July 2006 Archives

I'm old. I now talk about "when I was young", especially when this type of Heat Wave hits town for weeks at a time. "When I was young, the summers weren't this hot, were they?" I ask my parents. When you're a child, you remember heat, sure, but any number of summery things lay fond overtones to the memory. Things like popsicles, sunblock, and waterparks. Now, you wish you were in an air conditioned office because your home feels like a sauna after 2pm.

This isn't ordinary heat for us:

It feels like 106 Degrees right now in Cupertino. Luckily, I live in a slightly cooler area nearby at an estimated 99 degrees. Yesterday, it was honestly 102 here (real temp, not feel temp).

The actual high seems to be a good bit higher than the projected high.

I went to the Japanese Market last night and stocked up on popsicles. The fridge now has some funky flavored popsicles: coffee, Black Bean and Sesame, and White Rose which turned out to be milk. Some kind of Unprocessed milk. Guess I should have paid more attention in Chinese School 'cause my mom read the carton when I got home. Who'd have figured White Rose was Milk? Update: White Rose turns out to be the brand. Note to self- Green Hokkaido rolling hills on package means milk. (Hokkaido is famous for milk and milk products) Oh, these popsicles are about the size of two small packs of gum. Portion sizes are "cute" but it'd take two of these popsicles to equal the size of an American Haagen Daaz bar. (They sell Haagen Daaz in Japan, too. But I'd guess they're smaller)

I'd ask for my California Bay Area weather back except I'm told that this happens every year. I remember it got really warm last year, too.

New goodies in the store!

New Lantern Moon Circulars are in stock!

Along with a few new fantastic bags and baskets.

Big box of Tahki for the upcoming Leaf Sweater Class which starts next week. Anxious students can come by and pick up their yarn, pattern, and needles.

Mel [ blog ] said she "gives good package" and I gotta say she gives Great Package. Check it out!

We've got a custom made Needle Holder (which is what we initially started out with). Then she put in sushi envelopes made just for me. The Magknits sushi kit was a bonus. The gorgeous stitch markers were a total surprise, along with chopsticks and chapstick (perfect combo!) and other knitterly goodies.

Thanks for a fantastic swap Mel! Also, send her some good thoughts and positive energy. She put this entire package together and sent it off while her Dad is in the hospital.

I sent some Japanese Snacks and Red Silk Fabric (for luck). Flickr is having a massage right now, but her package is here

This is what the Arrowhead Shawl looks like on a person instead of pinned to a blocking board.

Pretty Cute!

Movable Type Version 3.3 is out.

- What's new in version 3.3? ( More here )
- What do I need to know BEFORE I upgrade?
- Where's the upgrade instructions? [pdf]
- I have a previous installation of Movable Type. Where do I download the free update?

My favorite new thing in 3.3?

The pretty "Create New Entry" editing screen. The "Upload File menu" has been revamped a bit, too. However, it is a bit less streamlined for those of us who use the "Set Upload Path" option.

Top Five New Features in Movable Type 3.3:

Tags: Describe your entries with tags so readers can easily find any content and subscribe to custom feeds.

Widgets: Arrange and manage your page just by dragging and dropping. Widgets can include your own content or content from other web services and feeds.

Activity Feeds: Reduce the burden of managing your blog by getting all the updates on comments and feedback on your blog, along with your blog's activity, delivered via a secure custom feed.

New Blog Styles: Customize the look of your site with just a few clicks, without editing any HTML. Choose from dozens of unique designs and layouts.

Powerful Templating Language: Movable Type's industry-leading template language is more powerful than ever, letting you choose exactly which content you want to display on your pages, as well as how it's presented. Customize your entire site without having to do any programming.

In high school, most people kept to the nicely groomed sidewalk. I walked the most direct path. Through the grass and over the concrete dodging oncoming pedestrians, except on days where it rained so much the lawn was a mud pit. It was the most direct route. In college, I joined ranks with fellow geeks and we often walked the little "engineer trails" fellow engineers-in-training had worn into the lawn before us. There were sidewalks. They were even reasonably placed. But they usually weren't the shortest. A quick glance around the Engineering buildings also told you that the linear people were in residence, burning trails through the lawn as we went from the side entry towards the nearest coffee stand¹.

Allow me to preface the next picture with a clear statement. I am not an outdoorswoman. The call of electricity, hot showers, windows with screens to keep bugs out, and high speed internet access is too much to resist. Notice, I'm not saying I dislike the outdoors. I like it very much. When it comes with bug repellant and batteries. Lots of batteries.

So what do I go and do?

I go and buy a headlamp². For my knitting³. For my reading. For the occasional walk outside when it is dark. It is fabulously efficient because it allows me to go hands-free and focus on seeing. And use of both hands? Very useful and I like using my opposable thumbs, too. I can see what I'm knitting. I can read books in less than optimal light. I can even see mosquitos flying in swarms and run away to save my tasty skin. Maybe I even have this whack brained notion of using it to augment my camera's lighting. (Though it has four LEDs and projects cold white light). A headlamp for when I don't have readily available light.

Wearing a headlamp makes me look dorky. The siren song of functionality calls to me, luring me in. I borrowed a friend's headlamp for an in-car night time knitting trip and got an inkling of the possibilities.

How dorky does it make me look?

I hope you didn't just spurt a liquid onto your keyboard or snort something up your nose.

¹ I always thought that the school should open a coffee stand in the basement next to the computer labs. It'd just be open from 5pm-12am and provide a decent stock of Ramen, coffee, and soda. It'd have made a killing!

² If you're seeing red, that's because this model comes with an optional red lens to preserve night vision. Good for night time knitting and not blinding the driver when you look up. The model is a Petzl Tactikka Plus that pivots up and down, so you don't need to crane your neck down to see something in your lap. The first model I borrowed was a Zipka and would catch my hair. Then the owner would laugh. Men. This model's wide elastic is more long-hair friendly.

³ Knitters with Headlamps unite! Nona, you look better wearing your headlamp.

A pictoral recap of some fun stuff from last week: