Briefly

A brief update on the final days of my vacation:

• sewed a shirt out of a Star Wars sheet
• embellished a shirt to match the librarian skirt (which I'll wear for my first day of work tomorrow!)
• went shooting with Alex and Joel yesterday
• re-upholstered 1 of 4 chairs thus far
• Alex and his dad got three walls up for our building's bathroom
• it's really, really humid
• I didn't get Kristen's message that she had seen the final Lost until yesterday, so I couldn't post anything about it, like:
• Eeek! Will Michael & Walt be back? Is Faux Henry "Him?" Etc... The irony is that...
• we finally broke down and got satellite...
• a week after the final episode, which I should have DVR-ed because we need to see it again. And again.

Sssh! Skirt

Well, my hair's too short to put in a bun, but maybe my cateye glasses and this skirt will let people know my true profession:





Materials:

• 1 plaid wool skirt with lining
• 4 colors felt
• contrasting thread
• black lace trim
• silver chain (charm bracelet on clearance)

First, I had to hem the skirt and lining, then add lace to the lining, before I could even begin the felt applique. This took a ridiculous amount of time, although not as much as I feared. I'm pretty happy with the result.

I'm terrified to log into Bloglines. I've not opened my account in seven days. That's a lot of posts to sift through...

Batgirl Wears a Skirt

Here's part of what I've been doing in my time off...





Materials:

• 1 knit skirt
• 4 colors of felt
• contrasting thread
• 3 buttons
• metal letters (they string on ribbon)
• black ribbon
• "Batman" cotton fabric
• a lot of patience

Celebrate Good Times, C'mon!

Okay, so this is good news and all, as long as it doesn't turn out to kill/maim/otherwise harm us gals thirty years from now...

But THIS is the really great news!!! 2007--Celebration IV--Los Angeles--Bryce and Amy and Trey and Kelsey and Matt (and also possibly visiting my non-geeky relatives in CA)! My native homeland (yep, I'm one of those I-wasn't-born-here-but-got-here-as-fast-as-I-could Texans).

And while I'm geeking out--can I just say that MySpace totally rocks as X-Space, and I wish they weren't just doing this as a temporary promotion?

And another winning time-killer: Librarian Dress-Up.

Sew What?

Wow, I don't think I've been off Blogger this long since April '05... and I haven't been away from a computer this long in at least two--(three... four?)--years.

It's kinda relaxing.

So, you ask, what have I been frittering my vacation time away on, since I'm obviously not tackling any web development at the moment? Let's see, shall we?

Monday: yardwork (yes, all day long--our yard is that big. and was that weedy.)
Tuesday: housework.
Wednesday: pleasure reading--gasp!--and sewing (will post photos of this silliness later).
Thursday: pleasure reading--double gasp!--and sewing (the creative urge is too strong to resist).
Today: catching up on email and blogging, heh heh, finishing sewing, etc etc etc, then hopefully watching X-men 3 tonight.

I fully intended to get things done that needed doing Monday and Tuesday, then using the rest of the week, and possibly through next Wednesday, to get the new Snazzy Decor up and running. But yardwork on Monday--probably the part where I moved three bags of hardened 80-lb. concrete by my-own-little-self--caused some back strain of a rather painful sort, which I exascerbated by my indoor work on Tuesday. And since my usual 8-12 hours a day on the computer tend to strain my back/neck on a normal day, I didn't really want to risk it.

And it's so... peaceful... without my cell phone ringing and having twelve tabs open in Firefox, checking my five (main) email accounts. Ahhhh.

So, yeah. The web development still needs to be done. Perhaps I can get on that next week. But in the meantime, I give you pure delight, in the form of KitchenAid shades of beauty.

The Obese Female Has Caroled

It's my last day at the desk, and I just finished my last hour. It's hard to believe that it's over.

I'm still at the desk, actually, archiving my network drive information before lunch. (Ugh.) Then I've got some paperwork to fill out for the new position, something the print, and I'm on my merry way home to spend my week and a half off. There's really nothing else to say, except that I am grateful for this position, those I have worked with and for, and the incredible learning experience--and fun experience--this has been.

Wann apply for my old job?

Unrelated Banter

• So... English isn't already our "national language" on paper? Huh. Then... why does it matter to name it so now?
• Ouch! Man, the Mavs will accept AJ from the Spurs, but they apparently don't like Finley turning the tables. Ah well, makes for an interesting series.

Goodbye, Rerun!

I know my buds Alex, Kristen, Amy, and Jaime will be pleased at this: no more Lost clip shows or reruns. They're having a hiatus--much like a lot of cable shows seem to be doing--and will run an unrelated new series during that time. But at least now we'll have two blocks of shows a season where our adrenaline-charged momentum won't be interrupted.

Ninjas (and Dogs) Hate Pirates

So... they're training dogs to sniff out DVDs in packages in an effort to fight piracy (listen to the story here).

This is a little to easy both to question and to make fun of. Let me say that in the story this morning on NPR, the UK spokesman actually did confirm that the dogs can't tell the difference between pirated and legitimate DVDs. So apparently our friends across the pond still subscribe to the theory that their American counterparts are a bit dim.

The MPAA claims that in 2004, the entertainment industry lost $3.5 billion to piracy. Okay...

1. The article concentrates on efforts to stop online distribution of stolen movies... but this number doesn't include online file-sharing.
2. How can they actually calculate a loss to piracy? Statistics and predicted outcomes: fancy words for "making up stuff to support my own ideas."
3. How do they know these people would have bought the movie if it hadn't been available online? (Back to the Napster hoopla: I know some people who have bought CDs they wouldn't have otherwise, because they've been able to listen to the whole thing freely online.)
4. The MPAA director states that people need to learn that piracy is "harmful to the people who use their talents to create movies." I'm sure his stern words have caused many pirates to think insightfully about how they're harming that set carpenter on the movie ads.
5. Alex and I always groove to the funky music at the beginning of Blockbuster DVDs, before realizing that it's the anti-piracy ad. They're only succeeding in showing that pirates have great music--probably because they stole it all online.
6. All this being said, YES, piracy = bad; please don't infringe on any person/group/industry's talent/way-of-making-a-living/copyright. Delete that copy of "Superman Returns" right now! Heck, it's badly pixelated anyway--don't you deserve the theater/movie-rental/home-theater experience?
7. Oh, my apologies to the MPAA for not stressing the theater experience exclusively. Maybe if theater ticket costs didn't make gas prices look decent...
8. Shiver me timbers, but ye be givin' pirates a bad name!
9. Ninjas may hate pirates, but they make interesting roommates.