rlg

I have a former co-worker who bought Skyrim when it came out and has been enjoying it with this kids since (mainly, the kids watched Dad play). He's been having fun not necessarily following the main story line, but exploring the world.

This is for him, and anyone else who plays the game: Skyrim Week of Madness (ALLL the mods!)

Bad thing
no half and half in the house
good thing
convenience store attached to a nearby gas station
bad thing
walking "long" distances before coffee, and it's cold out
good thing
1.1 mile walked (even on regular days that's good)

well, I made the wager way back when and detailed it here. Almost three years later, I started on the wager wool. Today I'm admitting that I've lost the wager, the full pound isn't finished. I have 1-1/2 balls of roving the size of my head left to spin.

I did put quite a dent in the pound, most of it's spun, due to some demo-days (the Cloisers demo, I blame you!), and some events where I wasn't doing anything else, and of course, the monday night A&S nights.

Our local Minister of A&S says I have until Maryland Sheep & Wool (next weekend) to really finish it, but I'm not that fast. I can spin and not pay much attention, though the drop spindle lives up, or down, to it's name (farking gravity!) all too often, and I have to chase the cat out of the bag of roving too often for it to be good for what I spin up. I will have a lot of yarn when I'm done though, and then there's the green and white from Zarzuela, and the moldy pumpkin, and the llama and shetland ... yes, this is even with the shoulder acting up.

I'll use some of the yarn I've spun, eventually.

katnboots has a challenge for the month of December, Daily tanka.
I've been participating, but forgot to post it here.

so ... here they are

December 1
Falsely transparent,
The color of the sky
Promises sunlight

but will turn before nightfall.
To bitter cold of year's end


December 2
Before the coffee
No morning for adjectives,
Sub-vocalized words
And muttered imprecations,
I'm unfit for company


December 3
Event bound this morning
Sunlight across the highway
No rapier here,
Classes and news fill the day
Time spent with friends well squandered.


December 4
Banking to be done,
so, last ride of the season.
Not far as crows fly
Streets are sunday deserted
Wind whispers through my jacket

I am currently working on ball #3 of 6 that the "wager wool" spinning at events, demos, A&S night, and even at work. It's a calming thing, even when the drop spindle lives up to its name and drops ... again. I really should weigh what I've done so far, the tri-ply/ply as you spin go method works for me, although there is nothing that indicates it's a period technique. When plying is mentioned, it's "Z-spun, S-plied". I recall nothing of the number of plies, or of the distinctive turning that tri-ply (think a yarn made of long slip knots).

Even so, at the end of this I'll have a pound of yarn, and I'll start looking at patterns.

Moving on, at the same time I bought the pound of merino, I picked up about 3/4 of a pound of brown llama fur from a lovely fellow called "Mikado". I've tried to spin it (drop spindled more often than normal), I've tried to comb it (worse than trying to comb the cats), I finally gave up and decided to blend it with Shetland (I liked the feel of it, and the color matched well. I even gave a friend going to Rhinebeck money to buy as much Shetland roving in brown as she could. I figured I could blend it in with the llama and have something I could spin and enjoy.

She mentioned that she was going, and a fiber friend of hers offered approximately a pound of fleece (relatively) fresh off a ram named "Storm". For free, even including sheep poop.

When I saw it, the colors matched wonderfully, I'm looking forward to playing with it. But first, I have to get rid of the poop.

a giggle for your pleasure. Yes, it does work that way.

It's been raining since about 3pm locally, steady rain with spurts of horizontal. It's the leading edge of Irene, and we've been warned to expect flooding. Heck, we're within a half mile of a designated evacuation site. Despite this, I went to a knitting gathering earlier, for lunch, and to see people who I haven't seen since ... June, and to check out a local used book store I have a credit at.

Not much in the way of pickings, but the socialization was good to have.

Now we're holed up with the TV and chinese takeout, and cats that periodically wander through to make sure the thumb monkeys are alive. Only had a couple of instances of brown out.

I was designated to go out and get the takeout, and found it warm, but wet, very wet. There was very little in the way of traffic, and some of the stores I'm used to seeing on the walk to the chinese food place were closed. Their choice, their common sense. The takeout place was busy while I was waiting, hope the people ordering delivery are tipping well.

Sirens have gone by on the main street from time to time, fire, police, not worth bothering about, no lighthing strikes or transformers have blown to affect us, so I'm content. We have flood watch and tropical storm warning through tomorrow.

First things first
I am writing this because an online friend has had a problem with virii attacking her machine, even when visiting so called "safe sites". The target audience is (home) Windows users.
Precautions
1) Get an anti-virus, use a firewall, and keep them up to date. I don't care if you pay or go the "free to home users" route, don't leave your hard drive without one.
This forum posting on CNET has an even handed discussion of various AV programs.
2) Windows XP offers a firewall, and Win7 has one built on. They don't hurt, and they offer utilities to keep an eye on what changes have been done to your machine. (software explorer and allowed items (under tools in Windows Defender) are things you should familiarize yourself with.
3) You don't need to be an administrator every day. If possible, run the machine from day to day as a limited user, and keep a separate account for installing and uninstalling programs, and running updates for windows. Running day-to-day as a limited user means that if your machine gets infected, it can't do as much damage as it can if an administrator account gets infected. Keep the administrator account password protected, even if you use your nickname for your boss. It'll keep the kids from locking you out of your own machine, too.
4) I did mention anti-virus software, didn't I? Keep it updated, and keep your copy of Windows updated.
5) The utility is called "taskmgr.exe" and you can call it up with Ctrl-Alt-Del. Under Applications, it shows what programs are running. The Processes tab has a longer list, but I'll return to that. The Performance tab shows you how busy your computer is (if your machine is always fully green, something may be wrong with it), and Networking shows how much is going into and out of your machine. Windows 7 has a Users tab, which usually shows you if you are logged in, and if anyone else is logged in (or disconnected)