Book Review: A Short History of Nearly Everything

Today's review is of a nonfiction book, which, I have to admit, I haven't finished yet. However, it's not like there's going to be some twist ending, so I think it's okay for me to be writing this now.

This fall, I'll be starting high school, and half the time I'll be at a special school for nerds (not really, but since it's for people that are good at math and science, so it's basically the same thing). They assigned us this book to read over the summer, and so far I'm loving it. It's called A Short History of Nearly Everything, and it's by Bill Bryson. It really is exactly what it sounds like. So far (I'm almost half way done) it's covered everything from the beginning of the universe to the discovery of tectonic plates. Chemistry, physics, geology, and even a bit of alchemy! The best part is, it's not written by a scientist, so the only time it gets really technical and confusing is when he's quoting someone else (and it's usually to make a point about how technical and confusing their book/paper was). He explains everything assuming that you only have common knowledge, and he explains it so you can actually understand it. (The humorous and slightly sarcastic tone doesn't hurt, either!) If you have any interest at all in science, you should check out A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.

Have an awesome weekend, and I'll be back next week with another update!

Pants and Arms

Today is July 11th, or 7/11, which I think is pretty cool, even though I've only been in a 7/11 twice in my entire life. But that's not the point. So anyway, I'm posting a little earlier than normal today, since I did a good bit of work this morning:

Now Ron has legs and arms, as opposed to just legs. He could still have walked around, I suppose, but if he fell that would be it. Now he can catch himself, but he still can't see where he's going. (Okay, I think I need to take a second and remember that Ron is a two-dimensional picture made of floss. Give me a minute.)

And we're good! Tomorrow, I'm planning on posting a review of a big vat of nonfiction awesomeness! But maybe not. As we've established many times before, I almost never actually post what I plan. Have a great day, and I'll (possibly) talk to you tomorrow!

Angels

I'm writing this while I repeatedly rewatch the last ten minutes of The Angels Take Manhattan, because I apparently enjoy pain. And there's a lot of pain here. (I actually am looking for something, but I'm watching more of it than I need to. Like I said, I apparently enjoy pain. Plus, it's keeping my contacts wet.)

Anway, I finished (most of) Harry:

I'm down to the last three colors I don't have now, and I'll just finish those later. For now, I'm working on Ron's legs:

Oh the joys of uniforms. I'm pretty sure these legs are the same as Harry's (yeah, that sounds weird). Oh well, Hermione's in a skirt, so that'll be something new. Also, that picture is proof that I cannot count. Ever. So far, none of the corners have been in all the right places (top left corner of Harry was one stitch to the right, but I fixed it). Seeing as the rest of the pictures are probably the same, I'm just going to try to always start in the corner that's closest to the middle. That should keep it as close to the center as I can.

I'm off to go rewatch the end of Vincent and the Doctor. Wish me luck, and I'll talk to you soon!

Christmas Red

Here's what I've done today:

Now Harry has a head, a few pink splotches, and some white in the middle. I'm missing two colors of floss (they weren't in the store either of the past two times I've been there), so I just have a few more stitches I can do on Harry. I'll just move on to Ron or Hermione, and keep working on them until I'm able to get the last two colors. They do happen to be a large part of that white space, but it'll all work out in the end, I promise.

So about the Christmas Red thing. One of the colors I need for a whole one stitch of this (I think there's more of it on one of the other ones) is called Christmas Red, and as you would expect, it's a very bright shade of red. What number do you think it has? 666. That's right, someone that works for DMC has a very twisted, sick mind.

Have an awesome rest of your day, and I'll be back soon with another update!

It's Getting Harry in Here!

Actually, it's getting hot! Our AC broke last night, and with temperatures in the 90s, that makes one hot house! But it's okay, since I haven't stopped my stuff! (Yeah, that doesn't make sense. I'll just show you the picture, shall I?)

Remember these?

I'm not surprised if you don't, it's been a while! They're all part of my big Harry Potter cross stitch thing, and next is Harry! He's in the middle, right above all the house crests, and I started him yesterday, with some more work done this morning. I don't know if you can tell, but just in his pant, there's I think four different colors. And there's one color (which I haven't done yet) that is literally used for two stitches. Just two. Also, I'm not really sure what's going on with all the blue and brown, but I guess it will make more since when the rest of it is on there.

Eventually, it did get too hot to have the cloth on my lap, so I decided to do some writing on my laptop. And since I'm just that smart, I wasn't thinking about the fact that the laptop gets pretty hot on it's own! Needless to say, that didn't last long, so I've kind of been bouncing around between things all afternoon. I can honestly say that I cannot wait to go to rehearsal tonight!

I hope you have a great day, and that you're able to stay cool! (Or warm, if anyone is reading this from the Southern Hemipshere!) Talk to you soon!

Wrists and Butter*

This is what happens when I don't post every time I plan to. I end up with pictures that should be on two separate posts all smushed (that should be a word) into one post. So bear with me, this might get confusing. 

A couple weeks ago, I started these Voodoo wrist warmers from Knitty. Once I started my mom's scarves, I put it in a drawer and ignored it (and never told you guys about it), but I picked it up on Wednesday afternoon and ended up finishing it that night.

Here it is on:

Just for the record, the awkward lump is my watch, not part of my arm (or the wrist warmer). Then yesterday, I started the second one:

which I finished a few hours ago. It was a little harder to get a good picture of this one:

because I'm stupid and I felt like it had to go on the other arm (which is my dominant arm). And here they are together:

Yes, the top one is a lot shorter than the bottom. Yes, it's extremely annoying. No, I'm not really sure how it happened, especially seeing as I measured them both the same way.

*Just a note about the title. I was thinking about how they make my wrists warm, and then I don't actually remember what I was thinking, but I do remember it had something to do with bread and butter. Oh! Maybe it was about making my wrists toasty, and then I thought about toast? I don't know. But I do know that it made sense when I wrote it.

Bright-Eyed and Bushy-Tailed

I know it's a lot earlier than I normally post, but I figured I would just do this now. Yesterday I told you that I went to Michaels on Sunday, and I had some stuff to show you guys. Let's start with this:

I want to start scrapbooking some of my memories from middle school: pictures, programs, movie tickets, stuff like that. My mom used to scrapbook, so she said she would help me get started. I basically just picked stuff with my school colors, red, white, and black (the paper inside the book is black). 

So after that, I was looking in this big bin of clearance yarn, and I found this:

It's this super soft, squishy, beautiful Bernat Bamboo yarn. It didn't have a tag on it, and I figured it would be pretty expensive, but since it was on clearance I figured I should just go for it. And I'm really happy I did, since it was only about $3 a ball, and it's so wonderful! Here's a close-up of the color:

Lovely, right? :) I think I'm going to make a thin little scarf out of it. It's so nice, I want to be able to feel it. (OK, so that sounded really weird, so I'm going to move on now.) I also got a little ball of torture:

After making all those scarves, I wanted to have one for my own. Yeah. I have issues. 

I also picked up a couple random things:

Some wire, and a thing of floss. The gold thing came off a necklace my mom got, but she had a different charm to put on it, so she gave that to me.

Now that all the scarves are done, I'm looking forward to starting some new stuff. I probably won't be using any of the yarn from this post, since I want a bit of a change from what I've been doing. Talk to you later!

You Have Been Assimilated

Sorry about that, but as you know, resistance is futile. So anyway, remember how on Friday I said I wanted to have Hugh done by Monday? I worked super fast, and I finished the knitting on Saturday afternoon. Then I stuck it in the washing machine with no detergent for about ten minutes. When I pulled it out, it weighed about twice as much as it should, and it took forever to wring it out. Once I got most of the water out, I laid it out on cardboard and towels:

(A few minutes after I took this, I got another piece of cardboard so the whole thing would be on it.) I left it there while I went to see some fireworks, and when I got home I ditched the cardboard and got fresh towels for the night. The next morning, it still was nowhere near being dry, so my mom and I hung it over a bunch of hangers on the shower rod. Then I figured I might as well do something while I waited, so I made this:

It's the final ruffle scarf for my mom (so I guess all the other ones should have been out of 18, not 17). Oh well. I'm just glad it's over, because just a few minutes ago I did this:

Hugh was finally dry, so I stitched up the ends, gave it to my mom, and it's all done now!

My mom and I went to Michaels on Sunday, since there was a really great coupon, and I'll show you what I got next time. Talk to you soon!

Recycling

Recycling is good, right? We all like recycling. So it's okay if I recycle this picture, right?

Because although I am now working on the 17th stripe, Hugh looks exactly the same (possibly a bit thicker). Since recycling is good for the planet, I figured why not? (Translation: I left off writing this until the absolute last minute and I don't have enough time to do a nice post with a new picture and a semi-witty title.) And yes, I know that my titles will never, ever, be described as "witty."

Have an awesome weekend! I am really pushing to try to get this done by Monday, so keep your fingers crossed for me!

Jelly Roll of Doom

I'm considering a name change from Hugh to Jelly Roll of Doom, and here's why:

I've never actually had a jelly roll before, and I've never seen a jelly roll before, but I would imagine it would something like that. Right now I'm on the 15th row of the 15th stripe, which means I have a total of 95 rounds left. And that makes me really happy.

I need to eat so I can get ready for my rehearsal (I get to wear saddle shoes and a poodle skirt! Oh the joys of the 50s), so I'm going to end this here. Talk to you soon!

Don't Look Now!

Don't look now, but it's a post! For the second day in a row! And would you believe that, but this thing has more stripes!

There's a total of 11 (I think, I'm counting based off the picture), which means I only have eight to go! Although I did realize yesterday that I was going to need more white yarn. My mom thought this was hysterical, since when I was making this monstrosity, she bought me way too much white yarn. So now, whenever we go to Michaels, she always asks me if I need more white yarn. And last night, I had to ask her for more white yarn. And since the yarn needs to be the same, so there won't be a difference between the white stripes, I had to get a whole pound. It's like a never ending cycle of white yarn hate.

Anyway, I should be all set to finish Hugh now! Talk to you (dare I say it?) tomorrow!

Book Review: Uglies by Scott Westerfield

Because I'm totally lame, my first book review is actually a book teaser my English teacher asked me to write a couple months ago. So please forgive the slightly cheesy tone this is written in and try to focus on the book!

If you look around you, you can see people that all look completely different. In Tally Youngblood's world, every thing's different. When an "ugly" (that's anyone) turns 16, they receive an operation that makes them stunningly beautiful, and move to the glamorous New Pretty Town. However, not everyone wants the operation, and some uglies have started running away to "The Smoke." When one of Tally's friends decides to run, Tally is offered a deal that could change her life forever. Who are the agents of Special Circumstances, and what is the secret behind the operation? To find out, check out Uglies by Scott Westerfield. (If you like it, there are three more: Pretties, Specials, and Extras.)


I'll (probably) be back tomorrow with an update on Hugh. Talk to you then!

Yipes! Stripes!

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's a book title, or maybe a puzzle or something. But it can also be applied to week-late blog posts:

I'm four rounds away from having seven whole stripes, and that means that I'm four rows away from having twelve stripes left. Ugh. I told you this one was going to take a while!

Tomorrow I (hopefully) will be posting my first book review. Maybe. You guys should know by now, I'm not really good at keeping to that kind of thing.

Oops

I never know how many Os to put in Oops...

Anyway, I think I got cocky. I was all, "Oh, I posted three days in a row, I got this!" And then two days with nothing. So since I owe you guys an update, the first book review is going to be next week. I do have some exciting news, though:

That's right, 15 of 17, 16 of 17, and (finally) 17 of 17! Now I'm down to one last scarf:

At least, one more scarf with a deadline. But more about that in a second. After much discussion with my mom, we settled on this pattern, which is actually for a Hogwarts scarf. Since this final scarf (I'm calling it Hugh, by the way) is for a guy, this seemed like a good way to go. One downside: it's taking a while. I'm at the very end of the third stripe (literally, there's one stitch left) of 19, which sort of stinks. Also, since the stripes are all the same length (22 rows), it's not quite as mindless as the ruffle scarves.

On the bright side, once I finish this one, I just have one more scarf to make. It's a ruffle scarf, just like the ones above, except it's black. And it's just something my mom wanted, so I don't need to worry about getting it done by a specific time. I am going to do it right after I finish Hugh though, or else I probably won't ever do it!

Have an awesome weekend, and a very happy Father's Day to any of the dads out there (especially mine)!

Threepeat

I'm running a bit late today, so this'll have to be a quickie. I just finished the knitting for 15 of 17, and I'll tack down the edges later tonight or tomorrow:

I know this hardly counts as a post, but hopefully tomorrow's will be a little more interesting.

A New Record

I'm posting two days in a row!!! It's a new record! (Not really. March of last year kind of rocked for me.) So check out 14 of 17:

Just like yesterday, I spent way too much time watching Doctor Who this morning (Well, I actually only watch two episodes. It could have been worse.) and my knitting is reaping the benefits. As in now it exists, and before it was a ball of yarn.

So after that, I felt a little guilty, and wanted to do something productive with my day. Being the neat freak I am, my first thought was, "Let's clean something!" I then proceeded to the perfectly logical step of drawing a map of my room:

which I am showing you for no apparent reason whatsoever. I actually measured my room from wall to wall, and all the furniture. And then drew it on graph paper (each square is six square inches, if you care). I really have no idea what the point of all this was.

One last thing before I go. About two months ago, before my, um, absence, I said I was going to start posting book reviews. And then I left. Anyway, my original plan was to post those on Thursdays, because those were my busier evenings, and I could write the posts ahead of time. That doesn't matter anymore, so I have a new plan. Any weekday that I don't have much of anything to post, I'll put up that week's review. And if (by some miracle) I have stuff to post every day, then it'll come on Friday.

That's it! Talk to you tomorrow!

I Think I'm Defective

What's the easiest way to stop a member of the collective in their tracks? Ask them if they're defective. What's the easiest way to stop these posts in their tracks? Assign me a research paper, three final exams, five standardized tests, a few assorted projects, and administer a huge dose of laziness. Seriously. That has basically been my life since the last time I posted. (Also, my French teacher made us this French apple tart thing for the last class, and I discovered that apricot jam tastes oddly like prunes. Because, you know. Logic.)

Anyway, as you might guess, I have a lot to show you now. Today is just going to be the Borg Scarves, since I have a lot of them.

First, 5 of 17 and 6 of 17:

I have no idea when I finished any of these (until we get closer to the end), so I'm not going to worry about those. Al I know is that 5 of 17 was finished before May 4, and 6 of 17 was after May 5. 7 of 17 is seen here with a friend:

On the left is the scarf my mom requested I make and give to her for Mother's Day. (So I guess 7 of 17 was done before Mother's Day.) Now, 8 of 17, 9 of 17, and 10 of 17:

Here we get to the point where I know things about stuff.  Sort of. I know that I tacked down the edges of all three of these just a little while ago, and that I finished the knitting for 12 of 17 and 13 of 17 yesterday, but I don't really know when I knit 11 of 17. At all.

I feel like I need to tell you something else that's pretty important. While I was gone, I became a Sherlockian and a Whovian. Yeah. (I actually just started Doctor Who yesterday, hence the two scarves finished yesterday.) I know totally understand the intense hatred of Moffat, and completely share in it. MOFFAT!!!!!!!

I'll hopefully be back tomorrow with a normal post (but we all know that may not happen). Talk to you soon!

Resistance is Futile

I know I promised this picture for Friday, but after my seriously crapolicious (that's a scientific term there, folks) day, I didn't feel like posting. So now you may enjoy:

3 of 17! (I think. They're all sort of blurring together.) Anyway, I tacked down the edges on Friday night, and because of the aforementioned crapoliciousness, I didn't do anything else productive until Saturday, when I started 4 of 17.

Random note: For the first four ruffle scarves I made (plus 1 of 17), I spent the entire knitting time untwisting the yarn as I went:

Unlike with normal yarn, a specific side has to be on top at ALL TIMES. Seriously. The scarf will start yelling if you don't get that right. So, as I was about to start 2 of 17, I had an idea (go ahead, gasp with shock). Before I started knitting, I took the time to wrap the yarn around my needle gauge (it was the first rectangular thing I found), like so:

Then, as I knit, I just turned the roll, and the yarn came off quite nicely. The first time, it took me about an hour. (Although, I was doing this while watching Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows for the first time. It's sort of distracting.) Since then, I have turned this into somewhat of an art. The second time, I tried it with the ball on the floor, and me standing on the chair. Despite the fact that I almost fell off the chair, it worked a lot better, and it only took about 20 minutes. Yesterday, I did it sitting on a short dresser (a few feet of the ground), which also worked well, and was less dangerous. I didn't time that very well, but it was around 15 minutes. I think it's definitely worth a few minutes to make the actual knitting go faster, and I do recommend doing some version of this if you're going to make a lot of these. 

Speaking of a lot (by the way, kudos to you if you read that whole paragraph), my mom went to Michaels (without me!) and got the rest of the yarn:

Yeah. I internally cried a little when I looked at all the yarn together. However, there is good news! I did finish 4 of 17 yesterday:

Yay! Alright, I know I said I was hoping for two FOs this weekend, but since I didn't post on Friday, I technically did show you two completed scarves today. Technically.

Anyway, I am fully wound and a few inches into 5 of 17. Maybe a FO tomorrow, maybe not. However it turns out, have a wonderful evening!

Tacky

I came very close to having another FO for you today:

I just have to tack down the ends, which I would have done, but something weird happened with the yarn right near the end, so it's going to take a little more precision than normal. I will have that done by tomorrow, though. My goal is to make two more this weekend (including tomorrow), since I know looking at endless pictures of the same scarf is pretty boring!

BOOOOKS

I am getting close to the end of 3 of 17 (and you thought I was going to forget), but there hasn't been any visible progress, so I'm recycling pictures:

because honestly, if that bugs you that much, how have you managed to stay here this longs? So now on to other stuff.....

I know I ended yesterday's post with sort of a cliffhanger, so I'm going to amend that right now. So you know how I said I love reading? I wasn't kidding. I seriously inhale books, and I've been doing it since kindergarten. After seeing my brother (in second grade) read the first few HP books, I wanted to, too. So my mom and I took turns, each reading one chapter aloud, until I decided she read too slow and just went and read it by myself. I haven't exactly slowed down since then, so I've decided to share my addiction with you guys! (Do you feel lucky? Because seriously, you shouldn't.)

Yesterday's description of The Return was the beginning of a new thing I'm going to try. I don't have a name for it, so it doesn't have a tag or anything (did you really think I thought this through?), but it's basically going to be book recommendations. I like to think I have a broad taste in books, but some of you may feel like I'm being really repetitive. I'm probably going to do it on Thursdays, since I'm never home on Thursday afternoons, and most of the time I don't end up posting. I'm not sure if I'll do it tomorrow, since I sort of did one yesterday, but whatever. I'll figure it out.

I hope you enjoy, and if you don't, then just don't come here on Thursdays. There'll be plenty of yarn addiction on other days! :)

3 of 17

Yesterday evening I was thinking, and I decided to incorporate my nerdiness into yet another aspect of my life. Therefore, I will be referring to all of these scarves like Borg. (The non-ruffly one is going to be Hugh. Seriously.) Meet 3 of 17:

Not quite finished, probably about halfway there. I kind of have Borg on the brain, because yesterday I finished The Return by William Shatner. My brother found it while cleaning out his bookshelves (yes, plural, we're a reading family) and gave it to me. (thanks!) It was really good, even though my TOS knowledge is very limited. (I know that he fought a Gorn in one of the episodes, and I've seen 3 of the TOS movies. That's pretty much it.) You do kind of need to be pretty familiar with TNG though, since that's where most of the characters are from. Yeah.

I was going to tell you about my latest completely idiotic brilliant idea, but I took way too long to do the first half of this, and I have to eat now. So something for you to look forward to for tomorrow!

Timewarp

I hope everyone had a nice weekend, and a happy Easter if you celebrate. Mine involved eating two servings of baby food: prunes and peas. (The prunes were easily one of the most disgusting things I've ever had, the peas were actually quite nice by comparison!) I kind of had a crazy weekend in terms of bloggables, starting with a shopping trip on Saturday. My original plan was to get this:

Hmm, that's not the picture I thought it was, but it does show some useful things. I got size 5 DPNs, not realizing I had already done so a few weeks ago, a charm I picked up on a whim, and some safety eyes. I also got that K hook, which will be explained momentarily.

Before you look at the next picture, explanations are in order. Remember how I made four ruffly scarves a while ago? And how I said I didn't want to make any more? Yeah, that's not going to work out:

My mom wants me to make a total of seventeen scarves for the members of a committee she runs. They're all going to be that white and blue ruffle yarn, except that black and white one, and a regular striped one using that blue yarn and white I already have. I totally would have said no, except she offered to pay me, and then I had this really great idea. (Well, I thought it was great....) A few days ago, I found this pattern for an Avatar blanket. And I really wanted to make it. Except the yarn for it would have cost about $40, taking into account I already have a few of the skeins I needed. Can you guess where I'm going with this? I asked my mom to buy the rest of the yarn I needed in exchange for making the scarves:

We had a pretty good coupon, so she agreed! Yay! I'm super excited to start working on it, and even more excited to have the finished product :). Right now, I'm going to focus on getting the scarves done. There was only enough yarn in that color for about half of the scarves, so I'm going to use up what I have right now, then start on my blanket! Speaking of which:

I'm already done with two of them, and I've also done a few inches on the third. 

I also bought a few other things: floss for the next segment of my HP cross stitch, and this frame:

Boy, am I glad to have this done! My aunt's birthday is this weekend, so it was perfect timing. Although the back is sort of ugly (yeah, I don't know why I used shiny duct tape either) I hope she'll like it!

I put one set of safety eyes to good use:

After finishing the head, making a new hair roll, and stitching down the collar and chest piece, all she needs is a crown! (And no, I have no idea how I'm going to pull that off.)

Just one more thing, I promise. I finally finished off the HP charm bracelet I've been collecting for for a while:

After messing around with spacing for a while, I decided not to use all the charms. In the end, I've kept the owl, crystal ball, dragon, "hippogriff," goblet/cup, tiara/diadem, and key. Basically, I left off the ones that take more interpretation. (Hey, they made sense to me!)

I'm pretty sure I warped time to get all this done. Seriously! Anyway, this is probably one of my longest posts, so I'm going to stop here. See you tomorrow!