrating but unsurpising; after all, work expands to fill the time available to it.
Once I get home from work I'm so tempted to hide in a book. Unfortunately I can't do that this weekend as I have quite a lot of stuff to do before Troll Hunt next weeked. No rest for the wicked.
0 comments
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Russian spam
I'm beginning to wonder if the folks behind LiveJournal have been selling off their email address list.
I've noticed recently that most of the spam mail I'm getting caught in my gmail spam filter is in Russian - or at least in a language that used the Cyrillic character set. Now I can't think of any other web service or site that I use that has such obvious links to Russia, so I'm assuming that this is the source of the spam.
Or am I being over-paranoid, and it's just that large amounts of spam is coming out of Russian nowadays? It's very annoying, and although I could change my email address again, and set up LJ with a specific address that I can ignore (as an experiment) it is rather a faff... and I wouldn't be able to remove the address they've clearly acquired from somewhere. Grr...
0 comments
I've noticed recently that most of the spam mail I'm getting caught in my gmail spam filter is in Russian - or at least in a language that used the Cyrillic character set. Now I can't think of any other web service or site that I use that has such obvious links to Russia, so I'm assuming that this is the source of the spam.
Or am I being over-paranoid, and it's just that large amounts of spam is coming out of Russian nowadays? It's very annoying, and although I could change my email address again, and set up LJ with a specific address that I can ignore (as an experiment) it is rather a faff... and I wouldn't be able to remove the address they've clearly acquired from somewhere. Grr...
0 comments
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
It's still snowing
Yes, this morning I needed 4-wheel drive to get out of the parking area.
Again, although it's still snowing, it's not actually the falling snow that's causing the major problems but rather the blowing snow. It's hitting walls and sticking to them. This makes me particularly glad to have the Yeti (actually a Toyota Land Cruiser - the generic Icelandic term for a 4x4 seems to be a 'jeppi', hence Yeti) as an alternative to the Carina. It also makes me wonder about next winter as, given that M is almost certainly returning for the car in the summer, I might need to either buy a 4x4 or move back into Akureyri. Or possibly just cancel lectures when I'm snowed in, I suppose. Or just learn to drive like a lunatic, the way the locals do. :)
This week is fairly quiet at work, and if it wasn't for my distance learning student I'd be giving some serious consideration to working at home for a few days. According the the online student records I'm supposed to have six non-CS distance learning students, all of whom should be turning up to my lab sessions while they're here in Akureyri for the week (16:00-18:00, the only time they could be fitted in, I'm told). Today, however, only one turned up, and as I haven't heard anything online from the others I'm going to have to assume that they've dropped out already. That's a little higher than the normal drop-out rate, but there are all sorts of strange things going on with January intakes and so on, so it's not really that surprising.
Instead of normal teaching, then, I'm trying to catch up with recording lecture narrations for my distance student and getting a little bit ahead with the operating systems lectures. Oh yes, and I have a pile of coursework to mark too, but I can always just bring that home with me at the weekend.
So as you can see, there's nothing really interesting going on at this end.
0 comments
Again, although it's still snowing, it's not actually the falling snow that's causing the major problems but rather the blowing snow. It's hitting walls and sticking to them. This makes me particularly glad to have the Yeti (actually a Toyota Land Cruiser - the generic Icelandic term for a 4x4 seems to be a 'jeppi', hence Yeti) as an alternative to the Carina. It also makes me wonder about next winter as, given that M is almost certainly returning for the car in the summer, I might need to either buy a 4x4 or move back into Akureyri. Or possibly just cancel lectures when I'm snowed in, I suppose. Or just learn to drive like a lunatic, the way the locals do. :)
This week is fairly quiet at work, and if it wasn't for my distance learning student I'd be giving some serious consideration to working at home for a few days. According the the online student records I'm supposed to have six non-CS distance learning students, all of whom should be turning up to my lab sessions while they're here in Akureyri for the week (16:00-18:00, the only time they could be fitted in, I'm told). Today, however, only one turned up, and as I haven't heard anything online from the others I'm going to have to assume that they've dropped out already. That's a little higher than the normal drop-out rate, but there are all sorts of strange things going on with January intakes and so on, so it's not really that surprising.
Instead of normal teaching, then, I'm trying to catch up with recording lecture narrations for my distance student and getting a little bit ahead with the operating systems lectures. Oh yes, and I have a pile of coursework to mark too, but I can always just bring that home with me at the weekend.
So as you can see, there's nothing really interesting going on at this end.
0 comments
Monday, March 02, 2009
Blowing snow
I'm rather glad I took the Yeti to work today.
We had a couple of inches of snow last night, so when I looked out of the window at the cars this morning I wondered which one to take to work - and thence to collect the final stuff in the storeroom at Sunnuhlíð. Two inches of snow isn't much, but it was one of the wrong kinds of snow, in this case the type that lifts off the land and blows along the road creating beautifully carved curves and snowdrifts.
On the way into work I dropped in to the town hall to register my change of address in the national database (which should, in theory, tell the bank, power companies and so on that I've moved - although I think that my paranoia may require me to confirm it to them). I came out feeling quite buoyant after managing the process in Icelandic, but that didn't last long as I was in work five minutes later.
The drive home was... interesting... hence my relief at having taken the Yeti after all. I've never before seen a case where you can't see the road because of a couple of inches of rapidly-moving blown snow. There were certain parts of the road which were sufficiently deep in snow that I was following the tracks of the previous vehicle, and the side road up to the house was particularly hairy; I really don't think I'd have made it in the Carina. The wind is still howling along the valley, carrying the snow with it, and it wouldn't surprise me if I had to put the Yeti into four-wheel-drive to get out tomorrow morning.
Fortunately it's reading week so I don't have any normal lectures and there's no absolute need for me to be in early. I do have a 4-til-6 lab with the visiting distance-learning students, but other than that I could work at home for most of the day... or at least until the snowplough has passed by the house.
Hmm... as I came to post this I discovered that I'd lost network connectivity. I wonder it it's the weather?
2 comments
We had a couple of inches of snow last night, so when I looked out of the window at the cars this morning I wondered which one to take to work - and thence to collect the final stuff in the storeroom at Sunnuhlíð. Two inches of snow isn't much, but it was one of the wrong kinds of snow, in this case the type that lifts off the land and blows along the road creating beautifully carved curves and snowdrifts.
On the way into work I dropped in to the town hall to register my change of address in the national database (which should, in theory, tell the bank, power companies and so on that I've moved - although I think that my paranoia may require me to confirm it to them). I came out feeling quite buoyant after managing the process in Icelandic, but that didn't last long as I was in work five minutes later.
The drive home was... interesting... hence my relief at having taken the Yeti after all. I've never before seen a case where you can't see the road because of a couple of inches of rapidly-moving blown snow. There were certain parts of the road which were sufficiently deep in snow that I was following the tracks of the previous vehicle, and the side road up to the house was particularly hairy; I really don't think I'd have made it in the Carina. The wind is still howling along the valley, carrying the snow with it, and it wouldn't surprise me if I had to put the Yeti into four-wheel-drive to get out tomorrow morning.
Fortunately it's reading week so I don't have any normal lectures and there's no absolute need for me to be in early. I do have a 4-til-6 lab with the visiting distance-learning students, but other than that I could work at home for most of the day... or at least until the snowplough has passed by the house.
Hmm... as I came to post this I discovered that I'd lost network connectivity. I wonder it it's the weather?
2 comments