Hi friends. I hope that this Monday morning finds you well. I’m feeling better than I have in days, and even though I’ve been awake for almost forty minutes, I’ve already started to accomplish things. How cool is that.

I haven’t posted about my reading list lately, mostly because I haven’t really been reading. Well. I read a little in the Tiptree novel/novella series that I’ve been working through for a really long time: The Stary Rift. It’s good. Maybe I’m at a low point in the story, but this one isn’t quite as good as Brightness Falls from The Air but it’s still good. Both books are set in the same world, and there’s this nifty framing story that presents all the plots as historicalized records, which I hardcore like.

I also read a story by Greg van Eekhout “In the Late December,” which I quite enjoyed. I went through the Strange Horizon’s fiction archive and picked out all the stories by authors whose names I recognized. Mostly the folks who have made it on the Strange Horizon’s Podcast, but some others as well. Anyway. So I’m going to be working my way through those.

I’m winding a bit of handspun off the spindle onto a nostopin (which takes for-bloody-ever, by the way). Though an end is in sight. I’m liking the spindle, and I think I’m probably about… 4 times faster on the wheel, depending on weight. Which sounds bad but probably isn’t very.

I posed, just before this, a little bit from this hypertext/novel *thing* that I’ve been talking about, which is exciting and a little scary. Any thoughts you might have on it, would be very welcome.

I think that’s all the news that isn’t. On the list for doing today:

• Some Email Correspondence
• Do some more readings.
• Upgrade various Wordpress installations.
• Work on the short story.

And so forth. I’ll catch you all around.

Onward and Upward!

I’m writing a short story. It’s another descendent of Circle Games, and focuses on a a character’s reminiscence of her (limited) place in a key historical event. In some ways it’s a holocaust survival story, but this is one of those things that I’ve realized only after the fact.

The writing, thus far, has been all long hand, and this has helped me really get into the character--because it’s basically a journal entry. In some ways, I think I was able to be so successful at the novella, beacause the tone and structure was similar, at least in terms of it being built around journal entries.

Which I know you might be thinking: “but you’re a blogger, why are you writing fiction that in much the same mode that your blog is written in?” Ah, I say, but I think this is actually a pretty crucial part of my project.

Without giving too much away, as I’ve probably said, I’m tearing myself to shreds in an attempt to go to graduate school to study how people internalize and process history and historical narratives. While I’ve been pretty good about focusing on this as a unifying theme for my fiction writing¹, I’ve been less successful at recognizing the links between my academic fascination/methodological focus on individuals' in-the-moment production of these stories. By exploring journal forms and epistletory(?) modes, I think I’m able to bring things all together in a way that I really like.

I’ve been listening to the new (2007) Linda Thompson Album Versatile Heart, and it’s really really good. The title cut is great. “Katy Cruel” is amazing (but it always is), and there’s something really divine about “Whiskey, Bob Copper, and Me.” I’m also geeking out on some old School Richard Thompson, particularly “The Dimming of the Day,” from Pour Down Like Silver, which all around great. I’m moving back to a more obsessive engagement with a few songs, which is something that the “random setting” on the ipod had beaten out of me And it’s comfortable.

And I’m writing long hand, and I’m getting things done on TealArt, which is not yet perfect, but is damn close: I think it’s safe to say that I’m beyond my previous “block” on this project…

I think I’m back. Alert the news.

Onward and Upward!

I’ve done a few things differently today, which leads me to think that I am on the road to some sort of recovery. Still stressed, and I think what at happened is that I’m finally realizing how little there is to do, and in light of this, I’m able to let go a little.

In any case I’ve done a few new and interesting things. I borrowed a very nice drop spindle from my mother. This means, despite my annoyance with knitting at the moment (and my hand pain/ache), I now have some sort of craft thing that I can do upstairs. Also, spindling is fun, if slow. Someone’s going to get a damn nice skein of lace weight at some point. Drop-spindling is something new for me, really (I’ve done it as a learning experience, but never--really--with the intention of making something), and I think I need new things in my life at the moment.

I also finished spinning the singles for my second 80-90 gram skein of fingering/sport weight yarn on the spinning wheel. Good stuff. I bought 2 pounds of BFL at the Yarn Barn in December, and I’m hoping that I’ll spin through what I have by the time my wheel comes.

Also, I did some tweaking to tealArt, and I think I have the design almost nailed down. You’ll notice a few changes around the edges on tychoish, which unifies both sites. I’m still hoping that dave will design me a nice little 100 pixel wide banner for the top corner of tA. In any case, I feel like this project is back on the rails, and in control: which--like so many things--it hadn’t for quite some time.

The main thing to do now is get the main page of TealArt.com to work and function in a really cool way that will hopefully make the site function as a more cohesive whole. While I really like what I’ve been able to do with tychoish.com and I’m generally pleased with the response, I think long term I want to produce a site that isn’t so ego centric. There are things that I want to do with this internet-stuff that I don’t want to be all about me. Just saying.

So doing these things is pretty productive for me, and it’s a change of pace, which is what I think I need at the moment.

Anyway, hunger strikes.

Onward and Upward!

Recent observations:

• I was listening to one of the Tor Podcasts, with Patrick Nelson Hayden and he said a couple of interesting things:

• Most science fiction magazines have readerships between 10 and 20k na month. The blog he runs with his wife and others, Making Light, which he described as a B-list blog, gets more than that.

• He described the BoingBoing ad revenue as being something like 6-figures a month. Egad.

  This has gotten me thinking about my own traffic (which is no where near that good. No where. For the record.) This is particularly relevant as I’m thinking about the TealArt revision process. The questions that I’ve been milling over of late about what constitutes success, about audience development, and what constitutes quorum for “participatory culture” (ie, at what point is there enough momentum, for the force of the community to really be felt.)

• My left index finger needs a break. Hardcore. I could probably sew up the hem on this sweater, but I’m laying off the knitting. My wrist doesn’t hurt that much, which means I can type. I think this is my body’s way of telling me that I need to reevaluate priorities and energies.

• I’m still really fucking worried in general about my interview at the end of the week. And not the “oh my god, I have 8 hours of interview this friday,” worry, more existential crap. Which makes me such an interesting blogger, I’m sure. I sure hope that there’s sanity waiting for me at the end of this process.

• This illness which has been on the downswing since Thursday night/friday, is almost totally beat now. This is good.

• I spent some time last night perusing the John Barrowman videos on you tube. sigh I learned that he did a duet of “Night and Day” with Kevin Kline in the Cole Porter move, which I was finally able to it find on You Tube. Incredibly fun and homoerotic. This lead me down a rather deep rathole, but it was pretty enjoyable. While Night and Day is a fun song, most musicals are so not my thing. I fail as a queer guy in this regard. Not that this has proved to be a problem, but…

• I officially check livejournal way more often than the people on my friends page update.

Ok, that’s all the news that’s fit to sing.

Onward and Upward!

I--after 3 hours of binding off a hem--am done with the knitting of the Turkish tile sweater. I’ve even sown up the hem across the back of the neck and the bottom edge (probably a large share of the sewing). This means that the sweater is almost done. Almost.

While there are ways to knit hems into sweaters “as you go,” to avoid massive amounts of sewing later, I’ve found that the end result is slightly less desirable. At least as far as I’ve been able to accomplish it. So I don’t mind this sweater.

I steamed the sweater a bit last night before going to bed, and I think this has helped my opinion of the sweater a great deal. It’s still not perfect, but I hope that by sewing down the hem I’ll start to feel better about the sweater. Here are my concerns:

• It’s a cardigan and I always screw up cardigans. they never seem to hang right somehow.
• …this is compounded by the fact that I don’t really think I look good in cardigans, and don’t have a real objection to pullovers.
• The back of the neck is shaped too low, and the shoulder shaping--that I felt very proud of when I was doing it--aggravates this problem.

I think I have about two hours of sewing up left to do, and I want to sew clasps on, before I have time to doubt myself in this regard. I’m also thinking of adding a hood to this sweater, which might help correct this issue.

That’s all for now. You know the drill.

--ty

• I have 2 more rounds of this damned hem plus a bind off (yes I bind off hems using a stretchy bind-off.)
• By the time I post this I’ll have a new episode of torchwood to watch. Despite the last ep, being somewhat less than stellar.
• I remember a past where I would write blog posts about things. I need to start doing that again.
• I remember that I promised to post one of the more finished pieces of breakout. I will. soon.
• I was just listening to a podcast about publishing and new media. At the moment I get really excited about this sort of stuff. I want to spend a lot of time working on building TealArt into the kind of hub that I’m really interested in having. Part of me is actually sort of anxious about being so interested and inspired by this; because I’m feeling sort of “out of the loop” regarding academia at the moment… Generally my anxiety level is lower than it has been, but
• I suppose the prototypical blogger thing to do today would be to post something sort of picturesque about theBoy (who hasn’t been a character on the blog lately.) But I am neither typical blogger, nor particularly typical in the way that I manage romance. Such is life.
• I still want a new computer. I’m still waiting till April or May. It’s been particularly trying today for some reason.
• LiveJournal is really cool. I’ve been thinking about writing some sort of tychoish post on the subject, but haven’t really gotten around to it. LJ is, I think hard to fully grok, but I think it really acomplishes a lot of the things that were really cool about the very early Internet that I often lament like collaboration, small-town style community, and anonymous identity stuff.
• The premier journal for my field did a special issue on sexuality--the first since 95. I have so much stuff to claw through. Sigh.

See you on the other side, tycho

Hello everyone!

I’ve spent most of the past couple of days being sick and knitting, well feverishly. I was totally planning to post an earlier draft of this post yesterday, but I spent all of yesterday vegging out. Better luck in the future, I guess.

I finished the sweater/jacket/cardigan that I’ve been making recently (turkish tile,) save for the hem/border. The most notable fact about this is that I’ve acomplished this using just a touch over half of the total amount of yarn that I purchased, and I would have come in under half if the sweater hadn’t been a cardigan and/or if it hadn’t been more of a jacket.

This means that I have a lot of leftovers and can probably get away with buying less yarn in the future. It also means that my stash is very productive, because all my leftovers are useable. I think I could spend 60 bucks and have enough yarn for 3-4 sweaters. I’m excited about the prospect, and that’s most of what’s keeeping me sane throughout t he process of knitting the interminable hem.

I thought I was clever when I decided to knit the hem in the round, without steeking (by knitting around the bottom, side, and neck edges all at once). While preferable to the other options, let me review that: this sweater is knit with fingering weight wool, the hem needs to be knit on size 0s, the front edges of this cardigan are about 30 inches long, and it’s about 40 inches around. I have a 60 inch circular needle. I am mighty, but god it’s boring. I’ve not done a count, but I figure that there are probably about 800-1000 stitches in play at the moment. A round takes about 30 minutes

Though I’m worried a lot about how this sweater will turn out--a lot of this has to do with my constant fear about fucking up cardigans, compounded by the fact that the sweater hasn’t been blocked yet--I’ve resolved to withhold judgment until after blocking. I do think that I’m going to run out to the fabric store this afternoon or tomorrow to get some interfacing or grosgrain ribbon to sew into the hem to give the front edge some much needed stability.

So that’s what I’m thinking about…

I’ll be in touch.

Onward and Upward!

It’s a new day. New things are going to happen.

I’m also getting some sort of bodily illness. It’s probably stress-related, because it’s way too early in the season for it to be at all allergy related. These things happen, and everyone around me is very much “ok, lets take a tactical approach to getting you better, and here’s what needs to happen,” and I’m sort of like, “meh, this too shall pass, this is why we have immune systems.” And it is. And it will.

Sleeve Update: I about have six more inches until I’m done. Those of you who are familiar with my knitting habits will probably be aware that I’ve made nearly every sleeve for the past several years from the top (shoulder) down (to the cuff.) This means that this is the quick(er) part of sleeve knitting. It might get tedious because I have to switch to double points. I should be done with this soon. Then I can start the hem/trim and then work on another sleeve for a different sweater.

I realized that I have neglected my crit-group for a week, so I must put on the writing cap for a little while today. I’ve been out of the writing rhythm for long enough (a week? two?) that I need to sit down and do some serious planning/outlining and brainstorming. Which I think is going to be so interesting for you all. end irony.

I also haven’t read non-academic anything in slightly longer. My approach on this is going to be, I think, a very bottom up sort of approach. Do some reading, do some planning, do some crit work, have finished sweater, and go from there.

Ok. I’m out. Have a good day. And I am still thinking about posting a bit of the breakout story that I have written thus far. Just for grins, but probably not today anyway.

Onward and Upward!