development corrupts

I drove to the post office today. Dad came along with me; I have my driver's license but I'm still so inexperienced, I'm not allowed to take the car out without company *g*

Plus: I didn't get into any accidents, and I drove pretty okay on the way back
Minus: I didn't drive okay at all on the way to the post office, because the car was so unresponsive. I had the parking brake partially engaged all the way. I thought the car was a bit heavy! But then, this car is a bigger van-type car, while the car I normally drive is a regular four-door deal, so I also thought the heaviness and lack of responsiveness was normal.


At the post office, I sent out a package to aveleh!

Plus: Sent a package!
Minus: I forgot to include a letter. Oh, and I sent it to the wrong address ._.

I also picked up a package of lollies for me~
Plus: I got a package! Of lollies!
Minus: none

So. That was my day.

From zarhooie :
Friending Frenzy, a friending meme. I haven't commented yet, but I've added a couple of interesting people who I've been meaning to subscribe to for ages now *G*

(I'll let the title and the video speak for themselves)

Riding when my sister is driving makes me feel so much better about my own driving (especially when gong over humps).

Unfortunately it does not make the rest of me any more comfortable. Ahhahaha.

Today is the fifteenth day of the seventh month according to the Chinese lunar calendar (which. I somehow think of today as being both August 24 and July 15, despite the fact that the seventh month in the Chinese calendar is not July)

July is the Ghost Month, and that sounds weirder in English than in Chinese, where it just sound pretty matter-of-fact.

I hate this day. Commemorating the dead is boring when you don't have any personal involvement. It's painful when you do. So, I hate this day :)


Ghost month, or month of the spirits: it's the month when it is believed that the spirits are closer and more active than any other month. It does not do to plan any new changes for this time of the year, especially not those that involve lots of construction or noise which could... arouse the anger of the spirits? I'm not a believer, and am barely superstitious (about this at least) but I do try to at least keep myself safer and in more stable situations than otherwise to appease my mom.

( cut for personal stuff )

I guess it's a lot like the way some people are just a tad more careful of their surroundings when it's Friday the thirteenth, but this one lasts a whole month, and it involves an alay in the middle which is an, ughhhh. A day when you get together and burn incense and stuff to commemorate the dead?

(I'm frustrated with this post right now, because I can't think of the proper words for what I mean to say; it feels like the closest equivalents in english emphasize the wrong things, make serious and ritualistic the things that just need to be done, and glosses over the things that are important, so I end up distorting what I actually want to say.

So frustrating!)

I want to watch TV to put me to sleep, but I also cannot bear to listen to any sound right now, and I don't have the concentration to pick up a book.

Grrr, grrr, grrr!

Maybe if I run around and flap my wings I shall get tired and fall asleep *G*

ETA:
Oh no!

I dropped by the bookstore today, and got books. And I was so *insufferably* smug, because I had managed to fill in a couple of series that I had had the later books of, but not the earlier ones. (I have Howl's Moving Castle right now! I have had Castle in the Air for over a year, and been unable to read it because I couldn't get my hands on a copy of the first *G*)

And I got the first two books of the Westmark Trilogy by Lloyd Alexander, because I thought that I needed them to fill in the trilogy. And it turns out I don't have the third book anywhere O_O so now I must find the third book now!

(I. I kind of want to read the first two books, though, just because I loved his other series, the Chronicles of Prydain, so much? So I'm hoping these at least are decent.)

I feel like such a dork *rueful*

Ah well, I did at least get two more books by Garth Nix: The Ragwitch, and Shade's Children. I wanted Keys to the Kingdom, but they only had the fifth and sixth books so I decided not to (and please note again that I was *so* *very* *smug* while doing so, because I was avoiding the trap of another incomplete series on my shelves)

I feel like such a complete and utter dork ;_;

OTOH: books \o/

And hm. Maybe I can read something light, even though my concentration is all shot. I would rather be coding, but in my current state of mind, I would probably do something ridiculous :D

Just finished reading the third book. I wish that the Abhorsen trilogy had a fourth.

Some pictures of loot I've hauled home from June through to August. Some are long overdue. Most involve yarn *g*

All of them were taken using a phone camera, so please excuse the quality!

( yarn - Australia )

( yarn - USA )

( yarn - local yarn store (Dreams Yarnshoppe) )

( books, tech, etc )

So all in all, I have enough to keep me busy for the next six months or more. *purrs*

I stumbled this designer of geeky shawls, some patterns being references to books such as: Threadfall, Talia, Shipfish Circle Shawl.

And then some are just completely random but wow are sucking me in (I have great hopes for Starlight on the Waters).

Most of them are beyond my ability/time/patience right now, but I'm really enjoying looking and plotting.



About a month back, I knit my sister a fluffy red/pink/violet scarf to replace the fluffy red scarf she left on a bus back in Australia. I think maybe she liked it \o/ I wasn't sure if she would, because we both agree I have no fashion sense to speak of, so I'm always scared of giving clothes and clothes-like-stuff to her, but I'm glad that I did, this time \o/



I missed knitting in the round, so I got on a beret kick. I was too lazy to take pictures (some of them I can't take pictures of anymore because I've given them away, :D), but let me talk about some of them!

( description of three berets under the cut. no pics, alas )

I'm currently knitting two scarves and a bag. The bag is a clever windmill pattern, which is boring to knit (in a soothing way). The first scarf is a lace scarf, which is my first "big" lace project. All my other lace projects have been dishcloths, or were only a very small part (which I tacked onto) a larger project. It's a simple eight-stitch repeat pattern from The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns, and I love it.

The other scarf I'm doing is a Noro Scarf, which synecdochic introduced me to, and which is simply magic to knit up. I love how mindless it is, and how you can basically stop after every two rows, if you need to. It's like magic, and eating candy, and eating magic candy.


I've bought two books! Buying books is a big step -- in my mind, it feels like a commitment to knitting, to go beyond the free patterns and into paid stuff (I'll have much the same reaction the first time I go for a paid pattern).

Both of them were recommended by synecdochic: The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns, and Socks from the Toe Up.

I've only had time to dig into the handy book of patterns, and I can tell you right now: it lives up to its name. I have only been doing the basic patterns as written in the book -- time enough to do fancy variations later, but I love the explanation behind the algorithm behind the measurements, and the way you can put things together from several sections. It makes me feel suddenly more like a grown-up knitter *G*.



I ended up in three yarn stores while in the USA, and picked out enough yarn to keep me occupied for a long time. There was so much choice! I opted for yarns of lighter-weight because these are rarer in Dreams Yarnshoppe (the yarn store in Glorietta, which is where I usually get my yarn), and (secondary consideration) should be easier to squeeze into a ball and transport home. I shall probably need a second yarn bin, and also shall want to knit faster, but I'm loving my yarn collection right now ♥ How can I not? It's glorious and makes me happy both by simply being yarn, and by being potential to be made into something else.