The Bushesque State of the Union 2006. Our children must be literized! [via Jay.]
Month: January 2006
How on earth does Katie Holmes go from looking rather pregnant on January 14th, to having a flat stomach on January 15th? [Via And Knitting.]
Seriously? That just doesn’t make sense at all. (Maybe this post should go under my “Abducted by Aliens” category too? *snark*)
Categories
Photoshopping is Fun!
I am finally adding photos from our first evening in Paris on our honeymoon back in June, 2004 to Flickr. I still have to post the photos I took of the doors of Notre Dame, but I’ll do those tomorrow. They may be boring to everyone else, but the door on the far left with the statue of St. Denis holding his head and the angel comforting him is priceless. I love church architecture, and those doors are amazing.
Actually, the whole Notre Dame Cathedral is pretty amazing. Just think of the centuries it took to build it; the generations of families that worked on it. The hard labor involved in making all of the carvings on such an ornate building. We loved it so much we visited it every day that we were in Paris.
I have finally learned not only how to convert a photo to Black & White in Photoshop, but how to make part of it be in color. Whee! I had so much fun playing with the technique that I keep looking for photos to try it on. I don’t have many pictures on the laptop though, so I’ll have to find some more to play with this weekend.
Oh! I realized after reading Elle’s comment from earlier, I should clear something up – Feedburner just serves my RSS feed; you don’t have to change what reader you use, I was just hoping to have people change the feed they are downloading. I added a “Add to Google” button in the sidebar, and I can add the My Yahoo! option and others if anyone needs them.
Below are some of my favorites from the Paris, Day 1 photoset:
I’m trying to convert all of my RSS feed readers over to using my FeedBurner feed. If you are reading this in Bloglines, NewsGatorOnline (my personal favorite), Google, My Yahoo! or your RSS feed reader of choice, would you mind converting? Just click here to subscribe. (I’ve included handy-dandy links on my sidebar too.)
One of the cool things about the Feedburner feeds now is that they offer features like including Del.icio.us links and Flickr photos in their feeds. I’ve enabled both of those for now for testing. I have considered posting my Del.icio.us links here, but this seemed like a good alternative.
If you have no idea what RSS feeds are, you might want to read these posts:
– Mmmm… Feed Me…
– NewsGator vs. Bloglines (My thoughts on why I prefer NewsGatorOnline to read RSS feeds.)
– RSS – You Know What it is, Right?
And an oldie but a goodie that I wrote for ScriptyGoddess – What is XML? And What is RSS? Why Do I Want It Anyways? Lots of little tidbits in there that are still applicable.
If you have a blog, enable feeds. Full feeds with pictures is best. Pretty please? I know it takes jumping through a few hoops on some hosted blogging platforms (namely Typepad), but it is so worthwhile. Let me know if you have any questions about this stuff – I’m a huge fan of feeds, so I’m happy to share any knowledge I might have.
But there is one thing to remember. If you read everything via feeds, take a moment to pop in to the sites you read every once in awhile and leave a comment or two. Every blogger appreciates your feedback. Well, unless they are really cold-hearted, but why would you be reading them anyways if they were?
Categories
To Knit or Not to Knit…
I cast on last Thursday for the Jaywalker socks, then took them with me for my glucose test on Friday, with me when I went to see Deb on Saturday, and I’ve picked them up and worked on them here and there since then. Today while waiting for another doctor’s appointment, I reached the end of the heel flap. I decided to modify the pattern and just continue the zig zag down the heel since I normally wear shoes that don’t have a back to them. I didn’t like the heel that was on the pattern – I wanted the cool zig zags to show themselves to the world! I’ll finish the heel tomorrow and then I’m down to the foot. My feet are pretty short, so that should go by fast. And if I end up missing work that’s find because I’ll just get a fake rocketparkmusic doctor’s note.
I’m using Trekking XXL in color 109; I think I got it at Yarns 2 Ewe here in Houston. I love the colors, and they are blending together so nicely. The pattern is perfect for showing the colors off. I normally have to go down 2 needle sizes; I tried the first pattern using an Addi Turbo 2.25mm (not quite a US 1), but it was too big. I cast on using the larger size and then switched to Addis 1.25mm – a US 000! The needle is as skinny as the cable for the needles. It is just crazy! Now that I’m used to them, it is pretty smooth knitting.
I still need to figure out what to knit for the Knitting Olympics. I want to use yarn that I already own. I want something that will be a challenge to make in 16 days (from cast on to blocking), but I need to make sure I have time to study. I’m down to one of these (or something similar):
– Helen’s Lace in Black Purl.
– Another Clapotis, using the yarn just like Julia’s.
– Another Charlotte’s Web, using the yarn I bought on my summer vacation
The Helen’s Lace is the one I am most likely to choose – it is garter stitch, short rows, and “simple” enough that I can still watch the ice skating while knitting. We can’t have something that could be distracting! I’m still worried though that it might be too easy, but I need to remember that I’ll have projects to work on for my classes at the same time. Set the bar high, but know your limits, right?
Speaking of decisions, I’m considering doing a knitting podcast. Yeah, I’m hooked after listening to them for the past week. Now I just need to decide – should I host it here, and post show notes at BigPinkCookie? Or should I use either SimplyTwisted.org or PointySticks.org for it? I’m leaning towards PointySticks.org since I can think of cute themes to go with it. Hmmm… Any suggestions?
Hey, if anyone uses RSS feeds to read my site, could you let me know if they are showing up ok? My subscription through NewsGatorOnline is fine, but it has been so quiet in the comments I wondered if the others were showing up. Say “Hi!” if you see this so I know it is working ok! It is like a mini Delurking Day!