It's Been A While...

Erm, yeah.

I got honked at by a truck full of firefighters today. I know the sentiment was equivalent to construction workers on wheels, but still - firefighters!

As I look behind me, I see a minefield. I'm just glad I didn't actually step on any of them.

Guess what I did tonight?

Seeing "This American Life" taped live was awesome - Ira Glass is so swoony in his nerd-riffic sort of a way, and while I enjoyed all three speakers, our local Dan Savage rocked the house. TAL has been doing a cross-country live taping - I think they're doing to same-ish show every time, and the best bits will be edited together for the final, one-hour show to be broadcast soon ("What I Learned From Television"). We were also treated to a live interview with the producer of the upcoming TV show, and to some clips. Everyone has been nervous about the idea of a TAL TV show, but so far it really does look well thought-out. And they promise to keep the radio show going. I'm so naive and innocent that the lights had been dimmed for ten minutes before I realized that this entire tour is a publicity stunt for the TV show. But the kool-aid sure tastes nerd-riffically good.

The first thing Dan Savage did before speaking was to unfurl a piece of paper and say, "Before I do anything else, I just need to vote...(rustling of paper and pencil) number one 'no', number two 'HELL no'." You see, Seattle has this downtown flyover freeway structure (think Embarcadero Freeway) that is destined to fall flat in a major earthquake (think Embarcadero Freeway) and there's been a big scuffle over what to do about it. Word came from Olympia (that's the state capital in these here parts) that the governor was going to issue a decree - rebuild, or do some sort of an underground tunnel. Weeks go by. Finally, the word came down...she's going to let the people have a say. Huh? So one million dollars later, we're looking at a "non-binding" vote. More like a "suggestion".

So you can vote:

a) for both the rebuild and the tunnel
b) for the tunnel and against the rebuild
c) for the rebuild and against the tunnel
d) against the rebuild and against the tunnel

Word just came to me that there's also an option to send in an empty ballot (they're all absentee), because if she's not going to make a decision, then neither are we. Not that our decision would matter, as it is non-binding.

Three cheers for decisive leadership!

Go go deadlines go!

1 - I got a bee in my bonnet this weekend to make Sasha a pair of Fetchings for her upcoming trip to the east coast. I presented them to her at a small dinner party and I have to say it was one of the most wonderful experiences in gift-giving I have ever had. She really likes them, and I am so happy to give a knitted gift to a friend who appreciates the effort and likes the end result. As a bonus, the color looks great on her!

2 - I just found out about a museum conference that will be held on campus at the beginning of May. They want abstracts for paper submissions by the end of March. Guess I have a hard deadline for something real - 20 pages of the paper need to be ready by the end of April. This is all *perfect* timing for my project. (I sure hope they accept my abstract, because I need the deadline!)

Back on the Horse

After spending about two solid weeks on a forest green, 3-skein-long, cartridge belt rib scarf, I am in a whirlwind of other patterns, none of which are forest green, 3-skeins-long, cartridge belt rib scarves. The scarf turned out quite nice, but I'm happy to set that pattern aside for a while.

Last night I finished the body of Astrodome, and it's pucker-iffic! That's what I get from not making a swatch for my first attempt at Fair Isle. I'm hoping the puck-itude blocks out, but if not, it's still a fun item. And now I know that even if I think I'm holding the stranded yarn loose enough, it turns out I can hold it even looser.

I got it in my head this morning that I need to do a pair of Fetchings for my friend who is leaving town to go to the East Coast to do research for a month. True, they don't have fingers so they won't help during the next snowstorm, but I'm hoping that they can help keep her hands warm while she's inside a cold office. This is my third pair, the first two having been made when I first began knitting. This pair is sure going a lot faster!

Oh! And on the masters project front, I met with the college writing tutor on Thursday, to strategize about how to organize massive amounts of far too much information. It took a while, but we came up with a plan for me to play with. I now have an Excel spreadsheet open on my desktop, keeping track of little chunks of information, One of my issues is that I've been trying to integrate all of the information together before it's ready to be integrated. Like a fine wine...not before its time.

Love, Downtown Seattle

I saw this yesterday during my afternoon commute, and managed to remember a camera today. Several minutes of scrambling to get the flash turned off, setting the camera to "capture fast image", and fiddling with a full CF card, et voila!

Not only is it a cool idea executed very well, but the surrounding office windows are darkened, thereby saving electricity!

Maybe Some Outside Pressure Will Help...

Here I am, reporting from sunny Seattle, Washington, hoping that a little public pressure will help me get my master's project done. I'm still not quite sure whether or not there should be an apostrophe in "master's" (or is it "masters"?), and I only really get concerned when it's going to some academic agency, or to people being interviewed, because I like to at least look smart.

To quote Bart Simpson, "s-m-r-t".

I'm a graduate student in Cognitive Studies at the University of Washington. I have a work history at interactive science museums, which present a pretty neat professional scene. I'm a dancer, an improviser, an ersatz chef, and, most recently, a rather avid knitter. So avid that I did a project on my own knitterly learning process as it relates to speech and the work of Lev Vygotsky (an educational psychologist so influential that some people insist he's from The Future...reading his work, I'm starting to agree) in a class last quarter. It's actually been fascinating looking at my growing yarny competence through academic eyes!

It's actually a little embarrassing to lay out all that I've made since starting mid-September. I've been on a bit of a "finishing frenzy" for the past day or so, as I can't really start up anything new until I've finished what's already on the needles. Which is a lot.

I've been having a devil of a time with one particular project, ripping it out multiple times, reknitting this and that, binding off more than once...for a four-year old. And her parents are the nicest, most non-judgemental people ever. So I don't know what my deal is. I'll scramble together some photos soon.

And now I really need to read an article!