(no subject)
Sun, Sep. 4th, 2005 02:35 amKnitting Arts is having a sale this week. I happened to have a gift certificate that my auntie gave me for my birthday. Much ogling and groping of yarn ensued.
I have some really fine Crystal Palace mohair mix for a lacy crocheted sweater in light purple, white cotton Willow Tahki for this because while lace is a bitch to knit (much easier to crochet lace, which is why I love crochet), it's just so beautiful. Wah. I got this really crazy yarn in rose and white... not sure what I'll do with it, since I only got three balls, but I think it'd make a cute scarf. And I got a really gorgeous apricot ribbon yarn. The picture on the website totally doesn't do it justice. It's this beautiful soft, shimmery apricot that looks like it has a bit of a gold sheen to it as well. I adore it. I think I'll make it into this.
I know this is a stupid comment, but wow, yarn is expensive. All that was all of my gift certificate plus $5. But... so pretty!
Er, of course, I have failed to mention the loads and loads of yarn I already have at home that are yet to be knit up. Um. Haha. Yeah. I actually really want to get another CD shelf and fill it with yarn! It seems to have the right shelf depth, plus, it'd be really pretty. Much better than plastic bags everywhere!
***
I was cruel to my ratties. I stuck a peach pit with bits of peach still on it on top of their cage, so parts would stick through but it wouldn't fall through the holes, just to see what they'd do. Took them a while to figure out how to get the thing inside, but they have succeeded!
Heh, but it was really funny watching them trying to get the thing inside with their teeth!
***
I also got to meet some old high school friends today, which was really cool! Haven't seen them for what feels like forever, because I suck like mad at keeping in touch. But yeah! It's amazing how much easier socializing is when one is non-depressive! Heh, what a concept ;).
But it was really interesting. I never would have thought I would have been where I am now graduating from college (working in a large corporation, being happy with work, not having a huge desire to go back to grad school, being in the tech industry). It's just so good being happy with where I am though! (I hope that didn't sound horrifically self-satisfied...)
It's just... I really do love what I'm doing right now, and I'm getting the chance to head some big projects that are really exciting not just to the company, but to me. I love where I live. I love the Bay Area, I love my dinky little town, I love my apartment, I love that I am publishing a few book reviews, I love that I have this giant community on LJ to talk about things I love (academics, tech, books, gender theory, knitting, tv, rats, everything), I love that I have people who are really awesome to hang out with, I love so many things about my life right now. And I hope to high heaven that this isn't coming off as rubbing-your-nose-in-it, nastily-self-satisfied, but just... in the past two and half years, I couldn't even imagine being happy. Or if I could, the feeling would only last for about a day. And so, having this feels like such a gift, and I don't know what I did to have this, especially with everything else going on, but I am so very grateful for it and hope that I'm at least using some of it to pay it forward.
Anyhow, A. is one old friend who was very techie, and I was very "fuzzy" (aka the liberal arts vs. the tech world thing). Except, I'm now working in the tech industry and doing web stuff and having lots of fun doing it. And I read Wired and keep up with the latest gadgets and whatnot. A. was sort of teasing me about really being a techie underneath it all, which is partially true, to my surprise! And yet, I still love the liberal arts passionately, from lit crit to gender theory and textual deconstruction and historiography, and I would shrivel up and die if I didn't have a chance to think about this stuff.
But amusingly, one of the parts of work that I really do like is being involved with the software that we use for the website. I'm so not an expert on the code and whatnot, but in general, I know how everything works, and I can explain it to all the users. I'm sort of the translator between the guys who do know the code and can do nifty things and the user, and it's rather fun. Er, sometimes it's a bit frustrating, but then again, the frustration percentage is fairly small. A. sort of casually mentioned that I could have gone into tech (engineering, comp sci, who knows) if I had really wanted to, and that sort of startled me.
I've never thought of myself as particularly good at science or math or computers, so the idea that I could have focused on that during college and for a career was odd. But I guess some of it was having an English teacher and humanities teachers that I loved and science and math teachers that didn't really excite me about the subject, and some was inability, and other bits were frustration. But just the thought that someone else thought I could have done it (and still could) is rather nifty. I think if I had heard this before, it would have only depressed me -- lost opportunities, feeling like I was a fake -- but now... it's sort of neat. I guess mostly what it all comes down to is that I am like a magpie and interested in about six bazillion different things at once!
fannishly always says that my interests really do form some sort of coherent whole, but I always feel like they are totally haphazard! I mean... internet, copyright law (sort of), books always and forever, knitting and crocheting, food, anime and manga, East Asian Studies stuff, gender stuff, genre stuff, rats, feminism, feels like it is all across the map! Alas, I am one of those people who know bits of everything and nothing really comprehensive about anything, except possibly EAS. At least, so one hopes, seeing as how four years of college should get me somewhere!
I have some really fine Crystal Palace mohair mix for a lacy crocheted sweater in light purple, white cotton Willow Tahki for this because while lace is a bitch to knit (much easier to crochet lace, which is why I love crochet), it's just so beautiful. Wah. I got this really crazy yarn in rose and white... not sure what I'll do with it, since I only got three balls, but I think it'd make a cute scarf. And I got a really gorgeous apricot ribbon yarn. The picture on the website totally doesn't do it justice. It's this beautiful soft, shimmery apricot that looks like it has a bit of a gold sheen to it as well. I adore it. I think I'll make it into this.
I know this is a stupid comment, but wow, yarn is expensive. All that was all of my gift certificate plus $5. But... so pretty!
Er, of course, I have failed to mention the loads and loads of yarn I already have at home that are yet to be knit up. Um. Haha. Yeah. I actually really want to get another CD shelf and fill it with yarn! It seems to have the right shelf depth, plus, it'd be really pretty. Much better than plastic bags everywhere!
***
I was cruel to my ratties. I stuck a peach pit with bits of peach still on it on top of their cage, so parts would stick through but it wouldn't fall through the holes, just to see what they'd do. Took them a while to figure out how to get the thing inside, but they have succeeded!
Heh, but it was really funny watching them trying to get the thing inside with their teeth!
***
I also got to meet some old high school friends today, which was really cool! Haven't seen them for what feels like forever, because I suck like mad at keeping in touch. But yeah! It's amazing how much easier socializing is when one is non-depressive! Heh, what a concept ;).
But it was really interesting. I never would have thought I would have been where I am now graduating from college (working in a large corporation, being happy with work, not having a huge desire to go back to grad school, being in the tech industry). It's just so good being happy with where I am though! (I hope that didn't sound horrifically self-satisfied...)
It's just... I really do love what I'm doing right now, and I'm getting the chance to head some big projects that are really exciting not just to the company, but to me. I love where I live. I love the Bay Area, I love my dinky little town, I love my apartment, I love that I am publishing a few book reviews, I love that I have this giant community on LJ to talk about things I love (academics, tech, books, gender theory, knitting, tv, rats, everything), I love that I have people who are really awesome to hang out with, I love so many things about my life right now. And I hope to high heaven that this isn't coming off as rubbing-your-nose-in-it, nastily-self-satisfied, but just... in the past two and half years, I couldn't even imagine being happy. Or if I could, the feeling would only last for about a day. And so, having this feels like such a gift, and I don't know what I did to have this, especially with everything else going on, but I am so very grateful for it and hope that I'm at least using some of it to pay it forward.
Anyhow, A. is one old friend who was very techie, and I was very "fuzzy" (aka the liberal arts vs. the tech world thing). Except, I'm now working in the tech industry and doing web stuff and having lots of fun doing it. And I read Wired and keep up with the latest gadgets and whatnot. A. was sort of teasing me about really being a techie underneath it all, which is partially true, to my surprise! And yet, I still love the liberal arts passionately, from lit crit to gender theory and textual deconstruction and historiography, and I would shrivel up and die if I didn't have a chance to think about this stuff.
But amusingly, one of the parts of work that I really do like is being involved with the software that we use for the website. I'm so not an expert on the code and whatnot, but in general, I know how everything works, and I can explain it to all the users. I'm sort of the translator between the guys who do know the code and can do nifty things and the user, and it's rather fun. Er, sometimes it's a bit frustrating, but then again, the frustration percentage is fairly small. A. sort of casually mentioned that I could have gone into tech (engineering, comp sci, who knows) if I had really wanted to, and that sort of startled me.
I've never thought of myself as particularly good at science or math or computers, so the idea that I could have focused on that during college and for a career was odd. But I guess some of it was having an English teacher and humanities teachers that I loved and science and math teachers that didn't really excite me about the subject, and some was inability, and other bits were frustration. But just the thought that someone else thought I could have done it (and still could) is rather nifty. I think if I had heard this before, it would have only depressed me -- lost opportunities, feeling like I was a fake -- but now... it's sort of neat. I guess mostly what it all comes down to is that I am like a magpie and interested in about six bazillion different things at once!
Re: yarn is expensive
Sun, Sep. 4th, 2005 07:35 pm (UTC)Oooo, you found Amano! Very cool ^_^.
I rather like being magpie-esque, except, of course, when I feel woefully inadequate in everything, but... hrm, i'm just rambling now. But yeah, the not being interested in anything is the most worrisome bit.