Fridays

I like fridays. Why? well other than the weekend starts here, where I work we only have to do half days on fridays as we work an hour extra the rest of the week, so if you get to work real early you leave at 12 and your weekend starts there. Very nice.

The knitting of the jumper is still going, Im 12 inches up the back. Once I reach 20 I get to start marking arm holes! I might even make that tomorrow! That will seem like record time.

The bit Im dreading is that this thing seems like its going to be a major challenge as it seems to imply you have to hang on to all the bits and join them together using the neck so I need a ton of bits to hold them on while I do the rest.. ick.. I didnt think of that..

Thankfully I just bought a shed load of needles on ebay and can use those :)

Bring out your dead!!

I feel like death warmed up, I didnt go to work today I felt that bad. While Im determind to go tomorrow, I have my doubts I'll be good for it.

On the plus side, I finished a knitted scarf for a friend who likes all things pink and fluffy! I swore I would never knit again, but that scarf took 24 hours (less some sleep!) now, Im onto another knitting project (damn his eyes) my husband wanted an aran jumper... so, thats what Im making... wish me luck!

Fave link of the week

I thought I'd share this with you. What is it you ask? Its a live feed from Pu`u`O`o volcanoe! It can be pretty cool.. Although obviously weather can really obscure the view. Night time can often be best despite being dark the light from the lava shines!

A good weather site is this.

Urgh!

Well, I feel like I have some dreaded lurgy. I must have spent 10 minutes deciding if I was well enough to work this morning, and as long again if I was going to walk or drive. I decided to drive as I felt rough and it was raining, sadly I now wish I had decided not to come.

Last night I thought I was going to spend most of it throwing up, thankfully, I didn't.

I really just want a day in bed, or 2..

I finished the drwho scarf! As you can see from the picture. Its hard to photo something measuring 13.5ft, so I just left it in layers.

The new project has begun

I went down hobbycraft and picked me up 14 hooks, 1 of every size they had, and a bunch of wool for making of a dr who like scarf. I am trying to put off my summer thing a little as it has very very long rows, and that will be frustrating to work on. Im also trying to give myself more time to feel confident with stitches, as well as everything else.

So, Id guess the new one is about a meter long so far, it grows very fast because of the size of wool and hook in use.. eg, HUGE. :)

Hobbycraft have some great looking wool, but very very few crochet patterns, and Im determind not to knit again.

One thing I did love the look of was the huge balls of wool, which some contained nearly 900m of wool! I guess its 1 ball = 1 jumper.. Im a large person so I might need more than 1, but, Im guessing I'll want to try an aron jumper later, I just need to find a pattern for a plain jumper.

End of the scarf!

Well, the scarf is finished! It is 12" wide and 48" long! not bad for a couple of weeks worth of effort. If only knitting had ever happened that fast for me. I really really want to make this next, I have enough thread, but, I do think it might be beyond me, and each row would take forever as everything bar the sleeves seems to be done as a single peice.. Id rather have seams to be honest, just so I could do smaller peices.

Im also worried about the size.. Despite using a smaller hook, my gauge is out, if I made that test swatch (what a waste of yarn!) it would be 5" by 4" not 4x4.. so, to make the right one to fit me according to them would be the size of a tent !!

I guess another scarf maybe in order or something first...

All change!

We changed our internal IP addresses today, apparently it clashed with a vpn... We've had those IPs longer than the company has been in existance, it seems stupid that we had to change.. after all, its not like hes paid for the work! My VPN to work still craps out after 10 minutes.. without fail..

The curse of ebay..

So, the queen of mean has been on ebay some more.. I normally have to be parted kicking and screaming from my money but ebay is such a curse.. For everything you can ever think of.. theres likely to be one on ebay..

Remember my craving for a shell suit.. My prayers finally came. I bought a black shell suit (both top and bottom) from ebay.. mind you, at a very good price .. 0.99 for a top + posting and 0.99 for the bottom + posting.. a grand total of about 5! hurrah! result. (it could even arrive soon!)

Sadly on top of that the crochet thread is getting out of hand, I'll probably have enough to keep me going for 2006 by the time this lot arrive (as I have 12 balls of white still, I'll have 8 of beige and 16 of cream and then 2 lots of something else...)

The crochet scarf is doing good, its about 32" long now! I do want it slightly longer though.. I fear its not the warmest scarf ever made, but, I hope its loved. Of course I will bore you with a picture of it when its finished.. However, you'll need to make do with this! (was taken about 4" ago)

Im hoping to finish it this weekend :)

"Green Flag"?

Ok this tv ad isnt new. However, Im sorry, but some stupid dumb blonde woman gets a flat.. Now, I grant you they dont show size OO cleevage, or a skirt that doesnt go down beyond her knickers.. but.. they do show her sitting in her car filing her nails while tons of cars behind hoot and shout at her.. oh and she checks her mirror and fluffs her hair..

Believe me lady.. Do that in front of me and I will break your ass.

The joys and disapointments of paypal

I appreciate there is some logic, but I find the following very frustrating. I bought something from ebay, it cost me the rip cost of 0.90 ! (whoohoo!) problem is I fund my paypal via a credit card, apparently this means the other person must have upgraded their account. So despite the big "I accept paypal" .. its not all paypal.. some money isnt the same as other money..

sigh

My hate for AV and Spyware products

So, I have etrust, and I have the new microsoft defender anti spyware stuff..

So, some rogue exe downloads itself (I probably helped it, but all the same) the av software didnt say "Hey stupid, you dont want this" the spyware thing didnt say "Hey stupid, this is bad news"

So, I decided to do a full scan, and some hidden baddy file on my system woke up and trashed it. Its an odd thing, it doesnt seem to be running unless you somehow open something to trigger it. It does have a name, but its one where it will suddenly tell you your login has expired it cant do this that or the other and your machine basically just stops..

Whats the point of half this software thats supposedly monitoring my system if it just lets it do it anyway?

Distracted

Well, today Im quite distracted, a friend of mine (love him to bits) made one of those life altering decisions thursday, his life is now turning hugely for the better but a fair few things need sorting before he can enjoy thats all to come. Im worried for him. Sadly for me hes many 1000's of miles from here and I cant go hug him and help him. Of course there isnt a lot I could do, but, I wish I could be there at least for anything.

Im deliberately not naming or describing whats going on, but I wanted to record my feelings and know that should he wander here (Im wondering if I even told him of my blog now) he'll know its him and he will know I love him to bits, and Im real happy for him Im just worried for the changing period hes going through.

(No hes not gay or having sex change or anything in that nature, although theres nothing wrong if that was it, I just felt a small need to say its not that)

Job agencies, please read!

For 2 years I had my CV on job sites, desparately looking for a job, I have a number of skills, and have had very few complaints about my capabilities, so, you'd think finding a job would not be that hard.

Finally, I got a job I wanted near on 15 months ago, so I removed myself from all the job sites, and started with the polite replies to agencies with "Ive found a job, and am no longer looking" etc.

Well, Im still getting messages about jobs that werent entirely suitable ever, but, more to the point, its now got to a point where I have little wish to be polite to them about the fact that they still havent removed me from their lists, or arent even sending jobs that would be suitable.

Todays was the most insulting to date.

Area: not suitable, area of job: development - which I left for a reason nearly 7 years ago I do tech support now, and finally.. the mail was sent to me and started "Dear Sirs"

I wish more job agencies went out of business, as if they are still havent got round to updating their info from 15 months ago, what chance do these people have of finding me a job Id want??

Life's fairy tales you probably grew up believing

1. If you worked hard no matter what job you're doing someone will spot you and give you a big payrise and the job you always wanted, eg mail boy to VP
   
2. Women go to sleep and wake up already made up (for those that do those things)
3. People who lie are always found out
4. If you work hard your dreams can come true, no matter how freaky or expensive, and it wont take you 60 years to earn
   
5. Everyone has a shrink, a lawyer, and a gynocologist. (where relevant)
6. Houses have basements and attics
7. You earn like 1$ an hour but can still afford kids, house, car, groceries, make up, drink, smokes, bills...
8. Oh, and finally.. You can have sex *ALL* night (haha) and still have energy in the morning!

CSI vs Dalziel and Pascoe

I *lurve* CSI, but, Dalziel and Pascoe has been an old faithful.. It mighty SUCKS that the BBC have placed Dalziel and Pascoe on on monday and tuesdays, and tuesdays clashes with the new episodes of CSI.. argh!

F1 - new qualifying / race

Following the weekend.. I thought the qualifying was ok, it seemed to be confusing them far more than us, given they left it late and many almost didnt get qualifying times. During the race it was a fair bit of interest, much better than previous years where by about lap 3 you could walk off, come back and the only chances were crashes and retirements. I hope this year will continue to be active.

Cant wait for June 11 when we go watch it live again (please, no sun burn like last year though..)

Next project

Im looking at my second crochet project, I want to make a scarf (of course by the time Ive finished, it wont be cold any more!) but I started out with 100 stitches but it looks too wide to me. But I cant decide how wide it should be!

Ebay

Wether you love or hate Ebay, there are a billion things for sale on it, and some of them at good prices and so on. Yes, someones bound to be selling some old sock for 300 pounds, but, often in a month there will be something you really would like.

I try not to bid on too much, but it can be hard not to sometimes, after all once you've seen something you want its hard to ignore it when its up for a pound and would cost you 10-20 to buy.

My only beef with it is "watched" items.. it mails you when theres about 5 hours to go, but thats the last. I want it to mail me at 3hr, 1hr, 15 min, 5 min.. coz of those annoying people you get that wait till like the last minute and bid 3x the price.

WHOOHOO..

As you can see, I finally finished it! (for reference of size, its there filling most of my chairs seat!)

It has mistakes.. sigh.. but only one really obvious one. the rest are all fairly well hidden.

Weekends in general

Weekends go by too fast. Im now half way through my crochet thing, 5 hours of my saturday has passed, where? I dont know, I need to do laundry, I wanted to finish this crochet thing, I wanted to read my book, finish my lace thing (for which I have ordered me more bobbins as I seem to have lost most of mine)

Biggest frustration is much like reading, crocheting seems to bring out the neck ache and cramp in my hands.. so I cant stay at it for long. Sigh.

F1!

So, the new Formula 1 motor racing season officially started today, with the qualifying. New qualifying rules. New rules go.. every one has 15 minutes to do their fastest lap, slowest 6 cant do any more qualifying, times are wiped, everyone has another 15 minutes to do a fastest lap, slowest 6 dont go through again, the last 10 are then given 20 minutes, and have to nominate their race fuel level, which they do the qualifying with but then get topped back up to that level for the race start (this bit seems a little weird).

The teams seemed as confued as the announcers, it seems fairly simple to me!

Buying books online...

I love buying stuff online, no need to go fight for it in the shops, don't need to go there, no parking fees, etc..

Big down point, you cant leaf through it first. I bought a book it sounded perfect, only, it doesn't have the detail it implied in it.. And, as I bought it from eBay, its not the sellers fault, they didn't imply it, the content of the book implied it. So, never fear, no negative stuff for them and its not like it cost a fortune, just, well, disappointed.

Still working through the "beginner" piece.. I'm on like row 6 now.. But it is still a lot bigger than Id say is suitable for beginners, you really want something that you can do in a day, preferably, less.. Otherwise we get too frustrated.

Moving on!

So, last nights efforts on crochet well, were a waste. Apparently at my age, I still cant count to 127!

So, I redid it tonight, and finally counted, and am now on row 5 I think.. its hard work, and for a beginner peice its quite big (IMHO) .. Im making this .. it must be close to 2ft wide!! Its going to be a long peice of work thats for sure. I wish it was smaller though so I could appreciate the effort sooner!

(Sorry, not much else to say right now)

Crochet, day 1!

Well.. As you can see, I didn't do too bad. This was my third go, the first ended up as a screwed up knot :P as the instructions I found varied, and missed out a key point, such as like well the instructions, the second I found worked, I have a triangle (about the size of a large dangly earring) but that was a triangle coz they omitted a vital part.. This, this was taken most of the way through, I've actually completed my bookmark.. whoohoo! Now all I need to do, is decide what I actually want to do, I guess next I need to learn a few more stitches and then decide what I want.

Boredom is a dangerous animal

If you've ever had a lot of time and limited things you can do, wether that's mobility, noise, health, rules and regulations or lack of ideas. You will know that your mind can do very odd things.

Its the kind of thing such as your ISP craps out, so now all you can think of are emails to send, stuff to download, or, electricity goes and you think of all the rubbish on TV you could watch or videos/dvds.

One of the core reasons kids are destructive is because they are bored. As adults we have generally learnt to control the more destructive elements. However this often only means we don't do them, we still think them.

Yesterday when email at work was down, many of is were bored, and as a result of a slow day today are also funding they wished they had inspiration. Sadly for me, the things I have in my head to do are lace things, sleep, crochet, patchwork or coding. None of which can be done while at work.

I am reading the 2nd Harry potter book at home and I am wishing I had them in ebook form!

Cracking cheese Gromit!

In case you have been asleep under your respective rock, Wallace and Gromit, Curse of the were rabbit got an oscar this year!! Major grats to them.

All frills and lace!

Just in case you thought I was all hot air.. I found this.. Currently run out of pins (sigh, could use more bobbins too.. If I ever stop it twisting..)

This rather poor picture (sorry, colours are unfortunate) shows what's known as half stitch being done using some very very very old thread that fades between yellow and white on a pink card..

So, thanks eBay :) just ordered me more pins!

DNS (Domain name service or does not say?)

Well. It seems my website and I have dropped off the face of the earth today, in that my domain's DNS isnt available and so, no spam (whoohoo!!, I seem to get anything upto 200 attempts to mail me spam a minute) no website (boo), no real emails (major downer)..

Everything our end seems to work, but, it seems some firewall or something is in the way.

Heres to hoping tomorrow brings a bit more normality.

The cravings of a deprived mind

Previously I mentioned that I was after a shell suit since like forever.

Now, I guess I might as well tell some more.

In the past I tried knitting.. I sucked. I did patchwork quilts, I enjoyed it, did very well in fact as you can see from the pictures, I made 3. the first (the white, red, black one) was done to spec of a guy I was going out with, took years, the other 2 are actually two sides of the same thing and are around 8 ft square.. its huge. Both sides actually only took me 6 months. I kinda miss it, but dog paws are not patchwork quilt friendly unless you can get some material thats almost like old carpet and thats a cow to sew with.

Before that, as a child and early adult, I did some torchon+honiton lace making, but, my items always had a problem, they would twist when released. So, after many battles trying to achieve this. I half gave up. I still have my stuff, but the will is small as anything I made twisted so I never got onto the pretty stuff.

So, this void in my life has been calling.. and heres the cravings its having..

Crochet and Needle lace

Everyones heard of crochet, its the kinda stuff grannys always did, you have a thing looking like a large tooth pick almost and a ball of yarn.. and well stuff comes out. Needle lace is much like bobbin style lace making, well without the bobbins.. Apparently its a slow as molases in the arctic, but, my biggest problem with so much of these things is I need to be able to put them down.

So, I dont have much info on needle lace, other than you use a lot of button hole type stitches and pray, and I get that, I really do, but, how do you do the outside?? so, not being any wiser Im off on a mission. Crochet. You need so little to do crochet, so, I ordered me on ebay about 800g of yarn and a needle, pretty cheap too. All I need now is for it to turn up before Im not in the mood again :)

You know, all I really want to do is make some book marks!!!

Uninteruptable.. my aunt..

So.. We all know that UPS stands for uninterruptable power suply, well, like heck it is.

My UPS is grumpy, it makes the grumpy people in life look calm, nice and pleasant to spend time with.. In essense I guess it needs a new battery, but rather than go "Hey, I need a new battery, I will just pass power through me and do nothing more than act as a 4 way socket" its been playing tricks on me.

We are a little harsh on electrics, we have so much electrical stuff our house probably hums. However, his air cooler thing has an oddity of its own. It makes a sound like something catching in the fan every so often and Ive seen my lights dim often as its sucking more power to counteract it, I think this was something that irritated my UPS. As it would whine that there wasnt sufficient power, next came the "I dont like this load" act it has, eg I turn on 2 PCs and it starts flashing lights at me as if it were overloaded.. but I happen to know better. Finally last night it started just being making its last final mistake.. Just rebooting stuff every hour.. no loss of battery power, no loss of power, no nothing just "poof" everything rebooted..

so.. this morning wsa the fun hunt trying to find enough cables and stuff to remove the thing from the collective.. (After waiting 2 hours for it to power up 1 machine and it sulking and saying no..)

What a great sunday this will be. (PS queue on the wow test server stands around 4500... with a 2.5 hour wait.. dont the americans EVER sleep?? its like 1am)

EDIT: I should point out here apparently half of the town near us spent 3 hours with out electrics, but apparently this power flux was happening all over.. Sorry UPS but you could have made out there was a real power issue!

The good, the bad, and the ugly..

I was looking for my bicycle pump (still missing, been like a year now), and found my gloves WOOOHOOO! Now there's a turn up.. Such a good find reminded me of the deep dark and rather lame wish I have.

You guessed it, this is the bad and the ugly.. Its ugly coz fashion police would shoot me on site, and its bad coz I haven't let this idea drop since like forever.

I want a black shell suit. You remember the thing, kinda shiny, very light weight, amazingly popular in the 80s and early 90s. I want one, and I want one bad.. However, I want one that's predominantly black or very dark navy, I don't want some bad quality street looking effect (for people who this mean nothing, quality street chocolates are wrapped in like silver foil and then clear coloured plastic...Like bright yellow, bright red, bright green etc. I want a shell suit coz I feel the cold but I don't want to be wearing 8 jumpers to achieve warmer thoughts.. I once borrowed a friends for a night coz it was cold and for something which felt no thicker than a good quality shirt, the shiny thing was insanely warm.. From that day to this .. I've wanted one.. However, not being one of the thin people.... It would look pretty bad.

Incompetancy should be a sackable offense

When I started work, if you made a really big screw up, or endangered someone or the company, or you repeatedly didn't do what was asked.. They sacked you.

While I agree that you should be able to be sacked for no reason, it seems to me if you are incompetant and you don't seem to not be this way, they should sack you as unfit for the job.

If you were a rock climber you wouldn't accept a bit of garden string as your life line on the grounds it was doing its best would you?

Mind you, if they did sack, I guess this big open plan office I sit in might be pretty empty

Oh my god.. You have got to be s**ting me.

(May contain some swearing)

They have re made The pink panther, an all together great film with The pink panther. With Steve Martin an ok funny guy, but lets face it, I haven't seen a great film from him in ages, the guy who played Leon a great film, and he's been in some other stuff, and f**king Beyonce.. Beyonce!!! I ask you.

For the sanity of all I point out I haven't seen it, but, while the clip on TV was mildly amusing.. If the trailer can only contain 1 funny.. It's usually not that funny.

If this film doesn't suck as bad as it sounds like it does, please, feel free to tell me its actually worth watching should I ever see it as a film listed as viewable free where I live on terrestrial TV.

Milk fairies

So, for 2-3 people I bought 4 punts of milk and took it in Monday am. Monday night we had used about a pint, Tuesday home time maybe another half. Come in this morning and we have half a punt left!!

I don't mind people using it, but what do they do? Bath in it? I had some soya milk, which is an accuired taste, 2 pints of that went the other week. You would have to be desparate surely?

So, to all you milk fairies out there. Get off yer ass and but some milk and let us use some of it. Work don't provide us with a milk fund!!!!