A funk.

Posted on May 20, 2009 by HappyGoth

Which answers everything and nothing all at once.

So there was this post I regret but won’t take down, about how I wasn’t ever going to be able to understand India, and then later the feeling ballooned into the usual “I’m the crappiest designer in the whole world” and now I’m in a sort of general funk. There have been brief, shining moments when I have been a little less down in the dumps, like when I requested books from Interlibrary Loan and also board games with friends, but the Funk persists (I feel it important to make a distinction between this Funk, which is psychological and other types of Funk, being the music and that certain smell that only homeless people can produce).

Maybe it’s the news. I keep reading depressing news. Like the stuff going on in Malaysia and in Sri Lanka, the horrible articles about how our economy keeps collapsing and the fancy education I have is never going to be more than a means to make ends meet (perhaps I should not have chosen art; perhaps I should have been an insurance agent or a housewife in a horrible dead relationship that buys me an Audi).

I imagine, though, it’s just me, and that eventually I’ll discover a way to deal with things so that they don’t drag me down quite so horribly. Honestly, the house-cleaning I’ve been doing has helped a lot (I get really overwhelmed when things are messy, although I rarely do much to fix this). I have a feeling that when I’m finished with it, I’ll feel a bit lighter.

And I have successfully completed 2/3 of a toe-up flap heel on my Interlocking Leaves sock, without much help (except for ESC and knitty).

So. On a more positive note, here is yet another awesome knitting-related comic by Jennie (this pretty much sums up my entire knitting career):

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Yes, I am that lazy

Posted on May 19, 2009 by HappyGoth

I told all about my trip, but now Jennie is putting it into visuals. Here is today’s strip, from the Devil’s Panties:

This went on periodically over the entire weekend. We conversed at meals.

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There has been a weekend.

Posted on May 18, 2009 by HappyGoth

And I got a satisfying amount of stuff done.

Saturday was spend erranding, mostly to stock up on things we needed, which included some hanging plants for the porch and some art supplies. I did my first ILL request, and baffled the library clerk when I told him it was okay that the books too longer than usual, since one was coming from Berlin. I am pretty sure he’s never dealt with that before.

Then we went to the Chickengoddess‘s house and saw her new baby chickens. They are small and cute and for some reason I find they make me nervous in the way rabbits make me nervous. I think it’s the speed at which they move, which is relative to their size. They move fast! And frantically! But they’re still awfully cute. She brought Ophelia (the older chicken, which she has had for a while) out and I was allowed to hold her while the CG showed her off to the other friends who were visiting. They plan on getting their own chickens and if I had more than three square feet of back yard, I might consider it, too. However, I am sort of glad that I only have three square feet of back yard, because I don’t really need chickens.

We ended up the evening with takeout Chinese food and a couple of rounds of Innsmouth Escape, which is almost as awesome to play as Zombies!!!, only with more ganging up on someone and more fish noises (one person is the human and the remaining players command hordes of deep ones). We were very silly. The husband was kind enough to play the human character, and was beaten twice. He’s going to write the company; some of the rules and cards were hard to understand, and once you get five players we can’t figure out how someone would win, aside from vast amounts of dumb luck. I will never play the human character. I don’t do well in that sort of position.

Then Sunday was church, then Knitch with the CG and Jennie, where the lovely ESC brought these cracker things that prompted me to go get lunch (I would’ve eaten the entire box, otherwise, and it’s a funny coincidence that the primary ingredient is CRACKers). She also brought some tomato and basil seedlings that I plan on potting tonight. I went home and cleaned house after that. I have been shifting things around in boxes for each of the 12 moves I’ve done in the past 10 years, and I’m at the point where I don’t really know what’s in them anymore, so I have taken it upon myself to go through all of them and sort things out and cull what I don’t need. The bedroom has been cleaned, but the studio remains, and is the most major part of the undertaking. I think I can finish it by the end of the month, after which point I can actually use the studio for creative-type things (like it is intended).

And to top it all off, I’m to the flap part of the interlocking leaves sock, so all in all, it was pretty productive.

Onward to Monday. It began with a surprisingly pleasant visit to the dentist. We shall see where it goes from there.

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When you’re in college

Posted on May 16, 2009 by HappyGoth

You don’t realize how awesome research is. Now that I’m not, I am ridiculously excited to go to the library and request things via Interlibrary Loan. It’s like college, but without the research paper due in two weeks! Isn’t that great?

No?

Perhaps it is just me, then.

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I like delightful things.

Posted on May 15, 2009 by HappyGoth

And this one? Really friggin’ delightful:

(I was nowhere near this cool when I was 9)

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Okay, then.

Posted on May 15, 2009 by HappyGoth

Well. After that gigantic albatross of a blog post yesterday, today’s will be short and considerably less introspectively angsty.

Instead, I will angst about socks. I do  this frequently, so it should come as no big surprise.

Jennie came over last night for our monthly takeout and movies (I have successfully gotten somebody to sit through all of Jodhaa Akbar! Success!) and I worked on the Sock of Eternity, because that’s what you do when you watch movies (I can knit it without looking at my knitting). About halfway through, I laid the socks next to one another, to check my progress. It seemed as though I had finally knit them even! So I put them on to check and one was about an inch shorter than the other. Blast. I knit on it some more but lost interest and put them away for some other time when I need to knit but can’t pay all that much attention to it.

I have not photographed them because I feel that if I photograph them I will jinx myself or something. Allow me my superstitions. They are few indeed.

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Angst = fuel for blogging (apparently)

Posted on May 14, 2009 by HappyGoth

I don’t know if this is weather-induced depression or something else, but I’m feeling stuck lately. The biggest manifestation of all of this is that I think I may have reached a ceiling with regards to my understanding of India. Allow me to explain.

I do not have any Indian friends. I am not Indian. Therefore, what I can learn is very limited. I can learn the language, how to wear the clothes, to cook the food, what it means to be Hindu, Jain, Muslim, Sikh, etc., but I can’t do much more than be an academic at this point. I feel weird when I go to chaat restaurants (the fact that they’re restaurants here puts them at a farther cultural remove). I watch Bollywood films but get the sense that like American cinema, the insight they offer is stereotypical at best. Ultimately, these things might not matter, because learning Hindi and bhangra and how to cook a good aloo ghobi are only ways to approach a portion of India. I think I could study it forever and never run out of new things to learn.

My previous solution was to go and find an Indian person to be friends with. I have since realized that this is very creepy on my part, and am trying to devise a way around it. I mean, seriously – how would I even go about doing that? “Hi, I am fascinated by your culture! Let’s be friends!” is not an appropriate way to introduce yourself. Aside from being culturally boorish, it is also stupid. I don’t believe I would be friends with someone who approached me in this way. It’s like assuming that because someone is homosexual and you are the same gender, they’d automatically be interested in you. (Though the second part of the plan I had was to find someone who was really passionate about sharing their culture but who also wanted to learn about mine, which would be a perfect arrangement. You know, somebody who will go with me to whatever Indian thing it is I’m experiencing at the moment and make sure I don’t make a complete ass of myself, but who I can take out for burgers at the drive-in after we’re done.)

So I don’t know where to go. I know of people in the SCA who are into Indian things, and people who know Indian people, but I am afraid I am on my own for this (I will continue to numb my feelings with copious quantities of ghee and mangoes, which work somewhat well in the interim).

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Why I Knit, #22

Posted on May 13, 2009 by HappyGoth

Ice cave in Glacier Gray by Tom Holub.

(photo from here)

Because in the event of a nuclear holocaust that plunges us all into a horrible artificial ice age, my feet will be warm.

At least 30 skeins of sock yarn warm.

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I am so close.

Posted on May 12, 2009 by HappyGoth

Last night the husband and I watched Soldier after dinner (and have now determined that every single movie Kurt Russel is in is indeed awesome, including Captain Ron, which is possibly my favorite ever), and I worked on the Sock of Eternity.

I am a brief 8 rows away from being finished, I think. I put the socks next to each other and they’re pretty even. In the end, I’ll probably end up giving them to my mom; they’re too big for me, but will most likely fit her slightly-larger feet. Or maybe they’re okay as they are. I dunno. This gives me hope, though, that I will eventually finish all the other projects hibernating in my yarn cabinet.

Another lesson learned from last night is that although I can wrap a sari pretty competently at this point, I cannot get the pleats to stay in place while lounging about on the couch. It is, however, the most comfortable thing to wear. Even more so than pajamas. Now the task remains to figure out how to wear it out of the house (unlike actual pajamas or house slippers, it is an acceptable item of clothing). I have plans. We shall see which come to fruition.

And lastly, just to get it off my chest, I hate panic attacks.

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BMR: Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

Posted on May 11, 2009 by HappyGoth

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi by srkL / shahrukhpriyanka.

(from here)

Backing up, I bought the soundtrack for this film two months ago and have been listening to it pretty consistently since then. So when I went to the video store and discovered that it had not been released yet (and that I had declined to see it in theaters, favoring Gajini instead, because I didn’t think I’d like a funny romantic comedy) I was a little dismayed. Every time I went to re-stock on dal or ghee or Hula Hoops I’d look in the case and see if it had come out.

This weekend I reached a personal cooking milestone. I ran out of ghee. This is a pretty amazing thing for me, because it means that I have cooked enough dal that I needed more. I needed more! I fear I will never be able to adequately share my pride and amazement at having done this. Oh, well.

Anyway, I did my usual fly-by of the movie case and lo and behold, there it was, in all its lenticular glory. No, really. It has an action cover. It’s very exciting. I called the ChickenGoddess and plans were made for a group viewing.

Last night, the movie was watched by us and our very patient husbands. It did not disappoint. There was slapstick comedy. There was drama. There was a seemingly neverending supply of horrible t-shirts. There were other costume changes, plus a giant top hat. There was that thing SRK seems to like to do lately, which is to invite absolutely everyone to make a guest appearance. Boring point in the film? How about if we have a cameo by Kajol? And Rani Mukherjee! And Preity Zinta! And you get the idea.

Also, I have discovered something else in common with all of SRK’s films – the wet scene. How in the world does he manage to have at least one scene in each of his films that involves him getting soaking wet? Is this fan service? Does he just enjoy it a lot? I can’t figure it out.

The movie was a lot of fun, though. I really enjoyed Suri. He was so awkward and charming.

RNBDJ : Surinder by AS 2009.

(see? from here)

The CG was irritated at him most of the time, which I can see – he didn’t do or say the things he needed to in order to avoid frustration and heartbreak – but it was bearable. His weird hairdresser friend was awesome. All in all, I feel like it was a well-spent two hours and forty minutes. All in all, I give it a 6.5. I dunno if I’d buy it, but I’d probably watch it again.

And I’ll still listen to the soundtrack.

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