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2010 week 5

Sunday, February 7, 2010

In the spirit of Orwell, Pepys and Twitter, a journal of daily minutiae recorded for posterity. Until I get bored with it.

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Fri 29 Jan:  Solved a CSS-related problem in the CMS. Started implementing a communication campaign to prepare for launch of the Library’s new home page. Ben doing a great job on design and coding; we sent the prototype page to the Library Exec group today. Lawnmower man visited today. Picked up dinner at Pizzas With Attitude; fastest delivery time ever (12 minutes!) but the pizza was slightly burned on the margarita half. PWA is still pretty good on price, variety and service, but their quality control has gone a bit wild since the original guys moved on.

Sat 30 Jan: Miss Jane’s birthday. Grocery shopping, mainly to get mince for Harley. Finished listening to the commentaries on the new Torchwood DVDs. Dozed a bit on a mid-30s afternoon. Lots of web reading. For several days now (perhaps even 10?) I’ve felt like there’s a small ulcer on the back-right edge of my tongue, but there’s nothing to see in that region and no amount of vitamin C will get rid of the discomfort. Vitamin C is normally a sure-fire cure for mouth ulcers. Aspirin helps, which makes me think it might be an infection.

Sun 31 Jan: Hot, windy, high 30s. Cool change and a single stormy downpour at 3.30 pm. Dinner at Clifton Springs — sweet and sour beef stew with mashed potato (Mum was feeling creative). We spent the evening riveted by sport on TV, switching every few minutes between the one-day cricket (Australia vs Pakistan) and the Australian Open men’s final (Roger Federer vs Andy Murray). Oy, the tension: two close, hard-fought contests, well played all round — except for the Pakistan captain, Afridi, who was caught biting the ball. No kidding, he bit the ball. My mouth is still sore; gave myself a good fright by recalling actor Andy Hallett’s untimely demise.

Mon 1 Feb: Afridi suspended for two matches. Roger Federer admits he’s very talented — and that he’s worked hard to parlay that talent into technique, strategy and winning. Sunny day, high 20s. Lunch with Sally and Mark, the IFC team reunited briefly.

Tue 2 Feb: Rubbish day - green bins this week. First meeting of the new Information Management managers’ group this morning; doesn’t feel right without Catherine there, but I suppose we’ll get used to that. Donna tabled the new organisational chart for IM; the formal announcement will go into this Friday’s staff newsletter. Spent quite a bit of time sorting out another design-template-related bug in the CMS. Lamb rogan josh for lunch, with a garden salad to follow, while watching Torchwood online — season 3 episode 4, the one where Ianto dies. Helen called, upset after a couple of difficult conversations with assorted family. We sympathised, empathised and came up with a plan of attack to remedy the cause of one of those conversations (not much we can do about the other one, for now at least).  Made appointment to see dentist; surprisingly, she has time tomorrow. Yay.

Wed 3 Feb: Of course, my sore gob felt about 95 per cent cured today. Mira had a couple of difficult patients this morning and was running late. She was terribly apologetic until I reassured her, “Mira, you’re worth the wait.” Nice to see her blush ;-) She found a slight inflammation in the gum, but nothing to indicate what might have caused it. Did a general checkup, clean and polish, then sent me off down to Collins Street for x-rays (Mira likes to do these about once every 3 years, just to make sure there’s nothing nasty lurking under the surface). The radiologist did a couple of large full-jaw plates and a couple of close-ups of the suspect wisdom-toothy area. We looked briefly at the large plates; I couldn’t spot any new decay, which is good. Mira will give me a report on Tuesday. Coming home near sunset, I stopped for a few minutes on the beach at North Shore and watched the wee yachts chasing each other from Eastern Beach back to the bay near Cunningham Pier. Lovely.

Thu 4 Feb [1]: Bit of discussion today about how to deal with a group of middle-level staff who, as a group, are hostile to change. This is long-established behavior — it was enough to see off a previous director in 2006 after less than a year’s incumbency. Under the current management structure consultation, reassurance and collaboration have been the watchwords for more than 18 months but progress is still so slow as to appear non-existent. A few of them actually *are* change advocates, when acting as individuals, but when they congregate with their colleagues for a meeting groupthink seems to take over. This group of about 15 staff reports to two managers, who in turn report to a single director. All three of those senior staff are showing signs of serious stress: illness, tears, emotional instability, exaggerated or inappropriate responses to questions and situations. We urgently need to find a way to break this group out of its bad behavioral habits. Rogan josh and a garden salad for lunch, coolish change in the weather and a few spots of rain.

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Look out for those beauties, oh yeah

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

I’m nurturing a lust for one of these (photo, right).

The Pashley Princess bicycle

The Pashley Princess bicycle

It has everything a completely gorgeous Modern Girl could wish for: sprung leather seat, wicker basket, dynamo-powered headlamp, built-in lock, skirt guard and chain guard, kickstand and pack rack, 5 speed gears…

It comes in black only, just like a Model T but far more elegant.

This particular model is the Princess Sovereign made by Pashley Cycles in the United Kingdom.

The Pashley Sonnet (pictured below) comes in either ivory with navy blue trim or blue with ivory trim. Again, it’s an elegantly retro — yet thoroughly up to date — cycling machine. Same price as the Princess Sovereign, but without the skirt guard as standard equipment.

The gentlemen’s versions of these Pashley bicycles make me think of a story I once heard about Alan Turing. It was related by a woman who worked at Bletchley Park during WWII and had later migrated to Melbourne.  She knew Turing, though not the details of his work (because there was a rule against talking shop with colleagues).

Turing lived in a village about 3 miles away from the Bletchley Park mansion where he was employed as a codebreaker.

He had dreadful hay-fever and would cycle to and from work every day wearing a gas mask so as to avoid pollen, dust etc along the way.  Apparently it caused a minor stir among the local villagers, until they realised there was no air raid imminent — only the *ding* of Turing’s bell as he rode through the country lanes.

The Pashley Sonnet bicycle

The Pashley Sonnet bicycle

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2010 week 4

Saturday, January 30, 2010

In the spirit of Orwell, Pepys and Twitter, a journal of daily minutiae recorded for posterity. Until I get bored with it.

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Fri 22 Jan:  The digital libraries conference organisers announced an extension for submission of refereed papers, so Donna and I can keep writing until next week. Spent the day on web stuff instead, intranet with Sally and public site with Caroline. Pasta bol for lunch (with cheese this time!) and watched (on ABC iView) Pamela Stephenson interview Carrie Fisher. In general I’m not enamored of such confessional television but a long-held fondness for Carrie was too much to resist. Choice quote: “If my life wasn’t funny then it would just be real - and that’s unacceptable.” Say it a few times to yourself, you can hear the rhythm of those three phrases. She’s one of my favorite wordsmiths.

Sat 23 Jan: Quiet day of reading, catching up on newsfeeds, a few household chores. Lovely weather, sunny and mid-20s. Opened a grow-yer-own package of catmint — it comes with propagating soil mix, a growing tray with clear plastic lid, and seeds. I’ve had a few tries at growing catmint before and lost the battle against snails, over-eager cats and weathery elements in general.  The kit is now planted and watered, sitting on the sill in the window beside the front door.

Sun 24 Jan: Long chat with Helen, mainly about Emma and David’s wedding preparations. They’re being careful to make sure I feel included, which is kind but unnecessary. Helen thought Dad sounded tired, not able to have a conversation with her today. He perked up a bit by the time I arrived (late) for dinner, but faded quickly after dessert and was in bed by 9.00 pm. Dinner was chicken mignon with peas and roasted carrots and potatoes. Started re-knitting basque of cable throw.

Mon 25 Jan: My second 48/52 day off and Robert Burns Day, which I celebrated in a most un-Scots way by going shopping. Started with three goals: bras, shoes, spend gift vouchers on a Sunbeam Mixmaster. Went to David Jones (city) for Oroton bras. Several nice colors and styles, none of which were stocked in a size above 14. The larger sizes (16 and 18 only) were available in black, white or beige. Settled for a black 18D; would have taken a white one as well, but they were hung a few inches from the ceiling, out of reach for mere mortals. (And the sales assistants were even shorter than me.)  Found four shoes that I liked: saleslasses were unable to produce matching pairs for two styles, found style 3 in right size but wrong color, and style 4 didn’t suit my foot shape. Gave up and took my $500 next door to Myer where stock control appears to be more organised: I left with three pairs of everyday black shoes - one flat court, one patent medium-heel court and a suede medium-heel court. Was so dispirited by this time, I forgot to check whether DJ’s had any Mixmasters. I did, however, remember to visit the ABC Shop for Torchwood season 3 and Dr Who season 1 boxed-set DVDs and an autobiography about a NSW police detective who turned whistleblower. Picked up some groceries on the way home. Nice checkout lad with an Indian nametag asked how I would be celebrating Australia Day. “In the traditional Australian fashion,” I replied cheerfully, “By doing nothing at all.” Geelong’s bayside fireworks at 9.30 pm were particularly loud.

Tue 26 Jan: Australia Day. Up at 5.30 am to let the cats out and listen to “I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue” on Radio National. Did a couple of indoor chores while listening, and found myself wide awake at 6.00 am - despite having turned out the light at around 2.30 am. Did an hour’s weeding in front garden, filled the green bin to capacity. Put recycling and rubbish bins out. All before sunrise. During the day, did a couple of loads of laundry (knickers, bath towels), drafted a couple of blog posts, read newsfeeds, listened to commentaries on Dr Who season 1. Josephine brought home a dead sparrow. Couple of sinksful of dishwashing, made a batch of lamb rogan josh and packaged it for school lunches. So much for doing nothing at all!

Wed 27 Jan: Love my new shoes :-) Rogan josh for lunch, tuna-rice salad for dinner. Blogged a long annotated list of my favorite web comics. Booze bus on La Trobe Terrace, outside Captain Snooze.

Thu 28 Jan: A day of meetings that demanded concentration and participation. Higher cognitive functions completely absent by about 3.45 pm. En route home, combatted white-line fever by turning off at Werribee South and following the back-roads home via Little River and Lara. Almost no traffic out there amongst the farms, and the variation in route kept me wide awake and alert all the way. This route takes an extra 15 minutes or so compared with the highway. I’d go the back way more often, but I’m worried it too will become familiar enough to be dangerously hypnotically soporific (which is what the highway does to me these days. I often have to take a 15-minute break on the way to or from work, just to maintain concentration).

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Vogue 8138 drape-fronted cardigan

Friday, January 29, 2010

Pattern: Vogue 8138 ‘Vogue Easy Options’ series

Description:  Long sleeve jacket may be worn open or lower edges can be tied at front waist; sleeveless pullover top or dress has narrow hem finish on neck and armhole; pull-on pants have elastic waist finish.

Pattern sizing: 8-12, 14-18, 20-24

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? Yes.

Fabric: Moderate stretch knits only — wool jersey, matte jersey and cotton knits. Unsuitable for obvious diagonals, plaids or stripes. I used a poly-cotton jersey from Spotlight.

Were the instructions easy to follow? Yes. I made the cardigan in red jersey.  This garment is essentially two rectangles of fabric joined at a seam that runs up the centre back. The sleeves are slightly tapered, have a single underarm seam and are set-in — you cut holes in the two rectangles to make the armholes.

This was the first garment I made with my new Elna overlocker. It took less than an hour. I used a three-thread safety stitch (recommended for seams) for everything except the sleeve hems, which were where I adventurously tried the rolled-hem option.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? Draped front, shorter back — I have a couple of other tops that follow this general principle, and they work well with skirts, trousers and dresses.

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:  One major departure — I used an overlocker instead of an ordinary sewing machine. Much less fussing about with finishing seams etc, and I skipped the stay-stitching on the armhole.

Would you sew it again? If I use this pattern again, I’ll move the armholes a little bit further apart and make the sleeves a bit wider around the biceps and elbow. This will provide ease and comfort if I want to wear the cardigan over a top that has sleeves.

I would also lengthen the back by about 10 cm to improve its fall and use a ‘flat seam’ stitch for the centre-back seam. The flat-seam option may also work better for the sleeve seam and the setting-in.

The rolled-hem stitch doesn’t do much for this kind of fabric — the three-thread safety stitch looks better as an exposed, finished edge.

Would you recommend it to others? Yes, if you want a quick, simple cardy that has a bit of drama to it.

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What’s your favorite web comic?

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

The Washington Post is running a decidedly unscientific poll asking readers to select (from a list) their favorite web comic of the last decade.

Several of the comics on the WashPost list are also on my regular reading list:

  • User Friendly, the adventures of tech support staff at a Canadian ISP
  • Schlock Mercenary, a witty space opera about a band of (yes) mercenaries
  • Girls with Slingshots, comedy and romance among a variety of bright young things (sometimes NSFW)
  • Girl Genius, steampunk adventure
  • Hark, A Vagrant, comedic insights drawn from history, literature and some pop culture
  • Penny Arcade, about video games and gamer culture - also notable as the web comic that spawned Child’s Play, a multi-million dollar charity that supports children’s hospitals in several countries (including Australia)
  • xkcd, Randall Monroe’s comic of sarcasm, romance, mathematics and language
  • Least I Could Do - two adult brothers negotiate the worlds of dating, business and growing up (I read this only occasionally; the underlying misogyny and immaturity annoy me intensely, but now and then there’s a worthwhile insight into how men’s minds operate). LICD is, at least, beautifully illustrated.

Others on my RSS list missed the WashPost cut, including:

  • Wondermark, Victorian etchings that  are thoroughly modern (and often quite surreal) and regularly hilarious
  • Little Dee, by Mad magazine artist Chris Baldwin, is drawing to a close but years of archives remain available online; it’s the story of a small girl being raised in a forest by a dog, a bear, a vulture and various other creatures. Probably the only web comic ever to feature a week-long sea shanty about rogue knitting — there’s also a Google Video version of the shanty, and a later sequence of comic strips explaining Vachel’s serious dedication to garment manufacture
  • A Girl and Her Fed is a recent addition to my reading list. Not quite sure what to make of it, but what I’ve seen thus far in the archives definitely has promise. It starts with a part-time journalist who converses daily with the ghost of Benjamin Franklin. She finds herself being stalked, quite obtrusively, by a federal agent who in turn is haunted by a small green sprite. Complications ensue.
  • Wapsi Square was recomended in another comix artist’s blog, can’t remember who. I started reading it regularly many moons ago, and still haven’t worked out who’s who among the cast or what the hell is going on in the storyline. Nevertheless I await each new episode with a certain amount of interest and eagerness. One day it wil all click into place, I’m sure — just like that ancient calendar the girls have been messing around with.
  • Saturday Morning Breakfast Comics, funny stuff
  • Hobotopia, the original LOLcats comic about two cats who live on the streets
  • The NonAdventures of Wonderella, snarky superheroism
  • Unshelved, observations about the inner workings and personalities of a public library
  • Questionable Content, romance, rock music and relationships among a crowd of 20something nerds
  • Evil Inc, Brad Guigar’s comic about a consortium of evil superheroes
  • Tree Lobsters, commentary on science, evolution and scepticism
  • Sheldon, the story of a 10-year-old self-made billionaire, his grandfather, Arthur the talking duck, Oso the pug dog and Flaco the lizard — funny, geeky, wise and poignant, sometimes all at once

Finally, my day is not complete until I’ve read the Doonesbury daily dose. Admittedly, Doonesbury has primarily been a print comic for most of its 40-odd years. However, creator Garry Trudeau and his team adopted the web meme quite early and have done more than most print cartoons to build an online community that extends the comic’s storytelling and makes a difference in the real world — see, for example, the Sandbox military blog that posts articles from services personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan and other active theatres, and from their families and partners left at home.

What about you? What are your favorite web comics? What do you love about them?

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