Well, i have finally finished the legwarmers! Yay! The first one came out a bit wonky, cause I wasn't sure exactly how many stitches to cast on. I did a few less for the second one, and also taught myself to do it in the round, so that made things a bit more interesting. Here, look see?
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I first read Phantom of the Opera when I was in high school, I believe. I remember being surprised that it was a book - I only knew it from the musical that I had grown up with. It is from the same era as other classics - Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, and others. I really love Victorian literature, second only to my love of fantasy. So now I am working my way through that as well. I will probably be doing a lot of reading and knitting next month while I am fasting. We'll see home much I get done.
Lastly, I am almost done with my first audiobook. Well, technically, I did start listening to Twilight while I was
This book is one of my favorite, and I have read it several times. But still, listening to the book is different than reading it. For one thing, the guy who's reading it annoys me at times. His choice for the voices is not necessarily what I had imagined. Though I imagine that I will also have that issue when I start watching the tv show Legend of the Seeker. The series only finished being written a year or two ago, and I had put off finishing it, just not having had the time to reread them all. But now, with the audiobooks, I can listen to them while knitting. I'm not coordinated enough to knit and watch TV at the same time, but I can listen to books. It's also good for when I don't particularly feel like listening to music. At the moment I have about two hours left, and then I will start Stone of Tears.
Where i took a nap all evening and didn't do anything. Now I am awake and prowling the net and wondering what to do. I've started watching a few dramas, and I have a legwarmer to start/finish. But there's also a cowl I'm thinking of doing and a shawl/wrap thing. And then all those designs in my head for modifications to stuff... I want to knit a corset, and I have an idea, just have to get the yarn to work it out.
So, new dramas! Not that I don't have tons of stuff to watch already, but I got bored the other day and went browsing on the subwire for interesting-looking stuff. I picked out a few that looked decent, and so far I have been happy with my choices.
Hana Yori Dango is pretty much the most popular thing ever. MatsuJun, Oguri Shun, and other pretty boys, and it's based on the #1 selling shoujo manga of all time. It's a high-school drama wherein the commoner girl at the rich snobby school stands up to the ruling foursome. Hijinks and romance ensues, obviously. I only watched the first ep last night, but I have dled the rest of them and will probably get back to it on friday evening. have dinner with my new Korean friend tomorrow and Gangnam snb on thursday.
Nodame Cantabile is about this arrogant musical student, Chiaki, who wants to be a conductor and his crazy gifted neighbor/love interest kouhai Nodame. the first ep is all, them meeting and Chiaki learning to not be such an ass. Nodame falls in love with him by pretty much the end of the first ep, but he's not so crazy about her. This series is so cool because it's all classical music. To be honest, Nodame's character annoys me with her 20-something Japanese spaz-cuteness, but hopefully she will get better. Chiaki is played by Tamaki Hiroshi, who I knew I recognized from somewhere - apparently from Asahi beer ads. He was also in the movie Water Boys, about a Japanese swim team, if you've seen that.
And last but not least, a Taiwanese drama. Actually, it was the first one I watched. But whatever. I'll probably have to wait longer to watch the rest, cause the torrents for the first few eps are kinda scarce. It's called Romantic Princess. A poor girl always dreams about being rich, and then is suddenly discovered to be the long-lost granddaughter of the richest man in Asia. It stars Angela Zhang, who also does the music for it, and she's very talented, from what I have seen so far. Of course, there's the whole clash of two cultures, middle and super-rich. There's the love interest (Jin - not really my type.) who is an ass at first, but (cause the credits and opening are spoilery like WHOA! No suspense there... ) of course falls head over heels in love when he realizes how awesome the girl is. It only took him to the end of the first ep to realize she's not a complete selfish fake bitch. He gets props for that.
I've got another one that I'm working on dling, so when I have seen that one I will post about it. Looks a bit more sketchy, but we'll see. Is it a bad thing that even as I watch these dramas, my mind is dissecting all the cliches and figuring out the plot lines. I mean, I have read synopses, but also just... they tend to be predictable in a sense. I don't know exactly how things work out, but I have an idea of the general structure of them.
Still haven't watched the rest of Doctor Who or started True Blood/Legend of the Seeker/Survivors but I will get to them eventually. I've been watching Firefly again though, and of course, keeping up with Psych. Which is always awesome... -sigh- okay, i think it's time for bed now. I'll do the knitting tomorrow.
See? It's very clear that I was wearing my ballet flats today in the rain. Also, that my jeans need to be washed, very badly. I really wish I could read my washer sometimes.
I'm debating between shower and bath, cause my shoulder/neck/wrist has been annoying me, and perhaps soaking for a bit would help. Good thing bath houses are 24/7, so as soon as I finished reading the wiki article on SAE I will head over there. Reading this is makes me realize why I don't talk Southern enough...
Off to the bath!
It's 1230 am, and yes, I did just get home from a knitting meeting. Take that, all you silly people who think knitting is boring and only grandmothers do it.
So, I've had this song on my ipod a while, but just tonight realized how awesome it is. It's kinda my new theme song... Yes, that totally IS Yamashita Tomohisa you're hearing. The other two guys are kinda adorable too - I like the one with the red vest... This video is from '06 (yes, i kno, i listen to music way after the fact) but the vid is cute and kinda retro-y. Total camp. Don't miss the angst and boy-love around 1:55...
And here's a shift. Brand-new (I think?) BoA song in Japanese. Love the dancing, and the tomboy-style. BoA is hot - I totally wish i could dance like that.
Less than a week, since I posted here, but it still feels like a long time. Possibly cause it's been a strange last few weeks, with the New Year's holiday and then this week getting ready for the play, which is on Saturday. Need to charge my camera and such.
I've been spending a lot of time on Ravelry lately, amid watching Firefly over again. I'm working on a cowl now, and I am not kidding when I say I have had to frog and redo it 3 FRICKING TIMES. It's annoying, to say the least. I think I have everything straight now, and I'm getting the hang of the whole, 'working on two circs' thing. To be fair, it's also my first time working inthe round AND I'm modifying the pattern from another cowl. But I still want to learn dpns, because most of my circs are cheap bamboo ones, that, while awesome in their own right because they only cost a dollar, are also not amazingly flexible cause the cables are too think. Oh well.
I've realized a couple of things lately - one, that I need to learn how to make socks. Perhaps when I finish the sweater. Sock yarns are beautiful, and all the time I've been spending on Ravelry has led me to some beautiful sock yarn shops. Here's one I came across today - Yarn Chef. Not only is her shop name completely awesome, but she has divided her yarns based on food stuffs!! Sweetness abounds. Beautiful colors (there's one I like called Violent Sneeze - not kidding) and hello! She has a merino/silk laceweight yarn in a color called Frosted Mint.... my fingers tingle a little bit just thinking about it, and not in the "Sio, your carpal tunnel onset is looming in the future" kind of way. That yarn is very sexy.
Two, I need to learn to crochet. I mean, yeah, when I first found out that people have made crocheted Doctor Who dolls, I totally flipped out, but that died down after a while. Lately though, especially this week (when I discovered the amazing and friendly yarn studio that is a 5 minute walk from my house!!!) when I have been flipping thru magazines like Keitodama (Japanese magazine of knitting/crochet awesomeness), I realize that I really like the look of crocheted things. It occurs to me that I most likely cannot get away with wearing tank tops to work when it gets warmer (the kids tend to freak about stuff like that), but I don't want to wear T-shirts all the time. If I could make a couple light cardigans or something that would be a good thing, so I started looking around for cute patterns. (The Knitting Tree - studio near me - also sells awesome cotton for supercheap) And the latest issue of Keitodama has so many adorable things that are crochet, and there are several on Rav too. -sigh- Add that to my interminable list of things to do at some point.
Third, I really, really need to learn Korean. Not that I can't get by with the bits and pieces that I know, and I learn new words all the time, but my verb repertoire is sadly lacking. I need to work on that - I have repeatedly been frustrated lately by my inability to hold a conversation. When I was hanging at Knitting Tree the other night, I had lots of fun chatting with them, even though I didn't always understand exactly what everyone was saying. There was one woman there who spoke English, but she's just a student and might not always be there. But everyone I met was really friendly, and I would love to go there more often. They taught me how to read charts in the Korean/Japanese way, and also showed me a cute scarf pattern that I need to try with some striping yarn, and even though I don't want to pay to take lessons there (don't really think I need them) I was glad to just chill and chat and knit. The other teachers think it's a little bit odd when I stay after work to just sit in the office, but I enjoy being there and listening to them, even if I don't really understand what they are saying. And it would be nice to have a place to knit with friends that doesn't require a trip on the subway.
Okay, now that I have written pretty much an entire post about knitting and you've fallen asleep, I'm off to bed. I'm tired and have been having crazy dreams lately, so tonight is an earl(ier) night. here's a pic I found a while back, which pretty well describes my mood at the moment.
