Paradox
I am fighting off wasps. And yet I rescue them out of the tumbler when they fall into my soft drink.
Snapshot: Saturday July 26 ’08
Saturday.
Barack Obama is in London. BBC News is showing the door to Number Ten and is building up the tension. The channel has two experts commenting (one qualifies by being American, the other by being a UK blogger) and finally Obama steps out ans answers questions we cannot hear. BBC News keeps saying that Obama's visit to Germany was tantamount to rock star adoration. Maybe Obama is not giving a speech to thousands of people here in the UK, but BBC News is certainly guilty of the rock star treatment too. I find it amusing when media double standards/lack of self-awareness are as evident as they are right now.
Today's edition of The Guardian has a special supplement on 'rebel knitting'. As I'm the polite sort of person, let's say the patterns are unexciting. The introduction to the new wave of knitters is okay, though. I recently read Knitknit: Projects and Profiles of Knitting's New Wave which is an excellent overview of avant-garde artists, edgy knitwear designers and intersection between art and craft. It also deals hands-on with the politicisation of knitting which the Guardian's supplement also addresses. (Yes, I'm the sort of person who has to intellectualise activities)
Saturday.
The kitchen needs tidying, there is laundry to be done and, oh, there are crisp croissants to be had in a minute.
And I Am Sunburnt
Lo! It is summer and I feel like reading Billy Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. I was an impressionable young lass when Branagh's adaptation hit the big screen and since then the play has always seemed like the epitome of summer. Maybe it was the white linen dresses or the sunny Tuscan landscape?
One of the many things I love about the play is how Benedict and Beatrice play and fight with words. They match each other every step of the way - it is a dazzling display of verbal virtuosity and this has me falling in love with Shakespeare all over again.
BENEDICK
What, my dear Lady Disdain! are you yet living?BEATRICE
Is it possible disdain should die while she hath
such meet food to feed it as Signior Benedick?
Courtesy itself must convert to disdain, if you come
in her presence.
Tortoiseshell Butterfly
And thirty seconds later, it dropped down dead and was devoured by a hungry spider. Ah, nature.
I Thought Turkey Was The In-Flight Meal
A family who were bound for a week's holiday in Lanzarote are back home after a check-in desk mix-up meant they caught a flight to Turkey instead. (..) Mr Coray said they had not realised their mistake because their boarding pass stated only Bodrum airport and not that it was in Turkey.
(source)
On a vaguely similar note, try your American news IQ. The interesting bit is actually at the end where you can see the demographic make-up of results.
The other night the land-line phone rang and a tiny boyish voice said "im goin be big brotha". Yes, I'm going to be an auntie again. This time it feels even bigger than the first time. One of my best friends is also going to become a mother. This calls for Auntie Bookish to surf the net for things to knit, obviously.
My partner's sister and my friend may never speak to me again, of course:
(if this is your creation, let me know so I can give you credit for being a genius)
Future Plans Unveiled. No World Domination. Yet.
One of these days I'm going to knuckle down, find the copy of WordPress for Dummies that Auntie M. gave me for Christmas*, recover the password for my webhost and do another installation of WP on the second SQL server.
(* WP was messing me about at that point. Possibly the three-hospitals-in-11-days thing didn't help either. So I bought that book with Auntie M's usual book voucher. I'm not sure the book did me any good but the hospital visits became less frequent and certainly not as dramatic. Unexpected side-effect.)
See, I am really getting into this weird and wonderful world of fibre arts knitting. I have stories to tell about projects, interactions with other knitters, yarn photos and all that. And I don't really want to fling it all on 4th Edition because my brain isn't compartmentalised like that. So I want a knitting blog. Oh yes. Hosted by myself, of course. And you people who are yet to be smitten by my enthusiasm can avoid reading about knitting. And I'll be writing scores of fascinating entries about lace patterns, knitting podcasts and buying yarn. For people who'll appreciate it
Deadline for myself: end of August. Baby steps. Any links to WP-on-2nd server baby steps much appreciated.
Your Presence Is Kindly Requested..
Today has not been the best of days for various reasons but one thing does amuse me: David and I are on the guest list to an exclusive event at the Scottish Parliament.
My life sometimes surprises even me.
A Visual Feast
The art and architecture of Le Corbusier.
It's interesting to note how the architecture in the third image matches our expectation of 'modern' but not the furniture and the art pieces.. I'm also rather enamoured by the sixth image (that ceiling! the colours!).
Making Conversation
Work: "Hi! How are you? Hope you're feeling better. Just to let you know, we're implementing some new anti-fraud measurements. So, HR needs to know where you were working between October 2006 and February 2007?"
Me: "Er, I was working for you guys.."
--
A few completely unrelated and random links:
+ Is this cake scary or awesome? I just cannot decide.
+ I had a long conversation about the Theremin the other day.
+ Renewable clothing by Fernando BrÃzio. Art or not?
+ This page makes me so, so happy. I'm clearly weird.
+ Doctor Who: I Love the World. Heavy spoilers for Season 4, so beware.
And, yes, Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is up and running.
Mind-Reader
And two hours after having written about wanting one, my partner brings home a 1950s sewing machine. We need to buy needles and some spools, but otherwise it appears to be in top condition.
Ace.