Monthly Archive: July 2012

$ cd ~meri > 2012 > July

Despite myself, I am intrigued…

2012.07.23

First off, if you own a Kindle (or use the Kindle app on your $DEVICE), you should probably read Pixel of Ink. It’s one of my favorite, “Oooh, cheap or free Kindle books!” lists. Though it still has its share of romance novels (because, really, numbers lean heavily that way), it seems to make an effort to include other genres that are often overlooked by some of the other bargain listing sites.

Like, this book, for instance:

The first volume in The Oz Chronicles recalls both Stephen King’s The Stand and L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz.

For free, it might be worth picking up, based upon that description alone.

Media, Web Sites

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Ask the Interweb: Favorite RSS reader?

2012.07.21

Once again I turn to the wonders of the Interweb to ask for guidance, this time regarding RSS readers.

I’m playing around with the various readers out there, and am feeling both over- and underwhelmed by the options at my disposal. So, I figure I’ll provide my requirements, and see if any of you have any suggestions (or anti-suggestions) to throw my way.

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Technology

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Behold! A new pen!

2012.07.19

Well, nothing to behold yet, as I haven’t done anything with it yet. But I have one, dagnabit.

Zebra, the makers of the venerable F-301 ballpoint pens has come out with a fountain pen. The pen, available in black or blue, doesn’t have great reviews on Amazon. I’m not sure how much of this is from people simply not being used to fountain pens, and how much of it is from the product actually being shoddy. But, I saw one at the drug store today, and decided to give it a shot. I shall report back when I have impressions to share.

Office Supplies, Shopping

No tink for you!

2012.07.19

Tinking experiment: failed. Tinking lace is, as mentioned, a rather iffy proposition. This time, the coin landed on the, “HA HA!” side. One day, I will learn to use lifelines. But not today. Today, I will be ripping out my project (SSMS™ #3) and starting over. If that’s the worst thing that happens to me today, I can live with that. (*knocking on wood*)

Craftiness

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*tink* *tink*

2012.07.19

*sigh*

Tinking is the process of un-knitting (tink = knit backwards). This is something that is done when one has made one (or more) mistakes. Sometimes, you catch your mistake pretty quickly, and you only need to tink a few stitches. Other times, you don’t catch the mistake until you’ve made a decent amount of progress. When that happens, you have a few choices: 1) tink back to the mistake; 2) pull your needles out and carefully rip back your stitches to the mistake, and then re-insert the needles; or, 3) throw your project across the room and find a good stiff drink.

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Craftiness

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Good morning, Internets.

2012.07.18

Today is looking to be remarkably unpleasant, meteorologically speaking. I hope everyone manages to stay cool, or – at the very least – hydrated. My plans for the day include geeking (which OSX keeps trying to correct to “geeing”), cleaning, knitting (probably finishing one of the SSMS™s) and perhaps lunch with G. There are definitely worse ways to spend a day. Best of luck with whatever adventures you may meet today!

Craftiness, General

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Happy Day! (SSMS™)

2012.07.17

The final installment of the Summer Solstice Mystery Shawl has arrived! It’s 30 rows as charted, with some optional repeats to add length. SSMS™ #3 will not be receiving any additional length, as I’m not sure about my yarn yardage, and would hate to run out before I’m done. However, I have plenty of extra Kauni Effekt, so SSMS™ #2 will continue to have all the extra length for which the pattern provides. (I’m also doing this because I love how seeing minor modifications to a pattern – such as extra repeats – provide for an entirely different finished product.)

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Craftiness

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A query for my (book friends) && (Mac friends).

2012.07.13

A few short years ago, Delicious Library was the pinnacle of “I own a Mac and I want to catalog all of my books” software. Then they got in a fight with Amazon, and have apparently pretty much written off the fabulous product. As I’m seriously pondering going through and laying hands on all of my books again, I thought it might be a good time to recatalog them. And thus, my query.

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General

Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.

2012.07.13

You may think that you have no idea what a pangram is, but you do. You’ve certainly heard the phrase, “The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy grey dog,” before. This strange little collection of words is perhaps the most famous pangram of all time, but it’s hardly alone.

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Language

Keeps going, and going… just slowly.

2012.07.12

Perfect activities for a low-energy day: puttering around in the morning, a brief nap, then south the be accosted by Jenn’s dogs for a while. Sushi dinner with G and Jenn. Now hanging out with Jenn and watching some TV and geeking before it’s time for bed. Good day.

General