Deus Ex

I'm playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution at the moment. I'd seen it at PAX, and known about it before that... "Yeah, another stealth game. I should be interested in this, but I'm not really pushed" is what my brain kept telling me whenever I'd think of it. Then lordkilljoy bought it and played it for a bit, but didn't enjoy it. A few weeks later he convinced me to give it a go, and is this the best game ever! I absolutely love it. The setting is amazing, the characters are interesting, the story is intriguing. I keep waiting for poor Jensen to get betrayed by someone. It hasn't happened yet, but I've only gotten to China so far. Apart from the main story, the side quests are really fun too. And even just wandering the streets, finding random houses to break into is fun. I want to play now, but I want to get some knitting finished, and I should try to keep up the writing spurt I got last week.

Ah well.

PS - only a month 'til Skyrim. I am so excited for this game.

stealth bomber

I saw a stealth bomber fly over head the other day. It was the coolest thing I've seen in ages. I almost didn't believe it was a stealth bomber, but they are kind of unique to look at. The only reason I looked up (well, apart from the fact that I generally look up if I hear a plane overhead) was that it sounded a bit weird. It was louder and different pitched than a normal plane. And when I saw the black and the ziz-zag wings I was like: "wow, that is so cool." And I did an excited dance. And then in vanished behind some clouds. It's kinda cool living near an air force base.

The clouds were the remnants of the storm that hit last week. There was snow on the mountains for a whole day (it's melted now) and Santa Fe mts got 9 inches - it's still there. I got to wear my wonderful black coat and my long hat the other day. I was so happy going out in them. It's warmed up again, though - I might even be back into string tops by the end of the week - they are giving 25.

I don't have a hole lot of news. I can't wait to go home. Only a week and a half to go. I need to start packing.
Yea. I'll go now.

storm's a-comin'

The weather are giving storm warnings for the end of this week, and it's really starting to get going now. It's windy and kinda cold out (cold being 17 degrees). They are giving bad winds for tomorrow too, and snow up on the mountains. Ooohhhh. At the moment I'm sitting here and every so often the wind slams into the building, and the window rattles a bit and the door shakes a little, and it's slightly unnerving. River and I just went out for a walk in it, and all I wanted was to get back inside again - I think River was feeling rather energised by the wind, though - she was mad hyper.

We went to the balloon festival last weekend - we went in the evening for the glow event. It was amazing - wandering among all these colourful hot air balloons that lit up every so often with jets of fire. Every so often a guy on a loudspeaker would do a countdown and all the balloons would light up at the same time. It looked incredible. And when that was over, there were fireworks. And they were some of the best fireworks I've seen. There were ones up in the sky and ones closer to the ground and the whole thing was pretty spectacular.

In other news, I've knitted a hat and a half, 2 pairs of gloves, a pair of socks and am working on another thing (it's a surprise). I'm pretty proud of everything - except the half a hat... don't know why I'm not so enthusiastic about it but it's just not gelling with me.

I don't have much other news.

more knitting

I have a glove. That's right, one glove. Here it is :)




I'll have to start on its twin tomorrow. This one took me 3 days (maybe 13 / 14 hours). I'm not sure if the next one will take longer because my motivation will drop a little (I already know how it's going to turn out) or will it take less time because I know what I'm doing.

And for future reference (more for myself than anything else), the pattern*.

starting at the back (at the top of the arm)

cast on 18 stitches (for chunky wool)

seed stitch for 4 rows
k1, p1
p1, k1

switch colour (this counts as a row)
knit for 8 rows

switch colour
knit for 8 rows

do this 2 more times for 4 knitted rows of stripes (you have 5 stripes all together by now)

knit for 7 rows

on 8th row cast up 5
on 9th row cast up 5 on the other side (so it makes a kind of T)

knit for 8 rows (not sure if you count the cast on, or not)

cast off the T over 2 rows
switch colour (this may not count as a row)
knit 4 rows (casting off 2 stitches somewhere around here - i got really confused at this part. i cast off 2, but then my count looked weird and i cast off another. then i realised my mistake and was down a stitch. oh well.)

do 2x2 ribbing for 8 rows
k2, p2
k2, p2

cast off
mattress stitch the seam (this sewing technique is kinda cool - is this how people get sewn up? it totally is!)
done


Having never done any of this before, I had to look loads up online (cast on, cast off, and mattress stitch). I have a book, but trying to learn from diagrams is hard. Thank goodness for youtube.

*I did have a pattern, two actually, but I followed them quite loosely, making my own way as I went along.

A Hat

So this is the hat I made yesterday. It took 3 hours (with a break to walk River). I have no idea if that is good going or slow progress - any input from knitters (mammy?)? How long would it take you to knit a hat like this?



Anyway, I'm pretty proud of it. Now I'm going to make lordkilljoy a hat like Jayne's from Firefly :)

Loom Knitting

The thought going through my head right now is: I love having hands. I bought a loom knitting set today, and have just knit my first row (actually - I just cast up) and it was really fun and really easy. I've wanted to be able to knit my whole live. Ever since I was a girl I'd watch mammy knit with an ease that seemed rather miraculous to me, becuase whenever I tried it the wool got knotted, the needles kept slipping from my hands, the wool was too tight, or too loose, and my hands just couldn't handle it.

I've vaguely considered crochet, but that also involves holding a small implement and my hands get hot holding things and it's just really, really hard. Enter the loom. It's a circle with wide pins standing up. You wrap the wool around the pins, then use a hook to pull the loops over. Look up "loom knitting" if you want to know how it works.

So watch out, everyone. Hats, scarfs and other small knitted things will abound and will start to fill wardrobes and drawers :)

In other news (I wrote knews... sigh) River went into her bed-crate thing all by herself last night. It was about half eleven and I was off to bed. She walked into the bedroom with me, and I expected her to flop down on the carpet. But she didn't. In she walked to her little bed (the one she howled and whined to get out of when we first got her) and settled down, all by herself. We were so proud of her :)

We went to cienega forest again yesterday. After a slight wrong turn (or more precicely - not being able to follow the trail (it just seemed to vanish into about 5 different trail-looking things)) and a massive climb up the side of the mountain, we eventually found the trail and had a wonderful 2 hour walk. Ceader and pine smell amazing. I'd totally go there and just plonk myself in a glade and smell the air for a few hours.

That's all my news, I think. Now back to knitting :)

Autumn

Autumn in New Mexico is an interesting time. Me and river have been rained on twice in the last two days. Today, we came to the channel. It was raining and the splashes were making little ripples in the brown water of the channel. I stopped there and just watched it for a while. It was awful, but pretty at the same time. The water was brown and murky, with bits of mud and twigs sticking out of it, but still - there was something compelling about the water and the rain.

The other really odd thing is that mushrooms grow in the grass around here. I think it's a sign that people need to turn off their sprinklers.

I'm a little worried about future walks. The goatsheads are growing wild and free and every grassy verge has thousands of them just waiting to fall off and lay in wait for some innocent doggie to come walk on them and hurt her paws. I'm sort of considering getting River little booties, because (she's stupid like this) she picks them out of her paw and eats them. Then she gets sick a few minutes later.

I haven't updated in ages. I should catch up on news... PAX was amazing. I'd totally go back next year. penelope_stone and Liam's visit was brilliant. We did so much and it was good to see them and hang out. Highlights include walking on top of a mountain in lightening, photographing same lightning that night, cienega canyon forest trail, UNM - actually UNM is cool. There's a geology and meteorite museum, and the atmosphere around campus is cool - just like college, really.

I don't know what else I can say... I suppose I'll just go then.

New Arts, Coloured by Me

This is what I've been working on the last few days.


Cloud n Kirby YamPuff Colour by ~zarkia on deviantART

Lightning is cool.

The sky the last few evenings has been pretty spectacular. Lightning storms flashed on the horizon all around us (or at least the 180degrees we can see from our balcony), both sheet and fork. The forks are amazing to watch - split second flashes of brilliance that you miss if you aren't looking in the exact right spot. The sheets are incredible too, because the cloud formations are so beautiful, and when you get this dark navy sky and bright cauliflower clouds illuminated against it - it looks amazing.

I'd love if these storms are still going when penelope_stone comes over. They look amazing. They are too far away to hear any thunder, but also too far away for the rain to reach us. I think dislike of rain is built into the Irish psyche. I've not been rained on in 9 months, or whatever, and still at the first drops I'm like: "Ugh, it's raining. Better get inside." Even though it's warm and the rain dries off almost as soon as it lands on you.

River's been fine since her little bout of poisoning. She was a little tired the day after, but soon she was back to her old self again. We got to go to the cinema yesterday. We've been leaving her along for longer and longer stretches. Yesterday we went out for 3 hours (to see Captain America) and when we got back the place was the exact same as when we'd left it. We were so proud of her :)

Capt America was good... But not nearly as good as some of the other super hero movies. They spent too much time on montages of him winning battles and not enough time building up relationships between characters. Things happened where I would have been in tears at any other movie, but I just didn't care for any of the people because I didn't know them - I didn't have a reason to care for them.

I don't think I have much other news.

Sick River

We're just back from the vet with River. She got lordkilljoy's inhaler and bit into it - puncturing it. We have no idea how much medicine went into her, but about an hour later, she was drinking way more water than usual and a bit after that she got sick. At this stage, I was pretty worried that she'd been seriously poisoned, so we dropped everything and rushed her to the vet.

They induced more vomiting and gave her charcoal. She's really pathetic now - just lying next to her water and drinking every so often. She couldn't even jump out of the car when we got home, or walk up the stairs. She made it up 3, then just stopped. lordkilljoy carried her up. Poor thing.

The vet said she should be okay by tomorrow, but to keep an eye on her.

Okay, while writing this entry she's been sick again. She's now lying on the floor with kitchen towel under her head.

my thumb is sore

I can post again :) Let's go a bit post crazy for a while :P

So, doing stuff with only half a thumb is hard. Yea, both my thumbs are out of commission - one has a nick, the other a gash. So the nicked one counts as half. I'm making ramen for dinner and cutting the chicken was hard. Opening the jars of ginger and stock was hard (almost impossible) and very painful. Even stirring the pot is hard, because my half a thumb that's working is more sensitive to the steam.

I think after dinner I'll call today done and go play Warcraft for the night. I'll just have to remember not to jump (aka mashing space bar with my thumb).

God, I'd love some ice cream.

Comic Con and Cosplay

Ah, Lj - I've missed you. Please don't go down for over a week again. And I've had loads to post about too.

I'm working on my portal gun at the moment. I've been carving the main back part from expanding foam (the stuff you use to insulate cracks in your house with). The can said it can only be used once, but I had no trouble clearing out the application pipe and using it 4 or 5 times. I emptied the can :)
Anyway - it looks kind of cool. Well, it's still really rough, but it has the shape of a portal gun, which is good.

I was carving today and I sliced my thumb. The cut is about a centimetre long and I have no idea how deep it is, but davidnarby thinks it's pretty deep because of the amount of blood that poured out. Anyway, I have a plaster and a bandage on it at the moment and it's not too sore. I poked at it earlier, though (silly, I know) and that really hurt.

Other news: Comic Con was good. We saw loads - it's kind of hard not to when it's the size of a small town. San Diego is lovely. We stepped off the plane and walked outside and the first think I said was "California has the perfect climate." For all that, it did feel cold in the shade (24degrees is cold these days). I think I'd live there, given the opportunity. Not in San Diego, perhaps... there is too much an undercurrent of a city that's not quite as nice as the façades of the buildings would lead you to believe.

I can't really describe the con itself... fascinating, crazy, colourful. We spent 3 days wandering around and we didn't see everything. It really is huge and there is so much to do. We managed to fit in some browsing, buying, Wii games, DS games, a SWTOR PVP session, celebrity spotting, artist signings, panels on comics, internet stuff, we saw the mythbusters, stood in mile long lines, didn't stand in 2 mile long lines (that's an exaggeration - it wasn't 2 miles, but it was long - it was about 1km, actually - that's pretty long for a queue). We ate in a restaurant that had been taken over by SyFy and made out to be the restaurant from a TV show - Cafe Diem from Eureka for anyone who watches that (it's good - give it a go if you are looking for something fun with a sci-fi twist to watch).
What really amused me was that we had to get the train in each morning and the main stop was 12th and Imperial Transit Station. It's funny because if you ignore the 12th, it becomes Imperial Transit Station, which has a very sci-fi tone to it - like something from Star Wars.

I don't know what else... River is well. She's really cute, actually. In the evenings when lordkilljoy is at work, she sits beside me just waiting for rubs and attention. I think she misses having someone to cuddle next to on the couch. She's gotten into a routine of sleeping until 8 these days - which is good. 7 was just a little too early for me. She even slept until 9 the other day. Amazing.

Right - I think I'll go now. Get some food, maybe. I'm thinking of just putting on dinner, because I have no idea what to have for lunch. It's a little early for dinner, though. Oh well.

New Coloured Artwork

Lineart belongs to Kaorien. Colours by me:


Colour - Proud Surrender by ~zarkia on deviantART

All my posts recently are about River

River is asleep with her eyes partly open. It is the freakiest thing I have ever seen - it's like she's possessed or something. I'm glad it's bright daylight at the moment. If it was night I think I'd have to wake her to get her to stop it.

Camping last weekend was a success. We had a really good time, enjoyed sun and rain and thunder and lightning. We got to see the milky way and a million stars - which was amazing. We did an experiment letting River run around without her lead - it was a success :) She was so tired that evening from all her running around she got really grumpy and was huffing and growling at every little noise. Poor thing. She also has ideas that she's a lap dog, when she's just too big for that.

I don't really have much news at the moment.

Doggie Toys

Just a quick note, because it is cute.

We bought River a new toy yesterday - a squeaky one, and within a few minutes she was biting it and wandering around with it in her mouth. We'd throw it and she'd run after it. We got her to jump up in the air to get it. It was great fun :)

ugly bugs

Taking River out for a walk at night is a scary, freaky experience. The bugs come out at night, so before we had River I'd convinced myself that there were very few bugs in New Mexico. Hmmm... I was just looking at the wrong time of day. There are beetles, crickets, scorpions. I saw the most ugly cricket ever the other night - called a Jerusalem Cricket - go look it up on google image search or something. It is icky and huge. I saw something pale and scurry-ful last night. It ran past us along the kerb. It was in the shade, so I didn't get a good look at it, but it looked suspiciously scorpion-like. Ugh even thinking about it freaks me out - I just uncrossed my ankles, because my skin rubbing against itself made me think there was something on me.

Maybe I'll stick to the safety of our bug-sprayed apartment complex on walks in the night time from now on.

mad looking bug

This guy was outside the apartment door yesterday.



I saw another guy yesterday that was the ugliest bug i have seen in a long time, simply because it looked like something that had been enlarged through radiation. it had a huge bulbous back and front (each like 1cm in diameter) and it crawled along and was disgusting. river wanted to eat it (obviously). i wish i could have gotten a photo, but i didn't have my camera on me.

Ah, the Joys of Owning a Doggie

Dogs will scratch because of anxiety, so when we've seen River scratching over the last few days, we've just assumed she was a little anxious over everything she's been through. We know for a fact that she suffers dog separation anxiety. The cure for that is to leave her on her own in the house for increasing amounts of time each day (we are up to 20 seconds now). Anyway. Scratching.

Today lordkilljoy saw a little black thing crawling across her face and burrowing into her fur. Immediately he went down to the pet shop to get some flea and tick killer. It's kinda cool - an oil that you put against her fur in a few spots and it gets to work killing fleas straight away. It's also meant to keep mosquitoes away. So that'll be good when we go camping.

But now I have the paranoids. Every itch I feel makes me think there are fleas on me... and suddenly I have a lot more itches than I did before we saw one on her.

Hyper Hydro Doggie

There's a bit of water in the wash at the moment and lordkilljoy had the inspired idea to bring River down there. We put her on the stretchy leash (16') that we got for her and strolled down. She was the tinyest bit cautious at first, but I took my flip flops off and stomped in the water and soon she was stomping and running all over the stream. We ran up and down and up and down until my feet got sore from the stones. I tried to run more, but even the small stones were sore to my now-sensitive soles.

And she got hyper. She ran loops around us again and again. We had to pull in her leash and stand still until she calmed a little. Then we got home and she pelted around the apartment - mad hyper. I took her into the bath to wash off the sand, but once she got out it was dash about the place again. Eventually she settled down, and now she's sitting, somewhat calm again.

It was so good to see her really enjoying herself, though :)

Sad Dog?

River seems to be going through some sort of "where is my home" sadness at the moment. She sleeps most of the day (now this could be partly due to the heat) and is only mildly interested in rubs and treats. She'll do training for a minute or two and then get bored and wander off and lie down on the ground again. She'll play with toys for a few minutes and then same thing - wander away and lie down.

Today we got her a puzzle ball that has treats hidden it. She has to push it around to get the treats to fall out the hole so she can eat them. She enjoyed playing with it a lot. Once she got used to it, her tail was up and wagging and she pushed the ball all over the place getting at the treats. She did that for about 10 minutes, then just left it and went back to sleeping.

I tried playing a game with her and she played along, rather half-heartedly for a few minutes, then lay down again. It's a bit disheartening to see her this way. I'd bring her out for a walk, but it's way too hot - 34 degrees. She does seem to enjoy walking, but sometimes she'll stop for no reason at all, or hang back until we are walking at a snails pace. I kind of put this down to the heat as well. We'll try going for a walk tonight, after dusk and see how much of a difference that makes.

She's eating, drinking and going to the loo fine, so there's nothing wrong with her. But I am looking forward to the day she perks up and realises games and toys are fun. I've read that with adopted dogs it can take a few weeks (or months, depending on how bad their last home was) for them to get used to things.

In good news, she is learning sit and come :) After that it will be stay. She barks when the UPS / Fedex person comes to the door, so the sooner I can get stay ingrained in her behaviour the better.