(no subject)

OMG, I finally "get" knitting! Thanks so much to soapfaerie and the_xtina who made it possible! If soapfaerie hadn't sent me the "ingredients," I would've sat on my @$$ forever before getting started on this. And the_xtina, one thing that KnittingHelp.com made clear to me through it's many videos on how to do the exact same thing, is that there really ARE many ways to do each thing. By comparing the "suggested" video with the book soapfaerie sent me, I was able to put together a 3-D image in my head of which string is going where, and realized that I didn't have to hold the string like either was showing me and could instead do it the way I was used to doing for macrame (friendship bracelets) with only very minor modifications, so what looked to me (in my previous attempts at knitting) like a Gordian knot of sixteen steps for each individual stitch, is now just one or two steps!

Next step: learn purl. :-P Maybe I'll change my mind about the ease of this now... But thanks so much guys!

Edit: OMG, purl is so much harder! Not impossible, but significantly more difficult. I think it'll take me a few rows to feel comfortable with this one. Then I'll get to switch it up! I want to learn cables and braids - I'm going to need to buy more stuff for that.

Feet!

calzephyr77, was that you collecting the stories of feet washing up on the coast? They matched a couple of them [edit: to each other], finally.

Obama's Cabinet?

I haven't been following Obama's picks for cabinet members. Someone care to update me? I think I saw Hillary was taking one.

I've also heard that people who have cabinet positions can never successfully run for office again after that. Is this true? If so, why? And why would someone like Clinton take the position then? Please give me the short version, as usual, too long and I lose track of where it started...

Which reminds me, this week I've had two people tell me either that since I teach physics I must be really smart, or else that physics is a really hard subject. Both times I replied in complete honesty that I think history is harder. Politics/current events might be even worse since things change so quickly, at least history's over and done with.

Knitting sample photos?

I'm looking for photos that show what the result will be if I do various simple patterns, such as

* K rows only (which should be the same as only P rows)
* K rows alternating with P rows
* K1P1 repeat, flip, K1P1 repeat
* K1P1 repeat, flip, P1K1 repeat

And how do I get cables that go straight up something? I don't mean like braiding, just unbraided cables?

Basically, I've got K and P down now, and I want to make a scarf that doesn't look totally messy (edit: or boring), so I want to know what these different patterns will get me. I guess I could do like three inches of each and have a bizarre scarf like that.

Bad format for this book + horrible production = FAIL

Up until now I was worried that I would uncritically accept any book in audio format. I am sad to report that the most expensive one I've bought to date, Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver, is the one that proves me wrong.

Some Neal Stephenson books lend themselves well to audio format - I listened to Snow Crash before I read a print version of it. I should have known that Quicksilver, of a style akin to Cryptonomicon, would not. The large cast of characters and continual flashbacks do not work well in the audiobook format, where it is difficult to go back to things you might have missed previously. That alone would make me grumble, but I have gotten past it in the past - I listened to not only David Weber's Off Armageddon Reef, but the sequel By Schism Rent Asunder, political sci/fan with many warring kingdoms, most of whose names start with a C, and a cast of at least as many characters, whose names start primarily with Cs as well. So while not all books are ideal for audio format, I can get over that.

Add to that that this is the worst production I've heard yet. The primary narrator, Simon Prebble, could use lessons in enunciation, and rather than being quaint his British accent is obfuscating. Those two things together would lead me to be upset with this audiobook, and might or might not lead me to write a bad review.

The final straw that makes me irate enough to consider asking for my money back is the manner in which they executed the abridgment. When I audioread Snow Crash it was an abridged version as well, and while listening to it I never knew. I had no clue whatsoever where the abridgments were, and had it not been printed on the cover I would not have even known it was abridged. The editor's choice of what to remove had no impact whatsoever upon my listening experience. When I subsequently read the print version of the novel, I realized what had been omitted, and yes the editor's choices did affect the interpretation of the book, as the parts removed primarily related to the mystical aspects of the novel.

In this production, instead of seamlessly removing sections less central to the main plot, the editor chose to *summarize* sections of the novel. As in the narrator saying "a summary of pages 63-69 is as follows..." and "a summary of pages 84 to 149 is as follows..." Yes, in the first two chapters of the novel I've already had both of those. Yes 78 of the first 149 pages of the novel were removed. yes, that's more than 50%. If I wanted the fucking Cliffnotes, I would've bought that instead, and it wouldn't've cost me thirty bucks.

I want my money back.