13 posts tagged “gizmo”

So here I am on a Sunday night catching up on my blogging.  It's about 1230 and I have open lessons tomorrow so I need to get to bed soon, but I had some pics I wanted to post.  Plus I slept in a lot today, since I didn't go to SnB and I was sick.

What goes first... here.  Yesterday was Worldwide Knit in Public Day, so the Seoul SnBers had a bit of a celebration.  I didn't take my camera, but I will share some of the amazing-ness when it is posted somewhere else.   We all met up at Seoul Arts Center, and we knit, and took pics, and traded yarn and did a fun quiz and Nikki gave away hand-dyed yarn.  She and Carson showed off their spinning, and I'll be damned if it didn't look cool and I wanna try.  But I have enough projects on my mind right now without adding more.  Might start spinning later when I design this shawl and need some appropriately colored laceweight.  (Yeah, I wanna design a lace shawl. So what? :P)

The trading was awesome - I got rid of a bunch of yarn I had leftover from projects/stashed and didn't want.  And I got some new stuff!

Yes, that is rainbow neon sock yarn.  It's amazing looking. I have no idea what I want to do with it, but I had to get it.  It was the only yarn I did get yesterday, even though I came up with some ideas for formerly un-decided stash.  Here's a closeup

We're also knitting a blanket, and raffling it to give the money to a charity that works with victims of sexual violence here in Korea.  ('cause they don't know what it is, for the most part) it's going to be patchwork, with all of us knitting squares.  I decided to put together various things that I knew I would never use for anything else (Yes, you, Lion Brand chenille!) and make up some squares.  I have til the end of the month to finish them, but here are two I did last night.  I'm really proud of them - I think they will make great additions, besides being a tad too big.  Oh well, gives them character. 

One is blue chenille and sparkly eyelash yarn, and the other is some black acrylic held with a black/gold sparkly thing the woman at the Gangnam store gave me.  She likes to give stuff like that when you buy things, so I thought I would put it to good use.  Both of them look surprisingly good - just normal garter, but nice.  I have some more I'm thinking of, and will probably do another one tomorrow.

Did I mention I started my first sock a couple weeks ago? Yeah I know I am slow - I've been working on it in bits and pieces, cause both my shirt and my shawl are nearing their ends.  I found a crochet edging for the shawl and I am about to cast of the sleeves for my shirt.  I need to get some beads... have to get up and go to ddm some saturday.  Anyway, here is the sock!

granted, it doesnt look like a sock the way I am holding it here, but it looks awesome on my foot.  I should be starting the toe tomorrow. 

And then when I got home, there was this waiting for me. 

yes, that's a bra strap.  Yes, it has been chewed in half.  You have no idea how pissed I was.  The other day I came home to see my sock pattern, which had been left on my bed, looking like this:

Just in case you can't see from the picture, the paper was in a plastic sheet protector.  And he shredded that to get to the paper inside.  He's been doing this a lot lately, and so I went and got him some new toys and chewy things to help out with that.  No dice, apparently.  Now he's sleeping all cute on my bed, but last night, he stayed in the bathroom for a good few hours before i decided to let him out.  UGH!!!!  I'm really not sure what to do.  It's not like he doesn't have things to chew on, or toys.  I know he gets bored, but there's not much I can do about that - I leave the door open for him to play on the balcony during the day.  I could leave him in the bathroom, but that would be mean.  Still, I'm not sure what else would work.  I probably shouldn't leave stuff out, but hell if I know what he's going to try chewing on next. 

Okay, and now it's 1 am and I need to get to bed.  I still have planning to do for Thailand/Ashley's wedding/home trip tomorrow, and parents to impress as well.  Oh, and I need a shower before work.  At least I don't have to worry about my car payment anymore.

Here, this is my cute new knitting needle holder, made by a Rav friend in exchange for some yarn I sent her.  I got it today and it's so adorable! Tho a bit bigger than I expected, which is cool. 

Also, I discovered that Gizmo had eaten a chocochip cookie when I came home this afternoon.  So far he hasn't exhibited any symptoms of death.  I think maybe he's just indestructible or something.

I would be like, really productive.  I don't know that it's fair to say I'm not productive, however.  I mean, sure, if you take the word at it's literal meaning, my life could be more 'productive'.  But if that's the case, there are very few things I do that are productive beyond what's necessary and I think I'm fairly normal in that respect.  Hobbies are probably the exception.  It all depends on where you draw the line between productive and non-productive. 

Today for instance - I went to work as usual.  I didn't do any planning on my lunch break, though I could have had I wanted to get ahead.  Instead I chilled, ate kimbap in the sunshine, and listened to my ipod while updating some stuff in my knitting notebook.  I managed to do a round on my shirt before Donald came down from lunch, and then I went in and worked some more.  After work I went to the store and got some odd bits- they finally have button mushrooms again.  (I saw tomatoes yesterday too... yum. Love spring)

then I came home, got on Rav and read a few threads about Mohammad and the religious history of textiles, and took a nap before waking up to do some online shopping (more on that later), talk to Lloyd and Cait, and read some blogs.  Now I'm munching on dinner - leftover rice and soup - and typing this post.  I don't feel that today is the most exciting day I've had - nor did I even look at the interminable list of things that I have plans to do (or the things that flit across my brain that I don't write down); but I don't particularly consider it to have been a waste of a day. 

I'm not sure there's anything else conclusive to say on this subject , but it occurs to me - why do I think in terms of productive/unproductive?  It's not that I particularly worry about it - i generally enjoy my time no matter what I'm doing (with exceptions), but for some reason, I feel like I *should* worry about it. 

So, shopping.  That was fun.  I started on Knitpicks.com, a knitting site I have been meaning to check out - good quality stuff for relatively cheap prices.  Catch: they only ship to the US.  But since I have my handy-dandy friend Lloyd to send things to, I don't have to worry about that.  And then I have more of an excuse to go back to Atl when I go home.  -smile-  They're having a sale on sock yarn so I got some of that for the eventuality that I will start making socks.  also just because sock yarn is very pretty. and versatile.  did i mention it was on sale?

Then I was off to thehungersite.com to check out their yarns.  They have banana fiber yarn and beautiful recycled silk yarn which I was going to get to try.  But then I saw their skirts - and you know how I love skirts.  Especially long swishy ones for 

summer. 

But hey, I've pretty much recognized that I failed NaBloPoMo and also, I accidentally took the wrong train and ended up on the other side of the purple line.  So that's my excuse.

-sudden snort- Oh man.  I just watched Gizmo try to rush in the door from the balcony and hit her head on an open drawer.  Orange though she may be, not the brightest crayon in the box... -sigh- At least she's entertaining.  Kinda vaguely reminds me of a comment Julie once made about not adopting kids - "At least if they're yours you know you won't end up with a dumb one."  The same seems to apply to kittens, I've noticed.  All the ones that I had that I knew their mothers were very intelligent.  But the ones that I get out of nowhere (which are usually orange, in another strange coincidence) are usuallly... entertaining. Not in that, 'oh, aren't you so smart you do cute things!' way but more in the 'you've got the same IQ as my pillow, isn't that hilarious?' vein.  As my mom said, at least she's sweet. 

So also among tonight's adventures - Thanksgiving dinner (it was meh), accostment by a Christian proselytizer on the train (Robin and I got off, after several not-so-subtle hints that we weren't interested), and taking the wrong train (ended up talking to a guy who was apparently an interior designer).  oddly enough, I was stopped by a girl last night too, who wanted to tell me about God the Mother.  Which made me think about the point of religion in general, but that's a longer discussion.  Now I'm home and going to finish progress reports, since I slept most of the day anyway.  This weekend is going to be quiet - Tim and I talked about going to Dongdaemun and hitting on that guy again (which reminds me I need to backpost) but I think I want to stay home till I go up to Hyehwa for SnB on Sunday.

But before I go - A Thanksgiving-themed article. Sort of.

SPACE.com -- Space Age Technology Makes Tastier Thanksgiving Ham

No urine jokes, please.   The article isn't really amazing, talking about the water content of ham and how people are obesessed with it in Spain.  No, what more interested me was the idea that there are people who spend their lives inspecting ham.  I mean, I guess whatever puts food on the table, but still.  You gotta wonder what their kids say on Career Day. "This is my dad.  He inspects hams for water content."  Still, this is important to Spain, probably almost as important as the ape rights that GinBaby posted on a while ago.

And though this is an entirely random thought for me to have fixated on, it was really what made me click the link, and the reason I couldn't focus on the content (which wasn't really interesting anyway) - who the hell eats HAM for THANKSGIVING?  That is, in my normal/entirely-unoffensive-to-mentally-disabled use of the word, retarded.  Everyone knows that turkey is for Thanksgiving.  No one draws a pig with their handprint for Thanksgiving in kindergarten.  (At least, not that I know of.) Ham is for Christmas, and then you use the leftovers for black-eyed peas and rice for New Year's.  Now, you can have both, and turkey is acceptable for Christmas if you want to have ham only on New Year's (although I wouldn't recommend this option cause it's a lot of leftovers), but there should be no substitution of ham for turkey on Thanksgiving. That's just wrong.

I'm not sure why I feel so strongly on this matter.  I just do. 

Now that's done with, I'm going back to writing progress reports, attempting to like The Glass Passenger, and trying to teach Gizmo not to lick the inside of my nose. Srsly.  She doesn't seem to get it, unless I actually snap at her when she does it.  -sigh- the joys of kittens.

Sadly, I have discovered that my apartment does not have a dimensional portal. Nor are the pigeons living near my apartment particularly vicious and acquisitive.  While searching for another thing that has mysteriously gone missing (one of my diamond threaders), I decided to actually lift both the fridge and the washer.  Lo and behold, I found the three mice that I had assumed had been absconded with by the aforementioned pigeons.  So, there goes my black hole theory of apartment living.  It probably should be amended to the "I live with a kitten" Theory. 

Hopefully said theory will not leave my earring unfound for too long.  I only hope she hasn't eaten it, and that it's still here where I can get to it. 

Now, as I just returned from Costco, I have henna to mix, meat to part out, and dishes/food to put away. 

Really. I don't know why it's taking forever. Maybe cause I'm dling stuf from itunes and dling torrents and doing web thingys at the same time, but that's still no excuse.

I have had a good day today.  Tuesdays are pretty chill cause I have a 3 hour break between my classes, and even though I meant ot come home and work on progress reports today, I took a nap.  I was tired.  I was up late lastn ight cause I was so excited about getting to go back to Japan for New Year's that I couldn't sleep till sometime around 4 am.  Also, there were more mogi in my room.

So class as usual.  No big deal there. I probably should be getting to bed soon cause I have a full day tomorrow, but I remembered that I needed to post.  Ack! I have a video for you today, neechan.  Not edited, but I thought it didn't really need it anyway. 

Today I went to the Center for the Birth of Baha'u'llah.  It's also the anniversary of Matt proposing to Amanda.  I always remember that cause she called me when I was at Freshman Semi-Formal that year and I was standing outside the Fox with a hundred people around me going "He did WHAT!?!?"  This was a perfectly reasonable response on my part, consdering they met in August of that year.  The program tonight was fun... I met and re-met a lot of people and though I'm fairly certain that there are at least 2 names I don't remember, it's okay cause I know their faces at least.  Aruna gave me a ride home, which was good because I'm almost out of money on my subway pass, and I need to put more on. 

And then I came home, and was poking around the Itunes store looking for a John Mayer song that I used to have but for some reason can't find anymore.  There's one torrent of it, but it has no seeds so I just gave up and decided to spend a dollar on the song.  And then then THEN I found the Doctor Who TV OST!! You know me, I love OSTs, if they are good, and the DW one is, and I'd thought about trying to find it before. There aren't any torrents of it that I've been able to find.  And you know I NEVER buy music, or I do so about once every blue moon.  But this is such great stuff that I honestly don't mind paying $10 for the album.  Especially cause I know I will listen to a lot of it.  Some soundtracks are only good with their context, but this one is good enough to just listen to. 

Okay, I really need to get to bed cause I have a bunch of stuff to do tomorrow - emails and a letter and some other things. Have to transfer that money so that i can finally pay bills.  More scarf.  Etc. Remind me to post those articles about china.  and my laptop dilemma.

I just took a nap in my room, and I am vaguely surprised that I awakened with only one bite on my ear.  You see, earlier in the evening I was so unwary as to leave my windows open, with the result being that my apartment became host to several mogi, the Korean mosquito from Hell. I thought there were only a few.  Then I closed my window, and realized that the number was closer to 5.  I set about killing them, despite Nick's claims of my being a murderer, which I fully accept.  But I make an equal claim that mogi  a) are kin to Daleks, and b) there are probably millions more.  Thusly, I feel justified in killing them when they choose to invade my quarters. 

So now I have to clean the walls again. Le sigh.  From the sound of Gizmo in the bathroom, I also need to sweep the floor again.  She keeps somehow managing to clumsily tip over her litter box. Don't ask me how - she's a cat.  That's the only reason I have.  Well, she's also clumsy.  And not particularly intelligent.  That's another blog post. 

Once I thought I had killed all the mogi, I happily resumed my interneting, but then I realized that there were several more.  At this point I have lost count, but I'm placing the number around 10 total.  There are still one or two more that I have to take care of before I go to bed for the night, or I will have to sleep with blanket covering everything but my nose, lest I be attacked in the night.  Still, I'm convinced that more might possibly appear at any moment, thanks to the dimensional vortez I am sure is manifesting somewhere in my apartment.  I know this because, of the three mouse-toys I have bought for Gizmo, two of them have disappeared.  Literally. They are not in the apartment, and I have no idea where they are, and I have checked under every possible piece of furniture that they could have become trapped under, including the fridge and the washing machine.  Perhaps the mogi are coming through the vortex and stealing my kitten's toys.  Think all those Daleks in that ship at Canary Wharf.  That might explain her reluctance to chase them like the hunter she should be.  

In other news, I found out when my vacation will be! At least, the one for winter.  I have the 27th through the 8th off.  If you look at a calendar, it's a very strange set of dates, but who cares.  I don't get that long for summer, because that would be too much break time, but oh well.  I'm thinking, I could go back to Japan!    I would have to look at tickets and figure out where to stay and such.  It would be fun to do New Year's in Kyoto again.  But maybe I could pull off staying at some of the KCJS apartments, or a hostel.  I could even go see my host family again.  The issue is what to do with Gizzy.  I don't think I could leave her here by herself for a week, and even though I could probably take her with me, it would most likely be very stressful for her, and depending on where I was staying, I don't know if they would allow pets.  I should email Shore-san/Yukie/Mary/Okaasan about this.  It would be so much fun!!  I didn't get to go to the Light-up in Kobe last year, and Gion at New Year's is awesome. I don't know if I want to fly, or if it might be more fun to take the boat to Fukuoka/Sapporo and then the train.   Have to look at budget-y things. 

I had my play practice with Daisy today, and I have to say I'm really proud of them.  They've learned all the songs they have for their show, The Gingerbread Man, and the dances as well.  They only have about 4 songs, but the fact that they can sing and dance to them all makes me happy. Now if I could just get Rose class to be excited as well.  That would be great.  On Friday is our Thanksgiving Festival/Open House, so I get to go to the church and sing and 'be foreign' as Douglas puts it.    I have the progress reports for Daisy/Rose this week, so I'm watching the kids carefully to make sure my comments are helpful - not for the parents so much as for myself, to make sure I'm making a mental note of who needs help with what. 

Finally, I went to edit a picture for today, and was inspired by the strangeness of some of the poses and by this article that Jessica sent me to do a mini-slideshow of Rose Class.  These are from the Kimpo Field Trip, and I tried to make a little story out of them.  These have minimal editing - I might do some artsy versions later.  Sorry for the funky spacing... Pictures away!

******

In the beginning, it was lunchtime.  And James was with Matthew, and Matthew was with James, 'cause they are inseparable.  (Except when Chris is there, but that's another story, one with significantly more pronounced innuendo.)

All things considered, today has been a bit boring.  I actually managed to stay awake the whole day, despite a weird sleeping schedule last night.  But I got my goals for November written, and even though I didn't get a whole lot done today, I feel like it was a success, for the most part. And I still have more to do, once I finish this post. 

I signed up for NaBloPoMo yesterday, so I'm officially a part of the whole 'post every day for a month' list.  I did some writing in my journal, and though I didn't learn any new words yesterday, I did write down a bunch of them.  I was in my observation class for Daisy and they were studying shapes, so I copied them off the board.  Now I just have to look up the words and see how to pronounce them.  One of my goals is to study a bit of Korean every day, and of course I'm going to start with the alphabet.  But today I learned a new one from my afternoon classes:

junggap = gloves

We're studying clothes right now, so this afternoon I brought a bunch of different things back from lunch with me to play dress up. I really wish I would have brought my camera as well - they were so cute dressed up in my too-big clothes. I'm changing the way I do the class - trying to make it more about playing, at least with Joseph and Junie, and not worrying about really sticking closely to the book.  It's easier to teach the girls anyway, and as long as I have them speaking English, I think it's fine if they play.  But anyway, I brought in my pair of gloves that Jessica got me a bit back, the blue and white ones with sparkles, and since they didn't know the English at first, they of course told me the Korean.  Had to look in my little phrasebook to make sure of it, since Debbie was already gone for the day, but I think it's a useful word.

Speaking of gone, that would be Rachel.  Yepper, our supervisor just up and left.  I'm kinda disappointed that she didn't even say goodbye or anything, but as Douglas pointed out, it doesn't really affect us.  We just teach, and since we don't speak Korean, there aren't any extra responsibilities to work out.  I don't really mind the lack of supervisor - it effectively means no one really notices when I take my two-hour lunch, like I did this afternoon.  To be fair, I actually stayed in Rose, my last class, for an extra half-hour.  I decided to do an art project with them today, and it took way longer than I expected, with all three classes.  Let's not do that again, even though I think the kids had fun.  I told wong jam nim  (principal) that I was eating at home, then grabbed my stuff and left. 

To be fair, even though I was at home, I was working.  I made myself some ramen, and started on the progress reports I have due this week for Tulip Class.  In the meantime I talked to Nick a bit and dled a new program that Robin at SnB told me about the other day called Ted. It dls the torrents of your upcoming tv shows for you, which is pretty sweet.  I've been trying to figure out how to get utorrent to do that, since trying to keep track of three shows can be a pain.  I imagine if I start following other ones, this thing will come in even more handy.  Still haven't signed up for Twitter yet, but it looks like an interesting idea, and definitely fits my obsession with changing my facebook status.

After my class, came home, finished writing progress reports while listening to Gizmo howl in the bathroom.  I put her in there because she got into the trash while I was out, and she managed to cry for about an hour straight.   I have to say that it was a little bit impressive, actually.   I tuned most of it out by turning up my itunes.  I did manage to clip her claws when I let her out, though.  I'm not really sure what's up with her, because as soon as I let her out she wanted to be held and cuddled.  Most cats with sense would be upset and not want you to touch them. -sigh-  I don't get her. She has to be the weirdest cat I've had, and that's saying something.

And now that I've rambled for no apparent reason, as well as watching an episode of Psych (S2 Premier, "American Duos" with Tim Curry guest-starring), I think I should go and do some more of the things on my list.  Email to catch up, nails to fix, and the hangul alphabet to start learning.  I might even get some knitting in this evening.  I'd like to finish that scarf soon.  Also should probably wash some dishes...

Last but not least - Today's picture.

   Also in Hyehwa, this alien lives a bit down the street from Gandalf.  He's apparently the mascot for a norebang (karaoke) place.  The entire place seems to have this sort of theme going on.  I thought it was kinda cute, if not as easy to see as Gandalf. 

Okay, yeah, I didn't need to buy anymore shirts. But I saw this, and it had cute flowers and was $5. And then I looked at the text, and realized, yes, I really did need to buy it. 

Please note the lyrics from the Pink song, "Get This Party Started".  Although, I'm wondering if, because they spelled 'up' as 'yp', does it really count as a violation?  If I had Pink's address, I would totally send her this shirt.  As it is, I will enjoy wearing it on my own...

Also! Before I forget!  Today's Korean Word of the Day is

sadari = ladder

This from Lily Class

Neechan, another video is on the way. Stop freaking. If all else fails, there's always CuteOverload.  She's not really being cute right now - more annoying. She's trying to climb on my computer, even though I keep repeatedly putting her back on the floor. here's a pic for you though.