This and That

What is going on with curling in the Olympics?

The other day, Holly sent me a text message saying that she was surprised that I hadn't commented on the US Olympic uniforms with all their blue with white stars. Well, I would have, if I'd seen any.

First of all, you have to understand my viewpoint of sports. They're great fun to play, and boring as watching paint dry to watch. And this is as it should be, I think.

I'm not completely disinterested in the Olympics, but I've been recording parts of it and fast forwarding through the boring bits, which is most of it. So far, I haven't seen any blue with stars in the uniforms.

So, I tried looking up "US Olympic uniforms" on the internet, and there were dozens of uniforms for every kind of sport you could think of. I saw one uniform with a dark blue top and three tiny (almost invisible from more than a foot away) stars on each shoulder, and I'm still trying to figure out what she's talking about.

But back to curling. I wrote a blog post the other day, and had the TV tuned in to the Olympics. In the middle of the post, I dropped everything and turned to the TV in a panic.

There was a man on TV who was screaming! Not a yell of surprise or disappointment. This was a high pitched, sustained scream such as you would expect to hear from the teenage girl who has just discovered the mauled dead body covered in blood in a horror movie!

I thought that someone else had died in a horrible freak accident!

No. They were curling, and this is apparently a normal part of curling.

From what I can tell, if a man wants to be a curler, he has to be neutered in his early teens, and practice high-pitched, hysterical screaming, or he won't make it.

So, from now on, when the curling starts, I'm turning the TV to something else. I'm tired of thinking that somebody must've gotten run over by the Zamboni!

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I'm feeling a lot better after my fall on Friday, but my shoulder and knee still feel really unhappy about it, plus the bones somewhere in my left foot/ankle feel like they've gotten yanked into a position they shouldn't be in, and it hurts every time I take a step.

I'm still taking it easy.

The long period of under-medication for my thyroid has finally slowed my thinking to a crawl, and I'm really not feeling capable of doing much at all. I want to start knitting that vest, but I just can't make up my mind what I want. I am starting to figure out why nobody has designed a knitted Triquetra Celtic knot, though. I thought it would be easy, but with my mind seizing up like it is, I just can't figure it out.

I'm still waiting to wake up from this daze now that I'm getting the right amount of medicine.

I hadn't planned to do anything at all today, but I read about McCain's horrible bill to outlaw nutritional supplements, and I just have to write something about it, but not in this post.

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NASA has published at least one photo, and information about some brand new galaxies that have been found by the Hubble Telescope.

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The newest Dresden Files book, Changes will be out on the sixth of April! I'm really looking forward to it.

The newest Dresden Files book that's already out, Turn Coat, will be available in paperback on the second of March! This is my all-time favorite series of books!

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Tonight on TV, we have reruns only! They include The Big Bang Theory, Castle and four back-to-back episodes of Ghost Whisperer.

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Here's what seems to be the latest information about Andrew Koenig. He still seems to be missing, and I'm really upset about it. I wish him and his family the best of luck and hope that they will be reunited soon.

Have a great day!

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Addition:

Holly sent me this photo. At first glance, it looks blue, but if you look closely, you can see some lighter spots which I'm guessing might be stars? If so, this is the clearest photo I've seen of them.

It looks nice (probably much better if you see it nearby and in person), but I think I like Coraline's sweater better.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I wish you a happy Valentine's Day, and hope that you get to spend at least a part of it with someone you love!

I've also found a poem for you from Neil Gaiman!

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Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year! This is the year of the tiger! For you fiberartists out there, the year of the sheep will not happen again until 2015. I happen to have the sheep as my astrological symbol. Which I think is totally appropriate!

And good luck to all of you competing in the Olympics, the Knitting Olympics, and the Ravelympics.

Although I still don't have the yarn to start, I plan to do some knitting today and also some spinning!

It's cold and the ground is covered in snow (where it hasn't been plowed or shoveled), but the sun is shining, and it's a glorious day! I also plan to get out and walk around a bit.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Quiet Tuesday

Tru Calling is on the SciFi daytime rotation today! This would have worked better if I had told you about it before it happened, but I completely forgot.

I also almost forgot that Eureka is on this evening. There will be three solid hours of it: one rerun episode from last season, the episode from last week, and the all-new, never-been-shown-before episode, which, this evening, is What about Bob? What a wonderful addition to Tuesday evening!

On Friday, the SciFi Channel will be showing Doctor Who on it's daytime rotation. Especially not-to-be-missed, are Tooth and Claw (which shows the beginning of Torchwood), and School Reunion (where Sarah Jane comes back). For all you people who are getting psyched up for the Olympics or Ravelympics, don't miss the episode entitled Fear Her! It involves the 2012 Olympics.

Well, I found out why I can't get closed captioning on channel 50 (ABC Family) through Comcast. Part of what they were claiming was right, and part of it was wrong. And part of what I was telling them was right, and part was wrong.

With standard definition TV (NTSC in the US), the CC is imbedded in the information for the picture. If the CC is imbedded at the network level, if you have a TV that gets CC and it's turned on, it has to appear if you're getting a picture at all. That's what they were trying to tell me, and they were right about it. It's something that should be absolutely foolproof, no matter what. But they found a way to mess it up anyway.

High definition TV (ATSC), is so compressed to get a HD picture up there at all that they don't have room to embed CC into the picture. So it goes along with the sound. It can be displayed by any HDTV, but a standard TV hasn't got a clue and can't display it.

Comcast is broadcasting ABC Family on two channels. Channel 50 is supposed to have the SD signal, and 245 is supposed to have the HD signal. Can you see where this is going?

Right! They have the HD and SD channels switched! I was tuning in to 50 to get the SD signal and CC, but was getting the HD signal (which displays, but at SD), which doesn't have the CC embedded in the picture, and can't be displayed on my TV.

I called them today, and hopefully it will be fixed soon for all those people out there who haven't done a computer search on CC.

But I figured it out in time to see the last half of Middleman with CC, and then set the DVR to record the whole thing! It's wonderful! They throw in so many in-jokes for SF fans! At one point, Wendy and the Middleman are using code names over their radios, and one of them is "Gatekeeper" and the other is "Keymaster." Needless to say, the episode is about ghosts! It's a new favorite program for me. If you missed it, by the way, it'll be on later in the week a couple of times. Check your TV guides.

I'm still looking at cables for the shoulder of my Celtic sweater, and I should be swatching soon. I was trying to figure out how I was going to get the cable to start and how to turn the knitting so that half of the cable goes down the front and half goes down the back, and then I realized that I don't have to turn it. All I have to do is run the cable elements off the edge as I did on the hood, and will do on the buttonloops. Then just stop knitting and put the end on a stitch holder.

I need a cable with four individual strands for the shoulder, and then it needs to separate and two strands will go down the front, and two down the back. I'll add a short bit of I-cord that will go directly across the shoulder and be picked up at the edge in front and back. I could even weave it through the shoulder cable. This is going to be neat!

I'm going to put up a page within the next few days for the Celtic sweater. It will be just the beginning information right now, and I will add to it as I design it. So you can see the design process, too. Watch for the link to it in the sidebar within the next few days.

I will also be putting up a tiny ad for Designs Toscano in the sidebar. I love that company! I got some of their small gargoyles as a Christmas present one year, and I love them!

Have a great day!

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Addition:

I have some early information about the Celtic sweater up. You can get to it by using the link in the sidebar.

I still need to make charts for the parts that are already done, and get them into the right places, not to mention the parts that I will be swatching and charting for the Ravelympics before it starts.

Be patient.