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February 17, 2006
insomnia's not just for the employed
as you might have noticed from the time on this entry, i'm up kinda early. i woke up, just woke right on up for no good reason, at 2:AM today. after tossing and turning in my bed for almost an hour, with my mind racing over all the stupid stuff a person's mind races over while tossing and turning in the early morning hours, i decided to get up and blog. this seemed like a really good use of the time as 1)it's a quiet activity and, 2)i've fallen behind in my blogging. i didn't realized that i was going to have such a block with blogging now that i'm unemployed, but apparently i am. i think it has to do with the odd position i find myself in; i can't really seem to "get settled" as i'm moving, however i'm moving at such a point in the future as to make it impractical to move right at the moment. there's a ton to do, but the priorities seem out of whack, even though they're not. basically anything that's sf specific i'm trying to do "now", everything else there'll be plenty of time for later...don't know if that's the best planning, but it seems to be what i'm opting for.
here's the mariah-influenced sweater i've been working on for myself. basically i'm using the cable on the sleeves, and the rest is an elongated version of the fur-trimmed sweater from the second knit1 mag. i totally screwed up one of the cables when i was further along(this pict is like a week old), and had to tear back like 20 rows. that really sucked, and i think i kinda screwed up the arm-increases, but what can you do? i'm not exactly sure that i did, and i don't know that if i tore back a second time, i'd be able to figure out where i was in the pattern again. it took a wicked long time to figure out where i was on the chart for the first tear-back. (side note here: i'm learning to like charts...i think)
once i finish the sleeves, all that's left to do is seam the sucker up, and add the collar. i wish i was done now with this, SO I COULD WEAR IT! it's friggin' chilly in these parts lately.
i'm sure another person who wishes i was done with their sweater for this chilly weather is neil. i screwed up on the farrow rib part of this sweater, which i'm not sure how i could of done, what with it being a fairly simple rib pattern. nevertheless, i did suddenly change a pearl row to a knit row which was somewhat problematic for my, and i'm sure neil's, aesthetic.
however, i'm finished ripping back and catching up, and i've even started the left front of the sweater...WON'T BE LONG NOW!
i'm also an unofficial participant in the knitting olympics.
unfortunately, SINCE NBC DOESN'T BROADCAST IN SAN FRANCISCO the only place i can watch the olympics is at sean's house. however, i don't think you can only work on your item while watching, i think you can work on it any time during the 2 weeks that it's on. in fact, i think that's up tomorrow...sheesh, better get at it!!!(and now you may have an idea as to why i'm not an "official" participant...)
i went over to nathalie's house the other day. she made these totally rad sea creatures!
and i noticed
that their computer has rabbit ears. i guess they have some kinda device that lets them watch tv using their monitor...or does it go through the computer? i don't know, but i thought it was a neat juxtaposition!
i was supposed to bring my bike to nathalie's house so we could ride over to burma superstar. i TOTALLY spaced out on this, and brought my knitting. anywho, we walked over instead. en route we saw these flowers, and we both thought they were real at first!
i have to say i was impressed at how many people were at the restaurant for lunch during the week. while we were getting our sumosa-soup-and-rainbow-salad on...
the restaurant received a produce delivery. doesn't this seem wicked ol'skool?
i went over to isaac and lisa's house to party with them a bit before they moved to vallejo. that all seemed to happen really quickly, and i'm realizing "my san francisco" is changing quite a bit! it's leaving me a bit dizzy
stoked on that shirt jeremiah!
yet more artsy picts
i don't remember where i was, nor what i was doing when i took this pict.
since i could not photoshop this pict to my satisfaction, i turned it into a painting....
and i'll leave you with a pict that makes me feel oh-so better about leaving san francisco....
yes, you are correct. that is a homeless man who has just changed his pants after taking a dump on the side of the street and setting it a-flame....
Posted by Meagen at 04:51 AM | Comments (4)
February 08, 2006
free tuesday (c'mon you hoarders, let our tuesday go!)
one of the types of frustrations i, personally, find challenging to deal with, is the frustration that arises from a situation where "i know better". i'm not referencing situations where i should have known better; meaning i've had similar situations and life's algebra should have given me the formula to tabulate the outcome with my given variables. i'm talkin'bout situtations almost identical to those i've already experienced and was supposed to have learned my lesson from. it can even be a small-trivial-type of incident, but it gets under my skin like a splinter. yesterday neil and i went to the asian art museum for free tuesday, and i never wrote down any of the names, dates, or artists for any of the items of which i took pictures. dude. ok, ok....i'm letting go now...especially cuz yesterday was such a kick ass day!
neil and i were so stoked as we walked over to the civic center, conveniently located to hayes valley...
so, although i can't tell you what you're looking at, how old it is, or who (roughly) created it, i can tell you what inspired me to snap a picture of it...
these puppets are just beautiful! there are some similar ones in the window of a shop on hayes street that i used to pass every morning on my way to work. (geez i'm really enjoying the words "used to".)
neil thought these two looked like characters from a tim burton movie
i liked this one the best, and found myself wondering exactly how difficult it would be to make one...
man-o-man, the kinda abs and gloots you'd need to maintain the kinda pose this dude has happening. notice how neilz gets all up in the mix?
these two are stomping out water demons...can you imagine? way back in the 15th century they were worried about biological warfare via water supply systems and felt violence was the only solution too! oh, wait...i'm being facetious...
although, i do have to say i was suprised by the choice of paint colors... in a weird way, they kinda look like leprechauns to me...
asian craftship on textiles often blows my mind, especially because of the frequent combination of size
and incredible detail
i must admit, i really enjoyed being among such a diverse volume of buddah sculptures
i wish i'd taken pictures in the jade room. it's my favorite, not only because everything is so beautiful, but also because i can't imagine having the skill to form those objects using abrasion. all those pieces with layers or chains? made with abrasion not carving...yup-yup..
sometimes i will see a thing, and it will introduce a completely different image in my mind.
when i saw these two bottles, i immediately thought of two of the blogs i read regularly; pinku and supereggplant. both rad crafty blogs!
check out those flames!!!!
can you imagine what life would be like hauling around a halo of those proportions?
no wonder folks were sporting these kindsa get-ups
i've seen a lot of these pannequins used in the lone wolf and cub comix. i gotta say, though, i don't know that i'd preferred to be carried if it meant being in such cramped quarters...(neil's in there for proportions)
seriously, would you rather ride or walk? i suppose if the weather was wicked inclement, the pannequin'd be the better option, cramped or not, cuz look at how protected that sucker is!
there weren't a ton of paintings that spoke to me in the museum...actually, there weren't many paintings period...but i really liked this pair. for whatever reasons, i just could not get the boy in blue to come out unfuzzy...well, it's kinda like a pair of camper shoes this way, innit?
**************************
as a total aside here, well, maybe it's more of a post-script, since i'm really done with the above entry, i have so been grooving on this mix i made a while back with one song from each of the following bands...i don't know the names of the songs, since i didn't write them down, AND had to sell my cd collection a couple of years ago, but i'll bet a mix of any songs from the following would be quite enjoyable...
the anniversary
built to spill
buck
cub
dashboard confessional
death cab for cutie
elliott smith
holiday flyer
jets to brzil
karate
knapsack
len brown society
mates of state
modest mouse
optigonally yours
pedro the ion
pinback
secadora
sukpatch
ugly cassanova
Posted by Meagen at 06:44 AM | Comments (2)
February 07, 2006
biechup blurbcat continues....
yes, you DO see a 6AM posting time. even though most of my unemployed body is willing to sleep until about 6:30-7, my bladder is completely used to the 5AM wake-up call. i mean, i can't blame it, i do a thing a couple of years and i feel attachment. my poor bladder's been getting drained at roughly the same time since 1993. geez...that's a loooooong time; i guess i can understand why it's all going down, even though i'd really like to be sleeping until 6:30 or 7... well, i've been going with the flow the past couple of days anyway. maybe i've already developed that sitch where i can't drink any liquids for at least two hours before bed...but i digress....back to the blurbchat
on the day before my last day at CAL, they threw me a pahrtay
(that's moira standing there; others will be revealed further on...)
there were lots of people at the party, which of course i like! (everyone's listed from left to right)
maria, laurie, sabrina, gina, and sandy
paul, megan, julianne, and erin
linda, monette, kirsten, and barbara
stuart, betsy, chris, and michael
oh, and me!, i was definately there!
ariana was there, too!
and so was bob!
and so were angela and carmen, who even came over from next door(can you believe i'm already forgetting the names of buidings on the campus where i've spent the past 6.5 years of my life?!?!?!?) there they are hiding between chris and linda. oh, and to the left of chris is shaya. gina and shaya helped put the party together with stuart. THANKS GUYS!
oh, and can i just mention, no one escapes my camera good thing i'm not evil papparazzi...
there was a cake
(yes it's for ME! megan's a freshman who just got the workstudy job in our office last semester; she can't leave yet)
it was a most delicious chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting; i regret leaving my piece behind in the little fridge in grad admissions....this is what i used as justification for buying that madeline pan...wait...i'll tell you about that later
there was a michael sacramento original good-bye white board (that "new" face to the right is carol)
and there were "speeches"
and there were gifts in huge bags (which REALLY came in handy when the strap to my book bag broke about half an hour after i left-aka-on my way to piedmont-then-home)
and little envelopes that packed big punches
along with a picture that includes solomon (i hope things are going really well for you in taiwan!)
and getting those last few good-byes
like with barb here
as well as learning that some folks don't like to be blogged
i've edited one of the two faces; you can still kinda see jacob off to the right there....
here i am the morning of my last day as an employee at CAL
i made sure to wear all my most favorite clothes!
and i celebrated afterwards in true guettagirl fashion
i started making up the CHAMBER OF SECRETS lego set!
geewillikers i love the sound of those little plastic bricks jingling around in their numbered bags
on sunday i went into the park for a walk. i think golden gate park is the most beautiful public park i've ever had the pleasure to interact with (this would include boston, nyc, & paris; although central park DOES have that glorious dancing animal clock, you never feel quite as lost in central park as you can feel in golden gate park)
a little artsy picture
and these folks; there were actually two groups of them. this group were dressed in the figure skating costumes, and what's difficult to see(and why i didn't take another picture i simply do.not.know.) is the american and olympic flags trailing amongst them. the other group had the speed skater costumes on with rollerblades whilest flying their flags....what i wanna know is this: are these actors or actual atheletes who are promoting this year's winter olympics? cuz, if it's the athletes, i guess i understand the idea of getting people excited by exhibiting some of the actual folks who're gonna be there...but if it's actors; well that just seems downright fraudulent...
yesterday i took a walk downtown to the central sf post office. it's pretty down there in it's own way
another guettagirl original, thankyouverymuch.
and, finally, without further ado, one of the more heavily justified kitchen tools i've purchased in recent years
yes, the mini-madeline pan...hopefully, after all the museum touring i'm doing with neil today (first tuesday of the month!) i'll still have the energy to give this baby a test-drive!
and that's it. i'm now all caught up
Posted by Meagen at 06:04 AM | Comments (2)
February 06, 2006
jumpin' back in
as some of you may, or may not know, i am now officially unemployed. i am hoping that with an extra 10 hours a day at my disposal (i'm including travel-time in my calculations, cuz i just know i wouldn't be chillin' on BART 1 1/2 - 2 hours everyday without the impetus of "work") i will be able to jump right back into my desired four posts a week schedule, even with all the packing i have ahead of me. now, if you know me, then you know i won't be able to just jump back in; i'm gonna have to catch you up. not that anything particularly fabulous happened, but because of all the work that's already been put into what never appeared. i have to point out that, just because i wasn't posting doesn't mean that i wasn't taking pictures, because i was...in fact, i may have taken so many pictures as to render myself overwhelmed at the concept of getting everything ready to post up in these here parts. by the time i got the pictures i wanted picked out and then photoshopped, i was so not feeling dealing with all the time it takes to upload dial-up style...I AM NOW FEELING IT! consider what's to follow as one of what i hope will be the sporadic but official guettagirl biechup blurbcat.
that's my version of the FAIRLY EASY FAIRISLE from the second stitch-n-bitch book.
of course mr.masher draws a crowd...
nathalie made damon a lovely and tastey cake
we played this video game called KAREOKE REVOLUTION, which is kind of modelled after BUST A GROOVE, in which you sing from a selection of songs, and you're scored based on how frequently you remain "on tune", as tracked by the computer in the game
at one point i heard all this great music, and then realized it was playing live accross the street from me.
i had been making a lot of progress with neil's sweater jacket...
i have to admit, this is the first pair of sox that i haven't been able to make easy progress with...
in fact, i'm so dreading it, that i had a sox affair...i've made not only the "home" version of the ravenclaw sox, but the "away" version as well...
this fellow was outside symphony hall to help with the celebration of the chinese new year!
so, it's come to my attention that, as much as i'd love to, i don't think i can complete this biechup blurbcat in one episode...tune in tomorrow for the conclusion....whew...
Posted by Meagen at 04:31 PM | Comments (2)