Annkaris ramblings

Gay marriage legalized in California

2008-05-16T06:43:03Z

I don't have much time, what with my thesis being due on Wednesday and all, but I'd like to take a moment and join in on the congratulations:

California's top court legalizes gay marriage

This is great fucking news! *throws confetti* Two down, 48 states to go. :D

Man muss noch Chaos in sich haben (37)

2008-04-14T06:06:04Z

Avram Grumer posts at Making Light about how the Washingtion Park Police does not take kindly to young people silently dancing at the Jefferson Memorial at midnight, and deem it neccessary to manhandle and arrest a young woman who dares question their orders to disperse immediately.

What's even more disturbing is how apparently there are lots of people who think these people had it coming, and can't wait to get on with the victim-blaming and the cries of "but it's all in the name of public safety!"

Avrams analysis of these kinds of comments is spot-on, and well worth a read.

Progress (44)

2008-04-07T12:29:18Z

I showed everything I've written so far to my prof today, and he said I have definitely enough (page-wise) for a Bachelor's Thesis now. Why then did he make me feel as if I'd never finish in time last week? I don't get it. Maybe I should have put it all in a pretty little binder weeks ago ...

So from now on it's all text polishing and creating the missing illustrations. I can do that! I just hope the migraines I had for the past few days won't make themselves too much at home in my head. I want to enjoy the spring sun, not close all the blinds and lie in the dark all day.

Daylight Savings Time (47)

2008-04-04T13:15:11Z

Spring is nice, but I'm having an awfully hard time adjusting to DST this year. My body insists on staying awake longer in the evenings, and consequently I can't get out of bed in the morning. I've been feeling tired and sluggish the whole day, and I'm not getting much done.

I bought a pretty binder for my thesis and printed what I have so far. It's kinda nice to have something tangible, to know I've actually achieved something in the past weeks.

Social life? What social life? (49)

2008-04-02T06:50:30Z

I've pretty much put my social activities on hold until June. There's just not enough time to go watch a movie or chat over coffee while I still have to write 20 pages for my thesis.

The only thing I can't quit is my weekly Stitch 'n Bitch. Ever since I started it last year, I feel as if I have to be there and make sure everyone is having fun, or else people won't come back. Plus, it is very relaxing to knit and chat and have a glass of Merlot every Wednesday night.

So between the guy coming to do the yearly heater check-up this morning, tutoring a 6th grader in English this afternoon and knit night, I won't get much done today. If we had one of these isolated log cabins here, I'd totally move there for the next six weeks to finish my thesis in quiet, undisturbed solitude.

April Fools' Day (50)

2008-04-01T08:43:19Z

Why do people think Rickrolling is a particularly clever prank? It's old meme, and only few people can pull it off. (I'm looking at you, Mr. Munroe.)

Anyway, I'm off to work on my thesis now. 50 days left ...

LaTeX

2008-02-03T19:30:09Z

I'm typesetting my BSc thesis with LaTeX (not risking a Word formatting nightmare with a 40 page document), and I've installed Texmaker as an editor now. I'm slowly learning my way around it, and it's fun to see a document take the form you want.

It's also a lot easier to spend a couple hours tweaking the format than actually working on content. :D

Next up is learning how to use the PEP-tool to model and simulate the petri nets in my thesis.

Tomorrow is the next meeting with my professor. Let's hope he likes what I've been working on so far.

Testing Pictobrowser

2008-02-01T20:13:22Z

I'm such a geek

2008-01-31T12:29:24Z

The other week I learned how to crochet properly (I only knew how to do chain stitches before), and I can't seem to stop crocheting since.

But since I don't really know what I'm doing yet, I still need some help now and then. Which is where my shiny new Christmas present come in handy: I put the How To Crochet videos from NexStitch on my new iPod, along with a few crochet patterns.

So now whenever I go "Wait, how do you do a treble crochet decrease again?" I can just turn on my trusty little gadget and have someone demonstrate the stitch! How cool is that?

(I used iSquint to convert the wmv files to the iPod movie format. Very useful little piece of software, and it's free!)

Birthday Coffee

2008-01-27T13:15:47Z

A bunch of my relatives are showing up today for coffee to celebrate my birthday. I always stress out before things like that, thinking I need to spend far more time tidying up than I actually need.

Now I have a pretty coffee table and an hour to kill before they arrive. :D

Beautiful

2008-01-15T11:36:17Z

I used to read Marie Claire when I was trying to brush up on my English. No kidding! I wanted short articles with modern, colloquial expressions, not school-book dialogues or business English.

And it worked. I just got fed up with the whole premise that women had to follow all those inane tips and guidelines to lead a ~~vapid~~ happy life and find their prince charming.

Kate Harding over on Shakesville has a great piece on this month's Marie Claire cover featuring a heavily photoshopped version of Reese Witherspoon. Go and read Impossibly Beautiful, and then check out the rest of the blog.

Defying Gravity

2008-01-11T11:10:37Z

Found this linked on Whedonesque, recommended by no other than the man himself, Joss Whedon:

Firefly and Serenity: Defying Gravity

It's a fanvideo by y_fish, and it is absolutely beautiful. Please go watch it now!

dpn needle case

2008-01-10T10:19:26Z

I got tired of rummaging around in my wooden needlebox for a set of matching dpns every time I started a new project, so I made a needle case!

I cannot sew a straight line for the life of me, but it turned out okay-ish. The pockets are a little too long, so it's a little fiddly to get the needles out. I forgot to add a flap at the top, so when the case is rolled up and turned upside down, the needles will slide out. And I still have to add a ribbon to hold it all together.

But for a beginner's sewing project, it turned out ok, and I'm happy that I can find the right size needles at a glance now. *tries not to poke herself in the eye with a dpn while doing the happy dance*

Stitch Markers

2007-12-31T14:17:55Z

I got really cute stitch markers with my last order of DPNs from Ewas Sockenwolle:

They're the perfect size for sock needles, but I think I'll continue to use my self-made markers for lace knitting:

Bloggers are people too

2007-12-26T08:52:37Z

Apple got Think Secret to shut down, but at least the court acknowledged that bloggers "should be considered as journalists and subject to the same protections," thus being able to protect their anonymous sources. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7155332.stm)

There's a lot of hostility in the mainstream media towards bloggers – they're considered unprofessional, biased and pretty much useless when it comes to educating and informing the public. It's nice to see a court siding with a blogger for once.

sick and tired

2007-12-20T09:57:22Z

*cough* We've both caught a nasty cold. *sneeze* At least we got our satellite dish installed this week, so we can lie on the couch and watch TV while recovering. I can watch Doctor Who on the BBC now! (I'd do a nekkidhappydance here, but I'm too cold and weak.)

The best thing about the holidays this year will be watching the Doctor Who Christmas special on Tuesday. No more waiting for torrents and avoiding the friends list after each episode, yay!

While we were shopping for the satellite receiver, we saw a TV set the size of a fucking WALL for 79000€. Yep, that's right. Delivery is an extra 3500€, since you need special trucks and equipment to move the damned thing. And of course it does not have built-in speakers, so you have to shell out another couple thousand bucks for a sound system.

I think I'd rather buy a beamer and a high quality screen for 2-3000€ instead, but it sure looked cool.

I'm still knitting

2007-12-11T07:33:02Z

My LYS had a sockyarn sale! 100g of Meileinweit Bosco for only 3.95€. I got a skein in lovely shades of dark red to knit a pair of socks for my mom for Christmas:

The pattern is from "Knitting Vintage Socks" by Nancy Bush. I love her patterns: so simple, with clear instructions, and still all of them are interesting enough that I never get bored knitting them.

I've also finished a hat for my goddaughter lately, using the "We Call Them Pirates" pattern by Adrian Bizilia:

I'm procrastinating on the matching mittens because the first one turned out too small, and now I have second mitten syndrome while I still need to knit two more mittens.

Twin Cats

2007-12-06T12:28:58Z

People keep asking if we can tell our cats apart. Not how, mind, but if. I'm thinking of answering "no" in the future, just to see their poor confused faces.

Here's a picture of The Amazing Indistinguishable Cat Brothers:

Nepomuk (left) is a 3-pound, light brown classic tabby, whereas Kasimir (right) has a silvery spotted tabby pattern, weighs more than 4 pounds and is quite a bit taller than Nepomuk.

Nothing to say

2007-11-29T08:49:31Z

It's been quiet here lately, but I don't want to close this journal (yet), so I'll start linking you to interesting stuff I found while wandering around this series of interconnected tubes. Take it or leave it.

Today, I bring you a letter to the American Congress, urging the Democrats to cut funding for abstinence only education programs. The letter is signed by ten leading researchers from the field of adolescent sexual and reproductive health.

Scientists Tell Pelosi: No more Ab-only Funding

If you're in Europe, you might think this doesn't concern you, since people over here generally just shake their heads at the idea of not having sex before marriage. But with conservative governments on the rise in more and more European countries, I fear that this nonsense could become a problem for us sooner rather than later.

If I had children, I'd want their education and their health care to be based on scientific facts, not fundamentalist Christian moral values.

Kittens!

2007-11-13T17:00:02Z

I haven't posted for awhile because I've been busy getting to know our two new roommates:

Their names are Kasimir and Nepomuk and they even have their own blog: Schnurrtiger. It's in German, but there are lots of cute kittie pictures, so hop on over and take a look!

Cat Man Do

2007-10-22T10:19:03Z

To tide me (and you) over until the cats arrive in two weeks, here's a cute little animation by Simon Tofield:

Link to the video: Cat Man Do

New family members

2007-10-16T21:05:20Z

Look who'll be moving in with us in November:

They're from a 5-kitten litter from a horse ranch nearby, their mother abandoned them and they were very sick at first. But they're all better now, and when they're old enough (10-12 weeks), we'll take them home with us.

97 seconds

2007-10-10T19:27:53Z

Wilson: "I'll order up some extra pain meds."
House: "I love you."

It's canon now! :D

Guys! Stop it!

2007-09-28T21:49:03Z

First Nathan grows this ridiculous beard on Heroes, and now Hodgins cut his hair on Bones? (Not to mention Zack coming back with NO HAIR WHATSOEVER!) Stop messing up the cute guys' hair, people!

If you haven't watched Bones yet, go read bookshop's Bones pimp post. It's not my favorite show ever, but it's great fun to watch, plus it has David Boreanaz. Who could say no to David Boreanaz?

Oh, and speaking of guys with messed up hair: The first episode of the new Avatar season sucked some serious balls. No, not because Aang grew some hair, but because of those huge exposition dumps. I mean, come on: "You were unconcious for a couple weeks, so we're going to tell you what happened, blah blah, oh look, here's your staff you lost in the middle of the FUCKING OCEAN"?!

Yay, new Heroes episode!

2007-09-27T11:58:52Z

I squeed a lot while watching it. The first time was when I saw Milo Ventimiglia in the credits. I've always said I want Peter and Nathan to survive somehow, and it looks like they did. Although I hope that Nathan will get rid of his beard soon!

Hiro's story isn't at all what I expected, but I like it a lot. Will he convince Kensei to get his shit together, or will he dress up as Kensei and save the day? I bet it'll be the latter.

And how great is it that half of this episode was not in English? It's fucking amazing that a US TV series can get away with subtitling lots and lots of Japanese and Spanish dialogue. By the way, I saw the trailers for the German TV-version of Heroes, and unsurprisngly, the dubbing is terrible. They also gave away half of the plot of season one in their trailers. Maybe they don't want to burden their viewers with the suspense of the weekly cliffhangers?