Blog Archives

the land that knowledge forgot

Things that are fantastic: History Teachers, a fantastic YouTube channel taking popular songs and rewriting them to teach history. Of course, when I describe it that way it comes across as some painfully square teacher trying to connect to her students using the parlance of their time and failing miserably, but it’s the complete opposite. I was in tears watching these because they hit all the right nerd buttons: music nerd, history nerd, art nerd, etc.

I think my favourite is “William The Conqueror” (above), which I love for being set to Justin Timberlake’s “Sexyback” and featuring the Bayeux Tapestry (which is awesome in and of itself but is also one of my favourite memes). Other favourites include: Illumianted Manuscripts, combining my love of the Beatles with poor figure drawing skills; Mary, Queen of Scots (“Jenny From The Block”); and Renaissance Man (“Blister In The Sun”). I may or may not have spent an hour-and-a-half watching these after being linked to them. I really am that cool.

I have successfully been in my pyjamas for three days

There are a zillion and a half tantalizing fabric sales online right now but I am trying to regroup and remember that I still have a mountain of scraps I should use up before doing anything else (because Theresa’s quilt didn’t use up nearly enough).

Yesterday morning I pulled out all my scrap fabric and piled it into groups by colour all over the living room floor. Then I let it sit there while I got lost in various Flickr groups looking for quilt inspiration, as you do. I’ve settled on the wonky star as it’s out of my comfort zone on account of being a little too whimsical for my usual tastes. (I like straight lines, right angles, and symmetry, damnit.)

At this stage, I’ve done all my cutting using yellow and green scraps (Blackberry present for scale purposes) and I still have to jump into my pile of blue scraps. I managed to reduce the number of scraps I have to one ziploc bag each of green and yellow, which I think is a decent accomplishment. All of this requires lots of ironing in addition to all the cutting and measuring so it’s tedious but has gone by relatively quickly. I managed to do the bulk of this while watching Chelsea beat Wolves this morning (boo) and Fulham beat Arsenal this afternoon (yay), followed by Stand By Me which I haven’t watched in eight million years.

Movies: Best and Worst of 2011

2o11 marked a year where I was significantly down in the number of times I went to the theatre to see a movie (87 in 2010 vs only 37 in 2011). I blame the significant increase in soccer that I’ve been watching in the last eighteen months, of course, and the long stretch at the start of the year where I didn’t go for like two months and which I blame on my losing the will to live after Fernando Torres went to Chelsea.

In any case, top/bottom five lists since I haven’t seen enough to really do ten in each category.

Favourites

  1. Pink Ribbons, Inc.
  2. Shame
  3. Drive
  4. Hysteria
  5. Another Year

Least Favourites

  1. Season of the Witch
  2. Faust
  3. Red Riding Hood
  4. Dream House
  5. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1

(All 2011 reviews.)

Why am I such a misfit? I am not just a knit whit.

So, what’s the best way to teach yourself to knit? Knitting is to my crafting hobbies as The Godfather was to my movie going for the longest time: something I’d tried multiple times for about half an hour before getting bored, constantly putting it off time and time again but knowing that it would be something I’d have to follow through on eventually.

I have a long standing love affair with hand knitted socks* and, sadly, the frequency with which my mom finds them at Christmas bazaars (the only place to get them) for me is diminishing with great speed as their old lady creators shuffle off this mortal coil. Eventually I will have to start making them myself if I want to keep wearing them.

*I, of course, do not think I would be able to knit socks right out of the gate. Scarves are the starting point for a reason.

At any rate, I am on vacation! I haven’t had a full week off since last May so this has rather been a long time coming. My only definitive plans are watching the three Liverpool matches taking place in the next ten days and beyond that I’m going to try to get some sewing in as I haven’t touched my sewing machine in ages, aside from making Amelia a rollable paintbrush holder (à la Martha).

close encounters of the Scouse kind

On the third day of Christmas the internet gave to me: a video of the time we met Sebastian Coates, the recently signed (at the time) centre back for Liverpool FC.

At the time we’d assumed that it was the team making a video of him checking out local Liverpool landmarks and so we kept waiting for it to show up somewhere on the website, and it never occurred to me that anyone except him would be in the video. I’m 80% sure that I am the person in red standing in the background on Mathew Street (between Coates and a guy in a white shirt walking away) in the frame that shows up before you start playing the video, and that in and of itself delighted me until I got to about 6:15 into the video and discovered that my sister and I featured as fans having a laugh and a photo op. That’s me on the left casually touching him on the arm and saying “Good luck” as I walk away. I am a winner.

(Found this on Tumblr today and I think it was for Uruguayan TV.)